Georgetown Academy 1 and 2

by Jessica Etting

  Taryn gave Brinley a long look, but made the right decision not to argue with her. She must be as over this study session as Brinley was. “Yeah, it’s about time for my daily YoYoFro fix,” she said as she began packing her books. Of course Taryn liked nouveau hydrogenated frozen yogurt. So unpatriotic. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned, traditional ice cream?

  “You’re Alan Reyes’s daughter, right?” Brooks asked. Most guys at G.A. were wary of Taryn now because of the rumor, but Brooks knew first-hand who had started it. It almost seemed like he was checking Taryn out, but Brinley refused to believe her brother would be attracted to a girl who probably wore Uggs in public. He was most likely just doing recon because Taryn was a member of the Reyes family.

  “Yup,” Taryn answered, barely acknowledging him. With his perfectly symmetrical face, girls usually couldn’t take their eyes off him.

  But Brooks didn’t seem to notice the slight. “I really respect how far your father’s managed to rise in such a short time.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled you approve.”

  Brinley expected Brooks to look insulted, but instead he flashed a bemused little smile Taryn’s way. Taryn had really turned on the attitude. Brinley was begrudgingly impressed she still had some fight left in her after the rumor situation.

  “So D.C. must be a lot different from L.A,” Brooks continued to prod.

  “Yeah, the people here are a lot fatter.”

  Brooks laughed. That wasn’t funny.

  “Well, it was nice meeting you,” he said, then turned to Brinley. “Brin, I’ll meet you in the study.”

  Brinley slammed the front door behind Taryn, squeezed her facial muscles into her best expression of innocent apathy, and strolled into the study where Brooks was waiting for her with a priest-like solemnity.

  “What’s going on? You look like you do when you get a stain on your shirt and don’t have immediate access to a Tide stick,” Brinley said as she gingerly perched on the arm of her father’s oversized leather chair.

  “I always have immediate access to a Tide stick,” Brooks said, not even cracking a smile. He crossed his arms then cocked his head casually. “So anything going on in your life I should know about?”

  Brinley cracked her knuckles. It was a nervous habit she had developed around the same time she started taking Adderall.

  “Well…I finally got off the waitlist for that Fendi Gialla baguette I’ve been wanting,” Brinley answered, innocently.

  “Congratulations. I know that’s really been hanging over your head. But that’s not what I’m talking about.”

  Brinley’s pulse quickened as she tried to read his face. He didn’t look like he wanted to talk about a ski trip to Vail. Her palms started to sweat all over again, which was both troublesome and repulsive.

  “Brooks, my time is valuable, so get to the point,” she said, steadying the quiver in her voice.

  “Sure,” Brooks responded, walking over to her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny white bottle of Adderall, confirming her worst fear. He had found the hidden bottle.

  “What’s that?” she asked, as if that bottle’s contents weren’t the first thing she thought about in the morning and the last thing she thought about before she went to bed. She was not going down without a fight. She could still get out of this.

  “I know you’re trying to convince yourself you can get out of this, but it’s not going to happen.” Dammit. She took a deep breath, but it got caught in her throat like she was underwater.

  “It’s not what it looks like. They’re not actually mine,” Brinley heard herself say, but it sounded weak. It was over and they both knew it.

  “Come on, Brinley. An addiction to Adderall? How nouveau can you get? You might as well have made it Oxy so we could get ourselves on some rehab reality show with a bunch of toothless rednecks arguing about which childhood trauma sent them over the edge!”

  “How did you even find out?” That wasn’t the point, but she was still curious.

  “You left the bottle in your medicine cabinet.”

  Her medicine cabinet! That’s where she had “hidden” it! A toddler could have found a more clandestine spot. She could practically taste the idiotic Lemoncellos that had caused this debacle.

  “That’s unconstitutional! Illegal search and seizure!”

  “I had probable cause and we need to stay on point here. You have to get this under control. Now. Or would you rather I get our mother and father involved?”

