Ok, I'm gonna start trying to update every Saturday. To LiveYourPassions and LoveShipper, whom i was PMing yesterday; yesterday i thought was Friday instead of Thursday. So, when I told you I would update tomorrow, I was really trying to tell you I would update on Saturday. But, since you were expecting an update today, i gave you guys one. Hope you're happy! Stupid guilty conscience... :P
Kim's POV
"Oh my gosh, I completely forgot we have a history test on Monday!" I exclaim as we walk out of the dojo.
"No problem. We can just study at my house. Mom should be fine with it," Jack says, shrugging.
"I can't," Jerry says. "I have to practice for a dance competition in two months. Me and my mom are going up against—" He pauses here, striking a dance pose and finishes his sentence. "—the Momba Mommas."
"Oh cool, what dance are you practicing?" Eddie asks.
Jerry lets out a single laugh. "Our dance was perfected and polished a week ago. We're not worried about the competition. What we're practicing is not throwing up when we see those ladies in their skin tight swim suits. Last time we went against them, we got disqualified because I puked and messed up the dance floor. I couldn't help it though; them ladies are old, ugly, and sagging." We all shudder at the thought.
"Sorry, I gotta say no, too. I have to visit my grandmother again," Eddies states dejectedly. "This time, though, I'm bringing cheek guards!"
"I'm free up until six. Then I have to go watch my aunt play bingo," Milton says.
"I don't have anything else planned," I say, after reviewing my schedule in my head.
"Ok, then. You guys can come over when ever you're ready." Jack says. (1)
Milton's POV
Later, Kim, Jack, and I are all in Jack's room. Kim's lying on the bed, Jack is sitting on the floor against it, and I had rolled Jack's computer chair over to where they were.
So far, we had gotten nowhere. I already know all this stuff, so I'm trying to quiz both of them on the information. But they keep getting distracted. It was frustrating me so much that I finally decided to try another method.
"You guys, how about we play a sort of game?"
That got their attention.
"Sounds fun."
"What do we have to do?"
"Well, we need a bunch of blank index cards," I say, making this up and developing the game in my head. "and… the vocab flashcards we were supposed to do."
Kim hands me her flash cards. Jack goes over to his computer desk, opens a drawer, and gets out an unopened pack of index cards. I open the pack taking out about twenty, and write down all the questions on their study guides on the lined sides. There's one question (and answer) on each card. I grab Kim's cards, happy to see that she didn't write anything on the back sides of them. Then I get some more, completely blank cards, and shuffle them together with the question cards and the vocabulary cards.
"Ok. This game is called 'Zoink'—" I start to say, but I'm cut off by Jack.
"Zoink?" he snorts. "What is this, Scooby Doo?" He starts laughing, but apologizes when he sees my look.
"Anyway," I say, spreading out the cards out the cards in rows on the ground. "you choose a card, and I pick it up and read the question or vocab word. We're gonna try a buzzing-in type thing. But, since we don't want to bother your mom, you're gonna... throw your hands up in the air like this." I throw both hands up into the air, similar to what you do when you're on a roller coaster.
"... you're kidding me right?" Kim asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope. I call on whoever threw their hands up first. If you get it right, you get a point. If you get it wrong, then the other person has a chance to get it right. If you pick up a blank card, then that's a Zoink and you can't answer the next two cards, whether you know it or not. So, you wanna play?"
"Sure."
"Ok!"
We had a hilarious time, especially because Jack and Kim look so ridiculous throwing their hands up like that. But pretty soon, though, I had to leave.
Jack's POV
Four hours later (it's now about ten PM.) Kim and I are alone and extremely tired. At some point, I had found myself on my bed with Kim. We tiredly exchange question and answer back and forth.
"…1987. Why did the Jews want to live in Palestine?" I say, yawning. Contrary to the fact that I'm exhausted, my heart is actually kinda racing. I'm on my bed, with my best friend, who also happens to be my crush...
…What? I'm a teenage boy. You can't blame me for my imagination going wild.
"Because Palestine was home to the Jews thousands of years ago, and after the war ended, they slowly started migrating back to the land," she replies in monotone. "What does 'partitioning' mean?"
"To divide up a land into smaller pieces representing different ethnic or religious groups. What year did the Ottoman Empire get broken up by the Middle Eastern government?"
No reply.
"Kim?"
Still no response.
I look up. Kim is fast asleep. I smile wearily, picking up our notes and setting them on the floor. I get my blanket out from under me and drape it over her body because I notice that she's shivering. She turns in her sleep towards the wall with her back towards me, snuggling into the thick material. Without even thinking about how it would look to my mom if she walked in, I turn towards Kim and fall asleep.
No POV
Michelle Anderson walks downstairs and into the kitchen to make herself a sandwich, having been reading for the past two hours. Her eyes dart past the digital clock above the oven to where the bread is located on the counter. She looks back at the time in shock. 11:57 it reads, with the little green dot next to PM highlighted. Shouldn't Kim have gone home by now? The mother creates and eats her sandwich. Then, she goes back upstairs to Jack's room, where he and his best friend are studying.
Or at least, she thought they were studying.
But when she opens the door, all she sees is Jack on his bed. He appears to be asleep. Michelle is puzzled. She doesn't remember Kim leaving, and the blonde girl's stuff is still in his room. She walks over to her little black belt's (Jack hates the nickname, but his mom still calls him it anyway) bed, wondering what exactly he is doing. The sight she sees on the bed makes her heart swell.
