This chapter is dedicated to all of those who lost their lives during the 7/7 London bombings six years ago today, and all of the British troops that have fallen whilst fighting for our Country in Iraq and Afghanistan. On a day like today there is a need to honour our dead, and to be proud of everything our Countries have sacrificed and fought for. Rest in peace.
JD wormed his way into the crowds, walking briskly toward the exit. The end of the day had finally approached, and he couldn't wait to finally get some fresh air and space away from everything. As he neared the double doors, something out of the corner of his caught his attention. He stopped and turned to face the source of his curiosity. It was the club bulletin that he had been looking at earlier in the day. He picked up the pencil attached to the board with string but hesitated as he scanned over the clubs and thought about what he was really doing. Maybe hanging out with this guy isn't such a bad idea after all? His eyes stopped over the band club, but he quickly shook that one off as he realised Elliot had already signed up for it. Moving on, he smiled at the thought of being part of the book club, but realising he was probably already branded too much of a nerd, or a girl for that matter, he bypassed that one too. Before he knew it, he was staring straight at the sports section, contemplating what one would appear most 'manly' and help him out. There were too many sports to choose from, and JD couldn't help but think they would all end up going the same way.
Hockey...
"I'm ready, coach!" The eager boy shouted, his words muffled by his mouth guard. He was covered head to toe in padding, his stick held out in front of him, his grip so tight his knuckles were white. Somebody shot the puck in his direction. He held out his stick in weak defence, but against all odds, the puck ricocheted off his stick and into the air, breaking his helmet and hitting him right in the eye. He fell to the ground and let out a pathetic groan of pain and the teacher blew his whistle and shouted 'walk it off!'
JD shook his head and grimaced at the hypothetical pain he had found himself in. He mentally crossed hockey off his list.
Baseball...
"I'm ready, coach!" The eager boy shouted, wringing his hands around the base of the bat as he stood rigidly at the hitting line. The pitcher nodded in his direction before throwing the ball at the hitter. The boy swung, but hit only air. Confused, he looked back to the ball at the exact moment it was too close for him to move out of the way. He suddenly felt an excruciating pain in the right side of his face. His hand flew to his injured eye as he dropped his bat and fell to his news, groaning in pain as he did so. The teacher sighed loudly and shouted for him to 'walk it off!'
JD shook his head once more and sighed loudly. Two sports down, not a single one he was good at. What about American football? All you had to do was catch the ball and run. He had to be good at that, right?
Football...
"I'm ready, coach!" The boy shouted, almost bouncing up and down from his excitement. The coach nodded to him and threw him the ball. He held his hands up for cover, afraid of being hit in the eye. Unexpectedly, the football landed straight into his hands. He grinned broadly and started jumping up and down in triumph. He heard his coach yell and was tackled to the ground by four macho jocks. He groaned in pain from underneath the pile of bodies. He shut his eyes painfully and sighed when he heard his coach yell 'walk it off!'
JD winced and rubbed his face. Why did all sports end the same way? If only he didn't suck that much, maybe then he'd have more of a shot? He shrugged and opted not to sign up for sports. His eyes desperately looked for something that he was actually good at. What about theatre?
Theatre...
The boy walked on stage and looked up at the stage castle. He gazed at the beautiful wonder on the balcony of the castle, or in other words, Juliet. Juliet came out from the shadows in her golden gown and looked down at the boy below.
"O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name.
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I'll no longer be a Capulet."
A skull came flying from the front of the audience and hit Juliet in the head, knocking off the actor's wig. JD froze as he realised his cover had been blown, and watched in horror as other members of the audience started pelting things at him until he fell from the balcony and onto the stage below. The objects kept hitting him until both him and his Romeo lay motionless surrounded by debris.
JD snapped back into reality and let the pencil slide out of his grip. He didn't fancy dying at the hands of a school club, so he reluctantly crossed theatre off his list. JD glanced at his watch and gasped, desperately trying to find something he could do before having to run and catch the bus. That's when he found it. Gymnastics! He had the balance of a tree and was as flexible as a rubber band. He quickly picked up the pencil again and jotted his name down without a second thought before running out of the doors to make sure he didn't miss the bus again.
