September
"Psst! Sockhead!"
...
"Hey, Double-D!"
...
"Yo, Einstein!"
"What?!"
"How long since we started high school?"
"Oh, Eddy; not this again!"
"How long?!"
"... Twenty-three days and counting."
"Fuck me."
"I'd rather not."
"Aight, when's the class over then?"
"You have had little over three weeks to memorize the class schedules, Eddy; you should know by now!"
"I've been busy."
"Doing what; nothing?!"
"Exactly, it's really time consuming once you put yourself to the task."
"You are unbelievable, Eddy."
"Eh, you do what you can with what you got. But hey; wanna grab Ed after class and hit up the candy store or something?"
"I am trying to concentrate on the current lecture, on which you really should be taking notes-"
"Ain't you doing it?"
"As soon as this conversation is over, yes."
"Problem solved then!"
"Mr. McGee, you claim to have the solution to our increasing national debt?"
October
Jonny grasped the strap of his backpack a little tighter as a chill rolled over him. Autumn was really starting to make itself noticed, if not by the shifting colors of the leaves then by the increasing drop in temperature that wasn't actually something you would realize had occurred before it was too late. It felt good though; he was finally on the right track.
His high school experience had gotten off to a rough start. Barely five days into the term had he been sitting in the classroom, lazily taking notes on the history of the civil war, when a sense of urgent realization suddenly stabbed him in his left ventricle.
He was alive.
The obvious things like breathing, blinking, thinking, existing were things he had always taken for granted; comparable to how most people lived in the delusion that the country was run by one man and a congress when in reality the numbers on little pieces of cotton paper seemed to be the most dominating force in the modern world.
So just as the history teacher described Lincoln's last outing to Ford's Theatre, Jonny found himself thinking that just like the majority of their country's presidents he too would one day die. It wasn't important what would actually happen after said death but rather the fact that he simply wouldn't be a part of the reality he had come to know so well.
With a panicked shuffle out the door, throwing an excuse of bathroom related proportions the teacher's way, he did indeed scurry into the lavatory; garnering puzzled looks from the few students hanging around the hallway waiting for their next class. Furiously splashing his face with water, he tried to ignore the crawling feeling underneath his skin and stared at the wide-eyed and terrified reflection in the mirror.
He was a sentient creature in a universe where most things weren't. He was lucky to receive this chance but as his breathing sped up to rapid proportions again, he could only see the mistakes he had collected over the years.
Why had he hidden behind the crayon face of a piece of wood the majority of his childhood? Blamed every offensive thought that popped into his head on Plank? Spend more time talking to himself than to the incredible people that had surrounded him for as long as he could remember? Sure, he was on good terms with most of his neighbors but he had never been as close to them as he wished he could have been. Ed, Rolf, Double-D; all potential candidates for a best friend but he instead chose a fictitious character he had invented in a fit of loneliness. Wasted time. So much of it.
Of course, it had been a mere fourteen years since his entrance into this world; with clean and healthy living, he could have at least another sixty years before he had to make his exit. A lot could be done in sixty years.
But what?
Jonny shivered as he wiped his face with a paper towel, angling a shot straight into the trash bin, before exiting the bathroom; a little less panicked but still just as confused.
The second previous to something on the bulletin board catching his attention and answering some of his questions, he thought to himself that it was this sort of philosophical shit they really should be teaching in schools instead of Algebra.
November
"Don't look, Marie, but I think your destiny's approaching." May didn't even bother to look up from her locker at Lee's comment; it wasn't uncommon to see or hear her sisters still making notice of the Eds when they passed them in the hallways every now and then. It wasn't that she didn't still care about Ed in that way, she certainly did, but she decided to make less of a fuss about it having realized that Ed screaming his lungs out at the mere mention of the fifth month of the year wasn't exactly the sort of impression she wanted to leave him with.
"Move it!" She was gracefully shoved to the side by Marie in a rushed attempt to fix her hair in front of the cracked mirror in May's locker.
