Allison looked at her, tears glistening in her own eyes, "When you grow up, your heart dies."
"Who cares." Bender snapped.
"I care…" Allison whispered.
"Me too." Kate said just as quietly, briefly touching the back of Allison's hand.
John looked at her and she stared back for a moment before scooting over to him. His lips twitched slightly as she grabbed his arm and wrapped it around her shoulder before curling her arm around his waist.
"I care." She muttered quietly enough that only he heard her.
The group sat in silence for a few moments before Brian suddenly spoke up.
"Um, I was just thinking, I mean, I know it's kind of a weird time but I was just wondering, um, what's going to happen to us on Monday, when we're all together again?" He asked, "I mean, I consider you guys my friends. I'm not wrong am I?"
"No." Andy said firmly, and Kate wondered if it was to convince Brian or himself.
"So—So on Monday, what happens?" Brian asked again.
"Are we still friends, you mean?" Claire asked to clarify the brain's question, "If we're friends now, that is."
"Yeah," Brian said with a nod, staring at Claire expectantly.
Claire looked at the ground before looking back at the nerd, "Do you want the truth?"
"Yeah, I want the truth."
"I don't think so." Claire said with a sad sigh.
Brian looked away from her, crestfallen and Kate just sighed silently.
"With all of us or just John?" Allison asked, slightly teasing.
Claire cleared her throat, "With all of you."
"That's a real nice attitude, Claire." Andy snapped without looking at her, trying to deny it.
"Oh, be honest, Andy!" Claire retorted, "If Brian came walking up to you in the hall on Monday what would you do?" She didn't wait for his to answer, "I mean, picture this. You're there with all the sports. You know exactly what you'd do. You'd say hi to him, and when he left you'd cut him all up so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him."
"No way." Andy denied, and now Kate was sure he was trying to convince himself.
"Okay." Allison said, "What if I came up to you? Or Kate?"
Claire shrugged helplessly, "Same exact thing."
John suddenly jerked forward, "You are a bitch!"
Claire looked at him wide-eyed for a moment before snapping right back, "Why, 'cause I'm telling truth? That makes me a bitch?"
"No, cause you know how shitty that is to do someone." He said, pointing at the redhead, "And you don't got the balls to stand up to your friends and tell them you're gonna like who you wanna like."
Kate looked at the two quietly before staring at Brian, who was crying silently as he looked at the ceiling. The blonde felt the strangest urge to hug the nerd, the way she would hug her sister or brother when they were sad.
"Okay, what about you, you hypocrite?" Claire yelled, "Why don't you take Allison to one of your heavy metal vomit parties?"
Allison giggled nervously when the redhead suggested that and John looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Or take Brian out to the parking lot at lunch to get high? Or what about Andy for that matter? What about me? Or Kate?" The redhead continued her attack on the criminal, "What would your friends say if we were walking down the hall together? What would they say if they saw you and Kate together, huh? They'd laugh their asses off, and you'd tell them you were doing it with her, so they'd forgive you for being seen with her."
Kate flinched slightly and looked up at John through her lashes. The criminal didn't look down at her, instead pointing his finger at the princess as he lashed out at her.
"Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends, you don't look at any of my friends, and you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends, so you just stick to the things you know—shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW, and your poor, rich, drunk mother in the Caribbean."
"SHUT UP!" Claire shouted and kicked him.
"As far as being concerned about what's gonna happen when Kate and I walk down the hallways at school, you can forget it! 'Cause it's never gonna happen." He said, not even thinking about what he was saying, "Just bury your head in the sand and wait for your fuckin' prom!"
Kate recoiled from John like he'd slapped her and she just stared at him, brown eyes wide and full of hurt. John swallowed, his mouth going dry as he stared back at her, his heart clenching when she looked away from him and moved to sit next to Allison, who took the blonde girl's hand in hers.
"I hate you!" Claire screamed at him and John jerked to stare at her.
"Yeah? Good!" He snapped, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to avoid looking at Kate.
