So I have not died. I've been quite busy over the past month, due to multiple vacations and other life issues. But hopefully, since I'm back now and likely won't be going anywhere for the rest of the summer, things can finally go back on track.
Chapter 9
The morning sun shone through the curtains of the bedroom window in between John Donovan's eyelids, causing him to open his eyes into what appeared to be a bright Wednesday morning. Getting dressed into his usual clothing of a blue jacket band black pants, he took notice of his bedroom door suddenly opening, revealing his twin sister Leslie. She scanned the room for a few seconds and saw a bouquet of pink flowers on John's desk. "Weren't those flowers supposed to go to Kelsey?"
"Leslie, what are you-" John first saw Leslie at the doorway then followed her finger pointing to the flowers on his desk. "Oh shit. I hella forgot yesterday." He picked up the flowers and examined them in full detail, its physical beauty and perfection reminiscing Kelsey's. "Oh crap, this is gonna be so embarrassing."
"You asked her out to the dance two days ago, not yesterday, idiot." Leslie let out a snort followed by light chuckles. "Why are you so forgetful?" As smart as John is and as good of grades he could get in school, sometimes he was miserably forgetful, although thankfully, this wasn't significant nor did it occur to often.
"You suck." Of course though, that rather came out of nowhere from John.
"So do you, idiot. Come on, let's go get breakfast before you forget about that too." Leslie left the bedroom, trailing vicious snickers behind herself.
The twins went downstairs to the kitchen to see no one else at home so they both concluded that their parents are already gone. However, another set of footsteps could be heard behind them so they turned around to see their mom Heidi. "Hello kids."
"Hi mom." Leslie made a modest wave at her mother.
"Hi sweetie." Heidi extended her arms out and the two females drew into a hug. During the hug, Leslie had her head underneath Heidi's right armpit, and from there, Leslie caught John folding his arms and rolling her eyes. In response, Leslie stuck her tongue out at John.
"Are you two done yet?" John's tone made him sound rather impatient. He rolled his eyes again. He hated it whenever his parents became all lovey dovy.
Letting go of Leslie, Heidi shook her head at John with a disapproving frown. "John, that is not very nice. That is rude. And furthermore, I want to discuss with you with your work on washing the dishes last evening. You didn't completely wash off all of the soap."
"What's wrong with leaving some soap on there?" John's eyes wandered side-to-side, then rose back onto his mother in bewilderment. "And why don't you ever yell at Leslie for not cleaning them completely?"
"Do not change the topic on me." Heidi didn't like John's tone of voice; to her, it came off as rude and insulting. "And furthermore, because soap can cause you to be sick because of the chemicals. Also, you do not take that tone of voice with me, young man, do you understand?"
John simply rolled his eyes once more. "Yeah, whatever, since Leslie gets to-"
"Say 'Yes, Mother' without the eyeroll." Heidi only needed to stomp her right foot once to mean business
"Yes, Mother."
"Good, now both of you eat breakfast and get ready for school, you're already running late."
After Leslie and John finished breakfast and left the house, they both began walking west towards school. The Donovans only lived no more than six blocks away from school, which is why they don't take the bus. "It's just bullshit - just like how mom and dad are always biased towards you, Leslie."
"Maybe if you kept your trap shut she wouldn't bitch at you constantly." Leslie followed up her confrontation with a haughty sneer. "Maybe if you weren't so nasty and tried so hard to be a bad boy-"
"Maybe you should shut up." John sped a few feed ahead of Leslie, effectively ending the conversation.
Leslie rolled her eyes in frustration. Being the victor of their parents' bias, she could never see John's point of view; however, she did not approve of John's rude behavior in general. Therefore, she sped up after him. "You know, the problem here is that really - I'm sick of you playing victim, or playing the victim card all the time. 'Oh no, my parents aren't coddling me twenty-four seven!'"
John stopped abruptly in his tracks, nearly causing Leslie to bump into him. He tuned around and pointed at Leslie's heart. "Okay, we are done talking about this." With a last sigh, he managed to muster a final "Idiot" out of his own breath.
