3. Arsenal
"I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions about what you would think, you guys," Spinelli said, trying not to look at her friend's faces.
They now sat at the park pond. She had decided that school wasn't such a great place to apologize. Gus threw a rock as hard as he could into the water. It didn't go too far. "I accept your apology," he said and looked around for a rock that could make a bigger splash.
"TJ? Vince?" Spinelli turned to them.
"Sure, sure. Your little boyfriend just better not interfere with how you play sports. You're the second best on all the teams," Vince said, referring to him self as the best.
Spinelli slightly blushed, hearing the boyfriend comment. "TJ? You okay?"
TJ sat on the very tiny dock, tracing his finger in the still water. "Um. Yeah. Sure."
He didn't sound so certain, but Spinelli didn't really want to question him any further. "So. . . who wants to come over to my house and watch wrestling?"
"Sorry, Spinelli. I have to work on my science project. For ninth grade, that is." Gretchen said, got up and left with a wave. Spinelli was amazed at how early she started her projects, and then hopefully turned to the others.
"Can't." TJ flatly said.
"Sorry, but tonight is the night of the playoffs, too. I'd kind of want to watch that more." Vince said, waving a pretend bat in his hands.
"Violence? I'd rather not be associated with it." Mikey said, shaking his head as if he was disappointed.
Gus checked his clock. "Curfew!"
Vince, Gus and Mikey left, leaving TJ and Spinelli. So much of an attempt to be friendly, she rolled her eyes. TJ was still moping. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing." he replied, not looking up from the water.
"Yes, there is. I can tell." Spinelli said.
TJ got up. "I swear!" he said, and got on his bike and wheeled off.
'What a nice goodbye,' she thought, wondering what his case was and also started home on foot.
At home, she dug through her pile of horror movies trying to find the perfect one. Anaconda, Final Destination, Valentine, The ring! She grabbed the case, looking at the cover proudly. One of her favorites! She walked up to her room and popped the video into the VCR, adjusting the tracking and then pressing play.
It was one of those moods for horror. Most likely because it had begun to rain and a thunderstorm was taking place. Thunder boomed outside as the 'you will die in seven days ' message appeared. She snorted, shoveling a handful of popcorn in her mouth as the two teenagers appeared on the screen, talking about the videocassette rumor.
When the video was done, her parents still weren't home from their visit to a friend's house. Spinelli stretched in the bed, tired, but not aloud to go to bed since her parents weren't home. It was about eight, and she put the video in its case and she wandered out into the dark, unlit halls where the closet was. Basically, the closet was hers but not a part of her room.
She walked downstairs, made something to eat and opened the locked door for her parents when they came home. She then went to sleep.
"Spinelli?"
She groaned, picked up her pillow and chucked it at her mother. "Spinelli! You'll be late!"
She sat up and groggily looked at her mom, now holding the pillow, standing in her doorway. Spinelli stared for a long time before finally getting up and dragging herself to the doorway and snatching the pillow. "Late for what?"
"School!"
Spinelli winced, hearing the words. She broke out of her stupid moment and made a gesture to her mom, making her leave so she could change. She then rushed downstairs and shared a quick breakfast with her parents before running out the door. She saw a figure walking ahead and recognized it as TJ. "Hey, Teej! Wait up!" she called.
TJ turned and waited without saying the normal, cheerful greeting. Spinelli caught up and gave him a good look in the eye. "Did you forget to do your homework or something? You look real messed up."
"There's nothing wrong. Will you just stop asking?" He murmured, and she folded her arms over her chest.
"I only asked you twice since yesterday. Can you just tell me what's wrong? That's what friends are for."
"More like what boyfriends are for." TJ mumbled, but Spinelli didn't catch it. She sighed and remained quiet until he finally spoke up. "From what Mikey told me, you do like the king and he likes you. But were you guys really KISSING in the theatres?"
"Oh god, no!" Spinelli cried. How could he really think that she would do that? He knew her since kindergarten and he STILL couldn't tell she wouldn't do that?
The school loomed ahead, and neither of them said a thing until they reached their destination.
They entered, and using the last couple of minutes she went to the sixth grade hallway where King Bob was walking around back to his normal self. Only now he was REALLY pissed off at certain people and would glare during any open chance. Spinelli walked over and past the crowd of guards following him. "Hey! Are people back to fearing you?"
"Yep! And if they even try to make me a normal person," he shuddered at this part, "I'll just use the hose on them! Stupid five people!"
Bob did a maniacal laugh, and she raised her eyebrows. "Oookay. This is the part where I get to class."
She then left, just as King Bob gave Lawson a nasty glare.
Back in class, Spinelli sat down in her seat and looked at the board. Written in chalk, it said 'the highness is now low' and she rolled her eyes. How stupid could people get? Normally, she would have beat the living crap out of someone if it was about her, but since it wasn't she didn't care. Sounded pretty self-absorbed, but he STILL needed to take care of his own problems.
Miss Grotke walked in, looked at the board without understanding what any of it meant and erased the lame statement. "Settle down, kids! That is because in science, we are starting a new subject. We will be exploring the terrifying yet fascinating world of. . ."
She wrote in big letters on the board, 'hurricanes.' Some of the class groaned, and Spinelli was among them. Hurricanes are as amazing as watching grass grow. "In this subject, we will also watch a movie, but need your parents permission for. um, bad language."
This caught everyone's attention. The class barely got to see movies that had bad language in it. Spinelli had to be there! It was fun watching people's reactions. Miss Grotke continued, "But for now, we're still working with the books. So please turn to page eighty one in your science books and we can begin!"
Spinelli opened her book and saw a massive satellite-taken photo of a hurricane. Under it was listed all of the chapter titles and she once again had to go back to boredom by paying attention. At recess, her and her friends walked out into the sunlight. TJ meaninglessly walked off, but she didn't care too much. It was beginning to get cold, and Spinelli realized that it was fall time. All of her surrounding has been so distant lately, and she finally got to have a good look at it.
