Cardigan Weather – Chapter 3
Jude took Jamie's advice and started talking to Speed in class. It made the time go by so much faster, and she managed to finish her song with his help.
"So, uh, you know that it's Friday, right?" Speed asked.
"That is what the calendar read when I glanced at it this morning," Jude replied, nonchalantly. She knew what was coming, and she was trying to figure out if she would take him up on his offer or not.
"Are you doing anything tonight?" he continued.
"I'd love to," she blurted out.
"Oh, thanks, I needed someone to watch the little twerp for me, I've got a date," Speed said.
"Wait, what?" Jude asked. So he wasn't asking her out?
"Haha, kidding," he said, laughing.
"You ass." Jude slapped him across the chest and entered the cafeteria.
"Well I've got two tickets to see Emanuel, Saves the Day, and the Early November tonight, and Eden was gonna go with me, but well that's over, so do you wanna come?" Speed asked.
"Sure," Jude said.
"Great. Thanks, dude," Speed said.
"Hey Jude!" Eden squealed. Last they checked, she was nowhere near, and here she was, behind them.
"Hey, Eden," Jude said.
"What are you two up to?" she asked. Speed rolled his eyes. Eden could be a pain sometimes.
"Well, we're online to get some food, but I'm kinda, not in the mood for school food anymore. Speed, let's go get some pizza," Jude said.
"Oh, can I come too?" Eden asked.
"No."
"Sure."
"Okay cool. Let me grab my purse!" Eden said.
"Alright, we run away and she'll never find us," Speed suggested.
"Shut up. We're not running away from her. She's nice," Jude said.
"No, bunnies are nice. Eden's definitely no bunny, that's for sure," Speed said as she came back.
"Let's go!" Eden yelled. Jude didn't know if she was just thrilled to be getting food, or something else. After her conversation with Jamie a few days ago, she was starting to think that it was something else. But, nothing had been done to Jude to make her think Eden was out to get her, so she had nothing to hate her for. Right?
They walked out to the parking lot and Speed knew there was going to be a problem. Eden never sat in the backseat. Speed didn't want to sit next to Eden, and have her control the tunes. And this would be Jude's first time in his car, and he didn't want her to sit back there. He wanted her by his side.
"Eden, sit in the back," Speed said when he noticed the both of them were walking towards the passenger seat. Eden stopped dead in her tracks.
"I never sit in the back," she said.
"It's okay," Jude said.
"No, its not, I want to sit next to Jude, we were talking about things, and I want her to be in control of the radio. You don't have to be here, remember that," Speed said.
"Fine, I'll sit in the back. Only because it is Jude Harrison. She has to have the best, isn't that right, Jude," Eden said. Speed knew that was a fake smile plastered on Eden's face, and if he wasn't so pissed that she interrupted their time together, he would've called her out on it.
"Thanks. So, Speed, what CDs do you have?" Jude asked.
"I bring the iPOD with me, it hooks up in here," he said as they were driving away.
"Cool, I keep mine connected to my car too," Jude said. She was curious to know what he had on his. There was a mixture of everything on his iPOD, from The Killers and Arctic Monkeys to Johnny Cash and Elvis Costello to The Fall of Troy and The Number 12 Looks Like You to Justin Timberlake and… Britney Spears?
"Britney?" Jude asked.
"You remember, in like fifth grade when she was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Everyone had her CD. I wasn't kidding the other day when I said I put all of my CDs on here," Speed laughed. He was slightly embarrassed, but he wasn't going to let her know it.
"I'll settle for Social Distortion," Jude said. Eden sat in the back seat, scowling. Jude was even taking her boyfriend from her. Ex-boyfriend, but that's just a technicality. Something had to be done, soon.
"Okay, I'm gonna need you guys to put together a list of songs to play during the dance. Don't worry, you guys won't be playing for long, about 30 minutes tops, so you can still enjoy the dance," their music teacher said. Fall was beginning, and the beginning of fall meant it was now three weeks until the big fall dance. The girls of the school were in a frenzy trying to be this year's Queen of Autumn.
"Jude, would you mind if we played your song?" Kyle asked.
"Yeah, that would be so awesome if we played it," Wally added.
"Are you sure? I don't want anyone to, I don't know, hate me or anything, because we got to play my song," Jude said. She looked down at her notebook and glanced at the song she had been working on.
I feel my heart doesn't fit cause it beats too many times and it skips, running races in my head and then.
"What are you writing there?" Speed asked.
"What? Oh nothing, it's stupid," Jude said, closing her notebook. She knew the song was about him, and she knew how egotistical he could be; knowing he had a song about him would probably make his head explode.
"So, let's get started on the songs. Brainstorming time," Speed said. As lead guitarist, he was kind of the leader of the band. Yeah, Jude sang, but he knew these people better than she did.
"Bathwater," Jude suggested.
"Good choice. Dance, Dance," Kyle said.
"Sexyback," Wally said. Everyone turned to stare at him.
"Or not," he said, laughing nervously.
"Cassie."
"Duct Tape My Heart."
"I Miss You."
"Redundant."
"One Slowdance," Jude and Speed said at the same time.
"Whoa, that was weird," Kyle said.
"Is that like, you guys' song or something?" Patsy asked. She played guitar along with Speed and some other people.
"We don't have a song. That actually was really weird," Jude said.
"It should be your song," Wally said.
