Intermission 1: Girls’ group work.

To think there would come a day when Vanessa Lindbeck would wake up early on a Saturday to go to school. Well, if one considers 9:30 AM to be early. Both her parents are still asleep, so they don’t even see her leave. She told them what she was doing though, so if they forget, it’s on them.

School opens on Saturdays from 9:00 to 14:00. There are no teachers, only the janitors, secretaries and the like. Places like the library are open to students to use, though no one has any interest in coming here on a fucking Saturday. They also serve lunch at 13:00, so that’s when some students come. Something about government policies, but not anything Vanessa cares about.

Honestly, she didn’t even know all this stuff until Veronica told her the day before yesterday.

She stops at the stairs before the gate, holding back her own grimace. Of course she had to arrive at the same time as Erica. The blonde girl also stops in her tracks. The two stare at each other for a while before Vanessa decides to move and sit down at the steps of the stairs. Erica does the same, but at a distance from the redhead.

They both bring up their phones to avoid having to speak to the other. They notice it’s already 10:10 am. There’s no way they got here before honor-student Veronica Young, yet neither of them feels like pointing it out.

The sound of quick steps closing in call their attention. They both turn and see the fourth member of their group running as fast as she can. Vanessa narrows her eyes, reluctantly admitting to herself she’s jealous of that big chest Wendy has, even if they seem uncomfortable when running. Her tits bounce until she stops in front of them to catch her breath.

“I’m so sorry! I-I over slept! Am I too late? I’m so sorry!”

“Relax, we only just got here,” Erica says, not looking away from here phone. “Besides, Veronica isn’t even here yet.”

“Oh, then she might already be inside!” Wendy realizes and starts going up the stairs.

Vanessa and Erica look at each other, blinking. Neither of them feels like admitting that that is probably the most likely scenario, so they just stand up and follow after the brunette.

They go to the library, which can hardly even be called one. It’s just a big room with several tables set for group work and all the books are kept locked in an adjacent room. They do that to keep students from ruining them for no reason. Normally, Vanessa wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but now… she wonders if there are any fun books in there she just doesn’t know about. And yes, they do find Veronica sitting at one of the tables. She has a stack of 5 books in front of her as she reads another one. She’s also the only person in the library. Not like anyone else would be crazy enough to come to school on a Saturday.

Urgh. This sucks.

“What took you so long?” she asks, sounding as obnoxious as ever.

“We said we’d meet outside,” Erica tells her.

“No, we said we’d meet here.”

Vanessa remembers a third thing. They never specified where they’d meet. But she’ll keep quiet for the sake of finishing this as soon as they can.

“Sorry, I overslept. I rushed here as fast as I could!” Wendy apologizes again.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Vanessa says. “I don’t want to spend all my Saturday here.”

“Agreed.” Veronica nods.

The four girls sit around the table, and the three newcomers look at the honor-student, as if asking her to start.

“We need to write a short play. I asked Mr. Sinclair, and he said it should last at least five minutes and no more than ten.”

“That’s still way too long,” Erica complains.

“You’d think so, but no. Wendy, read this scene with me.” Veronica puts a book between Wendy and herself. “You’ll be Maria. Vanessa, start a timer when we begin and stop us when five minutes have passed.”

She’s already barking orders. Would it kill her to ask first?

Silently, the redhead starts the timer when they say the first lines. When five minutes pass, she stops them.

“What the hell? Nothing even happened,” Vanessa says. “The characters barely introduced themselves.”

“Yes. And we have to write a story using the three-act structure,” Veronica adds.

…

…

Shit. What was the three-act structure again? Is she supposed to know?

“Sorry, but… what was the three-act structure?” Wendy asks shyly. Bless her.

“Setup, confrontation, resolution.” Veronica explains. “Come on. Mr. Sinclair explained it last class.”

“I was… uh…”

“Drawing, I bet.” The honor student sighs.

“How did you know!? I keep my notebook hidden!” It’s kind of endearing how Wendy looks honestly surprised. Everyone knows she spends all her time drawing.

“I can read minds,” Veronica says, unamused and shaking her head, but that actually makes Erica snicker. Did she seriously find that funny or is she mocking her Veronica looks like she just swallowed whatever retort she was about to throw back and continues explaining. “Anyway, it means we have to tell a story that starts and end in 10 minutes tops.”

“That still sounds too hard,” Erica says.

“Yeah.” Veronica grimaces and agrees. “I’ve been reading some plays to come up with ideas, but now I feel like whatever I whip out will be plagiarism.”

“Actually,” Vanessa starts. “I have an idea.” She doesn’t take kindly to the three of them raising their eyebrows in surprise. She swallows any comments, remembering she told Mr. Sinclair she’d at least try.

…

Weird. She’s never cared about keeping a promise to a teacher before.

“Alright. So, what’s the idea?” Veronica asks.

“Erica, you were at Ryan’s birthday party last year, weren’t you?” she asks, knowing full well neither Wendy nor Veronica were there.

“…That was when Gabriel and Josh got into that fight, right?”

“That’s what I’m going for. Do you know why they fought?”

“Wasn’t it because of a girl?”

“It was.” Vanessa nods. “I saw the fight. Everything happened really fast. At one moment they’re drinking and laughing and at the other they punching the light out of each other. I’m thinking we have our three-act structure there. Setup: two guys at a party. Conflict: They both like the same girl and fight over her. Resolution: the cops get there. If you want to touch some nerves in the class, have one of them die from a knife wound.”

“You’re not seriously suggesting we write what happened that day, are you?” Erica asks, skeptical.

“Of course not. We change the names and events enough for it to be a generic party. It’s not like they’re special for getting into a drunken fist fight,” the redhead dismisses.

“That’s… actually a really good idea,” Veronica admits. “Like you said, we’d have everything we need. You even got a conflict most can relate to.”

“Did you just come up with that?” Wendy asks, her eyes sparkling in what seems like admiration.

“…No. I’ve been thinking about it since Mr. Sinclair gave us the task. Besides, I’ve been reading The Great Gatsby, so I admit some of it came from there.”

“You’ve been reading it? In your own time?” Veronica asks with… honest surprise. It’s enough that it doesn’t piss her off.

“Yeah. I liked the extract we had to read in class, so I picked up the book. It’s really good.”

“Isn’t it? What part are you on?” Veronica’s enthusiasm when asking takes the three girls by surprise. Holy shit, she’s capable of smiling?

“I only started it a few days ago, but…”

Vanessa and Veronica start a surprisingly lively conversation. Veronica tries her hardest not to spoil parts of the book, which she appreciates. That’s stopped by Erica, however, who clears her throat and tells them, “Just a little reminder that we’re spending Saturday in the school library. Let’s get this over with.”

And so, the four girls get to work. Veronica writes while Vanessa outlines her idea. When it seems like she and the honey-blonde girl are doing all the work, Veronica forces Erica and Wendy to give their opinions and ideas, mostly with dialogue.

She has to admit that maybe Veronica is not so bad after all.