Carter just brushed it aside. "I suppose it's only natural for virgins such as yourself to be curious about other people's sex lives, right Billy?"
Billy didn't know what to say for a minute. Then his alter ego took over once more.
"Wrong. I just feel really sorry for Terry. I mean, she's a bitch and all, but-."
But Carter just laughed. "Bitch? Oh yeah, she's a real bitch sometimes. The bitch from hell. Yeah, Terry's a real, real, super bitch."
"That's nice. Real nice," Terry interrupted from behind him. "Bye Carter."
And with that, she stormed off down the street, with her school books in hand.
"Terry, wait!" Carter cried, chasing after her. He finally managed to catch up with his girlfriend. "Terry, I didn't mean-."
"Oh shut up Carter. You're so superficial. One minute you're telling me how much you love me, the next you're telling everyone I'm the bitch from hell. I don't want to speak to you." Terry tried to walk ahead, but Carter grabbed hold of her arm to stop her.
"Get off me Carter, I don't want to have anything to do with you today," Terry warned, trying to shake her arm free.
"No Terry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it, honest."
"You'll never be able to make this up to me Carter. I've put up with your insults long enough."
"You wanna bet? I can make this one up to you easy," Carter replied confidently. He reached into his pocket. "I got you a little present."
Terry smiled and took the box from Carter.
"Oh, wow," She said, not knowing what to say. "A John Denver CD."
"Limited Rocky Mountain High edition," Carter added proudly. He held out his arms. "So, how about a hug?"
Terry thought for a moment. John Denver? What kind of a gift is that? I hate John Denver. Then again, it's the thought that counts, isn't it?
She looked at Carter, who was know beginning to feel awkward standing there with his arms outstretched.
Oh look at him now, she thought again. He's getting tired of waiting for me to do something. I love it when he does that. I love being in control, heh heh heh heh
"Fine," Carter announced, spinning on his cool little trainer heels (Joke) and starting to make his way off down the street.
You better go after him, Terry's brain told her. You love him don't you?
"Do I?" Terry said aloud to her brain.
Sure you do. You had sex with him didn't you?
"Well, yeah. but-."
But What Terry? Go over there and snog him. If you don't, I'll make you forget all the answers in history class. You hate that don't you? Or I'll sneak it up on you, one day, when there's a big exam, the most important exam of the whole ye-
"Okay, okay, I'll do it."
Terry took a deep breath and tried to forgive him. Then she caught up with him and grabbed hold of him.
"Terry?" He asked hopefully.
She hesitated for a second.
For Christs sake woman kiss him!
So she did. Carter wrapped his arms tightly around her. Then, he sprung out of his loving boyfriend mode and became the type of guy who would come up to you in a bar and say, "Get your coat, you've pulled."
"What do you say, we miss School, and have a little study break of our own?" He whispered.
"What were you thinking of?" Terry replied, suddenly morphing into the school slut.
Oh, the joys of split personality disorder eh?
Carter didn't reply to that question. Instead, he just kissed her again, his hands all over her.
"Oh, Mr, Horton, Miss Chaney, just in time for school," Mr. Doggett, the school principal interrupted them.
"Yeah, I guess we are," Carter replied with a hint of insolence in his tone.
"Well, get going then," Mr. Doggett urged, eyeing them suspiciously. "The back row of the cinemas the place for that type of thing, not here."
"Oh ha ha," Carter commented sarcastically, slipping his arm around Terry's waist. "Come along Terry. We wouldn't want to be late now would we?"
Alex sat at the breakfast table, bleary eyed and absolutely shattered. Barbara Browning had her back to him, busily getting her own cereal. Alex stared down at his bowl of cornflakes. He held the baseball bat tightly under the table.
"Monkey......Monkeys everywhere......Monkeys......Monkey's can't get me......Bring it on Monkeys.......Must stay awake......Must keep watch...For Monkeys......"
"Alex, sweetie? You feelin okay?" Mrs. Browning asked, still with her back to him.
"......Must protect myself from.......Monkeys....." Alex muttered sleepily.
"You sound tired honey-bun. Why do you sound tired?"
"Monkeys......Must stay awake......Otherwise....Monkeys....."
"Baby doll? You feeling okay sugar-lump?"
"Monkeys.......Monkeys.......Monkeys......" Alex chanted, not paying attention to a word his Mum was saying. Absolutely knacked from staying awake all night, Alex's head dropped forward straight into his cereal.
Barbara Browning turned around. Her jaw dropped open.
"Oh darling, how many times have I told you to bring the dish up your mouth, not the other way around?"
Alex only snored in reply.
"Oh, you can't go to sleep now sugar. What about school? You want to get straight A's don't you?"