The trees were turning brown, leaves covered the grass and blacktop and the air had a more crisp feeling to it. She breathed in happily. Fall was her favorite season. Back to reality she realized that Gus was repeatedly poking her in the side. "Spinelli? Spinelli?"
"Huh?" She looked around like she couldn't tell who was talking.
"I think King Bob wants you." He said, pointing at him up in his throne. Bob made a motion that looked like, you-better-get-up-here-and-you'll-like- it!
"Oh, duh!" She couldn't believe she forgot and walked over to the jungle gym. Seeing her, Ashley A. (Now wearing one of those things on her nose to straighten it) Lawson, Hustler kid, Guru kid and amazingly TJ started to walk over. Spinelli did a double take. TJ?! Why did he be part of the group? Is he trying to vote King Bob off of being king? IS THAT WHY HE HAD BEEN ACTING SO FUNNY?!
She wanted to climb off of the jungle gym and ask him why the heck he was being such a retard, but instead had to wait. She was so mad her legs and hands were violently trembling. She looked over at King Bob who was just staring at TJ, slowly and most likely painfully processing what was wrong with the picture. "Well?" he demanded.
Some people looked like they didn't want to be here and were terrified of what King Bob would do. Ashley A. slowly and painfully said, "Anyone who thinks King Bob should remain the king, say 'aye'. . ."
TJ, Hustler kid and Guru kid all repeated 'aye,' and Spinelli felt slightly guilty for assuming her friend would actually go against her. King Bob only grinned, and his eyes slid over to Lawson and Ashley A. mischievously. "Get them away from my sight," he said without any hesitation to his guards.
They immediately dragged the two away, none of them complaining. He then stood up, practically knocking Spinelli off of the jungle gym. "To you three. thank you. You have saved my job as king, and I owe you one. If you have any requests from here on, come to me about it."
They all shrugged and left, with Hustler kid counting the ten bucks TJ had to give him to vote his way. "Wait a second. I have to talk to my friends." Spinelli quickly told Bob. He nodded as she came down and caught up with TJ.
"Teej, why were you with them?" She asked, trying not to sound too mean. It didn't work too well.
"Because. They knew that I would want Bob to not be king anymore for sure and picked me."
"Then why did you vote that they didn't?"
"Because even though you've been acting really weird and practically ignoring everyone except the king, you're still my friend." He said, without any facial expression. "And he is just plain mean to everyone, anyway, so it was a hard choice."
Spinelli rubbed her eyes. "So, you lied? And your opinion only saved him from his job being taken away, and what's left of my sanity?"
TJ kind of grinned. "Actually, I kind of paid Hustler kid -"
"Okay, you just stop there!" She said, not wanting to hear anymore. "Well, I guess the only thing I could say is. . . thanks. Not just for the king, but me, too."
She wasn't the best person to be thankful, but TJ gave her a friendly smile anyway. "Wanna play tetherball?" he asked, and she grinned.
"I'm in!"
The next few days weren't eventful at all, except Vince missed a day of school and came back with his wrist in a cast. When asked how it happened, he answered, "I was practicing my new hard punch for tetherball, and hit the wall instead of the ball by accident."
It was pretty funny, but all his friends signed the cast first. Gus wrote, 'You just made me realize another painful thing to look out for,' as a joke. Gretchen obviously wrote, 'According to your injury, it should only take about a month and a half before it heals. Good luck with the process of it healing.'
Mikey wrote some poetry. something about a bone may break but a spirit can't. and Spinelli wrote, 'Hurry up and heal so we can win a basketball game.' TJ wrote, 'Now we finally have something to laugh about.'
And it was true. The days seemed to go back to their original days. Rumors died down, because Spinelli and King Bob did no more then really look at each other, but sometimes talked. One funny time, Spinelli was playing Lawson in tetherball.
"It's pretty great how your ego has been deflated, but you still have enough to waste it all on sports. Shouldn't you be worrying about your boyfriend?" He made annoying kissing noises and whacked the ball.
It spun around and Spinelli quickly smacked it harder. "Real funny, Lawson. As soon as this game ends I'm gonna squeeze your head so hard it'll be deflating."
She hit the ball so hard it finally wrapped around the pole. Even though he lost, Lawson kept going at it. "And all of this is coming from a fourth grader that has a crushy-wushy on the big, bad, scary. . ."
He continued ranting and Spinelli slowly grinned, looking behind Lawson's shoulder.
".Full-of-himself king!"
Lawson looked confused at why Spinelli wasn't acting offended and the noticed the shadow covering his own. He instantly guessed who it was and turned around with a cheap smile on his face. Lawson was right, and was met by King Bob just staring at him, arms folded across chest. Lawson just coughed and walked away slowly. "Um. bye!" He dashed off in a hurry.
"Nice." Spinelli smiled, turning back to Bob. He smiled triumphantly. "Being king is SO good!"
"I can see that." She said and unraveled the tetherball, keeping it up in the air with small bumps. "So, what's the occasion to leave your royal perch?"
"I dunno," he shrugged, and looked off to the side. Spinelli knew he was trying to act casual, and at the time he was failing.
"Alright, just say it." She said with a crooked smile.
"Fine. . . Do you know if any rumors have been killed? I don't want something like this happening again!" He finally said very quickly. Then he noticed the weird expression Spinelli had. He coughed. "Even though I like you and all, I still wanna be the king! It's too fun watching people's pain and sadness!"
Spinelli finally smacked the ball hard, and it swung around. Bob had to duck. "Well, I think so. I don't want it either," she said and caught the retreating ball. Vince walked over. "Hey, Spinelli. Um, Hey, King Bob?"
By now, his cast, which was originally dark blue, was close to being black so many people signed it. Bob only blinked, wondering why Vince gave him a normal greeting. It was something he would have to expect, now that he and Spinelli were friends. Or maybe more. Who knew?
"Hiya! Wanna play tetherball?" she teased, looking at Vince's wrist.
"Yeah, sure!" He laughed. "But, we're playing kickball. If you're playing, hurry up so we can be picked on the better team!"
"Sure! Bye, Bob." She left and he only did the usual nod.
