Chapter three! Tell me what you REALLY think..
“It’s so good of you two to join us.” Mr. Baldwin spoke. “I was just about ready to say that we should get ready to learn, it’s almost like you knew when I was going to be done ranting, your very lucky.” He pointed to the only empty seats in class. “Go sit down.”
Slash was the first to sit down; she sat beside one of the friends of hers that wasn’t gothic, Sarah Retief. Beside me was a fourth Gossip, her name was Jolly Goodwin, she has a very funny name, but I love it. Jolly is a very kind person, you can share anything with her, and if you want to keep it between two people, she won’t spread it like she should, seeing on how she is a Gossip. The teacher passed out some papers that had questions like where did you go on your first vacation and stuff like that. Easy answer, I took a “vacation” to the Bahamas, but that was when my mother was still alive. The trip to the Bahamas was both the last trip we’ve ever went on and where it was that my mother died. My father had taken me because I was a baby, my mom worked as a flight instructor, she was in the middle of teaching someone how to land, the hardest part of all. The student was flying her to the island, when they touched the ground the airplane flipped and exploded into a tree. The last thing I heard that night was a huge “Noooo!” from my dad. Four days later we were sent back on a plane ride back to Delaware. My dad has never been on a plane since. I didn’t honestly want to say that was my first vacation so I just left it blank. The next question was what your parent’s names are. I didn’t remember my mom’s name. I was getting very angry, my eyes were tearing up and I just put my pencil down and read the last question.
Question three was how old your parents are now, that was what ticked me off. I crumbled the paper up and threw it across the room into the trash can. I haven’t thought much about my mom, but I was very angry now, and no longer in control of my brain. Jolly was patting my back, but her face showed that her true emotion was curiosity.
“What’s wrong John?” She looked as if she was in as much pain as I was.
“These questions are all about my parents, my mom died when I was four…” My eyes were drying up, I was out of water. “My dad hasn’t even talked about my mom since she died, I don’t remember anything about her…” Jolly just let out an “oh” as if she didn’t know how to cheer me up. She crumbled her paper up and threw it at the trash can; only she missed and was forced to pick it up.
“Why did you two both throw away your papers?” Mr. Baldwin asked.
“John’s mom is dead; the questions are all about parents.” Jolly said kindheartedly.
I was laughing again, Mr. Baldwin’s question made me smile, my heart began pounding. I have very mixed emotions sometimes. “Well, who else has a dead mom or dad?” He worried. Slash and two others held up their hands. His eyes showed an emotion that looked full of sorrow. He handed out five papers to Morgan Patsy, Ryan Adams, Jolly, Slash, and me.
These questions were much better; they asked things like your favorite color, favorite animal, and fruits. My favorite animal was a tiger, my favorite color is dark blue, and I love pineapples. After the class finished Mr. Baldwin passed out some English books.
“Welcome boys and girls to English one, this is one of four so you should get to learn the material that I teach you, or you will be in high school for a long time. Turn in your books, if you please, to page one two zero. We are beginning with Gothic Romanticism. We are reading Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven. Next class we will watch a little bit of A Tell-tale Heart.” While he was talking I flipped through the book to see what kind of pictures were on the waiting list. Slash was staring at the book, she was reading the poem. Jolly beside me was also reading, but she was reading the story on the next page, the story was The Monkey’s Paw. Mr. Baldwin began reading the poem, with a voice that seemed gothic enough to scare Slash, but she was deep into her book already.
After class ended Slash took me back to the hangout of the Goths. It was in the school’s basement, students weren’t meant to go down there, but it was dimly lighted and perfectly dark for the group. Kell was waiting beside Scratch. They just got out of class together as well.
“Have fun on your first day of high school?” She smiled, the Goths smiled too.
“It’s much better now that I’m with you again.” I held out my hand, and in return she held onto it. We started walking towards Radiator’s truck. My dad was parked right beside him.
“Well good morning there sir, have you seen my son per chance? He looks quite the same as you, same blonde hair, same tan, and by golly, I think he was wearing that red jacket as well.” Dad saw that I was holding Kelsey’s hand, he smiled. “I don’t remember seeing my son wearing a girls hand as a glove this morning though.” He is a fun person to be around. Kelsey and I both got in the truck and dad got on the road. “So John, how was the first day of high school?” He looked at me.
“Pretty good, we are doing the clique ladder thing that mom did, we were lucky enough not to be late to class, we went to the mall.” I was smiling, my dad is very understanding.
“I was late to my class, but it was alright because I knew how to get out of it.” Kelsey smiled.
“How, what class was it?” Dad asked.
“I honestly don’t know how, but it was P.E.” She smiled. “I was already in my clothes and we hadn’t started yet, so I walked out of the locker room, the gym teacher thought I was already there, so I got out of it, I guess.”
“Well, whoever you were with definitely knew what they were doing, you’re lucky you two, skipping school isn’t a good idea.” Dad spoke. We drove up to Kelsey’s house and let her out; her mom was standing at the door holding a cup of coffee and wrapped up in her bath robe.
