Transcription
You're the school's popular girl, but when your world collides with the school's outcast, a burning desire for each other begins.
Not only have I had my eye on this story for a long time, but by popular demand, today we are starting Bad Influence on the Episode Choose Your Story app. Let me tell you, I have heard nothing but amazing things about this story, and I have been so excited to start it. We got that bad boy romance that we love, and I'm ready for the drama. Y'all have hyped this up, so I am ready. But first, a very, very, very, very big special thank you to Eve for letting me read their story. Thank you so much for letting me read and react to this story. Everyone, please go follow them on their social medias, go read Bad Influence on the Episode app, go check out Eve's latest story, Play Dirty; it also looks amazing. But thank you so much again, Eve, for letting me do this. Of course, if you enjoyed the video, don't like to read more, please consider giving the video a like, subscribe if you haven't already; we're always spilling tea, and the drum is lit. And without further ado, I'm so excited, let's start Bad Influence.
Okay, our girl Kendall: "My life was smooth sailing, but then everything changed when he stepped into it. Everyone told me to stay away from him; he was menacing, outcast, and someone I swore to avoid. But when my heart began to long for him, there was no turning back. Sometimes I wonder how did this all start. Well, let's go back to the beginning. Take me there, Kindle. I'm ready to see Westview High School." Also, there was a trigger warning at the beginning of the chapter; the story is obviously going to have a little bit more adult influences, so I feel like I need to throw that out there just in case for everybody.
This is me; my name is Kendall McMillan, and I am the queen bee of this school. Yes, ma'am. And a typical teen high school story, I would probably be the villain, but here, that's not the case. Everyone knew me for my picture-perfect image, AKA my good looks. I was always top scorer during our exams and had the perfect reputation. Okay, Kendall, okay, we're not, we are doing over here with our good grades. Look at us. We also, I pretty much left the character the author intended; um, I made like a few changes. I think I like gave her like new eyebrows and maybe like a new, I like edited the nose or something, just for a little personal touch, but I generally just kept the default appearance. They also knew me because of my dad, the mayor of our city. These are my two best friends. This is Sydney; we became friends when the school still had a cheer team. Oh, the cheer team was disbanded. What happened? This is Willa; we were next-door neighbors growing up until her family moved to a house nearer to the school.
Kendall looked: "There were guys talking about you again." "Who, who was talking to us?" "Dude, Kindle is so hot. Should I ask her to be my date to the homecoming dance?" "Are you crazy? She has a boyfriend." "Oh, good thing Jalen didn't hear them." "Hear who?" Okay, so this is baby that knows you there. Okay, so this is her boyfriend right now. Okay, I mean, he's cute. This is my boyfriend of eight months, Jalen. He's the quarterback on the football team, and we met since I used to be on the cheer team. He treated me like the queen I was; in a relationship with perfect, we were the kind of cheerleader-quarterback couple that everyone wanted to be. But I have questions because the premise of the story, I have questions, um, and just where is this going to go? What is going to happen?
"Were those guys talking about you again?" "Oh, it's nothing." "Look at you being a protective boyfriend." "The single life hurts." "Yes, it does." "It's okay," said Willa, "you'll find the one for you someday." "Easy for you to say." "Where is your mool, and her girlfriend call each other now?" "Yes, it's the answer." My wonderful, okay, we figured out the mool meaning, in short, mool, that's—I'm not going to be—meaning, call it weird, you know, we're going to be nice; we're going to say it's cute. It's very cute; that's so cute. Well, she came up with it, so we are going to be supportive. Guys, look, Tristan came to school today. Tristan, foreign boy. I think he's going to be our bad boy; this is your love interest. Tristan asked for it; he got his tattoo. I love that he's a redhead. Tristan Aspen. Okay, I generally left him the same as the author intended to; I think he looks like a snack. I did give him some slight customization to add a personal touch; I gave him a little scar on his eyebrow to really amplify the bad boy look. He was the guy that your parents warned you to stay away from. He was known for his multiple arrests and untamed personality, but his father was loaded, and so he got away with everything; money bought him out. People stayed clear of him, and it seemed he enjoyed it that way. He was an outcast, but no one wanted to be wrapped up with the delinquent like him. Oh, until—uh, just you wait. He only ever showed up to school once in a blue moon, and when he did, everyone would be on edge around town.
