Author's Note: WOO HOO I'M FINALLY UPDATING! I AM ALIVE!!
Disclaimer: You know the drill; I don't own any of the newsies or any of the song lyrics (and I promise you there will be some in this chapter) but I do own Spot's family, Adrienne, and Louie.
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Chapter Eight – Grounded
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"NOOOOBODY KNOOOOWS THE TROOOOUBLES I'VE SEEEEN!" I sang sadly, strumming my guitar. "NOOOOBODY KNOOOOOWS MY SORROWWWWW!"
"For goodness sake, Gabriel, stop that horrible moaning!" my mother yelled from downstairs.
I pretended not to hear her. "NOOOOOBODY KNOOOOOWS THE TROOOOOOUBLES I'VE SEEEEEEN!"
I heard her footsteps coming up the stairs and quickly took off my earphones and shoved the guitar under my bed. That's the beauty of this guitar; I could plug in the headphones and only I could really hear the sound it made. That way I could practice all I wanted and mom would never know.
Ohh I'm so clever. Mwahahahaha.
The doorknob rattled. "Gabriel!" my mom called from outside the door. "Do you mind unlocking your door? I'd like to come in for a minute."
Of course I mind, woman!
"Sure, hold on." I swung myself off of my bed and opened the door, smiling grimly at her. "Yes, mommy dearest?"
She rolled her eyes at me. "I'd greatly appreciate it if you came down and had breakfast with me."
"I'm not hungry."
"Well at least come down and keep me company."
"I'm busy."
She looked at me, standing there in my pajamas with absolutely nothing to do. You're busy? Yeah, and later on monkeys might fly out of my butt... [1] She didn't say that, of course. That is not an Eliza Conlon thing to say.
"Well I am going downstairs," she said, trying to smooth down my messy hair. "Please try to make yourself useful or else go back to bed."
THAT is an Eliza Conlon thing to say.
I scowled at her and closed the door, sitting back down on my bed and taking my guitar out again. "Yes I'm grounded, got my wings clipped; I'm surrounded by all this pavement ... Guess I'll circle while I'm waiting for my fuse to dryyyyy!" I continued loudly. "SOMEDAY I'LL FLYYY! SOMEDAY I'LL SOOOOAAAAR! SOMEDAY I'LL BEEEE SO DAMN MUCH MOOOOORE! 'CAUSE I'M BIGGER THAN MY BODY GIVES ME CREDIT FOR!"
Ack, John Mayer. You know you're officially off your rocker when you start singing his songs at ten in the morning.
I had, however, been locked in this house for two whole days and I was getting quite sick of it. I think I had good reason to be off my rocker, don't you?
"GABRIEL!" mom called from downstairs.
"YEAH?" I yelled back.
"GET DRESSED AND GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!" she yelled dejectedly. "I'M SICK OF YOU! GO AND ANNOY SOME OTHER UNFORTUNATE MOTHER FOR A COUPLE HOURS!"
HA! Grounded? Noooooo... They said it couldn't be done! They said that it was not humanly possible to annoy your parents into un-grounding you! But YES! YES YES YES! I am a geeeeeenius, I tell you, a geeeeeenius! Oh yes, all humanity shall bow down to me! I SHALL BLESS THEM WITH MY CRUELTY!
I whipped off my shirt, tied it around my head, and went into a somewhat disturbing victory dance chanting, "FREE! FREE! I AM FREE AT LAST!"
Unfortunately, that was about when my mother came into the room. "Gabriel?" she said quietly, rather shocked.
I stopped in mid-hop and slowly pulled my t-shirt off my head. "...Hey mom," I said. "Sorry 'bout that, I'll be out of the house before you can say 'pistachio ice cream'."
She looked at me oddly. I honestly don't blame her. Freedom can do funny things to the head, if you ask me. "Where exactly do you plan on going?" she asked finally.
Nooooooooooooo ... Just when I think I'm out of her clutches, she PULLS ME BACK IN ... Oh the PAIN!
"I dunno..." I said, shrugging. "Just go for a walk around the neighborhood, probably, maybe meet up with Specs and Dutchy."
She kind of cringed. "Oh do you have to go with them?" she asked reluctantly. "I'm worried they're a bad influence on you..."
"Yeah, and so is Adrienne, right?" I snapped as I took off my pajama pants and dumped them on the bed. "And Snitch and Bumlets, they're all bad influences? I don't have many friends, mom, and you've somehow managed to find faults in all of them."
For the life of me I can't imagine why Snitch calls me a drama queen...