As JD boarded the bus, breathless from his dedicated run, he was happily greeted by Turk.
"Dude, what happened to your shirt?" JD rolled his eyes at his friend's curiosity.
"The evil Janitor," JD sighed, laughing as Turk simply raised his eyebrows.
"Whatever you say man," Turk patted his friend on the shoulder.
JD took his seat next to Turk and told him about joining the Gymnastics club. After a while, Turk suddenly stopped talking and was staring intently at JD.
"What?" JD asked, eyeing up his friend nervously.
"Dude, what happened to your neck?"
JD felt his blood run cold as he quickly covered his neck. How could he have forgotten? He stuttered out a nervous reply. "Nothing, don't worry about it."
Turk hesitated but sensed JD's uncomfort. "Alright."
There wasn't any real reason to worry; it was probably just punishment for being late home.
The bus ride home seemed to take forever, and JD desperately tried to ignore the occasional glances Turk would send his way. By the time he arrived home he was glad to discover that Mike had already left. He walked into the living room and casually greeted his brother. Dan's gaze fell but upon JD as he eyed his clothes up suspiciously, but quickly pushed the matter aside.
"Where's mom?" JD asked, just noticing that she didn't appear to be home either.
"Oh, her and Mike went out on another date?" Dan replied.
JD burrowed his brow in confusion. "It's only, like, five. Why have they gone on a date so early?"
"She's happy, right?" Dan protested, standing up to pat his brother on the back. "Who cares what the time is?"
JD nodded and pondered on what his brother had said. "I can't believe she's gone on another date," JD sighed. "She's going a little fast, don't you think?"
Dan scoffed. "She's head over heels for that guy, little brother."
"Alright." JD rolled his eyes and made to leave the living room. "Well, I'm gonna go do my homework in my room." He trudged upstairs to his room, ignoring everything that Dan was shouting up to him. It's ok if she likes Mike; she actually seems to be happy for once. It's not like the whole choking incident is going to become a regular occurrence. JD rubbed his bruised neck carefully. At least, I hope not.
JD rolled his head slowly from side to side to try and loosen the stiffness that had been building up, before shrugging it off and grabbing his backpack. He had at least two hours worth of homework that he needed to complete, and it didn't look that difficult. He poured the contents of his bag over his desk and got to work.
- Four hours later -
JD groaned and threw his pencil down in frustration. This work was way too complicated for high school. It was only the beginning of the year too; surely it had to be a crime to hand out this much homework, especially on a Friday? He held his head his hands and moved his eyes to glance at the clock on his desk. It had just gone half past nine, why wasn't his mom home yet?
He decided to take a break and descended the stairs slowly. His brother's coat and shoe's had disappeared from by the front door, so JD could only assume that he had left whilst he had locked himself upstairs. When he thought about it, Dan had recently been spending a lot of time away from the house. JD reasoned that it was probably his way of dealing with his mom's new relationship. He strolled into the kitchen and pulled open various cupboard doors until he found something he could microwave and eat for his dinner. Pulling out a packet, he ripped open the top and shoved it into the microwave and set the timer. As he stood staring intently in the microwave at his food, he heard the door creak on its hinges and footsteps steadily make their way into the room. He straightened himself up and turned just in time to see Mike set his stumbling, clearly intoxicated mother into one of the kitchen chairs. She slurred something in Mike's general direction before resting her head on the kitchen table and passing out.
JD raised an eyebrow and watched his mother. She had always been a drinker, but he couldn't believe that she would drink that much whilst out with somebody who he assumed meant a lot to her. Mike watched JD watching his mother and cleared his throat.
"Hey, kiddo. Sorry about your mom. I think she had a little too much to drink."
JD nodded hesitantly, desperate to turn around and continue watching his food move inside the microwave. His eyes, however, were glued to Mike's face, last night's events still swimming in his head. As if by magic, Mike seemed to pick up on this. He walked slowly over to JD, smirking as JD backed himself into the kitchen counter. JD felt panic ripple through him as Mike continued to move closer.
