FRIDAY MORNING
"That's right this man is very dangerous and unstable. We ask all viewers to call the police with any information of his whereabouts to 1-800-PLD-STOP immediately." The red-haired female newscast lady says.
"And remember that this man is wanted in three countries with charges murder, treason and theft. He is regarded as extremely violent and was last seen in the Greensboro and Winston-Salem area. We advice all residents in the Triad to watch out for this man."
The good-natured anchor says.
17-year-old Chris Halliwel flips the channel to MTV and watches the remaining of the top twenty countdown. He mocks the newscasters.
"Somebody's been messing with my favorites list." He says slightly annoyed by the inconvenience, he packs his book bag and walks out the room leaving the TV -as always- on.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON
Brooke Davis hands out permission slips to the small 20-person after school outdoors club. Some kids take the green sheet of recycled paper and read it eagerly and some diminish it to a wrinkled ball just as soon as it touches their palm.
"Remember my buckaroos, you've got to have these signed by next Wednesday at latest if you want to go to Hightrails with the group." Mr. Whitaker announces in a fake cowboy accent.
An overweight nervous-looking kid raises his hand and asks, "Would it be a problem if I go sir? I mean with my asthma and all."
Mr. Whitaker shakes his head "Not at all Sebastian, just make sure you bring your medication with at least two extras and give me or my wife a full asthma 411 before Wednesday."
Mr. Whitaker cracks his knuckles, "Now, y'all know I'm real nervous 'bout this trip so don't y'all go playing jokes on me once we're up there or I ain't taking nobody up there no more. Do I make myself clear?"
The entire class room nods vigorously, but Mr. Whitaker isn't satisfied.
"It'd be mighty nice if I could get that aloud." He says in his well-known deep southern accent.
"Yes Mr. Whitaker,"
"Alrighty then, you are all dismissed and have a wonderful weekend."
The classroom empties almost immediately as students rush out to get home or to a friend's house. Mr. Whitaker slams his wide forehead with an open palm, "Darn it!" he utters picking up one of the left over permission slips and running out the door.
"Just a dingly second! Anyone here have class with Courtney Wright?" he yells out to the remaining of his outdoors club. He has just remembered that Courtney didn't yet have a permission slip and he'd be out most of next week arranging things for them to go to the mountain over the long weekend.
"I have fifth period with her," Chris answers and motions to a small group of students standing around him, "we all do, you know that, you teach that class." "Right you are," Mr. Whitaker says out of breath, "I need one of y'all to please do me the favor to give her this." he says waving a green recycled sheet.
"I'll get it to her," Chris offers. He takes the green sheet in his hand and then asks, "but what does she need this for? She isnt in the club."
"I know she's ain't, could you just go ahead and do it anyways? She'll know what's about."
"Sure Mr. W." Chris answers putting the permission slip away.
"Thanks!" Mr. Whitaker yells as Chris and his friends walk away. Chris waves his arm to acknowledge Mr. Whitaker and keeps walking.
"So you're actually gonna interact with the queen bitch." Brooke comments as they walk out of the parking lot.
Chris thinks for a second, "Shit! I hadn't realized that till now."
Brooke laughs, "Not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?"
Chris curses again, everybody with half a brain knows Courtney as the most bad-tempered person ever. Her anger elevates sky high and her attitude gets her in trouble every two seconds.
Chris shakes his head and regrets not having ran out of the school as soon as they were released. Still, it was a favor to Mr. Whitaker. And how could he say no to him? Mr. Whitaker was the definition of nice with a disguise of brown cowboy boots and a warm southern accent. Everybody loved his Poetry in Perspective class.
"Anybody need a ride?" Tom asks opening the door to his dad's minivan.
"Of course we do, you don't expect us to actually walk, do you?" Brooke answers getting in.
"A little exercise wouldn't hurt." Tom says starting the engine and directing his comment to Sebastian.
"What are you trying to say?" Sebastian says ready to fight.
"Just what you heard fatty." Tom answers coldly turning the car out the parking lot toward the exit.
"That's it lemme out of this damn car!" Sebastian screams and begins to breathe uneasily.
"What's your goddamn problem Tom?" Brooke shouts patting Sebastian's back, "Breathe," she instructs Sebastian who's already sucking at his medicine tube.
"I want out!" Sebastian demands between ragged breaths. He pushes Brooke away and reaches for the door.
"Stop Sebastian, Chris do something!" Brooke says smacking the back of Chris's head.
"Tom, just apologize," Chris says still regretting the green sheet in his book bag.
"Alright I'm sorry," Tom apologizes, "I shouldn't have called you fatty alright, I'm a dope head, so sue me."
