A/N: Hey guys, I'm back again for another chapter. You know, I didn't think this site would be that cool, but I think it is! I mean, it's so cool when you get a review!
Disclaimer: Once again, I do not own RFR . . . and I have never written for RFR before in seasons 1-4 (Allie-Dee)!
Episode Two: Pettit Science Project
Radio Free Roscoe was back on the air and Lily knew that none of them were happier about that than Robbie. Sure, Lily was happy it was back, but she was beginning to think that maybe she was slowly moving on. This was Robbie's dream, not hers, and she was moving on the bigger and better things: her own dreams.
Lately, school was getting in the way of almost everything. As a sophomore, she was expected to do more, and still do better. That's why she was so upset when Mr. Martins assigned them all to do a science project. She had no time! A science project would take hours of time; time she just did not have. She wished she was in Ray's science class, which was still learning about magnets, or even Robbie's honors science course would be better than this!
"Hey Randy, don't look so happy!" Parker exclaimed, joining Lily by her locker.
"You seem strangely upbeat today," Lily told Parker, while almost slamming a finger in her locker door.
"Yeah, Well, I got to do a lot of thinking last night," Parker started, "I said 'Parks, (that's what I call myself in my mind) Parks, if it was meant to be, he would have called."
"Well, I'm glad you're over it," she said, "but I still have my mixed feelings about Travis not calling me either."
Parker sighed, "It's just different than us, and that's just the way it is, take it or leave it."
"And we'd take it if he'd just give us the chance again," Lily said, "He has our numbers, we don't have his, it's up to him."
"Righteo," Parker said, putting one arm around her friend.
Deep inside, Parker was fighting it, a battle between her heart and mind. She just had to hide it and not let it affect her anymore.
"Parker?" Lily asked.
"Yessssss?"
"What are you doing for your science project?"
"Well, I'm very glad you asked!" she exclaimed as they sat on one of the hallway benches, "I'm testing the effects of plants in liquids other than water. It was inspired by the time my little cousin poured her unwanted orange juice in Nanny Hanes's fern."
Parker always had such good ideas, and Lily couldn't help but to be somewhat envious of that sometimes.
"I have no idea what I'm going to do!" Lily exclaimed.
Just . . . think of something that interests you," Parker suggested, "Then there will probably be a project you could do, and it could be fun at the same time."
"Science is so . . . boring! I told you about my physics class last year," Lily shamefully remembered.
"Maybe Ed and Ted will help you out again." Parker thought, "By the way, I heard they were doing a perpetual motion device."
"But that's impossible!" Lily objected.
"It's a simulation of one."
Lily rested her elbows on her khaki jeans. She could ask Ed and Ted . . . but it bothered her that she couldn't do something so simple on her own. She didn't want a repeat of last year!
"Hey, Sweetie!" Robbie said to Kim as he entered the Cougar Radio booth. "Thought I'd find you here. Why didn't you come to lunch?"
Kim nervously put aside a yellow spiral notebook that only moments before she had been filling page after page with her cursive. "H-hey… Robbie," she stuttered, obviously hiding something, Robbie decided. As he leaned in to kiss her, his eyes wandered to the paper. He saw 'Robbie' written on the page, but the strange part was that it was there way more then one time. Kim, sensing he was trying to read it, pulled away from the kiss and flipped it closed.
"What was that?" he asked, standing up straight again.
"N-nothing… why?"
"Well, I--"
"Hey, are you doing a science project this year?" she cleared her throat, steering the subject away from the yellow notebook.
"Uh… no, that's Mr. Martin's class. I have … a different teacher."
"Yeah… cool… I heard some sophomores talking about it… so… yeah."
"Yeah," Robbie repeated. He couldn't help but wonder what was written about him in that notebook Kim seemed she would guard with her life. They had spent every day of the summer together, yet this was the most awkward conversation they'd ever had, in his opinion.
Robbie cleared his throat. "Um… so what are you doing tonight? I mean… my mom's not coming home until late… we could go to my house…"
"Are you trying to bribe me?" Kim demanded.
"No! What are you--?"
"Never mind. Sorry. I'm busy tonight." She concluded, throwing a few things, including the notebook, into her backpack and standing up. "Umm… see ya."
Robbie couldn't describe how he was feeling as he watched her rush down the hall. It was like… he had just asked Kim on their first date and she turned him down. Because, Robbie thought at least, whatever was written in that notebook, he felt, was more important then him.
