TAPED

• Cassandra Everett
• Short Story
• 2009

I rounded the corner and looked across the road with a sigh. There it was. My own torture chamber. It seemed safe to cross, not because the street was clear, but because she wasn’t in sight. I hesitantly crossed to the other side. I was insane. I should not only be going the other direction, but also be running. But what could I do? Where could I go?

I stepped up the concrete steps. My eyes glanced around to check that she was no where in sight. I stared towards the large doors, measuring the distance to my locker. The mass of people around the grounds were hard to tell apart. The green dresses on the girls blended together and with the scenery. The brown blazer over the dresses swayed the hole outfit. It was worse for me. My brown hair was the exact same colour, as if it was dyed to match, and my blues eyes set the green and brown off in a wrong way. The fact that I was short also didn’t help, it made my dress come a few inches above my ankles. Mum had been meaning to take it up, but was always to busy with work. I was at the blue doors then. I could see her through the window.
Marliane Victory.

She was standing with her ‘lackeys’ (as me and my friend called them). I took a deep breath and kept my head down as I walked through the doors.
Amazed, I made it to my locker with out one comment, with out one insult at all. I risked a glanced over my shoulder at Marliane. She was laughing, a little bit too loud with Sophie and Amy at her flocks. I looked away quickly when Marliane’s boyfriend, Jack, met my gaze. You would be wishing for death if Marliane caught you looking at Jack. All the other girls hated that, he was certainly something worth looking at. With a sigh I stalked off towards my first period, it was english. ‘Oh Joy’ I thought sarcastically to myself.
The day passed slowly, too slowly, as always. And I was more thrilled then all the other students put together when the bell rang for lunch. Lunch was my sanctuary. Sitting in the lunch room wasn’t it, the food definitely wasn’t it. It was the fact that Sarah and I could just talk freely. Sarah was amazing. And I was extremely glad to have her as a friend. I almost bounced into the lunch room, and I saw Sarah sitting at our table, she always beat me. I noticed what Sarah never did, the bunch of guys eyeing her off from across the room. Her long, luscious, blonde hair fell over her shoulders, half way down her back. Her green eyes matched her dress but not the way my hair matched the blazer. And of corse she was utterly beautiful. She was looking around for me and once she saw me she smiled. I saw the guys get alert when she smiled and followed her gaze, they relaxed when they saw it was just me. Just plain old me. But I was used to being treated like that. I quickly got across to Sarah, she was talking rapidly before I was in hearing range. We could just sit together for weeks and not stop talking...somehow, I’M not even sure how we find so much to talk about. But there was always our main topic.

“Did you see her pull into school this morning? She had her stereo blaring again,” Sarah said while rolling her eyes. Marliane was always a popular topic. We talked as much as we could before the bell made both our faces fall. We didn’t have any classes together anymore.
“Dam, why can’t I be smarter,” Sarah always muttered at the end of lunch, I was in all the advanced classes.
“You ARE smart, AND have better talents then me,” I reminded her, she was an amazing artist and singer. But she just rolled her eyes at me. We said goodbye, sighed and walked off in our different directions.
When the day was finally over, I went to my locker slowly, hoping for Marliane to leave first. I was finishing putting my stuff in my locker when I heard a voice and a tap on my shoulder. This voice was all too familiar yet totally horrid in every way possible.
“You have a problem with my music?” Marliane asked. I turned around, an automatic thing, though I wished I didn’t. She was glaring at me, with her lackeys by her side, one holding a video camera half behind her back. They were mad, but I was confused.
“S-s-sorry?” was all I could get out, I constantly froze up around Marliane when she looked at me like that.
“I don’t play my music that loud, and its none of your business if I do and how dare you accuse me of all the things?” She was really angry, I didn’t know why, but I knew there wasn’t going to be a painless solution.
“I-I...I don’t know w-w-what you m-mean,” I stuttered.
“I heard what you were saying at lunch,” she explained, still angry.
I was at first scared, but then totally puzzled. She seems to mean it, but what I didn’t understand was, how. She was across the room in a crowded, loud lunch room. On top of that Sarah and I were talking softly that even the table next to us didn’t have a hope in hearing. Then it clicked, and I couldn’t believe she went that far.
“I’m so going to get you,” Marliane growled.
She started to walk away then stopped and spun around to say one final thing to me, “And keep your eyes away from Jack.”
She heard my conversation at lunch, which I spent a lot of the time drooling over Jack. She was right, she was going to get me bad.