Brian wiped at eyes, "Okay, then I assume Kate, Allison, and I are better people than you guys, huh?" he asked rhetorically, "Us weirdos."
The nerd turned to look at the two girls, "Would you—would you do that to me?"
"I don't have any friends." Allison said quietly.
Brian smiled slightly and rolled his eyes, "Well, if you did."
The dark haired girl shook her head, "No. I don't think the kind of friends I'd have would mind."
Brian turned to look at a silent Kate, "What about you? Would you do that?"
Kate looked up at him and gave him a weak smile, "Mah friends either don' go here or are back in Georgia. But Ah don' give a shit wha' they'd say anyway."
Brian nodded, giving her a small smile before looking at the ground, "Well, I just wanna tell each of you that I wouldn't do that." He said with quiet conviction, "I wouldn't and I will not. 'Cause I think that's really shitty."
Claire looked at him sadly, tears running down her cheeks, "Your friends wouldn't mind because they look up to us."
Kate just stared at the girl blankly before looking back at the floor, letting Brian handle that one.
The nerd gave a humorless chuckle, "You're so conceited, Claire. You're so conceited." He said as he wiped his eyes, "You're so, like, full of yourself. Why are you like that?"
Claire looked at him with a hurt expression on her face, "I'm not saying that to be conceited! I hate it. I hate having to go along with everything my friends say."
"Then why do ya do it?" Kate asked quietly, not looking up from carpet she was picking at, "Wha's tha point?"
"I don't know. I don't— " She started, shaking her head, "You don't understand. You don't—You're not friends with the same kinds of people Andy and I are friends with. You know, you just don't understand the pressure they can put on you."
Kate shook her head and leaned back, tilting her head to look at the ceiling.
"I don't understand what?" Brian asked with a scoff as he pointed at his chest, "You think I don't understand pressure, Claire? Well, fuck you! Fuck you!"
Claire stared at him in shock as he cursed her. Brian shook his head and hid his face in his elbow to hide the tears that were falling down. Bender looked at the nerd before turning his head to stare at Kate, seeing a single tear slip down her cheek but she never took her gaze off the ceiling.
"You know why I'm here today?" Brian asked, face still hiding, "Do you?"
He sniffled slightly and moved his arm, not making eye contact, "I'm here because Mr. Ryan found a gun in my locker."
Claire's mouth dropped open and her own eyes widened and John noticed Kate jerk her head down to stare at the nerd with wide eyes before she looked back up at the ceiling with closed eyes.
"Why'd you have a gun in your locker?" Andy asked gently, staring at the nerd sympathetically.
"I tried." Brian sobbed slightly, "When you pull the fuckin' trunk on it, the light's supposed to go on. It didn't go on." He straightened from his laying down position, wrapping his arms around his knees.
"What was the gun for, Brian?" Kate asked softly, without looking at him.
"Just forget it." The nerd said, avoiding the question.
"You brought it up, man." Andy pointed out.
Brian clasped his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees, "I can't have an 'F.'" He said, "I can't have it, and I know my parents can't have it. Even if I ace the rest of the semester, I'm still only a 'B.' Everything's ruined for me."
"Brian—" Claire said quietly.
"What?" the nerd snapped at her, smacking the chair that was next to him, "Considering my options, you know."
"No!" Claire denied, "Killing yourself is not an option."
"Well, I didn't do it, did I?" He demanded, lifting his head to glare at her, "No, I don't think so."
Allison looked at him, "It was a handgun?"
Brian breathed out harshly, "No, it was a flare gun. It went off in my locker."
Kate choked suddenly, hanging her head and biting her fist, "A flare gun?" she asked from around her fist.
"Really?" Andy asked with a slight laugh.
"It's not funny." Brian said, leaning his hand against his forehead.
Andy cleared his throat in an attempt to dispel any more laughter before he started chuckling again. Kate giggled quietly and buried her face in her knees, while Allison bit her lip to keep from laughing too. John just watched Kate, a smile tugging at his lips.