"I really like that song," Jude said, smiling. Luckily, the bell rang before the rest of them had a chance to question her some more.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to announce our candidates for King and Queen. Our King nominees are: Frankie Stewart, David Smith, Vincent Spiederman, and Wade Daniels. And the moment you've been waiting for ladies, your nominees are: Eden Walsh, Blaire Waldorf, Katerina, I can't pronounce her last name, and, wow, Jude Harrison," the announcer over the PA system said.
"Jude, you got nominated!" Speed said.
"Is there anyway I could unnominate myself? I don't want to be in the running for this," she said. Girls around her gasped. Being Queen of Autumn was one of the most coveted titles a girl could win at their school.
"Why, do you think you're too good for this kind of contest?" Kat asked, hearing what Jude said.
"You've already won the vote on a national level, so you think the kids at this school don't mean anything?" Blaire added, doing whatever her friend told her to.
"Girls, chill. I don't think that's what Jude means," Speed said.
"Yeah, I just don't wanna get anymore attention than I'm already receiving," Jude said.
"St. Jude doesn't want to get anymore attention. It seems to me that you love it, especially the one coming from Spiederman," Kat said.
"Speed's my friend, and you know that more than anyone, Kat," Jude said.
"What, are you two trying to rekindle your third grade crush? It was sickening to hang around you two," Kat said.
"You wanna talk about sickening? How about your love for Andrews that you've been harboring since that time?" Speed asked.
"What? I uh, don't love Jamie," Kat said, backing away. Pinocchio anyone?
"Why else aren't you two friends anymore?" Speed was getting to her. If the bell hadn't ringed, he would've continued, but now they had other problems to worry about.
"All of you, detention, after school," Dean Gordon said. All of them groaned and glared at Kat, knowing that somehow this was all her fault.
"If you hadn't said anything to her, this would've never happened," Kat's friends groaned.
"After school, do you wanna come over, for dinner?" Speed asked.
"As in, to meet the parents?" Jude asked.
"Well you've already met them, I just wanted to introduce them to my girlfriend," Speed said. Jude laughed until she realized what he just said.
'Did he just call me his girlfriend?'
"Your girlfriend?" Jude asked.
"That's what I want you to be," Speed said.
"I, uh, have to get to my next class," Jude said, walking away from him. Its not that she didn't like him, because she did; but she wasn't sure if she was ready to take their friendship to a newer level.
What Speed didn't know, however, was that Eden was in the crowd of people who got detention, and she heard everything that just went on.
"He's the one thing I won't let her take from me."
"Jude, there's something, I think you should know," Eden said, when she and Jude were the only girls left in the locker room.
"What happened?" Jude asked.
"Okay, well at first, I didn't mind, because I wasn't the one who was gonna get hurt here, but the more I got to know you, the more I realized it was wrong for him to do this," she continued.
"Who do what?" Jude was confused.
"Well, Speed thinks that you've been getting everything from me, and he's been planning to help you get everything that means something to me, just so he can take it all away from you," Eden said.
"No, he wouldn't do that," Jude said.
"What you think you knew about Speed is now null and void. Why do you think he and Jamie drifted apart? Speed can be a bit of an asshole sometimes, and you were just his new victim," Eden said.
"Why are you telling me this now?" Jude asked. She was on the verge of tears, but she wasn't going to let Eden see her cry.
"Because I couldn't just sit back and watch him do this. You're a nice person who deserves so much better," Eden said. Jude just nodded and finished getting dressed.
When she walked into detention, Speed's face brightened. He really wanted to finish their earlier conversation, the one they were having before she sped off.
"Hey Jude," Speed sang when she looked at him. She loved that song, her dad named her after it. She glared at him and sat as far away from him as possible. Speed was confused; was she that mad at him asking her out?
"Vin, uh, can we talk?" Eden asked.
"Not now, I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with Jude," Speed said.
"That's what I wanted to talk about," Eden said.
"You know what happened?" he asked, confused.
"She, well she's never gotten detention before, and this messed up her record, and her chances at getting into a good university, and she cares way more about university than she does you," Eden said, quickly. She didn't know where these lies were coming from, but from the look on Speed's face, she knew it was working.
"Oh man, I didn't mean to get her in trouble, although it wasn't entirely my fault," Speed said. Now he really wanted to talk to her.
"No, don't go over there. Let her blow off some steam first," Eden said.
"You sure? Cause she was supposed to come over tonight, for dinner with my parents," he said.
"Well, then, I guess she's not coming anymore," Eden said loud enough so Jude could hear.
"I'm gonna go ask her myself," Speed said
"No need to, she's right, I'm not going to your house, and I could care less if you get mad or not," Jude said.
"You three, one more word and it's detention for a week," the teacher said.
"Don't do this over something as small as that," he hissed.
"Small? You call this small? Well fuck you, Vincent Spiederman, I never wanna talk to you ever again," Jude said.
"Young lady, that is it, you are suspended for a day," the teacher yelled.
"Wonderful," Jude said, grabbing her stuff and leaving.
Speed knew that there was no way Jude blew up over what Eden said happened. No way. Something else had to be up, and he knew Eden was in the middle of it.
Little did Eden know, the locker room hadn't been fully empty. They forgot about one person, one person who didn't take crap from anyone, and she surely wasn't going to let her boyfriend's best friend take it from a brat like Eden.
Someone was going to pay, alright.