I don't own the Breakfast Club
Enjoy!
Brian let out a sigh after having a snack break. He had his head down on his desk, trying to finish his homework, as he constantly looked at the alarm clock next to him. It was not even five o'clock yet and Brian was dreading every single second of it. It wasn't because of the date…er, meeting that he was having with Susan. It was the events prior to that. He couldn't believe how John had been willing to help them out with their predicament. Looks like there was more to John that Brian realized, especially after he sacrificed himself at Saturday detention.
Right now, there was a couple of obstacles that stood in his way. His parents. What if they looked past John's façade and realized what their true intentions were? What if they said 'no?' How was Brian supposed to get through? Even if that was the case, he hoped that Susan would be understanding about it.
He glanced back at the clock and let out another sigh. Still not close to five o'clock yet. He turned his clock around, thinking that it would go faster if he just focused on his homework. Brian couldn't believe the amount of homework and projects that his classes assigned. He hoped that it wasn't going to be one of those all-nighters where he would go to bed at three and wake up after three hours of sleep.
Brian rubbed his eyes, feeling that they were going to close any second and shook his head to wake up from the sleep. Come on, focus! Brian scolded himself. There had been days when he lost his concentration over his homework, but not this much. Eventually, Brian pushed himself to focus as he solved a couple of the assigned equations from his math homework. At least that was enough a distraction for him to not think about the time.
"How far away is his freaking house?" John muttered under his breath, feeling like he has walked for miles. Him and Susan would have been cleaning up the art classroom at this time if Carl hadn't walked in.
The fact that John and Susan had managed to clean more than half of the room was good enough for Carl to take it from there. After all, he had said that it was 'part of the job picking up after people like them.' Before John left, he stuffed the canvas that he and Susan collaborated on in the supply closet, planning to come back for it sometime tomorrow for that was going to be another one of her artwork that he would have a hold of.
Susan had hurried to go to her house and John tracked down Larry Lester when he came out from one of his after-school clubs, realizing from Saturday detention that Brian knew him. The kid looked so scrawny that if John pushed him with him finger, he would easily fall on the floor. Larry was so jittery when John walked up to him that he didn't know if he should remain still or just run away from the rebel that approached him.
John was not at all in the mood for an introduction. So he cut to the chase. "Where's Johnson's house?" he asked Larry, seeing the kid cower in fear. After what Andrew had done, John couldn't blame the kid for acting the way that he did. Eventually, Larry was able to tell John the street where Brian lived. John was relieved that Larry didn't protest, like John had expected him to. Who knows if he was going to give Brian a call and warn him that a rebel was going to wind up at his house? John smirked at that. Brian ought to consider himself lucky that it was him and not someone else.
There's a car with the license plate EMC2 Larry had told him. John had fought the urge to roll his eyes at that. Were his parents a bunch of nerds too or just fans of Albert Einstein? Eventually, John found the car with that license plate. On the outside, the house was pristine and well groomed, unlike his home that had weeds growing everywhere and grass blades that went above the ankle.
He looked down at his wardrobe. He certainly didn't pass the test of being a stellar student but looks could be deceiving. He hoped that Brian's parents were able to see past the paint stains that were everywhere. He clutched Susan's physics book under his arm and walked to the front door. He cleared his throat and tried to put on his best behavior for this family and knocked on the door.
The door slightly opened and John expected to see someone standing behind it. There was no one there.
"Down here," a high-pitched voice said and John looked down to see a little girl by the doorway. Funny that Brian never mentioned that he had a little sister.
Oh damn John thought as he looked at the little girl before him. How was he supposed to act without scaring the kid? Better question, why would her parents allow her to open the door to strangers? "Hey…" John slowly dragged out the word, "kid. Is your brother home?"
"He's grounded," the little girl answered him back, "two weeks."
Why did she look like the type of kid who would spill out the family secrets at a familial gathering? Must be fun having her over for Thanksgiving dinner. "Well…shucks," John said, trying to keep his language as clean as possible, "are your parents home?"
"Mary, come away from the door!" another voice came from the doorway and the little girl pulled away.
Asked and answered John thought and then looked up at the woman that approached the door which John assumed was Brian's mother.
The woman surveyed John up and down. John despised that. He may not have been wearing those typical academic style clothes, but that didn't mean that he didn't have any form of intelligence. "Who are you?" the woman asked him.
John didn't flinch at her tone of voice. Very demanding and condescending. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Johnson," John put on his façade and flashed her a charismatic smile. "Is Brian home? We are supposed to have a study session at five today."
Mrs. Johnson leaned against the doorway. "He's grounded," she told him, "he didn't tell me that he has a tutoring session tonight."
Damn it, Brian! John thought and fought the urge to roll his eyes. "It's my fault," John assured her, "it was a last-minute decision. You see, I have this big test on Friday in physics and I was hoping to get Brian to help me study. He's a smart kid, your son."
Mrs. Johnson would have been touched by such a comment if she wasn't so angry with Brian. "You don't strike like a physics student."
John glanced down at the ground and held his tongue from lashing out this woman. "Call it a phase ma'am," he told her. "Every kid goes through them. And who knows, you'd be surprised when you hear that I got into Hoover Academy." Whether she knew about this fictional university from a 1984 movie or not, John was gonna let her be the judge of that. Yet, it felt good poking fun at this woman who had an air of attitude.
