"Raven Kenzington? Are you fuckin serious?!" Lance exclaimed. Justin laughed, obviously
enjoying his friend's shock.
"Hey we shook on it. If you back down now, the car is automatically mine", Justin pointed
out. Lance let out a huff of frustration, his eyes studying her.
It would certainly take a little more than a new wardrobe to change the Angel of Death
into Miss Susie High School. Raven was talking to one of her friends, her face a cynical
mask of annoyance. She looked like she had raided the closet of Gwen Steffani, Blink 182
and a Madonna from the 80's; wearing a pair of low-rise dark jeans littered with randomly
placed, white bleach spots and were rolled up to form a huge cuff at the knee. Her shirt
was black that in white, jagged letters stated: I'm only wearing black until they come out
with a darker color. Her socks were so long that went up a little past her knees and were
cherry colored and navy blue striped. She had about ten rubber, black bracelets on each
arm and each finger, except for her thumb, had a plain, silver ring on it.
Her flowing, chestnut hair was untouched, forcing her to sweep a couple of strands out
her face every few minutes. It amusingly reminded him of Cousin It from the Adam's
family. She slouched up the courtyard, heading for homeroom, elbowing and jostling
anyone in her path. A khaki colored, beat up, messenger bag was strapped around her
shoulder, with various buttons and patches held on with giant safety pins on it.
Lance rubbed his temples, a raging headache starting to form. How in the world would he
turn Raven into the Homecoming Queen in only six weeks? It'd take him about three
months to mold her into a fairly believable spawn of the popular crowd.
But then again, he had to think about the major consequence if he decided to give up. If he
chose to back down, he could kiss his Mercedes Benz goodbye forever.
"Am I sensing the urge to quit?" Justin demanded.
"Hell no! Who said anything about quitting?" Lance spat back.
"Good. Well now that's settled, I'd hurry up and make the first move, because according
to my calculations, you have six weeks to turn the Wicked Witch of the West into the next
Britney Spears", Justin answered, his eyes quickly darting to Raven and giving her a
revolted once-over.
Lance laughed.
"If I were you, I'd get out my soap and water because the only thing you're going to win is
a daily date washing my car."
Justin shook his head and laughed, just as they slipped into their homeroom.
"We'll see about that, we'll see."
*~*~*~*~*
Raven Kenzington plopped down at the farthest back cafeteria table, sliding next to Alicia.
It had been a ritual to sit at that exact table, with the exact same people ever since their
group had claimed it during freshman year. She gazed down in disgust at her lunch tray,
which supposedly contained a hot dog, chocolate milk and french fries. Well, that's what it
supposedly was. The hot dog was more like a rock hard, piece of burnt rubber that had
developed a strange pink streak down the middle with a handful of soggy, half-frozen, pale
yellow, potato slivers and a caramel colored, thick carton of chunky syrup.
<My God, prison food is a five star restaurant compared to this crap>, she disgustedly
thought to herself.
"Does anyone have any extra money?" Raven questioned the three other people. Tia
Sanchez
glanced up, her aqua eyes streaked with confusion.
"Why do you need money if you have food right there", Tia questioned, raising her voice
slightly to be heard over the roar of noise as she pointed her fork at the tray.
"Food? You call this food?" Raven demanded.
She took a stab at the hot dog with her fork, picked it up and then dropped it on the table
top. A loud clunk echoed for about two minutes and a dent about five inches deep resulted
from the impact.
Kerry Pierson shuddered.
"Point taken. Here, I want the change back", she informed, handing Raven a five dollar
bill.
"Muchas gracias, amiga", Raven graciously answered, snatching the money from her hand.
She stood up and slowly made her way across the floor to the A La Cart line. The A La
Cart was separate from the regular hot lunch, where students could buy chips, cereal, soda
or ice cream and other snack products.
Raven took her spot in the end of the long line, waiting to advance further up and get a
few bags of Doritos. She took a quick glance at the popular table, her nose automatically
crinkling in disgust, as one of the football players, JC Chasez, whom she liked to refer to
as Tweddle Dee, slathered a heap of mashed potatoes on a spoon, pulled the spoon back a
little and then let it fling, where it crashed landed on the letterman's jacket of his dim
witted friends and Tweedle Dee's girlfriend. Tweedle Dee's girlfriend let out a shrill squeal
of horror as a tiny speck of mashed potato landed on the shoulder of her brand new,
Abercrombie and Fitch, white T-shirt. His friend gave a chuckle but didn't hesitate to
scoop up a handful of cold peas and launch it onto the face of the one who started the
little food fight.
