Angela has been invited to The Lodge, a teen club in Beverly Hills, and she couldn't be more thrilled to go. This is her chance to make new friends, genuine friends, nice friends who aren't going to bring her back to her old self. Sure, Grace and Kelsey are the ones who invited her to The Lodge, but she does not want to be friends with them.
At all.
They're not very nice people; they might think they're nice, but they're not. They're actually really judgmental. And Angela knows they're not nice because once upon a time she was in their shoes, but the difference between her and them is that they pretend to be nice people while she never did; the only time she did do that was to manipulate.
But Grace and Kelsey genuinely think they're nice people; it's crazy.
But she doesn't care for them, she's not going to get too close to them, she's not going to ignore them either, she wants real friends, nice ones, no way is she going back to bad habits.
She saw a girl wearing an outdated outfit, and she had to fight every urge not to make fun of her. There was also the overweight boy who was wearing skinny jeans, and she tried her best not to call him out and insult him.
She's working on herself, she really is. She doesn't want to be a hateful ass bitch, she doesn't want to be mean. She believes her being mean is what got her into such a predicament, which caused her parents' deaths.
She's going to be blaming herself for the rest of her life now. She moves over to her bag and takes out a picture frame of her when she was younger, sitting on her father's lap, her mother sitting right beside him. They're all smiling in the frame. This was moments before things changed, before they started fighting, her mom said it.
She's not going to be seeing their beautiful faces anymore, and it's all her fault. If she weren't a spoiled brat, her parents would still be alive, but they're not. Everyone might see it as an accident, but it wasn't; she believes she killed them, she's the reason why they're dead.
She puts the picture frame on the table next to her cosmetics. Then she moves over to the full-length mirror. She quickly wipes away the tiny tears that come out of her eyes. "Pull yourself together," she flips her hair, checks her fit once again. She's dressed in a tight mini dress in bold leopard print, a sleek black leather blazer, knee-high black socks paired with sleek black heeled ankle boots. She grabs her purse and her new phone, a Motorola MicroTAC flip phone and puts it into the purse.
She walks downstairs to see her Abuela talking to the gardener. They seem to be talking about some weeds. When Abuela spots Angela, she pauses the conversation.
"Going out, dear."
"Uh, yes, I've been invited to The Lodge, it's like a teen hangout spot."
"Oh." Abuela jams her hands together, and a smile forms on her face. "I knew you'd make new friends, extroverted just like your father," she says, shaking her head, probably thinking about her dead son. She might have other children, but it still hurts to lose one of your children.
"Yeah, I actually like that school."
"Ah, I'm so glad to hear that. Would you like me to take you?"
"Nah, I can walk there, it's not that far."
"Okay, dear, make sure you come back early, it's a school night," she says, pointing at her.
Angela nods and walks toward the door, but before she opens it, she turns around to look at her grandmother.
"Nice earrings, Abuela."
"Oh, why, thank you, dear," Abuela says with so much happiness. Angela smiles, mutters the word fabulous and then walks out of the house.
While she walks at the side of the road to The Lodge, she thinks of the boy she saw. Pedro is his name, and he's so handsome, she thinks. She hasn't been able to stop thinking about him since she came home. His beauty is everything, and that smile of his is outstanding.
The way he looked at her suggests that he likes her too, either that or she's a fool and he gives every girl that look.
Grace did say he was trouble, but Angela doesn't know if they're being judgmental or actually being honest, and he is, in fact trouble.
Angela gasps when she thought she saw something in the shadows. But nothing's there. This has got to be the fifth time she thinks something dark and dangerous is lingering next to her or trying to attack her.
She has been paranoid throughout today. But the worst is that the distressed boy she could have sworn had a shadow on top of his head.
Maybe it's the side effects of the accidents, the doctor never said any of this would happen, in fact, she could barely explain anything: why Angela survived, why she didn't end up in a coma, and she had a super quick recovery. Angela knows the Doctor is going to be thinking about her for a long time now.
She doesn't know what is wrong with her, but she is going to be putting what she's been seeing on her sketchpad.
She's at the Lodge, a simple building filled with teenagers who hang out with each other every night. They listen to music, play games, and some couples come here to have dates. There's no underage drinking in here at all, but somehow kids still sneak these things in. But if you're caught sneaking in drugs or alcohol, you'll be thrown out of the club and banned forever.
Angela can hear the music blasting, a type of live grunge music like Nirvana.
RIP Kurt Cobain.
