Obsessive Perfectionist Ways

“Okay, ready?” Tracy asked Heather. They were sitting in Tracy’s room getting ready to make a video for their Youtube channel.

Heather took one last look in the mirror, fluffed her hair a bit, then took a seat in one of the chair in front of the tripod where the camera was sitting.

“Ready,” She chimed.

“Alright,” Tracy said hitting play on the camera and joining Heather in the chair next to hers.

“Welcome to-” Tracy paused abruptly and scrunched up her face.

Heather let out a sigh, this was the tenth try and every time Tracy would pause somewhere and say it wasn’t good enough. Heather tried to ignore Tracy’s obsessive perfectionist ways most of the time, but she had places to go and people to see.

“Hello, and welcome to 2girlFASHIONS,” Tracy said, “I’m T-Heart.”

“And I’m H-Song,” Heather said, with her best entertainer smile on. The one she spent a week trying to perfect.

Heather and Tracy had started their fashion blog, 2girlFASHIONS, two years ago. They started with outfit of the days, and moved on to fashion tips and reviews. Then the next logical step would be a Youtube channel, which they made during the summer. They already had a pretty substantial amount of subscribers.

Today they were trying to do their first tag video, the best friend tag. But Tracy was making it take forever, they hadn’t even gotten to the first question yet.

“We asked you guy what you wanted to see,” Tracy continued, “and a lot of you guys said the best friend tag. So that’s what we’re doing!”

Heather grinned, “so let’s get to the questions?”

Going good.

But Tracy froze and then scrunched up her face.

“No,” she said.

Heather groaned, “I promised my mom that I’d be home to see off my cousins.”

Heather’s cousins had stayed the summer while her aunt and uncle celebrated their anniversary in Paris. Her cousins were only five, ten, and thirteen, so basically a bunch of little brats. The summer with them had not been very enjoyable.

Tracy glared at her, “fine. Just go.”

“Ugh, come on Tracy,” Heather said, “Let’s just finished this video quickly.”

“If you’re not willing to put in the time for our channel then just leave,” Tracy said, standing up turning off the camera.

“Fine whatever,” Heather said, “I was gonna invite you to my place, but I guess you don’t want to come.”

Tracy just shrugged and stood there, as if waiting for Heather to leave.

Heather sighed and stood up, “see you later.”

Tracy just shrugged again.

Heather rolled her eyes and left the room. She said goodbye to Tracy’s dad and his girlfriend who were sitting in the living room watching one of those lame sci fi movies from before her time then left. She glanced back up at Tracy’s window where she could see Tracy sitting at her computer. Heather sighed, these fights were so petty, but they happened all the time nowadays. Heather didn’t want to worry about the state of her relationship with Tracy but she still did.

Back in Tracy’s room Tracy was sitting at her computer trying not to hear Heather’s car pull out of the driveway. She didn’t mean to snap at her again. It just happened, she was always on edge lately because she had a pretty bad feeling that her dad was gonna invite his girlfriend to live with them. She didn’t want Patty, and her weird obsession with outer space, in her house.

So she was a little angrier at everything.

When she went downstairs later to see if dinner was in the works she found her dad and Patty watching some show about aliens.

“Uhm, do you guys know what time it is?”

Her dad practically flew off the couch, he obviously hadn’t seen her enter the living room.

“Oh, wow, look at that,” Patty said checking her watch, “It’s late, you must be hungry.”

“Not really, it just that we usually have dinner at night,” Tracy said.

“We can order some pizza,” her dad said.

Tracy made a face.

“No?” her dad said.

“I told you I’m on a diet,” Tracys aid, “Pizza is not one of my diet foods.”

Her dad frowned, “oh.”

Tracy shook her head, “whatever, I’m not hungry, you guys can do whatever you like.”

And with that she left the room, feeling as she usually did after seeing Patty; angry.

Update!

Profiles for Ella and Mariah Montgomery, Shae Ling, and Mathew Lieberman have been added to the Freshmen page!

And all the other pages have been updated for the correct grades for this year and all of the profiles have been updated to be more accurate.

The graduates have shortened profiles due to the fact that they're a lot now. They are also sorted by the year they graduated.
The tags age has been update with all the new students names.

Introducing: Mariah and Ella Montgomery

Ella and Mariah Montgomery were some of the most popular girls in their private middle school. So most people were confused to hear that they were transferring to A.L. High for high school. Why would they leave the school where they ruled for a lousy public school?

Well they had their reasons.

Ella was tired of life being so easy, she had everything she ever wanted. It was boring. Starting high school with the girls she knew her whole life, who admired her to the point of near worshipping, it just sounded so typical. She wanted a change, something new.

Mariah on the other just wanted to stay with her sister, leaving private school was gonna be tough. Their old school was comfortable, she knew everyone and they knew her. Plus it helped that they all liked her so much. But Ella talked her into joining her at A.L. High.

