Anti-Heroine

Classic Teenage Moments

Jessie was forced to sneak into her house, creeping through the back of the house, in an attempt to avoid her mother. Susan Sanders, master of the emotionless mask, socialite, and former debutante, had always wanted the same for her reserved daughter. She had trained Jessie well, the sixteen year old was born with a quiet disposition and, with the manners that had been hammered into her since birth, she seemed invisible to those who didn't look. And she used this skill now, avoiding her mother's view of her new look.

This seemed far too much like a one night stand, sneaking away through the house, avoiding one person with fervor, like a cheesey romance novel with Fabio on the cover in which the one night stands actually know each other and fall hopelessly in love. Luckily, Jessie can successfully separate fact from fiction, most of the time.

She entered her room, two walls lined with stacks of books in sections of genre and in alphabetical order, by author. Her room looked like an old library with a bed. Brick walls and silver grey curtains and bed were surrounded by a heavy wooden bed and desk, and a cozy slate grey velvet armchair, perfect for curling up in. It seemed like an ancient library straight out of Pemberley , with a few feminine touches.

Folding and hanging up clothes took the remainder of her strength and Jessie snuck into the bathroom next to hers. She showered quickly and fell into bed with a memoir called Me Talk Pretty Some Day.

Drifting off to sleep Jessie suddenly remembered something. Lizzie hadn't bought her a book.

"Jessie, you look, normal." Her mother remarked at the breakfast table on Monday.

Jessie had spent Sunday hidden in her room with her hair in a messy bun on top of her head, hoping it hid the style and color that had changed. "Good morning mother," she replied, helping herself to a bowl of Lucky Charms. She always ate Lucky Charms, it seemed to be the thing heroines would eat.

"Hello Sanders family, the Bohemian Alicia Silverstone is in the house, ready for some Clueless style makeovers and classic teenage moments." Lizzie said, strolling brightly into the Sanders' kitchen.

Jessie groaned and slammed her head on the table, landing in her bowl of cereal.

"Good to see you are started on skin care, but milk with Lucky Charms is not that effective."

"No, I cannot wear this, I just can't do it, look at me I'm showing skin, people are going to notice me," Jessie said, obviously pained by the notion. She had been shoved into the shower, brushed, blow-dried, clothed, and done up with makeup so her hair and eye makeup accentuated her cheekbones, and her best feature, her light blue grey doe eyes.

"You're fine, I mean, you are wearing a polo with a lace cami underneath and cargo pants. It is not that far out of your comfort zone. Now, let's go over this again, if a girl compliments you on your outfit what do you do?" Lizzie replied, taking an authoritative tone.

"Smile, nod, thank her, and run away as fast as possible, she's probably just joking." Jessie replied.

"No, no, no, you smile, thank her, compliment her on her outfit and then try to keep the conversation going." Lizzie replied, "We are trying to get the school to realize who you are, no long a fly on the wall, but a mini celebrity."

"This day is the worst," Jessie muttered, grabbing her book bag and making her way towards the school.

Lizzie grinned, she loved makeovers and she loved people in pain, this was the perfect situation for her, "No, it's going to be the best, now, if a guy says anything to you what do you do?"

"Run away as fast as I can and don't look back."

"Tsk, tsk, you know better, I'd spray you with a water bottle if it wouldn't mess up all my hard work. You must flirt with him dahling." She said. A reader of teenage trash would recognize both the good qualities of Sam and the ruthless qualities of Cammie from the A-List Novels that Lizzie was displaying.

Rolling her eyes, Jessie ascended the stairs of the high school, and tried to hide behind a curtain of her hair and she heard the whispers of the surrounding students.

"Who's that?" she heard one of them whisper.

"I think it's a transfer, I've never seen her before," Another girl answered.

"Well she is a shoo-in for Adrian's crowd," the first responded.

Lizzie sniggered, "See you are already making an impression."

Jessie whipped her head around to the girls. This new haircut and clothes were changing her attitude, making her feel different, "I've gone to this school and lived in this area since kindergarten." Jessie blushed at her slip, now people were going to notice her even more.

