4. Living Dead Girl
The song 'Arsenal' ended, and Spinelli took the headphones off, satisfied. She looked over at King Bob and raised her eyebrows. "What?"
He blinked, like just waking up. "Huh?"
"Nothing." she said and looked around the playground again trying to find her friends, ignoring the fact that he was staring at her close to the whole time the song played. At the time she couldn't see them and jumped a mile high when King shouted at some fourth grader to get off of 'his sand.' The kid went running, and Bob cackled. Spinelli finally saw her friends, and Mikey noticed her first. He waved, and she did, too.
He made a motion, but Spinelli couldn't tell what it meant. "Is that Russ?"
"What?" She asked, turning to King Bob.
"Is the guy waving named Russ, or something?" he repeated.
"You mean Gus. And he's the short guy." She said.
"Why does he look like he's about to kill himself or something?" Bob asked, and she shrugged.
"I don't know. He was like that ever since me and you weren't acting like enemies. TJ, too." She said and one of the guards came up.
"King Bob, someone would like to see you about digging closer to the sixth grade area?" He asked, like the reason why they came was really weird. Spinelli instantly knew that the people were the diggers. She knew that they were constantly trying to dig closer to the sixth graders so they'd have more area. And King Bob always got mad at them when they were too close.
"Bring them up," he told the guard. As the guard left, King Bob turned to Spinelli. "Now you can take this one and see just how easy it is to be the King."
She shrugged. "Okay."
In about three seconds she could let them dig closer, and resume back to being royal. She was hungry from skipping breakfast. He had to have something to eat up here. . . The diggers came up and they looked from King Bob to Spinelli for about five seconds. Bob finally figured out why they were acting so confused. "Ask her what you want."
"Oookay." Digger Dave said, and then asked Spinelli, "We're running out of room for digging, and wanted to know if we were aloud to dig a hole starting in the fourth grader parts, and digging underground underneath the sixth grade area."
"Yeah, sure." Spinelli said, ready for something to drink.
The diggers looked at each other. "But from what THE KING said last time, he would need make sure where we would be digging underneath and a whole lot of stuff. We can ignore all of that, too?"
Spinelli didn't say anything. "Okay. dig under the sand only and avoid the fields or something so you don't ruin any kickball or soccer games going on."
The diggers repeated the look. "Sand would cave in whenever someone is as close as ten feet away from the tunnel."
She sighed. "Take it," she mumbled to King Bob, and he grinned like he just proven his point. He and the diggers carried on a discussion, with Spinelli extremely bored. They talked for about five minutes straight, before the diggers were finally able to dig underneath the sixth graders.
"Guess what?" Spinelli asked, and Bob shrugged. "I'm hungry."
Almost immediately a guard brought up a plate consisting of junk food. "Awesome."
Spinelli snatched a bag of chips and started stuffing her face. Once again, the guards came up. This time two girls were fighting about whose turn it was to be it for hide-and-go-seek. "This one will be easy, it's mine," Spinelli said, finishing chewing on a chip.
"Okay." Bob had this glint in his eyes, so she knew that she had made a wrong decision.
Two little first graders were below the jungle gym, each saying, 'You're it!' over and over again. It was very frustrating, but Spinelli didn't want to look like she was too annoyed.
"Okay, kid! You're it!" She pointed to the girl on the right.
"You're not the king and that's not fair!" The girl she pointed to said.
"Well, he's letting me take care of this one. Do you DEFY what I'm saying?!" She said, starting to look pissed off. She heard Bob snicker behind her, and she shot him a glare. He stopped, like always.
"Fine! If I pick a number between one and ten, and whoever is closest, will you be satisfied?" She asked, loosing patience.
They nodded. She picked her number to be seven and one of them chose three and the other nine. The result of her telling the girl who chose nine that she wasn't 'it' was the other girl making a scene and close to crying she hated being 'it' so much. Finally, King Bob must have been very annoyed, too. He walked over and pointed at the girl crying. "You're it! Deal!"
She stopped, and they skipped off like nothing ever happened. They both tried sit down again in the chair, each trying to get there first so they could have the most room but it didn't work too well. Bob got there first, and Spinelli jumped too late and landed on him. Bob knocked her off (not too hard) and clamped on to the throne. "Hey! I NEED the throne!" Spinelli shouted.
She grabbed one of his feet and pulled. "No way!" he said, clamping on even tighter. The girl that constantly fanned him backed away, not wanting to get involved. Little did Bob and Spinelli know that close to the whole playground was watching the whole time. Finally, Spinelli gave up. "Fine. Don't make me sit on you."
This got him to move over in defeat, not wanting ANYONE to sit on him. She sat down, and the bell typically rung after the whole fight. Spinelli got an idea. "Hey, can you do me a favor?" She asked Bob.
"Whoa!" Gus nearly fell off the throne, which was being carried around.
He was constantly sliding this way and that, not used to being carried around by King Bob's guards. Spinelli walked around with Bob. "I still don't see why you chose him," He stated.
