January 2nd: Let's get the boring stuff out of the way.
Decided against pranking Lucy. Don't really see the point. I can hold on to old grudges, but I would rather spend that time doing something productive. I still think pranks are fun, mind you, but I'd rather save Clownery as a thing I do for fun. Not something I do for some weird vendetta. Makes me wonder about Luan's intentions and motivations behind her pranks, lately if she has beef with anyone she'll just talk about it instead of throwing a pie in your face.
I would say the lack of pie flinging going on in the house is more indicative to Luan's overall baking prowess as the years go by. A pie tin filled to the brim with whipped cream just doesn't cut it for her current sensibilities and artifice as a prankster, she will spend hours getting that thing ready. Always breaking at the last minute and deciding to wolf down that thing then and there. I suppose if I ever do get a pie flung at me courtesy of Luan I messed up big time, and probably legitimately hurt her feelings.
I've heard that if you do something you love for a living you never work a day in your life, but I'm pretty sure the opposite is true. All my sisters are pursuing careers in the things they love, and have pretty much spent the majority of their lives obsessing about it. Me too with the whole comics thing.
I guess if you do something you love, something you can't live without doing, work isn't work anymore. It's just breathing.
That's good and bad. Luckily my new sleeping medication has significantly helped my ability to meet deadlines and be able to catch up on the stuff I have recorded on the DVR.
Anyways, yeah. I pedaled over to the dry cleaners and picked up Lucy's clothes and swapped them out with all the polos and jeans I had stowed in her closet that didn't fit me anymore. I went ahead and donated them to a thrift store, maybe some juvenile prison needs them for uniforms or something.
I woke Lucy up, surprisingly, and told her that I got her clothes all dry cleaned as an apology gift for messing around with Harriet's stuff. She apologized too and we hugged it out.
I wouldn't really call it "being the bigger man" or anything, I just figure that if I should get pissed off about something that Lucy does it's stealing my fountain pen ink without telling me.
Arriving at school was weird. We pulled up to the parking lot and now almost everyone was in business wear save some of the 8th graders. New year new them, I guess. Paula almost caved in my skull with her crutch and got all agro on me because she was pretty sure it was all Clyde and I's fault for showing up to school in our Spade Nifty cosplays. I told her that it wasn't my fault for being fly as hell and that she looks pretty good in a power suit.
Luckily, Carol got me a sweater vest for Christmas and gave it to me this morning. She was really bummed out she couldn't give me and the girls their presents because she was out with her family in the Scottish Highlands at some ski chalet. She didn't get any skiing done, but she did spend the whole time ice skating at the rink by herself. She said it was incredibly depressing not having anyone in her life romantically during the holidays and that her friendship with Leni and I really helped her get through it without going too crazy.
I guess being an 18 year old white girl is really tough if you're single. I can sorta understand it, I'm not really that good at ice skating without having one of my bros to spot me. I'm killer on a roller rink though, I'll have Carol tag along the next time The Gang decides to roll.
Lola was there at lunch. Apparently she somehow got permission from Principal Huggins to start a Buddy Group in her own school and she will be visiting the first Tuesday of every month with Meli and some weird kid who smells like milk. I think his name is Skippy.
I told her that if I find out that she's abusing her power that I would get Lisa to build another time machine and make it so that Lana is an only child.
She told me that the whole thing was Meli's idea and that she'd rather spend her recess doing cool stuff like playing tag and having fun, instead of playing "pretend business boy with a bunch of losers in untailored monkey suits".
It's been ages since I've played tag. I bet I'd be really good at it. Maybe I'll see if I can visit the ol Alma Mater one of these days under the guise of a Buddy Group thing and totally dunk on those little dweebs at the playground.
I trust Meli, and the smelly kid seems like he has a good heart. So I'm tentatively optimistic about their future endeavors.
The lunch group is coming by this weekend to visit Leni and see if they can get some alterations done.
There is a new girl who rides the bus called Vanessa Calderón, she looks like Ronnie Anne but if you took a belt sander to get all the Ronnie-Anneness out of her. I mean that personality-wise, not her face. She is identical to her.