As they were running, she noticed that Vince was trying not to laugh at first, and eventually began to laugh hysterically to the point where he couldn't run. She stopped. "What's the catch?"
"You called him Bob!" He now dropped to the ground and started kicking is legs in the air. Some people began to look over curiously. "Well. Yeah. That IS his name." Spinelli rolled her eyes and helped him up.
"It sounds funny!" Vince said, struggling for air. She couldn't help but smile, too. It actually was. They got to the kickball field with Vince cracking up the whole way. It was a great day.
Now, Spinelli sat on her bed, flipping through her CD case to try and find something that matched her mood. Something that was happy. She decided that SUM 41 was the best choice and popped 'all killer no filler' into her CD player and lying back, letting the lyrics of track two clear her head. Smiling, she mouthed the words and eventually let the words lure her into sleep.
The next morning was Saturday, and her friends sat at the ice cream shop, not really talking about anything in particular except whatever popped into their heads. Spinelli shoved a spoonful of chocolate sundae in her mouth, not keeping her eyes off of Gretchen.
Gretchen did the same, and Spinelli finally couldn't take the dry feeling in her eyes and blinked. "Victory." Gretchen calmly said. Spinelli would have been screaming 'victory,' and she grumbled something that couldn't be translated. Staring contests was one of the things Gretchen could beat her at every time.
She only shoveled a bigger scoop into her mouth. Gus, who was sitting diagonal to her, only poked and prodded at his sundae miserably. "What's wrong?" she asked, swallowing the mouthful.
Gus looked up. "Nothing," he dully said and Spinelli rolled her eyes.
"Come on! Yes, there is! It's about your turn to become sad at something." She said, swiping the cherry that once sat on the sundae belonging to TJ. She noticed a lot of people were getting very gloomy lately.
"I promise to god there isn't!" He suddenly retorted, looking desperate.
"Promise to god?" TJ laughed. "Now we know something is wrong. Since when did you start saying that? Hey! Who took my cherry?!"
Gus continued to look miserable as Spinelli and TJ got into a debate about who stole his cherry. Mikey watched all of this with amusement until he finally shoved his spoon into each of theirs and somehow managed to pick up the whole scoop. "I'll settle this!"
Then he each put the huge scoops in his mouth one at a time. "MIKEY!" Spinelli practically screamed. Her beloved ice cream was gone, now! They all started kicking each other under the table playfully. Gretchen joined in, probably getting bruised the most, but Gus continued to look sad and sighed, taking in the scene of everyone wildly kicking their legs.
Finally, Vince smothered TJ in the face with a handful of his own sundae and everything ceased. "YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" TJ shouted, reaching over and scooped up a wad of Vince's sundae, too. Vince busted out laughing and went running out of the doors, TJ in quick pursuit laughing crazily.
---
Back at school, Spinelli and her friends were back to playing the weekly prank on Principal Prickly. Vince, who sadly had to be left out of the good stuff, had to fake that he thought he broke his arm again, acting hysterical. Mikey, who was up in a tree was informing TJ and Spinelli on what he saw going on with Vince and Ms. Finster. "She's trying to tell Vince it isn't broken. Vince is a sure good actor.."
Spinelli and TJ sat in a tree opposite to Mikey, and TJ threw a rope with a hook on the end to latch unto the school building. Rope courtesy of Hustler kid. When it was secure, TJ and Spinelli took binders, opened them up and sat the crease on the rope. Using that, they slid down the rope and into the window. They were now just by the principals office in the hallway. "Ready, Gus?"
Gus came out from around the corner, still moping. He nodded and was prepared to run. Spinelli knocked on the door and she and TJ practically ran for their lives toward the other turn. As soon as they turned the corner, they heard the door open. "Who's there?"
"Ha, ha! The principal is an idiot!" Gus shouted, most likely running for the sake of his permanent record already.
"WHAT?" Prickly shouted and immediately went charging after Gus. This was where Gretchen had to stall him, and 'accidentally' bumped into principal Prickly in the hallway, spilling her heavy books all over his feet. TJ and Spinelli heard a painful shout and Gretchen say something about finding a new way how to make kids learn faster, be the smartest school, and the school could be famous.
Like always, Prickly had to listen, looking for a chance of being a 'good and smart principal.' As they talked, TJ nudged Spinelli and they both used the time to get inside the office and quietly shut the door. TJ took a piece of paper from underneath his hat and laid it on the principal's desk. "Okay, Spinelli. As soon as you put that on, remember we can't talk at all!"
Spinelli grinned, pulling a roll of scotch tape from her pocket. "I hear ya!"
She walked over to the PA system and ripped a piece of. TJ was cupping his hand over to his mouth, knowing he would laugh. Spinelli quickly tape the button down and too had to restrain herself from laughing. They went out of the office, making a motion at Gretchen behind Prickly's back. Gretchen cheaply smiled. "Well, I don't want to be late for recess. Think about my idea!"
She went running towards them, and the three leaned on the wall for a while laughing before TJ finally got them to be quiet. "Let's see everyone's faces before he reads it!"
They rushed outside. "According to my calculations, he should be reading it just about, now!"
They got dead quiet and listened to the PA. Vince, Gus and Mikey joined up with them to listen. There was the sound of shuffling, and the principal muttering to him self. There was then paper crackling, and his voice could be heard reading the paper aloud, "It must be known to the school that I am nothing but - An old fart that enjoys picking his nose and eating what my discoveries are?! MS. FINSTER!"
The whole playground busted out laughing uncontrollably. Apparently, he discovered that the PA system was on. Spinelli was laughing so hard her side began to hurt and she tried to steady her breathing. It didn't work, so the result was her falling to the ground and cracking up there. The laughter eventually died down with the brief sound of the tape getting ripped off quickly.
"This has to be our best one, yet!" Vince managed to say in between laughs. It eventually died down, and Mikey must have realized lack of laughter in Gus. "What's wrong? You usually love Principal Prickly saying things on accident to the whole playground!"
Gus sighed and shook his head. "Nothing."
