Merry-Sue: The Girl From BC

How To Be A 21st Century Girl

After the brief initial shock, Rachel screamed, "What happened here?"

"Sorry Rach," a tall blonde guy wearing a black ACDC T-shirt grinned sheepishly, "Izzy dared me to grab onto your chandelier to see if I can swing like Sia... it didn't work out too well..."

Just then, in the misty twilight, Becky noticed this guy's face was streaming blood, seemingly from a cut on his forehead. He, for future references, the guy's name was Mac, explained how the chandelier wasn't as firmly attached to the ceiling as Sia's must've been... because just as he clung onto it it detached and went plummeting to the ground with Mac still clinging on. Luckily, it didn't crash directly over top of him, so he was able to get away with only the entire left side of his body sustaining major injuries. A couple of guys helped him up, as he was clearly both drunk and in a lot of pain.

"I called an ambulance," Ren shouted, entering from the kitchen, "They're on their way."

Rachel descended the staircase to join the chaotic bunch of party guests centering around Mac's disconcerted figure. Becky and Merry-Sue followed her lead, Becky contemplating on the severity of the situation; their crystal chandelier, decades old, a family heirloom, irreplaceable, had just been shattered, a poor, dumb high school boy had nearly murdered himself, there was a bunch of tipsy strangers dismantling their living room, fractions of glass were sprawled over the floor and fresh blood was now staining their new rug... and worst of all, their parents could decide to come home early.

"Where's everyone going?" Rachel bellowed hysterically.

"Party's over sweetheart," a guy had shouted back at her as he shrugged on his baseball jersey and filed into the stream of kids lining for the exit.

"But," Rachel swung her arms frantically, indicating all the broken and stained furniture, the remnants of the precious chandelier and Mac's semi-conscious body, "But the place is a mess. Someone has to help clean everything up! You broke an heirloom, my parents will kill me!"

"Sorry Rach," Ren apologized, "But my curfew is midnight and it's almost 1am. See you in school tomorrow."

Rachel stood, dumbfounded, as all her "friends" blatantly left her to clean up the mess they talked her into. Her eyes turned glossy yet again; she wanted to scream and yell at them and slap them silly and demand they take responsibility, because it was their fault! It was... wasn't it... No, she told herself, despite how furious I am and how disloyal they are, it's my own fault for trusting them and giving into peer pressure... I'll be the one facing the consequences in the end, so I have to clean it up alone...

Rachel spun around to face her sister, "Why don't you take Merry-Sue upstairs and you can both go to bed... I'll stay here and try to clean up, just please don't tell mom and dad."

Merry-Sue shrugged and went for the staircase, but Becky yanked her by the elbow, signalling for her to remain in place. Becky's conscious was riddling with guilt at the prospect of leaving her sister alone to tend to the mess all night by herself, so she couldn't not offer aid. "We can help, like, put the furniture back in place and stuff," she trailed off.

Rachel blinked, "Really? You would do that?"

Becky shrugged, "Sure, why not... I have nothing else to do anyway." This was a lie; however, contrary to what you might think, Rebecca was not an early bird, even on school nights, her insomnia would keep her up reading fantasy novels and the biography's of notorious astrophysicists until the late am.

"Okay," Rach nodded, "You can take care of all the leftover food; pick up the empty bags and cans and dispose of them in a garbage bag and throw them directly into the dumpster so mom doesn't suspect anything, and get Merry-Sue to finish off the rest of the sodas and snacks. ("Gladly," the cave girl retorted.) Afterwards you can instruct her to move back the furniture. I'll stay with Mac until the ambulance gets here and then I'll clean up the glass and figure out what to do with the chandelier. And Becky," she added, just as her sister was about to get down to business, "Thank you."