Schaeffer Heights High: A Totally Normal School

Chapter 16: Modern History

Chapter 16: Modern History

The House of Mortal Desires' members played "the Game." While the House's stated purpose was about doing what you want to do, there was an unspoken mandate that what you did had to somehow be better than what others were doing. Everyone in the House understood that climbing up the pecking order was the goal in the game. If you didn't know the pecking order, then you were definitely at the bottom and losing.

Among the boys, Danny and Marcus had been at the top because their Powers made them forces you couldn't readily stand against. Dating either of them would be worth a point if the Game's players were so mundane as to keep score. Danielle's Power Invisible Ink, while potent, was actually rather gross so it would be plus one, minus one. Callie's Wind Dancer was considered potent and beautiful, for a hypothetical plus two. Callie lived in an efficiency with her dad near the industrial district (-5) while the Ashton's lived in a mansion at the Halla Falls gated community with parents that were always away on business (+50).

Callie had to work part time (-10) to maintain a ready supply of makeup and new clothes (+15). She did her nails herself, she dyed her hair herself (-5), but was quite the gifted cosmetologist in training (+10). However, no matter how hard she worked, in the House or on her own, she'd be one of the sycophantic hangers-on at best. At least, she was until Danielle started to spend time with her.

Suddenly she was celebrity by association. Marcus, Danny, Daveed, Xerxes, they had all taken notice of her. Without warning, she was cool, in large part because Danielle started a rumor that the two were dating. Callie didn't find that out for some time.

During parties on the weekends Danielle would monopolize her time, get her to "loosen up" with an adult beverage and they would dance together. Danielle would invite her to stay over for slumber parties and the two would talk about the places Danielle had lived, the things she'd done, how Track and Cross Country were going for Callie, what they would do together, and where they were going to go to college. They'd braid each other's hair and snuggle up to go to sleep like best friends.

During one of the Ashton's weekend ragers, Callie had arrived late due to an out of town track meet and didn't have time to get cleaned up before the party. Rather than be late, she showed up with a change of clothes and asked to use the shower. Danielle agreed but said they needed to talk. While Callie rinsed off, the two had a very brief but honest conversation about the nature of their friendship, boundaries, and expectations. The truth about other people's perception of their relationship came out and Callie agreed to play along. After that the two burst out of the bathroom wrapped in towels, all giggles and hand holding as grist for the gossip mill.

Callie was a pragmatist. She came from a family with money problems, but at heart she was an artist. Those talks about where she wanted to go to college? Any place with a Dance/Theater Major and scholarships for track. She was comfortable with ambiguity and that extended to romance. She found Danielle attractive and didn't mind the idea of getting a little closer, even if only for a show. But that pragmatic side told her that Danielle would set her aside as soon as the novelty of their "relationship" was over. She did her best to remain objective but the weeks and months of slumber parties and shared dreams had an effect on her. She was in love. Kinda. She'd say it was like pyromania, the desire to be near something you know will burn you if you get too close.

So when she saw the first signs of Danielle's inevitable move to something new, she decided that if she wasn't going to be the favorite toy anymore, then she'd be the nemesis. She decided to make their "break up" as ugly and trashy as she possibly could. If she took the chance to center the spotlight of public attention on herself and somehow transform public opinion from "jilted ex" to serious player, she could move above Danielle in the pecking order.

Danielle had made the first move by posting an out-and-about pic without her. Callie had fired back with very public accusations of cheating and lying. She then immediately confirmed that Marcus would take her to the Winter Ball, a promise she exacted by promising in return some very strong incentives that appealed to the young man's natural drives. This had put Danielle in a corner.

Danielle was an excellent player of the Game, but while most of the House's members only competed against members of the same sex, Danielle felt compelled to compete with Danny too. That was what had motivated her relationship with Callie to begin with, that desire to make herself more interesting than her brother. Even her whole tattoo, body modification image was about being "better than Danny." Now that Callie was blowing that up in her face, she had made the rather surprising choice to go outside the House for assistance.

The fact that Jenny Redding had helped her at all could really only mean they believed it has something to do with their whole Coming Darkness thing and that terrified her. Some of the kids in that House were pretty zen about the whole thing, "darkness will precede a new dawn" and all that, but the others were emergency-food and water hoarding survival nuts. Crazy people with powers.
Jenny was head of the more optimistic faction. She had said that she doesn't speak prophecies, just sees many possibilities and tells people about things that are the same regardless of the outcome. To her the future is like a horizon line with a mountain in view, you look long enough, there might be birds, there might not, there might be clouds, there might not, but the mountain is just about always going to be there, so she tells you about the mountain. This last visit she added a little more, "Danielle, there is a darkness descending on our school. It's up to us to become a light, or be swallowed up by it."

Danielle didn't feel like the kind of person that would be much of a light. She was narcissistic, but she wasn't arrogant. If there was one thing being her brother's twin had taught her, it was that there was always something to aspire to. Her brother had spent their short life working hard to be just barely better than Danielle at everything. If she got a 100% on a test, he'd do everything and anything to get 101%, if she ran a distance in 10 seconds, he'd run it in 9.9. He was never concerned with being the best, only being better than her. She was pretty sure that was why he'd gotten the Evil Eye, a power that doesn't do anything for him, just makes his victim easy to overcome.

Now Danielle was doing everything in her power to overcome Callie. Callie, whom she taught many things. Callie, whom she knew had probably glommed on to some of Danielle's own secrets. If Danielle didn't act quickly to derail the narrative Callie was cultivating, she'd spend the next two years in her brother's shadow. The parties they threw would become his parties, their friends would be his friends and she'd just be his sister or Callie's ex. Thurston was step one of her three point plan to crush Callie's aspirations. Step two was a new hair style. The final step was a makeover for him, he'd need a few piercings at least.