Once those first few weeks had passed, she began to slowly settle into the proverbial groove of being 17 again. One of her favorite parts of the new role was being able to eat whatever she wanted without gaining a single ounce of weight, as well as going to the mall and spending all of the never-ending money that her parents gave her. She adored relishing in the popularity that was presented to her every single day. She muddled through the academic side of school, doing the literal bare minimum, and this seemed to be completely kosher in the Platt household, and thus, ok with her.
Flint Ridge High had been completely enthralled in preparation for the upcoming senior prom, though the actual event was still a few months away. And, as a senior, the prom was thus a seriously important event in her (and all of her friends) life. She hadn’t thought much about whom she was going to go with, but it was all Claire and Rena could ever talk about.
“How about Carson Kerr?” Rena asked. All three girls were lying on their backs atop her luxurious king-sized bed, nail polish drying on their feet as they waved their feet in the air. Claire immediately made a loud and exaggerated retching sound before falling into deep gales of laughter.
“Ewww, he’s like 4 feet tall!” Claire eked out through her intense case of the giggles.
“He is sort of cute,” Darcy laughed, causing Rena and Claire to momentary stop laughing and contemplate if she was indeed being serious, which she sort of had been.
“Too bad you’re not a little person,” Claire joked. She swung herself around on the bed and sat up, leaving the other girls on their backs.
“I think you should go with Jason Crone,” Claire firmly continued. The other girls sat up, taking Claire’s lead.
Jason Crone was the school’s second cutest, and single, guy, behind Luke. All of the girls thought he was dreamy and sweet, but the trouble was ALL of the girls thought that, including both Claire and Darcy. The two girls also knew that Rena was completely and utterly infatuated with Jason, who in turn barely acknowledged her existence. Darcy found it sort of rude for Claire to even mention his name as a possible date to accompany her to the prom, though she realized she would jump at the chance of going with Jason anywhere, never mind the prom.
Rena tried to act unbothered by Claire’s suggestion, but an uncomfortable silence suddenly filled the palatial room. Deciding to break the ice, Darcy got up from the bed to face both girls.
“I don’t know. I mean, Jason is clearly gorgeous, but I’m thinking of going solo.”
Claire stared at her open mouthed, while she caught Rena’s clearly visible look of relief.
“No you’re not. I’m going to get Luke to get Jason to ask you,” Claire went on, beginning to remove the cotton balls that she had placed between her toes to avoid any nail polish spillage.
What is her problem? Darcy thought to herself. Claire acted so completely random sometimes.
When the other girls didn’t say anything, Claire decided she wasn’t done with commandeering her choice of prom date, or with sparing Rena’s feelings.
“Oh come on, girls,” she began, beginning to buff her nails. “He’s not going to ask you, Rena. He doesn’t even know you’re alive, sorry to say.”
Rena’s face immediately turned a deep shade of red and Darcy thought she was going to burst into tears then and there right on her strawberry-colored duvet. Sure, it was true that Jason did not take a second look at Rena or show any remote kind of interest in the girl, it was still an extremely mean thing for Claire to say. Rena got up of the bed and walked into the adjoining bathroom, closing the door quickly behind her.
“What are you doing? You know Rena’s in love with Jason!” Darcy whispered to Claire as soon as she heard the bathroom door lock.
“Yes, and I also know that she has no chance. Sorry, Darcy, but she’s been moping around after him for, like, 3 months and he hasn’t even so much as looked her way. She’s got to get over it. Plus, he’s super cute and you’re super single so I don’t see why…”
“That’s not the point!” she interrupted. “You hurt her feelings. There’s no way I’m going to go with him when I know how Rena feels about him”. Both girls heard the toilet flush in the bathroom.
“Darcy – don’t be ridiculous. This is the PROM. You cannot go alone. We are all going to get completely and utterly drop dead gorgeous, go with the hottest boys in school and have the time of our lives. Don’t get all preacher-lady on me, ok? Rena will find a date. Maybe she’ll go with Carson Kerr,” Claire giggled.
Rena opened the door and rejoined the girls in the bedroom, her face no longer red but a light shade of pink.
“Come on girls, let’s do our French manicures,” Rena said, grabbing the kit that sat atop the night table when there was a sudden knock on the door.
She got up and turned down the music they had been listening to as whomever it was at the door knocked again. Her mother had been really annoying lately, popping into her bedroom unannounced fairly often, usually to ask if Mason had called or stopped by.
“Coming!” Darcy screamed and made her way towards the door as the other two girls began to lay out their artillery to do their nails.
She slowly opened the door, fully expected to see her mother’s usual appearance of fraught nerves and hyper energy, but it wasn’t her mother she saw waiting at the door, arm raised in mid knock. It was Mason.
After their initial confrontation a few weeks ago, she hadn’t seen nor heard from her brother. Upon seemingly vanishing into thin air from her closet, he also seemed to vanish completely from her life, which made it relatively easy for her to keep her promise of not telling anyone that he was back early from his trip. As far as she knew, Claire also kept quiet about his whereabouts, though it was easier for her to keep a secret as she didn’t live with a mother who was nosier than Clair Huxtable. She still felt a bit bummed about how poorly their conversation had gone, and she really did want to have a relationship with her brother, especially since she had no desire to return to her real life.
