The Girl Next Door

Chapter 8

Today was the first official practice for the play entitled 'A Girl And A Dream'.

"The title's kind of cheesy don't you think?" Perrie asked while reading her best friend Jade's script. Since Jade could not play the lead she was automatically given the part of the main antagonist. It was a very hard role to play and would probably show off her talent more than playing the lead but Jade still seemed upset.

Jade ground her teeth together. Her arms were folded and she and Perrie were sitting at the edge of the auditorium's stage. "Cheesy . . ." She seethed. Her eyes were, at the moment, trying to bore holes into that annoying new girl's back. "F*ck her and anything associated."

Perrie felt that in her chest. She gently placed a hand at her chest. "Damn Jade. Damn." She looked at the girl too. Jade had been giving angry rants about Leigh-Anne and Jesy all night and yesterday afternoon. Perrie had had to be at her house ensuring that she did not pop a blood vessel. Jade had actually cried on this. Poor Baba. She hugged Jade. "It's okay. At least you've got an important role."

Jade sighed, her eyes half closing. She turned to face Perrie and then said this; "We are going to destroy her."

Perrie's eyes grew wide. She took note of that. "Her sidekick too?"

"Yes. After we pluck the dumb Leigh-Anne out we'll make sure that that Jesy gets her fire." Jade narrowed her eyes while folding her arms. She stared at Jesy and Leigh in disgust. "What are they even doing?"

Jesy was laughing although she felt like she should not. Leigh-Anne was holding both her hands out and trying to get her to spin around with her in a fast circle. "What are you? Two?" She giggled when Leigh-Anne laughed as if they were out in the open and not in a school setting, about to have a civilized rehearsal for a civilized play.

"I'm sixteen." She let go of Jesy and then looked up at the stage. "When does practice start Jesy? I wanna see you act."

Jesy was about to answer her but Leigh started shouting.

"When does practice start??! I want all of you to see how f*cking awesome Jesy is!"

The kids laughed and then shushed her. People in their right mind never shouted the f-word out on a school compound.

Jade could not even fathom it. "It's like she's . . . drunk or something." Leigh-Anne had been like that yesterday. She seemed worse.

"She's acting almost like a maniac." Perrie watched Leigh-Anne run from end to end of the room before asking the students if they had seen her ruler. Perrie sighed and then looked at Jesy. "Her friend seems to think she's one."

Jade eyed Jesy hard. Never in her life had she ever hated a person this much. "She doesn't even f*cking go here." They had been seeing Jesy walking around with Leigh-Anne at lunch but before that, the only other time they saw her was when she walked in to head to the auditorium. "I used to be Ms. Marigold's favourite . . ." She sounded less angry and more sad. "What happened?"

The teacher climbed onto the stage and greeted Jade and Perrie before clapping her hands. "Alright! Let's dive right into it! Did everyone read what I told them to?"

An affirmative response.

"Okay so let us get going. Jade, Jesy come, centre stage, both of you."

Jade got up with a cross face. She got to the middle before Jesy.

"Excellent darling. That is exactly how you're supposed to look. Hatred." The drama teacher patted Jade's cheek while stretching a hand out to gesture for Jesy to come faster.

Jesy did so and met Jade in the middle. She was smirking and had hands in the pockets of her jacket. "Which part are we doing?"

Ms. Marigold put one hand at Jade's back and one hand at Jesy's as she whispered between them. "The fall out. Let's see you two's chemistry." She made a joyful noise and then ran off the stage to watch from the front.