"Why don't you just test paper towels or something?" Ray asked Lily during a song on RFR.
"Because everyone does that, and I need a really good grade," she told him, "besides, it's utterly boring!"
"Lily something will come to you, you don't have to freak out about it," Robbie told her, spinning a CD on one of his fingers.
"FREAK OUT? You think I'm freaking out? Ray, am I freaking out?"
"No. . . of course not!" Ray said hesitantly.
"I'm freaking out! Why do I always freak out?" Lily asked, putting her head down on the table.
"It's not freaking out Lily!" Ray tried to convince her, "It's . . . overly obsessing?"
Robbie glared at Ray.
"OBSESSING?" Lily put her head up.
"NO! No, I didn't mean it like that," Ray said, digging himself out of the hole he was burying himself in.
Lily was muttering to herself when Ray got the idea.
"Lily!" Ray exclaimed, "DUH!"
"Are you calling me stupid now then?"
"No! Lily . . . what's your most favorite thing in the world?"
"Ray . . . don't think I'm doing a science project on you!" she laughed, "though it would be kind of funny if I . . ."
"No Lily, not me, though I am flattered . . ."
"What then, I need to know NOW!" she yelled, slamming her palms on the table.
". . . Music!"
"Music," she repeated, "Music . . . music, MUSIC! Ray you're a genius!"
"I know . . . people tell me that a lot . . ."
"Wait!" her smile faded, "How do I do a science project about music?"
Ray sat in thought for awhile, "uh . . ."
"You could like . . . test sound waves or something," Robbie suggested, "Like in the air and stuff like that."
This time Ray glared at Robbie.
"That's awesome!" she exclaimed, "Do you think . . . I could leave early to start researching? I want to see if it's possible . . ."
"Fine with me," Robbie said, his mind still seeming to be somewhere else.
"Robbie! You're the greatest!" Lily decided, giving her friend a hug.
"Yeah, great . . . steal all the glory from me," Ray muttered.
"Aw Ray!"
Lily gave Ray a hug too, and a kiss he was not expecting.
"Thanks!" she said, and with that, was on her way.
"Man, if I would have known helping with homework had rewards like that, I would have started tutoring people a long time ago!" Ray joked.
Robbie stifled a laugh. He liked Ray's sense of humor, but he had more important things to think about, other important things that he just couldn't get off his mind.
Lunch the next day was about as amusing as watching his grandpa take a nap, in Robbie's opinion. Lily was fretting about her project again, and while Ray was trying to get her to calm down, all efforts were useless with the fight she was putting up. Noticing that Kim wasn't at the table, or in the lunchroom for that matter, Robbie slipped away from the table muttering something about how he was leaving, but nobody heard him anyhow. He strolled out of the cafeteria, and began scanning the hallways for Kim.
As he had expected, Kim was sitting on the ground in front of her locker, writing in the same yellow spiral from yesterday. She looked up after a moment, sucking on the end of her pen in thought. She noticed Robbie approaching her and flipped the notebook closed quickly.
"Thought I'd find you here!" Robbie exclaimed. Kim pushed the notebook and pen aside and forced a smile. "If you keep skipping out on lunch, I'll never see you again!"
Although he was only joking, Kim's face turned slightly pink.
"I-I'm not skipping lunch," she laughed mechanically. She picked up a bag of potato chips that were next to her, unnoticed until that point, and held them up to show him.
"Oh, how nutritious," Robbie laughed. "So you couldn't return any of my calls or call me because you were too busy buying potato chips?"
Kim opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again when she couldn't think of a good excuse. "Oh-h-h-h…" she stalled. "I-um, I…. was just… I just had a lot of… things on my mind… yesterday. I'm sorry. I…. was really caught up… yesterday." She stuffed a handful of chips in her mouth. "Wannnffff shummm?'
She extended the bag towards Robbie, but he shook his head. He tried to fight the lump of curiosity that seemed to grow in his throat with every word he didn't say. He wanted to ask why that yellow notebook with his name in it seemed to be controlling Kim's life. He had the conversation planned out in his head; the only thing he worried about was what her real reaction would be.
"Kim, what are you writing in that notebook?" he finally dared himself to ask. They sat in silence, and Robbie wondered whether she was going to answer or not. A few seconds later, she turned to him.
