Author's Note: I am so glad that so many people over the last year [Can you believe it?] have been following IQ and Fender's journey, and I want to thank everyone who posted a review or favorited this story. You guys are the reason I've decided to continue on their journey. This is for you guys! 3
Chapter 8: I'm Not That Girl [Reprise]
A few weeks passed after the incident and one would think something like this would surely die down once a new scandal, but alas that was not the case. Fender sat in homeroom starring at IQ's chair in two rows ahead of him hoping, wishing that the boy with the green rimmed glasses would come walking in and take his seat and his place in Fender's heart once more. The bell rang causing Fender to shake out of his dizzy dream-like stare on the chair as more and more people began to file into the room.
Of course, these people knew all about what had gone on between the third most popular boy on the Corny Collins Show and the smartest kids in the sophomore class. However, it seemed like most people blamed it on IQ, not Fender, for people acted normally to Fender, well at least to his face. Fender sighed as the morning announcements came on and began to babble about the same old tired things as usual, but Fender's mind was not there, it hadn't been since that day.
"Hey!" spoke a shrill and perky voice that Fender knew all too well as he turned to see his ex-girlfriend Tammy with a smile across her lips as she took the seat next to him and turned to speak with him, but he suddenly got up and moved. "How dare you." he grumbled as he moved up to the seat he had been starring at so dreamily early. "Fender Bender." Tammy said in a whiny voice as she crossed her legs and glanced ahead at the dark haired boy sitting just a few rows away from her. She had put so much work into the plan to get IQ out of the way, she had toiled and schemed for days in hopes that once IQ was out of the way, she'd have Fender back in her life and all would be blissfully perfect as it had been before.
Fender shook off Tammy's annoying voice as the morning announcements faded from the room which surely meant the first bell was going to ring any second, and after weeks of this cold-shoulder treatment, Tammy was determined to get Fender to speak to her: one way or another.
The first bell rang and Tammy pounced for Fender as he got out of Fender's old chair heading for the door. "You can't stay mad at me forever, Fender Bender! I did this for us! I wanted us to be happy!" Tammy said standing in front of him pouting her lips in the way she always did when she wanted things to go her way. Fender glared coldly at Tammy as her shallow words hit him and only made the hole left empty by IQ's disappearance even that much more unbearable to stand. "Stop calling me that, Tammy!" Fender said as he kept his eyes firmly focused on her, letting her feel his heart-break, his sadness and his longing, each emotion he had been feeling for weeks but kept locked up. "Tammy, I was happy, and it wasn't with you. I loved IQ, and you ruined his life, you ruined our lives!" Fender's anger growing as all those emotions flowing out like lava out of a building volcano.
"B-But I-I-I…" was all Tammy could squeak out as Fender let her have it for getting his boyfriend, and what a disgusting term that was for her to think, suspended from school with possibility of expulsion and as if that weren't bad enough, he was also black-balled from the Council. "You know what would truly make me happy!? Is if you never spoke or looked at me, again!" Fender said pushing passed her almost knocking her into the lockers nearby. Tammy turned, tears in her eyes as she called after him but he didn't turn once to look at her.
Tammy covered her eyes with her hands trying to keep the tears from coming, but they just kept coming. Realizing the hallway was not the proper place for such behavior Tammy dashed off to the bathroom, defeated and alone.