4. Ring Leader
“Hey Bec, remember Mom’s got that thing today so we gotta hoof it home after school” Seamus said as he passed his sister in the hallway before the last class of the day.
Stopping suddenly, Becca put her hands on her hips and with as much sass as the shy girl could muster spit out “I’m calling you out Cupcake – meet me at the bike racks after school if you’ve got the guts to defend yourself”, staring after him with what she hoped was an intimidating glare.
“Ooohhh, scary” Seamus’s friend Jake crooned as he walked by, evaporating whatever sass Becca had managed to channel.
“You are so weird” Seamus complained, with a big toothy grin, as he continued in the opposite direction. “And you don’t stand a chance!”
Becca hurried through the door of her favorite class, Psychology, just as the tardy bell rang, taking advantage of her teacher writing on the board to sneak into her seat.
“Cutting it a little close today aren’t we Ms. Holt?” he drawled, never putting the chalk down or glancing in her direction. A few giggles brought the red back to her face as she opened up her textbook to try and cover her embarrassment. She still wasn’t accustomed to being the center of attention, even harmless teasing that the other kids took for granted and enjoyed.
When the final bell rang, Becca gathered her things and made her way to the front of the school, short cutting through the library grass and popping up behind Seamus with a smack to the back of his head. She was rewarded with his instantaneous flinch and a loud “Son of a …!” for her stealth. She never got tired of getting the drop on her big brother.
“No cookie for you” Seamus pronounced in his best Seinfeld voice, and they set out laughing on the 10 minute walk home.
“Hey, since we gotta walk all this long way in this stifling heat, I wanna Frappuccino” Seamus whined as they approached the Starbucks that marked roughly the half way mark of their trek home.
“It’s your allowance Bubba, if you want to slurp it all down through a straw, be my guest” she replied, following him into the refreshingly cool restaurant. Being two blocks from the high school guaranteed this particular Starbucks a huge mid-afternoon business of cookies and fraps and anything else sweet, so the line was already long and the tables mostly full when they stepped in.
“I’m going over there where it’s not so crowded” Becca said, stepping into one of the few empty areas of the busy store. She pulled out her phone and was just about to send her sister Lauren a text when she heard someone using her sister’s name, loudly, and not exactly in a flattering way.
“That bitch thinks she is soooo smart, just because she‘s getting an ‘A’ in AP Chem and already got into Cal Poly” the voice whined, at a volume just enough above normal to turn more than a few heads.
“I bet she just took a bunch of those SAT prep classes and bought her way in,” she continued, sneering every syllable as if she were discussing some evil queen.
Becca shifted so she could see the speaker, and recognized her as one of the bitchy cheerleaders her new friends had told her to avoid at all costs. “Classic Mean Girl” was the verdict they had pronounced, and while Becca hadn’t had time to see the movie that spawned that title, she got the gist.
Becca hung back, hoping that the girl was done with her diatribe, but unfortunately she wasn’t. She went on to question not only the legitimacy of Lauren’s captainship of the water polo team, but her choice in men as well. That was enough for Becca.
“Hey, can you please stop doing that?” she asked The Bitch after positioning herself next to her table so she could be heard while speaking softly.
The Bitch stopped mid-rant and slowly turned her head so she could see who was talking to her. She gave Becca the once over, and apparently unimpressed, played dumb, which, Becca thought, wasn’t much of a stretch.
“Stop what? And who’s asking?” she said, doing her best to stare Becca down, obviously putting on a show for her followers sitting around the table.
“I mean please stop talking about Lauren Holt like that. We both know that none of that stuff you said is true, and she didn’t do anything to you to deserve it.“ Becca said in her most reasonable tone, still keeping her voice low.
“Is that right? And who are you to know so much about that skank Lauren Holt?”
Becca stood a little taller, and still working hard to keep herself under control, managed to keep a reasonable tone.
“She’s my sister.” Becca said simply.
“Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to like her,” Becca continued “and I’m not asking you to say nice things about her…what you think about her or what you say about her in private is your business.”
“But like I said, we both know that stuff isn’t true, and you can NOT talk smack about her out loud, here, in public, where people don’t know you’re lying and where she doesn’t have a chance to defend herself.”
Silence descended like a curtain on an empty stage; despite Becca’s best efforts to keep her voice low, the subtle intensity of her tone and her taut body language stopped all conversation and swiveled every head.
The Bitch noticed and understood that she was now not only the center of attention, but also on the defensive, as she had been called out in an obvious lie.
"Oh, so you're the orphan that the Holt's took in off the street, I heard about you. And here you are already calling her 'sister'; does she know you do that, out loud, in public?" The Bitch taunted, trying to deflect the attention away from her by going on the offensive.
"You know, I guess that's kind of the difference between you and her. Here her parents take me in off the street and open up their home to me without knowing anything about me. And the first thing Lauren did was call me sister, share her room with me and introduce me to all her friends."
"So yeah, she's my sister whether you like it or not, and I am only going to ask you one more time to stop the trash talk."
