mixtape melodies

bob's burgers

for: kati

"Oh come on Tina, grow some lady balls and just give it to him already!"

The sixteen year old Belcher girl glanced at her sister, her lips bit, and fingers trembling slightly. Louise was impatiently tapping her foot on the ground with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed at her older sister.

The time was seven twenty-five in the morning, t-minus five minutes until class started.

"I-I can't." Tina replied, her voice cracking. "What if he doesn't like it?"

Louise threw her arms up, groaning loudly in frustration. The bunny capped girl had spent the last twenty or so minutes with her sister, standing in a distance away from the front of Wagstaff School, or in particular, away from a certain boy.

With an exasperated sigh Louise cleared her throat and gave her older sister her award winning smile.

"Tina, babe" she mused. "I didn't stay up til two in the freaking morning picking 80's pop love ballads that are acceptable for both pop and interpretation dance for you to chicken out." The younger Belcher sneered between clenched teeth.

Tina whimpered quietly to herself as she quickly glanced at Jimmy Jr. a couple feet away.

He was leaning on the wall by the stairs to the front entrance. His eyes closed, headphones in, and feet rhythmically tapping on the pavement. The mere sight of his slumped figure was enough to make the teenager's heart to pound dangerously within her chest. With another nervous whimper, Tina fixed her gaze back at her sister who was now giving her a beady look.

"I can't give it to him Louise!" Tina replied, looking down at the cassette tape wrapped delicately with a ribbon in her hand. "I just remembered that Jimmy Pesto Jr. also likes to do jazz numbers. And Baby Don't Hurt Me is not suitable in any way for jazz numbers." It was as though it was the end of the world. Tina bit her lip and intertwined her fingers in her hair. "His body can't move to this grove Louise! The whole thing is ruined!"

At this point it took all of Louise's energy and will not to slap her sister. However, before the young girl could feel her brain explode in frustration and vocal chords ready to snap, she composed herself, took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a brief second, and opened them to look at her older sister once again. Only this time with a look of sincerity.

The time was now seven twenty-seven. Three minutes before the bell.

"Tina, listen." she said in her rare serious tone. "It doesn't matter if dancy pants doesn't like the music on the tape. He's lucky enough that we actually got him something for his birthday when he didn't even invite us to his stupid party."

Tina frowned at her sister "But Tammy gave him a-"

"Screw Tammy!" Louise hollered back. "Tammy didn't spend her night with bloodshot eyes searching for tunes til the morning sun pierced her pupils!" Louise gripped Tina's shoulders and shook them violently. "Tina. He'll love it, I swear on Dad's hairline, he will." Louise then proceeded to inch closer to her sister's face "And you know why I know?" she asked.

"Why?" Tina mumbled quietly.

"Because Tina freaking Belcher gave it to him, that's why."

Tina's mouth twitched into a small smile at her sister's rare sign of kindness. She opened her mouth to say some sort of reply, but by then Louise had taken advantage of her sudden relaxation and shoved her sister roughly in the back towards the school entrance.

"Now go!" she yelled as Tina yelped.

Jimmy Jr. was now about a couple feet away, close enough that Tina could see his shoe laces were untied. With shaky legs and sharp breaths, Tina urged her body to trudge forward.

Zeke and Tammy were idling next to Jimmy Jr. like usual. Zeke smiled widely at the view of the glasses clad Belcher whereas Tammy just scoffed.

"Tina tots!" Zeke greeted, his fingers waving gleefully.

"Zeke." Tina mumbled before turning. "Tammy."

Tammy huffed in reply before tugging on Zeke's arm. "C'mon babe, let's go somewhere else before I reek of rejection." Zeke followed dutifully behind his girlfriend, replying something in the lines of 'haha good one Tammy' as the two wandered off.

Jimmy Jr., with eyes still closed and headphones still on, didn't appear to notice that his two friends had left. With a quick glance behind her to see Louise watching at a distance and one last shaky breath, Tina tapped him on the shoulder.

The time was seven twenty-nine. One minute left.

Jimmy Jr. opened his eyes and looked up. At sixteen the young Pesto had grown a good head taller than Tina and was still as handsome as he was at thirteen. Upon seeing Tina, he shot her confused look and took off his headphones.

"Oh hey, Tina." he mumbled his lisp still present after three years.

"Hi, Jimmy Jr." Tina said far too quickly. She looked down and kicked the pavement shyly beneath her. "So I- um, heard it was your birthday the other day and uh."

With one swift panicked movement Tina shoved the cassette tape onto the boy's hand. "I kinda got you something."

Jimmy Jr. looked down at the clumsy wrapped gift. "You got me a tape?" he asked.

"A mixtape" Tina added with a smile. "You know, because you're a dancer and dancers need music and-"

"Yeah, I got that." He replied, still gazing at the gift.

When Jimmy Jr. didn't move from his spot, or even looked up at her for that matter, Tina feared that he didn't like her gift. Her smile faded away as she rubbed her arms awkwardly.

"Well okay" she said quietly. "Bye I guess"

Tina turned quickly away, ready to sprint the heck out there and shove her face into her locker. However, before she could lift up her sneaker off the sidewalk she felt a hand grab for her arm.

"Hey, wait."

Jimmy Jr's fingers wrapped gently around Tina's wrist. He looked down at her and smiled the smallest of smiles. "Do you wanna listen to it with me?" he asked, handing her one of his neon yellow earphones.

"Oh." Tina pushed on her glasses frame and nervously looked back at him. "I um, didn't clean my ears this morning." she added awkwardly.

"It's fine" Junior insisted.

"Like I don't have an ear infection or anything, it's just that maybe you're a germ freak and-"

"Just take my earphones, Tina"

With a grateful smile, Tina did what he said and took a step forward and placed the earphone in her right ear. Jimmy Jr. with the ear-bud on his left gently removed the ribbon tied around the tape and shoved in her gift into his music player. Their backs were against the brick wall, their eyes were closed, and foots were tapping in sync.

The time was seven-thirty sharp. The bell had just rung, but the two teenagers didn't appear to notice.

author's note:

so i don't usually write things, and i apologize if tina and louise are out of character -because damn i tried so hard to be witty. but whatever, i really just wanted to write something for you kati.

happy birthday! c: i'm sorry i am not a better writer.