Brian sniffed, pursing his own lips before chuckling too, "Yes it is. Fuckin' elephant was destroyed."
Kate threw her head back with a bark of laughter, "Fuckin' deserved it to, dinit?"
Brian laughed with her and nodded his head, "Yeah, yeah it did."
"You wanna know what I did to get in here?" Allison asked suddenly, a slight smile on her face.
Andy grinned at her and nodded.
Kate smiled, "Watcha do?"
"Nothing," Allison giggled, "I didn't have anything better to do."
Kate snorted and shook her head at the girl in amazement as the others chuckled.
"You're laughing at me." Allison accused teasingly.
"No!" Andy denied through his laughter.
The basket-case nodded her head, laughing herself, "Yeah, you are.
Kate laughed and nudged the girl with her shoulder, "Yer right, we are." She teased, making the others laugh harder.
"What did you do?" the dark-haired girl asked the blonde and nudged her back with a slight smile.
Kate shrugged, picking at the carpet again, still giggling faintly, "Ah broke Dean Taylors jaw."
Andy stared at her incredulously, "That was you?"
The blonde nodded and shrugged, "Dumbass called mah sister ah whore and asked if Ah was as broken in as her. So Ah broke his face."
Andy sputtered for a few moments before starting to laugh madly, clutching at his stomach. Kate ducked her head a slight smile on her face as the others started laughing with the jock.
Brian fixed the record, making a face when it scratched, before he adjusted it again and the music poured out of the room. The nerd grinned, dancing slightly as he flicked the volume switches up and turned the knobs.
Allison danced around the statue in the middle of the library for a moment before dancing away from it, raising her arms above her head and spinning in circles as she danced. John was sitting on the statue the same way Kate had been earlier in the day, holding on to the head as he headbanged to the rock music, causing the ugly piece of art to rock slightly. Brian was still in the library office, dancing around as he picked up records before tossing them around the room, making a mess. Claire danced on of the stairway platforms, kicking her feet as she turned in circle and swung her head around while sat on the railing of the platform opposite her, using his hands to drum on his thigh. Kate had jumped up onto Allison's table, kicking her feet in the air and thrashing about as she danced, laughing and singing the lyrics to the song at the same time.
"If we dare expose our hearts and just reveal the purest thought!" She sang, rolling her hips before she jumped off the table and danced around Allison, who was sort of hopping and throwing her arms around. Kate laughed and did some air guitar and Andy did the same from his spot on the second floor, standing on a bench with one foot on the rail.
Allison and John hopped onto the rail and did a little sideways step together. The boys did a little dance on the railing next followed by Claire, Kate, and Allison doing a little sideway stepping with their hands held out prissily.
John smirked and grabbed Kate, pulling her next to him as he continued to dance. The blonde laughed and followed his lead, doing the same moves he did before they both fell to the floor in an exhausted tangled heap. Allison looked like she was convulsing as she slowly lowered herself to the floor and just laid there.
Kate giggled and sat up, pecking John on the lips quickly before she darted away. The criminal groaned before getting to his feet and heading back to the storage room through the ceiling, being even more careful than before.
The other five teens sat on the rails on the first floor of the library, staring at nothing. Kate looked first at Andy, who was at the end and kept glancing at Allison. Said girl was sitting in between the jock and Kate and would try to catch the jock's eye every time he looked at her. Kate rolled her eyes slightly before looking at Claire and Brian who were side by side on the blonde girl's other side.
"Brian?" Claire said suddenly, looking at the nerd.
"Hmm?" Brian grunted, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
Claire leaned her elbow on her thigh before resting her cheek on her fist, "Are you gonna write your paper?"
Brian mimicked her pose as he turned to face her, "Yeah. Why?"
Claire smiled at him shyly and looked away before looking back, "Well, it's kind of a waste for all of us to write our paper, don't you think?"
Brian cocked an eyebrow at her, "Well that's what Vernon wants us to do."
