Underneath It All
The strains of Bittersweet Sympathy filled the gymnasium. Mina Hathaway sat on a bench with her best friend, Lynda. This was the final dance of their seventh grade year. Next year they'd be eighth graders and the school would be theirs.
She waved Lynda off to the dance floor when Jed asked her. Lynda had a painful crush on Mina's older brother. Sadly he didn't feel the same way, but had no problem doing his sister a favor.
Speaking of painful crushes, Mina's came into view. Keith Taylor was the very definition of hot. He was practically a god.
Once, they'd even talked in the library.
So technically she'd dropped a book on his foot. And he'd said ouch. And she'd apologized. And he told her not to worry about it and limped away.
Okay, maybe it wasn't a declaration of love. But it was definitely an exchange of more than two sentences. Technically a conversation as she'd informed Lynda several times.
She stopped breathing as she realized that he and his friend were coming closer. Mina glanced to both sides of her. There was no one sitting even remotely near to her.
Just perfect. Keith was practically within touching distance and she was sitting all alone like some leper loser.
She stared studiously foreword as though watching middle schoolers bounce around to Cannonball was the most fascinating thing in the world.
"Come on Keith. This is our last dance at this school and I've never once seen you shake your stuff."
Keith eyed his friend in amusement. "Shake my stuff, Jason?" He frowned as he surveyed his options. "There's no one here I'd like to dance with."
Jason rolled his eyes. "It's one dance, not a marriage proposal. How about her?"
He pointed to a pretty girl with black hair who was scowling out at the dance floor.
Keith manfully suppressed a shiver of fear. "Definitely not. She'd likely rip my head off for asking."
Jason shrugged. "How about Molly?"
Keith sniffed. "No. She looks like a mouse."
Mina tried to hold back a snort. Now that he mentioned it, Molly did look a bit rodent like.
Mina's snort drew Jason's eye. "Hey, what about Jed's little sister. She's really nice and won't step on your feet."
Keith looked to where Jason's finger was pointed and sighed. No, she wouldn't step on his foot. Not when she'd already dropped a book on it. "That little girl? I'd rather dance with your mother."
Mina stiffened in pain as his words reached her ears. The pain didn't last long. Quickly it dissipated into amused anger. What gave him the right to blow people off so casually? What made him so special? It was outrageous.
As soon as Lynda sat down beside her, Mina told her best friend everything.
"Oh no Mina! I'm so sorry!" Lynda wailed.
Mina smiled. The anger had faded leaving only humor. "Don't be. I think it's funny. And I bet Anna would think so too."
Lynda held Mina back. "You don't really mean to tell other people do you?"
Mina shrugged. "Of course I do."
Lynda gasped. "But it's so humiliating, being turned down like that!"
"There's no humiliation being turned away by someone like him."
A burst of laughter caught Keith's attention. Looking towards it he saw the book dropper talking animatedly to a group. The group eyed him, then turned back laughing softly.
The girl smiled coldly at him and he knew that she had heard every word.
He was almost sorry.
Three years later...
Keith studied the girl as she made her way towards the table. There was something familiar about her. This wasn't saying much, considering that he'd probably passed her in Rivercrest High's hallways about a million times.
He saw her wave brightly at the boy beside him and made a connection. Jed's little sister.
He almost dismissed her but then he caught her smile chill several degrees. He looked behind him to see who had pissed her off.
No one was there.
He wondered what the hell he'd done to make her so angry. As far as he knew he'd never even spoken with her.
She sailed past him and sat with a group of girls further down the table. The fashion drones as Jed was fond of calling them.
He didn't mean to spend the lunch period watching her out of the corner of his eye. But he couldn't seem to help it. Luckily his friends didn't notice his preoccupation. He was usually quiet at lunch.
He was intrigued by the fact that her eyes twinkled whenever she spoke to someone she liked. He was also mortified to have noticed.
The only person whose eyes twinkled was Santa's for crying out loud.
He shook his head to clear it. Jed had been babbling about some party set for that weekend. Keith nodded and said he'd be there.mo
When the bell rang, he glanced to where she was sitting. But she'd already gotten up and all he caught was the swing of her hair as she walked out the door.
