Survival Of The Fittest

((Continued from: After-School Band Practice))

Jolie having just recently pulled into the parking lot adjacent to Sweet Bay Coffee Shop, Tanesha exited the blonde's vehicle with a bit of effort on her part.  The car ride there had been a bit awkward to say the least, with Tanesha stuttering, spazzing, and feeling as though she had been talking too much the entire way there.  She secretly hoped that she wasn't somehow annoying Jolie, because in all honesty, it was sort of cool to hang out with someone who didn't seem to think they were a thousand times your superior.

The blazing afternoon heat of mid-summer had begun to fade into a relaxing and peaceful temperature, and Tanesha was no longer perspiring profusely from the heat.  Subconsciously, Tanesha made a subtle attempt at sniffing herself to make sure she didn't reek of body odor.  Letting out a relieved sigh when she confirmed that in fact, no foul stench had overtaken her, she suddenly hoped that Jolie hadn't noticed the almost spaztic move.

"I come here a lot to do my homework and stuff," Tanesha mused.  Didn't I already say that?  I hope she doesn't think I'm talking too much.

Heading toward the doors at a waddling pace, she glanced beside her to her newfound companion.  Secretly, Tanesha hoped that none of her classmates awaited inside.  The last thing she needed was another vicious rumor to go around about her being a lesbian, and in a way, she supposed that herself and Jolie would somehow fit the part of the stereotypical lesbian couple.  Jolie would, of course, be the woman of the relationship with her stunning and feminine looks.  And Tanesha?  Well, according to the vicious rumors that went around school, Tanesha'd be the masculine one of the relationship.

Looking down at her attire, she could almost see why.  The truth was, she had bought the oversized and baggy t-shirt she was wearing in the men's department, her pants were camouflage in color, and not the cute pink and gray camo that lots of dainty girls trying to pull off the look wear, but full-ledged, green, brown, and black camo that the army guys wore.  Even her shoes looked sort of manly, now that she thought about it.  But there was nothing wrong with the way she dressed, at least in her mind.  It was comfortable, and that was what was important, right?

Besides, who in their right mind would want to see someone of Tanesha's proportions in tight clothing?  Bleh.

"S-so..." Tanesha stuttered as she pushed the door to the coffee shop open and even politely held it open for her companion, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

Smooth, Tanesha.  Now she's probably going to think you're asking her out.  Ew.

As awkward as the question was, and even though Tanesha inwardly knew that Jolie would probably just look at her funny for the question, boys seemed to be the thing to talk about.  They were always on Tanesha's mind, because truth be told, she was a little bit boy-crazy.  Just a little.  But that was normal for her age, right?  Even the popular girls were boy-crazy, Carmen had named off a huge list of potential candidates earlier that afternoon.

Placing herself in line to order a coffee, Tanesha awaited a response.  What if this Jolie girl was crushing on the same guys that Tanesha liked?!  Surely she wouldn't, besides, she'd only been in school a day, and most of the Bathurst boys weren't really the love-at-first-sight kind of guys.  Well, there were a few that were pretty hot, but Tanesha figured, Jolie probably didn't have that problem.

Jolie was oblivious to Tanesha's awkwardness as they entered the coffee house.  Jolie had always been relatively oblivious to other peoples uncomfortableness around her.  In fact if she had been any keener she might have realized that guys were somewhat intimidated by her, but Jolie attributed the fact that she had never had a boyfriend to her own social retardation; it was just the way the blonde girl was.  Boys... which brought her to Tanesha's question.

"No I don't have a boyfriend, actually I've never had one.  I'm just a little to soak-socially retarded I guess to attract anybody.  It doesn't mean I haven't had crushes though.  So far I haven't really met anyone here, but there's a hockey player at that Catholic school who I've seen around town a couple times.  I'd say he's my type.  Pants they called him I think," Jolie emitted an awkward chuckle, "do you like boys."

Realizing that what she had just said might have sounded like an inquiry on sexual orientation Jolie flushed her famous shade of crimson and stumbled to correct herself, "I mean do you like any boys, is what I meant."

Good job slick...

"Or are you dating someone already?"

The aroma of coffee was delicious to her senses but Jolie dared not place her order until the large black girl answered her question, out of both respect and intimidation.  Jolie still couldn't look Tanesha in the eyes to save her life.  Jolie tapped her fingers leaning against the glass of the coffee containers and doing her best to awkwardly smile, almost tripping and barely gaining her balance.  Trying to play it off she looked ridiculous.  Of course several the straight males in the room had failed to notice her awkwardness and had become more fixated on her busom.  Once again Jolie Sheehan was oblivious.

