A Tale of Two Schools
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. More so the worst though…It was the age of preppies, it was the era of the emos. It was the spring of Juicy sweat pants, in the very winter of Tripp jeans. It was when jocks had more girlfriends than brains, and the brainiacs had the same amount of A's and bruises.
It was when two high schools were situated on the edges of the towns of North Pilsi and South Pilsi. The former of North Pilsi was Dune Road High, and quite the social depression it was in at the time. The misfit population by far outnumbered the Abercrombie aristos. Yet those aristos still ruled for some strange reason. The fermented rage of Dune Road had reached its culmination point…
The latter school of South Pilsi was a high school whose social balance was, well, not perfect but amazing when compared to Dune Road's situation. Life Street High's Hollister nobles were kept in check by a diverse student council and population. There was a journalist as President, a musician as V.P, the soccer star as Historian, and the mathematical genius as both the Secretary and Treasurer.
This Secretary/Treasurer of a mathlete is the first person whom we will associate ourselves with in this story. His name was James Lorry, or as he was more commonly known as then, Jimmy Lorry.
The farthest back point in time that we feel necessary to divulge to you would start us off on a misty June night, particularly the last day of school for both North and South Pilsi's student inhabitants. Jimmy's older brother was driving him to a rendezvous with the beautiful Lucille Manette. Suddenly the old used car gave a splutter and rolled to halt. Jimmy's older brother, Tim, cursed, "Damn, piece of crap!"
Whacking the dashboard with his palms, Tim turned to Jimmy, who was fiddling with his thumbs in the passenger seat. He said, "Well your toothpick arms pushing might not help but we can try…"
"What?!" Jimmy protested, looking pathetically at his scrawny limbs. Tim just flexed a bicep, nearly tearing the seams of his T-shirt. Jimmy gulped and groped for the handle saying, "I'll try…"
Once outside, Jimmy griped the back end of the rusty old car and pushed with every little fiber of muscle in his arms, resulting in…. what we can round up to one inch of success.
"Push egghead, or I'm shipping you in a box to military school before you can see sophomore year!" Tim threatened, beating the car horn for emphasis.
"Hey, Lorry!" Someone started calling from down the street. Jimmy turned around in time to see a tall, African-American boy sprinting full speed his way.
"Whoa, Jerry!" Jimmy braced himself for impact. All he heard was the screeching skid of rubber soles on asphalt. He looked up. Jerry smirked down at him.
"Thought I was gonna end ya didn't ya?" He laughed, patting Jimmy on the back.
"Just a little." Jimmy smiled, shakily. "What's all the rush?"
Jerry leaned in towards Jimmy and said in a low voice, "Everyone wants to know. Is Alex Manette really comin' back to South Pilsi?"
Jimmy answered ambiguously. "Tell them that he is…recalled to Life."
"Recalled to Life…Yeah all those R.P. idiots'll understand that one." Jerry said, sarcastically. Slapping the car he called, "Bye, Tim!" Tim beeped the car horn. Turning back to Jimmy, Jerry said, "And tell Lucille I said…Y'know what, never mind."
"How 'bout 'Hi'?"
"Sure, that's good." Jerry turned and started sprinting back. Just as he turned the street corner, another figure was coming towards Jimmy from the same direction. Jerry slowed down and turned his head to look at her. Yes, her…Lucille Manette.
"Jimmy! Over here!" She called. Jimmy's palms suddenly got very sweaty and his heart pounded faster.
"Lucille."
Jimmy couldn't believe he was walking next to the beautiful Lucille Manette. Most of her friends called her 'Lucie' but 'Lucille' sounded better to Jimmy. Lucille put her hand on Jimmy's forearm, causing him to blush bright red. Her other hand was twirling a lock of sunny blonde hair around a pink-painted fingernail.
"What's the news of my brother?" She asked anxiously. "Why are you taking me to Dune Road all the way in North Pilsi?"
Jimmy drew a deep breath, let it out unevenly, and faced Lucille. He said, "We're going to bring your brother back to Life Street. There's been and there will be trouble in Dune, I know. Your brother, Alex, well…All will be revealed."
Lucille turned pale and looked faint. Jimmy began to panic. "Lucille, are you alright?" But Lucille was distracted by the headlights of an oncoming car, which was slowing down as it got closer to Lucille and Jimmy.
"Lucie?" called the driver, leaning out of her window. "That you?"
"Oh, Amy! Hi!" Lucie said, abandoning Jimmy to go over to her friend. Then she beckoned Jimmy to come over too. He did so without thinking. "Jimmy this is my friend, Amy Pross. Amy this is Jimmy."
"Jimmy." said Amy, acknowledging him with a look-over and a nod. Jimmy awkwardly followed suit. Amy turned her attention back to Lucille. "What are you doing walking? C'mon, I'll drive you where you're going."
"Dune Road High, in-" Lucille started.
"North Pilsi. I know that place; my cousin goes there." Amy smiled, clicking open the car doors.
"Because he was expelled here." Jimmy muttered under his breath, sitting in the back seat, behind Lucille in the passenger seat. Amy stopped fixing her carrot-orange hair in the driver's mirror and looked back at Jimmy.
"What was that?" She asked, smartly.
"Oh, nothing." Jimmy smiled. Lucille concealed one of her high laughs as a cough, inconspicuously.
"Anyways…"And the two girls immediately started chatting. Jimmy's mind began to drift away, once the girls moved on from summer celebrations to talking about Char Darnais, the rumored new student who was supposed to be the hottest thing to grace the North Pilsian student auditorium with his voice. Once that conversation started, Jimmy began to drift.
