Jane inspected her newest article topic: The Pressures of High School. Jane sighed to herself as she imagined the principal waiting for an article all about how hard the classes were and how difficult the stress was to deal with. Maybe he thought this kind of article would help the students better deal with school. If only he knew how hard high school could really be. The pressure of actual school work was enough, without having to think about gossip, sex, or cliques.
"Oh my god, did you hear, she slept with him!"
"No way, I heard it was with his best friend!"
".and you know, she was terrible at it."
"I heard that she's pregnant!"
"No, she's actually sleeping with the principal!"
Like wild fire, the story of how the school princess had slept with her current boyfriend, and then been dumped because she had been terrible had spread quickly and kept on growing. Jane, like every other person in the school, had heard many different stories, but every one had ended with, ". she's such a slut!" Currently, the story was that Cindy, head cheerleader and everyone's favorite person, had ended up sleeping with Tom, quarterback and the guy every girl dreamed about, at the Christmas party, and was soon dumped afterwards for an unknown reason, but it was suspected that she had been a terrible lay.
An idea started to form in Jane's mind. So, the teachers really wanted to hear about the 'pressures' of high school? Why not show them what the students really wrote about while passing notes in class?
Interviewee 1: Julie (Cheerleader, Cindy's friend)
"Oh my gosh, I know, isn't it, like, terrible about Cindy? I mean, its just scary how she can, like, just be over. After one party! But oh my gosh, it was such a great party! Did you go? Oh my gosh, you so should have!"
Jane stared at Julie for a moment, because of all this had been said in a high, overly happily voice.
"Right, well, can you tell me what happened that night? Did you see what happened between Tom and Cindy?"
Julie sat silently for a moment looking as if she was deep in thought, twisting her hair around her finger, and then said, "Well, you know, Cindy is, like, a total slut."
Jane waited patiently for a couple of minutes, expecting something more, but Julie was now admiring her long, wavy blonde hair in her compact mirror. Jane started to ask Julie again what had happened at the party when Julie suddenly said,
"But oh my gosh, I looked so much better than Cindy at the party. She was wearing like. this long denim skirt and a long sleeve. I mean, what is that? And I was wearing like this totally hot mini skirt with this great halter I found at Gap. I love Gap. It's like, my all time favorite place. Anyway, so okay, Cindy arrived with Tom and everyone went crazy over her outfit, saying it was totally mature and sophisticated. Um, yeah right! So like, then, Tom and his buddies started drinking and doing all these totally funny things to these losers over in the corner. I almost died I was laughing so hard. Oh my gosh, how much would that suck! So anyway, I was with my boyfriend most of the time, so I didn't really see what Tom and Cindy got up to the rest of the night, but they were making out in the corner for like ages. Umm, then Tom and Cindy went upstairs. And that's all."
Julie had started to get really nervous towards the end of her story, and as soon as she was done she snapped her compact mirror open again and started fixing her all ready perfect hair, once again.
Interviewee 2: (Tom)
"You wanna know what happened between me and Cindy? Nuthin' to tell, she wanted to have sex, and I was like 'Whoa baby, calm down, I'm not ready' but then she went totally crazy chick on me and made me. So I broke it off with her."
Tom said all this while fixing his hair in the locker room, and flexing his muscles in front of the mirror.
"I mean, I know there isn't a girl who would not want this," he said, flexing his muscles once again, "But I mean, I'm a responsibly guy, I was thinking 'bout my future.'
Jane listened to his story, but unlike Julie he did not start to get nervous. He told his version like it was the truth. Tom continued:
"And hey, Cindy 'aint that great. She's always takin' so long to put on makeup and stuff, and everytime I would ask her to wear somethin' hot like a mini skirt she'd be all 'ooh no I'm not a slut!' So I got rid of her. There's plenty other better stuff from the cheerleading squad, like that Julie for example."
Jane immediately picked up on this, and asked him if he knew Julie well. Tom seemed to regret saying that, as he mumbled something she couldn't hear and then said he was late for practice.
Interviewee 3: (James, Receiver on the football team)
"Man, that party was rockin'! Some people got a little carried away, though. Most of the guys on the team were drinking and stuff, but me, I don't mess around with that kind of stuff yet. I get teased pretty badly, but hey, I'd rather go far in life."
Jane felt relief, finally someone with a brain.
"Okay, so you wanna know what happened between Cindy and Tom? Well, to tell you the truth. I'm really not all that sure. I mean, Tom's a good guy and all, but he can get a bit crazy at the parties. Plus, he really likes messin' around with girls. So I guess he just figured that it was time for him and Cindy to have sex. Because next thing I saw, he was practically dragging her upstairs. I don't think she totally didn't want to, because she was sort of goin' along with it, giggling and all, but then again Cindy's a smart girl."
Jane raised her eyebrows. So far, all she'd heard of Cindy was bad, but James seemed to respect her.
"What do you mean she's a smart girl?"
"Well, I think she's like me, she thinks about things before she does them. The consequences, I mean. Cause hey, having sex must be great, but I'd rather not knock up some girl and have a little kid to look after when I'm trying to graduate college."
"So you think it was Tom that wanted to have sex, and not Cindy?"
James ran his hand through his hair uncomfortably; looking stuck between the truth and making Tom look bad.
"Well. yeah. Don't get me wrong, though, Tom's a good man. He just doesn't think sometimes."
Interviewee 4: (Cindy)
Cindy simply sat in front of Jane, crying. Jane shifted uncomfortably, feeling terrible for making this girl repeat the thing that had ruined her life. Cindy had told Jane everything that had happened; she had seemed relieved that someone finally wanted to know the truth from her, the person who would know best.
"It all started with Julie," Cindy had said, "I think she started to get interested in Tom, flirting with him all the time, and calling him up every night. Tom would tell me about it, how good it made him feel that all these girls wanted him. But he said that I was the only girl he would ever love. And I believed him. Right up until I asked him to stop. And t-then. he told me I was a bitch."
It was at this point that Cindy started crying, but she continued.
"At the party, we had been making out for a while, and I was okay with that. Then he wanted to go upstairs to be alone and talk he said. I didn't really want to, because I had a feeling what it might lead to, you know? But I did. When we were up there, he started to go really far, and I asked him to stop. Then he would ask me if I loved him. Of course I did, I would say. So why wouldn't I sleep with him? Because I wasn't ready. And I'm glad I didn't, even if it has ruined my life. So I pushed him away and ran downstairs. I saw James, a friend of mine, and he agreed to give me a ride home. Then I saw Julie and Tom making out.
A couple of days later, Tom told all his friends that I had wanted desperately to sleep with him, and practically forced him. From there, more stories spread and now, to everyone else, I'm a slut."
Jane sat down at her computer, staring at the blank screen of a word document. How could she even put down in words what had happened? Because of pressure, Cindy had agreed and agreed to do what Tom wanted, until she absolutely couldn't, and then when she had tried to stop, he had hurt her very badly. Julie, who Cindy had considered a friend, had totally backstabbed her to get the guy, and head cheerleading position. James, the only good guy, had been unable to come out with the truth because he was loyal to Tom; even though he knew what Tom had done was wrong. Jane started typing her article,
"Why is it that people seem to judge others before knowing the whole story? Why is it that pressure can cause us to do things we never really wanted to do in the first place? Maybe, because what other people think and say can hurt us more than anything else."
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