Inside the crystal bubble

Inside the crystal bubble
  
Prologue - Lima?
  
“Peru”? The first images you get from this exotic word are either a bunch of aborigines dancing and shouting around a camp fire or poor people who sleep and beg in the cold dust. But no honey, you’re completely wrong. Things are different, at least inside our crystal bubble world.
  
In the US there’s the East Coast and the West Coast.
  
There’s New York City –the east coast-, where the inhabitants are the “perfect” people with patrician features, living in old mansions or apartments which are valued in millions of dollars, purchased by the business “daddy” of the family. Let’s just say that in NY the last names and social relations are the only way of getting inside the high class well educated –but hypocrite- socialité.
  
California in the other hand, top one estate in my list of the west coast, is the complete opposite to the snobby people from NYC. The “beautiful” people, who live in the 6-thousand-metre-mansions in Malibu and own 10 different cars, are all involved in the “showbiz”. The oh-so-well-known Bev Hills , where the people only live for showing themselves off and having point, is the “it” point of nowadays. Cali has gone wild. There’s no need for having “royal” blood in your veins, money can buy it all. Welcome to Hollywood.
  
But Lima’s high class? Lima is a mixture of everything I’ve said before and more. The parties, the families, the rules, the fights, the manners, the “in” points, the drugs and the secrets. Welcome to our world. A crystal bubble inside Peru’s poverty. An exclusive place. A place were you don’t belong.
  
You know you want to know about us… After all, who doesn’t want to know about the rich, darling?
 
  
Chapter 1 - She’s back
  
She remembered the life she had left behind and thought about the life that waited for her. A new life. Now she was in a first-class-sit on a Lima-Trujillo flight, drinking her Norwegian Voss-bottled-water. Just relaxing…or was she?
  
She couldn’t understand why her parents had called her at 1am telling her to pack everything up because Steven –her chauffer back in Switzerland- was driving her to the airport in half an our to catch the first Zurich-Lima Northwest airlines flight of the day. Unfortunately, the flight made two stops. First in Amsterdam and then in New York…at least she had got some time to shop in the New York stop…not that she liked shopping that much though.
  
There was not even one reason of why her parents had made her return that she could think of. They said it was because of the death of her grandmother. “Ummm my grandmother already died one month ago” she had thought, but her Swiss-boarding-school-girl-manners had made her keep her mouth shut while she was talking to them.
  
Daniella stood up from her seat as the captain addressed the passengers to leave the airplane. Suddenly she noticed that the whole first class was empty, not even one person in the section. “Everything is so different down here…” she thought.
  
“Good afternoon ladies and gentle man. We’ve arrived to the city of Trujillo, second capital of Peru. The temperature is…”
  
That’s all she heard while she made her way out of the plane down the special stairs the airline had supplied to her “special guest” as they had called her. “Money buys everything” she thought in disgust “even the time in an airplane”.
  
She made her way down the hall. The airport was so small but so crowded. It was full of mini-restaurants, souvenir stores and enormous groups of tourists –most of them Americans-. She picked up her The Darjeeling limited edition Louis Vuitton luggage and carried it until migration where she saw an endless queue. “Just tell them your last name sweetie” She remembered her mother had told her. And so she did and in one second she had passed the whole queue as the security guy opened the door for her.
  
She was out. Ah, she could feel the breeze moving her hair gently as the sun shone. The weather was simply perfect. Right now she would be freezing in cold temperatures and sitting next to Christine in their Advanced Physics class. Oh the memories.
  
But she missed Christine and that was a fact. Christine was the best friend she ever had. Tall, blonde, skinny…simply gorgeous. She enjoyed hanging out with her, especially because she was wild and made everything fun. Such an extrovert. Christie –as Daniella called her- was practically hunted by all the boys in school. She was everything Daniella wanted to be. Sometimes she even felt jealous of her.
  