I was worried that this was a side-effect of the medication, but everyone else could see her too. But I'm still not ruling out mass hallucination. Lotta fumes on the bus ride home.
Haiku and Lucy swung by my room after dinner. They presented me with a cool ornamental dagger and said that since we buried the hatchet that they have no use for it anymore. I have it hung up above my chair with a string to make me focus on getting my homework done faster.
Now that the lame stuff is out of the way I can talk about Important Stuff.
The new fps everyone was talking about is supposedly hot garbage compared to the last one. I never played UnderWatch 1 so I don't really get the comparisons. I personally think it's pretty cool because you can play as a big ass monkey.
I helped Luna get the true end with Valeria on Xtreme Badminton 3. I got her a statue of her for Christmas and she has it in her room. Leni had to make little clothes for it because it was making Luan uncomfortable. Luna hides it in my room whenever Sam is around. Personally I think it's pretty cool for a videogame to have merchandise as detailed as this statue, they should make one for that monkey guy. Maybe he could be wearing sunglasses and swimming trunks. I would pay money for that.
The new Star Groupers mini series on Bisney Plus is about some guy from one of the movies. I watched it. It gave me some ideas on how to frame panels a bit better, I kept on pausing it to look at scene compositions. Don't know what was going on in it, but it looked cool.
Sid and Ronnie Anne hit me up on a videocall to show me some new mod they were working on for Dance Battle. It was a 4k body scan of that one dude from 12 Is Midnight, I like how much detail they put into his hair physics. I admitted that it was kinda jarring looking at the avatar they made and how detailed it was compared to the comparatively low-poly background dancers. I told them to just mod them out, but now they are working on their own personal models.
Don't know how they got a bodyscan of Yoon Kwan, but I don't really think I want to know that badly.
Only people up around midnight were Chandler, Trent, Richie, Penelope, and Mollie. They're in some weird RP server on Breaking and Entering Online where they pretend to be hardened bank robbers. It took me a while to figure out the proper nomenclature, but now I'm their getaway driver.
Chandler told me that my sweater vest made me look like a chump and I told him that his bolo tie made him look like a circus clown. Everyone agreed with me, but they also agreed with Chandler. Trent said that the polo underneath the sweater vest made me look like a "retired golfer" and was less "business casual". Richie stated that I either had to lose the skate shoes for some loafers or wear long sleeves to keep things cohesive. Penelope said that I looked nicer in my suit. Mollie stated that I should get a haircut.
I didn't realize we were actually at that age where we started caring about clothes outside of special occasions and plans. I thought I had at least another 2 years before that. I guess that was my fault.
After the game ended Penelope sent me a message stating that I didn't look like a chump at all and that hopefully our barbs didn't bruise my self esteem. They all just get into "crime mode" and have to have a report together to keep the role play dynamics going.
So I guess everyone thinks I'm insecure now or something. That's cool. I think I'm just gonna wear whatever I have in the closet that fits. Which, thanks to Leni's christmas gifts, is full of impeccably tailored suits that I was only supposed to wear whenever I had to talk to the principals during club and Buddy Group stuff.
Jordan woke up at around 2 and saw that I was online playing Breaking and Entering Online and joined in. I was just walking around. Apparently the city is based on Hollywood so I was acting like a tourist. We walked around and talked for a bit until she went back to sleep. She told me that I should get better sleeping medication if I was still up at 2 am.
I mean, I guess that's a valid point if these were regular pills made by a pharmacist that wasn't a grade school super genius.
With our big first heist I was able to afford my very first car. Some muscle car monstrosity that I painted orange. I was thinking about getting a sensible 4 door sedan when I turned 16, but with my salary I can probably afford something like this in like 1 or 2 years. Maybe more if Buck isn't blowing smoke up my butt about writing on that new Full House Gang Movie.
