I'm making quick progress on this, aren't I, guys? :O I have a bad habit of forgetting about stories and not finishing them, so I'm using this fan fiction as practice. I'm trying to develop a full proof system where I can start, develop, and then finish a story. If you're taking the time to read this, then thank you. :) All suggestions and ideas will be happily taken and considered. Thank you guys so much for your time, again, & happy reading! :)
iv. Blackmail
Evelyn hadn't seen Johnny all day on Friday. It was Thursday afternoon when she told him that he was probably just in love with the idea of Lola, instead of actually being in love with her. She figured that he didn't take it well, but she didn't think he would avoid her. Worry began to arise but then she reminded herself that Johnny Vincent was a greaser and a frequent skipper of class. She didn't have English until Monday, so she wouldn't see him until then anyway; that is, if he even showed up to English. Whether he was skipping or Evelyn just hadn't seen him, she just hoped that Johnny wasn't displeased with her. She was genuinely trying to be helpful.
However, despite this week's terrible events and annoyances, it was great to finally be out of that school uniform for a change. Evelyn made her way down the paths of the school in the direction of the gym, carrying a bag full of streamers, glues, and paints. Pinky was coordinating the Homecoming dance for the school, so naturally she was forcing Christy and Evelyn to help decorate the gym for next Friday's big dance.
When she arrived at the gym, inside there were only about fifteen people. Christy and Peanut were in the corner, trying to set up a table and looked like they were failing miserably at it. Christy fell to the ground and Peanut was about to drop the table on her with his butter fingers. Nothing was out of the norm there. Derby and three of his minions were in the corner trying to sort out the streamers. Mandy and two of her cheerleaders were gathering up the tickets so they could go sell them. Lefty, Norton, and another greaser Evelyn couldn't make out were at the sound system, trying to figure that out. Beatrice, Melvin, and Earnest were attempting to paint a homecoming sign for the gym. Evelyn craned her neck to get a look at their progress and witnessed their catastrophe.
Immediately she marched over. "What are you guys doing?" she inquired, trying to seem unalarmed by the flying saucer Thaddeus had drawn on one corner of the banner and the black knight Melvin had made on the other, as Beatrice scribbled nonsensical hearts everywhere.
"We're making the homecoming banner," Beatrice replied in a cheerful tone. Looking up at Evelyn with an innocent smile she asked, "Do you like it?"
Attempting to be delicate with them, Evelyn replied, "Uhm, I don't think that's what Pinky was looking for." Evelyn looked around searching for her friend, who was in charge of this whole mess. She was going to ask her if she could take over the banner but Pinky was nowhere to be found. "Where's Pinky?"
"She's not here, yet," Beatrice answered, doodling more hearts. "I have her for home ec. She said she'd be about thirty minutes late. It's been forty-five."
Evelyn scoffed. That was typical. Turning back to the nerds she took control of the situation. "Look, guys, I have a better idea of what Pinky wanted," she lied. "Go help Peanut and Christy set up the tables over there, okay?" Glancing over her shoulder at Christy and Peanut she realized that they weren't any better off then they were a few minutes ago. The table was upside down and Peanut and Christy were fighting.
Beatrice shot up with an excited grin. "I learned how to sew in home economics! I can go make table cloths!"
Evelyn looked at Beatrice with a weird expression, but then said, "Sure, fine. You'll need the key to the home economics room. Go ask Jimmy Hopkins to find it for you. He seems to be the errand boy around here."
"Yes ma'am!" Beatrice responded quickly and over energetically, and then ran and darted out of the gym.
Evelyn shook her head. Beatrice was really weird, but that was taken off of her mind really quick when she heard a sudden, abrupt boom behind her. Turning around she saw the three greasers, who were trying to wire the sound system, enveloped in smoke.
"Okay, guys," Evelyn called, taken aback by all this mayhem that was going on. "Leave the sound system alone for now. Why don't you guys go work on building the stage for the DJ?" They weren't argumentative at all. They all gladly escaped from the dusty cloud and informed Evelyn that they would be in the yard next to the auto shop working on the stage. Evelyn had only been there for five minutes and she was already stressed. "Where the hell is Pinky?" she exclaimed.
