Chapter 11
We came back to my house during lunch, not even bothering to go to any of our classes. We didn't want to take any chances of getting in trouble for the whole Joey thing. I bet he's still up on that flag pole right now. Oh well.
So we're sitting in my kitchen trying to think of a plan, but drawing a blank.
"what if we kidnapped them?" Brooke asks.
"Brooke, I said think of a smart idea not an illegal one"
"well you keep turning down all of my 'smart' ideas" she pouts. It's true, but in my defence I have no idea where we would get a gun, helicopter or an army of crazed rabbits from.
"well sorry to take all your fun away" I say sarcastically.
"okay, look, we know we want to talk to them and preferably in a public place, that way they won't cause a scene or start a fight…" Brooke says. That's not a bad idea.
"school?"
"nah, they're not afraid to start a fight there" she says. So true.
"the mall?"
"perfect!" she practically yells. "but how do we get them there?" she asks as she slumps back down into the chair. Thinking of plans are hard. Before I could suggest anything else I ear the door open and close quickly.
"Haley!" it's Taylor.
"in the kitchen" I yell back. She comes in with a smile and stops when she sees Brooke.
"hello Haley and Haley's girlfriend" she says. I just roll my eyes. Any other reaction and it would have been awkward.
"you're in a good mood"
"guess what James sister got a job!" this must be a trick question.
"Quinn?"
"ha ha" she says dryly. "yours truly is the new official bartender at Tric!" did she say Tric? I look over at Brooke and she just smiles back at me. I think we just found our way to get Peyton and Rachel to the mall.
"so Taylor…" I start off. "you know you're my favourite sister right?"
"I can only slip you free drinks when the owner's not around" she states right off the bat.
"no." I say, but may come in handy later. "do you know Peyton? She works at Tric."
"blonde emo chick?"
"that's the one" Brooke says standing up from her seat. "we need you to send her to the mall for work or something"
"why?"
"that's not important" Brooke says quickly. "just get her to the mall"
"how am I supposed to do that? I'm a bartender" Taylor says.
"okay, so send her to get some liquor" Brooke says thinking on the spot.
"send her to the mall… to get some liquor" she says slowly trying to get Brooke to see the flaw in her plan.
"okay, well send her to the beer store and then tell her you need tampons or something, does it look like I care?!" Brooke yells. Taylor stops and then looks at me.
"Haley, tell your girlfriend to stop yelling at me" Taylor says like Brooke's not even in the room.
"look, Tay, here's the plan. Tell Peyton to go to the beer store to pick up what ever you serve at the bar and then-"
"-she's underage" she cuts me off.
"oh okay" Brooke pipes in. "if she says she's underage just ask her if she has a friend who has a fake I.D. and get her to help too." That's where Rachel comes in.
"and then once she leaves call her and tell her you need something from the mall, and then we'll do the rest from there" I say.
"and why do you need her to go to the mall?"
"we need to talk to her" Brooke says.
"why not just talk to her then?"
"because making a plan and luring her into the mall is much more fun!" Brooke says sarcastically. "does it really matter?"
"no, I guess not. But one day I'm going to ask you to help me lure someone somewhere. And when that day comes, I better not hear any shit from you two" Taylor says. She's creepy sometimes.
So the plans in motion, if you're wondering. Taylor's at work and she called us 20 minutes ago to tell us she sent Peyton to the beer store to get what ever then to Wal-Mart to pick up some toothpaste. At least it's better than tampons. Since Peyton went to the beer store she needed Rachel's fake I.D., so now they are both at Wal-Mart shopping around.
"okay, let's make this quick, this place is closing in like 20 minutes" Brooke whispers to me as we crouch down behind a CD rack.
"okay, so how are we going to do this?" I ask.
"what?! I thought you knew what we were going to say!"
"me? You're the one who's trying to win them back!" I whisper back to her.
"shut up, they're coming. Get out there!" she says pushing me out right in front of the two girls. They both stop and stare at me for a second.
"hey guys" I say shyly.
"what are you doing here?" Peyton asks offensively.
"just… just uh, shopping for some… perfume" I say picking up a bottle of perfume from the shelf next to me.
