A Brief Interlude

Vanessa English’s history with Kitty Van Look was deeper than most people realized. The two had gone to the same (very) private school and had known each other since kindergarten.

During that early time Vanessa was belle of the class. Always on time, always polite, always impeccably dressed, Vanessa won the hearts of her teachers and the young boys in school. She was that girly girl in the dress with a bow and patent leather shoes that boys would instantly get a crush on and not understand why. Vanessa too had a crush on Vanessa.

Kitty was a tomboy and as a kid liked getting dirty and loved bright colors. She wore everything under the rainbow. Hair was usually in a ponytail. And Kitty was basically friendly to all. Certainly not the brightest in the class, but the most outgoing.

Boys Kitty liked tended to have a thing for Vanessa and Vanessa tended to not have a use for them after about a week or too. Broken hearts piled up and by the seventh grade the resentment came to a head.

The girls were both just 13 years old and it was when Kitty started to go through a change. She was less interested in playing baseball and being dirty. Kitty now favored having her hair done (after she was a billionaire) to a simple ponytail. She wasn’t becoming prissy like Vanessa but starting to become a woman. She had sprung up two inches over the summer and ditched her tomboy persona for something more feminine.

Vanessa rolled into seventh grade expecting to dominate everything. That year she been gone for most of the summer and had come back with something unexpected. Breasts! Vanessa’s dresses had filled out a bit on top and she loved the attention she was getting.

When Kitty would try to strike up a conversation with a boy Vanessa and her friends would show up. Vanessa would stick out her chest and say, “Oh look, it’s Itty Bitty Kitty.” It was a nickname would throughout high school, and it always had an effect. Kitty would wince when she heard it. Even after her own modest curves would come in Vanessa would still bring her down to size with those three words.

It was also the year that Angie Turner showed up at school. Another 13-year-old, Angie was whip smart, pretty, and happened to be black. It’s not as though she was the first black girl to ever show up at school, but it was rare to see one there.

On the first day of seventh grade Angie walked into her new school. Kids in designer clothes were scurrying about everywhere, hustling to catch up with friends and hustling to get to class.

Once Angie got her schedule, she headed off to hear first class of the day, English. As she walked into class she passed by Vanessa, who was standing with a couple of friends. Seeing the new kid come in all three faces showed different levels of surprise. Vanessa shook her head.

“I tell you they’ll let ANYONE in here these days,” Vanessa said. Her friends giggled as Vanessa rolled her eyes.

It wasn’t spoken under her breath either. Angie heard it as did most of the other people in class, including Kitty. Angie sat down and lowed her head.

The next couple of weeks was more of the same for Angie. She made friends. Most of the kids in class were nice to her. But there were a few holdouts, mainly led by Vanessa. She frequently made comments about Angie. Never to her face, but always close enough so that Angie could hear. And Angie had had about enough.

At lunch Vanessa was in the cafeteria when she noticed her friends sitting at their usual table, one table over from where Kitty and her friends sat. Except today Angie was sitting with them as well. The nerve! That was HER table. She decided who got to sit there and more importantly who didn’t!

Vanessa walked to the edge of the table and looked down at the girls sitting.

“Angie, you’re in my spot. Please move,” she said.

However, Angie wasn’t going anywhere that day. She looked Vanessa in the eye and said, “No.”

“Really Angie, this is my table. You aren’t supposed to be here.”

“I said NO.”

Vanessa was really taken aback. She had always gotten her way at school and here was some NOBODY standing up to her. What was the world coming to?

“Listen Angie, I know you’re… new. And maybe you’re slow to understand how things work around here. But this is MY TABLE. I’m sure there’s a… more fitting table for you over there,” Vanessa said gesturing toward the tables closest to the garbage cans.

“That’s it,” Angie said. She grabbed the closest thing she could throw, a cupcake off her tray, and hurled it at Vanessa. The cupcake sailed through the air and hit Vanessa’s chest with a PLOP. The cupcake stayed stuck on Vanessa’s pastel blue dress for a moment. Everyone fell silent. Then the cupcake fell off and onto the table. Vanessa looked down and saw the big chocolate stain now on her favorite pastel blue dress. And freaked the hell out.

“Look what you did, you stupid…,” Vanessa said but then a thought popped in her head to give her pause. Then she smiled. “You know what? You just made a huge mistake! I’m going to get you suspended for this!” Vanessa said.

This had turned out better than she hoped. She could now get this stupid girl out of her table and out of her life, at least for a week or two.

“My daddy is friends with the principal, I can get it done! I am so telling on you. You are so getting suspended.” Vanessa said.

“No she’s not, I am,” someone said behind Vanessa. She turned to see Kitty. That loser who wears purple and orange all the time.

“What are you talking about? She’s the one who ruined my dress. What are you getting suspended for?” Vanessa asked.

“This!”

Kitty punched Vanessa as hard as she could. POW! Everyone in the cafeteria heard it. Vanessa’s head flew back, her arms flew up (throwing her tray), and she spun around on her patent leather heels, falling and landing on the long lunch table. Her face landing in a bowl of chocolate pudding.

Everyone at the table got up, well except Vanessa who was dazed. Everyone was silent for a second. Until Angie broke the silence.

“Oh my God, look at her panties!”

Kitty’s punch had knocked Vanessa hard enough that when she spun and fell her dress and petticoat blew up and the now bent over and dazed pre-teen’s underwear was available for all to see. It was a normal pair of pastel blue panties, matching her dress, but it had emblazoned on the seat something that Vanessa would regret.

It read “PRINCESS VANNY”. Princess in small letters. Vanny in big ones. There was a little crown over the V. And they had two rows of frills. In a word they were humiliating.

“Princess Vanny? Are you kidding?”

“Princess Vanny has a big fat fanny!”

“Fat Fanny Vanny!”

“Princess Fanny!”

The kids were all laughing and jeering and Vanessa’s reign at the belle of the school ended with an embarrassing nickname she would be teased with all throughout school.

Vanessa lifted her pudding covered face and stood up crying. She ran out of the cafeteria as fast as she could with the kids still laughing behind her.

Kitty was right though. She did get suspended. Vanessa made sure of that. But Angie was never bothered again.

The next day Vanessa showed up at school with an embarrassing black eye that lasted for weeks. She insisted the panties were a gift from an aunt and she only wore them before she had to. Never mind that she had a drawer full of similar ones.

It was here though that Vanessa and Kitty became bitter rivals. It lasted all throughout school. And it was this humiliating moment that Vanessa was going to avenge as an adult.

The idea of humiliating Kitty was the first thing Vanessa thought of when she got a hold of that watch a couple of weeks ago. But she couldn’t just rush it. She had to plan it out a little. Make sure she knew what she’s doing. And now she did. And Kitty was going to pay.