A/N: Hello and welcome back to the second to the second to the last chapter of, "The Gossip Around Shermer". I'm Bambi and I am very happy that you're here. We're on the road to the end folks. One last before this story is over. Now as always, I do not/ have not/ probably, nor will I ever own the rights to "The Breakfast Club" or any of its characters, plot points, and themes. Those rights belong to the estate of John Hughes and Universal Pictures. Xia Hart is one hundred percent mine. Now, onto the chapter. Enjoy.
Ch. 13 Aftermath
In the aftermath of Claire and Allison's heated argument, the group was reeling. As bad as it sounds Xia was glad she didn't have the chance to write Allison's lies down. "Why did you lie?" Xia asked. "Why do you care?" Allison shot back. "I'm just curious. That was a heavy confession. Nobody just says those kinds without them being some form of the truth." Xia explained. "What do you know about the truth? You write lies and gossip all the time." Allison pointed out. Oh here it comes. "Gossip, much like your story, starts out as some form of the truth. And for your information Shermer had a big rumor before I even had the column. It's going to continue after I graduate. I'm just the messenger." Xia tries to separate herself.
It's a speech she's given a million times. Nobody ever really seems to understand. "Your messages are hurtful." Claire warned. "I know and again I'm sorry, Claire. Xia apologized. A nervous pit starts to form in Xia's stomach. "And that's why you're comfortable with writing things like, if Johnson were a spice he'd be flour or Bender stole a screw?" Allison asked as she sat up on her knees to retrieve something from the waistband of her skirt.
Xia's entire being is consumed with fear. She only wrote that stuff in one place. It always quickly made her realize that Allison was the one who took her notebook. She should've known. It was always the quiet ones after all. As much as Xia wanted to get mad, she knew she couldn't. This was the end of the line. "How do you know that?" Xia asked rhetorically. Killing the suspense, Allion yanks the heart shaped notebook out of her waistband.
"I read it in this." Allison shows the room. Claire turns to Xia. "Isn't that the notebook you lost?" She asked. Xia just responds with a nod. "Xia, you told me your book report was in there." Brian "Clearly not, Johnson." John shook. Well it was nice having friends and a boyfriend again for a few hours. John and Brian's eyes are burning a hole into Xia. "You were gonna rat me out." John shouted. "You think I'm boring." Brian murmured.
"Not exactly. That was before I got to know you guys. But at the time, yeah." Xia started. The jig was up. She's just hoping that she can explain herself and they won't hate her as much. "She wrote about everybody." Allison confirmed. She opened the notebook and began passing it around. Xia felt as if she was glued to the floor. What type of fight could she put up? It's not like she didn't write it. "Fucking a. Claire and Sporto were in here a lot." John broadcasted. "You three are my most popular subjects. People wanna read about you guys." Xia explained sullenly.
"Let me see." Andy motions his hand for the book. Xia turns away in shame with tears in her eyes. "Don't cry now." Allison scoffs. "You are unfuckingbelievable, Xia." Andy shook his head in disgust.
"Andy, I can explain." Xia softly sobs. "Please do. Tell us all why you're such a fake life ruining bitch." Brian spat. A hush falls over the room as Xia takes a minute to collect herself. "Fucking talk." John demanded.
"I was angry and lonely when Andy broke up with me and Claire stopped being my friend. My mom had checked out, my dad was gone. I felt like the whole world forgot about me. I wanted attention, I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be heard. That's why I dyed my hair pink. I wanted a reaction. I just someone to give a fuck. So, I joined the school paper. At first I was just doing fluff pieces. Why is the cafeteria food bad? And spirit days. That kind of shit. Lorenzo, do you guys know him? Short, slicked back hair, greasy, wears sweater vests? Well he wanted a hard hitting story. I couldn't think of anything to give him but a gossip piece about you two. He loved it and put it in the paper." Xia explained, pointing at Andy and Claire.
"And you're proud of that?" Claire asked.
"Obviously not. Claire. Anway, that's how I got the Hartblast. It was fun at first. People really started to pay attention to me and I got compliments. Then a lot of people started taking the gossip to heart. People have tried to fight me wherever I went, they vandalized my house, nobody trusts me, my mom has been brought into it, it's made my mom hate me. So, I've been trying to get out of it for a little while. I want to write about serious topics. Lorenzo won't hear any of it though. Then I got put in here because of a joke I made off record about Vernon wearing a toupee. Vernon took offense to it. I made a deal with Lorenzo that if I brought him a hard hitting piece about life in detention, I can write about other things. That's why I wrote about the screw and everything else. But I don't want to do it anymore. Being here today taught me that I've hurt a lot of people and ruined lives. I've tried to tell myself that it doesn't get to me or that I don't talk to those people so it doesn't matter, but it does matter cause you guys are staring at me like I'm the devil. Pretty sure the whole school feels the same way. And I don't know how to fix it but I'm sorry." Xia explains further.
"So we're just your way out." John asked. "You were." Xia admits softly. "You're so weird." Brian shook his head. "No, Allison's the weird one. She doesn't talk all day and she comes and dumps all over us." Claire interjects. "You two are just pissed cause she got you to admit something you didn't want to." Andy defends Allison. "Okay, fine. That doesn't make it any less bizarre." Claire shrugged.