I was now in a rush, I checked to see if Marliane had left before leaving the school, and I was thankful that her shinny, silver convertible was no where in sight. I started running to my house, taking the longer ways so that I wasn’t near a road where Marliane could pull up at anytime. Sarah was waiting at my door, she came over every afternoon. When she saw the look on my face her smile fell and ran to meet me.
“What?” She asked really worried. But I could only shake my head and run into my house, pulling her along. Once we where inside, I explained the conversation with Marliane and my assumption.
“Taped us?! She set a video camera up to TAPE US, in a private conversation?!” Sarah asked outraged.
“Explains everything,” I answered simply.
“Unbelievable,” Sarah muttered shaking her head, “Now what?”
“Now,” I explained, “torture. That, or we move schools.”
“She is so not scaring me off,” Sarah said angrily. She stood up to Marliane a lot better then me. I always wished I could do that. I sighed, I knew there was no way out.

The next day arrived way too soon, I tried to convince my mum that I was too sick for school, I wished it worked. I rounded the corner again. But she wasn’t waiting outside. I looked through the doors, and I still couldn’t see her. Bad, very bad. She was going to be sneaky, thats worse then just taunting me. I walked to my locker, seeing photos of me that Marliane had obviously stuck there to try an embarrass me, I just rolled my eyes, I didn’t get embarrassed from that anymore, she’d done it enough time. I put away my stuff away but suddenly someone was speaking to me, but it wasn’t a voice I was expecting.
“Sorry about Marliane,” Jack said. I dropped everything, including my jaw. It took me a while to remember to close it, by which time he had bent down to pick up my books and was handing them to me.
“Thanks,” I said, then I was surprised at how easy it was to talk to him. I wouldn’t have expected that, it was the first time speaking to him.
“No prob, and as I was saying, sorry bout Marliane, she shouldn’t have...” He then cut off. I was guessing that he didn’t know if I knew that she had taped me.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said quickly, “ Marliane will be Marliane. She’ll give me hell for a few...months and then move on to someone else.” I thought that maybe I shouldn’t be saying this to her boyfriend. But I was relieved when he laughed. Then horrified when I saw Marliane looking at us, on her way over. He noticed my change of expression and turned to see her coming towards us, and to my surprise he looked upset, angry even.
“What are you doing?” Marliane asked Jack.
“Talking to Robin,” He simply replied. I was so shocked that he knew my name.
“But...why?” Marliane asked, as if I wasn’t even there.
“I told you before, you’re not my girlfriend. Leave Robin alone.” I was as shocked as her, maybe even more.
She glared at me. Then someone called over the speakers,“Miss Victory, please come to the office.”
Marliane glared at me again for a while longer then stalked away. I was about to thank Jack when Sarah came running up.
“That will take care of Marliane,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I asked. She then explained how she spoke to her mum who spoke to the principal, and seeing as video taping a private conversation is against child safety laws, Marliane was looking at suspension.
“Good job Sarah, you’re amazing,” I said when she had finished explaining her story.
“I know,” She replied, and we both started laughing. I then turned to face Jack.
“Um...thanks, for before,” I said to him.
“Why thank me? I just told her what I was doing,” Jack said smiling. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sarah absolutely glowing at me, she knew this was huge for me.
“Don’t know what I’m going to do for lunch,” Jack made a small comment, as if to himself. Then Sarah nudged me.
“You know...you could...if you want...sit with...us,” I managed to get out.
“You’d put up with me,” He said joking.
“If you could put up with us,” I said. Then we all started laughing, I saw people walk past staring like their eyes were about to burst out of their sockets. But they don’t do that now. Nobody turns their heads as Jack and I make our way to the table with Sarah and Josh, her new boyfriend. Jack and I have been together now since about a few weeks after he spoke to me that day. Marliane’s lackeys ended up going with her and there were now no problems at school between the students. Now if only the uniform changed...