Sorry about another long wait, school has been stressing me out lately, but also I had some issues with this chapter. Not writers block but I had issues with the dialogue of one scene between the guys of the gang. It just didn't seem organic and I may end up revising it later on, I'll let you guys know. But I've been keeping you guys waiting long enough, so enjoy and please review!
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"And I'm so sorry that the protest didn't go your way, I saw how hard you and Mikey..."
Tj slumped back in his seat and took a deep breath. He was bored out of his mind. Judy ambushed him while he was searching for Spinelli, and was now talking his ear off about god knows what. When he exhaled it was loud and over exaggerated.
Judy was taken back by this and cut herself off. "Is something wrong Tj?."
"Sorry Judy, I just." He paused to carefully choose his words. Problem was he didn't actually know what to think, he only knew how he felt. "Things are..."
She raised a brow at him.
He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. If he learned anything from this school year or really just this past week it's that girls are weird and super sensitive about everything, you gotta choose your words carefully or you risk upsetting them. "I gotta go find Spinelli." But he's just a dumb teenage boy, so that's the best he could do. He gave Judy a light friendly pat on the back and left to find his friend. Just friend.
Problem is Tj had no clue where to begin looking. There was no obvious places that Spinelli would be at this dance, other than right by his side.
"Hey Hustler kid have you seen Spinelli?"
"Afraid not, but when you do find her..." With a sly smile Hustler kid opened his trench coat and pulled out a rose. He raised his eye brows up and down. Tj just rolled his eyes and walked away.
"Hey Guru kid, have you seen Spinelli?"
Guru kid was slightly annoyed that Tj had cut the line to receive his advice, but he regained composure. "When one is searching for love..."
"Oh my god!" Tj grunted and stormed away. "Does everyone think we're together?"
"Hey SeƱor Dork-weiler!"
"Ugh what do you want Lawson?" He nearly growled.
"Hey hey no need to be hostile little buddy, I just heard you were looking for your girlfriend."
"Ugh Spinelli is not my... wait do you know where she is?"
Lawson had a smug look on his face as he pointed to the dance floor.
Tj didn't understand the gesture, he looked back at the 8th grader for the answer to his riddle.
Lawson continued to point at the crowd. "Keep looking, right at the center."
Tj focused his eyes on the dance floor, there he saw Spinelli's tiny frame being twirled around clumsily by a figure much taller than her. He focused in on her partner; He was blonde, and fair skinned. He was also very clumsy which was an odd contradiction to her poised and graceful dancing. He twirled her around for the million time "God is that the only move he knows?" The song ended and Spinelli gazed up at her partner. Tj had only seen her make that expression once before.
"Jhonny V." He was disgusted, angry, oddly a little nauseous. He continued to watch his best friend's interactions with the intruder, completely unaware that he too was also being watched.
"Somebody is jeallllll-lous." Lawson sung teasingly. Tj just gave him a light shove and stormed over to the dance floor.
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"There's Tj!" Gus pointed out when the gang returned to the gym.
"Tj! Tj!" Mikey's voice was the deepest and very hard to miss, but all his shouting fell on deaf ears.
Vince being the fastest ran after him.
"What're we waiting for!" Gretchen motioned for Gus and Mikey to follow.
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When he reached his destination he grabbed Spinelli by the arm making sure not to make contact with her healing-sprained wrist.
"Tj what're you doing!?" She pulled away.
"What do you mean what am I doing? What're you doing with baby tooth? You came here with me!"
Spinelli scoffed and turned back in the direction of Jhonny V. Tj picked her up off her feat forcing her to pay attention to him.
"Don't you have to get back to Judy?"
"Is that what this is about?" Tj laughed. "You've got it all wrong Judy ambushed me, I didn't want to hang with her."
"Likely story." She replied sarcastically and tried to wiggle free from Tj's grip.
Tj felt a tap on his shoulder he turned and saw Jhonny V looking quizzically at them.
"Uh can you let her go, we're tryna dance here."
"Sorry baby tooth but..."
"His name is Jhonny V, he lost the baby tooth 3 years ago, and seriously let me go before I break madame fist out!"
Tj gently and hesitantly dropped Spinelli back to her feet.
