Stewart and Lily

Quote of the Day: "The piano's been drinking, not me."
-Tom Waits

Since Tom Perrotta's Little Children has me on a "dark side of suburbia" kick, here's an excerpt from a short story that I adapted from our "American High" script. Stewart, a teacher, is developing feelings for a student. Enjoy.

Throughout the semester, his main interest became Lily. He'd notice
her in the halls, applying lip gloss at the locker of her best
friend, Vivian Hughes, and he just knew that he had begun to
understand Lily better than anybody. Like everyone at American,
Stewart knew who Vivian was. She was the gorgeous brunette, the
leader of the dance squad, the daughter of a popular English
teacher and a girl who was so dark and cynical and just plain cool
that the guys would do anything simply to be with her. And, unlike
Lily, Vivian did not even try to look pretty. Her beauty was just
natural; her brunette locks cascaded and bounced upon her shoulders,
she wore little make-up (her amazing blue eyes did the work for her),
and she looked phenomenal simply wearing sandals, a t-shirt, and
jeans.

Lily, on the other hand, simply stood in Vivian’s shadow and
constantly primped. Stewart, more often than not, would find her
fixing her blond bangs or applying mascara or lip gloss or concealer
or whatever else she carried in that little pink makeup bag. How he
wished he could walk up to her and snap that compact shut and, with
a warm smile, tell her that she needn't try so hard, that he saw that
there was something attractive about her beneath the cosmetics.

He began to resent Vivian, though she did nothing wrong. He imagined
that Lily resented Vivian also, that Lily hated how Vivian dated Jake
immediately after Lily and Jake had broken up (he carefully monitored 
that whole saga). He wanted to say to Lily that Jake was just a drug
dealer--everyone at American knew this--and that she was better off
without him, that she truly deserved better.