When the twins reached school, they went directly to Mr. Garrison's class because they were already going to be late. As the two stormed in, Mr. Garrison was sitting at his desk looking at his clipboard of children in his class. Catching the attention of the Donovan twins entering the room, Mr. Garrison turned his head to the left and looked up to the two. "One minute late."
Leslie stuck her hands out. "Mr. Garrison, we can explain-"
"Just shut up and sit down. I don't wanna hear anymore excuses." As the twins took their seats, Mr. Garrison stood up from his desk. After his lesson plans about teaching the legacy of Donald Trump was over, the recess bell rang.
John was busy surfing the internet on his cell phone. As he reached his locker and opened it to grab the flowers that were supposed to go to Kelsey, out of the corner of his right eye he saw Sam approach. He noticed that Sam was not happy, and it was very likely he wasn't happy to see John. "So weren't those flowers supposed to go to Kelsey?"
"Yeah, I forgot, you're too are gonna shit all over me for forgetting about bringing Kelsey flowers, huh?" John rolled his eyes, expecting Sam to give another rant about his sudden forgetfulness, just like what Leslie had done earlier this morning.
"Wait what?" Sam raised an eyebrow, partially wondering why he was mentioned alongside another unknown person.
"Leslie bitched at me today for bringing Kelsey flowers," John replied.
"Oh, well I'm not here to talk to you about that actually." Sam took off his green ushanka and held it in his hands. He shook his head and closed his eyes for three seconds. "I just...I just don't know how I feel..." John stayed silent. Sam rubbed his forehead with his left hand. "Let's not pretend for a moment that I don't care about Cory. I do." John nodded but still remained silent. Sam gave a harsh sigh, mustering up as much courage as he could. "Okay, do you know what I hate? I hate how you - you were a total dick to him all year. Well I was pretty bad to Cory as well, but still, John this isn't right."
"Do you want my honest opinion? Because here's my honest opinion." John fully faced Sam as Sam put his hat back on. "I'm not doing this out of revenge. The truth of the matter is that I don't want him around. I don't want him tainting my image - or tainting our image."
"You care that much about your image?" Sam retorted.
"Oh come on, like you don't, Sam? As much as you talk highly about Cory you don't even ever seem to be there for him whenever things go wrong. But that's besides the point." John shook his head and swept his hands side-to-side, as if telling a child not to do something. "Let's get the facts straight though - Cory is a creeper. He's a stalker. He might be a pervert - I don't know, I don't remember the last time he made a sex joke. But anyways, you know he's always obsessed over some girl. Always staring at some girl, and it's beyond creepy, it's predatorial."
"He's a nice guy, and besides, there was no reason to manipulate him like that. Like what the fuck, this is beyond reasonable, how can you find this shit reasonable?" Sam rubbed his eyebrows with his right index finger in frustration.
"Well he's not that nice of a guy. And the way he just stands around in every conversation - it's just creepy as fuck, you know?" John deeply groaned as he grabbed the flowers out of his locker and slammed it shut. "He doesn't do anything to benefit us."
"Uh, you've been telling him to do all that retarded shit all year that he got in trouble for, hello?" It was mind boggling for Sam trying to talk to John about Cory. Every single time, he couldn't believe how John would do all these mental gymnastics to make Cory seem like the bad guy. Sam could never convince John that he was in the wrong. But for as long as he knew John, which was only since Second Grade, he could never figure out why he had to act like the alpha male of the male students in their grade, never figured out why he had to be such a bad boy.
On the other hand, John was sick of Cory being mentioned all of the time. He could not see why Sam liked Cory so much as a friend. Furthermore, he was so annoyed by Cory's presence that although he enjoyed hazing Cory, deep down he preferred it if he never had to interact with Cory again. Of course though, there was also the issue of Cory potentially stealing Kelsey away, and after seeing those (terribly written) live sitcoms on TV of the stereotypical nerd stealing away the pretty girl, he preferred not to take his chances. "Okay, but my point still stands. I don't want him around. In fact, starting immediately, I'm not going to initiate anything with him, I'm not going to look at him, I'm not going to talk to him. But if he fucks with me in any way, then I'm going to make sure he'll pay. Got that?"
"Fine," Sam nodded.
