Enormous

Enormous: chapters 38 and 39

Carlyism: I just hate that I must live somewhere where I know something so strong, but I have to go along with what they say, because they are the ones who are right.

"It's so cute!" Ingrid squealed from the front aisle of the auditorium. Bethy and Carly had just finished their scene from the Importance of Being Ernest. Bethy was playing Gwendolyn and Carly was playing Cecily. Their characters had basically found out that they were dating the same boy. Ingrid set the play in the 1960's, mostly because she liked the skirts in the costume shop, and her favorite musical was Grease. Bethy reminded Ingrid that they didn't have to practice in their costumes yet. It was the only thing Bethy really said to Ingrid the whole time they were all working together, and Ingrid had scowled at her.

But after they'd gone through the scene a couple of times, and Ingrid seemed pleased and excited again. Bethy and Carly had pretty good British accents, and they had really captured the cattiness between the two girls.

"Good job," Carly said to Bethy as Ingrid skipped away with Monica who had some directing notes for her. Their class period was going to end soon.

Bethy shrugged. "I'll just be happy to get it over with."

"Oh," Carly nodded, a little disappointed that this was not as fun for Bethy as Carly had been hoping it was. Bethy had been really vicious and funny in the scene. She didn't miss a beat. "How come?"

Bethy smiled glumly. "I don't want to disappoint her or anything," she said, looking toward Ingrid, who was nodding along to what Monica was gesticulating with her hands. "But no one is going to believe that you and I would be in competition for the same boy, especially with my butt hanging out of that skirt. But I do suppose it's theatre," she added with a smirk.

"Ingrid believes it..."

"No, she doesn't." Bethy said. "She's just freakishly into the 60's, and I bet she wishes she had some skinny chick acting with you instead of me."

Carly didn't want to say the wrong, over-simplifying thing, even though the first thing that came to her mind was to say that the skirt would look great or just fine on Bethy, but even she knew how dismissive that would sound. Maybe Bethy would look great or just fine in that plaid 60's skirt to Carly, but it wouldn't make any difference. She wasn't in Bethy's body. She couldn't tell her that Ingrid was thrilled to have Bethy in their group either. It was clear that neither of them was particularly fond of the other.

"Plenty of guys would pick you over me," was what ended up coming out of Carly's mouth.

Bethy snickered. "Yeah, maybe if they had a fetish for girls who really don't care. It's just a play, Carly."

But Bethy was the one who brought it up, so what was she supposed to say? Carly really thought that it had gone well, the dinner she had with Bethy and the cross-country team over the weekend after the IKEA trip with Marta. Davion Kensman even stood up when they walked in. He said something like, "Bethy, you came! Nice to see ya. You're the sunshine that brightens my otherwise somber life." Okay, so maybe he never said that last sentence, but he could have felt that way. She was telling the truth when she said she had never seen Davion smile or laugh as much as when Bethy was around. The night of the cross-country dinner was no exception. Bethy teased Davion when he spoke enthusiastically about introducing this new training regimen to the team that would challenge their lactate thresholds.

Bethy laughed so hard that it encouraged the rest of the team, who had mostly numbed themselves to Davion's obsessive propositions and theories about running, to laugh too.