January 3rd: Carol Carpool was all "dang, dogg" when I came downstairs in the orange and navy argyle suit, I explained to them the situation and at the 12 minute mark Miguel decided to cut my hair. Now I kinda look like some New Age James Deen with a fade, sort of like I know a lot about DJ equipment and car speaker systems. At first Fiona said that I should grow my hair out because "every girl wants an emotionally distant mysterious bad boy with long hair" and Carol vehemently disagreed with her. I got on Fiona's side and told Carol that she shouldn't judge a book by its cover and just because I have a haircut and an in a suit doesn't mean that I couldn't be weirdly insular about my feelings and withholding of affection. Leni took my side and said that I looked "totes adorbs". Carol got upset for a bit and sighed saying that she's okay with me being emotionally distant so long as if something was really bothering me we could talk it through.
I don't plan on doing that, but agreed anyways.
I spent the day dodging everyone trying to slap my head and yell "FRESH CUT" at the top of their lungs. The only one who made it through was Stella and she accidentally pulled my hair. She apologized but I told her that I was just more upset about having to comb it back into place. Running a comb or your hands through pomade is such a gross feeling, like petting a dog covered in snot or something.
Mollie took me aside and bought me an iced tea from the vending machine as an apology for the haircut comment last night, I told her that she was probably right and to not feel bad about it. I didn't really get to say "no" because Miguel already took a 4 guard to the back of my head before I realized he had the clippers out.
She thinks it's cool that I hang out with high schoolers. I think it's pretty much the same thing as hanging out with someone my age, except they are bigger, have more responsibilities, and know slightly bigger words that they rarely ever use.
Rode home with Sam and Luna today and we finally got those T-shirt designs in. Didn't really want to have to worry about finding a seat on the bus. Stella rode with me since she lives pretty close by. She think Sam and Luna are the coolest people on the planet because they know how to play the guitar and have cool hair. Sam and Luna basically treat Stella like their student and teach her all about cool bands that only have less than a thousand listens on Dotify.
Personally, I just like music you can dance to.
Don't really have to worry about homework today. Or tomorrow. Or for the next month. Since I finished it all last night while waiting for Richie to connect back into the server every 20 minutes.
Just gonna pass out since my medication has worn off.
January 4th: Superintendent Chen showed up to congratulate me on getting the whole school on "dressing professionally". Basically everyone is now treating school like it's an office job or something. Kids are crowding around the water fountains and drinking from paper cups they brought from home while making small talk. Everyone is getting really into studying and are treating their classes grades like they are quarterly reports, helping students out who are having trouble studying.
I'm a nerd and all, but I find it kind of excessive.
Katherine Mulligan showed up and interviewed Clyde and I again about the suit thing. I guess since there isn't a whole lot going on the news has resorted to covering the day to day lives of the local preteens. I wasn't as starstruck and was able to actually be coherent. After the interview she said that the two of us should get into reporting, but then she remembered about the whole comics thing and told us to keep doing that because it's way cooler. I got too much stuff going around to be reporting on anything besides comic books and pop culture right now. I'd start another podcast but then I'd have to get everyone microphones and synchronize our schedules. I'm not the only one with a bunch of stuff on their plates.
Bus ride was weird, Vanessa kept on trying to start a conversation with me because she learned that I have an ex(?) who looks identical to her. I find it kind of tiring talking to her, she's really smart and catches on when I try to change the subject. Luckily I was able to get off early and grabbed a Flippee on the way home. I checked out Gus' to see if that cabinet was repaired, no dice.
Mom said that I looked adorable in my suit and was proud of me for not getting it dirty. This thing would cost, like, 600 dollars if it wasn't hand-made by my sister. I'm feeling kinda bad for all the other kids' parents now.
Zach is roping me into a lot of producing and recording stuff. Haiku's band finally showed up with enough practice for us to record a demo of one of their songs everyone actually knew all their parts for. They showed up after school unannounced but luckily Zach was able to get a ride from his mom to my place. I'd ask one of my sisters for a ride but he lives in a sketchy area- no protected left turns.
Rusty is currently trying to learn how to make cosplay clothes since HIS GIRLFRIEND is really into it. He's been studying under Leni lately. She says that he has steady hands but he needs to be quicker, he takes too much time on the sewing machine for simple stitches. But she says he has potential.
