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She can’t say that everything is bad. The house isn’t horrible. It is a two-story house with a lawn in the front and backyard in the back. Dad said that Annie and her would have their own rooms, and Beth could make a small garden in the backyard if she wants to. She can say that the house even looks cute. Like all the houses around.
And Beth can’t say that this is a poor neighborhood. The houses here are all decent. And their house is decent too. She should be glad that they have a roof over their heads. But she has high standards, and she no longer wants to be content with little. And this all is little .
But, unfortunately, she will have to get used to it.
“How do you like your new home?” Dad comes behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder. She is still irritated with him. And he sounds so content like it wasn’t him who sold their house for $ 35 million. How many such small houses could fit on their previous land, where was their home? About 12 houses for sure.
“Should I answer you not offensive, dad?” Beth asks politely.
“Yes.” Dad nods.
“Then I won't say anything.” Because it's all terrible. She misses home . And this shack isn’t her home. Her house was large and stylish, with a large bright space like on pinterest pictures, and her backyard pool, her rose garden, her jacuzzi, her dressing room.
“Elizabeth.” Mom calls her irritated and comes to them with Annie trailing after her.
“What?” Beth snaps back. "We have to live in this shack now,” she points to the house, “if you haven't noticed, Mom.”
Mom doesn't like that either. Beth heard her complaining to one of her friends about what they were going to go through and what kind of life they would have now. Beth doesn’t know who her mother spoke to, but she is sure that all of her mother's friends have already disappeared from her life. Because her friends did just that. Were they friends at all?
“You can live wherever you want, Beth. Earn money for your own home and live in it.” Mom suggests and lifts Annie up. Annie is five, she doesn’t care where to live. So Annie says in her sweet voice:
“Nice house, daddy.”
Beth rolls her eyes. From the perspective of a five-year-old, even a cardboard box can be a nice house.
“So I'll earn money but a little bit later.” Beth answers to her mom. Mom just chuckles and turns her attention to dad.
“Dear, the house is wonderful. Of course we have to get used to it, but we can handle it.”
It's even surprising that she now supports him, although when mom found out that dad was practically bankrupt, she almost killed him. Mom shouted at him loudly and called him names and throwed dishes and vases at him. Probably there is too much wine in her mother now and she doesn't care about everything.
“Or a new bottle of wine can handle it all.” Beth says quietly to herself.
“Did you say something, honey?” Mom asks.
“No. Can we enter the house already?”
Dad nods, gives her keys and she is the first one today to enter the house. At least their furniture is already in the house. And their expensive furniture sets “amazingly” with this cheap home. But well, this is her place of residence for one year, and then she will go to university, live in a university dorm and share a room with a girl she could dislike.
“Nice.” Beth hisses.
And her dad hears it and he is done with her attitude judging by his irritated voice:
“Why are you acting like that, Beth?”
Beth turns to face him, and mom, and Annie in mom’s arms. They stand on the one side, as if they are happy with where their father's wrong decisions have led them, and she stands on the other, not afraid to say that she doesn’t like the way they should now live.
“How am I acting?” She crosses her arms over her chest and looks at her father defiantly.
“You're always unhappy with everything. You act like a bitch.”
Well, damn, she is a bitch .
“What did you want, dad?” She waves her arms in annoyance. “That I will be glad that you fucked our mine and Annie’s future? That you've lost all our money? And in this world we are nobody without money.”
Okay, it’s all about money nowadays. You are secure if you have them, and if you don't you are barely surviving.
“I haven't lost all my money.” Dad rolls his eyes and mom shakes her head disapprovingly. “And it was my money in the first place, not yours .”
It is probably pointless to continue the conversation with him. The father doesn’t see the problem. He thinks everything is fine. All is well, because he had some money left in his bank account, and he quickly found a job in this impoverished area where they moved.
“But you're a man and you have to take care of your family. And you failed. And sorry that I'm used to money. I can’t do anything about it.”
“I say again that this is my money.” Dad days crossly. “And I did as I saw fit.”
“You haven't thought about family at all.”
“I was thinking about business.”
Oh, the business he fucked up too. Beth is so angry with him now, so she says:
“Maybe with such an attitude to the family, you shouldn't have a family at all.”
She sees that these words are hurting him. And mom too. Only Annie frowns, not understanding what is happening. But Beth isn’t going to apologize for the words she said.
So she turns and leaves to inspect the new house in which she will live.
Beth just hopes to get used to this squalor at least a little.
~~O~~
It's good that they are moving to a new home in August. Beth has time to get used to her new poor life. And she finds work at the Boutique in Bloomfield Hills just to pay her own bills.
The salary is very good: eleven dollars per hour and ten percent of each closed check. She doesn't know the school schedule yet, but she can work at least four hours a day. She doesn't plan to work every day, of course, probably three or four days a week, but that's also money. Especially with customers who come to the boutique every day and take away a dozen things from there in order to put them on once and forget about these things for good.