The two friends walked down the hallways of Jefferson High attracting stare. The high schoolers were buzzing, just last week that had seen Ethan, an attractive young man, added to the dating pool, and now they believed that there was another new student, Jessie.

The object of their attention clutched her messenger bag and attempted to ignore what people were saying about her. She was being watched by more people now then she had ever been looked at in her life.

And she didn't like it.

Stopping at her locker, Jessie grabbed some books and gasped as an arm squeezed all the air out of her lungs.

"You look amazing, nice work Lizzie, you are going to break some hearts," Molly said happily, another person with too much caffeine in her system, "Just as long as you don't try to steal Brian's."

Emma and Paige trailed behind the energetic teenager, wiping sleep from their eyes, normal Monday behavior, "You look nice," Emma said dully, "So who is this new girl everyone is talking about?" Nothing like gossip to wake a person up.

Raising her hand, Jessie anticipated the questions that would follow, "That would be me. I got dragged to the mall."

"You went to the mall?" Paige asked, a malicious glint in her bright blue eyes, "Why weren't we invited?" she asked.

"Thought you were busy, sorry," Lizzie answered easily.

Molly leaned into Jessie and whispered covertly, "That would be why. They aren't true friends, too jealous, they want to be Adrianne."

Jessie rolled her eyes, and then saw Paige and Emma's role model strolling down the hall towards them, Lisa chattering next to her and two less popular girls trailing in their wake.

"Oh my god what happened to you?" Adrianne asked, she never had a nice thing to say, even when Jessie looked the best she ever had. But then again, now she was definite competition.

Jessie dipped her head uncomfortably, she thought she looked better, even though she disliked the attention her new looks brought.

Lisa appraised her with a critical eye, "Nice style, it fits you well, let me guess, this is what my sister was doing all Saturday." She smiled, she was still the same Lisa from elementary school, just with better hair, makeup, and wardrobe, "Why didn't you tell me, I would have helped!"

"Because she didn't want to look like a Barbie," Lizzie responded with a smile.

"Hate to break up the touching family moments," Adrianne cut in, "But I'm looking for the new girl you were dragging around Lizzie, she has all the guys aflutter and apparently looks like she should be popular."

Lizzie, Jessie, and Molly burst out laughing clutching their sides, gasping for breath. Adrianne glared, this was not proper behavior for the peasants toward their queen.

"That would be Jessie," Emma added helpfully, going for brownie points.

Adrianne raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow and turned on her heel sauntering back down the hallway, Lisa and her followers scurrying to catch up.

"See you in physics Jessie," Lisa threw over her shoulder with a smile.

"Would you look at that," Kevin said appreciatively.

"What?" Ethan asked as the pair stood in the hallway gathering their things for the day, Brian was late as usual.

"Lover girl has arrived, guess that shopping trip worked," Kevin replied, giving her a once over, "Damn, she's actually hot."

Ethan turned to look at the object of his affections, "She looks…"

"It's amazing, she's already leaving you speechless," Kevin responded jokingly, "Well now would be the appropriate time to compliment your fair maiden on her improvements."

The green eyed junior balked, "Nope, can't, she won't answer anyway."

"Sorry, but we are going over there," Kevin said grinning, giving Ethan a little push in the girl's general direction.

"Coming through," Brian's voice rang through the hallways as he skated over to his friends, teachers emerging from their classrooms to reprimand him, "Where are we going?"

"Nowhere," Ethan said quickly, at the same time Kevin answered.

"To visit the girlies."

"I'm all for that," Brian said, already moving down to where the five girls were standing, "Hey Molls."

Kevin shot Ethan a smile and dragged him over after Brian, "Tell her something nice. Now."

The group of eight was quiet, anticipating what Ethan would say, and how Jessie would react.

Both teens shuffled their feet as they realized attention was focused on them. Ethan finally broke the silence, shyly commenting, "Your hair cut looks nice."

Jessie hid a small smile, even if she hated other people's reactions, it was nice to have him compliment her. The tension was released with his words and the group talked about their respective weekends.

I feel like Bingley and Jane, so unsure what to do with each other. Sure he likes me, or so he says, but can I risk it? He's too much like Adrianne, too much like Jack and Ben.

