Our New Normal Read online

  His first assignment was for each student to stand at the podium and introduce themselves to the class. They were to speak briefly about their interests, hobbies, and what they planned to do after high school. A simple task for most, having them talk about themselves for a few minutes familiarized them with public speaking without diving headfirst into difficult subjects right away.

  Before long, Tori was standing at the podium. She was beyond nervous; though she tried to hide it, her pallid face and quavering voice betrayed her secret to anyone who was paying attention. “My name is Victoria Reynolds. I’m a cheerleader, and I like fashion. I’m not sure what I’m doing yet after high school. Um, I guess I’ll probably just go to college somewhere and then work for my father’s business.”

  Her father was the CEO of HyperSpeed Technologies, one of the largest telecommunication companies in the country. He could easily get her a position if she wanted one, but working a desk job in her father’s company wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life. Even though she knew that she was guaranteed a position with good pay, she dreamed of earning a Bachelor’s degree in Business Communication at one of the local universities and making her way into the fashion industry. To be successful, though, she couldn’t be this shaky when she spoke, especially if she made it to the big time and had to work alongside high-profile agencies, models, and celebrities. She also wanted to avoid working at her dad’s business so that she could have her own identity instead of just being known as “Mr. Reynolds’ daughter who clearly got the job because of her dad” in the office. Still, she knew she could fall back on it if needed.

  Chloe rolled her eyes. Must be nice to be able to work for daddy, she mused.

  After a few more students introduced themselves, Chloe made her way up to the podium. She was nervous, but she’d learned to talk in front of others while keeping her fear inside; she’d defended herself multiple times over the years when bullies would get on her case for being different. She stood at the podium, her shoulders back and her head held high, her clammy fists clenched to control the shaking. “My name is Chloe Summers. After high school, I plan on getting a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration while working part-time to pay for school, then I’ll acquire a job where I can use my skills successfully.”

  “Thank you, Miss Summers,” Mr. Thompson said as he checked his roster for the next student. “Does anyone have any questions?”

  Chloe glanced around the room, stopping at the back corner where Tori was. Their eyes met, and Tori quickly looked away. Chloe shrugged it off, heading back to her seat so that the next student could take their place at the podium.

  * * *

  “That last shirt looked totally amazing on you, Rina!” Mandi insisted. “You so need to buy that one!”

  Sabrina admired herself again in the dressing room’s mirrors. “I don’t know,” she said thoughtfully, studying her profile. “I think that other shirt showed off my love handles!” She pinched a tiny fold of skin on her side. “This one, like, totally shows off my cleavage! What do you think, Tori?”

  “I like them both,” she replied apathetically, annoyed that everyone was suddenly paying attention to Sabrina. She quickly grabbed a hat from one of the hooks and tried it on. “What do you think about this on me? Does it go with my hair?”

  A half dozen heads bobbed in eager agreement. “It looks fabulous!” Katie squealed. “It’ll match all of your outfits! You should get it!”

  Sabrina sighed, studying the shirt once again but this time without any outside encouragement. Tori always has to be in the spotlight, she thought bitterly. Sabrina removed the shirt, trying on another one. This doesn’t look quite as good as the last one, but it’s on clearance for $20 cheaper, and I don’t have daddy’s credit card to pay for everything I want. “How about this one?” she asked the group.

  Brenda and Tiffany were the only ones to turn. “That looks amazing, too,” Brenda said. “I am, like, so jealous of your perfect body!”

  Sabrina smiled, relieved that someone in their group noticed her nearly flawless figure. “Thanks, Brenda!” she exclaimed happily.

  Tiffany nodded. “It looks fabulous on you, and it totally matches your eyes!”

  Sabrina beamed, studying herself in the mirrors. “Tori, what do you think?”

  Tori glanced over, shrugging. “Sure,” she answered.

  “Well, which looks best?” Sabrina asked, holding up the other shirts.

  Tori held a shirt in front of her, studying it. “Just buy all three,” she replied without turning to look.

