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Chapter Twenty-Six:
"I am not wearing that." John looks at his hat that he will be wearing.
"Oh come on John, do we have to go through this again?" She is annoyed that each day is the same routine.
"We don't have to if you gave me normal girl clothes like you." He argues.
"This is part of the challenge. You agreed to the terms." She argues back throwing the hat on the bed. "Can I sit here?" She points to the love chair near the window.
"AJ, what's wrong?" He sees her very distraught after not accepting to wear the hat.
"Can I sit there or not?" She speaks in a harsh tone.
"Yes you can. AJ, is something wrong at home? Did the dog not come back?" AJ still keeps tabs on the dog that comes every morning. She would feed him every day before coming to John for this week. When John and she followed the dog before, they found out that the dog was being mistreated by its owners. AJ was going to report the owners, however, she receive a message not in form of the dog limping when he came back the next day.
"Actually, he is in a safe home now. The new owners let me visit him on the weekends and let me take care of him when they are on vacation." She smiles as she sits down. After she told her parents and some hidden cameras around the house, the owners got caught in their abuse. The dog was taken away and was put in an animal shelter. He was quickly adopted by a nice family.
"Then what is wrong?" He still sense her very distraught about something.
"Nothing, it is there are quite a lot of think on my mind. You know me I always over analyze everything." She chuckles.
"Are you sure?" He is not convinced.
"Yes, so I thought about it and maybe you can wear a simple Boston Celtics hat. You don't have to wear that hat even thought it matches your dress." She sighs looking at the window.
"Fine, I'll wear everything." He gives in not wanting her upset anymore than she is currently. AJ turns to give him a big smile. "Yes, yes, now come zip up my dress." He turns around.
"You're the best. You are my third favourite person." She jokes as she pecks his cheek after zipping up his dress.
"Third, I am your third favourite? Who is after Randy?" He shocked by her rank. She blushes. "No, don't tell me Jack is your second favourite."
"He is not, he is my number one favourite with Randy being second." She grins.
"Wow that hurts that really hurts." He pretends to acts very traumatized by her decision.
"Oh come on, you and Randy would do the same." She waves it off thinking he is joking with her.
"We are not. We value friendship more unlike some people we know." He crosses his arms.
"Fine, I will tell Randy to leave you here." She huffs exiting out the door.
"Nope, you stay here." He grabs and tickles her.
"Stop-" She giggles. "I am going to tell Randy to not pick you up." She continues to giggle.
"Nope, I am not letting you go until I am number one or at least ahead of Randy." He requests.
"Never." She giggles as she tries to get of his grasp.
"Then we are going to be late for school." He continues to tickle her.
"What is up, we are going to be late for school?" Randy enters which distracts John to have AJ stomp on his foot to escape.
"Oww, that hurts." He hops up and down while he holds his foot.
"You should be." She crosses her arms.
"John, what did you do again?" Randy shakes his head. Sometimes he thinks he is the only mature one in their group.
"Nothing, it is AJ. She ranked me third on her favourite people list." He informs Randy.
"You went up John that is a good thing." He jokingly applauses as he assume AJ was joking with him.
"Wait, I was fourth, who was… Stacey? I was behind Stacey?" He is in more shock and hurt at the revelation.
"Yah, you were behind her and now you are third, congratulation." Randy smiles. "I, on the other hand, will always be first." He speaks so modestly.
John chuckles on his blurred mind state. "Not according to AJ you are not."
"What, who is first now?" He looks at AJ not taking this in a joking matter.
"Umm… you know him. You like him. He is sweet and caring like you." She smiles innocently.
"Jack. Jack is your number one person now." This time he is the one in shock at his revelation. "I am sorry I interrupted continue." He closes the door and moves next to John.
John grins as Randy and he walks closer to her. AJ moves backwards as she knows what is coming. "Stop, you don't have to do this. Randy, I bet Stacey is your number one, right?" She compromises.
"Nope, you two are my friends. Friends are forever while relationship can leave you. You AJ are my best friend, you will always be my number one favourite person." He expresses.
"I see, well I change my rank. You two are my top two favourite people while Jack is third and Stacey fourth." She changes her mind so not to be tickled again.
"You are just saying that so we won't tickle you." John utters.
"No I am not. Randy is right friendship is forever. You two have been with me longer you should be my two favourite people." She explains as she gets her bag.
"That's right we are back in the top two." John gives a high-five Randy in celebration.
"Now can we go to school?" AJ questions upset about having to change her rank. I guess she will not joke about that anymore.
"Of course." John picks up his hat AJ picked and bag before he follows them to the car.
They arrive at school. John is in a nice sun dress with flowers on it along with his own sun hat with a flower on it. Jack, on the other hand, has a simple Cubs baseball hat with jeans and a shirt. This doesn't bother John because he is second on AJ's rank favourite people.