  “No!” She practically yelled, grabbing his arm. Her parents were fine if Brinley bent the rules on the occasions that she needed to, but if she got caught bending the rules, that was another story entirely. “Look, just so you know, I’m only taking one pill a day.” Another lie, but it sounded slightly more convincing than her other ones.

  “Then that’s one too many. It’s over. Today. Now nod your head so I know you understand me.”

  Brinley nodded her head. Thankfully, he didn’t know where she kept her other two bottles. She was going to have to find a more covert hiding place than that Miu Miu shoe box.

  Brooks leaned back against the mahogany built-in bookshelves, careful not to knock over the framed photographs of their father with Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. He gave her a grave look. “Just think for a second what would happen if this got out. I mean, seriously, do you really want to become the Roger Clinton of the family?”

  All the air escaped from Brinley’s lungs. “You’re crossing the line, Brooks!” Everyone knew the Clintons were Brinley’s sworn enemies. And to be compared to the most dysfunctional one of them all was the lowest insult Brooks could hurl at her.

  “Are we clear?” he replied curtly, ignoring her outburst.

  “We’re clear,” she answered just to end this abominable interrogation. She had no intention of stopping her Adderall consumption. She was just going to have to figure out a way to circumvent Brooks constantly breathing down her neck.

  She turned on her heel, smoothed the hair off her face and walked back into the kitchen…where Taryn was grabbing something off the table.

  Brinley froze. “I thought you left.”

  “Your housekeeper let me in. I forgot my phone,” Taryn muttered, not meeting Brinley’s eye.

  She could have heard everything.

  When Taryn finally looked up at Brinley from across the table, Brinley could swear she saw her eyes do a little victory dance.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Wednesday, 7:05am.

  Ellie packed up her books in her bedroom, psyching herself up for another hellish day at school. Thank god lacrosse try-outs weren’t until next week. She was too depressed to even lift up her lacrosse stick. She was still getting radio silence from Hunter and she, in turn, was giving the same treatment to Gabe on the several occasions he had tried to initiate a conversation between them.

  At the thought of him, memories of the vodka room assaulted her brain like an acid trip flashback—his hands pulling her waist into him, his lips on her neck, his fingers grazing her back underneath her shirt…

  She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the images away. She needed to replace this pointless replay with a plan of attack on how to get Hunter back. Maybe Brinley would strategize with her later because he was blatantly ignoring her and the situation seemed pretty hopeless.

  She opened her eyes when she heard her mom and Jasmine’s voices downstairs. The past two days, her mother had left the house so early and come home so late that Ellie had not seen her except for a two-minute encounter during which her mother barely acknowledged Ellie’s presence. Usually, when Marilyn’s schedule was jam-packed, they made it a priority to see each other for at least an hour a day no matter what. On several occasions, Ellie had even woken up at five in the morning just so they could catch up. To allow two entire days of silence was her mother’s way of letting her know she was still extremely angry.

  Ellie avoided the floor mirror leaning up against her wall as she threw the rest o
f her books in her backpack. She didn’t need a reminder of how disheveled she looked and Brinley would certainly not approve of her baggy sweater and leggings, which she believed should only ever be worn at the gym.

  Ellie hurried down the staircase, taking the steps two at a time, so she could catch Marilyn before she went to the office. Maybe today would be different, and right now, after the week Ellie had had so far, she really needed her mother.

  She entered the farmhouse-style kitchen where Jasmine and her mother were standing at the large granite island in the center of the room. Ellie could tell her mother was exhausted, but to the outside world, she probably looked fashionable and put together as usual in her sleek, fitted blazer and designer pants. Jasmine was pouring Marilyn a cup of chamomile tea while simultaneously typing an email and reading the paper. She was one of the most capable chiefs-of-staff (and one of the few female African-Americans to hold that position on the Hill), and though other senators were always trying to poach her, Jasmine remained fiercely loyal to Marilyn.

  “Hey,” Ellie said. She got a smile from Jasmine while her mother didn’t even look up. “Long day yesterday, Mom?”

