Chapter 14
Welcome to Paradise
A/N: Hey folks, I'm back. I know, sooner than you expected, surprise!
Time: 2 July 2006
Emily Grossman was dead.
It is important that you understand this as if you don't, nothing else from here on in will make any sense to you whatsoever. Now that their mother was deceased, Gwen and Rudy had to find a new place to live. Other than Gwen's father, Todd, and Rudy's father, Joe, who were apparently AWOL, their only living relative was their aunt, Julia Anderson (née Grossman.) The cool thing about living with Julia would mean also living with Cody (Cody's father, Marcus, was married to Julia,) which would of course make Heather, who had a 'thing' for Cody (despite the fact that she was dating Duncan,) very jealous. The problem about that would be that Julia was a total uptight prude bitch, who wouldn't give Gwen nearly the same amount of freedom that she had with Emily (basically she was a 38-year-old Courtney.) The social service people gave Gwen and Rudy a couple days to pack, the official custody announcement was on July 5th, although even before then they would stay overnight at the Anderson's house. That was the problem from a logical standpoint.
From an emotional perspective... obviously it was a lot worse. The night of July 1st, the Morrow's final night at the old house, Gwen put on a brave face for Rudy all day, answering his questions calmly and talking to him about whatever he needed to talk about, but after she put her younger brother to bed, she ran to her room, began crying hysterically, cut her thighs and let them bleed under her covers as she jumped in the bed. The next day, carefully hiding her cuts by wearing jeans, she invited her boyfriend, Trent, and her closest friend, Lindsay, to try and help her deal with the emotional stress.
"That's a nice 'Canada Day' present, no?" Lindsay asked, referring to Emily's death.
"We don't live in Canada, Linds." Gwen replied.
"Hey, I was just making an observation. There is some good news though." Lindsay retorted.
"What could possibly be good news right now?" asked Trent.
"Its legit good news dude, I swear," Replied Lindsay.
"Someone killed Ashton Kutcher?" Gwen asked half-sarcastically.
"Hey, I like Ashton Kutcher." Lindsay protested. "No, I was gonna say I got these half-tobacco, half-weed spliffs. I got one for each of the three of us, so enjoy." She handed one to Gwen and Trent each, and then lit her own.
"You know Lindsay; you could be a little more sensitive." Trent said. "Her mom just died, dude."
"Do I look like a dude to you?"
Both Gwen and Trent gave her a dirty look.
"Yeah, you right, Gwen, I'm sorry for being a bitch."
The doorbell rang and Gwen went to go get it. She was expecting some social worker, or perhaps one of her next closest friends, Bridgette or Heather. Instead she found Courtney Moore.
"Hi Gwen." Courtney started.
"Hey Courtney." Gwen quickly hid her spliff behind her back. "What's up?"
"Trent texted me about what happened yesterday, and I just have to say I'm terribly sorry for your loss and I- what's she doing here?" Courtney asked, her eyes turning to Gwen's blond companion.
Courtney and Lindsay were friends for a time, and there was even a possibility for a while of Courtney supplanting Gwen as Lindsay's best friend. However, after Lindsay came out as an atheist and also started smoking marijuana, in addition to her rather strange behaviour in the first month or so in the eighth grade, caused Courtney to dislike Lindsay, and by the end of
Grade 8 they were essentially arch-enemies.
"Who me?" Lindsay asked.
"Yes you. And if you say 'couldn't be,' I will hurt you." Courtney replied.
Lindsay was upset that Courtney had stolen her thunder.
"Well, I happen to be Gwen's best friend."
"You also happen to be a pot-smoking, God-hating whore."
"Shut the fuck up you stupid bitch!"
"I'm the one who's stupid?" Courtney said, "Which one of us was the one who graduated with a '91%' average, highest in the class, oh yeah, me."
Courtney then inhaled.
"Are you smoking pot again! You know Lindsay, you're gonna ruin your life with that stuff. And then after you've ruined your life and you die, you'll go to hell, and when your there, just remember, 'I told you so.'" Courtney replied smugly.
"Shut the fuck up, Jesus freak!"