Mom took my pants from my bed and automatically folded them. I rolled my eyes, pulled on my blue jeans and a t-shirt, and grabbed my duct tape wallet from my dresser. (Yeah, I made a wallet out of duct tape. Hey, I was bored when I made it, all right?) "I'm off!" I said dramatically.
"Wear a sweatshirt, it's cold."
I glowered at her and grabbed a sweatshirt. "Now I'm off!" I said dramatically, and headed out of my room.
"Bring Krypto with you, he's been whining all morning!" mom called after me.
I stopped and glared at the door. Krypto bounced over to me, slobbering over my leg. I clipped his leash onto his collar, patted his head, and made my way to the front door. "NOW— I'M— OFF!" I yelled dramatically and left, slamming the door behind me.
Dysfunctional? Nooo, not our family. Just a little eccentric.
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I was going to visit my baby. I hadn't been to Zach's Musical Shop since Race and I actually met, and I was going into beautiful-musical-instrument-withdrawl. Who knows, maybe this time I'd actually BUY the thing.
About halfway there, I bumped into Adrienne. She was walking Louie and sporting a bruise the size of New York City that had somehow blossomed over her left eye and cheekbone. "Teddy," she said before I could say anything. "He decided last night that I wasn't really his big sister, I was an android sent from Mars. He then proceeded to try to liquefy me and I ended up with this." She gestured at her black eye, glowering.
I quickly turned my laugh into a hacking cough. "So where are you off to this fine Saturday morning?" she asked me, shivering slightly and trying to snuggle further down into her sweatshirt. "Cold, ain't it? Man, October sucks."
"I'm checkin' on my baby," I said.
"Ah, I see."
"Yeah."
She blinked. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be grounded?"
"Y'know, Adry, you're not exactly the sharpest hunk o' cheese in the morning, are you?" I laughed, punching her arm.
"I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree," she agreed.
"You're not the most colorful crayon in the box."
"I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed."
"You're not the sharpest pencil in the box."
"I'm not the brightest star in the sky."
"You're not the stickiest stick of glue."
She looked at me. Her clear gray eyes looked really weird in contrast with the dark purple bruise below them. "Alright, what's with the glue-stick analogy?" she demanded.
"I thought we were doing school supply metaphors," I said, shrugging.
"Oh. Ok..." she said absentmindedly. Louie ran ahead until he reached the end of his leash, and then he came back and carefully wrapped the leash around Adrienne's legs. "Y'know, today's gonna be the day," she said to me as she untangled herself.
"What day?"
"The day you buy that goddamn guitar." She tripped over the leash and collapsed against me, causing Krypto to run around the both of us and tangle us up together.
"Really?" I reached for two straps, trying to figure out which one was Krypto's and which was Louie's.
"Yeah. The blue one's Lou's, by the way," she answered, turning around against my chest and pulling one leg out of the tangled mess. "How much money do you have on you right now?"
I bent down and slid under one layer of leash. "Well I've been saving for this thing for about a year, but considering I'm the only guy in Brooklyn who doesn't get an allowance ... I'd say about $200?"
"Well. I have about three hundred bucks, so I think that combined should cover the cost of your baby and a practice amp ... right?" she said distractedly. "I mean I know these things are ridiculously expensive but—"
"Yeah, that should be enough." I studied the situation for a second and then managed to hop out of the web altogether, leaving Adrienne completely wrapped up holding the ends of two leashes.
"Aw thanks, pal," she said sarcastically.
"No problem, hon." I grinned at her. "Here, give me the end of Krypto's leash— no, it's the other one— no the red one— ok now turn around once clockwise, real slow ... There ya go, you're doing great!"
She gave me the evil eye (as if to say "Sure, and later on, monkey's might fly outta my butt") and reluctantly did as I told her.
It took about ten more minutes to finally get her untangled. Needless to say, she was not very pleased with Louie, Krypto, or me by the time she was free. We walked in silence for about twenty seconds.
Actually, exactly twenty seconds. I timed it. Adrienne's never been able to hold a grudge for longer than that amount of time. I seriously looked at my watch and counted the seconds of silence.
Sixteen ... Seventeen ... Eighteen ... Nineteen—"So Spot, here's the deal," she said, trying to snuggle down into her sweatshirt again. Pretty soon all I could see of her was her baseball cap and her hair. Bloody lunatic ... I swear, one of these days she's gonna get herself killed ... "I'll loan you some money for your guitar obsession," she continued, "but only if you learn how to play 'In a Little While' by U2. That's all I ask."