"Ten seconds ain't gonna do much, try ten years and then we're talking." The blue-haired rewarded the snide remark with an equally snide punch to her sister's stomach.
"Uhm, greetings." The nervousness in Double-D's voice was apparent from the moment he opened his mouth, not to mention the fact that he looked absolutely mortified.
"Hello there, Sugar Plum!" Marie's immediate presence next to the boy was very similar to that of a predator inspecting its prey and only contributed to his bubbling feeling of unease that this might have been a terrible mistake.
"Y-Yes, hello; I came here to-"
"Finally ask me out?"
"Ehm, no; I was actually wondering if I..." He paused and braced himself. "If I could talk to May in private for a moment."
"What?" Marie's face fell immediately, looking between the target of her affections and her confused sister who popped up from scraping some soda off her Chemistry textbook. "The hell you want with her?"
"I believe that would be a matter between me and..." His voice trailed away as Marie's gaze turned disappointed and quite murderous. Lee, who was rather amused by this turn of events, grabbed her by the arm.
"Come on, I think he knows his place well enough not to try something with May." Though Lee's eyes were concealed by her massive amount of hair, the wide discolored grin drove her malicious point across just as easily.
"Yeah, he better..." Grumbling and swearing, Marie was led away from the lockers; leaving the unsettled boy alone with the blonde girl simply staring at him.
"... Hello, May."
"Hi." She had absolutely no idea why this conversation was taking place; it seemed like she was one of the last people in the school that Double-D would have reason to talk to.
"Right, so..." He was still nervous, no doubt, and it wouldn't surprise her if it was because Marie was peering menacingly around a corner or something. "I was having a conversation with Mr. Ridenhour earlier today and... Well, there's no easy way to say this really."
"Okay...?"
"He presented me with a leading position in one of the study groups that are going to occur twice every week, Tuesdays and Thursday, beginning with the next one. I accepted the position."
"Congrats then." Still confused with why she was discussing this with her, she began to absentmindedly chip away old nail polish from her left thumbnail.
"He also presented me with a list of possible candidates for said group and it is with deep regret that I inform you that your name came up."
"What?" Her head whipped up, staring at him in surprise. Yeah, sure; she knew she wasn't the brightest candle in the chandelier but that is was going that bad for her... Mom wasn't gonna be happy about that.
"Now, I know that it must be a rather disheartening topic to hear so early into the term but I plan to make these occasions as supportive and comfortable as possible, since everybody's circumstances for being behind in school work is not necessarily a consequence of a diminished intellect. It wouldn't only be you there, of course; of the more familiar faces making an appearance would be myself, Ed, Rolf, I think Jonny was in danger of needing guidance through Mr. Nathanson's-" Such words as 'supportive' and 'comfortable' might have persuaded most people that this maybe wasn't such a bad thing but there was only one thing in Double-D's rambling description of these study sessions that really caught May's interest. And boy, was it a big one?
"Where on Tuesday?"
December
The seasonal change was once again making its mark upon the Peach Creek community; small flakes of white gently coating the environment in an innocent manner. It was a safe bet that there was no one in all of the lands more excited about this meteorological event than Ed.
Upon awakening that morning and finding that his backyard looked more festive than it had since last year, he had pressed his childish grin hard against the window in an effort to soak up the landscape. After fogging up the glass to the point of zero visibility, he had thrown the window open and carefully prodded the immediate wall of white in gleeful amazement. A second passed before his brain made a connection between his finger being cold and his current state of semi-nudity, quickly hurrying to fetch a sweater his aunt had knitted him for last Christmas and a pair of well worn sweatpants.
With an excitement rarely found in individuals older than eight, Ed threw himself out the window and rolled around in the winter wonderland; laughing to himself as he sculpted mutated snowmen and bombarded them with snowballs in an attempt to recreate scenes from one of his favorite Christmas films of all time; 'Santa Claus vs the Army of the Red Snow'.
