“Where are we going?!” Elena says looking disconcerted. She skipped out on tons of classes last spring and promised her parents she would make more of an effort this year.
“It’s electives period.” Lara says with disgust. She was personally offended by Elena’s faltering memory. “You know what that means.”
Chapter 20
Fan Club
Lara and Elena open the door to a classroom that seems sealed off from the rest of the school’s campus. It’s located on the building’s top floor and the only way to reach it is by crossing a series of narrow hallways.
The room is rather tiny and there are a group of girls sitting in a circle formation. The walls of the room are plastered with pictures of Lara and the girls are looking at them with a mix of awe and terror.
Evan and Aya are already inside this secretive room. They’re standing by a white board when they spot Lara and Elena.
“Where were you guys?” Evan inquires. Her eyes seem illuminated; anxiously awaiting for a juicy answer.
“We ran into a BLM emergency.” Elena swiftly replies. She knew it was up to her to claim responsibility for the hallway incident.
“Figured.” Evan says with apparent disappointment.
“What’s a BLM?” Aya asks with a fragrant curiosity. It occurred to her to ask such a question since the girls seem to run into these emergencies pretty often.
“Bullying Losers Matters.” Elena answers with a frivolous smile.
“Oh.” Aya says while biting her lower lip. She couldn’t find the next word. She was too worried thinking she could become the next target.
Lara interrupts the chit-chatter and orders silence in the room.
“Shhh. Go sit down!” She whispers.
She proceeds to make a motion with both of her arms as if she were a queen about to declare the beginning of her reign.
“Hi everyone and welcome to Lara Lagowski 101.” She pauses and takes a look at the group of students that have gathered in the room. There were so many more than she had expected. “You might be wondering what I did to deserve having my very own fan club AND getting it to count for credit as an extracurricular after school activity but the truth is that it’s because you’ll never be as fabulous as me.”
Lara hones her eyes on Evan as she proceeds to bring her a bottle of water. She takes a sip and Evan takes it away from her. She then proceeds to continue with her welcome speech.
“In hindsight, I realize this might be too simple of an answer but my goal inside these rotten four walls is to dumb down everything I say so you, my admirers, can understand what it takes to be me. No, it’s not easy, and yes, it is hard work, and none of you will ever be able to meet the standards required. But as your role model, and as the compassionate humanitarian that I am, I feel obliged to give you all some much needed pointers in order to help makes this crazy stupid politically correct world a little bit less messed up.”
The speech concludes and a wave of tension swipes the room. The girls look as if they’ve been taken hostage. A tear slowly travels down the cheek of one of the attendees.
Lara, contended by the commotion she’s caused amongst the girls, proceeds to check the attendance list.
“Let’s see who are the brave souls amongst us who have decided they are good enough to invite themselves to my club without my permission and lower my stock.” Lara grunts.
“Megan McQueen?”
The first name on the list happens to belong to a girl sitting towards the forefront of the circle. She’s overweight, wears pigtails, and looks terribly frightened.
“Out!” Lara yells while pointing towards the door. Her eyes look dead and there’s a sense of violence in her voice.
Megan sits still. She seems to be frozen in time. The other girls anxiously stare at her, waiting to for her react.
“I said get out!”
Lara remarks with the tone of a rabid dog.
Megan remains motionless for a few seconds before storming out of the room with tears in her eyes. Lara takes another sip of water and wastes no time in checking off the next name on the list.
“Anita Kotamrouge?” She asks.
“It’s Kotamraju.” Anita replies back with a certain naivety.
“OK.” Lara retorts back. “Whatever, princess.”
Lara approves the name and moves on to the next one when a look of horror takes over her face.
“Chloe Weinstein?!”
Lara blurts out. After what happened in junior year, Lara had thought Chloe would stay out of her business.
“Why are you here?!”
Chloe looks at Lara with a vacant expression. She seems to be lifeless, as if there were no energy remaining in her body.
“We don’t want no insecure bitches with low self-esteem in here. Out!” Lara declares. She couldn’t stand the sight of her.
Chloe continues to remain glued to her seat and barely bats an eye.
“Is everyone paralyzed today?” Lara asks while her eyes relentlessly fidget back and forth. She looks possessed. “Expel her!”
As if she were on cue, Evan follows Lara’s order and proceeds to remove the chair from which Chloe is sitting on. Chloe falls down to the floor and walks away with a look of embarrassment plastered across her face.
Evan hurries back to her assigned seat in a hurry and then whispers to Aya. “You’re doing that next time.”
Lara, in an unexpected move, throws the attendance list to the floor with such strength that it crashes against one of the walls. The papers splatter across the cold white tiles as they quickly swirl in the heavy air.
