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| Highschool. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 22 2009, 11:39 PM (309 Views) | |
| iamsam | Jul 22 2009, 11:39 PM Post #1 |
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I'm not sure if this is a good story or anything, let me know what you think I should improve. (I apologize in advance for any bad grammar) also this story contains explicit language and drug references. MIKE Ch. 1 New Kid in the Hall My alarm clock rang. I hated that hated that sound. It was the standard cross between a screech and beep that caused me to jump whenever I herd anything like it. I rolled over and punched the clocks snooze button. I just lay there and stared at the fan going around and around. I checked the calendar, October, 19th a Monday, crap. Then my mom yelled at me to get up. I did almost hitting my head on the ceiling. I have a loft bed We live in a crappy apartment, in a smaller than average town just outside the Los Angeles area. We had enough for a nicer place; my dad said it saved us money. There were six of us living here. There was me, I was fourteen, and in the ninth grade. I’m thin, but tall and strong. I have long black hair and dark skin. Then there was Jack. He used to have dirty blonde hair, before he died it black for the football team. If you ask me it looks more blue than black. He’s very short, only about five foot two, but he’s really strong, and fast, and stuff. Jack’s a senior; he already has just about all his credits, so he decided to go totally crazy. He’s on the hockey, football, and wrestling teams. He’s basically the king of Hidden Hills High; everyone loves him, and thinks he’s perfect. Chris was the next oldest. He’s a junior, sixteen, and used to play on the football team. He got kicked off because they caught him taking steroids in the locker room last year. It wasn’t hard for him to hide it from Mom, and Dad because they’re never home. He’s really tall, like six two, and has dark brown hair. I’ve had debate with him this semester and I am finding out what a dumb ass he really is. Jack and I have also found out he is taking cocaine, and sometimes acid too. Just two months ago he went on a trip in our apartment around mid-night. I had to call Jack to come because Kristina, (my sister) and I couldn’t do anything by ourselves. When Jack got home I helped him force Chris into his room. He tried opening the door but couldn’t so he climbed out the window. We live on the fourth floor. Lucky for him the fire escape was being put up two floors down so he only fell two floors not four. Still Jack had to drive him to the hospital because he fractured his leg. Dad gave him a cast, but he also had damaged some leg muscle so he had to perform surgery. He didn’t find out that Chris had been high because he had used too much anesthesia to put him under so Chris had been out for like four hours after. By the time dad checked on him again, it had started to wear off so he could speak. But yeah that’s Chris for you. I don’t have a lot of compassion for him because he was a jerk before the drugs. Jack told us that Chris had been that way from the day he was born. So I know, even if we get him to quit, he will die hating the world, doesn’t matter if it’s at sixteen or sixty-five. And last of us kids there’s Kristina. She’s like Jack, short; smart; popular; athletic; and beautiful according to all my friends. She’s just a grade ahead of me, and plays soccer for the girls’ varsity team. She’s that good. I’ve been thinking for a while about how much she is like Jack, and have been wondering if that means I’m like Chris. I really hope not. Our parents are both doctors, Matt and Julie Fisher. Dad was the top surgeon at the Hospital, Mom was a heart surgeon. Our grandmother, on our mothers’ side, was the Chief of Surgery. Uncle Dave, dads only brother, got onto the hospital board. And then Mom’s only sister, Delilah, was the head nurse. So as you can see, my family has been involved with this hospital forever, and all of us are expected to do the same. Out of all of us I think only Kristina is even considering working there. Jack says he is going into some sports job, even if he’s not playing, he says he just wants to do something fun. He hasn’t told me, but I am pretty sure Chris will be a druggie, begging for money on the streets. That’s if he doesn’t jump off a bridge first. When Chris dies I really don’t know what I will feel. And I say when not if because out of Kristina, Jack and I, none of us expect him to get out of high school. I came out of my room in time to see Mom, and Jack leave, Mom to work, Jack to some practice. I walked over to the table, grabbed some cereal, a bowl, and milk, and started eating. “Where’s Chris?” I asked Kristina. “I dunno, sleeping maybe,” she said, and then added, “could you get him up.” I gulped down my cereal then nodded. I dropped my bowl in the sink then went to Chris’ room, and pounded on the door. “Hey, we’ve got school, get up!” I yelled, then I went in. His room was messier than mine. He had cloths covering everything, even the fan blades; the only surface that I could see was the table across from the bed. That was because the TV and 360 sat on it. It occurred to me to search the room for his drugs. He always kept his door, and window locked because he knew we would take them. It was our only option because we wouldn’t turn him into mom and dad, or the cops, and we couldn’t talk him out of it. I couldn’t look though because he was blocking my view in a second. “Did you break in or did I forget to lock the door?” His voice was deep, and scratchy. “It was open.” “Damn, oh well, glad I caught you” he sneered. “Chris are you going to school?” Kristina yelled from the kitchen. “Yeah I guess!” he yelled back, then he pushed me out and closed the door. I went back to my room, changed, and left. It was always a race to the door between Kristina an I. Looser had to wait for Chris to make sure he actually went to school. “You suck!” Kristina yelled after me. I grinned at her then closed the door. I went down the hall to the elevator, and hit the down button. It stopped on the next floor and she walked in. Andi White, I’ve liked her since the seventh grade. Every time I decided I was going to ask her out she’d tell me she likes someone else. One time she even had me ask the guy out for her, it had been one of my friends, Austin Price. He had said no, but after that horrific attempt I decided I wouldn’t try again for a while. That was a year ago. I think they were just friends now, but she could still like him for all I know. Andi had lived in our building for only about nine months, she had moved because her parents worked at the hospital and this building was the closest to the hospital. Her parents, like mine, usually were not home. She had lived near four guys that I had known too, but who I envied all the same because she was always with them. They were Eddie Jones, Martin Burns, Josh Jacobs, and Ryan Green. Eddie was short, blonde, and was on the soccer team with me. Ryan was tall, also with blonde hair, and was also on the soccer team, but he could have chosen football if he had wanted to. He was very athletic and funny, but had started drifting from our group of friends. Martin was black, short, and really good with computers; he could do just about anything with them. Finally there was Josh; he was kind of like Chris, only nicer. He was just as tall and had blonde hair. He did cocaine too. “Hey, Andi,” I said as I got into the elevator. “How’s it goin’?” she asked. “Well its Monday” I said turning to look at her. I knew I liked her for real because she was the first girl that I didn’t like for her looks. She wasn’t bad looking though; she had dark hair; and eyes, and was also shorter than Kristina. She was cute, but not gorgeous. “Yeah, Mondays suck,” she agreed. Then the elevator stopped and Austin got in, half asleep. He grunted at us, then fell against the wall and dozed the rest of the way down. We walked to the bus stop, got on, and headed to school. We got there, and sat at our table. Andi was the only girl there. The boys included Martin, Eddie, and Josh, but there were a whole bunch of others to. Then we pretty much just sat there and talked for a while, but in our cafeteria a while felt like forever. It was like sitting in a Dr. Seuss book, the walls were painted electric blue, and the pillars were bright yellow. Some people actually wore sunglasses, as a joke while waiting for first period. My first class was debate, it was my favorite class. I loved to argue, plus I had a whole lot of friends in that class, including Andi. Like I said, Chris was in that class to. That day we were all sitting around talking when someone I had never seen before walked in. He was taller than Chris, and very thin, with long black hair, and pale skin. He was wearing a denim jacket, cut off at the elbow, and opened to revile a black under shirt. He had dark jeans with a chain wallet in one pocket. He glanced around, but then I kept talking until the bell rang. We all snapped around and faced the front. The guy that had walked in was standing at the front, a smile played about his mouth for a few seconds then he said, “I’m Mr. Jones, I’ve never subbed here before.” His voice was even, and smooth. He paused and looked around the class then said, shrugging. “I guess I’ll take roll.” After he did that he made Chris read about logical fallacy of a false dichotomy. It was really boring stuff and nobody really paid attention, it didn’t make sense we had already learned all this in the first three weeks. I leaned over to Andi and, whispered, “Déjà vu.” “Dude, look!” John, the kid who sits behind me, whispered pointing at the door. Mr. Jones was standing next to it, holding the handle so it couldn’t be turned, while looking through the closet behind him. “He’s not dressed like a sub, is he?” Andi said. “And he doesn’t look old enough,” I said slowly as I looked him over. He pulled a key out of the closet and locked the door, then he walked over to the desk, threw the key onto the desk, put his feet up, and fell asleep. “Yeah, I don’t think he’s for real,” John muttered. After what seemed like forever Chris was finished, “Hey, um, Mr. Jones,” Chris said, poking his foot. Mr. Jones woke with a start. “Huh, what?” he said when he woke. “I’m done with this chapter.” “Well then,” Mr. Jones started, then he looked out the window and stopped. “Um, go, go sit down.” He said getting up and gesturing with his hands for Chris to go. Then he quickly moved to the door, unlocked it, and tossed the key into the closet. Closing the door with his foot as he ran passed; he jumped into an empty seat just as Mr. Smith, our debate teacher, walked in. He was a short, balding, man who wore the same thing every day, a white shirt tucked into black dress pants, and he had round, wire rimmed glasses that had inch thick lenses which magnified his eyes to more than double there real size. He looked around, then said, “Sorry I’m late,” in his deep voice, “I was just being told that we were going to have two new students today, so would Cody Johnson, and Gloria Gomez please stand up.” ‘Mr. Jones’ stood up. “Yes why don’t you come up here for a second?” Cody walked to the front of the room; the whole class except for Chris was suppressing laughter. “Go ahead and tell everyone something about your self” Mr. Smith said, smiling. “Hey, I’m Cody,” he started in the same smooth voice, “and I” he paused, thinking about what he should say, “want to become a teacher.” He finished a half smile now on his face. Everyone, except Mr. Smith, and Chris cracked up. “Ok, ok that’s enough!” Mr. Smith yelled after a few seconds. “We already have wasted enough time today, because I was not here for most of the class.” “Oh, like I said sir, I taught the class great! There’s no hurry, we finished everything!” This time Mr. Smith joined out laughter, but silenced us quickly. “Ok, ok my boy, um sit here.” He said, pointing to the desk next to mine, and in front of Andi, who couldn’t seem to stop staring at him. “Now,” Mr. Smith said, looking at the clock, “we have to squeeze an hour-and-a-half class into forty minuets, so-” he was cut off by Cody. