Hiya ! Thanks to anyone reading this .If anyone has the time to review , I would very much appreciate people's opinions on where the story is going .
Italics are notes and thoughts .
Disclaimer : I don't own any of these characters . I just write about them in the hopes that no one from Rockstar will find it and decide to break my kneecaps .
Chapter 23 - Emphasis
Peanut's POV
The next month flew by in a cocktail of exams and weekends of lemonade with our new allies: allies with graceless movement(Beatrice), shameless humour(Cornelius) and wicked imaginations(Thad) to compliment sharp minds and loyalty to rival Miss Danvers' dedication to Crabblesnitch(although the nerds were considerably less annoying).
These qualities quickly came to light: whenever cheer-leading tryouts started, Beatrice's face crumpled like a paper ball the second she saw her name on the list in someone else's handwriting(no prize for guessing which brown-haired cheer-leader was responsible), which was quickly remedied by Cornelius's theory that the previous gym teacher(Mr Burton) only started the cheer-leading team so that he could tell which girls were willing to stick their ankles behind their ears, leading Thad to muse over why Lola wasn't on the team if that was the case . Surprisingly, Johnny didn't kick anyone's face in for this, which I took as a good sign- he was coping well with Lola withdrawal .
Having said that, he still seemed a bit... far away, I suppose would be a good way to put it . For example, in every lesson I sat with him in Art, he tended to glance at the window every ten minutes or so before returning to his painting(which usually portrayed a person whose gender I couldn't tell). I soon discovered why- sat by the window was no one else but Lola , tossing her chestnut hair about and jabbing Beatrice with a pencil every time she sharpened it, occasionally stopping to draw something with effortless skill. Despite the stabs every five minutes, Beatrice continued her attempts to sketch, frowning with frustration(past the odd diagram, still life wasn't really her thing) and occasionally smiling at us whenever Johnny or I made accidental eye contact with her, pointing at the nearest prep to indicate that the nerds were concocting a plan for the weekend, usually one involving the words 'preps'- by this point the war had spread through to the entire clique like a rash- as well as the odd social gathering.
Speaking of preps, they didn't take long to retaliate after the taggings. No sooner had the lemonade cans emptied than we found glue in our hair gell. The potato gun soon wiped any smirks off their faces, although our victory didn't last long when we found Donald hung up in the changing rooms by his underwear... repeatedly.
This and several other incidents led to the next course of action, which happened shortly before classes ended three days before Christmas, leaving us enough time to somehow scrape together some money- usually by fixing the boiler or running errands for Neil- for presents and little luxuries. On these days we had four classes; biology, maths, chemistry and gym.
Beatrice's POV
As Dr Slawter told us repeatedly , there are two sides to Biology; life ... and death. Similarly there were two sides to the clique war; two groups of friends which joined to create a force to be reckoned with... and arrogant, upper class inbreds who chose to reckon with that force. All the damn time. The last chemistry lesson we had before we broke up demonstrated this perfectly.
"Pauper." Taylor accused as we(or more accurately, I) worked .
"Lovely to see you too Bif, although I do miss your tattoos." I spat, pinning the assignment down.
"You have some balls." the red-haired boxer snarled as I reached for the next tool.
"While we're on the subject of balls, how's Bryce?" I asked, pride surging through me as Bif's face darkened to a purple.
"Bitch."
"If I were you, I'd be very careful with your language while I have this scalpel in my possession."
"Nerd."
"Neandethal."
See? Any meeting was an opportunity for them to annoy us, which they did frequently. Luckily for us, we usually won these little arguements within five minutes of them being initiated, consequently allowing them to go unnoticed and furthermore, unpunished.
However, when Thad stabbed Derby's hand with a pen for trying to swap their maths tests, Crabblesnitch commanded that all of the nerds go to his office for a huge, rambling lecture which he rounded off with the words"Don't let me catch you harming the preps!" before mumbling "By the way, Miss Trudeau, go to the autoshop immediately- Neil wishes to speak to you."
As I walked into the shop, I braced myself for the punishment of a lifetime for involving the greasers in the situation with the preps. Whatever he thought of the student body in general , Neil had a few grains of respect for them , always giving them the slightest bit more leniecy for misdemeanors or letting them stay fixing bikes for hours on end, sometimes even paying them to tend to his old van, which remarkably still worked despite being older than some of the teachers. Oblivious to my presence, he hummed a fifties type tune , only visible from the knees down.
"Excuse me, Sir. You sent for me?" I shouted over the radio. As the car roared animately, Neil emerged from underneath it laid on a skateboard, oil streaked across his face.
"So." he announced, standing up."This is the girl who got my star students into all this I hear about the preps."
