Wednesday 5 June 2013

Wednesday, June 05, 2013 -

Good Girl - Bad Girl

by Rue Chapman
Published: Jun 01, 2013
Words: 23,868
Category: romance
Orientation: M/F
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OPENING EXTRACT
Good Girl - Bad Girl

Sometimes too much of a good thing is really NOT a good thing at all.

Take Mother Nature for instance. She can be far too generous at times. Height for example: a certain amount of height is a good thing, but it's not easy being the tallest kid in school when you're barely ten years old, and a girl. Then there's hair. Long and luxuriant is fantastic... but not when it's also wildly fluffy and mouse-coloured. Intelligence is a blessed gift, but being fiercely intelligent, and skipped several grades, and still being smarter than the rest of your class who are now two years, or more, older than you and being beaten flat by a little kid; that's a very mixed blessing. And when a girl's figure starts developing, well, bouncy isn't always best.

But Nature also keeps things in balance, by adding eyesight so poor that it needs glasses like the bottom of coke bottles; buck teeth and years of braces and acne; and, as the cherry on the top, a name like Myrtle.

Myrtle wasn't on track to enjoy her school years.

The one ray of sunshine and sanity was Dudley. Dudley was also a grade-skipper, he was intelligent and young and weedy and a natural victim for the entrenched bullying that's regarded as 'just a natural part of growing up' by everyone who hasn't been the designated target. He was also, from an early age, perfectly sure of his sexual orientation. Being very gay, and outrageously out, in school isn't a survival factor. But Dudley was also viciously wasp-tongued when necessary, able to slice fiercely into every insecurity and lay bare the deepest fears of any bully who wanted to start name calling. And if a verbal barrage wasn't enough protection, Myrtle would step in; she was a state champion in Tae Kwan Do (her parents' attempt to 'bring her out of herself'. Not naming her 'Myrtle' would have been a better choice.)

Dudley and Myrtle, two kids whose parents should never have been allowed to name a family pet, let alone a child. Dudley and Myrtle, two misfits who stuck together. It made school survivable.

After school they both went to university and studied law. They shared a small, cheap, tatty apartment which Dudley and his friends redecorated and refurbished. Dudley had a wonderful social life and still managed to get through his exams. Myrtle studied hard and did two degrees at once, passing both with honours.

When they moved into the post-university world, they shared an increasingly upmarket series of apartments and houses. They enjoyed house sharing. Old friends know you better than anyone. They nag better, too.

"Mattie, you have to go. He's our boss, and an invitation from him is like an order from anyone else."

"Nobody will notice if I'm missing. They never notice when I'm there."

"And whose fault is that? I keep telling you, I can make sure they'll notice you."

"I don't WANT to be noticed."