He wouldn't have given her a second thought if she hadn't kept showing up wherever he went. She slid into the popular crowd with careless ease. Mina belonged immediately and Keith wondered why she waited until her sophomore year to start hanging out with them.
Watching her became a sort of habit. He wasn't obsessed or anything like that. He didn't stare or gawk or paste her picture all over his walls.
But if she was in the same room he'd keep track of her. Check in every now and then. Kind of like an older brother would.
He almost laughed out loud when he stuck upon that conclusion.
The last thing Mina Hathaway needed was another big brother.
For all his easy going nature, Jed Hathaway was an absolute terror when it came to his little sister.
He didn't do anything embarrassing. At least not as far as Mina knew. Keith knew better.
He'd had the privilege to be around when Jed "talked" with one of Mina's dates. The talk as Jed would have called it, or threat session as Keith preferred to think of it, made it perfectly clear that Mina was to be treated with the utmost respect befitting a young lady.
In other words, you make Mina cry Jed make you cry.
Keith never wanted to be on the receiving end of that little speech. Despite being three inches and 40 pounds bigger than Jed it had sent chills down Keith's spine. Especially at some of Jed's more descriptive points.
Still, he kept an eye on Mina whenever she was around. She was easy to watch. She would have been awful at poker. Every emotion she felt was displayed across her face.
And since he was watching her so much, he couldn't help but notice that every time he joined a group that Mina was with, she ignored him. And whenever he made himself impossible to ignore, she spoke to him with indifference and never for long.
Normally he would have backed off. She obviously had issues with him that he didn't know about.
But he'd seen how she was with everyone else. And he wanted her to be that open and friendly with him.
Yet every time he approached her, she shot him down with a hard smile that tugged at some hazy memory he couldn't quite recall.
On the night of Lynda Benson's party he remembered.
Jed grabbed Keith and dragged him over to where Mina was standing.
"You two," He announced. "Are the most boring people here. You don't even dance!" He squinted at Mina. "Why did I even bring you along?"
She studied his goofy expression. "So that you don't wrap your jeep around a telephone pole trying to drive back in your condition."
He brightened. "That's right!" Then he looked at Keith, confused. "Hey Keith, why are you here?"
Keith shot Mina an exasperated look and removed the cup from Jed's hand. "I wouldn't know Jed. You were the one who dragged me over here."
"I did?"
Mina rolled her eyes. "One day I'm going to find you a girl who's a worse drunk than you. It's the only way you'll live down the shame you've brought upon our family name."
Jed grinned. "Dance!"
Mina and Keith looked at each other and then back to Jed.
"Yes you two must dance. I command it. It will keep you two off my back while I figure out where they hid the beer."
Keith wasn't feeling particularly charitable towards Jed at that moment and let the boy elbow his way through the crowd without telling him that the keg had been kicked fifteen minutes earlier.
"Would you like to?"
"Hmm?" Mina had been studiously looking at anything but Keith since her brother left.
"Dance. With me. Would you like to?"
Her eyes were cool as they turned to him. "No thank you. But if it's a dance partner you're looking for, you might ask Jason Brinkman's mom."
With that she stepped into the sea of people dancing and away from him.
Lynda Benson stepped in before Keith's memories could completely settle.
"Was Mina mean?" She cooed as she trailed a finger across Keith's chest. "I guess she's still mad about the dance. After all, you'd rather dance with Brinkman's annoying mother than her. Not that I blame you."
Keith stilled Lynda's hand and removed it from his chest. "You're right. I did say that." He stepped away from the girl. "I've never been more wrong in my life."
With that he strode from the party and to his car.
Author's Notes
Hurrah! I've returned to you all bearing the gift of chapter one! I know I said a month and it's been a tad longer. Life got in the way.
Thanks to everyone who got on my case about getting this out. Special thanks to VO1 for the title.
I know that this is sort of a recap from what you learned in It's Gonna Be Me. The next chapter will be too. Chapter three will be completely new information.
Also, I'm issuing a challenge to all my readers. It may be hard to answer until chapter three so don't stress or anything. Anyway...Why is this 'teen movie' more in the spirit of Clueless than any other teen movie?
Anyway, read, enjoy (hopefully), and review (pretty please!). Chapter two will be out soon. Any delays or misc. information will be on my authors page.
