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Cardigan Weather – Chapter 4

"Jude, how about you write something, and stop drawing dead men inside of sandwiches," Tommy said. Jude looked down at her paper and saw she had been doodling more than she'd been writing.

"They're not sandwiches, they're mattresses," Jude said. So art wasn't her specialty. It's not like it mattered.

"Whatever they are, I need you to get serious. We need some more songs," Tommy said. Jude frowned. They looked like mattresses to her.

"I'm having a block right now. Hey look at it this way, now have something to put on the inside of the booklet," Jude said.

"You won't have a booklet if you can't write songs," Tommy argued. Jude lost that battle.

"Fine, I'm gonna go to the vending machine and grab me a Coke and some candy. You want anything?" she asked.

"Nope, and you have a minute and seventeen seconds. I'm timing you," Tommy said, making her laugh.

"Alright Quincy," she said. When she got back, she found him looking through her book. She hadn't shown it to him yet, she told him she didn't have any songs.

She'd been lying.

"Why haven't I seen this?" Tommy asked.

"I uh, didn't think you wanted to," Jude lied.

"Jude," Tommy warned.

"I thought they were all stupid," Jude admitted.

"These are amazing Jude. Pick one and let's get started, immediately." Jude put down her Snickers and went through the book. Almost all of her songs as of recent had been about him. She couldn't believe he could do something like that.

Jude settled with a song she titled Criminal. It was the only one she could find that had nothing to do with Speed, and in fact, she wrote it before that whole mess even started.

"How are your classes with him going?" Tommy asked when they were on a break.

"I've moved my seat, and I eat with Jamie. I walk in other hallways, and in our band, I really haven't had to say much to him, since all we do in there is practice our songs. And luckily, for the dance, I'm only singing half of the songs, he's taking over and doing the rest," Jude said.

"And has any of this helped?" Tommy asked.

"Nope," Jude replied. She took another sip of her soda as Tommy questioned her some more.

"Jamison, I think I can finally tell someone. I'm pretty sure what I thought happened actually happened," Patsy said. She was over at Jamie's, like she always was.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"The other day, I heard Eden make up some story to tell Jude, and then she told Speed a completely different story. That's why Jude hates Speed," Patsy said.

"Whoa, before we go handle things, since when do you care?" Jamie asked.

There were only two things in this world that Patsy loved: her music, and Jamie. So for Patsy to care about something other than that was crazy.

"You try practicing with those two; Harrison won't even go near him. We can barely get anything done because she doesn't wanna work with him, so it's just a mess," Patsy said.

"This has nothing to do with seeing Jude and or Speed as one of your friends?" Jamie asked.

"Jude's cool. And Speed, I don't always agree with him on things, but I have to respect him; he's a sweet guitarist," Patsy said.

"He is. Now, we gotta go tell Jude," Jamie said.

"No, we gotta go tell Speed. He'll believe us more than Jude would, and then from there we could come up with something to do," Patsy said.

"I like this," Jamie noted.

"What?" she asked.

"You caring about people, it's nice," Jamie said, kissing his girlfriend before they left to go tell Speed.

"Don't get used to it," she grumbled.

"Cause I don't see me," Jude sang.

"Alright, I think you're done for the night," Tommy said.

"Really? Wow, time went by fast," Jude said. She knew how long it took her to record the first couple of songs. Well the first one took a really long time. The other two, Speed had been in the studio with her and he helped the time pass.

"Go get some sleep. You've got your dance tomorrow," Tommy said.

Dance? Tomorrow?

"I'm probably not gonna go," Jude sighed.

"You better be there. You've got people that are dying to see you sing, think of this as a warm up for the touring you're gonna do," he said.

She wanted to sing, more than anything. But she didn't want to have to deal with him, or the two of them sharing a mic for some songs.

"But on tour, I don't have to sing with him." She walked out of the studio and into her car. There was a note on top of it, but she didn't notice it until it blew onto her windshield.

Luckily, she was able to stop at a light and get the paper off of her car. She crumbled it up and tossed it aside before stepping back in and speeding off.

"Jude, Jude wake up, it's lunch time, and you've got to head over to the school soon," Victoria said, waking Jude up. Jude groaned, she didn't usually sleep in, actually she hated it.

"Why did you let me sleep so late?" she asked.

"I tried waking you up earlier, and you said you didn't want to see him, and to leave you alone," Victoria said.

"Oh, heh," Jude replied wryly. She had been having a dream and Speed was doing everything in his power to get her to talk to him.

Kinda like real life, only she had no control over anything.

"Hurry up and shower, your friends are waiting for you downstairs," she continued.

"Whoa, what friends?" Jude asked. She hadn't brought anyone over to her house, well when her parents were home. She was hoping her mother wouldn't say Vincent.

Thankfully, she didn't.

"Patsy and the one that you used to always have over. We lived next to him, Jamie," her mom said.