So that’s where they were starting high school with complete strangers.

--

“Ah, I’m gonna miss you guys so much!” Ella winced as Justine, one of their many friends, practically jumped her.

“Yeah, same” Ella said when she pulled away after an uncomfortable amount of time.

Then it was Mariah’s turn for the bear hug, and Mariah had to take a step back to stop herself from falling.

Mariah smiled at her kindly, “You too.”

Justine grinned.

This was round ten of goodbyes. Tomorrow Ella and Mariah were starting at A.L. High and their old friends were going back to their private school. And for some reason all of their friends thought they had to come over and say goodbye. Each one tried to outdo the last, with cookies, fruit baskets, flowers, fruit bouquets, and a variety of other gifts.

After the last group left Ella sat back on the couch and laughed.

“What’s funny?” Mariah asked, trying to gather everything up to bring to their room.

“What’s funny?” Ella laughed some more, “How about the hoard of high schoolers acting like we’re leaving the country? We’re just going to a different school.”

Mariah smiled and nodded, “that is kind of funny.”

“They gave us fruit bouquets,” Ella laughed.

Mariah giggled, “It’s kind of cute.”

Ella shrugged, “Maybe. It’s kind of outrageous.”

Mariah nodded again, “Yeah. It is.”

Ella grinned at her twin sister, a mirrored image of herself. Tomorrow would be a fresh start for both of them, Ella wondered how it would go.

Introducing: Shae Ling and Matthew Lieberman

Shae Ling spends most of her time in the sidelines, and up until now she had been happy that way. She had her best friend, Matt Lieberman, who stayed on the sidelines with her.

But things, she realized, changed. Slowly Matt wanted to be more and more in the spotlight, leaving Shae to hide away by herself. It started with Matt convincing Shae to audition for the spring musical, which he got a part in and she didn’t. Which meant spending evenings by herself when Matt was in practice. And the more time Matt spent with the theater geeks, the more he started acting out a little. Joining in discussions that he and Shae would have just listened to before.

And then after one of the plays he dragged Shae to an after party with the rest of the cast and friends. She had been to parties before, she and Matt used to sit and people watch together. But this time there was no people watching with Matt, instead she was watching Matt move around the room and talk with his new friends. That’s when Shae realised that Matt wasn’t the same person anymore.

He was outgoing, loud, and funny. He was always funny but now everyone else thought so too. Every group he talked to would burst out laughing at something he said, and Shae could see on his face how happy it made him.

Shae could hardly recognise him.

After that they grew apart slowly, and during the summer Matt went to drama camp and Shae stayed at home hanging out with her family, who were happy to have her for a summer finally. There were beach days, day trips to the zoo, or to the city where they would eat out and do some shopping or go to a museum.

And then Matt came home and stopped by her house asking if she wanted to go get something to eat. Her parent smiled at her encouraging, probably happy to see that she did still have friends. She could tell they were starting to get worried about her being home everyday all day.

She said sure and followed Matt out and they walked in silence to the deli. Finally Matt broke the silence as they sat down and ordered their sandwiches.

“I missed you,” he said.

“Same,” Shae said, and she had. The summer felt like it had lasted for year without Matt to hang out with.

Matt smiled, “camp was amazing, I think I found my people.”

Shae looked away from him, “his people”? She thought she was “his people”.

“Look, I know we’ve been growing apart,” Matt said finally, “But I don’t want to lose you as a friend, I’ve known you my whole life. I can’t even imagine not knowing you.”

Shae nodded.

“But I made new friends this summer,” Matt said. “and I don’t think you fit in with us.”

Shae didn’t say anything. This had been made obvious already after the after party last spring.

“What I’m trying to say is that...” Matt said slowly, “I think you’re an amazing friend but we’re probably gonna grow apart.”

“Oh,” Shae said, feeling her face heat up. Hadn’t they already grown apart?

Matt smiled sadly, “we’re still friends but we just don’t mesh anymore. You’re always on the outside, and I want to be on the inside.”

Shae nodded, not looking at him. She wondered why he felt the need to tell her this, to rub it in that he was moving on and leaving her behind. She had already decided that she wouldn’t hold him down. She didn’t need to be told this. She already knew they would and had grown apart.

Then the waitress gave them their food and they ate while Matt told her all about his summer. Shae tried to listen but she felt so embarrassed and kept looking around wondering if anyone knew what was going on here. Giving her sympathetic glances, like “aw I’m so sorry you best friend just totally dumped you”. But no one was ever watching them. They didn’t know.

“I felt like I belonged,” Matt said finished a wistful look on his face.

Shae nodded, silently wishing that he hadn’t. Then maybe they wouldn’t be here right then, with him pretending everything was alright even though he just told her that they didn’t mesh. That he was leaving her.

“So what did you do?” Matt asked.