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just let us talk for this forty minuets? I mean it’s less than half the class, we’ll just end up going over what we learn today tomorrow, right? So we can, like, finish the lesson, it just seems easier to do it all in one day. But, you’re a smart man, you knew that.” Normally, no teacher would buy that from any student. But Cody had put it so perfectly, perfect voice; charm; and complement at the end, it was all flawless. At least Mr. Smith thought so. Mr. Smith smiled, “Well, I guess you’re right, everyone just talk amongst your selves, quietly.” He seemed to have forgotten all about the girl, Gloria. Andi, John, and I turned to face Cody. Even Martin, who sat on the other side of the room, came over to hear what he had to say. “What?” was all he said when he noticed we were all looking at him. “What the hell were you doing?” was all I could get out. “I’ve wanted to do that ever since I saw ‘Catch me if you Can’,” he said, grinning. I saw Chris get up out of the corner of my eye, and sitting next to him was the other new student. She was wearing a black hoodie with the hood up, and black tight jeans. She was as small as Andi, but not as innocent looking, or as out-going; she sat alone, her dark eyes moving from side to side. Then Chris came up. He shoved Cody in the back, almost throwing him out of his seat. “You think you can come in here and make me look like a freakin’ idiot!” Chris said, trying not to yell. Mr. Smith didn’t look up. Cody sighed a huge, exaggerated sigh, then said, in a fake deep voice, “No Napoleon and I’m not bringing you your chap-stick either.” “Think you’re so funny!” Chris yelled, grabbing Cody’s shirt and spinning him around. I looked around at the new girl in the back; she was resting her head in her hands, watching with mild interest. “Chris!” Mr. Smith yelled, Chris let go of Cody, and turned around. “Go back to your desk.” Chris stalked back to his desk, and sat, arms crossed, face down. The girl looked at him with disgust, then looked back at Cody. “So what’s your story?” Andi asked. “Who asks something like that?” was Cody’s response. “Oh just answer it, don’t try to dodge,” I said. Mr. Smith walked over and asked Cody some questions, then left. “So don’t think that gets you out of it,” John said to Cody “Out of what?” “Telling us where you came from and stuff.” “You just won’t let this stuff go, will ya?” “Hey, your gonna need me to protect you for a while,” I said to him. “From what?” “My brother,” I said, nodding at Chris. “Brother?” he asked, then before I could respond he went on. “Alright I’ll tell you all the crap you wanna know.” He cleared his throat, as if he were an amazing storyteller from the 1500’s. “My parents split up when I was five. My half sister, Andrea, went with Dad, and I went with Mom. My mom died in a car wreck a year later. From there I went to live with Andrea and Dad. He started beating us, her worse than me, so we ran off. We lived on the streets of San Francesco for two years. To get money I taught myself how to pick-pocket. She started stealing. We had a place we’d meet at, then we’d use all the money we ended up with to try to get some food. We couldn’t go to a homeless shelter because they’d separate us, or send us back to Dad, so we slept on benches, hidden, so nobody else would find us. Then one day she got caught, I did to a week later. I haven’t seen her since. But I have been going through foster homes like crazy; this is the first one I’ve been to that hasn’t been a trailer full of ten other kids.” He finished with a weak laugh. “That’s morbid,” John said, joking. “That’s life,” Cody replied coldly. “Where do you think she’s from?” I asked, after a small silence, looking at Gloria. Everyone turned to look then shrugged, except Cody. “She’s my foster sister.” He said, grimly, “Her story is worse than mine.” “So what is it?” Andi asked. “It is a long story.” “That’s what she said,” John muttered. I laughed, then said, “We’ve got twenty minuets,” glancing at the clock. Suddenly Gloria was walking by, as she passed she snarled into his ear, “Don’t tell anyone, anything, about me,” then she walked up to Mr. Smiths desk, got a pass, and left. Suddenly Gloria was walking by, as she passed she snarled into his ear, “Don’t tell anyone, anything, about me,” then she walked up to Mr. Smiths desk, got a pass, and left. “So, why don’t we talk about something, I dunno, happier?” Cody asked after a few minuets. “Like what?” Martin asked. The bell rang. “Ok, how are you supposed to keep that,” Cody asked, pointing at Chris, “away from me.” “What are you so scared of, dude? You’re taller than him.” John said, laughing. “Taller, yeah, but his arm is as thick as his head!” We all laughed, then he said, “Come on!” “What’s your next class?” “Algebra.” “Cool, that’s where I’m goin’, it’s right across the hall, just run,” I said. Once he was gone, of course, we talked about him. “He’s really weird!” Martin said the moment Cody left. “Yeah, I don’t think he was telling the truth,” I said. “He could be,” Andi put in. “Eh,” John said shrugging “could be, probably not though.” With that we all went to class, John, and Martin to art, Andi, and I to Algebra. She went in, just before I could get through someone grabbed me from behind and spun me around. It was Chris. “Get your new friend to f*ck off, or I’ll make him,” Chris snarled, pulling me up so my nose almost touched his. “Ok, calm down, he’s not gonna mess with you anymore,” I said calmly. “He’d better not,” Chris breathed, then he dropped me and walked off. As I watched him go, I saw Gloria walk up beside him, and start talking to him, curious I followed, glancing at my watch. I had time. She pulled her hood low over her head and pulled out a pocket knife. She flipped it open, and jabbed it into the lock of a storage room door. The lock broke and she pushed him in, then followed. I quickly walked over and leaned against the wall by the door. “Damn it,” I muttered. With the noise of the hall and thickness of the door I couldn’t hear anything being said. And by touching the door, I could tell they weren’t doing… anything like what you’re probably thinking. I retreated back to the algebra room, and leaned on the door frame, watching. Three minuets later the door opened, Chris came out holding a duffel bag in one hand and a fist full of money in the other. Then she came out, and slammed the door behind her. She walked toward me, Chris walked in the other direction, pocketing the money as he went. I ducked into the room, and sat down at my desk in the back. Cody was sitting in the desk next to me. Andi was in front of me talking to him. “I was wondering when you were going to show up,” he said when I sat down. “Yeah, you were right behind me, where did-“I stopped her there. “Chris stopped me,” I said, then I told them what I saw. When I was finished I asked Cody, “You know what that could be about?” He laughed, then said, “I’m not close to her, like, at all, but I know she’s paying him to sell stuff.” “Like?” He shrugged, “Drugs, phones, ripped video games, and pirated DVD’s. Stuff like that.” “And how old is she?” “Just turned fifteen, but she did several, um, bad things, got her kicked out of a few schools, so she’s lucky that she’s still a freshmen.” “Geez what did she do?” Andy asked. He shook his head, “I can’t tell you.” The bell rang, and Mrs. Solomon made us all quiet down. Before she could say anything, the door opened and Gloria stomped in. Her black boots sounded like bricks on the tile floor. “Who are you?” Mrs. Solomon asked as Gloria clonked in. “Gloria,” she said. Although she only came up to Mrs. Solomon’s elbow, she seemed to be frightening the teacher. “Hey,” Cody said, whacking my shoulder as Mrs. S asked Gloria if she was the new student. “What’s she like?” he asked, nodding at the front of the room. “Mrs. S?” “Naw, Gloria! Yeah, is she one of those Bitchy teachers, or is she ok, or what?” “Young lady, take that hood off now!” Mrs. S was looking straight down at Gloria; the whole class was cracking up. Andi and I turned to Cody and said, “She’s a bitch.” Gloria whispered something in her ear. Mrs. S straitened, muttering something to Gloria. “She just said she’s got cancer,” Cody told us. “Dose she really?” Andi asked, alarmed. “No,” Cody said, shaking his head, and laughing, “she likes keeping her hood up I guess. I’ve never asked about it and I don’t want to.” Gloria didn’t move she just pulled her hood tighter over her head. “Ok,” Mrs. S said, trying to recover, “um, I hear we have another new student so would Cody Johnson please come up here.” Cody sighed and stood, “Gotta go tell somethin’ about my self now,” he said, rolling his eyes. Once he was at the front, he leaned on the front desk, next to Gloria. “Say your name and something about your self.” “Yeah, uh, I’m Cody, and I am really tall.” Everyone laughed, and he sat back down where he was. “You can go now” “Yeah thanks.” Gloria muttered, then said, “I’m Gloria, and I,” she stopped, and looked over the room stuffing her hands into her hoodie pockets. “don’t have anything else to say.” She stalked back to the desk next to Cody, boots thumping like drums of war. The rest of algebra went without incident. I didn’t pay much attention, I was to busy thinking about everything that had happened. I wandered to pre-ap English next, and was surprised when Cody came in at the last second. Luckily Gloria didn’t come to. Our English teacher, Mrs. Young, took pity on him, and only made him stand while she introduced him. Then she told him to pick an open desk. He sat at my table with Cole Howard, and Jewel Kwon. Cole was, in my opinion, a stuck up jack ass. He was pretty smart, and funny, but all he did was make fun of anyone he didn’t like. That was both, now all three, of the people at our table. Jewel moved from South Korea three years ago, she already spoke good enough English, but still had an Asian accent. She was very smart, quiet, and overly polite; saying sorry for almost everything. That was one of Coles favorite things to tease her about. Every time she said ‘sorry’ to him, he would reply ‘its okay’ with exaggerated sincerity. Cody came over and sat down next to me, and across from Cole. “Are you stalking me or something?” I asked, only half joking. He laughed, “If I could stalk someone wouldn’t I stalk a cheerleader or something?” “Oh, wow! You’ve got a friend,” Cole said, smugly, “how does it feel?” “Hold on!” Cody said, leaning across the table. He reached up, and ran a hand across one of Coles eyebrows which were large, and bushy, “Sorry thought that was a caterpillar.” Cody said, smiling. Jewel and I cracked up, causing Mrs. Young to look over at us. We quieted immediately. She then explained what we were supposed to do, while Cole glared at his feet. She said we were going to do “something fun”, she lied. It was more fun than our last assignment, we had to read two books over the summer and discuss them in our group, then we did a bunch of worksheets over them. Finally we had to present what the books meant to us in a “creative way”, it was hard and boring. Our group got a hundred because Jewel pretty much did the whole thing. That took up the first half of the semester, or nine weeks. At the end of eighteen weeks, or the semester, we got a new schedule, I don’t know if that’s how all high schools work, but that’s how ours works. The second nine was going to be writing. For this part of it we each had to write one page of a paper, leaving the end open for the next person to add on to it. Each one was supposed to go all the way around. We were going to be given six grades, one for each paper, and the average of the four papers counted twice. Today we had to come up with four different topics for the papers. When Mrs. Young was finished, Jewel immediately got out a pack of notebook paper, and a pencil. She started jotting down ideas. When she was finished she circled one, then passed the paper to Cole saying, “If there is one you want that is not on here, just add it, then circle it.” He read over it, circled one, then passed it to Cody, who did the same before handing me the paper. There weren’t really topics on the paper, they were more like genres. Sci-Fi, sports, and fantasy were all circled. Mystery was the most exciting one left, so I picked it praying I could write a good start to one. When we were done with everything we were supposed to read until the bell rang. If you didn’t have a book you got sent to the office. I searched my backpack for almost ten minuets before I found a lost library book. I propped it open and pretended to read for the rest of class. Most of the ninth grade had the last lunch of the day. It started at 1:55 so everyone was pretty hungry by the time it rolled around. If you didn’t bring your lunch and didn’t get to the line within five minuets, you ended up with about five minuets to eat. Cody learned that the hard way today, he went into the line, and I didn’t see him for the rest of the day. I hopped onto the bench at our table. The guys I sat with at lunch were my real friends. They were Erik, Joey, Will, Mitch, Jason, and Daniel. There were more people at the table but this was all in our section. Austin didn’t like most of them so he started sitting with Eddie, Martin, and Josh, along with a whole bunch of other kids I knew, but didn’t really like. Andi sat with her friends, who I didn’t really know, so that left me with a bunch of outsiders and Erik. Erik had been my best friend since forever. He didn’t really like anyone else at the table besides Daniel and I, he pretended to like Will though. He was really short, and was in band so now he spent most weekends practicing. He was really funny, but didn’t talk much around people he didn’t like. Joey was next in line. He was short, but taller than Erik, and wore glasses. He had long, light brown hair and buck teeth. I thought he was funny, but most people, like Erik, thought he was stupid. Unlike Erik he was outgoing, but not very bright. Will was also was in band. He was funny but could get annoying really fast. He was almost as tall as me, and had short, blonde hair. He hated Joey, and Mitch. Mitch was Joeys best friend. Although they always said they hated each other, they were always together so I’m not sure. Mitch, last year, got in trouble all the time for various things. He had thrown erasers across the math room, flung mashed potatoes across the cafeteria, and many other things that left everyone laughing except him. His parents never cared what he did. Jason was insane, that was the only way to put it. During lunch, he would buy a ‘PowerAde’ and an ice cream, then attach the ice cream wrapper to the empty bottle and slam it against the edge of the table. He also chased a squirrel into the creek last year in gym. Daniel was the last kid there, and I think he was the only other person there that nobody hated. He was funny and completely random. He could come up with the most random things to say that would end up being hilarious, but then sometimes he was normal. He was impossible to predict. Throughout lunch I was listening to Erik, and Will from one side, making nasty jokes about Joey and Mitch, who I was listening to from the other side. They were telling some story that was so ridiculous I knew it had to be made up. Jason had melted ice all over his part of the table, and was sliding a plastic lid all over it. I was only really talking to Daniel, who was sitting directly across from me. I told him about Cody, and Gloria, what I saw Gloria give Chris, and what Cody said about it. “Sounds like Gloria isn’t very smart since she’s having a druggie deal drugs. He’ll just take them wont he?” I laughed, “Only if she gave him coke.” “Where is she,” he asked, glancing around, “what does she look like?” I looked around, finally I saw her staring at our table from the other side of the cafeteria. She looked away immediately. She was sitting at the goth table, fitting. I pointed her out to Daniel. “That’s where color goes to die,” Daniel said, when he found her. “Ha, yeah I wonder if she’ll dress like that every day.” He shrugged. After