The bell rang, and the whole group quickly tried to get inside before Ms. Finster could block the way and find out who had created this idea. On the way, Spinelli finally had to figure out what was wrong with Gus before she'd snap. "Tell me, now! If you don't, you can just tell my fist!"
Gus knew that when she mentioned 'madam fist' she really wanted to know something. He gulped. "I'll tell you later. Now isn't a good time."
She made an aggravated noise and stomped away, pushing some kid in the process. In class, they were finally given slips for their parents to sign about the movie. It was 'The perfect storm,' so Spinelli knew her parents would let her see it. After all, they watched in together for the first time she saw it. It only said the 'f' word once, and that wasn't too bad.
She exited the school after class with her friends and felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw King Bob. For once, his guards weren't surrounding him expecting for a sniper to shoot any second. "Hey, Bob," She greeted and heard a cackle from behind her. She knew it was Vince.
"What's so funny?" Bob asked, looking over her shoulder at Vince. He stopped laughing and looked nervous for a second. Spinelli saved Vince. "Nothing. I just thought that your name -" she grinned.
"I know it's stupid." He rolled his eyes, like people normally bothered him about his name.
Spinelli tried not to laugh. "Oh? How so?"
"Because there are truck drivers, right? There is ALWAYS a truck driver named Earl, Pete, Paul, Joe and Bob. And I hate truck drivers!" King Bob whined like a one year old. Now, all of them were laughing. "King Bob the truck driver!" TJ blurted out, laughing hysterically.
Bob narrowed his eyes. "Call me that again and I would not only send you to the dodge ball court, but kill you."
They instantly stopped and looked at each other. They knew never to act like he was a friend from then on. "Um, I'll catch up with you guys later," Spinelli said, knowing they didn't want to be around King Bob.
They immediately left. "You can't help it, can you?" she asked.
He cocked his head to the side. "Huh?"
"You like being evil." She said, smiling. He too grinned. "Yep. And it never gets old, either. As long as I get treated like I'm a god, everything's okay."
He made the 'okay' sign with his left hand. "You should try it. Oh, but then again YOU CAN'T! 'Cause I'm the king and you'd be a really bad queen if you even tried." He did a little jig.
King Bob seemed to love torture. Even the people he liked, but she knew he was kidding. "You keep telling yourself that, but I know for a fact I' m better. It isn't as hard as you make it sound."
He stopped. "Oh, really? It's harder than it looks! I owe you big time anyway, so why don't tomorrow YOU get the royal treatment and see just how hard it is being the king."
Spinelli grinned. "You're on! Don't be surprised if people try to vote you off again and make ME the king. I mean, queen!"
"Yeah, right!" He laughed, and Spinelli left to meet up with her friends.
She walked away with a wave, and for once he returned it. Today was real great, and tomorrow would be even better with the 'royal treatment.' She caught up with her friends, and she told them what she was gonna do when they asked. Like always, they acted like it was the most amazing thing ever to happen to her.
The next day, she was walking outside unto recess like every other normal day until something was put on her head all of the sudden. "What's the deal?" she wrestled to get whatever it was off from covering her eyes, ready to pounce at the person.
She finally got it off and felt glad she didn't clobber the person, because it was King Bob and he was cracking up watching her take his crown off. She put it underneath her arm. "REAL amusing."
"Actually, it was." He said, with an annoying grin on his face. She wondered how she could like and hate him at the same time. She shook her head. "Anyway, I'm ready to be pampered."
"Okay!" He said and then snapped, and the carrier people came running with the wooden thing with the chair on top. He tried climbing up on it, but it swayed violently. "Hold it still, stupid! I said hold it still!"
Spinelli sighed, walked over and got on without any problems. It barely even swayed. Bob didn't say anything for a while. "How'd you do that?"
Spinelli jumped off, making the carrier people almost fall. "Now, take your time. . ." She said slowly, like she was expecting for him to cry like a little kid.
Once again, he attempted to get on and managed to with much difficulty. She clapped like it was a great accomplishment and he gave her a glare. They went over to the jungle gym and once there, King Bob plopped down in his throne and kicked it back. Spinelli coughed. "If I'm gonna get the royal treatment I have to sit in the throne. In all seriousness!"
He gave her a funny look. "And where would I go?"
She smiled, shrugging. "I don't know, but I get the throne!"
"No way!"
"You want me to make my legs to get numb from standing up for so long."
"I didn't say that."
"In another choice of words, yes."
"I want the throne!"
"Good lord." He murmured, never seeing anyone so persistent.
"Then scoot." Spinelli continued. Bob did, not in the mood to argue. Everyone, including the girl that constantly fanned him, watched all of this in amusement. She sat down next to him, stretching and taking up more than half of the space. "Comfy. What other royal stuff do you normally do?"
King Bob was practically knocked out of the chair when she stretched. From a very painful-looking position, he shook his head in disbelief and regained his composure before everyone on the whole playground saw him looking so stupid. Spinelli was looking at the view and then turned to him. She repeated the question.
"Whatever I want, I guess." He shrugged.
"Even listen to music?" She asked, expecting for him to say no. Things couldn't be as great as he made them sound.
"Yeah." He said, and she blinked. Sweet. He turned to one of the guards. "Get me my CD player and case."
The guard nodded and left, soon returning with a portable CD player and a case of CDs. He handed it to Spinelli, and she thought this was too kick ass. Listening to music during recess! "Awesome! How come I never see you listening to it?"
She put on the headphones and opened the CD player. In it was a CD that said, 'Kidneythieves - Zerospace' on it. Nice name, she thought, closed it and pressed play. "Because," Bob answered. "I always want to hear if anyone is talking about me. I like sentencing people."
"What's a good number?" she asked. He replied by saying 'three.' She changed the track, leaned back and listened to the words. It was a girl singing for once, and it was talking about how this one girl is a time bomb, she was waiting for something, and was slightly anorexic or something and was holding in an arsenal. She smiled, knowing today was gonna rock and ended up listening to the song the whole time through. "What's this called?" she asked.
"Arsenal," he replied.
She stretched, purposely smacking him on the head.
