A/N: An alternate title to this chapter = The Curse of the Rotten Orange that Greatly Annoyed "The Rock" Dwayne Nicholas
I mean... You'll see...
No surprise, Angel and Nudge arranged themselves so I was sitting next to Nicholas – again. Nudge shook the contents of her lunchbox out on the table while Angel quietly zipped up her blue jacket. I, meanwhile, just stared at Nicholas' book. I really wanted to touch it, but I remembered how he had hissed at me to stay away from it during lunch the day before.
A large, disfigured orange rolled out of Nudge's lime green lunchbox. Green and black dots speckled it, like it was a mutation of a cheetah.
"Aw, Mom. What'd I tell ya about getting groceries?" Nudge groaned.
She made no attempt to stop the orange in its destructive path. It headed straight for preppy little Lissa.
Oh, this will be fun.
Lissa shrieked. "Ewww! Get your orange away from me!"
Nudge stared at her for a second, assessing her fear, and then said, "What, that one? Oh, don't worry. It's only been sitting in our cupboard for a few months or so." Nudge smiled wickedly.
Lissa scooted herself as far away as possible from the orange. She was about to knock Iggy off the cafeteria table's bench.
The orange continued to roll. It loomed closer and closer to Lissa's shirtsleeve. The hairy mold spots waved at her like they were antennae.
"Oh, finally getting close to me? Huh?" Iggy teased Lissa.
The redhead silenced him with a glare. She looked from a grinning Iggy to the orange and back again. I think the orange won.
"Move!" Lissa booted Iggy off the bench, keeping a wary eye on the orange. Nudge was almost rolling on the floor with laughter by now.
Iggy fell on the floor with an oof. He pushed himself back up. "Hey, that wasn't nice. And aren't you the one who's always telling me to be nice?"
"Extreme times call for extreme measures," Lissa said quickly, never taking her eyes off the orange. It was still rolling towards her.
"Extreme times? For Pete's sake, it's a stupid orange. Quit being a sissy and let me back in," Iggy was annoyed.
"I bet that orange is smarter than you," Angel muttered under her breath.
"Are you still mad about that? Come on, I doubt Mrs. Merrill is even going to take it for a grade," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Huh? I never said anything," Angel replied.
Oh, so now she's playing the pretending game.
"Alright. You never said anything," I said in an off-handed tone.
Angel's cheeks turned ever so slightly red. She knew she had been caught.
"Iggy, the orange has mold on it!" Lissa whined. "Do you seriously want me to touch that vermin?"
"Quit insulting my orange. It's already taken enough abuse," Nudge said to Lissa.
"You're not helping," she retorted.
"Seriously, if it would help you overcome this fear of being in contact with nasty things, then yes. I do," Iggy was trying unsuccessfully to get Lissa to move by kicking her legs under the table.
"Ahh! It's coming!" Lissa screamed. Indeed, the orange was only a few inches away from her now.
"Lissa, you're either gonna move back, or I'm just gonna sit on your lap," Iggy threatened.
Nudge burst into a fit of maniacal laughter again. Her black fedora fell off as she threw her head back. Her neon purple highlight brushed across her eyes.
Nicholas shook his head and sighed.
I was still staring at his book. When is he going to tell me?
"You can if you want to, but I doubt you'll have the guts," Lissa snorted.
Iggy's face reddened. Lissa was right. "Lissa, just please – move. I need to sit down before the principal starts the announcements."
Right when he said that, the principal walked out and said into the microphone, "Everyone, please sit down and be quiet. I have a few things to tell you."
Iggy jumped. There was no time left for diplomacy. "You know what, I'm just gonna end this," he muttered with finality.
It happened so quick Lissa never had the chance to react. Iggy reached across and flicked the orange into her lap with his thumb and middle fingers.
Lissa gasped as the moldy orange plopped into her lap, forever contaminating her navy blue slacks. She clapped a hand over her mouth to contain a scream. While she was in shock, Iggy nudged her over and sat down. He brushed his hands together after he sat down.
Nudge looked like she was going to explode. She also had a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. Her face was turning a brilliant shade of vermilion. Angel took out her bottle of hand sanitizer and cleaned her hands.
Nicholas and I looked at each other and then at a satisfied Iggy and horrified Lissa. Lissa was hyperventilating. I could hear her ragged breaths as the moldy orange sank further into her preppy pants.
As soon as the announcements were done, Iggy said, "See, that wasn't so bad, was it? I even touched it, and I'm not turning green yet." At the same time, Lissa let out a tiny, squeaky scream.
"It's on me! The mold! It's getting on my pants!" she wailed.