lunch I had to go to soccer. I loved the game, but I hated the team. The season started next semester so all we have been doing so far is conditioning. Today was mile day. Every Monday we had to run the mile a whole bunch of times. If you came in first you could stop and go scrimmage with the girls ninth grade team. Eddie and I knew we would be running for a while, we were by far the slowest players on the team. After practice I couldn’t shower, I had ten minuets to dress out, get my stuff, and run to the other side of the school to catch the bus home. By the time I got to where the bus should be, it was slowly pulling away. I ran after it, when I caught up I pounded on the door. The bus driver, Mr. Jerry, pulled to a stop. He was a big man, in his late fifties, and balding. “That’s it!” he yelled in my face, spraying me with spit. “What’s it?” “Late! Again!” he pointed to the front seat on the right side, “You’ll sit here for a month!” As I sunk into the seat, I could here Andi, and Austin laughing. I looked out the window as Mr. Jerry pulled away. I saw Gloria rush out of the school, then turn and watch us begin to go around the corner. “Hey, I think she rides this bus.” I said, pointing her out. “You think making me stop will get you off easier?” “If I get to annoying yeah.” He grunted, then opened the door for Gloria, and she stomped in. “You new?” “Yeah.” “If your late one more time you sit here,” he told her, pointing to the spot next to me. She mumbled something, then stalked to an empty seat. I thought of Cody, if he lived with Gloria shouldn't he be on this bus to? The thought was gone when the bus pulled away. Gloria got off at my stop, and went to the apartments on the other side of the street. I’d been in those before, they were really bad. Andi and I had a ton of algebra homework, we complained about it while Austin laughed in our faces. He didn’t have algebra this semester, and he wouldn’t have it next either. He would have geometry, which was the hardest math course offered to freshmen. He was taking the hardest course from every subject. I went down to Andies so we could work on the homework together. She was bad at algebra, and I was half way decent so it took a while. When we finished all we did was play Halo until I had to go back up at 6:30. Today when I got back up to my apartment nobody was there. I texted Kristy asking her where she was, she replied that she had just left the school because she missed the bus waiting for Chris and couldn’t find him because he had been in a fight and was in the office. When I asked why he had been in the office for over two hours she said he’d beat a kid really bad, but had gotten hurt to. When they got back Chris had a cut just above his eye, and a nasty bruise on the side of his head. When I asked who did that he didn’t answer, but he said he beat the crap out of Cody. We argued about that until Kristy made us shut up. We ate a silent dinner, pretending today was normal when mom came home to eat. Jack came back later. By that time I was already playing video games or watching TV until I fell asleep. That was pretty much everyday after school. Except Chris sitting in the office for two hours. When I lay down I couldn’t go to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about what weirdness Cody, and Gloria had brought just on there first day. Edited by iamsam, Jul 27 2009, 01:50 PM.
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| iamsam | Jul 22 2009, 11:40 PM Post #2 |
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GLORIA Ch.2 Day One I herd a pounding on my door, followed by, “Get your ass out here or ya gonna be late, Gloria!” That was my dad, really charming isn’t he? I rolled over and looked at the calendar, it was Monday, shit. I got pushed the blanket off of myself and realized I had all my clothes on. I remembered why when I stood up and tripped over a box, landing on more boxes. Those five boxes held all my stuff that wasn’t for sale, and I had pretty much just flattened all of them. I got up and went to the door, when I opened it Dad was right there looking in. “I told you to unpack last night,” he screamed, his face inches from mine. “I’ll do it later.” “Do it now!” I turned and opened every box and flipped each upside down, dumping everything onto the floor. When I looked up from the last one Dad was gone. I went into the kitchen to get an apple, then saw Cody and threw it at him instead. He dodged it so it splattered all over our crappy little TV. “What?” he yelled. “You’re supposed to wake me up, that’s what!” “I forgot!” “You know what he could’ve done?” “What the hell is going on?” my step-mom Beth asked from her bedroom door way, she was so thin and pale she looked like a ghost. “Nothing,” I mumbled, then I followed Cody out the door. When we got out of the building and watched the bus drive off without us, we pleaded with Dad to take us. He was a fat, bald little man with a Hitler mustache. He told Cody to get in, then he tried to leave me behind as punishment, I liked it better that his usual. I jumped at the last second, landing on the bumper of his crappy car, almost knocking it off, then I quickly pulled myself up and sat on top. When the car pulled up to school I jumped off to early so he saw me. Before he could start I yelled, “This wouldn’t happen if I had my own car!” “I look like I got money comein’ out my ass?” “What if I could buy it?” He laughed in my face, then said, “If you can buy it, you can have it!” I walked away, already trying to count the money I’d made from the other schools. “And that’s buy not steel!” Dad yelled after me. Out of the four people that live in our shitty apartment, I like him the least. Beth was too lazy to bother me (although it really did get old), and Cody was just an annoying little prick. I rushed through the halls, looking for the debate room. I actually got in before Cody did. Looking around, I saw there was one seat in the front, there was no way I was sitting there. So I checked the back, there were four, one was next to some huge, stupid looking guy. I sat there, maybe I could convince him to work for me. On my way back I stole three wallets from three unattended purses, also taking there phones. Then I sat down and tried not to fall asleep. Cody decided to come in just then, he glanced around, then smiled at me. What the hell was he doing? My phone vibrated so I pulled it out of my pocket. The only reason I got a phone was the absolute cheapest family plan came from a network that considered a family four people. I looked at the text Cody sent me. It said he was going to pretend to be a sub for the class. I didn’t care if he got in trouble, so I didn’t point out the teacher could walk in any minuet, I just told him to make the kid next to me go somewhere else. After the bell rang, and he introduced himself as ‘Mr. Jones’ he took roll and made the tall kid go up to the front and read out of the text book. I didn’t pay any attention to anything after that, I just counted the money, and tried to figure out how much the phones were worth. I’d gotten almost five-hundred dollars because, the phones were worth about a hundred each, the wallets could even go for twenty, there wasn’t much cash. Inside my backpack I’d cut holes in the side of each pocket so I could fit a bag of a bunch of stuff I could sell. I pocketed the money, then put the stolen phones, and wallets in the bag. I looked up to see what Cody was doing, sleeping at the teachers’ desk. I’d seen the movie he was trying to copy and it had been way better. Lucky for the rest of these kids, he wasn’t snoring. After what seemed like forever this stupid kid finally finished the chapter, and woke Cody up. They said something to each other, then Cody sent the kid back to his desk, ran to unlock the door, and moved to an empty desk in the middle row. My guess was he’d seen the real teacher, or sub coming, and sure enough a short bald guy with huge glasses walked in. He said he was so late because he was being told there were two new students. That would be me and Cody, he told both of us to go up to the front, but I wasn’t going to unless he called me again. Cody went up there and made a couple of corny jokes, then somehow talked the teacher out of making us work. After that a whole bunch kids surrounded him and started asking him questions. I tried to listen without it being obvious, if he said anything about me I would kill him. Then they talked about stuff I didn’t care about. Cody told his ‘life story’ which I still don’t know if I believe. Finally the kid that answered as Mike Fisher when Cody did roll, looked over at me and asked, “Where do you think she’s from?” Why don’t you just ask? Cause then you wouldn’t be cool or whatever, talking to the pathetic new girl, right? Yeah, all that crap is some of the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. I grabbed my stuff and started up to the teachers’ desk. When I passed Cody, I snarled in his ear, “Don’t tell anyone, anything about me,” not the best way of putting it, but it got the message across. I kept walking; when I got to the desk I told him I felt really sick. “What’s wrong?” “Uh, headache.” “Alright,” he wrote me a pass to the nurses’ office, and handed it to me. I left, walking down the hall to my left. I had figured I’d need about four guys to help me sell stuff, I was gonna try to get the kid, who sat beside me to help. I think Chris was his name. I just had to keep rehearsing what I was going to say. I knew he was on drugs, he’d snorted something after the real teacher got back, that should help. If he’s on drugs I could just use those to pay him, and he’d do anything I asked. The bell rang and kids flooded the halls in a second. I pushed my way back to the room, looking for him. After spinning around a few times I saw his head, bobbing a foot above everyone else’s. I moved up beside him and asked, “Hey, you wanna make some money?” “Yeah,” he had a really weird voice. “Alright, follow me,” I lead him to a storage room I passed when I was pacing. It was locked so I pulled out my knife and jammed it into the lock, and twisted. It broke and we went in. At the last second before the door was pulled closed I saw Mike running up to the side of the door. What the hell was he doing? I stalled, pretending I didn’t know where the light switch was. I ‘found’ it after a short time, and brought us back into light. “How are you supposed to get me money?” “One sec,” I said as I started moving some of the stuff from the over packed bag, into a smaller one. “What kind of drugs do you take?” I didn’t want to have him sell meth if he was a meth addict. He didn’t say anything. “I saw you take something in class, I’m not gonna rat you out so just tell me!” starting to get angry, this kid really was stupid. “Cocaine,” he finally whispered. “That it?” he nodded. I searched the bag for the place I keep the heroin, finally finding it in a side pocket. I slipped it into the side of his bag. “Sell everything in here for as much as you can get,” I said very slowly, “start out really high, then go a little lower until whoever’s buying agrees. Ok?” “Yeah, I get it,” he said just as slow, “but do I get the money?” “No, you give me the money, and I’ll give you some back, or coke if you want.” His face brightened at the thought of a job that paid in coke which was probably all he would use the money for anyway. He nodded again. I just realized I had sold all of it in L.A. so I would have to get more from my dealer, Luke. “I cant give you any today, but I will later,” I said, handing him some of the money. He grunted. “Oh, and the heroin is stronger than the regular stuff, so don’t sell it to kids under sixteen.” Was that because I was compassionate, and didn’t want to hook kids on drugs? No. It was because if Cody got hooked somehow, and died I would care just a little, and I’d have nobody at home for the next two years besides Beth, and Dad. I opened the door and started walking left. I saw someone dart into a room right in front of me. I figured Mike had been watching the door, waiting for us to come out. I kept walking, not knowing where I was going, then it occurred to me to look at my schedule. Algebra, room 456, I was walking by 460 now and the next room on that side was 462. I spun around and jumped through the door right when the bell rang. A tall, old lady, with small glasses perched on a broken looking nose, stared down at me and screeched, “Who are you.” “Gloria,” I thought I recognized something about her. She seemed to be slightly afraid. “G-Gloria Gomez the new student?” “Yeah.” “We, uh, don’t allow hoods, or hats here,” she said, pointing at my hood. “Well I’m not taking it off,” I said absently, trying to think of where I knew her from. Suddenly she was looking almost straight down at me, screaming, “Young lady take that hood off now!” Then I knew where I knew her from “You’ve got a granddaughter in L.A. right? I know who sells her her pot. If you want her to stop getting it, let me wear this.” She straightened, muttering, “I know you were the one that sold it to her.” I smiled, “I know you know.” “You’d better stop or I’ll make you life a living hell,” she said under her breath, then said to the whole class, “Ok,” she paused, thinking of what she was going to say, “um, I hear we have another new student, so would Cody Johnson please stand up.” Cody stood up, and I realized he was surrounded by his new best friends, Mike and some girl that was in debate, I think her name was Andi. Cody sat on the desk in front of Mrs. Birdlady (I still didn’t know her name). “Say your name and something about your self.” Cody gave his name, then came up with a really bad joke and sat down. “You can go now.” “Yeah, thanks,” I muttered back, then said, “I’m Gloria, and I,” “Sell drugs!” Birdlady said so quietly I could barley hear her. Yeah to your dumbass grandkid! “don’t have anything else to say.” I stalked back to the desk by Cody, stomping as loud as I could. During algebra I learned two things: 1) Algebra is very boring. 