PRIDE & PRINCESSES: A Pride and Prejudice (type) of teen story (Sunrise High #1)

Swim Team (chapter six)

Chapter 6

Swim team

    “Throughout history, women’s moral behavior has always been highly scrutinized...males have had social freedoms women were seemingly unaware of...these freedoms were kept from women not just because of biology but because men invented the patriarchal rules...” I was glued to A History of Suffrage in the back seat of the bus as we embarked on our trip to the swimming centre.

    “What does patriarchy mean?” I asked Mouche.

    She instantly looked it up.

    “It’s like...society is male-dominated, so women have to fit in with rules they didn’t  create but then they help to maintain them...otherwise, I guess, society as we know it...would break down completely...”

    “Oh,” I sort of understood. It was like Mark and Jet escaping while we had to stay and be bored in study hall. Maybe they were just smarter, or quicker or something.

    “And maybe they are just male...because according to your literature...being male might be enough to let you progress easily through life,” Miss Tartt was way bitter and overheard us as we snapped the pages shut. She really wasn’t ready to hear this stuff. She needed to focus on prettying up and being nice to other women in particular. Then people would take her seriously and she could study the history of feminism but still husband hunt.

    “It’s good to know the history of our sexual struggle,” Mouche said, “but we so don’t want to become like her...” Miss Tartt wandered off the bus after taking the roll. I was so glad she wasn’t going to be coming along to pass judgement on my freestyle.

    I’d also been relieved to wave Freya and Brooke goodbye at the bus stop but dismayed to learn that Mouche and I are two of only six girls on the swim team. Teegan and Tory are going with us because they are quite athletic and always compete with Mouche and me in everything. Brooke and Freya are waving us off, standing on the pavement. Brooke is wearing her latest crucifix because she has recently found religion and is working on her “do unto others” motto. Proof of this is the magnanimous smile coloring her expression. She’s also considering the benefit of “dressing more modestly”, but worried she may not fit in with her junior sorority sisters.

    Meanwhile, Teegan, Freya, and Tory have decided to dress entirely inappropriately for the morning. It’s uncharacteristically cold and none of them have sweaters.  Teegan occasionally pretends to be my friend, so I mock smile and try to be “friendly” in return. Freya, meanwhile, is trying hard to impress Mark who has barely looked at her. So sad. As Mrs Jones might have said, “those girls need to play hard to get.”

     Still, as I sat on the back seat of the bus watching the Princesses through the window, waving and pretending to be supportive of me, as they chat to each other, I have to admit I’m not sure even I have the restraint to act indifferently towards someone I like. I hold that thought as Teegan and Tory reach their seats.

    Everyone is seated; the bus takes off and lurches forward as I’m leaning over my tote bag searching for my iPod. Gravity pushes s me into the back of the seat in front.

     I steady myself. Mouche, seated next to me, smiles and whispers, “this should be fun, any excuse for extra-curricular activities with the boys and Princesses can barely contain their enthusiasm.”

     I nod in knowing agreement and flick through my playlist. Mouche is busy updating our future blog – the secret one of course, the one we carry in diary form. This one is for our eyes only. Mouche will update the official Sunrise News Blog after the Fall Fling. We’ve decided to go with a traditional headline “Possible Prom Themes” then upload an article titled: Prom Themes Throughout History with the by-line -   vapid possibilities from previous junior years - Underwater World, Chicago 1930, Movie Star Couples (the usual). No sense running with the lead story of two girls dating themselves into history until it’s ready.