While writing this story I realized that Mikey isn't an easy character to peg. As I said at the beginning of this story, I'm not a writer... and I'm definitely no poet... So here it is. Please let me know what you guys think. Like I said in the first chapter I can take the flames.
:)
NatalieJ-101: Glad you're enjoying the story. I love writing the Tj/Spinelli scenes... all I can say is there is more to come :P. I don't wanna spoil anything so that's all I'm going to say. :D
Someone: Yeah you know you're in trouble if Gretchen doesn't believe you.
Mikey's POV
"I understand Mrs. McGee, thank you again for the amazing opportunity."
I bid Mrs. McGee a final farewell, and left her office feeling faint. There is a whole where my heart was. Oh what could possibly fill the void? Everything I've been preparing for since the fourth grade is all in vain. Singing has been my life ever since Mrs. Solomone helped me find my voice, and now just a short three years later- it's over.
I was accused of cheating on a math test last week. I'll admit things didn't look good. My grades in math had been atrocious, but I realized that, made the effort and sought help from a tutor. The B I received was an honest reflection of my hard work, but a few students stole the test answers and because my test grades had a dramatic turn around it was assumed that I had cheated. I testified on my behalf, but unfortunately the evidence was not in my favor. The choir instructor Mrs. McGee is very strict when it comes to academic dishonesty, thus my time with the choir has come to an end.
"Hey Mikey, what's with the long face?" I didn't hear Gretchen come up behind me, she startled me a little. I'm glad to see her though.
"Oh Sweet Gretchen, thank you I could really use a friend."
"What's wrong?" She put her hand on my back and led me away from the busy hallway to a quiet corridor. Her kind gentle nature acted as an invitation to open up and express my feelings.
"I've been kicked out of choir." I buried my head in my hands.
Gretchen wrapped me into a hug and cried out, "Oh Mikey."
"The school thinks I bought one of those copies of the stolen math test from Tj and Spinelli, but I've done nothing of the sort." She broke our hug and crossed her arms. I hope the news didn't upset her, she takes academia pretty seriously.
"I heard about that, they were suspended for five days. I spent hours tutoring them and they didn't take it seriously at all. I'm so angry at them!" Luckily no one was around because Gretchen had started to raise her voice. I patted her back, she still looked upset but at least she stopped yelling.
"Well I'm not angry at them, but I am disappointed. Academic dishonesty is one thing but who knows what kind of life that will lead them to live."
Gretchen's eyes widened as if she remembered something. She opened her mouth to respond, but as quick as the thought came it disappeared. We sat in silence for a minute. The school bell rang signaling the beginning of 5th period, but Gretchen didn't even flinch. I was about to remind her of her perfect attendance record when she spoke up.
"I heard a rumor that Vince and Tj got into a physical altercation at the game last week." A fight!? I couldn't believe my ears! Tj and Vince were always the ones stopping Spinelli from getting into fights, what could they possibly be doing fighting each other? "I didn't want to buy into a rumor, so I confronted Vince about it. He didn't have much time to talk but he was able to confirm it."
"I don't believe it."
"I know, boy have they changed." Gretchen continued, but something caught my eye. A hand waved at me from a nearby class room. I waved back and smiled. Ahhh Tara. Uh-oh I wasn't paying attention, what did she say? She stopped talking, did she ask a question? What do I do? Well honesty is the best policy...
"Beg pardon?" I thought she was going to be upset that I wasn't listening, but she just smiled shyly.
"Mikey..." She put her hand on my shoulder. "You are completely smitten with that girl." Wait a minute she didn't just accuse me of...
"What? No? She's just... Hey is that Randall?" I pointed in the other direction in an attempt to distract her. Of course Gretchen is no fool, but I am, because I ran. I'll have to send her a thank you card later.
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"First day back, this is going to be interesting." Tj said less than enthusiastically as they walked into school.
"I'm just happy not to be grounded anymore. My dad taped all the wrestling matches that I've missed, I have 7 hours of tapes waiting for me."
"And I'm glad that we don't have to sneak around and climb trees into each others rooms or talk to each other through walkie-talkies."
Their parents were obviously not too pleased that their children were suspended from school for a week. Each of them were grounded for the duration of their suspension; no friends, no TV, but they had plenty of homework to keep them occupied. Luckily they were able to find a few ways to hangout during their punishment.
"I don't know I kinda liked the walkie-talkie part, if you don't call than my mom can't answer the phone- thus denying her the opportunity to embarass me." Spinelli smiled victoriously.
"Aww but that's when your mom shares the really juicy stuff." Spinelli's face turned red with embarrassment.
"Wait what has she told you?"
Tj didn't respond he just laughed, then patted her back to cheer her up. They reached their first class- math. They stopped at the door and stared at each other.
"Here we go." Tj slowly opened the door, thoughts of just turning around, running home and never returning to school popped into his head. When they finally made it through the doorway all eyes were on them. This was normal for students who walk in late, but Tj and Spinelli weren't late.
"Well well look who's back."
"What do you want Randall?" Spinelli rolled her eyes, it was way too early for his crap.
"Oh I don't want anything, but some of our classmates might want a piece of you guys."
"Excuse me?" Tj pushed up against Randal, invading his personal space. Randall didn't respond to the threat, he only grinned as if he had the upper hand.
"Because of you two everyone who got an above average test grade has to retake the test."
"We didn't do it Randall."
"Oh sure, it's just like how Spinelli's brother didn't rob that convenience store."
"Why I outta!" Spinelli waved her fist and made a move towards Randall.
"Spinelli don't!" Tj showed her to her seat and forced her to sit down. He eyed her real quick to make sure she wasn't going to have another emotional break down, then turned his attention back to the snitch. "Shut it Randall! You have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Did you guys hear, your little stunt caused your friend Mikey to get kicked out of choir!"
"Alright Randall let's take this outside!" Sounds like something Spinelli would say but that was Tj. He grabbed Randall by the collar and started to drag him towards the door.
"Hey if I can't beat Randall up than you can't." Spinelli put her hand on Tj's shoulder. God that was backwards, normally Tj is stopping Spinelli from getting into fights. He released Randall from his grip.
Randall fixed his collar and walked back to his seat with a smug look on his face. "You've really been into fighting lately huh Detweiler?"
"Good Morning!" Mr. Flynn greated the class. He put his brief case down on his desk, opened it and shuffled through its contents. The class started to goof off, though Tj and Spinelli just sat back quietly in their seats to avoid getting in anymore trouble. Mr. Flynn finally found what he was searching for, he placed a stack of papers on his desk and walked over to the chalk board. He picked up a piece of chalk and scribbled something on the board.
"Pop Quiz!" He shouted and the class groaned in response. He picked up the stack of papers and distributed them to each student. "We're going to see a lot more of these to assure everyone is learning the material, if you fail two in a row you will be required to stay after school twice a week until you pass a quiz."
Mr. Flynn continued, but Tj and Spinelli couldn't focus on what he was saying, their attention was on their peers who were shooting them dirty looks.
"Ugh it's going to be a long day." Tj whispered to Spinelli.