  Sabrina shook her head, her face flushing with both frustration over Tori’s dismissal and embarrassment over her lack of money. “You know I can’t do that,” she said quietly. “Which one do you like best?”

  Thinking for a moment, Tori shook her head. “I think I like the last one,” she replied. “Green is not your color, and the other one made you look pudgy.”

  “I totally agree,” Mandi interjected. Katie nodded.

  Sabrina frowned, looking at the shirt again. I think this one looks fine, but if Tori doesn’t like it she’ll be sure to tell me every chance she gets. “You’re so right, Tori,” Sabrina said with mock gratitude. She pulled the shirt off of her and threw it on the dressing room floor. She retrieved the other shirt from the hanger and draped it over her arm, inspecting a pair of pants on clearance as the other girls thumbed through a nearby clothes rack.

  Tori stood at the registers while the rest of their group continued shopping. Sabrina noted yet another hundred-dollar-plus purchase charged straight to her daddy’s account. Sabrina’s stomach churned with envy, wishing that she could just buy whatever she wanted without caring about the price tag. Though her parents made a decent amount of money, there wasn’t always enough to go around between her and her other siblings to afford whatever she wanted on a whim. She usually let her parents pay for necessities while she used her paycheck to take care of everything else.

  Tori flung the latest bag of clothes over her shoulder and retrieved the pile of shopping bags from previous stores. “Are you guys ready?” she asked impatiently.

  The other girls hesitated for a moment, longingly looking down at the clothing that they were about to try on, but they reluctantly nodded.

  Still studying the denim of her potential purchase, Sabrina glanced over at Tori. “Give me one minute,” she insisted, trying to control her frustration. Tori never thinks about what we want. She purposefully took her time to study the intricate stitches on a pant leg, stalling to spite Tori.

  “Rina, come on!” Tori said, readjusting the heap on her shoulder.

  Sabrina sighed, picking up the pants from the rack. “I still have to buy these,” she said sternly. She strolled to the register, internally relishing in the annoyed glare on Tori’s face. Sabrina pulled a few wadded-up bills from her pocket, thanking the checkout girl as she handed her the bag.

  They soon made their way to the next shop, standing side-by-side so that they took up the entire aisle and made it impossible for anyone to pass them from either direction. Tori struggled with her purchases only for a moment before Katie and Mandi eagerly offered their assistance. Their hands full of Tori’s bags, the girls walked into the next store, Trend, and eagerly swarmed the newest arrivals. Trend was designed for junior girls of all body types and had the all of the latest fashions in clothing, shoes, accessories, makeup, bath and body items, and decorative knickknacks.

  As Tori picked out a few items to try on, she noticed the clerk out of the corner of her eye. It was Chloe, and Chloe didn’t look at all pleased to see Tori or the rest of her entourage. Tori noticed that Chloe rolled her eyes as one of Brenda’s comments resulted in loud, screeching laughter, whispering something to her coworker with her eyes still trained on Tori’s group. The other clerk giggled and walked from behind the counter to where Tori’s group resided.

  “Can I help you girls with anything?” the clerk asked politely.

>   Tori studied the girl’s attire, sneering at the combat boots and skirt combination. “It looks like you need a little help yourself, actually,” she jeered as the other girls snickered behind her.

  “Excuse me?” the clerk demanded, both eyebrows raised in surprise and anger.

  “Who’s been dressing you, the thrift store?” Sabrina added. “You’d think you’d be able to afford real clothes working in a store like this!”

  The clerk glared at Sabrina, refraining from saying anything that would get her fired. “If you need any help, we’ll be at the counter,” she managed through clenched teeth. She walked away, Chloe glaring at them from the safety of her workstation.

  After a few minutes, Tori walked up to the counter with a pile of clothes, sneering. “I need a dressing room opened,” she demanded, glaring impatiently at the clerk with the combat boots.

  The clerks glanced at one another, silently deciding who would deal with this pack of spoiled brats. Chloe’s coworker reluctantly retrieved the keys and sighed. “How many items do you have?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Tori said, her clique watching from a distance. “Why don’t you count them for me?” Stifled snickering wafted from Tori’s friends to her ears.