"that's cologne" Peyton points out. I look at the bottle, and well I'll be damned. It is cologne.
"is Brooke here with you?" Rachel asks suspiciously.
"Brooke?" I scoff. "no, no she's not here she's at home… eating" eating? Why did I say eating? I could have said something believable like sleeping or crying over her friends… but no, I had to say eating. Both Rachel and Peyton raise an eyebrow at me. Oh god, they know! No they can't know, they're not that smart… are they?
"Brooke" they both sigh at the same time. Brooke slowly walks out form behind the CD rack. Maybe they are that smart.
"hey guys, what a coincidence…" she says shyly.
"save it" Rachel says. "come on Peyt, let's go" she says trying to pull her away. But I step in front of them both.
"hold on, hear Brooke out" I say. They both stop and I nod for Brooke to start talking. She gives me a head shake and I nod again. She shakes her head again, but I just push her forward so that she's closer to her friends.
"okay, look guys I shouldn't have called you bad friends…"
"you got that right" Peyton says as she leans back a little and crosses her arms.
"and I shouldn't have yelled your secrets out like that…"
"uh huh" Rachel says, trying to tell Brooke to continue.
"and well… you guys screwed up and you know it!" she yells quickly. Word of advice, when you're begging for your friends forgiveness, never - and I mean never, point out what they did wrong. Both Rachel and Peyton throw their arms up in the air in anger.
"Brooke!" I yell at her.
"what?!"
"typical, Brooke" Peyton states. "when something goes wrong you always blame someone else"
"that's not true!" Brooke defends her self. Peyton and Rachel start walking in the opposite direction, trying to get away from us. "look, I know I screwed up, I do! I made a fool out of myself and I completely insulted you guys but-"
"-that's right Brooke, you insulted us" Rachel says, still trying to get away. We're weaving up and down the aisles. "but you didn't just insult us, what you said hurt. We have been there for you for as long as I can remember and you know we would do anything for you. But when you called us bad friends, it was just too far."
"I know, and I feel terrible for it. I was… just angry and I couldn't control myself. You know how I can get sometimes"
"we know" Peyton says. "cause that's the kind of friends we are"
I look down at my watch, trying not to fall behind with the rest of the girls. "uh, guys we need to get going… this place is closing soon" we have like 5 minutes left. But what do I get? Ignored.
"I know, you're amazing friends, no one has better friends than I do. But I need those amazing friends back. You guys beat that Joey guy today and I know it was for me. Don't even try to say it wasn't, cause I know it was. You guys still care about me, admit it."
"okay fine!" Rachel yells. "we dealt with him because we still care about you. But everything you said to us before makes us think you don't care about us"
"hey, hey, hey" Brooke says softly, stepping in front of them to stop them. "I care about you guys more than anything in the world. You're my family. My only family. We've always been there for each other and I'm not about to stop that tradition."
"god, Brooke you don't get it. It's not that you said we're bad friends… it's that you meant it" Peyton says pushing Brooke away and trying to head for the exit of the store. We're in the middle but it seems like we've walked around the whole place.
"guys… we better-" I start.
"-but I don't mean it..." Brooke says.
"guys we have like-" I start once again.
"-but you did at one point" Rachel points out.
"guys!" I yell, finally grabbing their attention.
"what?!" they all yell back together.
Just as if on cue all of the lights in the store go out and Wal-Mart is officially closed.
"that" I say referring to the lights.
"Help!" all four of us yelled at the same time. But it was no use, the manager had already gone and there were no security guards in sight. Don't they have night guards or something?
"great, this is perfect. I've got like a shit load of liquor in my car and now we're stuck in a fucking Wal-Mart" Peyton says angrily giving up on the front doors.
"why don't we just break the door and get out of here?" Rachel asks.
"and set off the alarm and tell the police officer what we're doing locked in a Wal-Mart?" Brooke says.
"good point" Rachel says being surprisingly nice. "but don't think for a second I'm not still angry at you" she's quick to retaliate.
"Taylor's going to be pissed about the liquor. She said it was important that I get it tonight" Peyton says, sitting down on one of the laundry detergent boxes on display.
"wait, Taylor? As in Haley's sister?" Rachel asks. Oh, please don't blow it.