The girl on the side, she looks so concerned that he's there. How could you not be? He is just bored of the situation. "Sorry, Tristan." "Thank you." That boy. One took once again. He was like, "Sorry," and we're going to be crying. Is he looking at me? Or she don't care who he thinks he is. He's such a dick. Anyway, I'm going to class. See you at lunch, sexy. I'm on YouTube, I guess. "Jalen, I'm going to class too." "Don't mean to walk you to class, you know, since Tristan's in your class." "Don't worry about me; my beauty will be enough to keep him at bay. It's Beauty and the Beast; you never know." "Um, fine, I'll see you later." I'm very curious to see what happens here because Jalen seems sweet; he's a snack; he's cute.
"Watch where you're going!" "Yeah, what if you hurt Kendall?" "Oh, sorry, I was in a rush." Our protection squad was here. "I'm new here, you see." "Okay, it's fine." "So does being new right mean you can run around like a headless chicken?" "I'll let you off this time because I'm being nice." New girl, poor thing. I kind of feel bad for her, but to maintain people's respect for me in the school, I had to be cold to those who disrespect me; always, we gotta just to stay on top. But I watched a lot of teen high school movies growing up, and so once I got to high school, I made sure to be the next HBIC. Well, I didn't enjoy doing it; sometimes it had become part of my manner now. Okay, we clearly, we got layers to Kendall, and being the popular girl in high school is all about keeping up an image, right?
"Hey, Kendall." "Hey, what's up?" "Did you see Tristan this morning?" "Uh, yeah." "What do you think of him?" "He's hmm, I mean, well, you know, dangerous, I mean, rude, or attractive?" "I must speak from my heart; he's attractive. He's really attractive, to be honest." "Wait, but don't you have a boyfriend?" "Yes, but we're just—" "You asked us, girl, just because I got something in the cart doesn't mean I can't compliment what's on the shelves." "And he might be attractive on the outside, but his real breaker aura is a real turn-off." "You know what, you've got a point." "I always do." We're just, we just looked. It's fine; it's fine. There's no touching yet, apparently. Okay, so our friends are right there, and Jason's over here. "Let me through!" "They walked away." "F off, you loser!"
What did you just say? Derek and Tristan always had some beef with each other; I wasn't expecting that. I thought Derek was going to look up and start crying and run away too. They're going into fights before, none of which ended well. "You're just a coward, Ashford! Who do you think you're scaring?" I mean, I'll give Derek points for standing up for him. "So if you got five seconds to move—" "Oh, I'm so scared of you." "Not the only thing you are is a crybaby who goes around acting tough. I mean, I'm not surprised you don't have your, you don't have your mom anymore to keep you in check, do you?" "We didn't need to go that far." At first, I was like, okay, Derek, but oh, why are we bringing up mothers? Oh, and there's the fight. He did a combo; he did a combo on him; we landed a combo attack. He went, "Me arm thing." I mean, he won. The look interest since I seem to chill down my spine; it was a look of pure fury. Do I blame him? Because if what I'm thinking is correctly, let's say he lost his mother or something, I would have gone ballistic too if someone started talking that way. His hands are balled in a fist, and the guy that he had just finished beating up laid on the floor and immobile; whether he was unconscious or frozen in shock, I didn't know, but they say they're always game fights, right?