  The clerk sighed again, thumbing through the hooks while counting. “You can only take in six at a time,” she instructed, hanging the rest of the clothing on a nearby rack. “You can switch these out when you’re ready.”

  “Girls, care to help me?” Tori called loudly, and her clique made their way to the back of the store. They huddled around the dressing room area while shouting their opinions on Tori’s outfits, taking the space of three stalls and haphazardly tossing clothing onto the floor, empty chairs, and benches.

  After nearly a half-hour, the girls made their way to the register, leaving the dressing room in shambles. The clerk gasped as she saw the state of the space and began cleaning up the mess, shaking her head in disgust and glaring at the girls she struggled to make sense of the scattered, crumpled clothing. Chloe rang up their items, her lips pursed as she angrily folded and bagged each item. Laughing as they left the store, they didn’t give their behavior a second thought or notice the clerks’ exasperated stares.

  Halfway to the next store, Brenda brought the girls’ attention to a group of male shoppers across the mall corridor. “Feel like getting some free food, ladies?” she whispered, winking.

  The boys, while not hideous, looked like the kind of socially awkward dorks that did nothing but play video games outside of school—just the type of boys that they preyed on in the mall.

  Sabrina nodded, making eye contact with one of the boys. The girls stopped in the aisle, tossing their hair coyly as they glanced over and waved.

  The boys waved, glancing at each other with puzzled expressions. None of them understood why girls who didn’t go to their school—especially such pretty ones—would ever want to speak to them.

  “Come over here, guys,” Sabrina instructed sweetly, motioning at them to walk over.

  One of the boys shrugged, and he started advancing towards the girls. His friends followed suit hesitantly, still confused.

  Tori walked over to the tallest, most muscular guy of the group, throwing her shoulders back to accentuate her breasts. “Hi there,” she said, winking at him. “What’s your name?”

  “Josh,” he answered, sneaking a not-so-subtle glance at her chest. “What’s your name?”

  “Tori,” she replied, tossing her long hair behind her shoulders and brushing a finger gently across the boy’s bicep. “Oooh! I love your shirt!”

  “Thanks,” he muttered, flexing involuntarily. Each girl began introducing themselves to the others in the group, each flirting with their counterpart.

  Fifteen minutes later, the girls were enjoying free dinner in the food court as they continued to flirt and talk with the boys. Sabrina had wandered off with a boy named Ian, rushing back to the table with a necklace that she’d been eyeing up at one of the stores. “Isn’t he fantastic?” she gushed, throwing her arms around him. She kissed him on the cheek, his face flushing a bright crimson in response.

  Saying goodbye to her friends, Sabrina walked to her car as Ian trailed behind. “Thanks for dinner,” she said, hugging him. “I had a good time hanging out with you and your friends.”

  “No problem,” Ian replied. “So…um…would you like to come over to my place and hang out? My parents are out tonight.”

  Sabrina studied Ian’s pathetic, eager face, knowing the payback that he’d expect. She laughed, much to his dismay. “No, I don’t think my boyfriend would like that, but thanks for the necklace!” She closed her car door in his face and drove away, waving to a befuddled Ian as he stood frozen in the parking lot.

  Chapter 4

  The weekend had soon arrived, Labor Day extending it an extra day. By Tuesday, Sabrina could barely wait for Tori to arrive in homeroom so that she could get Tori’s attention in front of others. Compliments from Tori were rare, so when she gave them out, everyone looked at the recipient like royalty. She hoped that Tori’s mind hadn’t changed about her clothing purchase on Friday night; the last thing Sabrina needed was to be berated first thing in the morning.

  As Tori strolled into the room, Sabrina did a double-take. Tori was wearing the shirt she’d told Sabrina not to buy the night prior.

  A smug look on her face, Tori slid into the desk next to Sabrina. “Hey there, Rina!” she greeted sweetly.

