While Alan was spending his lunch time with Glory, Christine wandered around the cafeteria during her favorite part of the school day. It wasn't the food she looked forward to, but the chance to learn all the latest gossip. From a very young age, her parents had imprinted in her brain the saying that "knowledge is power." Christine had taken the love of learning to heart, which was a big reason why she so excelled in her studies. But it also meant that she liked to hear everything about everyone at school. Since she didn't have much of a social life of her own, that also enabled her to live somewhat vicariously through others.
Christine had formed a spy network of sorts to get the best gossip, referred to somewhat derisively as the "Goody-goodies" by those who knew of its existence. (Alan, a social outsider, was completely unaware of this, even though he was one of her few real friends.)
Christine was too much of the "Ice Queen" to have lots of friends, but she'd taken advantage of her reputation as the top-ranking female student in academics, as well as her reputation as a paragon of morality and purity, to form her own clique of like-minded girls.
She was thus linked in with a surprisingly large group of girls who did well in school and were also "pure" and usually virgins, although often not by choice. They might have been considered female geeks, but Christine was so drop-dead gorgeous that no one considered her a complete geek. Christine's high social standing rubbed off on them the more they associated with her.
Their reputation as "Goody-goodies" meant that they were scorned by the most elite of in-groups, the clique that those in the know called the "Blondies." Heather was at the center of this all-female group, whose members tried to emulate her, even down to most of them dying their hair to look more like hers (which was also always perfectly dyed). Since Heather was their role model, they celebrated immorality and hedonism, living a wild life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Most were barely passing their classes.
Like Christine, Heather also was aware that 'knowledge is power', so she too used her followers to try to learn everything about everyone. Heather's grades were lackluster because she didn't care about academics, but she could be very smart when she put her mind to it.
As a result, the "Goody-goodies" and the "Blondies" couldn't have been more different. The "Goody-goodies" spent much of their time trying to figure out what the "Blondies" were doing, although the "Blondies" didn't much care about the "Goody-goodies" since they generally lived pretty boring lives and weren't socially important enough to be a threat. Heather considered only Christine herself potentially dangerous enough to be worth keeping tabs on.
Christine got her food tray and sat down at "her" table in the cafeteria. Boys were mostly oblivious to the vicious power struggles between the girls, but if one wanted to understand the power structure one only had to look at where people sat at lunch. Christine's table was a minor power center and it was hard to get a seat there, but it was also quite far from Heather's table, and that table was like the U.N. Security Council of school politics, except a lot more vicious.
As Christine sat down, she looked to the "lieutenants" in her network who were already there. She sat across from Michelle, one of her key aides due to Michelle's unusually good connections to the football team (through her brother who was on the team) and thus the "Blondies" and asked, "Hey Michelle. So, what's up? What's the latest scuttlebutt?"
Michelle was bubbly with excitement. She had news about Alan Plummer and she knew that Christine always liked that, especially lately. "All the girls are talking about your hot date."
Christine blanched and froze in mid-reach for her fork. "What? I told you that was a completely platonic thing!" She was surprised her practice date with Alan was being discussed so many days after the fact.
"No, girl, I don't mean your date itself; nobody cares much about that, or even knows about it outside of your good friends here. No, I mean the guy from the date, Alan."
Christine visibly relaxed and tried to act more nonchalant. "Oh really? What about him?"
Michelle grew more excited. "Well, there are even MORE rumors about him today. Further confirmation that he is gettin' it on!" She said "gettin' it on" in a sassy, streetwise tone, and shook her head from side to side while wriggling her shoulders.
Christine leaned forward, and then others sitting nearby all leaned in. "Well? Don't stop there."
Michelle pulled back, suddenly more hesitant. "Mind you, these are just rumors. I haven't been able to put it all together, but there's something happening between him and the cheerleading squad. Something sexual."
"The squad?!" Christine asked incredulously. "You're not talking about merely one person, but the whole group?" She sat back. "I don't believe it. The WHOLE squad?"
"Uh-huh. The main thing is, he's just a nerd, right? But all the members of the squad are suddenly talking about him like he's the cock of the walk. Where did that come from? Like before third period today, Tina was clever enough to ask that cute cheerleader Kim what she thought about Alan, and Kim totally blushed and got all nervous. What's up with that?"
Tina was sitting a few seats away at the same table and said, "Uh-huh! It's true! I mean, her reaction was EXTREME. So I asked Janice and Joy about him just a little while ago, and they were kinda all weird too. And you already know that Amy has been wandering around in a daze talking about how 'dreamy' he is. Of course there's no point in talking to Katherine since, as his sister, she doesn't really figure into this. And no one dares talk to Heather."
Michelle picked up where Tina left off. "HOWEVER, remember that Heather was seen at the beach talking to Alan in a friendly manner. Heather! Friendly! Actually, even more than friendly if you believe the girl who claims to have seen it. She was actually flirting with him, big time!"
Another girl at the table said, "Hold on. This is HEATHER we're talking about! Everyone knows she's a shoo-in to be the Homecoming Queen this year." No one needed to mention what a blow to Heather's chances it would be in that contest if she started publicly associating with nerds like Alan, even if just for a laugh.
Christine said crisply, "I think I know who Heather is, thank you very much! Although I do have to admit that something strange is going on. But Michelle, why are you so convinced that it involves more than one girl? Maybe he and Amy have started some kind of relationship. That would be a logical deduction."
