The Cinderella Agreement (Completed) [Featured Story]

02: The Resolution

NECESSITY was the mother of invention, and necessity came round as the result of a problem which needed remedy, and Mit's problem was blaring so loudly in her face that she feared she wasn't the only one that could hear it.

With her sixth period class set as Study Hall, in which little to no teenagers actually studied, but instead, used their phones or touched up their makeup, she slunk away to the library, every step taken with a firm deliberation. It had been half empty when she first entered, and now, twenty minutes later, its population had only barely increased by about ten people.

Everyone knew many teenagers these days were too busy with drugs to care about books, anyways.

A notebook was opened in front of her, one she had coined her Strategizing Book, that harbored all possible solutions to her past problems, from late project submission slumps to her forgetting to wear a bra to school that one time. All that was needed was a little brainstorming, and maybe a long neckerchief, depending on the situation.

This afternoon, though, included her brain not feeling generous enough to offer any useful advice, and she was left to stare at a nearly blank page, the only words written in being: 'I look skinnier when I cross my legs,' beside a badly drawn dancing lady emoji.

Various options mulled over and over within the undercurrents of her mind, all demanding the reason for her repellant frontier. Maybe her perfect disgusted face wasn't so perfect after all? Or was it something about Dorothy's snaggletooth that now entranced teenage boys? Did Marshall just have a lunch lady fetish?

Did it have something to do with the striped shirt she was wearing? Did it make her look fat? Had the hugeness of her forehead telekinetically head-butted his skull from seven feet away earlier? What? It was very possible.

Too indulged in her thoughts, she didn't notice when Finn, her BFF, an abbreviation that meant both Best Friend Forever and Befriended Fish Face to her, sidled to sink into the seat opposite her.

"I hope you've brought enough condoms for the next ten months," he said without preliminary.

"Mhmm," she replied distractedly, before his words sunk in and her eyebrows were knitting deeply. "Wait, what?"

"I said, I hope you brought enough condoms." His hands squared evenly on the wood of the table between them as he leaned, as if letting her in on a secret. "Because it's apparent that this school year is intent on screwing us over."

She rolled her eyes, not all fazed with his ever recurrent shenanigans. Mit couldn't deny it though; the new session was taking a hard hit not only at her academic life but also her non-existent love life. Although, she wouldn't admit that to Finn. Their friendship somehow ran on the basis of opposition, in which one was recessive while the other proved dominant. "So dramatic."