Sebastian settles down and shakes his head, "That wasn't cool man."
He stares out the window feeling gloomy. "Stupid Tom" he thinks but doesn't dare to say. If Tom only knew the awful diets he had gone through only to end up fatter than before.
Currently, his mom had him on a dairy-diet. He had to eat tons of yogurt and salad to fill up his starving body. That meant, no meat, no bread, no pasta, not anything but milk-based products and veggies.
Sebastian puts a hand over his stomach which growls hungrily at the reminder of food, then takes it away self-consciously. Though he didn't want to tell anybody, Sebastian wants to go to the mountain because he knows there won't be anybody there to restrict his culinary craves.
"Brooke, you're a girl. Why don't you give this to Courtney?" Chris asks waving the green sheet on her face.
"Why in the world would I want to do that?"
"Because you love me?"
"Yeah, try again,"
"Come on Brooke, she won't chew you off as bad."
"And you get that conclusion from where?"
"You're a girl! Nobody beats up girls."
"Yeah well, there's always a first time and besides, in case you haven't noticed, Courtney's a girl too."
"She not a girl," Tom says laughing, "she a…bitch." he says stretching the sentence for comic effect.
"You shouldn't always judge people like that!" Sebastian mutters angrily though he has to admit he wouldn't want to be in Chris's shoes either.
Tom looks at Sebastian's bitter expression through the rearview mirror, "Look man, I am really sorry about what I said before, but you know it's different with Courtney. You're nice and she's…not."
"Maybe she has a reason," Sebastian says not believing it for a second. Somehow he feels Tom in indirectly trying to insult him using Courtney's name as a muffler. "Stop the car, that's my house there."
Toms stops the car and Sebastian gets out, "Hey Bastian man!"
Sebastian turns to see Tom extending a hand out the window, "We cool?" Tom asks hoping for a truce.
Sebastian hesitates for two seconds and then takes Tom's hand, "Yeah, why not."
Tom pulls over in front of his house and pushes the unlock door button. "You can walk home from here." he tells Brooke and Chris. Since they all live in the same elite neighborhood in the west side of Greensboro, Chris always drives them home and they hang out together a lot. It wasn't until last year that they invited Sebastian into their exclusive circle of friendship.
Chris pushes the passenger-side's door open and steps out onto the hot gravel. Tom opens his door and turns swiftly to open Brooke's door. "Would you like me to walk you home?"
"No, I can get there by myself thank you very much." Brooke says and rolls her eyes.
"You're not still mad about the fattie thing are you?"
"You know he's sensitive about his body. Why are you so mean to him?!"
Chris sees them arguing but decides to go home instead of mixing himself in. "See you tomorrow guys."
Tom waves Chris away. "Because he doesn't belong Brooke. Why does he hang out with us anyways?"
"He doesn't have any friends, besides, you don't seem to mind him when you're copying his homework."
"I'm just saying I don't like the guy."
"Fine! But I do, so you either get used to him and be nice or go to hell."
Tom turns away and shields his eyes from the sun. Why do you have to like fattie? he asks silently in his head but decides to leave it at that. "So do you want me to walk you home or what?" he asks.
Brooke shakes her head. "Ask me again when you're not a jerk." she says quietly and leaves, gravel crackling under her shoes as she walks away.
Tom locks the car with the press of a little button, the car goes bleep, bleep and the lights blink twice. He watches Brooke walk away and marches himself to his doorstep.
Sebastian had arrived as a new student on their sophomore year. Brooke saw him sitting by himself in the cafeteria and felt sorry for him so she invited him to eat lunch with them. Ever since then, Sebastian had stuck to them like a bloodthirsty leech.
At first, Chris didn't mind Sebastian so much not until he saw how the little male bitch stared at Brooke and then on Valentine's day he even gave her a white teddy bear holding a heart with yellow letters embroidered by hand that read "I love you"
"Lemme out of the car." Tom mimicks Sebastian as he enters his house, "Idiot." he mumbles.
He drops his book bag on the coffee table, kicks off his shoes and jumps onto the expensive red sofa in the living room. He reaches for the remote and flips through the channels not really paying attention to the TV but still thinking about Brooke's last words to him. He hadn't been a jerk… had he?
"Good afternoon Mr. Thomas." Rosario the maid says handing Tom a banana.
"Thanks," Tom says grabbing the banana and peeling it eagerly. Though he wouldn't call himself the healthiest snack-eater, Rosario always gave him a banana when he got home from school.
It all started when Tom was a little boy. He had just come back home from a particularly rough day at the daycare center. He was roaming about the kitchen looking for a snack when he sighted a yummy batch of cookies laying tentatively on the counter. He was about to reach for one when Rosario slammed his hand with a cooking spoon.