Not until Double-D and Eddy found him in the backyard hours later soaking wet but smiling widely nonetheless did he go inside and even then did his thoughts mainly revolve around the magical holiday that was once again upon him.
January
Sarah weighed the doll in her hand, eyed it suspiciously and turned it over.
Many a times over the last few months had she done this, always coming to the conclusion that she was still young enough to keep her rag-tag companion around for a little bit longer. But today, she wasn't too sure anymore.
Only six months before she turned twelve. A year and half until she was officially a teenager. Little over two and a half before she would enroll in the same high school as her brother and his friends. She was growing up and as a soon-to-be-mature-being one couldn't be seen socializing with stuffed animals at pretend tea parties. Not that it was something she and Jimmy still did but nonetheless.
Polly Poo Poo. A ridiculous, childish name for a doll. Her classmates would probably laugh if they found out that it still held a permanent spot in her bed. Wouldn't want that to get out. When she did have her girlfriends over, she would simply swipe the doll down into the crack between the bed and the wall. Once they had left, she would always pick it up with a subconscious apologetic look. Polly Poo Poo.
She knew Jimmy still had his stuffed rabbit, Mr. Yum Yum (another equally ridiculous and childish name), on display in his room. Not in his bed, that she knew of, but slumped over in an armchair next to a decorative pillow. She wondered if he ever thought about putting the rabbit away, move on from the last piece of childhood that remained. Wondered if this was the day she did too.
There was no doll house, no Barbies of inhuman proportions, no plastic tea set; apart from the disgustingly pink walls, essentially nothing could acknowledge that this had been the room of a little girl. Instead there were posters of various boy bands, make up samples and a laptop that rested upon an unassuming desk in the corner. The room of a teenager. No room for dolls here. Perhaps it would be for the better that Polly Poo Poo joined the rest of her childhood artifacts in the family's guest room. Join the rest of her stuffed friends in the box labeled 'FRAGILE'. Probably sit there until it was time for her to move out.
With a sigh, she dropped it back down on the bed, sat down at her desk and logged on to Facebook. It wasn't time to let go just yet.
February
"Come on, Kev!" Nazz's voice was the only thing that could cut through the loud buzz of the adrenaline that plagued his ears and he was always as grateful for it, reminded him that he wasn't just doing this for himself but for her as well. The orange orb left Jonny's hands and collided with his own. He was off.
Swiftly dodging the shooting guard, he faked a right and made his way past the power forward. The ever so familiar sensation of the ball leaving his hand, the silence that deafened the whole gymnasium and finally the buzzer indicating the end of the fourth quarter. The ball hadn't even hit the ground before the crowd exploded in a loud cheer and Kevin was nearly tackled to the ground by the cheerleader.
"Dude, that was like the most radical thing ever; you were on fire!" She began to ferociously plant kisses along his jawline, not caring that half of the school and their mothers were watching.
"All thanks to your cheering, Babe." About to inform her just how sweat drenched he was, the firm hands of his team mates hoisted him up in the air and carried him around the field in a victory lap.
"Two-four-six-eight, Lemon Brooks sucks monkey face!" Grinning widely, Kevin dedicated one final thought to thinking how incredibly awesome life could be once in a full moon. Not only because of the electric atmosphere the stands were generating but because Nazz had rejoined her fellow cheerleaders in an inspiring routine yet never broke eye contact.
March
Marie was in a shit mood. It was a shit month, a shit year, a shit week and a shit faced bastard who couldn't help to be the most adorable human being ever conceived. That and other tiny little shit details that, quite simply, added up to make her life absolute shit.
"Hey, the hell d'you think you're doing up here?!" Lee stalked into the room as a reaction to a rather loud noise which had followed an even louder 'FUCK!'. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a tear stream down her sister's face. She grew frustrated when she saw Marie's fist having disappeared into a wall. She got just plain pissed off when she saw that the fist was still connected to Marie. "The hell is wrong with you?!"
"Everything, apparently!" The blue-haired girl quickly withdrew her clenched hand, scraping away a few layers of skin in the process, and stared at her handiwork furiously.
