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(This is original creative material copyright Chris Kenworthy, based on characters that he has no right to owned by someone else blah blah biddy blah...) |
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"Worth it!" Harmony squealed just before Jesse came into earshot.
"Hi Cordelia!" he said. "Do you have a date for the back-to-school bash yet?"
"Hmm," Cordelia stalled. She thought of just saying that she had a date, but she couldn't. "No, not yet," she admitted.
"Maybe we could go together," Jesse mumbled.
"Uh, I'll let you know," Cordelia answered lamely.
"Great!" Jesse almost beamed with misplaced pleasure. "See you around!" he chirped before he headed off to rejoin his friends.
"Well, that was pathetic," Harmony informed Cordy. But she was smiling, realizing how Cordelia had just been trying to spare Jesse's feelings.
"I know," Cordelia confirmed woefully. "He's just so, so, uh, devoted. I don't have the heart to shoot him down." She watched as Jesse joked around with his outcast friends. "I hope he either loses interest or gets a clue soon, though."
"Yeah, I can see why," Rachel agreed sadly.
"Oh, come on - enough of that," Harmony said. "Watcha gonna wear to the bash, Cordelia?"
* * * *
Much later on, Cordelia sidled up to the refreshments table, picked up a glass of diet punch, and took a listless sip. She had lost track of Harmony and Rachel during the mingling. Well, not so much 'lost track' - she had caught the hint to split when the others started double-flirting with a pair of modestly cute guys who had been in their freshman English class. Why couldn't there have been one for her? Not that she was a big fan of triple-flirting, but it was better than having to spin all alone to avoid being a fifth wheel.
"Magnificent, isn't it?"
"What?" Cordelia looked over at the person who had spoken. It was the mysterious older guy she had seen on the beach earlier!
"The ocean," he supplied helpfully, and Cordelia realized that she had been staring towards the water as she thought. "It's amazing, that such power can come from such simplicity." He turned to look at her, an inscrutable expression on his face. "The water, so innocent in small quantities, forms itself into a living thing, powerful enough to reshape the earth itself, taking and giving lives as it sees fit." He smiled suavely at her. "Hi, I'm Damien," he added, extending a hand for her to shake.
"Cordelia," she said, shaking his hand briefly and smiling like an idiot.
Damien grinned as he heard the name. He broke off the handshake, while still holding her fingers in his, and murmured "Fairest Cordelia." He bent over and kissed Cordy's fingers, and she couldn't help but giggle. "That art most rich, being poor," he continued. "Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despised. Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon," and he wagged his eyebrows ever so slightly to indicate a double entendre, "Be it lawful I take up what's cast away."
Cordelia's nervous giggles were threatening to run away with her at this point, but with an effort of will she got them under control. "Excuse me?" she gasped between involuntarily deep breaths.
"That's from 'King Lear'," Damien explained. "The King of France, declaring his intent to marry the princess Cordelia despite the fact that her father, the senile King, has just cut her off without inheritance."
"Oh," Cordelia said, masking a goofy smile. She had gotten a different impression when Damien had started saying that, as perhaps he had intended. She started talking, not even thinking of what she was saying, just wanting the conversation to continue on. "My father's name is Lear. He just had to name me after King Lear's daughter from the play." She snorted with mild distaste.
"Hey, what's the problem? Cordelia is a gorgeous name. Just be glad... are you by chance his first daughter?"
"Uh, yeah."
Damien smirked. "Then be glad he didn't pick the name of King Lear's oldest daughter. You would've been a 'Goneril!'" Cordelia chortled at that one.
Just at that moment, another voice rose loud over the party. "Cordy! Where are you? We're booking!"
"Oh, Rachel, not now," Cordelia muttered to herself.
"CORDY!"
Cordy sighed. "Here!" She called out loud, hopefully loud enough for Rachel to hear her.
Damien was looking at her, calmly amused. "My friends, sorry," Cordelia said. "I can just tell them to go home by themselves, if you want..."
"No," Damien said. "I wouldn't want to come between friends."
"But... will I see you again? Do you want my phone number?"
"Hmm." Damien considered. "Well, not tonight, I think. But I'll be showing my face at that club tommorrow night. The Bronze. We could see each other there." He paused significantly. "If you'd like."
"Uh, yeah, sure!" Cordelia blurted out before she'd even had a chance to think about it.
"Cool," Damien said, smiling. "Farewell, my fair Cordelia." He cocked his head at Cordelia and walked away.
"Oh my god!" Cordelia spun around, to see Harmony and Rachel staring at her from ten feet away. "You... he... I'm speechless," Harmony said as Cordy ran over to them.
"Hoo man!" Cordelia summarized, joining her two friends. "How much of the end of that did you hear?"
"Nothing," Rachel said.
"Then get this," Cordelia boasted. "He asked me to the Bronze for tommorrow night!"
"No way!" Harmony moaned.
"Yes way!"
"As a date, or as a 'maybe I'll see you there?" Harmony asked perceptively.