"Because," Spinelli informed him, "He's constantly acting sad and I think hitching a ride on the throne while being carried around will at least help."
"Oh." He said, watching as Gus stood up and waved and TJ, Vince, Gretchen and Mikey, which resulted in causing the carriers to almost fall on their knees. Bob wondered if he would make them drop the throne and they (Spinelli and him) walked inside. Class was boring, like always. The slips for seeing 'the perfect storm' still weren't due, and they had to learn about the eye of the storm for now.
At lunch, Spinelli still sat with her friends. "So, what's it like being the queen?" She was asked as soon as she sat down.
"I'm not a queen, stupid!" She said, looking down at the unappetizing cafeteria food. She poked something that appeared to resemble mashed potatoes.
"Technically speaking, since you and the king are in a relationship you are the queen." Gretchen said, opening her lunch bag of healthy food. The huge amount nutrition disgusted everyone.
The fork that had speared a clump of the mashed potatoes was mid-way to her mouth before she threw it down. "WE ARE NOT!"
The whole cafeteria got quiet and stared at her. "What are you all looking at?" she snapped. They turned back to their conversations, shrugging. Spinelli was tried of being the constant topic of the conversations between her and all of her friends. Especially when it included King Bob somehow.
"Oookay. . . You just keep telling yourself that." TJ had this annoying grin on his face, and she wanted to rip it off, like how the doctor in 'The Howling: 4' did.
"You never answered our question." Mikey said.
"WELL, I DON'T WANNA!" She shouted and stormed out of the cafeteria.
"Was it something I said?" Mikey asked, and the group shrugged.
That night, Spinelli made her parents sign the permission form to see the movie about the hurricane. They did, and she shoved in her backpack. When putting it inside, she noticed something circular coming out of the pocket in her trapper keeper. She pulled it out and realized it was the Kidneythieves CD. She had forgotten that she borrowed it.
Spinelli played it while laying on her bed, thinking of lyrics like that one night about a month ago. When she first found out that she liked King Bob.
- - - -
Water splashed all over her, and in her dream, Spinelli took hold of the steering wheel. Apparently, she was re-living a familiar scene. She and all her five friends were on a boat, typically named 'A. Spinelli.' It was extremely windy. She felt like she would be knocked over but something kept her on her feet. A huge wave loomed ahead and crashed into the boat.
The mast went toppling off along with the wave, and she turned around to try and find her friends frantically. They were in the cockpit, safe and dry. They were making motions telling her to get inside. Spinelli looked around and realized that a huge shadow was approaching. Except it wasn't a shadow, but a wave that had to be over one hundred feet high! She needed to be with her friends, so she turned the wheel so the boat would be riding the wave instead of trying to climb over.
"I'm coming!" She shouted to her friends, and they had relieved looks on their faces.
She tried to run back to the cockpit but after a meter was held back. She looked behind her. Why couldn't she move?! The huge wave was approaching ominously, and she looked down at her left wrist. A thin, wiry string was tied to the wheel and her wrist. She yanked very hard, but the thin material held like iron.
"NO!" She shouted, as the wave finally made the boat ride the base. Except it didn't keep going. The swell top seemed to dive down and crash over the boat. Spinelli found herself being knocked and bowled over by a huge weight, which was the wave and tons of heavy salt water and was then surrounded by the wetness.
The string then snapped, and Spinelli began swimming for the seemingly bright light above, which she assumed was the surface and looked over to her side. Her friends were luckily swimming upwards, too. Then a thought crossed her mind for no apparent reason. "What's the name of the hurricane?" she shouted to TJ underwater. Her voice sounded like it would on land. TJ answered, "Didn't you know? Hurricane Bob."
Suddenly the somewhat peaceful moment was interrupted as the remains of the 'A. Spinelli' boat came rolling by underwater swiftly, held by the current. The huge structure smashed into all five of her friends, and the water surrounding it turned a sick red color as it quickly sunk to the ocean floor. Spinelli screamed, and began choking on water. Her head began to feel split in half and she struggled for air but only felt coldness surrounding her and a tight feeling around her neck. She, too, began to sink while struggling to live.
"NO!"
Spinelli snapped her eyes open, and realized she was choking herself. She removed her hand from her throat and gulped in air. It was dark inside her room and rain ran in torrents on her windows. She flopped back in bed and tried to regain her breath. When she did, she heard a whirring noise and got up. It was coming from the CD player, so she walked over. She had fell asleep and the CD had finished playing. It was still spinning, or trying to, so she pressed the 'stop' button.
It got quiet in her room, aside from the constant tapping noise of the rain hitting the outside of the house and her windows. Spinelli sat down on her bed, beginning to recall her dream. Then she felt something wrong. Her dad told her all dreams, as stupid as they may be, always had a meaning. But at the time she didn't really want to know what it meant, even though she couldn't help but notice. She lost all of her friends to the hurricane. She only survived 'Hurricane Bob.'
