Claire Standish was in the girls' bathroom, doing her makeup and listening to the latest gossip with her friends. She was due to be in Biology class in 15 minutes, but today she just didn't feel like going. She laughed when she heard her friends gossiping about Martha Chadwick, a girl who desperately wanted to be popular. The only reason that Martha wasn't accepted into the popular crowd was because she was "average-bodied"( in the popular crowd, it meant 'fat'). Her friends: Becky Waters, a raven-haired gossipy Queen Bee who had been friends with Claire since kindergarten. Nancy Hill, a blonde with baby blue eyes. Emma Delphine, a brunette with green eyes whose father had connections with Dior.

"...so Martha came up to me and said that she had lost five pounds," Emma said. "She showed me a journal of everything she ate and...purged."

"And yet she's still fat," Becky laughed.

Claire finished touching up her eye liner. Pausing, she stared at her reflection at the beautiful girl looking back at her. Perfect hair. Flawless skin. Yet why couldn't she shake off this hollow feeling inside? Her mind drifted to her parents most recent fight. It was bothering her. Her friends' latest gossip was fading in and out as she stared at herself in the mirror.

"Claire?" Becky said.

"Huh?" Claire responded confused.

"Earth to Claire! What's wrong with you today? You haven't said a word about Martha Chubswick."

"Nothing," Claire said shaking her head. "I feel like I need something to take my mind off of stuff today."

"What stuff?" Becky asked, tilting her head.

Claire shrugged. She didn't want to bore them about her parents again. She was pretty sure they were sick of hearing about them. She needed a distraction from all the drama that was going on at home.

"Nothing. I don't feel like going to Biology today," Claire said.

"So what do you wanna do?" Emma asked.

"How about a shopping trip?" suggested Nancy. 

"That's a great idea!" Becky chirped excited. "You got your Daddy's credit card, right, Claire?"

Claire nodded, patting her purse. Unfortunately there was just one problem: they didn't have a car. Even the rich, spoiled teen princess of Shermer High, Claire Standish, didn't have one. Her Daddy said she couldn't have a car until she passed Driver's Ed. It was so unfair. On the other hand Daddy did promise she could pick out any car she wanted once she passed her test.

"But how are we going to get there?" Claire asked. "None of us had a car."

"We could use the car from Driver's Ed," Nancy suggested. "The instructor leaves the keys in the glove compartment."

"Great! So...we can just slip out when the next bell ring," Becky said. 

"Where's the car parked?" Claire asked. 

"In the teacher's parking lot," Nancy said. "We just have to have the car back before anyone knows its gone."

The three girls waited until the bell rang to sneak out to the campus. Nancy got the car from Driver's Ed, parking it out of sight so the other girls could get in. Once they made sure it was safe, they climbed into the car. The popular girls whooped and cheered as they drove off towards the mall.

Claire was nothing but wide smiles as they drove away from Shermer High. She actually felt free! Free to do whatever she wanted. Without consequence. She felt a sense of relief wash over her. It was so much better than being at Biology. She was never going to need to know stuff like that after high school. It's not like she was ever going to study it. Hopefully she would just get by on her looks and having lots money all her life. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and pretty much got everything what she wanted. She was living the dream that every teenager at Shermer High envied.

Claire's whole life was nothing but shopping for designer clothes and expensive jewelry (she got diamond earrings for Christmas from Daddy last year), visits to the nail salon or hair dresser, going on vacations at expensive hotels in various places all over the world--skiing the snowy mountains of Switzerland, shopping in France, eating delicious food and sipping red wine in Italy, swimming at exotic resorts in the Caribbean or Polynesia.

Yes, Claire loved the life of luxury. She was the very definition of living the teen dream.

Once at the mall, Claire bought some new things: a beautiful cameo ring that was encircled in real gold, some brand new clothes for Saturday by Ralph Lauren: a wraparound brown skirt, a pink chemise, a leather jacket, gloves and boots. Jimmy Choo shoes, a purse made by Prada, a red silk shirt by Chanel. Anything that had a designer label, she bought it.

Next she decided to head to the nail salon. She chose a beautiful rose pink color. It was a pretty relaxing day.

Yet today felt different than all the times she went on a shopping spree. Normally she would've felt relaxed and happy during this trip. But today, for some strange reason, she didn't. She got everything she wanted. There was this nagging feeling that something was missing in her life. No amount of shopping, visits to the salon, expensive gifts or traveling around the world could fill this hole in her life.