"Obviously, since you put yer damn fist through the wall!" The older of the two walked over and inspected the property damage, completely ignoring the physical damage Marie had obtained. "Mom ain't gon be-"
"Fuck Mom then!" Lee turned around with raised eyebrows, though not visible through her thick hair, and held up a threatening finger.
"You just watch yourself, Marie."
"Fuck. Mom. Fuck. You. Fuck May. Fuck me, fuck this trailer, fuck school and Peach Creek, everything can JUST FUCK OFF AND DIE!" She didn't even get a chance to throw the punch she had charged up; Lee was there to force her arm into a rather uncomfortable and painful position, saving an innocent wall from Marie's manhandling.
"Aight, that's enough!" With a firm grip around her arm and leg, Lee easily picked up the furiously struggling Marie and carried her out of their shared room where she with minimal force threw her sister down the stairs. "Get the hell outside and sit on the door step!"
"Who the fuck do you think you-" Marie's eyes widened considerably as she threw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding the chair that had forcefully sailed down the stairs in her direction.
"YOUR BIG SISTER; NOW GIT WITH THE GETTING!"
"Aight! Sheesh, can't a girl be depressed and shit without getting fucked up...?"
"AND WATCH THAT DAMN LANGUAGE OF YOURS!" Doing half of what she had been ordered, Marie sat down outside and mumbled a few well descriptive curses. She had no idea why she was there; if anything she felt worse sitting outside, just barely seeing the rooftops of the Cul-de-Sac where the other kids lived. Where he lived.
Gently pressing the bloodied area where she had cut herself numbed her emotional pain the slightest.
Why'd she have to like him? Better yet, why didn't he like her? She knew the answer to both of course.
She liked him because he was basically the perfect person.
She knew he didn't like her because he was that perfect person, therefor everything that her flawed ass wasn't.
"Fucking hell..."
"Hey, what'd I just tell you?" Marie winced in pain as Lee's hand connected with the back of her head, effectively slamming the front of her head into her knees.
"The hell's up your ass today?"
"You're one to talk, Princess." A very snark remark that was making its way out of Marie halted somewhere in the back of her mouth when she saw Lee pick up a cigarette and place it between her lips. Lighting it with what could easily be taken as years of training, she inhaled deeply before throwing the torn pack to Marie. "Swiped 'em from Mom some time ago, she hasn't noticed."
"You ain't never shared a damn thing with me, why start now?" Half-aware of the dangers that smoking brought, at least from watching her mother and grandfather compete in a race where the end goal seemed to be to cough up a lung, she eyed the pack suspiciously.
"Figured it'd calm yer PMSing ass down." She flinched when the lighter hit the side of her head. "And aight, I get it; y'think your life'd instantly be better if you was with him but let me tell you that it ain't. If you exclude him from the whole equation, the parts of yer life that suck ass now's still gonna suck ass when yer with him. Get a damn hold of life before you try to do some dumb stuff." The bush of red turned to gaze out over the trailer park and the blue fringe was left motionless in place, its owner thinking about how everything she had just heard was painstakingly true and that a damned cigarette was just what she needed to heal that wound.
April
The pen tapped against the pad rhythmically, the noise bouncing off the near empty walls and echoing back to its source.
He had absolutely no idea what the music that currently flowed through his headphones defined as, having previously been nothing more than a weak and faint blip on the outskirts of his musical radar, but there was something in it that weirdly enough spoke to him.
The fact that it seemed the exact opposite of the teenage girl idols he and Sarah had swarmed over for the last couple of years; Justin, Timberlake and Bieber, One Direction, Backstreet Boys and that High School Musical phase they had experienced? Perhaps. That the lyrics were so much more inspiring than most of the things previously mentioned? Definitely. That apart from Kevin, who had been blasting the album in his garage one afternoon while tinkering with his bike, nobody in the neighborhood seemed to enjoy their musical genius?
That was it.