“Hey guys!” Kelsey’s mom spoke; she had a voice almost as angelic as her daughters, although it was a little roughed up by the cigarettes she’s been on since Kelsey’s dad died. “Thanks for bringing her home safely.” She giggled, but we couldn’t hear her, we were still in the truck. Kelsey and her mom waved us bye as we left.
When we got home dad pressed the speaker button that was to inform our butler to open the gate.
“Of course sir; right away sir!” Our butlers name is Fredrick O’Neal. He has worked for our family since Mom died; he knows everything about me and my dad. He knows a little about Kelsey as well, because when I was in eighth grade I never stopped talking about her. We drove up the driveway and dad parked his car in his side of the garage, our house is 6000 square feet long, it is brown brick with an obsidian staircase. The house is three stories; it has three bathrooms, one on each floor, and three bedrooms. We have a formal dining room, a huge living room, decorated completely with dogs, and a game room, with every game console ever created, and a few that aren’t yet on the market. Fredrick had gotten married when I turned twelve, him and his wife share the work of cleaning our humongous house. We were all in the dining room right now.
“John, were only going to be in the house for a few minutes, don’t go do anything special!” Dad spoke.
“Where are you going?” Fredrick asked.
“We are taking Kelsey out for a dinner; it is John and her anniversary, they are celebrating their fourth year together tonight.” Dad smiled.
“What!” I froze; I ran into the living room and picked up the house phone. “Kell, my dad reminded me, tonight is our anniversary. Are you allowed to come eat with us?”
She sounded like she was sipping a glass of water, but she spit it out and coughed when I told her the news “Happy anniversary!” She yelled for her mom, her mom was in the kitchen grabbing a snack. “Can I go out to eat with John tonight? It is our anniversary!” I overheard her from the phone.
“Sure thing babe, are you spending the night?” Kelsey’s mom would usually do anything to get out of having to cook for her, or Kelsey.
“Yes, please! “She said yes!” Kelsey hung up the phone after pretending to kiss the microphone. I ran upstairs and got on my best tuxedo. I didn’t worry about putting on a tie, and I left the shirt completely unbuttoned, I was in a white undershirt too. My dad usually did the exact same thing; he never actually dressed as formal as a rich person should. I brushed my hair, then swung my head side to side to mess it back up and I patted it back down.
“John, are you ready? The reservation will be called in thirty minutes.” Dad was at the stairs.
I walked downstairs, looking exactly like my dad, well, what he did look like in high school, his hair had grown to a darker blonde since then. “See you Fred!” I smiled at Fredrick, he didn’t like me calling him Fred, but he has gotten used to it.
“See you as well, John.” Fredrick smiled back. I shut the door and opened the door to Dad’s truck. When we got to Kelsey’s house she was sitting outside with her most beautiful dress on. I loved the dress she was wearing, and she knew it, as I knew that she loved my tuxedo. She was wearing a red dress that had a black belt attached to the waist, and the v-neck collar had the same materiel and the same black color on it as well. She ran to the truck and opened the back door. When she shut it we drove off.
The reservation that Dad had set was at this fabulous restaurant called The Hop. The Hop is always full, and it is hard to get a seat. Dad had become a usual in the restaurant after spending some time working on a few renovations on it, Mom and him were decorators when she was still alive. They never left him standing for more than a few hours. A waiter that knew Dad ran up to him and beckoned for a table.
“We need a table for Hank Cline as soon as possible!” The waiter held his hand in the air. Almost immediately, a table was set out and we were sat down
“My name is Paul, I am going to be your waiter for tonight, what would you like to drink?” The waiter smiled. Kelsey ordered a pineapple sprits, Dad ordered a triple Moscato. I just wanted some sweet tea, I didn’t feel like being fancy, and I absolutely adore sweet tea.
“I will be right back with your order!” Paul proposed. Paul is one of Dad’s best friends, he worked for Dad once on a project, but that was a year ago. When Mom and Dad were both in Vegas they were working on the lobby and the pent house suite’s decoration in Caesar’s Palace. I haven’t heard much of the story, but what I have heard, I was sure to never forget.
“Thank you so much for taking us out, Mr. Cline!” Kelsey had a habit of calling Dad Mr. Cline, but Dad keeps telling her to just call him Hank.
“You’re very welcome; after all, you are part of the family. It is your anniversary.” Dad winked. My eyes were glued to the menu.
“Happy fourth anniversary, my love!” I smiled. Paul came back with three cups on a tray in his hands; dad’s drink was in a wine glass, so Paul was worried about spilling it. He placed the tray on the table behind him, and then gave us all our drinks.
“You guys decide what you want to eat?” Paul wondered.
“Think I can get my usual Paul?” Dad asked. Paul began writing down Dad’s favorite meal.
“I want the fish burger, with fries and okra, please?” Kelsey loved burgers, almost as much as I loved my tea.
“How about for you, John, what would you like?” Paul smiled.
