We've Got Spirit
Disclaimer: In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to NBC, Jake Kasdan, Judd Apatow, Paul Feig, Gabe Sachs, Jeff Judah, Mike White, J. Elvis Weinstein, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.
"You look terrible."
These were not the first words that I was used to hearing upon my arrival at school, as I usually managed to maintain a very decent appearance despite my frequent drinking and low weight. In fact very rarely did I have 'off' days in terms of my looks; my hair was generally well maintained and although some girls would have considered my clothing to be strange and alternative I enjoyed my fashion choices.
Today however, there was an outlying reason as to why Ken was correct in stating that I looked like 'absolute crap', as he so lovingly put it seconds after I had thanked him sarcastically. The bags under my eyes and certain paleness was no doubt a direct result of the hangover that I was currently experiencing, having polished off an entire bottle of my stepfather's gin the night beforehand. He and my mother hadn't been home for the entire weekend, and after coming home from a movie with Kim I took advantage of the fact that I was alone and in somewhat peace.
I was started to regret my late Sunday night decision, although the copious amounts of water and the cigarette currently resting in between my lips were helping my case by a landslide.
"I'm serious," Ken continued, causing me to roll my eyes and make a face at my friend. "You look like microwaved crap, Kat."
"Thank you Ken, I get it!" I quipped, gripping my forehead in annoyance as I willed my headache to go away. "I also feel like microwaved crap, so it would be superb if you could shut up."
"Sorry," He shrugged without a shred of guilt on his features, making me snort as I tried to finish my cigarette before the morning bell went off. "Just tellin' it how it is."
Without even bothering to spare my friend an eye roll, I hopped off of the bleachers as soon as I had discarded my finished cancer stick and led Ken away from the patio. We proceeded inside the rather crowded hallway, switching positions so that Ken was leading in efforts not to get trampled. The jocks horsing around in the corridors before classes tended to steer clear of Ken's larger form, knowing fully well that when push came to shove the boy was a heavyweight and could lay some fairly bad damage on an oncoming attacker. Our freak squad had gotten into some rather nasty brawls during our time at McKinley high, allowing Ken to defend his title as a person that the jocks were always sure to watch their words around.
Pissing off Ken, they had discovered after a broken nose or two, was a bad idea.
It was for this reason that I stayed close to him as we continued down the hallway, not stopping until we had breached a calmer area of the school and abruptly stopped. I peered around Ken's form in confusion, wondering what the hold up was, and followed his curious gaze up towards the sky where Vicky and one of her fellow cheerleaders were hanging up a sign that read 'assassinate Lincoln'. I didn't imagine that this had anything to do with the death of our nation's sixteenth president, although it could have had something to do with our rival school.
"Who's Lincoln?" Ken questioned dumbly, fully knowing who the president was but obviously not aware of the opposite school in our district.
The question drew Vicky's attention as she turned towards Ken in a haughty confusion, and ignored my presence completely. This fact didn't exactly make me upset; it was better that we pretend we didn't exist in each other's worlds, especially considering the last time we had spoken I had nearly jumped her bones.
"Our rival school," Vicky stated with the utmost superior tone, making me clench my jaw as I remembered why it was so hard to keep my mouth shut around this girl and call her out on her absolute bitchiness.
"We made regionals," The cheerleader standing opposite from Vicky, helping her hang the sign up, grinned widely at us. I nearly reeled from the nice gesture, assessing that she must have been so new that she still didn't understand how the social hierarchy worked. "Isn't that cool?"
"In what?" Ken asked, making me smirk. Every time someone showed off cluelessness towards a sports event that the cheerleaders held so dear, you could just see that it crumbled their perspective of how important they thought they were. The school liked to make them think that they were at the centre of the universe, but people like Ken reminded them that they really weren't at all.
"Basketball?" Vicky gave him a very dumbfounded glare, as if she couldn't believe that he hadn't heard of the 'big game' that was coming up, and then averted her attention to the other girl helping her pin up the poster. "Will you stop jerking it out of my hands? You're gonna rip it – god!"
Hearing Vicky snap reminded me that the best interaction you could have with her was trying to avoid her at all costs, so I followed Ken towards where Daniel and Kim were standing near my locker instead of staying near the girl. This turned out to be somewhat of a mistake however, because as soon as we reached our circle of friends they fixed me with incredulous expressions that had rivaled that of Ken's ten minutes ago.
"What happened to you!?" Kim pulled a face, then immediately went to check the temperature of my forehead. "Are you sick?"
"I'm not sick!" I swatted her hand away impatiently and made a face, going to open my locker and exchanging my books. I must have been paler than I thought, because when Kim thought I looked bad my situation must have been really bad. "Ugh. You guys are like vultures."
"Well, what are you then?" Daniel drawled, leaning on the set of lockers beside mine and fixing me with an inquisitive gaze. "'Cause you look like you had a rough night."
"All of you better shut the fuck up," I swore with a funny frown, reaching into my bag to pull out my compact mirror and some makeup to hopefully better the situation on my face. "I'm just hungover."
"Let me do it," Kim grabbed the makeup out of my hands and spun me around, both of us knowing fully well that she was better at applying cover up than I was. "And we told you to call us if you were gonna drink alone."
"Yeah, well," I sighed, trying not to move my face as much as my best friend began applying the makeup. "Sorry."
There was silence for a moment as Ken and Daniel curiously watched Kim cover my pale face with foundation, the same color of my natural somewhat-healthy skin. The bags under my eyes were given the same treatment, and whilst the boys cracked some jokes about cake-facing me – that earned both of them smacks from Kim and I – it was a relief to see that I looked significantly healthier after all the efforts.
"The corpse is back to life!" Ken joked, forcing me to give him another smack on the arm as I tried to hide my smile.
"You girls are like wizards with this stuff," Daniel took the foundation out of Kim's hands and examined it closely before I rolled my eyes and tugged it out of his grasp. "How do you do it?"
"Magic," I snorted sarcastically, earning a giggle from Kim who began to braid my hair. It was a habit we had gotten into back in elementary school, and had gotten rather good at the skill after countless sleepovers and boring playground sessions. I let her do it without a word of complaint, knowing fully well that it was probably better for my greasy locks to be controlled for the day.
