This chapter's a little shorter, but a lot happens. Hmm, I dont' really have much else to say...

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Chapter 8

A Streak of Blue

Chuck ditched school the rest of the day to figure things out. The only thing he knew for sure was that he never wanted to be referred to as "Chuck" again. It reminded him of all the jock idiots, and that horrific nickname. He was fully expecting a call from Tommy asking what happened. He planned to say he thought it was senior skip day. Tommy would then point out that Chuckie was not a senior. He would respond with, "I'm in 12th grade math, so technically I am a senior," and Tommy would stop asking questions and start talking about Savannah. Chuckie did get a call from the older Pickles brother, but the name Savannah never came up. A different dark-haired female was mentioned. Chuckie heard his phone ring and picked it up. "Hello?"

"Chuck? It's T. What happened to you? You cut school for no reason, that's not like you at all."

"Two things. One, can you never refer to me as 'Chuck' again? I think I prefer Chuckie. Second, I thought it was senior skip day."

"You're not a senior."

"I take 12th grade math, so technically I am partially a senior."

"Whatever you say...Chuckie," A long pause, "So, uh, how's Kimi?"

"Kimi, my sister, Kimi? Fine. She's filming you today, I think, for her contest entry."

"Right, right. I knew I volunteered to be interviewed for something. Now I know what...cool. So, see ya."

"Bye." Chuckie turned his phone off and headed home. He was pretty sure his dad had some blue spray paint in the garage...

Kimi, Dil and Lillian had one more group to tape before they could begin editing their project. Overall, Dil talked to the most people; Lillian had been stuck dealing with cheerleaders, so now it was Kimi's turn. The last crowd was the baseball team.

Kimi arrived in the auditorium 10 minutes early. She wanted to jock-proof, sweat-proof, and make sure all her equipment was fully protected. In the process of doing this, Kimi started to sing Suddenly Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors, her favorite musical. She didn't think anyone would be in the room for another 10 minutes. What she didn't know was that the jock she was interviewing always liked to be early. "Suddenly Seymour is standing beside me. He don't give me orders. He don't condescend..."

"Sounds good."

Kimi jumped. She recognized the voice, it was Tommy. "How long have you been there?!"

"Long enough. I didn't know you could sing like that."

Kimi smiled. "Well, everyone loves surprises. Come on, we're both early, so we might as well get started." Kimi pressed record and explained the interview to Tommy. The discussion had been going great. Tommy gave intelligent, but funny answers and Kimi was cracking up the whole time. Kimi had one more question to ask him. "What's your biggest regret?"

Tommy thought about how to respond for a long time. As soon as he started talking, he looked down at the floor. Kimi could tell this was not going to be a funny answer. "Uh, there aren't really a lot of things I regret. I don't usually think about the past that much. But there's one thing I've always wanted to change. There was this group of kids that I was friends with for, like, my whole life," Kimi eyes grew wide. Where is he going with this?, "And, I'm not really friends with most of them anymore. I mean, sure I've made other friends, but they're not like my old friends. And I wish we could be friends, but I know that's not gonna happen. So, uh, sorry to the friends I'm not friends with anymore, if that makes any sense," Tommy paused for a second, "Oh yeah, that's my biggest and only regret."

Kimi stopped the camera. "Thanks...for the interview. I guess you can go. We finished earlier than I thought."

Tommy nodded; he still wouldn't look at Kimi. He checked his watch. "Uh, my ride's not gonna be here for another 20 minutes, at least. We finished really early."

"I have to pack up my stuff; wanna hang out until your mom gets here?"

"Sure." The next 20 minutes flew by. Kimi and Tommy talked about everything, music, the film contest, movies, even sports for a little bit. When Tommy realized the time he was actually disappointed. "I should go. My mom said to call her at 4:00" Tommy pulled his phone out of his pocket. His wallet and all of its contents fell out with it. "Oh shoot."

Kimi bent down to lend Tommy a hand. She couldn't help but notice a picture of Savannah. "Oh, um, here."

Tommy took the picture. "Thanks."

"How's that going?"

"I wouldn't know."

Kimi raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"She dumped me last night."

Kimi didn't know what to say. She looked straight into Tommy's eyes. He didn't look upset at all. "I'm, uh, really sorry."

Tommy shrugged his shoulders and smiled with his eyes. "Don't be."

"Okay. Well, I mean-if you're sure. I don't want you to-it's gotta be-"

Tommy grabbed Kimi's hand and held it for a second. "Don't worry. Bye Kimi."

Kimi had three frogs and a whole herd of elephants in her throat. Not to mention, the army of cats that got her tongue, but she managed to choke out something in a high pitched voice. "Mm-hmm." Kimi watched Tommy leave. He had a very relaxed walk. She noticed him toss something over his shoulder on his way out. As she was leaving, Kimi saw what it was, the picture of Savannah.

Chuckie had a plan. It involved everything he used to never picture himself doing: sneaking out, stealing something from his house, and breaking the law, but he was ready. Chuckie waited until everyone was asleep, it was around midnight. He tip-toed over to his closet and pulled out what he had stolen from the garage, a box full of spray paints. Chuckie had no idea why his family had this, but he was too angry to care. He grabbed the blue paint, changed into all black clothes, and was out the door. In ten minutes Chuckie was at the entrance to the Lifton gym. To Chuckie's surprise, the door was unlocked. He walked inside and flipped a switch next to the door. Light filled every corner of the gym. Chuckie dropped his stuff and just stood for a minute, taking everything in, feeling ashamed of himself for once enjoying coming here, and preparing himself mentally for the task at hand. He took a deep breath, unzipped his backpack, and changed forever. Chuckie painted the gym with streaks of blue. He sprayed nasty messages on the walls, things like "Die Titans!" or "Jocks are jerks!" He conveyed two more message through the paint, "I quit!" and "Give back what you stole, $412!" He also covered the school's precious scoreboard with paint. Chuckie let out all his anger towards the athletic department, and it felt good. He used two entire cans of paint on the inside and a little on the outside of the gym. Chuckie even managed to rip down one of the basketball hoops. He paused to look at his work, and realized one thing was missing. He looked down at the can he was holding and discovered he still had a little paint left. So Chuckie shook it up, closed his eyes, and whoosh!
Inreresting. No, Chuckie didn't blind himself with the paint, but he did do something to his body. Chapter 9 tells it all...and more.