At school, she was forced to hand in the permission slip for seeing the movie. Except now she didn't want too as much. After all, her dreams were close to being based off of that movie. She shuddered, remembering seeing a giant swell in the distance, getting closer. Spinelli snapped out of it when someone accidentally elbowed her stomach. She elbowed the person even harder and returned back to her desk. Close to the whole class was able to watch 'The Perfect Storm.'
At recess, she didn't feel like doing much. It was the coldest day of the year and she was stuck wearing her normal apparel while others were running around with jackets like nothing was different weather-wise. Even King Bob was wearing a grey hoodie that had the Sum 41 devil on the front. Her friends were playing kickball and she only watched, too cold to play.
Gus hadn't changed mood-wise, and she finally had to figure out. She asked him a long time ago about it anyway and he DID say that he would tell her later. She walked out across the field, trying to keep her back to the wind. Gus watched her almost in dread as she made her way across.
Finally, she reached her destination and she grabbed him by the collar. "Okay, Gus. It's time ya told me what's wrong."
"Don't hurt me. . . Severely." He quivered.
Spinelli dropped him. "I won't. Just tell me. All week you have been doing nothing but acting like one of your parents died or something. I even got King Bob to sacrifice his throne for you, and you still don't change. It wasn't exactly fun to beg for the favor."
"Fine!" Gus said, raising his hands like he was trying to defend himself. "I'll tell you!"
"Then spit it out!" She stomped.
"I'm gonna move again." He quietly answered, and Spinelli dropped her fist.
"Move? To where?!"
"Some place in Colorado called 'Ridgehead.' "
Spinelli didn't say anything. Gus was moving to some place in Colorado? But he can't! He was one of her best friends. Then the ball hit her on the back of the head. She turned around but didn't say anything. "Sorry, my bad!" Vince said while running bases.
She still didn't answer but walked away quietly, without a word. Days were beginning to crumble once again. Her friends treated her differently. Gus was moving. She's having bad dreams that are trying to tell her SOMETHING. At the time, all she needed was some comfort. She usually hated it, but now felt like it was the one thing she needed. Her friends were playing kickball. King Bob was in his throne sentencing some kid to something for who knows what reason.
No one seemed to be open for friends at the time. She sniffled, and realized it wasn't the cold making her sick. She was crying at the loss of a friend. Not wanting to be caught with a few tears, she headed on inside before anyone could follow or see her. Inside, she sat in the classroom. Miss Grotke was in the teachers lounge, and she just sat at her desk staring down.
How could Gus just leave like that? Leave all of his friends behind? She wondered if she was the only one that knew, then decided that she wouldn't let anything slip about it to her friends, in case it would only worsen things. The stress was killing her, so she took out a piece of paper and began writing down lyrics for 'Arsenal' by Kidneythieves. She still had to give Bob his CD back before she completely forgot. So, using the time left of recess, she went to her backpack and got it out.
Spinelli went outside and shivered as the coldness felt like it jumped and impaled her. She saw Gus looking even more depressed, sitting on the benches alone. Maybe it wasn't too smart to just leave him without saying a thing. Anyway, she headed over to the jungle gym, trying to look normal again. The guards let her through without any signs of hesitation. She went up.
"Hey," King Bob greeted her cheerfully.
Spinelli bit her lip. How could he be so happy on a day like this, especially when it is so cold up on the jungle gym? She walked over and just outstretched her hand, holding the CD. He took it. "Thanks."
Bob then looked up at her and finally got a good look at her face. ". . .Have you been crying?"
"No," She simply stated. "The cold's getting to me. Seriously, like I would cry."
"Are you sure?" He asked again.
"Yes! Will you just stop asking?!" She suddenly snapped.
"Um, okay." He said, looking kind of surprised.
She left, and when the bell rung she walked to the school regretting everything she had just done. All he did was show concern for once and she had to ruin the moment. And how she had just left Gus wasn't exactly helpful either. Miss Grotke was standing in front of the door when everyone went inside. She stopped Spinelli. "Stay here for a while, will you?" She asked.
Spinelli sat down on the steps waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. King Bob passed by, giving her a worried look. She looked away, like she was ashamed or something. The fourth grade class gathered around. TJ sat next to Spinelli. "What's wrong?" He asked.
Spinelli just shook her head. She guessed it was time for HER to be gloomy. Miss Grotke announced to the class while looking at a clipboard, "The movie is ready, so can all of the people who I read loud, who had not turn in their permission slips, please stay outside so you can enjoy extra recess time?"
The people who didn't get their slips signed cheered, and Spinelli raised her hand. "Miss Grotke, can I stay outside instead of watching the movie? I changed my mind."
TJ made a weird noise next to her, and Miss Grotke wouldn't let her. Something about other people wanting to switch and too much confusion. After reading the names, the class that was aloud to see the movie went inside.
"Spinelli, what are you talking about?" TJ asked. "What do you mean you 'changed your mind?' It's a PG-13 rated film in fourth grade, for crying out loud!"
Spinelli shut her eyes, annoyed. "Because I just don't want to, okay?"