“Hmmm… May I have the barbecued chicken, half grilled, with fries and shrimp?” I knew they did half grilled, and I liked it that way.
“Sure as spaghetti, I will be back soon.” He took the tray and hopped away. Kelsey took a sip of her pineapple sprits and licked her lips. I did the same; Dad was looking through his wallet. I had no idea why.
“Well, going out to eat is always fun, but I think we should do something else too, it is a Monday, I don’t see a reason why not to spend the night in the town.” I was watching Kelsey. She was staring at me.
“Okay, but it is a Monday, we have school tomorrow.” She smiled a little.
“It is only six, Kelsey; we have time to do a lot of stuff.” Dad smiled. Kelsey’s slight smile grew to the beautiful smile that I grew in love with. Paul came back and handed us our food.
“Here is the fish burger for the lady, Barbecued chicken for the boy, and Rack of Lamb for Hank! Enjoy you three, I will see you soon.” Paul walked back off.
“Well, if it is only six, what can we do after we eat?” Kelsey smiled.
“I don’t know.” I was looking at the door; a Gossip walked into the restaurant and stared directly at me. She smiled and began walking towards us.
“Hello there, John, do you remember me?” Jess Davis is her name. Her full name is Jessica Belle Davis, but the people at school just call her Jess.
“How could I forget, how are you Jess?” I smiled; Kelsey and I knew that she was the key to the Gossip’s rung on the ladder. She is a freshman this year too, but her sister, Marian Davis initiated her to the group on the first day. Dad and Jess’s dad were already in a conversation, he and my dad had worked once on a project as well, Jess’s mom was my mom’s best friend. We haven’t seen her in a while though.
“Jess, John and I are doing this project where we join every group in school, you are in the group that is next. Can you get us in the Gossips?” Kelsey wondered.
“Well, I can certainly try!” Jess asked her dad if we could go to her house tonight.
“I don’t know J, we were going to be doing a lot of stuff tonight…” Jess’s dad spoke.
“Come on, Greg, if money is an issue, I –“My dad had been interrupted.
“Nah, money is no issue; we planned to do a lot of fun stuff tonight.” Greg was straight-faced.
“We can take them along; I will be more active if I have friends with me!” Jess had a huge smile.
“Okay!” Jess’s dad’s mood improved quickly. “We are going to the movies, have you two seen The Indescribable, yet?” He asked.
“No, I haven’t been to the theater in years; I don’t even remember what it looks like.” Kelsey smiled, she was excited.
“Neither have I!” I was excited too. Dad was smiling, we haven’t even begun eating yet, but Dad is way to cool to ask us to eat before we left.
“Well, you two, Jess and I will see you after we all finish eating.” Greg smiled, he gently nudged Jess to some chairs, and Paul was over there within two minutes, asking what they would like too.
“God, bless this food, thank you very much. Please watch over these two on their trip with Greg and his daughter, and protect me from the dangers on the road on a Monday night.” Dad smiled, he made a quiet clanging noise as he picked up his fork and laid it on the plate to say “Amen.”
“Amen,” Kelsey and I spoke together. We began stuffing our faces, dad was too. He seemed in a hurry to get home. “Well, that is one way to join the next rung on the Ladder!” Kelsey smiled. “I am sorry about us leaving, it’s child’s intuition,” she giggled a little.
“I understand, it is your guy’s anniversary, I can always go play my games at home.” Dad was straight-faced to now, but he had a slight smirk on the corner of his lips. “Happy anniversary, you two.” He grinned now. Paul brought back Jess and her dad’s drinks, and then asked what they wanted to eat; Jess saw that I was having a barbecue chicken sandwich, so she ordered the same.
“Would you like that half-cooked as well?” Paul asked. That made Kelsey jealous; she turned around to see Jess sipping her soda.
“What is she doing?” Kelsey worried. I didn’t really listen to Kelsey, but I had something to say.
“I think Jess likes me…” I stared into Kelsey’s eyes when I said it. “I love you though, she can get over me, and she better do it soon.” I looked very serious, but Kelsey just laughed. Dad was enjoying our company, not saying anything. He was biting a piece off the rack of lamb that Paul had ordered him.
“John, you are going to get in trouble!” Dad laughed.
“No, no! John is lucky; I am not the jealous type.” Kelsey winked, but I knew she had no idea what was going on behind her, she could hear everything that Jess and her dad were talking about.
After about thirty minutes later Jess’s dad came to us and said the movie started in twenty minutes, which was lucky. The theater was twelve minutes away from the restaurant.
“Well, you two have fun; I am going to go home, are you going to spend the night? Or should I pick you up?” Dad was standing now as well; he had written down the amount on the bill and laid out the three dollars that he always leaves as a tip.
“We’re spending the night, if that’s okay.” I looked at Greg, he nodded his head. We all went our separate ways. In the Benz Kelsey made me sit by her, Jess was up front. “When we get to the theater, you are going to have to hurry, get the tickets, and go find us a seat. Okay? I want some middle seats, better view of this three dimensional action-packed journey.” Apparently Greg had to have everything described longer then it should be.