“Mason, hey…” she said, closing the door behind her and joining her brother in the plush hallway. She thought she caught his facial expression change when he briefly saw both Rena and Claire on the bed.
“Hey. Girls’ night at the Platt house? Talking about boys and doing each other’s hair?” Mason mocked, backing up against the railing that reached to his mid back.
“We are 17, after all,” she replied, deliberately not matching his rudeness. Mason looked different since she had seen him last. His hair had grown longer, now shaggy enough and past his ears, and auburn-shaded stubble colored his cheeks and chin. He looked thinner, too.
“Mom and Dad think I just got back today so I guess I just wanted to say thanks for being cool with the whole secret thing”, he said, shifting his gaze to the carpeted floor.
“It wasn’t exactly hard to do, Mason. Where have you been?” she asked, genuinely concerned into the well being of her brother who looked both vulnerable and tired. Behind her, she heard Claire and Rena break into loud laughter. Mason looked towards the door, quickly smiled, and then turned serious once more.
“It doesn’t matter. You should go back to your friends,” he said, turning around and moving towards the stairs.
“Mason, wait.” she said loudly, quickly following her brother. “Do you want to hang out later? The girls aren’t going to stay that much longer.”
He looked up at her and asked “Why?”
She was surprised at his simple retort because it sounded honest. How bad of a sister have I been? she inwardly wondered.
“Because I’d like to hang out with you. Maybe we can catch a movie or something.”
Mason continued walking down the stairs, finally reaching the bottom and looking up at her.
“Thanks but no thanks, Darcy,” he said. “You’re not fooling me with the ‘new you’.”
She watched as he disappeared into the kitchen, and then out of sight. She questioned why he was being so resistant to spending t
ime with her, and why he was being so secretive. But she was committed to finding out.
Chapter 16
The space around her was beginning to fill up with water. She felt the cold wetness first on her toes, and then began to feel the liquid as it rose so quickly that her ankles were soon completely submerged. Suddenly, the water was lapping at her knees. She tried to move, but found that she couldn’t. Her legs felt like they were stuck in cement and were not going anywhere anytime soon.
She began to panic as the water touched her stomach, and then her chest. The long red t-shirt she was wearing billowed in the blue, pristine water, giving the impression of blood entering the sea that surrounded her. Suddenly, the ceiling above her disappeared, revealing a dark, night sky that was full of stars shining so bright that she had to squint her eyes from their overbearing glare.
“Help me!” she screamed, but no words were able to escape her mouth. The cool water soon touched her chin, causing a ripple of coldness to run through her body. She looked around, trying to find something to grasp onto to save her from an obvious imminent drowning, but she seemed to be in the middle of an ocean with no help or safety within sight.
When the water rose so high so that she was completely submerged, she looked straight ahead of her. Expecting to see nothing but an abyss of water, she was surprised to perfectly see that Marina was standing a mere few feet away from her.
The mysterious woman looked as beautiful and well put together, as always. Her red hair was firmly packed in its trademarked tight bun, and her long, ballooning gowns flowed beautifully in the water. She didn't seem to look wet or suffering as Darcy visibly was. Darcy decided to close her eyes for a quick moment to keep the water out of her them, though she realized this was a hopeless cause. She was essentially completely and utterly under water, after all. When she opened her eyes just a brief moment later, she noticed her environment and surroundings had completely changed.
She was now in the white, expansive room she had been in with Marina on her first day as being 17 again. She sat upon the same chair she had sat in once before and was noticeably completely dry. Marina sat directly across from her and stared at her intently. She knew she was dreaming, but everything seemed so vividly real. She couldn’t help but be reminded of that day not so long ago when she sat all manically in front of Marina and expressed her desire to take the woman up on her ludicrous offer, which turned out to be not so ludicrous after all.
“Darcy,” Marina finally said, her accent thicker than usual. She noticed that Marina’s lips weren’t moving but she heard the woman’s words nonetheless. “You are having a good time, no?”
She looked all around her, completely bathed in the bright whiteness. Like before, she couldn’t really discern where the ground began and where the ceiling started, strengthening the dreamlike illusion that the situation was expected to convey.
“It’s just like I imagined it to be!” she quickly exclaimed. Her voice was so loud that it echoed in the invisible recesses of the enormous space. She hadn’t really known why she decided to reply so enthusiastically but perhaps she attributed it to her happiness of not being submerged in an ocean.
“I am happy to hear that,” Marina soon replied, her voice lower and deeper than the usual higher pitch that Darcy was accustomed to used to hearing from her. “You remember our deal, yes?”
She frowned, momentarily confused. How could I forget! was all she wanted to scream but she opted to take a moment to consider what her response would be.
In all honesty, she hadn’t thought all that much about Marina’s declaration all those weeks ago. She had been caught up in enjoying the day to day life of being so much like that protagonist in Sweet Valley High that Marina hadn’t really crossed her mind since that first day.