  “Mmmm,” was all she got in response as her mother wore that same indignant expression she used around disrespectful reporters who asked her ridiculous questions. “Jasmine, where are my notes from the last tobacco hearing?”

  “In your office on the top of the stack.”

  Marilyn grabbed her cup of tea off the counter and walked to her office. Clearly, she did not want Ellie to follow her.

  “It just keeps getting worse,” Ellie said almost to herself, but Jasmine looked up from her email.

  “You haven’t seen the video yet?”

  It felt like someone was dribbling a basketball inside Ellie’s stomach. “Video?”

  Jasmine opened her MacBook Air and clicked a few keys to display a frozen YouTube image of Senator Mike Lim on the steps of the Capitol, surrounded by press, looking especially patriotic in a blue shirt and bright red tie, an oversized American flag pin fastened tightly to his chest. Ellie instantly recognized Jenny Lim’s father, the moderate Democratic senator from Oregon who had just barely squeaked into his Senate seat thanks to a statewide recount.

  Jasmine pushed play and his frozen face sprung to life.

  “As Americans, we deserve more than this. We deserve not to be bogged down with Congressional infighting. We deserve not to be swallowed up by partisan politics. This has gotten us nowhere for too long and we deserve to have a government we can believe in!” The reporters thrust their microphones even closer into his face as he adjusted his semi-rimless gunmetal eyeglasses. “Look at Senator Mills and Senator Walker. This photograph depicting their children has brought another onslaught of mud-slinging and I don’t know about you, but I’m left wondering, where does this get us as a country? Here are two United States senators, so concerned with their own political agendas and personal problems that they have no time to confront the real issues. Is the tryst between their children more important than the future of ours?”

  Ellie swallowed. A few camera flashes reflected off Lim’s wide forehead, illuminating his black hair and making the few gray strands shine like glitter.

  “What about our crippled economy? Our failing public school systems? Our troops still in harm’s way in Afghanistan? These issues don’t even register for Senators Walker and Mills because they’re too caught up in proving each other wrong. This is not what the American public deserves from their politicians. And I, for one, will not sit back idly and swallow this partisan discord any longer. If we want change, we need to fight for it!”

  Jasmine’s neat, square-cut nails tapped the stop button. “It came out last night and immediately went viral. Ten million hits already. He’s like the Justin Bieber of the Hill. People are eating it up.”

  This jerk was using her mother as a scapegoat when every politician was guilty of his accusations. Marilyn was one of the most ethical senators on the Hill and it wasn’t her fault that this photograph came out. Ellie paled. It was her fault.

  “Lim saw an opportunity with that photograph of you and Gabe and ran with it,” Jasmine said matter-of-factly and, luckily, without judgment. “Mills is probably scrambling to deflect from this video as much as your mother.”

  “What’s Lim’s endgame? He’s already been elected,” Ellie asked. There was no way Mike Lim was making these grand platitudes without his own political agenda. She didn’t believe that speech for a second.

  “He wants the chairman position on the Judiciary Committee. The one your mom has been trying to land for the past ten years.”

  No wonder Ellie’s mom had been so chilly just now. Ellie’s transgression might cost her the position she had been fighting tooth and nail for as long as Ellie could remember.

  “I’ve got to get to school,” Ellie mumbled. Like her reception there was going to be any better.

  Half in a coma, Ellie put her books in her locker, one by one, trying not to focus on how adorable it was that Hunter used to do this for her every morning. Two girls on the swim team stood at the lockers next to her, their hair wet from early-morning practice. They didn’t say a word, just stole glances at Ellie, disillusion radiating from their chlorine-reddened eyes.

  Ellie wasn’t even angry at them for staring. In fact, she didn’t blame them. They had bought in to the perfect Jackie O. image Ellie herself had projected, and she had disappointed them with her fallibility. Not only had she tarnished the relationship for herself, but for the rest of the school, who felt like they were a part of it. The chinks in her armor were on prominent display in the eyes of her classmates, on the fingers of every blogger on the Internet, and swirling around in the pompous words of Mike Lim. With one impulsive decision, she had ruined everything. Now she just wanted to get it back and that was proving more hopeless by the minute. If she was angry at anyone, it was herself.