As the two boys parted ways, Nikki was around the corner watching the entire conversation and the potential shattering of the two boys' friendship. She watched as John walked past her, but he took no notice of her presence. Watching that conversation suddenly made Nikki remember why Cory was the way he is. Oh my gosh, I can't believe that I forgot why Cory did all those pranks. Funny, I'm just as forgetful as he is, oh the shame of it. She turned her back to the lockers and leaned on them. She couldn't hate Cory any longer, anymore. All she could feel is pity.
Her left ear perked so she looked down the hall to her left. About a few yards ahead of her was John handing his flowers to Kelsey. "Hey, uh, yo, sorry I forgot to give you these yesterday."
"Two days ago," Kelsey replied. "You asked me out to the dance two days ago." She chuckled at the fact that John, like most boys, was so infatuated with her beauty that it made him forget about many things, the flowers included. However, she too was slightly nervous around boys, and John was no exception, she could feel her heart beat slightly faster than normal. "B-But thanks for the flowers." She did her best to flash a nervous smile.
Kelsey's smile made John blush. "So do you wanna hang out today?
"No, sorry, I'm busy." Nikki was taken aback. As far as she knew, Kelsey most certainly did not have anything important planned today, so this was likely an excuse for her to avoid John.
"Damn. Well I-I should go. Bye." John, wiping sweat off his forehead, left the opposite direction from where Nikki was standing.
Everything came back to Nikki now as her eyes fell to the floor. It was sickening to see John manipulate Cory into doing pranks and evil deeds only for John to end up with Kelsey and Cory to (as far as she knew) be in big trouble. It wasn't right at all. But she can't do anything about it because she feared that John would do something terrible to her, especially since he is backed by all of his friends, and Nikki wouldn't have much backup at all because all of her friends don't like Cory either. She considered telling Principal Victoria about the truth, but then she realized that John might think that Cory ratted him out and so he would maul Cory.
"Hey Nikki! Didn't see you there!"
Nikki looked up, startled. "Woah! Hey, uh, I didn't notice you there, Kels."
"Liar, you watched the entire time." Kelsey smirked then looked back behind herself, but seeing no one of interest, knowing John is gone. She then turned back to Nikki. "So what do you think? Of John?"
"Uh, Kelsey, have you ever considered getting to know John? You know, talk to him about what's up with his life?" Nikki folded her arms, awaiting Kelsey's answer.
"What?" Kelsey scoffed. She shook her head as she faced down the brunette girl. "Look, I like John, as a friend, but not as a love interest. Boys are cruel and disgusting."
Kelsey's response, based on her experiences, made sense to Nikki, but Nikki still found it rather shallow to her. "Okay, well disregard your obvious sexism." Nikki stifled a snort and a laugh. "But let's be real though, I don't think John is as good as he says."
"What makes you say that?" Kelsey slowly spun around. "I mean you're Nikki, like you said yourself that you're supposed to never judge and - ah shit who am I kidding?" As she laughed, Nikki was left confused by Kelsey's reaction. Sometimes, she wondered how alike Kelsey would be to Cory.
"Okay, well I mean, if you're not actually interested in John, then you probably should let him know, you don't want to lead him on into anything."
"Lead him on into what?" Kelsey stepped back in slight disgust. "Oh come on, we're not going to do that, we're too young."
"What?" Nikki immediately facepalmed. "That's not what I meant. Get your mind out of the gutter. What I meant was you don't want to make John think you're just playing hard to get or something." Nikki let out a deep sigh in frustration. "Look, I get it, you don't like boys. That said, you should get to know him a little...before, you know, you might make a rash decision or something. Something..." Her true intention was to get Kelsey to see how much of a monster John is, but it was very hard to word it carefully. "Okay, I don't like John, he strikes me as a douche."
"I mean I guess I can see that." Kelsey shrugged. "Then again, come on, every boy is a douche, so that's not really saying much. Yeah, you could argue that John is only trying to date me for status, but same would go for every other guy who always swoons to me or some shit like that."
"Funny, because you'll kiss other boys to destroy relationships," Nikki retorted.