They call him Pants?  Well that's a funny nickname.  The thought passed through Tanesha's mind and she couldn't help but inwardly snicker a bit at the thought of it.  What would persuade them to call him Pants?  Throughout the course of her time talking to Jolie, she could just imagine the sort of person this boy was.  He played a retarded (in Tanesha's oh-so-humble-and-modest opinion) sport and was obviously a devout Catholic, otherwise he wouldn't attend a Catholic school.  If Jolie's social retardation was any indication, he probably wasn't a social butterfly either.  In fact, Tanesha imagined that they called him "Pants" because he was the reincarnate of Steve Urkel or something.  She could just imagine this boy walking around with a retainer and pants that came up to his chest.

Forcing back a laugh-turned-snort at the thought of it all, Tanesha became mindful of her own retainer.  It was camoflauge in color -- and not the girly sort of pink and gray camoflauge but the rough-on army color -- and was currently filling the roof of her mouth in a most uncomfortable manner.  Absent-mindedly, she clicked her tongue against the bottom of it before running her tongue the length of her teeth, over the shiny metal bar.  As Jolie's next question came, however, Tanesha was snapped back to reality and almost offended by the remark.

What did she mean, do you like boys?

Of course Tanesha liked boys.  She wasn't a lesbian.  My God, she'd gone out of her way to clarify that one already.  Oh no, what if Jolie thought that Tanesha had been hitting on her this entire time or something?  What if Jolie swung both ways?  Oh man, this could get really awkward really fast.  As Jolie just as quickly realized the awkward form she'd worded her question in and reiterated it in an apologetic tone, Tanesha's discomfort ceased into nothingness quite visibly.  In fact, it was almost funny.  Tanesha was so used to getting the lesbian remarks from everyone that it was almost second-nature to her now.  Of course, that was awkward, and she shouldn't be used to people calling her a lesbian, but it barely phased her these days.

"Oh, I'm used to it," she mused, suddenly realizing how that sounded, "People... people say it a lot to be mean or whatever, I guess.  As for me... dating someone?"  Tanesha laughed loudly, "Well... there's a guy."

Sure, she was lying through her teeth, but in her warped mind Tanesha just knew that they were soulmates and they were meant to be together.  Nevermind the fact that she'd said that exact same thing about someone else last week, that was a whole week ago.  This boy and herself, they were destined to be together forever.

"We're not together yet," she confessed, "But I'm working on it.  It's hot.  He's a..." she paused a moment as though she couldn't quite figure out how to word it, "A martial artist.  He's really good."

A wide-spread grin slowly crept over the heavy-set girl's features, making her already pudgy cheeks look all the more rotund.  Just the thought of Panom Ning~Tom sent chills down her spine.  He was hot in every sense of the word.  But should she really be telling Jolie all this?  She barely knew the girl.  How did she know that she could trust her not to turn around and try to swipe this guy out from under her nose?  Swipe him away like so many of her friends did to all the other guys she liked.  She hated her friends to meet her crushes, because her crush always wound up liking her friend over her.  What did they have that she didn't?  Maybe Tanesha was jealous.  Okay, of course Tanesha was jealous.  It was definitely better to keep information on Mr. Ning~Tom to a minimum around Jolie.  She already had Elizabeth Waters to contend with.  She certainly didn't need someone else on top of it all.

Embarressed Jolie shook her head, "Oh no I didn't mean to imply that you might be a lesbian!  But if you were I mean that's okay too!"  

Stupid, stupid, just shut up now!

Awkwardly she continued, "So this guy you like what's his name, I don't know very many people but maybe I have a class or two with him."

He must be hideous if he's into that...

Jolie couldn't help but look away from the girl and around the coffee shop, she hated herself for her thoughts sometimes... so cruel and harsh, but honest.

She placed an order for a tall mocha latte with extra whip cream and rumaged in her purse as if she were really looking for something.  Grabbing the first thing she grasped she pulled it out.

A hairbrush smooth!

Jolie trying to play it cool brushed her soft blonde hair back and rummaged through the faux Louis Vetton handbag for a scrunchy.  Finding one she pulled her hair into a pony tail and smiled, all the while half listening to Tanesha and desperately trying to keep herself from looking like a fool for once in her life.