TJ sighed. "Sure. . ."
Throughout the whole movie, she kept getting those bad feelings. She didn't want to think about what the meaning could be of her dream and even didn't laugh when one of the characters said 'don't fuck with me.' After school, Spinelli and her friends were walking about, her eating a sour sucker in the shape of a yellow skull, which hustler kid gave her so she wouldn't beat him up.
She was trying to get her tongue to split and bleed, hearing how that happened to a kid before and she wanted to try it for herself. They were once again debating on what monster could kill the other, which always cheered her up a bit. Vince was sticking to Dracula, TJ Frankenstein again, and Gretchen, Mikey and Gus weren't paying attention at all. Only Vince knew what it was, but Spinelli chose 'Pumpkinhead' to try and use something that wasn't very 'famous.' And anyway, debating always made her get rid of anger, especially when it talked about blood and death.
"You don't seem to understand the fact that Pumpkinhead can easily POP Dracula's head in a second." Spinelli stated, licking her sour sucker.
"Spinelli, I'm absolutely sure that whoever this pumpkin head guy is, Frankenstein can kick its butt in a MILLISECOND."
"And that's coming from someone who doesn't know any OTHER movies." Spinelli rolled her eyes, getting offended again.
"Oh? Then what do you know other than your weird 'pumpkinhead' crap?" Vince asked.
Spinelli cleared her throat began quickly listing all of the movies, "Friday the 13th. Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Howling, Hellraiser, Child's Play, Jeepers Creepers, Darkness Falls, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Scream, I know what you did last summer, Urban Legend, Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw massacre, The Others, Children of the corn -"
"Whoa! Just stop there." TJ said. Spinelli still had millions to list.
"Okay. I bet you can't pick you favorite out of all of them." Vince stated.
"Duh! Yes, I can. It's Evil Dead."
"What's it about?" TJ asked. Spinelli didn't really want to make it sound good so they would see, because of the whole 'woods' scene. So she quickly said, "The living dead."
"Oh, so does that make you a living dead girl?" TJ asked.
"Yep." Spinelli said, thinking the name had a ring to it. "It does."
- -
All of their friends figured out that Gus was moving. Trying to be cheerful about it, they planned on going to a bunch of places that Gus wouldn't normally be able to do. It included laser tag, which Spinelli wanted to go to the most. He still had a couple of weeks, so it wouldn't be until a while. They always pretended to be in a good mood around him so it wouldn't hurt his feelings or something.
It was Thursday, and Spinelli was home alone once again. It was typically raining, but not too hard. She finished watching the traditional 'Omen' movie, and was now in the kitchen searching through the refrigerator. No matter how many times she saw 'Omen' it always managed to creep her out. She pulled out a bottle of Coke and drank from the bottle, looking out the window of her front yard.
She did a double take. Was someone on her property? Spinelli suddenly felt stupid for letting the movie take control for a second and then jumped a mile high when someone knocked on the door. Spinelli made her way to the door, unsure if she should open it or not. It was WAY too early for her parents to be home. She grabbed the handle and with a groan, quickly opened it.
She laughed. Bob was standing outside soaking wet with his bangs hanging in front of his eyes. He grinned, and it kind of resembled a dog smiling at her. "Come on," she said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him inside.
He shook his head, splattering her face with freezing rainwater. She winced.
"Guess what?" Bob asked excitedly. She shrugged. "I kept my promise from about. . . a month ago! Have you ever heard of 'House of the dead?' "
"No." Spinelli replied.
"Oh, well, there's a new horror movie coming out." He said.
"Okay. Why didn't you wait to tell me tomorrow? And how do you know where I live, anyway?"
"I'd forget by then. And I was walking down the road and I recognized your car from when you where picked up from school because of the suspension." He said, wiping off water that was about to get in his eyes.
"Oh. Right. I guess my parents are using the other car. Why were you just walking down the street like it's in the middle of the day?" She once again asked.
"Some family constantly want me to take care of their cats when they're out of town. But as long as I get money, I'll do it." He said.
"You know, you scared the living heck out of me." She said. "I was watching 'Omen' before you showed up."
He laughed. "I know what you mean. I still KIND OF get A LITTLE freaked out."
Spinelli rolled her eyes. "Right."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw headlights coming and pull into the driveway, then jumped. "Oh, god! My parents are home! They'll kill me if you're here!"
Before even having the chance to look over at the lights, Spinelli shoved him toward the kitchen. "We can use the back door! Hurry up!"
Bob was shoved out into the rain. He turned around and blinked. "Wow. You're paranoid."
"Shut up. . ." She grumbled and heard the front door open. "Oh, wait a sec!"
He turned around and Spinelli quickly came out and gave him a quick kiss. He froze, hoping it was too dark to see him blushing. She walked backwards, now hearing her parents call her. "Bye." She whispered, hoping her parents wouldn't hear.
Not able to say too much, Bob just waved. Spinelli gave him one last smile and then came back into the house. ". . .What?! You don't have to scream, for crying out loud!!"