At that second Ken Browning came down the stairs, singing in a wide awake cheery voice.
"Pictures in my head of the Final Destination," he sang happily, clicking his fingers. "Oh, morning Barb, Alex....." Then he noticed his son asleep in his cereal, and did a double take. "Alex? Get your head of your dish you silly, silly boy!"
"Shhhhhhh, don't wake him," his Mum replied, putting a finger to her lips. "Let's get the video camera out first."
"Good idea!"
"Ahh," Tod sighed, stretching and yawning. "What a glorious, glorious, glorious.....Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He suddenly noticed it was midday. "I'm late for school!" Then he stopped. "Late for school. Late for school....Is this the best day of my life?"
He thought back to some of his favourite memories. Eating a chocolate bar.......Having a hair cut........Buying his sweater.......Finding a penny on the carpet....
"Looks like we have a new champion."
He smirked and got back into bed.
"Now to pretend I've got a sore tummy.........Heh heh heh........"
At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
"Toddy sweetie? Can I come in? You're awfully, awfully late for school."
"I know Mom," Tod replied, trying not to grin. "But I don't feel........very well."
"Awww, honey. Really? Then why bother going to school? What's the point right? You can go to school on the other side, can't you?"
By the way, that was meant to be based on part of the script. Figure it out for yourself which bit I mean.
"Eh?" Tod asked, sitting up suddenly. "What do you mean, 'The Other side?'"
"Nothing, nothing," Linda Waggner entered the room. "Oh, you do look sick. How about the day off?"
"Now there's an offer I can't refuse," Tod answered. He didn't need to put on a croaky voice cos he already had one.
Ms. Lewton walked to the front of the class.
"Well, good morning class," she said, trying to sound cheery. "Today, is a very special day, because I have managed to get the Nine Inch Nails into our lesson to perform some songs......."
She looked out at the rows of empty desks. "Sorry guys," she said to a band who were standing next to her. "I knew it would never work."
"Oh, that's too bad, cos like, this was the only day we could come in dude, so, like, those kids are gonna be like, totally nuked." The lead singer replied.
"I know, I know, but I suppose now they'll learn that playing truant is not the way to live."
"Like, I dunno dude. I always skived off totally. And now look at me man. I'm like, so cool."
"Yes....."
The band picked up their instruments and walked out of the door, down the corridor.
Carter had Terry up against the lockers. They were completely engrossed in each other, making out.
"Woah, dude, take a look at that," the lead singer of Nine Inch Nails announced. "Get in there dude."
Carter broke away from Terry and turned around, to see the band cheering them on.
"All right!"
"Sweet!"
"Oh, don't stop now dude."
"Nine inch nails?!" Carter exclaimed, releasing Terry from his grasp. "Wow! I love your music!"
Two of the band members slapped each other a high five.
"Woah dude, a fan!"
The lead singer looked at Carter. "We salute you, dude." He walked over to him. "So, what's your name?"
"Carter."
"And what's the name of your little hottie?" The lead singer asked, eyeing Terry up and down.
Terry, who didn't look too pleased, replied, "My name is Terry, actually. Why?"
"Ooooooh, bring it on," the lead singer joked. "What's up darlin'? Not getting enough of the good stuff?" Then he looked at Carter, who was now glaring. "Oh, no offence to you or anything Carl."
"It's Carter."
"Sorry Carl."
"No, my name is Carter."
"Carl? Carter? What's the difference?"
"Well actually-."
"And Terry, did you say?" The lead singer asked again, taking Terry's arm. He kissed her hand. "What a beautiful name, for a beautiful lady."
Terry giggled, flattered. Carter folded his arms, feeling hostile.
"Right, well, what the hell are you doing here?"
"We came for a concert," Tyler, the guitarist replied (Look, this is my story and I don't care whether the guitarist is really called Tyler or not. This is my version of Nine Inch Nails and in my version, there's someone called Tyler because I copied the name off a programme called 'My Hero.' So to all the NIN fans, I'm sorry if I'm wrong but I don't know that much about them and If I knew what the guitarist was called I would call him by the proper name. You could however, at least give me some credit for knowing that one of them is called Trent Reznor.)
"Except, none of your class showed up."
"Hey I got an idea," the lead singer, who I have now decided is called Trent, said. "We need one of you to come and sing for us-."
"Oooh, oooh, me!" Carter yelled, jumping up and down.
"I think we'll take Terry," Trent replied. Terry giggled again, in a flirtacious kind of way, sending Carter's jealousy level through the roof.
"No, actually," Carter said suddenly, trying his best to sound soz-hard. Oh, come on, this is the Nine Inch Nails we're talking about, they're not gonna be scared of a guy who wets his pants in a crisis are they? Exactly.
