SUNDAY, 6 DAYS BEFORE THE PRE-SPRING BREAK DANCE
It was approximately 9:00 AM, and Mac had just gotten up. He had gotten dressed, brushed his teeth, and sat down at the kitchen table with his parents to have breakfast.
Mac grabbed himself a box of cereal and poured it into his bowl, and topped it off with some milk. As she began eating, his mother spoke up.
"So, dear, how was your first day at your new school on Friday? Are you enjoying it?" she asked.
"Oh, it's been going really good so far. Got to meet some really friendly faces there." said Mac.
"That's nice. Are you making any new friends?"
"Oh, yes, there's this really nice boy named Todd. We hit it off pretty easily our first class together, I even helped him get a date with a girl he likes."
"Ah, that's my boy. Always willing to help others when they need it." said Mac's father.
"Dear, I heard there's a pre-spring break dance coming up this Friday. Do you have any interest in going?" asked Mac's mother.
"Hmm...well, if I can find a girl to go with, then yeah, I don't see why I shouldn't." said Mac.
"Is there any girl at your new school you're interested in asking?" asked Mac's father.
"Well...there is this one girl with long hair and a nice blue skirt, her name is Maurecia. I think I'm starting to...you know, like her..." Mac began to blush. "I was thinking maybe...asking her..."
"Well, then go for it!" Mac's father said. "I'm sure she'd love to go with a boy as handsome and smart as you."
Mac blushed at his father's comment. He hoped he was right. He had just finished his cereal when he got up from the table. "Well, I think I'm going to take a walk in the park."
"Okay, dear. Make sure not to stay there too long." said Mac's mother.
"And Nancy, go sweep that girl from beneath her feet!" shouted Mac's father.
"It's Mac, dad...and thanks." Mac said. Despite having changed his name to Mac many years ago, his parents still called him Nancy. It's not that they didn't know he changed his name to Mac, it's just they liked that name more than his new one. Of course, Mac didn't like that his parents still called him that, and always tried to remind them to call him Mac. But of course they wouldn't listen.
As he began to walk towards the park, which was about a kilometer's walk from his house, he began to wonder how Todd's date with Jenny went. "Gee, I hope they had a good time." he thought.
It was about 9:30 AM, and Todd found himself opening his eyes to the sight of Jenny still sleeping on top of him, arms still wrapped around each other. He saw a blanket covering the two, and realized one of his parents must have put it over them when they came home.
"...nah...wah...Jenny?" he said in a slurred manner.
At that moment, Jenny slowly started to wake up. "...huh...wah...yeah, sweetie?" she mumbled.
Immediately, Todd cheeks flushed. Any tiredness he still had inside him evaporated right then and there without a second thought. No one had ever called him "sweetie", besides his mother...and now the girl he liked just called him that. He didn't know what to think.
"Err...uh...what did you just call me?" he nervously asked.
Jenny immediately realized what she just called Todd, and ended up doing the one thing that Todd had been doing quite frequently ever since the realization of his feelings for Jenny...she blushed herself. "Err...uh...I meant, Brother T? Sorry, that's what I meant..." she said. At that point, all of her tiredness has drained out of her. It was like that one moment was all it took to get the two up from their sleep.
Todd checked to look at the time. It was 9:34 AM. "Oh, crud! You're parents must be worried about you!" he exclaimed.
At that moment, Todd's mother came in. "Don't worry, sweetie, I made sure to phone Jenny's mother to tell her that she was staying for the night." she said.
"Err, uh...you know Jenny's mother?" Todd asked.
"Yeah, we used to work together a few years back." Todd's mother said. Todd scratched his head.
All of a sudden, Jenny piped up. "I've got an idea! You and me Brother T, should spend a day out together at Walmart! If we're gonna go to the dance together, we need to buy some good-looking attire!"
Todd blushed and gulped at this. He hadn't ever gone shopping...with a girl...a girl he liked. But before he could even say anything, Todd's mother spoke up.
"I think that's a fantastic idea! I'll call Jenny's mother to tell her you two are going out to Walmart together."
At this point, Todd knew he couldn't back down on this, as nerve-wrecking as it was. He didn't want to mess up in front of Jenny; this was the girl he liked, after all. So he agreed to the plan, and after the two had breakfast, they headed out.
Luckily, Jenny had driven her motorcycle the evening before to Todd's place. Just because she doesn't drive in the hallways of school anymore doesn't mean she stopped driving her motorcycle outside of school; it was still her preferred method of transport. Todd got on the back seat, and he and Jenny we're off to Walmart.
Meanwhile, Maurecia was still in the shrub in Todd's backyard, sleeping. She had a rough night; she had spent hours spying through the window at Todd and Jenny to see them...do nothing particularly interesting, and then she was plagued by nightmares; not just the nightmare described last chapter, but many more nightmares after that. Every time one nightmare ended, she woke up in terror, fell back asleep, and another nightmare took hold. By this point, it was about 10:00 AM, and Maurecia was ridiculously tired; her eyes we're colored a faint red and dark red blood vessels were visible on them, and she barely had any energy. She didn't even have any energy to move out of the shrub, so she just sat there and laid on the ground, exhausted.
Unfortunately for her, about 15 minutes later, Todd's mother came out to do yardwork; one of the things on her list was to remove that shrub in her yard, for it served no purpose. Well, she didn't realize the night before, it did serve a purpose...a nefarious purpose.
She grabbed her shrub trimmers and began cutting away at the shrub, until the trimmers hit something that...wasn't part of the shrub.
"Ow...! Huh...wah...who...h...hit me?"
Todd's mother was alarmed by the sudden slurred speech coming from the shrub, and when she opened it up, she saw Maurecia, exhausted, laying on the ground, and shrieked.
