• Fairy Dust
    Prologue




    “Your such a weakling - if it weren’t for your brain you wouldn’t have any muscles in your body at all,” Morgan spat at one of the nerds passing down the hallway. Morgan’s my friend, one of the “gang” you could say. “C’mon! Rosssseeee, do I have to degrade all the vermin’s self esteem by myself, or are you gonna help me?”

    No. No way in hell would I ever want to help a person like her. “Uhm, I don’t think tha-”

    “Oh please, Morgan, why even bother? She’s just going to bust out on us again, like she always does.” That’s Susanne, Suz for short. She’s pretty much in tight with Morgan, automatically meaning that she’s “my” friend too.

    You know, I don’t even know why I bother hanging around them. I truly am nothing like them, it’s just.. my status. All people have ever seen me as is Rosa Reese; the granddaughter of the millionaire who invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and the daughter of William and Wendy Reese, the people who currently own “the lighthouse.”

    In Port Clyde, Maine, where I live now, there was a really old lighthouse down by the bay. My parents bought it, renovated it, and turned it into one of the most lavish dinner spots in Maine, maybe even in the US. They made a fortune from it, and raked in millions on top of what they inherited from Harry Reese, the founder of those peanut butter cups and my dad’s father.

    So now, I have to fill in the position of snooty rich girl for the duration of my school education, because… because, I’m not entirely sure how people would treat me if I wasn’t.

    Being totally oblivious to Suz’s comment, Morgan blurted, “Here comes Kat from the bathroom, probably smokin’ up a storm in there. Go rustle up her feathers a bit Rose!”

    “Eew, I mean look at all those tattoos. I bet she smokes more than just cigarettes.” Morgan shuddered.

    I watched as Kat Anderson crawled out of the bathroom, and started to approach us. She stopped about 2 feet from me, threw down her cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke. I felt like vomiting.

    Morgan started nudging me forward and whispered, “Go on,”

    “You… you..” I started to stumble, forgetting the insult I was going to use on Kat. “You..”

    “Are you gonna’ spit it out or what Reese? I don’t got all day.” Kat said sarcastically.

    “You… you came too late the day they were handing out brains and only got a rain check.” In a sense, I felt triumphant that I actually got the words out of my mouth. But I knew that the stuttering ruined the effect.

    “Hey, you didn’t get a brain either that day. They were only handing them out to people who would use them.” Just like that, Kat Anderson brushed by me and walked off with her tough strut. It felt like my jaw broke as soon as those words came out of her mouth, and just hung down. I never liked insulting anyone, I just did it to hold my position in the school. What just happened wasn’t going to help me keep my position.

    “Awe, uhm, don’t worry about it Rose. You’ll get her next time.” Leave it to Morgan, she’s the best at pretending to be sincere. “Hey, well you know it’s almost New Years and well, Suz and I wanted to know if you are taking us to that ball at your place?” She twirled a strand of hair around her finger and eyed me sweetly.

    Every New Years my parents hold a huge ball at the lighthouse. Everyone who’s anybody attends, including celebrities. I’m not really one for parties(usually my friends make me go), but everyone at my school is practically itching for me to get them in. “Of course, who else would I bring?” That was basically the truth, I didn’t have anyone else to bring or, trust me, I would have brought someone else.

    “Thanks Rose! See you at the party tonight!” Morgan said as Suz and her strutted off to their class.




    I waved my mother off as I approached some football player’s house. The gang has dragged me to so many parties that I began not to care who was throwing them. All I knew is that I would probably only stay an hour, fake sick, go home and do something better with my Friday night.

    I pushed open the door and saw a small group of people slow dancing in what looked like a heavily trashed living room. I scanned the faces for Morgan and Suz, but didn’t see them.

    Then I saw Suz run down the stairs. “Oh, hi Rose! Man, you look parched.” She grabbed a cup of what appeared to be water from a table and handed it to me. “Drink this, don’t worry it’s just water. Hey, I’m gonna go check on something real quick, stay put.”

    I began to drink the water. After about fifteen minutes, I began to wonder where Suz and Morgan was.

    Then I heard a loud echo of laughter from down the hall.

