The Jesters Fool- Chapter 3

Lexi is the most obnoxious person in the world when it comes to mornings. Despite the fact that the two of us went to bed at 12:30 last night, she is still up and making an excessive amount of noise at 8:00 am.

“Lexi, shut up,” I plead, covering my head with my pillow, trying my best to drown out the sounds of One Direction. They were a great band - don’t get me wrong - but 'Best Song Ever' is not exactly something you want to wake up to.

“Said I had a dirty mouth,” Lexi begins to sing along in response, “But she kissed me like she meant it.” 

I groan, pulling away from the warm, loving grasp of my blankets. The storm from last night has passed, leaving behind a miserable drizzle, the rain pounding softly against the window. “How are you such a morning person?” I ask Lexi, who is already dressed and ready for the day, and is now sitting at her desk journaling. She shrugs, clicking her pen open and closed a couple of times.

“What do you want to do today?” Lexi asks, writing the words: TO DO, boldly at the top of her paper. 

“I was thinking we could meet up with the boys and see if they’ll let us tag along with them.”

“How long will it be until you’re ready to go?” Lexi asks, taking in my bedhead and greasy skin.

“I don’t know,” Lexi expects everyone around her to have their lives as meticulously scheduled as she does. “I need to shower,”

“Twenty minutes,” Lexi tells me.

“And brush my teeth-”

“Two and a half,”

“And blow-dry my hair.” I finally finished my list.

“Five.”

“Okay, so like, give me thirty minutes.” I laugh, turning on the hot water. Timberline's water system isn’t great; the hottest setting on the showers is like, maybe, lukewarm, but it stays at a decently consistent temperature, even during winter, which is nice. In Minnesota, if there's a particularly strong freeze, the water sometimes refuses to heat up.

“I’ll text Marcus and ask what we’re doing today, and tell him to meet up with us for breakfast,” Lexi says, stepping into the bathroom. When she turns her phone on, her eyes light up, and she begins waving it in my face frantically. 

“You want me to read something?” I ask her, grabbing her wrist to still her enough so I can read the message after she nods.

Thomas: You have room for me in your schedule today?

“I think that's going to be a yes,” I smile, laughing at Lexi.

“How do I respond?” She asks, perching herself on the counter.

“I don’t know,” I shrug, turning my back on her, “I only just got my first kiss. I’m no love expert.”

“Brooke,” Lexi whines, and I laugh.

“Get out so I can shower.” I make a shooing motion with my hand, and she leaves reluctantly, muttering about how I’m a fake friend under her breath.

I step into the shower, the warm-ish water running down my back. I can still hear One Direction music playing, and I finally begin to appreciate her music taste. I squeeze some of my shampoo into my hand, lathering the bubbles against my scalp.

The bathroom door flies open, and Lexi runs i,n squealing, “Lex, boundaries!” I exclaim, laughing, rinsing the bubbles from my hair, and sticking my head out from the shower curtain to figure out what she wants.

Lexis grinning, which doesn’t say too much since she always has a beaming smile, “He texted me again.” 

“Were you afraid he’d leave you on read?” I ask, pulling the curtain fully shut and beginning to condition the ends of my hair.

“No, but I like the attention he’s giving me.” 

“Lex, you’re impossible,” I laugh, “What did you even tell him before?”
“I said that the two of us were gonna get ready, and then we could meet up with the guys for breakfast and make our plans.” 

“You’re letting them have a say in your scheduling?” I ask, almost refusing to believe it.

“Unfortunately.” She sighs, “It feels like the right thing to do.”

“How mature of you.”

“I know.” The bathroom door closes quietly, and I am left in peace to take a shower.

I rinse the suds of body wash off myself quickly, and then shut off the shower. The water, although initially at a comfortable temperature, quickly began to chill. Stupid Lexi used up all the hot(ish) water during her shower. But there's no way on God's green earth that I’m waking up early enough to sneak into the shower before her. 

Wrapping a towel around myself, I move over to the sink and foggy mirror, squeezing out some toothpaste and beginning to brush my teeth. Lexi comes in again, “Are you almost done?” She asks, “I’m gonna set some clothes out for you, so you don’t have to waste time getting dressed.” I laugh, swallowing some of my toothpaste, and then, gagging, spit the rest out.

“I appreciate your help, Lex.” I smile, closing the door in her face and scrunching my hair up with my towel. I grab my hair dryer from the edge of the counter and plug it in. I flip my head upside down, combing through my hair as the warm air dries it. 

Before I step out of the bathroom, I give myself a once-over in the fogged-up mirror and rewrap the towel around my body. “What am I wearing today, stylist?” I ask Lexi, who is still digging through my clothes.

