Back from the Banquet
As Scarlett arrived at her dorm room, she jumped right into her bed. Five hours standing in high heels numbed her legs and exhausted her body all over.
“You’ve finally come back. Hey, don’t go to sleep just yet. I’ve got something to ask you.” Bell, Scarlett’s roommate and best friend at school, came to her and patted her face softly. Bell Harper had been by her side through the years.
“Shoot!” Scarlett felt like she had no strength left, not even to talk.
“Did Mr. Howard talk to you?”
“The thing about the letter of recommendation?”
Bell nodded and then lowered her voice. “He said that I should seriously consider staying at the school to pursue my master’s as well. I haven’t made up my mind yet, though. So… what do you think?”
Bell poked Scarlett’s face with her finger and continued, “You know, Fannie has been getting really worked up about this.” Scarlett covered her eyes with the back of her hand to protect her eyes against the glaring light coming from the lamp. “Do you think I have time to care about her?”
Fannie Miller walked into the dorm right as Scarlett had finished her sentence. “Oh, look who’s finally back. If it isn’t our local pageant princess, Scarlett.” Fannie said, sarcastically, as her eyes detected Scarlett lying in bed.
Usually, Fannie would only be seen with heavy make-up on– foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow, highlighter, and most certainly, some lipstick. But it looked like she had just finished washing her face. It was only then that Scarlett and Bell could see her real face– underneath all the make-up she usually wore.
Fannie Miller was quite the beauty herself. She had a delicate face with bright, almond-shaped eyes and full lips. She had a great figure, too, lean but still curvy. In brief, Fannie and Scarlett have a similar look to them: they both appear sweet and sexy. This, as expected, got in the way of their friendship. Instead of being close friends, they regarded each other more as rivals. They were competing against one another.
It’s rarely good news when two ravishing women study at the same university and even live together. There can only be one queen to the king, of course. So, they had never been on good terms. More specifically, Fannie had never reached out to her and tried to be friends.
Scarlett ignored her. She sat up and walked to the washroom with all of her toiletries. “Who do you think you are anyway?” Fannie felt furious at the mere sight of her rival, Scarlett.
Niki, their other roommate who sat at the island in the kitchen, was reading a Russian novel and was disturbed by Fannie’s yelling. Niki Smith was also a student in the Russian department; the four of them had been in many classes together over the last three years.
Niki put down her book and turned to Fannie, “Listen, Fannie, I’d really appreciate it if you could just quiet down a little bit. Scarlett’s been out all day, and she’s just gotten back. She’s tired, and so am I. I just want to be able to read in peace. Leave us alone just for a while, would you? Thanks.”
Fannie didn’t like how Niki had snapped at her. “Girl, I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want. Don’t try to tell me what to do. Who knows what Scarlett was doing all day anyway? Probably macking on her sugar daddy…” Fannie scoffed.
“Watch your tongue, Fannie!” Bell stopped Fannie before Scarlett could get a word in edgeways. “Oh, Bell, hush. You know it’s true. You can stop me from talking about it, but you can’t stop everyone else out there.” Fannie raised her voice.
Scarlett finally came out of the bathroom. She was brushing her teeth, her mouth filled with foam. She walked over to Fannie and stood in front of her, staring at her face.
“Don’t look at me that way. You know I’m… I’m telling the truth.” Fannie was, actually, not so sure that she knew the truth about Scarlett’s dealings. But she didn't want to lose this battle.
As they stood next to one another, it was pretty obvious that Scarlett is at least two inches taller than Fannie. Scarlett dominated the space. She was an imposing presence over Fannie without even trying.
Fannie couldn’t avoid the sight of Scarlett’s figure; she was intimidated. Scarlett was incredibly fit from all the exercising she regularly did. She generally believed that Scarlett was her rival, someone she could compete with and maybe even win against, on some occasions. But at this moment, she felt certain that Scarlett was more attractive than she, and she shrank back, cowering.
Fannie was annoyed with Scarlett’s staring. “What do you want anyway, bitch? A fight?” She said and raised her hand, indicating that she was ready to fight if that’s what Scarlett wanted. Fannie was ready to battle.
Scarlett swiped her finger along Fannie’s cheek and said, “You’ve got some facial cleanser left on your face.” After saying this, Scarlett returned to the bathroom quietly.
Niki giggled at the scene, but Bell, wanting to keep the peace, pretended that she had not heard anything of the altercation. Fannie gave Scarlett the dirtiest look she could muster but chose not to say anything. She stayed quiet. The curtain finally fell.
***
On Saturday mornings, the dorm room always felt peaceful. Scarlett rarely needed not to go out during the day, so she decided to sleep in till noon– the best way to kill time on the weekend, she thought to herself, filled with glee.
“Scarlett…Get up already!” Bell climbed onto Scarlett’s bed and snuggled under the covers. She emerged all of a sudden, scaring Scarlett.
“Why… It's Saturday!” Scarlett covered her head with the quilt and whined. “Bell, come on… it’s Saturday. I’m tired, just let me sleep in, please. Just for once.”