When we got to the theater we saw that it was pretty empty, but tonight’s movies were always only a dollar. Greg works for Dad’s bank company, so he makes right under the amount that dad does, but Greg is picky with his money. “We need four for The Indescribable, please?” Greg asked. “Get us some popcorn?” He handed Jess nineteen dollars. “Keep the change.”
We got the popcorn then went to the ticket booth. Greg gave us our tickets and we all walked in, “fourth room on the right.” The man said. The room had around seven people other than us, we were lucky enough to get some fantastic seats right in the middle of the huge screen.
“So, tell me more about this ‘goal’?” Jess smiled; Kelsey still had me sitting away from Jess. “What is it?”
“When john was in seventh grade he told me a story about how his mom went from every clique, that is the technical term for the seven or so groups in high school, and paid very close attention to every aspect of the way that the members of them acted towards each other, compared to how they acted when they weren’t together. I told John that it was a great idea and that I wanted to try it. I was going to do it with John, but I went to high school before we could. We are already on your group, which is number three.”
“That sounds amazing!” She enthused. “Aren’t you doing it quite fast?” Jess proclaimed.
“I guess we kind of are, but we go back to them.” I explained. Kelsey seemed speechless.
“I suppose we are doing it quite fast, but we can choose the best of the seven and hang with them for the last few years.” Kelsey said, “If that makes any sense…” She finished.
“Like, you join one group every year?” Jess understood.
“Exactly like that!” After Kelsey finished talking; the commercials started. There were mostly action previews, for movies like The Bleed, which was about vampires, why wouldn’t it be? There were some about Nexus cars. Greg seemed interested in those commercials, he went hmm… every time one came on, and after the third one we all started giggling. The one I was interested in was the one where a guy found a girl in a bar, but the girl turned him down. He stalked her until she finally gave in, it seemed illogical. When the movie finally began, the entire theater went “finally!”
After the two hours, we went to a popular laser tag place. “Who likes to play laser tag?” Jess smiled, she knew Kelsey got angry, so she was standing beside her. We went to the desk to pick our teams and combat names. Jess was Polo, Kelsey was Crimson, Greg chose Dime, and I chose Saber. When we got our team colors the man at the desk sent us through two different rooms. Jess and Greg went to the red team and Kelsey and I went to the blue team.
“3… 2… 1… GO!” The intercom said. There were seven people on our team. Both teams start in the same place, so Kelsey and I ran to the far end of the room and hid under a car. We saw the red team zooming by, one person tried getting under the car, he was on our team, but he couldn’t fit.
“On three, we run over to that building, okay?” I told her.
“Three!” She crawled out and ran into the building. I looked to see if anyone was coming then ran to get with Kelsey.
“Freeze where you are!” A man behind me declared. When I turned around I saw Greg.
“Aagh!” I ran to Kelsey, she was shooting at him; she got him twice before he ran back off. Four men came to us now, they looked gangster, but Kelsey was just grinning.
“This is our turf, miss.” A bald man growled. Kelsey had her gun in front of her chest. I did the same. “You two aren’t going to leave, are you?”
“Not a chance!” Kelsey glared. The men stepped back when we both drew our guns, at the same time. “Fire at will!” Kelsey roared. Two men ran off, making the other two leave as well, but the bald man turned to tell us we were lucky. We high-fived then stood guard. In front of me, I could see a guy with a black mask on, he was hiding behind a block. I aimed at him and fired, but he was hiding his scanner.
“There’s a guy over there, I can’t touch him.” I whispered to Kelsey. Kelsey had collected three grenades before the game started; she took one and threw it behind the block. The man tried running away, but he got three damage points against him. Kelsey pulled me over to where the man was and we hid there. “Why did we come here?” I worried.
“We are moving towards the other side, we need to make a plan, what we are going to do is… Run back to the front. Where the red team is, we will try and get as many people as we can to four deaths, always block your back. We meet back in the building when we’re done, deal?” Kelsey kissed me, and then ran off. I hopped up looking around, I noticed that it was very quiet where I was, it seemed too quiet. I ran back to the car, then to a different building, then into a tunnel. I saw someone standing at the end of the tunnel; he was on the blue team.
“Hey, want to team up?” I asked him.
“I’d love too, where ya headed?” He was a very frantic man, looking on every side of him as he talked.
“To the front…” I told him. He immediately froze staring me in the eyes.
“The front is dead man’s land! You go there to die!” He ran off, leaving me to be alone. I looked around, it was still empty, but in the distance gun shots and bombs were heard. A lot of cursing was going on as well, but the words were jumbled. Then a man ran up, this time from the other team. He was one of the men that were in the gang that tried taking our base.
“Aye, been a long time bud!” He drew his gun; I shot him in a flash. His vest said “Game over.” “What the!?” He put his head down and walked towards dead man’s land.