"Hey, did you guys hear about the basketball game?" Ken piped up, and I laughed breathlessness as he made a rather sarcastic enthusiastic face. "Pretty exciting."
"I'm so sick of all this ra-ra crap," Daniel complained, shaking his head towards some passing jocks in their Varsity jackets. "These jocks think they're such badasses – walkin' around like they cured cancer. It's just monkeys!"
He proceeded to make ape noises behind the jocks backs', making the rest of us laugh but stop abruptly when Lindsay joined our little circle.
"Hey guys," She smiled as we exchanged greetings, and all of us curiously looked around for Nick who we were expecting to be on her tail. When Nick entered a relationship he tended to be a bit overbearing, to put it lightly, which had led all of us to expect him to be the same with Lindsay. It was generally the pattern with the boy and we had no reason to believe that it would be different this time around.
"Where's loverboy?" Daniel questioned, wondering the same thing as all of us.
"Nick? I dunno." Lindsay shrugged, making me raise my brows in surprise.
In this day and age – and especially at McKinley high – it was common for girlfriends to show each other off and basically become attached hip to hip. To be fair they had no reason not to do so, but for the rest of us it was an over-affectionate and unnecessary display that would often cause some cringing. To see Lindsay openly disagree with this sort of treatment with her uncaring attitude towards Nick's location was refreshing, and once again reminded me of just how unique her type of personality was.
"I thought you two were joined at the tongue?" Ken teased, but Lindsay ignored him and instead turned to Kim who was still braiding my hair.
"Hey Kim, Katherine?" She began somewhat nervously, eyes apprehensive as if she was about to ask for something unattainable. "Can I talk to you guys for a second?"
"Why?" Ken asked whilst he and Daniel chorused lowly. "Are you pregnant?"
"No!" Lindsay frowned, swiping away Ken's hand that was reaching for her belly and staring towards us two girls desperately.
"Hey! Don't be such a pig, god!" Kim smirked towards Ken and pulled me away from the two boys, Lindsay in tow. "She wants to talk to us."
"Yeah," I added in for good measure, tossing my tongue out in their direction. "Excuse us."
They let us go with scoffs, and we quickly reconvened with Lindsay around the corner who was looking rather concerned. Kim was still working my hair, twisting my long black locks into a loose braid that cascaded down my shoulder. We both fixed Lindsay with curious looks as soon as we were out of earshot of the Ken and Daniel, waiting for her to let us know what was going on. She looked fairly stressed, so we were hoping for a good story.
"So, are you pregnant?" Kim clarified, beating me to the punch.
"No!" Lindsay immediately denied, lifting her hands as her face molded into shock. "God no...I'm thinking of breaking up with Nick."
"What?" My eyes widened immediately, knowing fully well that this was a bad idea based on how long they had been dating for and how quickly Nick got attached to someone. He also took breakups horribly, so both Kim and I were against this idea of Lindsay's. "Why?"
"I like him," She began to explain tensely, watching our blonde friend's fingers thread through my hair. Her eyes held their own small bags underneath them, the purple contrasting with the fairness of the rest of the skin on her face leading me to believe that she herself was under a good amount of stress. "but he's just really intense – and he's always stoned. I just...something isn't right."
"Don't do it, Lindsay!" Kim urged, having paused with my hair for a moment while she listened to our friend explain herself. My gaze must have been obviously in agreement with Kim, because now Lindsay was eyeing us both uncertainly.
"What?" She tried to clarify, probably having expected a very different response. Her eyes widened partially as well, trying to figure out what to do now that the two people she was confiding in were clearly against her idea.
"Just..." Kim sighed, finally finishing my braid and wrapping an elastic around it only to let it flop against my side. I blew several stray hairs out of my face as I was finally free of her grasp, leaning against the wall and readjusting my bag. "Let me straighten him out. I'll beat some sense into him; it'll be fine."
"No!" Lindsay pleaded with her in panic. "Kim, don't. I'll figure it out. It's not a big deal."
"Okay," She wavered in response to this, but finally caved in. "Just don't break up with him."
"The last time he got dumped he kinda went a little berserk," I added, biting my lip at the memory of the horrid situation in which Nick's breakup with Heidi Henderson – a fairly nice freak in our circles who enjoyed Van Halen and smoking in the women's bathrooms – had caused him to stalk the girl and get into an argument with her father.
"You mean with Heidi Henderson?" Lindsay tried to clarify, causing both me and Kim to blanch. Had Nick already told Lindsay about his last relationship? That certainly wasn't like him...and it was doubtful that he would want to talk about the incident considering how horribly it had gone.
"He told you about that?" Kim raised a brow, surprised that our friend would have mentioned his ex, whom he was still on sour terms with.
"No," Lindsay shook her head, suspicions coming to life that something awful had happened between Nick and someone else. "What happened?"
"No – nothing!" I squeaked, nudging Kim as I realized that Nick was quickly approaching from down the hall. With no time to warn Lindsay that her boyfriend was creeping up on her, it was important that nothing was revealed in the conversation that he would now be able to overhear. We would have to pretend that we had been talking about something else, otherwise Nick would be able to suspect that we had discussed his ex-girlfriend and at that point it would have caused some sort of a scene.
"Yeah – I don't even know really," Kim began smiling as soon as she spotted the boy, causing confusion to break out on Lindsay's face until Nick wrapped his arms around her shoulders, startling her.
"Hey you," Nick laughed as she yelped in surprise. "I've been lookin' all over for you."
"Well," Lindsay's tone faltered as she stared at Kim and I oddly, then continued on with a shaky voice. "Here I am..."
"We'll see you guys later, then," Kim smiled and started to pull me away from the couple, obviously wanting to get away from the awkward situation as soon as possible.
I tried to smile as calmly as possible, fully knowing that Lindsay and Nick's gaze was resting on me, but I think it came out as more of a grimace because Lindsay did not look reassured whatsoever. Nick, on the other hand, now had his head buried in Lindsay's neck and did not notice at all. Before I could mouth any reassuring phrases however, Kim had already pulled me around the corner and we were standing back next to the oblivious Ken and Daniel.