"I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions about what you would think, you guys," Spinelli said, trying not to look at her friend's faces.
They now sat at the park pond. She had decided that school wasn't such a great place to apologize. Gus threw a rock as hard as he could into the water. It didn't go too far. "I accept your apology," he said and looked around for a rock that could make a bigger splash.
"TJ? Vince?" Spinelli turned to them.
"Sure, sure. Your little boyfriend just better not interfere with how you play sports. You're the second best on all the teams," Vince said, referring to him self as the best.
Spinelli slightly blushed, hearing the boyfriend comment. "TJ? You okay?"
TJ sat on the very tiny dock, tracing his finger in the still water. "Um. Yeah. Sure."
He didn't sound so certain, but Spinelli didn't really want to question him any further. "So. . . who wants to come over to my house and watch wrestling?"
"Sorry, Spinelli. I have to work on my science project. For ninth grade, that is." Gretchen said, got up and left with a wave. Spinelli was amazed at how early she started her projects, and then hopefully turned to the others.
"Can't." TJ flatly said.
"Sorry, but tonight is the night of the playoffs, too. I'd kind of want to watch that more." Vince said, waving a pretend bat in his hands.
"Violence? I'd rather not be associated with it." Mikey said, shaking his head as if he was disappointed.
Gus checked his clock. "Curfew!"
Vince, Gus and Mikey left, leaving TJ and Spinelli. So much of an attempt to be friendly, she rolled her eyes. TJ was still moping. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing." he replied, not looking up from the water.
"Yes, there is. I can tell." Spinelli said.
TJ got up. "I swear!" he said, and got on his bike and wheeled off.
'What a nice goodbye,' she thought, wondering what his case was and also started home on foot.
At home, she dug through her pile of horror movies trying to find the perfect one. Anaconda, Final Destination, Valentine, The ring! She grabbed the case, looking at the cover proudly. One of her favorites! She walked up to her room and popped the video into the VCR, adjusting the tracking and then pressing play.
It was one of those moods for horror. Most likely because it had begun to rain and a thunderstorm was taking place. Thunder boomed outside as the 'you will die in seven days ' message appeared. She snorted, shoveling a handful of popcorn in her mouth as the two teenagers appeared on the screen, talking about the videocassette rumor.
When the video was done, her parents still weren't home from their visit to a friend's house. Spinelli stretched in the bed, tired, but not aloud to go to bed since her parents weren't home. It was about eight, and she put the video in its case and she wandered out into the dark, unlit halls where the closet was. Basically, the closet was hers but not a part of her room.
She walked downstairs, made something to eat and opened the locked door for her parents when they came home. She then went to sleep.
"Spinelli?"
She groaned, picked up her pillow and chucked it at her mother. "Spinelli! You'll be late!"
She sat up and groggily looked at her mom, now holding the pillow, standing in her doorway. Spinelli stared for a long time before finally getting up and dragging herself to the doorway and snatching the pillow. "Late for what?"
"School!"
Spinelli winced, hearing the words. She broke out of her stupid moment and made a gesture to her mom, making her leave so she could change. She then rushed downstairs and shared a quick breakfast with her parents before running out the door. She saw a figure walking ahead and recognized it as TJ. "Hey, Teej! Wait up!" she called.
TJ turned and waited without saying the normal, cheerful greeting. Spinelli caught up and gave him a good look in the eye. "Did you forget to do your homework or something? You look real messed up."
"There's nothing wrong. Will you just stop asking?" He murmured, and she folded her arms over her chest.
"I only asked you twice since yesterday. Can you just tell me what's wrong? That's what friends are for."
"More like what boyfriends are for." TJ mumbled, but Spinelli didn't catch it. She sighed and remained quiet until he finally spoke up. "From what Mikey told me, you do like the king and he likes you. But were you guys really KISSING in the theatres?"
"Oh god, no!" Spinelli cried. How could he really think that she would do that? He knew her since kindergarten and he STILL couldn't tell she wouldn't do that?
The school loomed ahead, and neither of them said a thing until they reached their destination.
They entered, and using the last couple of minutes she went to the sixth grade hallway where King Bob was walking around back to his normal self. Only now he was REALLY pissed off at certain people and would glare during any open chance. Spinelli walked over and past the crowd of guards following him. "Hey! Are people back to fearing you?"
"Yep! And if they even try to make me a normal person," he shuddered at this part, "I'll just use the hose on them! Stupid five people!"
Bob did a maniacal laugh, and she raised her eyebrows. "Oookay. This is the part where I get to class."
She then left, just as King Bob gave Lawson a nasty glare.
Back in class, Spinelli sat down in her seat and looked at the board. Written in chalk, it said 'the highness is now low' and she rolled her eyes. How stupid could people get? Normally, she would have beat the living crap out of someone if it was about her, but since it wasn't she didn't care. Sounded pretty self-absorbed, but he STILL needed to take care of his own problems.
Miss Grotke walked in, looked at the board without understanding what any of it meant and erased the lame statement. "Settle down, kids! That is because in science, we are starting a new subject. We will be exploring the terrifying yet fascinating world of. . ."
She wrote in big letters on the board, 'hurricanes.' Some of the class groaned, and Spinelli was among them. Hurricanes are as amazing as watching grass grow. "In this subject, we will also watch a movie, but need your parents permission for. um, bad language."
This caught everyone's attention. The class barely got to see movies that had bad language in it. Spinelli had to be there! It was fun watching people's reactions. Miss Grotke continued, "But for now, we're still working with the books. So please turn to page eighty one in your science books and we can begin!"
Spinelli opened her book and saw a massive satellite-taken photo of a hurricane. Under it was listed all of the chapter titles and she once again had to go back to boredom by paying attention. At recess, her and her friends walked out into the sunlight. TJ meaninglessly walked off, but she didn't care too much. It was beginning to get cold, and Spinelli realized that it was fall time. All of her surrounding has been so distant lately, and she finally got to have a good look at it.