She focused her attention away from them, shaking her head slightly. One of the many
things she totally hated about the little group of Barbie's and Ken's, besides the fact they
were vapid and shallow, was that they were more immature than a fifth grader. They
thought the world would be their shoulder to cry on and the one to "cut them a little
slack" as they liked to call it, when they were having rough times. They knew the real
world as the four walls of their school and nothing of the outside world living around
them. The guys thought they had to live up to a tissue-thin image of an ensuing James
Dean and the girl's thought their lives would actually turn out to be an episode straight
from the writers/producers of Dawson's Creek. It was a pathetic excuse of an identity and
because of this, she stayed as far away from them as possible.
So this is why you could imagine the boiling amounts of annoyance when none other than
Mr. Eminem Wannabe himself, Lance Bass, had the nerve to open his mouth and speak
directly to her.
"Hey, you're Raven, right?" he questioned cooly. Raven whipped around, her hair hitting
the person in front of her during the process. She raised one eyebrow, giving him a once
over, trying to come up with a logical reason why he would say anything to her.
"If you're looking for your girlfriend Ashley or Amy or whatever her name is, I suggest
you try the mall", Raven calmly replied. They line crept forward, while Lance laughed and
grabbed a Coca-Cola from the freezer.
"Ouch. Are you always like this?" he curiously asked, an easy going smile on his face. She
forced back a sardonic, tight smile back.
"No, only to people who I don't like", she sweetly answered. He laughed again.
"And the score is Raven two, Lance nothing. But hey, what's wrong, can't I say hello?"
Lance asked.
"You haven't given me the time of day since elementary school, so either A, you were
dared to speak to the scary girl or B, you just feel like getting a laugh out of me without
the approval of your little band of flying monkeys", Raven snapped back.
"Woah, calm down! Nobody told made me talk to you, I just felt like it. Besides, what if I
said that I just...wanted to get to know you better?" Lance asked. Raven's fiery eyes stared
into his, trying to uncover the real meaning behind his explanation. She let out a short,
frustrated snort.
"Ha, don't make me gag. You, wanting to get to know me better? That's like saying you
and all your little mindless drones wear Wal Mart brand ensembles", Raven replied with a
sneer.
Lance brushed off the question like a fly and offered her a charming grin. Or at least, he
tried to.
"So, Raven...do you have a boyfriend?" Lance demanded. This time Raven laughed. Her
eyes of steel gazed into his.
<What the hell does he think he's doing? This must be some kind of joke>, she thought to
herself.
"Ya..in fact I do", Raven slowly answered. Lance's eyes widened a little but he quickly
resumed his cool, collected attitude again.
"Who? Anyone I know, cause whoever he is, he must be one lucky guy", Lance replied.
She flashed him a tainted smile and snatched two bags of Cooler Ranch Doritos.
"Oh, he's one lucky guy all right. You might know him. His name is...None of your damn
business", Raven calmly answered. She pushed past the people in front of her, paid for her
chips, got the change and then briskly headed back to her seat, leaving a stunned Lance
frozen in his spot.
"What the hell was that all about?" Tia demanded, looking from Lance to Raven as soon
as she sat down. Raven tore open the first bag and stuffed a handful of chips in her mouth.
"Nothin", she simply stated. Alicia rolled her eyes and elbowed Tia in the arm, trying to
hint that maybe Raven secretly liked Lance. Raven ignored Alicia's silent theory and
concentrated on eating.
She couldn't resist but took one glance back at Lance. He was now paying for his chips,
his cheeks a little flushed as the whole table of his jock/prep friends loudly laughed, they
too observing the little commotion herself and Lance had caused.
He wouldn't meet her eye contact, although she knew he knew she was watching him. He
paid for his chips and quickly headed back to the table, barking a "Shut the fuck up" to the
whole table. No one paid any attention to his request because they kept on cackling, even
more louder than before.
Raven tore her eyes away from them and popped another chip into her mouth and faced
her friends again. She grinned as they scooted forward in their seats a little, thinking she
was going to comment on the argument.
"You know, he really is kinda cute when he's embarrassed."
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