I reached over and tugged her head out of her sweatshirt. "Which one's that again?"
"IN A LITTLE WHIIIILE! SUURELY YOU'LL BE MIIINE! IN A LITTLE WHILE I'LL BE THEEERE! IN A LITTLE WHILE, THIS HURT WILL HURT NO MOOORE! I'LL BE HOME, LOVE! WHEN THE NIIIIGHT TAKES A DEEP BREATH—"
"ALRIGHT, I remember!" I yelled, resisting the urge to smack her with my wallet.
Actually, smacking her with my wallet would not be a good idea. Adrienne's like a squirrel, she's attracted to things that shine. There's no doubt in my mind that if I were to smack her with that duct-taped thing, she'd grab it and start murmuring creepy stuff like "Oooh, SHINY!"
Ahem.
In the end, however, I did somehow manage to drag Adrienne down to the music store without any more dreadful singing. We were extremely careful when tying up our dogs at the front; there was always the risk that they would pull a let's-wrap-our-owners-in-our-leashes stunt on us again, and I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of Racetrack seeing that...
The sight that greeted us upon entering the store was surprising and rather overwhelming. Racetrack was hopping up and down with a guitar (not my baby, thankfully) and playing it better than I knew he could. Standing next to him was a boy I didn't recognize with dark blonde hair and a patch over his eye, and he was playing the bass guitar and sort of hopping in time with Race. And there was some other tall, dark-haired guy at the drum set in the corner.
"In the naaaaaaaaaame of loooooooove! What moooore in the name of looooove!" the blonde guy was singing loudly. "In the naaaaaaaame of loooooo-ooove! What more in the name of loooooooove!"
Race then went into a startling guitar solo, leaning down in concentration, the blonde guy yelling something like "ATTAH BOY, RACETRACK!" over all the noise. It was a shame to enter the store and see them stop.
"I didn't know you listened to U2," I said as Race leaned the guitar against the wall. "That was fabulous, the Edge would be proud."
He turned slightly red and ran his fingers through his hair. "I..."
"He's a complete music fanatic. He's been taking guitar lessons for five and a half years and he never shuts up about it," the blonde guy with the bass guitar supplied.
"And who, pray tell, are you?" said Adrienne.
"Kid Blink Parker." He spit into his palm and held it out, grinning slightly. "Adrienne James, right? I didn't realize you were like me."
"Hmm?" She raised an eyebrow delicately, spitting into her own palm and shaking his hand.
"He means the deformed left eyes," said Racetrack.
"I was born blind in one eye," said Blink easily.
"Adrienne, tell him how you got your black eye," I said, trying not to laugh.
She shot me a death glare and opened her mouth (my, she certainly wasn't in a good mood this morning) but was interrupted by another boy coming out of the back room singing loudly and wearing a hat made out of old newspapers. "Theeeeeeey're gonna put me in the moooooovies!" he sang, prancing about. "They're gonna make a big star outta meeeeeee! They'll make a scene about a man that's sad and loooonleyyyyy! SING WITH ME, SKITTERY! AND ALL I GOTTA DO IS ACT NATURALLY!"
He poked the guy behind the drums (Skittery, apparently) in the shoulder and grinned infectiously at him. "WELL I BET YOU I'M GONNA BE A BIG STAR!" he sang at the top of his lungs. Suddenly he spotted all of us standing there staring at him.
Or rather, he spotted Adrienne.
And Adrienne spotted him.
And the air was filled with ringing bells and choirs of lovely maidens singing gaily and the smell of spring flowers! Yes, all was at peace with the world! I half expected dancing fairies to frolic about the music store and sprinkle fairy dust all over us or something.
The new dude walked over to Adrienne and the pair of them looked at each other for a second, him taking in her bruised face and lingering smile, and her taking in his broad grin and rather interesting t-shirt (it was bright orange and had "'I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability' –Oscar Wilde" in bold, black letters across the chest). They didn't say anything, and they would probably have remained standing there for quite a while had Blink not spoken.
"Um ... Itey, this is Adrienne James. Adrienne, this is Andrew Marcus."
"Itey." The guy found his voice. "My name's Itey, not Andrew."
Adrienne nodded as if she knew what he was talking about, but somehow I wondered if she had taken in a word. Itey suddenly seemed to remember that he had a newspaper hat on his head, and slowly took it off with a bit of embarrassment.
"So." Race turned away from the two lovebirds and looked at me.
I blinked. "Oh yeah — sorry—"
"Here to check on your baby, right?"
"No, actually." I grinned.
His big brown eyes widened. "What are you trying to say?" he said slowly.
