Drunk in Avarice

It was a bright but cloudy day, and it was Genevieve Martinez’s first day in college. She was very excited and ecstatic to the point that she was skipping on her way to their little dining table to eat her breakfast.

“This is the start of a new life. In this life, nobody would know that I’m just a driver’s daughter. Nobody would look down on me anymore.” she was thinking with pleasure.

Genevieve is your typical social climber. After dressing up with her imitation clothes and putting on imitation accessories, she commuted to her new school. Her big brains obtained her a place in this most elite school of the generation – the University of St. Jude. But being an elite school, everyone was rich. As she got down the FX, she could see that everyone was riding on a car, and she was feeling ashamed because she was just walking. A car was approaching, and so she walked towards the nearest car and pretended to fumble something there, so as to make it look as if it’s her car.

When she reached her classroom, she felt ill at ease because she felt like everybody was looking at her and knowing that she was poor. But when the class started, of course, she was complimented by her teachers because of her excellent grades. She answered all the questions that her teachers asked her; she answered every problem given to her. Everybody was impressed and all the teachers know her already, and so, almost every one of her classmates wanted to be her friend.

“Krriiing!!! Krriiing!!! ” The bell for lunch sounded and she made her way to the cafeteria with a lot of girls with her, and a lot of boys’ eyes in her. She was blending in with success. You would really mistake her for a rich girl because of the way she carried herself. She was satisfied with this, because she really studied and observed how rich people walk, talk, act, and move; and spent countless of hours practicing it. They were all talking and laughing, and she felt so good inside.

“Oh my God, they like me! As in they like me! And I feel like I belong. This is really the world I should be. With this face, body, and brain… it’s almost like I’m better than them!” she thought while laughing at the story of one of her newfound friends. They put down their bags and went to the long line for the food. She looked at the prices and choked, but shrugged it off when her friends asked her whether there is something wrong. Internally, she counted her money and felt relieved when she remembered that she brought her earnings from her summer job with her that day. She was anxious but put all her worries at the back of her mind at the mean time. She noted to go through them later, when she’s alone.

They all ate and exchanged stories cheerfully. “Karen is wearing a Mango polo, a Levi’s jeans, and a Kickers sandals. And her bag is from Prada. Ooh, I like that! But I like Marianne’s bag a bit more. A blue bag from Dolce and Gabbana, how sossy! Oh wow, that purse of Elaine is sooooo pretty! I wonder if that’s a Gucci or a Liz Claiborne? I remember I had seen something like that at the mall in a Gucci stall. I can’t really see the logo in this posi-”

“Gen? Hey Genevieve! Are you okay? What’s wrong with Elaine’s purse? We were asking you what your father’s work is.” Karen, the most talkative, said.

“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about my purse last, last month. It looks exactly the same. Well anyway, I didn’t know where I placed it because my wardrobe room is being renovated.” she sidetracked. “Shoot. I can’t tell them my father’s a driver!”

“The renovation was a graduation gift from my dad. He’s nothing big like most of your fathers I assume. He’s just a managing director of a five-star hotel.” Genevieve explained. “Well, that’s kind of acceptable isn’t it?” she thought.

After lunch, they went back to their classroom. When the classes started again, Genevieve forgot about her social climbing and became focused to lessons once again. It was the only time that she is herself – that she is not pretending even to herself or her family. When the classes ended, she said she was going to stay for a few hours in the library and since her friends don’t like to study, they didn’t follow her. The truth was, she just borrowed some books and exited through the back gate of the school to return to her house. While on the FX, she was thinking about how awesome her day was. And most specially, how beautiful her new friends and their expensive apparels are.