My Enemy's Girlfriend
Part One: The Big Mystery
A/N: This fic is dedicated to my Beta-Editor (as in, Beta writer than me!), D.W. Gavin. Thanks for all your support!
"Come on, Teej, come down for once." Ashley Spinelli pleaded of T.J. Detweiler, chocolate brown eyes gleaming with a fake sadness. T.J. shook his head no in reply, folding his arms importantly across his chest. "Please?" she begged.
"I'm not coming down," T.J. replied, turning his back on her.
"Please?" Spinelli repeated, putting her arms gently around his shoulders and squeezing. T.J. turned and looked at her, a silly grin on his face, his deep blue eyes lit up in surprise as his close friend held him.
"No," he told her.
"Why?" she whined, stomping her boots on the top of the jungle gym, still not letting go of him.
"What happens if I leave and someone steals the throne from me?" T.J. demanded. "What happens then, Spin?"
Spinelli snorted in disgust. "I think you've been up here too long. The glory of kingship is going to your head." She took his trademark red baseball cap off of his head and waved it in the air.
"Is not," he protested, snatching the hat back and putting it backwards on top of his head.
"You mean you'd even pass up the chance to be with me?" Spinelli asked bewilderedly, trying another tactic to get T.J. off of the throne for a recess.
T.J. groaned guiltily. "Don't do it, Spin," he warned.
"You'd leave me all alone to fend off those bully sixth-graders all by myself?" she continued.
"Spin," T.J. warned again.
"Would you really desert me?" she inquired sadly, hunching over as she pretended to cry. T.J. put a hand on her back.
"Spin," he said sternly yet gently at the same time, "I'm not deserting you. I just can't take the risk." Spinelli closed her eyes and pouted.
"You don't like me anymore," she muttered.
"Ashley," T.J. singsonged angrily, "don't ever say that. You know how I feel about you, so don't say that. It hurts." Spinelli looked sadly up at T.J., unable to apologize with words. T.J., however, read her expression and understood that she was sorry. "Maybe next recess I'll come down."
Spinelli groaned. "You say that every time! When is it going to be true?"
"This time. I promise."
"Promise?"
"Pinkie-swear." T.J. held up his pinkie and Spinelli hooked hers around his. She turned to leave the jungle gym when T.J. called after her. "Spinelli, I forgot to give you something." She walked back toward him and he reached out, wrapping her into a close embrace and kissing her sweetly. "Hope nobody saw that," T.J. commented.
"What do you care? If somebody makes fun of you, you can just send 'em to the dodgeball wall?" Spinelli demanded, trying weakly to sound tough.
"Actually, I don't care who sees," T.J. relented.
"Well then, looks like you're gonna get away with kissing me every time you see me, aren't you, Your Majesty?"
"Probably," T.J. agreed. Spinelli shook her head in mock disgust and slid down the slide, thinking of what had just happened. True enough, when T.J. kissed her, she was incredibly surprised, because that was only the third time he'd ever kissed her. He'd kissed her once on the cheek in front of her mother, and once right after he took the throne after defeating Alex Gehrke. She figured she'd probably be getting kissed more often if she would have kept the position of queen of the playground, but after pondering it over and being a trial queen for a week, Spinelli decided monarchy really wasn't her thing.
Meanwhile, T.J. Detweiler, who used to be a fun-loving holy terror to Muriel Finster and Principal Peter Prickly, had suddenly passed up all things he loved, including his free recess, for the glory of kingship. Spinelli and her friends all knew that T.J. didn't want to take the risk of letting his guard down and not seeing Alex Gehrke blindside him, so until Gehrke was in middle school, T.J. was going to have to be a hawk.
"He's not coming down, is he?" Jenna Platt asked glumly. Spinelli shook her head, an 'I-tried-my-best-but-he-still-won't-listen' look on her face. She shrugged.
"He promised he'd come down next recess," Spinelli replied, as though his promise meant nothing.
"Has he ever broken a promise to you before?" Jenna continued, hazel eyes shining expectantly. Spinelli thought for a moment.
"I think so." She shrugged again.
"I mean, since he told you he, um, loves you?" Jenna corrected herself quietly. She couldn't bring herself to say the word 'love' in a loud voice when Mikey Blumberg was around, just because Mikey and love together would make her keel over. Jenna had had a wild crush on the large fifth grader since he'd first spoken to her, and only her, near the beginning of that year. Behind Mikey's and Jenna's backs, Spinelli and T.J. shared the suspicion that Mikey possibly liked her the same way.
Spinelli thought again, and after a moment shook her head. "Did he pinkie-swear?" Jenna pressed. She smiled to Spinelli's nod, and hooked her arm through Spinelli's. "Now all you have to get him to do is swear by the moon and stars that he'll never leave you," Jenna told her friend as the two began walking toward their friends. Spinelli stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wh-what?" Spinelli stuttered. Jenna giggled.
"Never mind. Forget I said anything," she replied as the two girls entered the kickball diamond where their remaining four friends waited, Mikey among them. Jenna's eyebrows shot up at the sight of him. Spinelli rolled her eyes.
"He isn't coming," Mikey, Gretchen Grundler, and Vince LaSalle stated as a glum sigh.
"Nope," Spinelli replied.
"Aw, well, that's too bad, your highness," a cold voice said behind Spinelli, "that your boyfriend will be missing from your team again." Spinelli spun around to face Irwin Lawson, the sixth-grade ex-bodyguard of King Alex.