"So, what's goin' on?" The latter of the two eyed the two of us wearily, eyes running over our forms as if we had gone onto some espionage mission alongside Lindsay instead of just having a girl's chat.
"Lindsay wants to break up with Nick," Kim immediately broke out into explanation, making me splutter for a split second before I interrupted her
"Kim!" I barked, staring at her in surprise that she had disregarded Lindsay's statements, told to us in secret, so easily. "Wh- she told us that in confidence!"
"Oh, come on," She gaped at me, as if it was expected that she was going to spill the beans on our chat with Lindsay. "They were gonna find out anyway."
I grumbled a bit, but protested no further and merely rolled my eyes when Daniel threw me an exasperated gaze. There was just no arguing with Kim and her ways, and besides the fact that I knew the pattern with her and secrets it was still rude to tell everyone about what Lindsay had said to us two in private. When girls talked about things like breakups it wasn't meant to be spread around; the information was considered 'classified' in a term not much looser than that of the secret service, and we took these sorts of silly rules seriously. At least Lindsay and I did, apparently.
"Anyway," Kim continued, causing me to lean against my locker instead of engaging in the conversation. "She told us Nick was getting too intense for her, and that -"
"Like he does with everyone," Ken interrupted in a snippy fashion, causing Kim to shoot him a pointed look.
"And – no interruptions please," She went on. "she told us that she knew about Heidi Henderson."
"Ouch," Daniel grimaced, looking both ways down the hall to undoubtedly check if he could spot the 'happy' couple or, for that matter, Heidi. "Sucks to suck."
"We told her not to do it," Kim eyed me carefully, knowing that I probably didn't want to be involved in this controversial conversation but involving me anyway. "She can't – not with the way the last breakup turned out."
"Kim, if she's unhappy..." I began, sighing wearily and trying to remind Kim that if two magnets weren't attracted to each other you could try to shove them together all you wanted, but at the end of the day they wouldn't stick. "She's gonna do it anyway."
"She better not," Ken pulled a strange face, and I almost stopped to begin lecturing my friends on how it wasn't fair that they were basically trapping Lindsay in this relationship. "I can't stand a weird Nick. He's already weird enough."
The bell rang, interrupting our conversation and causing our group to diverge. Ken went on his way to business, a course that we had all been surprised he had decided to take, while Daniel, Kim and I proceeded to English. On our way there we tried our best to avoid the routes most traveled by the jocks, knowing that if there was a 'big game' in season the hallways would be more difficult to navigate with their ruckus. It was rather hypocritical that the school didn't stop any shenanigans involving jocks, but wouldn't hesitate to yell at us if we were caught piggy backing in the hallway.
"You girls got nice hair today," Daniel commented as we walked, causing Kim to beam proudly at her work on my black locks as well as flip her own braided hair.
"Thanks!" She chirped, locking her arm into mine as we journeyed the rest of the way to our English classroom. This time around, Daniel's compliment was well received and didn't make me frown with confusion, although perhaps it was because it was in the presence of Kim.
The period passed normally with a good amount of doodles and a heap of avoiding Ms. Dwyer's gaze, who by the end of the period fully suspected that we hadn't been taking notes at all. Before she could keep us back and chastise us for not listening however, we were out the door and giggling to ourselves on our way to next period which passed more or less in the same fashion, besides the fact that Kim and I were in Economics and Daniel had a spare. By the time we reconvened for lunch, we were all doodled out and ready for some mindless entertainment, which surprisingly came in the form of the cheer squad and our school's mascot performing the school cheer in the cafeteria.
I tried to focus on Kim's straw disappearing through her lips while the squad finished their chanting, but it was difficult when their whiny little voices – what I assumed would have been a soundtrack in the very pits of hell – wouldn't stop droning on and on. It was almost comical to see the group of white and green clothed girls so positive and happy when in reality they were stuck up, twisted souls with a passion for tearing down other people's confidence.
As soon as they had finished their cheer, our gym teacher and only coach of the school, Coach Fredericks, came to stand in front of the squad to no doubt advertise the game coming up.
"Alright - we haven't made regionals since 1971," He began, leading me and several others to wonder why he had started with that batch of information. "So I expected to see some butts in those bleachers Saturday, huh?"
The cafeteria let out halfhearted cheers, and our entire table of freaks – today this included Daniel, Stoker, Kim and I only – let out a collective eye roll. I snorted at the sight of Daniel swinging his food around on his fork, pretending to be excited and food nearly falling from his mouth. His mocker only got worse when Coach Fredericks invited Todd Shellinger up to the front of the cafeteria to speak, and Daniel began to mimic the dream boy's speech as he stood up in front of the school.
"Thanks Coach," He embraced his mentor, as if he was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. "This season's been fantastic. I wanna thank Coach Fredericks ... and god,"
That addition to his speech made me roll my eyes so far up into my head that I thought they would never come down.
"- and I wanna see all of you guys out there on Saturday," He continued, voice raising in tone as to motivate the cafeteria. "to watch us DESTROY Lincoln, alright!?"
The lunchroom cheered louder than before, perhaps because of the presence of someone popular like Todd, and of course the cheerleaders were prompted to do their sappy cheer once more. Everyone stood up besides our table, which sat looking around at the madness that had escalated in the lunchroom. It seemed that the cafeteria couldn't get any louder until the Norseman mascot – now dancing on one of the empty lunch tables – broke the furniture in half and went tumbling to the ground with an intense cry of pain. This time I let myself burst out into sadistic laughter with the rest of the students, clapping alongside a cackling Kim who couldn't even look at the fumbling Norseman without letting out another vicious howl of laughter.
"Hey," Daniel motioned towards me once Coach Fredericks had carted away the injured mascot and the entire cafeteria had simmered down to finish their lunches. "What did you eat today?"
"Toast." I scratched the back of my neck and answered truthfully, frowning at the scrutiny in his voice. I had no tray table in front of me, which inevitably gave away the fact that I intended not to eat lunch today.
"Are you sleeping at home?" This question came from Kim, who was now also gazing at me curiously and making my scrunch up my nose. I appreciated that my friends cared so much about me – I really did – but sometimes their inquisitiveness made me feel like I was at a police station rather than a lunch table.
