Chapter
15
Mattresses
and Meetings
Teegan, Tory, Brooke and Freya had been
wracking their minds over the meaning of that one page of muddled notes they’d
discovered weeks ago and the fact that we seemed, every now and then, to be
juggling a list of men for possible dates in between our busy schedule of
school, rehearsals and semi-professional auditioning activities.
Unbeknown to Mouche, I have to admit, I’d
flirted with Trey. Unbeknown to either of us, I think Jet was beginning to like
Mouche again (he’d glanced over at her in rehearsals more than once to see if
she was noticing him) and maybe because of this or in spite of this, I was
really noticing when Mark was noticing me. It was like the fact that I had
ignored him peaked his interest. Then once (or was I imagining it?) he seemed
to be watching Mouche’s dance scene with more than professional interest. As if
I cared. There were nine other men on my list.
Plus, although Tory was getting louder
and pushier by the hour, I was still the lead character in the play. But I was
offended and had a long memory (like an elephant’s, my mother once said). My
pride had been sorely injured by Mark’s remarks at the dance, more than I cared
to admit. Although the letter was nice, it took until the visit to Mark’s
house, many days later, for me to start seeing my tormentor in a different
light.
In the meantime, I was becoming friendlier
with Joel.
This seemed to hit the spot, Mark’s sore
spot. For some reason Mark just hated Joel, who, although friendly with
multiple girls, always took extra time to say ‘hi’, and hang out with me now. I
knew he might be a bit unreliable to actually date but I was happy to become
friends with him.
‘You know, Phoebe, you are actually my
first friend who is a girl,’ he said analytically, as we snacked on pretzels
during my rehearsal break. We talked about lots of things, not just the novels
we had to read for English, or his guitar solos. We talked about New York and
how it is one of the most fantastic cities in the world.
Known only to Mark, Freya had offered (as
the social secretary of junior year) to show him around Sunrise one weekend. It
would have been totally against our original rules to make all the running, but
Freya had a hot new car her father had bought for her birthday and wanted to
show off it and herself. I heard her
tell Tory she had plans to be Mark’s ‘special girlfriend’. I’m not sure even
Mark knew what that meant but Tory seemed momentarily put out.
Tory explained it (many weeks later) in the
guide thus: ‘In England, macking is
called snogging, and since Mark had been in England for a year, he seemed to
think dating was just hooking up and snogging. So when I suggested we hook up
and go to the movies, Mark was, according to Jet who told Teegan who told
Mouche who told me, ‘too polite to refuse.’
We all had a little laugh at that entry,
especially me, and it seemed the days when I imagined Mark to be ‘the one’ were
long gone.
But I forgot to tell you how the
Princesses got involved.
In the beginning, they all, rather
cluelessly and obviously, tried to target Mark. We shuddered at their appalling
lack of smarts in this area. He had them on speed dial and even more confused
than he’d had Mouche and I. The other girls evidently needed our savvy.
Mark, the alpha male, was playing them.
‘I don’t understand why charms I’ve worked
on countless pre-men seem to fall short with Mr I love myself Knightly,’ Teegan complained.
Tory listened to Teegan’s whining then relayed
it to Brooke who told me.
‘You won’t believe it,’ Tory added, ‘but
Teegs actually said to him after rehearsal one night when she was taking notes,
‘your place or mine?’ when he offered
her a lift. Anyway, he obviously didn’t like her that much since he offered
Phoebe and Mouche a lift also. Mouche said ‘yes’ before Phoebe could say ‘no’
because it was late at night and she thought it would be in their best
interests to swallow their pride.’
My ears burned at that one. It was true, I
hadn’t had a chance to say no, but we were not in a position to refuse. Trey
had borrowed Mouche’s car (his was at the local garage) and I didn’t have one.
Trey’s cell was on answer which really annoyed both Mouche and me, because we
have a rule to never walk home alone in the dark.