"It don't matter, Lawson," Spinelli replied darkly. "We can still wup you."
"Yeah, right, Spinugly. If you haven't noticed, you fifth graders haven't won a kickball gang since Detweiner placed himself up on that throne," Lawson countered snottily. "I'm starting to get the feeling that he doesn't love you anymore." Lawson fake-pouted. Spinelli lowered her eyebrows in unspeakable anger.
"Say that again," she threatened.
"Do I need to spell it out for you?" Lawson sneered. "Your big-shot boyfriend is too much of a big-shot for you. He doesn't love you anymore." Lawson dragged out every syllable of his last sentence for full effect.
Spinelli hesitated a moment, as if taking in his words. Then, she decided that Lawson had finally gone over the edge. "That's it," she said. "You're dead." She tackled him, beating the snot out of him with her gruesomely strong fists. Within seconds, Lawson had obtained a shiner the size of Alaska and a stream of blood longer than the Mississippi running from his nose. "He does too love me," she shouted, pounding on Lawson with all the might her little body could hold. He was almost out for the count when Spinelli was pulled, by the neck of her jacket, off of Lawson.
Mikey's strong arms had forcefully picked Spinelli off of Lawson. "Spinelli," he said sternly. "We all know T.J. loves you. You don't have to beat up Lawson because he doesn't think so. I'd stop it before Finster sees."
However, it was too late. Miss Muriel Finster, the old gargoylish playground watcher, was headed toward Spinelli, a evil glower on her face. "Well, well, well. If it isn't her ex-highness herself," Finster faked surprise. "You're pulling Level Seven detention, missy!" Finster yelled, pulling Spinelli into the air by the neck of her jacket.
"Level Seven?" Spinelli asked bewilderedly.
"Say another word and it's Level Eight!" Finster roared, heading to the school with Spinelli dragging in tow.
"But Miss Finster!" Lawson whined.
"Get your carcass to the nurse's office and get cleaned up!" she called back to Lawson. Spinelli's remaining five friends on the playground glanced at each other. They had one job now. They had to tell T.J. so he could find a way to spring Spinelli.
Miss Finster dragged Ashley Spinelli by the neck of her jacket the whole way into the school off the playground. Spinelli was too angry to feel pained or remorseful; instead she wanted to rip Lawson apart shred for shred.
Finster arrived in the waiting area in front of Principal Prickly's office within a matter of moments. On the left side of the room sat Miss Lemmon, typing away at her typewriter as usual. On the right side of the room sat the office boy, Menlo, and his new assistant, ex-king Alex Gehrke.
Spinelli saw Alex shoot a surprised look her way when Finster dropped her back down to earth. She landed squarely on her feet, not losing her balance, her anger shining through. Spinelli glared at Alex, still unable to look at him without wanting to kill him.
"Miss Lemmon," Finster said. "I got another one for detention today." Miss Lemmon nodded.
"Okay, Muriel," Miss Lemmon said, scribling on a piece of paper Spinelli's name.
Alex looked once again at Spinelli, who followed Finster out of the office. Even though Spinelli hated his guts, Alex still felt he had to get her out of detention to prove to her that he was sorry for what he'd done. Ever since he'd been banished to the office for recess, Alex had had much time to think over the happenings of the past few months and his feelings about Spinelli. Alex knew he had been an ultimate jerk during his time on the throne; he'd stripped Spinelli of her friends and tortured her when that tactic hadn't worked. While Alex was busy being the bad guy, T.J. Detweiler had come to Spinelli's rescue, earning her love and respect while Alex only earned pure hatred. Unfortunately for Alex, his feelings for Spinelli were exactly reverse of her feelings for him. Alex had fallen in love with Spinelli the second he saw her, probably because Alex had never met someone who was so beautiful but yet so strong. It was because of his feelings for her that he tortured her, in an attempt to make her love him. It was only when Alex lost his position as king and chance with Spinelli to T.J. in an arm-wrestling match that Alex finally knew how bad he'd messed up. He wanted more than anything for both Spinelli and T.J., and all of their friends and kids of the playground, to know how sorry he was for everything. But Alex knew that T.J. would never listen, and until he did Alex was condemned.
'Maybe he'll listen if I get Spinelli out of detention,' Alex thought to himself. 'It'll be risky, but it's nothing I can't handle.' Alex thought for a moment more and then stood up. "Bathroom break," he said to Menlo, leaving the office.
"Hurry back!" Menlo called after him.
Alex headed stealthily to the cafeteria, where he knew Spinelli would be. As expected, she was there, the only one there, sitting near the window on one of the tables. Alex sneaked into the cafeteria as silently as he could muster. "Spinelli!" he called in a whisper. She looked up, an angry surprise burning in her eyes as she saw him.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded angrily, standing up.
"Shh!" Alex silenced her. He walked over to her and pulled her by her arm toward the door of the cafeteria. "I'm getting you out of here," he told her.
Spinelli was too speechless to throw him off. She let him guide her gently out of the cafeteria, where they sneaked quietly through the hallways and out the door that opened into the Kindergarteners' lair. "You gotta be kiddin' me," Spinelli muttered.
"Nope," Alex replied. "I've had experience with these guys before." He stared out over the sleeping kindergarteners, with a confidence that had ridden his face so many times when he'd been king.
"So've I," Spinelli countered in a hoarse whisper, "but there ain't no way I'm goin' out there again."
"Trust me," Alex whispered simply.
"And why should I do that?" Spinelli inquired, lowering her eyebrows.
