PRIDE & PRINCESSES: A Pride and Prejudice (type) of teen story (Sunrise High #1)

Mattresses and Meetings (chapter fifteen)

Chapter 15

Mattresses and Meetings

      Teegan, Tory, Brooke and Freya had been wracking their minds over the meaning of that one page of muddled notes they’d discovered weeks ago and the fact that we seemed, every now and then, to be juggling a list of men for possible dates in between our busy schedule of school, rehearsals and semi-professional auditioning activities.

      Unbeknown to Mouche, I have to admit, I’d flirted with Trey. Unbeknown to either of us, I think Jet was beginning to like Mouche again (he’d  glanced over at her in rehearsals more than once to see if she  was noticing him) and maybe because of this or in spite of this, I was really noticing when Mark was noticing me. It was like the fact that I had ignored him peaked his interest. Then once (or was I imagining it?) he seemed to be watching Mouche’s  dance scene with more than professional interest. As if I cared. There were nine other men on my list.

      Plus, although Tory was getting louder and pushier by the hour, I was still the lead character in the play. But I was offended and had a long memory (like an elephant’s, my mother once said). My pride had been sorely injured by Mark’s  remarks at the dance, more than I cared to admit. Although the letter was nice, it took until the visit to Mark’s  house, many days later, for me to start seeing my tormentor in a different light.

    In the meantime, I was becoming friendlier with Joel.

    This seemed to hit the spot, Mark’s  sore spot. For some reason Mark just hated Joel, who, although friendly with multiple girls, always took extra time to say “hi”, and hang out with me now. I knew he might be a bit unreliable to actually date but I was happy to become friends with him.

    “You know, Phoebe, you are actually my first friend who is a girl,” he said analytically, as we snacked on pretzels during my rehearsal break. We talked about lots of things, not just the novels we had to read for English, or his guitar solos. We talked about New York and how it is one of the most fantastic cities in the world.  

     Known only to Mark, Freya had offered (as the social secretary of junior year) to show him around Sunrise one weekend. It would have been totally against our original rules to make all the running, but Freya had a hot new car her father had bought for her birthday and wanted to show off it and herself. I heard her tell Tory she  had plans to be Mark’s  “special girlfriend”. I’m not sure even Mark knew what that meant but Tory seemed momentarily put out.

    Tory explained it (many weeks later) in the guide thus: “In England, macking is called snogging, and since Mark had been in England for a year, he seemed to think dating was just hooking up and snogging. So when I suggested we hook up and go to the movies, Mark was, according to Jet who told Teegan who told Mouche who told me, “too polite to refuse.”

    We all had a little laugh at that entry, especially me, and it seemed the days when I imagined Mark to be “the one” were long gone. 

     But I forgot to tell you how the Princesses got involved.

     In the beginning, they all, rather cluelessly and obviously, tried to target Mark. We shuddered at their appalling lack of smarts in this area. He had them on speed dial and even more confused than he’d  had Mouche and I. The other girls evidently needed our savvy.

     Mark, the alpha male, was playing them.

     “I don’t understand why charms I’ve worked on countless pre-men seem to fall short with Mr I love myself Knightly,” Teegan complained.