2) Birdlady (Mrs. S) is more of a bitch than I thought. Throughout the class Mrs. S kept asking me to answer questions she knew I couldn’t, knowing she was going to ask me another question in a minuet was the only thing that kept me from falling asleep. At the end of class, she kept me behind. “I want you to know I’ll be watching you like a hawk, I will not tolerate you selling drugs in my school!” “Well that nose makes you look more like a vulture than a hawk, and if I decide to sell drugs there isn't a damn thing you can do about it.” I got out of there before her shock wore off, but I knew I was screwed tomorrow. I was almost late, again, this time to history. When I came in the teacher, a short fat lady with blonde hair, told me to introduce myself. I was getting really tired of introducing myself. “I’m Gloria.” “Now all of you get to work!” she said to the class, then looked at me, “Come over here.” I followed her to her desk. She explained some project that I really didn’t care about, then told me to go sit with three kids and try to work with them. When I got over to them they told me I could just watch today so I’d know what was going on. Like I’d do anything else besides sit here. I did listen though; the other kids were Joey, Jason, and Scott. Joey was bucktoothed and had huge glasses. Scott was tall, blonde, and loud. Jason was annoying. I listened as Scott yelled out to all his friends across the room, Joey kinda just sat there trying to ignore Jason who was trying to get his pencil stuck in the ceiling when Mrs. Gill wasn’t looking. This went on for most of the class until Scott took Jason’s pencil and told them they shouldn’t be messing around. I didn’t point out what a hypocrite he was. They worked for a while, and when I say they I mean Joey, and Jason. Scott just told them what to do, and if they were really that easy to manipulate I didn’t blame him. But I think it was because they were scared, he knew it, and I hated it. They were intimidated because Scott was the starting quarterback he was, funny, loud, smart, and probably the most popular freshmen. Not that crap like that should matter, but to most people it does. So just for that I hated Scott, but I didn’t like the other two much either. Throughout the whole class I watched two guys on the far side of the room. One was really small, with short black hair, and pale skin. The other looked the same, only taller. They were both acting really stupid. I asked Joey about them. After he was finished looking at me like I was a blind person who could suddenly see, he said, “That’s Evan and Parker, they’re twins. Everyone says they’re on some kind of drugs.” I tried to look interested even though I already knew everything I needed to know. “Its obvious they are.” He added. “Yep,” I was busy thinking, then another question came across my mind. “How come everyone here is on drugs?” “Everyone’s not!” Yeah well I’m pretty sure you are! That’s what I wanted to say, but of course I had to be nice to him long enough to get the information I needed, “You know what I mean, there’s a lot of kids on ‘em.” “I guess so.” “Do you know who sells to them?” I said, trying, unsuccessfully to keep the frustration out of my voice. He thought for a few seconds then asked, “Why do you want to know?” Now right there I would have knocked him out if I didn’t desperately need to know, “I want to stop them.” Thinking that was a stupid thing to say, until I realized who I was talking to. “Hey Scott,” Joey said timidly, tapping Scotts shoulder. He turned, “What?” “She wants to know who sells the drugs,” he said, pointing at me. Great, tell Scott something and I was pretty sure that the whole world would know in about five seconds. “Why?” Oh my God, can I not get a straight answer! “She wants to stop them,” Joey said, shakily. Scott looked at me like I was a stupid dog, then said, “You cant do that!” “I’m pretty sure it’d be good for everyone,” like I gave a damn what was good for anyone. “No, I mean they’re too dangerous, they could kill you.” Ha! Like to see them try that. “Who are they, and where can I find them?” Scott considered, then seemed to decide I was trying to buy drugs so he said, “They both come to the football game every Wednesday and sell out of this big gray van.” I didn’t ask what they did when it wasn’t football season, I didn’t need to. It was football season, so there was no problem. He looked at me funny for a few minuets, like I was some stupid kid who didn’t deserve to be within ten feet of him. That made me madder than hell. “You seem to know a lot about them.” I felt a smile tug at my mouth when he shrank back, glaring. “My friends always talk about them and stuff,” he said, jerking a thumb at Evan and Parker. “So you hang out with druggies?” I asked pretending to be as stupid as he thought I was. Flames danced in his eyes as he replied, “At least I’m not one of them!” he whispered harshly, taking on a smug look, thinking he’d gotten me. “So all of your drugged up friends tell you everything about the guys who sell the stuff? Am I really supposed to believe that?” “Yeah,” he said shortly. “I think you just stock up on steroids from them, that’s how you know them.” “Yeah, ok,” he said, laughing and shaking his head. Then he went over to another table. Joey stared at me; Jason got his penile stuck in the ceiling. “What?” I almost yelled at Joey after he stared, unblinking, for a minuet straight. “Nobodies ever talked to him like that before!” I looked over at Scott, “Well he’d better get used to it.” The bell rang for lunch; I got up and left quickly. I’d talk to Parker, Evan, and all the other kids that would be desperate for there drugs after I got to there dealer. At lunch I had to sit at the table with all the goth kids. Not saying they’re bad or anything but it was really depressing. The funny thing was, everyone at that table was wearing black, and we were in the brightest room I’ve ever been in. It was like we were the table where color went to die. While I was looking around, I saw Mike, and while I was looking to see if Cody was anywhere near him, he looked up at me, then pointed me out to his friend. What the hell was he talking about me for? After lunch I went to health. The class was taught by the football coach if that gives you an idea of how exciting the class was. He didn’t make me stand at the front or anything though. He just told me to go sit in the back, yelling after me, “This is Gloria!” Guess who I got to sit by? My new best friend Scott, and to my left was Parker. Wow I’m so lucky! I fell asleep five minuets into it, but Scott would hit me with a pencil every time I nodded off, so I was forced to stay awake. There wasn’t any work, Mr. McClain just read out of the text book. He was a really fat, old, short guy, with a boring voice. I thought it was ironic that he was reading about how bad drugs are for you, and Parker was sitting next to me sniffing a sharpie. When at last the last bell rang I was ready to get the hell out of this school, but of course something had to happen. On my way out, I saw a big group of kids standing on the side of the hall. When I pushed my way to the front I saw Cody, and Chris fighting. There was blood coming from Cody’s nose. Cody hit Chris in the head twice but it didn’t seem to have any effect. Chris slammed him against the lockers, and started punching him in the stomach over, and over. When he started hitting his head I stepped in, grabbing his arm and spinning him around. “Stop!” He turned from Cody, who was on the ground now and stood over me, he was taller by a foot, “Or what?” I could have stabbed him, but he did work for me, and I didn’t want to get expelled from another school, or go to jail. The bag I gave him was at the edge of the circle of people, so I didn’t have to worry about breaking anything. I punched him in the stomach. When he doubled over I hit the side of his head, sending him into the wall. From there I grabbed his shoulders, kneed him in the stomach, and threw him to the ground. I put one foot between his shoulder blades, leaned over, and whispered, “Or I won’t pay you.” Then I walked away, pushing through the shocked crowed. When I came out of the back door, the bus wasn’t there. I looked over and saw that it was about to go around the corner, but it stopped. Finally some luck. I climbed on, and the bus driver, another old, fat guy that was loosing his hair, said, “You new?” “Yeah.” “If you’re late one more time you sit here,” he told me, pointing to the seat almost right next to him. Mike was sitting in it. I muttered, “Oh, great,” under my breath, then stalked to an empty seat, it was next to that girl he’d been with, Andi. I listened to her and some Asian kid talk about something. I started out trying to think, but with all the noise it was impossible. The first thing I heard was Andi yelling to be heard over the noise, “Does he like me or not?” I wished that was the biggest problem in my life. “I don’t know! Why don’t you ask him?” the Asian kid yelled back. “Because I don’t want to Austin!” “Well that’s just stupid!” Austin said, then he turned around, “Hey Mike-” he was cut short because she slapped her had over his mouth. When the bus stopped next to my building she let go, saying, “You’d better not tell him!” “I won’t, but you should.” We all got off, Mike, Andi, Austin, and I. They went into the expensive, nice apartments, and I headed for my dump, but I didn’t go up. I had stuff to do. Dad had come home and didn’t have to work again until eleven tonight. That should give me enough time. I walked over to his crappy car, searched my backpack for his spare key, which he ‘lost’ last week, and unlocked the car. The only problem with my plan, I realized when I was on the freeway, was I had only a vague idea of how to get where I wanted to go. I had planned on finding Luke’s place, but after driving around for half an hour, I decided to just call him. First I had to find somewhere to meet him. I ended up at some mall, hopefully near Luke’s place. I called him from the food court and he said he’d be right over. I only had to wait ten minuets before he came walking up to me. Luke was twenty six with spiky black hair. He was almost as white as paper and seemed about as strong, but I’d seen him kick ass a few times. I can tell you he’s way stronger than paper. He was, in my opinion, very good looking, but also very smart. He sat in front of me, his black eyes drilling into mine. After a few minuets he said, “Why did you call me, Gloria?” he had a raspy voice and spoke slowly. “Why do you think?” “I just gave you some a week ago, you shouldn’t need anything for a while.” “Well I sold out of some my last week here, and now I need more.” “Then you owe me money,” Damn, he never missed getting his cut. I tossed his fifty percent, which was close to five hundred dollars, and because I had to pay all of the guys I got to help me sell it, I made about half of what Luke did. I tossed the money onto the table; he snatched it up in a second. “Stuffs in the bag,” he said pointing to the backpack beside his chair. He went and got a burger, then came back. “Don’t you have to get home?” “I need money for my own car, Luke.” “How did you get here then?” “Took my dads.” Hi sighed, looking off to his left, then back at me, “Why the hell would you take his car?” “I needed to get here,” I said, shrugging. “And he’s not going to notice his cars missing?” “He doesn’t need it ‘til eleven.” “Oh my God, and he couldn’t, just for some crazy reason, need it to go somewhere else besides work! You’ve got to think things through!” I really hadn’t thought of that, I checked my phone for the time. It was seven thirty; I hadn’t been gone to long. “Yeah, thanks,” I said, grabbing the bag as I got up to leave. He grabbed my arm. “You just gave me the crack money, I want the rest.” I stared at him, wondering how he had known by how much it was, which drug it came from. Then I pulled about a thousand bucks in twenties out of my pocket, and threw the wad of cash at him, sending bills everywhere. People were staring as I left. I got in the car and started driving. I was thinking, he got fifteen hundred bucks and I got about five hundred. If I added up everything else I sold on the side I got about seven hundred a month, that wasn’t enough for me. I pulled up next to an Apple Store, and searched for Dads tool box, I found it in the trunk. I opened it and pulled out a wrench. From where I was standing I could see a laptop display in the window, which meant whoever was supposed to lock up was still inside. I weighed the risk against the reward, then walked u and slammed the wrench against the window, it shattered and the alarm went off. I love Mac’s, the three laptops fit inside one pocket of my pack. I ran back to the car and jumped in. I saw the guy who was supposed to lock the store shuffling from the back, trying to catch me. I sped off, and within a minuet was on the freeway headed back home. At 8:30 I pulled up in front of our building, and parked the car in the same place it was in. As soon as I got out, my phone rang. It was Luke. “What?” “What the hell were you thinking?” he shouted from his end. “You stole three laptops for what?” he was beyond mad. “Money.” I calmly said back. “Money! What the f*ck do you need money for Gloria?” “I told you I need a car, but you take so much of my money I could barley afford a box!” “Your money? Its my money! I’m the one who gets the stuff, and I’m the one that gives it to you!” “I’m the one that sells it and I have to put my neck on the line cause I’m the one that’ll get caught!” “We still split it fifty-fifty so what are you complaining about?” He shouted back after a small pause. “We don’t split fifty-fifty! I have to pay other kids to help, and that comes out of my paycheck!” “You could just do it by yourself!” “I couldn’t sell this crap by myself! I have to have help!” “Well figure out how to get your money without putting me at risk!” “What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t put you at risk!” “If you go down they’ll search your place, find the stuff, and find out about me! So find some, semi-legal way to get your money! Can you do that?” I thought for a while, then muttered, “Yeah I can,” I hung up, then climbed up into my room, and planned out what I was going to do. Edited by iamsam, Jul 27 2009, 02:03 PM.