"Wait for dinner!" she conveyed.
"But I'm hungry now, I need to eat something." Tom argued.
"No!" Rosario said, she didn't let him eat anything that day. The same thing happened day in and day out until Rosario and Tom finally came to the agreement that she would let him eat a banana everyday before dinner and he'd leave her alone.
Time went by and Tom was allowed to eat anything anytime now, but Rosario always greeted him with a banana in hand. A gesture Tom appreciated dearly since it made him feel more at home.
"Rosario, I've told you already, you don't have to call me 'Mr. Thomas'" Tom says grinning widely, "Call me Mr. Tommy."
"Yes Mr. Tommy," Rosario says smiling, calling him 'Mr.' was another inside joke between them. "So what would you like to eat today Tommy?" Rosario asks.
"Why are you asking me? Aren't my parents home?" Tom asks.
Rosario shakes her head, "No they are not, they both left for Paris yesterday."
"Together?" Tom asks puzzled knowing that his parents do not get along. They have the sort of marriage in which they live together, eat in the same table and sleep in the same bed. But date other people, spend the night out without saying where and fight about the most insignificant things.
"Well, it's a job thing." Rosario says shrugging. Mr. Thomas Hunter Sr. had shared ownership of a prestigious feminine underwear company and his wife Betty Hunter was a model and spokes girl for their line Secrecy, so even if they didn't get along, they had to act like they did for publicity and money which they considered to be the key to happiness.
"When do they get back?" Tom asks.
Rosario shrugs, "Sometime next week."
Tom nods taking the last bite of his banana, "In that case, would you sign my permission slip. I'm going to the mountain."
"Aren't there bears in the mountain?" Rosario asks almost alarmed.
Tom shakes his head laughing, "No there aren't any bears in the mountain." he then remembers the truth and says, "Well actually there are bears in the mountain but there are also guns in the cabin."
"Guns!" Rosario yelps opening her eyes widely and putting both hands over her heart.
Tom sighs, Rosario worried more about him than his parents ever did. It was nice to feel cared for, but it was also a pain in the ass. "Oh come on there are guns here too."
He says motioning to his father's armory room where Mr. Hunter kept his finest rifles and guns.
"But…"
"It's safe I promise, I'm going with Brooke and Chris." Tom says purposely leaving out Sebastian's name.
"Is that why you want to go? Brooke?" Rosario teases with a lovey voice.
"So will you sign it or do I have to fake-sign it myself?"
Rosario takes the green sheet and signs it using the pen Tom handed her. "Just be careful," she says looking at him in the eye, her gray hair neatly tucked in a tight bun and her brown eyes shining warmly.
"I will be, I promise." Tom says.
Rosario nods, "Very well, what do you want to eat for dinner then, I should get started."
Tom shrugs and then smiles, "Why don't you take a break today. I'll order us some pizza and put it on my dad's card."
"Pizza?" Rosario asks happily.
Tom nods, "or chicken, or salad, or calamari, or escargot…"
Rosario laughs, "Sounds good to me."
"I'm on it." Tom says punching the pizza place's number on his cell and ordering an extra large supreme pizza and purposely asks for extra onions knowing how much Rosario hates onions. It is my pizza, why is she assuming I'm gonna give her any?
MONDAY MORNING
A drop of cold sweat rolls down Chris's back when he hears the clink, clink of Courtney's shoes as she walks through the classroom. She drops her raggedy black bag on the floor and crashes onto her seat. Her elbow-long hair falls like a dark curtain over her pale face and she wraps her ripped black sweater tightly around her gauntly body, crosses her legs and slumps on the back of the chair.
Chris gets out the green permission slip and walks to her desk with his mission firmly set in his mind. He sighs nervously and cracks his left thump.
"Mr. Whitaker asked me to give you this." he says wondering if it's true that she once broke a guy's leg in the girl's bathroom at a public library.
Courtney glares at Chris. For a second, Chris thinks that her glare is going to burn right through his skin and fry his brain, but then she looks down at the green sheet and begins to read it.
"Yeah, so…there you go." Chris says walking away.
"Halliwel," Chris hears his last name being called by Courtney's cool steely voice.
Chris turns around, his heart beating fast as if the principal had just called his name over the intercom, "Yes," he says slowly.
Courtney looks at him through icy brown eyes, "Thanks." she says.
Chris's mouth drops open at her first sign of sociability this year. He realizes a drop of drool is about to fall from his open jaw. He closes it and mumbles, "Sure," and heads back to his seat.
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