    I followed it just to hear something I wish I never did. “You know? What is with her, I mean, she thinks everyone likes her just because her parents are filthy rich, but the truth is, she’s a loser. I mean, she just locks herself up everyday in that stupid room of hers and paints. Bor-ing.”

    I knew that sour tone by heart. Suz.

    “Yeah, I know! Rose is SUCH a goodie-two-shoes! I mean, she thinks she is all that just because she doesn’t insult people. But beeellliiieeeve me sh-” I couldn’t listen to the rest of Morgan’s sentence.

    “H-how could you?” I yelled? I started to feel the room spin and started to shake. I ran out of the room before they saw the tears rocketing down my cheeks. I kept going until I was at the front steps, and then felt a wave of nausea hit me. I bent over and started to puke my guts out. I really wasn’t feeling well.

    I heard a faint click in the background and then saw Kat sitting on the front steps lighting a cigarette. “The drinks were spiked with Ecstasy, ya know.” She said coolly as she put the cigarette in her mouth.

    “Wha-what?” I said hoarsely as I felt another nausea spell coming.

    “Don’t worry, the effects will be completely gone in a couple of hours…” She let out a puff of smoke. “Heard the whole thing, ya know, with Susanne and Morgan. Sorry that happened.” She flashed her hazel eyes at me and they seemed to burn with compassion.

    “It.. It doesn’t matter anyway.. I knew from the moment I came to this school I wouldn’t fit in. Not with the popular crowd, not with the nerds. No one. I appreciate you trying to console me, but, you just wouldn’t understand.”

    “Trust me, I’m definitely the one to come to about bein’ different,” Kat waved her hands towards herself reminding me that she probably wasn’t exactly immune to the feelings of being out of place either. “And ya know what? It doesn’t bother me any. I‘d rather be special, and not fit in with anyone then pretend that I‘m something I‘m not.” I stared at her in silence, wondering how someone so alone, could be so confident. “Never try to lie to yourself about who ya are, ’cause eventually, you’ll start to believe the lie and become something ya aren’t.”

    Kat looked me straight in the eye when she said that sentence, and I knew she was talking about me. “Why are you even talking? I mean, I was mean and insulted you this morning.” She should be laughing in my face about what happened, not trying to help me. That would be the thing that everyone else would do.

    “Hon, no offense, but the insult you threw at me this morning was prolly the worst insult I ever received.” I’m not entirely sure, but the way she said that and smirked, it finally opened the door for me to finally laugh at how pathetic I really was being. Our eyes met and we both started to roar with laughter.
    “Yeah, it was pretty bad wasn’t it?” Kat shook her head violently as tears of laughter rolled down her cheeks. As we started to calm down, I thought about New Years, and how I’d have to spend it with Morgan and Suz. An idea crossed my mind.

    “Would you like to go to the New Year’s ball with me?” I blurted out, instantly regretting it. I hardly knew this girl, and she probably thinks I’m just trying to impress her with my family’s wealth. Yet, I did tell myself that if there was ever anyone better to bring, I would bring them. For some reason, I really connected with Kat that night, and really found myself starting to like her. Talking to her was as easy as breathing, and I knew I would have an amazing time if she came.

    Her expression stunned me. Her hazel eyes glistened in the moonlight with such a strong combination of shock and love that I started to lose balance. It was as if nobody ever wanted to be around her, be her friend, and she was just shown the only sign of friendship she’d ever known. I wasn’t expecting that to happen within a five minute period of talking to her. “Ya.. You.. Really want me to be there with you?” She stared at me with such hope that I really didn’t know how to react.

    I walked over to her and sat beside her. “I’d love to have you with me,” I watched as Kat’s face began to radiate happiness as she learned that it wasn’t some weird joke.

    That’s when I knew, deep in my heart, that maybe this could work. We were completely different, but still the same. Kat, with her short, wavy brown hair, tattoo covered tan skin, poor, drugee, street smart self and me with my long red hair, pale skin, rich a**, naïve self. Yet, there was one thing we both wanted, we wanted to fit in, belong.

    And although we both completely didn’t realize it that night, that’s what brought us together. Our being completely different, made us fit in with each other.

    So that night something that was never expected to happen, happened.

    The two most unlikely people, the rich girl and the poor girl, became the most unlikely pair of best friends.