  “Nice shirt,” Sabrina muttered bitterly. I bet she told me to get this shirt because that one looked better on me. God forbid I steal the limelight for a few minutes!

  “Thanks!” Tori exclaimed, completely oblivious to Sabrina’s anger. “That shirt looks great on you! And it matches the necklace Ian bought for you! They look awesome together!”

  Sabrina’s shoulders loosened up as she thanked Tori and onlookers turned their heads to check her out. She knew that the compliment was most likely a decoy in this instance, but it still had the desired effect.

  “So did you get rid of that puppy dog following you around Friday night?” Tori asked with a grin.

  Sabrina chuckled. “Yeah, eventually,” she replied. “I had to lie and tell him I had a boyfriend before he would go away. What about you?”

  Tori shrugged. “I gave him a fake number and went home.”

  Sabrina laughed. “God, they were so dumb,” she said, thinking of Ian blundering while trying to carry on a conversation.

  Tori chuckled. “They usually are.” She looked up as Chloe walked into the room. As soon as their eyes met, Chloe glared at her and spun abruptly to hurry to her friends.

  “What was that about?” Sabrina asked.

  “She was one of the clerks at Trend on Friday,” Tori explained.

  Sabrina smiled. “That explains it,” she said. “It was so awesome when you—”

  Tori abruptly stood up, cutting Sabrina’s sentence short. “Oh my god!” Tori exclaimed.

  Sabrina immediately forgave Tori’s outburst as she saw what had just walked in the room: a chubby boy with mussed hair, a tattered shirt, and camo pants.

  “Who in the hell raised the rock?” Tori yelled across the room. The boy stopped in his tracks, his face flush.

  “This thing crawled from under it and didn’t even bother to clean off first!” Sabrina shouted.

  “Did your hillbilly grandfather die and pass those clothes down to you, or was the Salvation Army feeling generous?” Tori continued as the classroom burst into laughter.

  Mortified, the boy skittered away to the very back of the room, sinking low into the desk as most of the class stared at him and jeered.

  The only ones not laughing, Tori noticed, were Chloe and her group of friends; instead, they were shaking their heads in disgust as they huddled together, talking in loud whispers over how awful their peers were.

  Seeing Chloe’s anger made Tori’s smile fade away in an instant. She couldn’t
explain why, but there was just something about Chloe’s disapproval that made her uneasy.

  * * *

  Every day, Chloe’s public speaking class dragged on for what seemed like hours. It was bad enough that Chloe had to see Tori’s face in homeroom—and during the occasional shopping spree at Trend, though they’d been blessedly absent from the store since they had last destroyed the dressing room—but she also couldn’t escape her during public speaking. Fortunately, Mr. Thompson kept control over his students, so Tori hadn’t been given any opportunities to disrupt the class. If Chloe was honest, though, hearing Tori struggle to form coherent sentences wasn’t much better than her typical incessant taunting. Chloe couldn’t fathom being like Tori, comfortable with everyone always hating her and thinking that she’s an idiot.

  Though she was thankful for Tori’s silence between garbled attempts at speech, Chloe couldn’t understand why Tori had to be so awful all of the time, especially towards people she’d never met. Tracey, her coworker, had gone home in tears almost immediately after she’d cleaned up after the Frosted Flakes that night, and she had been on edge every evening shift since. Chloe also sympathized with the Eddie, the boy in homeroom whom Tori had chosen to torment. He couldn’t help it that his parents couldn’t afford the best clothing, that they weren’t rich like Tori’s family; there was no reason to bring attention to it.

  * * *

  Chloe slumped into the cafeteria seat next to Kristen, resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

  Kristen glanced over at Chloe, her brow furrowing. “You look exhausted, Chlo! Are you okay?”

  Chloe glanced at Kristen, her eyes weary. “I’m fine, I guess,” she replied. “I think calculus and public speaking are going to be a pain in the ass. I have to work tonight, too, which doesn’t help anything because I won’t get to study.”

  “I understand calculus being a pain,” Kristen began, “but why public speaking? You’re usually good at that.”