Outside the Pearly Gates

Outside the golden gates and perfect landscapes of Eagle Crest Academy and nuzzled into the small and dated blue-collar town, is the much less aesthetic West Burkley High School. This school sits down the hill in the heart of the small town of Iron Falls. While they certainly have fewer seminars and pep rallies, they make up for it with their added metal detectors and commonly occurring fights in the parking lot. They don’t have the same Ivy League prep courses that their counterparts up the hill have, and for most students here, they don’t want it. They’re used to doing things their way with no handouts and tread carefully with the “rich kids” not too far away.

This is especially true for Charlene “Charlie” Butters. While many West Burkley students would give anything to hang out with the “elites”, Charlie couldn’t think of anything worse. This makes her situation with Mason Anderson all the more confusing. A situation that she has just convinced herself is over. In her defense, she didn’t know he was an Eagle Crest student at first. Mason certainly did not carry himself that way at Brewster’s. Her thoughts caused her to get flustered and then angry when she recalled meeting the guy. She did her best to push all thoughts of him away and even more so, their awkward farewell the night before. Her full attention was now on surviving her last year of high school.

She cursed herself for even still thinking about her ‘flavor of the month’ and tried to turn her attention to the bigger problem at hand, high school. School was never much of a concern for Charlie, but Senior year really has snuck up on her. It wasn’t the school year that worried her but what exactly would come next. College never seemed like a realistic option for someone like her but the idea of being stuck here forever also felt horrifying to her. Before she could spiral any further into her thoughts, she was interrupted by her two closest friends.

“We’ve done it bitches!” Hillary Bennett exclaimed in a mixture of sarcasm and excitement that jostled Charlie out of her own head. Most of her friends looked at her with a bit of amusement. Charlie on the other hand, barely paid her any attention and had much more on her mind.

Hillary was a bit of an oddity at West Burkley, or anywhere really. The short, petite brunette has a tight body with firm B-cup breasts and a tight ass from years of cheerleading. The cheerleading part catches many off guard as it doesn’t seem to line up with her taste in dark clothing and eyeliner. It’s hard to put her in any particular box and she likely does that on purpose. On this day, she was wearing ripped jean shorts and black fishnets underneath with a tight stretched black tank top for a local band. Her naturally wavy brown hair is glistening in the sunlight as she runs a hand through it. She topped the outfit off with a pair of low-cut black boots.

“Speak for yourself. Hot Mr. Murray got canned over the summer and was replaced by some 70-year-old hag. I doubt she’ll be as easy to fuck for A’s.” Sabrina Everett said with a dry cackle. Her two friends hoped that she was joking. Sabrina was a gorgeous girl whose sexiness was quite apparent to everyone. She also used it to her advantage at any given opportunity. Sabrina was a beautiful girl who stood much taller than both of her best friends at 5’9. She had a slim build with curves in all the right places which made her look quite a bit older than her actual age of 18. This made it all the easier for the wild girl to use her fake ID at multiple liquor stores and clubs in the nearby city. She was the opposite of modest and used her looks for any and every advantage that they gave her. She didn’t figure that she was given many other advantages in life so she’d make sure to capitalize on this one. Sabrina was best friends with Charlie and had many things in common. Specifically on rough upbringings, but she had a much harsher view of life. She figured enough had been taken from her at this point, that it was only logical that she took back from others. Specifically, the rich students up the hill at Eagle Crest. She planned and plotted anyway to use and **** the sheltered, privileged teens at the private school.

“You know Sab… Actually studying takes a lot less time than picking splinters out of your ass from being fucked on every teacher’s desk.” Hillary shot back with zero filter to match Sabrina. This was enough to break Charlie out of her thoughts and snort in laughter. A small quirk of the girl when something catches her off guard enough.

“The splinters aren’t just in my ass. There are plenty of other positions…” Sabrina deadpanned without skipping a beat. At this point, Charlie rolled her eyes and decided to intervene as her two best friends could go back and forth like this for hours.

“Well, if either of you had a brain, you’d realize that you don’t have to study or fuck any dusty old teachers to pass. A fair amount of cleavage is enough for a low C.” Charlie said with a smirk. Sabrina let out an exaggerated scoff as if she found the answer boring. Hillary cracked a small smile.

“Easy for you to say, we aren’t all fucking like rabbits with sexy Diner boy. No offense but your man is hot.” The chipper Hillary added with her typical lack of filter. Charlie winced briefly before trying to save face, but it was enough to stop her two friends in their tracks to probe her further.

“Spill it, Charles!” Sabrina urged with her teasing nickname.

“There’s nothing to say because we were never anything serious. Summer flings end with the summer.” Charlie said matter-of-factly, making it pretty clear that she didn’t want to discuss it any further. Unfortunately for her, it only encouraged the other two girls to probe further. Hilary seemed even more upset by this news than Charlie herself was letting on, while Sabrina let out a sigh of relief.

