Under the Surface

Chapter 5: Danielle

Danielle was lying on her stomach on her bed, her chin resting in her palm with her other hand scrolling through Facebook on her laptop with Drake blaring from her speakers. It was Thursday evening and she had just returned from school. She couldn't help but think about that damn history project...deep down the old Danielle was still there. She knew what she was doing, but high school was a jungle you needed to survive and that's exactly what she is doing, who cares if some of her grades slip a little? It's not the end of the world if they do! She kept scrolling until she saw a post from Ava which said "New boo got me these! Ooh la la!!!!!" with a photo of her pouting and pointing to her new Chanel sunglasses she was wearing. Shiver, kinda creepy how it's probably a guy my dads age that gave her them. Poor Ava, she is such a sweetheart, but she's not the brightest star in the sky, she thought. Danielle kept scrolling through Facebook until she heard a knock on her door. Stella opened it and peeked through. "I hope that's your history project you're working on!" she said. "It is!" replied Danielle, tilting the screen down so the glare covered her mother's view of her Facebook home page. Still, her mother proceeds to walk in and sit down on the bed next to her. "Oh god, what's wrong?" says Danielle, sitting up. "Last night at the PTA meeting a few of the parents shared their concerns over the safety of the students during the carnival fundraiser. They were worried about students in relation to alcohol and drugs...do you know why they would feel that way? Are students engaging in those types of past times?" quizzed Stella. "How would I know?" blatantly replied Danielle, fiddling with her comforter from Anthropology. "I just thought maybe since you're friends with the likes of Bethany Davidson and Ava Norburn that maybe you'd know about that?" replied Stella. "God mom I understand you don't like or approve of them or whatever but just because they don't live up to your standards doesn't mean they run around doing illegal shit like drugs and stuff! Have some faith in me please." she said. Danielle knew she was lying, but all she, herself had done was the drinking and smoking weed...VEGETABLE...she refused the offer to snort cocaine which Danielle thought was pretty mature of her to do, plus she had no interest in doing drugs and quite frankly they scared the crap out of her. "Mom listen, you can trust me! I'm not going to do anything illegal or dangerous, okay?" she added. Lies, she thought...underage drinking, check! Smoking pot was legal in the state of Washington, however she wasn't over the age of 21 so yes, underage pot smoking, check! "Okay, I'm going to trust you Danielle Olivia Lawrence because I want to trust you!" said her mother sternly before she got up and left the room. Why do parents only call you by your full name when they're angry, disapproving or threatening you?

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Danielle, Ava and Bethany sung out at the top of their lungs to Cardi B's new album, their words barely hearable over the wind of the rolled down windows of Bethany's Lexus that her parents gave her for her sixteenth birthday and for not getting in trouble for a whole two weeks. They actually said how proud they were of her. It was Thursday night and Danielle sneaked out of the house when her mom was in her home office working on some menus and her dad was at home watching the big game in the den. "So, girls what are we up to this weekend?" asked Bethany loudly over the sound of the wind, her hair blowing in the breeze. "I can't do anything Saturday, I've to go to a 20th wedding anniversary of the Hewitt's, my mom is catering for them and my parents are close to them so they're dragging me and my little brother to it." eye rolled Danielle. "Shut up!" said Ava, shocked, smacking Danielle's arm. "Ow!" replied Danielle. "Sorry. My parents are dragging me to that as well, ugh, so annoying! I don't even know who the Hewitt's are!" scoffed Ava, whilst applying on lipstick. "Ew, so ditch?" implied Bethany. "No way, I'd get killed, there's no getting out of it for me!" replied Danielle. "Ugh, same here." sighed Ava. "LOL, sucks for you both. Whatever, I'll go to Ty's then." replied Bethany, adjusting her rearview mirror. "Ty will like that mmmm." laughed Danielle. Bethany laughed and rolled her eyes and turned up the music. At this stage she was speeding down the road, music blaring, their hair flying everywhere. "WOOO" shouted Ava, her head hanging out the window like a dog. The girls were all laughing and shouting together until Bethany dropped her phone down the side of her seat. "Shit" she yelled, as she half leaned down using one hand to try and receive her phone and leaving one want on the wheel. "Leave it, we'll get it later!" said Danielle to Bethany who's eyes were barely on the road at this point. Danielle's heart was beating. "Bethany!" she shouted. "Yeah!!! Ok calm the fuck dow....". The car jabbed forwards as it forcefully knocked off something and all the girls got knocked forwards and whipped back to the backs of their seats due to the seatbelts. Bethany stopped the car, 'fuck! What happened?" she screamed. "You were too busy trying to find your phone you slid off to the right and grazed the car off the street light!" shouted back Danielle. "Oh shit, Beth, your right windshield mirror is gone!" gasped Ava, as all the girls opened the doors to get out and look at Bethany's beautiful, shiny and only less than a year old Lexus' right side of the car completely destroyed, scratches racing through the paint. "FUCK!!!!" Bethany let out a loud scream and stomped her feat, making enough of a scene to stop oncoming cars. "My parents are going to murder me! The one thing they said when they gave me this car was to be responsible and to not make them regret it!" she added. "Okay, calm down, they'll understand ...they'll probably just be relieved it wasn't a car crash and that none of us were injured." added Danielle, trying to calm down her now psychotic friend. "I'm going to be grounded for life." cried Bethany.

