The Queen Bee of Bridgeton

by DuBois, Leslie

  "There's something you need to know," he said as he pulled away from me and sat with me on that disgusting couch. "Sasha was in on it."

  "What?" I leapt from the couch.

  "She set you up," he said gently easing me back down.

  "She wouldn't do that to me."

  "Yes, she would. She has everyone fooled into thinking she's this saint-like genius when she's really a vicious opportunistic manipulator. She is the brains behind David's cheating network. That's how she earns extra money."

  "Will, don't say that," I pleaded. The Bitch Brigade had struck again. Ashley had obviously turned Will against my sister and she was trying to do the same to me.

  "It's true. I know the whole story. Sasha is the Queen Bee. She’s the leader of the Bitch Brigade. She has been using them and everyone around her to get what she wants. Remember Leila Baker the girl who had to transfer schools last year?" I nodded. "Sasha put the Bitch Brigade up to what they did to her. She was considering running against Sasha for student body president and she actually had a chance of beating her. And you know how Sasha is always studying and writing papers and stuff? Well, people go to David and tell him what assignment they need and Sasha does the work. She has written papers for probably half the population of Bridgeton."

  "But why would she set me up? I never competed with her for anything."

  "Listen," Will began to explain gently trying to take into consideration my feelings, "remember that note you found on your door?"

  How could I forget? Those words were forever etched into my mind.

  We don't know who you think you are. But anyone who lives in this hell hole isn't worthy of Bridgeton. Do what we say or you're gonna pay. - The Bitch Brigade

  "Well, the note wasn't for you. It was for Sasha. They were sick of taking orders from her. But Sasha is not so easy to take down. She's got too much dirt on them. So, instead, they focused on you. She was legitimately pissed at them for attacking you. She had always made it clear that you were off limits. She wanted to expose them, but they rallied against her and threatened to reveal the cheating network that she had developed with David. Sasha couldn't let that happen. She knew she would get expelled and lose her chance at Princeton. The only way they agreed to not go after Sasha is if she helped them go after you. They made up that phony video and the phony Spanish test story. That's why they had to say it was a Spanish test. Spanish is the only class you have with seniors. Sasha knew that even if the evidence against you wasn't enough, that you would confess in order to save your beloved, precious sister."

  I shook my head denying Will's words even though they really made sense.

  "It's not possible. You have to call Headmaster Collins right now and tell him that you made a mistake." I tried to stand up, but Will pulled me back down to the couch.

  "Look, how could David have thought it was you? If he really couldn't tell you two apart, how'd he know which one of you he gave the answers to? And then how would he know who to blackmail for that matter? And if he could tell you apart what was his motive for going after you and not everyone else he helped cheat? His story doesn't make any sense. He had to be in on it."

  I kept shaking my head in protest. I didn't want to believe this about my sister.

  "I know this is hard for you to believe, but it's the truth." Will knelt on the floor, held both my hands to his heart and with tears in his eyes said, "I wouldn't lie to you. I love you, Sony. You have no idea how much I love you."

  "I love you, too," I said as I began sobbing uncontrollably. I didn't know whether I cried tears of joy because Will loved me again or tears of sadness because my sister was a fraud. But when he kissed me, it was clear as day what the tears represented. I didn't realize exactly how much I missed him until he placed his lips on mine. A wave of emotion overtook me.

  "I missed you so much," he said, wiping the tears from my face. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you all this time. I missed your audition, didn't I?" he asked as he took a look at my outfit for the first time. "How did you do?" he added. Mentioning the audition turned my tears of joy that I had Will back into tears of agony that I wasn't accepted into the DiRisio Academy.

  "I didn't make it," I blubbered. "They saw the honor violation on my record."

  Will held me in his strong arms. Then he kissed my forehead, my checks, my eyelids, every inch of my face as if he was a blind man trying to discover me with his lips. "We need to go see Headmaster Collins," he said after he had again focused on my mouth for a moment. "That's why I'm really here. He wants to talk to you. He tried calling but your phone is disconnected. I told him I'd come get you. Maybe he can help."

  Chapter 28:

  Picking Favorites

  "Truth be told, I'm glad it wasn't you," Headmaster Collins said after telling me everything he had learned about Sasha.

  "Sir?" I asked, only half listening to what he told me. I really didn't want to hear about all the awful things my sister had done.

  "I said, I'm glad it wasn't you. Ever since the first time I met you I knew there was something different about you. I ask every potential student the same question: 'Why do you belong at Bridgeton?' You are the only one in 17 years to say that you didn't belong. You gave the most honest answer anyone has ever given to that question. That's why I wanted you to be a part of this school. I knew from that response that you had integrity." I had to think hard to remember what I had said on that day. I didn't realize that it had affected him so much.