The song 'Arsenal' ended, and Spinelli took the headphones off, satisfied. She looked over at King Bob and raised her eyebrows. "What?"
He blinked, like just waking up. "Huh?"
"Nothing." she said and looked around the playground again trying to find her friends, ignoring the fact that he was staring at her close to the whole time the song played. At the time she couldn't see them and jumped a mile high when King shouted at some fourth grader to get off of 'his sand.' The kid went running, and Bob cackled. Spinelli finally saw her friends, and Mikey noticed her first. He waved, and she did, too.
He made a motion, but Spinelli couldn't tell what it meant. "Is that Russ?"
"What?" She asked, turning to King Bob.
"Is the guy waving named Russ, or something?" he repeated.
"You mean Gus. And he's the short guy." She said.
"Why does he look like he's about to kill himself or something?" Bob asked, and she shrugged.
"I don't know. He was like that ever since me and you weren't acting like enemies. TJ, too." She said and one of the guards came up.
"King Bob, someone would like to see you about digging closer to the sixth grade area?" He asked, like the reason why they came was really weird. Spinelli instantly knew that the people were the diggers. She knew that they were constantly trying to dig closer to the sixth graders so they'd have more area. And King Bob always got mad at them when they were too close.
"Bring them up," he told the guard. As the guard left, King Bob turned to Spinelli. "Now you can take this one and see just how easy it is to be the King."
She shrugged. "Okay."
In about three seconds she could let them dig closer, and resume back to being royal. She was hungry from skipping breakfast. He had to have something to eat up here. . . The diggers came up and they looked from King Bob to Spinelli for about five seconds. Bob finally figured out why they were acting so confused. "Ask her what you want."
"Oookay." Digger Dave said, and then asked Spinelli, "We're running out of room for digging, and wanted to know if we were aloud to dig a hole starting in the fourth grader parts, and digging underground underneath the sixth grade area."
"Yeah, sure." Spinelli said, ready for something to drink.
The diggers looked at each other. "But from what THE KING said last time, he would need make sure where we would be digging underneath and a whole lot of stuff. We can ignore all of that, too?"
Spinelli didn't say anything. "Okay. dig under the sand only and avoid the fields or something so you don't ruin any kickball or soccer games going on."
The diggers repeated the look. "Sand would cave in whenever someone is as close as ten feet away from the tunnel."
She sighed. "Take it," she mumbled to King Bob, and he grinned like he just proven his point. He and the diggers carried on a discussion, with Spinelli extremely bored. They talked for about five minutes straight, before the diggers were finally able to dig underneath the sixth graders.
"Guess what?" Spinelli asked, and Bob shrugged. "I'm hungry."
Almost immediately a guard brought up a plate consisting of junk food. "Awesome."
Spinelli snatched a bag of chips and started stuffing her face. Once again, the guards came up. This time two girls were fighting about whose turn it was to be it for hide-and-go-seek. "This one will be easy, it's mine," Spinelli said, finishing chewing on a chip.
"Okay." Bob had this glint in his eyes, so she knew that she had made a wrong decision.
Two little first graders were below the jungle gym, each saying, 'You're it!' over and over again. It was very frustrating, but Spinelli didn't want to look like she was too annoyed.
"Okay, kid! You're it!" She pointed to the girl on the right.
"You're not the king and that's not fair!" The girl she pointed to said.
"Well, he's letting me take care of this one. Do you DEFY what I'm saying?!" She said, starting to look pissed off. She heard Bob snicker behind her, and she shot him a glare. He stopped, like always.
"Fine! If I pick a number between one and ten, and whoever is closest, will you be satisfied?" She asked, loosing patience.
They nodded. She picked her number to be seven and one of them chose three and the other nine. The result of her telling the girl who chose nine that she wasn't 'it' was the other girl making a scene and close to crying she hated being 'it' so much. Finally, King Bob must have been very annoyed, too. He walked over and pointed at the girl crying. "You're it! Deal!"
She stopped, and they skipped off like nothing ever happened. They both tried sit down again in the chair, each trying to get there first so they could have the most room but it didn't work too well. Bob got there first, and Spinelli jumped too late and landed on him. Bob knocked her off (not too hard) and clamped on to the throne. "Hey! I NEED the throne!" Spinelli shouted.
She grabbed one of his feet and pulled. "No way!" he said, clamping on even tighter. The girl that constantly fanned him backed away, not wanting to get involved. Little did Bob and Spinelli know that close to the whole playground was watching the whole time. Finally, Spinelli gave up. "Fine. Don't make me sit on you."
This got him to move over in defeat, not wanting ANYONE to sit on him. She sat down, and the bell typically rung after the whole fight. Spinelli got an idea. "Hey, can you do me a favor?" She asked Bob.
"Whoa!" Gus nearly fell off the throne, which was being carried around.
He was constantly sliding this way and that, not used to being carried around by King Bob's guards. Spinelli walked around with Bob. "I still don't see why you chose him," He stated.