Sighing, she began to think about the latest fight that her parents were having. She began to ask herself if her parents really loved her since it felt hollow to her. They constantly bickered over her like it was a competition. They treated her like a pawn in their game of who she should love more. Some days they were indulgent and other days, they were strict, depending on the situation. It was really confusing. If her mother said 'no', her father would just tell Claire to blow her off. And vice versa.

Mrs. Vivienne Standish was a very gorgeous socialite that looked like redhaired Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's, who had an addiction to drinking (mainly Merlot) and the pool boy. Her father, George, adored his little girl. He wanted her to know how much he loved her and that she would always be his little girl. That she deserved everything to be given to her.

The argument of the day was whether or not Claire was going to St Martin's this summer. Vivienne said that she was not going by herself this year and was planning on taking Claire. George said it wasn't going to happen because her grades were not good. Then her mother said she was going to take her. George said 'over his dead body'. Then they just bickered until George poured himself a scotch and Vivienne had her daily dose of Chardonnay. 

"Guys!" Emma said. "Can we grab some lunch? I'm hungry."

"It has to be to go," Claire said. "We have to get back. Next period is going to start."

The girls stopped by the food court to grab something to eat on the go. Carrying all their bags, purses and their food, they rushed out to the car. Soon, the girls' piled into the car to head back to Shermer before they got caught. Claire was trying on her new lipstick while Emma was eating her sandwich. Somewhere in between the girls fooling around in the car, nobody seemed to be paying attention to the road. Laughing and squealing, the car went off the road...it was then they saw a mailbox a few feet away

"SHIT!!!" they all screamed.

Claire and Nancy stepped on the brakes--only too late, the car had struck the mailbox, knocking it off the post and it ricocheted off the windshield, leaving a spiderweb crack. Once the car had finally stopped, the girls had frozen in their seats with their hearts pounding inside of them when they realized what had just happened. 

Quickly, they got out of the car to examine the damage. Oh SHIT!! It was NOT good! The hood was crushed slightly, the passenger side headlight was smashed, and the bumper was crushed. They were really screwed this time! Here was Claire, watching her life flash before her eyes. There was no way she could explain this to her parents--her mother would be especially furious. Her father would think it was no big deal and would easily replace the car.

"SHIT!" Emma exclaimed, panicking. 

"We are so fucked!" Claire exclaimed. "There's no way we're going to get out of this shit." 

Claire was sure that her father would help her get out of this mess. Yet judging by the damage that was done to the car, this was pretty bad. They cut class, stole a car from school, and now it was wrecked. 

"What do we do?" Nancy sobbed. "We can't go back to school like this!" 

"It'll be fine," Becky assured. "We'll just drive the car back...park it where it was...and maybe they won't know who did it. Besides, Claire's Dad can afford to replace it. Right, Claire?" 

"I'll...try to talk to him after school," Claire said hesitantly. 

She'd call her Daddy. He'd fix everything. She'd have to come up with a pretty good explanation about wrecking the school's car. This was serious. Her Daddy would not be happy about what she did, but he'd be willing to replace the car. 

As she drove the car up to Shermer High, the car made a lot of noise when they drove it. It clunked when they drove into the campus...and who should be standing there but the driver's ed teacher, Mr Gary Ullman. The man froze in his tracks when he saw the wrecked driver's ed car. Claire froze, stepping on the brakes. The man walked over to the window. Nancy, Becky and Emma ducked down so the man couldn't see them. 

Yep. They were fucked. 

"Jesus Christ! Miss Standish, what the HELL did you do?" Mr Ullman exclaimed in a mixture of shock and anger. 

"It...it was a little accident, sir," Claire explained in her sweetest voice. "But don't worry...I'm gonna call my father. He..." 

"Miss Standish, park the car and let's go to Mr Vernon's office. You have a LOT of explaining to do." 

Claire swallowed, feeling a sinking feeling inside her. She pulled up to the curb, parking the car. She stepped out of the car and followed Mr Ullman inside. She glanced back at the wrecked car, seeing her life flash before her eyes. She hoped that her friends would be able to get out without being detected. If there was one thing she learned about being popular was you don't rat your friends out. Once at the vice principal's office, Claire stood there, clutching her purse tightly as she awaited her doom. 