"True," Claire nodded, "But I think we'd all kind of say the same thing."
Brian grinned at her, "You just don't want to write your paper, right?"
Claire giggled and looked slightly abashed, "Well, that's true, but you're the smartest, right?"
Kate snorted quietly and turned her head from the two flirting teens to stare at the other two teens that were flirting with their eyes.
"We trust you." Claire said suddenly, pulling Kate's attention from the amusement sight of Andy and Allison's game of look-and-look-away.
"She's righ'." The blonde drawled when the nerd looked past Claire to stare at the others.
Allison nodded, staying quiet while Andy muttered a 'yeah' before looking back at Allison, only to look away when she caught him.
"Alright." Brian nodded, "I'll do it."
"Great!" Claire said happily, clapping her hands together.
The group was quiet again and Kate tilted her head as she watched Claire assess Allison's clothes and makeup. As if feeling eyes on her, Allison turned her head slowly to stare at Claire, leaning back slightly when she saw the look on the redhead's face.
"Come on." Claire said, tugging on the baggy sleeve of Allison's sweater.
"Where are we going?" Allison asked suspiciously.
"Come on." Claire said again and jumped from the rail.
Allison looked at Kate for help but the blonde just held up her hands and hopped down from the rail herself.
"Sorry, hun, Ah've got ta go see a jailbird." She said with smirk before slipping out of the library.
Brian watched Kate leave before looking towards where Claire and Allison had walked off to.
"Where are they going?" The brain asked as he hopped down and headed towards his desk to start on the paper.
Andy shrugged, still staring at where Allison had disappeared too with Claire.
"Don't be afraid." Claire said reassuringly to Allison as she applied some brown eyeliner.
"Don't stick that in my eye." Allison squeaked slightly, looking at the eyeliner pencil warily.
Claire rolled her eyes, "I'm not sticking—Just close it. Wait a minute. Just go like—go like this." Claire said and closed her eyes while opening her mouth.
Allison hesitated for a moment before doing what the other girl said too.
"Good." Claire muttered and went back to applying the eyeliner, deciding to ignore Allison's whimper.
"You know, you really do look better without all that black shit on your eyes." Claire stated.
"Hey," Allison objected, "I like that black shit."
"Well, this looks a lot better." Claire assured the other girl as she applied mascara, "Look up."
Claire smiled as she added the finishing touches to Allison's makeup, running the bristly end of the eyelash brush over the other girl's eyebrows.
"Please. Why are you being so nice to me?" Allison asked.
Claire paused for a moment before grinning, "'Cause you're letting me. And you're done, let's go."
Allison blushed slightly, but followed the other girl out of the room they'd been in. The redhead instantly headed towards where Brian was sitting, writing the paper. The nerd glanced up at the princess before smiling and returning to his work as the girl leaned her head against his shoulder and watched Allison walk towards Andy.
Andy stared at Allison in surprise as she walked towards him, a shy smile on her lips. The jock jumped down from the railing and met her half way.
"Hi." She said, looking at him from under her lashes, nervously fidgeting her fingers.
She started to fidget more when Andy didn't say anything, just continued to stare at her in amazement.
"What happened to you?" Andy asked, still staring.
"Why? Claire did it." Allison said, slightly defensive, "What's wrong?"
Andy shook his head, "Nothing's wrong. It's just… you're just so different, you know. I can see your face."
Allison shifted uncomfortably, "Is that good or bad?"
"That's good." He said with a slight smile and Allison grinned at him shyly.
John lifted his head up when he heard the door unlock, tensing in preparation for Vernon to come sauntering through the door. The criminal was pleasantly surprised when a familiar head of unruly blonde curls appeared instead.
Kate smirked down at the dark-haired teen before slipping inside the supply closet fully and shutting the door behind her. She leaned against the door and smiled at him.
"You lost?" he asked with his own smirk widening when she bit her lip and shook her head.
"No." she grinned and walked towards him until her stomach rested against his knees then she placed her hands on his thighs.
