So Close Yet So Far

"Ramona! Your ride's here," Bianca calls up the stairs. Ramona stumbles to put on her shoes, grabs her schoolbag and runs out the door to Billie Joe's car. She sits in the back seat next to Joey. Jakob is sitting in the front next to his dad.
"Late start this morning?" Billie Joe teases.
"Yeah, Josh decided to lock all the bathroom doors," Ramona says annoyed.
"You should've picked the lock," Jakob says happily.
"All the bobby-pins were inside the washroom," Ramona mutters as Billie bursts out laughing.
"Josh is definitely Tre's son," Billie says shaking his head.
"Hey Joey," Ramona says as she kisses him quickly, not wanting to be gawked at be Jake.
"Hey."
"So are there any teachers I should look out for?"
"Umm, not sure which grade ten teachers are but if you get drama with Ms. Arknil don't stand to close to her, she spits," Joey says warningly.
"Human sprinkler," Ramona says laughing. They pull up to a school and Jakob steps out of the car.
"Bye boy-o." Billie says waving goodbye.
"Bye dad," Jake mutters quietly.
"Miss this place Joe?" Billie asks laughing.
"Not particularly," Joey says looking at his ex-middle school.
"Alright then, on to the high school," Billie says as he pulls away from the school.
"So what about cheerleaders? Are they evil?" Ramona asks laughing.
"Yes!" Joey says nodding.
"Really? Didn't you date one?" Billie asks evilly.
"We broke it off for a reason!" Joey blurts out as Ramona starts snickering with laughter.
"Yeah, she dumped you."
"Shut-up," Joey mutters as the pull up to the high school.
"Keep out of trouble," Billie says as the two teenagers climb out of the car.

"C'mon we have to head down to the cafeteria to get our schedules," Joey says pointing to the far end of the main hallway.
"Blah, summer was too short," Ramona mutters as Joey takes her hand and leads her to the cafeteria. The first table had a paper that said 'A' on it and Joey walked up to it and got his schedule.
"W should be over there," Joey points to the other end of the cafeteria.
"Less go!" Ramona says as she kisses Joey's cheek playfully.

"What do you have first?" Ramona asks after getting her schedule.
"Math." Joey mutters, "You?"
"English."
"Joe!" someone yells from a distance.
"Hey Sid!" he calls back.
"Hey it's uh . . . umm Ramona!" he says hugging her.
"Hey, hey, hey same rules apply as last time." Ramona says pushing him off.
"She's mine!" Joey says as he hugs her protectively, "all mine!"
"No sharing?" Sid asks evilly.
"Hell no!" Ramona blurts abruptly.
"Its s'okay, I'll just be all alone," Sid says pretending to cry. "Oh there's Mel and Amber!"
"You fuck face, Mel's going out with Tom and Amber is with Robert," Joey says rolling his eyes.
"Damn your summer hook-ups," Sid mutters as everyone gathers round.
"What courses have you got first?" Joey asks looking around.
"I got math with Abercom." Tom says motioning to himself.
"Does anyone have English with Cranston?" Ramona asks as she glances at everyone's schedule.
"Oh I do," Mel says as she links arms with Ramona and they head off to class.

"I thought you weren't with Ramona," Tom whispers during math.
"Well when we were touring with our dads we sort of hooked up," Joey says nervously.
"How?"
"Well, I was bored so I bugged her to go to the arcade with me and next thing I knew I was kissing her."
"Score!" Tom yelps a little too loudly.
"Shut-up."
"So it must've been awkward since you've known her family forever."
"Well we didn't tell anyone that we hooked up and our dads walked in on us along with our younger brothers."
"Ouch," Tom says laughing, "Did Tre chase you down with an axe or something?"
"Umm no he freaked out and told Ramona to put her shirt back on, then he kept glancing at me suspiciously for like two weeks," Tom bursts out laughing.
"Armstrong, Gilson! Are you going to be quiet or do I have to separate you on the first day?" the teacher asks threateningly.

***

"Your seats are in alphabetical order." Mr. Cranston instructs, "Don't worry, it's only for the first week then you can change seat like you do shirts." Ramona glances over at Mel who takes her seat at the front of the class then reluctantly heads to the back next to some blond with a perfect manicure.
"So are you new here?" the blonde asks.
"Yeah."
"Where'd you move from?"
"New York." Ramona says shrugging as the blonde becomes more intrigued.
"I'm Jessica."
"Ramona."
"So do you have any friends here yet?"
"Well sort of, I have my boyfriend's friends." Ramona says shrugging as she pretends to pay attention to what the teacher is gibbering about.
"How do you have a boyfriend if you just moved here?" Jessica says in disbelief.
"Well my dad's lived here so I've been going back and forth from New York to here my whole life and I spent most of my summer here," Ramona says getting slightly annoyed by the interrogation of this girl.
"Well who is it?"
"Joseph Armstrong," Ramona says quickly.
"You got to be kidding me!" Jessica squeals. "You're dating the Green Day kid!"
"Uh yeah I guess."
"Wait you're a Green Day kid too, I knew your name sounded familiar!" the girls says excitedly, "You can do so much better than those Sid and Amber people, come sit with me and my friends at lunch, bring Joseph along too."
"No thanks."
"Oh come on, I mean yeah you and Joe have some sort of punk look going but its okay you can still hang out with us," she says ecstatically.
"Well still no thanks."
"Come on, you'd really fit in. I mean most of my friends are on the cheerleading squad, you could probably make the team too."
"Really I don't want to get on your bad side or anything, but I'm happy with the friends I have."
"They're like social outcasts, I mean my friend Marcy got so aggravated with his friends when she dated Joey that she ended it."
"Listen, I like his friends, they're a blast. You are shallow and only want to be my friend because of my father so I suggest you leave me alone because I can easily kick your ass back to Barbie central." Ramona says sternly.
"Just know you had your chance to hang with us and you lost it," Jessica says evilly.
"I didn't lose it; I threw it back in your face," Ramona says angrily.