The trees were turning brown, leaves covered the grass and blacktop and the air had a more crisp feeling to it. She breathed in happily. Fall was her favorite season. Back to reality she realized that Gus was repeatedly poking her in the side. "Spinelli? Spinelli?"
"Huh?" She looked around like she couldn't tell who was talking.
"I think King Bob wants you." He said, pointing at him up in his throne. Bob made a motion that looked like, you-better-get-up-here-and-you'll-like- it!
"Oh, duh!" She couldn't believe she forgot and walked over to the jungle gym. Seeing her, Ashley A. (Now wearing one of those things on her nose to straighten it) Lawson, Hustler kid, Guru kid and amazingly TJ started to walk over. Spinelli did a double take. TJ?! Why did he be part of the group? Is he trying to vote King Bob off of being king? IS THAT WHY HE HAD BEEN ACTING SO FUNNY?!
She wanted to climb off of the jungle gym and ask him why the heck he was being such a retard, but instead had to wait. She was so mad her legs and hands were violently trembling. She looked over at King Bob who was just staring at TJ, slowly and most likely painfully processing what was wrong with the picture. "Well?" he demanded.
Some people looked like they didn't want to be here and were terrified of what King Bob would do. Ashley A. slowly and painfully said, "Anyone who thinks King Bob should remain the king, say 'aye'. . ."
TJ, Hustler kid and Guru kid all repeated 'aye,' and Spinelli felt slightly guilty for assuming her friend would actually go against her. King Bob only grinned, and his eyes slid over to Lawson and Ashley A. mischievously. "Get them away from my sight," he said without any hesitation to his guards.
They immediately dragged the two away, none of them complaining. He then stood up, practically knocking Spinelli off of the jungle gym. "To you three. thank you. You have saved my job as king, and I owe you one. If you have any requests from here on, come to me about it."
They all shrugged and left, with Hustler kid counting the ten bucks TJ had to give him to vote his way. "Wait a second. I have to talk to my friends." Spinelli quickly told Bob. He nodded as she came down and caught up with TJ.
"Teej, why were you with them?" She asked, trying not to sound too mean. It didn't work too well.
"Because. They knew that I would want Bob to not be king anymore for sure and picked me."
"Then why did you vote that they didn't?"
"Because even though you've been acting really weird and practically ignoring everyone except the king, you're still my friend." He said, without any facial expression. "And he is just plain mean to everyone, anyway, so it was a hard choice."
Spinelli rubbed her eyes. "So, you lied? And your opinion only saved him from his job being taken away, and what's left of my sanity?"
TJ kind of grinned. "Actually, I kind of paid Hustler kid -"
"Okay, you just stop there!" She said, not wanting to hear anymore. "Well, I guess the only thing I could say is. . . thanks. Not just for the king, but me, too."
She wasn't the best person to be thankful, but TJ gave her a friendly smile anyway. "Wanna play tetherball?" he asked, and she grinned.
"I'm in!"
The next few days weren't eventful at all, except Vince missed a day of school and came back with his wrist in a cast. When asked how it happened, he answered, "I was practicing my new hard punch for tetherball, and hit the wall instead of the ball by accident."
It was pretty funny, but all his friends signed the cast first. Gus wrote, 'You just made me realize another painful thing to look out for,' as a joke. Gretchen obviously wrote, 'According to your injury, it should only take about a month and a half before it heals. Good luck with the process of it healing.'
Mikey wrote some poetry. something about a bone may break but a spirit can't. and Spinelli wrote, 'Hurry up and heal so we can win a basketball game.' TJ wrote, 'Now we finally have something to laugh about.'
And it was true. The days seemed to go back to their original days. Rumors died down, because Spinelli and King Bob did no more then really look at each other, but sometimes talked. One funny time, Spinelli was playing Lawson in tetherball.
"It's pretty great how your ego has been deflated, but you still have enough to waste it all on sports. Shouldn't you be worrying about your boyfriend?" He made annoying kissing noises and whacked the ball.
It spun around and Spinelli quickly smacked it harder. "Real funny, Lawson. As soon as this game ends I'm gonna squeeze your head so hard it'll be deflating."
She hit the ball so hard it finally wrapped around the pole. Even though he lost, Lawson kept going at it. "And all of this is coming from a fourth grader that has a crushy-wushy on the big, bad, scary. . ."
He continued ranting and Spinelli slowly grinned, looking behind Lawson's shoulder.
".Full-of-himself king!"
Lawson looked confused at why Spinelli wasn't acting offended and the noticed the shadow covering his own. He instantly guessed who it was and turned around with a cheap smile on his face. Lawson was right, and was met by King Bob just staring at him, arms folded across chest. Lawson just coughed and walked away slowly. "Um. bye!" He dashed off in a hurry.
"Nice." Spinelli smiled, turning back to Bob. He smiled triumphantly. "Being king is SO good!"
"I can see that." She said and unraveled the tetherball, keeping it up in the air with small bumps. "So, what's the occasion to leave your royal perch?"
"I dunno," he shrugged, and looked off to the side. Spinelli knew he was trying to act casual, and at the time he was failing.
"Alright, just say it." She said with a crooked smile.
"Fine. . . Do you know if any rumors have been killed? I don't want something like this happening again!" He finally said very quickly. Then he noticed the weird expression Spinelli had. He coughed. "Even though I like you and all, I still wanna be the king! It's too fun watching people's pain and sadness!"
Spinelli finally smacked the ball hard, and it swung around. Bob had to duck. "Well, I think so. I don't want it either," she said and caught the retreating ball. Vince walked over. "Hey, Spinelli. Um, Hey, King Bob?"
By now, his cast, which was originally dark blue, was close to being black so many people signed it. Bob only blinked, wondering why Vince gave him a normal greeting. It was something he would have to expect, now that he and Spinelli were friends. Or maybe more. Who knew?
"Hiya! Wanna play tetherball?" she teased, looking at Vince's wrist.
"Yeah, sure!" He laughed. "But, we're playing kickball. If you're playing, hurry up so we can be picked on the better team!"
"Sure! Bye, Bob." She left and he only did the usual nod.
