When the three Belcher siblings finally pulled up to the Wagstaff campus, Louise practically flew out of the car towards the building.
"Whoa, okay, uh, bye Louise," said a surprised Tina.
"We'll never forgive you for this!" Gene yelled.
Louise ignored both of them and instead made a beeline for her locker, where she knew Jessica would be waiting. Sure enough, she found the redhead leaning cooly on the lockers, her arms folded over her chest and one ankle crossed over the other. She quickly retracted herself from this position when she saw Louise.
"There you finally are!" she said teasingly, bringing Louise in for a hug. Louise reciprocated, a little unsurely since this was her first time being in a romantic relationship, and looked at the nearest clock. 7:50. She was five minutes later than she wanted to be. Oh well.
"I told you, my brother takes forever," Louise mumbled.
"Speaking of your brother, I don't think I've seen him in a while, how's he doing?" Jessica asked.
"Oh, he's doing alright I guess. As carefree and crazy as ever. Not like Tina, she's been making the biggest fuss over college lately."
"Oh has she? Well, that's high school seniors for you I guess."
"Yeah they're nuts. Personally I think she should take a gap year, earn some dough before running off. I think that's what Gene's gonna do and that's probably what I'm gonna end up doing too."
"Aww, you don't want your sister to leave you, that's so sweet~," Jessica swooned. Louise blew a strand of hair away from her face in mock annoyance.
"Psh, no, I'm gonna be glad when she's gone. I just want her to stop making a fuss now."
"Sure you do," Jessica said, hugging her some more. She had known Louise for five years, she knew that Louise truly did love her siblings. She just would never admit it.
"Louise Belcher doing PDA?" a sudden all-too familiar voice asked menacingly. "I never thought I'd live to see the day!"
Louise knew exactly who it was, and it was the last person she wanted to see right now.
"Oh come on Mr Frond, we're just hugging," Louise said defensively. "You don't have to worry about seeing us sucking each other's faces every five seconds, we're not that kind of couple."
"You're just out to break every rule this school's set up for you, aren't you Louise?"
"You know it." Louise clicked her tongue and wriggled out of Jessica's embrace, taking her hand. "Come on babe, we're gonna be late for class."
Meanwhile, Tina and Gene were just arriving at their own school, much later than Tina wanted to.
"Uugghhh, I'm not gonna have time to work on my scholarship essay!" she groaned. Gene scrunched himself up a little, expecting her to yell at him, but instead she just kept on whimpering.
"Tina, relax, can't you do it in lunch or homeroom or something?"
"Yeah but I wanted to do it in the morning too cuz I needed to take every opportunity I could but now I lost one!" Tina huffed.
"Well jeez, you can't have that much more to do."
"...I have one paragraph done."
"Oh." For a few seconds, the two of them remained silent. When they entered the building, Gene spoke up again.
"Tina, if you're really that uninspired, then maybe this isn't the right scholarship for you."
Tina opened her mouth to argue, but then realized that her brother was right.
"...Yeah, maybe a scholarship for farming and agriculture isn't the best idea."
"There's my Tina!" Gene grinned, playfully slapping her on the back. Tina gave her brother a soft smile and stood up confidently.
"Well, now that I've got that off my back-" She was cut off When Tammy Larsen called for her from across the hall.
"Hey Tina! Stilts! Get your butt over here!"
"Here she goes with the lame tall jokes again," Gene mumbled. Tina rolled her eyes and made her way over to Tammy, who was trying to jump up and reach the top of the lockers.
"What's going on?" Tina asked.
"Save the jumping around for gym class!" Gene said.
"Stupid Jimmy Jr and Zeke thought it'd be funny to throw my book on top of the lockers and walk away!" Tammy whined, ignoring Gene. "Is that their idea of a perfect date?!" She grunted a little as she tried yet again to reach her book. The entire school was surprised when Jimmy Jr and Zeke started dating two years ago (Tina stayed silent for a whole week when she heard the news), but for Tammy, it only caused more problems. It seemed that picking on her was their favorite way to spend time together. Tina chuckled a little, amused at her sort-of friend's plight, and easily plucked the book from atop the lockers.
"Oh yeah, rub it in, Big Bird," Tammy spat, shooting a death glare upwards. Tina had shot up like a rocket over the past five years and was now as tall as her father at six feet, something that vertically challenged people like Tammy envied.
"Sorry." Tina, ever the gentle giant, cowered a little and took a step back.
"I think a simple 'thank you' would be nice," Gene said.