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| iamsam | Jul 22 2009, 11:41 PM Post #3 |
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CHRIS Ch. 3 Pain hurts! (who’d a thunk?) When I woke up, my head was throbbing. I rolled over, causing pain all over, so I just lay there. The first real thought I had was I worked for a bitch, the next was she could hit really hard. I didn’t move for a while, then I grabbed my iPod, turned it over, and looked at the bruise on the side of my head. It was huge, mostly a dark purple with patches of blue and black. I was going to kill that girl, but then I thought of what she was paying me with and decided to just let it be. Mom yelled at me to get up after I laid there forever. I did, feeling like my skull was cracking. I needed a hit, but for the first time in a while coke took a back seat to something, pain. When I came out, Mike and Kristina were eating. Mom saw me, and couldn’t miss the bruise. She came over and checked it, then asked me if I wanted to stay home. I told her no, the only way I was gonna get my drugs was if I went to school, and got them from Gloria. “Hey, you got a little somethin,” Mike said, gesturing to where my bruise was. I glared at him, but even that hurt. I left in time to take the bus with Mike, and Kristina. Usually when I went to school I had to drive because I was up so late. I saw that Gloria, and Cody lived in the building across the street. Cody’s nose was swollen, and crooked. He seemed to be in as much pain as I was in. When got on, I made sure to sit next to Gloria. “When do I get paid?” she looked up at me like she just realized I was there, then seemed relived that I hadn’t tried to kill her for hitting me. “I’ll pay you depending on how much money you bring in.” “Oh,” I had to sell a whole bunch of stuff today. “And tell everyone that buys from you to come to me if they want something you don’t have.” “Ok,” I was starting to feel restless, it was how I always felt when I hadn’t gotten high in a while. When we got to school, I started trying to sell stuff in the cafeteria. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. All I sold was three cell phones for only fifty each. I knew that wouldn’t be enough for her, but I didn’t know how to sell more. After a while, I noticed Gloria was watching me, she waited for a little longer, then came over to me. “Are you really this stupid, or did I just hit you really hard?” “What?” “Oh my God! Do you have any friends here at all?” “Yeah.” I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about. “You tell them to spread the story around that we are selling all this stuff, that’s how you get customers.” After she was done, we both noticed there we were surrounded by a group of kids. “What?” she yelled out at them. “Are you gonna kick his ass again?” someone yelled out. “No but I’ll kick yours if ya’ll don’t get out of here!” she yelled back. Some of the people left, but there were still about ten kids standing around us. “Hey, what’s goin on?” someone yelled from behind me. I spun around, and saw Jack looking at me. Carson Miller, my best friend, turned to Jack and said, “The new girl kicked your bros ass yesterday, we wanna see if she can do it again.” Jack shook his head, then looked up and yelled, “Get out of here!” Jack could have taken all twelve of us, and we all knew it. Everyone ran off except me, Gloria started walking off, but Jack yelled for her to stop. When she didn’t he walked up to her and tried to pull her back, she threw his arm off. When I walked up behind him, he was saying, “…who gave him that bruise?” “Yeah.” He turned to me, “You got beat up by a girl half your height?” I just shifted from one foot to the other. Jack turned back to Gloria, “Who are you?” “Gloria.” “I guess you’re new, you cant go around hitting people, especially people related to me.” “Cause you’re just so special right? You’re so perfect everyone has to follow what you say? Well listen,” she continued, walking right up to him, she was almost as tall as he was, “I didn’t just hit him, he was beating the shit out of my brother so I stopped him. That alright with you? Good.” She stalked away before Jack could say anything. He turned to me after a minuet and said, “What a bitch,” then he walked away. I went off and found Carson, and took Gloria’s advice by telling him to tell everyone we were selling stuff. Word spreads fast in high school, that was the first, and most important thing I’d learned all year. On my way to debate four kids came and asked me to sell them stuff. I tripled what I made just walking around. In debate, the only thing I paid attention to was when Mr. Smith told us we were going on a field trip in about a month. We were supposed to spend the rest of class on the computers researching for our next debate, I played games. During that time I saw that Andi was all over Cody, probably pitying him because I had beat the crap out of him the other day. I heard her telling him what a jerk I was and stuff. I also saw Mike watching, turning green with envy, that made me happy. After class I sold another two hundred dollars worth, it was easy! I didn’t see why Gloria needed me, but it didn’t matter, the more I gave her, the more coke I got. Once I was in English I got bored fast. The teacher was a boring old lady, like most teachers at this school. I tried to sleep but my head kept throbbing, I had to find Gloria and get my stuff, then leave. I couldn’t stop tapping the desk with my knuckles, the noise caused my head to hurt more, causing me to become twitchier and tap the desk more. Finally when English let out I went to find Gloria. I was able to find her and she dragged me into another closet. “Lets see how much you’ve got.” I handed her the money, she counted it then shouted, “Oh my God! How did you get so much?” “I did what you said.” “And that many kids just came up to you?” “Not a whole bunch, but the phones were nice. Where’d you get them?” “My cousin works for a phone company and gets a bunch of free phones.” “Oh. Uh, how much do I get paid?” She laughed, “Yeah ‘paid’” she said, putting air quotes around paid, then she pulled out the bag with all her stuff, and after digging through it for a wile, handed me three grams of cocaine. “That’s it?” “Yep.” When we stepped out, I saw Mike scramble away from the door. “That little ass hole!” she yelled and tried to go after him, but we were surrounded in a second by more people who wanted to watch a fight. After pushing our way through them, I went out the back door. On my way I saw Carson, and Ronnie Walker mugging some freshmen, I watched. When they were done Ronnie walked up to me and asked if I was selling any knives. “No, go ask Gloria, I bet she is.” “Who?” “The girl that kicked his ass!” Carson yelled on his way in. Ronnie laughed, then asked me, “So why would she have ‘em?” “I got all this crap from her, she pays me to sell it.” “It worth it?” “Yeah.” “Hmm, I’ll have to talk to her ‘bout that, thanks man.” I watched them walk away, they looked really weird. Both were pale, wearing all black. Carson had short spiky blonde hair; Ronnie’s was long and red. He always wore sunglasses, and was always smoking something out of school. I saw him dump his cigarette in the trash as he walked by it. I herd a groan of pain, and turned to see the freshmen getting up. I’d never seen him before, he was small and had long brown hair. His nose was bleeding, and he doubled over holding his stomach. I kinda pitied him, he looked so pathetic. He stumbled away, not going back inside, but running away in the same direction I was going. That made me think of how pathetic I would look if I left, but then my head gave a hard throb so I followed him. I didn’t have my car so I had to walk home, but it didn’t take to long. When I got to our building I climbed the fire escape to my room, and climbed in, unlocking the widow when I got there. After that I fell asleep, to tired to even take the coke in my pocket. I jumped off my pillow, covered in a cold sweat and panting. I looked around. Did someone come into my room? Did they take anything? The pain from my head came crashing down on me and I fell back onto my pillow, eyes closed, had tapping the table next to my bed. I guess I fell asleep because when I lifted my head off the pillow again it was dark. Now I was sure someone had been to in here. I felt my pockets but the drugs were still there, good. I reached into my pocket and took a gram out. I snorted it, then leaned back and waited. As I did so, I noticed my head was throbbing to the beat of my heart, and my hand tapping. Then the rush came, I cant even begin to explain it, I wasn’t tired anymore, I felt like I could do anything! I pulled the window open, and jumped out, then I sprinted down the stairs, and ran out into the street, whooping. I ran down the street to, well I don’t really know where I was going, and didn’t get there. Apparently it was passed curfew, and a cop pulled up in front of me causing me to run right into his car, and bounce off, falling on my back. I sprang back up as he got out of his car. “How old are you kid?” “Twenty three,” I said really fast, I was so thankful right then for the fake ID Carson got me. “Can I see some ID?” “Sure,” I said, pulling my wallet out really fast, and racing through it, finally getting to the card. I handed it to him, he looked at it for a few minuets then handed it back. “So why are you out at three in the morning, running down the street?” “Well, uh, why not?” He looked at me like I was crazy, “Go home before I decide to arrest you.” I did, and played Halo online for like ten minuets, then I went into a coke crash, and fell asleep. |
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| iamsam | Jul 22 2009, 11:42 PM Post #4 |
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ANDI Ch.4 Love Games! (I love Old Greg) I woke up only a few hours after I fell asleep. The reason I couldn’t sleep was I had been thinking about Cody, and Gloria. That and video games are way to fun for sleep. I live in an apartment with my younger brother and sister. My brother, Lucky, is in the seventh grade, and is really annoying. My sister Candis is seventeen and is never home. My parents are always at the hospital where they work so I’m usually alone with Lucky. Today Mom was home, and woke me up. After I got ready and everything I left for school. I was about to get onto the elevator when I decided to take the stairs. I had run into Mike on the elevator and looked like a retard; all I’d been able to say was “Mondays suck.” I got to the bottom when the elevator opened, Austin walked out. He was half asleep, but woke up enough to ask me, “Did you tell Mike yet?” “No.” “Why not? You were with him after school, just tell him!” I shook my head. “No.” I said again, I’ve liked Mike since the seventh grade, but I know he doesn’t like me, he’s good looking, smart, funny, and nice. I’m just me, nothing special. We waited at the bus stop for a minuet; while we stood there I noticed Gloria and Cody were there to. Cody had a broken looking nose, I was about to ask him about it when he nodded at Chris. I looked up at him and noticed a huge bruise on the side of his head. When we got on the bus Mike had to sit up at the front, so Austin, Cody and I crammed into one seat. The bus isn’t big enough for all the kids so usually there are a few seats that are overloaded like that. I turned to Cody and asked, “What happened to your nose?” “I was walkin’ down the hall after school yesterday and Chris comes up to me and shoves me against the lockers so I hit him in the stomach. Next thing I know he’s punching the shit out of me. Then I’m on the ground and Gloria’s beating the crap out of him, she gave him that bruise, he gave me this.” Cody finished, pointing to his nose. Austin turned to him and said, “You had to get saved in a fight by a girl?” I hit him and called him a sexist while Cody laughed. “Yeah I guess I did, but she could kick your ass so I wouldn’t talk if I were you.” “Oh yeah right,” Austin said, waving his hand dismissively. “Dude you have no idea, I bet if she fought anyone in the school she’d win.” “I’d take that bet that if you could prove it.” Cody thought for a minuet, then said, “Well I think I can.” “How?” “I’ll tell you if it’ll work out.” The bus stopped and Cody got off, running after Gloria, Austin and I went after Cody, and I saw Mike follow us. “What’s goin’ on?” he asked when he caught up. I told him what Austin and Cody had been talking about. “Well that’s stupid, no way could she beat Jack!” I shook my head, “Do you not see what’s wrong with having one, tiny girl fight anyone who thinks they can beat her?” “Normally that would be bad, but its Gloria.” “Yeah, I cant argue with that logic,” I said as sarcastically as possible. “I know you cant,” he said, trying to end the conversation because he knew I was right, then we came up to Cody, who caught Gloria. “Hey Gloria!” Cody yelled after her, she turned. Mike, Austin, and I hovered near by, listening. Cody noticed and muttered something in her ear. She backed up from him and looked over his shoulder, “Alright, tell me tomorrow, I’ve got stuff to do.” Mike and I watched her go over and start talking to Chris. “What are you doing?”Austin asked Cody. “What?” “What’s