"I am not a Jesus freak!"
"Yes you fucking are." Lindsay then slapped Courtney across the face.
Courtney turned to her and yelled, "You're gonna die, bitch!"
Despite the fact that both girls' new martial arts, the two got into a catfight and began rolling on the floor trying to pull each other's hair out and scratch and claw each other into submission. While Trent was thinking 'mmm...catfight!' the entire time, Gwen managed to get in between Courtney and Lindsay to pull the brunette off of the blonde.
"Courtney, it's probably best if you leave." Gwen said.
"But-"
"Courtney, go, now!" Gwen yelled.
"Yeah, suck my dick, bitch!" Lindsay yelled at her.
"You have a dick? No wonder Noah likes you so much." Courtney said with a parting shot before leaving.
"What a cunt!" Lindsay yelled.
"Lindsay, language, please."
Later that day, the Anderson's came to pick Gwen and Rudy up and take them to their house to spend the night.
Also, James was very quick in replacing his secretary, replacing Emily with a recent college graduate, a 25-year-old woman named Haley Burress, who James was likely just using for sex.
Time: 3 July 2006
Lindsay and Gwen were talking again at Gwen's house while Gwen was packing. At first they talked about Emily, and the times Gwen had with her mother, but the topic soon turned to boys, specifically Trent and Noah.
"Noah called me today, he told me he got two tickets to an Eminem concert on July 11th." Lindsay told her friend.
"I thought Noah hated Eminem." Gwen replied.
"He does... that's how much he loves me."
Gwen sighed.
"How did I get him?" Lindsay asked.
"Say what!"
"Noah is so smart, kind, sexy, smart. And I'm just a dim-witted, drug-addicted slut."
"Confidence is something you have to work on, isn't it?" Gwen asked.
"It is."
"Look Lindsay, you're an amazing person, don't let Courtney or anyone else tell you otherwise. To be honest, I have kind of always wondered the same thing." Gwen said.
"About what?"
"I mean, Trent's like the most popular and coolest guy in school. And I'm just the creepy Goth chick."
"Don't ever say that!" Lindsay yelled, "Gwen, no other person in the universe is as amazing as you, even Noah. You're smart, nice, funny, entertaining, and as for you looks; if you knew about some of the things I- some of the guys wanted to do to you, you'd understand what I mean when I say that Trent..." her eyes started to tear up, "is lucky to have you."
By this point Lindsay was completely crying.
Get a grip girl, Lindsay thought to herself, you can't let her know about how you really feel. Hopefully she didn't notice that slip.
"Are you okay?" Gwen asked.
"I just need a hug." She said, and the two girls embraced.
Being so close to the person you love, knowing they'll never love you back, Lindsay thought, is the most fucking agonizing thing in the world. Thank God she didn't notice that Freudian slip.
Lindsay had had feelings for Gwen for quite a while, well over a year, but Lindsay expected them to go away after a while. They weren't; in fact, they were getting stronger. Lindsay didn't know if it was her hot tight body, her creative mind, or the fact that she was one of the few people who truly respected Lindsay for who she was (a lot of people liked her, but a lot of them only liked her because of her body and few people truly respected her,) and it was most likely a combination of all three. But whatever the reason was, it was impossible to deny, Lindsay was in love with her best friend.
Later that day was Emily's funeral. Originally Gwen didn't want Lindsay to come, but eventually she agreed. After the funeral itself, Gwen learned from one of the people who managed the site that she had a message left for her. She opened the message and it read:
Dear Gwen,
I sincerely hope you read this. I have been informed of Emily Grossman's passing and it deeply upsets me. I am currently in Detroit and am not able to come to her funeral, but if I could have made it there, I would. Anyways, I know that chances are I will never see you again. I wonder how you are now, I hope that you've had a great life so far, and I hope that you've recovered well from what that Joe guy did to you a couple years back. Just know that I will always love you, even if we never meet.