"No – no. I'm staying at…at, uhm -" I couldn't even finish the sentence before my friends had riddled out that I was staying at home with no food, and Kim was interrupting me.
"Eat." She pushed her plate of fries over to me, making me squint down at the greasy potatoes in disdain. Looking back up at Kim, it was clear that she nor Stoker nor Daniel were going to stop looking at me until I ate one, and this fact made me fidget in discomfort.
"Come on, Kitty-kat," Daniel pushed the plate closer to me, and I almost cracked with his usage of my childhood nickname. "It won't kill you to have one."
"Please, Kit-kat?" Kim urged with her own version of the pet-name, knowing fully well that it would get to me and get me to cave.
I finally sighed and took one of the fries, shoving it in between my lips and hoping that their gazes would redirect themselves elsewhere after I had performed the task. I had no such luck however, and they refused to let up until I had 'at least eaten a couple more'. I tried to avoid Daniel's calculating gaze as I continued swallowing the crunchy carbohydrates, knowing fully well that he was somewhat disappointed that I hadn't called to let him know I was home alone and drinking.
He was now getting into the habit of coaxing me over to his house whenever I was in that sort of situation, as to avoid any 'accidents' – that was what he had called my phone call with Ken and our bridge incident – from happening. I didn't mind staying at my friends houses, but sometimes I just felt the need to be alone and return to my own house for a night or two. Of course, it was no home – that label belonged to my friends where my heart truly lay – but I felt an undeniable urge to return there every once in awhile considering it was the place I had grown up in.
"Alright – come on," Kim interrupted my train of thought, and I realized that my friends had stopped paying attention to my food intake to instead get ready to leave the lunchroom. "Let's get outta here."
I eagerly followed the blonde out of the cafeteria, dumping out my unfinished fries in the garbage on the way and avoiding the broken table that the mascot had injured himself on. It didn't take long meandering in the hallways to find Ken, and after a moment of catching up Lindsay joined us two. It was almost as if we had homing devices attached to our hips at this point; we found each other with little to no problems in the school, and I liked that.
Any enjoyable conversation we were having upon Lindsay's arrival was interrupted by jocks however, as they tore down the halls whooping and yelling about how they were going to beat Lincoln and disrupted any sort of moderation that remained in the school. Paying no attention to most student's glares of annoyance, the lettermen continued making a ruckus and yelling slurs about our assassinated president with glee.
"This place is turning into a cult," Daniel made a face, bitterly placing his hands in his pockets. "These jocks can put a ball through a hoop - whoop dee do."
"My parents are making me go to the game with them," Lindsay grimaced, and I briefly wondered how the hell her parents were physically going to make her go with them. Did they clap her in irons or something? I didn't understand these types of families. "They're really into it."
"I'm going." Ken shrugged, looking around at our faces of surprise before we broke out into question.
"What?!" Kim stopped filing her nails for a moment and looked up at the boy, as if it was the most controversial thing for a freak to go to a school sporting event.
"Really?" Lindsay asked at the same time, and I found my own face being pulled into a confused frown. Ken hadn't attended any sporting events before, so what was motivating him to attend this one?
"Well, I heard we're gonna lose, right?" He began to explain to us. "I think it's kinda funny when the jock's cry. "Wahh – they cheated!"
Ken then imitated one of the sobbing jocks, scrunching up his face and wiping fake tears away with a child-like fist. We all let out a chorus of laughs, accepting that this was a good enough entertainment reason to attend the big game. The mood stayed up for another several seconds before Daniel noticed that Nick was fast approaching from down the hall, and turned to Lindsay in a moment of worry.
"Here comes Nick," He announced quietly to our group. "Hey Lindsay – what's up with you and him?"
"Nothing..." Our friend stammered, and I grit my teeth in Daniel's direction as to try and send a silent message for him not to mention anything about our earlier conversation.
"Nothing?" Ken asked, and I slapped a palm to my forehead in exasperation as I realized that Lindsay was going to find out Kim had ratted on her. "Kim says you're gonna dump him."
At this, Lindsay turned to Kim and I with a bewildered – and somewhat betrayed – expression. While Kim lifted her hands up as if to suggest that she was innocent, while I fervently tried to explain in a rather stumbling fashion that I had not said a word. I didn't know if this message was clear to Lindsay, but either was she didn't have time to drill me for an answer because Daniel was speaking again and she was looking as if she had seen a ghost.
"So it's true?" Daniel confirmed, and at this point Lindsay couldn't do anything to defend herself. "Lindsay – don't."
Nick embraced Lindsay once he arrived, and the rest of us turned quiet as he gave her a sweet greeting. It was Ken that then saved the awkward mood by shooting off a comment complaining about how Nick hadn't greeted any of us, and I was briefly able to catch Lindsay trying to coat her guilty face with an uneasy smile before Nick spoke up again.
"Hey, Ken," He nodded sarcastically towards his sideburned friend, and then turned to the rest of us to greet us. "Hey guys."
It was a weird feeling acknowledging that five people knew something whilst the sixth person had no idea what was going on behind their back. It was sad, really, that the relationship right in front of our eyes was doomed with no way around it. Sensing the awkward tension, Lindsay asked Nick for a ride home as to avoid any more secrets from spilling, and he agreed without questioning allowing the pair to walk off.
"This isn't going to end well," I sighed, watching Daniel make a praying motion towards Lindsay as to beg her to not go through with her plan. "Is it?"
"Man, I love the smell of gasoline."
It was two days later, and Daniel, Ken, Kim and I sat on the hood of Daniel's car breathing in the smell of students leaving the lot for the end of the day. Being it a Thursday, people had grown antsier and antsier as tomorrow's big basketball game approached. Lindsay still hadn't made a move on the Nick situation, and at this point we had given up trying to talk to her about it and left the situation in her hands trying to reassure ourselves that she would make the right choice for herself. We had, however, taken to trying to avoid the pair, as we didn't want to interact with a hurt Nick nor an awkward Lindsay.