your plan?” “I’ll tell you later.” We sat at our table and I talked to Austin, Martin, Eddie, and Josh. While we were sitting there Martin got a text saying Gloria and Chris were selling stuff, it didn’t say what or how much it was or anything. I took his phone to show Mike and Cody. After reading it, Cody looked up and shrugged saying, “I told you.” Then I talked to the others while we waited for the bell. On the way to debate I was talking to Austin, he was saying he had to see what Gloria was selling. “Why, you wanna buy drugs? I bet that’s all she sells.” He shrugged and kept following her, finally catching up to her at her locker. “What do you sell?” he asked when she opened her locker, she almost jumped out of her skin, and spun around. “Uh, here follow me in here.” she said, pointing to a empty class room across the hall, then she looked at me, “You wanna buy anything?” “Depends on what you have.” I said, she shrugged then led us into the room. Once inside she opened her back pack and pulled out a small duffel bag. From that she pulled out a bunch of stuff, including drugs, but also some nice phones, DVD’s, video games, and wallets. The last things she pulled out were three Mac Books, each was worth over a thousand dollars, she offered them for about seven-fifty. Austin looked everything over, and I have to admit I was also interested. After looking everything over Austin said, “You stole those last night, didn’t you,” it wasn’t a question, he was just saying she did. “How’d you know?” she asked, shocked. “On the news it said someone smashed the window at an Apple Store in L.A. and took three laptops, two Pros, and an Air,” he finished, pointing to the laptops as he said the names. “So you don’t know I stole them.” “Yeah ok, you went out and bought three really expensive laptops and now you’re selling them for cheaper? Makes no sense.” “You want ‘em or not?” “I don’t have enough, but could I pay you back?” “How much do you have now?” “One-fifty.” “Give me that and you can have it if you pay the other six later.” “Alright!” I could feel a trap, it didn’t seem smart to buy something you couldn’t completely pay for. He put the laptop in his back pack then left. “You gonna get anything?” I looked at the stuff, “No,” I left her counting her money and went to debate. In debate we found out both debate 1 classes were going on a field trip in a month to the building that was hosting the Presidential Debate. After that announcement we had to get onto the computers and research for our next debate. Mr. Smith didn’t watch what we were doing, so everyone played games or talked. I checked to make sure Gloria couldn’t hear me, then I asked Cody, “What does she do if someone can’t pay her back?” “What, did you buy something from her?” “No, Austin did, he didn’t have enough money so now he owes her six hundred bucks.” “What did he buy?” Cody asked, shocked Austin had spent so much money. “A Mac.” “She’ll give him some time to pay that much back, but if she doesn’t get half in like, two months, she’ll either start beating him, or get someone to do it for her. If after a week she still doesn’t have enough she’ll make him work for her.” “Selling stuff?” “Naw,” he said sarcastically. For the rest of class we “worked” and talked about everything we could think of, he told me that Chris had broken his nose, I told him what a asshole Chris is. When Cody, Mike, and I got to Algebra, we saw Gloria talking to Mrs. S. We snuck in, and crept to the back, listening the whole time. “Look,” Gloria said, staring almost straight up because Mrs. S was so tall and Gloria was so short, “you’re going to back off me and stop treating me like shit.” She laughed, “Why would I do that? And cursing to a teacher, that’s another detention.” “Hmm, I guess it is, but what would cursing to a student get you?” Gloria said, then she pulled out her phone and played something that we couldn’t hear. Mrs. S tried to take the phone but Gloria moved it away faster. “You recorded that you little bit-” “I wouldn’t,” Gloria said, waving the phone in front of her face, “I could turn you in anytime.” Mrs. S opened and closed her mouth a few times, then pointed to Gloria’s desk and said, “Just go sit down.” Gloria walked to her desk, smiling. I guess the rest of the class was much more polite than us because they had waited until Gloria and Mrs. S were done talking to come in. Throughout class Mrs. S seemed to be off in her own world, thinking. I actually felt a little sorry for her, but Mike and Cody didn’t. Cody didn’t really know Mrs. S, but Mike did and he hated her, she hated him to. Algebra was amazing, Mrs. S was so far gone she didn’t notice Cody and Mike playing baseball with paper balls and books. When I left algebra I had to go to health, the most boring subject in school. All you could hear was guys snoring and girls texting, then closer to the end stomachs rumbling. The health room was to far from the cafeteria to buy lunch and be able to eat it so I went straight to my table. On the way I ran into Cody, “Did Gloria tell you where she got the laptops?” “Uh, I don’t think so.” Cody screamed in frustration, then he ran off. One of my best friends, Ivy, walked up next to me as Cody sprinted off. Her name fit her perfectly; almost everyone thought she was weird. She had a strange taste in cloths, and sometimes acted really unusual. Most of the students and even some teachers avoided her because of that, but she was really smart. She was in our debate class and never lost. She was very tall and pretty, watching Cody walk off she asked, “You know him?” “Yeah, he’s in debate with us.” “Mhmm” she said, watching him go “he’s also in my English,” continuing to stare as he turned the corner, “he’s hot, but not as much as the guy you like.” She said, seeming to flake off, then she turned and walked into the cafeteria, her short ponytail bouncing off her neck. Most people stopped to see what she was wearing, a pink skirt with black stripes, a tight black shirt, white snow boots, and long black soccer socks, she didn’t even play soccer. I shook my head and ran after her. “Wait, wait, wait!” I yelled after her, she turned around, “What are you talking about?” “Huh?” She said, looking over me at something else, I turned and saw Mike coming in, I pulled her over to the corner. “Who are you talking about?” “You know who I’m talkin’ about,” she said, smiling, “and I will admit you have good taste.” “Who are you talking about?” I repeated, louder this time. “I know you like Mike, but you like Cody to, like I said you have really good taste.” I seriously asked myself if she could read minds, I came up with yes. I don’t know why I didn’t want her to know, maybe it was because every time I told everyone who I like that person never liked me back. “I don’t like Mike,” I said, hoping I sounded convincing. “Hmm,” she said, leaning against the wall, twirling a strand of loose hair in her fingers, “well I’ve been thinking about asking him out. You wouldn’t mind that?” I was frozen, she wouldn’t do that, would she? “Nope, go ahead,” I said, shrugging. “Alright, I will,” she said, then we went over to our table. The other girls at our table were, Caroline, Morgan, Jewel, and Rebecca. Caroline always had to have what was cool and popular every second of the day. Morgan was almost just like Caroline, she tried to do everything just like Caroline did. Jewel moved here from South Korea three years ago, she was going to finish the semester with the second highest GPA of any student from out school, only because Rebecca would finish first. She was freaky smart, and knew everything about everything. The rest of lunch was just like everyday. Jewel and Rebecca read books while they ate and said nothing. Caroline and Morgan sounded like “Esmé Squalor” form “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” talking about stuff I didn’t care about. Ivy pointed out that it didn’t matter what they thought was popular, because by the time they had it, it wouldn’t be popular anymore or it would be for a short time and they’d just waste there money. By the time Ivy was done talking Caroline was freaking out because she couldn’t find her wallet or her phone. Morgan couldn’t find hers either so they both started freaking out and asking if we’d seen there stuff. Ivy let them freak for about ten minuets then she pointed across the cafeteria and said, “Gloria has them.” “What? How did you-?” “She took all of our phones and money off our desks yesterday.” “And you let her?” Caroline yelled. “Yes, you’re right, I should have gotten into a fight with her, that would have solved so much more.” Everyone had heard what Gloria had done to Chris by now, Caroline and Morgan looked down at there feet. Then Ivy pulled out her phone to text someone. “I thought you said she took yours to!” Morgan yelled when she saw Ivy’s phone. “She did, but I took mine back.” “How?” we asked together. “I just did,” she said, seeming to get bored with the conversation, then whoever she texted, replied. She looked down at her phone, “Hmm, I knew he would.” I decided not to ask, I already was pretty sure what all that was about. Instead I followed Caroline and Morgan to Gloria’s table. I tried to stand far back enough so she wouldn’t notice me, but close enough to hear what was going on. When they walked up to the table she didn’t look up. “Hey!” Caroline said after a few minuets. “Could say, ‘excuse me’ it’s more polite,” Gloria said sarcastically without looking up. “Its not polite to steal stuff, but that doesn’t stop you.” Caroline said. Ah! Not a good idea. “Wanna tell me what you talking about?” “You took our money and phones!” “You can’t prove that.” “I have a video.” “What, on your phone?” Gloria said with a smile. Caroline didn’t say anything, but Morgan came to her rescue. Morgan was smarter that Caroline. “Our friend has it.” “Well she wasn’t taping anythin’” Gloria said, nodding at me. “Not her, and I’m not gonna tell you who, just give us our stuff back,” I don’t think Morgan had ever talked to anyone like that, and now she was doing it to the most dangerous girl at school. Gloria considered her options, then opened her back pack. After searching it for a few minuets she pulled out two phones, then a while later two wallets. They took there stuff without looking inside, and walked away. I tried to follow but Gloria grabbed my arm. “Don’t think I don’t know who has that video,” she breathed in my ear. She was looking at Ivy. “She doesn’t have any video!” “Sure, she just cost me three-hundred and sixty bucks. Your friend’s in trouble.” I couldn’t let Gloria beat Ivy, “There is no video, they lied!” I blurted out before I could stop myself. The bell rang and everyone started rushing to there next class, Gloria kept me there. “There’s no video?” “No, there’s no camera on her phone!” Gloria stood there, thinking, “Ah! I don’t have time for this!” she yelled, then she let go of me and stalked off. I hoped she didn’t do anything to Morgan or Caroline. I realized I didn’t have time either, so I hurried to history. I worked on our project with Caroline, Morgan, and Cole. It was pretty boring, all we did was research and take notes. I was only half there, mostly thinking about what Gloria might do, and who Ivy had texted. I was trying to think of how to avoid both. When the bell rang I found Ivy and asked her who it had been. “You know who it was and what they said.” “I wanna make sure!” “It was Mike, I asked him to go to the game tomorrow and he said yes.” “What?” I yelled, “Why?” “Well I said, ‘it was Mike, I asked him to go to the game tomorrow and he said yes. And I asked him because I like him to, I knew he’d go with me but liked someone else so I had to ask.” “But you knew I liked him!” “You should’ve said so, you denied it,” she shrugged and walked away. I stood shocked for a minuet then hurried to the bus. I got on and sat next to Austin, Cody wasn’t there yet. “So you blew it big time,” he said after a second. I hit him. “Well why didn’t you tell him, or tell Ivy?” Dang word travels fast in this school, I started to ask him how he knew but he told me, “Mike told me Ivy asked him, so I asked Ivy, can’t believe he’d go with her, and she told me.” Then Cody got on and they started talking about their bet. “How are you going prove it?” Austin kept asking. “You’ll see, I don’t even know if she’ll do it.” “Fine.” When the bus pulled up I realized Gloria and Chris weren’t on it, that worried me a little. Austin didn’t have practice on Tuesday so he came over and played Halo online until Mike and I were done with algebra. Today’s was easy so we finished pretty fast. We played Halo for almost two hours and Mike didn’t tell me, I guess it really wasn’t a big deal. It was only because I liked him I expected it I guess. When he left Austin stayed for a few minuets. “You gonna be ok?” “Yeah, I hope so.” Austin thought for a minuet, “You know what? You could get back at him.” “For what? Not like he’s cheating on me or anything, we never even went out!” “No, but if you have any chance with him at all, he’ll be a little jealous if you show up with someone else.” “Like who?” “Me?” he said shrugging, “if you want,” he added quickly. Right then I realized I still liked him. “Sure!” I said, to fast and to loud. He laughed, “Alright, uh, see ya tomorrow,” he said, waving slightly as he left. Well last night I felt like I got no sleep, tonight I really didn’t, I could only think about Austin and Mike. |