“Yes, I do, Marina,” she finally replied. She remembered vividly what Marina had told her, but she still had no idea as to how she had to ‘make things right’, especially since things seemed to be moving along perfectly, aside from the occasional hiccup (i.e. Her brother Mason).
“Time is ticking,” Marina went on. “You have to do as you promised, so I may do as I promised.”
“But you are doing what you promised,” Darcy quickly pointed out. Marina had promised to give her the life of the teenage girl she read so fervently about, and that’s what she had exactly done.
“Yes, but it will soon go away if you don’t do as you said you would.”
“When, exactly, is ‘soon’?” she asked, worried and feeling anxiety rise within her.
“Soon is the Prom. You have to make things right by the Prom, or else this will all go away, and I will go away, and my store will go away, and things will go back to just as they were before this happened to you.” Marina’s voice boomed loudly, reminding her of the Wizard of Oz, minus the large flowing white sheet and the Wiz's signature handlebar mustache.
“What? The prom? That’s like in a month and a half!” Darcy yelled, not sure why she was screaming. “I don’t even know what it is exactly that you want from me!”
“You will know when the moment comes,” Marina ominously replied, looking at her, smiling.
Suddenly, she jerked awake, a stifled scream leaving her lips. She looked around her pitch-black bedroom, her heart ready to beat out of her chest. The enjoyment and adoration she was having in the life of a teenage girl was about to become much less enjoyable and adorable. This she knew with every ounce of her teenage/thirty something year old soul.
Chapter 17
There was a discernible nervous energy in the halls of Flint Ridge High on that warm, sunny May morning. An audible buzz seemed to echo off of the metal, shiny lockers and the freshly waxed linoleum floors. It seemed to radiate off of every single teenager, those in band and the popular kids alike. No one really seemed to be talking, just sort of emanating a high pitched sound full of excitement and apprehension, a bizarre cross between a bumblebee and a nervous dog.
Darcy sat on the shiny white floor in front of her locker, her biology textbook open to the chapter on organisms. The class had been learning about the nature of organisms, including their functions, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the natural environment. They were also listening to the teacher speak about the four unifying principles that form the foundation of modern biology: cell theory, evolution, genetics and homeostasis. She found it particularly relevant to her current situation.
She felt like a brand new organism – a new cell, the basic structure of all living things, ready to grow and form and exist independently. She would have to interact with other cells (people), but she also knew she couldn’t fight the natural state of homeostasis. She had no desire to stay the same and be in a steady state. She knew she wanted to experience everything and everything she hadn’t done when she herself was 17 the first time around, either because she wouldn’t or because she decided she couldn’t. She knew, however, very deep down, that she couldn’t defy nature.
She slammed the book shut and leaned her head back against the cold metallic surface of her locker. She once again felt the vitality surge through the school hallways. She felt little pinpricks go up and down her arms as though sensing the collective nerves that seemed to be infiltrating the entire school.
Did I forget about something? , she thought to herself as she caught view of kids, her peers essentially, walking to and from their classes, chatting nervously with their friends, fidgeting incessantly.
She grabbed her cell phone but there were no revelatory text messages from Claire, the first person to always warn her about something gossip-related. Something that Sylvia would have done, she thought to herself, silently missing the overbearing but ultimately endearing ways of her office colleague
With an audible sigh, she sat up from the floor and began rummaging through her purse for a piece of gum. Her mouth had felt acrid as soon as she had woken up late earlier that morning and didn’t have time to brush her teeth. She caught sight o
f herself in the tiny mirror she had magnetically attached to her locker and noticed that her skin was a bit pale and red in various places.
Her hair looked slightly disheveled and this, too, was because of the whole waking up late factor. She moved her hands through the mess atop her head, attempting to tame the mania. She had managed to make it look halfway decent, when she felt a soft tap on her shoulder.
She quickly turned around, surprised to see the round faced, brightly brown-eyed girl she had met at Chrissy Barr’s party a few weeks ago.
“Bennett – hey!” she said, grabbing her purse and slamming her locker door shut behind her. “How’re you doing? I haven’t seen you since that party.”
“Yeah, I’ve been sort of hanging out solo-style and navigating this teenage experience thing,” the other girl replied, her long, dark brown hair tightly braided in a side pony. Bennett had a definite unique sense of style, her Chuck Taylors were two different colors and her vintage Radiohead t-shirt contrasted vastly from the other students' designer duds and dresses.
“Plus, I don’t think your friend Claire likes me very much, either,” Bennett continued, beginning to walk down the hallway with Darcy by her side. The other kids who saw the two girls walking down the hallways clearly found it strange for them to be together, not to mention actually talking to one another. She had forgotten how shocking it was in high school to see different factions of social circles interact. That was something she definitely did not miss, which was an enormous understatement at that.
“She doesn’t like anyone,” she quickly replied, suppressing a giggle. Bennett laughed as well, honestly surprised at her lack of filter and willingness to jest her friend.
Both girls soon arrived at the end of the hallway. The large clock that commanded the whole front area of the school, acting as both a teller of time and ominous reminder to her that time was slipping by way too fast, making the Prom come that much sooner.
Sensing the shift in energy in her, Bennett stopped by the clock. “Nervous, huh? The permanence of it will haunt you forever.”