How To Be A Perfect Girl (2 page)

“Welcome!” he grinned at the still-standing
freshmen, who were waiting for seat assignments to be revealed. “No
desks here; feel free to take your seats at one of the lab
stations.” Valentina took her seat at one of the labs closest to
the front, snagging a chair that faced the teacher. Several
students started to get out pens and notebooks; “No need for
those,” Mr. Phillips waved his hand. “That’ll come later. Today
we’re just going to enjoy—the—chemistry.” As he said the last
words, Mr. Phillips poured some kind of liquid into a beaker in the
middle of one of the lab stations; a foamy, blue-colored substance
rose and slid down the sides of the beaker. It fell onto the table
and expanded even further. Mr. Phillips went to a similar beaker at
each of the other lab stations; a different color foam erupted from
each station’s beaker. When it landed on the counter in front of
Valentina, she was amazed to find that it was spelling out words.
Or, more accurately, words were spelled out by the few inches of
table left uncovered by foam.

“Respect,” Valentina whispered to herself,
frowning.

“That’s right,” Mr. Phillips announced,
“Respect! Those are your class guidelines and rules. Respect me,
respect your classmates, and especially—“ he returned to the front
of the classroom, “Respect the science.”

Valentina giggled; Mr. Phillips was weird,
but at least he knew how to make a class exciting. Beside her, a
pig-nosed girl raised her hand. “Yes, Miss—?” Mr. Phillips called
on her.

“Jenny. Jenny Curtis.” Jenny spoke loudly,
as if she were afraid Mr. Phillips wouldn’t hear her, “Are you
going to explain the science behind this table-writing trick?” It
sounded like an accusation.

The teacher smiled, “If you want me to. But
wouldn’t you rather see some other cool things you can do with
science? I was planning on having the class make—“

Jenny cut him off, “I’m here to learn. I can
see ‘cool things’ at home.”

Mr. Phillips frowned, “Show of hands, then.
Who here would like to start class as soon as possible?” To
Valentina’s surprise, all but two hands shot into the air; she left
hers down, and the boy across from her did likewise. “Alright,” Mr.
Phillips seemed disappointed, “I guess you will need to get out
your notes.”

The incident amazed Valentina; that a group
of students would actively choose work over sitting back and
watching experiments was unnatural, and the fact that a teacher
would amend his plans because a student demanded it was
unprecedented in her experience. If Mr. Phillips had been a teacher
at Walker, he would have simply plowed ahead with what he had
planned; Valentina supposed that was one of the differences between
a state-funded institution and one where parents paid thousands for
their children to get the best education possible.

Mr. Phillips was not nearly as interesting
when he was explaining the concepts behind what he had done; the
class took notes as he mumbled about “sanitizer and shaving cream”.
Valentina took studious notes, but the boy across from her, the
only other one who hadn’t voted for the “real lesson” simply
watched as their teacher spoke. “What are you doing?” Valentina
whispered at him.

“Staging a protest,” the boy replied,
flashing Valentina with a smirk.

“But what if there’s a test on this?”

“Then I’ll bs it. Besides, explaining the
experiments obviously wasn’t part of his pre-approved lesson plan,
so I doubt he’ll add it to any quizzes.”

“Pre-approved lesson plan?” Valentina
asked.

“Yeah, every teacher here has to submit
their lesson plan so the administrators can take a look at it.”

“How do you know that?” Valentina leaned
forward onto the lab counter.

“You learn a lot of things when your
mother’s the principle,” the boy smiled. “How else do you think a
slacker like me could get into ‘Palm Lake Prep’?”

Valentina laughed; it was obvious this boy
wanted to seem cool, and his act was cute. “I’m Valentina, but you
can call me Val,” she offered her hand.

“And I’m not shaking that,” the boy gestured
at her hand, “You just had it sitting in god-knows-what.”

“Oh my god!” Valentina screamed; Mr.
Phillips turned to see what was wrong. “What was in that foam?”
Valentina asked, panicking.

“Just hydrochloric acid. Don’t worry, your
skin will grow back in a week,” Mr. Phillips smiled.

“I have to go to the nurse!” Valentina was
hyperventilating. “It burns!”

Jenny shied away from Valentina as she got
up and rushed for the exit. “Wait!” Mr. Phillips called as she was
about to leave. She turned back to face him. “When was the last
time you got burned by water and soap?”