‘I’ll talk to Trey about that later,’
Mouche promised, as if she was the parent and Trey, the child.
After Mark had slighted me, Mouche had
considered spreading the rumor that he was a man-slut but then we mutually
decided that this would just enhance his reputation and make us sound bitter.
We were more amused watching the Princesses fail to make headway in the dating
game with him, one by one.
‘Sometimes it’s best to let bygones be
bygones,’ my grandmother always used to say which I suppose means, forget about
past hurts. So I left the idea of Mark as ‘the perfect boyfriend’ alone, where
it ought to be, and just got on with my life. Then the Princesses lives
entwined with ours in the most obvious way.
We’re not sure how far Mark and Freya went
after he dropped Mouche and me off that night after rehearsal, but the next day
Brooke and Teegan and Tory were seen huddling around a crying Freya who was
whining something about, ‘he kissed me
and everything but now I don’t think he even likes me. How could he not like
me? I’m the smartest, funniest, coolest girl in the school!’
‘Ah,
that would be a matter of opinion, Freya,’ Mouche uttered under her breath. But
this time I was glad that nobody heard because Freya was visibly distressed.
You
could see the confidence draining out of Freya and her Princess sisters on a
daily basis and I felt a little uncool that I couldn’t give them advice. Why
did girls let boys affect their self-esteem this way? It was lucky I loved the
stage and Mouche loved to dance. These loves gave us a lot more to focus on
than boys.
‘Perhaps we should share the benefit of our
research,’ I suggested that day, thumbing through the last of my dating guides,
The Good Girlfriend (a gem of a
tome), written by anonymous.
‘Oh please,’ Mouche said, ‘they’d only
listen if it was wrapped in pink paper and tied with a ribbon.’
‘It is,’ I said, tapping our half-filled
Boy Rating Diary.
The Princesses were all having a pity
party for one another because nobody else would bother to have any kind of
party for the nastiest girls in school.
What we do know for sure - Mark was
definitely not saving himself for
marriage or true love or any of that because he was spotted reading Lolita in the town library - quite the
scandal around here.
Mouche noticed it when she was researching
a legal case for part-time work she does at a homeless shelter in LA once a
month. In fact, I’d say Mark may have taken Freya up on her offer and now maybe
both of them regret it. At least, that’s what I’d say.
It was kind of sad actually - their little
love fest gone wrong. Last night at rehearsals, Freya was giving Mark soppy
puppy dog looks and he was just totally ignoring her in his snobbish, uptight
way. I could have told her he was a mean, proud, nasty person but she didn’t
ask. I’d never advise Freya, willingly. Besides, Mark was clearly the target;
he’s supposed to be the date at the end,
the best date, and now I doubt I will ever speak to him again since he’s
clearly the most conceited boy in school. Well, who wants some stuffy old
castle in Scotland anyway?
‘I’ve mentally moved on,’ I assured Mouche.
But I should tell you what happened with
Mouche and Jet. She wrote about it in the dating diary:
Mouche:
‘Jet and I got so friendly that we dated more than once. We went roller
skating, then he took me to dinner and a movie and drove me right to my front
door in his seriously hot sports car. He opened doors and paid for everything
and the most he even tried was to hold my hand. Then, on the third date, Jet got cold feet and told Scott Williamson
to tell Phoebe at rehearsals to tell me that he couldn’t meet up with me that
weekend because he ‘had to go with Mark and his sister and their aunt and uncle
for a skiing holiday in Telluride...’
‘Telluride!
That’s a lame excuse’, Phoebe said.
‘I agree. I
mean, I’m not the best or most experienced skier in the world, but if he was
going to abruptly change plans, then he could’ve at least invited me or told me
himself.’
I
drew a line through him on the list and spent an entire Saturday crying. After
I’d dried my eyes, I gathered Wednesday to me and said to Pheebs, ‘I do
solemnly swear that I will never get my heart broken ever again.’