For so long had he been nothing more than an extension of his best friend but ever since she had started to mature slowly and develop interests that didn't always correspond with his own, he felt that he needed an identity of his own. Something more than the accident prone crybaby who depended on Sarah to fight his battles and decided what was best for him. Something like this was a perfect beginning.
Pushing his homework to the side indefinitely, he opened up a browser tab on his computer and did a quick Google search. Finding what he was looking for on the first try, he bookmarked the page and resumed his attempt at homework; counting down the time until either of his parents would come home and help him order home the T-shirt he had found. Jimmy'd be damned if he wasn't going to showcase that he too was growing up to be an American Idiot.
May
"Mr. Boccaccio-"
"Corbaccio!"
"Right, sorry; I had Boccaccio in here earlier for whacking Mrs. Mortemore in the face with a salami."
"Ah, yes; the ASS!"
"No, the face."
"Rolf is confused; was it not a salami used?"
"Well, yes."
"Ah, then the ASS!"
"Okay, now I'm confused."
"The ASS; the Appreciative Sausage Slap to show thank you for dedication and hard work!"
"... Wow, I thought he was joking when he said that."
"It is no joke; the ASS is a very integral part of the Old Country's culture, the bigger the wiener-"
"Mr. Cor- Can I just call you Rolf?"
"It is indeed the son of a shepherd's name."
"After hearing about this... Ass-"
"ASS!"
"About this ASS, do I really want to hear an explanation for your behavior earlier today?"
"Rolf has fought bravely and hard for the arrival of this day; when his labor ends with the test of acquired knowledge!"
"What?"
"Rolf's... What you say, behavior was a celebration of his fresh year of school!"
"... Okay, so... You were celebrating the fact that you'd taken your last finals before summer vacation?"
"Yes!"
"So racing around the school hallways without a shirt on the back of a manic pig, wearing a string of garlic around your neck and your entire body slathered in marmalade all while chanting loudly about the coming of a great steak-and-kidney-pie; tearing through the art room, chemistry lab and Mr. Elmqvist's Health class before ending up in the cafeteria where you whooped the entire tray of meatballs into Mr. Nathanson before slapping the principal in the face with a two-feet blood sausage. That's a celebration?"
"With an ASS!"
"... The Appreciative Sausage Slap."
"Indeed!"
"O... Kay. You can... Run along now, Rolf."
"Thank you, Mr. Counselor!"
"Please put away the kielbasa, Rolf."
June
"I would say that was a rather successful school year, wouldn't you agree?" Double-D drew a deep breath, taking in all the different scents of summer that still caused his heart to jump with joy. As long as he didn't sit too close to Ed of course.
"Too damn long for my taste." Eddy threw down a card into the sizable pile situated in the middle of the three boys, grumbling silently to himself. All this school talk did for him was to remind him how short the summer was going to be.
"Still happy I did not fail!" Ed flashed his teeth briefly before sticking out his tongue, squinting hard at his cards.
"So am I, Ed."
"Seriously though, how'd you pull through the study group thing, man?" Double-D had offered him a place in the group as well but Eddy had defiantly said no; there was just no way in hell that he would sacrifice two afternoons a week to study. That was the kind of fun thing you saved for the night before or the last five minutes before class.
"With a little help from my friends!" Ed carefully picked a card and threw it down with an audible and inexplainable 'SLAM'.
"I dare say that the group really came together better than I had hoped when it came to helping each other, Eddy. Ed was even able to help May with her report on Edgar Allan Poe!" The whole project had been such a success that Double-D had been offered to lead an even bigger group come next term, something that he happily agreed to. At the end of the day, they had fun at their meetings and that was all that was important. Well, that and actually learning something.
"What the- May was in the group? How come I wasn't called in to give Lumpy a hug in the middle of the night because he was having nightmares about Kanker lovin'?"
"I could have sworn I mentioned that to you at some point, Eddy."
"I probably wasn't listening."
"That does have a tendency to occur."
"Seriously though, she wasn't trying anything with you?"