Becca was pretty impressed with herself, keeping it mostly together and not sounding like a complete idiot in front of what was now a huge crowd, completely engrossed in the scene unfolding in front of them.
The Bitch knew she was on the ragged edge of losing any advantage the cheerleader uniform may have given her against this little waif, so she took one more shot at backing her down. "Zip it Cinderella, you're really starting to bug me. Buzz off."
"I think you've got two choices" Becca countered.
"The easiest thing you can do is just stop the smack talk. You don't have to be her friend, you just have to give her the respect she deserves. We all walk away and that's it."
Unbelievably, The Bitch just didn’t know when to stop.
"And what if I don't?" she sneered, assuming Becca wouldn't go any further and she could still have the last word.
"Well then I would ask your friend here to hold my earrings while I kick your ass" Becca said, as calmly as she could. The already silent crowd went catatonic, no one daring to so much as breathe.
"They were a present from Lauren, and they're the only pair I have ever owned. So I don't want to risk losing one."
Silence continued its' uncontested reign, and Becca didn't bat an eye for about 5 seconds, which seemed like an eternity to the assembled crowd.
"I assume your silence means you are going for option #1, and I hope you're as relieved as I am." Becca said, the hint of a genuine smile ghosting across her lips.
Seamus was, not surprisingly, the one to break the stunned silence, putting his arm across Becca's shoulders and looming over the table of cheerleaders. "I see you gals have met my little sister; but don't worry, I don’t think she wants to be a cheerleader" he said, shooting an exaggerated wink at The Bitch. "We gotta bounce, see you guys around" he said, leading a now-jittery Becca out the door without so much as glancing back.
They kept up a dignified pace across the parking lot, neither saying a word until they rounded the corner out of sight. Lauren grabbed her knees and gave in to the hyperventilation that had been building, while Seamus pumped a fist skyward "That was AWESOME Becca! AWESOME!!! I have NEVER seen that bitch shut her mouth for more than 2 seconds...EVER! Woohoo!!!!"
Becca glanced up and gave her brother a half-hearted wave "Give me a minute....I still may pass out" she gasped.
Becca tried to be as small as possible the next morning on her way to her locker before her first class, just in case someone who had been at Starbucks yesterday saw her. Other than Seamus's enthusiasm for the "Bitchy Beat Down" as he called it, she had no idea how anyone else might react. She was still a nobody, with only Lauren and Seamus's hand-me-down friends who knew her. The whole thing had gotten out of hand quickly and she was terrified that there were going to be repercussions of some kind.
She stopped a few feet from her locker, as she could tell right away that something was wrong. There was some kind of paper sticking out from the bottom edge and she was starting to imagine all the worst case scenarios when she saw Seamus round the corner in front of her.
"Hey Slugger, what's wrong? You look like some cheerleader just threatened to beat the crap out of you" he said, managing to make her smile despite her fears.
She explained the situation, and Seamus immediately went into big brother mode, telling her to stand back while he opened her locker. As he made the final turn of the dial and the lock clicked, he slowly opened the door, which then covered him from the waist up so Becca couldn't see what he was doing.
The next thing she knew he was reading a piece of white paper that he had pulled from the locker, and holding something else she couldn’t see in his other hand. "What is it Seamus?" she asked, figuring it best to know the name of the person who was going to make her life miserable for the foreseeable future.
No answer.
"Come on, what is it?" she asked, wanting to get it over with.
"Earrings."
"What?"
"Earrings" he said again, this time holding up a pair of earrings and the note he had been reading.
"Who...what...why" she stuttered aimlessly, so befuddled she was not even sure what question to ask.
"Who - no idea. What - six pairs of earrings. And Why - I have a feeling you made a few new friends yesterday who want to show their appreciation for you standing up to their personal nightmare" he said, counting off the points on his outstretched fingers like a demented preschool teacher.
"I don't...wait, what?" Becca said again, only just starting to understand what he was saying. "Someone gave me a pair of earrings? Who?"
"Not who...whos, as in six whos. There are six pairs of brand new earrings in here Becca. You're famous!" he shouted, picking her up and twirling her around the hallway.
"Oh snap" she said, covering her face with her hands, wondering what could possibly happen next.
Lauren.
Double snap.
Yesterday on the way home after the Bitchy Beat Down Becca had made Seamus swear he would not tell Lauren or their parents about ‘the incident’, hoping it would just kind of get lost in the shuffle of normal high school life. Nothing had really happened, after all, so hopefully it would just fade away and they would never know. Seamus had thought that was pretty funny, but agreed to keep the secret.
The fact that there were six pairs of earrings in her locker had only begun to sink in, and her first thought was terror that her sister might find out what had happened.
“Seamus, what if Lauren finds out?” she whispered to him urgently. “What if she overhears someone who was there or something?”
“Hey guys” came a voice from behind them, dripping with false nonchalance.
Seamus and Becca turned slowly in unison to face their older sister, who was sizing them up like a cheetah would her prey.
“Something weird happened when I went to my locker this morning” she continued slowly, pretending to be in deep thought.