"I'm very sorry, Sir." I fibbed . He looked at me like you do a soaking wet child who insists they weren't out playing in the rain.
"Don't give me that crap. They aren't sorry, you're not sorry and to be frank I'm not sorry. In fact, you wouldn't even be here if Crabblesnitch hadn't insisted I gave the young men a bollocking."
"You didn't punish them for this, did you?"
"Not unless the fascist asks you if I did. Now listen: While I'm sure the preps deserved it from what the guys told me, I have to insist on this- Don't let me catch yu harming the preps." He advised, mischeif twinkling on his dirty face .
Isn't it interesting how emphasis can change the meaning of a sentence completely? For example, when the Headmaster told us "Don't let me catch you harming the preps", he actually meant "Don't harm the preps". In contrast, when Neil said "Don't let me catch you harming the preps" he meant exactly that-"don't let me catch you".
So we didn't; Bucky didn't let Dr Watts catch him and Peanut dissolving itching powder in water(not a difficult task, since Dr Watts was so worried about Edna finding him, we could have been sacrificing first years to Satan and he wouldn't have noticed); Thad and Cornelius didn't get caught filling water balloons leftover from a birthday present with the itching solution; Algie didn't let the prefects catch him putting the balloons in the autoshop lockers with the note "Meet us at the football field . Aim for the nuts ."; Earnest didn't get caught passing Ricky a map of the field, marked with who should be in each tree; the greasers didn't get caught sneaking out of Gym by Mr Burton(although this was thanks to Donald's distraction of hanging himself up by his underwear- don't ask me how he managed this- and screaming blue murder to prevent anyone noticing each boy run out of the changing rooms); Hal , Norton and Fatty didn't get caught helping the lighter conspirators into the trees' branches; I didn't get caught throwing a balloon at Bif's head as he ran laps ( I am proud to say I hit him for once ); Lefty and Vance didn't get caught getting the greasers' bikes ready, and not one of us was caught driving to a cafe in Bullworth town with two or three people to each bike .
Long story short , we didn't get caught .
Johnny's POV
The cafe was a pleasant change; the dry, soft seats were better than the hard pavement, plus the heating was better than the cold, screaming breeze outside .
However, everything else stayed the same; Cornelius still got us three six packs(although this time we chipped in because making him pay struck us as a bit unfair); we still listened to each of the nerds explain their part in the plan(with Earnest often saying "Let's just say I had a part in it"); and we always banged our cans together with the words "To showing the preps whose boss". Looking at us , you would have thought we'd been friends for years, rather than a few months .
Then she came in, sashaying about like a model on a catwalk, hand in hand with none other than Tad Spencer, her huge brown eyes analysing my reaction as she sat down right in my line of view. Somehow managing not to say anything, I took a final sip of my lemonade before putting the can down by the notebook Beatrice was scribbling in.
Regretably, this had the opposite effect to the one I was planning on. Taking a final glance at me , Lola grabbed hold of Spencer's face and drew it towards hers, provoking the remark "slapper" from a few people.
Kissing that wanker in front of me was too much. Too full of rage to look what I was doing, I reached for my can...
Suddenly, a tiny jolt ran through my fingers. Immediately afterwards , an unexpected "What are you doing?" made me snap my head around to where the can was. Surprisingly, the object I discovered in my hand wasn't an empty can- instead , I found myself holding a soft hand with bitten nails,its fingers grasping a biro. Beatrice's blue eye's glanced from me, to the slut, then back to me, intelligence and understanding flashing through them. She nodded at me.
What does a nod mean!
"You could have let put my pen down before trying to annoy Lola , you know" she whispered jokingly .
But I wasn't ... actually , that might just work . Grinning , I kept hold of the girl's hand . It was quite pleasant having a hand to hold after such a long time ofwhat Peanut branded "Lola withdrawal" .
Unfortunately , Lola was too immersed in the twat to notice something as simple or intimate as me holding someone's hand , but since I assumed that she would look up eventually (and maybe - just maybe - I was enjoying the feel of a kind , decent woman's hand in my own ) I held on , laughing and joking as though it was the most normal thing in the world .
Beatrice's POV
Well ... this was a bit strange . Nice , but strange - a bit like watching a first year punch Ted in the the face a few months ago ( I will admire Pedro for that until he dies ) .
Fortunately , we both concealed any embarrassment, talking quietly to really get under Lola's skin . Sadly , she was to busy devouring Spencer's face to notice us .
"Oh well." I comforted myself . "It could have been way worse . At least none of the girls from school know ; I'd never hear the end of it!"
Then , and only then , did I notice a familiar red haired girl outside , whose face was pressed as close to the window as it would go , gawping like a fish at me and the others .
Damn.