“Huh?” was all Valentina could say.

“I was just messing with you,” Mr. Phillips’
expression softened. “The foam decomposes into water after a minute
or two, and the solution on the table was just soap. The worst that
could’ve happened is some of the dye might have gotten on your
arm.”

Valentina’s face flushed; the other students
were laughing. She slunk back to her seat and sat down awkwardly.
“Keenan,” the boy offered, a toothy grin set on his face.

Chapter 3

Student Council met in the largest room in
Palm Lake—the cafeteria. Valentina had been surprised that it
started the very first day of school, but in a way it made sense.
At Palm Lake, the Student Council was a big deal—one in four
students was a member.

Palm Lake’s Vice President, Raelyn Davis,
matched Valentina’s definition of a nerd perfectly; down to the
polo with a pocket protector. She spoke so quietly that everyone in
the cafeteria had to strain to hear; Raelyn didn’t seem to like
crowds, an assumption Valentina made based on the fact that the
senior girls’ bespectacled eyes seemed glued to the floor for her
whole speech.

Even though several words were lost to the
quiet whispering of the seniors, who’d sat through similar speeches
four times now, Val got the gist of what Raelyn was trying to
say—running for a Student Council position at Palm Lake was more
than a way to measure your popularity; the winners would be
expected to lead their class and occasionally administrators would
call meetings with the four class Presidents and ask their opinion
before implementing policy. It all sounded great, but Valentina was
dubious that it was as important as Raelyn was saying; the
Principal might ask for class Presidents’ opinions, but that didn’t
mean she had to listen to what they thought. In all likelihood it
was simply a matter of making the Student Council feel like they
were important; but there was a chance that those meetings could
actually affect something, and that was what Valentina loved about
Student Council—the social aspect was great, and the opportunity to
affect real change was enticing.

“So,” Raelyn was still talking, “Now we’re
going to divide into our class groups. freshmen will go over here,”
she pointed to one corner of the room, “Sophomores over there,”
another corner, “and juniors there and seniors there,” she gestured
to the final two corners. The sound of chairs squeaking filled the
cafeteria as everyone moved to their designated corners; Valentina
was already sitting close enough to the Freshman corner, so she
decided to remain where she was. A shy looking boy sat down near
her; she tried to catch his eye with a smile, but he either didn’t
see or chose to ignore her.

“Oh, you’re the girl who thought you got
acid on your arm,” Valentina turned to locate the source of the
statement; Jenny Curtis took a seat right next to her, “You’re in
my chem class.”

“Yeah, I know. You were the one who made Mr.
Phillips explain the soap thing.”

“Well you don’t blame me, do you? Honestly,
I come here to learn.” Jenny looked ready for an argument.

Valentina decided it would be pointless to
voice her opinion. Instead, she turned to a blonde boy who had sat
down next to the shy-looking boy; they were talking excitedly and
looking at something behind the table. “What are you doing?” she
asked.

The blonde boy smiled at her, his tilted
glasses adding humor to the expression, “We’re trading Mini Monster
cards. Wanna see?”

“Uh, sure,” Valentina replied. The boy
handed her a card and she took it lightly, noticing how it
shimmered in the light. “It’s certainly—interesting.”

“Oh yeah,” the blonde boy said, “Mini
Monsters has all sorts of complex rules and different card types
and so. If you wanted, I could show you how to play—I have an extra
starter deck at home if you want it.”

Well now you’ve done
it
, Valentina thought. She couldn’t think
of a way to decline without hurting the boy’s feelings; his shy
friend whispered something Valentina couldn’t hear. “What’s that?”
she asked.

“He said you were just being nice and you
don’t actually care.”

Yup, that’s pretty much
it
, Valentina thought. Instead she said,
“No, of course I’m interested. Maybe you could bring your starter
deck thing to the next Student Council meeting?”

Jenny laughed, “You don’t actually wanna
learn how to play a stupid card game, do you?” she asked, loud
enough that the two boys could hear.

“Sure. I mean might as well, right?”
Valentina replied.

Jenny scoffed. Raelyn had retaken her
position at the head of the cafeteria, “Ok, so this is the time to
get to know your fellow class leaders. If you’ve been talking with
the same people for the past few minutes, move and find someone new
to meet.”