"GAH! What is the meaning of this!?" yelled Todd's mother.
Maurecia, as best she could, crawled her way out of the shrub. Normally, in a situation like this, she would run away as fast as she can, but she was so fatigued and out of it that she didn't even make an attempt to escape.
"Shrub...not comfortable...spent...night in there..." she got out. She was so exhausted from last night's ordeal that she didn't think about what she was saying to Todd's mother.
"You...you spent the night in there!?" asked Todd's mother loudly.
"Yeah..." Maurecia muttered out.
"I demand an explanation! I recognize you as one of Todd's friends, but he only invited Jenny over! Explain to me, young lady, what you are doing here trespassing on my property without permission from myself or my husband!"
"I know...he...Jenny...only invited..." she got out as best she could.
"So you KNEW he only invited Jenny over? Then why are you here!? Did you step into my house!?" Todd's mother demanded.
"No..." Maurecia muttered.
"So you're telling me you went into my backyard to hide in this shrub? Does Todd know about this?" asked Todd's mother.
"No..." Maurecia muttered again.
"Then why did you trespass onto here uninvited, I want to know!" demanded Todd's mother.
"Window...couch...shrub near window...view..." Maurecia slurred out.
Todd's mother was confused at first by Maurecia's choice of words, but after some deducting (Todd's mother was a rather smart thinker), she put the pieces together, and realized exactly what Maurecia's intentions were. She was horrified by this; Maurecia was SPYING on her son and his date!
"So you're telling me, you we're SPYING on my son and his date!?" Todd's mother exclaimed loudly.
"Can...explain..." Maurecia said.
"I don't want to hear any more explaining, you've told me enough! You're mother is going to hear about this!" Todd's mother angrily said.
If Maurecia could be scared about this, she would, but she was way too exhausted to even show fear.
Mac had been at the park for about a half-hour, sitting down on a nearby bench, reflecting on the new friends he's made at his new school, and how he must be a really good person if he was able to help his new friend get a date.
But, during his whole time there, he couldn't stop thinking about Maurecia. She knew she crushed on Todd, but would she be willing to take any other boy out if Todd wasn't available? Mac thought it would be nice to have a girlfriend. A few months before he moved to John West Primary School, he had developed a crush on an 11th grader, Olivia, but before he could tell her about his feelings for her, she had hooked up with one of the soccer players. And then there was his friend Nancy, who was originally known as his current name, Mac, before the two traded names. In about 8th grade, he had started developing feelings for her, but shortly after she had moved away to a new town, and unfortunately, she didn't have any social media accounts like Facebook at the moment.
It was about 10:17 AM, and Mac, bored of sitting on a bench at the park, decided to go browse Walmart instead, to pass the time. He thought maybe he could find something interesting there. He texted his mom that he was going to Walmart and headed off.
Todd and Jenny we're at Walmart in the fancy clothes section. They had already agreed and chosen out a suit for Todd (well, considering how nervous Todd was, he didn't really take the time to think about the suit...he just kinda agreed to what Jenny picked out without second thoughts), and were choosing a dress for Jenny.
The two had gone through many dresses, and finally, Jenny pulled out a blue, strapless, sparkling silk dress, which impressed both her and Todd.
"So, Brother T...what do you think?"
Todd was amazed at the appearance of this dress. He could only imagine Jenny wearing it...and he knew he could get to see wear it at the dance.
"It looks...beautiful." said Todd.
"So...do you think I should buy it?" asked Jenny.
"Try it on first...see if it fits." said Todd.
And so Jenny went into the changing room to try it on. When she came out, Todd was amazed.
The dress was a perfect fit...and Jenny looked amazing in it. Todd's cheeks blushed immensely at the sight of Jenny in that dress.
"So, how do I look?" asked Jenny.
"You look...amazing." said Todd.
Jenny giggled at that comment, and Todd could very distinctly remember that giggle. All it did was cause him to blush again, but harder.
She went back into the changing room to change into her clothes, and the two proceeded to head off to the check-out counter.
On the other side of Walmart, Mac was browsing a shelf of video games. Todd didn't know yet but Mac was also a pretty big video game fan himself, although he was more into home console games than computer games, unlike Todd. He saw an assortment of video games, all organized by console - games for the PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One. He saw game that peeked his interest - Assassin's Creed Origins for the PlayStation 4 - took the game, and went to pay for it. Luckily, he had his wallet on him - he always brought his wallet with him whenever he went somewhere other than his house or school, regardless of whether he actually needed it or not.
When he went to the nearest check-out counter, he saw Todd and Jenny in front of him.
"Oh, hey guys!" Mac said.
Todd and Jenny looked behind and saw Mac. Todd was the first to say hello. "Hey there, Mac, what are you doing here?"
"I decided to go here to buy a new video game. You guys?" asked Mac.
"Uh...well, we...I mean well, she decided...we should buy fancy attire for the dance."
"Smart thinking, you guys!" exclaimed Mac.
"Hey, Brother T, who is this? A friend of yours?" asked Jenny.
"This is Mac. Mac, this is Jenny." said Todd.
"Oh, I remember you! I saw you walking the halls one day! Nice to meet ya, Brother M!" said Jenny as she extended her hand to shake with Mac's.
"Err...yeah, thanks...but just call me Mac." said Mac as he shook Jenny's hand.
"Well...we gotta get going." said Todd. "See ya...and I hope you can come to the dance. It would be awesome to see you there." He and Jenny proceeded to head to the exit, having gotten their attire paid for.
"Yeah...heh...see ya." said Mac. Was he going to show up to the dance, though? It all depended on if he could get a girl to take.
And right now, in his list of girls to ask out to the dance, Maurecia was in the #1 spot.