WICKED { #Wattys2016 }

Chapter Three: The Big Deal

"So what's the big deal with this Cal guy anyways?" Cordelia heard Ethan ask from behind her as she approached the azure blue colonial house that had been her home for 17 years.

The "big deal"?

It sounded like such a stupid question to her at first, but she couldn't think of an answer. Why was Cal such a big deal?

Sure he was gorgeous and mysterious, but well...so what?

Cordelia didn't know. All she knew was that he was a big deal. She just felt it.

She fumbled for the keys in her bag, to avoid the question, but that only encouraged Ethan. "I get that we don't meet new people very often, but it's been blown a little out of proportion."

Cordelia didn't say anything, normally she would agree with him. But Cal was...someone who would always be the center of attention. She had a feeling that, no matter how long Cal stayed on town, no matter how normal he acted, he would always stand out.

Ethan noticed her silence, and as they walked into the bright kitchen, he asked, "What do you think about him Lia?"

She headed straight for the fridge, "I don't know...he seems nice enough. He's got that whole hot, mysterious, new guy thing going for him." She commented while looking through the fridge. "Now what do you want? She asked, as she checked the expiration date on a yogurt container.

Ethan snuck up beside her, with a quirked brow, and a stupid smirk plastered on his face, "Hot, mysterious, new guy thing?" He repeated mokingly, before answering her question by easily reaching for the cupboard handle, and pulling a box of lucky charms out.

Cordelia's parents didn't buy that kind of stuff, since they were obsessed with healthy, natural, organic food, but because Ethan spent so much time at their house, he brought lucky charm boxes because he was a "growing boy".

She shrugged, "Yeah. He's hot. Newsflash." She told him, walking over to the kitchen table, and taking a seat across from Ethan, who generously offered her a handful of lucky charms, which she gingerly accepted.

"Well excuse me for not noticing." He said, voice dripping with sarcasm as he pulled out his french book. "He's just not my type."

'What was Ethan's type?' She wondered. She had heard plenty of hilarious, and horrifying stories about the girls Ethan dated, but he had never been in a relationship serious enough for him to introduce the girl to their group of friends.

She tried to surpress a grin but she couldn't help it. She shook her head, and replied, mouth full of lucky charms and all,  "Mmm, you have bad taste."

He rolled his eyes, "Hush child, and make yourself useful. Madame Desjardins is testing us on our verbes tomorrow, and I need a crash course. And a miracle."

"Alright, what do you need help with?" She asked with a sigh of exasperation, paired with a smile of affection for one of her oldest friends.

"Everything." He told her, smiling crookedly. "You have your work cut out for you cupcake."

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Three hours later, after repeating french verbs over and over again, swearing in french, and slapping Ethan upside the head with a bescherelle, Cordelia sat at the kitchen table with her father, Doctor Malcom Bishop, who had a doctorate in religion and philosophy, eating butter chicken and jasmine rice.

"-so he walked in 45 minutes late, and by the looks of it he was majorly hungover. He proceeded to stumble to his desk, and attempted to sit down. Instead he missed the desk, fell on the floor, and threw up inside Holly Ellis's backpack." He finnished his story, chuckling towards the end, whilst Cordelia burst into a fit of giggles.

Cordelia's father was an exceptional storyteller, who could get you to cry, gasp, and in this case laugh. That was probably why his class at the local college was so popular.

Just then, she heard the front door open, followed by the heavy footsteps of her mother wearing her chunky police issue boots.

"Hi Mom." Cordelia and Malcom called out in unison.

Cordelia was always told she looked like her mother, and then people saw her father and said she looked like her father, and vice versa. She had gotten her mother's straight nose, heart-shaped face, and 5,7 height. From her father, she had gotten ice blue eyes, and pale alabaster skin. No one in her family was quite sure where she got her hair from though. Everyone they knew had some variation of brown hair, but Cordelia stuck out with platinum blonde hair.

Cordelia thought she looked pale, sick, and washed out most of the time because of her hair, eyes, and skin, and as a child had often been compared to a china doll.

Sheriff Eleanor Bishop marched into the kitchen, "Hello, how was your day?" She asked, dropping a kiss on Cordelia's head, and pecking her husband on the lips, before heading over to the fridge to heat up her dinner.

"New kid. Exciting stuff." She answered, between bites of what she considered food good enough to be worshipped. She was too busy downing her food, to give her mother a more detailed description of her day.

Her mother sat with her plate of steaming food with a nod, "Cal Sterling right? It's the talk of the town. He moved into town with his older brother over the long weekend." Cordelia faked non-chalance, doing her best not to show more interest than she should have.

A brother? No parents around? Very interesting.

"Where did they move in?" She asked, in what she hoped was a casual tone.

She waited impatiently for her answer, as her mother swallowed the bite she'd been chewing on. "The Sterling Estate. Belongs to the family, but it's been abandonned for decades, I can't remember the last time it was occupied, do you dear?" She asked Malcom, who shook his head no, before changing the subject.

The Sterling Estate huh? A lot of rumors and legends about that place. Cordelia could still remember riding her bike past the place, as a young girl, dreaming about what the inside of the beautiful manor that was nostalgic of better days looked like, and she even imagined herself living there one day. She hadn't known it belonged to anyone though...

Cordelia sat through the rest of dinner thinking about the boy with golden eyes, who kept on getting more and more interesting.

A/N: First AN for Wicked! Anyways, hi, thanks for sticking around this long, I hope you stick around for more because from here on out it only gets better. Thank-you so much to the few people actually reading this story!

If you liked this chapter, a vote, or comment would be very much appreciated, and if you think Wicked deserves it, share this story with your friends!

I'll hopefully be updating soon, I'm excited for chapter four!

Liz