The strains of Bittersweet Sympathy filled the gymnasium. Mina Hathaway sat on a bench with her best friend, Lynda. This was the final dance of their seventh grade year. Next year they'd be eighth graders and the school would be theirs.
She waved Lynda off to the dance floor when Jed asked her. Lynda had a painful crush on Mina's older brother. Sadly he didn't feel the same way, but had no problem doing his sister a favor.
Speaking of painful crushes, Mina's came into view. Keith Taylor was the very definition of hot. He was practically a god.
Once, they'd even talked in the library.
So technically she'd dropped a book on his foot. And he'd said ouch. And she'd apologized. And he told her not to worry about it and limped away.
Okay, maybe it wasn't a declaration of love. But it was definitely an exchange of more than two sentences. Technically a conversation as she'd informed Lynda several times.
She stopped breathing as she realized that he and his friend were coming closer. Mina glanced to both sides of her. There was no one sitting even remotely near to her.
Just perfect. Keith was practically within touching distance and she was sitting all alone like some leper loser.
She stared studiously foreword as though watching middle schoolers bounce around to Cannonball was the most fascinating thing in the world.
"Come on Keith. This is our last dance at this school and I've never once seen you shake your stuff."
Keith eyed his friend in amusement. "Shake my stuff, Jason?" He frowned as he surveyed his options. "There's no one here I'd like to dance with."
Jason rolled his eyes. "It's one dance, not a marriage proposal. How about her?"
He pointed to a pretty girl with black hair who was scowling out at the dance floor.
Keith manfully suppressed a shiver of fear. "Definitely not. She'd likely rip my head off for asking."
Jason shrugged. "How about Molly?"
Keith sniffed. "No. She looks like a mouse."
Mina tried to hold back a snort. Now that he mentioned it, Molly did look a bit rodent like.
Mina's snort drew Jason's eye. "Hey, what about Jed's little sister. She's really nice and won't step on your feet."
Keith looked to where Jason's finger was pointed and sighed. No, she wouldn't step on his foot. Not when she'd already dropped a book on it. "That little girl? I'd rather dance with your mother."
Mina stiffened in pain as his words reached her ears. The pain didn't last long. Quickly it dissipated into amused anger. What gave him the right to blow people off so casually? What made him so special? It was outrageous.
As soon as Lynda sat down beside her, Mina told her best friend everything.
"Oh no Mina! I'm so sorry!" Lynda wailed.
Mina smiled. The anger had faded leaving only humor. "Don't be. I think it's funny. And I bet Anna would think so too."
Lynda held Mina back. "You don't really mean to tell other people do you?"
Mina shrugged. "Of course I do."
Lynda gasped. "But it's so humiliating, being turned down like that!"
"There's no humiliation being turned away by someone like him."
A burst of laughter caught Keith's attention. Looking towards it he saw the book dropper talking animatedly to a group. The group eyed him, then turned back laughing softly.
The girl smiled coldly at him and he knew that she had heard every word.
He was almost sorry.
Three years later...
Keith studied the girl as she made her way towards the table. There was something familiar about her. This wasn't saying much, considering that he'd probably passed her in Rivercrest High's hallways about a million times.
He saw her wave brightly at the boy beside him and made a connection. Jed's little sister.
He almost dismissed her but then he caught her smile chill several degrees. He looked behind him to see who had pissed her off.
No one was there.
He wondered what the hell he'd done to make her so angry. As far as he knew he'd never even spoken with her.
She sailed past him and sat with a group of girls further down the table. The fashion drones as Jed was fond of calling them.
He didn't mean to spend the lunch period watching her out of the corner of his eye. But he couldn't seem to help it. Luckily his friends didn't notice his preoccupation. He was usually quiet at lunch.
He was intrigued by the fact that her eyes twinkled whenever she spoke to someone she liked. He was also mortified to have noticed.
The only person whose eyes twinkled was Santa's for crying out loud.
He shook his head to clear it. Jed had been babbling about some party set for that weekend. Keith nodded and said he'd be there.mo
When the bell rang, he glanced to where she was sitting. But she'd already gotten up and all he caught was the swing of her hair as she walked out the door.
