Lost Girl (Completed)

CHAPTER 7: Cinderella's Stepsister

2020, The Other World, Razette University

Rachael felt herself nodding off while Wendy energetically paced around the front of the meeting room, going through slide after slide of her well-prepared PowerPoint presentation and getting the responses from the committee. They were planning a big scale project and Wendy, unsurprisingly, managed to snag the role of the Chairperson of the committee even though she was only a freshman at the university. Rachael checked her watch. It had been 3 hours since the meeting started and she was really starting to dream of chicken wings for dinner.

"Okay, so let's wrap it up here. I'll send you all the to-do list by tonight and then you all can work on it ASAP. Please get the proposals ready for the next meeting. Thank you guys and good job today!" Wendy declared and Rachael nearly sprung out of her seat. She threw her stuff into her bags without even stopping to tidy her pencil case, which had popped open with its contents spilling into her bag. Ralph elbowed her and they went up to Wendy to pester her. Wendy was entertaining a line of committee members asking questions about their roles and clarifying meeting contents. Rachael frowned, but playfully joined the back of the queue. When it reached her, she covered her face with a brochure of a discount voucher from a fried chicken stall. Wendy burst out laughing and gave her an apologetic hug. She hastily unplugged her laptop from the projector and in her rush, tipped over an entire jar of markers.

"Take your time," Rachael comforted her. As she was picking up the markers, another student pushed through the doors of the classroom and stuck a piece of paper right in front of Wendy's nose.

"Hey, sorry I forgot to ask during the meeting but, there are actually these two themes we were deciding between for the decorations... but which will you prefer?" The student asked. Wendy turned to Rachael with a pleading expression, and Rachael sighed in resignation. She took the question while Rachael paced around the meeting room studying the surroundings without actually really registering anything. Truth was, she felt so proud of Wendy for chairing the event and also honoured that Wendy tended to ask for her opinions and gave her insider information. Though she was pleased at her somewhat VIP treatment and always having a say in major decisions for the event, some part of her felt jealous that her best friend was sitting up there and she was one of the many receiving instructions. As always.

It wasn't like she blamed Wendy though; Wendy gave her more respect that she ever asked for and everyone around knew that they could trust Rachael to be capable in her work. But that didn't stop her from the green monster of envy.

"I'm done!" Wendy declared and shepherded Ralph and Rachael out of the room so that she could lock the door. As she fumbled with the lock, Ralph as usual started to report everything that happened to him that day. Rachael laughed when he told them the story behind the Instagram video of how his professor wrote the word "Dildo" on the board in front of a large lecture theatre because he asked a student to choose an item to market and that was what she chose.

"Oh yeah, how did you two do on the test?" Ralph asked as they walked towards the bus stop. Rachael stopped fanning herself with the fried chicken discount voucher.

"Sighs, I don't wanna talk about it man. Why does it always seem like the amount of studying we do is inversely proportionate to our grades? Like, how can????" she sighed, exasperated. She knew she wasn't all that stupid, but in Rachael's academic life, her grades had always been unpredictable. In the past, she'd been one of the best in class, always snitching the first place award and topping exams, but as she got older she realised that she was just one of the many smart people around her, and her good grades earlier in life put her in that exact environment where she went from a prodigy to just a common girl trying to stay afloat.

She glanced at Wendy out of the corner of her eye. She knew Wendy had probably scored well, like she always did. Wendy kept quiet, avoiding any talks about grades like she always did. Rachael supposed she was being polite and considerate but that outcasted her from any discussion about grades.

"Lesson of the day: Don't study. Maybe you'll just pass," Ralph said loudly.

"Haha very wise. You know at least Rachael gets by. You, on the other hand..." Wendy shook her head dramatically at Ralph, clicking her tongue. Rachael laughed as Ralph exaggeratedly let his jaw drop and he stood defiantly with his arms on his hips, staring Wendy down.

"I'm still amazed how you have like, 1001 commitments and still get straight As. How's that even possible?" Rachael said to Wendy, passing over the discount vouchers to her for no apparent reason. She had no idea why she said that. She only realised what she said after she blurted it out and stopped herself and looked at Wendy to check her reaction. True to her expectation, Rachael saw a shadow fall over Wendy's face and she sighed. Lily's name came up to the tip of her mouth again.

"But it's still not enough. Lily gets by learning about stuff way past her academic level. It's like... I'm never going to be as good as she is." Wendy stopped walking by now.

There it was again, the Lily talk. Surprisingly, Rachael didn't feel sorry for her. She'd gone way past the stage. When Lily passed away, Wendy's life turned upside down. Rachael had been her best friend through that time, and she watched as Wendy's perfect family turned into a living nightmare. They were little and frightened then, and Rachael remembered thinking how brave and grown up Wendy was when she suddenly had to deal with her beloved sister gone and her mother going crazy and blaming her for her sister's death. She was in awe of how Wendy remained popular and well-liked in school, she was never rude to her peers, and her grades never suffered.

At some point in time Rachael felt sorry for Wendy that she had to live up to her overachieving sister's standards and her father had all those unreasonable expectations. But now she realised that after the years of Wendy harping on it, she was tired and unsympathetic and the worst part was that she felt bad that she felt this way. Whatever mindset Wendy had, it was contagious and extremely tiring to deal with. There was only so much Rachael could try to say to cheer Wendy up, and every time Wendy went into one of her moods where she moped over her incapability, Rachael would feel put in a spot where she had to say something to cheer her up, but there was not much she could say without saying the wrong things. She knew it wasn't Wendy's fault, but she just couldn't help but feel frustrated. So she was there for Wendy, but who would be there for her? She couldn't burden Wendy with her problems, Wendy had far worse things to deal with, but sometimes it felt like she was being the pillar of support for Wendy but when she needed someone there for her, there was no one.

So she just pulled Wendy into a hug, and Ralph joined in enthusiastically.

"Thanks guys, really, I love you two so much," Wendy said, and leaned on Rachael's shoulder.

Rachael looked away. Maybe she did have someone in her life to lean on once, but that person had his own share of shit to deal with. Well, that didn't matter now, he was gone, his problems with him. She'd remembered bottling up her feelings when she gotten so exhausted dealing with Wendy and her parents that she'd texted him late at night randomly just to get it out of her system. And he was always there to listen. In exchange, he'd also let out his share of problems, and he never over-shared. He always so naturally knew where to draw the line, and it didn't feel like he was letting it out, but rather opening himself up to her so she didn't feel like she was the only one in the world. And at other times, he'd ask her to go out to her front door so they could just sit quietly at the door steps and not say anything to each other. He'd known when she wanted to talk, and when she just wanted silent company.

Damnit, she missed him.

A/N: Okay I have been slacking off pretty much lately so I guess it's time I stopped doing that. It's kind of a short chapter but short and sweet right?