She used to be like this rich chicas. Now the circumstances are different, and she is no longer the same.
And she doesn't apologize to her parents. And they all pretend that nothing happened. Heart-to-heart family conversations are not at all about them.
~~O~~
Of course, everyone is looking at her and judging her. Beth wears a skirt just above the knee with a zipper in the front, a white blouse, and she has a black Prada bag and Jimmy Choo’s
shoes. Her father still could not force her to sell all the branded clothes and shoes. Some of her favorite things are now in the closet at home.
Her hair is styled and she smells good, Tom Ford perfume compliments her natural scent. She knows she looks good. Therefore, girls look at her with envy, and guys look at her and appreciate her curves.
Beth stops near her locker, and a dark skinned girl in big brown glasses is stuffing her own locker with books and notebooks. The girl’s locker door is open in this way so that Beth cannot open her own locker, but she doesn’t rush the girl. The girl feels her presence, turns to her and smiles apologetically.
“Sorry. And hey, I’m Ruby Orton. Seems we are locker neighbors.” She closes her locker and Beth smiles friendly. If Beth wants to survive here, she needs at least one friend. And this Ruby seems to her as charming and sweet. She can give her a chance.
“Seems so. I’m Beth Marks.” And she remembers the surname Orton. So she curiously asks: “Didn't your mom write the book "My Grandmother's Baking book" by chance?” Because Ruby looks a lot like the woman on the cover of this book. Ruby first looks at her in surprise, but then breaks into a smile again:
“Yes. That’s her. How did you know?”
“Not to say I'm much into backing. I’m more of a stress backing type. But still.” And Beth wants to be cool, not some kind of nerd. But Ruby still smiles at her and comes closer:
“Oh, you have to tell me about all the recipes you've tried so far and what might be wrong with them.”
Beth can give some advice but the recipes were just fine.
“And what do I get in return?” And not to scare Ruby away she winks at the girl.
“I will become your living and breathing guide to Detroit Community High School.” Ruby suggests it easily.
“Sounds cool.” It's the perfect day to make a new friend.
And you could say that cooking helps her make a new friend.
~~O~~
It sucks to be the only one new in the school. Because people are watching her, teachers make her introduce herself to the class, like nobody knows about her everything that is on the Internet. And of course people assign her to one of the categories. There are five categories in every school: you could only be a jock, a geek, a princess, a bully, or a basket case.
But labels are hung in all schools.
And, of course, Beth is labeled "princess" because she is approached by girls who try to look stylish in their clothes. She doesn't even try to remember their names, although she smiles at them and answers their questions even though she knows that she has already become their number one enemy, because no one wants to share the throne with some new girl who is a cut above them. In a metaphorical sense, of course.
Guys stay away from her for now. They have courage only to send sly smiles her way. But no doubt someone will try to make a move on her. Possibly at lunchtime.
She must have second sight.
~~O~~
“Hola, babe.”
A male hoarse voice interrupts her. She looks around to see who it is. And she just thinks “I need to stay away from him, avoid him at all cost.”
This is the type of guy she sometimes allows herself to look at for longer than decent: Mexican, with warm golden skin, kissed by sun, plump lips, deep dark eyes, eagle neck tattoo and thick brows. He sat too close to her on the bench at the table in the school cafeteria so she could see the shadows of dark stubble on his face.
It takes her second to return to her speech to Ruby and ignore this boy.
“I would probably like to join the school theater. Especially since you take part in it too. I think this will be fun.”
Ruby looks at her and at the guy in surprise and somewhat frightened. She even stops eating her yogurt. Not to mention that Beth notices that everyone in the cafeteria is looking at their table, both subtle and not. So obviously this guy is popular here. Not surprising with his good looks.
“My name is Rio Mendoza.” He moves closer, looking at her boobs. “And you must be that famous Elizabeth.”
Beth doesn’t want to answer him. He interrupted the conversation. And he behaves like she owes him something. She doesn’t.
“Would you like to take a walk in the backyard?” Beth suggests to Ruby and doesn’t get an answer from her, but Beth stands and Ruby stands too, trying to look everywhere but her and this boy. Rio .
She picks up her tray and walks away from the table when he calls out to her:
“Hey, wait. It's impolite to ignore me.”
And Beth turns to him and this time she answers:
“And who came up with these rules? And you shouldn't have called me babe, pookie . Ruby, I really want fresh air.”
He looks at her with mouth slightly agape and he is amused by her. And good that Ruby follows her into the backyard. And she doesn’t ask questions until they sit on the grass, legs crossed and trays are in front of them.
“Who was he?” They are facing cafeteria windows. And Mendoza watches her, even waves at her and she looks at Ruby, feeling her cheeks lit up. “Why was everyone looking at me so strange?” She makes a pause. “Let me guess, he is an alpha dog.”
