It was lunchtime at Lakeview Academy and Sarah was pissed. She was pissed because that whole morning, no one could seem to shut up about some new girl called Mackenzie Choi. Melissa had been especially bad during 3rd period, going on and on about how amazing Mackenzie apparently was. The other cheerleader was all like, 'Ooh, did you know she's from Australia? She's like so funny! She even has her own motorcycle! Look, despite what certain redheaded ex-best friends might say, Sarah wasn't an ego maniac. She wasn't going to explode off the bat just because some new girl was making waves, but why did it have to be today? This semester was vital for Sarah, and her goal to be elected Homecoming Queen. At Lakeview, as with many schools, there was a dance and celebration for juniors and seniors in both the fall and the spring, Homecoming in the fall, and Prom in the spring. A King and Queen were elected for both, but while Prom elected a senior, it was the juniors who were eligible for Homecoming royalty. Sarah's plan was to win Homecoming this year, and Prom the next. It was both expected of her by her mother, who'd done the same when she was in school, and it was also her chance to prove to Karyn once and for all that she didn't need her. That Sarah had plenty of friends and was totally fine, thank you very much.
She zeroed in on the interloper when she entered the lunchroom. There were four large round tables, clustered together out on the patio that were generally where the popular kids sat. (It wasn't assigned seating or anything, but just the kind of little self separation that naturally happened.) One was dominated by the Cheerleading Squad, another by the top jocks, and the other two a mixture of the other popular kids, like class president Lily Vanderfield, or the preppy guy, Benjamin Kord, who Sarah literally thought she'd never seen wearing anything besides American Eagle and Aeropostal. Sitting there among the familiar faces was a dark haired bombshell in a crop top and leather, talking excitedly with Vivian Wright, Rick Eddington, and Elizabeth Callahan like they were old friends.
Sarah was realistic enough to admit the girl was attractive, and obviously knew how to dress herself well. If things went well and the cheerleader was able to establish dominance, she could even see herself having a good time shopping with the other girl. However, until she did that, all she could see in the other girl was a threat to everything she'd worked towards for the last two years, an interloper ready to swoop in and disrupt the plan. Still, Sarah was never one to back down from a fight. She'd tamed Tiffany and humbled Lily, this Mackenzie was about to fall before the Queen. Biff by her side, she went to take the seat that had been saved for her, naturally, next to Amber.
"Hello, I don't believe we've met, I'm Sarah McMillan," Sarah announced to the new girl as she sat down primly.
Mackenzie glanced over at her, a sly smile on her lips, "Oh, nice to meet ya, I'm Mackenzie Choi," before turning back towards Vivian and continuing her earlier conversation, "yeah Perisher's a great resort if you're looking for smooth powder, but if you want a bit more of a challenge, the peak at Mt. Hotham is a wicked slope."
Sarah's eyebrow twitched; was she being ignored? That just wouldn't do, "sound's like you're a big fan of alpine sports," she drawled, inserting herself into the conversation, "my daddy took me out to Aspen this winter. The skiing was wonderful, and the lodge absolutely divine. We actually had a former Olympic silver medalist as our trainer for the trip, Otis Whiting, if you're familiar." Let it never be said Sarah was afraid to name drop.
"Oh, I've met Otis I think, tall blonde guy with a bit of a big nose, right?" Mackenzie replied, surprising Sarah. "I ran into him at Olympic village, during the Oslo games, back when I was nine. He did the funniest impression of the American's head coach, it was a defo gutbuster."
"Why were you at Olympic village?" Steve Farber asked, suddenly interested; while his biggest character trait was probably that of being a bully, the basketball captain was also a certified sports nut.
"It was my mom's last Olympics," Mackenzie said simply, before taking a sip of her tea. "Though, I've actually tagged along to the ones she's been at as a commentator since then too."
"Wait, who's your mom?" Vivian asked, increasingly intrigued by her new friend. Sarah meanwhile was regretting diving further into the subject of alpine athletics.
Mackenzie looked up, "What, oh, my mom's Charlotte Choi. Sorry, I'm used to most people already knowing, like back at my old school," she said innocently.
That name sent a shock wave around the table; even if you didn't follow Snowboarding specifically, you would have heard of Charlotte Choi, if for no other reason than, by winning gold at the age of 31, in her last winter Olympics, she'd hit 7 career golds, which, along with her silver and bronzes, made her easily the most decorated athlete in the sport. She'd also been on prime time ESPN for the last couple of weeks, making her an increasingly familiar face for a lot of the boy's at the table, both for her sports reporting and for her looks.
There was a blizzard of excited questions, which Mackenzie gamely responded to while Sarah fumed. She occasionally liked to bring up that her mom had worked as a model before marrying her dad, even being featured in two national campaigns, but that would pale in comparison here. Sure, Sarah liked to think the only reason her mom didn't go farther in her career was because her dad made her stay at home as a housewife, but that hardly mattered in the moment. Charlotte Choi had been on wheaties boxes, and even now, retired from the sport for 6 years, she was a celebrity endorser of a small range of products, from snow shoes to eyeliner.
Then, there was light at the end of the tunnel of Sarah's despair. "That's gotta be a bit emasculating for your dad though, your mom making the big money," Biff said nonchalantly.
'Ooh, yes, you're a good little attack dog,' Sarah thought gleefully to herself. She knew in part it was due to Biff projecting, his own father was very insecure about the fact Biff's mom earned more than him, but in the moment Sarah was just happy for something to take Mackenzie down a peg or two.
Mackenzie raised an eyebrow, "Not really, but then again he doesn't have a problem with successful women." That earned a chorus of affirmative noises from the other girls sitting nearby and Sarah had to resist grinding her teeth in frustration. It was a fair point, Sarah really didn't put a lot of stock into traditional gender roles herself privately, whatever her daddy preached, but she'd not expected the Aussie to parry that rhetorical thrust so smoothly.
"What does your dad do?" Amber asked, curiously. Sarah was praying she'd say something significantly lamer than record breaking Olympian, like a plumber. 'Please let him be a plumber'
"He's a record producer," the Choi girl replied with a fond smile, crushing Sarah's hopes. The dark haired beauty fished her I-Phone out of the pocket of her jacket, pulled up a picture and handed it to Amber, "He actually takes me into the studio with him sometimes; this is us in Seoul last February."
"Holy Shit, is that you with BTS!?!?" Amber nearly shrieked with excitement, causing more of table to crowd in to see the picture. Sarah could only gaze in mute horror at the picture of Mackenzie, wearing a red Qipao inspired dress, goofing off and smiling with the members of one of the most famous bands in the world at the moment. Soon the whole table were peppering the half-Korean girl with questions.
Mackenzie laughed and replied to one, saying, "Yeah, Jimin's a real prankster. Meeting them was awesome, but honestly I geeked out more over BLACKPINK. He works with American artists too, like Arcade Fire a few years back."
'Perfect, this is just PERFECT' Sarah screamed internally, 'She's hot, exciting, and apparently friends with a bunch of famous people. Why couldn't she just have stayed in Australia? I swear it's like the universe just sent her here to mess with me!