Mrs. Johnson let out a sigh. "I'll be right back," she said as she closed the door on John and disappeared inside.
John held his arms in the air. "Not even an invitation," he commented but loud enough where it would blow his cover. He didn't wait too long until the door opened and Brian came out of the house.
"At what time will you be home?" Mrs. Johnson asked him with one hand on her hip.
Before Brian could answer, John raised an arm in the air. "It depends," John told her, "I uh, really need some help with this subject for my test."
Brian looked from John and then at his mother. "We'll try to finish up quickly," Brian told her. "Maybe in an hour or two?"
Mrs. Johnson gave her son a stern look. "Don't be too long. I will put some dinner out for you when you get back." With those words, she walked back into her house and closed the door on the two boys.
Brian let out a puff of air out of his mouth as he and John proceeded down the street. The two of them mostly walked in silence, until Brian finally found the courage to speak up. "I didn't think five o'clock would come soon enough."
"We ran into something," John cryptically said to Brian as he turned his head and looked at him, "don't worry. It's been handled."
A curious look passed over Brian's eyes. "What happened?" he then looked at John's stained clothes. "It has something to do with the pain doesn't it?"
"Aren't you observant?" John commented, "I caught Picasso painting in the art classroom. Thought I join her and…things got out of hand."
"With the paints?" Brian asked as John gave him an incredulous look. Brian held up his arms in surrender, "I just wanna know, Bender."
John stopped walking and put a hand on Brian's arm to stop him from walking. "Nerd, I may have a reputation but I don't stoop that freaking low…especially to my friends."
Brian was caught off guard by John's words. Even if those words held truth in them, it was nice to hear them coming from John.
"You have any idea where her house is?" John then asked Brian. "I feel I've been walking for hours getting to your house."
Brian nodded his head. Before John had joined in on their conversation at the school grounds this morning and when Brian offered that they should have a 'meeting,' Susan had given him her address. "A house with lots of rosebushes," Brian told him, "her grandmother loves rosebushes."
John rose an eyebrow at that. "She lives with her grandmother?" John wouldn't know what that was like. As of now, he didn't know if his grandparents were still alive. If they were and within the area, John might as well flee and stay with them.
The two boys suddenly came upon a house that was just as well kept as the others in the neighborhood. John smirked at the pristine conditions of the house, which he believed were not accomplished by an aged woman. "You think Vernon mows the lawn for his mom on the weekends?"
It would have been quite the sight to see. Especially his frustration if the lawn mower broke down on him. Brian let out a chuckle at John's words. "Someone has to. I can't imagine Susan doing it."
"Speaking of which," John said as he looked up at the windows of the house, "how're we gonna get her outta there?"
Brian gave John a perplexed look. "Why would she be in trouble?"
"After the painting session we had, Uncle Drill Sergeant caught us and made up clean up the whole place," John explained. "Don't know what happened after if she ran into him before she left."
Brian hoped that wasn't the case, otherwise this whole outing would have been for nothing. What was he going to do? Spend the rest of the hour at the library with John? Unsure how to proceed, Brian turned to John for support. "What are we going to do?"
"There's no 'we' here," John said as he put his hands on John's shoulders and turned him towards the door. "Knock, introduced yourself like the gentleman you are, and get your girl."
Brian felt John pushing him towards the door and he staggered forward. He shot John a glare over his shoulder and adjusted his shirt, fixed his air, and tried to get rid of the nervousness that came over him. He raised his fist and rapped his knuckles against the door and immediately pulled his arm back. Brian heard footsteps coming towards the door and once the door pulled back, an elderly woman with white hair and glasses stood by the doorway.
"Hi," Brian greeted her, "you must be Susan's grandmother."
"Call me Dorothy," the woman smiled at him as she adjusted her glasses to get a better look at Brian. "You must be Susan's gentleman caller."
Brian blushed at that outdated term. "We just have a meeting…S-Susan and I," he explained to her only to get an incredulous look from Dorothy.
"Susan!" Dorothy called her granddaughter's name in a melodic fashion.
It wasn't long until Susan came to the door and bid her goodbyes to her grandmother. She smiled brightly as she looked at Brian. "You guys made it."
"You're not in trouble are you?" Brian asked her and explained that John had filled him in on the painting session.
Susan looked over Brian's shoulder and gave John a greeting with her head. It seems that Brian was aware of what had happened. "Just a good old Saturday detention," Susan said as she took a hold of his hands and gave them a squeeze. "But he didn't say anything right now." A smile came upon her lips as she and Brian walked towards John, hand in hand.
John fought the urge to roll his eyes. In his experiences, he never remembered holding hands with any of the girls that he had been with. Someone was going to have to teach these two some of that intense admiration that was the best feeling in the world. John couldn't remember when the last time was that he had felt that. With the girls that he considered and kept in his wallet, he felt nothing…and he didn't know if he would ever feel anything anymore. "Alright, alright break it up," he said when Susan and Brian approached him.
Susan then looked at John. "Are you still up at joining us?" she asked him.
"Like I said, I ain't crashing your date," John told her, "but I have to be there and walk Big Bri back home after we finished our 'tutoring' session." He looked at them when they didn't move from their positions, "come on, get to it. Start your date already."
"It's a meeting," Brian corrected him.
It took all of John's will to not throw the physics book at Brian's head. Was the kid blind to call it a meeting and not a date?