Crooked Smile (WINNER of the MJFA'S 2017)

Chapter 6 - Good People

+++ DISCLAIMER Okay, so we all have that one person in our lives that we can't stand. And you know what? You're probably right and that bitch really deserves a rubbing. But nobody deserves this! So DO NOT try in real life what you read about in this chapter, please. It's a criminal offense (and a tort), and times have changed since the 1970s, when this story plays, so I promise you'd get a lot more trouble than you bargained for! :( +++

It was the day after the water balloon attack. All day, Brian and his buddies made comments to Marilyn that were water related. Nothing very original, things like, "Ugly-Edmond, are you dry, yet?" or "I guess the wash didn't help, ugly-Edmond. You still stink!"

Marilyn didn't even look at them. She stared at her books, or out the window, or just at the wall for want of another option. She pretended they weren't there or she wasn't there. Either of the two. She didn't care which one.

Between classes Thomas and his girlfriend Josie were making out against the wall right next to Marilyn's locker, but to her they were invisible. Actually, she had never understood why they felt the need to make such a big show of being a couple, as they were the item of the school anyway, and on that day especially she refused to pay any attention to their game.

The most unsettling thing about Josie and Thomas was that Josie actually wasn't a bad girl. Not at all. She was the girl. She was pretty and flawless, beautiful even, and good at anything she touched, and Marilyn had to admit that she admired her. Josie was tall and lean, wore white Indian blouses with tight jeans shorts, that ended right above her knees, and her slender legs seemed endless despite her always flat sandals – she never wore heels. Her skin was as even as the surface of a cup of coffee and just as dark, and her hair fell down her back in countless beaded braids that never seemed to grow.

Had she been a bitch, it would have only confirmed Marilyn's assessment of Thomas as a bad person. But Josie was helpful and friendly to everyone, also to Marilyn, when they came across each other, and the fact that she saw something so irresistible in Thomas made Marilyn wonder, if not she, Marilyn, was the problem after all.

In Josie's presence, Thomas didn't openly bully Marilyn. He still looked at her with contempt, yet said nothing – but in those moments he only really had eyes for Josie anyway.

The mystery of Josie's never-growing braids wasn't really one. She was the daughter of a hairdresser. Marilyn still thought she was like a goddess of the night, who had turned into a young woman. But beyond an occasional Hello and Good-bye in school, they had nothing to do with each other. Though Josie didn't live far from Marilyn's house, Marilyn didn't even know where exactly she lived, or what she and her friends did in their free time. Marilyn and Josie just weren't the same weight class.

When the lunch break came, Marilyn quickly went to the restroom, before she attempted to sneak out to her usual hiding place, while everyone else rushed to the cafeteria to grab the best seats, or the best food, or whatever else it was that drew people there like a magnet. In the emptiness of the restroom with its yellowish tiles, Marilyn relaxed for the first time that day. She looked at herself in the mirror. The water treatment had ruined her permed curls, but she hadn't had the strength to redo them, so she had just bound her hair in a tight ponytail that bobbed at the back of her head.

She was just fixing her make-up, when the door opened and Josie came in. In the corner of her eye, Marilyn saw her hesitate for a fraction of a second.

"Marilyn."

Marilyn was so surprised to be addressed, that she looked around despite her resolution to ignore everybody that day.