QueenBees & Wannabes

Preppy B*****s

Drunk again. Juana could smell the sickening odor of cheap beer and urine coming from her mother’s bedroom. It was a normal scene on Monday mornings, or at least it became one after her dad left. “I’m leaving now, if anyone cares,” she would yell from the front door, but no one replied; only the slam of her mother’s door was heard. “I don’t know why I even bother.” But she did know, and I too knew why she kept on acting as if everything was fine. Even though she was glad to get out of hell �"as she called her home�"at least for a few hours, she mumbled under her breath that she was just on her way to another pile hole �"as she called school�".

I met Juana in 7^th grade. She hung out with the two most hated kids in school. Well, actually, she was the one nobody liked. The other two, Ivan and Rosy, were her followers. They did whatever she said. Then, I came along. The three of them got stuck with me for a class project, but by the end of the week I was hanging out with them as the new member of their so called gang. At first, I laughed, but little did I know that she wasn’t the kind of girl to mess with. I was glad she was on my side.

To start off, we had all the attention that we worked on to have. We were mean, snobs, rude, sneaky and conceited. We knew we were smart, and no book of conduct could punish any of us without evidence, and no teachers would dare to take points away from our grades since our rudeness was based on facts and with no malice at all. And though all four of us were pointed out as the worst of the school, Juana was the one outstanding. She wasn’t a bully, she just spoke her mind in some peculiar way that some people didn’t like and felt threatened.

“Tencua!” a girl dared to yell at Juana one of those days we had the brilliant idea of having lunch at the court instead of our secret place-which I can’t tell you because it is a secret, you know. Regardless how many years have passed since last time the gang and I were there, that place is still unknown by the rest of the student body. It’s ironic if I think about it, that place was where we hid from the world, and that place was the same world. It didn’t matter where we would hide, we were the same people: Ivan kept on dreaming of becoming a famous artist, Rosy remained spacing out, I was still astonished for the recent events in my life, and Juana was the fighter.

“You will wish you haven’t been born,” Juana whispered while heading to the girl whose face was about to be demolished. She might have known the risk of getting in a fight, and we as Juana’s friends knew that someone was going to get hurt and it was not our friend. The reason Juana was going to beat the crap out of that girl was that tencua was not close to be one of her favorite words to call her. She could laugh it off being called a dyke (which she wasn’t), a b***h (which she could be), or pendeja (a Spanish word for stupid). But if you knew better, you wouldn’t say the ‘T’ word with any of us around, especially Juana.

The meaning of Juana’s nickname we never found out, but we knew why she was called like that. Juana had a scar on her face. I always wondered how she got such a horrifying thing on her once beautiful face. She just told us that her sister had scratched her while fighting; of course, we didn’t believe it at all, but neither did we say anything else. Her word was final. Only this time, she said nothing, and that was bad…for the girl whose nose exploded in blood: the reaction to her action that even for us was unexpected. We never saw Juana so mad. And we knew we had to keep her away from more trouble as much as possible, but by then it was too late, so the last thing we could do was to keep any security guard away from the bee hive that the fight was. So I ran after the guy who is known to snitch on everyone, “Take one more step and I swear to God I will break your neck.” He became a statue once he heard me yell at him. This moment was glorious for the gang, but more for me. I felt the power that I had gotten from hanging out with Juana. Thanks to her, I had the courage to speak up and step up for her when she needed it, just the way she had stuck up for me several times before.

That’s when I realized what I had become, but I did not pay attention to it for I was enjoying the fact that I had stopped a bigger catastrophe, at least for the time being �" giving Juana some more time to take her anger out on the witch that dared to even look at us.

Private schools priority �"at least in Mexico- is their prestige, so such behavior from my friends and mine was not tolerated. In consequence, we four were expelled.  Our ingenuity didn’t save us, not like we tried anyway. I saw it coming, my expulsion, but I was having fun. I spent fifteen years of my life without any excitement; then, Juana comes along and exposes me to a whole new world making me over. Because of her I went from a notorious geek to the idiot who gets into fights for nothing.  Yet, for the gang this fight was for Juana, because we owed her our recognition �"yes, it sounds ridiculous, but hadn’t been for her, we might as well have never met each other and never become the best friends of our class. Eventually we all split up, as it was supposed to happen. Rosy continue her path on school while Ivan took off to United States. I decided that my time in that place was over and that I had to move on so I did and left the country. However, the person who made us all up was left behind. Juana stayed with her drunken mother, which I really admire of her for she never ran away from her problems like the rest of the gang did. Juan faced reality and overcame without a scratch as she only knew how to do it. As for today, I know she is married to an alcoholic man who may treat her like crap but I also know that if things get worse, she can defend herself and get out of hell at least for a few hours.

Author's Note

Based on a true story.

Reviews

[Green]

Even when you run from your problems you often run right back into them. Curious as to the somewhat randomly placed quotation marks after the first two quotations.

This is a really good story.

[Wandering Violet]

This is an interesting look at the lives of some strong, yet vulnerable people. It is a shame that Juana ended up no better off than in her youth though, she had courage and determination.