"Eastwood Academy"
Chapter One
It had been ten years since Brittney and her sisters wandered into the not so innocent light of stardom, and eight years since the producer left them out of the picture – with nothing. They'd gone through high school as average teenage girls; with their head in the clouds and their voices in the wind. They stuck close together to their chipmunk counterparts as both of their families' lives had completely done a 360. Their story begins a month after high school graduation.
"It's not like it used to be when we were kids," Brittney reminisced, resting her arms on the bar before her of a rusting, old merry-go-round, "it was all fun then."
Jeanette sat across from her, cross-legged. She nodded consentingly and dusted off her light blue, acid wash jeans, "the real world," she sighed.
"And to think," Brittney went on sourly, "we can't even go to college. Financial aid is so screwy. We're stuck here with plain minimum wage jobs and mediocre lives. I want to DO something again."
Eleanor hustled to the merry-go-round in her lime green jogging suit. Her old tennis shoes were speckled with dry mud – a clear sign of their use. She pulled the ear phones from her ears and stuffed them into the hoodie's massive pocket. She gasped for a gulp of air and leaned accidentally on the merry-go-round, sending Brittney and Jeanette in a slow whirl.
"How's your running going, El?" Jeanette inquired casually as the merry-go-round brought her closer to Eleanor.
"It's – uh – well, the usual," Eleanor laughed light-heartedly between breaths, "diets are stupid. I should just quit."
"Don't quit now," Brittney encouraged, standing from her rusted spot, "come on, I'll run with you." She nudged Eleanor's shoulder playfully with a confident grin and ran off down the track. As Brittney ran down the track, the familiar sound of heels clicking against the cement echoed off the tall stone wall segregating the park from the high way. Her knee length skirt breathed up with the wind but always seemed to stay down at a respectable level, "Come on!" she called, resting her hands on her knees, "I'll race you to the car."
Eleanor nodded her head insufferably and helped pull Jeanette up. The two of them ran together to catch up with their sister who – even in heels – was faster than them.
** ** **
It had been ten years since and Alvin and his brothers were the suns of stars amongst stars and eight years since the lime light dimmed down. David had long since lost his high-paying California job due to the declining economy and was forced with no other choice to work as a Senior Citizen Health Care Sales man. The boys savings accounts from their stardom was slowly depleting and used on everyday need items. All three of them had job and all three of them stuck tightly together.
Alvin rolled over on his creaky twin-sized bed and stared up at the ceiling where several small glow-in the dark stars threatened to fall, "Simon," he called for his brother who lay two beds away, "do you think Theodore's ok? I haven't heard from him since he got that letter in the mail."
"What letter?" Simon inquired, polishing the lenses of his glasses.
"You know, the letter from that cooking school?"
"Oh!" popped out of Simon's mouth. He rolled off the bed and pulled the space-themed curtains back from the window, allowing an overwhelming amount of sunlight to flood the messy room, "I'm sure he'll be alright. I wasn't accepted into several schools myself. It's disappointing, but it's life."
"Just thinkin' about it," Alvin sighed and propped himself up on three fat pillows. He knew very well that Simon had been accepted to any school he desired but he chose to stay home with his brothers to help keep the house together. Alvin looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall, "sheesh. It's noon already," he groaned in spirit.
"Maybe we should get up and check on David," Simon suggested, pulling a dark blue hoodie over his head, "last night he wasn't looking quite like himself."
"You go ahead, Simon," Alvin waved his hand to gesture Simon to go without him, "I have to get ready for work. I never thought working in a movie theatre would require as much work as it does. It's more toilet cleaning than movie watching."
Simon laughed at Alvin's remark and closed the door behind him.
Alvin counted to ten and listened carefully for Simon's footsteps to fade away. He cautiously rolled off the bed and tip-toed to the window closest to his side of the room. Silently he pulled down on the string of the dusty old blinds and lifted them. He pulled open the window, looked once over his shoulder and poked his head out. There, below waiting patiently near the overgrown bushes in the backyard sat Theodore.
"Good morning, Alvin!" he shouted with a mouthful of peanut butter.
"Shhhh!!!" Alvin put his index finger over his mouth to gesture Theodore to quiet down, "beee quiet!" he shouted in a whispered tone.
Theodore's green eyes widened, "oh … riiiight," he nodded his head, "it's ready," he mouthed and lifted a heavy backpack.
"Do you have the keys?" Alvin mouthed slowly so that Theodore could understand.
"Mhm," he raised a set of jingling keys from his pocket.
"Ok then, I'll be right down," Alvin grinned and closed the window.
"Exactly WHAT is ready?" Simon inquired, leaning in the doorway.
"Oh – Simon," Alvin hopped in shock, "I was just – checking on the bushes outside the window. They're definitely ready to be trimmed. I'll just be getting to that now," he added suavely ducking under Simon's arm and shuffling into the hallway.
