Chapter 12
Sunday, 1/24/10, 12:42 AM
Poor Ducks
Note munched tiredly on a French toast stick. Her eyes drifted shut as her head moved slowly towards the table.
"Look alive there, kid!" A slap on the back jolted her awake. With a startled look in her eyes, she looked for the perpetrator. Mush beamed back at her. "Didja just wake up, or something?"
Note nodded at him with a sheepish smile, although the truth was that she had been awake for hours.
At the other end of the table, Hollywood sat next to Race. Race nudged her and asked, "Hey, can I have your pancakes? You haven't eaten any of them."
Hollywood glared and snapped angrily at him, "Sure, take all the fucking pancakes. Hey, I have a good idea! Why don't you just take my fucking liver next?"
Race stared at her, shocked. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "So…um, is that a yes?"
Hollywood sneered and started shoveling pancakes onto his plate. However, his attention was directed elsewhere.
"Is that…Sarah?" His eyes were as big as the pancakes he'd wanted minutes before as he watched the girl walk towards the table.
Note eyed their job well done in approval. Without the ton of makeup caked on her face and the whore-ish clothing, Sarah wasn't half bad to look at.
Hollywood leaned towards her, suddenly awake. "See, this is going to be magical! Jack is going to see her and realize that she's the girl he's been looking for!"
They both looked at Jack in anticipation, expecting to see the love shining in his eyes as he looked at the beacon of his heart.
Jack looked up. His eyes found Sarah. He looked her up. He looked her down. He went back to his food.
Note and Hollywood looked on is dismay. Their plan seemed to be going off the tracks. Actually, in a metaphorical sense, the train had, in fact, crashed into an oil plant, right near a lake. So now there's a horrible fire and all the ducks are going to die. Metaphorically, of course.
"She's so pretty."
Hollywood and Note both looked towards Jack expectantly, hoping for their figurative train to go back on the tracks. He was, however, still chewing his food. Poor ducks.
The voice had actually come from the seat next to Hollywood. That's right, none other than Racetrack was looking at Sarah with enough love in his eyes to fill ten pots.
"So, what now?" Note hissed at Hollywood as they walked through the hallway.
"Well," Hollywood pondered this question, "now we go to class."
Hollywood took off down the hallway. Note stared at her. Hollywood stopped walking. "What is your problem?" She asked, annoyed. Note sighed and rolled her eyes. "English is the other way, smart one."
Note and Hollywood arrived at Mr. Denton's classroom barely on time. They grabbed open seats behind Blink and Race. Blink was talking to Jack, looking very upset.
"They can't do this to me, Jack," he kept repeating, over and over.
Race looked downright pissed, as did most of the others. Except David, that is, who looked positively gleeful.
"What's going on?" Hollywood asked Race.
"We're reading this damn girly book," he started sullenly. "I can't believe Denton's making us read—"
"Pride and Prejudice!" Note squealed, yanking Hollywood's arm. "I can't believe we get to read it! It's, like, my favorite book ever."
Race stared at her like she had two heads. "What? You actually like this crap?" He asked her, incredulous.
"Hey, I trust Stitch," Spot sat down next to her. "If he says it's good, maybe it is."
Note blushed scarlet and determinedly avoided looking at Hollywood, who was smirking.
"Well, um, my…my sister, yeah, she really likes it and she made me read it and…it's kind of girly, but I still…liked it?" Note backpedaled.
"You have a sister?" Jack joined the conversation. "How old? Is she hot?"
"Well, uh...you see," Note began, glancing desperately at Hollywood.
"She likes Jesse McCartney, which is never a good thing," Spot mentioned.
Hollywood was very offended. "Hey! Why is liking Jesse a bad thing?" She demanded.
"Do you like Jesse McCartney?" Blink asked. "And did you just refer to him as 'Jesse'? Like, you know him, or something?"
Just then, Sarah, who was lurking by the front of the classroom, started cackling. "Wow," she sneered, "Stitch and Crispy, you two are the least manly guys I've ever met. I mean, Pride and Prejudice and Jesse McCartney? Really?" She cocked an eyebrow at them condescendingly.
Racetrack fell out of his chair.
"Whoa, man, are you okay?" Blink asked him, concerned.
"So pretty," Race mumbled.
"Who?" Jack asked, looking around the room.
Note and Hollywood concocted a plan using only their eyes and then Hollywood whacked Jack on the arm and said, "I think he means Sarah. She's looking pretty good today, don't you think?"
Jack glanced at Sarah. "Um, I guess so?"
Note smacked her head against her desk. "Ow. Wow, that actually really hurt."
Sarah snorted. "Gosh, Mark, you're such a wimp." She walked over behind Jack and slid her hands up his arms. "You're the complete opposite of Jack. Such a man."
"DISENFECTANT!" Jack held his arms away from his body, as if he was afraid to contaminate the rest of his body. "Someone get me some hand sanitizer, now!"
Hollywood looked at Sarah, afraid that she might be the tiniest bit offended by the implication that her touch was toxic, but was surprised to see her perk up.
"Ohh, Jack. Do you want me to rub it on you? Like an erotic massage?"
Jack was saved from responding when Mr. Denton bustled into the room, holding crates of books. Sarah waltzed up to the front of the room, in what she probably assumed was a seductive strut and helped him pass out the paperbacks. The rest of the class passed without major incident. Unless you count Sarah almost getting punched in the face as she leaned over Jack for the fifth time and murmured, "Do you need any help?"
"I'll say this about Sarah," Note whispered to Hollywood, as Jack was held back by Blink and Mush, "she certainly doesn't give up."
"Oh, yes." Hollywood said vaguely. She was distracted by the bulging of Blink's biceps as he stopped Jack from attempting a Chris Brown.