“Why do you have so many Timberline shirts? Are you starting a fan club or something?” She asks, shoving one in my face to prove her point.

“Shut up,” I pull on the pair of jeans that she has laid on my bed for me. The rips in the knees severely go against Timberline's strict dress code, but since school hasn’t officially started yet and it's a weekend, I can wear them without fear of repercussion.

“Oh!” Lexi exclaims, striking gold, “This shirt is adorable!” It's a white, cropped shirt with pink flowers scattered about the fabric. “And it’ll make you look great! Very sexy, if I may say so.” 

“Ew, Lex.” I snatch it from her and pull it over my head, laughing, trying my best to pretend that she isn’t quietly cat-calling me in an awful impression of Aaron's voice.

“Breakfast?” She asks after I throw on some blush and mascara. I don’t normally wear makeup, but Lexi is right, I do want to try to impress Aaron, and when she's around, that's hard to do. Lexi is literally the most beautiful human I’ve ever met, and guys would choose her over me in a heartbeat. I’ve never seen her as a sort of competition before, but maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try to look my best when I’m around her.

“Yeah, let's go.” I smile, snatching my chapstick from my bedside and putting it in my front pocket. Lexi grabs my phone out from under my pillow and hands it to me. I check to see if I have any notifications from Aaron. None. But I do have several missed calls from Marcus. “I think someone misses us,” I laugh, showing Lexi the list of missed calls.

I press the call button and then put my phone on speaker. Marcus answers after the first ring, “I was scared you died or something.” He says, sounding annoyed.

“Didn’t you get Lexis' message?” I ask, laughing. Lexi grabs my arm and shakes her head ‘no’, dramatically. She was so busy texting Thomas that she forgot to let Marcus know our game plan. 

“No, what message?” He asks, sounding confused.

“I asked if you wanted to get breakfast with us,” Lexi says, “I guess it didn’t go through.”

Lying to Marcus, although discouraged, happens often. It's always simple white lies, used when Lexi and I forget to include him in something and don’t want to make him feel bad. “Oh, when are you two eating?” He asks.

“We’re heading to the caf right now.” I tell him, “Thomas is meeting us there too, and I’m going to call Aaron in a minute and see if he wants to join us.” 

“Cool, I’ll meet you there in a minute,” Marcus says, hanging up the call. I immediately call Aaron, pressing the dial button when I find his name.

It takes him a couple more rings before he picks up than it took Marcus. “Hey, Brooke,” His voice sounds sleepy.

“Did you just wake up?” I ask, embarrassed. Lexi and I begin to head down the stairs.

“Nah,” He yawns, “Okay, maybe, what's up?”

“Wanna meet us in the caf in five?” Lexi asks, furrowing her brow, worried that he’ll take too long getting there and throw off her schedule- that she swore to let the boys contribute to.

“Sure, see you in a minute,” He answers.

“K, see you there.” I smile, hanging up and sticking my phone back into my pocket.

“Wanna race?” I ask Lexi when we step outside. She's walking in awkward lines, meticulously trying to avoid the puddles.

“I’d rather kill myself.” She laughs, trying her best to keep her white Air Forces safe from the dirty water that's coating the walkway.

“Who do you think is going to show up to breakfast last?” I ask, trying to get Lexi to think about something other than her germaphobe tendencies - she’s not scared of germs exactly, but more a fear of looking dirty.

Lexi scrunches up her nose in thought, “Probably Aaron, since he just woke up.” She makes an unintelligible sound as she steps into a puddle. She shakes her foot dramatically, spraying some of the dirty water onto my jeans, “Oh, sorry about that.” She blushes, going back to watching the ground while she walks.

“It's just water, I’ll live.” I laugh, tucking my hair behind my ears.

“Good morning, ladies,” Marcus runs up behind us, wrapping an arm around each of our shoulders. Thomas follows behind him and walks to the other side of Lexi, wrapping his arm around her free shoulder. The walkway is barely wide enough for two people to walk, and the four of us stumble along awkwardly, taking turns pushing each other into the grass.

We walk like that all the way to the cafeteria, where we have a slight crisis trying to figure out how the four of us will fit through the doorway at the same time. After an excessive amount of shoving, Marcus and I make it through first with a triumphant whoop of victory, and Thomas and Lexi follow in after us, ashamed of their defeat.

“It's easier to get in the door when there's only one person.” Aaron smiles, slipping in a few moments after us.

“Were you spying on us?” Marcus demands, raising an eyebrow, pretending to interrogate Aaron.

“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Aaron shrugs, coming over to hold my hand. “And I’m sure Brooke here would have no problem adding you to her body box.” I laugh, Marcus’ disturbed face adding to the joke.