"Because," Spinelli informed him, "He's constantly acting sad and I think hitching a ride on the throne while being carried around will at least help."
"Oh." He said, watching as Gus stood up and waved and TJ, Vince, Gretchen and Mikey, which resulted in causing the carriers to almost fall on their knees. Bob wondered if he would make them drop the throne and they (Spinelli and him) walked inside. Class was boring, like always. The slips for seeing 'the perfect storm' still weren't due, and they had to learn about the eye of the storm for now.
At lunch, Spinelli still sat with her friends. "So, what's it like being the queen?" She was asked as soon as she sat down.
"I'm not a queen, stupid!" She said, looking down at the unappetizing cafeteria food. She poked something that appeared to resemble mashed potatoes.
"Technically speaking, since you and the king are in a relationship you are the queen." Gretchen said, opening her lunch bag of healthy food. The huge amount nutrition disgusted everyone.
The fork that had speared a clump of the mashed potatoes was mid-way to her mouth before she threw it down. "WE ARE NOT!"
The whole cafeteria got quiet and stared at her. "What are you all looking at?" she snapped. They turned back to their conversations, shrugging. Spinelli was tried of being the constant topic of the conversations between her and all of her friends. Especially when it included King Bob somehow.
"Oookay. . . You just keep telling yourself that." TJ had this annoying grin on his face, and she wanted to rip it off, like how the doctor in 'The Howling: 4' did.
"You never answered our question." Mikey said.
"WELL, I DON'T WANNA!" She shouted and stormed out of the cafeteria.
"Was it something I said?" Mikey asked, and the group shrugged.
That night, Spinelli made her parents sign the permission form to see the movie about the hurricane. They did, and she shoved in her backpack. When putting it inside, she noticed something circular coming out of the pocket in her trapper keeper. She pulled it out and realized it was the Kidneythieves CD. She had forgotten that she borrowed it.
Spinelli played it while laying on her bed, thinking of lyrics like that one night about a month ago. When she first found out that she liked King Bob.
- - - -
Water splashed all over her, and in her dream, Spinelli took hold of the steering wheel. Apparently, she was re-living a familiar scene. She and all her five friends were on a boat, typically named 'A. Spinelli.' It was extremely windy. She felt like she would be knocked over but something kept her on her feet. A huge wave loomed ahead and crashed into the boat.
The mast went toppling off along with the wave, and she turned around to try and find her friends frantically. They were in the cockpit, safe and dry. They were making motions telling her to get inside. Spinelli looked around and realized that a huge shadow was approaching. Except it wasn't a shadow, but a wave that had to be over one hundred feet high! She needed to be with her friends, so she turned the wheel so the boat would be riding the wave instead of trying to climb over.
"I'm coming!" She shouted to her friends, and they had relieved looks on their faces.
She tried to run back to the cockpit but after a meter was held back. She looked behind her. Why couldn't she move?! The huge wave was approaching ominously, and she looked down at her left wrist. A thin, wiry string was tied to the wheel and her wrist. She yanked very hard, but the thin material held like iron.
"NO!" She shouted, as the wave finally made the boat ride the base. Except it didn't keep going. The swell top seemed to dive down and crash over the boat. Spinelli found herself being knocked and bowled over by a huge weight, which was the wave and tons of heavy salt water and was then surrounded by the wetness.
The string then snapped, and Spinelli began swimming for the seemingly bright light above, which she assumed was the surface and looked over to her side. Her friends were luckily swimming upwards, too. Then a thought crossed her mind for no apparent reason. "What's the name of the hurricane?" she shouted to TJ underwater. Her voice sounded like it would on land. TJ answered, "Didn't you know? Hurricane Bob."
Suddenly the somewhat peaceful moment was interrupted as the remains of the 'A. Spinelli' boat came rolling by underwater swiftly, held by the current. The huge structure smashed into all five of her friends, and the water surrounding it turned a sick red color as it quickly sunk to the ocean floor. Spinelli screamed, and began choking on water. Her head began to feel split in half and she struggled for air but only felt coldness surrounding her and a tight feeling around her neck. She, too, began to sink while struggling to live.
"NO!"
Spinelli snapped her eyes open, and realized she was choking herself. She removed her hand from her throat and gulped in air. It was dark inside her room and rain ran in torrents on her windows. She flopped back in bed and tried to regain her breath. When she did, she heard a whirring noise and got up. It was coming from the CD player, so she walked over. She had fell asleep and the CD had finished playing. It was still spinning, or trying to, so she pressed the 'stop' button.
It got quiet in her room, aside from the constant tapping noise of the rain hitting the outside of the house and her windows. Spinelli sat down on her bed, beginning to recall her dream. Then she felt something wrong. Her dad told her all dreams, as stupid as they may be, always had a meaning. But at the time she didn't really want to know what it meant, even though she couldn't help but notice. She lost all of her friends to the hurricane. She only survived 'Hurricane Bob.'