“Are you not going to read the rest of our names?” One of the girls in attendance asks.
“No.” Lara says with admirable determination. “You all don’t have names anymore.”
The girls look at each other in a moment of shock.
“We don’t?” The same girl asks.
“Nope, that’s right, from here on out you guys will be simply be known as my groupies. Any past form of name or identity will be forgotten once you walk into this room since being yourself has clearly not worked out for any of you. A life in anonymity is about to become your greatest asset.” Lara takes a pose and adapts a pensive expression. “Any questions?”
A couple of the girls raise their hands but Lara ignores their requests. This was her club and she felt that answering questions was beneath her.
“No? OK, great!” Lara exclaims. “Let’s get started with today’s lesson then. We’re going to cover one of the most important topics of our time: Eating Disorders 101 and Tips for a Healthy Midnight Binge.”
The girls take out their notepads in a haste and start writing down notes as Lara starts reading a list of various food groups.
Chapter 21
Closing Bell
The school day is coming to a close and Lara and the girls are hanging out by the main entrance. A bunch of students and teachers keep rushing in and out of the gates. It’s rush hour and there’s a palpable sense of commotion in the air. The girls seem to be the only ones taking everything with ease.
“School’s been such a bore today.” Elena mentions while blowing a giant bubble of chewing gum.
“When is it ever fun?” Evan retorts back with a biting remark.
“Well, actually, last year was mildly amusing.” Lara adds. “We had all those exchange students coming in from a bunch of random African countries.
“I can still picture that one girl with the patch on her eye trying to make an earring out of a spoon!” Evan jokes.
“She was tragic!” Lara exclaims. She reflects on the past year and comes to the conclusion that it had been a rather good one.
“How was your old school?” Elena asks Aya.
“It was the worst. Like going to a jail cell every day.” Aya says.
“So it’s just like Vista High then.” Lara says while inserting herself in the midst of this new conversation. She had to domain every single one.
“Did yo
u make any close girlfriends there?” Evan asks. Maybe this time Aya would drop some information on her mysterious past.
“A couple I guess you could say.” Aya pauses and thinks carefully about what she’s going to say next. “We had a pretty tight-knit community type of thing going on.”
That couldn’t be further the truth, but Aya hung on to lies as if their were their very own life saving devices. She had to stay afloat amongst this group of hungry sharks.
The girls seem to fail to pay attention to Aya’s reply and veer their eyes off into the distance. All of the sudden, the senior jocks exit the school’s building and greet the girls.
“Hey mamacitas!” One of the jocks says. He’s wearing a cap on backwards and loose black sweatpants. His face is entirely symmetrical and his confidence is close to the one of a movie star.
Elena says hello back with one of her hands while Evan and Aya don’t even look up.
Lara, however, takes the opportunity to throw another barb. “Jesus, we’re not one of the Mexican hookers you can find down the street!” She exclaims so that everyone around can hear her.
“Exactly. You guys are just boys trying to act like men.” Evan says quickly coming for her friend’s defense.
“I don’t think these men are interested in girls.” Aya says out of the blue. She herself couldn’t believe what had come out of her mouth but something deep inside had prompt her to belt it out.
Elena, Evan, and even Lara turn around and look at Aya aghast. In the meantime, an expression of blatant confusion seems to take over the group of jocks.
“Who is this crazy looking chick?” The shortest jock of the bunch says. He’s sporting a buzzcut and torn blue jeans.
“Our newest sidekick! Go on Aya.” Lara says while also using it as an introduction. “You were about to make the most delicious of observations!”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” The same jock asks. He looks defiant. He wants a challenge.
“That you guys would rather do each other!” Aya says without holding anything back. Her voice is strong and full of bitterness. She had even surprised herself with such an unusual display of rage.
Lara, Evan, and Elena erupt into a riot of laughter. Elena is giggling so hard she can barely keep herself from rolling on the floor. The jocks, on the other hand, look like they’ve been hit with a pan on their heads. They are silently furious.
“Damn little mermaid, you on fire!” The jock with the cap on exclaims. He pretends to be unbothered by her astute comment. “How about I give you a lick of something real spicy?”
“Fuck off!” Lara says with that same bluntness she had shown earlier that morning in advisory class.
“Wow. Alright, alright.” The jocks says. “No need to get so aggressive. I can take a rain check, baby girl.”
“She’s not interested, you heard her.” Lara remarks.
The jock makes an expression of disgust and signals for the rest of his buddies to get moving along.
“Let us know when you all grow a pair!” Lara shouts as the jocks walk away with their heads down. The short one, however, flips his middle finger at them.