Alex hesitated for a moment, and turned to her, looking straight into her chocolate brown eyes. "I'm just asking you to go on a little faith here, Spinelli," he pleaded.
Spinelli gulped. "Alright." Alex moved to open the door, when Spinelli grabbed his arm. "How are we supposed to get out of there?" she asked.
Alex surveyed the kindergartener yard. The padlock on the other side of the wooden fence was most likely locked, as it always was. Once inside, there were two ways out: through the bushes on the far side of the pen, or using the kindergarteners' toys to climb over the wooden fence in front. "Looks like we'll take the bushes," Alex replied.
Spinelli stared, a tiny look of fright on her face, out across the kindergarteners. The bushes were twenty yards away, and filling the gap in between was the entire tribe of kindergarteners. Spinelli shifted her stare to her rescuer, whom she was convinced was as crazy as ever.
"Faith," he told her, taking her arm as he pushed open the door. The two of them slowly tiptoed in between innumerable kindergarteners, all of which slept peacefully. Alex led, Spinelli followed, and they were almost to the bushes when the kindergarteners began to stir.
"Uh oh," Alex whispered. "Looks like naptime's over." He reached back and pulled Spinelli by her arms closer to him. "Our only way out is to get into the bushes before they wake up. Get ready to make a run for it." Alex whispered to three, and then as carefully as possible, he and Spinelli raced around the remaining kindergarteners and dove into the bushes as the first kindergartener woke. "That was close," Alex whispered, out of breath. Beside him, Spinelli collapsed.
"I can't believe you tried something that risky," she exclaimed, still in a whisper.
"Hey," Alex replied, his golden hair falling in his light green eyes, "you needed to be rescued, didn't you?"
"I thought I knew you," she said. "But I guess I didn't at all."
Alex didn't reply. Did it mean that Spinelli was seeing him in a different light, or did it mean that she still hated him? Alex had a feeling he'd find out soon enough. "C'mon, we better get going," he said. The two crawled through the bushes until they were safely out of the kindergarten area.
"You have to get out of here before Finster finds you," he whispered to her as they climbed out of the bushes. Spinelli nodded, stalled as though she wanted to say something to her rescuer, thought better of it, and turned toward the jungle gym where her friends would most likely be.
"Freeze," an angry voice commanded. Spinelli and Alex stopped in their tracks and turned to face the voice. It was Finster. "So, Miss Spinelli, think you'd try sneaking out of detention, huh? Well, I got news for you, girly: you've just been updated to Level Ten detention!"
"She's with me, Miss Finster," Alex spoke up, a dark, determined look on his face. Alex was one of the few people alive that held no fear for Miss Finster.
Finster scowled at Alex. "It was in my understanding, Gehrke," she replied, "that you were not allowed on the playground."
"I'm not," Alex shot back. "I was getting her out of detention." Spinelli couldn't believe her ears. Alex Gehrke was taking a dive for her! Maybe once off the throne, he wasn't as bad as everyone thought he was.
"So punishment for both of you, then?" Finster allowed herself a cackle. A few feet behind Finster, Randall Weems, playground snitch, appeared. Randall had worked for Alex when Alex had held the throne, but Spinelli didn't know if Randall would keep his loyalties to Alex over Finster. Spinelli saw Alex shoot Randall an "S-O-S" look. On cue, Randall cried:
"Miss Finster, Miss Finster! Skeems wrote a bad word on the side of the school!" Finster scowled.
"Little hooligans," she muttered as she took off toward the area of Greg Skeems and his pals Mundy and the Lazy Kid. "I'll deal with you two later!" Finster yelled. Randall remained in his spot.
"Thanks, snitch boy," Alex praised, smiling, before he turned to Spinelli. "Get out of here. She'll be back." He pushed Spinelli gently toward the jungle gym. Spinelli stalled again.
"Umm, Alex?" she asked, not sure what she should say. She looked up into his bright green eyes and knew she'd found a friend in him. "Thanks."
"Any time of the day," he replied, still smiling. "Now go!" With that, Spinelli turned and headed swiftly to the jungle gym.
Meanwhile, Jenna Platt, Vince LaSalle, Gretchen Grundler, Mikey Blumberg, and Gus Griswold had just finished telling T.J. Detweiler what had caused Spinelli's detention.
"So he said that I didn't love her?" T.J. asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. The rest nodded. "And she beat the snot outta him?" They nodded again. T.J. took a long breath. "If I didn't know better, I'd go down there and beat the snot outta Lawson. Saying I don't love her. That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard." T.J. shook his head.
"So, we're going to get her out of detention, right?" Gretchen asked. T.J. shot her a weird look.
"Duh," he replied.
"I just got duh-ed," Gretchen stated in disbelief.
"Duh," T.J. repeated, cracking up. "C'mon, Gretch, you know that I wouldn't let her waste away in detention, especially not after what she said to King Bob for me last year." T.J. had been told of the story of how Spinelli had convinced King Bob to free him from detention. As it had been told, Bob had called T.J. 'some dumb kid', immediately sparking Spinelli's defensiveness of her friend and then-crush. In return, she had called Bob 'some dumb kid', saying that dumb kids needed to stand up for each other. When T.J. had heard the story in full detail, he was touched.
Gretchen, Vince and Mikey smiled remembering that particular recess, in which they'd all figured out that Spinelli had a crush on T.J. Of course, Gus hadn't get come to Third Street, and Jenna at that time was still in residence of Forty-Fourth Street School, at which Alex Gehrke had been king at the same time.
