Beatty & The Beast

TWENTY-FIVE: Where the Beauty is Cornered

Nearly two weeks later, five days before prom

Becca Wolf Fang tried to keep "a stiff upper lip" as her grandmother always said. She couldn't make her grand return to school looking like a sulky, jilted loser, because Becca Wolf Fang was better than that. Becca Wolf Fang was never a loser.

She had to make sure her classmates remembered that.

Therefore, she would not enter the hallways with a scowl and red eyes but sweep in looking as glorious than ever, her hair shiny as shale, her make-up flawless and glowing, her aura that of a goddess.

She would get the praise and adulation she deserved, and she would make her great return with a smile on her face, no matter how much she was frowning inside.

Her little group of admirers – or, if she were to be humble, group of friends – had kept her up-to-date on the goings on of VHS while she had been on her sick leave. They updated her daily even when her flu had passed (almost a week ago) and Becca went to stay at her family's beach house in Marmontel to recover from her ordeal. Her parents made sure the school looked past all of her missed time by buying and donating the much-needed updated textbooks for the science department.

Anyway, Becca's "friends" had told her about Keefe's idiotic little song and dance number and how he and that ugly whore Andie Logan had been making out all over the school. Apparently she was his girlfriend now.

It was almost laughable.

At first, Becca refused to believe it. Even someone as off as Keefe wouldn't willingly kiss that. She was convinced for a while that her admirers – correction, friends – were trying to start lame rumors, but they kept swearing up and down their mothers' graves that they were telling the honest-to-God truth. After Becca made a few phone calls to some far more dependable sources, she was forced to accept the ridiculous truth.

The perpetually single Keefe had finally decided to break out into the dating scene, and the girl he goes for, his first choice, is some giant, ugly she-male slut?

What the hell was going on here?

Well, it was pretty simple: she, Becca, had been absent when Keefe and Andie got together. She had not been there to welcome him into her arms when he finally decided to be normal and try dating. She had missed this great opportunity and, because she was not there to remind him of what he really wanted, he went to the Thing.

Why? Why turn to her? Because every other girl in that school knew better than to touch him. They knew who he really belonged with and they wouldn't mess with Becca Wolf Fang, even if she wasn't there.

But Andie wouldn't care, because she was a whore.

Therefore, he really had no choice. Without Becca there and with all the girls knowing their places and staying back, all he had to take his hormones out on was the beast. Plus, she had a reputation of being a slut (lost her virginity at thirteen according to People Magazine? Gross.) so he probably thought he could get an easy lay or something. Wasn't that what guys are always looking for? Especially the Beatty guys, if the stories about Keefe's skeazy brothers were to be believed.

Though, the sex-starved slobbering fool act didn't seem to match Keefe. The more she thought about it, the more she figured he just felt bad for Andie because he was the only one who seemed to like her (for some reason). He was probably just pretending to like her to make her feel better about herself, or something.

And that just made Becca's heart melt. Though that bitch Andie didn't deserve such kindness, he gave it anyway. If it was possible, Becca loved him even more.