"Yeah?" Kim scrunched her face up at Daniel's comment, sipping more pop up out of her straw as she slowly finished her drink. We had made a trip down to a burger joint for lunch, and now sat finishing our meals before heading home. "Gives you brain damage."
"She's right," I chipped in once Daniel shrugged her analysis off. "Remember that drug lecture they gave us? Where they showed those heroin addicts?"
"I remember that," Ken squinted, as if he had filed away the memory deep in his brain. "Didn't they film someone huffing gasoline?"
Before Daniel could reply to any of our inputs to his original statement, a shining red convertible pulled up in front of the Trans Am in the school's parking lot. Four boys sat in the cream leather seats, smiling as if they had some sort of secret and already making my stomach twist with uneasiness. I didn't recognize any of these boys, and I was capable of remembering most usual faces that attended McKinley high. It wasn't usual for outsiders to show up on our property unless they had bad business to attend to, and I wasn't looking to have any part in that.
"Hey," The boy sitting in the driver's seat of the car didn't turn off the engine, instead leaning over to yell a question that I wasn't expecting. "you guys go to McKinley?"
"N- " I was prepared to deny going to school anywhere in the area in fear that these creeps had ill intentions, but was interrupted mid word by a bold Kim.
"Yeah?" She scooted down further on the hood of the Trans Am and cocked her head at the four boys, who were now grinning dangerously. "Why?"
"Norsemen SUCK!"
I already knew what was coming.
In a flurry of movement and yells, they lifted themselves out of their seats and began to hurl eggs and canisters of what I assumed to be pop at us. We screeched and tried to take cover, but they had taken us completely by surprise and now we held awkward wet patches in our clothes that had come from either the diary products or the sugary drinks. The eggs made awful smacks as they connected with the hood of Daniel's car, and before I knew it we were all wet and pissed off. The car peeled away after having bombed us, and considering our sudden rage we chased after them a good several feet and whipped our own pop canisters after them.
"Fuckers!" I hissed, wiping my left jacket sleeve off.
"Dammit, I'm soaked!" Kim whined, trying to dry herself off as well. "Will you do something, Daniel!?"
"Whaddya want me to do?!" My best friend snapped back, a stormy look crossing his features as he didn't even bother to try and shake the liquid on his jacket off. It was sad to see his good mood ruined; he had been so calm and serene the whole afternoon that it was almost tragic that an event like this had occurred and just ruined his entire day. "Blow on ya?"
"That better have been water," Ken made a disgusted face, and we all groaned in response as we trudged back to Daniel's car. "that's all I'm saying."
"We're gonna nail those assholes next time we see them," I growled, anger brewing and festering inside me now that I had seen what sort of immaturity Lincoln held. "Teach 'em a lesson."
That date came sooner than expected.
Daniel had decided to do some repairs at Aldo's Auto Salvage and Tow the next day after school, knowing that since it was a Friday there was no reason to stress about time. He and Ken were currently bent over the hood of the open Trans Am, putting some last finishing touches on the engine that had needed some repairs. Aldo – the shop's owner – was a long term friend of Daniel's who always offered him parts discounted for his car. It was a relatively peaceful afternoon, and as Kim and I were propped up on either side of the car watching the two boys finish working.
"No, I mean, Nick's cool," Kim continued her ongoing argument, which consisted of the fact that whilst Nick was a wonderful friend, he went a little haywire whenever he was in a romantic relationship. "It's just that when he gets a girlfriend he goes psycho."
"Maybe he just gets so horny his brain fries, y'know?" Ken stopped cranking some mundane part that I couldn't recognize in the engine to look up at us, and we giggled in response to his statement.
"Dumbest thing you can do? Let a girl know how much you like her," Daniel grinned, and I found myself rolling my eyes at his crazy theories. "Then they just run."
"Oh, is that why you're such a bastard to me?" Kim questioned sarcastically, gently touching her boyfriend's shoulder as a sly smirk took over her features.
"Yeah, well," Daniel turned his mischievous grin to her. "you're still here, aren'tcha?"
"Touche!" I tipped my head at him as Kim laughed, and everything seemed fine for a couple more seconds until she suddenly slammed on the hood of the car.
"Oh man!" She exclaimed as I tried to recover from the small heart attack she had given me by smacking on the Trans Am so abruptly. "There's that car! Those jocks from Lincoln that nailed us! That's them!"
We all followed her line of sight before Daniel jumped into action, shutting the hood of his car and waiting until Ken and I had jumped in the back seats before taking off as rapidly as possible. Thankfully he and Ken's repairs had been almost finished, otherwise the Trans Am wouldn't have been moving so quickly as it was right now. We tailed the red convertible as quickly as possible, following it through intersections and down roads whilst trying to stay inconspicuous. Of course, Daniel's car being the color and model that it was did not assist in that endeavor.
"Go, go, go!" I urged him to speed up so that we didn't lose the car, as we had fallen behind after having stopped at a red light. "Before they get away!"
I could easily identify and remember the nice paint job on the red vehicle as it cruised into a nicer area of town, not stopping until it reached a fenced off home with a large tree covering the house from view. We pulled over in front of the car, Kim grabbing a spare canister of spray paint out of Daniel's glove compartment before hopping out alongside the rest of us. We quickly approached the vehicle and apprehensively looked both ways down the quiet street to make sure that no one was watching us, before Kim held out the spray paint towards Daniel.
"You do it," She urged, expecting him to take over with this task.
We had spray painted several times before in parks and on the sides of buildings when we were fairly inebriated, but never on other people's property who had tried to harm us before and could likely harm us if they ever found out we had tagged on their car. Daniel was rightfully nervous, but I found that my anger was taking over all other emotions when I remembered just how idiotic these boys had been pelting us with eggs and leftover drinks.
"Why don't you do it?" Daniel made a face, clenching his fists and obviously not willing to go along with this plan.
"'Cause I'm a girl."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I shoved myself in between Kim and Daniel and grabbed the spray paint out of my blonde friend's hands, kneeling beside the Lincoln schoolgoer's car only to spray 'U-SUK' in white paint. I didn't even bother to check their reactions, focusing on the lettering and making sure that it was wide and visible for all to see. This would cost those jerkoffs a fair bit to paint over, and that was a good thing – they deserved it after what they had done to us.
