Chapter 37: Goofy Monkey Child

June 2015, Tuesday, part 5

"So I feel like all I've done is talk about myself" said TJ, as they ate their first course "What about you? Where did you go to College?"

"You think I went to college?" asked Spinelli with a smile, as she took the last spoonful of soup from her bowl, surprising herself, Spinelli continued "That's sweet, but I didn't go to College. Didn't make the grades. Hell, I didn't even graduate High School. What about you? Where did you go to College?"

TJ had glanced up when Spinelli had said she hadn't graduated High School, but hid his surprise well. He and Spinelli had been pretty much on an even par academically when in Third Street. Both achieved average grades, but both could have done better if they were more interested in studying, rather than playing games, and goofing off. After letting the hotel staff know they were ready for their second course, TJ returned to sit in front of Spinelli.

"I went to the University of Miami" said TJ "The way my Mum reacted when she'd heard, you'd of thought I'd of chosen somewhere at the other end of the countr-"

TJ's sentence was cut off by a knock at the door. The waiters came into the room, swept away their plates, and replaced them with their steaming hot meals.

"Man this tastes good" said Spinelli taking a bite once the waiters had left the room "I'm not surprised your Mum reacted as though you'd moved to the other end of the country. Your parents were like mine, they rarely left Arkansas"

"True"

"So the University of Miami huh? No wonder you liked to party, surrounded by cheerleaders and women all dressed in short skirts, and small tops?"

"Not so much with the cheerleaders, they tended to go to the University of Central Florida. All the Ashley's went there"

"Yeah, it figures they turned out to be cheerleaders"

"In reality, it's a pretty good college, it got named as one of the best south-eastern universities in the Princeton Review. I think that's why Mum finally accepted I'd chosen it. Anyway it had a pretty awesome computer science degree, and specialized in computer graphics. For Russell and I, the choice was a no brainer. The location was just a happy coincidence"

"A very happy coincidence I bet"

Yeah, I wont lie, I got there and was like a kid in a candy shop. I'd not even been to any real High School parties, then suddenly I was at these college parties, with all these drunk girls….."

"Yeah, I get the picture, it sounds just like the High School parties, and you say you only had a couple of one night stands. Are you sure you were being truthful there Detweiler?"

"I was, I did have couple one night stands, one of which was at the very first party I went too. As I said, I also had a few girlfriends, a couple of those relationships would have started out as a one night stand, but they turned into relationships that lasted a few months …then fizzled out, as things do when you start a relationship based on physical attraction alone."

"But you only went to parties in college, and didn't go to any in High School?"

"Yup"

"I'm surprised, I really thought you'd of been at all the parties in High School"

"No, Russell and I tried to go to one. We got in, just long enough to be thrown into Ashley Q's swimming pool, then we were kicked out" explained TJ, shaking his head at the memory.

"What?"

"Yeah, well it turns out the school geeks weren't really all that welcome to the parties"

"You were a geek? Spinelli asked with disbelief "What did you do, get bit by a spider, and have the reverse effect of Peter Parker?"

"Spider Man reference? Nice" said TJ with a grin "No, that wasn't quite what happened. When I got to Middle School, I wound up being a bit of an outcast, and considered a geek"

"How? In Third Street you were awesome, the most popular kid in school. Plus you and the gang were such close friends"

"As it turned out the Goofy Monkey Child act wasn't really considered cool and didn't cut it" explained TJ "We got to Middle School and there was a lot of the children from other schools. They were a bit more mature than us, and it seems like over the summer the kids of Third Street had also matured. I don't think the fact that I was still a little overweight, and wearing my lucky red hat helped. They saw a goofy overweight kid, in backwards baseball cap, who loved goofing about, reading comic books and playing computer games. All of a sudden none of the other kids were into that stuff, so I was made out to look a bit pathetic. I didn't want to give up all that stuff and stuck to my guns. Within a day I was considered an outcast. Anyway, it wasn't all bad, I met Russell who was a computer game fanatic, and we wound up being best friends pretty much right away. The trend of being geeks just carried on to High School, not that we really cared all that much. I don't know why college was so different. Different people, different place I guess"

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So, is Spinelli maybe opening up, just a little? Then what about TJ? A school geek? We also still don't know what happened with the gang!

Aryal Stone: Lets hope Will doesn't show his face, and if he does, lets hope TJ rearranges it for him!

Rose-Aki: TJ certainly seems to respect Spinelli, and cares for her too, I think both are so unfamiliar to her, it'll take some getting used to! Thankfully, the awkwardness has faded, lets hope it stays away from now on!

Please review, it would make my day! If not, and you can offer me some constructive criticism, please do! I will just ask for "no flames" please? I am dyslexic, and have worked hard to make sure this is perfect, but if you see any, please highlight any spelling/grammar errors that I've missed in proof reading, please highlight them, so I can correct!

I will update as soon as possible, but can't update every day.

Big Cliffy Meanie