"Um," Cordelia said uncertainly. "I dunno - maybe halfway between," she admitted.
"Oh, who cares," Rachel declared. "It's still a greatness. You are an inspiration to all of us, Cordy."
"Stop it," Cordelia shot back, blushing, as she walked away from the beach with her two best friends.
* * * *
"Yeah, Rachel," Cordelia promised over the cordless telephone handset. "I promise, you're gonna be getting details as soon as I get back from the Bronze." Pause. "Yeah, of course. We'll three-way it with Harmony." Cordy giggled. "Bye, Rachel." She took the handset into her other hand and pressed a button to turn it off.
"You're going out again tonight?" Cordy sighed as she froze in place. The voice was none other than Stepmom number two, 'Leila.' She had just had to spend the whole day with her Dad, (not that that part was bad,) Leila and her bratty half-brother Mikey, the monthly 'family day' that one or more of them had dreamed up. Cordelia didn't understand it - after all, Dad and Leila were divorced... why couldn't they act like normal divorced couples and avoid each other? And now Leila was taking her turn to get in Cordelia's face...
"Yep," Cordy replied, still not even turning around. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"I'm getting worried about you, Cordelia," Leila butted in. "You lay around all day, you stay out all night, you push everyone close to you away with that rebellious attitude..."
"Rebellious attitude? Just because I'm getting tired of stepmoms always poking their noses into my life? Or is all this about that job?"
"Your father went to a lot of trouble for you with 'that job,' Cordelia," Leila pontficated. "You could have had a lot of fun, and learned even more, if you had just stuck with it."
Cordelia opened her mouth to make a response, but she was saved the bother. "Mom!" her megabrat brother yelled out from the den.
"Coming," Leila said, and bustled off. Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief and headed off towards the stairway. But before she had even reached it, there was a quiet rhythmical knock at the front door. Tap-tap Ta-ta-tap.
Cordelia smiled, rushed towards the door, and quietly slid it open. Sure enough, Harmony was there, carrying several garment bags and a stylish duffel slung over one shoulder. "Have no fear, the fashion force is here," Harm muttered, smiling.
"Harmony!" Cordy squealed softly as she hurried Harmony in and up the stairs. "Is this what you really think of my clothes sense?" she quipped.
"Well, maybe just a little," Harmony joked back. "But seriously Cor, this, this date or whatever, is epic, right? Thus it requires epic measures! That's why I sneaked these out of my dad's workroom closet!!"
"Oh!" Cordelia smiled with sudden understanding. Harmony's dad was the only guy she knew with more style than her own father. A good thing, too - he was the number one designer in Chase Fashion Inc.'s ladies wear department. Harmony's mother had been a fashion model a long time ago, too - no wonder Harm had flair to spare. "So, what have you got?"
"Three main choices," Harmony said. "'Power pretty,' 'Glamour star,' and 'Dangerously sexy.'" She patted the duffel bag. "Accessories for each outfit available upon request." Cordelia grinned in sheer delight.
* * * *
Cordelia tried her best to strut sexily as she entered The Bronze. She was wearing Harmony's "Dangerously sexy" outfit, as she had guessed she would the moment she had heard it mentioned, though she had tried the other two first. The outfit was a tight black spandex sweater, low-cut but long-sleeved, not quite long enough to reach the thin, clingy white silk skirt that covered her legs to mid-thigh. Harmony had accessorized it with black leather heels, a gold bracelet and earrings, and burnished bronze clasps pinning up some of her hair elegantly.
Cordelia noticed a number of guys staring at her as she walked into the club, even boys from higher grades. That was nice, but it was only Damien she wanted to impress tonight, and that would be harder than bugging out the eyes of Juniors.
She had made a full circuit of the club when a tap came on her spandexed shoulder. She spun around, and there he was. "Hi, there," he said, grinning. "Glad you kept the date, princess."
"Date?" Cordy spluttered out. "Was this a date?"
"Well," Damien considered. "Not until you showed up, it wasn't." He took a step back, letting his eyes roam over every inch of Cordelia's ensemble... and Cordelia. "Way to take power, girl!"
"Uh, thanks," Cordelia murmured, then something hit her. "Take power?"
"Yeah," Damien confirmed. "The whole social scene, the clothes, the poularity contests, the manipulations. It's all about power."
"Really?" Cordelia said, disbelievingly. "I don't care about power - I'd just like to be popular."
"Okay, then." Damien said. "That's a goal, but you need to have the power, the social power in this case, to get to your goal. To take it, instead of expecting someone else to come along and hand it to you." He smiled at her, somewhat calculatingly. "You've got the assets, girl, for sure, and you've got the instincts. All you need is the strategy, and you could rule this whole town."
Cordy tried to assimilate all this, but couldn't help feeling that there was something strange about it. So, she put it out of her mind. "Whatever," she muttered. "Do ya wanna dance?"
"Certainly, my fair one," Damien muttered, grabbing her hand and leading her away.
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