  She shut her locker door and spotted Taryn darting into a classroom. Yet another person whose life she screwed up. They sat at the same assigned table at lunch, but for the past few days Taryn had made it a point to sit as far away from Ellie as possible. Ellie wished they could mend their friendship and Taryn clearly wished Ellie didn’t exist.

  Ellie begrudgingly left her locker and started the death row march down to the science hall. Her next class was biology. With Hunter.

  The invisible Scarlet Letter on her chest suddenly seared her even further when she saw Gabe striding toward her in his ripped jeans, plain white tee and his favorite vintage pendant swinging from his neck. His dark, shaggy hair was slightly disheveled, but of course that just made him look hotter. The anger she was feeling toward herself hurled itself into a fiery ball through the air and landed right on top of him.

  “Looks like Mike Lim’s speech made your dad’s plan backfire,” she blurted out as he reached her. He looked momentarily paralyzed that she was actually speaking to him for the first time since Monday.

  “My dad didn’t leak the photograph, Ellie,” he said calmly. It was irritating that there was not even a hint of doubt in his voice. Gabe was always so sure about everything.

  “Right. Keep telling yourself that,” she seethed. She was now mummified by the layers and layers of angry cloth coiling tightly around her body.

  Gabe didn’t bite even though he knew Ellie was looking for a fight. “We’ll talk when you’re less angry.” He gave her a long, steady gaze. “I still want to be with you, Ellie. Nothing has changed. I’ll wait for you if I need to.”

  “And I want to be with Hunter. So you’re right. Nothing has changed.”

  “This isn’t you right now.” He never took his dark eyes off of her.

  “This is exactly me right now!” Ellie was not going to let him mess with her head.

  “Then you’re not who you used to be and I have no idea why you thought you needed to change. That girl in the vodka room. That’s who I want to be with.”

  “That girl is an idiot!” Ellie e
xclaimed.

  Suddenly, she felt eyes on her. A lot of eyes. Everyone in the hallway was gawking. Ellie and Gabe, the scandal of the year, was unfolding before them in real time. She couldn’t let it get back to Hunter that she had been seen talking to Gabe at all, even if it was to fight.

  “I’ve got to go,” she said, brushing past him before someone could record the encounter on their cell phone.

  She slipped into a stall in the bathroom and closed the door. Her breath was coming in quick, erratic spurts and her tear ducts worked overtime, threatening a flood. Her depression from the past few days had made her feel hopeless, but this anger rendered her helpless.

  The first few months she was with Hunter, it had been like walking around in someone else’s skin. Then, in the vodka room with Gabe, she had shed it like a snake. And that’s who Gabe wanted. She didn’t even know which version of herself was real anymore. And though she had no reason to regret what she had just said to Gabe, the fact that she had disappointed him nagged at her like an inflamed hangnail.

  She stiffened when she heard two girls enter the bathroom. She immediately recognized their voices as Nora and Liesel, the power groupies of G.A. In a flash, she propped herself up on the top of the toilet, concealing her legs from view, not wanting them to know she was there.

  “Jenny is in my French class next period,” Liesel said, her words garbled. She must be reapplying lip gloss.

  “She’s in my art history class after lunch. How do you want to play it?” Nora asked, her blue bug eyes probably popping out of their sockets. They had to be talking about Jenny Lim. If Nora and Liesel wanted to get in with Jenny, that meant her fame at school must be rising as fast as her father’s in Congress.

  “Divide and conquer. We should see if she wants to go shopping after school.”

  “Oooh, good call,” Nora cooed approvingly. “We can hit up Intermix on M Street. It’s in walking distance to her townhouse. I Google mapped it last night.”

  “Um, hashtag YOU’RE A GENIUS. We can score an invite over to her house and stay for dinner. By that time, her dad might even be home.”