“I’m normal, I swear.” I try to defend myself, putting my hands up as if in surrender.

“Freak,” Marcus scrunches up his face and shoves past Lexi and Thomas, using them as shields to hide from me.

“Hey, don’t sacrifice me, man.” Thomas and Marcus shove each other around, earning dirty looks from the teachers in charge of supervising the cafeteria, and faces of awed bewilderment from the underclassmen.

“We should probably just get our food now,” Lexi laughs, trying to move the boys on. Despite her tough demeanor, she would rather die than break the rules. Not once since she arrived at Timberline has she had to so much as have a talk to a teacher, and in her senior year, I think she’d like to keep it that way.

“Come on, drama queens.” I push Marcus playfully, and Thomas follows after him. 

Something about Timberline cereal makes me gag. It's stale, probably not name-brand, and the milk just makes it worse. However, cereal is the best breakfast option that Timberline offers, which is unfortunate.

Thomas puts his spoon down after one bite, making a face. Besides last night's pizza, this is his first experience with Timberline's food, which should, legally, be considered a biohazard. “It only gets worse from here.” I smile at him from across our table, holding up my spoon and taking a large bite, trying to stop myself from making a face.

How can Cheerios be so dry and wet at the same time? It's literally nasty. “I might never eat again.” Thomas pushes his bowl away from him and crosses his arms. Lexi rips her bagel in half and offers him part of it. He takes a bite and scowls, “How is it even possible for someone to mess up a bagel?”
“Still better than those fake Froot Loops.” She shrugs, grabbing her- blueberry?- bagel back from him.

“Do you guys want to play some soccer on the fields today?” Marcus asks once the table goes silent. We all turn to him.

“Ew,” Lexi says, not even because the field will be muddy from the rain, just because she hates sports. She played tennis during her freshman and sophomore years to fulfill her gym credits, and then she tapped out, calling it good.

“The fields are gonna be gross,” I shrug. The idea of playing against Aaron is intimidating, and Marcus isn’t bad either. Granted, he’s not great, but he did claim to have practiced a lot this summer, and I wouldn’t want to underestimate him and end up losing.

“Fine, do you guys want to help me unpack my dorm?” 

“Absolutely not.” Lexi is the first to answer again.

“What if we went into town and watched a movie or something?” Aaron asks, Lexi shakes her head almost immediately, and we all groan.

“Brooke talks too much; we can’t take her into a theater.” This time, she does have a fair point. I hate movie theaters; they're dark, quiet, claustrophobic, and I’m expected not to talk for the whole film. Movie theaters are like my own personal version of hell.

“That is true, I have a talking problem,” I agree, and Marcus nods.

“I have an idea.” Lexi says suddenly, reaching out to grab my hand from across the table, I raise an eyebrow, waiting for her to go on, “What if we gave the boys makeovers?” 

“Absolutely not,” Marcus interjects immediately. The other two look at each other, and then at Lexi and me, and shrug. We have two partially won over; we just need to convince Marcus that we won’t humiliate him.

“Oh come on, Marcus,” Lexi whines, “It's not like anyone's gonna see.”

“Oh, so you guys are going to be blindfolded?” He asks, crossing his arms.

“No one besides us.” 

“You’ll look so pretty when we’re done with you, Marcus.” I pout and cross my arms, trying to match his posture.

“Give me one more good reason,” He sighs, combing his hands through his hair.

Lex and I make eye contact and we both grin, “It’ll probably better your chances at getting a girlfriend,” I shrug.

“Show them you’re in touch with your feminine side,” Lexi adds.

“This is a one-time thing.” Marcus gets up from the table, and the rest of us follow him, “And the other two have to look just as ridiculous as me, if not worse.”

“Deal!” Lexi exclaims, jumping up to hug him. She’s very physically affectionate that way.

Aaron takes my hand as we walk back to the dormitory. The rain has completely stopped now, but the early autumn humidity makes my hair frizz up. Lexi and Thomas are walking in front of us, also holding hands. Thomas is trying to push a frantic Lexi into puddles, and she clings to his arm tightly, determined to take him down with her to their muddy fate. Ahead of them is Marcus, who's walking head down�" alone. I feel bad for him, it’s not that he’s never had a girlfriend or anything, but besides me and Lexi, I don’t think he has a deep emotional connection with many people. 

Marcus makes it to the dorm first, a few steps ahead of the rest of us. He unlocks the door and holds it open for Lexi and Thomas, then, just seconds before Aaron and I walk in, he slams the door behind him, locking us out. I can see Lexi giggling through the glass as she, Thomas, and Marcus hold the door shut. Aaron grabs his ID and scans it, and the two of us tug on the door with all of our strength. The other three let go of the door suddenly, sending Aaron and I flying, our backs hitting against the brick wall of the entryway.