Liam roped Lynn into watching Chinese action movies with him. They're usually hogging the basement and watching a movie a day while yelling at the top of their lungs after something cool happens. I don't think they're dating, because if they were it'd be weird. Not because Lynn is my sister but because Liam is MY friend. She'd hang out with her own friends, but all of them have significant others.
I guess I really only need to start worrying about actually getting one of those after someone other than Rusty gets with someone.
Wait.
So Chloé and Clyde are getting more serious, Rusty has a girlfriend, and now Liam is doing this weird non-romantic couple thing with Lynn? Let me check something.
Zach is still uninterested in getting a lady friend, at least he isn't liking any posts of any possible paramours on friendbook. The only girls I see him talk to for longer than 3 minutes at Lunch are Penelope and that one girl with the panda hat who eats her pencil erasers and spits them into her backpack. And that always sounds like "research talk", the three of them are really into cryptids and bigfoot. So I'm not inclined to say that he's interested in either. Especially since Penelope was dropping hints about "talking" to a boy who lives in GLC called "Rigby" or something lately.
Hat girl is a rogue element, I'll have to talk to her later.
Stella talks to boys she also talks to girls too, (maybe Zach likes dudes who knows). I don't think she is into girls, but she has been close to Jordan lately. Petting her hair and giggling while looking at videos of car crashes and silo explosions on Jordan's phone. But I think girls just do that sometimes. The only boy she talks to outside of regular Group Activities is me, and romance is on the proverbial table.
But if Zach becomes the only dude without a plus one things might get kinda hairy going forward.
I'm already kinda going on these casual dates with RA and Jordan. Maybe this Spring Break if I get the ball rolling on that vacation thing we can change that.
I know shipping real-life people is kinda something I don't enjoy, so maybe it's a good idea to just let it all slide. I mean, even if everyone got legitimate friendbook official significant others I don't see myself getting one just because that sounds like the absolute, most doo-doo idea ever thought up by a human brain.
This is something I should get an objective perspective on. I'll put a pin on this for later. Or maybe just straight up ask Zach on his thoughts and feelings of this whole deal, like a normal person would.
Because I'm normal.
January 5th: I made it a big point to get everyone on the same page that Fridays are now "Casual Fridays" and that everyone can stop dressing in suits and just wear their regular clothes for the day during that interview with Mulligan.
This was kinda effective, some of the kids still didn't get the memo and traded in their respective button downs and slacks for their gym shorts. Liam took it a step forward and rolled up in a Hawaiian shirt, frayed jean shorts, and flip flops.
It is January in Michigan.
He had to take a spare change of clothes from my locker, Lynn didn't like that he looked way too much like me and made him change into one of her shirts. I didn't like that and told him to at least throw on some outerwear and he opted to borrow an oldp t-shirt from the lost and found that read "FRANKIE SAYS RELAX" on it.
Dunno who Frankie is but he's got the right idea.
I'm planning on sleeping in tomorrow so I'm popping a Red Devil right now at lunch.
I need to turn the brightness down on my phone. Lately I've been doing the whole "swipe to text" thing so I can always have one free hand. It's easier to do when I'm on my medication.
The soft piping of music through Stella's speakers made an odd harmony with the clicks and clacks of keyboards and quiet conversation. The steel drums and island beats took me to a much more Casual Locale.
It's Friday. The school week is over.
"Who you texting?"
I looked up from my phone, my eyes adjusting to the calm and dim lighting of the Comicbook and Pop Culture Club room.
It's Rusty. He's got on some godawful ensemble that makes him look like he is neck deep in credit card debt over a jet ski and a lifted pick-up truck. A technicolor lime green muscle shirt and track pants paired with a shark tooth necklace and a backwards blue visor. Sunglasses that should have been left in the frat dumpster sat on his unruly red hair.
"Man, you know I look fly as all hell," he rolled his eyes with a click of his tongue, "quit trying to change the subject. You're texting up a novel on that thing. Listen, dude-"
He took a quick inhale of oxygen and raised an eyebrow, I tried my hardest not to listen to whatever came next.
