Disclaimer– I do not own the characters, etc. I am only borrowing them from Janet. This is not for profit, just for kicks.
Sally's Sewing Challenge – PerfectlyPlum, April 2011
Communis Ligamen
By PinPin
Thump. Her lips were pinched together in a desperate effort. Her shoulders were silently shaking.
Thump. Puffs of air escaped through her nose as quick, ragged breaths.
Thump. Thump. One tiny, errant, high-pitched mew sounded in her throat.
Thump. Thump. Stephanie was forced to hide her face in her hands to combat the flood of laughter bubbling up inside her.
The classroom was humming with a rote productivity. Each student sat in front of a heavy, bulky, ancient Merrow, holding a length of fabric in the process of being hemmed, some more skillfully than others. Outside the largest window at the front of the class, Mary Lou's face popped into sight for a split second before disappearing behind a large Nannyberry bush. Stephanie looked down at the wrinkled canvas in her hands and told herself not to look up again. She could see Eddie in her periphery, fighting his own snicker-battle at the desk beside her.
Stephanie checked the wall clock. There were only five minutes until the bell. "Maybe this isn't going to work this time," she whispered to him.
Eddie cut his eyes to the front, double checking that they weren't being watched. "It better work," he whispered back. "I'm not pulling a 'Plan B' with you today."
In the front of the class, Miss Dixon was engrossed in her inspection of a stack of amateurishly patched denim jeans, studying each pair like they were the lost map to El Dorado.
Thump. "What is she deaf?" Stephanie hissed.
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That morning:
Eddie shifted his backpack out of the seat across the aisle and into his lap just as Stephanie flopped down in its place.
"I hate my sister," she immediately pouted without a greeting.
"That's common knowledge at this point."
"Yes, but I have an entirely new reason today."
He rolled his eyes and deadpanned, "That's awful. I wish you'd tell me all about it."
"Shut up," she huffed. "I can't wait until graduation. I'm so sick of Chambersburg."
"Newark isn't exactly glamorous you know."
"It's not Trenton," she insisted as if that was praise enough.
They both looked up as the bus stopped to let more students climb aboard. Mary Lou rushed to them and slid into the seat next to Eddie with an exaggerated breath. There was color in her cheeks and she was winded. "I'm such a moron. I remembered at the last second that I left my Biology paper in the dining room last night and I had to run home to get it in these boots. I almost didn't make it back."
"You're lucky you didn't break your neck," Stephanie laughed at the spiked heels of her friend's suede slouch boots.
Mary Lou admired them thoughtfully for a second. "Lenny likes them," she said with a smile.
Eddie leaned forward to talk around Mary Lou. "Did you finish you're banner, Steph?"
"Not yet, I'll have to do the last part in class today."
"Let me see what you did," he demanded. "Mine is all fucked up. I still can't believe you talked me into taking this class in the first place."
"It was supposed to be easy." Stephanie said, fishing around at the bottom of her bag. "At least your parents aren't expecting you to do well. You know they'd be all over you to ace shop class if you'd taken that." She produced a rolled length of cloth and handed it over to him. "I picked the windmill pattern."
Eddie and Mary Lou unrolled the banner and held it up in front of them. They stared at it for a moment before Eddie asked, "Shit, Steph, what did you do?"
"What?"
"Well, look at it," Mary Lou said. She, of course, had already passed all of the homemaking classes with perfect marks. Now she was pointing out the geometric pattern of the blades on the largest windmill of Stephanie's banner. "This piece was supposed to be over here and this other piece you sewed on in the wrong direction. Now it's a swastika."
"What?" Stephanie said incredulously. "No it's not." She grabbed the banner back and spread it out in her lap. Her eyes grew wide. "Holy crap!"
Eddie chuckled under his breath. "You can't turn in your seasonal project with a big red swastika on it!"
"How did I not notice that?" Stephanie's head was in her hands.
"You have to check the entire thing for mistakes at each stage," Mary Lou explained. "If you only focus on the little bits, you'll screw up the larger effect."
"And unwittingly create Third Reich propaganda," Eddie chortled.
"What am I going to do? I can't fail HomeEc; my mother will disown me!"
"Remember that geography project last year?" Eddie asked. "We'll force a postponement. It's Friday; we'll have the weekend to fix them."
Mary Lou groaned, "I don't like the sound of that."
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Other students in the class had started to notice the disturbance outside the window and were stifling their own laughter at the picture Mary Lou made, winding up her throw like Cy Young in drag and letting fly before ducking back down behind the landscaping.