"Did you say something?" she asked. "Couldn't hear. Too much crunching."
"Ummm…." Robbie started. Kim crumpled up the bag and stood up, picking up the notebook and pen in her free hand. She opened her locker and carelessly threw everything inside. "Nothing," Robbie decided. Kim slammed the locker shut and looked around.
"Okay, then." She concluded. "Better… uh… get going…"
Kim turned away uneasily.
"Uh… wait!" Robbie called, and Kim turned around again. "Kim… are you avoiding me?"
Kim stifled a laugh and rolled her eyes. "No! No!" she smiled. "No I'm not, silly! How about… I call you tonight?"
"Fine," he agreed. Kim kissed him quickly and she walked away, in the opposite direction she had been going before, Robbie noticed, but couldn't help smiling at the fact that her kiss tasted salty.
Robbie was about to walk away; when he noticed Kim's locker was still slightly open a crack. Obviously, when she had slammed it shut, the broken locker had bounced back instead of locking closed. Curiosity got the best of him, and he opened it.
Aside from textbooks and an assortment of colorful pens, all of the junk in Kim's locker was… junk. There were various empty potato chip bags, candy wrappers and pop bottles, and a collection of crumpled homework and tests with red 'A's stamped on them. Robbie's eyes wandered over to the yellow notebook Kim had been writing in earlier. It seemed to glow and scream 'Read Me!'
Robbie couldn't help himself; he took it out, and as he turned around, his shoulder bumped into the door and it closed. He panicked, and tried to pull it open, but it wouldn't budge. Sweat seemed to drip down his back as the bell rang, and Robbie was forced to shove the notebook in his backpack and pray Kim wouldn't notice it was gone.
"Ray! I found the perfect science project!" Lily exclaimed, catching up with her friend on the way out of school.
"Awesome Lily, what is it?" he asked, engrossed in his small hand-held video game.
"I'm going to test how music affects heart rate! Isn't that a great idea?" she asked.
"Yeah," Ray answered, battling a large evil turtle on his game.
"You don't seem so excited about it," Lily said, disappointed.
"Sure I am," Ray replied, biting his lip intensely as he went for the last hit on the giant turtle.
"Good, because you know, it was your idea to use music," she reminded him, "I guess I owe you, right?"
Lily pushed the video game away from Ray and kissed him.
"We . . . haven't been doing that much," Ray noticed, when she had pulled away.
"We haven't seen much of each other at all lately," Lily got an idea, "You could help me with my project tonight!"
"I don't know, school outside of school? I don't even do my own homework!" Ray exclaimed.
"True, but we wouldn't do that the whole time. . . " Lily said, raising her eyebrows, "And besides, I need someone to help with this."
"Sure, you got me," he said, making up his mind after she had raised her eyebrows.
"And Ray?"
"Yeah?"
"Sorry, I think the giant turtle ate you."
"That's alright . . . I was only on the last level of the game I've been trying to beat since the fifth grade," he replied.
"Oh Ray!"
"It's okay, it was worth it!" he said with a shy smile, "I'd pick you over a giant turtle any day."
"That's good to know . . ." Lily joked.
Together they walked toward the station for another RFR broadcast, waiting for their much over-due night together.
"Robbie… are you okay?" Lily asked as she sat down and put her head phones over her ears before the show. She had noticed him start to act very strange after lunch.
Robbie just sat there and shrugged, clutching his backpack tightly in his lap with sweaty palms.
Ray seemed to be thinking the same as Lily, and noticed Robbie's tight grip on his school bag. "Something wrong with you and Kim? And what's wrong with your backpack? You got a wild animal in it or something?"
Robbie glanced nervously at the clock behind him, "Umm… let's start the show," he decided, although he was a few minutes early.
Lily and Ray exchanged worried glances, but didn't argue. Lily flicked the switch on the control panel and sat down at her usual place, putting her headphones on.
"This is Radio Free Roscoe, thanks for tuning in," Robbie seemed to be rushing. He cleared his throat. "Umm… I'm Question Mark and I'm wondering…"
There were a lot of things he was wondering. Like how to get Kim's notebook back without her finding out and knowing he'd been snooping around in her locker, in her personal business, for one. He felt stupid for even caring about what she was writing in the first place. He wished more then anything that he had just left the notebook alone, wished it wasn't in his backpack… haunting him… driving him insane…
"While Question Mark wonders what he's wondering about," Lily said into her microphone, not wanting dead air to take up the whole show, "Why don't we check out this new song by--?"