Jude breathed a sigh of relief. She did not need Speed coming over wooing her parents and stealing her…well she didn't know but she knew she didn't want him over.

"Oh, okay. Just send them up when you hear the water turn off," Jude said.

When Jude stepped out of the shower, she saw Jamie and Patsy staring intently at something.

"This is Speed stuffed in sandwiches or mattresses?" Jamie asked.

"Mattresses," Jude said. She walked into her closet and slipped into some shorts and a tank.

"You're not getting on your dress?" Patsy asked.

"I'll put it on after I'm done with hair and makeup and all of that other crap. So, what brings you two here?" Jude asked. She was pretty sure it wasn't for milk and cookies.

"You need to make up with-," Jamie began.

"No!"

"But it's not his-," Patsy added.

"No!"

"Eden was-," Jamie started.

"I don't care! I don't wanna talk to him," Jude said. She did, but at the same time she didn't.

Her whole dilemma with the situation was she didn't know who to believe. Jamie did tell her that Eden was out to get her, but Eden had been nothing but nice to her since she got there. Why would she just randomly decide to be a bitch?

Vin, on the other hand, had been a complete asshole when he first saw her, and it took him a while to even recognize her. He had changed a bit, for the better, as far as she knew, but it was still a change.

So she decided it would be easier to just not listen to either of them.

Or anyone else for that matter.

"Will you shut up for two seconds? Listen, I know Eden, I know that she would not just 'feel bad' for you and tell you what was going on. And then she told Speed a completely different reason for you being mad. He thinks you're mad because you got detention, he has no idea that any of this has been going on. And you're just gonna let some random girl come and ruin what you had going for you? It may not have been anything special, and I really don't know you well enough yet, but I do know that whenever I saw you two together, you were happy. And you're just letting her take your happiness away. She's just pissed that you've been getting everything that she worked so hard for, it's not Speed," Patsy ranted. She wasn't even sure if anything made sense, but Jude needed to hear it from someone.

"So she was lying?" was all Jude could come up with as a reply. Jamie, feeling the waterworks coming, hugged his friend. This was partly the reason Jude didn't want to go to school. She didn't want to have to deal with people like Eden.

"Jude, you go get dressed, and make your way to the dance, and when you see him, kiss him, and kiss the crap out of him," Jamie whispered.

"I'm not gonna do that, you're an idiot," she said, laughing in-between her tears.

"But you stopped crying," he said, smiling.

"We're serious Jude, go to the dance, and talk to him. He's been dying to talk to you," Patsy said.

"You two talked to him, haven't you?" Jude asked.

"Patsy has known that something was up, and when she realized exactly what had been going on, she told me. We told Speed because we assumed that he had no idea of anything. He said he left you a note on your car last night," Jamie said.

'Oh yeah, a note…heh, it's gone,' she thought with a smirk.

"I take it you didn't get it, so," Jamie trailed off.

"Look, I'm gonna finish getting ready and go to the dance. I have to get there a bit early, because Vin and I need to go over the order of the songs and such. I'll talk to him then, alright. Now, I need to start getting ready or else I won't make it," Jude said.

Jamie and Patsy willingly left. They had accomplished what they had set out there to do. They knew that Jude had gotten past it; she referred to him as Vin and not him, he, or that guy. Now all they had to do is hope for the rest to work out on its own.

It took Jude some time to finally get the look she desired. (Yeah, I'm not that great with clothing description, so let's just skip that :. The look I'm going for is Jude during "I Don't Know If I Should Stay)

"Mom, Dad, I'm about to leave," Jude said. Her mother grabbed the camera and took a lot of pictures before Jude left.

She had been half expecting Speed to show up, in some cheesy, chic-flick sort of way. He would show up, and take her to the dance, and all would be right in the world. But life wasn't a movie, and she had to drive herself there.

"Oh, I didn't think you'd be showing up," Eden said when Jude walked into the school.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Jude asked. She looked at Eden's dress. It was about four centimeters away from slutty, and her makeup was atrocious. It was pretty amusing for her to be standing there, in front of Jude like that.

Eden, on the other hand, was furious. Jude's dress was almost floor length, and showed little cleavage, and yet Jude looked a million times better than she did. And to top it all of, she showed up, which meant Eden would not be able to sing for the band.

"Jude, you're here," a voice came from behind her. She turned around and found herself staring into Speed's eyes.

"Yeah. You clean up nice," she commented.

"You look, amazing," he whispered. He was trying to concentrate on keeping his mouth closed, but it wasn't working very well.

"Uh, can we talk?" Jude asked. He was shocked; Jude hadn't talked to him in almost three weeks.

"Yeah, let's go into the music room, it's still open," he said, taking her hand.

"Speed, Jude, where are you two going, we need to start setting up. You guys will play about an hour into the dance," the music teacher said. Speed kept his fingers intertwined with hers as they walked into the gym. He didn't know what caused her sudden change of attitude, but he assumed it had something to do with Jamie and Patsy.

