Author's Note: I wrote this to avoid doing homework…English homework, actually.
Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi. If I did, Marco would become a full-time teacher there.
THE CRAFT STORE
It was a Friday night, and I was at a craft store. While everyone else was at the movies, or a party, or at least at the school's football game, I was stuck in a large, way too bright room that smelled like paint and crayons. Clare had dragged me here because we needed supplies for our English extra credit project. We needed extra credit to make up for the low mark that we received on the last project we did together. We did poorly because we forgot a whole component, and this component just so happened to count for most of our final grade on the assignment. But, in my defense, Miss Dawes never talked about the written paper in class, and it was not too easy to find anything about it on the rubric. I told her that, but she just told us that it taught us a lesson about checking rubrics thoroughly and not depending on the teacher to tell you everything and then she began a long speech about being responsible students or something. But I didn't care about that or my grade because I still had an A in the class. However, unlike me, Clare was an overachiever. And when Miss Dawes mentioned an extra credit opportunity, she jumped at the words and signed us both up in a split-second. We had to create a poster about any writer that inspires us, and we chose Chuck Palahniuk.
"So, we need poster board, rubber cement…" Clare started listing the supplies we needed.
"Rubber cement? Don't people use that to get high?" I interrupted.
"Yeah," she said, flashing me a glare, "but WE will be using it to stick things to the poster."
"It does THAT, too?" I joked, "That's amazing!"
"So…as I was saying, we need that and construction paper and…OH! Those scissors that cut cool edges!"
"Okay. And where do we find all of that stuff?"
"I don't know. I don't go here all that often."
"What? You buy paper for your cranes somewhere else?" I smirked.
"Wanting your cranes to look pretty is not something to be ashamed of!" she protested, but I could tell that she was still blushing, "And I do buy my paper for that here, but only know where they are. The rest of this store is practically a maze."
"Then I guess we'll just have to search for it, then. What section would the poster board be in?"
"I don't know…is there a boards section?"
"I think I see one," I replied, standing on my toes to look over the shelves, "but those are wooden boards, chalk boards, cork boards, and white boards. So I guess they're somewhere else."
"Is there a special section for projects?"
"Yeah…but all the stuff there are writing and drawing utensils."
"Hmmm…could it be considered a type of paper?"
"I don't know. I can't see the paper section from here, so we'll have to walk over to it. Lead the way, since you know where it is."
"Okay." So she navigated the store expertly, weaving her way through dozens of shelves cluttered with all kinds of art materials. The paper section was in the back of the store. We looked down all of the aisles, and finally found the posters in the same aisle as the origami paper.
"I can't believe you never noticed the poster boards in this aisle. They were RIGHT there. Right next to your paper!" I mused.
"I'm not very observant…" she mumbled.
"Oh, really? Miss 'I Would Have Noticed That Part On The Rubric If You Gave It To Me!'?"
"Would you let that go? I was upset. I'm sorry I yelled at you. I probably would have made the same mistake. I'm sorry."
"Meh. I don't really feel the sincerity in your apology."
"Yeah. Because I was being sarcastic."
"Since when have you been so sarcastic?"
"Since you kept using it on me."
"Oh. I see how it is. Using my own weapon against me."
"I was taught by the best."
"Yes you were," I smiled cockily.
"Alright. Let's just grab a poster and go," she sighed, picking out a plain white poster.
"Wait."
"What?"
"I believe a black tri-fold would look more professional."
"You think ANYTHING black is more professional. Besides, I only brought ten dollars, and construction paper only comes in packs of five-hundred here, and that costs a lot."
"I have money. I'll pay for everything."
"NO! This is OUR project, so you can't pay for all of it. Besides, you paid for our dinners at Little Miss Steaks last weekend, so I owe you. I'M paying."
"How about this? We buy whatever we need and don't care about the cost. Then we split the total."
"Fine, but we can't add up to more than twenty dollars, or else that will force you to pay more than half which is unfair."
"Fine. Deal?"
"Deal."
"Good. Now let's get the rest of this shopping done. Because I still wanna go bowling with you after this."
"And who will pay for that?" she raised her eyebrows.
"My treat, IF you stop arguing with me. Now grab that black tri-fold and let's move on." And before she could protest about money, I turned and walked down the aisle. I heard her sigh, frustrated, before following.
When we got to the end of the aisle, I saw a girl coming around the corner and quickly got out of her way. But Clare couldn't see her above the poster and, before I could warn her, bumped right into the girl. Clare dropped the poster in surprise.
"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." And I suddenly recognized her.
"Fiona? What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean, what am I doing here? It's a public place."
"No, he means, what are you buying at a craft store?"
"Well, actually, I need origami paper."
"Really?" Clare asked curiously, "Why?"
"Because, it's actually turned into a great coping technique of mine. If I ever feel like I have to drink, I start making cranes, and it helps take my mind off it. It's actually really relaxing for me."
