So Close Yet So Far

"Hey Dad, can Joey sleep over?" Ramona asks awkwardly one evening after Joey had stayed over for supper.
"Why can't he sleep at his own house?" Tre asks evilly.
"Well . . . . ."
"Is there something wrong with his mattress? I could tell Billie the brand of the mattresses we buy."
"My mattress is fine." Joey says rolling his eyes.
"It must be the pillows then. Go ahead take a pillow from the guest room."
"Dad." Ramona says annoyed. "Bianca, help."
"Sorry, but no. Stuff happens when boyfriends sleep over." Bianca says as she picks up some of the dinner dishes and takes them to the kitchen.
"Bianca's right." Tre adds in as he too picks up some dishes and carries them to the kitchen.
"And how would you know that unless you're being a hypocrite." Ramona challenges.
"Uhh Mike told me." Tre says shifting his eyes.
"Oh sure." Joey says rolling his eyes. "Don't you trust how my Dad raised me?"
"Nope." Tre says smirking.
"What if I tell him that?" Joey ponders.
"Go ahead." Tre says smugly, "And while your at it why don't you ask you mother for her opinion on you sleeping over." Joey crosses his arms apparently ticked off. "Really, I think I'll call Adie dearest up now." Tre picks up the phone and presses one of the speed dial numbers. Ramona looks up at Bianca with pleading eyes, but she just returns with a look of you got yourself into this.

"Hello Jakob, is your mom there? . . . . . . . .Hi Adie, I was just having a chat with the two love birds here . . . . apparently they think they're responsible enough for Joseph to sleep over, we just wanted you parental opinion as well. . . . .that's exactly what I was saying . . .alright then, I'll send him home shortly." Tre hangs up the phone. "She said no."
"Jeez Dad, you can be really uncool sometimes." Ramona mumbles.
"I find that hard to believe." Tre mocks.
"You're wrong Dad is Tre Cool!" Josh says crossing his arms, "That's French for Very Cool."
"That's m'boy." Tre says as he gives Josh a high five.
"Oh jeez." Ramona mutters.
"Joey, your mommy wants you home as soon as possible." Tre says as he slings his young son over his shoulder.
"Great." Joey mutters.
"I know isn't it?" Tre says as Josh bursts out laughing hysterically.

"I'll see you tomorrow then." Ramona says as she wraps her arms around him and kisses him goodbye.
"Yeah." Joey says as they break from their kiss.
"Enough sappiness and get your filthy hands off my daughter." Tre yells from the next room.
"I better get going." Joey says as he heads out the door.

The next morning Joey rushes out of the house to get to school. Jakob thought it would be funny to knot up his shoe laces.
"You're fucking dead!" Joey yells as he runs to the bus stop as he sees the bus turning the corner towards his stop.
"Oh I'm shaking!" Jakob yells, secretly hoping his brother will miss the bus. The bus pulls up to the stop and Jakob runs in and takes his seat. Ramona tells the us driver to wait for Joey, getting many complaints from Jakob.
"Thanks." Joey says as he gets into the bus out of breath. On his way to his seat he kicks his younger brother in the shin.

"What happened?" Ramona asks as she takes her seat next to her boyfriend.
"Jakob knotted up my shoe laces."
"Why not just take your soccer cleats?"
"He knotted those too, little fuck face."
"Just calm down." Ramona says as she pecks at his neck softly.

After school Joey heads down to the school's soccer field for practice. He's running late because he had to unknot his cleats. When he did join his teammates on the field he sees Ramona sitting on the bleachers with Emma and Mel.
"Hey man, what took you so long?" Sid asks as they start to jog around the field for warm up.
"Jakob knotted up my cleats this morning, I had to untie them."
"Did you see who came to watch?" Tom asks as he catches up with them.
"Yeah Ramona." Joey says as he stares at her just sitting on the stands chatting with her friends.
"I'd laugh if you tripped over your own foot." Sid says in mockery.
"Same for you, in case you haven't realized Emma is up there too."

