School Hard
By: Erin (Kate)
Roger
"And then- oh- once in a while,
I make a break out.
Always under fire,
But I never mind the end.
Every time around, you don't make a sound.
Every time around, is a chance to love you.
Dreaming far away, every time around.
Say it's only love, God, it's-"
Suddenly, an ear piercing screech echoes from my bedroom and I jump a foot. A horrible chord emits from my guitar and I cringe. That can't be good for it.
I take the guitar out of my lap and set it on the table next to me. What is Mimi doing in my room? I thought she was just going in there to get the pictures of us so she could make that collage she wanted. Maybe she got hurt?
Shaken by that thought, I get up to check on her, but am immediately interrupted by a Mimi darting past me. She's clutching something that looks like a shiny white square of paper and laughing hysterically. "Mark! Marky! Mark Cohen, get your ass out here and look at this!" What does she have?
Mark comes out of his room, rubbing his head and still holding onto his camera. "What's that, Mimi?" He sets the camera down on the "coffee table" and looks at the thing in Mimi's hand.
Now he's laughing too!
"Guys? Tell me what you have! Mimi, baby, please!"
Mimi just laughs more and runs over to the kitchen table where the phone is. She quickly dials and someone picks up before I get over there. "Maureen? Guess what I have? No, you have to come here to-"
I grab my tiny Latina girlfriend around the waist and tug her away from the phone. It doesn't really help much, because Mark grabs the phone instead and finishes up the conversation. He starts to call someone else, but I can't focus on that right now.
"Mimi! Don't be mean, show me what you have!"
"Nuh uh!" Mimi giggles and starts running around the apartment. I chase her for about 10 minutes, until she jumps on the couch and starts bouncing up and down. "You can't get it! Look at you, Mr. Davis! Can't run as fast as you thought you could, huh? Guess you're getting out of shape!"
I growl and grab her around the waist again. I hold her tighter this time so she can't get away. Mimi, of course, tries to compensate for this by holding it over her head where I "can't reach". Unfortunately, this isn't over my head, so I snatch it out of her hand.
"Oh God, Mimi! This is my grade 10 school picture!" I look at it in disgust. "Mimers, where did you get this?"
She shrugs and sits down on the couch, pulling me with her. "When I was looking for the pictures of us. I guess I looked in the wrong photo album."
"And you just had to take my grade 10 picture and go running around with it?"
"I thought it was cute!"
"I had braces!"
"You had braces?" I turn around and groan to find Maureen and Joanne standing there. Maureen seems quite amused by this thought.
"Ugh! Mimi, I hate you... Why'd you call them?" I groan again and bury my face into Mimi's hair as I feel people settle in the room around me.
I finally look up. This is not good. Mimi, Mark, Maureen, Joanne, Angel and Collins are all looking at my picture. And laughing.
I don't see what's so funny about a blonde 15-year-old with a bandana tied around his head and a black T-shirt. Oh yes, and the braces. Damnit, should have learned to smile with my mouth closed! "Guuuuys..." I whine, and they finally look up at me.
"Roge-y? Can I ask you something?" Maureen asks me gently. I know something's coming. Maureen never talks all sweet like that. Yep, it's coming, I can see her mouth curving into a smile. "Why are your braces pastel colours!?!" With that, she bursts out into hysterical laughter and I just want to punch her.
You don't hit girls, Roger. "The dental assistant did it." I scowl, stupid Mimi, stealing pictures...
"Suuuure he did," Angel teases. Ahh! Angel! Angel's usually nice! Not like this.
"She did!" I protest, trying not to turn red or let my voice squeak. "She got mad because I always chose black elastics so she chose them! She wanted me to have a 'festive look for the first month of school'. And 'festive' was... that." I motion to the picture in disgust.
"Uh huh..." Maureen doesn't believe me. I can tell. Oooh, I could kill her right now.
"Roger's telling the truth," Mark finally admits. Aha, I knew my best friend would stand up for me. "His dental assistant just made him... have pastel braces for picture day! And now it's all anyone remembers!"
And now they all laugh again.
Ha ha ha. I fail to see the humour in this.
Mimi seems to notice my being a little upset as she gently kisses my cheek. "How long'd you have braces for, baby?"
"Three years... I got them in spring of grade 8 and I got them off grade 11." I sigh and hold Mimi close to me. I'm not mad at her, I just wish she didn't show that to everyone.
"Tell them the other story, Roger!" Mark suddenly blurts out and everyone looks at me.
"Uh... there... uh... is no other story..." I stutter, before Mimi pokes me in the side. Good to know everyone believes me.
"Yes there is!" I press my mouth shut and shake my head. Mark rolls his eyes, then turns to everyone else. "In grade 11, Roger wanted to get his lip pierced. And I told him 'No'."
Laughter galore.
Except from Mimi. She wrinkles up her forehead and traces her finger over my lip, like she's trying to picture it. "How come? I think it woulda been sexy!"
"It would have gotten stuck to his braces, Mimi." More laughter. "And generally girls like it when guy's lips move."
"Ohhh. Well, you can get your lip pierced now, Rog." She smiles and kisses me, before tracing her finger over my lip again. "No more braces."
"My girlfriend owns a piercing shop!" Maureen blurts out. Everyone just turns to stare at her.
"What?" Joanne asks slowly, clenching her jaw. She's mad.
Good.
"Ex!" Maureen manages to squeak out. "Ex, ex, ex, ex, ex!"
I roll my eyes and decide to cut them off before this can turn into a full fight. So I just shake my head, although Mimi's finger doesn't exactly feel *bad*. "Don't want to get my lip pierced anymore!" I was a dumb little teenager.
Well... not *little* exactly...
I grin at that thought, until I realize Maureen's still laughing at me. "I can't believe you had braces, Roge-y! Mr. Big Rockstar, with braces! That's so funny!"
"Shut up, Maureen! Unless you forgot, you were a teenager too! I don't think it's that funny!"
Oops, now they're all staring at me.
"Hey, Rog, I've got an idea. Why don't we all tell a story about us in high school?"
I smile gratefully at Collins. "That's a good idea, I like it. Thanks, man."
I turn to Mark, a sadistic grin on my face. After him calling everyone here, I can't wait to tell a story about him in high school. And I've got the perfect one in mind.
"How 'bout Mark goes next?"
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Author's Note:
Hehehe, this story came from me finding a guy who looked like a Roger on the beach, except he really needed braces. And... well... the whole thing evolved from there, I really like the idea of the characters sharing stories about high school. And, you'll find, it's not really things you'd expect. :)Disclaimer:
The characters are Jonathan Larson's, the high school story is mine! Also, the title is stolen from the title of a Buffy episode (which I am quite obsessed with right now, btw).-----