Fing Perfect - S01 E21

Story 5 months ago

Fing Perfect - S01 E21

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 21

Cal walked out of her seventh period class, happy the school day was over. She was in a particularly good mood these days, mostly because of how things were going with Grace. Every day she seemed to like the girl more.

Although she liked how close they were now, Cal was growing a bit antsy with these feelings. Every time they were together, she wondered if Grace was experiencing the same emotions or if she was just happy that she had a close friend. Not knowing was eating Cal up, as was her desire to touch Grace...pretty much every time they were together she was dying to kiss her.

I wonder if she can even go for girls...I think my heart would break if I kissed her or touched her and she got disgusted.

Well, they weren't nearly at that stage anyway. Cal's imagination was just getting ahead of her.

"Heyyyy!"

Cal was startled when her arm was suddenly grabbed. She looked over to see Kenzie, followed by Mark.

"Hey, not with the boyfriend today?" Cal asked.

Kenzie rolled her eyes. "You say that every time I see you."

"Well, you are always ditching us for him," Mark joked.

Kenzie playfully kicked his shin. "Shut up, you're just mad you're still single."

"Hitting me where it hurts," Mark sighed.

Kenzie turned back to Cal. "Plus, I should be asking you the same. You're not going to follow Grace around like a puppy today?"

"Well, it's not out of the question yet," Cal replied with a laugh.

"Seriously Cal, I'm still not sure about her," Kenzie admitted. "She seems like she's hiding something...or using you to get back at that girl Dana."

Well...it's more of the opposite, Cal thought.

"Why does she even hate Dana?" Mark asked. "She's super nice and hot."

"It's something like an old rivalry, I guess," Cal answered. "But Grace is a lot cooler than she seems. You just got to give her time."

"Hmph," Kenzie huffed, unconvinced. "Well we're not letting her take you away today. You're coming with us to the mall."

"Ew, the mall? Are we in middle school?"

"Shut up, just come."

They dragged her out of the building towards the parking lot. Cal couldn't help but be disappointed from not hanging out with Grace, but to be honest, she could use some time away with her own friends. She felt like she was getting a little too desperate.

"Cal! Hold on a second!"

The trio stopped when they heard the voice, and Cal turned to see a small girl with glasses jogging towards them. Tears were running down her cheeks, her hair frazzled. Her disheveled appearance shocked the group.

"Sarah? What's the matter?" Cal asked, stepping towards her.

"M-my books, th-they're-" The girl was interrupted by her own crying.

Cal couldn't help but feel extremely uncomfortable with this situation, but she couldn't exactly leave the girl alone when she was having a breakdown. Plus, she kind of had a responsibility towards her when she took her side against Grace.

Right...I completely forgot about this whole situation.

"Hey, slow down and tell me what happened," Cal instructed gently.

"Come with me!" Sarah suddenly said, grabbing Cal's wrist and running off with her.

Sarah led her across the field and over to a sort of marshy area that was near the back of the school. There was a small pond there where the smoker kids usually hung out, but there was no one else around at the moment.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Leading Cal to the edge of the pond, Sarah sobbed as she pointed to the water. A plethora of things were dumped there – textbooks, a jacket, a calculator, some photographs...

"Are these your things?" Cal asked.

"Y-yes," Sarah sniffed. "Someone threw everything from my locker in here...my stuff was missing this morning and I couldn't find it all day. I happened to come out here and see it, and I just freaked out..."

"Well, who could've done this?"

Sarah looked down as if she were afraid to answer. She wiped her tears away. "I-I think it must've been Grace," she finally choked out, seeming ashamed.

Cal's eyes widened. There's no way she'd do that! Even though Grace seemed like the usual mean girl at first, she honestly wasn't so bad. Cal had come to believe that most of Grace's poor reputation revolved around baseless rumors.

But the girl seemed shaken up, so Cal bit back her words. "Uh...well, first, let's go and see if we can salvage any of your things."

Sarah nodded.

---

There was a period of silence as the girls rolled up their pant legs and waded into the pond. Cal shivered from the coldness of the water as she reached down to grab the calculator. It was one of those expensive hundred dollar ones, but when she fiddled with it, it didn't respond.

Cal sighed. "Looks like it's busted."