He wouldn't have given her a second thought if she hadn't kept showing up wherever he went. She slid into the popular crowd with careless ease. Mina belonged immediately and Keith wondered why she waited until her sophomore year to start hanging out with them.
Watching her became a sort of habit. He wasn't obsessed or anything like that. He didn't stare or gawk or paste her picture all over his walls.
But if she was in the same room he'd keep track of her. Check in every now and then. Kind of like an older brother would.
He almost laughed out loud when he stuck upon that conclusion.
The last thing Mina Hathaway needed was another big brother.
For all his easy going nature, Jed Hathaway was an absolute terror when it came to his little sister.
He didn't do anything embarrassing. At least not as far as Mina knew. Keith knew better.
He'd had the privilege to be around when Jed "talked" with one of Mina's dates. The talk as Jed would have called it, or threat session as Keith preferred to think of it, made it perfectly clear that Mina was to be treated with the utmost respect befitting a young lady.
In other words, you make Mina cry Jed make you cry.
Keith never wanted to be on the receiving end of that little speech. Despite being three inches and 40 pounds bigger than Jed it had sent chills down Keith's spine. Especially at some of Jed's more descriptive points.
Still, he kept an eye on Mina whenever she was around. She was easy to watch. She would have been awful at poker. Every emotion she felt was displayed across her face.
And since he was watching her so much, he couldn't help but notice that every time he joined a group that Mina was with, she ignored him. And whenever he made himself impossible to ignore, she spoke to him with indifference and never for long.
Normally he would have backed off. She obviously had issues with him that he didn't know about.
But he'd seen how she was with everyone else. And he wanted her to be that open and friendly with him.
Yet every time he approached her, she shot him down with a hard smile that tugged at some hazy memory he couldn't quite recall.
On the night of Lynda Benson's party he remembered.
Jed grabbed Keith and dragged him over to where Mina was standing.
"You two," He announced. "Are the most boring people here. You don't even dance!" He squinted at Mina. "Why did I even bring you along?"
She studied his goofy expression. "So that you don't wrap your jeep around a telephone pole trying to drive back in your condition."
He brightened. "That's right!" Then he looked at Keith, confused. "Hey Keith, why are you here?"
Keith shot Mina an exasperated look and removed the cup from Jed's hand. "I wouldn't know Jed. You were the one who dragged me over here."
"I did?"
Mina rolled her eyes. "One day I'm going to find you a girl who's a worse drunk than you. It's the only way you'll live down the shame you've brought upon our family name."
Jed grinned. "Dance!"
Mina and Keith looked at each other and then back to Jed.
"Yes you two must dance. I command it. It will keep you two off my back while I figure out where they hid the beer."
Keith wasn't feeling particularly charitable towards Jed at that moment and let the boy elbow his way through the crowd without telling him that the keg had been kicked fifteen minutes earlier.
"Would you like to?"
"Hmm?" Mina had been studiously looking at anything but Keith since her brother left.
"Dance. With me. Would you like to?"
Her eyes were cool as they turned to him. "No thank you. But if it's a dance partner you're looking for, you might ask Jason Brinkman's mom."
With that she stepped into the sea of people dancing and away from him.
Lynda Benson stepped in before Keith's memories could completely settle.
"Was Mina mean?" She cooed as she trailed a finger across Keith's chest. "I guess she's still mad about the dance. After all, you'd rather dance with Brinkman's annoying mother than her. Not that I blame you."
Keith stilled Lynda's hand and removed it from his chest. "You're right. I did say that." He stepped away from the girl. "I've never been more wrong in my life."
With that he strode from the party and to his car.
Author's Notes
Hurrah! I've returned to you all bearing the gift of chapter one! I know I said a month and it's been a tad longer. Life got in the way.
Thanks to everyone who got on my case about getting this out. Special thanks to VO1 for the title.
I know that this is sort of a recap from what you learned in It's Gonna Be Me. The next chapter will be too. Chapter three will be completely new information.
Also, I'm issuing a challenge to all my readers. It may be hard to answer until chapter three so don't stress or anything. Anyway...Why is this 'teen movie' more in the spirit of Clueless than any other teen movie?
Anyway, read, enjoy (hopefully), and review (pretty please!). Chapter two will be out soon. Any delays or misc. information will be on my authors page.