"Today on October fifth, 2004..." I began dramatically, trying not to smile, "I, Spot Conlon, am going to buy the love of my life for three hundred dollars and fifty cents."
"No!" Racetrack gasped.
"Yes!"
"You're kidding!"
"No!"
"Seriously?"
"YES!"
Race's mouth cracked into a grin. He grabbed Blink's arm and gazed off into the distance, his eyes shining. "Gentlemen," he said seriously, "this is an amazing day in the pitiful history of Spot Conlon's life."
"Dude, 'pitiful' seems a little harsh—" I began but he interrupted me.
"He had been friggin' WORSHIPPING this guitar for about half a year, and today he's actually going to buy it," said Race. "Let's give it up for Spotty!"
"Excuse me!" I tried to yell over the clapping and whooping. "SPOTTY!? What the HELL?"
And with that Race kind of paraded over to the guitar case in the corner and unlocked it. He turned to me, a mock serious expression on his face. "Are you sure you're ready to do this?" he murmured, his face less than an inch from mine.
Dear GOD he's hot...
NO! BAD Spot, very very BAD! He's NOT hot!
And he's funny too...
AAH! HEAR NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL! Leave me ALONE!
"Yeah, I'm ready," I heard myself say.
"Well then." Racetrack was suddenly business-like. "The guitar itself costs about three hundred bucks, but then if you want a practice amp you'll need to add on another hundred. Ya got the money?"
"'Course I got the money," I said, reaching into the pocket of my blue jeans and pulling out my duct-tape wallet.
"Oooooh, SHINY!" said Adrienne, taking it out of my hands and examining it thoroughly. (Whoa ... THAT'S SO RAVEN MOMENT! WOO HOO!) "You didn't tell me you had a duct-tape wallet, this is fantastic!"
"ADRIENNE!" I cried, grabbing it back, "I'M HAVING A MOMENT HERE!"
"What?"
"I'M BUYING MY GUITAR!"
"YOU ARE???"
All right. I knew she was kind of spacing out and looking at this Itey guy, but I had no idea the pair of them were so incredibly focused on each other this whole time. Racetrack had been frolicking around with the guitar, for Christ's sake!
Blink laughed. "I'll go get the amp," he said and headed into the back room.
"Dude, you're mom's gonna be so pissed," Adrienne said thoughtfully after a minute.
"AAH!"
"What?"
"MY MOM'S GONNA BE SO PISSED!"
Adrienne rolled her eyes at me and put an arm around my shoulder. "Look—Spot, hon? I love ya, but sometimes you spaz out too much. Loosen up a little! I mean I know that your mom's gonna get wicked ticked off at you and give you the classic lecture about how the electric guitar is the cause of the downfall of Western society ... and come to think of it, she's probably gonna make you return it ... and ground you again ... and take the computer out of your room ... but you have to learn to overcome that!"
"Thanks, Adrienne," I said sarcastically.
"She's right, though," said Itey.
Course she is, you dumbass, she's the hottest girl you've ever seen.
"But—"
"Aw c'mon, Spotty, grow a backbone!" Race groaned.
"All right, the 'Spotty' thing has GOT to stop," I said, irritated.
"Spotty!!" Adrienne sang, hopping up and down.
"I can't buy this guitar!" I moaned.
"You must!" said Blink, coming back out of the back room and poking me.
"My mom'll kill me!" I moaned.
"So?"
"So I'll be dead!"
"So?"
"Aw shut up, Racetrack..."
"You must buy this guitar!" Adrienne commanded.
"I can't!"
"Screw your mom!"
"I'd rather not..."
Race groaned again and put his face in his hands. "Spot, sometimes you amaze me," he said through his fingers. "How the hell are you so insane on IM when you're such a spaz in real life?? Just buy the goddamn guitar!!" spas
"You don't GET it!" I snapped. "You wanna know why I'm such a spaz in real life? 'Cause ever since my dad walked out on me and my mom, she's been a total nutcase! She's completely paranoid and watches my every move and I just can't buy this thing ... You have no idea how pissed she'd get, I'm not kidding, she'd hit the roof. Am I right, Adrienne? C'mon, back me up here."
She looked reluctant. "He's right, actually..." she said slowly. "She'd probably ground him for the rest of his life or sommat..."
"So you're gonna let her live your life for you?" said Skittery quietly from the corner. We all turned around and looked at him. He ran his fingers through his unkempt hair, dark eyes fixed directly on me. "Is that what you want?"
Whoa. I had almost forgotten that dude was there.