"Look, I am sorry," Mike muttered, edging closer to JD still. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Sometimes, I just get a little angry." Mike was close enough for JD to smell his breath. It was tainted with alcohol.
Mike stopped a mere millimetre away from JD's body. "I think we should just put all of this behind us and make up." Mike was inches away from JD's face. Mike watched as JD tried not to look him in the face, his fear evident in both his posture and facial expression. Mike moved in close to JD's ear as if he was about to spill a ridiculously juicy secret. "Besides," he whispered harshly. "You're kind of cute, and sometimes your mom isn't all that, well, satisfying." Mike moved back a few inches to observe JD's reaction before snorting and leaving the room. JD waited until the man had completely disappeared before letting out a shaky breath, pulling the microwave door open to stop the bleeping and sliding to the floor.
Why didn't I do anything? What he did mean by satisfying? A chill went down his spine and suddenly he didn't feel all that hungry.
He slowly got back to his feet and closed the microwave door, his food left steaming on the plate. He wanted to do homework, anything to get his mind off what had just happened, but he just couldn't get over it. Eventually he gave up finding things to do and collapsed on his bed. He could try to dream the pain away.
Perry arrived home, thankful that his father had to work. This meant that he wouldn't be home until early morning, and Perry would have a stress free evening and night ahead of him. The moment he stepped over the threshold and into his home he slammed the door shut and bounded up the stairs two at a time before racing into his room. Once in his room, he dropped his backpack on the floor and rushed to get changed into his sports gear. He loved going to the park to throw some hoops whenever he got the chance.
He had just managed to get his fourth dunk in a row when he saw his sister approaching. "You know, if you always wear those shorts you'll never be able to produce children," she joked, grabbing the basketball out of her brother's still hands.
"I have you know they're not that tight," Perry snorted defiantly, showing her just how loose they actually were. Paige laughed and threw the ball effortlessly in the hoop from where she was stood.
"So, how's Janette?" She asked after retrieving the ball.
"Who's Jane...? Oh, she's fine." He muttered, silently cursing himself for forgetting her name.
"That's good," Paige smiled, ignoring her brother's slip up. "Are you going to ask her out?"
"No!" Perry scoffed, a little too quickly. Paige raised her eyebrows. "In fact, I'd rather out the she devil." He folded his arms across his chest and stared intently at his sister.
"Then why don't you just talk to Jordan then?" Paige sighed, turning her head to stare at the figure approaching the hoops.
Perry turned to follow her line of vision and groaned loudly. "Did you invite her here?"
"You two need to talk," Paige responded defiantly, shooting the basketball into the hoop once more and running off to retrieve the ball.
"What do you want, devil woman?" Perry growled as the girl came and stood right by him.
"Nothing," Jordan chirped, playing with her hair. "I just came to tell you I want you back."
Perry rolled his eyes and made to stand opposite Jordan. "Ya done?"
Jordan sighed and mimicked Perry's stance. "Alright, I lied. I need a favour."
"And why would I help you?"
Jordan leant in close to Perry, her lips brushing his ear as she started to whisper. "If you don't, we'll never have sex again and we'll start making love."
Perry shuddered and backed away, snarling as he did so. "Fine."
Jordan smiled. She always won these games.
"Good, I need a date for the Halloween bash on Tuesday and I can't find anybody who fits my criteria."
"What, and I do?"
"No," Jordan scoffed. "But you'll do."
Perry turned his head to find his sister still playing with the basketball. She'd clearly set him up. He frowned and turned back to face the source of his sudden headache.
"Alright," he sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. "But this means nothing."
Jordan stuck out her hand and waited for Perry to shake it.
"Deal."
He watched as Jordan skipped over to where Paige was and slapped his forehead. Even after they had broken up they had continued certain aspects of their relationships. He knew it had been a stupid thing to do, but even he had to admit that sometimes he had needs. His mind suddenly jumped to the Halloween bash next weekend. What was the worst that could happen?