"We're all bizarre. Some are just better at hiding it than others." Andy offered. "How are you bizarre?" Claire wondered. "He can't think for himself." Allison chirped, causing Xia to feel a pang of anger. "Andy ca-" Andy cuts her off. "She's right. You know what I did to get in here?" Andy questioned. "What?" Xia replied, happy to finally hear his reason and to get the heat off her for a moment.
"I taped Larry Lester's buns together." Andy admitted. "That was you?" Brian gasped in disbelief.
"Yeah. You know how hairy he is? Well, I was sitting in the locker room taping up my knee. Bizarre thing is I did it for my dad. I screwed with this poor kid because I wanted my dad to think I was cool. He has no tolerance for weakness. Larry is small and weak. So, I jumped on him and started wailing. All my friends were cheering me on. When I got to Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry going home to his dad. He must've felt humiliated. And it's all because of me and my old man. I fucking hate him. He's like a machine I can't relate to anymore. Andrew, you got to be number one. I won't tolerate any losers in this family. Your intensity is for shit. Win! You son of a bitch. Sometimes I wish my knee would give out and he'd forget all about me." Andy began to cry.
In response, a teary eyed Xia launches herself into him, holding onto his neck tightly. This is exactly what she's been dreading to hear. Andy clings to her as if she's buoy in the middle of the ocean. She presses her forehead against his. "You are so much more than that man makes you out to be. And whether or not that knee gives out, I'll be right here." Xia swore. "Promise?" Andy begged. "I promise." Xia assured him.
"Sounds like your old man and my old man should go bowling." John joked to ease the tension. Andy lets out a small laugh. "You know all of this is like me with my grades. When I step outside myself I don't like what I see." Brian confessed. "Why don't you like yourself?" Claire asked.
"I'm stupid. I'm failing shop. We had this assignment to make this ceramic elephant. We had eight weeks to do it and we're supposed to, see it was a lamp. When pulled on the trunk it's supposed to light up. My light didn't go on and I got an F. I've never gotten an F in my life. Ya know, when I signed up I thought it would be easy. Just something to help maintain my grade point average." Brian elaborated.
"Why'd you think it was easy?" John asked. "You seen some of the dopes who take shop?" Brian questioned. "I take shop. You must be a fucking idiot." John snapped, clearly unhappy for the generalization. "Because I can't make a lamp?" Brian asked, annoyed. "No, you're a genius cause you can't make a lamp." John scoffed. "Do you know trigonometry?" Brian questioned. "I don't care about trigonometry." John laments.
"Bender, without trigonometry there'd be no engineers." Brian argues. "Without lamps there wouldn't be any light." John argues right back. "So nobody is better than the other." Claire intervenes to stop the arguing. "I can write with my toes, eat, brush my teeth, and play Heart & Soul on the piano." Allison randomly informs them. "With your feet?" Claire asked, surprised. Allison just nods in response.
"I can make spaghetti." Brian boasts. "I can tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue. Andy, what can you do?" Xia asked. "Uh I can tape your buns together." He laughs. "I wanna see what Claire can do." John interjects. Claire stares at him wide eyed and confused. "I can do anything." Claire shook her head. "Everybody can do something." John shrugs. "It's embarrassing. You have to swear to god you won't laugh." Claire begged them. They assure her with promises and head nods. Claire proceeded to look into her pocket for a tube of lipstick.
Immediately, Xia knew what she was gonna do. Claire had pulled this trick out at every party and sleepover since she came back from camp the summer before seventh grade. The trick was Claire putting the tube of lipstick between her cleavage, bending her head, and applying it to her lips. Due to her short stature, Xia had never been able to do it. "Where'd you learn that?" Andy asked her after she's done.
"Camp seventh grade." Claire nodded. A slow clap from the back of the circle started up. Everyone turns to the noise, seeing it's John. "Wow, Claire. That's great. My image of you is totally blown." John snarked. "Don't do that to her. You promised you wouldn't laugh," Allison chastised. "Really, don't be such a dick." Xia shook her head. "Prick." Andy groaned.
"Why do you care? I don't count, right? I might as well not even exist at this school, remember? And you two don't even like me." John parroted sentiments from earlier, now looking between Claire and Xia. "Oh cry me a fucking river you emotional terrorist." Xia snapped. She felt bad snapping at John, but she's not gonna tolerate being talked to like that. "I have as many feelings as you do and it hurts when someone stomps on them." Claire cried.
"Don't compare yourself to me. Fucking Rapunzel. The school would probably shut down if you weren't here. I like those earrings, Claire." John berated her. "Shut up." Claire whimpered quietly.
"Are those real diamonds? I bet they are. Did you work for those earrings or did daddy buy those as a Christmas gift? I bet he did. You wanna know what I got for Christmas, Claire? Cigs. It was a banner freaking year in the Bender house. Old man grabbed me and said ``aye smoke up Johnny''." John exploded. "Shut up." Claire exploded right back, taking all the air out of the room. Everybody is radio silent. Nobody is too sure what to say next. "Are we gonna be like our parents?" Andy is the first one to speak up. "Not me." Claire shook her head, "I hope not." Xia sighs. "It's inevitable. When you're old your heart dies." Allison prophesied. "Who cares," John brushes it off.
"I care." Allison admits with tears in her eyes. Brian wraps an arm around her shoulder. "I care too." he nods.
A/N: We love chapters where emotions run high! I can't believe this story is almost over. I mean we have one more chapter and it's done. Anyway, I really hoped you liked this chapter. Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you guys next for the finale. Have a great weekend. Bye guys!