"Okay, so now we gotta think of a plan to spring Spinelli," T.J. stated, a slight quiver in his voice as he said her name. He took off his red baseball cap and pulled out a blueprint of the school. The six on the jungle gym gathered around it.
"Or you could skip that part," a voice above them said. They all looked up, straight at Spinelli, who was standing over T.J. He looked as surprised as the rest of them to see her.
"How did you get out? How'd you get past Finster?" T.J. asked, standing up and putting his hands on her shoulders. He noticed she was trembling slightly and knew immediately that something was wrong. "What's wrong, Spin? What happened?" The rest of the gang got to their feet.
"C'mon, Spin, out with it!" he pleaded, gently lifting her chin so he could look at her face. Spinelli opened her eyes and stared into the deep light blue of his. T.J.'s eyes were so much more compassionate than Alex's; although the amazing sparkle in his eyes was often a determined stare, they held so much love when he looked at Spinelli. She knew, just by looking up at him, that he wasn't going to like what she said next.
"Teej," she said his nickname, "Alex Gehrke just got me out of detention."
"What?" her friends demanded, all blinking disbelievingly.
"I'm dead serious!" she replied. "I wasn't even in detention for five minutes when he came into the cafeteria and told me he was getting me out of there. Then we escaped through the kindergarteners' pen, and Finster caught us when we came out the other side. Then he said that he was getting me out of detention, and had Randall distract Finster so I could make a getaway."
T.J. stared at Spinelli, angry and shocked. He didn't think that Spinelli was lying, mostly because she'd never really lied to him before, and also because if she'd gotten out of detention all by herself, she would want to brag about it.
"He's got some nerve to do that after all the junk he did to you," Jenna said angrily. "I'd like to go give him a piece of my mind!" She headed toward the slide, fire-red hair swinging, and was about to slide down when a firm hand landed on her shoulder. Jenna turned and saw Mikey holding on to her.
"You can't fight Alex Gehrke, Jenna," he informed her as firmly as he could. "He could kill you!"
"Nah, not Alex," Jenna replied, grinning. "He wouldn't dare lay a finger on me." She raised her eyebrows and gestured with her head toward the slide.
"But Jenna, if we get caught going back into the school with Spinelli, we'll all be in trouble," Gus warned.
"So then we need to think of a plan…" Gretchen murmured. Everyone looked at T.J., longing to hear those four words…
"I've got a plan," he said thoughtfully, "but we'll need your Winger-Dingers, Mikey." Mikey removed his backpack and handed it to T.J., who opened it and peered at the spoils. "This is real good, Mikey. Now we gotta go see the Crier Kid."
"Sure, Your Majesty, I'll help ya out," Bradley the Crier Kid said to T.J. and the gang a few minutes later. Bradley was a major brown-noser to whoever happened to be on the throne, and had been King Alex's "hustler" when the Hustler Kid had refused to work for Alex.
"What do you charge?" Jenna asked from T.J.'s left side. Bradley's eyes fell upon the small, red-headed girl.
"Hey, aren't you that Jenna kid?" Bradley asked. "You know, Alex Gehrke's lit-" Bradley was unable to finish his sentence. Jenna had clamped her hand over his mouth.
"Don't you ever tell anybody about that!" she threatened. "Or I'll have Spinelli beat you up!" Bradley nodded. Jenna released her hand to her friends' puzzled stares. She shrugged. The rest of the gang looked at each other suspiciously. T.J. turned back to Bradley.
"What's your charge?" T.J. asked.
"Three Winger-Dingers should do the trick," Bradley replied. T.J. handed over Bradley's payment.
"Keep Finster as far away from us as you can," he instructed Bradley. Bradley nodded and moved off. A few moments later, the gang heard Bradley's cries rise above the noise of the playground, and then there was Finster, heading in Bradley's direction. Stealthily, the gang headed inside the building.
Luckily, they caught Alex alone at the water fountain outside the office where he now worked. "Hey, Gehrke, what's the big idea getting Spinelli out of detention?" Jenna demanded, green-gray eyes flashing angrily as her hair swung.
"Hey, Platt, I don't see why it's any of your business," Alex replied meanly.
"It's all of our business, Alex," Jenna retorted, "and if you don't think it's our business, we'll make it our business to find out!"
"Bug off," Alex ordered. "I'm not telling you anything!"
"Oh, I get it…" Jenna muttered thoughtfully. "Then you can just forget about me helping you with your… ahem… girl problem." Jenna grinned evilly. Alex looked back at her, scowling. Behind Jenna, the rest of the gang was exchanging glances again. They had no clue what Jenna was talking about.
"I'm not telling you here, if I decide to tell you at all!" Alex protested firmly.
"Tell me at dinner," Jenna suggested quietly.
"No!"
"Why not? Don't want your mom and dad to find out about your little crush?" Jenna threatened. Alex, in his final straw, decided to turn the tables on Jenna.
"Hey, Ketchup-Head, they're your mom and dad, too, and I think it's time that you tell your friends your little secret," Alex said.
"What secret, Jenna?" Mikey asked, putting a hand gently on Jenna's shoulder. Jenna, knowing her friends would never get off her case about her secret, buried her face in her hands and murmured something incoherent.
"What?" T.J. demanded.
"She said," Alex replied snottily, "or at least I think she said, that she and I are related. She's my little sister."
End of Part One
Coming Up Next (LOL): T.J. and the gang find out more about Jenna's little family secret…
Part Two: The Bigger Mystery
© KDWILD, 2001.