"No, I'm ready," Robbie interrupted, planning what he would say as he went along. "I'm Question Mark and I'm wondering… why do accidents happen? I mean, if everything happened the way it was supposed to, wouldn't everyone be happier?"
"Think about it this way," Ray replied, "Accidents normally happen when we're doing something we're not supposed to be."
Robbie's stomach gave an uneasy lurch and he tightened his grip on the bag until
his knuckles were white.
"For example," Ray continued, "One year, a week before Christmas, my brother and I snuck into my parents' room to try to get an early glimpse of our presents. We knew that our mom always kept the presents on the top shelf of her closet, the closet by the window.
"We pulled up a chair, and climbed on, only the chair wasn't strong enough for the both of us to stand on at the same time. I fell off, and while I fell, I grabbed onto the window curtains and –alas!—they ripped. And so, we got in trouble. Of course, my excuse was 'It was an accident!'." Ray laughed, reliving the memory in his head. "If we wouldn't have tried to sneak a peak at our presents, the curtain wouldn't have gotten ripped and Santa probably wouldn't have filled my stocking with coal…"
"Well, Pronto," Lily smiled, "I have a different approach. A lot of common things we see today were made by accident."
"Yeah," Ray scoffed. "Name one."
"Soda," Lily replied quickly, as if expecting him to challenge her, "Scientists were trying to make a sort of medicine that would make you fall asleep. Instead, they got a fizzy, high-caffeinated beverage everyone's well aware of today."
"Electricity," Robbie put in, speaking for the first time in minutes. "Or at least the ability to channel it. Without Ben Franklin and his kite, we'd all be playing chess instead of video games."
"Right you are Question. How about chocolate chip cookies? That lady who wanted all-chocolate cookies and didn't have any cocoa powder added candy bar pieces expecting them to melt through. They stayed together though, and became one of the most popular cookie flavors ever--."
"I said name one!" Ray exclaimed, although he had a grin on his face. "I still think it's bad karma. Those people just got lucky."
Lily laughed, and didn't mention the bottle of soda in Ray's hand.
After an hour of songs and segments, Robbie's mood turned way up. He forgot about the notebook after a while.
"This is RFR, signing off," he concluded.
"Tune in tomorrow or else!" Ray joked.
"Catch you guys later," Lily laughed. She ran over to the control panel and flicked the broadcast switch off. She noticed Travis's empty chair and gloom flooded over her. For the first time, it actually hit her that all of this stuff belonged to Travis. He had left it there for them. He knew they would still continue without him all along.
He's so sweet, she thought. Poor Parker. She's still taking it hard.
She noticed a white envelope sticking out from under a stack of CDs. She thought it was weird that she had never noticed it there before. That stack of CDs had been there as long as she could remember… but never the envelope. She reached for it slowly…
"Hey Lil! What're you doing?" Ray exclaimed behind her, breaking her speeding train of thought. "We going to work on your project now or what? I gotta be home by dinner… mom's ordering pizza."
"Um…" she looked back at him. He was staring at her, expecting an answer. "Yeah," she finished. She backed away from the control station with one last glance at the envelope. That can be a mystery for another day, she decided, and walked out of the station not far behind Ray.
Having ignored Ray's invitation for pizza, Robbie sat alone in the station in his swivel chair. He sat there, wondering if he should go to Mickey's or go home to do his homework, when the thought of Kim's notebook flooded through his brain. Carefully, as though it were dangerous, he opened his bag and pulled it out. His first thought was to call Kim, tell her what had happened and risk losing her or suffering the consequences… if she got mad. But his second thought was I have it now; I'm alone… what's stopping me from reading it?
Feeling evil and slightly dishonest, he opened the yellow cover to the first page. Nothing. He kept flipping until he got to about the tenth page, which he found every inch covered in 'Robbie McGrath.' Although he thought this was cute, he was also embarrassed that he was reading something that was probably intended on being kept secret.
After running his hand down the page a few times, he turned it quickly. The next five pages were filled with cartoons of the same boy. He smiled and realized that the boy very much resembled him. After looking through all of the pictures of himself, which often included a girl who he couldn't help guess was Kim, he turned the pages and found cartoons of different people.
