The Jealous Girl
Rivers and Penelope were the best of friends. They did everything together. They went to the same school, had the same style, and even drove the same type of car. They knew they were going to be best friends forever.
Becoming best friends came so naturally to them because their parents were also best friends. Both of their mothers had known each other since a young age, so it was pre-determined that their children were going to grow up together.
Although they did almost everything the same, they did not look the same. Rivers had short, dark brown hair and the darkest brown eyes that you've ever seen, and Penelope had long, blonde hair with the lightest blue eyes that you can imagine.
They even liked the same type of things. They both loved shopping, watching movies on the Hallmark channel and hanging out with their friends on the weekends. Both of them even shared the same interest in the cute senior varsity football player, Brett. Brett received a football scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, so he was super popular in their small town. Since they both liked Brett, they vowed that neither of them could ever go out with him. It just wouldn't be fair.
One afternoon, after the final school bell had rang, Rivers was waiting for Penelope in the parking lot. Penelope had to stay after to discuss an upcoming project with her science teacher, Mrs. Smith. While Rivers was waiting, she was looking down at her phone, scrolling through Facebook. As she was scrolling, she sensed someone walking towards her. To her surprise when she looked up she saw Brett! "Oh my gosh, how is this happening?" thought Rivers. The cute senior varsity football player was standing right in front of her.
"Umm hey" she said very shyly.
"Hey, how's it going?" asked Brett.
"Oh, I'm just waiting for Penelope to get done talking to Mrs. Smith" replied Rivers.
"Cool!" Brett replied excitedly.
"Why aren't you at football practice?" asked Rivers.
"Coach let us out early today since we have a game tomorrow night" responded Brett.
"Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about the game tomorrow" Rivers said hesitantly.
"It's okay! You should come to the game tomorrow night. After, a few of us are going to a party if you'd like to come." said Brett.
"A party? That sounds like fun! Do you mind if I bring Penelope?" asked Rivers.
"For sure, the more the merrier! Hey, I have to go, I promised my mom I'd be home early today. See you tomorrow." said Brett.
Rivers couldn't believe what just happened. Did Brett really just come up and talk to her? She couldn't wait to tell Penelope what just happened and that they got invited to a party.
Penelope was finally done talking to Mrs. Smith and began walking to the parking lot.
"You won't believe what I have to do for this science project" said Penelope.
"No time for that, Brett invited us to a party tomorrow night!" said Rivers excitedly.
"Oh my gosh! A party? Awesome!" responded Penelope.
"Wait, you talked to Brett?" asked Penelope.
"Well, he came up and talked to me" responded Rivers.
There was an awkward pause after Rivers responded. Nobody said anything, but you could sense the jealousy coming from Penelope about the fact that Brett had talked to Rivers and not her.
The next morning, they both decided to skip school so that they could go to the mall and get new outfits to wear to the party.
Later that evening they were at the football game, cheering loudly for Brett and the rest of the football team. It was no surprise that the team won the game. They had been undefeated for two years and had won the state championship back-to-back. It was probably because they had Brett as the quarterback for the team, thought the girls.
After the game was over, Rivers and Penelope eagerly drove to the party. When they got there everyone was dancing and having a great time. "This looks like fun" Rivers said. "Yeah, why don't you go find Brett" Penelope said in a sarcastic tone. "I think I will" responded Rivers with a smirk on her face.
You could tell there was some tension between the girls. Penelope was trying not to show it, but she was jealous that Brett was showing interest in her best friend. All she could think about was the vow that both of them took to never act on their interest in Brett.
Once Rivers gathered up the courage, she went and found Brett. He was by the punch bowl getting a drink. "Hey! Would you like some punch?" asked Brett. "Sure, thanks!" responded Rivers as she took the drink from Brett. "I'm really glad you were able to make it tonight" said Brett. "Yeah, me too" Rivers said.
After talking for a while, Brett went to play video games with some of his friends. Rivers started to feel guilty for leaving Penelope to go talk to Brett. She decided she was going to find her and apologize.
After looking for what seemed like an hour, Penelope was nowhere to be found. Rivers tried calling and texting her, but no response.
Rivers went upstairs to look for Penelope and to her surprise found Penelope kissing Brett! "What is going on here?" said Rivers. Penelope smirked and said "If you break the vow, then so do I." Rivers couldn't believe what was happening. Here she was trying to find Penelope to apologize for leaving her and she finds Penelope kissing Brett.
Rivers left the party in disbelief. Penelope on the other hand, let the jealousy get the best of her. She broke the vow that the girls had made and took it one step too far.
The next day Penelope tried calling Rivers to talk about what happened the night before, but Rivers didn't answer.
Authors Note: I took the original story "The Jealous Wife," and made it my own. The original story is pretty gruesome, so I wanted to make it a more happy story while keeping some similar aspects from the original story. In the original story, there were two wives who were both married with children. Their husbands were often away to find work. While away, the wives were to look after the children, keeping them from harm and never leaving them unattended. While their husbands were away, the time had come for one of the wives to leave and go gather food. The elder wife went first, while the younger wife was to watch after the children. After a few days of gathering and smoking the fish, the eldest wife had returned. It was now time for the younger wife to go. While the younger wife was away, the eldest wife had grown jealous that her child wasn't as bright or intelligent as the younger wives child. She had planned to kill the intelligent child. When everyone was asleep she sharpened her knife and went and killed the child, or so she thought. Come the next morning, she realized that she had killed her own child. She picked up her deceased child and ran into the woods. There, she nursing ad rocking the child back and forth. Upon their return, the husband could not believe what he was hearing, so they went to the woods to look for his wife and dead child. In the woods they found the wife sobbing while holding the dead child. The husband gave his wife casca (highly poisonous) and watcher her die. They then set her on fire and watched as her ashes burned. As you can see, this story doesn't have a happy ending. In my retelling of the story, I changed the scenery and the characters completely, while modernizing it.
By: Richard Edward Dennett
