As we come to our tenth chapter, I have a few apologies to make: first of all to all of the readers who get annoyed about spelling/grammar mistakes about the online conversation between Ashley A. and Lawson- it's only brief, and Lawson is supposed to make those mistakes. Secondly that there's been no real Ashley A/Spinelli action since Chapter 6- there's more in this chapter and the next one. And thirdly, if the labour scene is a little unrealistic, I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, I'm 13 years old; I'm not a midwife, I've never given birth, and I've never delivered a baby, so I don't have a clue about that kind of stuff, so please don't give me a hard time if I've got it wrong. Again, thanks for your reviews, and enjoy the story!!
"Thankyou very, very much, Miss Armbuster. We look forward to seeing you on Monday." Mr. Rowinski, Ashley's new boss, said, shaking hands with her.
"Thanks, Mr. Rowinski. Bye," Ashley A. said.
Mr. Rowinski held the door open for Ashley A. as she left his office. Ashley A. saw Spinelli, on the counter, wearing that gross uniform. The gross uniform she too would have to wear on Monday.
"Don't tell me you got the job," Spinelli said.
"Sorry, Spinelli, but from Monday onwards we'll be, like, working together," Ashley A. said, although she sounded just as happy about it as Spinelli did.
Spinelli snorted. "Ha! As if you'd keep a job. You Ashleys could never manage a job like this. You'll be fired by Friday."
"Well, you're wrong, Spinelli," Ashley A. said, flouncing out of the shop.
On Ashley A's third night of living with the Spinellis, Bob had suggested to her that she got a job at the toy store in the mall where Spinelli worked. And on Tuesday night, he'd brought that back up again. Ashley really didn't want to work in any store- let alone a store where Spinelli also worked- but she knew she had no choice. Ten dollars a week simply wasn't enough, especially if she could only earn that through chores. She needed a job, but the toy store was the only shop with a vacancy, so she'd applied for that. Now, it was Saturday, and she'd just had her interview with the store's manager, Mr. Rowinski, and he'd just given her the job; she'd be working alongside Spinelli weeknights after school and a few hours on Saturday afternoons.
Ashley A. was glad to get back to the house; Bob and Flo had gone out somewhere and Spinelli was still at work, so she had the house all to herself. Which meant that she could watch soaps. Even if the TV had a small screen and wasn't as good as the one she used to have, there was nothing Ashley loved more than being alone with a good old soap.
Suddenly, Ashley's cell began to ring. She sighed and rolled her eyes as she glanced at the caller ID. Lawson? Hmm… that was a surprise. She hadn't spoken to Lawson for a while. She'd practically forgot that they were dating.
She flipped her phone open. "Hey, Lawson!"
"You're dumped." Lawson's voice said simply.
"What?!" Ashley A said, but the line had gone dead- Lawson had dumped her and hung up, just like that. Ashley was outraged- not because she loved Lawson, but because no one had ever dumped her before. No one had ever dumped any of the Ashleys before!
And yet it was her that had been dumped first. She had always been the unofficial leader of the Ashleys. She had always been the one the other Ashleys looked up to, the richest one, the most stylish one, the one who had won the Little Miss Blush beauty pageant more than the other three.
And now, she'd been dumped.
Ashley A. sighed as she took a seat at the family computer. She logged into a chatroom and saw that Lawson was online, and to her disgust, he was already dating someone else. Needing answers, she started a conversation with him.
PrettyPinkPrincess: Why did you break up with me?
lawsonluvzlola: beecoz your not rich nemore!
PrettyPinkPrincess: Wait… you only started dating me BECAUSE I WAS RICH?!
lawsonluvzlola: ye! i cant beeleev it tuk u 2 munfs 2 wurrk that out! not onli r u brok, but ur dum 2!! hahahahahahahaha
PrettyPinkPrincess: I'm the one who's dumb when you're the one who can't even spell?
lawsonluvzlola: dood itz called chatspeek. n itz KOOL. n ur not!!
PrettyPinkPrincess: I can't believe you only dated me coz I was rich! You're such a shallow jerk!
lawsonluvzlola: wot dus shallow meen?
A furious Ashley A. blocked Lawson before signing out. She couldn't believe Lawson had the nerve to dump her by phone call and date some other girl just minutes after dumping her (Lola, his new girlfriend, was an extremely dumb, giggly freshman on the cheerleading squad)- those two things alone were bad enough. But now Lawson had actually had the audacity to suggest that guys only liked her because of her money??
And the worst part was that he was right.