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The school bell woke Danielle from a daze as she lifted her head up from her desk. Wow, did I really snooze through Mrs.Wilson's english class, she thought. It was 10am on Friday morning, maybe I shouldn't have gone out with Bethany and Ava last night, we should have just gone home after hitting her car, but no Bethany was so stressed she needed to get a drink at Hepburn, an urban bar that totally believed our fake IDs when they said we were all 21. It also might have helped that one time Ava made out with the bartender, so now he thinks theres a chance every time we go there that he will get lucky. Danielle didn't get back home until 11:30pm, I know, not super late but late on a school night and late in her mother's book, she was already exhausted mentally from the stress of that near death car crash experience she just had. She had perfected climbing up the gutter on the side of the house and crawling into her bedroom window at this stage, so her parents just thought this whole time she was in her room, working on her history project. "Okay class, please collect your corrected essays at the front of the class when you're leaving." said Mrs.Wilson, whilst removing writing from the board. "Oh, Ms.Lawrence can I talk to you for a second?" questioned Mrs.Wilson to Danielle as she approached the pile of corrected essays on the table. "Sure." she replied, whilst students quickly grabbed their papers and suddenly the classroom was empty with just her and Mrs.Wilson. Ugh, what's this about, sighed Danielle to herself. "I'm a little concerned Danielle with your grades and your effort at the moment. You used to be my best student but now, I feel as though you're not even trying anymore. I had to give you a D on your essay. Now, a few months ago this would have shocked me since you were getting As, but today, not so much. I want to get you to talk to the school guidance counsellor, Mr. Wright about how you can get yourself back on track and whether there is anything going on in your life that is making your grades slip such a sudden amount within the last few months." she said, calmly. "I..I don't need to talk to a counsellor, Mrs.Wilson." replied Danielle, a confused tone in her voice. "I really think you should Danielle, I mean it's up to you, but if you're not going to I'm going to have to call your parens in and talk to them about it to try and come up with a solution for you." she replied. Mrs.Wilson was a nice lady and was only trying to help but at this moment she was being a royal pain in the ass to Danielle. "Ok! Fine. I'll talk to Mr.Wright, but only because I don't want my parents involved in this." uttered back Danielle, rolling her eyes at the thought of her annoying mother getting involved. "Thank you! Danielle I'm sorry about this but I can't just let your potential slip away like this, you're a smart girl and I saw a potential IVY League in your future, but at this rate..." she shook her head, then continued, "What I'm saying is that it's not too late to turn your grades around." said Mrs.Wilson, with a slight smile. Danielle flashed a quick smile to her and turned around and exited the room. On her way to her next period she thought back to as little as four months ago, back when she was a pristine, perfect little A plus, piano playing and ballet going student. Back when her only friend was Lauren Sanders, back before she had a full on personality switch at Matt Phillips birthday party and quickly became best friends with Bethany and Ava, who she secretly idolised from the shadows due to their popularity, their attitudes to life and their ability to make anything fun and to live on the edge. She couldn't believe it the next morning after Matt Phillips party when she got a text from Bethany asking whether she wanted to hang out with her and Ava. She was at Lauren's house that morning because she stayed over after the party. She never told Lauren, and Lauren wasn't at the never have I ever shenanigans, instead she was upstairs with Sarah and Margot, her math club buddies, who were at the end of the social scale, quite where Danielle was at that time. That's why she didn't even contemplate missing an opportunity to hang with Bethany Davidson and Ava Norburn as she knew she would become popular too! Danielle felt bad about dumping Lauren as a friend. She didn't as so dump, more like went full on ghost to her, dodged her calls, turned the other way in the hallway when she saw her coming. It was high school, she couldn't be friends with both Lauren AND Bethany and Ava, it didn't work that way. She had to chose. She felt bad, really bad, terrible in fact, but she needed this. She didn't want to look back on her high school experience and remember being the dorky outsider girl. She knew that being friends with Bethany and Ava was taking a huge toll on her life, especially her grades and her relationship with her parents. She found herself getting influenced by their behaviours and acting out, pushing the limits and because of this, school became the least of her worries and she was too busy hanging out with them to focus on any work she had. She felt it was okay at the start because up until that moment she had always gotten straight As, but it's now four months into their unexpected friendship and her grades are still low and deep down Danielle was worrying. At this stage Danielle had made it to the classroom of her next class, opened the door, walked in and sat down for another hour long boring session.