If you entered a film contest, what would your movie be about? Kimi, Dil, and Lillian ask the same question in this chapter. Plus, learn more about the infamous Lifton Spartans.

Never in my life have I owned Rugrats, or All Grown Up. Actually, never in my life have I owned any show on Nickelodeon, but Disney is another story...not really.

Chapter 5

Chuck It

Chuck Finster could win the award for biggest transformation in high school, well, sort of. He still wore glasses, and he still had long, frizzy red hair, but his social life had skyrocketed since he joined the baseball team. Girls, boys, even teachers flocked to his side for advice, a friendly chat, or just to be seen with him. Most of his friends loved the attention, but Chuck hated it. He couldn't stand the breaks teachers gave him. Missing homework, skipping tests, even cutting class to work out, the list seemed to go on forever. Chuck loved everything about school, but he wasn't supposed to. Everyone believed the athletes were stupid and sleazy, but he was the exact opposite. Chuck was concerned with politics (mainly the Democratic Party), front-page stories, and he had a passion for environmental science. Basically, he was your average nerd who just happened to have a good arm. Chuck could deal with the stereotypes, but he hated the stupid nicknames Phil gave everyone. "It's like, my job dude," to quote Phil. All the teammates had a nickname. Tommy was simply "T", Sean was "Bull" because he and Phil always disagreed about the hotness of girls, and Chuck was "Chuck It." He acquired the name at the 2nd baseball practice. The coach made them run 3 miles to warm up. Chuck wasn't used to exerting himself like that, so he threw up. Right there on 1st base. So Phil, being Phil, came jogging over having barely broken a sweat. "Oh, man! Chuck chucked it!" And that was that. Everyday Chuck wanted to do something about that name, but he could never bring himself to take a chance. When you think about it, nothing much had changed for Chuck since his childhood.

Kimi's parents worked everyday after school, until 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm. They refused to give her a key to the house, but of course they gave Chuck one. Kimi's parents thought she'd burn the house down, or something like that, she'd heard them talking once. So Kimi would ride the bus home and then walk to Susie Carmichael's house. Kimi secretly wished she was more like her. Susie was an athlete, tall and thin. Not disgustingly thin, so that her ribs or backbone popped out, but just thin enough. She had an amazing voice, which was the main reason she had landed the lead role in Aida, the spring musical, last year. But more important than all that, Susie was loyal. She was the most loyal friend you could ever find, Kimi would know, she looked. Susie was a senior, but she was still goofy and loved hanging out with underclassmen. Kimi was always excited to go to the Carmichael's, but especially today because Lillian and Dil were coming with her to work on their film.

Kimi walked up to the front door and rang the bell. As usual, Mrs. Carmichael greeted her with a warm embrace. "Kimi! It's so good to see you. You look great. Come on in! Please, make yourself at home."

Kimi smiled, she said the same thing every time. "Hey Mrs. Carmichael. How are you? Where should I put my stuff?"

And Mrs. Carmichael would always say the same thing in response. "I'm great, thanks. Here, let me take your bag. My goodness! How much work are those teachers giving you these days. I know homework is important, but honestly, sometimes it's just too much!" All Kimi had in her book bag was a binder and her vocab book. She couldn't help not laughing. It was the same conversation everyday. Kimi considered it a game. If Mrs. Carmichael said something different, she'd probably call 911.

Kimi trudged up the stairs to Susie's room, and, as usual music was playing. She thought it was Yellowcard, but she was never sure. "Hey, Suz. What's up?"

Susie spun in her chair. "Kimi¿Que Pasa? Sorry, I just finished Spanish homework. So, when are Lillian and Dil coming?"

Kimi plunked down onto Susie's bed. "I dunno. They should be getting here soon. Anyway, get a load of this. The weirdest thing happened at lunch today..."

Lillian and Dil rode the same bus. They usually walked home together since they'd lived next door to each other their entire lives. Today they were walking to Susie's together, talking about their video.

"What do you think our topic should be? I was thinking something world-changing, like hunger or depression," As usual, Lillian was the first to speak.

"Oh, I was thinking, like, the truth behind cafeteria food. Why do the burgers taste like latex, or, why has the pudding been unusually crunchy lately? Lillian slapped Dil on the back of his head. "Ow!"

Lillian rolled her eyes and laughed. "If you make the same suggestions at Susie's house, Kimi'll hit you even harder. Now come on! You're slowing me down." Lillian picked up the pace as Dil trotted after her.

Kimi and Susie were discussing their mutual fondness of Prince Zuko on the TV show Avatar when the doorbell rang. "Yes, they're finally here," Kimi sprang off the bed and reached for her notebook.