Robbie felt a bit guilty that he had never known that his own girlfriend loved to draw so much. She seemed to draw everyone. After looking at these few pages over and over again, he found all of his friends, Principal Waller with an odd expression on his face, and River Pierce with a speech bubble that read 'I have an ego as big as my butt.' Even though he thought this was funny, he hadn't found the page he had seen a glimpse of the day before, before Kim had flipped it closed quickly.
Then it occurred to Robbie that this might be Kim's journal; that he should stop reading it and return it right away. Still, he found himself turning the page over. What came next appeared to be a school assignment.
Kimberley Carlisle—
It said in the top, right margin—
Mrs. Shipman, Honors Literature
Grade 12
'Best Friends' Essay –MY VERSION-
Robbie assumed it would be a boring school assignment, but his eyes scanned down the page anyway.
I've never had a best friend in my life. Well, up until last year when some whacked out incident made me best friends with a Freshman boy, so I consider the other people in the world lucky. They've all had best friends—since they started pre-school, probably. They've all gone to each other's houses and played Barbies and ate ice cream and had sleepovers. At least… I think that's what you do at sleepovers. Yeah, they think I don't know anything about having a best friend (and I don't really), but I've heard them talk about stuff like that all my life, what best friends are supposed to do. Well, in their opinion anyway. My best friend's a boy. You think we really play with Barbies and eat ice cream and talk about boys? Robbie doesn't like talking about how hot the kid who sits behind me a few rows back in math is, so that sorta eliminates talking about boys (unless River Pierce did something stupid again, that's always fun to talk about); my Barbies are jammed somewhere in my attic (and I'm sure Robbie would love to play Babysitter Barbie, or even me, seeing as though I'm 17). I don't remember eating ice cream with him ever either…
I don't really talk about Robbie much in front of anyone. Partially because there's no one to talk about him to, and also because of all the stupid flames I'll get. Robbie's a Grade 10, and for some reason, that's not okay with people. But I'm not even supposed to care about anything anymore because ever since I came back from Paris, I'm supposed to be some carefree, loving, hyper-active maniac everyone loves. I don't even want to be like that, and I really don't know what's preventing me from being a jerk again. I guess if it weren't for Robbie I wouldn't have lasted like this. It's like he likes me better now that I'm a psycho. That's pretty sucky given the fact that I thought he liked me for who I really was… or maybe he likes me better now because according to the guy in front of me in chemistry, I'm "hot" now. That would suck even more. This is such a waste of time. I wish I could
The paper ended abruptly, and Robbie found his hands shaking on the paper. What was this all supposed to mean? He wondered. If it weren't for Robbie I wouldn't have lasted like this… every time he read the line, a chill ran down his spine. And the last line: I wish I could… I wish I could what?
Robbie read the whole thing over a few times. He had a strange feeling he couldn't figure out. Why didn't I know any of this, he wondered. He tried to tell himself Kim hadn't written this, but he knew he was just lying to himself. Kim had written it; it was in her hand-writing, and it was exactly the way Kim would have written it last year.
Last year? Robbie thought. She's changed a lot. But this essay has yesterday's date on it. So, somewhere inside, the old Kim, not the happy, cutesy, popular one, is still there?
It felt strange to think of Kim as 'The New' and 'The Old' one. She's still the same person… but… different, Robbie decided at last. Now he understood. The old Kim… or, the way Kim used to act, a year ago… was just the sad little girl who wanted a friend to play with and have sleepovers with, trapped inside a teenager who knew she had no chance of recreating a happier childhood.
So I made this new Kim? Robbie wondered. I helped her be happier… I gave her a first best friend? She's so different… because of me?
Robbie read through it again and now understood what it meant. Still, he decided as he slipped it in his backpack and left the station, he would have been happier if he hadn't stolen that stupid yellow notebook in the first place.
After late night project help, and crunch time, the Henry Roscoe High Science Fair was finally underway. All sophomores assigned projects, and any that wanted to (like the science club of course!) were preparing their speeches a few minutes before the judging would start.
Ray, feeling very out of place near a group of "science club nerds" was browsing the gym in search of Lily's project. Knowing Lily and her stage fright, and being the great boyfriend he was, he had to be there for things like this.
"Ray! There you are!" Lily exclaimed, pulling him aside, "I'm FREAKING OUT!"
"Chill Lil!" he said, "Haha that rhymes!"