So Tristan Ashford: "Oh, what do you think you're doing? A week's detention for you, Mrs. Claire." I just don't think he's going to show up; he's not—Where are you going? I'm talking to you. Oh, oh, he's walking to us. "Hello." "What's going on?" "Why is he staring at me again?" "Hello." Later that day. Okay, so with our man, babe, are you okay? Are you shaking because of the fight you witnessed? "Shaken is a light word to describe it; it wasn't even a fight; it was Tristan mercilessly beating down someone who stood up to him. Does he just bulldoze everything and everyone in his path?" Tristan Astro was ruthless and dangerous; I should keep my distance from him at all costs. "Oh me, I'm fine." "Are you sure? I know you don't do well with violence." "Looks like Bruce is here." "See you tomorrow, babe." Oh, I still—
"Hey, Jalen." "Hey, you're the new girl, right?" "Yeah, that's me; my name is Grace. I just wanted to thank you for helping me in that math problem class earlier." "Oh, okay." "Oh, one second." I'm just horrible at math, but luckily you were there. "It's nothing, you know; I do what I can to help." "You're so nice, Jalen. I just wish your girlfriend was the same." "You've met Kendall?" "Yes, I literally ran into her on accident, and she acted like a total—" "That sounds like her; she has her moments. I can assure you I'm not like that though." "Perfect, I think we'll get along very well, Jalen." Oh, this is interesting. That was a bit interesting. "Babe, look over there. Why is Kendall's man flirting with some chick?" I need to show this to Kendall. What is the T here, honey? I know they're just talking though; they're just talking right now. Jumping to conclusions is a bad idea, but I was getting, I was getting interesting little vibes there. "I know you don't do violence." "No, Kendall, stop thinking about it." I can't dwell in the past anymore; if I do, I'll never move on from what happened. I can't let him win over my head again.
"Hello, Kendall. How was school today?" "It was all right." "Your father wants to have a family dinner tonight." Anytime Dad wants to have family dinner, it's either good news or bad news. All right. Oh, this is, I'm a little nervous. You have a nice house. Well, time went by real quick. My parents and I didn't really have the most perfect relationship to say the least. I was adopted when I was two years old; that's my biological parents left me at their doorsteps. Remember everyone—going with that last thing, we don't know what happened with the violence and everything, but this is more of like a mature story because the trigger warning. So once again, I'm just throwing that out there for anybody. Since my dad was just getting into politics at the time, he adopted me to improve his public image. However, since then—oh, they have never expressed love or care for me. I was just their daughter on paper, a mere cohabitant who lived in their home. Every time I acted out as a kid, they would just pay off people and be on our way. So in that manner, I've never experienced true parental love, but hey, at least I had a roof over my head.
That's so sad, and that's awful. They just adopted her just to—for a look. Poor thing, and a nice one at that. "Kendall, your parents are home." Can we call them parents at this point? I mean, we have a roof over our head, so that's nice, but still—Oh, there you are. Have a seat. Okay, sir, what's your name because we're not calling you Dad. It's, I just don't think you're deserving of that title. And is this—So what's the occasion? Did he get into the scandal again or something? "Oh, we came out with the fire, young lady. That's enough. I would just like to dine together before the big announcement next week." I'm running from air again. Do I care? Do we care? This is such good news, darling. The city of San Alfonso is nothing without you. Oh, I kind of wanted something shady. I wanna say something shady, but I don't know; it's like I don't want to give her more drama than she needs; she has roughness at home already, clearly. I don't know, we're just going to—That's great, Dad. Congratulations. "Thank you, Kendall." I want to like rock the boat. I don't know, you know, in those situations, I want to be Sadie. I want to be like, "Please, Mayor, I'm not calling you down," but I don't want to do anything wrong for Kendall, but we're having a family interview next Thursday night with my friend Sally Speaks, so you should prepare for that. What? Next Thursday is the homecoming dance. I guess he will not be attending. Okay, well, maybe I should have said something shady in the first place. I already bought my dress for the dance, and it's my senior year; I won't get to go to homecoming again. "I'm not going to the stupid interview." "As long as you live in our house, you follow our rules." All right. Bye. "Don't you want the money to study abroad for college?" Oh, that was my only one wish from them as a last request. I wanted them to pay for my tuition to be able to study abroad; it was the only way I could get out of this and try my—Oh, they're dangling that; they're dangling this over our head, a little key to freedom, the only way that I could do something bigger with my life rather than just being reduced to the mayor's daughter. You know what? I don't need you for that. Oh, I'll get a job, pay for my own tuition, and move out. "Don't speak to us so disrespectfully, or else we'll change your mind about letting you meet your Samantha." What was that? Samantha? If this is what I think it is, and they kept it from me? No way. They can't be that heartless. "You've met my real parents, Kendall; my daughter, don't be calling us none of that right now. We were going to tell you—" "No, you weren't!" Shut up! How long have I begged you to find my real parents? Don't you know how it feels to live your life questioning why you were abandoned? I should have been the first one to know, but what—you were going to keep this a secret from me? You were just going to hold it above my nose like meat to a starving dog? Kendall, where are you going? The city's dangerous, and I—she shouldn't be on her own. And they knew; they knew about the parents somehow.