From, your father, Todd Morrow
Time: 5 July 2006
Gwen never prayed. First of all, she wasn't really even sure whether there was a God or not (and hanging out with Lindsay didn't do much for converting her to theism,) but she also knew that even if there was a God, the odds that he would answer the prayer of a 14-year-old girl on a little blue rock was so infinitesimally small that it was basically pointless. However, on the morning of July 5th, 2006, she prayed. She prayed to God that her father would show up n the day of the court hearing and take Gwen and Rudy into custody with him. Not because she hated Julia, but because... okay, she did hate Julia, but what girl doesn't want to see her father.
Julia and Marcus drove the kids to the courthouse and where their fate would be decided... well, it basically already was decided, more like formally announced. However, about 10 minutes after their arrival, the security guard mentioned that there was someone else outside. He was a man who rode here on a motorcycle and he claimed to be the children's father.
Thank you Jesus, Gwen thought.
The judge agreed to let him in, and before even turned around to see him, his deep southern accent and heavy footsteps gave it away.
"Hey guys... um... the kids are mine." Was all he said, but the instant Gwen heard that her heart sank to unfathomable depths; it was the voice of Joe fucking Burkebeaque.
"Who are you?" the judge asked.
"My name is Joseph Burkebeaque, I was married to Emily Grossman from 1997 to 2000. They're my kids and I get custody of them if I want it, which I do."
"Is this true?"
"He is Rudy's father, but not mine." Gwen said, although she instantly regretted it from the moment she said it.
Next time, think! She thought to herself.
"We're gonna have to take some DNA samples to prove this. We'll reassemble tomorrow."
So the blood tests for Joe, Rudy, and Gwen were taken and they were sent home for the night.
Time: 6 July 2006
The blood samples came back as expected, with it being confirmed that Joe and Rudy were related and it being almost impossible that Joe and Gwen were.
"I think I'll sell my apartment and live in the house that the two kids were brought up in. That way they don't have to move, and I used to live there anyways." Joe said.
"Hang on a second." The judge said, "Joseph, Rudy is your son, so you have custody of him if you want. However, Gwen is not your daughter, so if she doesn't want to live with you, she doesn't have to."
The judge then turned to Gwen, "You have a decision to make, you can stay with Joe and your brother or you can stay with the Anderson's."
Gwen thought about it. She knew that it was in her best interest to stay as far away from Joe as possible, and she knew as well that living in the same house as that guy could be potentially extremely dangerous. But she also knew that Rudy needed her, and as much as it could be potentially harmful to her, she was going to have to make the right choice for Rudy.
"I want to live with Joe and Rudy." Gwen told the judge.
"So, it's settled then." The judge said and smashed his hammer.
"Yay, we're gonna have so much fun!" Joe squealed excitedly.
It's gonna be a long couple of years. Gwen groaned.
Time: 7 July 2006
Gwen was chilling in her room, putting back all the stuff she had taken out when she expected to leave.
Stupid, fucking Joe. She thought, why'd he have to show up at the last minute and ruin my life!
There was a knock on her door.
"Come in." She said, and Joe walked in her room.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"Rudy told me that he didn't trust me." Joe said, "When I asked him why, he said it's because you and Emily told him that I did terrible things to you. Did you tell him exactly what happened?"
"No, I didn't. But you have no right to go on the offensive, Joe. The only reason I'm staying with you is because Rudy needs me, not because I feel like I owe it to you or something." She said boldly.
"That's cute Gwen, but let's not forget who's the boss around here."
"You think that you can just waltz back into my life after what you did to me and pretend you're my father! Joe, I'm giving you a chance because Rudy needs me but if you even lay a finger on me I'll send your ass to jail faster than you can say 'Quagmire is a pervert.'"
"Nice 'Family Guy' reference Gwen. Just give me my space and I'll give you yours." And after that Joe left her room.
Over the next couple weeks she discovered the new Joe. She was happy to know that he was radically different from the old Joe. His uptight, business-man like style of dressing has been replaced by something that would be expected from a dude in a biker gang. Joe was 45 now, and was no longer in very good shape as he was before; he had a definite beer belly. He had worked a couple of jobs and was now the owner of a McDonald's (not the entire chain obviously, just one single building.) This meant that Joe was actually making more money than Emily had been, and got even more after his old apartment sold. Of all the problems Gwen was having, at least income wasn't one of them.
