English Lit with MacKenzie

Tanya takes a deep breath as she reaches for the handle to the door into her English Lit class. She shakes her head as she sees the stretched out sleeve of the jacket cloaking her upper torso. "I can't believe I'm wearing this," she mumbles as she opens the door quietly. She pokes her head inside and the entire class turns to look.

"Ms. Wegner, thank you for joining us," the English Lit teacher Mrs. Holland says as Tanya enters the room, "please, take your seat. Seeing as it's only the second day of class, I'll allow your tardiness to slide just this once."

The student obediently slinks into the room and takes her seat next to McKenzie. Her best friend looks at her and cocks an eyebrow. She has so many questions.

Happily, for Tanya, the class goes by without any incidents. In spite of her lateness, Mrs. Holland doesn't call on the student. By the end of the class, Tanya's wondering if she simply had a brief moment of insanity. Not a second after the final bell of the day rings, McKenzie starts asking her questions. "Why are you wearing The Witch's gross jacket?" She asks using one of the many nicknames the clique has for Maggie.

"It's, uh, it's a long story."

McKenzie stops packing up her books and her eyes widen. "Holy shit! Are you lezzing it up with The Witch? Is that why you're wearing her jacket?"

Tanya, already frustrated by the events of the day and the incident with Whitney in the cafeteria, snaps. "Bite me, Mac! I spilled on my shirt and had to borrow her jacket. At least she was looking out for me while you were hiding behind Whitney."

McKenzie chortles at Tanya as the two girls head out into the hall. "Okay, but seriously though, it was, like, super weird that you were sitting with Boner," she says using Kyle's derogatory nickname, "and the other Spazoids. Seriously, T, what the fuck?"

Tanya scrunches up her face. Part of her wants to say "I can't ignore him" but she instead manages to lie "school work stuff. Kyle's totes holds the key to acing Physics. I figure if I make it seem like I'm friendly, well, he can help me with class."

To Tanya's relief, the girls make it outside without running into anyone else from their clique. She isn't sure she could handle another incident with Whitney today. "Hm," McKenzie says as they walk home together, "Whitney is definitely not going to stand for the co-captain of the cheerleader team spending lunches with Boner. The guys are already whispering about you. If you're going to beat Whitney to Chad...is sleeping with a dweeb to get a high grade in Physics worth it?" She laughs.

Tanya her book bag straps tightly. Due to all of the events of the day she completely forgot about Chad. He was the path to ruling the school. "I'm not going to sleep with Kyle."

"Okay, but you totally want to kiss him," McKenzie punches Tanya's arm to show she's joking. "And the Witch, too!" She laughs so much she releases a snort.

"I..." Tanya tries to laugh along with McKenzie "I don't want to..." she tries to say she doesn't want to kiss Kyle or Maggie but suddenly, she can't get the desire to kiss them out of her head. "Ugh! You're such a bitch, McKenzie."

Tanya manages to shift the conversation for the rest of the walk home. She's happy to have someone with her as she walks through the alley where she ran into that nasty woman yesterday.

After they part ways, Tanya heads home. As soon as she gets home she changes out of Maggie's jacket and the rest of her terribly out-of-fashion outfit. Slipping into comfy sweats she helps her Mom make dinner, eats, and heads upstairs and finishes her school work.

"Good," Tanya says to herself as she pulls out her daily planner to review before climbing into bed for the night, "everything seems fine now. I'm simply stressed out from school starting up. Tomorrow will be better." She updates the next day, Friday, and moves on to the weekend. Without a second thought, she finds herself picking up a blue glitter pen and crossing out "Cheerleader Practice." Right next to it she writes "Shadowrun w/Kyle" and, to her absolute horror, she kisses the page next to his name. Tanya drops the daily planner. "What. What! WHAT?" She stares at the crossed-out words and the new words and her lipstick mark next to them.

Tanya puts her head in her hands. She doesn't want to skip practice. She doesn't want to kiss Kyle. Yet she totally wants to do both of those things. "I just need some solid sleep that's all, everything will be okay. I'll wake up tomorrow and everything will be perfectly normal. Totally. Nothing weird at all."

She keeps repeating similar phrases to herself as she gets ready for bed. "Completely normal day tomorrow. I'll find Maggie and give her the dumb jacket. And then I'll find Chad and start the plan of seduction McKenzie and I worked out this summer." She looks in the mirror putting on a fierce face. "Tomorrow, Tanya Wegner is back! And she's going to rule the school." She almost believes herself. Too bad the gypsy curse doesn't work that way.