"no, there's this new bartender at Tric named Taylor… and I doubt she's the same girl that your thinking of" Peyton says.
"Well I'm thinking of the girl who got drunk at our party and gave that guy a lap dance…"
"it can't be… unless" Peyton says slowly looking up at me and Brooke. Alright, I got this. Just keep a straight face Haley. Hey, it's actually working. I look over at Brooke and she's got that I-am-so-guilty face going on.
"you set us up?!" Peyton yells. I need to teach Brooke how to get a poker face.
"well how else was I supposed to talk to you?!" Brooke asks.
"nice Brooke, really nice" Rachel says pacing back and forth. "your stupidity has gotten us stuck in a Wal-Mart over night."
"hey, don't blame her, this was my idea too" I speak up.
"great, then you're both idiots" Peyton says.
"hey, don't call Haley an idiot!" Brooke defends me.
"well I can't help it if your half schemed plans back fire on us all!" Peyton yells, this time standing up to get in Brooke's face.
"shut up Peyton! We didn't intend to get locked in here"
"no. I'm sure it happened naturally. Why do you think we keep you out of the planning part of the plans" Peyton says nastily.
"you know, I'm getting sick and tired of you tearing me down every 2 seconds" Brooke argues.
"well I wouldn't have to if you would just grow some brains" Peyton says.
"that's it!" Brooke mutters angrily and she lunges at Peyton and knocks her to the floor. Oh Nathan's going to be pissed when he hears what he missed.
"guys get off of each other" Rachel says, trying to pull Brooke off of Peyton. They've both got a grip on each other's hair and neither looks like they're going to let go any time soon.
"Haley, help me" Rachel says. I grab a hold of Brooke and she grabs Peyton and we pull them away from each other.
"guys, this is getting ridiculous, can't you solve your problems in a honest and civilized manner?" I say. Just then all three girls stop and look at me, then back at each other. What the hell is going on?
"blind and disabled!" they all yell at the same time. Blind and what now?
"I don't think now's the time to be calling each other names" I say.
"no, Blind and Disabled. It's this game we created when we were younger" Brooke says.
"we couldn't drive so we would always go to the parking lots in the mall and steal a couple of shopping carts." Peyton says. So it's a game? I'm a little afraid to ask why they call it blind and disabled.
"so we're agreed?" Rachel asks. "you and Haley against me and Peyton?"
"it's on. For once I will prove to you I am so much more than just a hot body and a good friend" Brooke says making Peyton and Rachel scoff.
"what ever, you guys get the carts while Peyton and I get the blindfolds" Rachel says. Blindfolds? What the hell kind of game is this.
"fine!" Brooke says grabbing me by the hand and pulling me towards the shopping carts.
"Brooke what the hell is this game and how did you get me involved?" I ask.
"okay look, Blind and Disabled is this game we invented. One person is in the cart and the other person is pushing them through the area, sort of like a race. The only problem is the person who is pushing the cart is blindfolded and the person who is in the cart has to give directions to the driver. First person to cross the finish line wins" this sounds dangerous.
"you're kidding me right?" I ask as Brooke pulls out a cart and pushes it towards me and then she pulls out another one.
"nope" she says and we walk back towards the middle of the store. We meet Rachel and Peyton in the post they left and they have a couple of handkerchiefs in hand.
"alright, first ones to go through frozen foods section, passed the sports section, weave through the shoe racks and finish with getting passed the cash registers." Rachel lists off.
"deal?" Peyton asks.
"deal" Brooke answers as we head to the start line.
"Brooke, what do you get out of this if we win?" I ask hypothetically as I see her put on the blindfold.
"don't worry, it'll work out" she promises me. "now, get in the cart" she says. I see Rachel put the blindfold on and Peyton climb into the cart I follow and get into my cart. This can't turn out good.
"on the count of three" Peyton says looking at me. "one… two…" before I know it Rachel has already started pushing the cart and they have a head start. "three!" Peyton yells, sticking her tongue out at me.
That's it. It's on.
Ooh, cliffhanger! Sort of. What ever. So next chapter I'll finish up the race game thing. (which btw I came up with all by myself!) I'm proud. I hoped you like this chapter. If you did, keep reading.