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| iamsam | Jul 22 2009, 11:43 PM Post #5 |
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MIKE CH. 5 Wednesday Night Lights When my alarm clock rang I flew off my pillow, hit my head on the ceiling, and fell back down, drywall raining onto me. I got up a few minuets and got ready, then headed to school. I thought about Ivy, I’ve always liked her, I didn’t make fun of her and think she was weird like most other kids. I’d said yes to her for two reasons. I haven’t dated anyone since the sixth grade, and as much as I like Andi I also like Ivy. Yeah, I’m a loser, right? So I got to the bus stop with Kristy and Chris. Cody showed up a few minuets later, but Gloria wasn’t there. “Where’s Austin?” Cody asked when he got over to us. I pointed over to our building. We waited for a few minuets, then Austin came out holding Andi’s hand. I was shocked, Cody didn’t seem to notice. I was able to recover and pretend I didn’t notice anything by the time they came up to us. “So you figure it out?” “Yeah, this is how it’ll work. I know a guy who owns a gym in L.A and will let us use his boxing ring Friday night at seven, I’m charging five bucks per person then they’ll fight each other until there’s one left, whoever that is will fight her. I’ve been texting everyone I can, you tell everyone to, I want more people to come.” “What if someone who can beat her doesn’t show?” Austin asked, Cody rolled his eyes. “This is as close as we can get, you want the bet or not?” “I don’t have any money, gave it all to your sister for a laptop.” “How much was the laptop, again?” “Seven-fifty, but I only gave her one fifty.” “Right, she told me that,” Cody said, nodding at Andi, “so how ‘bout you give me the laptop when I win, and if you win I’ll pay for it.” Austin thought it over for a few minuets, then said, “Fine.” When we got onto the bus and started pulling away there was a pounding on the door, I looked over and saw Gloria running along with the bus trying to get Mr. Jerry’s attention. He stopped to let her in, when she climbed he yelled at her for a few minuets then made her sit by me. I had been busy telling everyone about Cody’s stupid idea, trying to get people to go. I didn’t think anyone would pay to try to beat up some girl. Although that girl had almost cracked my brothers skull and he was supposedly among the strongest juniors. I told Jack to tell everyone that I thought she would beat them. A question came to my mind, “How did Cody get you to do this?” I knew she knew what I was talking about. “He can be convincing,” she said. “You’re probably going to have to fight the strongest guy in the school, how are you going to win?” “Why do you care?” “Well I have to know who I’m gonna put money on,” I said, joking, she gave a small laugh. “Trust me, I’ll win.” At school we went through the same thing as every morning, talked in the super bright cafeteria, only today I couldn’t help but notice Austin had his arm around Andi. I had no idea where Ivy was. In debate I sat in between Ivy and John, who couldn’t stop staring at Ivy’s hair. It was like it always was, pulled into a pony tail with two locks of hair framing her face. Just today she had dyed the tips bright purple. Finally when she turned to say something to me she noticed John. She stared back, he didn’t seem to notice. After a minuet John blinked, “I win,” she said brightly. “What?” he said absently, still looking at her. “You blinked, I win,” she said, “that is why you were staring at me, right?” “Oh, um,” John said, trying to think of what to say. “I thought so,” she said smiling, then went back to working. He didn’t even glance at her the rest of class. “You win,” I muttered, laughing She smiled, “I was going to poke him in the eye, but I didn’t want to hurt my fingers.” We laughed and talked until the bell rang and I had to go to algebra, which was just as boring as always. Then I went to English. As a class we had decided we should have three days to finish each part. I hadn’t done anything, and didn’t all class, I couldn’t think of anything to write about. The rest of the day went painfully slow. Finally I was on the bus sitting next to Gloria on the way home. She seemed nervous about something. When the bus got to our stop I didn’t go over to Andi’s place. Austin was going over so it would look pretty desperate. I went through the algebra pretty fast, I never realized I was any good at it. Maybe the only reason I always took so long on it was because I had to explain everything to Andi. When I was done I played Halo until there was a knock at my window. Austin and Andi climbed in from the fire escape, “You ready?” “Yeah,” the game started so early because there were really three games, ninth grade, junior varsity, and varsity. It was a big game for all three teams. It was the last game of the season, if they won they went to the playoffs, if not they didn’t. I didn’t really care, high school football was overrated. When we got to the game I found Ivy and we all sat at the top of the bleachers, leaning against the wire fence overlooking the unused parking lot behind the bleachers. We sat and talked, waiting for the game to start. When kickoff was about ten minuets away Cody walked up with his arm around Maliea Garza. She was the hottest, most popular, most athletic girl in our grade and Cody had known her for three days. She made a point of sitting as far away from Ivy as possible. As I watched her and Cody walk to the other side of Austin and Andi; I saw Gloria sitting in the corner down the bleachers, watching us. As the game went on it became more and more uncomfortable to be sitting near Cody and Maliea. It seemed as though they had come to the game just to make out. Lucky for Ivy and I they had chosen to sit next to Austin and Andi instead of us. So while they were trying to keep from being rolled over Ivy and I could talk and stuff. Turned out we had a lot in common, we liked the same music, movies, and TV shows. We talked about pretty much everything, not really paying attention to the games. I kept checking to see if Gloria was still watching us. Sometimes she was, but she also looked over her shoulder down at the empty parking lot to. As the night went on I began to forget about Gloria, I was more focused on Ivy than anything else. When the games were over we all decided to stay for a while. We were the only ones there when it happened. At about eleven Ivy and I were laying on the bleachers, my arm around her. Andi and Austin were sitting next to each other talking. And I think somewhere along the line I think Cody and Malieas lips had been stuck together with Super Glue. There was a gun shot, it sounded like it had come from right over the edge, and the sound echoed throughout the stands. Ivy and I looked at each other, then I got up and silently ran to the top, everyone else close behind. It probably wasn’t very smart, but its what we did. When we got to the fence and looked down through it, we saw four people in the outer reaches of a street light. One was on the ground, dark liquid pooling from his or her body. The other was a bald man, on his knees with both hands in the air, pleading inaudibly with his captor. There was small figure, all in black, standing to the side with his or her back to us, arms crossed, watching. The last person was a tall man with pale skin and wild black hair, he was pointing the gun at the bald man. “Please!” the bald man yelled, breaking the silence. The man with the gun said something, then shot the guy between the eyes. He walked forward and lifted the mans arm up, put the gun there, and rose up turning in our direction. “At least he’s cute,” Ivy commented after the two remaining people exchanged words for a minuet. Everyone turned to look at her, but thankfully even Maliea didn’t say anything. We all turned and watched, backing up a little so it wouldn’t be so easy for them to see us. They turned and started walking to the big parking lot, when they passed under a street light the second persons face was illuminated, it was Gloria. We all backed up out of sight, then looked at each other, needing a plan. “Look,” Cody whispered, “Gloria wont kill me, she might even drive some of us back.” “We should have left a while ago,” I muttered. “How do you know Gloria wont kill us?” Maliea asked. “I just know, let me talk to her first.” We walked down the bleachers and around the stands. We watched silently as the man who had killed the others left. Gloria was getting into her car when Cody ran up to her. They argued for a minuet, then she punched his arm and yelled, “Come over here!” we all came out. She looked us over, seeming surprised when she saw my arm around Ivy. “Alright, I’ll take you two,” she said, pointing at Ivy and I, “and you,” she pointed at Andi, “you get in,” she said, shoving Cody into the front seat. “You two gotta pay,” she said smugly. “What for?” Austin shouted. “I think its to get a ride,” Ivy said as we went around to the door. “Because I don’t like you,” Gloria said. “How much?” Maliea asked. “Where do you two live?” “Down the street, across from you!” Austin shouted. “Up in Estero Estates,” Maliea said, trying to sound important. Estero Estates was where all the super rich people lived. It was a gated community with beautiful houses on the beach. Gloria thought for a minuet then pointed at Austin, “Twenty bucks or walk,” then she looked at Maliea, “and a hundred for you.” Both started to protest but Gloria said, “Or you could walk,” they stopped and handed in there money, both squeezing into the back. She went to drop Maliea off first, when we got to her place, Gloria stopped and turned to face us, “If any of you rat us out, I will kill you. Understood? You cannot prove anything, there is no proof.” “Got it, can I go now?” Maliea asked, again trying to sound more important than she was. “Have fun in your castle, Princess.” “Text me,” she whispered to Cody as she got out, he nodded. “Where do you live?” Gloria asked, pointing to Ivy, who gave directions to a street with regular sized houses. When we stopped in front of her house, she turned to me and I felt her soft lips on mine. After I didn’t know how long, we came apart; she smiled at me “I had fun” then she got out and bounced up to her house. After a minuet Austin said, “Yeah, it was fun until we saw a guy get his head blown off, that kinda killed the whole thing.” “What’d ya kill ‘em for, Gloria?” Andi asked. “I didn’t kill them.” “Why did you let them die?” She pulled up in front of our building, “Get out,” we did and she pulled away. We climbed the fire escape in silence for a while, then I said, “That was probably the craziest night of my life,” the others nodded. I crawled through my window and lay down but couldn’t sleep. Now I really had a lot to think about. Ivy, Gloria, the man Gloria had been with, and why he had killed the other two people. I did not know how many people really had died until the next day. |
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| iamsam | Jul 22 2009, 11:43 PM Post #6 |
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Gloria Ch. 6 Nightmare on Oak Street “Gloria get up!” Cody yelled, pounding on the door, I got up, locked the door, and fell back onto my bed. I’d been up late over at Luke’s planning exactly what we were going to do tonight. Ten minuets later I heard Dad yelling and trying to open the door, I looked out my window and saw the bus drive up. “Shit!” “Unlock this damn door!” Dad yelled. I grabbed my stuff and jumped out the window. I took the fire escape down two at a time, then jumped over the rail on the last landing, sliding off the side of a dumpster. I caught the bus as it was pulling away, and almost broke the glass because I was hitting it so hard to get the driver to stop. When he finally did and let me on, he yelled at me for a while then made me sit next to Mike. After a few minuets he asked me, “How did Cody get you to do this?” I knew what he meant, Cody had come to me yesterday and told about this scheme. I had to fight the strongest guy in the school and if I won we would make a whole bunch of money and split it. I was against it until he said we’d get a whole bunch of money. “He can be convincing.” “You’re probably going to have to fight the strongest guy in the school, how are you going to win?” Why did he care? “Why do you care?” “Well I have to know who I’m gonna put money on,” he said, joking, I laughed, he was smart. “Trust me, I’ll win,” I said, knowing I would no matter who I fought. I was sure tonight’s plan would work so I started thinking about how to get back at Caroline and Morgan. I came up with a good plan, but I had to be patient. The bus got to the school and I went in. I didn’t even get to my seat when two guys came up to me. Both were pale and wearing all black. One had spiky blonde hair and the others was long and red. “You sell knives?” the first one asked. “Yeah, sure,” I said, “follow me.” I’d found it easier to just keep everything in my locker instead of carrying it around all the time. We got there and I dug around until I found the knives. There weren’t a