"Carter!" Terry warned. She smiled smugly. "If they want me to go and sing for them, so be it."
"Well, I wouldn't mind but....but you sound like a cat being strangled!" Carter insulted. Terry looked shocked. She put her hand to her heart.
"Me? Sound like a cat being strangled? You've gotta be kidding me."
"I kid you not," Carter announced, producing a cassette from behind his back. "Karaoke Festival, summer of 1999."
"You give me that!" Terry yelled, snatching it out of his hands. She jumped on it until it was completely mangled. Then she composed herself. "Right, Trent, Tyler, the other's who haven't got names cos the author couldn't be bothered...Are we all set?"
"Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!" Carter yelled, jumping at Tyler. He slipped on the corridor floor and accidentally pulled Tyler's pants down.
"Assault!" Tyler yelled. "Assault!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Oh give it a rest," Carter replied impatiently.
There was a knock at the door while Tod was watching the Teletubbies.
"Oh man," Tod moaned, dragging himself over to the door. "Now I'll never know how many pieces of Tubby Toast Laa-Laa got."
He hoped it wasn't the truant officer. Then he was really in trouble. He looked through the window. It was only a man in a suit, thank God. He opened the door.
"Oh hey there," The man greeted in a friendly voice. "Does a Tod Waggner live here?"
"Er....Yes," Tod answered uncertainly. "Why, what's he done?"
"Done? Oh, nothing, just wondering whether he was here."
Suddenly, Tod's mind was racing. He's a truant officer. He's onto me. Ahhhh! He cleared his throat. "T-Tod, Waggner, did you say?"
"Yes."
"Oh, I thought you meant.....Ted Waggner. There's no-one by the name Tod who lives here."
"Tod? Who's this man?" Linda Waggner interrupted, appearing over his shoulder. Tod slapped a hand to his forehead in despair.
"Ah, Mrs. Waggner," The man continued. "I'm hoping you can clear this up for me. Is this, your son, Tod?"
Linda suddenly caught on with the idea.
"Tod? No, this isn't Tod, I just call him that sometimes. His real name is.......Eugene."
Tod put his head in his hands.
"So, you're telling me, he's called Eugene, but you just call him Tod sometimes?" The man asked, not sounding convinced.
"Ah-ha."
"....Riiiiiight. I think I need to step inside."
Linda Waggner put her arm across the door to stop him.
"No, I er...Don't think that would be necessary," she replied, blocking his entry to their house.
"Mrs. Waggner, I have an authorisation to check whether your son is playing truant. Now, can I please come in and talk to you?" The Man looked pretty evil, so she decided to back down. Nervously, she gulped.
"Sure, come inside."
Tod sighed and dragged himself back over to the TV. It was just up to the windmill part of the Teletubbies. Tod's face lit up as he wondered whether they might get to see the wooden lion and bear wheeling around again, but his happiness was short lived as his Mum turned off the TV.
"Ohhhhhhh!!" He groaned in annoyance.
"Now, Mrs. Waggner, Eugene," The man addressed them. "My name is G. Ayfool, I'm your local truant officer-."
"For gods sakes, my boy's only been off a couple of hours! I forgot to phone the school!" Linda Waggner erupted.
"Yes, well, we will take that into account, Mrs. Waggner," G. Ayfool replied. He turned to Tod, and forced a fake smile. "Now, Eugene, don't you think it's time you stopped all this, and told me your real name?"
Tod looked down at his hands. "It's not Eugene. It's Tod. Tod Waggner," he replied solemnly. "I'm sorry for lying to you Mr Ayfool."
"Apology accepted," G. Ayfool replied. He brought out a notebook. "Now all you have to do is tell me why you're having a day off, then I'll go, and everything will be fine."
"And if he doesn't tell you why he's having a day off? What will happen then?" Linda persisted.
"Then I'll have to notify the education commitee. You don't want that, do you Linda?" G. Ayfool answered smugly.
"I'd appreciate it if you called me Mrs. Waggner," she replied in an uptight kind of way. She turned to her son. "Tod, why don't you tell the man why you're off school."
Tod gave her an angry look, as if she had deliberately put all the blame on him.
"Yes," he begun. "I'm off school, because I am sick, with a stomach bug...Yeah. A stomach bug. I can't stop throwing up. Honest." He suddenly got up out of his seat and ran to the door. "I'm sorry, would you please excuse me for a moment? I need to throw up again."
G. Ayfool pulled a disgusted face and noted something down on his clipboard. He got to his feet.
"Right, well, If that's all, I'll be off."
"Good afternoon Mr. Ayfool," Linda replied as she showed him the door.