Ramona practically runs out of English class when the bell rings and goes to find Joey.
"Ramona!" Joey calls from behind her.
"Oh jeez, you were right the cheerleaders are evil," she says exasperated.
"What?"
"I got stuck sitting next to this Jessica girl."
"Oh her," Joey says laughing as he hugs Ramona.
"It was horrible she wanted to be my friend and wanted me to join the pep squad."
"That's horrible," Joey says still laughing, "What class do you have next?"
"Umm drama with Neville."
"Good, so do I," Joey says as they walk to their next class.

Drama class was rather uneventful, Ramona spent most of the class being spooned by Joey on the auditorium benches. It was then lunch time and Sid caught up with them.
"Hey so Joey, there's new girl in my science class, totally hot, kind of feisty, I think I'll ask her out," Sid rambles.
"Have you even talked to her?" Ramona asks laughing.
"Of course I did, I asked her to sit with us at lunch."
"Then where is she?"
"Oh fuck!" Sid yells, "I was supposed to meet her at her locker to show her where we sat."
"Smooth," Joey says as Sid runs away. The two of them get into the lunch line where they meet up with everyone else.
"Where's Sid?" Mel asks craning her neck to look behind us.
"Went to get some girl he plans on asking out." Joey says still laughing. "What are the lunch choices?"
"Veal meat balls or corn dogs," Amber says looking up ahead.
"Raunchy," Tom snickers. "I'm still going with the corn dog though, the whole concept of veal balls scare me."
"Honestly," Ramona says as she takes a drink from the refrigerated basin. They go to sit at a table near the back of the cafeteria away from the pep squad and jocks.

"Hey everyone, this is Emma," Sid says as he walks up to the table with a girl wit black hair with bleach blond streaks. "Emma this is Joey, Ramona, Tom, Mel, Amber and Robert."
"Hi," she says nervously as she puts her tray down at a vacant seat next to Robert.
"So Emma where are you from?" Amber asks casually.
"Umm a land far, far away a place known as Chicago," she says trying not to crack a smile. "My dad got transferred to Oakland last month."
"Cool, I just moved from New York." Ramona says shrugging, "Be careful of the pep squad, I had a brush with one of them this morning."
"Yeah, so what exactly happened there?"
"Well she suddenly wanted to be my best friend once she found out I was dating Joey and my last name, she got really annoying and I threatened to kick her ass the Barbie town." Ramona says shyly as Robert bursts out laughing.
"Barbie, that's fucking hilarious!" Robert says shaking his head.

After eating a raunchy lunch of corn dogs the eight of them head out of the cafeteria in doing so they had to pass the pep squad/jock table.
"Look the outcast crew grew bigger over the summer, look there's two more!" one prep screeches out.
"Oh look they're all paired up." Jessica snickers, "Freaks can find love." Ramona starts getting infuriated and marches up to the table.
"Jessica, what the fuck is your problem?!" she outbursts as Joey comes running after her.
"It's not worth it," he mutters into her ear.
"Nothing freak, it's obvious that you're the one with the problem."
"Yet you're the one who's so insecure you try to bring us down?"
"Oh look a freak with attitude," a brown haired jock says smugly.
"Listen leave us the fuck alone or so help me I will kick your ass and never let you forget it," Ramona threatens.
"Not if I can help it." A man's voice says as he grabs her shoulder.

***
Tre drives up to the front of the school at four o'clock with Frankito, Estelle and Jakob in the back seat to see Ramona and Joey standing in front of the school with an elderly man who must be a teacher or a principal.
"Hey you three stay in the car, behave." Tre warns as he steps out of the car and walks up to them.
"Are you Mr. Wright?" the man asks.
"Yeah, is there a problem?" he asks looking at Ramona and Joey suspiciously.
"Yes actually there is, I caught your daughter starting a fight with our student life organizer."
"The what?"
"It's like class president," Joey mutters.
"Oh, is she in trouble."
"Not this time. I let her off with a warning but next time it can vary anywhere from a detention to a suspension."
"Alright Mr. . . . ." Tre trails off.
"Grant." The man says as he walks back into the school.

"So what was that all about?" Tre asks as they get into the car.
"Stupid pep squad girl started being a bitch and I might have threatened to kick her ass to Barbie town." Tre bursts out laughing.
"Joey, did the girl deserve it?" Tre asks.
"Hell yeah."
"Okay then I won't punish you," Tre says smirking. "I thought you got in trouble for another repeat of what happened on tour."
"Uhh." Joey trails off. "So where's the going away barbecue being held?"
"My dad's," Estelle pipes up.
"Dad you got stuck with the school pick-up," Ramona teases.
"Yes well, my car's the only one that can fit all you hormonal teenagers," Tre says evilly.