On a stranger note, Gwen soon learned that Joe had not dropped Catholicism, and had converted to Baptism. This worried Gwen, as most of the other evangelical Christians she knew were either prudes (i.e. Julia Anderson,) or just absolute scumbags (i.e. Leanne Cunningham.) Yet surprisingly, Joe was actually more tolerable than he was 6 years before, although it wasn't like that was extraordinarily hard to do, as he was still an asshole, but at least he didn't go around beating up and molesting little girls. Now he just kind of sat on the couch, drank beer, ate potato chips, and constantly talked about all the "great" things that George W. Bush had "done" for America, as well as how Osama Bin Laden and the Muslims (as well as the liberals,) were trying to ruin this "great nation."
Time: 10 July 2006
Lindsay came over to Gwen's house for the first time since Joe started living there again.
"Hey Gwen."
"Hey."
"So... who's this 'Joe' guy who's staying with you?"
"He... um... he was married to my mom back in the late 90s... he... um..."
"Is that the guy who molested you?"
"Don't talk about that openly; he doesn't take to kindly to when people talk about his... um... dubious past."
"Gwen, how could you stay with someone who you know can and will abuse you like that if he gets the chance?"
"Because Rudy needs me." Gwen answered.
"What are you girls talking about?" they heard a voice say.
"Um... nothing." Gwen replied when she turned around and saw that it was Joe.
"Hey... I think I remember you..." Joe turned to Lindsay, "your that little bitch who threw a fit when I made a table grace all those years back. Are you still a nonbeliever?"
"Um... yes."
"Get out of my house, now! And don't ever come back!"
Lindsay turned around and walked out of the house, but before she left, she gave Gwen a dirty look like, see what you did bitch, you let this piece of shit back in the house; which of course, made Gwen feel guilty.
"Joe, she's my best friend. You can't stop me from hanging out with my best friend."
"If you want to hang out with her at school, or at her house, or wherever, fine I can't stop you. But I decide who comes in my house and I won't let her, and I use the term loosely, in, kay?"
Time: 16 July 2006
Because Lindsay was kicked out of Gwen's house, and Gwen didn't really want to stay there much herself, Gwen began spending most of her nights at Lindsay's house (she would stay there permanently if not for, Rudy, but of course, if not for Rudy she wouldn't be stuck at Joe's house anyways.) However, this one day when she walked into Lindsay's room, she saw Lindsay naked in front of her laptop screen with a dildo in her pussy. Lindsay happened to notice Gwen out of the corner of her eye.
"Get out of here you bitch!" she yelled.
Don't leave, she secretly thought, I'd love for you to watch me masturbate. But of course, she didn't express her secret inner thought.
Gwen quickly left the room, much to Lindsay's secret dismay. When she was outside the room, she saw Leanne.
"Who let you in here?" she asked.
"Lindsay gave me a key."
"Why?"
"Um... cuz I'm here like all the time."
"Well, I gotta to talk to her. Is she in her room?"
"Yeah, but I wouldn't go in there right now."
"Fuck that, I'm her mother, I'm going in."
Leanne then flung open the door and walked into the room; and Gwen knew exactly what was going to happen.
"Lindsay, why did y- Lindsay what the fuck are you doing!"
"Ever heard of something called privacy Leanne, 'cuz it's kind of fucking important!"
"What your doing is a sin Lindsay, and you're gonna get sent to hell!"
"And raping little girls isn't? Besides, I don't even believe in hell anyways."
Gwen quickly ran out of the house before they started to fight, so she didn't see the fireworks erupt.
Time: 17 July 2006
Gwen walked into Joe's room to try and steal a beer from his fridge that he bought for reasons only he knew. However, Joe was in the room (although he didn't notice that Gwen had walked in,) but what she found was even more interesting. Joe, in his left-hand was holding a pair of binoculars to his eyes and in his right hand he was, well... fapping. As for what he was fapping too... she was absolutely shocked when she saw that Heather was changing in the room he was spying on. So Gwen quickly went back to her room and texted Heather about what he was doing.