"Oh. Cool."
"And it's all thanks to your little project that I was reminded of them. So thanks, I guess."
"No problem."
"So how did you guys do on the project?"
"Ummm…" Clare blushed, "That's actually why we're here. We pretty much failed because we forgot to do the writing part, so we have to do an extra credit poster. We're getting supplies right now."
"Cool. Hey, can I shop with you? I want to look around the store, and I sorta need a ride home. The buses are so gross and unreliable."
"Sure. We can drop you off on the way to the bowling alley."
"Great. Can I just get some paper real quick?"
"Go ahead." She ran down the aisle, grabbed the colorful paper, and came back. After that, we found construction paper easily because we were already in the paper section. Next, we had to find those special scissors.
"You realize that you can cut like that with regular scissors, right? I asked.
"But those scissors make it neater."
"Straight lines are neat, too." I mumbled under my breath, but she heard me.
"If we want extra credit, it has to look perfect."
"Neither of us NEEDS extra credit. We both have A's in English!"
"For the elite colleges in the world, just A's are NOT enough."
"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't plan on going to an Ivy League college."
"Then where are you going?"
"I have no idea."
"Eli! You're a junior! You should figure that out soon."
"There are a lot of things I SHOULD do, but that doesn't mean that I'll do them. And where do YOU plan on going?"
"I don't know, but at least I have a pretty good idea."
"Fine. I get it. I'm unprepared and whatever. But look. There are the scissors," I pointed out the shelf to the left of us.
"Gosh. You guys fight like an old married couple," Fiona remarked.
"Do not!" Clare and I bit back in unison.
"Take it easy! It's a sign of love when a couple does that."
"Well, I do have a thing for that one," Clare admitted, mussing up my hair.
"And I can't get enough of this girl, here." I added, pinching her pink cheeks.
"See? What did I tell you?" Fiona questioned.
"We can get the special scissors. It WILL make the project better," I allowed.
"Good. Now let's get the rubber cement and go." Clare urged.
"I hope you're using that to stick things and not getting high off it." I laughed, remembering what I had said earlier.
"We're going to stick things on the poster with it!" Clare almost shouted.
"Alright. Remind me never to joke about drugs around you."
"No…it's just…" Clare tried to apologize.
"A long story," I finished.
"Alright. So where is the cement?" Fiona interrogated.
"Probably in the adhesives section," I guessed.
"Where is that?" We looked to Clare.
"I don't know! I can't even tell where the exit is!"
"Great. We're lost in a freaking craft store and we won't make it to the bowling alley before it closes."
"You don't have to drop me off if you need to save time. I can just take the bus or something."
"Nah...it won't matter." I reassured her, "Let's just backtrack until we get to the paper and take it from there." So we tried doing that, and then we decided to let Clare lead us to the front of the store. And luckily, the rubber cement was on a shelf near the cashier. So we grabbed a bottle and the cashier rang up our purchases.
"Did you guys have any trouble finding anything?" the cashier asked.
"Ummm…no," Clare answered. I chuckled. Clare always tried to be nice, even if she had to lie to do it. But I wasn't like her.
"We couldn't find the posters," I said, "Maybe you should put them with the other types of boards instead of with the paper,"
"Oh! So THAT'S why our poster sales are dropping. No one can find them! I'll tell my boss. Thanks for the feedback."
"And we kind of got lost..." Fiona commented.
"Well, we're going to rearrange the shelves this weekend. We realized that it was confusing customers."
"Great. Thanks," Clare smiled graciously.
"By the way, did you guys hear that old married couple arguing in the back? They must have had some sort of mental disability. They were talking about grades and college,"
"Oh…no. We didn't hear anything," Clare's face was bright red.
"Your total is $18.67," the cashier informed us, pressing buttons on the register. Clare and I split the cost and paid in cash, and Fiona paid for her paper separately. We thanked the cashier before walking away.
"Have a nice night!" the cashier called after us as we began walking out. Once we were out there, we all started laughing
"I told you that you guys sounded like an old married couple!" Fiona giggled.
"That was so embarrassing!" Clare complained.
"Well, it was your fault for yelling at me about college," I commented.
"Hey! Well you…" Clare argued.
"Guys! Not again!"
"Right,"
"Now let's go bowling!" I exclaimed. And we all got into Morty and drove off. Fiona ended up bowling with us, and it was a lot of fun. Fiona and I tied, and Clare trailed by fourteen points, but Clare got a kiss as a consolation prize. Then we all shared some French fries at the café in the building and then went home.
And Clare and I ended up getting enough extra credit to raise her grade to an A+.
Author's Note: I don't know what I'm writing anymore. I have three other awesome ideas, but I have to wait until the weekend to write them because they take a lot of thought. So until then, you're stuck with reading this crap. I actually don't want you to review this. It's not worth it. But I'm posting it anyway.