There were eleven freshmen in all; Valentina
grabbed her bag and started to move to another group. “Wait!” the
blonde boy called, “What’s your name?”

“Valentina—Val.”

“Cool. I’m Aiden and he—“Aiden pointed to
his quiet, black-haired friend, “Is the one they call Noah.”

“Huh?” Val shot Aiden a confused look.

“Just trying to be funny—nevermind. See you
around.”

Valentina started for the group Jenny had
moved to, but they were giggling and looking at her in a way that
made her think Jenny had already told them the Chemistry story. She
avoided the girls and sat with the other group of four—she was the
only girl there.

The conversation died off for a moment;
“That seat looks uncomfortable, why don’t you sit here instead?”
the boy gestured to his lap, and his friends all laughed.

“Uh, no thanks.” Valentina grimaced.

“Well, we’re supposed to get to know each
other. And you—well, I want to get to know you very intimately,”
the boy winked as more laughter goaded him on.

“Gross.”

“How is that gross? It’s not like I’m asking
you to give me a lap dance. Although, if you wanted to I wouldn’t
say no.”

Valentina’s face flushed; she wasn’t used to
anyone speaking so crudely. “That will never happen.”

“Alright, mi bella, I’ll settle for your
name then.” The boy smiled—although it looked more like a leer than
any smile Valentina had seen before.

“My name?” he nodded, “Uh, it’s Valentina.
Or Val—some people call me Val.”

“Valentina,” the boy repeated, “What a
beautiful name for such a beautiful girl. I believe it means
‘divine splendor’?”

“I really wouldn’t know,” Valentina
shrugged.

“Well then,” the boy gestured to himself,
“My name’s Alex.”

He pointed to his friends, and each of them
spoke as he did; “Grant”, “Steven”, and “Logan” all seemed a lot
mellower. Valentina liked Grant the most; at least he’d had the
courtesy to blush at Alex’s jokes.

***

“Tchk Ta Tchk,” Mckayla made avalanche
noises as she dropped the plastic boulders down her brother’s
mountain playset.

“That’s not what falling rocks sound like!”
Brady accused.

“Oh yeah?” Mckayla laughed, “How would you
know? Have you ever been in a rockslide?”

In response, Brady stuck his tongue out at
her, “Mom does it better.”

“Mom’s at work.” Mckayla ruffled Brady’s
hair. “So you’re gonna have to deal with the way I make the
sounds.”

“Alright.” Brady grabbed the toy truck under
the boulders and slammed it into the mountain. “Ba-boom!” he
shouted, “The oil truck blows up!”

“Isn’t that a little violent?” Mckayla
asked.

Brady shrugged, “Things blow up. It’s a part
of life.” He looked up at her as if he had said something
incredibly profound.

The doorbell rang; “I’ll get it!” Mckayla
announced. It was Valentina; Mckayla embraced her best friend. “So,
how was your first day at Super-exclusive, Chai-latte High?” she
asked.

“Horrible!” Valentina exclaimed. She slipped
off her shoes and entered her friend’s house. “Everyone laughed at
me!”

Val walked to the room Mckayla and Brady
shared, and Mckayla followed.

“Surprise!” Val shouted as she leapt into
view of the room. Brady was nowhere to be seen.

He leapt out at the pair of girls from
inside the closet and swung a foam sword at their legs; Valentina
giggled as Brady ran into the family room. She chased after him;
“I’m gonna get you!” she joked. Mckayla opened the closet and
grabbed a toy weapon of her own; if Brady wanted to play with the
soft toys, she would play along. When she entered the main room of
their ranch-house, Brady was sitting calmly on Valentina’s lap as
she hugged him tightly. Mckayla leaned her sword against the wall;
so much for the fight.

“I think your sister was about to kill you,”
Valentina pointed to the sword she had just set aside.

“Nuh uh! I’m the best knight in all the
land!” Brady wriggled around to face his sister. “And besides, I
have V to protect me!”

“Wait a minute,” Val said as her friend
retrieved the sword, “Aren’t knights supposed to protect damsels,
and not the other way around?”

“Oh yeah,” Brady jumped off Valentina’s lap
and wrapped his arms around Mckayla’s legs; they fell to the
ground. Mckayla groaned at the impact.