The bell rang signaling the start of the day and the group separated head for their respective classes.

German went well, surprisingly, the teacher had assigned a group dialogue that kept awkward moments from ensuing. All went swimmingly, that is, before physics. Adrianne made barbing comments the entire time about Jessie, to the point where she was almost in tears. She had never seen the queen so brutal.

Ethan seemed to notice her depressed attitude and didn't attempt to bother her during the day. Lunch came and went, both sides confused by the sudden damper put on their day.

At the boys table, Brian and Kevin tried to figure out what happened, but Ethan just stared at the girls. Different factions of the y chromosome population had been stopping at the girl's table, making conversation. Ethan did not like that, she was supposed to be his wallflower, he wanted her to understand, but she wouldn't even give him a chance. Instead, he just shot every guy that looked at her a death stare, cold enough to bring frost bite on.

"What is with this receiving line of upperclassmen?" Emma asked, annoyed that the attention wasn't focused on her or gossip, instead the "ugly friend" of their group, who had turned into a precocious swan overnight.

"Jessie," Lizzie responded, "is finally making her mark on this highschool."

The five girls shut up as yet another senior walked by, a baseball player when spring came around, and attempted to make conversation.

"How are the burgers today?" baseball jock asked casually.

Jessie stared mute at her plate where a burger was resting, one of the other girls could answer, and she just wasn't up to it. She hadn't even identified which hero or villain he could be related to, and that prevented all hopes of communication.

Her friend rolled her eyes and nudged her in the ribs.

"Ow," Jessie said, peeved, rubbing her side, "Oh. Yes. Em, the burgers are burger like."

The poor boy looked thoroughly confused and Molly mouthed sorry to him before he strode away with his tray to join the other middling popular senior boys.

Jessie left lunch alone, heading towards photo. This class would be calming, mindless enlarging and test strips, the perfect thing to calm her frazzled nerves. So many new people had come up to her, started talking to her, and she never knew how to respond. Afraid she would say the wrong thing, speak in the wrong tone, those phrases she did speak were stilted and flat. At least now she could relax, even if Ethan was in that class.

As usual, Jack and Ben arrived in the basement late, laughing and joking, pushing each other into walls. They joined the class and their eyes widened, what luck, the class now had some eye candy. Now the class wouldn't be as boring.

The two sat down next to Ethan and waited for class to start. They may have been late, but Mr. Smith was always later.

"Did you see the babe?" Jack asked him loudly.

"Definitely an eight, or an eight point five," Ben added.

"Who are you talking about?" Ethan asked out of politeness, they seemed to want him to join in.

"The girl in the polo and cargos, she's a hottie," Jack responded, not even bothering to lower his voice.

Jessie heard this and blushed fiercely, trying to hide her face while she looked at her newly developed negatives. Only about half the photos were decent and only five of them were good enough to be enlarged.

Once again, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had angered Ethan within five minutes of conversation. They had to bring up Jessie, they just had to. "Yea, she's cute," he responded quietly. It wouldn't have been smart to get the two biggest and strongest guys at Jefferson on his bad side. He had a survival complex.

"I wonder where she moved from," Ben wondered aloud, "we should order more from that town."

"You do realize that she has lived her and gone to schools in this district for her entire life," Ethan added in, "if I understood Brian and Kevin correctly."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked, racking his brain for her face, "I would have remembered her."

"Well, it doesn't matter, I'm going to go take a crack at her," Ben said, wandering over to the light table where Jessie was reviewing her negatives.

"Where have you been my entire high school career?" he asked smoothly.

"In one or two of your classes every year," she responded coolly. The more her blood boiled, the bitchier and more confident she got, it was like alcohol, and she did not enjoy what they had been saying about her.

"Really? Well I am sorry we haven't talked, why don't we remedy that problem," he added, oozing Casanova waves across the room. All the girls were swooning, he reeked of "want me."

Jessie just rolled her eyes and pretended to study her negatives even more closely, if that was possible. But Ben didn't take the hint.

"Great, I'll pick you up at 7:30 on Friday."

"Wh-wh-what?" she sputtered in unison with Ethan.

"No fair," Jack said, "I'm in her grade, you don't get the first shot at her!"