"Hey, shut up." Kelsey angrily glared at her best friend. "Those stupid bitches like Karis or whatever deserved getting cheated on." In order for Kelsey to enact revenge on the girls she hated, anytime one of such girls would date a boy, Kelsey would use her good looks to seduce and make out with said boy and would make sure the girl was at the right place at the right time. Kelsey taught this trick to the rest of her friends as well. "Whatever, let's actually go outside and do something now."
Nikki folded her arms again and grumbled. "Yes. Let's."
"And so, you see, that's the story of that fat skank Shillary Clinton and her email scandal. Now any questions, kids?" Most of the children were either asleep or paying no attention to another one of Mr. Garrison's political "lessons". As Mr. Garrison erased every last word on the chalkboard, the lunch bell rang. "Okay, kids, remember that we're going to be reading poetry after lunch. That is all."
Nikki walked alone this time on the way to lunch. However, as she got to the entrance to the cafeteria, she bumped straight into Sam. "Ow!" Both children stumbled backwards. As Nikki regained balance, her eyes fell to the floor seeing a bouquet of blue flowers lying on the ground. She picked them up and holding the flowers with her right hand, she stuck out the flowers to Sam. "These are yours I'm guessing? So who's the lucky gal?"
Sam nervously peered his surroundings. Most of the children already entered the cafeteria room and were well on their way to lunch. He then laid his green eyes onto Nikki's brown eyes. "Keep them." His words were so soft that Nikki could barely hear them.
Nevertheless, Nikki completely understood Sam's message and blushed deeply. "Wow, uh thanks. Um, I never imagined anyone asking me out to the dance, heh." Butterflies soared in Nikki's stomach. "A-And I didn't think it'd be you, it's just that our parents, you know-"
"Hey, w-we're not trying to live that legacy." Sam's throat was clogged with saliva from the nervousness of the situation. He tried desperately to clear his throat.
"And I'm not trying to live my dad's. And you know, being a mean fatty and all-"
"Nikki, you're not fat," Sam said. "And your dad isn't that fat anymore anyways."
"I was," Nikki countered.
"That was then though. This is now." Sam frowned though as he saw Nikki sigh and wipe her left bang back with her left hand. "What's wrong?"
"Ugh, I don't know." Nikki faced towards the cafeteria. "Well shit. I mean, I always imagined Kelsey to overshadow me. I've been pretty jealous of her, I just didn't imagine anyone asking me to the dance, or anyone else for that matter because all the guys are too focused on winning Kelsey. At the same time though, she's my best friend, like she was the reason why people don't bully me anymore, she's the reason why people don't bully any of my friends anymore, and it's confusing, but I'm worried about her, I just think I'm not doing enough to help her. And now we kinda got into an argument. Well it's not that bad, I think, but I don't know. I'm confused."
I am confused as well, holy shit. Sam finally successfully cleared his throat of any leftover saliva still stuck in it. "I know how you feel. I've been there before. But listen: you'll get through this. You and I will get through this...hopefully. I mean after all, I am your ticket to that dance." Sam flashed his signature cocky smile at Nikki, his white teeth showing.
"Classic Sam." Nikki rolled her eyes. She sniffed the flowers in her hand, sensing the sweet aroma. "These are really great flowers, Sam! Thanks!" Nikki threw herself into Sam's arms.
Sam returned the hug, his heart beating faster. Nikki is actually pretty hot.
"So when do we order tickets?" Nikki asked.
"I don't know, haven't heard anything about it," Sam shrugged.
"Just one thing though - what do we do if our dads find out that we're going to the dance together?" Nikki asked.
Sam rubbed his chin. "I...don't know. I don't know how well they like each other. But, just to be safe, let's say nothing. Alright?"
"Alright." Life seemed to fall into the right places at the right time for Nikki. She would be going out with the forbidden boy, just like in Romeo and Juliet, but this time, she was going to make sure she'd enjoy the experience. Plus, if things went well, she and Sam could turn a successful dance into an actual relationship.
Of course though, two certain people lingered in the back of her mind: a girl she thought she once knew, and a boy she so quickly turned her back on.
I changed the title of chapter 8. And of course, many more questions will be answered as the story progresses forward.
