Status: Complete.
Everything's Changed
Ch.1
Saturday, March 24,1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did *was* wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, the shy girl, and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at 7:00 this morning. We were brainwashed.
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"Emily! Let's go before you two are late."
I sighed frustratedly as I made my way down the stairs and to the kitchen to get my lunch. I then got in my dad's truck and sat in the middle silently. My brother got in and done the same.
We arrived at our destination, school. I looked at the tall building that I liked to call hell. I saw a student get out of her father's fancy BMW and I rolled my eyes. My dad started talking to my brother as I thought to myself.
I shouldn't be here on a Saturday. Hell I shouldn't be here at all, it's not my fault that a preppy girl stole from me and I had to beat the crap out of her.
My brother opened the truck door and got out.
"Emily, I'm disappointed in you too. You know if you have a problem with someone you tell an adult," He said.
I tried but the dumbass didn't pay attention to me, I thought annoyed.
"I'll see you two in a little while."
I got out of the truck and my brother shut the door and we started walking into the school.
"You could've came to me Emily," My brother said
"Why? I can take care of things myself," I said stubbornly.
"Really? Look where it got ya."
"I could say the same thing for you, temper tantrum."
"Whatever," He said blowing me off as we made it into the library.
I saw the preppy redhead from a few minutes ago sitting at the front desk on the left hand side. My brother sat down next to her.
Figures, I thought.
I made my way to the very back desk on the left side. I sat down in the chair that was closest to the railing and leaned on it. A few minutes of silence past and then someone came in. He was a dirty blonde, with a green sweater, and a brown coat. He sat down at the table in front of me. As soon as he sat down here came the king of trouble, John Bender. He had to touch everything on the librarian's desk and stole a little notepad. He stood in front of the desk where the geek boy was sitting at and motioned him to move. Geek boy got all of his belongings and went to the desk that was across from the one he'd just been sitting at. Bender then sat down and propped his feet up on the chair that the geek boy was sitting in. I sighed silently and looked away from Bender, I guess you could say that I have a slight crush on the guy.
I have a feeling that this is gonna be a long day.
Then a girl wearing a brown coat with fur outlining the hood came in and walked briskly to the back desk on the right. I heard the redhead and my brother snicker. I rolled my eyes at them for being so rude. I heard heavy footsteps come into the library, it was the devil, I mean Mr. Vernon. He stood there silent for a few moments before he began talking.
"Well, well. Here we are. I want to congratulate you all for being on time."
Then the preppy redhead raised hand up and said,
"Excuse me, sir. I think there's been a mistake. I know we're in detention but I don't think I belong here."
You got that right, I DON'T belong here, I thought.
Vernon ignored her and continued,
"It is now 7:06. You have exactly 8 hours and 54 minutes to think about why you are here - to ponder the error of your ways."
Bender was fiddling with something then he leaned his head back and decided to spit up in the air then catch it back in his mouth. I scrunched my face up in disgust. Even though it was disgusting, it was pretty talented too. I mean how many people can do that? I saw the redhead looking at Bender with disgust and then turn back around. Vernon started talking again when he saw the redhead open her mouth to protest and the geek boy start to switch seats.
"You will not talk... you will not move... from these seats."
Geek boy moved back to his seat and sat there quietly. Vernon started walking towards Bender saying,
"And you... will not sleep."
He then yanked the chair out from under Bender's feet.
"All right people, we're going to try something a little different today. We are going to write... an essay... of not less than a thousand words," He said handing out the blank sheet of paper.
"Describing to me who you think you are."
Bender then asked,
"Is this a test?"
Vernon once again ignored a student and kept explaining while Bender put hit feet up on the desk.
"And when I say 'essay', I mean 'essay', not one word repeated a thousand times. Is that clear, Mr. Bender?"
"Crystal," He said with a bored tone.
"Good. You might learn a thing or two about yourself."
I had my eyes closed as I was trying to block out Vernon's annoying voice but I was having trouble because someone had their eyes on me. I silently let out an annoyed sigh and opened my eyes to see Bender staring at me. I couldn't help but stare back at his gorgeous brown eyes.
"You might even decide whether or not you'd care to return."
Then from the corner of my eye I saw the geek boy stand up, so I turned my gaze on him and he said,
"Excuse me sir, I can answer that right now. That'd be no."
"Sit down Johnson."
He sat back down.
"My office is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?"
We all shook our heads except for Bender.
"Yeah, I have a question. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"
I couldn't help but snicker at that.
"You'll get the answer to that question, Mr. Bender and Ms. Clarke, next Saturday."
I put my arms out in front of me with the 'I didn't even do anything' face.
"Don't mess with the bull, you'll get the horns," Vernon said making horns with his thumb and pinky, then left for his office.
Once he was gone Bender said,
"That man... is a brownie hound."
Everybody started getting comfortable, including me. I put my head on the desk for a few moments before hearing this snapping sound. I looked in the direction of where that noise was coming from and found the girl in all black biting her nails.
"You keep eating your hand and you're not gonna be hungry for lunch..." Bender said.
She bit off one more and spit it at him. He ignored it and then said to her,
"I've seen you in here before."
I put my head back down and ignored what the geek boy was saying and Bender who was going nah-nah-nah...
"Oh shit!"
I heard Bender say, so I raised my head up curiously.
"What are we suppose to do if we gotta take a piss?"
He shrugged his shoulders and continued,
"You gotta go. You gotta go."
I then heard an unzipping noise and I started to get uncomfortable.
