Chapter 4: Bring It On!
ALL eyes were on her as she stepped out of her car and banged its door shut. Even Mr. Heaver stole a glance and that was good.
“Hey, Nora. You look great,” Mark called out to her as she passed his jalopy.
“I know,” she assured him, taking long strides that fully exhibited her legs. Although her attire was not bizarre, it helped accentuate her better qualities and expose her superb ones. Patricia was in for a surprise.
“Hi, Nora,” an open-mouthed Linda greeted.
“Awestruck?” Nora asked smoothly, turning round once to display herself. “This fight just got better.”
“Nora, all this for Leonard?” her classmate finally asked, giggling. “I bet he’s in for the shock of his life.”
“And I’m here to silence Patricia forever.”
“Absolutely,” her maid drawled.
“We’ve got Geography at eight, right?”
“Right.” Linda had two heavy landscape books with her. “You could help me with these, though.”
“Come on, it’s not like you’re drowning or something,” Nora skipped. “Besides, here we are.”
A large room, which extended down the building’s length and took up most of its first floor, was their destination. Large tables on which various models were placed covered its interior and a podium took up one end, while a white board occupied the wall above this elevation.
“Okay, class, we start today with a very interesting topic: Earthquakes,” Miss Mooney, their Geography teacher, began. “By the way, good morning, Miss Quentin, and please don’t take away the attention of the class.”
“I can’t believe she actually noticed you,” Linda whispered as she sat down beside Nora and before a model of Mount Vesuvius. “Miss Mooney never notices anybody with those goggles of hers.”
“Girl power?” Nora hissed. “It’s all about girl power.”
Of course, Patricia was here and had noticed Nora as well. Sadly, and unfortunately for her Gothic opponent, she wasn’t ‘dressed to kill’ like Nora and didn’t represent a threat to Leonard’s full attention that day. The battle had already been won even before it started! Leonard’s attention was already hers to do with as she pleased.
“Nora?” Miss Mooney repeated, now turning to face the sixteen-year-old. “Could you please tell us what an earthquake is?”
“Uh. . . . Yes, Miss Mooney,” Nora blurted out, turning to Linda for support. The other girl caught her eye sign and defined the term on a blank sheet on her lap in bold capital letters. “Uh. . . . An earthquake? Is . . . a convulsion of the Earth’s surface?”
“Yes, Nora,” Miss Mooney agreed. “I was beginning to feel we were losing you back there...”
And Nora lost whatever her teacher continued with, because Leonard and his squad suddenly crossed the building on their way to practice and she found herself in cloud nine. Did he actually wink at her back there?
Linda nudged Nora as Miss Mooney babbled on. “Look,” she whispered, directing her friend towards Patricia’s group, her voice bolder and annoyed.
These girls were chuckling and throwing side-glances in Nora’s direction, and the blonde girl wondered what joke Patricia must have told them. “I wonder what she’s up to?” she thought out loud.
“You?” Linda reminded her.
“What?”
“You don’t know?” Nora’s friend was amazed. “Nora, it’s all over town.”
“That I’m beautiful? It’s old story, dear.”
“No, about Matthew.”
A cold wind caught Nora and she tried to shrug it off. This had been her fear since last night, but Dad might be right after all. Her friends would do well not to meddle in her private affairs. “She can’t use that against me, Lin,” she aired with confidence. “No one will take that seriously.”
“Hello?” an alarmed Linda whispered in earnest as she looked on straight at Miss Mooney. “You forget who you’re dealing with, Nora. Be careful with this . . . battle for Leonard.”
“We’ll see.”
After a two-hour session of Math following Geography’s one hour, both girls went to have their lunch at the school’s cafeteria. On their way, they passed Peter and his new Nigerian friend and the Jewish boy couldn’t help gawking at Nora after exchanging pleasantries with them.
“He’s nuts, that one,” Nora said with a laugh when they were out of earshot.
“You seem to be generating loads of attention, girl,” Linda said. “Here, model yourself for me again.”
Nora created space for herself, and spun round once. A simple red midriff body-hugging blouse gave way to a very short jean-skirt, which appeared torn off before mid-thigh. The blouse accentuated her blonde hair and the skirt worked wonders for her legs. Simple white loafers completed the attire and she carried no school bag. It was like she was going to a beach party.
“You rock, girl! Go, girl!” Linda laughed, unconsciously swinging the Geography books around. She also thought Nora looked like a baby prostitute, but warily kept this to herself.
“Thanks,” Nora said and meant it. They were to drop the two books in the library before continuing to the cafeteria. Little did they know who awaited them there and what she had up her sleeveless sleeve.