"Nevermore!" Double-D smiled at Ed's response, making it evident that his long term plan had experienced some success; Ed had both managed to learn something and seen that May wasn't actually the flesh eating succubus that he had treated her as. Triumphantly, he lowered his cards to the pile.
"Gin."
"... Damn it, I thought we were playing Go Fish."
July
Lee leaned back in the deck chair and sighed satisfactory. The middle of the summer, sun was liquefying everything in its path and there wasn't a worry in the world. At least not in her world for once.
Smirking smugly, she glanced over the edge of her sunglasses at May and Marie who cussed their way through hanging the laundry. In all fairness, she'd asked them if they'd rather make lunch and do the dishes or this; both had agreed that if they did the third task together, they'd be more efficient and could slack off on the couch while she slaved in the kitchen. Showed what they knew.
Inspecting her toes that splashed around lightly in the inflatable pool, she noticed that they were due for another painting. There was all the time in the world for that though, not like she had a man that would actually appreciate her effort.
Because that was probably the biggest change she'd experienced in the last year; the mother-daughter talk that had taken place mid-February. Her mom had asked her the night before to stay behind while May and Marie went to school, then driven her in silence through the town, out on the highway and damn near halfway through the country. All because Mrs. Kanker thought she was old enough to finally meet her father.
She didn't know much about him and what she did know, she didn't like. So it was only inevitable that she would remain there in the car until her mom had described enough parts of their relationship that wasn't gut wrenchingly awful to even make her consider making the visit.
It was a nice spot. That was all she could think about it.
Robert Panello. A date. Another date. That was it. Nothing about alcohol, sloppy breakfasts in bed, abuse through neglect, the last-minute realized and planned anniversaries, how he left, how he loved, how he lived, how he died. Nothing that defined this Rob Panello as a man. A slab of stone; lights out, adios, good night. The only evidence that he had ever walked the Earth was her very existence.
They spent the next three hours walking around the town, trying out different diners and doing an awful lot of talking. Her mom would point out several key locations relevant to her long lost love story, Lee would share her insecurities and fears of the future. What would become of her. Her sisters. If May would finish school, Marie finally get through her streak of depression. A few tears shed but it made no difference; as many things were said as left unsaid because at the end of the day, they knew both. The drive home was the happiest she had seen her mom since May's dad left.
That was the day Lee realized that she didn't really want a man in her life at the moment. Sure, she still wanted Eddy McGee for the sake of him being Eddy McGee but she figured that it'd either pass or something would happen between them though further down the road.
At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to bask in the sunshine, feel the cool water around her feet and listen to her beloved sisters bicker over clothespins. The rest could easily wait.
August
Every joint, every nerve, every muscle in her body burned with a furious pain but still she pressed on. It was the fourth time she had passed the school that morning and the sight of the football field made her aim for a fifth.
She knew she'd slacked off horrendously during the summer; the most active she had been were the lazy afternoons when she'd go to the old swimming hole with the rest of the Cul-de-Sackers. She didn't count the sex she and Kevin had started to have mid-summer, they didn't yet have the experience to make it last long enough to be considered a proper workout.
It was unforgivable. The little voice in her head had screamed at her when she stepped back up on the scale the previous week. Called her things again. Made her relive the pain and humiliation she had experienced the first time around. Fatty. Pig. Oh lard, hide the hot dogs. Nazz with the chubby tubby ass. Her lungs protested against the increase in speed.
No. That version of her was dead. She wouldn't go back to that; not now, not ever. She was too good for that. A van Bartonschmeer. Like her sister before her, she would arise to the position of Head Cheerleader. One day, Prom Queen. There was no other option. If her time was now, she would make everything she could with it. Didn't matter what came afterwards so long as she could at least have a handful of magical moments from the past to fall back on. Until then, there would be a lot of hard work though. Nothing she hadn't passed before.
That was right; if she had done it once, she could damn sure do it again. She would do it again.
The sun started to graze the tree tops. A sixth lap could only do her good.