"Number 167," a grungy looking girl with dreadlocks and purple lipstick said unenthusiastically near the cash register and muffin case.

Didn't mean to imply that I was a lesbian?  But it'd be okay?  Is this girl for real?  Do I... do I really look like that much of one?  Is that why nobody likes me?  They all think I'm a lesbian?  Really?  Even this girl, and she barely knows me.  No love for the fat girl.  Nobody ever loves the fat girl.  It's girls like her, girls like Jolie, that all the guys flock too.  And it's dumb.  Look at her, she's not that pretty, she's a total ditz, she's got the wit of a rotten banana peel.  I don't understand?  Why not the girl with the nice personality?  Everyone always tells me I have a nice personality.  And I'm smart.  So much smarter than her.  But then... why do all these guys keep looking at her?  They see right through me... and right to her.

Tanesha was thrown from her internal monologue of angstiness as Jolie asked her about her crush.  Her face flushed red, but because of her chocolate colored skin, it was unnoticeable.  This girl really wanted to know the name of her crush?  She'd probably just try to steal him away.  All her friends always tried to steal all the boys away from her.  And what was worse is that all the boys were willingly stolen by her friends.  The simple truth was that Tanesha Lexx was a very jealous, very insecure individual.  But that could be said of almost every high school girl, right?  After all, Tanesha had been forced to sit back and watch for years and years as all the guys looked right through her and never gave her a second glance once her friends walked into the room.

"His name's, uh," she stuttered momentarily before deciding it was best not to reveal her true crush to this girl, "His name's... Cody."

There were a couple different Cody's at Bathurst High School, so surely it was believable, right?  This girl didn't know very many people, she'd probably be clueless as to whether or not a Cody with an interest in martial arts attended Bathurst.  Besides, what was the likelihood that if there even was one, he'd have a class with Jolie?  Bathurst was a pretty big school, after all.  Tanesha considered furthering the lie by telling Jolie that he was younger than them, or perhaps older than them, so that the odds that the two had a class together would drastically decrease even further.  The fact of the matter was that Tanesha already had more rivals-in-love than she could bear in the forms of Elizabeth Waters and Carmen Somerset.  She didn't want to deal with another one in the form of Jolie Sheehan.  Besides, a little white lie never hurt anyone, right?

Well, there was one time that Tanesha told a little white lie that really hurt someone.  Not that Tanesha felt bad about that in the slightest.  Nobody even knew that she was the one who had started that nasty rumor, she'd told her friends that she heard it from someone else.  Then it grew and grew, and eventually, Tanesha Lexx got what she wanted -- the name of the girl, the rival, if you will, was slandered around school.  And to put it bluntly, that bitch deserved what she got, at least in Tanesha's opinion.  Tanesha never had liked that girl anyway, and okay, maybe it was out of jealousy -- just a little -- but the fact remained that people like her were way too uppity and needed to be brought down a notch.  So Tanesha did, and she'd never looked back on the incident, because luckily enough, that girl had never found out who started that vicious rumor.

After Jolie placed her order, Tanesha sauntered up to the counter and ordered what her companion had.  Looking on in an odd expression of mild amusement as Jolie brushed her hair and pulled it up into a ponytail, Tanesha sighed internally.  Jolie's order number was called, and directly after that, so was Tanesha's.  Tanesha eyed the grunge doll behind the counter with a light smile.  People like that girl, people with that fuck the world attitude that she possessed, Tanesha could relate to those sort of people.  Maybe she was a spoiled brat on the outside, but Tanesha never looked at that fact.  The simple truth was that Tanesha Lexx thrived on drama and angst, and she often put herself in situations where those things were imminent.

"So, uh," Tanesha mused with an almost forced sound in her voice, "How do you know this Pants kid?  Just seen him around or what?  Is he cute?  If I saw him, I might know who he is.  Maybe I've seen him at a ballgame or something."

This was probably the most social interaction Tanesha had had with another individual in the entire school year, so it was no surprised that the heavy-set girl's speech came out forced and unarticulate.  Thankfully, they were on the topic of boys, and that was one thing that Tanesha found she could talk about for hours... or angst about in her private diary, whatever worked better.  Generally the latter.  Tanesha led the way to a nearby table and plopped down in the booth, accidentally scooting it back slightly as she sat down.  Groaning at the embarrassment, though immediately laughing at the fact thereafter, she tilted her head a bit and looked at the blonde-headed companion seated across from her.  What an unlikely pair these two were.