"Hurry up," Ken chided, and as if just on cue, a boy wearing a plaid sweater walked out of the driveway. I frowned, not recognizing him and then fearing that we had tagged the wrong car before I realized that it was too late.
"What are you doing?" He spread his arms and advanced towards us, disbelief coating his features as he noticed what I had sprayed onto the side of his car.
"We're giving your car a new paint job!" Kim bravely stalked towards him, and I rose up from my spot on the ground to stand beside her. "What are you gonna do about it, huh?"
"The hell!?" The boy grew even more hostile, face scrunching up in anger as he looked between the four of us.
"Forget it," Daniel chided, growing braver when he saw that there was only one of him against three of us. "Water balloon boy."
"Yeah, thanks a lot." Ken added, but before anyone could do or say anything else four more buff looking Lincoln jocks, proudly showing off their school's logo on their sweaters, appeared from the hidden driveway to back up their scrawny friend. At this point I knew that my stomach's natural reaction was supposed to be fear, but I was still feeling rage from yesterday and not understanding that my artwork may or may not have been a bad choice.
"Hey," I heard a very nervous Ken backing up, sneakers scuffing against the pavement as he tried to discreetly move towards the Trans Am. "Somethin' tells me it's time to go."
"Kim, Kit-kat," Daniel tried to pull us along, understanding that it wasn't technically four against five when two of us were women – and considering what these bums had done to us yesterday there was no kidding that they wouldn't hesitate to kick all of our asses regardless of gender. "Let's go, come on."
"These losers are from McKinley!" The plaid boy recognized us and inspected the damage done on his car, tone increasing in height. "Look what this bitch just did to my car!"
In a bout of anger, I took a sharp several steps forward and shoved the boy back with a surprising strength. "You're the bitch, man."
"Come on Daniel, kick his ass." Kim tried to order, but based on the lack of reply Daniel was most likely hesitant to do so.
I didn't particularly care that there were five angry men in front of me; I had dealt with Rick enough times, who was easily three of these boys packed into one oversized male, to understand that when push came to shove there were ways to defend yourself that could immobilize or easily hurt the other person. The groin, feet, head and solar plexus were all good areas to target, and although it was more likely that if my friends turned and fled and I stayed to fight I would become overpowered, I was angry enough that my determination assured me I could get a couple of good shots in before I went down.
"Kick my ass?" The boys and his team took several threatening steps towards us, clearly expecting an altercation and forcing me to back up slightly into my group of friends.
"Tell my mother I love her..." Daniel's surprising statement was the last thing I heard before shit really started to hit the fan.
In mere seconds there were fists being flown, and I managed to duck away from one before kneeing the boy hard in the groin and stamping on his foot. He went down groaning, and I took the opportunity to lay a hard right hook on his face that would definitely leave a bruise.
My moment of sweet victory did not last however, because before I knew it I was being tackled down to the ground by a Lincoln boy who was relatively small – most likely having been selected to fight me consider he was the only one out of my friend group he could 'take' – and having my face squished into the gravel. In a surprising display of violence, my hair was gripped and my forehead was now being rammed into the ground over and over again until my brief cry of pain gave me leverage against my attacker.
I managed to free my arm and swung it blindly behind me, satisfied as I heard – and felt – it connect with what I assumed to be part of the boy's jaw with a satisfying 'crack'. He went toppling over to the side which freed my small form from underneath him, and I quickly straddled him only to start hurling my fists towards his face. Of course, being the small bird-armed girl I was it didn't take him long to lay a mean right hook to my eye and blind me for a good minute or two, but I managed to keep him pinned down until his next hit which would fortunately be his last.
His fist came hurtling towards my face at a speed at which no previous fight had prepared me for (I had been in too many to admit) and I felt my nose break with a sickening crunch. At this, I let out a furious cry of pain that must have stopped the rest of the kids from their fighting matches, for there was no noise in the air as I laid a final elbow on the boy's temple and he flopped over like a limp fish. At this point I raised myself from the ground and stood shakily, looking around me at the Lincoln boys who had realized we were quite the match – that was most likely thanks to a terrifying Ken who was particularly brutal during fights – and were escaping back onto their hidden property.
Ken was helping up Kim, who's lip looked like it was split, and Daniel was sporting a gash by his left eyebrow that would leave a nicely placed scar. Ken, on the other hand, looked relatively clean save for a red spot or two that would inevitably become a bruise. My nose, on the other hand, was bleeding like a waterfall, and I fervently tried to stop the flow with the sleeve of my army jacket.
"We kicked their asses!" Kim grinned, lifted her hands high above her head in victory until she spotted me and they moved to cover her mouth. "Holy shit, Katherine! Your face!"
Both Daniel and Ken immediately turned towards me, and I raised my spare arm to let them know that I was alright. Despite Daniel's prying arms and Kim's efforts to clean my 'bloody mess'. I had no idea that I looked the worse of the bunch, but assured them that my attacker was most definitely in higher pain than me at the moment. We had showed Lincoln who was boss, and although the adrenaline was fading it didn't matter because the pride that came along with a well-earned victory was still on high.
"That's a broken nose, Kat," Ken grimaced towards me as we all piled back into the car, and I grunted one more in pain as I tried to stop the blood flow.
"What!?" Kim flipped around in her seat, eyes widening when she spotted what I assumed to be my crooked nose. "Move over, Ken."
She abruptly slide into the backseat, making me reel back in nervousness as to what was about to happen. Kim and I had reset each other's noses several times after fights, but each time had been messier than the next and had hurt like a bitch. I most definitely, one hundred percent did not want to go see a doctor, but being treated by Kim was something I didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole.
"No!" I swatted Kim's hands away as she tried to close in on my nose, my mind flashing back to the last time Kim had reset my broken nose after a fight with Lucy Grant – I still had a scar from her fake nail tearing across my cheek – and the nosebleed hadn't stopped for another two hours. "Kim, no! Remember last time!?"
"Stop it, Kathy!" Kim tried to shove my hands down to no avail, knowing fully well that any time I had tried to fix her nose I had always been forced to try twice. "Trust me, it'll be fine – I've always been better at it than you!"