"What about work?" Simon asked, following close behind.
"Well of course, work first," he laughed nervously, "I'll trim the garden when I get back."
"To hell you will," Simon cut him off and stepped in front of him, "What's going on?"
Alvin moaned in frustration and covered his face with his hands. He crossed his arms and stood against the dirtying white walls of the corridor, "I just … I re-recorded some of our old albums. Theodore burnt them onto CDs and we were going to send them to local radio stations," he admitted, averting eye contact.
Simon stood against the opposing wall with his hands in his pockets. Sunlight peeking through a window in an adjacent bedroom reflected off his glasses and sent spectacles of light down the hall. There were several seconds of silence before he replied, "I can't blame you for trying. …" he paused again, shoulders shrugged, "why would you try to hide something like this?"
"I wanted to surprise you," Alvin bit the inside of his cheek with dismay, "happy birthday," he added sarcastically.
"I'm surprised you even remembered," Simon patted his brother on the shoulder, "it would most definitely be a shock to hear one of our songs on the air."
"Thankyou for the kind gesture, Alvin," Simon added with a sheepish grin, "but you'd better hurry. I wouldn't want you to be late for the work on the account of my birthday.
"I won't be late," Alvin began down the hall, "you enjoy your birthday, buddy. Do something exciting," he added bounding down the staircase.
The Seville residence had grown particularly dusty and dull over the years. The furniture dated back to the early nineties when the boys' talents made the income. The big screen t.v. in the family room did not only have a big screen, it had a large, bulky faux wood body. Alvin swiped his signature red ball cap from the black velvet love seat and his wallet from the glass table in the center of the room. The glass table was covered in greasy finger prints and smudges. An old bag of cheese puffs lay opened and abandoned beside three fat, paper fast food cups, watered-down soda seeped from their deteriorating bottoms. Alvin stole a cheese puff and headed through the kitchen to the back door.
"Are you ready? he inquired to an invisible Theodore.
"Ready," Theodore crawled out from the bushes and strapped a rather heavy and old back pack with slightly ripped seams over his shoulder.
"Alright, let's do this," Alvin brushed back his ever-growing light brown hair and patted down the collar of his plaid, blue button-up tee. He covered the dark shadows under his eyes for lack of sleep with a pair of over sized sun glasses and followed Theodore into the Seville garage. "Simon thinks that I'm going to work and that you're off blowing steam from getting a college rejection letter."
"What about Dave?" Theodore inquired innocently, unlocking the door to the only new-er car in the garage - his beloved green Beetle. He was the only of the brothers to acquire the funds for a better car. His pursuits to become a professional caterer weren't exactly going as planned, but his small home business with business partner Eleanor to cater parties, weddings and such had proved to bring home the bread and butter where his brothers could not. Excitement completely overtook his small, chubby hands. They shook nervously and jingled the keys about.
Alvin thought for a moment before entering the vehicle, "Dave's Dave. Simon will tell him exactly what I told him. Now let's go. We've got a long drive ahead of us.
** ** ** **
"Next in line!" Jeanette shouted over the sound of rambunctious barking dogs. She brushed back her messy bangs and replaced the register scanner in her dirty hands. After all, working in a pet store was a very dirty job.
A woman perhaps a few years older and a few years dumber stepped to register four. She averted eye contact and set three items on the counter; a container of fish food, a fish net, and an air pump for a ten gallon tank. Casually she slipped one container of food into her patch-work pocket. After greeting the woman in a cheery disposition, Jeanette inquired, "was that a sample of your own you brought to help you find the right product?"
The woman glared up from her Hello Kitty wallet with eyes full of attitude, "Yeah. Why you think I put it in my pocket," she replied hotly.
"It's nothing personal against you," Jeanette retorted easily, her temper boiling in spirit. She placed the three items into a flimsy plastic bag, "it's just policy."She accepted the twenty dollar bill the woman offered her, gave her change and wished her a nice day.
"Next in line!" She called once more, rubbing her brow where a pulsating ache was beginning to grow. She leaned over her counter, slightly wet from earlier customers with bags of fish, to see how well the line died down. "No one left ..." she said to herself and turned the switch to shut register four's light off. Jeanette turned her heel to leave the counter only to meet with another customer.
"Oh," she quickly replaced her face of dismay with a fake smile, "how are you today?" she entered her four digit password into the register and reached for the scanner. The woman on the other side of the counter did not reply. She tapped her long, tacky acrylic nails on her cell phone and held it closely to her ears. Jeanette reached across to the woman's cart to scan a thirty pound bag of cat litter. She lightly patted down the bag to flatten the barcode so that the scanner would comply to retrieve the code.
"Excuse me," the woman interrupted, waving her hands and twisting her head about, "if you poke a hole in that, I ain't buying it."