I found myself at a bus stop on the outskirts of the city. Once I stopped running, the tears kept falling. Finding out that my mom and dad—yeah, we're putting those air quotation marks because they barely deserve those names, if at all—the only thing they gave us was the roof; that's it, period. Now, but my real parents chose to hide it from me. I was hit with the feeling of betrayal and confusion. What was their reason? I spent so long searching for my parents. "Honey, what's wrong?" Oh, everyone's concerned. "Isn't that Mayor McMillan's daughter?" "Oh, oh my gosh, you're right." I can't tell them the truth, or it can negatively affect the mayor's reputation. The mayor—we're not calling him Dad. I do want to hear the parent—parents—parents started the story for knowing about the real parents. I do want to hear their side of the story before I fully just go in on them, but um, I'm giving them shady eye right now. I'm giving them very shady right now, but I want to hear their side of the story just so we can fully, you know, make our assessment of them, but right now it's at about like a negative 20 out of 100, so we're just going to say—My fish died. "I'm sorry; I'm just upset because my fish died." "Oh no, what kind of fish was it?" I feel like maybe we should have gone for like a, like a cat or a dog story to make this a little more, you know, realistic, believable, if you will. "You kept slamming as a pets; it's none of your business anyway; don't ask questions." "Hey, wait, honey, be careful out there; it's dark right now, and this city's buzzing with crime at night." "Oh, well, thanks for the warning, but I'm heading home anyway."
She was concerned because it's like, no, we're not heading home; are we heading home? How do I get home now? We don't know how to get home. I swear I walked by here. We should have stayed at that bus stop. Maybe let's go through here. "Through where?" I know you aren't going in that scary, dark-looking alley. Um, I know we did not come from this way. I feel like you would have remembered this. Oh, is she about to be attacked? Huh? Oh no. I'm definitely lost. We might have—I had a sudden realization that I had ended up on the wrong side of the city. Oh, Kendall, seeing Alfonso, the city I lived in, was mostly made up of beautiful houses and buildings, but on the flip side, a lot of those, of these people lived in impoverished, crime-filled areas, the ones I was warned to avoid. So is our mayor doing anything for the poor city? Or I should text my driver, Bruce, to pick me up. Where is this place though? Um, we're going to have to run.
"What are you doing here all alone, baby girl?" I was—"Don't call us that!" Creep is the right name for him. "Want to come back to our place? We live right around the block." Will be sold if we go back to your place. The answer is no. RUN! ALL CAPITALIZED EXCLAMATION POINT. "Come back here!" Y'all just going to chase this poor girl? Yeah, we were not coming back. We went to their house. Please run. Oh no, not the horror movie classic. I'm sorry; it's my fault. Oh, oh, I wonder if her ex abused her. Well, once you look at that, you really thought you could get away from us. "Stop! Stop with the names! No, don't touch me!" "Come on now, no need to get violent." "Okay, then what states it is? Get away from me!" Oh, what happens? Oh, look who it is; it's Tristan. Tristan. Oh wow. Oh wow. To be continued.
Yes, we are done with the first chapter of Bad Influence, and I have to say, I'm living. This is giving drama; this has given a mature theme; this was given adults; this is giving wild. I'm ready; I am ready to see what happens. I'm not disappointed; y'all did not lie. This started off strong. Of course, like the third time I'm saying this morning, it seems like there's definitely going to be a lot of like more mature themes, adult themes, trigger warnings. So if that's not your thing, I'm warning you again. I'll probably try to state if there's anything serious, but the beginning of the story also gave a trigger warning, so just throwing that out there for everyone again. But let me know what you guys think in the comments below. Thank you to everyone who recommended the story because I'm ready. And of course, a very, very special thank you to Eve. Of course, thank you so much again for letting me read and react. I'm hyped, but until next time, everyone, thank you so much for watching. Bye everyone. [Music]