For both Ashley A. and Spinelli, school that week was torture. It was torture for Ashley A. because whenever she looked at the other Ashleys, or she saw Lawson with Lola, she was reminded of what she used to have, but lost, and because she'd lost that, people didn't like her anymore. Since that brief online conversation with Lawson, she'd questioned everyone: if Lawson only liked her because she was rich, did all the other guys she'd dated? Did the other Ashleys? Did the rest of the school? She was even starting to doubt Bob and Flo.
And it was torture for Spinelli because TJ was back, and because Kate, Ruby, Sam and Dave were still friends with him, he was hanging out with him. If things with her and TJ weren't bad enough before, he'd gone and made them worse by stealing her song diary. TJ kept trying to talk to her, but Spinelli had nothing left to say to him: she'd trusted him and he'd let her down. Since TJ had stolen her song book, she'd questioned everyone: if TJ would betray her, would Kate, Ruby, Sam and Dave? Would Gretchen? Would Joey? She was even starting to doubt her parents.
And if school wasn't bad enough for both of them, they had to spend even more time together, because of Ashley starting work at the toy store with Spinelli.
One Saturday afternoon, they were both behind the counter again, experiencing what they both thought was quite a normal work day. Mr. Rowinski had just popped out and was trusting Ashley and Spinelli to look after the store.
"Stop reading that dumb magazine, Ashley," Spinelli said, rolling her eyes. Every day this week Ashley A. had escaped work by reading that dumb fashion magazine, yet Mr. Rowinski still hadn't caught her slacking, and yet she would get the same wage as Spinelli, who actually worked at work. Life was so unfair.
"Make me," Ashley A. said simply, turning the page- she wasn't in the mood for dealing with one of Spinelli's mood swings.
"I will," Spinelli said angrily, snatching Ashley A's fashion magazine from her with great force and ripping it to shreds. Ashley A watched in horror, blue eyes bulging with shock.
"I can't believe you, like, just did that, Spinelli!" she said in disbelief.
"Well I did," Spinelli said calmly. "And you can clean that up!"
"Gee Spinelli, like, what rattled your cage?" Ashley A. said, getting down on the floor to clean up the shreds of paper that used to be her magazine.
Spinelli sighed. "You would have no idea," she said, not knowing that she and Ashley A. were more similar than either of them had thought.
And something was about to happen that would make them realise that.
A woman walked into the toy store: she was quite young, very pale and looked extremely scared; she kept looking over her shoulder. And she was very heavily pregnant.
"Excuse me miss, are you OK?" Spinelli politely asked the woman as she made her way over to the counter, trembling like mad.
"Please… hide… me…" The woman whispered, it was obvious she was terrified. "This man… he keeps… following me…"
"Of course, come on, we'll look after you-" Spinelli was interrupted by the woman's scream, a true scream of terror.
A man was standing in the doorway of the store. He was tall and skinny and wearing extremely scruffy clothes. His hair was long and matted, and looked like it hadn't been washed for weeks. He grinned, a menacing grin, revealing yellow teeth. His eyes lit up with evil: Ashley A. and even Spinelli were instantly terrified.
"Nobody move," The man said, not taking his eyes off the woman, eyes that were bulging with evil madness. "That woman is mine… mine to kill."
Ashley A. and Spinelli exchanged petrified looks: and, if the man coming in and threatening to kill the woman weren't bad enough… there was another scream, and the woman was on the floor.
The shock had made her go into labour.
"Omigod!" Ashley said, tucking her blond hair behind her ears. She watched so many soap operas about hospitals (even if the other Ashleys thought they were gross) that she knew just what to do when someone went into labour.
"Spinelli, take off your socks and find me a blanket," Ashley commanded. Spinelli did as she was told; Ashley put Spinelli's red and black stripy socks on the woman's freezing feet and covered the woman's shaking body with the blanket. She placed one hand under the woman's head and said to her calmly, "It's OK, just keep pushing, you're doing a great job, come on, you're going to be OK."
The woman, of course, screamed at her, "I'm going into labour in a toy store. My baby is going to be delivered by a teenager who has no idea what she's doing. And in case you've forgotten… A MADMAN IS THREATENING TO KILL ME!!"
The madman licked his lips. "You and your stupid baby," he said, walking over to the woman, who had frozen in fear. Ashley A. too looked petrified. Spinelli knew she had to do something…
"You ain't killing anyone, pal," Spinelli said, suddenly leaping in front of him.
The madman laughed. "You're just a little teenage girl. Do you really think you can stop me?"
"You underestimate me," Spinelli said, folding her arms- Spinelli had been into wrestling for eight years- she knew all the moves. And she had a black belt in martial arts.