Good to know your still you, you sick perverted bastard, she thought.
Time: 19 July 2006
"So your step-father was really watching me change?" Heather asked.
"Um... yeah. Next time, close the fucking curtains, ok?" Gwen replied.
"Yeah, I kind of got that."
"That guy is a serious cunt." Lindsay said, "He kicked me out of Gwen's house because I don't believe in God. I mean honestly, what the fuck!"
"He can't be that bad, can he?" Bridgette asked.
"Um... yeah, he is." Heather replied.
"Look," said Gwen, "Joe is a complete douche, but he hasn't done anything illegal yet, and until he does that, as I've said many times before, Rudy needs me, and I'm just gonna have to deal with that guy."
"Fine, but if he touches you, I'll kill him." Lindsay told Gwen.
Time: 31 July 2006
Duncan broke up with Heather. Strangely enough, Heather didn't really seem to care, she told her friends that she was just pretending to like him anyways (although secretly when she was alone and in her room she cried.)
Time: 13 August 2006
An interesting thought occurred to Gwen, she didn't really have any real enemies at this point. At one time she had Heather, Courtney, and Tyler all as arch-rivals, but that wasn't the case anymore. Ever since Heather helped her figure out what was wrong with Lindsay (well, there were a lot of things wrong with Lindsay, but you get what I mean,) Gwen and Heather essentially became friends, or more accurately, friendly rivals. As for Tyler, after his whole PME problem was discovered, it became difficult for anyone to take him seriously. The sad part about that was that Gwen knew even if he solved his problem some time down the road in high school, "17 seconds" would still be in everyone's head. Courtney and Gwen certainly had their issues, but Courtney was Lindsay's arch-nemesis, not hers.
Did she want any enemies? Well, if you asked her she would have said no, but there was a secret part of her that wanted at least someone to really dislike her.
That doesn't make me a bad person, does it? She asked herself.
Time: 1 September 2006
The Grade 9s in the 2006-07 year at Ryan Leaf High School picked up their schedule for the next year. Gwen, Lindsay, Bridgette and Heather were happy to know that the four of them had most of their classes together. After talking to some of the other people who came from Davis (Geoff, DJ, Duncan, Katie, Sadie, etc.) it was apparent that all of them shared one class, the eighth period history class with Mr. McLean. When Lindsay asked her older sister, Karen, about Mr. McLean, she got a rather unflattering response.
"Chris McLean is a terrible teacher." She said, "He's hot, but other than that he can't really do much, he's a total egotist and needs constant reminder as to how great he is, he flirts with the girls, and he only has a basic knowledge of his own curriculum. Basically, you got screwed."
Karen was in Grade 12, so she her and Lindsay would be going to the same school together for the first time since they were little kids, if only for one year. Lindsay thought that was kind of cool, even if Karen did get on her nerves more often than not.
Time: 4 September 2006
Gwen stayed at Lindsay's house the previous night so she could get a ride from Sam (Karen's long-time boyfriend,) to school that morning. While Sam, who was driving and Karen, who was riding shotgun, talked about something, Lindsay and Gwen had their own conversation.
"I can't believe were finally going to fucking high school." Lindsay said.
"Do you need me to pinch you?" Gwen asked jokingly.
"If you do, I'll... don't." She said.
When they arrived at Leaf (after a drive that was only about 4 minutes anyways,) Gwen turned to Lindsay and said:
"Hey Lindsay."
"What?"
"Welcome to paradise."
At lunch, Lindsay, Gwen, and most of their friends from Davis were chatting, when an attractive, brunette girl came over to see Lindsay.
"Hey, Lindsay!" she called.
Lindsay looked up; "who the fuck are you?" she asked.
"I'm Ashley Sagan. Remember me; we went to camp together a couple years ago?"
"Oh yeah... how have things been?"
"They've been great; I just moved from Dallas last summer... or was it Denver? Which ones the one in western Missouri again?"
"Um... Kansas City?"
