RE: Trailer Trash 4 pt 3 (Patreon)

(pt 1, pt 2)

   “Well, what happened next?” Alicia asked, leaning forward over the library table with interest. Inwardly, she was feeling pretty thrilled hearing about the way Tabitha got her first look at the photo she’d snapped—sharing a big moment with the people who were most affected by that whole incident.

   “That was... pretty much it,” Tabitha shrugged, looking helplessly from Alicia to Elena. “We went in and saw Mr. Macintire twice before we left, but he was conked out both times. No one wanted to wake him up or disturb his rest—he still looked terrible.”

    “What?!” Alicia made an incredulous face. “You didn’t even get to talk to him?”

   “What would I have even said?” Tabitha chuckled. “Still, I’m glad I went. Hannah’s adorable, and her mother Mrs. Macintire was… really struggling to keep it together. They even invited me to have Thanksgiving with them!”

   “Huh,” Alicia huffed. Spending Thanksgiving with people who weren’t your family seemed surreal to her. But, then again, the Moores seemed to have a pretty tense relationship, and she felt a pang of sympathy for her friend.

   While Tabitha had gone gallivanting off to Louisville over the past weekend, Alicia had been mulling over the rather spectacular art club meeting she’d attended on Friday. Mr. Peterson introduced her by way of a giant print of her Tabitha in Motion picture, informing everyone that it was already being published in a paper. As if that hadn’t wowed them enough, Alicia then revealed her portfolios of drawings, which managed to impress even more. General consensus was that her work as a freshman was on a college level, something only two other members—both painters—could claim.

   Casey and Matthew were the only art club people she knew so far, but apparently typical meetings were ostensibly just free time in the art building to practice their craft, rather than social get togethers. Later in the year they’d supposedly run an art show, and at some point or another the Springton High administration was going to task them with painting a new school mural over the old one. Alicia wasn’t the best at fitting in and making new friends, but she found herself surprisingly optimistic about the whole art club thing.

   “That’s not all you got invited to, though, is it Tabitha?” Elena spoke up, giving Tabitha a look of challenge. “Word through the grapevine is that yesterday, Matthew personally invited you to his big Halloween party on the lake.”

   “Um. No, he didn’t,” Tabitha shook her head with a wry smile. “Mrs. Williams tried to convince me I should go, during the drive up. Don’t know if I will, though. I’ve never been to that sort of thing.”

   “His mom tried convincing you?” Elena gave her a skeptical look. “What about him—what did he say, during the trip?”

   “Matthew wasn’t there,” Tabitha explained. “It was just his mother, Hannah and I.”

   “...Huh,” Elena frowned, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. “That’s not how it went in the story I heard, at all.”

   “Rumors spreading again already?” Alicia remarked in amusement.

   “Maybe,” Elena sighed. “I spend one Saturday with her, and I’m about to start spreading rumors already. I want to tell everyone, but I feel like no one’ll believe me.”

   “Why?” Alicia quirked an eyebrow. “Saturday? What happened?”

   “Nothing happened,” Tabitha rolled her eyes. “We were looking after my cousins.”

   “Yeah, right, looking after your cousins,” Elena retorted with a laugh. “Tabby—you know kung fu. I saw it with my own eyes.”

   “Kung fu?” Alicia turned an expectant smile towards Tabitha.

   “I don’t know kung fu!” Tabitha protested. “It’s taekwondo. It’s not some mysterious, profound thing like in movies, either—there’s a taekwondo place in downtown Springton, for crying out loud.”

   “You mean the dojo or whatever in the plaza across from Food Lion?” Alicia asked. “Sign says ‘Martial Arts?’ I see it on the bus ride home.”

   “You said you were self-taught, though, Tabitha,” Elena remembered, tapping her lip. “So, you didn’t learn there?”

   “No, that place—it’s, um. Expensive,” Tabitha mumbled. “For us, anyways. Even if we could afford it, there’s a lot of more important things to put money towards, right now.”

   Like what, stock investments? Alicia gave Tabitha an appraising look. Hey, maybe she picked up taekwondo somewhere in the future, and just brought that knowledge back with her?

   Alicia’s previous absolute certainty that the time travel story was completely made up had been experiencing a slight crisis of faith. Tabitha had proven both imaginative and intelligent, so it was understandable if the redhead’s educated guesswork could paint a believable future—except when it came to Alicia’s private artwork.