And no, that wasn't what I wanted.
I opened my mouth, closed it, and tore my eyes away from that strange guy. "Listen, I gotta go. I think Krypto's trying to sniff Louie's ass ... which is kinda sick, considering they're both guys..."
That seemed to make a little light bulb click in Racetrack's head. His eyebrows shot up as if remembering something he had meant to do. He opened his mouth and then closed it again, apparently deciding not to say whatever he was going to say.
I smiled at him. "What was that?"
"Nothing..." he said quietly — almost as though he was disappointed in himself.
I waited a minute, head tilted to the side, before shrugging and putting my hands in my pockets. "Well I gotta go. See you fellahs later. Maybe next time, alright?"
"Sure. And later on, monkey's might fly outta my butt," Race muttered, taking out the keys and putting my baby back into her case.
Man. People have GOT to stop saying that.
I shrugged again and nodded at the group of them. They just stood there, Blink with his hands in his pockets, Itey and Adrienne still facing each other but looking at me, Race leaning against the glass case, Skittery in the corner with his drums. All looking at me with a mixture of disappointment and something else I couldn't place.
I went back outside. As I had predicted, Krypto was indiscreetly sniffing Louie's butt. Louie didn't seem to notice. "My dog's gay," I muttered, untying his leash from the bike rack. "My dog's gay and so am I. Birds of a feather."
Whoa.
Where did that come from?
"I made the right decision in there, though, didn't I? Not buying the guitar?" I asked him as we walked away. He stopped and looked up at me, big brown eyes wide and meaningful. I stared back at him for a minute before my shoulders slumped in defeat. I patted him sadly on the head. "Your doubtful silence is very reassuring."
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Shoutouts!!!
Liams Kitten: HAHA I love your action figure ideas!! This could be a big hit, if you ask me. lol, thanks for reviewing, I love you!!
rumor: lol!! Ok I'm sorry but I had no idea what the hell you were talking about for like half the review, but I found it extremely amusing nonetheless. And yes, Green Day is just about as good as it gets. Thanks for the review, I love ya!
Aelia O'Hession: Aww thank you!! :-D :-D I see that I'm not the only person who says "dude" much more often than the average human being, lol. Thanks for the review!
singin'-newsies-goil: Ooh update ASAP before I come after you with spears! MWAHA! Ok I'm a little delirious ... got no sleep last night ... Anyway, thanks for the review!
Shadowlands: Aha, the title. Well originally it was gonna be "AOL 9.0" like that was the version of AOL they had or something ... but apparently fanfiction.net doesn't allow decimal points between numbers. So it is AOL 90. And I'm not creative enough to think of a new title, so ... yeah. Thanks for the review, I love ya!
studentnumber24601: Aww thanks! Shut up, you're one hell of a writer and I refuse to believe you could create anything worse than the stuff I'm working on now. :-) Sadly enough, I talk to myself too (although I haven't gotten to the point of naming the lions in front of the Public Library yet) and manage to earn myself a handful of funny looks a day. Ah well, c'est la vie. Anyway, thanks for the review!
nani at 12 o'clock: Ooooooh... *slaps forehead* Sorry about the Mario comment ... lol, hope I didn't offend you or anything... *shrivels up and dies* Yeah, life's a big musical for me too ... I've actually been accused of knowing TOO MANY songs, which I didn't think was possible ... Thanks for the review, I love ya!
SpotLover421: Aah I saw your little "(sue me, I'm lazy)" next to your name and the funny little voice in my head said "Sue you I shall". I think I'm losin' it ... Anyway thanks for the review, and I'm sorry Anastasia's still stuck in your head! (Unless that's a good thing ... in which case I am glad!) ;-D
Coin: lol!!! "There's a guy in my history class named Mario, and I do not like him." Aaah I dunno WHY that cracked me up so much ... Thanks for reviewing!
Sapphy: WOO HOO, MAMBO! *hops around* I'm glad you liked Lia, the homeless dude (who I am ashamed to say that I never named), and the lions. Thanks SO MUCH for the review, you rock my socks!!
Splashey: lol!! That story was so random but that's why I love you. ;-) WOO HOO, GO GREEN DAY! I love them to death! Hmm ... I have no idea why you thought of a Chinese restaurant. Are you Chinese? Lol, thanks for the review, I love ya!
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[1] WAYNE'S WORLD! WAYNE'S WORLD! PARTY TIME! EXCELLENT!!
Author's Note: *shrugs* Not my best work, but I've been wanting to get this out for a while. Leave a review and I'll love you forever!
-Saturday