whole bunch, but the blonde kid bought one I stole for one-hundred bucks. It was worth twenty. The red head bought fifty bucks of pot, then they asked for a job. “Not hiring, come back next week,” I said, then I left. The day seemed to tick by very slowly after that. Nothing happened in my first two classes, then I got to history. I’d been able to blow off working yesterday, but I doubted it would work today. I guess the due date was getting close because Scott was making us work more that usual. We were supposed to write a paper, and make a product on something from the American Civil War. We were doing weapons, and had to make a photo album, plus write a paper on them. “You three get on writing the paper, I’ll make the photo thing,” Scott announced after a few minuets. “Why are you deciding who does what?” I asked. He sighed, then looked at me, “Nobody had a problem with it until you showed up.” “Do you two really want Scott telling you what to do all the time?” Joey timidly shook his head; Jason successfully shot a ball of paper into the trash can. “Do you wanna vote then?” Scott asked angrily. “Sure,” I said shrugging, Joey nodded, Jason missed the trash can and hit Parker who didn’t seem to notice. “Fine,” Scott said, sounding like a toddler who didn’t get his Happy Meal. I even helped with all that, just to make Scott mad. Joey got to do make the photo album. The rest of us were supposed to work on the paper. I really don’t care about school and am too lazy to work, Jason was to busy playing basket ball to do anything, and Scott was to angry to do anything, so we did nothing throughout class. The rest of the day dragged even slower than it had been going, especially because I was getting nervous about tonight. By the time I was on the bus next to Mike on the way home I was having serious second thoughts. What if the cops show? What if someone sees us and rats us out? What if those guys put up more of a fight and kill us? All these questions and more were racing through my mind every second. When we got back I raced up to my room and got as much money as I could, total I had about a thousand. I dumped all the stuff out of my back pack and replaced it with the money. From there I got out and walked to the closest used car dealer. I knew the guy who owned the place, Rafe Fernández, and he overcharged for everything. The cheapest car was seven-hundred bucks! I knew places where I could get one for half that, but I couldn’t get there in time and those cars would break down in less that a year. That was the good thing about Rafe’s, he knew how to fix cars and keep them from breaking down quickly. “Gloria! Watcha doin’ here?” he called when he saw me. “Need a car, man!” I hollered back. He came over to me, “What kind you lookin’ for?” “Cheapest you got,” I shrugged. “Dis way,” he said, I followed him over to a corner of his lot with a bunch of crappy cars. “Cheapest one, for you, six-hundred,” he was pointing at a car so old and rusty I couldn’t tell if it was a car. “I’m not buying ‘Christine’,” I said, he laughed. “Best you can get for the price,” he said, leading me over to another car with minimal rust. I looked it over, then asked, “How long will it last?” “About three years.” “How much?” “For you,” he stopped and thought, “seven-hundred.” He gave me the keys and I paid him, after he counted the money he let me go. I screeched off in my first car, it looked like a piece of shit but it was a car and that’s all I needed. That and a better fake driver’s license. I pulled into the stadium just after the first rush of people. After I parked I climbed the fence behind the players’ bench. Nobody noticed me so I crossed the field and went up to the top of the stands to sit in the back corner. Luke had found out when and where the dealers came; the back after all the games were over. From where I sat I could see the back lot where they were supposed to come. While I sat there, still nervous I looked over and saw Mike, Andi, Cody, Austin, Maliea and Ivy. I didn’t know much about those last three but I knew enough. Austin was “perfect in every way” he played tennis and baseball, and made straight A’s in all “gifted classes” so of course teachers loved him. Maliea was the same as Austin. She was the most athletic girl in the ninth grade and was also very smart, pretty, and popular. She looked down on anyone she didn’t approve of like she was a queen. Then there was Ivy, I’d heard she was different so she was picked on by people like Maliea. She had few friends, Andi and Mike seemed to be the only ones that would talk to her right now. As the games wore on I grew more, and more anxious. Paranoia began to seep into my brain, and I was constantly looking over my shoulder. At the beginning of the fourth quarter of the last game I saw a large black van drive up and park at the curb closest to the stadium. Nobody got out but even as I watched two guys walked up to the car, the window rolled down and they talked for a few minuets. Then the guy in the car handed them a bag in exchange for a handful of money. I called Luke and told him they were there. He said we should stick to the plan and weight until they were about to leave before doing anything. I sat through the last quarter, which seemed to take longer than the other two games combined. When it was finally over I ran down to Luke’s car. Together we walked under the stands where I had been sitting and hid in the shadows. After waiting what seemed like hours he muttered, “Now,” then got up and walked over to the car. He yanked open the back doors and jumped in, I watched from behind. There were two guys in the car, one was in the back where Luke had jumped in, the other was in the driver seat. The one in the back pulled out a gun. Luke grabbed his wrist and forced it away, slamming the guys’ wrist into the side so he dropped it. Then Luke punched his nose, blood spurted everywhere and his head slammed into the medal wall of the van. Luke threw him out and he sprawled onto the concrete, not moving. I dragged the half conscious man by his collar ten feet away. When I turned around Luke was dragging the other man out of the car with one arm and struggling to get his gun out with the other. When he finally got the gun free he shoved the second man next to the first one who was struggling to get to his feet. Luke raised the gun and fired at the first man. The bullet slammed into his chest, he looked down at the blood spreading across his shirt, then fell forward. Luke turned to the second man, “Goodbye,” he said, lips curling into a smile. “Please!” the man yelled out just before Luke shot him between the eyes. Then he walked over to the body and lifted the cold dead hand, opened it, and placed the gun there to make it look like a murder suicide. He turned to me, smiling, “There we go,” he said sounding like he’d just taken out the trash. Just after he said that I thought I heard something above, but I didn’t check. “There we go,” I repeated softly, then added louder, “we better get out of here.” He nodded then rushed passed me, I turned around and without moving my head, looked up. I saw the same six that had been sitting next to me during the game. Why were they still here? I went into the front parking lot, on the way to my car Cody came up to me. “Can you drive us home?” “No,” I laughed. “Why not?” he yelled. “’Cause I don’t like them,” I shrugged. “Come on, Gloria!” “Fine,” I muttered, then I punched his arm and yelled, “Come over here!” they all came out, and I looked them over, I was surprised when I saw Mikes arm around Ivy because I had thought he had been a snob, I’d have to watch him closer. “Alright, I’ll take you two,” I said, pointing at Ivy and Mike, “and you,” I pointed at Andi, I was those three come because they were fellow outsiders, “you get in,” I said, shoving Cody into the front seat. “You two gotta pay,” I said smugly. Why? Because I didn’t like them and I don’t need a better reason “What for?” Austin shouted. “I think its to get a ride,” Ivy said as they went around to the door. “Because I don’t like you,” I said. “How much?” Maliea asked. “Where do you two live?” “Down the street, across from you!” Austin shouted. “Up in Estero Estates,” Maliea said, trying to sound important, for that I should just leave her. Estero Estates was where all the super rich people lived. It was gated and had beautiful houses on the beach. I should burn them. I thought for a minuet then pointed at Austin, “Twenty bucks or walk,” then she looked at Maliea, “and a hundred for you.” Both started to pitch a fit about how much that was but when I said, “Or you could walk.” They stopped and handed in there money, when Maliea came up to me she muttered, “I can turn you in any time,” then she went after Austin, both squeezing into the back. I went to drop Maliea off first because she was the farthest away, when I got to her place, I stopped and turned to face us, “If any of you rat us out, I will kill you. Understood? You cannot prove anything, there is no proof,” there wasn’t, they could tell but we wouldn’t go to prison based on what five kids said, Cody wouldn’t tell. “Got it, can I go now?” Maliea asked, again trying to sound more important than she was. “Have fun in your castle, Princess.” “Text me,” she whispered to Cody as she got out, he nodded, bleh. “Where do you live?” I asked, pointing to Ivy, who gave directions to a street with regular sized houses, thank God. When I stopped in front of her house, she turned to Mike and I almost threw up. After I didn’t know how long, they finally came apart; she smiled at him “I had fun” then she got out and bounced up to her house. Ok she was a little weird, but she was still better that Maliea. After a minuet Austin said, “Yeah, it was fun until we saw a guy get his head blown off, that kinda killed the whole thing.” “What’d ya kill ‘em for, Gloria?” Andi asked. “I didn’t kill them,” well I didn't “Why did you let them die?” I pulled up in front of there building, “Get out,” I said. Cody and I didn’t say anything all the way up. When we got to our place I felt something smash against the side of my head. I tumbled to the ground, my head throbbing. When I tried to get up Dad grabbed my arm and swung me around, sending me crashing back to the floor. I rolled over backing up from him, gasping for air. “Where the hell have you been!” he yelled at me, slowly advancing. “I-it was my fault! I made her stay because I was with my girlfriend.” “Its… your… job… to… get… him… back… on… time!” he was screaming, kicking me with every word. Finally I scrambled onto my feet and locked myself in my room. I lay wide awake feeling unimaginable pain every time my heart beat. Worse, I saw the bodies of the men Luke shot every time I closed my eyes, they were especially pale when in contrast with the dark liquid pooling around them. |
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| Esaul | Jul 22 2009, 11:44 PM Post #7 |
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Administrator
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Before I read this, I would like to know if you want to point out mistakes that you've made, or just tell you in general what you need to improve on? |
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| iamsam | Jul 22 2009, 11:51 PM Post #8 |
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In general what I should improve on. |
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| Esaul | Jul 22 2009, 11:53 PM Post #9 |
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Okay, sounds good. I will read it now ^_^ |
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| iamsam | Jul 23 2009, 12:57 AM Post #10 |
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that bad??? lol |
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| Esaul | Jul 23 2009, 01:09 AM Post #11 |
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Administrator
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Lol no, it's not that bad. I got distracted by watching Bedtime Stories. In the beginning there were quite a few mistakes. Right now I'm at the part where the wallets are being returned. |
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| iamsam | Jul 23 2009, 01:14 AM Post #12 |
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ohhhh... haha i like that movie |
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| iamsam | Jul 23 2009, 09:34 PM Post #13 |
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this is just a rough draft FYI. |
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| Esaul | Jul 24 2009, 03:40 AM Post #14 |
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Administrator
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I will finish reading it later, and as a fyi, please don't double post. Thank you
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| la-vida-loca | Jul 24 2009, 01:34 PM Post #15 |
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Sometimes I think I was born backwards...
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^ he's kinda anal about that. ![]() i read it, though i'll admit i only got the 4th or so part. what i read was pretty good, though. a few mistakes, as Esaul said, but still good. ^_^ |
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