The Beauty in Between: Too Close (A Beautiful Series Novella) by Lilliana Anderson Page A

Ethan, Katrina continued to
train for triathlons. She was good at them too and even tried to
get me roped into it occasionally. I was happy to train with her a
couple of times a week, but I didn’t have any interest of competing
like she did.
    School was
shittier than ever. You’d think that by year twelve, we would have
all figured out how to get along, but there was still this great
class divide which meant Cassie and Co continued to rule the school
and did their best to make everyone else feel like crap.
    Katrina and I
claiming that we were close like family had come back to bite us on
the butt. Cassie had started referring to us as the ‘incest twins’
after word had somehow gotten back to everyone after Ethan had
found us in bed together. She came up with this elaborate story
about us actually being related, and the gossip mongers grabbed
hold of it.
    There were a
lot of whispers, a nice amount of graffiti adorning the walls in
the toilets and the usual jibes when enough people were watching to
get a laugh. I don’t know what it was about Katrina and I hanging
out together that was so fascinating for people. Although, I guess
when you’ve got someone like Cassie, who has it in for you,
anything is possible.
    Once again,
there was no point denying anything. They would think what they
wanted to anyway. It just meant that Katrina and I separated
ourselves from everyone more and more.
    We cut
ourselves off and quit the whole ‘group’ scene all together. We
just couldn’t be bothered anymore.
    Katrina put a
lot of time and energy into her training, which in the long run
paid off, because she got selected to race at Nationals and came
close to making it on the Australian team.
    I watched every
race she competed in, except for the interstate ones, and I
couldn’t have been prouder of her.
    In our last
term of school, everyone was getting ready for the HSC exams which
would determine what courses we’d get accepted in at university.
There was so much talk about what everyone was going to do about
their futures that finally, Katrina and I weren’t really a concern
to anyone anymore.
    We still got
bitchy comments from Cassie and Co, but they were easy to ignore.
School was almost over, and we wouldn’t have to put up with her
anymore.
    Once the exams
had all been completed, school finished for all of us. So to
celebrate the end of our high school life, the school once again
put on a formal dance.
    “I really don’t
know if I want to go,” Trina told me one afternoon while we were
sitting together at my house, going over the university course
manual. We were both leaning towards studying law and were applying
to Sydney Uni as our first choice, and the University of Western
Sydney as our second choice. Sydney Uni, was harder to get into and
had a much higher minimum acceptance mark from our exams, but UWS’s
mark was a little lower, which is why it was a good backup.
    “Go where? To
Uni?” I asked her, a little shocked.
    “No, to the
formal or the ‘Prom’ as stupid Cassie still likes to call it.”
    “We can boycott
it if you want, get drunk and throw eggs at the celebs when they
get out of their cars,” I suggested, half-jokingly. Although, I
would have dearly loved to see the look on Cassie’s face when an
egg splattered all over her nice dress.
    “That would be
awesome! I’m so in!” Katrina laughed. “We can’t get drunk first
though, because we’ll need to be able to get away. We’ll park your
car around the corner and wear hats and glasses and stand in with
the crowd of parents and friends while they’re taking photos. Then,
as soon as they get out of their car, we’ll egg them and run.” She
laughed and sat back in her chair. “It will be epic.”
    I watched Trina
as her evil plan unfolded with an amused grin on my face. “Well,
look at you. I’ve never seen you go this nasty before – I like it,”
I said, nodding my head while I chewed on the end of my pencil
thoughtfully. Weighing up