"Yeah that's the one. Hey, so you have Mr. McLean for eighth period geography?"
"Yeah I do... except its history."
"Oh yeah that's right... anyways bye."
"Bye."
Gwen, who was vaguely following the conversation, whispered to Lindsay: "she's cute, but she's even dumber than you."
"I know." Lindsay said, "Now I know who to hang out with anytime I want to seem smart."
"You met her before?"
"Remember how my parents sent me to Bible camp at the end of the summers of '01 and '02?"
"Yeah I think I do."
"She was there, and we became good friends and whatnot. After that year she moved to Kansas City though, and apparently she's back."
"How did she not know what city she lived in for 4 years?"
"As we already discussed, she's really fucking stupid; but hey, she's still hot."
Suddenly Heather ran up to their table, with Justin meekly following her.
"Oh my fucking God!" Heather yelled, "There's this totally hot guy who just moved here from Mexico."
"How hot?" Gwen asked.
"Like, the hottest guy you've ever met."
"This, hottest guy you've ever met, is my freaking cousin, bra." Justin said, "And while he was born in Mexico City, he moved here from fucking CLEVELAND!"
"Ew... Cleveland." Lindsay said, "The only thing in the world uglier than Shitbag Fucktard's face."
(A/N: Shitbag fucktard is Lindsay's nickname for political commentator and FOX News anchor Bill O'Reilly.)
"Besides." Just said, "He's a total douchebag. I mean, the dude calls women chica. What kind of faggot does that."
"A totally hot faggot." Heather replied.
Suddenly a muscular teenager walked up to the table. He looked kind of like Justin, except older.
"'Sup?" he said to the people at the table. He then turned to Heather, "Hola, chica." And put his arm on her shoulder.
OK, play it cool Heather. She told herself mentally.
"Um... you said your name was Alejandro, right?"
"Yes, you want to hang with me sometime, if you know what I mean?"
"Um... sure I guess."
"You don't sound very... enthusiastic." He then turned and walked away.
"Man, that guy is a huge turd." Geoff said.
"Oh my god he is so hot!" Gwen, Lindsay, and Bridgette all squealed.
"C'mon Heather." Bridgette said, "You gotta get with that guy."
"I know, I really want to." She said, "But I have to play it cool."
"Well, let me know how that works out for you." Lindsay replied.
Later that day, in 8th period history class (the final class of the day):
The entire list of students in the class were: Gwen, Lindsay, Bridgette, Heather, Duncan, DJ, Trent, Cody, Noah, Geoff, Courtney, Katie, Sadie, Leshawna, Eva, Owen, Tyler, Alejandro, Justin, Izzy, Ashley, a nerdy kid who went to middle school at Davis but no one really paid much attention to named Harold McGrady, and a few new kids who didn't go to Davis including Sierra Diamond, who had a habit of stalking celebrities, as well as a girl who recently moved from rural Missouri (read: Hicksville USA,) name Elizabeth "Beth" Page.
"Hello class!" The teacher, an attractive male appearing to be in his mid-twenties, said. "I am Mr. McLean... my first name is Chris but if you call me that it may be painful."
That was supposed to be a joke, but everyone just groaned.
Chris walked around the classroom staring at his "subjects."
"Now, I'm not really like other teachers at this school." He said, "Basically if you want a good grade, the best thing to do is kiss my ass."
Courtney put her hand up.
"What is it, um..."
"Courtney, sir, my name is Courtney."
"Yeah, what's up Courtney."
"Since this is an academic class, shouldn't getting a good grade require... y'know... doing work?"
"Yeah it does... but kissing my ass is important too."
Courtney shrugged.
Chris walked towards the back of the room, when he saw Lindsay. He moved closer and whispered to her.
"You're a hot one aren't you?"
Lindsay stared at him blankly.
"You could study with me anytime, if you know what I mean." He then winked at her before going back to address the class.
Gwen, who was sitting next to her, was astonished: "Did he actually just flirt with you?" she asked her, not believing her own ears.
"This is gonna be a loooooong year." Lindsay replied.