"There are a lot of cute guys at Bathurst," the black girl stated plainly as she eyed her companion, "Did you see any you liked today?  We've got lots of eye candy in the school, I'm proud to say."  Tanesha's statement was followed by a fit of giggles.  It was true, Bathurst definitely had its share of male eye candy.  Panom was one, for sure.  Ian Rico.  Jonathan Matthews.  Jack Bexley was good-looking, even though he seemed to be infatuated with that Elizabeth girl.  In some strange way, Tanesha even found Alex Stevens quite attractive.  Maybe it was the whole bad ass aura he presented around himself.  Of course, Tanesha was pretty oblivious to the fact that he was a gang leader, as Alex always seemed the type to keep his outside goings away from the high school.  Besides, she didn't know him all that well.  From what she did know, he seemed like sort of an enigma, and in her humble opinion, that was pretty hot.

Mai slipped behind the counter, nodding quickly to the "purple people eater" manager who had placed a coffee on the bar. Using her card to clock in quickly before she changed into her uniform. What little sweat she had left to perspire was wiped off with the dark shirt, and she sprayed herself with a body spray as she tried to untangle her shoelaces from the collared shirt she was expected to wear.

She took time to feel the bruises forming on her hip and thigh, the lack of iron making the black and blue look ghastly on her light complexion. Fiddling in her bag as she used the other hand to tuck in her shirt and grab for the apron, she jiggled out a bottle of iron pills. Not remembering why she had not taken them earlier, she went for the water fountain and popped the pills into her mouth, getting a sip of water to help her swallow them.

"One White Chocolate Mocha iced," PPE called to Mai when she made it to the front. She lifted her head and let her nose scrunch up, one of the all time worst adaptation to a drink.

Now what moron decided they wanted to defile that luscious warm flavor with frozen water?! The sweet, sweet deliciousness of the white chocolate, the kick of caffiene, all coming together in a holy matrimony that even nicely mixed Starbucks fraps couldn't master. Temperature warming your insides and making it feel like a dandy Christmas morning... and the bitch wants it cold?!

Mai finished the drink and set the cup on the bar, where a rather hefty woman had reached forth with her grubby fingers and grabbed the deemed heinous concoction. A flash in her eyes, unnoticed by the customer, was the dead giveaway to Mai's desire to drop an all verbal smackdown on her. Quickly turning away, she let her fingers tap on the counter as she waited with the PPE for more customers.

Apparently that woman can't appreciate taste, probably doesn't even care. As long as she can unhinge her jaw and just swallow everything like a nasty python. I hope it rains on her and her nasty cold coffee.

"Well I'm always on the lookout for cute guys," Jolie admitted, "but to tell you the truth, I'd be to chicken to pursue any of them.  People in general intimidate me.  I've always been this meek little mousy girl. I'm so used to being overlooked, I get excited if someone calls me Julie just because it's close to how my name sounds.  Pretty pitiful I know."

Sipping the warm mocha latte Jolie realized how vulnerable she sounded to this girl.  Jolie was sure no one found Tanesha intimidating other than herself.  Yet she couldn't help but feel like she was treading on thin ice.  Finally Jolie had a friend, and what if she said the wrong thing?  What if Tanesha thought she was weird or a loser.  What if suddenly Tanesha found herself to good to be friends with a socially retarded... no socially braindead was a better title, girl who'd lived everywhere from Montana to New York City.

Making none of her thoughts visable to the outside world Jolie continued, "It would be nice to have a boyfriend  though... I've never had one.  Unless you count this kid named Bobby Smith from Ms. Hazelrigg's second grade class at Bailey Jones Elementry in Florida... or was it in Georgia... it might have been third grade come to think of it.  I get all the places I've lived in messed up.  But yeah... the point is I've had like nil experience with guys.  I'm sure you've had some boyfriends of puberty past."

Puberty Past?!  What the hell is that...

"Care to share?" Jolie said embarressed from her last comment.

"Hahaha," Tanesha snorted aloud as Jolie commented on her own self-observed loserishness.  She hadn't meant to come off as being rude or cynical or anything of the like, that definitely wasn't her intention.  The fact was, Tanesha Lexx could relate to being overlooked and being a "loser".  People overlooked her all the time -- or worse, looked at her like she was absolutely disgusting.

