Here's Chapter Five. Enjoy and sorry for the lateness of this installment.
Chapter Five: New York State of Mind
The bell had rung; ending class for the lunch hour. Juliette had disappeared when the bell rang. Gabe took his time gathering his stuff together and putting them back in his bag. He tossed the bag on his shoulder and looked up. Alyson had just finished loading her bag. She smiled back at him. Ronnie came up to her brother with Nicolette following closely behind her.
"Hey bro." She got a hug from her brother, which he returned.
"The day's been okay kiddo?" Ronnie nodded to him. "I'm glad to hear that." Ronnie moved back to Nicolette; J.J. had just joined the group.
"Gabe, this is my new friend Nicolette. Nikki, this is my older brother Gabe."
Gabe noticed the offered hand. He could tell that this new friend was upper class in the way that she dressed. He gently took the hand and leaned in to kiss it.
"Mademoiselle; it is an honor to meet you." Nikki giggled and blushed at Gabe. Ronnie rolled her eyes at her brother.
"Man, why didn't I think of that?" J.J. grumbled.
"You're not Gabe, J.J." Ronnie grumbled back.
"Sorry you guys; Alyson this is my sister Veronica, or as she prefers; Ronnie." Gabe motioned onwards. "This is Nikki, her new friend." He stopped at J.J. "This is J.J. or Little Jay. Guys, this is Alyson Manning." Everyone had said their hellos and looked at Gabe.
"Okay, so I have my lunch and I'm so going outside for some fresh air. Who wants to come out and join me?"
Alyson frowned. "Give me about fifteen to twenty minutes; I have to go talk to my dad about something." She looked at Gabe hopefully. "Could you save me a seat?"
Gabe nodded. Alyson smiled as she left the room. He looked at the other three. "Any other takers?"
"I'm going to go catch up with Rosalyn and try to meet Nikki's cousins." Ronnie shrugged. "Besides Emily Cameron has been going on about some P.E.T.A. thing that she went on this summer. I'll catch up with you in Creative Writing?"
Nikki's eyes lit up. "P.E.T.A.? Cool! Mom did a lot of projects with them!" She grabbed Ronnie's arm. "C'mon let's go meet up with your friend!" Nikki pulled Ronnie towards the door.
"Need money?" Gabe asked.
"No, I'm good!" Ronnie shouted; being pulled out the door and down the hallway. Gabe chuckled after his little sister. J.J. chuckled too.
"I like them; Nikki especially." He smiled at Gabe. "She's spunky!"
Gabe smiled. "Spunk is a good thing for a girl. Ronnie's not spunky; she's more sassy than spunky. Sassy is a good quality too." He turned to J.J, clapping him on the shoulder. "I guess it's just the guys for lunch."
"Yep." J.J. looked at Gabe. "Hey you think that…?"
Gabe sighed. "Yeah, let's hit the caf and then we'll find something outside."
About five minutes later…
Gabe, J.J., Tony and Benny were sitting on one of the park benches closest to the parking lot. Tony had found the solo bench away from the main doors so they could talk and not get overheard from the teachers and most of the students. Gabe shook his head and glared at Benny.
"Benny; just because pot's legal in Canada, it doesn't mean that you have to reek of it."
Benny chuckled. "What's the matter Mason? Jealous?"
"No man, I don't want to head to class smelling like the inside of your nuts."
Benny threw a pretzel at Gabe; which Gabe dodged easily. Gabe took a French fry off of J.J.'s tray and aimed for Benny's mouth. The fry was caught easily, much to Benny's delight.
"Gabe, quit taking my fries!" J.J. whined.
"Whose fries Little Jay?" Gabe smirked at him. J.J. faked pouted at him.
"By the way bro; thanks for the lunch." Tony smiled, taking a bite out of his cheeseburger. "We'll cover you on Friday's lunch."
"No big deal Tone." Gabe said, biting into his sandwich. "This is a one-time deal for this week. I might be able to cover again soon."
"Thanks Gabe." J.J. nodded. "We really appreciate it."
"Don't worry Little Jay; think of this as us not putting your head in a toilet and giving you a swirlee." Gabe laughed. "I think he's safe for a week or so."
Benny and Tony laughed along with Gabe. J.J. looked at them skeptically.
"We're kidding little bro." Tony said, wiping a tear away from his eye. "We had to screw with you on your first day."
Benny stopped laughing and pointed at the Hogart brothers; startling both of them.
"Dudes; why is your sister so screwy today? She was in a mood in Math II today."
Tony looked at Gabe. "It was something that her bestie said in English today."
"What did I say?" Gabe asked.
"What are you reading in Del Rossi's class?" Tony asked.
"Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare; why?"
"Did you say something about Katharina's character in the play?" Tony asked.
