Chapter Text
“Regina, We can’t be late!”
“Um, Mom, the point of a Potluck is that it’s not a fancy dinner where people notice you! We could just not go.”
“Regina. I do not want you to be heartless and not at least welcome the new members of our HOA.”
“I don’t care about the HOA, Mom!”
Regina moved with a pace that showed no hint of hurry or care for social niceties, plucking a half empty bottle of Sun-Ripened Raspberry lotion from her vanity and drizzling it onto her arm with an obscene toot of air from the bottle.
She viciously rubbed the lotion into that arm, and the next, scanning her vanity for what she’d need next. Mascara. Great Lash. The little pink and green tube was the last thing missing from her preparations and the only thing missing from her vanity.
“KYLIE!!!!!!!!!”
“Yeah?” Kylie appeared at the door, lashes spidery, eyes blackened with excess mascara.
“Ok, ew, you look like a goth. Also, that is literally mine.”
Regina gestured to the Great Lash mascara.
“Mom won’t get me one.” Kylie sighed and gave in before she really had to, strutting over and placing it on the vanity.
“Not my problem.” Regina snapped, turning to face the mirror.
Kylie stood, staring at her older sister, who quickly occupied herself with makeup. Regina applied the mascara, mouth agape, then turned back to her sister.
“Goodbye!”
Kylie ran away, and Regina only had enough time to get her blush on before her mom busted back into her room.
“Ok, Sweetie. Seems like this family just moved here from, like, Massachusetts. Plainfield or something. So, we might be walking a couple of streets Honey, kay?”
Regina squealed in frustration.
“Mom! I am not going to get my NEW SHOES wet just to go meet some random family and says ‘Ohhh Hello There! Welcome to Trailview, even though you have no Money!’ Daddy can take me in the car.”
“Okay, girl! I’ll tell him, but can you please finish up soon? Honestlyyyy, the HOA was not happy about your little drunken BBQ and I realllly desperately want to jog with the other Moms without making things awkward.”
“Okay, then get out!”
Regina was a master at getting ready, and pulled herself together after a couple minutes. Thundering downstairs, she pretended to be in a good mood to her mom.
“So, Mom, what did you make for this.. little potluck?”
Her mom showed off goop.
“Well, sweetie,I made Grammie’s mac and cheese. I used almond milk instead of-” she pauses to shutter at the idea of actually good food “-heavy cream. Rice Noodles instead of pasta and corn chips for the bread crumbs.”
Even as a diet aficionado, this was too much, Regina couldn’t even think of a mean quip, she stared at the orange glop for a second, and then turned to the garage.
Car rides with dad were also uninteresting to her. Six or seven words shared between them, nothing but Pop Hits on the radio and the sound of the clutch and gas pedals.
“How’s school?”
“Fine.” She crossed her arms.
“We’re here.”
“That was fast.”
“Their house is 600 feet away from ours.”
She scoffed, getting out and scanning the premises. Mandy, the HOA warrior, was all over a woman Regina didn’t recognize, probably this new neighbor. Mandy’s long brown hair was basically whacking this mystery woman in the face. Mandy’s daughter Amber was circling the rapidly growing table of food. That makes sense. She made out with a hot dog.
Okay, So, this new family’s house was liveable, but probably wasn’t even worth a million dollars. These were charity cases. Before she could draw any more conclusions about this mediocre estate, Regina’s mom appeared, clutching her tupperware of shit and dragging Kylie towards the house.
“Heyy Sweetie, we got our steps in, haha!”
Regina disappeared behind her mom, acting shy for once.
“Talk to your friends!” Her mom half suggested, half hissed.
“Fat chance. Amber is a burn out. I don’t associate.”
“Oh, Ohh, Hello!” The new neighbor lady who was being bumrushed by Mandy was now engrossed in a conversation with Regina’s mom.
“Yeah, the flight here was hard, My youngest here just would not stop crying.”
She held up a snotty baby.
“Totally heard girlfriend, my little lady is 8 but oh my gosh the memories keep me up at night. I’m June by the way, welcome to the community!”
This new neighbor moved her sticky baby to one hand and shook hands with Regina’s mom.
“I’m Helen, this is Manny.” Helen adjusts her glasses, and gestures in the general direction of two people standing at the garage.
“Those are my other ones. Anyways, why is the potluck at my house?”
Regina’s Mom says a mix of. “Well, we want to meet everyone and welcome them to their homes here at trailview!- Regina, Kylie, go play.” She turns to Helen again.
Kylie immediately went up to the pair standing by the garage, one little preteen and a scruffy teenage boy. Regina sighed defeatedly, cautiously approaching them. The teen boy scanned her behind eyes shrouded in guyliner. His fluffy brown hair bobbing as he nodded checking her out.
“Sup.”
“Hm.”
“Wow, you’re interesting.”
Regina groaned, pulling her phone out.
“Yeah, I’m over this potluck stuff.”
Rodrick cracked open a soda, going to sit on a lawn chair amidst mountains of unopened boxes. He sprawled out, basically laying down across the chair, his arm clad in Hot Topic Spiked Bracelets flopping lazily in the air. He belched, and rubbed his nose with one finger.
“Do you go to North Shore?”
Regina groaned once more, planting herself on the least dirty looking cushion on a couch that for some reason was inside of their garage.
“Yep, and, little tip. We might not talk to each other there.”
“Yeah, makes sense.”
She scrunched her nose, texting her friends frantically on her flip phone. Kylie eyed her, admiring the utter skill of pressing a bunch of numbers 10 times to somehow create a text.
9 33 444 777 3 0 333 777 33 2 55 0 2 8 0 44 666 2 0 8 44 444 66 4 0 44 33 555 7
Weird Freak at HOA thing. Help.