The weekend was the best part of the week, Johnny thought. Everyone knew that but Johnny especially knew that, as he made his way from the bathroom, where he'd spent his entire Friday afternoon class, to the main doors. The halls were empty, because everyone had bolted off to start their Friday in a rush. Although, whenever the halls are empty, Johnny can always expect to find that one person that he doesn't want to see.
"But Doctor Crabblesnitch!" he heard someone cry, as he was passing the staircase.
Pinky Gauthier. He disliked that girl, a lot. As his ears met her sound, grief struck. This was the second time in that week that he'd been minding his own business and ran into that damn Pinky.
"But Johnny didn't start that fight, Dr. Crabblesnitch," Pinky was insisting. She was calling him "doctor." Clearly she was trying to suck up. Johnny ducked behind the staircase and listened to her speak. "Chad was rude to Evelyn and Johnny was only trying to defend a girl. Chad started it, not Evelyn and not Johnny!"
"Ms. Gauthier, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do," Principal Crabblesnitch replied to her in an annoyed tone. It seemed like he just wanted to get rid of her.
"Yes there is, Dr. Crabblesnitch!" Pinky exclaimed in such a tone, that Johnny was surprised she had it in her to be that rude. But then again, it shouldn't. Rich kids can get away with anything in this school. "You can give him detention like you're supposed to!" Johnny didn't think that Principal Crabblesnitch would budge. He wasn't a principal that actually cared about his students. He almost thought all hope was lost until he heard Pinky say, "My parents have invested a lot of money into this school." She sounded so snarky. "They'd be very disappointed if they found out this is the kind of use you're putting it to. I don't know about you, Dr. Crabblesnitch, but if I put my life's earnings into a school, and found out the students were being treated in such a way, I'd stop investing all my funds into the school."
Johnny couldn't help himself from laughing. Pinky was blackmailing Crabblesnitch to give that rat Chad detention! Brilliant!
There was a long, awkward silence between Pinky and Principal Crabblesnitch. Johnny was just itching to know how Principal Crabblesnitch was going to respond to Pinky's attempted blackmail. Finally, after a moment, he said in a resentful tone, "I will…talk to Mr. Morris, alright?"
"And give him detention, like he deserves, correct?" Pinky's tone was so self-righteous.
"Alright, alright," he said angrily, "fine, fine! Will it get you to leave me alone?"
Johnny could hear the sinister smile on her words, "Yes, it will."
"Fine! Now, please, I need to get back to my show! They're talking about suede couches on Oprah today!"
"Goodbye Dr. Crabblesnitch," Pinky said finally in a satisfied tone. Johnny could hear her make her way down the staircase. "Glad that's taken care of," she muttered to herself.
She trotted off happily to do God knows what else, in God knows where else. Johnny was quite surprised at Pinky's dedication and skill at blackmailing. He thought she was just a mindless doll who just stood around pointing at stuff all day. Apparently, he was wrong.
He was leaning against the back of the staircase, near the entrance to the cafeteria. Johnny wondered what detention with Chad would be like. Hopefully they wouldn't have to serve it all together. Johnny didn't mind serving detention with Evelyn, but he didn't even want to be in the same room as that creep. He envisioned Chad scrubbing a badly drawn fish in marker off of the blackboard in Mr. Galloway's classroom, and as he did, he saw Mr. Galloway, himself, emerge from no where.
He held his arm in the air, as if reaching for her, and exclaimed, "Ms. Gauthier! Wait a moment, please!"
Pinky stopped in mid-step, only feet away from the main doors in the school lobby, and turned to see Johnny leaning against the wall with no life, and Mr. Galloway's drunken grin.
"Mr. Vincent," Mr. Galloway addressed Johnny with a smile. "You're not attending my detention, today?"
"Oh shit," Johnny thought. He had forgotten all about detention! "Oh, uhm, I was just heading over there, Mr. Galloway!" Johnny hesitated, lying his pants off. "I just got side-tracked is all."
Strangely, Mr. Galloway chuckled. "No worries, Johnny." Mr. Galloway seemed unusually cheerful. He must be drunk, Johnny decided. "Pinky, dear," he said turning to the girl, "Johnny will be serving his detention with you, today. He'll help you and your team decorate the gym for the dance."