Gabe shrugged. "I mentioned that about Julia Stiles' character in that one movie where she became shrewish and all fem-Nazi. She got screwed over by a player and didn't want it to happen to her again."
"You know, in your infinite wisdom Gabe; you take a good metaphor and dumb it down for the masses." Tony shook his head. "Yes, 10 Things I Hate About You is based off of Taming of the Shrew. What happened in that movie happened to Jules over the summer."
Tony glared at Gabe. Gabe looked at each one of the guys with a bewildered look on his face. Gabe shrugged in defeat as he looked back to Tony.
"Would someone fill me in on what is happening here?" Gabe nearly shouted.
J.J. looked to his older brother. "Tone; I really don't think he knows what you're talking about. I think he needs to know."
"Jay? Shut up." Tony turned back to Gabe. "You really don't know?"
"If you're talking about her and your mom staying in NYC; I talked to Jules for like all of five minutes today about it." Gabe grumbled. "If I'm telling you that I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know what you're talking about."
Tony let out a huge sigh. "What did she tell you?"
Gabe looked at the Hogarts confused. "Jules told me that she was going to the city with your mom for some Shakespeare festival in Central Park."
J.J. and Tony rolled their eyes. "Did it occur to you when you came to get me for the Dead Hand reunion back around Canada Day?"
Gabe thought for a moment. "I knew something was up when your mom was surprised to see me there. I was trying to figure out what was going on."
"She didn't tell you a thing." J.J. groaned. "Oh wow."
Tony cleared his throat. "I'm not sure if I'm the person to tell you what happened."
"Well I would like to know what happened." Benny sighed. "All this drama is killing my groove man."
Tony took a deep breath. "This all started last year. Do you remember that football player that Jules was dating just before grad?"
Benny nodded. "Evan Ridgley, the star receiver. What happened to him?"
"He ended up going to NYU." Gabe added. He looked at Tony in surprise. "You don't mean to tell me…"
Tony nodded. "Jules lied to a lot of people. She told my folks that she was going to NYC with you to check out the punk and hardcore shows and would be back before Canada Day. She told you that she was helping mom out with her makeup for the summer theater program."
"She ended up going to New York for Evan?" Gabe asked.
Tony nodded as he continued. "She took some money out of her account and headed up to mom's apartment. She basically lived with Evan until a few days after you showed up on our doorstep."
"So what happened?"
"I'm getting to it." Tony took a drink of his soda. "So after you showed up; mom and dad got into an argument about it. Dad was angrier that she lied to them than anything. Mom was more worried what she was doing than not."
"I don't get it." Benny chimed. "I get why Big Jay was angry, but what was the deal with Manny? Did something happen?"
J.J. stepped up. "Mom got knocked up at fifteen or sixteen. She ended up getting rid of it a few days after she found out."
"So mom was more freaked out that she was having relations with unknown guys." Tony took over. "She didn't want Juliette to go through the same thing that she did."
"She was afraid that Jules would get knocked up?" Gabe asked.
"Will you guys let me finish?" Tony argued. "You guys are worse than a bunch of grannies in a sewing circle."
The three looked at Tony in confusion. Tony got red in the face. "I've said too much, haven't I?" The three slowly nodded at him about this. Tony cleared his throat.
"Anyway, so mom and dad argued about it for a day or two. Dad finally decides that they're going to go check in on her." Tony shifted in his seat. "The rest of what happened is what I got from Uncle Sean on lunch a few days later."
Tony looked at Gabe and Benny. He continued on. "They left J.J. at Grandma and Grandpa's and took off for New York. They let themselves into the apartment and found the place trashed." Gabe and Benny looked at the Hogarts in surprise. Tony nodded. "It was real bad; empty food containers, empty bottles of beer, broken furniture. It was all over the place. They walked over to the bedrooms and opened the guest room first. It wasn't too bad; the bed was slept in and there was some garbage around the room. That's when they heard noises coming from the master bedroom."
"Noises? What kind of noises?" Benny asked.
"The kind of noises that you get watching SkinaMax; stoner." Tony shuddered. "So dad kicks in the door and catches both of them in the middle of it."
Benny and Gabe looked on with stunned looks on their faces. Gabe is the one that speaks first. "Are you kidding me?"
Tony shook his head. "Right in the middle brother; it was bad." Tony shuddered again. "So Evan in his infinite wisdom pushes Jules off of him and onto the bed. Jules missed and landed on the floor."
"According to Sean, she was in her glory." J.J. groaned.
"How do you know that?" Tony asked.
"I overheard it when Sean was over the other weekend."
Tony shrugged. "Hm, oh well." Tony turned back to the others. "Evan is gathering his clothes and trying to escape after this and guess who's in the way?"