Part One: The Big Mystery
A/N: This fic is dedicated to my Beta-Editor (as in, Beta writer than me!), D.W. Gavin. Thanks for all your support!
"Come on, Teej, come down for once." Ashley Spinelli pleaded of T.J. Detweiler, chocolate brown eyes gleaming with a fake sadness. T.J. shook his head no in reply, folding his arms importantly across his chest. "Please?" she begged.
"I'm not coming down," T.J. replied, turning his back on her.
"Please?" Spinelli repeated, putting her arms gently around his shoulders and squeezing. T.J. turned and looked at her, a silly grin on his face, his deep blue eyes lit up in surprise as his close friend held him.
"No," he told her.
"Why?" she whined, stomping her boots on the top of the jungle gym, still not letting go of him.
"What happens if I leave and someone steals the throne from me?" T.J. demanded. "What happens then, Spin?"
Spinelli snorted in disgust. "I think you've been up here too long. The glory of kingship is going to your head." She took his trademark red baseball cap off of his head and waved it in the air.
"Is not," he protested, snatching the hat back and putting it backwards on top of his head.
"You mean you'd even pass up the chance to be with me?" Spinelli asked bewilderedly, trying another tactic to get T.J. off of the throne for a recess.
T.J. groaned guiltily. "Don't do it, Spin," he warned.
"You'd leave me all alone to fend off those bully sixth-graders all by myself?" she continued.
"Spin," T.J. warned again.
"Would you really desert me?" she inquired sadly, hunching over as she pretended to cry. T.J. put a hand on her back.
"Spin," he said sternly yet gently at the same time, "I'm not deserting you. I just can't take the risk." Spinelli closed her eyes and pouted.
"You don't like me anymore," she muttered.
"Ashley," T.J. singsonged angrily, "don't ever say that. You know how I feel about you, so don't say that. It hurts." Spinelli looked sadly up at T.J., unable to apologize with words. T.J., however, read her expression and understood that she was sorry. "Maybe next recess I'll come down."
Spinelli groaned. "You say that every time! When is it going to be true?"
"This time. I promise."
"Promise?"
"Pinkie-swear." T.J. held up his pinkie and Spinelli hooked hers around his. She turned to leave the jungle gym when T.J. called after her. "Spinelli, I forgot to give you something." She walked back toward him and he reached out, wrapping her into a close embrace and kissing her sweetly. "Hope nobody saw that," T.J. commented.
"What do you care? If somebody makes fun of you, you can just send 'em to the dodgeball wall?" Spinelli demanded, trying weakly to sound tough.
"Actually, I don't care who sees," T.J. relented.
"Well then, looks like you're gonna get away with kissing me every time you see me, aren't you, Your Majesty?"
"Probably," T.J. agreed. Spinelli shook her head in mock disgust and slid down the slide, thinking of what had just happened. True enough, when T.J. kissed her, she was incredibly surprised, because that was only the third time he'd ever kissed her. He'd kissed her once on the cheek in front of her mother, and once right after he took the throne after defeating Alex Gehrke. She figured she'd probably be getting kissed more often if she would have kept the position of queen of the playground, but after pondering it over and being a trial queen for a week, Spinelli decided monarchy really wasn't her thing.
Meanwhile, T.J. Detweiler, who used to be a fun-loving holy terror to Muriel Finster and Principal Peter Prickly, had suddenly passed up all things he loved, including his free recess, for the glory of kingship. Spinelli and her friends all knew that T.J. didn't want to take the risk of letting his guard down and not seeing Alex Gehrke blindside him, so until Gehrke was in middle school, T.J. was going to have to be a hawk.
"He's not coming down, is he?" Jenna Platt asked glumly. Spinelli shook her head, an 'I-tried-my-best-but-he-still-won't-listen' look on her face. She shrugged.
"He promised he'd come down next recess," Spinelli replied, as though his promise meant nothing.
"Has he ever broken a promise to you before?" Jenna continued, hazel eyes shining expectantly. Spinelli thought for a moment.
"I think so." She shrugged again.
"I mean, since he told you he, um, loves you?" Jenna corrected herself quietly. She couldn't bring herself to say the word 'love' in a loud voice when Mikey Blumberg was around, just because Mikey and love together would make her keel over. Jenna had had a wild crush on the large fifth grader since he'd first spoken to her, and only her, near the beginning of that year. Behind Mikey's and Jenna's backs, Spinelli and T.J. shared the suspicion that Mikey possibly liked her the same way.
Spinelli thought again, and after a moment shook her head. "Did he pinkie-swear?" Jenna pressed. She smiled to Spinelli's nod, and hooked her arm through Spinelli's. "Now all you have to get him to do is swear by the moon and stars that he'll never leave you," Jenna told her friend as the two began walking toward their friends. Spinelli stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wh-what?" Spinelli stuttered. Jenna giggled.
"Never mind. Forget I said anything," she replied as the two girls entered the kickball diamond where their remaining four friends waited, Mikey among them. Jenna's eyebrows shot up at the sight of him. Spinelli rolled her eyes.
"He isn't coming," Mikey, Gretchen Grundler, and Vince LaSalle stated as a glum sigh.
"Nope," Spinelli replied.
"Aw, well, that's too bad, your highness," a cold voice said behind Spinelli, "that your boyfriend will be missing from your team again." Spinelli spun around to face Irwin Lawson, the sixth-grade ex-bodyguard of King Alex.
"It don't matter, Lawson," Spinelli replied darkly. "We can still wup you."