"Ray!" she glared at him, "No time to joke! This is my GRADE at stake here! I can't totally bomb science again this year!"
"I know! Come on Lily, You know you have a chance to completely blow everyone out of the water."
"Except Ed and Ted . . ."
"Well yeah, except them of course."
"Ray!"
"Ouch!" he rubbed his arm after Lily hit him, and turned away. "Sorry Lily!"
"Yeah, yeah, I was just making you feel bad," she said, "I'll be fine."
"Lily Randall," Principal Waller said, with the entire staff of science teachers behind him.
"Uh . . . hello sir," she said nervously.
Principal Waller cleared his throat and glared at Ray.
"I'm gone," he said, holding up his arms, "Good luck Lily."
She smiled uneasily.
"So, 'How Music Affects Heart Rate'" one of the judges read, "How did you get this idea?"
"Well, uh, music . . . it's good. I . . . um, like it . . . a lot! I like it a lot!" she said, "My friend did it . . . well, gave me the idea for it."
"Please demonstrate."
"So, everyone has a pulse! And pulse can easily be measured . . . so when you play music . . . it can change," Lily said nervously, doubting every word that came out of her mouth. "Okay, so first you play music because that's how you do the experiment, and then you test the pulse . . . to see if it changed. Wait! You have to test your pulse first so you know if it changed incase it changed because that's how you do the experiment."
Lily smiled uneasily at the judges as they gave her questioning looks.
"So, I'm going to demonstrate by testing someone's pulse."
Principal Waller held out a pale, clammy hand.
Lily tested his pulse and tried to smile in the process, "It's uh . . . 200 beats per minute . . ."
"200? That's impossible!" he objected, "Maybe that's your pulse because you're so darn nervous!"
"Um . . . yeah, so now I'm going to play music . . . The Pettit Project to see if it changes."
They wait for a minute, and Lily rechecks the pulse. Maybe she should have studied more for this, or maybe she shouldn't have let Ray distract her. She knew she was bombing it, so she gave in.
"No change!" she decided.
"No change . . . maybe it's this 'new fangled' music you teens are listening to these days!" Waller decided.
"The end!" Lily said.
The judges clapped slowly. She knew she had failed.
"Thank you Lily," Mr. Martins, her science teacher said, "I'll pass you for the effort."
She smiled, but inside she knew she didn't deserve it.
"So . . . what happened?" Ray asked, appearing at her side as soon as the judges had left.
"I passed . . . at least I passed."
"You bombed then," he said.
"But I did pass!" she objected.
"It's a start! Next year maybe I'll do the science fair . . . and I'll do it about stage fright," he teased.
"Haha," Lily said with a smile, and linked arms with Ray as they went to catch up with Robbie and Parker to wait and see who won.
"Hey," Kim smiled as she came up behind Robbie in front of a project someone had done on goldfish. "Haven't seen you all day."
Her voice was thick. Robbie sighed, and then turned around. "Hey Kim, what's up?"
He imagined his palms become sweaty.
Kim shoved a packet of papers in his hands, her smile plastered on her face. "I got an 'A' on my essay, McGrath."
Robbie hated when she called him McGrath. Somehow, he knew, she had found out it was him who took her notebook.
Well duh! Nobody else knew about her notebook! He thought looking down at the papers she had given him. It was much longer then the one in the yellow spiral, and as he scanned the first few pages, he didn't see his name anywhere.
"Well?" Kim demanded, although Robbie didn't really know what she was demanding.
"I'm not surprised you got an 'A'… I mean, it's really interesting…"
Kim snatched the essay out of his hands and glared, "Where's my notebook, McGrath?"
"I…uh…" Robbie stuttered, fishing into his bag and pulling it out. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have been in your locker… and, I was going to put it back but it closed on accident…"
"Shut up already!" Kim burst out. Robbie closed his mouth and stared at her. "Thank you. Now. . . "
She flicked Robbie hard on his right cheek and his hand shot to the spot automatically. To him, it felt similar to a slap.
"That was for going through my locker. Now. . ."
Robbie braced himself for another flick in the cheek, but it never came.
Kim continued, "How much did you read?"
"I just saw the drawings… and your essay… about me…" he muttered.
"Oh!" Kim smiled. Robbie smiled back, not sure what to expect. Kim flicked him again, only this time it was on his left cheek. He rubbed his face again. "That was for reading it."