John shook his head in amusement, shifting his legs apart so Kate could stand between them. Kate looked up at him as she walked closer until her lower body was pressed against the desk he sat on top of.
The criminal rested his arms on her shoulders and looked down at her, "I'm didn't mean what I said earlier, you know."
Kate just rolled her eyes, before leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to his throat.
"What did you do that for?" John asked after she'd pulled away.
The blonde smiled slyly at him, "Couldna let ya ruin yer bad boy reputation by apologizin' now could Ah?" She shrugged, "Besides, it looked like ya weren't gonna make a move any time soon."
John growled slightly and wrapped one hand around the back of her neck before kissing her heatedly. Kate sighed and lightly brushed her tongue against his bottom lip, not bothering to pull away even when she heard the door being flung open.
"Alright, that's enough." Vernon snapped, glaring at the two teens who just smirked at him after pulling away from each other, "Get out of here, both of you."
Kate smiled pleasantly as she stepped back so John could hop off the desk and gather his stuff together.
"With pleasure, Dick." She called out as she pulled John back towards the library to grab her stuff and meet up with the others.
Kate giggled slightly, her biker jacket and trench thrown over her shorts and tank with her army surplus bag over her shoulder and her hand wrapped tightly around John's hand as the group of six walked down the halls. She and the criminal were bringing up the rear of the group, with Allison and Andy standing side by side in the middle, and Claire and Brian holding hands up front.
Brian nodded towards Carl, who was leaning against his mop, watching them as they passed.
"See ya, Brian." The janitor called.
"Hey, Carl." The nerd called back, unembarrassed now about knowing the janitor and smiling widely when Claire waved at Carl.
Both Allison and Andy acknowledged Carl before following after Claire and Brian. John and Kate paused in front of Carl, both with identically shit-eating grins on their faces.
"See ya next Saturday." John said with chuckle.
"Bye, Carl. See ya tomorrow." Kate said with a smirk before letting John pull her down the hallway.
"You bet." Carl called after them, shaking his head in amazement as he watched the six, completely different teens leave the school, closer to each other than they are to anyone else.
Claire bit her lip slightly before leaning up to kiss the corner of Brian's mouth as they stood in front of his dad's car.
"See you Monday?" She asked, blushing slightly.
"Y-yeah." The nerd stuttered and quickly ducked his head to press a kiss to the princess's cheek, "See you, Monday."
Claire smiled and waved as he got into the car and his dad drove away before she waved at the others and got into her dad's BMW.
Andy tugged Allison closer by his blue hoodie that was wrapped around her shoulders before he wrapped a hand in her had at the back of her next. Allison stared up at him for a moment, before they both leaned forward, their lips meeting in sweet kiss.
Allison grabbed the patch on his shoulder and ripped it off as they pulled away, showing it to him a mischievous smile on her face as she backed away from him and towards her parents car. The jock stared after her as she climbed in, not really paying attention as his father drove forward. It was only after Andy had made sure that Allison was in her car, did the jock climb into his dad's, not saying anything. Mr. Clark looked out his window at the dark-haired girl before shaking his head and driving away.
John grabbed Kate's other hand so he was holding both as he stared down at her.
"You got a ride?" He asked with a smirk.
"Nope." Kate answered, popping the 'p' with a grin, "That yer way of askin' ta walk me home?"
John grinned and pressed a quick kiss to her lips, "Yeah, it is. You gotta problem with that, Katie?"
Kate laughed and pulled him closer, "Nah, John." She murmured before kissing him sweetly, "But we better hurry up."
John chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, leading her towards the football field.
"Eager for your old man to meet your new stray?" He teased, laughing when she blushed slightly.
Kate rolled her eyes swatted his ass before wrapping her arm around his waist, "Ya know it."
Author's Note: AHHH! It's finally finished! All that's left is one more chapter and the epilogue, which I will probably post tomorrow! SO yeah, thanks to everyone that reviewed/faved/alerted. Y'all rock like it's 1999!