"You can't come on too strong when you are courting the ladies," he orchestrated with a fingergun, "if you just keep it short you'll get her sweet, ifyouknowwhatimsayi-"
I'm not entirely too sure if I understand the true meaning behind the collection of words he just released through his unflossed gums, but I am fairly certain that I don't want to understand them.
"Much less listen to them." came a voice from behind my chair.
It's Haiku. I spun around to meet her and hopefully keep her from reading what I'm typing. I didn't realize that she was the nosy type.
"You're no fun at all, Lincoln," Haiku gave me a sad shake of her head, "you know, I think you are an interesting writer. Have you ever thought about writing poetry?"
I felt hot breath hit my left ear, "Dude, she's totally hitting on you!" Rusty whispered in my ear.
"That would be incredibly disquieting since Lincoln is my best friend's sister." Haiku raised an eyebrow at Rusty.
Haiku was dressed in a black t-shirt and black jeans. It's kind of weird seeing her dress like a normal person.
"How would that be weird?" Penelope asked, I spun around to meet her at eye level and to hit Rusty and Haiku with the chair as they careened their neck to stare at the words I was typing.
Penelope hangs out with the debate nerds now that the chess club has buried the hatchet. Now she's full of leading questions and loves pointing out fallacies. She's wearing what she used to always wear, but swapped out her glasses for sunglasses.
It's too dark in here for the sunglasses so she took them off.
I took a swig of water from the fire extinguisher-sized insulated bottle Leni handed down to me before continuing.
I can kind of guess where she is going with this so I decided to beat her to the punch.
Yeah, Ronnie Anne may technically be my sister in-law in the future but it doesn't work like that anyways. She would just be Lori's sister in-law, not mine, since I'm not going to be marrying Bobby. Lucy being Haiku's best friend is way different because of the platonic nature of Lucy and Haiku's bond, the concept of me and Haiku going out is something that I've never really seen before. Not to say that best friend's don't ever go out with their best friend's sibling, the conflict arises from the fact that Lucy is my younger sister by 3 years. This wouldn't be a problem if we were 40 or something, but the vastness of a 3 year age gap when you put it into context of us being preteens is kinda staggering.
And yeah, I'd date Haiku if we literally had anything in common.
"Wait," Rusty blinked and looked at Haiku, "why are you friends with a 9 year old?"
I told Rusty to shut up, that's not the point.
"You know, Lincoln," Haiku let out a mocking laugh, "most people would probably get a bit upset about someone talking about the prospect of dating them with the same clinical nature of something like brain surgery, but I find it quite… hilarious."
That's kind of what I was going for, this whole discussion is kind of pointless-
Zach, I need to talk to Zach. About relationships.
"Oh," Rusty pursed his lips and bobbed his head, "I didn't know you were into dudes, but I can dig it."
I'm not gay, I just need to talk to him about how weird it's gonna be when Chloé and Clyde get official now that Rusty has a girlfriend and Liam and Lynn are basically an item. Hat girl isn't here right now, so she's probably with the Anime and Manga club. And I'm not about to go in there without shoving dryer sheets up my nose.
"Now, wait just a got darn segundo, Loud!" Liam walked up to the desk and I stopped looking around the dark room for Zach to give him my attention.
"What do you mean what? Me and your sis ain't no item!" Liam may be misinterpreting something, I wasn't trying to imply that they are in a romantic relationship."Then what in the world are you trying to imply? Because from where I'm standin' it sure as cow pie sounds like you're sayin' that I'm courtin' your sis' without asking for your parents permission!"
"Let's backtrack a bit," interjected Penelope with a shaky laugh, "when I asked Lincoln how would that be weird? a while back I was actually referring to him writing about him thinking it was weird to see Haiku in a t-shirt and pants."
I tried my hardest to steer the conversation away from how well Haiku fills in those Hobbes Klein's and turned my attention back to Liam only to realize that a gaggle of other interlopers have now gathered around my desk.