She gets into the club and sees kids dancing and being young to their hearts' content. She smiles to herself because she knows her past would not be caught dead in this place. She used to only hang out with kids of the elites because she thought anyone who wasn't as popular was beneath her, but that's her in the past; this is her now, about to make new friends from different backgrounds.
She looks around observing the place, it looks like an actual club but without the poles, strippers and alcohol. Her head whips over to the stage where the band is; that's when she locks eyes with Pedro.
He's here.
She thinks to herself.
And she keeps eye contact with him, so does he. He's smiling and so is she, because he just winked at her. He's so cool, she thinks. She did wear a leather blazer on purpose. She wants him to tell her that she looks nice. She wants to meet him, but before she does, she stops when she hears her name.
"Angela! Yoo hoo, over here!" Grace.
Angela almost rolls her eyes, but she keeps a smile on her face because they did show her around after all, and they invited her over. She makes her way to the table where she, Kelsey and the other girls are.
Her boyfriend, Conan Druid, is sitting close to her with his arms around her. He's a jock, and he seems to be Christian as well. He's a white boy with little freckles and red hair. He doesn't act like his other jock teammates, who are loud and love to catcall girls. One cat-called Angela earlier, and she gave him the dirtiest looks ever known to man.
Pretty sure he's not going to be doing all that to her again.
"He,y guys." Says Angela.
"Hey!" they all sing in unison.
"Love your outfit." A blond girl says to her.
"Thank you, love yours." and she genuinely does,es she doesn't lie when it comes to fashion.
"Yes, it's very bold," Grace says, and Angela looks at Grace's outfit, and of course, it's very Christian.
"Please sit." Grace gestures for the chair opposite her. Angela sits opposite Grace and Conan, who was named after Conan the barbarian.
"What drink would you like?" asks Grace.
"Oh, chocolate smoothie?"
"Okay, he,y excuse me, waiter." The waiter appear, and it's a teenage girl with short auburn hair. "We'd like a chocolate smoothie for her." Grace points toward Angela.
The girl looks at Angela and squints her eyes like she's trying to place Angela somewhere. Angela looks around her, trying to understand why she's looking at her like that.
She clears her throat.
"Anything else?" she asks.
Angela shakes her head.
"Angela, dear, please be free."
"Thank you, but it's fine, I'll just have the shake."
The waitress nods her head and walks away to bring her order.
"That's Juliana Sullivan, and rumour has it she's a dike," Kelsey says, referring to the waitress who just walked away.
Grace gasps. "Kelsey?"
"What I'm just filling Angela in, she's new here."
"Wait, how do you guys know?" Angela asks them.
"It's stated that the reason why one of our teachers, Miss Leslie, got fired was because she was caught with a student, a female student, and that student is Juliana." Says Kelsey, and it's either it's true or it's just a rumour, simply because she cut her hair and she wears boy clothes.
Angela thinks it's the latter because she has spread rumours about people like Juliana in her old school.
"I think dikes are hot," Conan says, and Angela almost bursts out laughing.
Grace attacks his stomach with her elbow.
"Ow!"
"Homosexuality is not cool."
"It's not cool on guys but it's-"
"No, it's not cool at all. It's a sin against God."
Conan raises his hands in surrender, accepting defeat. Angela smiles because she so badly wants to make fun of these guys.
Juliana comes back with the chocolate milkshake and places it on the table in front of her.
"Thank you," Angela says, pulling the shake closer to her. But Juliana doesn't move away; she still stands there, looking at Angela.
Holy smokes, maybe she is a lesbian after all. Angela thinks.
"Wait a minute, I know you," Juliana says. Grace and everyone else whip their heads toward Angela. How does she know the lesbian? They're probably asking.
"Uh… I don't think so."
"Yes, I do, you're the girl who was in that car crash, you're Angela Hernandez, you were the only one who survived," Juliana confirms, and everyone looks at Angela once again, but this time some are confused and some look at her with pity on their faces.
This is what Angela feared; she didn't want to be the girl who had a tragic past. She looks away from the stares, and then something catches her eye. A creature with horns is following a girl.
"Angela, is this true?" Grace asks him, but Angela isn't listening.g, Angela is sure this time that what she's seeing isn't a part of her imagination. So she stands from her seat and runs after the girl, she hears her name, but she doesn't answer. She's outside, and there's a large creature following the girl, but nobody seems to care.
They're all walking past her like they can't see the creature, or maybe they can't.
Angela is going to help her.
"Hey, watch-"
Angela screams when she finds herself on the top of a tall building.