  "Your sister, Sasha, was an amazing student with perhaps a flawless resume, but, to me, she had no substance, no soul. I've had my suspicions about her for some time. Of the two, you were always my favorite. I know I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but you are one of my favorite students in this entire school." For the first time Headmaster Collins seemed human to me. I couldn't believe that he liked me more than Sasha. It was comforting to hear. But my comfort level quickly diminished as he went back to his colonel tone, cracked his knuckles and said, "I know you come from a poor background and that you and Sasha had a difficult childhood. But is that basis enough to lie to me and the entire Bridgeton community?"

  "I guess, at the time, I really didn't think of it as lying." I stared at my hands and played with my thumbs. "I just wanted to help my sister. She's the smart one, the one with the potential for a bright future. I thought her future was more important than mine."

  Headmaster Collins sighed and said, "I hope one day you recognize what a remarkable individual you are. You have just as much potential as your sister. If anything, you have more because you're such a decent and unique person." He sighed again and shook his head. "I understand what you did for your sister. A part of me even admires you for it. It was brave. You sacrificed yourself for her. Unfortunately, lying, even for good reason, is still lying and I will not be able to accept you back into Bridgeton."

  I nodded sheepishly still staring at my thumbs. Headmaster Collins' unwillingness to readmit me wasn't that much of a shock. I never even considered the possibility of returning to Bridgeton. My mind still ached over the death blow given to my dance career by not being accepted to DiRisio.

  "Mr. Maddox tells me you auditioned for The DiRisio Academy of Dance this morning." I nodded. "How did that go?"

  I swallowed hard and said, "They complimented my talent, but disqualified me because of the honor violation." My voice was a hoarse whisper. I held back tears not wanting to cry in front of Headmaster Collins. I'd cried enough.

  "Well that hardly seems fair. I think you've been through enough. Let me see what I can do." I looked up into Headmaster Collins' eyes. They had their normal intimidating intensity, but now, they also showed a sincerity that seemed almost…kind. For the first time that day, I felt a glimmer of security in my future. Somehow I knew Headmaster Collins could help with DiRisio.

  "What did he say? What's gonna happen?" Will asked when I emerged from Headmaster Collins' office.

  "He's gonna try to get me into DiRisio." I said as I sought the comfort
of his embrace.

  "That's awesome. Why aren't you more excited?"

  "Nothing's final yet. He just said he'd see what he can do."

  "Well, it's as good as done then. Can you imagine anyone saying 'no' to Headmaster Collins?" Will smiled, trying to lighten my mood. And he did somewhat. I'd forgotten what a beautiful smile he had and how his blue eyes danced with delight whenever he looked at me. "Let me take you to dinner. We can talk about Rome and make plans." I couldn't help but smile at Will's optimism.

  "I love you," I said after kissing him. "I love that you care about me so much that you went through all this trouble to prove my innocence. I love how you have no doubt that I'll eventually make it into DiRisio. I love how you make me feel about myself. I love all you've done for me. But, Will, I need some time to sort through all this stuff in my head. I need to find my sister and talk to her. Maybe she has a good reason for what she did to me. Maybe -"

  "You can't possibly be thinking about forgiving her, can you? There's no excuse for what she did." Will stepped back and held me at arm's length. He didn't understand the bond I had with Sasha.

  "She's my sister."

  Will closed his eyes and sighed. "Fine, go home, relax for a few hours, try to find Sasha. I'll bring dinner to you around 8:30, okay? Call me if you need anything." Will walked me to the bus stop and gave me a long sweet kiss good bye.

  I didn't have to search too hard to find Sasha. When I opened the apartment door, she was sitting at the kitchen table. During the entire bus ride home, I tried to imagine what she would say to me or what I would do. Nothing I imagined prepared me for what she actually said.

  Chapter 29:

  Monster

  "So, I suppose Will told you everything?" Sasha said in a tone that I wasn't familiar with. A tone that sounded like defeat.

  "Yeah, but I need to hear it from you." I walked to the table and took a seat across from her. She didn't look at me.

  "Fine, I'm a lying, cheating, backstabbing bitch. Is that enough for you?" Sasha took out a cigarette, lit it and took a long greedy drag. She was obviously a frequent smoker.

  "No, it's not good enough. I think you owe me an explanation," I said, staring at the cigarette like it was some kind of alien crawling out of her mouth. "When did you start smoking?"

  "About three years ago," she answered, taking another puff.

  "Three years? Three years! You've smoked for three years and I had no clue."

  "There's a lot you don't know about me," she said, taking another cigarette out of the pack. She wasn't even finished with the one in her mouth and she already yearned to start another. She tapped the unlit cigarette on the table.

  "Like what?" I pleaded. "I thought we were best friends. I thought we told each other everything."

  "We were best friends, until you found dance. Then it was like you barely had time for me anymore. You always had auditions and camps and tours. Hell, you left me for an entire summer. You left me in Venton Heights for eight weeks! That's when I picked up this nasty habit." Sasha took the half finished cigarette out of her mouth and snuffed it out on the table as if she was going to quit forever.

  "So, you were jealous of me?"

  "No, I wasn't jealous of you," she said mockingly. "Well, not at first, anyway. I was happy for you. It was like you had a guaranteed way out. You are so good. Do you know that? You're the best dancer I've ever seen. You have this amazing talent that can take you anywhere in the world. And what do I have?"