“That was incredible!” Jess yelled enthused. I jumped and turned around with my gun at my chest. “You are unbelievably fast at shooting a gun, John!” She smiled.
“Kelsey!” I yelled for her. Greg came up behind me, and said boo. I ran up to a wall and sat on the floor. Kelsey ran up to us and shot Greg and Jess on the back.
“Stay off my boyfriend!” She made both of them go game over. She picked me off the ground laughing. “You got yourself in a pickle there, didn’t ya?” My heart was completely full of love. We decided to run to dead man’s land together, we shot everyone in our way until the yelling and cursing in the distance was no longer in the distance. “On three go kill everyone! Three!” She said immediately after she finished talking. Kelsey pulled one of her grenades off her vest and threw it into a huge bundle of red team thugs. A large simultaneous group of “game over’s” went into the air, followed by a lot of no’s. There were only Kelsey and I left with the frantic guy, for some reason he decided to go to the place he said you would die, and four people left on the red team, including the bald guy, who had the exact same amount of deaths as Kelsey and I did, which was none.
“Back for more?” The man growled again.
“How do you not have any deaths yet?” I asked. He smiled, and then looked at both our vests.
“I could ask the same question. After all, I was in war, you are just kids.” He boasted.
“I have The Keller on my team.”
“You have frantic Bob too.” The bald man pointed at the man.
“My name isn’t Bob!” He was darting his eyes around the four men that were left.
“Whatever,” the bald man shot him; the frantic man yelled at him, he had game over. “Being frantic doesn’t help, does it?” He bellowed. Kelsey and I were all alone now. “Get them!” He pointed. We both ran as fast as we could to the back. The men seemed lined up perfectly for us to get them to game over, but only one of the men had three kills already. Kelsey gestured for the building; we ran into it and waited. The man with three kills jumped in front of the open area, I shot him before he could leave, and his vest said game over.
“Two of the men left have two kills each, if you can partner in killing the same man as me, he will die immediately, then we go straight for the next guy, this grenade will kill the bald man.” We jumped out for a few seconds to kill one man, I accidently went for the wrong guy, and we both went back into the building. I was hit once. Kelsey was still at zero deaths. Kelsey threw the grenade and two game over’s were heard, one more to go. Kelsey pointed towards the blocks again. “Shoot until you get behind those blocks.” We both ran out aiming at the guy, Kelsey got two shots, I got the last one, but he still had one more kill left to get.
“You kids are quite good, but boy, look at your kills…” He gestured. I looked down and saw that I had three kills too.
“I’m sorry Kelsey.” I told her.
“Don’t be, we can use this as an advantage, run out there, hide your front scanner and run behind him, that way I can strike him from behind.” She counted quietly, “Go!” I ran out hiding my scanner and the man did what she expected him to, to turn around and try hitting me from behind. “Turn, John, turn!” I turned around, the bald man killed me, but Kelsey killed him. “The game is over, crimson is our champion.” When we got out, everyone was cheering us on; apparently we were being watched on the TV. “That was incredible!” everyone was saying, they seemed to only think she was the champion, but I didn’t mind. I sat down, but then everyone came to cheer me on.
“The way you distracted me like that was way worth the champion trophy, congratulations, John.” The bald man awarded me. I looked at Kelsey, she blew a kiss at me, and my heart began feeling warm.
“Thank you all!” I pleaded; Kelsey came to sit on my lap. She kissed me for a long second; then she gave me the huge laser tag trophy. Afterwards we went over to Jess and Greg.
“Ready to go?” Greg spoke to us. He held the door for all of us, and then we went to his car.
After a seemingly thirty minute drive, we came to the real estate that Greg’s house was in. His house was way at the end, decorated with over fifty red, white, and blue flowers. The borders of the windows were golden yellow; the wall paint in general was a gorgeous color of brick red. The house went up three stories, and the door was a silvery color. “I could almost say your house is better than ours!” I told him. Greg smiled and unlocked the silver door. Inside were a huge leopard couch and a fifty inch platform flat screen television. I didn’t pay attention to anything else; Kelsey and I were pulled up to Jess’s room.
“The first and most important rule of being a Gossip, is memorizing the pledge. Repeat after me, I, insert name here, pledge to spread any juicy gossip around the school. In so, if the gossip sounds, or could be conceived as false, the accuser will be tattled towards the principal. Remember that the rumors we spread are for fun, not for vengeance.”
“We pledge to spread any juicy gossip around the school. In so, if the gossip sounds, or could be conceived as false, the accuser will be reported to the principal, and remember that the rumors we spread are for fun, not for vengeance.” Kelsey and I spoke simultaneously.
“Alright, secondly, you have to look out for the gossip, the chances of the Gossips being told gossip is very slim, there are those rare occasions, but that is the rumors you can’t spread.”
“When someone tells you gossip, you can’t spread it?”
“Run it through to my sister, she is the co-creator of the group.” She answered Kelsey. “Always run stuff to my sister before you spread it, or it can be harmful to the student it’s about. Any questions so far?”