At school, she was forced to hand in the permission slip for seeing the movie. Except now she didn't want too as much. After all, her dreams were close to being based off of that movie. She shuddered, remembering seeing a giant swell in the distance, getting closer. Spinelli snapped out of it when someone accidentally elbowed her stomach. She elbowed the person even harder and returned back to her desk. Close to the whole class was able to watch 'The Perfect Storm.'
At recess, she didn't feel like doing much. It was the coldest day of the year and she was stuck wearing her normal apparel while others were running around with jackets like nothing was different weather-wise. Even King Bob was wearing a grey hoodie that had the Sum 41 devil on the front. Her friends were playing kickball and she only watched, too cold to play.
Gus hadn't changed mood-wise, and she finally had to figure out. She asked him a long time ago about it anyway and he DID say that he would tell her later. She walked out across the field, trying to keep her back to the wind. Gus watched her almost in dread as she made her way across.
Finally, she reached her destination and she grabbed him by the collar. "Okay, Gus. It's time ya told me what's wrong."
"Don't hurt me. . . Severely." He quivered.
Spinelli dropped him. "I won't. Just tell me. All week you have been doing nothing but acting like one of your parents died or something. I even got King Bob to sacrifice his throne for you, and you still don't change. It wasn't exactly fun to beg for the favor."
"Fine!" Gus said, raising his hands like he was trying to defend himself. "I'll tell you!"
"Then spit it out!" She stomped.
"I'm gonna move again." He quietly answered, and Spinelli dropped her fist.
"Move? To where?!"
"Some place in Colorado called 'Ridgehead.' "
Spinelli didn't say anything. Gus was moving to some place in Colorado? But he can't! He was one of her best friends. Then the ball hit her on the back of the head. She turned around but didn't say anything. "Sorry, my bad!" Vince said while running bases.
She still didn't answer but walked away quietly, without a word. Days were beginning to crumble once again. Her friends treated her differently. Gus was moving. She's having bad dreams that are trying to tell her SOMETHING. At the time, all she needed was some comfort. She usually hated it, but now felt like it was the one thing she needed. Her friends were playing kickball. King Bob was in his throne sentencing some kid to something for who knows what reason.
No one seemed to be open for friends at the time. She sniffled, and realized it wasn't the cold making her sick. She was crying at the loss of a friend. Not wanting to be caught with a few tears, she headed on inside before anyone could follow or see her. Inside, she sat in the classroom. Miss Grotke was in the teachers lounge, and she just sat at her desk staring down.
How could Gus just leave like that? Leave all of his friends behind? She wondered if she was the only one that knew, then decided that she wouldn't let anything slip about it to her friends, in case it would only worsen things. The stress was killing her, so she took out a piece of paper and began writing down lyrics for 'Arsenal' by Kidneythieves. She still had to give Bob his CD back before she completely forgot. So, using the time left of recess, she went to her backpack and got it out.
Spinelli went outside and shivered as the coldness felt like it jumped and impaled her. She saw Gus looking even more depressed, sitting on the benches alone. Maybe it wasn't too smart to just leave him without saying a thing. Anyway, she headed over to the jungle gym, trying to look normal again. The guards let her through without any signs of hesitation. She went up.
"Hey," King Bob greeted her cheerfully.
Spinelli bit her lip. How could he be so happy on a day like this, especially when it is so cold up on the jungle gym? She walked over and just outstretched her hand, holding the CD. He took it. "Thanks."
Bob then looked up at her and finally got a good look at her face. ". . .Have you been crying?"
"No," She simply stated. "The cold's getting to me. Seriously, like I would cry."
"Are you sure?" He asked again.
"Yes! Will you just stop asking?!" She suddenly snapped.
"Um, okay." He said, looking kind of surprised.
She left, and when the bell rung she walked to the school regretting everything she had just done. All he did was show concern for once and she had to ruin the moment. And how she had just left Gus wasn't exactly helpful either. Miss Grotke was standing in front of the door when everyone went inside. She stopped Spinelli. "Stay here for a while, will you?" She asked.
Spinelli sat down on the steps waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. King Bob passed by, giving her a worried look. She looked away, like she was ashamed or something. The fourth grade class gathered around. TJ sat next to Spinelli. "What's wrong?" He asked.
Spinelli just shook her head. She guessed it was time for HER to be gloomy. Miss Grotke announced to the class while looking at a clipboard, "The movie is ready, so can all of the people who I read loud, who had not turn in their permission slips, please stay outside so you can enjoy extra recess time?"
The people who didn't get their slips signed cheered, and Spinelli raised her hand. "Miss Grotke, can I stay outside instead of watching the movie? I changed my mind."
TJ made a weird noise next to her, and Miss Grotke wouldn't let her. Something about other people wanting to switch and too much confusion. After reading the names, the class that was aloud to see the movie went inside.
"Spinelli, what are you talking about?" TJ asked. "What do you mean you 'changed your mind?' It's a PG-13 rated film in fourth grade, for crying out loud!"
Spinelli shut her eyes, annoyed. "Because I just don't want to, okay?"