She had a point there, so I stared at her begrudgingly as we eyed each other wearily. Daniel had stopped the car several blocks away from the location of the fight, and was now staring towards me and my blonde friend whilst trying to dry the wound on his forehead. Ken was already clambering into the front seat, having picked up one of Daniel's spare shirts the boy kept in his trunk to hand it to him as a better
"Come on, Kitty-kat," Daniel reprimanded from the driver's seat, pressing his own t-shirt against his forehead whilst Ken stared on at the two of us. "You want us to take you to the hospital?"
"Fine," I nodded towards Kim, who quickly positioned her thumbs over my nose. "No hospital, just be – AGH, motherfucker!"
I squeezed my eyes shut and shrieked as pain ripped through me, Kim having applied pressure at what was quite possibly the worst moment. For several seconds I was speechless with shock and agony, before I finally recovered and punched the back of Daniel's seat to try and distract myself from the soreness that was taking over my face. There would no doubt be a bruise, and at this point my nosebleed hadn't gotten any better nor had the undeniable nausea that was becoming a problem.
"Guh – shit!" I clutched my stomach in surprise, feeling vomit build up in my esophagus too quick for my liking. "Gonna puke."
"Not in the car!" Daniel yelped, and before I knew it I was vomiting out of the side of Trans Am, watching the contents of my stomach splatter onto the pavement below.
"That's it," I muttered, leaning back against the seat and wiping my mouth off as another one of Daniel's spare shirts was tossed to me. I held it against my nose as my best friend started the engine again, Kim switching seats with Ken so that she could reapply her makeup. "I want to go to that game."
"What?" Ken looked at me in surprise, a little smile coating his features.
"You heard me – I want to go to that game," I nodded, now having caught the attention of everyone in the car. "Lincoln deserves a loss – let's make sure they get it."
"Alright!" Daniel whooped and grinned, Kim now having joined in with the chorus of cheers and fully experiencing the affects of the adrenaline that our victory had bought us.
We hollered insults towards Lincoln all the way back to McKinley high, knowing that even if they could not hear us our attitudes would serve us well in the big game that was going down in about an hour. When we pulled into the school's parking lot we barely noticed how messy we looked, uncaring that the gashes in our faces were most likely unacceptable to walk around with on school property and instead focusing more on the amped up hype that we were now exhibiting as we entered the school through the main doors.
As soon as we had immersed ourselves in the crowd, which was now parting to let us through after they saw what state we were in, we caught site of Lindsay standing next to a man with similar facial features – I could only assume he was her father – and rapidly made our way over to say hello.
"Oh my god!" She exclaimed upon catching sight of us, and her father blanched at the sight of our injuries as well. "W-what happened to you guys?!"
"We got jumped by some boneheads at Lincoln," Kim explained, and I subconsciously swiped at my nose before remembering that the bleeding had stopped on our way over to the school.
The men surrounding Lindsay's father, all wearing equally stuffy suits as if this school game was some sort of board meeting, gave us strange looks. There was no doubt in the world that these high end men disapproved of fighting in any capacity, which probably explained why Lindsay and her father were both looking a little nervous at the moment. I imagined her father did not want to have his name slandered in the community, and Lindsay did not want to have her name totally slandered at home either.
"Jumped?" Lindsay questioned, alarm clear on her face as she examined the damage that had been done to each one of us. "Why?"
"We trashed their car." Ken grinned slyly, and I found myself laughing cockily at the mention of our triumph.
"They had it coming!" I piped up, huffing as I placed my hands on my hips and tried to ignore the fact that my eye was starting to swell. One of the men in a brown suit with a green tie gave me a concerned glance.
"Dad," Lindsay's tense tone hinted that she wasn't really proud of introducing us as her friends, even though some of us had already met her father. I hadn't had the 'privilege', although from what it seemed this man really wasn't worth getting to know. "You remember Daniel, and Kim…and this is Katherine and Ken."
"No," Mr. Weir pretended to not recognize us in front of his friends, causing whatever remnants of a smile I had on my face to disappear. It was low to sell out your daughter like that, especially because of your reputation in a community. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure –"
"Yeah!" Daniel interrupted, butchering Mr. Weir's plans and making it clear that he had met the man before by forcing himself into a hug. I didn't know if Daniel was doing it on purpose to foil Mr. Weir's plans of trying to keep his name clean by pretending not to know 'community scum' like our gang of freaks, but either way it was bringing a smile to my face. "Mr. Weir! You remember me! How's Mrs. Weir doin'?"
"Oh – uhm, she's – ah…she's okay," Mr. Weir started to look extremely uncomfortable, especially at the mention of his wife, and tried his best to save the situation. "Now Lindsay, why don't you just run along now with your friends, okay?"
"Okay," Daniel agreed sarcastically after letting go of the man, tone revealing that he knew fully well what Mr. Weir had been trying to do.
"Go Norsemen!" Mr. Weir cheered as we backed off, Lindsay in tow while we headed to the gym.
"Go, McKinley!"
The game started after several minutes of our arrival, although Lindsay disappeared to undoubtedly search for Nick – the outcome of that situation still wasn't clear – and we didn't start cheering until our players actually got close to scoring a goal. We all watched as Todd Shellinger, our star player, lined up for a shot and successfully scored a basket.
"Go McKinley! Gun 'em down!" Daniel shouted, standing up to make sure that the other side of the bleachers, where all of the Lincoln visiting guests sat, could hear him. "Lincoln YOU SUCK!"
After our two day turmoil with the boys from Lincoln who had originally thrown eggs at us and lit the fire of sudden passion for this basketball game, we were especially enthusiastic about beating Lincoln once more on the actual playing field this time. Our out of school victory still counted as a great success, but this match proved actual sporting superiority over the other and could be used as leverage in the future. Considering McKinley hadn't won regionals for quite a while, like Coach Fredericks had mentioned, the crowd around us was reacting very well to our enthusiasm.
"Yeah! Come on, way to go, buddy!" Daniel hollered and clapped once more as another basket was scored. "Get down there, defense!"