“Hang out with my family,” Shae shrugged.

Matt smiled and said that sounded fun, but he didn’t mean it. Shae could tell. They finished their food and Matt asked if she wanted to come over to his house and play some video games.

“One last afternoon together before we start at A.L. High,” Matt said. What he meant was “one last afternoon together before we split ways and I go and hang out with my ‘people’”

“I’m sorry,” Shae said, “I have plans with my family.”

“Oh, okay,” Matt said. Maybe he could tell she was lying, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want to play video games with someone who basically told her that they couldn’t be friends anymore.

After an awkward goodbye they split up. That afternoon while laying in her bed listening to music she decided that this year she would try more. Show Matt that maybe they could mesh.

Or maybe they couldn’t.

Moving on and moving out.

AeGuk had been feeling terrible and depressed up until graduation when Fedora, Bryan, and Sacia surprised him by showing up. He knew that Fedora was gonna come, but Bryan and Sacia was a surprise, especially since Fedora and Sacia were fighting and AeGuk thought that Bryan was across the country in Florida.

And then they stayed the whole summer, so by the end of the summer AeGuk felt happy again. Like he did when they still went ot A.L. High. And now he was off to college in New York. The state, not the city. Fedora was slightly upset to hear that he decided not to go to Harvard, but she got over it rather quickly, New York was still closer than California. And they could see each other on the weekend.

“So now I’m gonna have to share my weekends?” Sacia had said when Fedora was talking about it once.

“Sharing is caring,” Fedora said.

So now AeGuk was at the airport with Fedora, Sacia, and Bryan. Sacia, Fedora, and AeGuk were all gonna take the same plan to New York, spend the weekend there and then split up and go their separate ways.

Bryan was just there to say goodbye. After this he was joining his brother on a flight to Europe where they were gonna stay for a year just traveling.

AeGuk was excited for everything, for leaving home and going to college, meeting new people. Okay not really meeting new people. The prospect of meeting new people made him want to turn around and run back home. He hated meeting new people. New people usually looked at him weird because of his stutter. New people usually stopped talking to him after a few minutes because of his stutter. New people usually went off to their friends and laughed about his stutter.

He didn’t like new people.

But he was still excited for college, thoguh a little nervous. Fedora assured him that he would do fine, but AeGuk didn’t know how she would know that. Fedora was perfectly outgoing, she always had somethign witty to say. She doesn’t even know how to feel embarrased.

but AeGuk let himself believe her and was excited none the less.

As their flight was announced they all gathered their bags and turned to bryan to say goodbye.

“Aw, man, don’t make this all sappy,” Bryan said.

“Oh, boo hoo,” Fedora said, dramatically frowning, “I’m gonna miss you so much!”

She then threw herself on Bryan, almost knocking him down, while fake crying. Bryan laughed and pushed her off, “like you care.”

Fedora grinned, “got that right.”

“It was great seeing you,” Sacia said, giving Bryan a quick hug. “Next time you’re in the country give me a call.”

“I’ll try,” Bryan said.

Aeguk felt like he couldn’t say anything. Bryan was his closest friend, and getting to see him again this summer had helped his mood tremendously. He didn’t know how he was gonna get through college without Bryan’s lame jokes and boasts about his travels.

“Hey man, you don’t need to say anything,” Bryan said, pulling AeGuk into a hug. “See you again sometime.”

“Y-yeah,” AeGuk finally managed to say.

Finally they all said goodbye and left him as they heading towards their plane. AeGuk felt sad and excited at the same time, his life was finally starting and he couldn’t wait and yet he could.

Fights happen, people move on.

“She can’t stay mad at your forever,” Tamarai reasoned. Tamarai and DaeRi were sitting on DaeRi’s bedroom floor enjoying one of the last days of summer break. Usually DaeRi was excited for school to come back but this year wasn’t looking so bright.

“I still don’t understand what I did wrong,” DaeRi huffed.

They were talking about Harriette, who had cut DaeRi out of her life after the beach party incident. Harriette had thrown a private beach party at her beach house, which DaeRi assumed meant it was exclusively for populars, and as far she was concerned Fedora and her friends were not populars. So when Fedora, Sacia, Bryan, and AeGuk showed up to the beach house DaeRi made, what you could call, a scene. She might have told Harriette that she didn’t deserve to be popular because obviously she had the worst taste in friends, and she might have also said that if she liked losers like them so much she should just join them. And everyone around them might have heard this tirade and given her nasty looks.

So the bottom line is that DaeRi was a little rude to Harriette and her loser friends. And she hadn’t apologised.

Tamarai was silent for a while before hesitantly saying, “Really?”

“Yeah,” DaeRi said, “I simply said a few true things. Her friends are losers. And she should be too.”

Tamarai winced.