“When I opened it up, I found these” she said, holding out her hand and opening up her fingers to display 4 pairs of earrings resting in her palm.
“Something” she said while nodding in the direction of the six pairs Seamus was still holding “tells me you guys might know something about this” she finished, fixing each of them with an intense stare. She could barely hide the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Seamus snapped out of his daze first and thrust the earrings he was holding back into Becca’s locker. “I’ll let you two have some quality girl time before class” he said as he backed away slowly. He looked at his younger sister and said, in his best Ricky Ricardo voice “Becca, you got some ‘splainin’ to do” and laughed uproariously at his own joke while he headed out the hallway door to his class.
Becca was staring at the floor, thinking furiously of what she could possibly say. She came up empty; no idea, none at all. She slowly raised her head to look her sister in the eye, and opened her mouth to see if something, anything would magically come out. Lauren lost any semblance of control and started laughing as hard as Seamus had.
“I know all about your little run in with The Bitch yesterday kiddo” she said, catching her little sister up in a fierce hug. “A whole bunch of people texted me last night, and at least 10 more have stopped me this morning” she said in between laughing breaths.
“You knew? Last night, you knew?” Becca blurted out, totally confused. “Why didn’t you say something? Are you mad? Why aren’t you mad?” she asked.
“Mad? Why would I be mad?” Lauren asked, frowning. “You stood up for me to the biggest bitch in the school, and threatened to KICK HER ASS because she was talking smack about me behind my back. And all YOU were worried about was your EARRINGS!” She reached out and hugged her little sister again “That is like the sweetest thing EVER! Stupid, but sweet” she added. “What if she had taken you up on your offer to fight? She’s got 6 inches and a good 30 pounds on you.”
Becca’s relief was palpable; she had been so worried that Lauren would somehow be mad that she had been the object of such a public altercation, and that she would want to distance herself from her fake sister for getting into it with such a well-known Senior Cheerleader, even if she was a bitch. These were Lauren's people, and she might not appreciate Becca making waves.
Because while part of her knew that Lauren was the best sister ever, deep down she still had doubts about what would happen if their relationship were tested and she had to choose between Becca and some part of her “real” life.
Not anymore.
“I would have gone all ghetto on her skinny ass and taken her down, HARD” Becca said, surprising herself with her own attempt at humor.
"Becca!" Lauren squealed in shock
Becca leaned closer and whispered in her best attempt at an intimidating tone "Street kids know stuff. Bad stuff."
That was too much for both of them, and they burst out laughing again.
"Very funny. But in all seriousness, as your big sister I absolutely forbid you, from now on, to take down anyone, for any reason..."
Becca's happiness plummeted as she felt a reprimand coming
"...until I get there. I don’t want to have to see something like that on YouTube, I want to see it live and in person".
Becca's smile said what the lump in her throat wouldn’t let her say out loud.
Best...Sister...Ever
…
"OK people, who's clearing tonight?" Mom asked, full well knowing the answer.
"That would be me Madre" Seamus confessed, standing up from the dinner table and grabbing handfuls of plates, glasses and silverware.
"Remember to take it all the way to the proverbial ‘house’ as it were, i.e. the literal ‘dish washer’" Dad chimed in, air quotes and all. As he ALWAYS did when someone cleared the table.
"So what was the final count?" Lauren asked Becca while dodging their brother's table clearing activities.
"Eleven. How bout you?" she replied.
"Seven"
"What on earth are you girls talking about?" Mom asked, always having at least one ear open to hijack any and all of her children's conversations.
"Uh, just some school stuff Mom" Lauren said innocently, while shooting Becca a mischievous wink.
"School what?" Mom pressed, her radar firmly engaged due to the obvious glossing over of the details.
"Just, you know, school stuff" Lauren repeated, rising from the table. "Come on Bec, let's compare our ‘notes’ on the subject and see what we've got to work with" she added, Becca jumping, literally, at the chance to escape further interrogation.
Mom looked thoughtfully after her daughters as they headed toward their room, fist bumping a grinning Seamus on their way out of the kitchen.
"Bec, can I borrow those blue ones tomorrow if you aren't going to wear them? They would SOOO match my new scarf" followed by a pair of giggles was the last thing she heard as the girls closed the door to their room.
"OK Seamus, something's up. Spill"
"Don't look at me - it’s their school project" he replied, looking hurt that she would even accuse him of having any knowledge of the topic.
"Yeah right" she mumbled, giving up for now, but filing this little tidbit away for future exploration. There was something going on, but because her Mom-dar wasn't pinging an alert, she was going to let it go....for now.
"Oh, and Mom, on an unrelated topic" said Seamus, trying to sound casual and failing miserably "the girls' birthdays are coming up soon....and I would advise you NOT to get either of them earrings" he said, unable to keep the Cheshire grin off his face. "You know, I'm just sayin'" he finished.
"Your children are SO weird sometimes" Mom said in a lovingly accusatory way to her husband..."And I know just where they got it from."