Under the Surface

Chapter 4: Stella

Stella pulled up into a space, a quality space that is, right by the front door of Levell High School. It was 7pm on Wednesday night and there was a PTA meeting on, even though this was the last thing Stella felt like doing, but she was head of the PTA so obviously had to make an appearance. She thought she did make a good head of the PTA, for instance since she owns a catering company she's always in charge of the snacks and refreshments at the meetings also, and whenever there is a school event on, you bet she's there with trays of this and trays of that and containers of this and containers of that. Sometimes she feels as if she gets used just for her food, she wondered if that was the reason why all the mothers elected her, as apposed to the difference she could make in relation to the school.

"Stella! Hi!" shouted a tall, slim blonde woman called Liane. Liane was Marti Goldman's mother, who Stella could tell was immensely jealous of her family. Liane was the typical bitchy soccor mom type of person. She feeds off gossip, and when there's none, she creates some - last week it was that Sarah Lynch was an alcoholic because she got a whiff of gin off her breath one day, the week before that it was that Rose and Patrick Mayer were in a polyamorous relationship because she saw them both having coffee with a young woman - who I might add is only their real estate agent. Moral of the story, Liane Goldman is a snake. "Liane. Hi, how are you!" fake smiled Stella as Liane caught up to her, panting, whilst they were walking on the way to the gym for the meeting. "I'm good, I'm good, Stella, listen, I was thinking, for the fundraiser we will be running to raise money for the formal coming up in the next few months I had an amazing and spectacular idea of having it a zoo theme! Can you believe it! A zoo theme! Listen, we could order in zebras, maybe an elephant or a giraffe or two, display it out on the soccor pitch and you, with your cute little cantering company could make the cutest little cupcakes with zoo animals on them...for example, listen, picture this...a vast array of colorful cupcakes displayed on a towering cake stand with little zebras, lions, elephants, you name it on them! I mean, how cute! I would think the other mothers would agree with me on this one, I mean, if we give Sarah Lynch a glass of wine she'll agree on anything, if you know what I mean!" laughed Liane. Stella kept walking, internally swearing and rolling her eyes to heaven. Why can't the ground swallow you up when you want it to? She thought. "I mean, that's a cute idea, Liane but don't you think it's quite, I don't know, babyish for a bunch of 16 year olds? Also, the amount that that'll cost, it won't even be worth holding a fundraiser because we wouldn't even make half the money back that we spent on renting zoo animals!" she replied, still walking fast. "Well to be frank, Stella, I think we need to remind some of these kids that they are in fact, kids! I mean have you seen the way some of those girls dress? Lord have mercy!" she babbled. Stella was hoping she wasn't hinting at Danielle, although she knew she probably was since Danielle and her friends Bethany and Ava were the only girls who dressed like that in their grade, as far as she knew. "I get what you're saying, but I think maybe we should just stick to the carnival theme, plus, we are getting all the carnival equipment for free from the Jacksons, I think that's a pretty fun idea!" fake smiled Stella, trying not to clench her teeth too tight. "I suppose. But listen, we need to keep an eye on those kids, not all of them, but some, definitely should get some parents together to organize a bag search there, who knows what some of them will bring." said Liane, struggling to keep up with Stella's pace. Finally! The gym door was in Stella's sight. "I don't think that will be necessary. We need to trust our kids and let them have fun at this!" said Stella, trying to sound light hearted as she entered the gym to see parents already sitting in the chairs which were arranged in a group-like circle.

"Good evening everyone!" smiled Stella as she made her way to the top of the circle at her chair, before placing down a container of white chocolate chip cookies. "So...on the agenda this evening is to discuss roles for everyone for the fundraiser, obviously we are going to need people working the cloakrooms, people there for security reasons and so on. I'm going to leave a sign up sheet behind tonight and everyone can sign under what category they'd like for the fundraiser!" said Stella, holding up a piece of paper with lines printed out in different sections for the parents to fill in. "Oh Stella, what are the food options going to be again?" questioned Tim Byrnes, the father of twins Elliot and Sophia. "I'm working on it with my catering team and we are thinking things like, mini burgers, hot dogs, fries and all that type of stuff, because after all I doubt they're going to be wanting to eat salmon en croute" laughed Stella. "How are we going to ensure the kids are properly supervised during this? I mean, I'm pretty sure everyone has heard the rumours about some students in the grade smoking on campus, smuggling flasks into classrooms? How are we going to ensure something like this doesn't happen?" chimed in Alyssa Carpenter, the mother of Louisa, a shy little girl who avoids eye contact as much as possible, poor thing, she will probably out grow it, thought Stella when she first met her. Stella shifted in her chair. Of course she didn't know what Danielle got up to, but she knew she was hanging with a bad crowd, but deep down she knew her daughter wasn't stupid enough to join in on those activities with them...would she? Stella couldn't help but think did everyone in the room know more about her own daughter than she did? She felt her cheeks begin to flush and she let out a small cough, "Well, as I mentioned there will be parents assigned as security who's job will be walking around, ensuring no one is up to something they shouldn't be." said Stella. Breathe. She hated feeling powerless and having a lack of knowledge on something. Did she even have a lack of knowledge on something? Was there even a something? Or where these parents simple were just talking in general terms and not about specific students, or maybe they were talking about specific students but not her specific daughter. Stella longed for the day, not long ago when her perfect daughter would return home from school, dressed appropriately and classy and went straight to the kitchen to get her homework and study done. She couldn't help the fact that her family had an image to uphold, they were often referred to as the perfect family, two successful and wealthy parents who supposedly adored each other..if they only knew, two beautiful and academic kids and a big beautiful suburban house. Danielle is slowly ruining the kid part, which will eventually ruin the perfect parents part because what type of 'perfect' parents can't control their own daughter and would let her go to private school dressed like a street walker everyday? "How did I fail?" Stella quietly blurted out in front of everyone. "Uh, sorry. So yes, everyone, no need to worry, this will be an enjoyable, fun and safe day for everyone and hear this, if any student does smuggle in anything, it will be confiscated and actions will be held!" added Stella, sternly.