“Wow, we’re strong.” He laughs, scanning his ID again and opening the door again. The other three are out of sight, and we begin to head up the stairs to mine and Lexi's dorm, searching for the rest of our group.

“They had like thirty seconds on us, where did they go?” I ask, not seeing them anywhere in the stretch of the long hallway. They must have been sprinting to make it all the way into the dorm room before Aaron and I made it up the stairs.

We take a few more steps before a strong body lunges out from behind a stack of boxes. My heart stops beating for a good second, and I catch my breath, trying to stop the rush of adrenaline from choking me. Marcus is laughing, and Aaron has his hand pressed against his chest, just as startled as I was.

“Jeez, Marcus, that's not funny,” But I can’t stop myself from laughing with him, my ragged breath hitching in my throat. Lexi and Thomas step out from behind the boxes, too, grinning. “Whose idea was it?” I demand, glaring at them all.

Lexi points at Thomas. Thomas points at Marcus, and Marcus is pointing at Lexi. Conveniently, they don’t remember who came up with the master plan. “It was a group project,” Marcus finally shrugs, “And Miss. Brooke Taylor, I think we passed it.”

“You believe wrong,” I mutter, holding Aaron's hand tighter and continuing to mine and Lexis' dorm, my heart still beating furiously.

The other three highfive behind us, before following Aaron and I down the rest of the hallway. When I get to the door to our room, Lexi shoves in front of me excitedly, holding her ID in my face. She smiles proudly, “Look what I remembered,” Then unlocks our door, and waves the rest of us inside.

Lexi and I both grab our makeup from our desks. Neither of us have any clothes that we’ll let the boys wear, unwilling to let them stretch out our cute shirts. “Who’s going first?” I ask, looking down at the three of them. They all turn their eyes to the ground, suddenly shy.

“I’ll go.” Thomas offers after a moment of silence and discreet shoving between the boys.

“Let's get to work,” Lexi grins at me, grabbing out a bottle of foundation and pumping some out onto the back of her hand. Thomas flinches back as if something bit him the second that she dabs some onto his skin. “Hold still.” She insists, grabbing his head and forcing him to stay in place. He stops struggling.

“What color eyeshadow do you want?” I ask, holding open several pallets in front of his face. He points to a neutral shade of brown. I take my brush and drag it lightly over his eye, and then, redip the brush, this time in an iridescent gold, and paint it over what I had already done. 

Marcus snickers behind him, “What a pretty boy,” He laughs, catching a reflection of his friend in the mirror.

“Shut up Marcus, you’re next.” I warn him, “And since you’ve got long hair, we’re doing that too.”

“I didn’t agree to this!” Marcus exclaims, holding his hands over his head, as if to protect himself. “This is coercion. And I’m pretty sure that's a crime.”

“Shut up,” I say again, and he does.

Thomas opens his eyes after Lexi adds a generous amount of bronzer to his cheeks, saying, “I need him to look sunkissed, even in this awful weather.” 

“What have you done to me?” He asks, eyes huge, looking at himself with an expression of mortified terror.

“Made you pretty.” Lexi chirps, scooting him out of her way and grabbing Marcus’ hand, ready to do his makeup next. “Your turn Marcus.”

“I want to die.” He moans as Lexi goes in with her foundation once again. Then, she grabs a tube of concealer and coats it all over his face, just for good measure. “This is sticky and disgusting and I hate it.”

“I hate you,” I counter, blushing his cheeks with the brightest pink color that I own. “Now, open your eyes and look at the ceiling.” I instruct, holding the mascara wand up.

“If I lose an eye, I’m suing.” He warns, grimacing as I begin to coat his lashes. “Oh my god, just having that thing so close to my eye makes me feel like I’m about to cry.” He blinks a couple of times after I pull the wand away, smudging a little bit of the black goop under his eyes, but I don’t think he has the patience for me to fix it.

“You’re done now.” Lexi tells him, patting his shoulder, “And you look beautiful.” She adds, earning herself a scowl as he moves back to Thomas. Aaron stands up and sits down next to me.

He clasps my face in his hands smiling at me, “Make me pretty, Brooke?” He asks, smirking at me. I feel my face flush and I hope nobody can notice�" 

Lexi does. She elbows me playfully and walks over by the other two boys, sitting down next to them. She starts conversing with them, leaving just me and Aaron alone in our little bubble. “I think Lexi’s foundation is going to be too light for you,” I smile, holding the bottle up to his tan skin. 