“Yeah, how many people are in this group?” I replied.
“There are, counting you two, seven girls and five guys.” She seemed proud. I heard the door downstairs open and close, Greg welcomed Jess’s sister home. “Marian! Come here, please?” Jess yelled through the door. Marian came up still wearing her red and black checkered hoody, her hair was drenched and she was carrying some bags from the mall.
“What?” Marian asked.
“John and Kelsey want to join our group; you should tell them the rules.”
“What have you already told them?”
“I started with having them recite the pledge, and then I told them that spreading the rumors you hear is not allowed.”
Marian nodded her head, “that is right, run anything you hear to me and the other leader, Rick, before you spread it around the school. If you hear any rumors, get it from the source, which is the person who first started spreading the rumor, that way the rumor won’t be way wrong. When we say you can spread a rumor, you have to tell the group, so they can spread it too. Usually when the rumor is about a group member, we have a meeting to help them out; don’t spread what you hear about the group members. Lastly, what happens in the group stays in the group, or you will be kicked out.” She jumped onto Jess’s bed and put her bags on the floor. “There’s only one more thing to do, and that’s to get you to meet Rick.” She lay down.
“Welcome to the Gossips!” Jess grinned.
We all went down to the basement, Greg had an assorted amount of games, but he only had one game system, a simulator. “Ooh! What’s that?” Kelsey beamed.
“That is a holographic simulator; our dad has been working on it for years. It’s a room where you can put yourself in the game. It literally slows you down in real life so it feels like you’re traveling in the actual world in the game.” Marian answered.
“Does it work?” Kelsey asked.
“He had only successfully made one game for it; you can play it, if you want.” Jess said.
“Maybe later, I’m hungry.” Kelsey held her stomach. We all agreed that the laser tag wore us out.
“What do you eat?” Marian opened the fridge. Jess opened the cabinets revealing a lot of poptart bags.
“Poptarts!” Kelsey and I spoke again. Jess got in a cabinet full of Poptarts and got two down. We gobbled one up, then the other and sat lying on the kitchen chair.
“What else is there to do here?” I questioned.
“We can practice for your entrance to the group, Rick is going to do it too, but it’s a good idea to train.” Marian smiled.
“Agreed!” We went to Marian’s room; she had a desk that she sat at.
“Okay, Jess, go outside and tell Kelsey a rumor. John when Kelsey gets back, go outside and hear the rumor from Jess. Then come back in and tell me what she said, okay?” Marian crossed her legs.
“Okay, will do.” I sat on Marian’s bed. After a few seconds Kelsey came in, I went out the door.
“The rumor is, there was a monkey holding a banana poptart in his mouth, the monkey wasn’t eating it, he was feeding it to a hungry baby monkey. Go tell Marian and she will tell you if you’re correct.”
I went back into the room and whispered “a monkey was holding a banana poptart in its mouth to feed a baby monkey,” to Marian.
“John said, a monkey was feeding a baby monkey a banana poptart, is that correct Kelsey?” Marian responded.
“That sounds correct.” Kelsey smiled.
“It is your turn to do it, John.” Marian pointed at the door. I walked out and saw Jess writing something down.
“When the crab walked out of the dog store, a dog didn’t eat him. A seagull flew down to protect the crab, but it accidently swallowed the crab.”
Again, I walked into the room. “Tell me what you’ve heard.” Marian beckoned.
“A crab walked out of a dog store to be eaten by a dog, but a seagull flew down to protect it and accidently swallowed it.”
“I am going to do the same thing I did for Kelsey, when you say a rumor it has to be hard to get it wrong, the actual phrase was, A crab walked out of a dog store to be eaten by a dog, but a seagull flew down to protect it and accidently swallowed it, if you said something like the seagull swooped down to save a crab from a dog then accidently swallowed it, it is harder to mess up. You saying a crab walked out of a dog store to be eaten by a dog, but a seagull flew down to protect it and accidently swallowed it can be rearranged to say a dog and seagull were fighting to eat a crab and the seagull won.” Marian sucked in some air, and then breathed it out.
“If I said a seagull saved a crab from being eaten by a dog by swallowing it, is that easy to mess up?” I asked.
“Yes, it is easy, because it is only a few words.” Marian sat forward when Kelsey came back into the room.
“A seagull saved a crab from a dog by accidently swallowing it.” Kelsey proposed.
“Good enough, now when we go to school tomorrow, you have to do the same thing for Rick, okay?” The girls spoke together.
At school the next day Jess and Marian took us to the group’s room. “Who do we have here?” A man with a black shirt on smiled. He had shaggy black hair. “My name is Richard Chirms, pleased to meet you both.”
“Pleased to meet you too, I am John and this is my girlfriend, Kelsey.” My arm was on her shoulders. “We are doing a project to join every group in school, we just finished the nerds and Goths, we need to check out yours, is that okay?”
“Is it for the school newspaper?” Rick asked.
“No, no, it’s just for fun.” Kelsey told him.