It's obvious that he is the coolest guy in school. Or he thinks so.
“It’s Rio Mendoza.” Ruby tells her and Beth catches herself that she whispers his name and she likes how that sounds. “And you're right, he's the local king. He sells drugs, and he likes to break laws. You better stay away from him.”
“I’m planning to do so.” Beth replies but she is still looking at him, and he isn’t alone anymore. Boys and girls come to him and sit around him, laughing and talking. One girl even kisses Rio’s cheek. And Beth doesn’t admit to herself that she doesn’t like that. Rio grimaces and ruffles the girl's curly black hair affectionately. The girl is Mexican too, and has the same sexy vibes that this Rio has. All Rio’s friends are good looking actually but her eyes are back on Rio. He doesn’t look at her.
“You know,” Ruby drawles “he is obviously the hottest guy in the school, and a lot of girls are crazy about him, but it’s better not to mingle with him.”
That catches her attention back to Ruby and not to Rio who looks at her when she faces Ruby:
“What makes you think that I will mingle with him?” She sounds a little bit offended by this. She already told Ruby that she will stay away from him.
“Because you have this look .”
“What look?”
“The same look all girls who like him have.”
Oh, bad. She was caught staring. But she is a teenager and she can’t ignore how stupidly hot Rio is. But he is a jerk.
“Ruby.” Beth huffs. “Take it easy. I know who is worth getting friends with and who should avoid. And you, in any case, will tell me who is good and who is bad. Am I right?” She has to stick with Ruby. Ruby is fun and knows about the people at this school.
“You are right.” But Ruby sounds like she doesn’t believe Beth.
But Ruby says nothing about it and they return to their lunch. And Beth tries very hard not to look at this Rio Mendoza.
~~O~~
There are still five minutes before the class, so Beth is looking at the Instagram photos. There are a lot of photos of her former classmates, all joyful and tanned. They all took photos in the background of East Bridge Academy, her previous school that looks more like a business center and not a school. But her Iphone gets obscured by two timetables and tan hands. She looks up and it's Mendoza standing before her.
Is he stalking her or what?
“What's this?” She doesn’t understand what he is trying to show her by these schedules.
He breaks into a smile, his gaze falls back to her breasts, again , but he quickly looks at her face.
“This is my schedule and yours. See, we'll be spending a lot of time together, babe .”
She looks at two schedules and blinks slowly. One of the schedules is hers, the other one is his, and they really have a lot of lessons together. And Beth doesn't want to see him too often.
“Firstly, don't call me babe, pookie, and secondly, I'll just simply change my schedule.”
But it isn't so easy. In the receptionist's office, when she was given her schedule, she was told that if she wanted to change the schedule, she would have to work hard to change even one subject. And where does Rio get her schedule anyway?
“And I will follow you all the same.” He grins and sits down at the table in front of her, turning the chair with its back to him and saddling it.
“Are you a maniac? Should I report you to the police?”
Probably the police already know him as he is selling drugs. Rio puts his arms on her desk and lays on them, looking at her from the bottom up.
“I just want to look at you all day long and study your body at night.” His smile is soft and his voice is flirty. “How does that plan sound?”
Why does her body shiver when he says this? Why does she imagine him hanging over her in her bed? She shakes her head slightly to drive these thoughts away.
“To be honest, it's a terrible plan. And please get away from me. You ruin my mood, and my mood isn't that good already.”
That’s because of all those stupid Instagram photos. Maybe she just needs to unsubscribe from all her former classmates.
“I can improve your mood.” Rio suggests with a wink and he licks his lips slowly, glazing all over her body. “I have a couple of options in mind already.” And she looks at his lips mesmerized until he chuckles and she looks at him in the eyes.
“Go bother other girls and leave me alone.”
He wants to answer something, but the teacher comes into the class and shouts:
“Mendoza, take your place.”
Rio rolls his eyes and walks to the end of the class, but of course he walks so as to touch her shoulder with his arms lightly. But she doesn’t bother to look at him, watching as a dark skinned guy sits down in front of her.
The next time he pounces on her, she will need to tell him that she already has a boyfriend and is not interested in a relationship. Maybe she will even show him a picture with her and Dean.
But the next time when he pesters her in Biology class, she doesn't say anything about Dean.
~~O~~
“How was your first day in school?” Mom asks when Beth enters the house. She waits for her in the hall with a glass of wine. Like mom cares about her school.
“Fun enough.”
Elizabeth takes off her shoes and goes to the kitchen to pour herself some water. Mom follows her.
“Did you make new friends?”
It makes her think. She really liked Ruby. And her mind whispers to her “Rio Mendoza.” But this is just a separate topic for conversation she will have only with herself in the privacy of her room.
“In a manner of speaking.” Beth washes her hands and pours herself water.
Rio is arrogant and clingy. And cute. And maybe she liked him a little.
Oh, this school year is definitely going to be fun.