Then there was Andre, her best friend…and major crush since she was 10. You see, Andre was Daniella’s only guy-friend…but she wanted him to be more than a simple friend. He was the man of her dreams. Tall, brown hair, nice person and a freaking hot body. Every girls dream, literally. Daniella knew she couldn’t compete with some of the other girls. Especially with Silvia, the most popular girl in school and every hot guy’s dream girl. She was way too sexy and way too “experienced”. Daniella was none of those.
  
“Miss Ganoza?” a man in a black suit asked. “I’m Juan, your new chauffer. I’ll drive you to the house of your parents.”
  
“Oh…OK.” Daniella answered as she inspected the guy. He had light brown hair, almost blonde. He had a nice smile and was very tall. Very handsome indeed. He seemed a nice person. He remembered her of…he remembered her of her uncle Jean Paul before his…relapse.
  
He opened the door and she got in. He turned on the radio and blasted 105.7 (“only music…in English” as the motto said). The songs playing were completely rubbish for Daniella’s taste. She was more of a rock n roll girl who despised music like say, Britney “Bitch” Spears. Juan kept driving and Daniella decided to take a nap. 
---------------------------------------------------- 
“Miss? We’ve arrived.” Juan said as she gently moved Daniella to wake her up. She stood up and got out of the car yawning and mumbling.
  
The house was just as she remembered. Situated in the middle of her parents’ 500-hectares-land filled in with asparagus. It looked just like a Mexican hacienda: very high roof, white walls and tall entrance. All very rural but adorned with very valuable furniture.
  
Daniella made her way into the house as a maid walked towards her.
  
“Welcome Miss Daniella. Your parents are waiting for you. They’re upstairs in the TV room.” She said as she pointed towards the all-wooden-stairs.
  
Daniella went upstairs and turned towards the TV room as she had been told. There they were, sitting on a black-leather-couch, looking at the window.
  
“Um. Mom, Dad? I’m home.” Whoa that sounded so weird. She hadn’t pronounced the word “home” in like a million years ago.
  
“Aw my sweetie pie! Dani I cant believe it…oh my god you’re so tall!” Her mother said as she hugged her daughter with tears in her eyes.
  
“Daniella we’ve missed you so much.” Her father said. She hugged her.
  
“But I’m back now.” She said as she placed a smile on her face. Back for good she thought. “Now…please tell me why you made me come back. What’s going on? Please tell me the truth.”
  
Her parents looked at each other. Her mother’s eyes started to wet again. Her father tried to re-comfort her. Daniella didn’t understand at first but then she remembered.
  
What was going on in here?
   
Chapter 2 – Status & Popularity
  
School started in two days and Eric Nollagher was sitting on a BMW on his way to Trujillo. His deep-green eyes were almost shut by the time they reached kilometer 120 of the Panamericana Norte. Only 400-and-something kilometers to go, he thought sarcastically.
  
Eric hated long trips like this one. He said it was a complete waste of time, but his –oh-so-lovely girlfriend –Nicole-, had insisted. Whatever she says then, he had thought annoyed. You see, Eric’s social status depended on her. Why? Because the Nollagher family was in complete bankrupt. They were forced to move out of their 3000-metres-squared-mansion in La Molina –one of the most exclusive zones in Lima-, and moved into their 240-metres-duplex in Magdalena.
  
But the real great mystery was: Why are they in bankrupt? Eric refused to talk about it. He hadn’t told anyone, not even Nicole. He feared of being rejected by her, not that he loved her though. It was all for the sake of his family. Nicole Tudela was his ticket back to Lima’s High Class. Just having a Tudela as a wife would automatically make his family The Nollaghers again.
  
“Ugh Keri, shut up. Carla is way too fat.”. Eric was suddenly awakened by Nicole’s loud voice.
  
“Oh my god. Are you kidding me? Carla is not fat!” Madison exclaimed. Nicole gave her a killer look.
  
“She’s not that skinny anyway.” Nicole answered sharply. “I’m way skinnier than her.” She smiled.
  
Eric sometimes couldn’t understand why Madison and Keri were best friends with Nicole. They were both rich and had good last names. Why did they have to stand such an egocentric person?
  
