User blog:SodaCat/Bullworth Nights - Muse: Chapter 8: Rule Breaking

"Come on dude, we gotta get on the Squid first!"

Jesse stumbled slightly as Casey and Ted shoved past him, sprinting towards the line to the Big Squid and pushing and shoving their way to the front past all the public school kids and weaker Bullworth students. He managed to jump out of the way as the other guys of the football team rushed past as well, following behind Ted, mimicking his pushing and shoving to get to the front of the line. The ones that remained out of the line were Jesse himself and Mandy.

He stuck his hands into his letterman jacket pockets, slouching as he engulfed himself in a bitter, silent temper tantrum. On Wednesday, he'd made the mistake of asking Mandy if she wanted to go to the carnival with him today--Friday. The mistake part was that he'd asked during lunch, with all the other guys around, and within seconds it'd turned into a team field trip. Jesse had tried calling it off since then, but they ignored him--including Mandy. It was pretty damn frustrating.

Rather than pushing, he simply walked past the line, ignoring the other kids' complaints. Ten steps remained between him and the compartment that Casey and Ted had claimed when Jesse felt a light tug on his sleeve. He turned, confused, meeting Mandy's pout.

"Can you please go on the Ferris wheel? I hate this ride, and there's no way Ted's gonna go on the Ferris wheel."

Jesse stopped, considering his for a moment, already having decided to agree to this a few seconds ago. He looked back to Casey and Ted, an unsure look on his face.

"Come on, Jess, we've been talking about going on this ride since last year!" Casey whined, gripping the door to the compartment.

"Yeah, come on Mandy! You can go on the wheel by yourself!" Ted added, shooting an aggravated look Mandy's way.

Jesse frowned at this, his mind momentarily wandering to yesterday afternoon, when he'd seen Ted and Mandy kissing in the locker room before practice. It was pretty shocking that they could go from a model high school couple having a make-out session in a locker room to him chiding her for not wanting to go on some crazy ride with him.

"Aw, the little miss just wants to ride the Ferris wheel, y'all. It's alright', it'll be here when I get back. Just don't throw up or nothin' 'til I get back, ya hear?"

The other two jocks slumped back in their shared seat, disappointed, but accepting of Jesse's proposition. Pleased with their willingness to comply, Jesse stepped down from the platform and joined Mandy.

She led him to the Ferris wheel, for the first time since the beginning of the school year walking in sync with him rather than a few paces ahead, as usual. It was enough to catch his notice, though he didn't say anything about it.

"Thanks, Jesse," she said suddenly, and he glanced down to look over at her, "none of the other guys would've gone on this ride with me. I really appreciate it."

He grinned at her, admiring the way that the shitty fluorescent carnival lights illuminated her face and still managed to look flattering on her. "Why, it's no worries, darlin'. I don't mind."

The line to the Ferris wheel was considerably shorter than that of the Big Squid, and it didn't take long until Mandy and Jesse stepped into the final compartment of the wheel. He nudged Mandy as they climbed on, nodding over to the compartment behind them, where Beatrice Trudeau and one of the skinny nerdlings sat, holding hands. The two jocks laughed. Dorks.

"This is nice," Jesse said once the ride began turning slowly, leaning back in seat and placing his arm on the backrest behind Mandy. Naturally, she'd scoot away from him or shoot him a dirty look, but this time she shifted slightly closer to him. It was enough to catch his notice, but once again he said nothing about it.

"You think so? I would've thought you'd think this is like, lame."

Reaching into the back pocket of his Levi jeans, Jesse chuckled, shaking his head. "Nah, it reminds me a little bit of ridin' my horse, Catolo." He fished his wallet out, flipping it open and showing her one of the I.D. slots that'd been filled with a picture of Jesse at age 15, sanding alongside his black American quarter horse, Catolo.

She inched closer to him, inspecting the photograph. "I didn't know you had a horse," she admitted quietly, her voice small.

Jesse let out a loud laugh, raising an eyebrow at her. "Sweetheart, you're tryin' to tell me you go 'round callin' me a hillbilly to anyone who'll listen and you didn't think I had no horse?"