“Probably.” He agrees, taking the bottle from me and comparing it to his wrist with an amused grin, “I didn’t know people could look that white.”

“She’s darker than me,” I giggle, moving in closer to him.

“What's our first step then?” He asks me, looking through the piles of makeup products around us. I pick up one of Lexis contour pallets and go for the second darkest shade, using the brush to blend it across his already defined jawline. Then I take it to his nose, noticing for the first time the cute little bump at the bridge. I love guys with imperfect noses, I can’t explain it, but I do. Maybe it’s because I, too, have an interesting looking nose and it makes me feel like we’re even? No matter the cause though, I do find it very attractive.

“Now what?” Aaron asks as I set the contour down, and I point at the stack of blushes. He looks through until he finds a color he likes. It's mine�" the one I’m wearing right now. “This one looks like yours.” He tells me, holding it up to my cheeks and comparing.

“It is,” I smile, bewildered that he noticed. Must come with having two gorgeous sisters, and I’m suddenly grateful that this boy has grown up around women his whole life and is already trained to be very respectful and caring.

“It looks beautiful on you.” My face burns and I smile shyly up at him. I grab my brush and begin to drag the product over his cheeks, adding a heavy amount in order to get it to stand out against his darker skin. 

“It looks better on you,” I tell him when I’m done. I grab a deep pink lip gloss from the small collection of my makeup, and lean in, so very close to Aaron, and coat it over his lips slowly. The color doesn’t work well with his skin tone, but I find it entertaining and leave it on. “Alright, I’m done,” I say, pulling out my phone to take a picture.

Aaron grabs my wrist, “Hey, no paparazzi.” He laughs, refusing to let me turn the phone on, “I bet you’ll send that picture right to one of my sisters.” My face lights up.

“I didn’t even think of that,” I grin, quickly sliding over to the camera feature and snapping a picture. It's blurry, but good enough to hold against him if the time ever comes.

“What kind of cruel psychopath does something like that?” He asks, trying to grab my phone away from me so he can delete it. I power it off and tuck it into my back pocket, where he is much too polite to try to reach for- especially in front of our friends.

“It's perfect for your senior photo.” I tell him, “Maybe I’ll accidentally send it to the yearbook staff.”
“I told you it was a setup!” Marcus calls from across the room. The boys look at each other before the three of them jump on me. “Steel the phone Lexi!” He calls after they have me pinned to the ground. 

Lexi takes out her own phone, taking a picture of the group of us sprawled awkwardly on the ground before grabbing my phone from me and tucking it in her own back pocket. “Sorry boys, we’re on opposing teams.” She shrugs, shoving them off of me and helping me to my feet.

“Thomas,” Marcus sighs, propping himself up on his arm, “I’m sorry man, but she’s chosen her allegiance- I think it's time for you two to break up.”

Thomas nods solemnly, appraising the two of us, “You’re right Marcus, my heart belongs to you anyways.” He wraps his arms around Marcus’ neck, kissing his cheek and then pulling away with disgust as the foundation coats his lips. “Never mind, I prefer my girls to be more natural, I’m going back to Lexi.”

“Are we getting a divorce?” Marcus whispers, horrified.

“Sorry babes. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” 

“Jokes on you, me and Aaron have been seeing each other behind your back.” Marcus pushes Thomas off of him and walks over to Aaron, clinging to his arm defensively.

“The maid?” Thomas gasps, his hand flying to his mouth in a shocked expression.

“The mistress.” Aaron corrects, running his fingers through Marcus’ hair. “And the woman he wrote into his will�" over you.” He bats his mascara coated lashes in a subtle flirty look.

“Is this how they think we act?” I ask, turning to Lex.

“Honestly, I hope so.” She giggles, “Otherwise I don’t want to know where they picked this behavior up.”

“My parents divorce was messy.” Marcus defends, “I’m using direct quotes here.”

“Shut up.” I walk over to my desk and grab out a new package of makeup remover wipes, opening it and handing one to each of the boys. They look at me with confused looks, “To get rid of the makeup.” I laugh, grabbing Aarons from him and bringing it to his face, wiping at his skin gently.

“What a relief.” Marcus sighs, dropping his dirty wipe onto the floor.

“You pig!” Aaron cries, picking it up before Lexi slaps Marcus square across the face, “Have you never had to clean up after yourself?”

Marcus shrugs, “Lexi works as my part time cleaning service.”
“Unpaid.” She mutters, a slight sting of venom in her voice.

Author's Note

please leave me any and all comments you can! I am trying to edit this story to a point where I can use it as my submission for grad school, so I would really like to improve this story!