Her son is fast asleep on his bed, with Kim beside him. Jack, being the gentleman that his mother raised him to be, had given the southern belle (sp?) his blanket and his pillow. He used his left hand to cushion his own head. His right hand is resting lightly on the girl's waist. (2)
Mrs. Anderson smiles. She sees the way that her sons face always brightens when Kim walks into the room, how he always blushes slightly when they're very close together, how he always listens with rapt attention when Kim is speaking to him. The mother also knows that Kim is the same way. She wishes the two would just admit that they like each other and get it over with.
She suddenly remembers that she should call Kim's parents. After all, it's just past midnight. She goes downstairs again, picking up the home phone. As if on cue, it rings before she can dial the number. She quickly presses talk, hoping it didn't wake the sleeping teenagers.
"Hello?"
"Michelle, hi! It's Diane."
"Hi, Diane, I was just about to dial your number,"
The two women chat for a while, before Kim's mother asks about Kim.
"She's fine. She fell asleep with Jack."
"… with Jack?" It's more of a statement than a question.
"Don't' worry, they didn't do anything bad. It appeared that Jack had given Kim his blanket and his pillow," Michelle reassures, not saying anything about her son's hand on Kim's waist. Diane had the right intentions when it came to her daughter, but she was a bit over-protective.
"Oh, ok… I guess you shouldn't wake them then. They must have studied hard."
"They did… how about I come over and get some of Kim's stuff so she can just come over when she's ready? It's save you the trouble."
"You would do that? Thank you so much. I'll get her a change of clothes and her toothbrush and get them ready so you can pick them up."
"Ok, see you in a bit."
"Bye."
Michelle hangs up the phone and grabs her keys off the table. She goes out the door and into her car, driving the fifteen minutes it would take to get to the Crawfords' house. Diane is standing on the porch with a bright green tote bag in her hand.
"It's got her hairbrush, her toothbrush, her phone charger, and the clothes I know she would wear herself tomorrow if she got the choice," Diane says, listing everything in the bag. Michelle smiles for the second time that night. Kim and her mother have the exact same fashion sense; not too girly, not too boyish.
"Thank you, have a good night."
"You too, and please tell Kim I love her."
"No problem."
Mrs. Anderson drives back to her house. She goes upstairs again, back into her son's room. She opens the door. She starts to walk over to her son's bed when her foot hits the boy's skateboard. She freezes, desperately hoping that she hadn't woken the two up. The mother hears the two shifting on the bed. She stays in her frozen position, not moving a muscle. When no more movement is heard, she looks up. She sets the bag on the floor next to the wall, and takes the step that would cover the distance between herself and Jack's bed.
Kim had turned around and snuggled into Jack, her hands lightly grasping his shirt and laying slightly on top of him. Jack had wrapped both of his arms around her waist protectively. He has a completely serious expression on his face while Kim's is a bit more serene.
Mrs. Anderson grins; she can't help herself. She quickly goes to her room and comes back with a camera in her hand. She takes a photo, forgetting to turn off the flash. The bright light briefly illuminates the room. Kim doesn't move, but Jack stirs. He grunts and holds Kim tighter. Satisfied, Mrs. Anderson finally leaves the room and goes to her bedroom to sleep. She suddenly smiles, imagining the expression on either of the teens' faces when one of them wakes up.
(1) When he says "You guys" he was talking about Milton and Kim. Just thought I'd explain that because when I checked over my writing, I thought that sounded a bit confusing.
(2) I can definitely picture this scene. Can you? :)
Ok, so i guess that was technically considered fluff. I'm not sure... But 'Zoink' scene was inspired from a studying game in sixth grade and something that happened to me few weeks ago in Social Studies. With the game in sixth grade, the name of it actually is 'Zoink'. We used the game as a class study session. The whole class was divided into groups, and each group had a letter as a name (occasionally, we got to choose names. I remember one time where a group had "The Flying Ninja Kitties" as a name. Good times...) with an exception of one student who would be at the board. The board had numbers on it. It was however many questions was on the test/quiz, plus some extras to be 'Zoink's. The groups got called on one by one, and each got to choose a number. If the number was a Zoink, then their turn gets skipped. If the number was a question, then they got time to answer it. Once they decide on an answer, they call it out. If it's right, the group gets it right, they get a point. If they get is wrong, then the question goes to the next group. If they get it wrong, then get it it goes to the next group. This can only happen one more time before the teacher has to tell the answer to the question. When the numbers on the board runs out, whoever has the most points wins. As for the other thing, we had a basically free period where we had to study for a test. We were put in groups; mine consisted of Malik (Laid back; can be lazy; was in my sixth grade SS), Gracin (Quiet when it comes to answering questions in class; laid back; friend but not exactly close), Skyler (quiet; kinda shy; she's new, came in the middle of the school year, but we're friends), and Dymon (i don't really know her, but as far as i know, she's pretty outgoing; was in my sixth grade SS). After wasting fifteen minutes unsuccessfully trying to get them to focus long enough to start studying (Skyler was reading Catching Fire, and the other three were chatting about... stuff), I get an idea; a game. I mean, who doesn't want to play a game, right? So i get my index cards (that's what the test was on) and announce i have invented a game. I explain the rules; there are definitions on the lined side, and their words on the blank side of the index cards. When i revealed one, you have to throw your hands up in the air (the class was already loud enough as it was without us banging on the tables). If you get it wrong, it goes to the other person. We played for points. Skyler didn't want to play (reading, and she had to go to the nurse at some point, maybe to take some medicine) and Gracin just flat-out refused. So, Malik and Dymon played. Dymon won the first time and the second time. So, now you know where i got Milton's game from.
...
Holy crap, this must be the longest author's note in the history of the world. *sweatdrop* Sorry.
Oh, and I'm not doing the SSs anymore because my name is officially permanent. See you guys next week!