"I cannot believe that you would think that Liam and Lynn's relationship is anything more than platonic," said Jordan as she sat on my desk calender and got her gross butt sweat all over my neatly written schedules and plans, "quit projecting your own deep seated insecurities on your friends in a desperate bid to distract yourself from your own inability to sort out your own relationship problems."
"I think he's just worried about the future of the dynamic of the gang," interjected Artie, he rested the sleeve of his cashmere sweater on the edge of the desk, "since Liam and Lynn are basically hanging out on the daily at Lincoln's place that might inadvertently disrupt the balance of who hangs out with who. If more people catch on to Liam showing really dope Chinese action flics then that could create a new splinter group with Liam and Lynn at the helm. Which would be all kinds of bonkers."
I don't really think the idea of Lynn and Liam watching movies with other people would be weird, but I'm fairly certain that's a duo activity between the two of them.
"Er, yeah…" Liam scratched behind his head and his voice faltered a bit, "I mean, I wouldn't mind inviting some other people for a double feature on… could ya scootch a bit so I can see the calendar Jordan?"
Jordan gave a small nod and hopped off my desk, wrinkling up the paper of my desk calendar. I tried my hardest not to make a big deal out of it.
"Oh," Jordan rolled her eyes, "I'm sooooo sorry for ruining your calender that's full of important dates such as-"
She squinted her eyes and pointed out a few items, "Love Boat season premiere on January 7th and Cancel fletnix free trial on January 12th and Rollerskate With Carol on Janua-" she stopped for a minute and tilted her head, "Why are you going on a date with a highschooler?"
I explained to her the context of the situation and that it's probably for the best if I can show her some of the moves me and the Gang bust out whenever we hit the planks so she doesn't make an ass out of herself when we all go as a group.
"Bro, that is insane. You are insane." Zach grumbled, he took the caramel apple out of his mouth and sighed, "Let's just record our routines and send that to her ahead of time so she can practice by herself, you being there would just put her on the spot. This way she can get comfortable at her own pace."
I nodded and updated my schedule accordingly. Liam took the pen from my hand and pointed at next Sunday.
"Y'all free for a double feature after church next Sunday?"
A good number of people raised their hands. It looks like I should invest in some folding chairs or something.
"It's B.Y.O.C.," Rusty announced with a wink, "Bring Your Own Chair."
Technically speaking the basement is the biggest room in my house so space shouldn't be an issue, so I went ahead and texted mom and dad to get permission.
I went back to Liam. I didn't want him to think that I was some kind of weirdo who thinks that boys and girls aren't supposed to be friends, that would be hypocritical and kinda weird. But Lynn is an experienced lady who has had a boyfriend before, so for all I know they could be dating and taking it slow in her own mind because she's Lynn. She's already leaps and bounds ahead of us by two years, so it would be good for Liam to keep that experience in mind when interacting with her even in the context of his own platonic feelings.
"That certainly is a lot to digest," Zach let out a shaky sigh, "I'll talk to her about it tonight…"
That's probably a dumb idea, and he should just ride the wave out. But it's his life, not mine.
Rusty pulled a lollipop from Zach's inside military jacket pocket and unwrapped it, "Wait, so you'd be down with Liam getting down with your sister?"
That's an incredibly crass way of thinking about it and I'm fairly certain Liam is the type of guy who would wait until marriage to even think about 2nd base with a lady, but no. I wouldn't have a problem with it. I'm Lynn's brother, not her dad. I think of Benny and Bobby as my friends and they are both dating my sisters, so it's not that weird.
"Circling back to possible Haiku and Lincoln sentiments," I looked up to see Trent looking down on me, he wasn't wearing his glasses because I guess he thinks that's Casual, "my glasses are like 800 dollars for the frames alone, there is no planet in which that much swag is deemed as casual."
"You look pretty good in contacts, way less like a turbo nerd." Mollie interjected, she was playing on her Snap with Chloé and Clyde on that SquirtToon 3 game.
"Noted. Thank you for the compliment, I guess." Trent replied, he cleared his throat.
"I'm just kinda curious, really. So if Liam and Lynn hooking up is okay within our dating ontology what would make Haiku and Lincoln hooking up any different? I hope it's not some weird gender thing, I'd like to think we've evolved past that."