“Please don’t tell me you’re still on her side,” DaeRi said

“I’m not on any side,” Tamarai said, “I just want you guys to make up so I won’t have to spend my senior year split between you guys.”

“I’m your best friend,” DaeRi said, “why would you even think about staying by Harriette’s side?”

“She’s my sister,” Tamarai said.

DaeRi shrugged, “so?”

“And it’s not like she’s the one being rude,” Tamarai said, looking off to the side.

“So now you’re saying I’m rude?” DaeRi asked.

“Well...” Tamarai said, still not looking at DaeRi, “you kind of were. Harriette invited Fedora and told her she could bring friends, and then you kind of just yelled at them. For just showing up. Plus they graduated a year ago, so no one but you still cared.”

“AeGuk just graduated,” DaeRi reminded her, “and of course other people cared.”

“DaeRi, you’re the only person who cared,” Tamarai said, finally looking at her.

“They’re losers!” DaeRi said.

“Were losers,” Tamarai corrected her, “before they graduated and left A.L. High. Now they’re college students which makes them a bit cooler.”

DaeRi laughed, “Fedora will never be cool.”

Tamarai sighed, “whatever, the point is you made an unnecessary scene and everyone kind of think you’re crazy now.”

“Do they really?” DaeRi asked, looking worried now.

Tamarai shrugged, “kind of.”

DaeRi hid her face in her hands, “no no no,” she muttered.

Tamarai frowned, “are you okay?”

Daeri shook her head, still hiding her face as she said, “I’m ruined.”

“Like I said,” Tamarai said, “she can't hate you forever.”

“If people think I’m crazy then she doesn’t have a choice,” DaeRi said. “If she continues to hang out with me people will think she’s crazy, and she’ll lose her popularity. It’s already standing in a bad place.”

Tamarai was silent, Daeri had a point but Tamarai wasn't ready to admit that Harriette would make such a popularity driven decision about friendship. That was something DaeRi would do. But that also brought up the fact that Harriette had already been upset with DaeRi for a while and probably would take this chance to drop her with everyone supporting her.

Daeri looked up from her hands and took a deep breath, “okay. I’m gonna have to get through this somehow.”

Tamarai nodded.

“And I will, I will show Harriette and everyone else that I am not crazy,” DaeRi said.

Tamarai grinned, “yeah! How are you gonna do it?”

Daeri shrugged, she’ll figure it out somehow.

---

Harriette felt better knowing she was entering her junior year without DaeRi. She had been annoyed with DaeRi’s power hungry ways for a while, and personally thought popularity was not about the people she hung out with. Which obviously sounded pretty hypocritical since she pretended to hate Fedora just so she could be popular, but that was before. To get popular you need to hang out with the right people, to stay popular you need to continue to act popular no matter what. If you act like you’re popular, everyone else will just follow along.

So Harriette was excited for school, but one thing was out of place. She now needed a third friend. Everyone knows that to be popular you need two lesser popular friends. Lackys. But Harriette didn’t like that word so she just said friends.

She hoped she only needed one, and that Tamarai was gonna stay by her side even though DaeRi was her best friend. Best friend or not DaeRi was a mess, Harriette hoped that Tamarai could see that.

Harriette supposed she would just take a freshman under her wing, she could be her legacy. Follow in her footsteps once she graduated.

“Hey, so you’re really not friends with DaeRi anymore?” Fedora asked her a few days before Fedora was heading back to college.

Harriette nodded, “yep.”

“Wow,” Fedora said, grinning. “That’s great, she may be AeGuk’s little sister but she’s a spawn of the devil. I can’t even see how they’re related.”

They were hanging out in Harriette’s room waiting for Collin to come home so they could go see a movie. Harriette kept glancing at the clock, wondering what was taking Collin so long. He was at an art class, he had been taking classes all summer and today was his last one. So maybe they were doing something special and that was why he was late.

“Stop looking at the clock,” Fedora said, “He’s not that late.”

Harriette frowned, “He is usually back by now.”

“Well, he’s a little late on his last day, no big deal,” Fedora said, “if I was late I bet you wouldn’t worry this much.”

“Fedora,” Harriette said. “You’re always late. I would be worried if you were on time”

Fedora looked thoughtful then nodded, “you’re right.”

Finally Collin appeared in the doorway, “hey, I’m sorry I’m late”

“Finally!” Harriette said, jumping up from the bed and running over to him.

“Did you just apologize for being ten minutes late?” Fedora asked.

Collin shrugged, “it was the last class, so it ran a little late.”

“It’s alright,” Harriette said, holding his hand, “let’s go.”

Fedora rolled her eyes, “I bet if he was an hour late you would say it was alright.”

Harriette shot her a look then smiled at Collin, “yeah, probably, because everything Collin does is alright. It’s impossible to be mad at him.”

Fedora laughed, “Oh my god. Alright, let’s go we’re gonna be late.”