TJ sighed. "Sure. . ."
Throughout the whole movie, she kept getting those bad feelings. She didn't want to think about what the meaning could be of her dream and even didn't laugh when one of the characters said 'don't fuck with me.' After school, Spinelli and her friends were walking about, her eating a sour sucker in the shape of a yellow skull, which hustler kid gave her so she wouldn't beat him up.
She was trying to get her tongue to split and bleed, hearing how that happened to a kid before and she wanted to try it for herself. They were once again debating on what monster could kill the other, which always cheered her up a bit. Vince was sticking to Dracula, TJ Frankenstein again, and Gretchen, Mikey and Gus weren't paying attention at all. Only Vince knew what it was, but Spinelli chose 'Pumpkinhead' to try and use something that wasn't very 'famous.' And anyway, debating always made her get rid of anger, especially when it talked about blood and death.
"You don't seem to understand the fact that Pumpkinhead can easily POP Dracula's head in a second." Spinelli stated, licking her sour sucker.
"Spinelli, I'm absolutely sure that whoever this pumpkin head guy is, Frankenstein can kick its butt in a MILLISECOND."
"And that's coming from someone who doesn't know any OTHER movies." Spinelli rolled her eyes, getting offended again.
"Oh? Then what do you know other than your weird 'pumpkinhead' crap?" Vince asked.
Spinelli cleared her throat began quickly listing all of the movies, "Friday the 13th. Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, The Howling, Hellraiser, Child's Play, Jeepers Creepers, Darkness Falls, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Scream, I know what you did last summer, Urban Legend, Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw massacre, The Others, Children of the corn -"
"Whoa! Just stop there." TJ said. Spinelli still had millions to list.
"Okay. I bet you can't pick you favorite out of all of them." Vince stated.
"Duh! Yes, I can. It's Evil Dead."
"What's it about?" TJ asked. Spinelli didn't really want to make it sound good so they would see, because of the whole 'woods' scene. So she quickly said, "The living dead."
"Oh, so does that make you a living dead girl?" TJ asked.
"Yep." Spinelli said, thinking the name had a ring to it. "It does."
- -
All of their friends figured out that Gus was moving. Trying to be cheerful about it, they planned on going to a bunch of places that Gus wouldn't normally be able to do. It included laser tag, which Spinelli wanted to go to the most. He still had a couple of weeks, so it wouldn't be until a while. They always pretended to be in a good mood around him so it wouldn't hurt his feelings or something.
It was Thursday, and Spinelli was home alone once again. It was typically raining, but not too hard. She finished watching the traditional 'Omen' movie, and was now in the kitchen searching through the refrigerator. No matter how many times she saw 'Omen' it always managed to creep her out. She pulled out a bottle of Coke and drank from the bottle, looking out the window of her front yard.
She did a double take. Was someone on her property? Spinelli suddenly felt stupid for letting the movie take control for a second and then jumped a mile high when someone knocked on the door. Spinelli made her way to the door, unsure if she should open it or not. It was WAY too early for her parents to be home. She grabbed the handle and with a groan, quickly opened it.
She laughed. Bob was standing outside soaking wet with his bangs hanging in front of his eyes. He grinned, and it kind of resembled a dog smiling at her. "Come on," she said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him inside.
He shook his head, splattering her face with freezing rainwater. She winced.
"Guess what?" Bob asked excitedly. She shrugged. "I kept my promise from about. . . a month ago! Have you ever heard of 'House of the dead?' "
"No." Spinelli replied.
"Oh, well, there's a new horror movie coming out." He said.
"Okay. Why didn't you wait to tell me tomorrow? And how do you know where I live, anyway?"
"I'd forget by then. And I was walking down the road and I recognized your car from when you where picked up from school because of the suspension." He said, wiping off water that was about to get in his eyes.
"Oh. Right. I guess my parents are using the other car. Why were you just walking down the street like it's in the middle of the day?" She once again asked.
"Some family constantly want me to take care of their cats when they're out of town. But as long as I get money, I'll do it." He said.
"You know, you scared the living heck out of me." She said. "I was watching 'Omen' before you showed up."
He laughed. "I know what you mean. I still KIND OF get A LITTLE freaked out."
Spinelli rolled her eyes. "Right."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw headlights coming and pull into the driveway, then jumped. "Oh, god! My parents are home! They'll kill me if you're here!"
Before even having the chance to look over at the lights, Spinelli shoved him toward the kitchen. "We can use the back door! Hurry up!"
Bob was shoved out into the rain. He turned around and blinked. "Wow. You're paranoid."
"Shut up. . ." She grumbled and heard the front door open. "Oh, wait a sec!"
He turned around and Spinelli quickly came out and gave him a quick kiss. He froze, hoping it was too dark to see him blushing. She walked backwards, now hearing her parents call her. "Bye." She whispered, hoping her parents wouldn't hear.
Not able to say too much, Bob just waved. Spinelli gave him one last smile and then came back into the house. ". . .What?! You don't have to scream, for crying out loud!!"