Bold and Simful

Quietly but surely Jodie Gunderson and Maleena Bettencourt had been growing closer.  Jodie was just as surprised as everyone else that he had fallen for Maleena.  She was snobbish and shallow but when no one was looking she could be empathetic and caring, like when Elizabeth had ignored him for the hundredth time, it was Maleena who had stopped by his room for late night chats.

“So, I’ll stop by the arts building to pick you up and we can go see a movie?” Jodie proposed.

“Sure, are we actually going to watch the movie this time?” Maleena giggled.  Maleena had never intended to like Jodie, but once he had gotten over his obsession with Elizabeth she discovered that he was a lot of fun.  He was the only person who enjoyed a good prank or a snowball fight and he was never too busy studying to pay attention to her.

Elizabeth, who was lounging on the couch across the room, looked up at the sound of Maleena’s giggle.  She had noticed that the guy who used to follow her around had moved on, but she really didn’t have the time or the energy to care.

As if she didn’t have enough to worry about, her father had called to say he was coming over.  Reluctantly, she dragged herself off the couch to shower and get dressed before he arrived.

Francis was punctual as ever.  “Dr. Holdon tells me that you met your mother for lunch the other day,” he began.  Elizabeth couldn’t see how this would make him upset, but apparently it had.

“You know, your mother is very sick.  Her problem leads to her believe things that are not necessarily true,” he started to explain, hesitating to find the right words.  He had thought that Dr. Holdon would keep his wife in check, but apparently this quack was allowing her to “rebuild relationships” and now he had no idea what Catherine had told Elizabeth but whatever it was, he wanted to make sure that it wasn’t believed.

Elizabeth was truly confused.  Her father was running damage control?  About what?  Her mother hadn’t said anything out of line, in fact she had seemed very much her old self and Elizabeth explained this to her father.

“Of course she seemed fine. She wants to get out of rehab after all, but keep in mind that addicts can be very manipulating, it’s part of their disease,” Francis warned ominously.

Jodie arrived at the Bettencourt Beaux Arts building a few minutes early. The building, a two story affair dedicated to the finer arts, had been endowed to the college by Maleena’s family because of Maleena’s love of dance and her mother’s strange competition with the Mendenhall family.

“I’m just cooling down,” Maleena breathed. “I’ll be ready to go in a minute.”

“Take your time, I’ll just chill on the sofa,” Jodie didn’t mind watching his girlfriend stretch and bend.

Maybe it was because of the leotard, but the couple never made it to the movie.

Like Jodie and Maleena, Monica Drysdale and Turner Ignatowski had been growing closer…just not that kind of closer.

Monica had been hanging out at the frat house most of the semester, so often in fact that she was quickly becoming considered “one of the guys”.  She had entered the dangerous friend zone and she wasn’t even aware of it.

Xavier was in the kitchen cleaning up, like all good pledges do, when Turner ran in to get something to drink.

“Hey,” Turner whispered conspiratorially, “I need you to do something for me.”

Xavier wasn’t pleased. He had already done every thing the brothers had asked of him and he was getting sick of being their lackey, “What now?” his tone was exasperated.

“So you want me to get Veronica to go out with you?” Xavier made sure he had heard Turner correctly.  “But what about Monica?”

“Shhhh…she’s in the next room,” Turner leaned in so Xavier could hear him better and just to make sure that  the pledge understood how important it was that he make this happen, he pointed out again that Xavier wasn’t a full Lamda Chi brother yet.

“Get Veronica to go out with you and I’m in…” Xavier mulled it over out loud.

“Exactly!” Turner nodded.

“You want me to do what?” Veronica’s face screwed up in confusion at Xavier’s proposal.  She had been working on her logic skill, but she wasn’t up for this just yet. “Why would I do that?”

“Because you owe me at least one favor.  Come on, just go out with him once. It’ll get me in to Lamda Chi,” Xavier explained the idea one more time.

Veronica still wasn’t convinced.

But a few days later, when Turner appeared at the dorm in a toga to pledge another of the residents, the idea of a trade suddenly seemed less repulsive.

“You do realize they are people, not shoes?” Monica’s voice was filled with sarcasm and a slight disdain when Veronica appeared at lunch to propose the idea that the girls trade boyfriends for a little while.

“Of course they are people, don’t be ridiculous,” Veronica sighed, “But haven’t you noticed that Turner and I match and you and Randal match?”

“We match what?  Hair? We have nothing in common,” Monica was getting annoyed.

Monica had refused Veronica’s offer and stormed away.  Maleena, who arrived a few minutes later was about to take the brunt of her sister’s bad mood.

“Did you know that your new boyfriend is poor?” Veronica revealed out of no where.

“What?” Maleena’s spoon stopped halfway to her mouth, “he is not!”

“Yes, he is.  He’s here on scholarship, Randal told me,” Veronica insisted.  “He’s from Rigel Heights, just like Mom and Dad’s maid.”

“You’re lying.  Scholarship students have to spend all their time studying, Jodie spends all his time with me,” Maleena had mastered logic.

“Fine, don’t believe me,” the sisters ate in silence for a while.

“Jodie, aren’t you here on scholarship?” Veronica asked abruptly as soon as Jodie and Kitty joined them at the table.

“Well, yeah…Why?” Jodie answered honestly.

Kitty sucked in a gasp, seeing immediately what Jodie was obviously missing.

“Oh-my-god!” Maleena breathed deeply and closed her eyes to avoid told-you-so look on her sister’s face.

——–
Note: The boyfriend trade is not my fault. Turner and Veronica have 3 bolts for each other and Turner does the attraction thing whenever Veronica walks by, even if Monica is in the room. Randal is in love with Veronica, but has 2 bolts for Monica. Hopefully this will all work itself out

 

Posted on June 24th, 2008 under Wingate Hall. Tags: elizabeth, francis, jodie, maleena, monica, turner, veronica, Wingate Hall, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.