The Other Girl

Chapter One: Open ends

03rd August 2009

The Graces' mansion had been unusually quiet given the fact that the youngest Grace was starting her freshman year at Pepperson High. Robin Grace had left for Los Angeles to meet his elder son Jonathan Grace, a college dropout slash aspiring filmmaker. This was obviously a pretence, for the only reason Robin would step a foot in his son's life would be to convince Jonathan to come back, he was destined to be the heir of G&L International anyway. Candice Grace had let Evelyn's former babysitter, Ms. Peggy, take the lead on getting the youngest Grace ready for the first day. A tall slender woman nearing her sixties but not looking a day older than forty.

It's not like Evelyn was excited for the first day, it's just that, she wasn't. She was sure that she could be more excited about getting a brick thrown towards her face rather than skip with joy or jitter with nerves on the prospect that she was going to meet new people. The only thing Evelyn was sure about was the fact that her brand of sardonic and dark humor would not be appreciated by the peers her age. Peggy's excitement over her bebita starting school had gotten Evelyn to roll her eyes to an extent that her head now ached on any movement of her eyeballs. The babysitter had made such a big deal of walking Evelyn to the car that the latter could swear that they were in the middle of a musical theatre performance sans the music and the stage.

The Matthews household was a similar story. William Matthews had seen his father off at the airport four hours ago, his old man flying off to Los Angeles with a business partner whose name William has not yet learned. Owing to the fact that the eldest Matthews was not present at the breakfast table, Isabella Matthews had made it a point to slobber her little Will with as much motherly affection as she could possibly offer. Jamie had snickered every time his mother's eyes teared up at the prospect of her younger son taking off to college in just a matter of four years. William had stuffed his mouth with cereal and thrown himself out the front door with a speed that could easily get him a spot at Pepperson High's athletics team. But athletics does not help in handling Matthews International Association now, does it?

Right across the street where Matthews had set up their nest lay the Matterson mansion. Caroline had left an hour earlier than she was actually supposed to leave to grab a hot chocolate from Springs' Casu with her long time crush and an even longer time best friend Benjamin Lanchester. The soon to be head cheerleader and definitely the next class clown being best friends was still a concept their peers were getting used to.

"Two mugs of heaven with a dollop of clouds for my favorites" Shamiya had said whilst serving the two kids.

Caroline and Benjamin had a sacred tradition that none of the two dared to break; every first day of everything required a seventh heaven for its official commencement. Today, they followed it up by visiting the central park they had grown up playing at. No one really understood the importance they felt regarding the concept of high school. Four years, 'be remembered or be the one who remembers', they had texted each other this sentence every single day throughout the entire summer.

Caroline was currently laughing at an incident Benjamin had decided to recall when they were joined by William, who wanted to just record Caroline's laughter and watch it on repeat until he could witness it in reality. William could only remember one incident from the thousands that had happened, when he had come to a conclusion that cooties did not exist and felt his stomach go fluttery at the sight of Caroline, the only one who voluntary sat with him after he fell face first into the mu. She had obviously dragged Benjamin as well because they were a package deal through and through. That day they had had their first round of hot chocolate on table 17 along with their mothers and Benjamin's father. Benjamin's parents had decided to part ways as soon as he had turned six with his mother found solace in another house, in another country. Three years passed by and poof Benjamin had a half brother going by the name Sebastian Murray son of Allison Murray and Andy Murray (not the tennis star).

Contrary to their expectations of having a dramatic entry into the Pepperson High's corridors, their entrance had made little to no impact on anyone whatsoever, instead they had stumbled into almost twenty seniors on their way in and struggled to find their lockers.

Little did they know their dream entrance was being lived by another.

When Evelyn Grace had entered everyone had stared at her for a while. Her soft features made her look like the angel of innocence but what struck everyone most was that Jonathan's sister was here. Jonathan had been Pepperson High's own legend that was one hundred percent true, the first student who graduated the school with an acceptance letter from Harvard, the guy whose charms were unmatchable. Ms. Hale still gladly remembered the boy who had an answer for everything and an eye for every possible detail. Every notebook of his had one story or another just waiting to see the eye of a camera lens. No one would have realized the connection between Jonathan and Taylor had it not the striking resemblance between the two.

The first one to approach Evelyn was Sheila Rehmat Khan, the girl who had yelled 'fight me' in middle school when she was being picked at. Sheila had grabbed Evelyn's arm and dragged her to the secretary's office for everything she would've needed on her first day here.

Sheila was also the one who had introduced Caroline and Evelyn to each other. They were not particularly pleased at the introduction for the fact that Caroline came with Benjamin and William, the latter being Evelyn's biggest competition. That had been the day that started the journey of the four, a circle of sleepovers at Evelyn's, skinny dipping at Benjamin's recommended by Evelyn, ruining of the senior prank (also an idea of Evelyn's), and holding top secret meetings at every lab in school, these meetings were often joined by Sheila who brought in cupcakes and candies sponsored by Shamiya and Ramirez. 

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24th August 2009

On this day Sheila had started a diary, or rather continued the one she had started in middle school. She had been friends with Caroline and the guys since middle school, not the type of friends that constantly hung out but the type where they were considered kinda close. Sheila did have other friends, which consisted of students in her entire year in addition to Ramirez from the Casu. The only one whom Sheila did call her best friend was Layla Zuben Khan, her cousin who was in the same year. It had been Layla whom she was with at the Casu when she felt the need to reopen her diary.

Evelyn was sitting at table 17 with the rest of the three occupants, laughing, exchanging jokes, moving her hands so much whilst explaining her adventures back in Brooklyn.

Sheila had called the moment utterly beautiful in whispers that only Layla had heard. The four of them could not have been more different and Evelyn's top position in their math class was only justifying it further. Sheila had written for the first time in months that day and she knew every word in her diary was worth being written.

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