"Hey baby, what took you so long today?" Stacey asks holding his hand.
"The three of us got into a friendly argument; John and I against AJ." He pecks her on the lips.
"What about?"
"It is about your brother being the number one person to AJ. John and I should be number one and number two." He locks the car before they walk to the front door of the school.
"What is the problem with that?" Stacey doesn't see the reason to argue.
"The problem is that I should be number one because I am the best friend. John should be number two because he is the closest friend to her. It has always been that way." He is surprise she doesn't get the reason.
"So her having a boyfriend and a bestie means less than your two statuses? You two are more important to her than us?" Stacey argues.
"Well, we do know her the longest." He chuckles at her argument.
"So, you don't know maybe if Jack and I know her the deepest; emotionally wise?" She is annoyed that he is not taking this seriously.
"What do you mean?" He is puzzled on why they are arguing about this.
"I mean that I am the one who she can be girly with. Jack is the person who can be with her romantically. We can have a deeper bond that can happen quicker than knowing her the longest. If I would to rank you guys, just for fun or jokes, I would put you as number one and Jack as number two. Do you know why?" Randy shakes his head. "I have a deeper connection to you than I do Jack. Yes he is my older brother and I love him forever, but you are my love. You should be the one I can share anything with and I do mean everything." She expresses. "So I get why she picked Jack as her number one. Who is your number one?"
"AJ." He replies without any hesitation. "It will always be AJ. She is my little sister, my best friend, the person I can tell anything to."
"And who am I? I am just a girl that is here for physical attraction." She is angry with him.
"You are my girlfriend, the person who I want the spend a long life with." He kisses her hand scared of this situation.
"What happens if you have to choose if AJ and I disagree on something? Who will you choose to stand behind? AJ?" He shrugs knowing the answer will makes things worse. "I know who I would choose between you and Jack." She pulls away from his grasp.
"Stacey, wait." He reaches out and grabs her hand back. "Are we breaking up?" He is confused on this whole situation. How it was an innocent talk to turn into something very bad.
"No, I just think you need to know where your loyalties lie. Also, how you can't force someone to change their feelings." She moves his hand away and runs to AJ and her stays put as he wonders how this situation came about.
It is lunch time as Randy is still wondering of his situation before. John is beside him with Jack and Stacey on the other side with AJ in between them. AJ notices all morning that something is wrong with Randy. She knows that something is on his mind distracting him. Does he feel bad for her changing her mind? She is going to speak to him after lunch to get to the bottom of it.
"Hey Randy?" AJ greets him at his locker. There is no answer from him. Somewhere in his mind, he ponders that she is the cause of Stacey and him to have the argument. "Hey best friend." She greets again with a cheerful tone.
"What do you want, AJ?" He asks in a harsh tone.
This surprises her. "Why are you angry? What did I do?"
"I am not angry just frustrated. Again, what do you want?" His tone calms down a bit.
"I just want to check up on you. I have notice something is on your mind. Do you want to talk about it?" She offers. "Did something happen with Stacey?" She fires question trying to figure out why he is acting like this.
Her questions trigger something bad in him. "How about you worry about Jack since he is your number one favourite person? I can handle myself. I don't need my baby sister, wait friend, to take care of me." He yells at her.
AJ tries to hold back tears. "Okay-" She sniffles. "I will leave you alone." She knows when he gets like this to leave him alone for awhile.
"I think that is for the best." He closes his locker before he leaves her alone. When he is out of sight, AJ sulks down and starts to shed tears. It has been awhile since Randy has been this way with her.
"Hey hunny, why are you crying? You are too beautiful to cry." Her stalker inquires with a caring smile.
AJ looks up to see him; her stalker. "Leave me alone, please. I don't want any company right now." She moves sideways to be parallel with the lockers.
"I bet if I was one of your friends, especially Randy or Jack, you will let me be with you now." He smirks bending down to her level.
"I just want to be alone, please. I just want to be by myself." She hugs herself.
"I can't do that, AJ. You see you belong to me and I am going to show you." He gives her a mischievous grin.
She sees this grin and immediately stands to run away, but he grabs her hand; holding it tight. "Stop, you are hurting me." She tries to pull her hand back.
"I never want to do that." He brings her close with the same tight grip. "I want to show you that no one is better for you than me." He blocks her path with his arms on both sides of her head.
"Why can't you leave me alone? I don't like you like that. I don't even recognize you from my childhood." She states.
"Of course you don't. You and Randy didn't care for me. You two rejected me when I wanted to be friends." He reminds her.
"What do you mean? I have always accepted anyone to be my friend. You probably have mistaken me for someone else."
"I don't think so. Randy is the one who shut me out when I got too close to you. You see you looked, so beautiful as a child and you still are. I wanted to be your friend so we can get to know each other and eventually date. Randy didn't want that for you. He said I was a danger to you that I shouldn't go near you or else."