Susie sat up nonchalantly. "Hey Kimi, now I know this is hard for you to comprehend, but there are people who ring the doorbell to talk to someone in my family. You know, cause this is my house."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. But I know it's them," Kimi smirked and glanced at Susie. A second later, Lillian and Dil tromped up the stairs and sat on the floor of Susie's room. "Told you," Kimi joked.

Lillian wrinkled her forehead. "Told her what?"

"That pigs really do fly. You just missed one," Kimi couldn't resist sarcasm.

Lillian rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay. Let's get down to business. I've been working like a maniac trying to come up with a good idea for the film." Lillian pulled a small notepad out of her book bag. "And as you can see...I've got nothing," Lillian displayed the empty notepad for her friends.

"Well, Lillian and I had all the same ideas this week," Kimi tossed her blank notebook onto the floor. "Suz, whatcha got?"

Susie put her hands up, as if she was surrendering. "I'm about as creative as Mrs. Chesley," Mrs. Chesley was a chemistry teacher who was known for her by-the-book lectures. "I'm just here for moral support."

Dil put his hand up and spoke for the first time since he arrived. "I had an idea."

Lillian pressed her hand on her head, covering her eyes. "No Dil. I told you it was stupid."

Susie tilted her head at Dil. "Go ahead. Whatever it is, you know it's better than any of our brilliant suggestions."

Dil half-smiled. "Thanks. Well, what if we did something about, like, I dunno, school lunches," Dil squinted his eyes and smiled weakly.

Kimi sat silent for awhile, but she was mouthing words and doing a lot of pointing and circling with her index finger. She was in her own little world. She spoke almost in a whisper, as if she was sitting talking to herself. "Lunches...school lunches...lunch tables...friends at tables...friends...friends." She stood abruptly, started pacing and spoke louder. "Friends. Friends at lunch, friends in class. Friends. Popular. The more friends the more popular you are, right? But everyone has their own friends, so everyone's popular somewhere, right? The friends you sit with at lunch, that's where you're popular. You matter there. Yeah, interview people at all different lunch tables. About popularity, about their friends, about anything, about everything!" Kimi was practically shouting at this point. She stopped to catch her breath and noticed Susie, Lillian, and Dil were staring at her, open-mouthed. "That bad huh?"

Lillian jumped up, and squeezed Kimi so tightly she could barely breathe. "Kimi, you're a genius! I love you! We're gonna win! We're gonna win!" Lillian danced around the room and yelled in a sing-songey voice.

Kimi sat back down. "Okay, now we have an idea. Thanks to Dil. Speaking of Dil...Hey Dil, what's should we do next?"

Dil smiled. "I think we need to get our point across. So, everyone's popular, how do we show it? We could go to different lunch tables and talk to kids about popularity and where they're popular, and if they feel popular with the friends they're with. You know? We could have theater geeks, like us, band nerds, like Susie, Goths, those jerks that are obsessed with their GPA, kids that work in the TV studio, I guess we could do cheerleaders, and um...the baseball team."

Kimi wrinkled her face. "Ugh. Save them for last. This is gonna rock!"

Susie rolled over onto her back. "Hey guys, I hate to kick you out, but get out. I have to go to work and Kimi's parents will be getting worried," Susie joked as she stood up.

Kimi grabbed her stuff and leaned against the doorway. "Pffffft, my parents would have no problem getting rid of me. See ya soon Suz." Lillian and Dil followed her down the stairs. Lillian was still singing her victory song and doing the matching dance.

When Dil got home, he raced up the stairs to find Tommy. He couldn't wait to gloat about their great film idea. Dil was yelling to his brother all the way up the stairs. "Hey

Tommy! Guess what? We have the grea-" When Dil reached Tommy's room, he stopped dead in his tracks. Tommy was at his desk cleaning his camera.

Tommy threw the camera on the table when he saw Dil. "What are you doing?"

Dil gave Tommy a questioning look. "I was going to tell you about my film, but I suppose I could ask you that same question."

Tommy turned away and ran his fingers through his hair. "I was, uh, just seeing if this...Look, get out of my friggin' room, okay?"

Dil put his fist up to his mouth as if he was talking into a microphone. "Oh, the jock attempts to use brute force and vulgar language to scare away poor little Dil, but it doesn't seem to be working."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Why do you use the words in the vocab books at school?"

"Because I can," Dil shrugged his shoulders.

"And you're saying I can't?"

"I never said you can't. I'm sure you're perfectly capable, but you won't. So, yeah, I guess it's kinda like you can't."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Boy, you sure like profane language, don't you. Why don't you ask Phil, or Sean?"

Tommy shook his head and stood up. "Whatever." Dil smiled and leaned against the wall as Tommy walked out of the room with his baseball mitt in one hand and his camera bag in the other.

Hmm...is Tommy changing? Maybe, maybe not. You'll just have to read to find out.