  "What do you have? Are you serious? You have a 2250 on the SAT's, you have a 4.0 GPA, you have a 5 on four different AP exams, and a scholarship to Princeton!"

  "I didn't always have all that," she said, losing her resolve and lighting another cigarette. "It took me six years to get accepted to Bridgeton. Six years. Then you come along and get in after one application. And when I got there, everyone had the same grades as me or better. I still wasn't good enough. I was always going to be the poor little black girl from Venton Heights. I didn't want that. I wanted more. So, I started to find ways to get better grades. I wanted higher SAT scores, I wanted to be the best student there was. Somehow, I hooked up with David and -"

  "You started cheating." I finished the sentence for her. She nodded.

  "David and I came up with fool proof methods to get around teachers, proctors, even plagiarism detection technology. We used everything from camera phones to calculators to iPods to good old fashioned cheat sheets sewn into the lining of my skirt or David's blazer. I think at first, we just wanted to see if it could be done; if we could get away with it. Then it became a challenge to try more and more different techniques. It was like we got some sort of high every time we got away with something. It was intoxicating. Once we had our system perfected, we started using it to make money."

  "Oh, Sasha, how could you?"

  "Oh, don't give me that," she snapped. "I did what I had to do. Everyone does it." Sasha started opening and closing her lighter. She'd stare at the flame then snuff it out with the lid. "I would do anything to get out of living in this place. I didn't mean to drag you down with me." She continued staring at the flame. She didn't look at me. She hadn't looked at me the entire time. I had hoped it was because she was sorry for what she'd done. I hoped that the desperation which caused her to behave so maliciously had turned into shame and remorse. I wanted her to cry and apologize and hug me and say that everything was going to be alright. But that didn't happen.

  "I should've known something was up when Will got back together with Ashley," she said. "Even David warned me. I guess I underestimated his feelings for you." Sasha finished her cigarette and started another. "He really loves you. I wonder what that's like."

  "What are you talking about? What about Desmond? He loves you."

  "Desmond doesn't even know me, the real me. He was just a cover and I really couldn't care less about him."

  "What?" My mouth flew open in a mixture of shock and disgust. Sasha's apparent double identity was more serious than I'd imagined. I felt sorry for Desmond. He couldn't have been more sweet and kind to her and she now talked about him like some sort of worthless fashion accessory.

  "Sex with Desi is like having your teeth cleaned. It was an inconvenience but it had to be done to keep up the look I wanted. Unfortunately, I'm in love with David. But I couldn't go around telling people that because he's such an asshole. Sex with him was just as exciting as the cheating. Sometimes more. It was an exhilarating rush." I covered my ears like a child not wanting to hear the gory details of her illicit affair with the boy I once idolized, but she kept going. She saw how uncomfortable it made me, but she kept describing with horrifying explicitness her relationship with David. "Sometimes we'd mix the two and do it in the locker room during a test we happened to be cheating on. Once, I used Desi's car to go pick up a pizza. On the way, I stopped at David's house and we had sex in the backseat. David actually made me call Desi while we were doing it and had me ask him if he wanted pepperoni."

  Sasha closed her eyes, let out a long puff of smoke and smiled as if she relived the encounters. "What he said about the video camera is true. He does keep a hidden one in his room. That's how I knew about Lauren DeHaven and Brooke and that David cheated on me with Colbert."

  "Wait, Colbert?" I interrupted her remembering her supposed good friend who was now wasting away in some rehab clinic as part of her probation. "Did you have anything to do with her arrest?"

  Sasha sighed and said, "I did what I had to do. She knew David was mine. She had no right." I shook my head. What kind of a person was she? I wished I could have turned around and run out of the apartment so as not to hear the awful things she told me, but pure shock had cemented my feet to the ground and forced me to sit there and learn the dreadful truth. "After a while, David and I got bored and had to try riskier things. David got a hold of some prescription drugs that we started selling and I found someone in Venton Heights that sold marijuana." She fell silent and reflective for a while and just smoked her cig
arette.

  “What about your hair?” I asked staring at her long beautiful locks that I now knew was a wig. “Did Lauren, Brittany, and Ashley really put Nair in your shampoo?”

  Sasha rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid, Sonya. Don’t you think I’d be able to smell Nair a mile away?”

  “Don’t call me stupid, Sasha.”

  She ignored me and said, “I fell asleep smoking a cigarette and set my hair on fire.”

  “And you’re calling me stupid?” I folded my arms in a satisfied gloat.

  Sasha glared at me. "Princeton is revoking my acceptance," she said as she stood up from the table. "But, you knew that would happen, didn't you? You had to know Bridgeton would expel me and I wouldn't be going to Princeton."

  "Oh, wait, so now you're saying this is my fault?" I stood as well and returned her glare. "You're unbelievable! It's David's fault, then it's Will's fault, then it's the Bitch Brigade's fault and now it's mine? When are you gonna take responsibility for your own actions, Sasha?"