User blog:SodaCat/Style Chapter 5

its not complete but ive been dragging this thing around waaaay too long... it's still unedited, so forgive typos/redundancy/lack of detail ^^;

“What time is it?”

“Seven, right on the dot.”

“Hey, it’s at the Hole, right?”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

“Psst… you know who’s fighting?”

“Russell and that new kid, Hopkins.”

Despite her attempts to focus on Mr. Wiggin’s surprisingly dull history lesson, Alexis was unable to tune out the chatter about tonight’s fight from the students sitting all around her. Yeah, the fight was a pretty big focus among the students; apparently the last fight had happened just after she’d left, between Russell Northrop and some kid who’d since transferred from the school. No surprise there.

She turned around in her desk to face Peanut, who was very indiscreetly texting on his phone.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Where are we meetin’ tonight, Lare-bear?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He looked up at her, making an unimpressed and disapproving face at the new nickname.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I was thinkin’ we’d meet up by the boys’ dorm, sound good?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Alexis nodded, before biting her lip for a little bit to keep from smiling too much to look suspicious. “Is Johnny comin’?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Peanut studied her for a moment. What was her deal? Lately everything was Johnny this and Johnny that, would Johnny be okay with that and maybe we should go with Johnny and don’t forget to save a seat for Johnny and Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No,” he said slowly, eyes scanning quickly for any sign of Wiggins overhearing him, “he’s gonna meet us there. Listen, Alex, what’s up with you and Johnny lately?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">She bit her lip, her beam breaking through. Well, there wasn’t really any reason to keep it a secret from him, and if things kept going the way they were, she and Johnny would probably be a thing soon anyway. Maybe Peanut could even offer some advice as to how to get it done faster anyway.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Well,” she began, setting her forearms onto his desk, “remember 9th grade, when you, me, and Johnny were walking ‘round the tracks after they shut ‘em down?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He nodded slowly at the memory. What was she getting at? Nothing had really happened that day. They’d just been walking, the three of them, then they got to the end and Peanut diped out to head back to school. Johnny and Alexis had hung back, though, but what was…

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Oh no <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“So, after you’d left,” Alexis said, the happiness in her voice making Peanut more and more nervous, “me and Johnny kind of hung around the terminus for a bit and then… well, we kissed, dude.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Oh hell no.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Oh man what was he gonna tell her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Uh, Alex,” he began, frantically racking his brain for a gentle way to let her down, “that’s real nice but uh, I don’t know if Johnny’s told you this but—”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Mr. Romano!”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Peanut’s head snapped up as he gazed at his clearly angered history teacher, who now stood at his desk glaring directly at Peanut. Alexis whipped around automatically, shoving her face into a book.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Is there something you would like to share with the class?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Hell yeah there was something he wanted to share with the class—that way Alexis would find out once and for all. But he knew that if he told Wiggins that he did want to share with the class, he’d be heading right on down to Crabblesnitch’s, and there was no way in hell he was missing that fight tonight to serve some bullshit detention.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Larry swallowed and shook his head.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Wiggins turned back around, muttering under his breath about the problems with today’s youth, but Peanut paid no attention to it. Had it seriously been this long into the school year and Alex still didn’t know about Lola?! Johnny hadn’t mentioned Lola to Alexis? That was just way too hard to believe—did Alexis know and just not care? Who was she kidding? There was no way in hell Johnny was leaving anybody for Lola, not even Alex.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">He had to tell her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Aw man, but what would that accomplish? She’d moped around for two months when Johnny wasn’t speaking to her, how would she be when she found out that he was permanently off the market for her? Man, he’d only just gotten her to quit her pouting a week ago.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Nope. This was Johnny’s problem.

<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">***

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Alexis wrapped her arms around herself as she fidgeted around in her oversized navy blue Bullworth sweatshirt. The weather was getting pretty cold for early November, so right after gym she’d headed straight to the girls’ dorm and changed into a pair of blue jeans. No way was she heading to the Hole in her uniform skirt—she didn’t plan on freezing to death while she watched two idiots beat the shit out of each other.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Peanut burst out of the boys’ dorm after a moment, zipping up his leather jacket before shoving his hands into his pockets. He looked at Alexis for a moment before wrapping his arm around her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You cold?” he asked, pulling her closer to his side. Maybe he could derail her into liking him rather than Johnny.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Shit, how come he always ended up being the middleman?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I ain’t cold,” Alexis protested, though she pressed into Peanut’s side even tighter. She was such a bad liar, he didn’t know why she even bothered trying.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Sure you’re not,” Peanut replied, rolling his eyes. He started leading her down the familiar way to the Hole, keeping his eye out for any Prefects. There was no way he’d be the one to give up the location of the Hole.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">“How come we’re not goin’ inside the school?” Alexis asked all of a sudden, looking back. “Aren’t we gonna take the elevator?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Peanut shook his head, thinking back. “Crabblesnitch almost found the Hole using the elevator last year, so all of us agreed to shut it down. Norton cut the ropes last year.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Alexis nodded, a bit surprised. So much had changed since she’d been at Bullworth. She was pretty lucky that Johnny and Larry were more or less the same. All these changes were making her head spin.

<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">***

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">They arrived just as some kid—Gary Smith, by the looks of it—climbed out of the Hole. Russell stood in the center facing the same short kid from Chemistry class, and the Hole was filling up fast.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Alexis clutched onto Peanut’s hand tightly, doing her best to not get separated from him as she stood on the tips of her Converse, looking around for Johnny.