I feel as though I should let Haiku handle that because Jordan and Stella were poking around my calendar and whispering to each other and sneaking photos of it. I can make out what they are saying but I don't want to stare at Jordan's lips, she's got lip gloss on and the sparkles are making me think of that time Lana ate a glowstick and vomited it out on the kitchen floor. I kinda prefer Jordan in business wear, but she looks nice enough in the baggy light orange cable knit sweater and black tights. Those fuzzy boots look comfy.
I drank some more water as Haiku gave an increasingly tight smile.
"I like Lincoln enough to view him as a potential partner, but he is technically my band's manager and the power dynamics of a relationship like that would leave an awful taste in my mouth."
I quickly spoke up in agreement before Rusty could say whatever he was about to say.
"I dunno, man," Zach sighed, "it seems like Lincoln has an excuse to get out of a possible relationship for every single girl. It's just kinda getting old at this point, he should just hurry up and get a girlfriend before things get stale."
I cannot believe what I am hearing right now.
"Wait," Clyde looked up from his Snap, "Do you have a girlfriend, Zach?"
"Uh, yeah? Giggles? We went to the Thanksgiving dance together?" Zach shrugged his shoulders, "We aren't friendbook official because her parents don't let her use social media. Which is good because it's all disinformation propagated by Big Oil."
"Big Oil?" Liam asked, "Is that like one of them Bigfoots? But, like, made of oil or somethin'?"
Zach took a deep breath of air and we all braced ourselves for the coming infodump.
Luckily Rusty slapped his back with a chuckle, "Dude! I thought it was like a secret or something and that's why I never saw her show up in your feed! Ha! That explains a lot, I thought she was seeing you on the side or something and you had to keep it on the down-low."
"I don't really think Zach is the one for infidelity, Dogg," Stella looked up from a planner her and Jordan were scribbling on while checking their phones, "Lincoln, Jordan and I are going to the stationary store at the mall tomorrow at 3 PM. She has a 20 percent off coupon, let's go all in."
I nodded at the two of them and jotted down a note onto the desk calendar and added it to the digital one on my phone.
Now that all the guys have girlfriends, or at least partners, I'm pretty much the only one who is truly nebulous. I did go out on a date with Jordan and Ronnie this winter break, but that just makes things more unclear.
"So that was a date?" Stella asked, she flipped her Abibas snapback front-wards with confusion in her voice, "I thought you guys were just hanging out but your sisters made it all weird?"
"His sisters have a tendency to do that," Jordan laughed, "But I think they're pretty cool. They make me nervous sometimes…"
I laughed along with her and checked my watch. It's about time for me to use the bathroom before the bell rings. I quickly got up and started cleaning the place.
Like a well-oiled machine everyone started picking up after themselves. Richie and Clyde doused the place with a carbon neutral organic air freshener Lisa developed that made the place smell like a freshly opened pack of Tragic the Gathering cards. I let Reid, Elliot, Vanessa, Cici, and Kaito lock up the place when they were done with it. They arrived early since their lunch period is the one after us. Makes me kinda wonder what the place looks like when all the 7th and 8th graders eat here. Probably way less dumb stuff about relationships, maybe they actually talk about comics and video games. That sounds way more fun.
Anyways, I'm gonna go pee and finish up the rest of the day. Leni is gonna be picking me up today because we need to hit up the fabric store for materials this weekend for all those alterations she got commissioned to do.
"Head high, well presented
I am nature's chosen son
Inside I'm a secret
Savage creature, number one
Black-eyed, unrelenting
Unrepenting, kingdom come
Red hands, understand
I am the plan, I beat the drum"
Animal Kingdom by WHITEY
uh, apparently my phone can't detect more grammar errors because the text is too long. Isn't that fun. 1000 dollar piece of technology and it starts shaking and peeing itself because there are more than 3000 words on the screen at once. Whatever.
Next chapter will probably be about Lincoln and Leni going to the mall. That sounds fun, if you have a weird definition of fun.