For a moment Pinky just stood there staring at Johnny, hoping that Mr. Galloway was just kidding, but Mr. Galloway only stared at her expectantly. Eventually, with a sigh, she replied, "Sure, right away." She sounded so defeated, but the teacher didn't notice nor did he care.
He began to head back to his room, his goofy grin still evident. "Let me know if there's any trouble!"
Pinky scoffed. "Ugh, let's just go."
This time Pinky went for the back door rather than the front main doors. She lead Johnny to the gym, not even looking at him. In fact, she walked about seven or eight feet in front of him, trying to make it seem like they weren't walking together. She didn't want to be seen with him. That was fine with him. He didn't want to be seen with her, either. A greaser would never want to be seen with a prep, either, especially Pinky Gauthier. He walked far behind her, not paying her any attention.
"So what did you hear," she asked him in a loud voice, still not looking back at him. She would rather people think that she talked to herself and think that she's than see her walking with a greaser.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Johnny replied nonchalantly.
"I'm serious, Johnny. What did you hear?"
He smirked. "Everything."
Pinky came to an abrupt stop, right next to the central statue that was mounted behind the school, beside the pathways to auto shop and Harrington House. "Don't you dare utter a word. Do you understand me?" She sounded so vicious.
Smirk still strong, he sneered, "Why? You don't want your prep friends do you realize you did the right thing?"
She scoffed. "The right thing? I didn't do it because it was right, grease ball."
"Ouch," Johnny scoffed sarcastically.
"I did it because Chad is a creep and Evelyn is my friend!"
"So you didn't do that because Chad deserved it?"
"Chad did deserve it." She turned around and continued on to the gym.
"So if it had been someone else," Johnny called behind her, walking along with her, "then you wouldn't have done anything?"
"Precisely." They reached the door to the gym, and Pinky stopped to brief Johnny. "Listen. We are not friends. We did not speak. You did not see me speaking to Principal Crabblesnitch. Alright?"
Johnny didn't say anything. He simply shrugged with an amused smile. Pinky rolled her eyes and entered the gym.
Johnny was surprised to see Peanut in the back of the gym with that Christy chick that he mentioned so much. Peanut, along with two nerds, were attempting to set up a table. He surveyed the gym, trying to figure out exactly what Mr. Galloway had gotten him into, until he saw Evelyn. She stood at a table to the left of the gym doors, with various cups of paint strewn over it.
She caught a glimpse of him and watched him as he sauntered over to her slowly, his hands in his pockets, looking at her nervously. To avoid the awkwardness, she tried not to pay too much attention at the moment. She didn't want this to seem like a big deal. After all, she was about to find out if she'd offended him or not the night before.
"Hey," he said simply.
"Hey, haven't seen you all day."
"Oh you know," he chuckled. "Just been around."
"Skipping class?" she replied with an amused smile.
"Yeahhh…"
"What are you doing here?" She finished mixing all the paints and started digging in her bag for brushes.
"Galloway sent me here to serve detention. Looks like he did the same with you."
Evelyn peered up from her paints and eyed Pinky. "No, Pinky begged him to let me serve it, here, so I could help her organize this stupid dance." They both watched Pinky in the foreground.
"No, no, no!" she yelled at Mandy. "Each ticket is twenty dollars! One ticket per person. If a boy is buying a ticket for his date, you have to take her name! We don't want any of those darn townies crashing our dance! Think, Mandy! Are you capable of that?"
Evelyn was surprised to see that Mandy didn't retort to Pinky's rude comment, but was even more surprised when Pinky turned on her heels and marched directly for Evelyn. "What happened to this place?" she exclaimed. "No one is doing what I told them to do, and why can't Peanut set up that stupid table?"
"You had Beatrice and those two nerds over there doing the banner." Evelyn grabbed the jumbled up banner she'd thrown behind her work area and handed it to Pinky. "They drew aliens and medieval cartoons on it, Pinky. I sent them to help Peanut, who's been working on that same table for an hour."
Pinky mouthed, "An hour?" with wide eyes.