Nicholas got up while Iggy and Nudge was both hysterically laughing. He gingerly picked the orange off Lissa's lap and walked over to Nudge.
"Do you still want this?" he asked her tiredly.
"Nah. It's fine. You can keep it," Nudge beamed up at him.
Lissa was furiously brushing her pants.
Nicholas sighed once more, turned around, and tossed the orange into a trashcan a few feet away. Trash basketball. Two points.
When he sat back down, Iggy was clutching his stomach, giggling like a little girl. Nudge was searching through her lunchbox for anything else she could use to potentially freak Lissa out. Lissa was slapping her slacks – like that would help get the mold off. Angel was re-sanitizing her hands. I was still staring at his book.
"Guys, we have to focus," Nicholas said calmly. "We've already confirmed that…"
"You idiot!" Lissa slapped Iggy's arm. It must have been pretty hard, too, because Iggy got out an ow amidst his laughing. "Why did you have to that?"
"I helped you out," Iggy said, still giggly.
"No you didn't."
"Yeah, I did. You're fine, see. Now you won't be so scared of moldy oranges because you know they're not gonna bite your head off."
"Ugh!" Lissa sounded disgusted. She turned away from Iggy and crossed her arms.
"Focus," Nicholas repeated. It's strange. I don't think I've ever heard his raise his voice. He is the human reincarnation of a rock.
"Alright, alright. We're focusing," Iggy said, wiping away the rest of his giggles.
"And Nudge, don't even think about using the expired ham," Nicholas warned without turning his head.
What expired ham?
I looked at Nudge. Sure enough, she was sneaking a plastic bag with green and purple ham back inside her lunchbox with an apologetic smile on her face.
Wow, her Mom seriously needs to go grocery shopping.
"Okay, do you see that book?" Nicholas directed his question at Angel, Nudge, and me.
We nodded.
"Hey! It has Max's name on it!" Nudge said, pointing out the obvious.
Angel looked at me. "You published a book? And Nick bought it?"
I was ready to do a facepalm. Of course Angel would assume something like that.
"No. I'll get to that," Nicholas said to Angel.
"You guys know about the Oracle? Right?" Iggy asked us.
His question reminded me of something Nicholas had asked me the day before – a similar question about the Oracle at Delphi business.
"Yeah. We're learning it in History," Nudge noisily slurped some juice out of a CapriSun juice packet – possibly one of the only things that aren't expired or moldy.
"Well, this book is kind of like that," Nicholas said.
"It's an oracle?" Angel gaped.
"It has a prophecy written in it," Nicholas corrected her.
"So, like, it can tell the future," Nudge squeezed the last drops out of her juice box.
"A certain future, involving certain people," Nicholas told her.
Oh, so that's how come he knew all those things that would happen to me – the fall, Star's meeting with the "district" man…
"But it has to be fulfilled. So it's not quite like a fortune teller," Iggy explained.
Oh, great. What have I gotten myself into?
"And we were missing some people for the fulfillment of the prophecy," Lissa continued.
"We were actually missing the person that the prophecy is all about," Iggy said.
I can see where this is going now.
Nudge and Angel were hanging on to the edge of seats, taking in every single word they were saying.
"And at first, we weren't sure who that person was," Lissa said.
"But now, we've confirmed it because everything The Book said would happen to that person has happened," Iggy said.
"And today, in that person's Comm. Arts class, she did the thing that defined her identity as 'the one' for sure," Lissa switched off with Iggy one last time.
I wonder if they had rehearsed this thing beforehand. They are so synchronized.
Nudge and Angel sucked in a breath. It isn't every day that they get to hear a story like this one. For me, I wasn't sure if they were pulling our legs or not. It seemed too supernatural to be true. I mean, who's ever heard of a book being able to tell a prophecy.
"So now we know it's you," Nicholas said, directly to me.
Flashes of everything that had happened with Nicholas and his book ran across the inside of my eyelids. The brown book loomed behind it all like a background. The piercing golden letters seemed to grow larger and larger with every single image.
Nicholas' words echoed in my mind.
It's you. It's you.
It's you.
A/N: Cliffy! Double whammy! I know you guys probably hate me for doing that, but the next chapter(s) will pay it all off. Notice the "s" in parentheses? See, chapter 15 is twenty-one pages or so typed into Microsoft Word, so I didn't know if you wanted to read all of that all at once. I can split it into several sections, or if you really want to, I can post the whole thing. Tell me, and majority wins!
Also, I may not even be able to post next week. It all depends on how much wifi I'll have when I go to party with the grizzly bears. So, fingers crossed!
Folding Turtles out! ;)