Thump. Another pine cone hit the window and bounced off the glass with the dull report of a wet tennis ball.
Thump. For ten minutes, Mary Lou had been chucking pine cones at that window. Stephanie could clearly see that Miss Dixon heard it all but was purposefully ignoring it.
Thump. If something didn't happen soon, time would run out and they'd all have to hand in their banners as they left class, Stephanie's still sporting a Nazi emblem and Eddie's looking like it'd been chewed on by a vacuum cleaner.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Mary Lou reappeared around the side of the shrubs. She waved her arms in exasperation, eyes bugged out, hands dirty, lips mouthing the words, 'what the fuck' and 'there is mud on my new boots!' and 'you owe me.' She disappeared again with awkward, crouching steps. Then, like the earth itself was expelling a phytobezoar from the depths of hell, a giant, slimy mass of varied yard waste flew at the window.
THUMP! SPLAT! Twigs snapped. Dirty water splashed in a spectacular show of mud colliding with glass. Wet leaves clung to the window, leaving a filthy trail as gravity slowly pulled at them.
"Enough!" Miss Dixon shouted over the classroom's cacophony. "Stop what you're doing! Everyone!" The motorized roar of thirty sewing machines ground to a halt. "Who is it? Who is responsible?" she demanded, pointing an angry, shaking finger at the window. "Which one of you can explain the reason for this?"
The room held its breath, quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Stephanie tried to will away the flush she felt warming her cheeks. She nervously checked the clock again. Two minutes and counting. Eddie reached over and punched her in the thigh. "Stop it," he mumbled without moving his lips. Stephanie sucked in a breath through clenched teeth and rubbed the furious charley horse Eddie had given her.
"Is there something you would like to share with the class, Mr. Gazarra?"
His denial was quick and short with wide, doe eyes and a shake of his head, the picture of innocence.
A haughty snort from the other side of the room gave Eddie a reprieve while simultaneously condemning Mary Lou. "It's Molnar. She's outside that window." Barbara Jean 'Boom Boom' Biabloki was a bitch. She had more boob then should be allowed to any student in a public high school and used it all to treat the guys around her like they were hired help. Stephanie and Mary Lou hated her for it and Boom Boom hated Eddie because he was among the very few teenage males who were immune to her jiggling.
"Mary Lou Molnar?" Miss Dixon stood from her desk and craned her neck to peer out of the window through the muck still oozing down the glass. "Impossible," she snapped. Then something she saw made her scoff in disbelief, "oh, I don't think so, not today," and bustled out of the classroom, elbows pumping and orthopedic shoes squeaking.
The sound of her steps had just faded down the hall when the bell sounded. Stephanie and Eddie exchanged an elated look and then high-tailed it out of there, incomplete sewing projects in tow.
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Eddie and Stephanie were waiting at the bike racks near the East doors when Mary Lou got out of detention. They plastered on their best 'we're too cute to hate' smiles as she angrily stalked in their direction. "You both owe me big time. We're talking King Kong sized debt here."
"Let me carry your bag for you," Eddie scooped her heavy backpack out of her grasp.
"You never said anything about mud. Do you see this?" she asked, visibly piqued. She gestured at her now mud splashed boots. "You are so buying me a new pair. These were suede!"
"Do you need a signature?" Stephanie asked, accepting the detention slip Mary Lou handed to her. The three of them had learned to forge each other's parents' signatures years before, and Stephanie faked Mr. Molnar's better than the others.
Mary Lou took back the signed form and crossed her arms at them. "You're both finding partners for a group date on Lenny's birthday," she dictated. "You have two weeks."
"Seriously?" Eddie rolled his eyes. He'd broken up with his steady girlfriend earlier that month and was still pining for her.
"My dad says he'll only extend my curfew that night if other people go out with us. That means you two."
"I'll get Shirley to go with you," Stephanie assured him. "She owes me and I know you think she's cute."
Eddie sighed and started to lead the way home. "I should have just told you tough shit and handed in my project the way it was."
"You're too sweet for that, Ed. That's why we love you." They fell into step beside him, each linking an arm on either of his sides.
"Hey, 'Lou," Stephanie said after a minute of congenial silence, "Lenny's friends with Mickey Zale, isn't he?"
(1,685 words)
A/N: This was written in response to a group challenge at Y!PerPlum. Thank you for reading.