He knew she didn't get his letter because she would've called. And she didn't.

"Alright, we've got Bathwater, Baby, Its Fact, Dance, Dance, Unreachable, Hey There Delilah, How I Feel, I Believe In A Thing Called Love, Modern Swinger, Kyle's rendition of Fergielicious, Nineteen Stars, Redundant, and Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go," Speed read off to the others.

"What about?" Kyle started.

"Yeah," Speed said, knowing what Kyle was talking about. As far as Jude knew, One Slowdance did not make the final cut, and he wanted to make sure she still thought that.

"What do we have to do out here?" Jude asked.

"Just make sure everything sounds fine, mic check and all of that goodness. That way, when it's time for us to start playing, we can just start playing," Speed said, smiling. Just the fact that she was talking to him was making his day ten times better.

A few hours later, the gym was beginning to fill up with people. Eden and all of her friends were sitting at a table, trying to figure out what to do about Jude.

Don't worry, everything will come back to bite her in the ass, in due time. What goes around comes around, and if it doesn't happen naturally, well there was someone that would make sure to it.

"May I have this dance, Lady Harrison?" someone behind Jude said with a British accent. She turned around and was greeted by Kyle.

"Wait me first," Wally said.

"We can dance together," Jude said, wrapping her arms around the two boys. They may not have been the brightest crayons in the box, but they surely knew how to make her laugh.

"So Lady Harrison, where 'ave ya been?" Kyle asked.

"We 'aven't seen ya aroun' in ages," Wally added.

"Guys, you know what happened. I'm not stupid," Jude said.

"Yeah, but its fun talking in those accents. So, what was up with the little hand holding action we caught earlier?" Wally asked. Jude's cheeks turned as red as Kyle's tie.

"Are you two together now?" Kyle asked. They didn't even give her a chance to get an answer out.

"Did you guys apologize to each other?"

"Did he kiss you again?"

"Dude's got it bad for you."

"Dudes, shut up. Sorry Jude, I took their muzzles off for the night, and this is what they do," Speed said, saving Jude from their game of 20 questions.

"You try being locked away in your basement for that long without talking," Wally said before bursting into fake tears. The three friends started laughing and Jude wondered if she wanted to know what they were talking about.

She decided against it.

"We'll leave you two alone," Kyle said, pulling Wally away.

"I didn't really lock him in my basement," Speed explained.

"Right," Jude said with a hint of sarcasm. He caught himself smiling again; not only was she talking to him, she was joking with him as well. They still needed to talk though.

"So about that talking thing, you wanna go do it now?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go," she said, grabbing his hand this time. She wanted to get it over with. They needed to talk, and it needed to happen soon.

"Alright, well ladies and gentlemen, our band has prepared a few songs for your entertainment, so could you please give it up for them?" the music teacher, Mr. Jamboree said. Jude groaned; they couldn't catch a break, could they.

She and Speed were the last ones to make it to the stage, but once they got there, they started playing.

The crowd's favorite seemed to be 'Kylelicious.' The rest of the band could barely play their instruments, they were laughing too hard at his antics.

"Kyle Bateman everyone. Now, let's shift back over to Jude singing some more, alright Jude?" Speed asked.

They had been alternating who was doing lead vocals on which songs, and they sang a few together: Dance, Dance and I Believe In a Thing Called Love. Speed did leads on the last one, Modern Swinger, so it was Jude's turn.

"Okay, now this one is one of my favorite songs, it's called Nineteen Stars," Jude said before she began to sing.

She was nearing the second verse of the song, when Eden and followers set their plan into motion. They started booing and chanting "Eden's better."

Jude was not mentally prepared for this.

"Shut up," Speed said.

"Why, cause we're right? No way can some whore like Jude sing better than Eden. Why do you think she gets whatever she wants?" Kat asked. Jude couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Because she's good at what she does," Speed said.

"Yeah, sucking," Blaire said.

"Literally," Eden said, sending her group into a fit of laughter. Jude didn't want them to see her cry, but she couldn't help it.

"Awh, little Jude's crying," Eden pointed out. Jude took off towards the bathroom, not listening to those who tried to stop her.

Oh yes, someone was gonna pay.

Patsy was sure of it.

Kudos to anyone who knows why Jude drew pictures of Speed being stuffed into mattresses. You know your music.

Bathwater by No Doubt; Baby, Its Fact by Hellogoodbye; Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy; Unreachable by Ashlee Simpson; Hey There Delilah by Plain White T's; How I Feel by some chick (haha, Alexz Johnson); I Believe In A Thing Called love by The Darkness; Modern Swinger by The Pink Spiders; Fergielicious by Fergie; Nineteen Stars by Meg and Dia; Redundant by Green Day; Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go by Soft Cell; and One Slowdance by Rufio.

And I feel like I need to change the ending of the next chapter. I don't know…

I'll post the last chapter sometime next week.

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