Evelyn nodded. "Lefty and his two friends blew the sound system, almost." Evelyn pointed at the sound system in the corner and the scorch mark on the gym wall. "So I sent them to build the stage for the DJ. And as for me, well," she stared down at all her paints and blank banner. "I'm making the banner."
Pinky eyed Evelyn's paint set, very quietly, glanced at the sound system and the nerds with Peanut trying to figure out the foldout table. "Very nice, Evelyn, thank you. I should have known I couldn't have left these idiots alone."
There was a loud crash in the background. Everyone turned to see Peanut yelping in pain, hopping on one foot. Melvin had dropped the table right on Peanut foot, and he was trying to go after him, but he only had one foot to work with.
"Oh my God, excuse me," Pinky groaned, and darted over to the two. "You have got to be kidding me!" Evelyn watched from afar with an amused smile. "Peanut, don't you dare touch that nerd! Melvin, go fix the sound system!" she pointed at Thaddeus. "You – who are you?"
"Thaddeus," he replied.
"Okay Ted."
"Thaddeus."
"That's what I said. Go help Melvin with the sound system." Pinky was taking charge. After sending Melvin and Thaddeus off, she walked over to the table that lay where Peanut had left it before running after Melvin. The aggravation on her face was very evident. In front of Christy and Peanut, and with very little trouble at all, she bent down, picked up the foldout table one-handedly, popped out it's legs with little work, instructing as she did so: "You have to use the latch, you guys, it's not rocket science." Evelyn saw Pinky do something from far away to the table leg and seconds later the table stood sturdy and strong. "Voila! A table."
Peanut stood there and scratched his head for a moment, as Christy's face fell in her palm, shaking her head disappointedly. Before they could register, before them, Pinky had placed a tall brown paper bag onto the newly set up table. She reached in and pulled out a big handful of paper napkins.
"Now, I'm going to teach you how to fold paper swans."
Evelyn giggled to herself on the other side of the gym. "You have got to be kidding me," she muttered to herself, absolutely tickled.
"Did someone drop her on her head when she was born or something?" Johnny inquired quietly, leaning into Evelyn so that only she could hear.
Looking up from her paints, she was distracted by his closeness for the second time, now. She replied, "Uhm, I dunno," and forced a fake smile.
She thought he would just momentarily, but he didn't seem to have plans to. Evelyn stood there, with one cup of paint in her hand, stirring it about with a brush mindlessly, eyeing the blank banner she'd taped to the table. He wasn't touching her, but he was still abnormally close. If he'd scooted one literal inch closer, they'd be skin on skin, with clothes in between. He stood there eyeing the banner over her shoulder.
"So Galloway stuck you in here, huh?" Evelyn forced awkwardly, trying for conversation.
"Yeah, I wish he woulda just let me sit in his room for two hours."
"Why is that?"
"This…" he looked around the gym, "just isn't my thing."
Evelyn looked at the red line she'd painted onto the banner. At least it wasn't blank anymore, she thought. But that's all she had, a red line, and she didn't know what she wanted to do with this banner. She hadn't had time to plan this out at all. She was too busy trying to keep the gym from catching on fire while Pinky was gone. Evelyn looked up at Pinky, showing the Peanut and Christy how to fold napkins in the form of swans, and at every other station in the gym. Red stained brush into its cup and looked up at Johnny and asked, nonchalantly, "Do you wanna skip?"
He looked like he was about to choke at first, he looked so surprised. His eyes were wide. "What?"
"Do you want to skip?" she repeated casually. "I don't want to be here and neither do you, and I just happen to be best friends with the person in charge of our detention."
Johnny looked at Evelyn Tyler with a very pleased countenance.
Evelyn was a very surprising person to Johnny. At first, in English class, she held her own pretty well and she defended herself. When Johnny was rude to her, she called him out on his rudeness. Not a lot of women had the gall to call out a greaser, let alone Johnny Vincent, the head greaser. Evelyn was smart and pretty, but she wasn't as much of a book nerd and do gooder like he originally thought. He kept her guessing, and he liked that.
With knowing eyes and a pleased grin, he said, "Okay, follow me."