Thoughts

A Story of Fire and Ice.

There was always a something happening in Rockwood High.

Sometimes it was a girl trying her hardest to impress the cool kids. Other times it was a boy showing of his prowess of entrapping girls with his charm, resulting to the string of broken hearts he left in his wake. Most times it was a fierce fight for dominance between two individuals all looking to be revered as the height of cool in the institution. But no matter what sort of unfortunate social dilemmas plagued the school, one fact was always agreed upon by every single person, cool or not.

Lexi Winters was the worst human being to ever walk the face of the earth.

And she never made anyone forget it.

Lexi was not the most blessed girl in terms of looks. Her eyes were just a bit too spaced and her jaw line a bit too pronounced. Her dark hair seemed a creation of the most unusual fabric because it never was seen straight or clean. Her clothes seemed too unusual for one to wear anywhere in the world. Coupled with her height, she was very prone to attract the insults of many other 'more attractive' girls.

Of course, that was when Lexi was six years old, and before her father's business empire was created.

Now with eleven more years under her belt, she was probably the best thing that could be said about Rockwood High having some sort of beauty inside its walls. Her metamorphosis from an awkward child to a stunning young lady was revered by her peers as a natural sign of her birthright to be the 'Ice Queen'.

And she embraced the title without a second thought.

At first she was only getting her own small revenge on the girls who wouldn't sit with her at lunch. Or the boys who wouldn't look twice at her because she was not 'pretty enough'. But with time, the power to determine what was cool and what was not in the entire institution was a drug she could not quit.

Now she was feared more than respected. To her, they were one and the same thing. She did not care how many would call her a 'slut' or a 'trump'. No matter what they would say about her, she was always the one they had to impress if they wanted to be recognized as not just another face in Rockwood High.

She wasn't entirely closed off to her emotions though. Most nights in her room she would wonder what she was doing with her life. What was the use of creating the incredible persona that had earned her no amount of respect since she was a child? There was nothing about her life that was real anymore.

Not the fancy things she wore. Not the idiotic cheerleaders she led around school. Certainly not the six football players she had dated.

But she would also remember that she really didn't care about things that were real. Everything real in the world had already been very cruel to her as a child. If avoiding the coldness of this world meant she should cover herself with the envy and hate of her peers, then she was going to be the worst person Rockwood High had ever seen.

It was safe to say that everyone in Rockwood wanted to hate or to be Lexi Winters.

Well, everyone except Mandy Summers.

In fact, if there was a single person in the institution who would never look to be in Lexi's world, it would be Mandy. She knew how fickle the love at the top could be. She had already had her taste in the dark world of popularity, and she found nothing good on the other side.

Mandy was a beautiful child. Not the kind that needed enhancing with cosmetics like Lexi's. No, her beauty was caused by the many imperfections in her body that all meshed together to give her a certain kind of glow. Mandy had enjoyed the watchful eye of boys longing to hold her and girls longing to be her since she was six years old.

Even as a child, she was aware that she could create a world that revolved around her. Make people understand that nothing else mattered in the world but pleasing the most beautiful girl in the institution. And for almost seventeen years, she was the 'Fire Girl' that every one wanted to sit around.

That is, until the accident happened.

Her mother was drinking that night. She wanted to leave her father when she found her secretary come from the shower with her just a towel on. Mandy didn't blame her parents for her life right now. But she couldn't help but feel hard done by life. She had been the most beautiful girl in all of Rockwood. And now she couldn't even see her own beauty reflected in the mirror.

It was harder when she was informed of her mother's death and her father's disappearance. Suddenly the world she was living in was disappearing. Friends, if she ever could have called them that, were gone. Her home was taken, and her residence down to the center for disabled persons.

Mandy thought her life was over. Every time she was in the darkness of her world, she contemplated what she would do just to see again. Just to have that glimpse of the sun rising in the sky, the white of milk pouring in a glass, the glow of a woman who was expecting a child.

She wished she could see the reality of life once more.

But that was impossible. The doctor told her she was lucky to be live. Maybe this was not living anymore. This was more of existing without a purpose or any will to move on. Mandy didn't know. She was just going through the motions trying to figure out what she really wanted.

She hated the reality she was in. But she loved her life more than before now.

She couldn't explain it all, but she was happy that someone came to see her from her old life. She wasn't a friend. If anything she could be her mortal enemy if the two were together in their prime of beauty. But that didn't stop Mandy and her stranger from talking. The girl never told her her name and Mandy never asked for hers.

The girl told her that she knew Mandy before the accident. She knew what Mandy had gone through and what life had taken from her. She never really liked her, in fact, she hated the 'Fire Girl' just like anyone else. But now she was exactly in her position. And she didn't have anyone else to talk to who was real.

It has now been ten years since Rockwood High had seen the passage of the two most hated girls in its history. Not a single person relented on that hate in the least bit for both girls, not even the girls themselves.

But the Ice Queen and the Fire Girl found a common enemy named the world and they were happy to hate it together.

A/N: Thank you✌