The madman laughed again. "Oh please. Stop trying to be all heroic. You have two options; number one, you can step aside and let me kill that woman and her baby. Number two, you can get in my way and let me kill you, and that woman and her baby. The choice is yours."
Spinelli looked at the shaking woman- tears rolling down her cheeks. She had never seen anyone look that scared before and prayed that she would never have to see anyone look that scared again.
Then she turned back to the man, quivering, but not with fear, with rage. "How about the third option," Spinelli said, "you kill none of us!"
Spinelli punched the man in the stomach, thinking this would all be a piece of cake- he was, after all, skinny and bony. But the guy was strong- he grabbed Spinelli's right arm and twisted it right round. Spinelli screamed in agony- she knew he'd just broken it- but she wasn't giving up. The man grabbed her, but she bit him, so hard he had to drop her, gasping in pain. He grabbed Spinelli's hair and tugged on it with a powerful force- Spinelli yowled in pain but couldn't give up, so she kicked the man somewhere private, and he collapsed onto the floor, nearly crying, he was in so much pain. Spinelli smirked, thinking she'd won.
But this wasn't yet over. The man suddenly stood up and cornered Spinelli, reached into his pocket and took out… a knife.
Spinelli, Ashley and the woman giving birth all screamed, and the man smirked.
"You can't beat me now, you little brat," he said, stepping closer and closer towards Spinelli…
"This ends now," A voice said; but it wasn't that of any of the three petrified women in the store. It was a male voice, deep and angry and familiar.
TJ Detweiler ran into the store and leapt in front of Spinelli. "Spin- call the cops! I'll handle this."
"But TJ"- Spinelli said.
"JUST DO IT, SPINELLI!" TJ screamed, and Spinelli had never heard him talk like that before, so she got out her cell phone and called the cops.
"Call an ambulance too, when you're done!" Ashley A. shouted- Spinelli had forgotten that she was there.
After Spinelli had called the cops and the ambulance, she put her phone away and to her horror, TJ was still there, fighting off the guy with the knife.
"TJ, YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!!" Spinelli screamed at him, but he didn't respond. "TEEJ, IT'S TOO DANGEROUS, I'LL FIGHT HIM!!"
Spinelli ran over to fight the madman, but TJ grabbed her round the waist. "You can't! He'll hurt you!" He said, holding her tighter than anyone had ever held her before.
Spinelli struggled to break free. "But I don't want him to hurt you!"
"Well, well, well." The madman said, grinning evilly. "The little brat has a boyfriend. How cute."
"WE'RE JUST FRIENDS!!" Spinelli and TJ cried out, despite everything.
TJ glanced at Spinelli in disbelief. "Friends? We're friends? You're friends with me again?"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT WE ARE TJ, JUST GO BEFORE HE HURTS YOU!!" Spinelli screamed.
"Seeing as you two lovebirds can't agree on anything," the madman said, getting angry, "how about… I KILL YOU BOTH?!" He yelled, getting out a knife.
"NO!" TJ and Spinelli screamed- there was no escape. They were cornered. They were defeated. The man would get both of them and then he would get the woman and her baby. Maybe he would even kill Ashley A. Their efforts had gone to waste.
TJ looked at Spinelli; his best friend, the only girl he'd ever loved… she'd never done anything to hurt anyone, and TJ didn't want her to die. If TJ lived, he couldn't imagine his life without her, and even if TJ died, he didn't want Spinelli to have to go through all the pain. He wanted her to die peacefully in her sleep after a long, happy life, not feeling any pain at all.
Not like this. Not at the age of sixteen in a corner of a toy store after being stabbed by a madman.
But if he didn't want Spinelli to die, he'd have to do something… as the man lunged at Spinelli with the knife, TJ leapt in front of her and the knife got him. A pool of blood soaked TJ's clothes as he fell, onto the ground.
"TJ! TJ DON'T LEAVE ME!!" Spinelli yelled, kneeling beside her best friend and secret love, who'd just been stabbed in the chest.
"TJ… please…" Spinelli whispered, so only TJ would hear. "You can't leave me… you mean everything to me and I can't imagine my life without you TJ, I- I- I- I love you…"
TJ opened his mouth to say 'I love you too', but instead of words, blood trickled out. Spinelli was crying, and that last thing TJ remembered thinking was how beautiful Spinelli was even when she was crying.
And then everything went black.
Bit of an action-packed chapter for you!! As I am an evil super-villain I have decided to end it here… is TJ dead? And will the madman get Spinelli, Ashley A. and the woman going into labour too? Find out in Chapter 11, which will be up ASAP!!