Pop Rocks and Pink Nails

Pop Rocks and Pink Nails
Genre: "Just Another Teen Drama"

“So Drew, are you ready for that date with Lizzy?” Mandy said in her typical singsong fashion as her head bobbled in tune with her perky steps. Her long straight strands of finely kept brown hair wagged in the air behind her like the tail on an overly happy canine.
“It’s not a date,” Drew crammed a thick blue math book into his locker between a half-eaten pack of Pop Tarts and the History of Western Civilization II. Mandy watched as his cheeks flushed red and he fidgety with his locker door.
“Oh, that’s right.” Mandy replied. “It’s not a real date but a study date.”
“Right,” Drew said shaking his head in agreement and averting his eyes trying to keep Mandy from seeing his evidently blushing cheeks. “It’s a study date. You know, to study.”
Mandy couldn’t help but feel sorry for Drew. He was so unpopular and she understood the reasons why. He was, after all, squirrelly in figure with a short brown unkempt afro and pimples that covered his pasty white face like the peaks of vast mountain range. Somehow he managed to escape the antagonizing label of “nerd” and “geek” solely on the fact that he didn’t wear glasses. However, Mandy knew that his newly adorned title of “loser” was just as harsh, if not harsher. But that didn’t matter to her. She could see past his outer appearance into the inner depth of this lowly and lonely young man to see his hidden potential buried beneath: he was going to score her a date with Brad!
“Of course, Drew.” Mandy replied. “The four of us are just going to the library to study for the test. You, me, Brad and Lizzy.” She said this with a smile on her face but her brain was busy formulating a plan to get time alone with Brad.
Drew fidgeted with the broken zipper on his black messenger bag. There was some kind of purple patch sown on the front that Mandy didn’t recognize, yet any fan of Transformers would know it was the symbol for the Decepticons.
“You know,” Drew scuffed his dirty Converse across the floor, “you’re the first person that’s been nice to me since I’ve moved here.”
“Oh it’s nothing,” Mandy cocked her head to the side and flipped her hair, “You’re a great guy Drew and you deserve a great girl.”
“Aw, not me.”
“Sure, you are. You know I think you and Lizzy would make a super cute couple.”
Mandy’s smile widened like a hungry crocodile as she kept twirling her hair around her finger. It was a habit of hers to play with her hair whenever she was lying. She struggled to keep her cool but she could read the signs and it was clear that Drew was more interested in her than Lizzy. But that’s what made him so easy to play. Just as long as she could keep him on a short enough leash then she just knew that there was no way her scheme could fail. The only problem was getting this sap to fall for Lizzy and not cling to her.
“Lizzy, really isn’t my type.” Drew said shyly but Mandy ignored his comment and pretended not to listen. She turned toward the lockers on the opposite wall and stared at gray gash embedded in the light blue metal frame of locker 716.
“Did you say something?”
“It was nothing.”
Just then Lizzy and Brad popped around the corner and came walking down the hallway towards them. Brad was tall, semi-buff, with spiked black hair, a blond chin patch, aviator sunglasses glasses with thick white frames, a black tank top, and had tiny sea shells tied around his wrist like a bracelet. For Lizzy he was the epitome of hotness and the god of her dreams. But what made Brad so cool? He was a guitar player after all, and better yet, his band, “Pop Rocks and Pink Nails,” was really growing in popularity since their gig at the House of Rock. Good looking and popular was all that Mandy needed in a man.
“Hi Brad,” Mandy dropped her hair and tapped her fingers in the air as she waved her hand. She could feel her heart pound as he nodded his acknowledgment. Never had a man been so close to her grasp yet so far away.
“Hi Lizzy,” Mandy fought back the bile of resentment that filled her throat as she tried to maintain a chipper attitude. Her biggest dilemma in bagging Brad was his twin-sister, Lizzy: a tone-death punk freak with lime-green eyeliner, blond hair wrapped up in an unkempt bun that looked like a bakery explosion with two chopsticks sticking out of the overrunning dough, a black t-shirt with a picture of Hello Kitty in a Reaper outfit and a saying below that read “hello death,” and lastly her on her fingers was her now well-known staple, “hot-pink-nail-polish.” She was the epitome of trailer park trash. Or better yet, even the trailer parks would reject her, Mandy thought to herself.
“Mr. Cowley is such a slave driver,” Brad said running his fingers through his spiked hair.
“I know.” Mandy waved her hand in front of her face. “What a loser. Why just the other day I was…”
“He isn’t that bad,” Lizzy interrupted, “and you shouldn’t complain, Brad. After all, it was Mr. Cowley who helped us get our first gig playing for the Battle of the Bands.”
Mandy suddenly felt like pilot who just had all engines cut out in mid-flight with no hopes of engine resurrection and no parachute. Several nasty names formed in her mind of what she desired to call her interrupter.
“I heard about that,” Drew added, “doesn’t the school have a really strict policy about who can play and who can’t?”
“Yeah,” Brad replied, “they even have a dress code and they sensor all the music.”
Lizzy slung her book back down on the floor. “They said we were too wild but Mr. Cowley got the board to ease up.”
“I didn’t know he was a punk rock fan?” Drew chuckled to himself.
“He isn’t,” Brad flexed his right elbow over his head, “but he believes in helping students reach their potential.”
“Yeah,” Lizzy added, “he’s been one of our biggest supporters, even if he doesn’t care for the music. Of course he’s like that with all his students. He’s a really great guy.”
“That’s really cool.”
Everyone appeared to be genuinely interested in the topic at hand but the subject was taking the focus further and further away from anything that either had to do with or interested Mandy. She couldn’t have that.
“So what about that study date?” Mandy interrupted the flow like a car wreck on a busy intersection. “Are we still on for this afternoon?”
Mandy could feel the spotlight quickly returning to her as the others stopped their conversation to gaze in her direction.
“That’s right,” Lizzy closed her eyes, flashed a triumph smile and shot out her arm in-between the group making a victory sign with her fingers. “We’re going to ace this test!”
Drew shot back with shock as if he had just witnessed a girl jumping to her death from a tall building. Mandy was as equally disturbed by the display.
“I think you’ve been watching too much Anime there sis.” Brad chuckled slightly as he started walking off. The other three trailed closely behind. “If we get done early we should all head over to Dairy Queen to get some celebratory Ice Cream.”
So far Mandy’s plan was going perfectly. Now the key was getting “Lame Drew” infatuated with “Punk Lizzy” and then she would have Brad all to herself. As the strolled toward the exit she noticed Drew eying her out of the corner of his eye. Perhaps this would be harder than she thought.

Author's Note

This was a free writing experiment to see how well I could do at teenage drama.