Bell whispered into Scarlett’s ear, “There’s this dude I met online. We added each other on Facebook, and he messaged me asking me out. We agreed to meet today, but I’m a little scared… I want you to come along with me. Please?”
“What? An online friend?” Scarlett couldn’t help herself. How silly of Bell to trust a stranger on the Internet, she thought.“Shhhh, shut up.” Bell covered Scarlett’s mouth, “It’s not like that, okay? I’ve known him for a long time, and it’s not like I just agreed to meet a total stranger. I’m not that absurd, okay? We’ve even video chatted a few times. He seems chill to me. Totally legit.”Bell dragged Scarlett out of bed. Scarlett didn’t want to get up and go out on this date with Bell’s online friend, but Bell had left her with no options. Scarlett pulled out a casual graphic T-shirt and a pair of denim shorts from a pile of clothes on the floor and put them on in a rush.She sat on the bed for a while and looked at Bell ru
Scarlett laughed out loud. Dan continued, “Can you believe it? It’s my fifth Tinder date this month alone. I wouldn't say I like it, but I still can’t stop. I feel like I gotta keep trying my luck.”Scarlett took a closer look. “Well, you never know, maybe you’ll have fun! Maybe she’ll turn out to be a good match for you. You gotta stay hopeful, right?”Dan shook his head and sighed. “I’m not as optimistic as you.”“Well, by the time you find the one, you’ll be so experienced. Things will go smoothly and fall into place.’ Scarlett laughed again.Dan gazed at her lovely face, and a sudden sadness rose from the bottom of his heart. Would he ever be able to confess his love to Scarlett? Woul
Sophie put the cigarette back unwillingly and said, “Oh, did I tell you about the casting next week? It’s for an art class, and they’re looking for a model for figure drawing. I recommended you for it, so I gave them your number.”Scarlett muttered with some sausage still in her mouth, “Can I? I am not a professional model, though.”Sophie gazed into her eyes and said, “Don’t you want to make money? Just go!”Scarlett finished her sausage and nodded. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. As always. You’re right, I guess I’ll go and see what happens.”Sophie took out her cell phone and made several calls, “Hmm, okay. Yeah, tell me everything. What? Where are they? Alright, alright, calm down. O
“What are these for?” Scarlett stared at a whole row of luxurious sports cars in wide-eyed excitement.“Racing cars. They’ve got a racing game here every Saturday night.” Sophie turned to her and explained.“Ah. Got it!”Even as Scarlett dealt with socializing with Jeff and Sophie’s friends, she couldn’t move her eyes away from the rows of high-configuration sports cars only 10 meters away. They were all modified supercars, some even outfitted with nitrogen tanks to speed them up. This was a visual feast– she felt her mouth grow wet with desire.Scarlett narrowed her eyes. The silver car that stood parked on the far left captured her imagination. She breathed in deep and saw thick wads of dollar bills float down
Chunk touched his chin and asked curiously, “Then what do you want?”“This one.” She pointed to the reflector, and she was estimating its worth. “So, what do you think? What’s this worth, like 15k?” She grew excited at the thought of the fortune awaiting her.Chuck was surprised at her choice, “Ya know, you’re pretty bad at business. I gotta hand it to you.”“Deal? Or no deal?” Scarlett had her own set of principles.“Of course!” Chuck Sandler couldn’t wait to watch the show.The final race was just about to start. The cheering crowds were full of excitement; people screamed and shouted to no end.
Although Scarlett had made a fortune, she still kept a low profile. There was only one person she wanted to share the news with her younger brother, Skyler. So, she gave Skyler a call and asked if they could get dinner in the coming week.Scarlett arrived at Skyler’s lab 20 minutes earlier than their appointed time. She leaned against a tree and played some games on her phone to pass the time.At a top science and engineering school like the one Skyler went to, there were usually many more male students than female. So, as one would expect, Scarlett drew a lot of attention on such a campus.The school was always worried about the disastrous consequences of having such a hypermasculine institution– it further discouraged women from entering STEM fields when they saw how skewed in favor of women the demogr
You have to think of yourself now. It’s your time.”“Do you think it really necessary? I mean, it’s just… a language.”Skyler’s face grew serious at once, “Don’t you want to study further? You could become an expert in no time! I’m sure you’ll find work somewhere, or you could even become a Russian professor at the college. Just like mom!”“How boring it is to be a professor!” Scarlett didn’t think that becoming a professor would be all that exciting to her. That wasn’t really her goal, as far as her career went.“Alright, even if you are not going to be a professor, it’s still necessary to further your education. It’s quite possible that you could be an int
Half an hour later, Scarlett found herself in a luxurious salon. She decided to shut her mouth and just let the hairstylists work their magic; their imposing scissors scared her a little bit, but she decided to let whatever was about to happen just happen.She was actually happy to get a haircut in this expensive salon that was way out of her budget, and she decided that even if the stylist shaved all of her hair off today, she would not utter a word of complaint.After about two hours, the hairstylist announced that she was done.Scarlett looked in the mirror to find that her dark brown hair had turned from straight to wavy. The stylist had cut her hair a little bit shorter and given it a perm. It seemed like the stylist had achieved the best combination of sexy and adorable. Scarlett was quite satisfied with her n