“Okay, then welcome to the Gossips, school doesn’t start for an hour, we usually go through the pledge, but when we have new members, we all get to meet them. We share the recent gossip.” Rick gestured towards the other members. “Hey guys, we have John and Kelsey here to join our group. Come say hi!”
Jolly Goodwin was the first one to look up from her book, everyone else just slowly came to us. “Interesting, it comes from throwing our papers away to being in the same clique?”
“Wasn’t my idea-“
“John and I are only in the group long enough to get to learn about it.” Kelsey groaned.
“I see, well. What I have learnt is that Mathew Dade of the Jocks broke his collar bone, his girlfriend suspects he is cheating on her.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“I am Matt’s girlfriend…” Jolly lowered her head. Kelsey looked at me. Then she put her arm around Jolly.
“When a man cheats on you that only proves he doesn’t deserve you.” She raised Jolly’s head. “How long have you been with him?”
“An entire year.” Jolly frowned, she sat down in the chair behind her.
“That isn’t too long.” Kelsey sat beside her, I was just listening.
“How long were you and John together?” Jolly whispered.
“Only a couple of months, but we’ve been friends since middle school.” Kelsey came back to me. “Like I said, he doesn’t deserve you.”
The other Gossips had been talking to me while Kelsey was trying to cheer Jolly up, they were telling me that Huck Bentley ran into a wall in his dad’s truck, Jessica Henderson had kissed a girl, and I think I heard that Radiator and Feroschia were getting married.
“Group, order, All assemble” Rick and Marian lined everyone up in a straight line.
“Why do we do what we do?” Rick spoke like a military officer.
“To get the word around, no man shall be left out of the high school rumor circle, sir!”
“Why don’t we spread the bad rumors?” Marian’s turn to do the same.
“The teenage years are the years of hormones and depression, ma’am, some might consider suicide if we spread the bad rumors!”
“What is our pledge?” Marian and Rick said together this time.
“We pledge to spread any juicy gossip around the school. In so, if the gossip sounds, or could be conceived as false, the accuser will be reported to the principal, and remember that the rumors we spread are for fun, not for vengeance.”
“Very good, all of you, school starts in twenty minutes, time to go over a little bit of news, any questions?” Rick sounded like a human again.
“Yes sir, shouldn’t we tell John and Kelsey how to get the rumors?” A boy named Henry Craig spoke.
“Very good, yes indeed. John and Kelsey, step up please?”
We stepped out once. “Yes?” We spoke together.
“The secret to hearing the rumors is to simply ask, it is usually best to try and figure out who started the rumors, so ask about that to, until you get to the person who spread it, understand?” Rick explained.
“Yes, understood completely, sir.” Kelsey and I spoke.
“Back to the line, alright next, who has any rumors?” They pointed at the right side of the line. “What news do you have, Jordan Hicks, then we’ll just keep going down the line…”
“Vicky of the popular clique was at the mall yesterday, she saw her boyfriend cheating on her.”
“Sarah Clint of the Richies, her dad’s business is going through a downfall. She was cut off until the business is back up and running again.”
“Mandy Nicholson of the preps was beat up, she has a broken leg.”
After eight more, we were sent to class. The first class of today was art. The teacher is Mrs. Dean. There are seventeen people in this class; Kelsey decided that we should take ceramics because it could be useful to get money from the things we make. We are working on creating two dogs that look exactly the same, their tails go into the shape of a heart when you set them side by side. Mrs. Dean started with attendance. Then she told us we had three more days to finish our projects. She reminded us that the projects were 200pts each. I was working on sculpting out the eye; I took my scalpel and slowly scraped out the eye hole.
“How about those Lakers?” Kelsey laughed. The entire group, which only consisted of three other people, including me, looked at her. She was smiling really big showing her pearly white teeth.
“Boo the Lakers, it’s in the Blue Rocks.” Kenneth Wilkes replied.
“You only go for Delaware’s Blue Rocks because you were born here.” Sydney Franks said. “I go the Dallas Cowboys!”
“Why, because you were ‘born there,’ I’ll have you know, I was actually born in Missouri.”
“Why did you come to Delaware?” Sydney calmed.
“Family, I’ve gone Blue Rocks ever since I could count.” They looked at me. “Who are you for, John?”
“I don’t really watch basketball…” I forced myself to say.
“Come on, choose a team.” Sydney begged.
“I say the 49ers then.” I got back to work. I was working on sculpting out the detail on the fur.
“That’s football, John.” Kelsey finally re-entered her conversation. “I say Lakers because of the simple fact that they belong to L.A!”
“That’s no reason to vote for them.” I laughed. Kelsey smiled. She knew I didn’t know what I was talking about. Like I said, I don’t watch basketball.
“Their last two wins were both 90 to below 89.” Sydney spoke.
“Okay, two wins, the Blue Rock’s never lose.” Ken laughed, but we all rolled our eyes at him.
