Jungle Princess ✔

Chapter 18: Lost in Gossip and Lip Gloss

"So...aren't you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?"

"How my date went!"

"Oh." Amarissa had totally forgotten about Tamsin's date with Tyler! She had been too distracted with her own "date" - or whatever she wanted to call it - with Deandre.

Tamsin had her hands planted firmly on her curvy hips and an eyebrow arched wryly. "Don't tell me you forgot about the most important night of your best friend's LIFE!"

Her words rose in volume at the end of her sentence, attracting a few unwanted listeners in the corridor. One of these listeners was Ms Carter, who shot them a stern look while hissing, "Keep your voice down, girls!"

The locker bell had just recently rung, and there were lots of loquacious teenagers stampeding through the corridor. In fact, everyone was just as loud as Tamsin and her little outburst, so there was no reason to chastise.

"But it's a Monday, Miss!" Tamsin moaned.

"Even more reason to. I already have a headache," Ms Carter retorted as she strode past with her suitcase bag.

Amarissa and Tamsin rolled their eyes, though Amarissa was glad for the slight delay in what was to be the Tamsin Morning Show. And Amarissa was the guest star.

"I can't believe you forgot!" Tamsin continued on smoothly, her voice in mid-whisper as Amarissa grabbed her books.

"I didn't forget" Amarissa lied. "I was just...busy."

"Anyway, I have to tell you what happened, Amarissa, like, ohmigosh!" Tamsin's usual giggly self returned, conquering her temporary temper over Amarissa's forgetfulness. Amarissa preferred when she was like this compared to when she was picking a fight. Tamsin was always picking almost-fights. But luckily her memory was just as bad as Amarissa's, because she forgot what she was mad about as often as she applied lipstick. Which was very often.

"So we went to this party at Blair's house - you know Blair, right?" Amarissa gave a curt nod as they weaved through the corridor together to home room. "Anyway, Tyler was so cool, like he just showed up at my door all like, 'Hey' and I was like, "Hey yourself' which you know I say a lot, but I was sorta nervous and it was Tyler O' freakin' Brien and he looked like a statue of perfection -"

"Who looked like a statue of perfection?"

Amarissa recognised that voice anywhere. It was Tyler O' freaking Brien, and he had stolen Tamsin away before they stepped into homeroom to plant a swift kiss on her red lips, leaving an evident imprint on his. Amarissa loitered in the doorway of homeroom watching Tamsin rub off the redness from Tyler's lips but he just said, "Don't wipe it away. I like it."

Amarissa was in mid eye roll when Garrett shoved past her into homeroom, muttering something about the wideness of women's hips blocking doorways. Amarissa reeled on him.

"What did you say about my hips?" she demanded.

Garrett's eyes widened. He wasn't a particularly large guy, but he was large enough to take her on. as if remembering this, he stood a little straighter and curled up his face in disgust. Amarissa was confused as to why he looked like that, until he spoke.

"Stop pestering me, Fernandez! I'm never going to date you!"

His outburst caught the attention of the few people already in homeroom, and Amarissa flushed with shame. But then it was as if the fiery spirit of Tamsin's temper was endowed to her and she shot back, "It's okay. You don't have to keep hiding the fact that you have a rare condition of Condyloma Acuminata."