"What is it, Gary?" Vernon said, looking up over his tortoiseshell glasses. 

"Sir," Mr Ullman said. "I found Miss Standish here outside the school grounds. I'm pretty sure she cut class by taking the driver's ed car. And it appears that she wrecked the car. 

Vernon frowned, his dark grey eyes staring at the princess who stood in his office. Sighing, he rolled his chair towards the file cabinet to take out a piece of paper.

"Sit down, Miss Standish," Vernon said, gesturing to the seat. 

Claire just stayed quiet. She was not going to admit anything. It was always best to keep her mouth shut.

"I wanna call my father," she said, crossing her arms.

"Well, your father isn't going to help you with this situation, Miss Standish," Vernon said. "That's a Saturday for cutting class and destruction of school property. I'm afraid I'm going to have to call your parents about this." 

Claire's mouth dropped open and her heart was pounding in her chest that it thwas ready to jump out. She felt sick. This was not going to be very pleasant. Vernon picked up the phone and dialed a number. She wanted to curl up into a hole and just die from her shame. She had to convince Vernon to let her talk to her Dad. 

"Hello, Mr Standish?" Vernon said. "This is vice principal Richard Vernon of Shermer High. Yes. I'm calling in regards to your daughter, sir." 

There was a long pause as Claire began to see images of the car accident. God! She had to think of a convincing explanation of what had happened. Maybe if she told him, he'd help her out. 

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry to be calling at such an inconvenient time, but your daughter is in very serious trouble," Vernon continued. "Apparently your daughter cut class and took the drivers' ed car on a joyride and did some serious damage to the car." 

A lump formed in the princess' throat as Vernon and her father continued to speak. She could only imagine what her father was saying on the other end. He was probably asking what the damage was and what exactly happened. 

"Sir, I'm sorry, but this behavior is on the grounds of suspension up to and including expulsion," Vernon said. 

Now Claire was imagining that George Standish was probably putting on his negotiation face to try and convince the man that it was an accident and that he would happily replace the car, pay for any damages necessary and so forth. She could only hope and pray that Vernon would be willing to negotiate as well. Maybe he'd be able to get her out of this mess. It usually worked. 

"Mr Standish, your daughter has committed very serious criminal actions--joyriding, possibly a hit and run, property damage, grand theft auto..." Vernon said. "And you think I should let her go unpunished? Miss Standish needs to understand that there are consequences for her actions, sir." 

Now she imagined that George Standish was probably agreeing that she should, but he'd be happy to take care of this at home. He'd speak with her, take away her privileges and so forth. The typical thing he'd do whenever Claire did something bad. 

"I'm sorry, Mr Standish, but I am not going to let this go," Vernon said. "What she did was very serious." 

Now Claire was certain that her father was trying to come up with some kind of deal they could come to terms with. Her father was always excellent at negotiations when it came to his job. It was mostly the reason that he was rich. 

"Alrighty, sir," Vernon said. "I'll be willing to accept your offer. But under one condition...she must be here on Saturday at 7:00 AM. She must be here on time, no later. And she will complete 8 hours at school." 

The princess frowned when she heard these words, wondering what exactly would be going on this Saturday. Usually she would spend her Saturdays sleeping in. Then she would eat breakfast around 9 AM. Next would be her usual lessons--tennis was Saturday. Then she'd call her friends to hang out and they'd make plans to go up to the city to have another shopping spree or have lunch at some expensive restaurant. She didn't want to give up anything on her schedule. 

"Thank you, Mr. Standish," Vernon said. He hung up the phone and turned to Claire, "Good news, Miss Standish. You will be spending your Saturday in detention." 

"WHAT?!" Claire exclaimed. "No...I can't go, sir. I have plans." 

"Guess they'll have to wait," Vernon responded. "Consider yourself VERY lucky that you got detention and weren't expelled or spending your life in a jail cell for what you've done, Miss Standish." 

Claire blinked her eyes, gulping as she could only imagine how terrible that would've been. Still, she could NOT believe her father couldn't get her out of this! He should've tried harder, maybe bribed Vernon with more money...anything to not have to spend time in detention. She had to spend an entire Saturday, sitting all alone for eight hours because of some stupid mistake she made! 

It was NOT fair!