“High school guys make me wanna become a lesbian.” Evan reproaches with disgust.
“I’d be OK with that.” As long as you wouldn't hit on me, of course…” Elena says while chewing on her freshly coated nails.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m more attracted to the exotic kind.” Evan says while winking at Aya.
Aya catches the gesture and suddenly gets a bit flustered. At the same time, a lightbulb seems to go off above Evan’s head. Yes, she had found Aya’s weak spot at last.
In a rare moment of distraction, Lara is looking down at her phone when a disheveled boy rushes to her side. It’s the valet boy. He hands out the car keys and proceeds to run off in a different direction.
“The car’s ready!” announces Lara.
The girls head to the parking lot and jump inside the car. Evan claims gunshot while Elena and Aya take the dreaded backseat spots. Lara wastes no time in turning the engine on whilst driving off at dangerous speeds.
“Where are we going?!” Aya mutters to Elena. She didn’t know what lives these girls led outside of school and now she was being thrust into their lifestyle without prior warning.
“Lara’s house.” Elena answers trying not to catch Lara’s attention. “We’re gonna do a bit of pre-gaming there before heading out to the club.”
“To the club?!” Aya was astonished. It was a Monday night and she was used to spending them on her couch watching The Bachelor on repeat.
“You’ll see.” Elena replies with a warm smile. She couldn’t help but be friendly to the newbie.
All of the sudden, Lara turns up the volume of the radio to stratospheric heights. She and Evan both start dancing to the rhythms of the hip-hop beats blasting out from the stereo. The afternoon was just getting started.
Chapter 22
Lara’s House
After a drive through a highway and some long winding roads, the girls arrive at Lara’s majestic mansion minutes before sundown. Lara parks the car by the driveway and she and the girls head inside.
“Grab my hand.” Elena says to Aya. “The house is that unbelievable.”
Aya proceeds to grab her hand while Evan looks on from behind while pulling a small smirk at her mouth.
Lara opens the door and the mansion’s open main foyer comes into view. There’s a giant staircase and a breathtaking skyline view of the city. The foyer is also accentuated by a crystal chandelier.
“Wow.” Aya’s eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing.
It was the most obscene display of wealth she had ever witnessed. The decor of the mansion was opulent yet dated. In Aya’s mind, it was also kind of tacky. The type of interior design only someone with no recollection of the recession would approve of.
“Told you.” Elena says while letting go of Aya’s hand. She smiles at her and tries to imagine what it would feel like to see Lara’s place for the first time.
All of the sudden, a busty looking middle-aged woman emerges from the top of the marble snail staircase. She has curly hair and is wearing some sort of vintage uniform proper of a housekeeper. A look of desperation and tiny drops of sweat permeate her chubby face as she runs down the stairs.
“I wasn’t expecting you so soon!” She screams. “I was cleaning the windows and then heard a noise.”
The woman takes a look at the girls and does a sign of reverence towards them. For one second, Aya feels like a member of the Royal Family.
“Oh, hi girls!” She exclaims with glee. “I see you have a new friend! That’s wond-“
“Take off your shoes!” Lara orders while interrupting the housekeeper’s welcoming greeting.
Elena, Evan, and Aya all proceed to quickly remove their shoes. The middle-aged woman runs to them and grabs each pair with haste. Lara does so moments later but instead of simply taking them off she does something a lot more surprising. She instead decides to throw them against a wall. The forceful crash leaves a sizable dark stain on what used to be blank surface.
“Oopsies.” Lara says while covering her mouth with her hand. “Me thinks you better go and clean that up.”
The maid chases after Lara’s shoes with a desperate look on her face. In the meantime, Elena and Aya look at each other. They seem to be communicating telepathically; their faces denoting the same expression of pure concern. One thing appeared to be clear: Lara Lagowski is a dangerous girl.
Lara turns to the girls while sporting an excessive grin.
“She can be such a pushover. Let’s go up to the sanctuary!”
“The confetti room!” Evan exclaims. “My favorite place on Earth!”
Elena, Evan, and Aya follow Lara’s lead up to the mansion’s second floor. Once there, Lara opens a bejeweled door that gives way to a room in which everything seems to sparkle.
“Welcome to my personal walk-in closet!” Lara announces with a devio
us smile while setting her gaze on Aya. She
was expecting her to get jealous of her belongings. And that made her insanely happy.
The room is entirely covered with colorful pieces of paper. There are an endless amount of dresses hanging from different shelves and drawers. In fact, any ordinary American could confuse this closet for an actual shop.
“Its…ah-mazing”. Aya says once again struggling to find the right words. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been speechless this many times on the same day.
The Beehive Book One Page 6