"Yeah, I figured," Sarah said as she held up a drenched textbook. She looked at Cal with sad but pleading eyes. "Look, I know you're pretty close with Grace...I'm sorry to drop this on you."

Cal shook her head. "Just...why would she do something like this? It had to be someone else."

"I've laid low since the bullying started last year, so I can't think of anyone else," Sarah replied. "She's been doing little things to me for years now...I just didn't think she'd do all this."

"But...why?" Cal really couldn't believe something like this. Sure, she'd never really cleared up Grace's deal with Sarah, but she knew Grace now...

"I got a higher score than her on the Calc midterm, so maybe she's starting to feel threatened?" Sarah replied. "You remember what I told you before, right?"

"I mean, yeah, but..."

Sarah turned to Cal with a serious expression on her face.

"Cal, my livelyhood has depended on my grades," she began. "My parents think nothing of me now that I can't get the top spot...they always say how my older brother was able to do it in high school, so why can't I?"

Cal felt a pang in her stomach from that. "I...kind of understand how that feels."

"There are times where I really should've gotten first in the school," Sarah said. "But Grace has turned people against me, and I'm worried about what'll happen if I speak out against her.

"We used to be friends freshman year, but I think she was just using me. I'm worried she's doing the same to you so that you'll turn against me or Dana or whoever else she doesn't like."

Cal kept silent. She truly couldn't believe that Grace would do something like that. She'd have to reserve judgement until she heard Grace's side of the story. But still, she couldn't help but feel a wave of anxiety wash over her. People said so much about Grace, that perhaps it would make sense if at least some of it were true. Was Cal just being blinded by her feelings for the girl?

Regardless, she knew Sarah was upset, so she refrained from arguing with her. It was obvious that she was the type to be an easy target, if not for Grace, then someone who really was a bully. These issues were real to her, so Cal was in no place to disregard them.

"Thank you for helping me, but I don't think any of these are salvageable," Sarah said, standing up. "I'm totally screwed."

"Can't you tell the teachers? They'd have to give you a break if they knew something like this happened."

Sarah shook her head. "None of them trust me after I tried to tell them about Grace. I've got a pretty bad reputation now."

Cal felt hopeless, caught between her relationship with Grace and her sympathy for this girl. At her last school, Cal herself was shunned by her peers, so she couldn't help but relate to Sarah.

"I can lend you some of my books," Cal said. "Surely we have some of the same ones."

Sarah smiled. "That would be great."

The two headed back to the school to go to Cal's locker. Sarah stopped them, saying she'd make a quick trip to the bathroom while Cal grabbed some of the books.

As Cal went to her locker and fished out her Calculus book, she sighed, overwhelmed. Things had been going so well, but now all of this drama was suddenly rearing up again. Regardless of the accuracy of Sarah's statements, the accusations alone were enough to make Cal feel weird and suspicious. She was tired of doubting who people really were all the time. She just wanted someone to be real with her.

Cal headed back to the bathrooms that Sarah went into. To her surprise, the girl wasn't waiting outside of them. Is she not done yet? Cal wondered.

Suddenly, Cal heard a loud bang coming from within the bathrooms along with loud voices. What the hell?

Cal decided to go investigate, worried that someone was giving Sarah a hard time. She was shocked to hear a loud noise, something like a really hard slap. Now especially worried, she stormed into the bathroom and was met with a disturbing sight. Sarah was pinned up against the wall, shaking, appearing to be genuinely terrified. Her cheek was red, most likely the source of the slapping noise earlier. And the perpetrator...

"Stay the fuck away from me or you'll regret it. I'm beyond tired of you!"

The vitriol in Grace's voice disturbed Cal, and she was genuinely concerned that the honor student was about to hit the smaller girl again. What was this? She was legitimately threatening Sarah? Did Sarah confront her about the pond thing? Was Grace lashing out because she didn't want her to tell anyone the truth? No, this couldn't be...

Regardless, the whole scene was confusing, and brought Cal right back to the first time they met with Grace ganging up on Sarah in the bathrooms. The image seemed to fit Grace more than Cal was comfortable with, and that fact alone made everything the two of them experienced together seem like a lie, like she suddenly didn't know the other girl.

"Hey, what the fuck's going on?"