As they were running, she noticed that Vince was trying not to laugh at first, and eventually began to laugh hysterically to the point where he couldn't run. She stopped. "What's the catch?"
"You called him Bob!" He now dropped to the ground and started kicking is legs in the air. Some people began to look over curiously. "Well. Yeah. That IS his name." Spinelli rolled her eyes and helped him up.
"It sounds funny!" Vince said, struggling for air. She couldn't help but smile, too. It actually was. They got to the kickball field with Vince cracking up the whole way. It was a great day.
Now, Spinelli sat on her bed, flipping through her CD case to try and find something that matched her mood. Something that was happy. She decided that SUM 41 was the best choice and popped 'all killer no filler' into her CD player and lying back, letting the lyrics of track two clear her head. Smiling, she mouthed the words and eventually let the words lure her into sleep.
The next morning was Saturday, and her friends sat at the ice cream shop, not really talking about anything in particular except whatever popped into their heads. Spinelli shoved a spoonful of chocolate sundae in her mouth, not keeping her eyes off of Gretchen.
Gretchen did the same, and Spinelli finally couldn't take the dry feeling in her eyes and blinked. "Victory." Gretchen calmly said. Spinelli would have been screaming 'victory,' and she grumbled something that couldn't be translated. Staring contests was one of the things Gretchen could beat her at every time.
She only shoveled a bigger scoop into her mouth. Gus, who was sitting diagonal to her, only poked and prodded at his sundae miserably. "What's wrong?" she asked, swallowing the mouthful.
Gus looked up. "Nothing," he dully said and Spinelli rolled her eyes.
"Come on! Yes, there is! It's about your turn to become sad at something." She said, swiping the cherry that once sat on the sundae belonging to TJ. She noticed a lot of people were getting very gloomy lately.
"I promise to god there isn't!" He suddenly retorted, looking desperate.
"Promise to god?" TJ laughed. "Now we know something is wrong. Since when did you start saying that? Hey! Who took my cherry?!"
Gus continued to look miserable as Spinelli and TJ got into a debate about who stole his cherry. Mikey watched all of this with amusement until he finally shoved his spoon into each of theirs and somehow managed to pick up the whole scoop. "I'll settle this!"
Then he each put the huge scoops in his mouth one at a time. "MIKEY!" Spinelli practically screamed. Her beloved ice cream was gone, now! They all started kicking each other under the table playfully. Gretchen joined in, probably getting bruised the most, but Gus continued to look sad and sighed, taking in the scene of everyone wildly kicking their legs.
Finally, Vince smothered TJ in the face with a handful of his own sundae and everything ceased. "YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" TJ shouted, reaching over and scooped up a wad of Vince's sundae, too. Vince busted out laughing and went running out of the doors, TJ in quick pursuit laughing crazily.
---
Back at school, Spinelli and her friends were back to playing the weekly prank on Principal Prickly. Vince, who sadly had to be left out of the good stuff, had to fake that he thought he broke his arm again, acting hysterical. Mikey, who was up in a tree was informing TJ and Spinelli on what he saw going on with Vince and Ms. Finster. "She's trying to tell Vince it isn't broken. Vince is a sure good actor.."
Spinelli and TJ sat in a tree opposite to Mikey, and TJ threw a rope with a hook on the end to latch unto the school building. Rope courtesy of Hustler kid. When it was secure, TJ and Spinelli took binders, opened them up and sat the crease on the rope. Using that, they slid down the rope and into the window. They were now just by the principals office in the hallway. "Ready, Gus?"
Gus came out from around the corner, still moping. He nodded and was prepared to run. Spinelli knocked on the door and she and TJ practically ran for their lives toward the other turn. As soon as they turned the corner, they heard the door open. "Who's there?"
"Ha, ha! The principal is an idiot!" Gus shouted, most likely running for the sake of his permanent record already.
"WHAT?" Prickly shouted and immediately went charging after Gus. This was where Gretchen had to stall him, and 'accidentally' bumped into principal Prickly in the hallway, spilling her heavy books all over his feet. TJ and Spinelli heard a painful shout and Gretchen say something about finding a new way how to make kids learn faster, be the smartest school, and the school could be famous.
Like always, Prickly had to listen, looking for a chance of being a 'good and smart principal.' As they talked, TJ nudged Spinelli and they both used the time to get inside the office and quietly shut the door. TJ took a piece of paper from underneath his hat and laid it on the principal's desk. "Okay, Spinelli. As soon as you put that on, remember we can't talk at all!"
Spinelli grinned, pulling a roll of scotch tape from her pocket. "I hear ya!"
She walked over to the PA system and ripped a piece of. TJ was cupping his hand over to his mouth, knowing he would laugh. Spinelli quickly tape the button down and too had to restrain herself from laughing. They went out of the office, making a motion at Gretchen behind Prickly's back. Gretchen cheaply smiled. "Well, I don't want to be late for recess. Think about my idea!"
She went running towards them, and the three leaned on the wall for a while laughing before TJ finally got them to be quiet. "Let's see everyone's faces before he reads it!"
They rushed outside. "According to my calculations, he should be reading it just about, now!"
They got dead quiet and listened to the PA. Vince, Gus and Mikey joined up with them to listen. There was the sound of shuffling, and the principal muttering to him self. There was then paper crackling, and his voice could be heard reading the paper aloud, "It must be known to the school that I am nothing but - An old fart that enjoys picking his nose and eating what my discoveries are?! MS. FINSTER!"
The whole playground busted out laughing uncontrollably. Apparently, he discovered that the PA system was on. Spinelli was laughing so hard her side began to hurt and she tried to steady her breathing. It didn't work, so the result was her falling to the ground and cracking up there. The laughter eventually died down with the brief sound of the tape getting ripped off quickly.
"This has to be our best one, yet!" Vince managed to say in between laughs. It eventually died down, and Mikey must have realized lack of laughter in Gus. "What's wrong? You usually love Principal Prickly saying things on accident to the whole playground!"
Gus sighed and shook his head. "Nothing."