It was many weeks later before we found out
what really happened.
Wednesday tugged at Mouche’s hair,
attempting to braid it in a sisterly fashion.
‘He’s no loss if he will do that to you
without a proper explanation,’ I offered.
‘This,’ Mouche said, ‘is the first and last
time I will ever cry over a man.’
‘He’s so not worth it, I said.
‘Not worth it,’ Wednesday agreed.
‘And neither is his proud, superior
friend.’ I couldn’t even say Mark’s name by this point.
At rehearsal, Mark Knightly was standing
near me when Peter came over to chat.
Peter winked at Mark and Mark ignored us
both.
‘Actually, he looked kind of
sheepish...Mark’s a weird guy.’
‘Maybe not so much...’ Mouche observed.
‘It’s true that he hurt your pride and he was wrong to do it, and wrong about
you, but at least he didn’t pretend to like you then ditch you like Jet did to
me. I genuinely think he was just trying to cover up how he felt. Perhaps he
has his own reasons for his strange behaviour. He seems to have better
qualities than some of the boys at Sunrise. At least he has a level of maturity
and says what he thinks.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Well, he was too quick to judge, but then
so were we. I mean, look how wrong we got it. We actually thought Jet was Mr
Nice Guy.’
Even in the throes of her own misery, I
started to feel like Mouche was getting the better of me again.
That evening, we conversed in my room,
‘I’ve heard in Europe, people aren’t at all particular about whom they sleep
with. Maybe that’s when Mark became a man-slut.’
‘Maybe,’ Mouche just shrugged and flicked
on a repeat of episode of some teen reality programme.
‘I’m so over this show,’ she said. ‘The
only thing to do when you’ve been ditched is to eat an entire box of
chocolates.’
‘At least...you didn’t do it with Jet or
anything. I mean, it’s not like you went that far...’
‘I’m destined to be the only sixteen year
old in Sunrise who hasn’t even been stage-kissed more than twice,’ Mouche said.
‘Ah, that would be me, also.’ I must admit
I was shocked at Mouche’s revelation of her entire lack of love experience. I
thought surely she’d kissed Ethan Mandel. I tried to cheer her up, adding,
‘well, maybe, that’s a good thing. I mean, whatever happened with Freya
certainly didn’t make her happy. Maybe we’re too young for relationship drama.’
Mouche just started crying all over again.
Anyway, a few days later (the last week of
October to be precise) another note arrived, attached to the revised script
breakdown, Act One page 9. At first, I thought it was a note from Jet,
because it had Mouche’s name on it and I immediately walked over to Mouche, who
was taking a break from rehearsing the opening dance number and handed it to
her.
‘Maybe this is the formal apology...it
could be from him.’
‘Jet?’
‘I don’t know, maybe.’
‘Perhaps I should forgive him for standing
me up.’
‘That’s not in the rules. Don’t you have
any pride? I’m sure Mrs Robinson
would deem our interest in men who have
already disrespected us as ‘unforgivable’.
We have to be better than that.’
‘Here.’
‘What?’
‘You take it, open it.’
Mouche unfolded the entire piece of
notepaper.
‘You must’ve had it wrong the first time.
It says, ‘Phoebe and Mouche.’
‘Maybe
he wants to double...’
‘This might be out of our league...here,
you open it.’
I do as I’m told. Everyone is on morning
break and huddled around in groups but I’m sure I noticed the evil glances of
the Princesses in our direction because this is what the note said;
We know what
you’re up to...we want in on the competition or we’ll tell everyone what a pair
of Skeezie hoes you both are...dating ‘boyzamples’ and acting like mattresses
etc. Love Teegan, Tory, Brooke and Freyaxxx
‘Mattresses!’ Mouche exclaimed.
We’d show them mattresses.
Mouche excitedly grabbed the most recent
set of notes right out of my hand and said, with a slight glimmer in her eye,
‘just let me consolidate what we need for the meeting...’