Jeanette withdrew from her position over the counter and placed the scanner down, "I'm merely flattening the bag so I can scan it. This bag is extremely tough." The woman continued speaking on the phone about how someone or other cheated on somenone or another and that she ain't gonna be in the middle of dat shit. Jeanette sighed and calculated the total. The woman payed after resilience and debate that the sale sign said otherwise. Quickly, she shut the light off for register four and scampered away so that no one else would bother her. She tred lightly through the least shopped aisles and around to the back so that she might begin her duty of helping to close down shop.
"I hope Brittney isn't late tonight ..." she thought to herself entering into the Cat department were boxes and boxes of canned cat food were scattered all about on the grimy shelves and on the sticky tiled floors. She fussed with the cans to pull them forward and cursed in her head about the previous customers. There was an intercom over the sound of dogs that their owners could not control but Jeanette disregarded it. She was thoroughly fed up. She gathered all the empty boxes her customers had left graciously behind for her and began towards the back of the store to throw them out.
"I hate my job," she said under her breath passing an enormous pile of dog deification, "I hate my job," she repeated tossing the cardboard away, "I hate my job," the words began to not make sense as she scooped up the rather wet mess with a thin plastic bag, "I hateeeee my job," she said it a little louder turning the corner, " I hate - UMPH!" careless to where she was looking, she ran into an unsuspecting wanderer and onto the floor.
"Jeanette," Simon reached for the disheveled girl.
"Oh ... Simon," she blushed to an extremity and took the hand that was offered, "what are you doing here?" she adjusted her glasses and picked up the small bag of feces that had dropped at Simon's feet.
"I'm here to pick you up - from work I mean," he laughed at his own pun, "Brittney called and told me you wouldn't have a ride. She's busy helping Eleanor at a wedding. They called you over the speakers and I waited for a little while but you didn't show up. So I came looking for you. I left you a text message," he pulled out his humble, old Nokia.
Jeanette swallowed nervously and began down the aisle where a "poop-pick-up" station was located. She dropped the stinky bag into the tin garbage bin and wiped her hands on her worn khakis, "my phone's dead," she replied simply with a deep breath, "I - I'm sorry I kept you waiting, Simon."
"It's alright," he assured her, following towards her patiently through the chaotic store - always the most busy five minutes to close, "I wasn't doing anything anyhow," he continued close at her heels as she brushed through the crowd of customers, "which brings me to my next point. You're not busy tonight, are you?"
Jeanette stopped in her tracks with her heart in her throat. Beside her the aviary of birds lit up with feathers. The birds flew up and about with chirps and songs and dips and dives, "I'm not busy."
"I thought ... maybe you'd accompany me to the movies?" Simon requested with his hands in the pocket of his light blue cardigan, " ... as friends of course," he quickly added as the blood - that tingly sort of blood rushed and whizzed about within him. He and Jeanette were always so very close to being a pair. They had discussed it once, openly and agreed that if they had become a pair it would jeopardize the lovely friendship that the six of them held.
" ... of course," Jeanette smiled crookedly, rolling up the sleeves of her heavy, wool work shirt. Her heart plummeted. She wanted them to be a pair - very badly. It wrenched her soul that she would never grasp his warm hand or feel his soft embrace in a loving manner.
Simon caught the dejected expression in Jeanette's eyes. Suddenly Alvin's roguish voice replayed in his mind, "do something exciting." Simon bit his tongue and added, "I mean ... it is my birthday, I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone else."
Jeanette blinked, astounded. Her shoulders rose and eyes perked. She met his gaze, " ... happy birthday," she smiled, "let me grab my jacket."
** ** ** ** ** **
"I think we're just about there," Alvin stated, squirming in the passenger's side seat. His back and neck had become unbearably stiff from the long drive down California's coast. They had entered a more remote part of the state and the road curved into a tunnel of pines and maple. The full-bellied moon peeked between the pockets of leaves and offered very little light for the narrow road east.
"What a strange place this guy lives in," Theodore retorted, turning down the volume of the radio, "are you sure you got the right directions?"
"I'm positive," Alvin double checked the Google map he printed out two nights ago, "it actually says we turn right at the next stop sign."
"A-alright ... where did you meet this guy anyways?" he continued his survey nervously.
"Myspace," Alvin replied shortly rolling up his window from the sudden chill that entered the vehicles compartment.
So it was that at the next stop sign Theodore turned a sharp right and onto an old dirt road. The path was incredibly dark and forced him to turn his brights on. To the right and left and even above in the trees the dark glow of evening creatures glared. At the end of the road a house not too bigger from their own sat hidden from societies view. All colors were lost in the blue bath of night. Theodore parked the car in the cement drive and waited for Alvin to step out first.
Step out first Alvin did. He grabbed the backpack Theodore brought along from the back seat and scanned the area with caution. Theodore quietly shut his door and locked them. He stood beside his brother and they both began up an intimidating amount of porch steps with only a hunch of what they were doing there.
TO BE CONTINUED.