"Yeah, right, Spinugly. If you haven't noticed, you fifth graders haven't won a kickball gang since Detweiner placed himself up on that throne," Lawson countered snottily. "I'm starting to get the feeling that he doesn't love you anymore." Lawson fake-pouted. Spinelli lowered her eyebrows in unspeakable anger.
"Say that again," she threatened.
"Do I need to spell it out for you?" Lawson sneered. "Your big-shot boyfriend is too much of a big-shot for you. He doesn't love you anymore." Lawson dragged out every syllable of his last sentence for full effect.
Spinelli hesitated a moment, as if taking in his words. Then, she decided that Lawson had finally gone over the edge. "That's it," she said. "You're dead." She tackled him, beating the snot out of him with her gruesomely strong fists. Within seconds, Lawson had obtained a shiner the size of Alaska and a stream of blood longer than the Mississippi running from his nose. "He does too love me," she shouted, pounding on Lawson with all the might her little body could hold. He was almost out for the count when Spinelli was pulled, by the neck of her jacket, off of Lawson.
Mikey's strong arms had forcefully picked Spinelli off of Lawson. "Spinelli," he said sternly. "We all know T.J. loves you. You don't have to beat up Lawson because he doesn't think so. I'd stop it before Finster sees."
However, it was too late. Miss Muriel Finster, the old gargoylish playground watcher, was headed toward Spinelli, a evil glower on her face. "Well, well, well. If it isn't her ex-highness herself," Finster faked surprise. "You're pulling Level Seven detention, missy!" Finster yelled, pulling Spinelli into the air by the neck of her jacket.
"Level Seven?" Spinelli asked bewilderedly.
"Say another word and it's Level Eight!" Finster roared, heading to the school with Spinelli dragging in tow.
"But Miss Finster!" Lawson whined.
"Get your carcass to the nurse's office and get cleaned up!" she called back to Lawson. Spinelli's remaining five friends on the playground glanced at each other. They had one job now. They had to tell T.J. so he could find a way to spring Spinelli.
Miss Finster dragged Ashley Spinelli by the neck of her jacket the whole way into the school off the playground. Spinelli was too angry to feel pained or remorseful; instead she wanted to rip Lawson apart shred for shred.
Finster arrived in the waiting area in front of Principal Prickly's office within a matter of moments. On the left side of the room sat Miss Lemmon, typing away at her typewriter as usual. On the right side of the room sat the office boy, Menlo, and his new assistant, ex-king Alex Gehrke.
Spinelli saw Alex shoot a surprised look her way when Finster dropped her back down to earth. She landed squarely on her feet, not losing her balance, her anger shining through. Spinelli glared at Alex, still unable to look at him without wanting to kill him.
"Miss Lemmon," Finster said. "I got another one for detention today." Miss Lemmon nodded.
"Okay, Muriel," Miss Lemmon said, scribling on a piece of paper Spinelli's name.
Alex looked once again at Spinelli, who followed Finster out of the office. Even though Spinelli hated his guts, Alex still felt he had to get her out of detention to prove to her that he was sorry for what he'd done. Ever since he'd been banished to the office for recess, Alex had had much time to think over the happenings of the past few months and his feelings about Spinelli. Alex knew he had been an ultimate jerk during his time on the throne; he'd stripped Spinelli of her friends and tortured her when that tactic hadn't worked. While Alex was busy being the bad guy, T.J. Detweiler had come to Spinelli's rescue, earning her love and respect while Alex only earned pure hatred. Unfortunately for Alex, his feelings for Spinelli were exactly reverse of her feelings for him. Alex had fallen in love with Spinelli the second he saw her, probably because Alex had never met someone who was so beautiful but yet so strong. It was because of his feelings for her that he tortured her, in an attempt to make her love him. It was only when Alex lost his position as king and chance with Spinelli to T.J. in an arm-wrestling match that Alex finally knew how bad he'd messed up. He wanted more than anything for both Spinelli and T.J., and all of their friends and kids of the playground, to know how sorry he was for everything. But Alex knew that T.J. would never listen, and until he did Alex was condemned.
'Maybe he'll listen if I get Spinelli out of detention,' Alex thought to himself. 'It'll be risky, but it's nothing I can't handle.' Alex thought for a moment more and then stood up. "Bathroom break," he said to Menlo, leaving the office.
"Hurry back!" Menlo called after him.
Alex headed stealthily to the cafeteria, where he knew Spinelli would be. As expected, she was there, the only one there, sitting near the window on one of the tables. Alex sneaked into the cafeteria as silently as he could muster. "Spinelli!" he called in a whisper. She looked up, an angry surprise burning in her eyes as she saw him.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded angrily, standing up.
"Shh!" Alex silenced her. He walked over to her and pulled her by her arm toward the door of the cafeteria. "I'm getting you out of here," he told her.
Spinelli was too speechless to throw him off. She let him guide her gently out of the cafeteria, where they sneaked quietly through the hallways and out the door that opened into the Kindergarteners' lair. "You gotta be kiddin' me," Spinelli muttered.
"Nope," Alex replied. "I've had experience with these guys before." He stared out over the sleeping kindergarteners, with a confidence that had ridden his face so many times when he'd been king.
"So've I," Spinelli countered in a hoarse whisper, "but there ain't no way I'm goin' out there again."
"Trust me," Alex whispered simply.
"And why should I do that?" Spinelli inquired, lowering her eyebrows.