"Okay ladies, let's have two teams here!" Coach Farsins yells across the field. Sid, Tom and Joey all grab blue wife-beater style jerseys so they can practice on the same team.

"Damn the jerseys, why can't they play shirts and skins." Emma whines.
"That's not a bad idea, unless that tubby guy is on the skins team." Ramona points out.
"True." Mel nods in agreement, "don't you think we're being a little superficial."
"Yeah, we should cut down or we'll find ourselves joining the pep squad."
"Ramona, don't you dare say that!" Emma says covering her ears laughing.

"Oh the game started!" some preppy girl a few benches down squeals.
"No shit." Mel mutters under her breath.
"Who are they cheering for anyway?" Ramona says as the girls in front of them cheer for no reason.
"Red, that's the team their jock boyfriends are on." Emma says after watching the pep squad girls in front of them for a few moments.
"Then why the fuck are they cheering?" Ramona asks, "Wait, they don't know anything about soccer do they?"
"Probably not." Mel says laughing, "Their lucky if they know what a soccer ball is."
"I feel like mocking them." Emma says smirking evilly. "Let's exaggerate whatever they do."

The three girls watch the pep squad in front of them intently.
"Oh my gosh was that a goal?!" Mel squeals, "Oh my gosh, Tom just scored a goal." She starts jumping up and down. She receives glares of disapproval from the pep squad.

"Go Joey go!" Ramona screams when he boyfriend nears the red team's net.

"Woohoo Sid!" Emma screeches.

"You do know this is only a practice." One of the preps states.
"Yeah, well we're just copying whatever you're doing when your boyfriends score a goal." Mel says.
"No we don't."
"Yeah you do, you just don't realize it 'cause they score so few." Ramona says evilly. The pep squad remains eerily quiet for the rest of the practice.

"Let's call it a day!" Coach Farsins yells after blowing his prize whistle. The guys throw in their jerseys and head up to the bleachers.
"What was all that about?" Joey asks as he puts his arms around Ramona.
"Nothing, we were just competing against the preps."
"C'mon, ride's going to be here soon." Joey says as he picks up his bag.
"Don't you need to get changed?"
"Uhh no, I'll change at home." He says looking down at his sweaty gym uniform.

The two of them head to the front of the school, where Billie Joe is waiting in his car.
"How was practice?" he asks as the two teenagers slide into the back seat.
"Uhh good, scored a couple of goals, had my own cheering squad." He says referring to Ramona.
"No Ramona! Don't turn cheerleader, stay away from the preppy and go towards the light." Billie Joe says comically.
"Oh jeez." Ramona says laughing.

They get to the Armstrong house and the two teens head up the stairs.
"I'm just going to shower." Joey says grabbing some clothes from his drawer and heads to the washroom. Ramona slumps down on Joey's bed and starts flipping through some guitar magazine.
"What are you doing here?" Jakob's voice says from the doorway.
"I was invited, where's Stella aren't you two inseparable?" Ramona states not looking up from the magazine pages. "Or is she at her mom's?"
"We broke up." Ramona stops and looks at Jakob.
"I thought. . ."
"It's for the best I guess, I mean, she's older than me and well I don't know Mike is always on my case."
"Uhh that's bull, I'm older than Joey and Tre is always on his case."
"You're only older by like a month and Tre friggin walked in on the two of you."
"What about your parents, your mom is older than your dad."
"I'm going to stop talking to you." Jakob says as he leaves the room.

"What was that all about?" Joey asks as he walks into the room, cleaned up and dressed, his hair still damp.
"Jake and Stella broke up."
"Oh, okay." Joey says shrugging as he lies next to Ramona. "He doesn't seem to be taking it hard at all."
"Guess not." Ramona says as her face nears his. She starts kissing him passionately as they relive the evening they got caught. This time without interruption.