Atria (Chapter 6)

Olivia walked hastily over towards Corey. As she walked, her hips wiggled, signifying that she was trying a little too hard. Natasha watched her as she approached the group of boys playing handball and had to consciously try not to giggle, Olivia actually looked quite the fool. Obviously the boys didn’t think so though. The poor idiots couldn’t take their eyes off her. As everyone reading this probably knows, it isn’t all that easy to make a school uniform look sexy, especially this one! Olivia’s parents were never short of money, so Olivia went to the best private school in a district. Anyone with half a brain could tell that the schools’ entire existence, strived towards ensuring that every student was as unattractive to the opposite sex as humanely possible, without dressing them as a nun that is. This particular uniform consisted of a sky blue ankle length pleated skirt and white blouse with blue and grey trimming around the sleeves and collar for the girls, and Navy blue trousers and a white long sleeved shirt for the boys. Not exactly red carpet material. On the average student it could be mistaken for a particularly ugly set of kitchen curtains, but on Olivia, with the top button of her two-sizes-to-small blouse undone and her skirt hemmed to just above the knee, she looked something special. The boys obviously thought so. Olivia looked the picture of confidence, but her stomach was squirming like there was a rouge legless lizard trapped inside.
“Hi Corey” she said, trying her hardest to keep her voice steady. “Hi Olivi…livia” he stammered. Olivia smiled weakly. “Um” she continued, “Is there… I mean, is there any chance you, I dunno, want to hang out tonight or something?” Corey’s eyes widened, as did those of all of the boys standing around him. “Ugh” he stuttered “Ugh, I um suppose so, that’s if you want to I mean. “Cool” replied Olivia who was now the picture of confidence. “I suppose you will want my number then” she finished enquiringly. Without even a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed Corey by the wrist and pulled his arm to within her reach. Corey was caught slightly unawares and had to grasp the shoulder of the guy next to him to prevent himself toppling directly on top of Olivia. Then, Olivia groped in her pocket with her spare hand until she felt her fingers clasp around her purple gel pen. She withdrew her hand, holding the pen, pulled the lid off with her teeth and scribbled her phone number on Corey’s arm.
When she was finished she released her grip on his arm and put the pen lid back on the pen, stowing it safely in her blouse pocket. With nothing more than a brief “I’ll see ya later then” she strutted back over towards Natasha, ensuring that she left a lasting impression if you get my drift.
By the time Olivia reached the bench where Natasha was sitting, she was smiling from ear to ear. “Not bad ey!” she boasted. “Actually…” Natasha started, she paused muster all the tact she had, “That was horrendous” she gasped hopelessly. “What” asked Olivia inquiringly, she could feel her eyes start to swim with tears but she refused to cry at school, so she bit her bottom lip and waited for Natasha to continue.
“The whole thing” Natasha groaned, “you should have seen yourself! You were walking like some kind of stripper, your eyeliner is smudged everywhere, you have something green in your teeth, and in case you didn’t realize, I think you sat in chocolate milk ‘cause there is a hell of a stain on your **.” Olivia never truly saw religion in the way her parents did, she went to church on Sunday like an obedient child but she wasn’t one to ask god for any favors, as far as she was concerned, she didn’t need any help. This though, was a special circumstance. Olivia placed her hands in prayer and looked to the sky… “Please god, tell me that Natasha is joking” “Sorry bub” said Natasha “God can’t help you with this one.” Olivia swore loudly.
She stood there for a moment, trying to compose herself, then suddenly turned and sprinted towards the sport shed. “OLIVIA” Natasha yelled before sprinting after her. Natasha was not much of a runner; she was into the quieter side of life, the poems and novels, and computer games. Natasha thought about that as she ran, they really were quite the odd couple. Olivia and her looks, Tasha and her books. Natasha snorted to herself as she thought this, remembering watching he movie “Matilda” with her family and hearing her mother snort in disgust as Mrs. Wormwood spoke that line. Natasha snapped back to reality just in the nick of time, she was about to run right over the top of the cute P.E teacher, Mr. Howell. She ploughed her heels into the ground and stopped only centimeters from the teacher’s muscled chest. She looked up at him and smiled weakly “Sorry” she squeaked before tearing off again. She reached the sport shed just in time to see Olivia yank up the roller door with all of her might, nearly pulling it off the hinges and storm inside. Natasha waited. She knew Olivia all to well to just go running in there after her, chances were she would end up with a black eye. After only a minute or two, Olivia came out wearing her sports uniform, consisting of a pair of blue culottes and a white T-shirt with the school logo on the chest, and kicking her lucky soccer ball, the one that she had kicked the winning goal with at the state championships the year before. She saw Natasha and turned away, heading for the oval. Natasha called after her “YOU DO REALISE THERE ARE ONLY 15 MINUITES LEFT OF LUNCH DON’T YOU!” she yelled. Olivia ignored her and started kicking the ball with all of her might at the Rebound pad. Olivia had invented the Rebound pad herself, after becoming sick and tired of having to run after the ball when she was playing on her own. The school had endorsed it and after a few months, every school in the Melbourne district had one. Natasha became sick and tired of being ignored so after a minute she yelled “FINE I’LL SE YOU IN CLASS THEN” and walked back towards the quad.
As soon as Natasha was out of sight, Olivia burst into tears. She kicked the soccer ball as hard as she could in the direction that Natasha had just walked, and fell to her knees as she watched it bounce on the roof of A block and then roll out of sight. Olivia could have kicked herself for crying, her whole life she had seen it as a weakness and would never cry in front of anyone except her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t know why she was upset, all of the way through primary school there had been people who would put her down because they were jealous of her beauty or her brains or whatever, and she had never cried then, she hadn’t even wanted to, it really didn’t matter to her. So why now!
Why did the stupid little occurrence of someone laughing at her hurt so much, Natasha had laughed at her a hundred times before, for far worse reasons than this. Olivia sat there in the middle of the oval for the rest of the lunch break, alone. and when the bell rang the dried the last of her tears, changed back into her formal uniform and went to get her books for drama.1


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