   Stashed in the gap between her bed and the wall, Alicia had a folder of borderline erotic drawings hidden. She had complete confidence that no one else knew about them. Even if someone were to discover them, they would remark on the boobs—Alicia admittedly practiced drawing a lot of boobs in secret, because they needed to look just right. There was only a single drawing of a woman’s naked back.

   One that Tabitha had described in eerie detail.

   There was just no way anyone would guess that it was Alicia’s favorite, her muse, something she’d scrawled out in a mesmerized moment of inspiration, some accidentally amazing thing that filled her with powerful emotion every time she brought it out to admire. If there was any one concept that Alicia was absolutely determined to realize into a masterpiece someday in the future—it was exactly that one.

   She once again found herself carefully watching Tabitha, a girl who was casually penciling out algebra equations while simultaneously engaging them in conversation. Is she filling out that worksheet suspiciously fast, or do I just suck at math?

   “So, she leaps up into the air like the Karate Kid, and kicks this soda can right off the top my freaking head,” Elena recounted. “Tabitha’s like—she was doing backflips and stuff during a game of tag with little kids.”

   “She’s exaggerating, don’t listen to her,” Tabitha shook her head with a smile. “It was a tiny bit of taekwondo, and then a couple hand-springs to show off for the boys. They love seeing anything remotely acrobatic—they’re still in elementary.”

   “Everyone loves acrobatics, Tabby,” Elena insisted. “You can make JV cheerleading with those moves easy, tryout season or not. I think you should.”

   “Sorry,” Tabitha winced. “I just don’t have the interest—or the time. My mother has it in her head now that she’s going to personally teach me how to act and model and whatever.”

   “She what?!” Elena demanded, planting both hands on the tabletop and dropping her voice to a grave whisper. “...Are you gonna switch to theater electives?”

   “At the end of the semester, yeah,” Tabitha sighed. “Was hoping to take creative writing, instead.”

   “Is this how things were supposed to go?” Alicia asked, giving Tabitha a meaningful glance. “If you know what I mean?

   “Supposed to go?” Elena repeated, looking from Alicia to Tabitha for answers.

   “They…” Tabitha gave them a weak smile. “No, it isn’t. They were supposed to go… poorly. The acting thing isn’t what I thought I wanted, but… my mother’s really trying, and I want to see where this goes.”

   “So, we’re off course, or… ?” Alicia looked surprised.

   “Way off course,” Tabitha groaned, dropped her face into her hands. “Just making it all up as I go, now.”

   “Sure wish I wasn’t excluded from whatever your plans are,” Elena said, looking irritated. “So that, y’know, maybe I could be a part of them?”

   “Yeah, nice try,” Alicia playfully scoffed. “It’s a big secret—and you’ve only known her for like, one week.”

   “...Is there really a secret?” Elena perked up immediately, presenting an interested smile.

   For all of her talent and foresight, Tabitha was pretty terrible at guarding her expression, and Alicia couldn’t help but grin as the girl’s face gave everything away.

*     *     *

   “Hey, did you hear Matthew Williams asked that Tabitha girl out?”

   Um, what? Tabitha had been busy adjusting the outline of the Goblina novel with some of her new ideas.

   That cabal of popular girls loosely grouped in the center of the class was speaking loudly again, and the other surrounding students had already gone quiet.

   “Ew, Tubby Tabby? Why her?”

   “He’s supposedly all head over heels for her now, it’s this whole big thing. Mrs. Albertson was going on and on about her, has this article clipping that makes it look all like Tabitha was running right in to the rescue, yeah, har har. So, Matthew drove her to up Louisville yesterday to see his dad, who I think’s one of those police officers who got shot? He asked her out and I think they kissed.”

   Matthew... never asked me out, though? He didn’t take me to Louisville, either! Tabitha’s pencil lead snapped at the pressure she was applying to the notebook page, and she swiped the broken lead away with the back of her hand in aggravation. I may have a tiny little crush on him, but it was super evident the other day that he was just being polite with me. Where is all this even coming from—are they purposefully conflating Officer Macintire and Officer Williams?

   “She’s so fucking fake, I can’t stand her,” a third voice insisted. “Like, Matthew’s dad almost died, right? Have some goddamn decency. There’s no way she did anything for that cop but spout bullshit way afterwards.”

   “Yeah, did she really even do anything?” One of the girls scoffed. “She lives in that trailer park. Bet she heard sirens and then just happened to be right there when the news van pulled in so she can spin whatever story she wanted. So sick of hearing everyone stuck on that whole stupid shooting thing, anyways. Like, yeah, okay, it happened—now, can we move on?”