"Shut up Gene! No one asked you! Pfft. Like you need to be any taller, either. You and your fancy red heels." Gene was a little bit shorter than Tina, even with his high heels, but he did come pretty close with them on.
"Fresh from Banana Republic," Gene said proudly, pointing down at his shoes.
"Banana Republic?!" Tammy gasped. "I love Banana Republic! I'm gonna go get a pair today." She snatched her book from Tina's hands and strutted away.
"Copycat!" Gene yelled after her. When she was out of his line of sight, he shook his head. "Sheesh. If moods were people, she'd be the biggest swinger in town."
"She's probably just confused," Tina said. Gene chortled.
"Oh my god."
Suddenly, the five-minute bell rang, and everybody moved out of the hallways to their first class.
"Oh crap! Catch ya later, T!" Gene waved to his sister and took off as fast as the poor runner could in high heels.
"By Gene! Don't fall!"
As if on cue, Gene lost his balance and fell right then and there.
"You know what, maybe I'll just powerwalk," she heard him say. She shook her head at her silly brother's behavior and went to class.
"Dude, you've got pie crumbs all over your face."
It was the middle of third period, which, for Gene, was Foods class, and he had taken the liberty of helping himself to some pie while the teacher was out of the room. However, Darryl was keen to point out that the evidence wasn't very well-hidden.
"Oh do I?" Gene asked innocently. He looked down and poked out his tongue, trying to find the pie crumbs. Darryl lauged.
"That accomplished nothing. Except smudging your lipstick." Daryll found this quite amusing, but Gene did not.
"What?!" he gasped in horror. "Oh no! I gotta go fix that! I'll be right back!" Some of the other students laughed as Gene ran out the door-just as the teacher came back in.
"Just where do you think you're going, Mr Belcher?" the teacher asked in a condescending manner.
"Uhhh," Gene quickly wiped his face with his hand in an attempt to get rid of any crumbs, "the bathroom!" He looked down for a split second to see that his hand was now all covered in lipstick. "Aw crap." The teacher sighed.
"Make it quick."
"Okay thanks bye!" Gene powerwalked off to the restroom in an embarassed panic. He rushed to the mirror and let out a soft scream at the sight. "This is a disaster!" He quickly brushed off the crumbs with his hands and then grabbed a paper towel and dabbed at the stray smudges around his mouth. He hummed in a mildly digusted manner as he frowned at the brown paper towel. These paper towels are crap. And now my face is itchy. He scratched under his nose. Oh well. Sighing, he pulled out his tube of lipstick from his side pocket. Today's color was a watermelon color that blurred the line between red and pink. He popped the cap off and was about to apply it when the sound of a toilet flushing startled him and caused him to let out a small yelp. He wasn't think anyone else was in here.
"Oh, sorry," an embarassed, red-haired kid said, stepping meekly out of the stall.
"Peter Pescadero? What are you doing here?"
"I was going to the bathroom," Peter said matter-of-factly. "What are you doing in here?"
"Fixing my lipstick."
"Oh." Peter turned on the sink to wash his hands as he watched Gene apply his lipstick. The tube glided smoothly over his full, plump lips. He pressed them together, then released them with a pop! and smiled at his reflection.
"There! I'm cute again!"
"Y-you'd be cute anyway," Peter said shyly.
"Aww, Peter, you're too much!" Gene gushed. Peter hummed in amusement as he grabbed a paper towel.
"So did you hear the news?" he asked.
"News? What news?"
"I guess you didn't. Todd is back in town, and he's going to high school here."
Gene's tube of lipstick fell to the floor in shock.
"Yeah, that was my response too," Peter said, laughing a little at Gene's stunned silence.
"Todd's back? Todd from the Wagstaff cheer squad?!"
"Yeah, and he's trying out for our school's cheer squad too!"
"Oh. My. God!"
After the Regional Cheer Finals on King's Head Island, Gene and Todd ended up becoming pretty good friends. But after graduating junior high, Todd had to move away and go to a different high school. Gene hadn't seen him since, and kind of missed him. But now he was coming here? The thought excited Gene so much that he immediately turned back to the mirror and began fixing every little thing that could be flawed; brushing his hair out of his face, smoothing his shirt out, picking pieces of fuzz out of his clothing, and so on.
"Jeez, I don't think he's gonna care about you're appearance," Peter said.
"I haven't seen the guy in two years!" Gene argued. "I gotta make a good second first impression on him!" He picked a wild leftover pie crum from the few stray hairs on his chin.
"Well, whatever you say," Peter sighed as he walked out of the bathroom. "See ya later!"
But Gene didn't hear him, for he was too busy making sure his arm hair wasn't messed up.