Time: 14 September 2006
Since that first day, not much had really changed. Heather was still playing hard to get with Alejandro, Courtney and Lindsay were still trying to find ways to get on each other's nerves, Geoff and Bridgette were still together as were Gwen and Trent... and Lindsay and Noah. A few things did change; both Izzy and Sierra started to take a special interest in Cody, and considering that they were by far the two craziest chicks in the grade, it was obviously a recipe for disaster.
Also, Beth Page, a rather unattractive, nerdy looking girl, who was homeschooled early in her life and went to a small private school in rural Missouri for grades 6-8, felt very unable to adapt to the radical environment at Leaf and essentially clung to the one girl who gave her the time of day; Lindsay. So while Beth considered Lindsay to be her closest friend, Lindsay didn't exactly share those same feelings, she liked Beth, but she wasn't even close to the top of her list of friends, but of course she wouldn't tell Beth that.
In other news, both the football team and the cheerleading squad had its early tryouts. Both groups were divided into two sections: "junior" for grades 9 & 10, and "senior" for Grades 11 & 12. For the junior football team, Geoff, DJ, Duncan, Trent, Cody, & Tyler all tried out for the team. While DJ became a starting defensive tackle, Geoff became a starting defensive end, Duncan became a starting outside linebacker, and Trent became the backup quarterback (since the starter was a Grade 10, Cody essentially became a fringe player who could be placed at various positions if absolutely necessary such as wide receiver, cornerback, or safety, although he could not be considered adept at any of those, while Tyler was cut from the team entirely (he was one of only 3 cuts, so it was kinda embarrassing, but Tyler was considered by most people to be basically a joke anyways.)
One of the few people who did become friends with Tyler was Alejandro; Duncan joked it was because they were competing with each other to see who was the most obnoxious guy in the grade.
As for the junior cheerleading squad, Heather and Lindsay both urged Gwen and Bridgette to try out for the squad, but Bridgette politely declined, and Gwen... not so politely, also declined. They tried the same thing with Courtney, but she basically went on some rampage as to how cheerleading was "evil" and "sold young girls into a life of prostitution." Lindsay and Heather; however, did try out for the team, as did Lindsay's new friend Ashley Sagan, and Lindsay's not so new non-friend Katie Hawk, and all four girls made the team of 13 girls. Beth and Sadie also tried out for the team, but were rejected almost immediately.
So far, you could basically say that the first couple days of the year had gone pretty well for Lindsay... well, Chris was still bothering her, but that would be something she'd just have to manage. What happened on the night of September 14th, 2006 though, was not something a normal thirteen-year-old girl should have to deal with.
Actually, nothing really happened to her, not directly anyways, she spent most of the night at Bridgette's house and returned to her own place late at night to get some shut-eye. Indirectly though, it was extraordinarily damaging to her and the blame could almost be singularly focussed on one person: Lindsay's pathetic excuse of a mother, Leanne Cunningham.
Noah Patel, Lindsay's long-time boyfriend (for over 10 months!) showed up at the Cunningham's house at about six-thirty PM, expecting Lindsay to be there, which of course, she wasn't. When he rang the doorbell, Leanne came to get it.
"Hey Leanne." He said, "Is Lindsay home tonight?"
"No, she went over to Bridgette's house..." Leanne said, then she thought of a way she'd be able to screw with her daughter, "why don't you come inside for a bit thought. I don't really know you very well and if my daughter is going to be in a serious relationship with a, erm... man... I want to get to know said man better, y'know."
"Um... okay." Noah said.
Leanne dragged him upstairs to her room.
"So," Leanne began, "I'll ask you a few questions, and then you can ask me anything you want, k?"
"Ok." Noah said.
So Leanne asked him a few basic questions, you know like what some of his hobbies were or what his parents did for a living. She also asked him what his religion was, and he mentioned that he saw no reason to believe in a deity as there was no evidence for one.
(A/N: Noah's opinion, not mine.)
Figures, Leanne thought, I know why Lindsay's an atheist when she fucks around with people like this.