   “Can someone speak up about Matthew, though?” A girl griped. “As if the shooting thing wasn’t bad enough. Now it’s like she’s totally just taking advantage of him, when he’s in grief or whatever and isn’t thinking straight.”

   “Y’all are full of shit,” a tall boy spoke up—the one Tabitha mentally thought of as the redneck kid for his white shirt and tight blue jeans paired with cowboy boots. “Matt’s dad was in my drive-thru late last night for coffee—seemed pretty fuckin’ healthy to me.”

   “Shut the fuck up, Bobby,” one of the girls spat back with vehemence. “You don’t even get what we’re talking about.

   “We’re talking about Matthew’s dad,” another girl retorted. “Not one of the Matts.”

   “You’re talkin’ ‘bout Officer Williams? I know him waaay better’n any of you bitches,” Bobby boasted. “Busted me an’ my brother with a joint back behind the Minit Mart, but he had us stand there and finish smoking the whole thing first before he took us in. Ain’t never forgettin’ that—I always say what’s up when I see him.”

   “Mind your own damned business, Bobby, geez.” The first girl growled. “This isn’t even about you.”

*     *     *

   Ohhh my goodness. Elena thought giddily to herself. He’s way too hot!

   She was struggling to maintain her disapproving frown after stoically planting herself right in the path of Matthew Williams himself. Final bell had rung and the school day was over, but while Matthew had his own car, she had a narrow window of time to take care of this before she had to make a dash for the bus loop.

   “Hey, Elena,” Matthew smiled, pausing in the hall with one thumb hooked casually into the backpack strap at his shoulder. “What’s up?”

   “Yeah, hi,” Elena scowled, crossing her arms. “Were you talking about Tabitha to anyone this morning?”

   “Uhh, yeah?” Those dreamy eyes of his looked perplexed. “Why?”

   “Don’t know what you actually said, but word’s going around everywhere that you asked her out when you drove her to Louisville on Sunday.”

   “That’s... not true,” Matthew blanched. “Think all I said was, like, how my Mom was trying to embarrass me to her. I didn’t even go with—”

   “I heard the real story from Tabitha, already,” Elena interrupted impatiently. “But, you need to fix this. Whoever’s been spreading all the dumb rumors about her all this time has to be someone close to you. Like, one of the sophomores.”

   “Hey,” Matthew protested. “I don’t think it means—”

   “You’re making things awkward for Tabitha,” Elena talked over him, giving him a disappointed look along with an ultimatum. “Either figure out who the problem is, or just don’t ever bring up Tabitha at all. ‘Kay? Thanks.”

   She brushed past him without giving him a chance to speak, storming away in apparent anger. Several surprised students turned heads in the hallway at the dramatic departure, watching the long-legged freshman girl who dared to chew out Matthew Williams. 

   Adopting the overprotective friend approach and keeping him on the back foot, however, made everything a breeze! Elena thought to herself in satisfaction. The best-looking sophomore guy was intimidating to talk to, even for a girl of her caliber. Now their encounter would be memorable, it’d make him subconsciously want to appease her, and even more importantly, establish her in his mind as someone who was loyal to a fault. 

   Her mother had been eager to reminisce about her own high school days over a few glasses of wine this past weekend, so she couldn’t take full credit for the idea, of course. Even just a few months ago, those old stories had bored Elena to death—now, though, she was fully realizing just how incredible her mom’s insights and social savvy really were.

   Elena’s anger wasn’t exactly a total charade, either—it was more obvious now than ever that the talk flying around about Tabitha was intentionally fabricated, and Matthew was going to help her get to the bottom of it. Someone—Elena was now confident it was one of the sophomores—was hurrying to smear Tabitha’s name in light of the all the new buzz about her from that photo making front page.

   Springton Teen Saves Life of Police Officer. Almost everyone was talking about it now, with several teachers even proudly showing off the paper to their classes. That someone had been forced to try and suppress the rise of Tabitha’s reputation with manufactured drama. The difference is that now I’M in Tabby’s corner—and I’m not gonna just smile and turn the other cheek.

    Alicia, Tabitha and I? We’re the real deal, Elena decided, stalking through the bustling school corridor with a predatory glint in her eyes. Whoever you are, all you have is talk... and eventually, all those loose lips are gonna lead us right back to you.

   You REALLY don’t know who you’re fucking with. 

(pt 4)

/// Taking tomorrow off writing to spend a day with my gf, she's gonna be off visiting her sister for an extended long while. Ch 8 AnimeCon, or possibly the new AnimeCon sidestory next for the start of September.