Next period, Note and Spot were throwing wads of yarn at each other while David glared daggers at them. They stopped when the teacher cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Um, class, from now on we're going to be actually doing something in Fashion Fabrics," he began nervously. Note caught Spot's incredulous glance and stifled a laugh. "Ms. Larkson—Medda—has asked our class to create the costumes for this year's musical. So, you guys get to make them." He sat down at his desk and immediately immersed himself in his Sudoku.
David beamed and decided he would make as many of the costumes as he could all by himself. Once Medda saw his dedication, she would surely realize how perfect they were for each other. "You two can make each others, I guess," David sneered at Spot and Note.
"What?" Note was horrified. "I have to actually sew something that will be seen in a public place? I can't sew to save my life." She slumped in her seat, miserable.
Spot thumped her on the back and she choked. "Don't worry, Stitch, I'll help you! It won't be that bad."
Five minutes later, Note was standing on a stool while Spot measured her inseam. "Okay, I'm going to measure your waist, hips, and inseam. Then you're going to do the same to me. Got it?" Spot instructed, frowning at the sewing book open on the desk.
Note nodded and then stopped, and shook her head. "What's my inseam?"
Spot looked a bit embarrassed. "You know, the length of your leg. From the inside of your foot, up." Note panicked inside. What if he realized she didn't actually a penis?
Sensing her panic, Spot grinned. "We can save that for last. We'll just do one at a time. Waist first." Spot stood behind her and started to wrap the measuring tape around her midsection. Just as he did that, David bustled past with a giant pile of fabric and knocked Note off balance. She fell back onto a hard chest and a pair of strong arms held her up.
Spot chuckled in her ear, causing her to practically swoon. "Wow, you really are a hazard to everything involved with sewing, aren't you?" Note was too focused on breathing and not fainting to answer.
"Stitch? Buddy? You okay?" Spot sounded concerned.
"Uh, I'm fine. Sorry, I guess I just got a little disoriented," Note scrambled for an excuse. "Yeah, I don't feel so well. Maybe I should go lay down in my room or something. Bye." She practically sprinted from the room.
The teacher barely glanced up. Spot looked at her with an odd expression but didn't stop her.
In Hollywood's class, their pastries teacher hadn't forgotten the 'rice-crispy-treat' incident of last class period and put Hollywood, Jack, Skittery and Blink in separate corners to frost cookies. However, after an event involving an entire cake spontaneously lighting on fire, (honestly, the whole pastries class should be canceled), Hollywood got a chance to sneak over to Jack.
"Wazzup, player? Nice frosting job. You're making that cookie your bitch." She said, conversationally, as she slid into the seat next to him.
Jack looked up. "Uhh, thanks, man." Suddenly, he grinned. "You know, dumb as it sounds, I sorta like this class. Helps takes my mind off my problems."
"Fa-sho, fo-sho. I feel you on that one, homie." (Sidenote: There's a slight chance Hollywood had begun to watch a lot of Jersey Shore.) "So, uhh, what kinda problems are we talking about here?"
Jack began to viciously stab the frosting. "It's Sarah! I can't get her to leave me alone. I mean, after the first time, I just…"
"What happened last time? I mean, I know you, uh, pounded it. Was she, like, a grenade?"
Jack looked a little confused, but trudged onward in his story. "Last year, I was dating this girl, Maria. We were, uh, pretty serious. Nothing out of control, but still…she was a nice girl.
"So then, Sarah starts working for Mr. Denton and suddenly it's like she freaking…obsessed with me. She straight up started a rumor that we were sleeping together, Maria found about it and believed her. She…" he paused and ran a hand through his hair, "she broke up with me. We were together for four months, and one rumor was enough for her to completely lose trust in me."
Hollywood nodded and attempted to look manly. Jack? Hot. Vulnerable and hurt Jack? A lot hotter.
"So, uh," he smiled bitterly, "I wasn't in the best shape after that. I wanted to, I guess punish Sarah. After all she had hurt me, I figured she deserved to have her heart broken too. So I slept with her. It didn't mean anything, I just thought that after all the effort she put in, that she'd want some sort of relationship.
"I told everyone about it, might as well ruin her reputation well I was at it, right? But turns out that was all she ever wanted anyways. So in one fell swoop, I lost my girlfriend and any chances of getting her back." He looked a little self conscious after sharing so much emotion. "I, uh, didn't really tell the guys about this. I mean, they know, but not the whole story. I guess it's kinda easier to tell someone new, ya know?"
"Jack, I…" Hollywood cleared her throat and frantically racked her brain. What do you say to the boy who opened up to you over a tub of frosting, when you were attempting to get him together with the girl who ruined his long-term-relationship so she didn't reveal your secret? Even Miss Manners wouldn't know.
A/Ns:
Hollywood: 'ello girls and boys. So I totally appreciate the fact that it has been over a year since we've updated and also that Note and I were but little sophomores when this began. Now we're college girls and life is grand. I hope all of your lives are going smashingly and I assume all of you are as torn up as I am about Conan being gone. Anyways, we actually went for some plot and character development in this chapter. It was a big time in our lives. We've got some really great stuff planned for the next couple chapters, and I hope we can update in a far timelier manner than we have been. Loveee.
Note: Who's Conan? What am I missing? Whatever. Anyway, fun fact: Hollywood and I go to different colleges (which is terribly sad) so we wrote most of this chapter over emails and IMs. I like it a lot though. Sorry we haven't updated in over a year. It's kind of pathetic. Don't worry, though. We never considered abandoning this story. It's kind of our baby. So, we'll try to update waaaayyy sooner next time and we love you all! Thanks for reading and please review!