"Your dad right?" Benny asked.
Tony nodded. "Oh yeah; the patented Hogart tackle to the ground and dad was wailing on this guy. Jules was trying to pull dad off of Evan while mom was calling the cops. The cops show up and arrest Evan and my dad."
"Why did your dad get arrested?" Benny asked.
"It would have been an assault charge technically." J.J. sighed. "Dad fought it explaining that he thought his daughter was in trouble. The cops bought it."
"Anyway…" Tony continued. "Evan gets in some serious trouble. Jules was fifteen at the time and Evan was eighteen. In the states and here; whether it's consensual or not, it's considered rape."
"Because Jules was underage?" Gabe asked. "So what happened?"
"Evan is looking at some jail time." Tony took a deep breath. "Evan lost his ride to NYU and he is now a registered sex offender. He pretty much screwed up his life; all over my sister."
The four sat in silence for a few moments. It was Benny that ended up speaking first.
"So what happened to Jules?"
J.J. closed his eyes and shook his head. "She got the worst of it. Apparently Evan was screwing around with other girls. Jules didn't know, but she got a reminder."
"Reminder?" Gabe asked. "After all of the embarrassment, what is there left?"
"My sister got gonorrhea." Tony sighed. "That was her reminder. Mom took her to the clinic and got everything taken care of. She better and all, but dude it sucks. My folks put her on house arrest for the rest of the summer. She lost her phone privileges and basically helped either my parents or around the house. The only time she got out was when we went anywhere."
"Well now you guys know about my summer. How the fuck was yours?"
The four of them turned and looked as Juliette stood a few steps away. She was visibly shaken and on the verge of tears. The four men were like deer caught in headlights. Tony and J.J. were stumbling over their words, trying to appeal to their sister. Gabe was the one that got up and moved closer to her.
"Why didn't you just tell me what was going on instead of getting angry at me?" Gabe whispered, placing his hand on her upper arm. She flinched away from Gabe. Gabe snorted a breath and placed his hands on her shoulders; making sure that she couldn't flinch away.
"Juliette, please look at me." Gabe spoke softly. She looked Gabe in the eyes; finding sadness and comfort. Juliette broke down into tears; Gabe pulling her into a loving embrace. He held her as she cried. Tony and J.J. moved closer to them.
"Sorry sissy," J.J. said. "Gabe was asking about you; he was concerned. We were trying to tell him what we could."
"We're sorry Jules." Tony chimed in. "We thought Gabe knew what was going on."
Juliette nodded, braving a smile. She hugged each of her brothers in turn. She returned to Gabe's side. Gabe rubbed her back as she stood with them.
"Jules; we're here for you." Gabe smiled at her. "When you're ready to talk; we'll listen."
Benny chuckled. "At least we know that what Shane said this morning was true."
The four of them looked at Benny in a mix of reactions. Tony looked murderous while Gabe looked at him with anger and complete surprise. Juliette started crying and took off up the steps of Degrassi. J.J. glared at Benny and took off after her sister.
"What the hell is your problem Cameron?" Gabe shouted. "You just listened to her story and you go ahead and call her the worst thing that Shane Milligan or Ogre Morgan could call any woman!" He placed a hand on Tony's shoulder and motioned that he would look for her. Tony nodded back.
"I'll deal with you later Cameron; you can count on it!" Gabe growled.
"Did you just call my only sister a fucking whore Cameron?" Tony snarled. "I thought that you had a few more brain cells up there than that Benny!"
Gabe didn't hear much more. He left Ben Cameron to his fate as he sprinted after Juliette and J.J. to help her in her time of need.
So that explains Juliette's moodiness in the last chapter. Yet did anyone else catch another annoyance for her? Hope you did.
A lot of the elements that came to light in this chapter will play later on with Gabe's side of the story; especially with what happens in the next few chapters. Also some of the names dropped in this chapter will come back into play later on too.
Speaking of name drops; Clancy "Ogre" Morgan is the only child of Bruce the Moose. Bruce the Moose was never given a last name, so I gave them the last name of Morgan. As for the Ogre nickname; keep in mind what Bruce looked like. Now imagine Bruce about thirty pounds heavier and looking uglier than sin. Thus Clancy "Ogre" Morgan was born. Most of the kids (and some teachers) call him by his nickname. He'll live up to it later on.
Did you know that 10 Things I Hate About You is really based off of William Shakespearse's play Taming of the Shrew? Look it up, I'll wait...
Welcome back!
Many thanks to my faithful readers! You guys are the reason that I keep writing this story!
Special Thanks to CrashAgainstMySkin for the reviews! I appreciate it! Thank you so very very much.
Next Time on "The Kids Are All Right": Unexpected help for the matter at hand.