Alex hesitated for a moment, and turned to her, looking straight into her chocolate brown eyes. "I'm just asking you to go on a little faith here, Spinelli," he pleaded.
Spinelli gulped. "Alright." Alex moved to open the door, when Spinelli grabbed his arm. "How are we supposed to get out of there?" she asked.
Alex surveyed the kindergartener yard. The padlock on the other side of the wooden fence was most likely locked, as it always was. Once inside, there were two ways out: through the bushes on the far side of the pen, or using the kindergarteners' toys to climb over the wooden fence in front. "Looks like we'll take the bushes," Alex replied.
Spinelli stared, a tiny look of fright on her face, out across the kindergarteners. The bushes were twenty yards away, and filling the gap in between was the entire tribe of kindergarteners. Spinelli shifted her stare to her rescuer, whom she was convinced was as crazy as ever.
"Faith," he told her, taking her arm as he pushed open the door. The two of them slowly tiptoed in between innumerable kindergarteners, all of which slept peacefully. Alex led, Spinelli followed, and they were almost to the bushes when the kindergarteners began to stir.
"Uh oh," Alex whispered. "Looks like naptime's over." He reached back and pulled Spinelli by her arms closer to him. "Our only way out is to get into the bushes before they wake up. Get ready to make a run for it." Alex whispered to three, and then as carefully as possible, he and Spinelli raced around the remaining kindergarteners and dove into the bushes as the first kindergartener woke. "That was close," Alex whispered, out of breath. Beside him, Spinelli collapsed.
"I can't believe you tried something that risky," she exclaimed, still in a whisper.
"Hey," Alex replied, his golden hair falling in his light green eyes, "you needed to be rescued, didn't you?"
"I thought I knew you," she said. "But I guess I didn't at all."
Alex didn't reply. Did it mean that Spinelli was seeing him in a different light, or did it mean that she still hated him? Alex had a feeling he'd find out soon enough. "C'mon, we better get going," he said. The two crawled through the bushes until they were safely out of the kindergarten area.
"You have to get out of here before Finster finds you," he whispered to her as they climbed out of the bushes. Spinelli nodded, stalled as though she wanted to say something to her rescuer, thought better of it, and turned toward the jungle gym where her friends would most likely be.
"Freeze," an angry voice commanded. Spinelli and Alex stopped in their tracks and turned to face the voice. It was Finster. "So, Miss Spinelli, think you'd try sneaking out of detention, huh? Well, I got news for you, girly: you've just been updated to Level Ten detention!"
"She's with me, Miss Finster," Alex spoke up, a dark, determined look on his face. Alex was one of the few people alive that held no fear for Miss Finster.
Finster scowled at Alex. "It was in my understanding, Gehrke," she replied, "that you were not allowed on the playground."
"I'm not," Alex shot back. "I was getting her out of detention." Spinelli couldn't believe her ears. Alex Gehrke was taking a dive for her! Maybe once off the throne, he wasn't as bad as everyone thought he was.
"So punishment for both of you, then?" Finster allowed herself a cackle. A few feet behind Finster, Randall Weems, playground snitch, appeared. Randall had worked for Alex when Alex had held the throne, but Spinelli didn't know if Randall would keep his loyalties to Alex over Finster. Spinelli saw Alex shoot Randall an "S-O-S" look. On cue, Randall cried:
"Miss Finster, Miss Finster! Skeems wrote a bad word on the side of the school!" Finster scowled.
"Little hooligans," she muttered as she took off toward the area of Greg Skeems and his pals Mundy and the Lazy Kid. "I'll deal with you two later!" Finster yelled. Randall remained in his spot.
"Thanks, snitch boy," Alex praised, smiling, before he turned to Spinelli. "Get out of here. She'll be back." He pushed Spinelli gently toward the jungle gym. Spinelli stalled again.
"Umm, Alex?" she asked, not sure what she should say. She looked up into his bright green eyes and knew she'd found a friend in him. "Thanks."
"Any time of the day," he replied, still smiling. "Now go!" With that, Spinelli turned and headed swiftly to the jungle gym.
Meanwhile, Jenna Platt, Vince LaSalle, Gretchen Grundler, Mikey Blumberg, and Gus Griswold had just finished telling T.J. Detweiler what had caused Spinelli's detention.
"So he said that I didn't love her?" T.J. asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. The rest nodded. "And she beat the snot outta him?" They nodded again. T.J. took a long breath. "If I didn't know better, I'd go down there and beat the snot outta Lawson. Saying I don't love her. That's the most rediculous thing I've ever heard." T.J. shook his head.
"So, we're going to get her out of detention, right?" Gretchen asked. T.J. shot her a weird look.
"Duh," he replied.
"I just got duh-ed," Gretchen stated in disbelief.
"Duh," T.J. repeated, cracking up. "C'mon, Gretch, you know that I wouldn't let her waste away in detention, especially not after what she said to King Bob for me last year." T.J. had been told of the story of how Spinelli had convinced King Bob to free him from detention. As it had been told, Bob had called T.J. 'some dumb kid', immediately sparking Spinelli's defensiveness of her friend and then-crush. In return, she had called Bob 'some dumb kid', saying that dumb kids needed to stand up for each other. When T.J. had heard the story in full detail, he was touched.
Gretchen, Vince and Mikey smiled remembering that particular recess, in which they'd all figured out that Spinelli had a crush on T.J. Of course, Gus hadn't get come to Third Street, and Jenna at that time was still in residence of Forty-Fourth Street School, at which Alex Gehrke had been king at the same time.