Jhonny V had a hand held out to her but she didn't take it. Instead she placed a hand on his cheek and gave him a peck on the lips.
"Yo Tj! Good news man! Woah..." Vince stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the site before him. The rest of the gang arrived and stared wide eyed at the unlikely couple. They each looked at their former leader for an answer but he just shook his head and left in a huff.
"You guys go get him and I'll talk to Spinelli, we'll meet at my locker." Gretchen ordered the guys. They ran after Tj and she swallowed her pride as she approached her ex-best friend.
She felt a little nervous. The last time they spoke was at the library where Spinelli was ready to shred her to pieces. Now that Gretchen looked back at it Spinelli had every right to want to beat her up; she accused her friend of being like her brothers, something she knew wasn't true.
She placed a hand on Spinelli's shoulder.
Her hostile demeanor was everything Gretchen expected.
"May we talk?"
Spinelli rolled her eyes and excused herself from her dance partner to follow Gretchen.
"What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"Why aren't you with Tj?"
"Excuse me?"
"He likes you, you know that right?"
"Well if he does he has a crummy way of showing it!" Spinelli turned away ready to return to Jhonny V.
"Spinelli! Wait! We found out that Randall framed you!" Gretchen yelled that a little louder than she'd like to have. A few heads turned in her direction and people began to start whispering.
Spinelli pulled her out into the hallway to talk.
"Excuse me!?"
"We heard him talking to himself, he confessed the whole thing! He also has something planned for tonight, we gotta get the gang back together!"
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"Tj!"
"Tj!"
"Yo Teej wait up man!"
The last call caught his attention.
"Teej? You're calling me Teej? I thought you guys were mad at me?" He shouted back at the guys.
Vince was the first to catch up to him. He placed a hand on Tj's shoulder. "We were mad but..."
"That was before we knew the truth." Gus finished when he caught up to them.
"What're you talking about?"
The guys looked at Mikey, the situation had hit him the hardest so he stepped forward to explain. "We just overheard Randall admit to stealing the test answers, he framed you and Spinelli and got most of the 7th grade in trouble in the process. "
"Randall!?" Randall getting Tj into trouble was nothing out of the ordinary. It was shocking to hear that he came up with a well thought out plan though as he was never the brightest kid, before this year he wasn't anything more than a tattletale. "Where is the little rat?"
"Probably somewhere plotting his next scheme." Gus suggested.
"Huh?"
"Randall was also the one that stole the frogs, and he's going to drop them on the dance floor." Vince pointed to the designated splash zone.
"Whomping bobula!"
"And that's not all, he plans on framing you and Spinelli for it."
"How?"
"I don't know but let's not stick around to find out, we gotta stop him!" Vince exclaimed and gestured for the gang to follow him. He led the gang towards Gretchen's locker, their designated meeting spot.
As they were walking Mikey threw an arm around Vince and Tj's shoulders, and Tj did the same to Gus. Tj smiled at his former friends as they strolled the halls.
Gus cleared his throat. "Umm so what's going on with you and Spinelli?"
His smile faded and all those odd emotions flooded back to him. "Ugh I don't know man. Chicks are weird."
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"As great as that offer sounds, I'm not authorized to hand these to you."
"Come on Menlo, you have something I want, I have something you need."
Menlo shut his eyes and meditated briefly on the proposition. Sure it was tempting, but was he really ready to break the rules and risk his job just so he could have a chance with his crush?
"Okay. Here, but I must get the key back by the end of the dance." Menlo pulled out a key ring from his back pocket and removed one labeled 'janitors closet'. "What do you need from the janitors closet anyway?"
"It's the number one snooping spot and it has a vent connecting it to the girl's bathroom. I'll be able to get a good scoop and get some juicy Ashley A. secrets. It's a win win for both of us." Randall opened his hand up to receive the key.
Menlo contemplated the offer one more time. He hesitantly handed over the key to Randall.
"Excellent. By the end of the night you'll be with Ashley A. and I'll have dirt on just about every girl in school." Randall wrapped an arm awkwardly around the young office assistant, while his other hand snaked around his back pocket and removed the remaining keys.
"This better be worth the trouble."
"Oh it will be worth it, it sure will."