"I'm sorry! I deserve it!" Robbie whined. Kim just shrugged. "Wait… how come you never told me you like to draw?"
"You never asked," she replied. "I guess there's a lot you don't know about me."
Robbie couldn't help but agree in his head.
Kim turned away from Robbie for a second and flipped through the back pages, thankful Robbie hadn't seen the fifth page from the end:
I'm in love with Question Mark…
"The suspense is KILLING me Ed!" Ted expressed loudly.
"I wonder who will win Ted . . ." Ed pronounced, as though he were a bad actor.
The two biggest "science nerds" of the school knew they had the first place prize in the bag. Who else spent long days and nights working on a science project? No one of course! All those "lower" scientists were forced into doing this project, thinking science was just some measly game. Ed and Ted treated science like the gold they believed it was. They lived and breathed science up into this day.
"So Parker how do you think you did?" Lily asked, as they caught up with her.
"I think I passed at least . . . you know, how about you Randy?" she smiled cheerfully.
"I definitely passed . . ."
"She bombed!" Ray flat-out said.
Lily punched Ray for what seemed like the millionth time that day.
"But I passed."
"That's good at least, you never know, you might win a prize!" Parker said.
"PPPPFFFFFFTTTT!" Ray tried not to laugh, and mocked Lily, "Hi I'm Lily, and this is what you do first because that's how you do the experiment."
Lily hit Ray again, "I'm sensing a pattern," Ray noticed, rubbing his arm.
"And now, if I could have everyone's attention please!" Principal Waller announced on the microphone at the front.
There was a loud squeak of feed-back so everyone covered their ears and shot around toward the noise.
"Thank you," The Principal said, clearing his throat and picking his ear, "I would like to announce the winner and runner up to the thirty-third annual Henry Roscoe High science fair."
Ed and Ted straightened their ties and checked their hair in small mirrors.
"Our runners up for this year are . . . Ed and Ted, with their perpetual motion device simulation! Our winners from last year!" he announced.
"WHAT?" Ed exclaimed.
"I DEMAND A RECOUNT!" Ted exclaimed, "Ed! Did they make a mistake?"
"That's what you get for being so pompous!" Parker mentioned, as they slowly went up to receive their small plaque.
"And I'm proud to announce the new winner this year . . . with her lovely fern experiment . . . Parker Hanes!"
Parker skipped up to the front to receive her large blue ribbon, and Lily's mouth hit the floor.
"Parker . . . won?" Ray said, "Awesome! Way to put those geeks in their place!"
Parker grabbed the microphone, "I'd like to thank Lily, Ray, Megan, my cousin Bobby, and my Nanny Hanes! To all of you wonderful people for believing in me when I was at my lowest . . . It feels great to be an honorary science nerd for a day. You know, when I was in the fifth grade I was actually in the science club. It was only for a week, but I could tell that excellence would come my way in the science field one day . . ."
"Thank you Parker, you don't have to make a speech. Good luck at the Regional Science Fair!" Principal Waller said.
"Regional Science Fair! Ed that should be us!" Ted exclaimed.
"PARKER! PLEASE ENLIGHTEN US WITH YOUR BRILLIANT KNOWLEDGE OF SCIENCE!" Ed and Ted dropped to their knees and begged as the rest of the people started to put their projects away and leave.
Parker returned to where Ray and Lily were still standing, stunned.
"Parker! Congratulations!" Lily exclaimed.
"Well, you know how it is . . . I really wanted to do good this time!" she explained, "and there is room for me and a friend at the regional science fair . . . can you say weekend vacation with my best friend Lily?"
"Awesome!" Lily said.
"Just Lily? I thought I was your best friend too!" Ray pointed out.
Parker and Lily glared at Ray.
"Just wait until next year Parker . . . Lily is going to blow you out of the water!" Ray decided, "What do you say Lily? We could do plants this time! How about DNA? Animals maybe? What do you say?"
"I say there is NEVER going to be a next year Ray!" Lily laughed.
A/N: So there was my next chapter. I am SO SORRY this took so long, please forgive me! I will be posting the next chapter as soon as I finish it, which hopefully will be sooner than this one took. Thanks for the reviews for the first chapter! They were pretty cool. If anyone wants to contact me on a site/e-mail leave it in your review or just e-mail me. Thanks again everyone!