"Okay, so now we gotta think of a plan to spring Spinelli," T.J. stated, a slight quiver in his voice as he said her name. He took off his red baseball cap and pulled out a blueprint of the school. The six on the jungle gym gathered around it.
"Or you could skip that part," a voice above them said. They all looked up, straight at Spinelli, who was standing over T.J. He looked as surprised as the rest of them to see her.
"How did you get out? How'd you get past Finster?" T.J. asked, standing up and putting his hands on her shoulders. He noticed she was trembling slightly and knew immediately that something was wrong. "What's wrong, Spin? What happened?" The rest of the gang got to their feet.
"C'mon, Spin, out with it!" he pleaded, gently lifting her chin so he could look at her face. Spinelli opened her eyes and stared into the deep light blue of his. T.J.'s eyes were so much more compassionate than Alex's; although the amazing sparkle in his eyes was often a determined stare, they held so much love when he looked at Spinelli. She knew, just by looking up at him, that he wasn't going to like what she said next.
"Teej," she said his nickname, "Alex Gehrke just got me out of detention."
"What?" her friends demanded, all blinking disbelievingly.
"I'm dead serious!" she replied. "I wasn't even in detention for five minutes when he came into the cafeteria and told me he was getting me out of there. Then we escaped through the kindergarteners' pen, and Finster caught us when we came out the other side. Then he said that he was getting me out of detention, and had Randall distract Finster so I could make a getaway."
T.J. stared at Spinelli, angry and shocked. He didn't think that Spinelli was lying, mostly because she'd never really lied to him before, and also because if she'd gotten out of detention all by herself, she would want to brag about it.
"He's got some nerve to do that after all the junk he did to you," Jenna said angrily. "I'd like to go give him a piece of my mind!" She headed toward the slide, fire-red hair swinging, and was about to slide down when a firm hand landed on her shoulder. Jenna turned and saw Mikey holding on to her.
"You can't fight Alex Gehrke, Jenna," he informed her as firmly as he could. "He could kill you!"
"Nah, not Alex," Jenna replied, grinning. "He wouldn't dare lay a finger on me." She raised her eyebrows and gestured with her head toward the slide.
"But Jenna, if we get caught going back into the school with Spinelli, we'll all be in trouble," Gus warned.
"So then we need to think of a plan…" Gretchen murmured. Everyone looked at T.J., longing to hear those four words…
"I've got a plan," he said thoughtfully, "but we'll need your Winger-Dingers, Mikey." Mikey removed his backpack and handed it to T.J., who opened it and peered at the spoils. "This is real good, Mikey. Now we gotta go see the Crier Kid."
"Sure, Your Majesty, I'll help ya out," Bradley the Crier Kid said to T.J. and the gang a few minutes later. Bradley was a major brown-noser to whoever happened to be on the throne, and had been King Alex's "hustler" when the Hustler Kid had refused to work for Alex.
"What do you charge?" Jenna asked from T.J.'s left side. Bradley's eyes fell upon the small, red-headed girl.
"Hey, aren't you that Jenna kid?" Bradley asked. "You know, Alex Gehrke's lit-" Bradley was unable to finish his sentence. Jenna had clamped her hand over his mouth.
"Don't you ever tell anybody about that!" she threatened. "Or I'll have Spinelli beat you up!" Bradley nodded. Jenna released her hand to her friends' puzzled stares. She shrugged. The rest of the gang looked at each other suspiciously. T.J. turned back to Bradley.
"What's your charge?" T.J. asked.
"Three Winger-Dingers should do the trick," Bradley replied. T.J. handed over Bradley's payment.
"Keep Finster as far away from us as you can," he instructed Bradley. Bradley nodded and moved off. A few moments later, the gang heard Bradley's cries rise above the noise of the playground, and then there was Finster, heading in Bradley's direction. Stealthily, the gang headed inside the building.
Luckily, they caught Alex alone at the water fountain outside the office where he now worked. "Hey, Gehrke, what's the big idea getting Spinelli out of detention?" Jenna demanded, green-gray eyes flashing angrily as her hair swung.
"Hey, Platt, I don't see why it's any of your business," Alex replied meanly.
"It's all of our business, Alex," Jenna retorted, "and if you don't think it's our business, we'll make it our business to find out!"
"Bug off," Alex ordered. "I'm not telling you anything!"
"Oh, I get it…" Jenna muttered thoughtfully. "Then you can just forget about me helping you with your… ahem… girl problem." Jenna grinned evilly. Alex looked back at her, scowling. Behind Jenna, the rest of the gang was exchanging glances again. They had no clue what Jenna was talking about.
"I'm not telling you here, if I decide to tell you at all!" Alex protested firmly.
"Tell me at dinner," Jenna suggested quietly.
"No!"
"Why not? Don't want your mom and dad to find out about your little crush?" Jenna threatened. Alex, in his final straw, decided to turn the tables on Jenna.
"Hey, Ketchup-Head, they're your mom and dad, too, and I think it's time that you tell your friends your little secret," Alex said.
"What secret, Jenna?" Mikey asked, putting a hand gently on Jenna's shoulder. Jenna, knowing her friends would never get off her case about her secret, buried her face in her hands and murmured something incoherent.
"What?" T.J. demanded.
"She said," Alex replied snottily, "or at least I think she said, that she and I are related. She's my little sister."
End of Part One
Coming Up Next (LOL): T.J. and the gang find out more about Jenna's little family secret…
Part Two: The Bigger Mystery
© KDWILD, 2001.