“Finally!” I thought you’d lost your damn mind messing around with a hill topper. Did the Neanderthal even know more than five words? I can count on my hands how many times I’ve ever heard that dumbass talk, and it nearly bored me to sleep when he did.” Charlie bit down to keep herself from even responding to her crude friend as she knew it would only lead to an endless argument. Luckily, she was saved by Hilary’s unsolicited input.

“I mean does he need to? Tall, dark, muscular, and broody? And I’m sure he has other great uses for that mouth… Sign me up!” Charlie shot her a look that stopped most in their tracks, but Hillary didn’t let up in the least. “I mean if he broke up with you or did something shitty, then you’re totally in the right, fuck him. But if I know you half as well as I think I do, then you bailed AS USUAL… without reason. So, in that case… fuck him!” Hillary said the second time with a drawn-out, sultry tone. Sabrina let out a slight cackle and Charlie impulsively smacked the fit cheerleader on the ass quite hard. Hillary yelped a bit and quickly turned it into a loud, fake moan that drew even more laughter from Sabrina and wide eyes from anyone around them. Charlie let out a labored breath as she was losing her patience with her two friends. She almost welcomed the new additions of the two guys that were now standing in front of her.

Robbie wiggled his way into the friend group from working with Charlie. They butted heads more than anything, but Charlie actually appreciated that the unfiltered guy was basically the only person who was honest with her. His motives may be less than pure, but he didn’t hold back his feelings in the least. This also caused a few fights between the two teens.

Robbie had his trademark smirk on his face when he saw the girls. He wasn’t sure what exactly just happened but Hillary’s loud moan and a rare laugh out of Sabrina was enough to let him know that something just happened. “First day of school and you’re already fantasizing about me, Hillary?” Robby said in a quite cheesy way. Charlie actually chuckled at the guy’s hopeless pickup and Hillary finally stopped smiling for the first time in the morning.

“If I ever got **** enough to think about calling you… I’d just use my pinky!” “Sam, on the other hand… He might be of use...” Hillary trailed off in a sexy tone knowing that it would get a rise out of the shy guy. Robby bit down in anger as Sam gulped in sudden fear. Sabrina grinned in a mildly entertained way while Charlie rolled her eyes at having to deal with all of this.

Sam gave an odd look of confusion and nervousness when all eyes shifted to him. Hillary simply tacked on a wink for good measure.

“I’m not even sure if Sam knows where he’s at right now. If you smoke too much pot to hold a job at Brewster’s, then it says quite a bit about your mental state.” Robbie loudly added at his close friend’s expense.

“It was a mutual parting of ways.” The likely stoned teen finally added in a slow and drawn-out manner. Everyone was mildly amused as usual at the moments that Sam did actually provide some input mostly because Sam’s version of his firing seemed quite delusional.

This ragtag group of five spent a fair amount of time together even if the two boys mostly just followed the girls around. Charlie would get annoyed, especially by Robbie, while Hillary loved to tease Sam and Robbie came in hand for Sabrina when she needed a less-than-moral character to do her bidding.

“So is it just me or has this shit hole gotten somehow… well, shittier,” Robbie said in his less than elegant way.

“Oh Sweetie, I can’t imagine how it feels to see everyone else hit growth spurts while you’ve been 5’8” since you were 12.” Sabrina ground her words into the guy.

“Fuck off slutty Mc… Slutty.” The shook-up guy barely managed to get out even though the group chuckled mostly at his inability to keep up with the feisty girl.

“He’s not all the way wrong.” Sam quietly added. “Extra guards at the entrances, cameras in every corner, and some of the new students seem quite abrasive.” Sam ended quietly with a rare seriousness. Robbie couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“Dude, are you still shaken up by that tiny freshman girl? Was it her menacing size of maybe 90 pounds or the pigtails that scared you so bad?”

“90 pounds of pure anger…” Sam trailed off as he paid no attention to his friend’s hazing. “Besides, I don’t recall you saying a word back to her either…” Sam said as he turned towards Robbie whose smile faded in a quickness. All three girls finally laughed in unison as they were a bit curious as to who put the fear of God into their usually unfazed pals.

“Would it kill you to try and be polite for just one day?!” The quirky Nora asked her best friend.

“Hey! That was me being nice! Those dudes should man up and stop being pussies!” Mollie Anderson added with a mischievous grin.

Note: Sorry everyone about the long delay. I wrote a good portion of this chapter a while back but I hesitated finishing before I had both the time and vision to continue this thread. I put a lot of thought into the creation of this thread/group of characters and want to show them properly. I plan to start updating regularly again and hope to see some feedback and ideas return from you all. There are plenty of adventures for the Iron Falls cast to come!