The bell rang, and the whole group quickly tried to get inside before Ms. Finster could block the way and find out who had created this idea. On the way, Spinelli finally had to figure out what was wrong with Gus before she'd snap. "Tell me, now! If you don't, you can just tell my fist!"
Gus knew that when she mentioned 'madam fist' she really wanted to know something. He gulped. "I'll tell you later. Now isn't a good time."
She made an aggravated noise and stomped away, pushing some kid in the process. In class, they were finally given slips for their parents to sign about the movie. It was 'The perfect storm,' so Spinelli knew her parents would let her see it. After all, they watched in together for the first time she saw it. It only said the 'f' word once, and that wasn't too bad.
She exited the school after class with her friends and felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw King Bob. For once, his guards weren't surrounding him expecting for a sniper to shoot any second. "Hey, Bob," She greeted and heard a cackle from behind her. She knew it was Vince.
"What's so funny?" Bob asked, looking over her shoulder at Vince. He stopped laughing and looked nervous for a second. Spinelli saved Vince. "Nothing. I just thought that your name -" she grinned.
"I know it's stupid." He rolled his eyes, like people normally bothered him about his name.
Spinelli tried not to laugh. "Oh? How so?"
"Because there are truck drivers, right? There is ALWAYS a truck driver named Earl, Pete, Paul, Joe and Bob. And I hate truck drivers!" King Bob whined like a one year old. Now, all of them were laughing. "King Bob the truck driver!" TJ blurted out, laughing hysterically.
Bob narrowed his eyes. "Call me that again and I would not only send you to the dodge ball court, but kill you."
They instantly stopped and looked at each other. They knew never to act like he was a friend from then on. "Um, I'll catch up with you guys later," Spinelli said, knowing they didn't want to be around King Bob.
They immediately left. "You can't help it, can you?" she asked.
He cocked his head to the side. "Huh?"
"You like being evil." She said, smiling. He too grinned. "Yep. And it never gets old, either. As long as I get treated like I'm a god, everything's okay."
He made the 'okay' sign with his left hand. "You should try it. Oh, but then again YOU CAN'T! 'Cause I'm the king and you'd be a really bad queen if you even tried." He did a little jig.
King Bob seemed to love torture. Even the people he liked, but she knew he was kidding. "You keep telling yourself that, but I know for a fact I' m better. It isn't as hard as you make it sound."
He stopped. "Oh, really? It's harder than it looks! I owe you big time anyway, so why don't tomorrow YOU get the royal treatment and see just how hard it is being the king."
Spinelli grinned. "You're on! Don't be surprised if people try to vote you off again and make ME the king. I mean, queen!"
"Yeah, right!" He laughed, and Spinelli left to meet up with her friends.
She walked away with a wave, and for once he returned it. Today was real great, and tomorrow would be even better with the 'royal treatment.' She caught up with her friends, and she told them what she was gonna do when they asked. Like always, they acted like it was the most amazing thing ever to happen to her.
The next day, she was walking outside unto recess like every other normal day until something was put on her head all of the sudden. "What's the deal?" she wrestled to get whatever it was off from covering her eyes, ready to pounce at the person.
She finally got it off and felt glad she didn't clobber the person, because it was King Bob and he was cracking up watching her take his crown off. She put it underneath her arm. "REAL amusing."
"Actually, it was." He said, with an annoying grin on his face. She wondered how she could like and hate him at the same time. She shook her head. "Anyway, I'm ready to be pampered."
"Okay!" He said and then snapped, and the carrier people came running with the wooden thing with the chair on top. He tried climbing up on it, but it swayed violently. "Hold it still, stupid! I said hold it still!"
Spinelli sighed, walked over and got on without any problems. It barely even swayed. Bob didn't say anything for a while. "How'd you do that?"
Spinelli jumped off, making the carrier people almost fall. "Now, take your time. . ." She said slowly, like she was expecting for him to cry like a little kid.
Once again, he attempted to get on and managed to with much difficulty. She clapped like it was a great accomplishment and he gave her a glare. They went over to the jungle gym and once there, King Bob plopped down in his throne and kicked it back. Spinelli coughed. "If I'm gonna get the royal treatment I have to sit in the throne. In all seriousness!"
He gave her a funny look. "And where would I go?"
She smiled, shrugging. "I don't know, but I get the throne!"
"No way!"
"You want me to make my legs to get numb from standing up for so long."
"I didn't say that."
"In another choice of words, yes."
"I want the throne!"
"Good lord." He murmured, never seeing anyone so persistent.
"Then scoot." Spinelli continued. Bob did, not in the mood to argue. Everyone, including the girl that constantly fanned him, watched all of this in amusement. She sat down next to him, stretching and taking up more than half of the space. "Comfy. What other royal stuff do you normally do?"
King Bob was practically knocked out of the chair when she stretched. From a very painful-looking position, he shook his head in disbelief and regained his composure before everyone on the whole playground saw him looking so stupid. Spinelli was looking at the view and then turned to him. She repeated the question.
"Whatever I want, I guess." He shrugged.
"Even listen to music?" She asked, expecting for him to say no. Things couldn't be as great as he made them sound.
"Yeah." He said, and she blinked. Sweet. He turned to one of the guards. "Get me my CD player and case."
The guard nodded and left, soon returning with a portable CD player and a case of CDs. He handed it to Spinelli, and she thought this was too kick ass. Listening to music during recess! "Awesome! How come I never see you listening to it?"
She put on the headphones and opened the CD player. In it was a CD that said, 'Kidneythieves - Zerospace' on it. Nice name, she thought, closed it and pressed play. "Because," Bob answered. "I always want to hear if anyone is talking about me. I like sentencing people."
"What's a good number?" she asked. He replied by saying 'three.' She changed the track, leaned back and listened to the words. It was a girl singing for once, and it was talking about how this one girl is a time bomb, she was waiting for something, and was slightly anorexic or something and was holding in an arsenal. She smiled, knowing today was gonna rock and ended up listening to the song the whole time through. "What's this called?" she asked.
"Arsenal," he replied.
She stretched, purposely smacking him on the head.