Mrs. Dean came over to us, “You guys are making a lot of noise, but I can see you’re still doing your work. Keep it up.” She went to the next table, then the next and then sat back down.
“Your dogs are looking really good. I don’t think my penguin looks anything like a penguin…” Sydney stared at her sculpture.
“You just have to keep going. Add stuff if needed, take stuff away if necessary.” Kelsey grinned.
“Can you help me?” Sydney asked. Kelsey took her cell phone out of her pocket and looked up a picture of a penguin. She printed it off and gave the picture to Sydney.
“Is that any help?” Kelsey smiled. Sydney took a long glance at the photo and compared it to her sculpture.
“It is thanks.” Sydney was quiet for a while after that.
“I think it looks great Syd, I am making a bust of myself.” Ken showed the three of us, we all laughed. “It doesn’t look like me, does it?” Ken held it up to his face.
“I can see the resemblance.” Kelsey giggled.
“Maybe in the mornings, that’s why I’m up for fifteen minutes every day to try and change that.” Ken grinned back.
“Good answer, fifteen minutes makes you sound like a girl…” I was still carving the dogs fur, Kelsey was too now. Sydney had Kelsey’s picture to the side of her trying to make the penguins beak look less like an eagles.
“Hey, I resent that.” Kelsey cried.
“He said girls, not tomboys.” Ken tried backing me up, but I knew Kelsey, and that just made her angry. You don’t mess with Kelsey when she’s angry.
“Are you saying I’m not a girl?” Kelsey’s eyes looked red.
“No, I’m saying you don’t need fifteen minutes to get ready in, because you’re already gorgeous.” Ken tried calming her down, and it worked.
“How about me, I’m a girl. You think I need fifteen minutes in the morning to get ready?” Sydney came in.
“Don’t you?” I grinned
“Yeah…” Sydney posted.
After about twenty minutes later, Kelsey, Ken, Sydney, and I were nearly finished with our projects. Kelsey and I put the dogs together and saw that they were successful. At minute twelve, Ken’s bust started looking more like a human, but it didn’t look like him, and Sydney gave her penguin huge feet so it could stand.
“The detail on those dogs makes them look so real!” Sydney complimented us.
“I think I got the head wrong, it isn’t fluffy enough.” I replied.
“It’s the boy dog!” Kelsey seemed to be petting it, almost as if it could feel it. When the bell for lunch rang, we all put up our stuff and left together.
“Where do you two sit during lunch?” Sydney and Ken both asked.
“We sit at the Gossip’s table, for now.” Kelsey spoke.
“Why?” We were in the lunch line now, today was fish day.
“We are doing this group thing, it takes too long to try and explain.”
“Oh…” Ken was hush now. When Kelsey and I got our food, we went and sat down. Jolly was talking to Sarah now, and Jess was sitting with another girl. Marian was holding some spots for us.
“Right here, we have some stuff to talk about with you.” Marian patted the other side of the table, signaling to sit down. “Okay, I heard that Oswaldo Aguilar heard about your ‘goal.’ He is planning on keeping you out of the Jocks group.”
“There’s still four more before the jocks though.” I said. “We have plenty of time.”
“Actually there isn’t a ‘we’ at number seven.” Kelsey mumbled. It hadn’t occurred to me that there were two groups where we would be apart. Jocks are mainly boys, but there are cheerleaders. I can’t join preps…
“Nor at the next one…” I frowned. “There is no such thing as guy preps.” I laughed.
“Yeah, that’s true…” Kelsey and I were still frowning. “You can join the gangsters instead.” She smiled now.
“Great idea! Except, once a gangster always a gangster…” I have always been afraid of gangs. When I was in eighth grade, there was a boy killed because he wanted out of a gang. The boy was my best friend when Kelsey left Clickmid. I never thought about telling Kelsey the story, it would scare her almost the same as me. “I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Okay, join the band; you’re pretty good at the guitar.” Kelsey smiled again.
“I can do that!” Its official, my next clique to check out is the band geeks.
“Anyway, what do you plan on doing about Oswaldo?” Marian ended our conversation.
“Nothing, There are more popular people than just him.” Kelsey vouched.
“True, but everyone in school knows you’re doing this now. Have you considered the consequences of doing this yet?”
“No, what could go wrong?” I asked.
“A clique war, perhaps. Maybe one of the groups you join wants you to stay, what will you do if they fight over you?”
“We are picking three of the most fun cliques after this year.” Kelsey answered.
“What about the fact that you’re a sophomore? You will only be able to share two of them with John.” Marian is very mature, but thinking about these issues in our high school plan was starting to make us sad, I could feel the warmth of Kelsey’s aura.
“Well, you can always start over in college.” Marian said.
“I don’t want to start over, we’re just going to have to enjoy the time we have together.” Kelsey held her head with her hands, resting her elbows on the table.
“How about we both join the band, you know as well as I do that your mom taught you some fabulous piano techniques.” I smiled; I was dedicated to spending this year with my love.
“I haven’t played the piano since my dad died.”
“Well, start again, for me?”