After another two points on our side and one on Lincoln's – for which Kim, Ken, Daniel and I booed with a passion we had not known existed inside of us – there was a fairly tense half time with some wacky deliveries from the cheerleaders. The mascot was running all over the place and disrupting their no doubt 'well-planned' cheers, and I found myself laughing along with the rest of my school as I relished in the fact that their prissy little pristine plans were getting ruined. This sort of karma was an adequate punishment for all of their joint crimes against the society of the school, and how rude they had been to not only me but countless other innocent victims.
"Lincoln, Lincoln, I've been thinkin', what the hell have you been drinkin'!?" I clapped and sang along with my three friends, eager to see our victory over the other school and wanting the opposite team to know just how much we detested them.
Another basket caused more cheers from us, and Daniel rose out of his seat again to cheer. "Yeah, nothin' but net, baby!"
"In your face, losers!" Kim screamed, pointing a finger at Lincoln's bleachers.
"Yeah!" A prissy looking girl sitting beside me grinned, nodding along as if we weren't freaks at all and it was completely normal for her to be talking to us. "That's the spirit guys, you rock!"
The four of us turned to look at her completely, our beaten up faces making her retract for a split second and seemingly regret having interacted with us before she shut up and didn't bother saying anything else for the rest of the game. Even if we were being over-enthusiastic in terms of our usual involvement with McKinley's out of school activities, it didn't mean that the status quo was going to be changed. Freaks would be freaks, and socs would be socs; as long as we didn't bother each other and accepted that neither was better we could live in harmony.
The Coach's whistle drew my attention back to the game, where one of our players had gotten knocked down therefore angering our side of the gym. This caused us to jump up and boo the other team, yelling obscenities in the midst of the jeering knowing fully well that we could get away with such language when everyone else was screaming around us.
Everything was redeemed in the second half of the game however, and before we knew it the final basket was being shot by Todd Schellinger himself. The boy lined himself up and arched the ball perfectly into the net, encountering little interference from the other team who by this point were visibly exhausted and held no more fire in them. Our bleachers jumped for joy, cheering and shouting as Ken, Daniel, Kim and I erupted into screams.
"YES!" I put both hands up in the air, experiencing a second bout of joy despite my now very swollen eye. "In your FACE, assholes!"
It was an exhilarating feeling to know that we'd won, but I knew that the happiness of sweet revenge would only last me awhile as I knew that heading back to my own house was in order. I hadn't appeared there for the last two weeks, having done a good job at shacking myself up at my friends places and making sure to avoid my house entirely, but I knew that I needed to go back every once in awhile to avoid my parents calling the police on me.
So, with heavy reluctant steps, I followed my group of friends towards the school doors and prepared to say goodnight to them. It was sad; I really did wish that there was a way for me to move in with Daniel, or start renting an apartment with Kim – but I just couldn't move out of my home. A feeling kept drawing me back there and I couldn't find it in myself to call the police on my so-called parents, despite the hatred I had for them sometimes.
"Hey Welsh, you need a ride home?" Daniel broke through my thought process and opened his car door in invite once we had reached the lot, and I found myself hurriedly accepting and sliding inside his vehicle alongside Ken and Kim.
We waved goodbye to Lindsay and her father, who pretended once again that he didn't know us and that he hadn't seen our gestures, and sped off down the road. Ken's house was closest, meaning that Daniel was going to drop him off first before probably driving Kim and I home – or taking Kim to his house and dropping me off, whichever combination worked best. I valued the minutes of time I had left with my friends before I had to retreat to my dingy little room by myself, and smiled as we talked about the highlights of the game.
"I'm so glad that we beat those losers," Kim checked her split lip in the compact mirror of the Trans Am. "They totally deserved it."
"I liked it when the Lincoln kids started getting red in the face," Ken chuckled, imitating one of the rival school's boys once more. "They're cheating!"
I laughed at his teasing and found myself amazed at how quickly his perspective could change; days ago he had been making the same jokes about his own school, but now that we had been personally involved in an incident with Lincoln our experiences had transformed our views and made us model enthusiasts for our competitive activities against the other school.
"What jerks," Daniel grunted, stopping the car in front of Ken's house.
Our friend exited with a final goodbye, and without further ado Daniel zoomed away until we were flying along the streets, radio blasting and tires screeching around corners. Daniel could be a safe driver when he wanted to, but at this point in the day after so many incidents happening and so much built up tension, it was clear that the boy wanted to let off some steam. And considering the fact that it was so late the traffic had slowed considerably, both Kim and I allowed him to continue the vicious speed that he was driving at.
I didn't realize that Daniel wasn't going to drive me all the way back to my house until he pulled up in front of his own and stopped, clambering out of the car and automatically pulling forward his seat so that I could climb out. Kim was already on her way into the house, ready to go to bed after what we liked to call a 'hard days work'.
"Are you gonna pick something up?" I frowned, looking up at his house in confusion.
"Nah, we're home," Daniel gave me a funny look before grinning at me, holding out his hand as to offer me assistance to climb out of the car. "You said 'home', right?"
I grinned back at him as I realized that to him, when I said 'home' it meant wherever he or any of my friends were. His mission, along with Kim, Ken and Nick – to a certain extent – was to keep me safe especially knowing what went on in my house. Daniel hadn't even realized that my intention had been to go back to my mother's place tonight; he had heard the word 'home' and assumed that I had meant staying with him, in a safe place where I was at ease. To him, this reaction was automatic and his confusion with my reaction at the moment revealed that.
Another part of Daniel's gesture that I had to agree with was the fact that he had distinguished between 'house' and 'home'. 'House' and 'home' were two very different things. A house was a physical thing where people ate, lived and slept to a relatively comfortable degree. A home was somewhere where you could feel safe after a long day; put your feet up and not give a crap about anyone screaming at you, or sit for hours reading a good book. Home was where you would go not to feel categorized or shunned or stupid, but to feel warm and happy and welcomed. Only now did I realize why I had always called my house, 'house' and not 'home'. It was because home was where the heart was. My heart was with my friends – the ones I called my family. It didn't matter where I went, as long as I was with my friends.
So I happily took Daniel's hand, and followed my family into my home.