I hope he's ready to come back to Life. He's ready…I can hardly remember why he even left Life for Dune. Of course, that was before the balancing of the status quo. He'll love the new Life Street. He'll be a senior in September, already. I hope he remembers me. He was my only friend in my first year, 7thgrade, at Life. He was just a freshman then. God, what could've have happened that was so bad at Dune, that made Ricky Defarge send me that SOS?
"Do you guys want me to come in with you? I know how this Dune Road crowd is." Amy said, when they pulled into the Dune Road parking lot. Lucille shook her head.
"No, thanks Amy. We'll be fine." She said, getting out. Jimmy got out as well and led the way to the side entrance of the gym. The gym was completely silent, except for the loud malicious laughter of a group of boys quickly dying away down the hall. This sound didn't give Jimmy nor Lucille a good feeling.
Once the laughter had died away, two different steps began drawing near. Both were light and flighty, like the steps of refugees, fleeing from darker forces. Lucille seemed to tense up a bit as they drew closer. Soon, there was a short and lanky boy, about 15, with thick brown hair that covered all of his forehead, walking towards Jimmy and Lucille from the other end of the gym. He was hand in hand with a tall and lanky girl, also about 15, with long black hair that ended at the small of her back in spikes. She held her head high, walking like a woman proud to be condemned. He, however, dragged her along, anxious and just wanting to get wherever he was headed. This forced her too go a little faster than she probably would have liked, and made her a little flustered when they stopped at Jimmy and Lucille.
"You must be Ricky Defarge and Theresa Grafer." Jimmy said, being the diplomat and holding out his hand. Ricky and Theresa kept holding onto each other's hands. Theresa stared at both of them distrustfully. Ricky spoke first, in a voice which sounded like it was trying to be low and intimidating.
"Jimmy Lorry and Lucille Manette…follow us. But be forewarned; he has greatly changed." Ricky and Theresa, moving without disconnecting their hold on each other, began towards the boys' locker room. Lucille hesitated at first but followed when she saw Jimmy going. The boys' locker room smelled of moist towels and mold. Tiles were peeling off the walls, and lockers were decorated with obscenities. Lucille lifted her Uggs daintily to avoid the mixed dirt and water on the floor. Theresa was not looking back at her, but she saw Lucille out of her peripheral vision, and glared straight ahead.
They kept walking beyond rows of graffiti stained lockers until they reached the last row. Behind that last row, was a guy, probably 17, lying on the floor. He had shaggy blond hair, that was tossed every which way, and blood bespattered not just the source his jaw, but it had spread everywhere. His jeans, his white shirt, and his hair were all sprinkled with the cause of the laughing guys' guffaws.
It was Alex Manette, in all his glory. Lucille gulped, and repressed a little cry of horror. Even if this hadn't been her brother lying there, her heart was good. It wouldn't have mattered.
Ricky (and from now on until said otherwise, whenever "Ricky" or "Theresa" is used, it should be noted that since they refuse to let go of each other, that we mean both "Ricky and Theresa" so…) stepped forward first, and just Ricky said, "Alex…Jimmy is here, with your sister." Alex didn't stir. He continued to stare straight ahead, uncomprehending. "Don't you want to see them? Go back to Life Street and leave this hell?" Alex looked up, then back down.
"Stubborn masochist!" Theresa yelled. Lucille flinched as it echoed throughout the locker room. "Forget your pride and leave. Things will change at Dune but you, you must leave…now."
Alex turned his face upward, towards Lucille, and gave her the bittersweet expression and smile of a martyr. Lucille kneeled down and took her brother's hands.
"Will you let me help you?" She whispered, lightly. Alex nodded, almost unnoticeably; just a quick jerk of the head. Lucille put a hand on his back and another on his shoulder. She lifted him up about halfway and the rest of the way Alex pushed up with his hands on the floor. He slipped a little, because of his the wetness of the floor, but together they both got up.
Once Alex was standing up, Jimmy immediately noticed differences in his friend Manette. Since he left in 9th grade, his blue eyes now came with a purple outline. His nose was slightly crooked, due to many blows to it. His cheeks that used to be so full and rosy, were now hollow and drained of all color. To Jimmy though, the most noticeable change in Alex was that he had lost his slouch. He now stood tall and proud, with a straight vertebra. Jimmy was in complete awe. Now, Alex stood almost as tall as Theresa.
Alex went over to Ricky, and slapped him brotherly on the back.
"Thanks man."
"Anytime." Ricky said, looking out and up from where he stood. Theresa began looking around warily.
"You should all hurry. Most of them are gone now, but there are spies everywhere. Not many can be trusted." She said.
"How do you know who to trust then?" Lucille asked, curiously. Theresa looked at her, almost repugnant.
"I have a way of record-keeping." She replied curtly.
"Of course." Jimmy said, hurriedly. As a future mathematician, along with aiding and abetting fugitive Alex Manette in the unsafe confines of Dune and North Pilsi, he had a good reason to worry about an unsmooth getaway. "I suppose Theresa is right. We should be going. Alex, we have Amy Pross waiting for us outside."
"Great." said Alex, almost blindly. Looking to Lucille, he asked, "Lucille?"
"Yes." She nodded. She seemed a bit jumpy though, in the close confines of the locker room and with Theresa's hard glare on her. "Why don't we go now? I don't want Amy to be waiting for too long."
"Right." Alex said lightly. He nodded to Ricky and Theresa one last time, saying so gratefully, "Thank you both for so much. I only wish I could help."
Jimmy, leading the way, (for he was not safe outside the confines of Life or South Pilsi) nearly ran out of the locker room once acceptable to leave. Alex and Lucille followed, he in awe of her. Once they were gone, Ricky and Theresa turned to each other.
"He wishes?!" She whispered incredously. "He will!"
"One day." Ricky said. Gently putting his hands on her neck, levering himself up to her level. They kissed for a second and simultaneously said:
"One day..."