“Patricia.”
“Well, well, well. Look who just showed up,” was the reply. “It’s the Queen of Sleepy Lake High, herself, and . . . and her left foot.”
The three Goth girls had blocked their enemies’ path inside the library and they could all only whisper in low tones.
“What do you want?” Nora demanded, trying to look and sound brave.
Tricia walked up to her, and since their heights were almost the same, she looked directly into the other girl’s eyes and drew near to mouth the words in her ears. “I’ve invited Leonard and his friends to the gym at two, Nora,” she coldly began. “What if you meet me there so that he can choose who he really likes when we . . . undress for him?” she teased, a finger in her mouth.
“Oooooooooo,” her two friends added brilliantly.
“Deal,” Nora snapped in her rage.
“Nora, no,” Linda protested softly. She was putting back the books on their shelf and was lucky to have heard the lewd details of the challenge. “You’ll be expelled if you get caught! Besides, this looks like a trick.”
“You just lost it, doormat,” Patricia told her. “She just agreed, and we’ll only strip down to our undies?”
And they were gone.
“How could you agree to that?” a confrontational Linda started after this. Her voice was quite audible and some readers turned towards her, so she quickly left the place with her friend. “What came into you, Nora?”
“I had no choice,” Nora defended. “Besides, I’ll win.”
“Walk away.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like this, Nora.”
“Who said I’ll lose?” Nora pointed out with confidence, adamantly heading for the gym. “We’ll finish this before our lunch in no time, believe me.” It was so obvious that her friend was worried. “Come on,” she urged. “No one will be there but us. They’re all eating now.”
The school’s gymnasium and all the P.T. classrooms where located inside a huge whitewashed building, which stood alone behind the other notable infrastructures and facilities. This large indoor hall doubled as both a gymnasium and a stadium for the school’s basketball team. It was here that Leonard and Patricia were waiting for them with their separate set of friends in a dimly lit corner of the hall.
“Hi, Leonard, dear,” Nora said, smiling. She ran up to hug him.
“Hi, Nora,” he returned, a bit uncomfortable with himself as they embraced each other.
“I thought you were all going to come alone,” Linda noticed.
“But you came with her,” Patricia reminded the last speaker and turned to her enemy. “Are you ready, Nora?” she asked sweetly.
“Well . . . yes,” Nora replied, looking
around at the empty seats and closed doors of the gym. She straightened her short skirt with naïve hands and waited.
“We’ll do this when I give the word, right?” Patricia stated, coming over to stand beside her opponent facing Leonard.
The others drew nearer, holding their breaths and Linda tried to dissuade Nora for the last time by shaking her head at her, but Nora had made up her mind. “Let’s do this,” she whispered, looking at Leonard who looked visibly embarrassed, but was trying to hide this from everyone, especially his friends.
“Yeah, let’s do this,” he told them and they nodded behind him.
They all waited for Patricia, who looked around to see whether the janitor was snoring on one of the seats or there was an intruder.
Linda thought she was faking it.
“Now,” Patricia breathed and Nora pulled up her blouse.
“Stop,” Leonard snapped and the blonde girl pulled it back down. “Stop this, Nora. I’ve seen enough.”
Nora Quentin was speechless. She turned to Patricia for support.
Foolishly.
“I told you, Leonard,” her sly enemy exclaimed, drawing away from her. “I told you, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did, Tricia. I—I was a fool,” Leonard agreed.
“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” Nora pleaded when the gathered started shaking their heads and looking away. Except Linda, that is.
“What more is there to tell, Nora?” one of Leonard’s friends asked her.
“Yeah, what more is there to tell, Nora?” Leonard demanded from her. “We all know your only brother was adopted. So, either your mother lost her womb as a call girl after producing another very like her, or you were adopted like your brother. From an orphanage dealing with call girls.”
“But . . . but Tricia said . . .”
“Told you what?” Patricia took up. “That Leonard will agree to choose between us like this? And you jumped at the chance, Nora. Just like your mother.”
“How do I know you don’t do this kind of thing around town, Nora?” Leonard asked, enraged. “How do I know you don’t sleep around?”
“Your friend tried to warn you, Nora,” Patricia continued, enjoying herself as Leonard placed his arm around her waist. “You ignored her, Nora, because you thought you’ll win. Like always.”
“Leonard, I thought you . . .” Nora began. She was confused.
“What, you . . . think I like . . . this?” Leonard asked her. “You think I like seeing . . . naked girls? You should forget all those stories you hear about me, really. Wow. I never knew you could be so cheap, Nora,” he spat out, to the approval of his friends, as well as Patricia’s.
Nora fled.