Merry-Sue: The Girl From BC

Allynisation

Three hours after getting humiliated by the entire school, Becky was still fuming. She had decided to give Merry-Sue the benefit of the doubt and not judge her just yet; maybe the cave girl would come to her senses and apologize by the end of the day. But with only one class left, Becky's anger was swelling rapidly again. After PE, she had changed out of her gym clothes as fast as she could and ran out of the changing room within a minute of entering it, partly to avoid all the nasty comments, partly to avoid Merry-Sue. Yeah, I know. She was waiting for Merry-Sue to apologize, but she didn't want to have to face her. She's a total girl.

Anyway, now she was on her way to the bathroom to wash her face and try to get rid of that awful gymnasium smell, since she chose not to stick around and use the bathroom by the changing rooms. The coach had let the students off a few minutes early so they'd have time to get ready for their next class, so Becky found herself in an uncomfortably silent hallway. Her footsteps echoed off the walls like her thoughts echoed in her head; loud yet unheard. She expected the girls' bathroom on the second floor to be just as deserted as the halls, but when she pushed open the door, the first thing she registered was the hysterical sobbing. Then she saw the silhouette of a short, blond girl shiverring over the sink. Her shoulders were bent and her face was cupped between her hands, which sprouted 10 sharp, red acrylic nails like claws.

Becky wanted to back away, but before her instincts could manifest through her actions, she met the girl's gaze in the miror. Immediately, the girl spun around to face Becky and began bellowing through her sobs, "I wasn't c-crying!"

Becky stared at her and was about to nod and get the Hell out of there when she realized she was staring at Ally. What was one of Myrna's right-hand women doing crying alone on the second floor bathroom?

Then it hit her why Ally was so familiar to her all this time. With half her make-up washed off her face and the other half streaming down her cheeks along with her tears and those big, bright blue eyes staring right into her own, there was no mistaking Becky had seen her before. She knew her because this was Alison Stanfield, her former best friend and co-class-nerd.

Alison, Becky reminisced, had always been the quiet girl in the room, the one who's presence was just as perpetually unapparent as her absence, much like Becky's herself. But there was a singular, key deviation which set one of them up for a life of insignificance and dismissal at the hand of her peers, that is to say Becky, and the other for a high school experience taunted by the envious and less academically advanced. Ally was condescending with her diligence and intelligence. Where Becky surreptitiously indulged in her prosperous thirst for knowledge, the former was not ashamed of exhibiting her geeky interests and her inevitable success. Ally was that girl; the one who's hand had shot up before the teacher had even concluded the question, the one who's grades were as perfect as her French pronunciation (or so their foreign language professor had said), the one who never had any friends because neither she nor her peers were content with the the idea of acquainting with each other. And yet, somehow, Ally had nuzzled her way into Myrna's crew of minio... I mean, populars. Ever since that iconic entrance that marked her acceptance into the the very center of the dining hall, her name had been whispered and squealed as if she were a notorious celebrity. This was not a peculiar occurance, to have a member, especially a newly accepted member, of the popular crew receive celebrity-status treatment amongst other kids, but it was certainly unusual, at least to Becky, that Ally would ever be so. . . not despised.

Becky and Ally had established a relationship early on in elementary school. Their shared interests were the catalist for what was sure to be a long lasting and prosperous friendship. Until the age of 10, that is, when their identities began forming and it couldn't have been more prominent that their personalities weren't nearly as cohesive with each other as their mutual love for comic books and The Lord of The Rings had suggested. Ally was an active go-getter, but Becky refrained from being noticed. They grew apart, as kids do, and never looked back.