However, throughout the entire time, Leanne, as part of her plan, made many subtle and a few not-so-subtle sexual advances, twirling her hair, adjusting her clothes (and bra-strap,) y'know, basically all the usual unconscious signs of when a girl is flirting, except that she was doing it on-purpose. Noah, however, didn't seem to take notice, he just saw her sexual advances as being extra-friendly.
"So ask me anything." Leanne said, and with extra flirtation added, "absolutely anything at all."
Most of his questions, however, were just trivial, so Leanne asked him something:
"Do you mind if I ask you something... kind of awkward?" Leanne asked.
"Sure."
"How good is Lindsay... at sex?"
"Excuse me?"
"You heard the question dude, just answer it."
Of course, Leanne knew exactly how good Lindsay was at sex, mostly because she raped her 65 times over from July-October in 2005, but she thought it would be a decent turn-on question.
Noah started to blush... and sweat. "Um... pretty good I guess. I don't really know, she's the only woman I've ever been with."
"Noah," Leanne said, "do you think an older, married, woman could be better?" she asked seductively.
And Noah got the hint: "Mrs. Cunningham, are you flirting with me?"
"I just might be." And the woman began to strip, taking off her top, then her jeans in a slow seductive manner.
"OK," Noah protested, "If Lindsay finds out she will kill me... and you. And don't you have a husband?"
"Oh... James is out with his buddies... probably fucking some teenage prostitute or something. And as for Lindsay, fuck her, we deserve to have some fun too, right?"
"I guess..."
"Good... now get that stick out of your ass and let's have some fun, kid." She said as she turned around and slapped her ass.
Later that night:
At about 11 pm, Lindsay returned to her house, and was about to go to sleep in her bed... when she got a bad feeling. She didn't know why she had that bad feeling, but she just did. She went to her mother's room, the door was locked, but she bought a special wire from Duncan she could use to pick locks, so she ran back to her room and got that, then picked the lock. In her mother's room she found Leanne in her bad naked, sleeping... and right next to her she found Noah.
Lindsay couldn't believe what was going on. I mean she wasn't that surprised that Leanne would go out of her way to screw her, but she didn't think she would use Noah as a prop to do that. Yes, she was mad at Noah too, but that could be dealt with later, for now, she had to focus on public enemy #1; Leanne.
She picked Leanne up and carried her to her room, and then once she was in her bed, got her favourite butterfly knife "Krystal," and gently woke Leanne up.
"Hey Leanne, wakey wakey." She taunted, "I have a special treat for you..."
Leanne opened her eyes, "Hi Lindsay... how the fuck did I get in your room? Is this some kind of joke, bitch."
"No, Leanne. I said I have a special surprise for you," Lindsay said with a soft laughter, "you and Krystal are going to get intimate tonight."
"Um... what?"
"Krystal is going to go inside you." Lindsay said very happily, and a little bit creepily.
"Who the fuck is Krystal?" Leanne asked, visibly a little bit scared, and extraordinarily annoyed.
"Why my knife of course, silly." Lindsay said, still very bubbly and happily.
Leanne stared at her incredulously.
"Don't understand, Leanne?" Lindsay asked, with a broad, genuine-looking grin on her face. "Let me rephrase it then." She said, at which point Lindsay appeared to have a psychotic break. She immediately angered, grabbed Leanne by the throat with her right hand, and screamed at her.
"YOU'RE GONNA FUCKING DIE TONIGHT, BITCH!"
She then her left hand, the one with the knife in it, above her head and prepared to strike.
TO BE CONTINUED...
A/N: Will Lindsay kill her mom? Will someone show up to prevent it from happening? Either way, what will the aftermath be? What will happen when James comes home and finds Noah asleep in his bed? What will Chapter 15 have in store for Eva? And why am I asking so many rhetorical questions? Find out when I return with the Chapter 15 of "Cheer Up, Emo Girl!"
P.S. The title of the chapter, "Welcome to Paradise" is taken from the Green Day song known as "Welcome to Paradise" recorded in 1993.
P.P.S. Ashley Sagan is a complete O.C, although her last name is taken from one of my personal heroes (you can probably guess who that is.)