That's why Tanesha hated the popular girls.  They all looked at her like she was some fat, disgusting blob of nothingness.  They all thought they were so high and mighty with their perfect skin and perfect hair and great bodies.  Tanesha really hated people like that -- people who thought they were better just because they wore nicer clothes or could afford fancy things that most people didn't have.  People like Carmen Somerset, people like Ali Grayston... those were the kind of people who irked Tanesha Lexx to no end.

That's why.  That's why she had to do what she did.

"I haven't really had much past experience with guys," Tanesha confessed sheepishly, "I'm not exactly the most graceful goose in the pond, if you haven't noticed."

Not only was it a horrible analogy, but Tanesha said the words slowly and almost methodically, as if she were filling Jolie in on some confidential secret that she wasn't supposed to know.  Anyone could see that there were girls at Bathurst High School far more attractive than Tanesha Lexx.  For that matter, there were girls in this establishment better-looking than Tanesha.  Even the grunge doll behind the counter was prettier than the blob of a person occupying the chair next to Jolie.

"But there was this one guy..." she stated simply, "We're in band with him.  He and I were together for a while... I guess you could call it together.  I always thought we were in a relationship, but apparently he didn't.  He always seemed to have the hots for someone else.  Different girl every week, you know how it is.  It was always girls he couldn't get, too.  Like, why try to date someone who's way out of your league?  I'd hate to live on false hope that I stood a chance with someone who wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole, you know?  How dumb."

Perhaps she should listen to herself, she sounded like quite the hypocrite, especially because she crushed on virtually everybody and virtually everybody was out of her league.  Nobody wanted to date an obesely-fat black girl who looked like she played the Butch in a lesbian relationship, and that was that.

"Anyway," Tanesha droned on, "That ended in a bad situation.  I think that girl liked him too... she always seemed like she did... and you just don't throw yourself on another girl's boyfriend, you know?  So I... I spread some rumors around school about her to get her away from him, and it worked.  I mean, it probably wasn't right, but that girl's always treated me like shit.  Always acted like she was better than me.  I'm so tired of people like that, you know?  She deserved it.  Besides, if she didn't give it out so much, people wouldn't have believed those rumors anyway... but they did, and that tells you something about her.  You just... you don't mess with other girls' boyfriends.  She figured that out the hard way, some people just have to learn that way."

Jolie had asked about relationships and gotten a guilty rant from Tanesha's conscience.  In fact, Tanesha was the one who had spread the rumors around school about Ali Grayston "giving it up to the football player for her homecoming nomination".  People believed it, so there had to be a reason, right?  If Tanesha would've known what letting that secret slip would cost her down the line, she'd have never revealed what she just did to Jolie.  However, Tanesha wasn't thinking about later on, and never could've foreseen the oncoming events anyway.  For her, this was just a private conversation between two friends, and Ali Grayston never had a chance of finding out that Tanesha was the one who spread those nasty rumors.

There was a ghost in line. He waited patiently till it was his turn to order. Apparently, ghosts order a cappucino double shot with two sugars. To make them feel more alive, no less.  He then walked over to the registar and picked up his drink after paying requisite five dollars. This ghost's name is Ernest, and he tended to stand out.

It was the skin. Most people never saw a real albino in their lives, much less one ordering coffee. He was almost used to it now. As used to it as you can be without becoming inhuman. He didn't want that to happen again. Not ever again. The therapist explained guilt to him and now he that understood it, he'd almost learned it by rote. Speaking of inhumanity, it was time for his pill.

Ernest fished  for his pill case while trying to not spill what precious little cafeinated beverage he had. This was too much for his meager co-ordination. His foot caught on the chair of some heavy girl. He stumbled and turned as fast as possible to apologize to the girl, but if fishing for the pill case was too much, then this technique was far too advanced for him to ever comprehend.

"I'm sorry! Are you alright?" Ernest raved at the girl.

Then he realized that he spilled his coffee all over himself, and not anyone else.

This is not turning out to be a good day..., thought Ernest.


---edited in---
He quickly disengaged himself from the incident, went to the bathroom and cleaned himself up. Inwardly he mourned the shirt he was wearing. The stains would be permanent of course. Just his luck. He did need a new work shirt anyway. He got most of the cappuccino off himself, took his pill, and calmed himself down.

The therapist told him that heightened emotions could work to counteract the medicine.  That's what the meditation lessons were for. Ernest wandered back out and ordered another double shot.

((One thing, real quick.  Tanesha isn't from Hobbsborough, and neither is Jolie, they're both Bathurst girls.))