Michelle's eyes were sparkling with excitement. She leaned in even more and her voice took on conspiratorial overtones. "A-ha! Furthermore, a brother of a friend told me that the other day he was standing near Alan and a couple of other guys when Kim and Janice bent over right in from of them to pick up their pom-poms and you could see their butts. Alan mumbled to himself, 'Dang, I'm such a lucky bastard.'"
Another girl at the table pointed out, "It could just mean he considered himself lucky to get a free peek at that."
Michelle replied, "But you had to be there, from what I'm told. Apparently he blushed and had this hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar expression, like a big secret of his had been exposed. Everyone there thought it was really odd."
Her face lit up. "But wait! Here's where it gets REALLY good! I don't want to name names, but earlier today one of Amy's closest friends got all confidential with her and prodded her to come clean about her relationship with him. She replied, and I quote, 'Just between you and me, no, sadly, I'm not his girlfriend. At least not yet.' She sighed, then her face lit up when she said, 'But I do like to play with his thingy!' Then they had a conversation in the strictest secrecy about his 'thingy.' She hinted that it's very 'needy' and that she's hardly the only one who plays with it."
Christine looked up and down at all the girls listening intently and snorted, "So much for 'strictest secrecy.'"
Michelle pointed out, "You always say that information wants to be free, right? But anyways, put together Amy and others having fun with his 'thingy', and the cheerleaders, not counting Katherine, suddenly acting strange when asked about him, and what do you get?"
Christine shot her down. "All I get is one girl with an overactive imagination who's jumping to conclusions. Get real! I could believe that Alan might be playing around a bit with Amy. After all, they've been next-door neighbors and close friends most of their lives. He's hinted to me strongly that he's dating somebody, so it's probably her. But he's such an upstanding guy; I can't imagine him playing around with more than one girl at a time. Frankly, I find it a bit hard to see him with a girlfriend at all."
She wasn't sure why she said that, especially since she didn't really believe it herself. Logically, she knew that he was almost certainly dating Amy or Kim, and quite possibly both of them. But emotionally, she was having a hard time changing her perception of him.
She added, "And you all know how stuck-up most of the cheerleaders are. I could see them being cordial to him, since he's Katherine's brother, but that's it. Amy and Katherine are obvious exceptions to that."
"But Kim totally blushed when asked about him," Michele pointed out.
"Kim's a lesbian, for crying out loud!" Christine complained. "Everyone knows that. Why would someone like that, and on the cheerleading squad to boot, get involved with a relative nobody?" Actually, Christine had seen Kim flirt with Alan on Wednesday, so she strongly suspected that Kim was at least bisexual and very likely did have something going on with Alan. But she didn't want the other girls to know that. She felt upset already just having to concede that he could be dating Amy; having him suddenly dating a whole bunch of girls, and not really her, was just too much to bear.
At that moment Michelle dropped what she considered to be her major bombshell. "What if his quote 'thingy' unquote was absolutely freakin' HUGE?! Even a lesbian might get a little bit curious."
Christine was incredulous. "Okay, Now you've gone completely off the deep end. Give me a break!"
"Hey, all I know is that Amy's not-so-trustworthy friend said that Amy made some big hints in that direction. And it all makes sense. When have you ever heard of Heather being honest-to-God friendly with a guy unless she wants something from him, or, especially, wants to have sex with him? We all know Heather is nothing like the sexually innocent priss that the clueless people in school think she is. What else could she possibly want from ALAN, of all people, unless he has a giant rocket in his pocket? Especially if he knows how to use it? Remember, she was seen flirting with him."
Christine sat back. She couldn't help but recall Alan's earlier mention of having to juggle his "other dates" this weekend, almost certainly implying more than one girl. She wasn't about to share that information with the others at the table though.
She said, "Huh. I have to admit, it is a bit intriguing. Still, it's just speculation piled on speculation. For starters, we can't actually confirm whether Heather was flirting with him or not. I'd say it's a lot more likely she deigned to talk to him just long enough to rip him a new asshole and taunt him with that 'You want it but you're never gonna get it' attitude of hers."
Tina spoke up. "True. But IF Heather was trying to get into Alan's pants, wouldn't that be the news of the year? Queen Bitch of the Universe plus Teacher's Pet Nerd equals luuuuve! Ha ha!"
The whole table burst into laughter and catcalls about that prospect. They all hated Heather, so any gossip that could take her down a notch was very much appreciated.
After that, the gossip exchange drifted on to different topics. But Christine only pretended interest while she ruminated about the gossip over Alan. She found herself more than a little bit disturbed by it all, especially the likelihood that something was happening between him and Amy. She hadn't been that daunted by the possibility that he was dating Kim, because she figured that she had a much sexier body than Kim did. But Amy was a different matter. She knew that Alan was a "tit man," and Amy was amply endowed, as well as all-around beautiful. She'd be seriously tough competition.
Then there was the possibility, although remote, that he was somehow getting involved with Heather as well. She found that so disturbing that she refused to even consider it. Still, the rumors suggested that he was getting increasingly sexually active, as well as increasingly desirable. She'd assumed that if she ever changed her mind about him, he'd still be there, ready and waiting for her. But now she was discovering to her chagrin that this was no longer true.