She met his gaze, laughing with him upon seeing his amused grin. "I just didn't want to assume."

"You know, you're real full of it, darlin'."

They laughed together, and soon enough, Jesse found them sitting together in a comfortable silence, Mandy leaning into his chest.

"I wanted a horse, once," Mandy revealed suddenly, her gaze still focused on the carnival beneath them, "a pony. I was like, eight."

Jesse looked at her, a mischievous grin. "Lemme guess. A pink one?"

"Oh shut up!" Mandy teased, laughing, and he laughed with her. It took a couple seconds for Jesse to realize they'd been in the exact same spot for the past five minutes.

"Say..." he mumbled, suddenly serious, "is this thing supposed to be stopped so long?"

As if on cue, a voice boomed up from below them, and both Jesse and Mandy leaned over to see where the source was. The guy who'd been manning the ride stood in front of the Ferris wheel with a megaphone.

"Don't worry, ladies and gentlemen, this happens all the time! I can get this fixed!"

Jesse leaned over the edge, looking down at the guy, who was now speedwalking over to the ride mechanics. He could hear the man cursing even from the altitude he was at, and he watched as the passengers in the bottom compartments easily climbed out of their seats to continue exploring the carnival. He and Mandy were at the very top.

He sat back and looked at Mandy, shrugging. "I guess we're stuck here for now."

She frowned, looking at him with a guilty expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to miss out on riding the Squid..."

This was replied to with a loud laugh from Jesse. "Miss out? Darlin', I didn't even wanna ride on that pukefest to begin with. Sure, it's real fun when it's just me and Casey clownin' 'round, but the whole team? You just wait, they'll all be smelly as a chicken shit let out in the sun on a warm August day."

Mandy made a rather disgusted face at the expression, but to Jesse's surprised, laughed it off pretty quickly. "I just wish it weren't so cold up here."

Without even bothering to ask her, Jesse pulled his letterman jacket off and slung it around her shoulders, shifting in his football jersey at the sudden change of temperature. He knew the jacket would keep her warm--he was a naturally warm guy, heat seemed to radiate off his skin. Jesse thought it had something to do with being from Texas.

"You didn't have to..." Mandy began, but trailed off, pulling the jacket tight around his shoulders. It was so warm, and smelled faintly of men's cologne. Not something shitty like she would've expected, but more of hints of a Kevin Clone cologne. It was nice, she thought.

***

Half an hour later, Jesse helped Mandy climb out of their compartment. They were the last ones to get off the ride, having been at the highest point, and sometime during the wait Mandy had fallen asleep. She was still a little off balance, so Jesse did his best to help steady her.

"Where have you guys been?!"

Their attention was immediately taken by the voice of Casey Harris, who was jogging towards them alongside Ted. They look tired, and pretty annoyed.

"The ride got stuck man, ain't our fault. There still any time to go on any other rides?"

"You kidding?" Ted asked, raising an eyebrow at Jesse. "There's barely time to get out of here. It's 2:30 and the only reason we haven't been arrested yet is 'cause we told the cops we were looking for you guys. All the other guys went back to Bullworth."

He caught the eye of Officer Williams, who hung around nearby eyeing the four teenagers, and immediately started leading the other three to the carnival's exit--he couldn't risk another detention, or he'd be out of the first game of the season.

"How was the Squid?" Jesse asked Casey as he walked alongside him, a couple feet behind Mandy and Ted. He didn't really care about the Squid, but it seemed pretty important to Casey.

Casey shrugged, inspecting the carnival scenery ahead of him. "It was fun man, but it would've been better with you. You would've loved i--..."

He trailed off for a second, stopping, before snatching Jesse's jacket off of Mandy's back. When she turned and shot him a dirty look, he snapped back that it was only a player privilege, before shoving it into Jesse's hands.

"You didn't have to do that," Jesse mumbled to Casey once Ted and Mandy were out of earshot.

Casey eyed him from the corner of his eye, worried.

"You know the rules, man."