And he always came to the same conclusion: Popularity.
  
He couldn’t deny that being Nicole’s boyfriend had its pros. Nicole was he absolute Bee Queen of Miller College. She wasn’t only the Alpha of her class or school, Nicole was Lima’s Alpha – of the rich and beautiful only of course –. This was because she was the most desired girl. She was gorgeous, yes, but not extremely. I mean, Keri was gorgeous, Madison was gorgeous…but Nicole was different. What made her très desirable was the way she acted: completely wild and sexy. Her blonde hair, her smooth perfectly shaped curves, her perfect tan, her red lips. Just one of her kisses would completely erase the fact that Nicole was a hysteric brat.
  
“Aw baby, Eric you haven’t talked. Gah girls, you should stop talking so much.” Nicole said. He didn’t even pay attention to her.
  
Nicole placer her head on Eric’s shoulder. Maybe you should stop talking sometime soon, he thought. She kissed him on the neck. Eric didn’t feel a thing. Maybe Nicole’s magic was fading away.
  
“Aw so cute.” Keri squeaked. Her eyes looked like two thin lines when she smiled. Her Japanese heritage explained it all.
  
“You guys are the hottest couple.” Madison smiled fakely. Eric looked away. He felt uncomfortable sitting only one person away from her.
  
Madison was the only person who knew why he truly was Nicole’s boyfriend. He didn’t know why she hadn’t spit everything out though. Sometimes he felt so threatened by her presence that he even shivered.
  
“I doubt you’ll ever break up.” She kept going. “Of course, only if there was a big fat lie between both. But then again, you guys are so honest.” She smiled again. She was trying to provoke Eric.
  
Eric turned towards Madison. She gave him a bite-me look. He looked away. He only wanted to strangulate her, not that he would do it. That would completely destroy his chances with Nickie. But a boy can dream, can he?
  
“Anyway, I heard that a new girl is coming this year.” Keri said in a mysterious voice while she took off her D&G black sunglasses.
  
“Are you for real? Ugh, a newbie. I’m sure it yet another new rich.” Madison said in disgust.
  
“Actually, no. It’s some Ganoza girl.” Keri replied. Madison made an oh-my-god face.
  
“Ganoza?! Well, well, well…sounds like fun. We’ll “play” with her a bit, wont we girls?” Nicole said laughing as the other two copied her. Eric sighed.
  
Eric always asked himself how they figured out who was the new kid every year. They knew everything about the person before they even met him or her. If they weren’t rich and popular they would be categorized as stalkers. But then again, they are rich and popular.
  
You must be asking, what the hell does “play mean? Well for Nicole and the girls it has a completely different meaning. No, they don’t mean the action of jumping around with your friends in the park playground. It means to humiliate and isolate the person from everyone. In other words: make their lives miserable.
  
The triplet said it was necessary. They said hat the new kid always represented a “threat” to their popularity. Correction, Nicole’s popularity.
  
“Freaking popularity.” Eric mumbled while looked outside the window.
  
“What did you day hun?” Nicole asked smiling. It was kind of sad to see how in Nicole was…actually, no.
  
“Nothing Nickie, nothing.” He gave her a quick smile and then turned back towards the window.
  
He had his eyes stuck to the window but he hadn’t noticed the scenery until now. Miles and miles of sun and sun. The weather was arid as always. In the high points of the road he could even see the crystalline water of Peru’s northern sea. Not even one beach house, not even one person. All virgin land. The sound of the waves moving up and down the beach relaxed him.
  
If only they stopped arguing about which pair of channel flats they would use tomorrow or which D&G sunglasses match best with their black leather Prada hand bags for one second. He was sick of them. They only thought in material things and not people/people’s feelings.
  
The leather seats were suffocating him and the only thing he wanted to do was to curl up and die. If only he had his life back.
  
Suddenly Victor, the chauffer, lost control. The three girls start shouting. Eric paralyzed and…Boom. Where they in heaven? And… Who was that girl looking at them?
  CHAPTER 3 COMING SOON!