"First shot?" Ethan said indignantly.

"No way," Jessie muttered, hoping they would forget about her.

"Yes way," Ben added confidently, "You just landed a date with this school's most popular guy."

Jessie and Ethan both couldn't get out of school any faster, she ran to the art room to meet Lizzie, Emma, and Paige, while Ethan hurried to the parking lot. Everything was going wrong.

"Lizzie," Jessie whined, "something horrible just happened in photo."

At this, Emma and Paige perked their gossip ears up.

"Ben said he is taking me on a date and didn't let me say no."

"What!" Emma and Paige spluttered in a perfect imitation of what Jessie had done when he had said that.

"That's just great, our plan is working then, even if it isn't on the right person." Lizzie said.

"We have to go," Emma and Paige said, they really were too close, they thought for each other sometimes.

"Great," Lizzie said when they were out of earshot, "Now the whole school will know."

Jessie was tempted to pull a classic frazzled heroine and swoon on the spot, but Lizzie pushed her back and propelled her towards the door. "You haven't forgotten out agreement have you?"

"What agreement?"

"We," Lizzie said, a glint in her eye, "are going to the book store."

"I am not going in there and asking him." Jessie protested.

"Oh yes you are, or I am not paying for your book," Lizzie said.

"Evil lurks in your heart," Jessie responded walking into Wonderland Books.

"Thank you. Now there's Ethan in the young adult section, go talk to him." Lizzie said helpfully.

Jessie walked over to the two rows devoted to young adult fiction and nonfiction and waited for Ethan to finish shelving some books before clearing her throat, "Um, hey Ethan."

Ethan turned in surprise, this wasn't good, he didn't have Brian or Kevin here to coach him. What was he supposed to say? "Hey."

"Em, well, Lizzie promised me if I went to the mall she would buy me a book, can you recommend me something?"

Ethan raised an eyebrow, he assumed she knew this bookstore as well as his mother did, and she owned it, "Well, I can show you some of the new things Mom ordered that just came in."

"Ok thanks." Great, more awkward teenage moments. Could this be going any worse?

Ethan walked towards the back store room, a place that was sacred in Jessie's mind, and she was going to be allowed inside.

"Here is a historical novel, The Constant Princess, I've heard it's good, made the New York Times Best Sellers List, or Wicked Lovely, I read that, it was a fast paced read, what stuff are you looking for I could help you more if I knew what you liked."

Jessie gazed around the store room, boxes and boxes of new books filled it. "Oh I like anything, I can read any type of book if it is well written," she said absentmindedly, gazing at the cover of Wicked Lovely, and reading the inside flap. "Actually, this looks really good, I like the cover."

Ethan snorted, "You are going to judge it by its cover? Isn't that a little cliché?"

"Yes, but, I feel like those who put the effort into good covers tend to put effort into the writing too," she said.

"Fair enough, let's go ring you up."

As they left the store room, her chosen book in hand, Lizzie winked at them. Jessie, of course, blushed, although she tried to hide it.

As he printed the receipt, Ethan had to ask, "So you and Ben huh?"

"Ugh I don't even want to go out with him, he has never even talked to me before today, what does he know about me?" she said, surprised she was willing to share her feelings with him that easily. She vowed to clam up about stuff like that, it could very easily be spread around the school, making her a hot topic.

"Really?" he asked, a hopeful strain entering his voice.

"Yea," she replied softly, "Well there's Lizzie, I have to go."

"Bye, see you around," he answered, giving her a little wave.

She hurried out of the store to Lizzie and her waiting car, ready to be driven to school so she could go home.

"That went well," Lizzie said, "What were you guys doing back in the store room? Stealing kisses?"

Jessie blushed even though she knew it was just Lizzie, and she was just joking, the implications were there. "Not really, he has decent taste in books."

Lizzie smiled knowingly, that was a high compliment in the world of Jessie. The plan was moving forward.

A/N: Again, I don't own any brand names/band names/book names/movie names. Thanks for reviewing all my lovelies.

Special thanks to my reviewers:

Kohlomere, XxBREAKxXxMYxXxHEARTxX, xbrunettex0