"So, what is this? Is this your revenge? I'm your revenge for him." She discovers that this is about Randy and not her.
"That's right. The best way to get to him is by you. Now stay still while I show you I am the best." He tries to kiss her neck as AJ moves her head away from his mouth. "Stop!" He slams the locker. "Damn, we need more privacy." He grabs her arm and heads to a small closet.
Jack is by AJ's class for both of them to head to the assembly together. Everyone exits the classroom, but he didn't see her exit. This puzzles him because she wouldn't skip class.
"Mr. Johnson, was AJ in class today?" He asks after he looked that no one is left in class.
"No she wasn't. It is odd that she would skip class; she never wants to. Is something wrong with her?" He asks Jack seeing them hang out around school.
"No Mr. Johnson, thank you for the information."
"You're welcome. When you do see her, please tell her to come here I have her test mark and project topic."
"Yes sir I will." He exits to see if she is at her locker. Maybe she forgot that she has class and not Gym." He arrives there to see John and Randy only. "Hey guys." He greets.
"Hey Jack, are you ready for the assembly." John asks.
"I think I will skip it today. AJ wasn't in class period and I have to find her." Jack informs them.
"What?" They utter in surprise by this.
"I just saw her before class." Randy speaks with guilt of their conversation earlier.
"Well, she didn't go to class and I don't know where she would go." Jack is concern that maybe her stalker is with her.
"Okay, we will split up and look for her. She has to be here somewhere."
Stacey walks all casually down the hall until she hears screaming. She ignores it as she assumes that it a girl excited about something. Again she hears it after she takes a few more steps. This considers her to have her listen to where the screams are from; it is from the closet. She puts her ear at the door to hear another scream and know someone getting hit. "Hey, everything okay in there?" She knocks on the door.
AJ notices it is Stacey. "Stacey, help! He is trying to-" Her stalker covers her mouth.
"Everything is fine. Thank you for your concern." He replies knowing that she will call Jack and/ or Randy to come here.
"Okay." Stacey calls back.
AJ bites his hand. "Stacey, help! Call Jack!" She screams out. The guy hits her hard to have her fall to the ground. "Shut your mouth." He goes to the door to hear anything; he doesn't. He slowly opens the door to see no one there. He puts on diabolical smile. "I guess she didn't hear you. Let us continue." He unbuckles his belt.
Stacey catches up to her brother. "Jack, you need to come with me." She utters out of breath.
"I can't I have to find AJ."
"I found her and she is in trouble." She holds onto her brother's shoulder to regain her breath.
"What?"
"I heard screaming in a closet and it was AJ. She screamed for help and to get you."
"Take me to her." They run as fast as they can to save AJ.
"Please don't do this." She is half-naked as well as him.
"This is the ultimate revenge and plus I need you to break it off with Jack. Now, to do all of that, I need to show you why I am better."
"You will show me by forcing to have sex with you." He nods. "I wouldn't break it off with Jack because of that." She is disgusted on his mind set.
"He might when he finds out you had sex with me. No talking let's begin." He moves her underwear to the side.
"AJ, are you there?" Jack calls out. AJ is grateful for his timing.
"Well, look at that your knight and shining armour is here. Although, will he enter before I enter you." He gives a menacing smile.
AJ knees him in the groin as she opens the door. He jumps into Jack's arms. "AJ, are you okay?" He hugs her tight. Stacey notices she is half-naked so she takes her jacket off and puts it around her. After a long hug grateful that they found her, Jack looks back in the closet to see it is AJ's stalker. "Stacey, call Mr. Michaels." He orders as he tries to control his rage.
"Maybe I should stay here." She looks at her brother's expression to know that he will attack the guy when she leaves.
"Stacey, Mr. Michaels now." He raises his voice. Stacey doesn't argue and runs to get Mr. Michaels.
"Well, well, well Jack, that is my girl you have in your arms." He gets up.
"Yah right, she is my girlfriend." He puts her down and behind him. AJ still hugs her from behind with one arm as the other holds up the jacket.
"She is our closest friend." Randy and John appear by him.
"Feeling lucky." Jack grins.
"I better get going. I'll see you later AJ." He knows that he won't stand a chance against John and Randy.
"Wait a minute, mister." Mr. Michaels calls out.
"Damn." He stops with his clothes in his arms.
"I want you in my office now!" He screams. "AJ, you too in my office, please." He speaks in a gentle tone. AJ holds Jack tighter for comfort. "You can bring only one friend."
"I'll go." Randy offers.
"Jack." She announces quietly.
"Okay, Jack, come with us too." Jack hugs AJ tight as he shrugs to John and Randy. He would think she would pick either Randy or John to go with her.
Randy and John both head down the hall to have Randy punch a locker. He knows this is entire his fault.
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