"Hey, you're not urinating in here, man," My brother said
"Don't talk. Don't talk. It makes it crawl back up."
"You whip it out, you're dead before the first drop hits the floor," My brother threatened.
And to my surprise Bender listened.
"You're kind of sexy when you're angry, grr," Bender said while zipping his pants back up.
He let out a breath, looked at the redhead then at me and then turned to the geek.
"Hey, homeboy, what do you say we close that door, we'll get the prom queen and shy girl impregnated.
" !" My brother said to Bender.
"What?"
"If I lose my temper you're totaled, man."
"Totally?"
"Totally."
"Why don't you just shut up, nobody here's interested," The redhead said.
I then heard my brother mutter something, most likely agreeing with the preppy girl. Then he said,
"Butt face."
"Well hey Sporto, what did you do to get in here? Forget to wash your jock?" Bender taunted.
"Uh, excuse me fellas but I think we should just write our paper," The geek boy said, trying to defuse the tension between my brother and Bender, but they ignored him.
It was a tennis match between the bickering boys. Then redhead piped up,
"He's just doing it to get a rise out of you. Just ignore him."
Bender flipped his hair and looked at the redhead.
"Sweets...You couldn't ignore me if you tried."
I let out a slight snort on accident then he turned and looked at me with a smirk.
"Neither could you."
He turned back around to face the redhead and my brother and kept up his assault on them.
"So... so. Are you guys like boyfriend-girlfriend? Steady dates? Lo-vers?"
They kept quiet, trying to ignore him.
"Come on, sporto, level with me. Do you slip her the hot-beef-injection?"
"Go to HELL!"
"ENOUGH!"
The redhead and my brother said in unison. Then we heard Vernon yell,
"Hey. What's goin' on in there?"
And everything got quiet again. My brother muttered something and Bender got up from his seat then jumped up on the railing and sat down on it.
"What do you say we close that door? We can't have a party with Vernon checking us out every few seconds."
"Uh, The doors are supposes to stay open," The geek kid said.
"So what?" Bender countered.
"So why don't you just shut 's five other people in here you know." My brother snapped
"God, you can count. See I knew you had to be smart to be a...wrestler."
"Who the hell are you to judge anybody anyway?"
My God Andy, shut up! I thought.
"Really," The redhead said agreeing.
Then my brother went on saying that the school and the students wouldn't care if Bender disappeared forever, which irked me a little. It looked like Bender was hurt by those words but regained his composure.
"Well, I'll just run right out and join the wrestling team..."
Redhead and my brother snickered at that.
"Prep club...Student council," Bender finished.
"Na, They wouldn't take you."
Why do you always have to put someone down Andy... Including your own sister, I thought angrily
"I'm hurt."
"You know why guys like you knock everything?"
This should be entertaining.
I finally got up and made my way over to the group. I stood about a foot away from Bender with my arms crossed over my chest, ready for the explanation.
"Oh, this should be stunning," Bender said.
"It's because you're afraid."
Yep, that's exactly why I'm not in a club, I thought sarcastically.
"Oh God, you richies are so smart, that's exactly why I'm not heavy into activities."
"You're a big coward."
I heard the geek boy started naming things off but I couldn't make them out.
"See, you're afraid that they won't take you, you don't belong, so you have to just dump all over it.
"Well, it wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes, now would it?"
"Well, you wouldn't know, you don't even know any of us."
"Well, I don't know any lepers, but I'm not going to run out and join one of their fucking clubs."
"Hey. Let's watch the mouth, huh?"
I just rolled my eyes.
"Excuse me a sec. What are you babbling about?" Bender asked with an eyebrow raised at the geek boy.
"Well, what I had said was I'm in the math club, uh, the Latin, and the physics club... physics club."
"Hey, Cherry. Do you belong to the physics club?" Bender asked looking at the redhead.
She glared at him.
"That's an academic club."
"So?"
"So academic clubs aren't the same as other kinds of clubs."
"Ah... but to dorks like him, they are. What do you guys do in your club?"
"Well, in physics we... we talk about physics, properties of physics."
"So it's sorta social, demented and sad, but social. Right?"
"Well, I guess you could consider it as a social situation. Uh, I mean there are other children in my club. And uh, at the end of the year we have a big banquet at the Hilton."
"You load up, you party," Bender said.
"Uhh, no, actually, we dress up."
"Only burners like you get high," The redhead said.
Then there was a staring match between Bender and her. Then geek boy started rambling on about shoes and about his cousin getting high.
"Sounds like you," She said to Bender.
"Look, you guys keep up your talking and Vernon's gonna come right in here. I got a meet this Saturday and I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads."
"Oh, and wouldn't that be a bite, huh? Missing a whole wrestling meet!"
"You wouldn't know anything about it, faggot! You never competed in your whole life!"
"Oh, I know. I feel all empty inside because of it. I have such a deep admiration for guys who roll around on the floor with other guys."
"Ah, you'd never make it. You don't have any goals."
"Oh, but I do!"
"Yeah?"
"I wanna be just... like... you. I figure all I need is a lobotomy and some tights!"
"You wear tights?" The geek boy said, suddenly interested.
"No, I don't wear tights. I wear the required uniform."
"Tights," Me and geek boy said in unison.
"Shut up."
"Who are you telling to shut up?" I asked my brother with a glare.
He ignored me, big surprise. I just went back to my seat and sat down.
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"Emily! Let's go before you two are late."
I sighed frustratedly as I made my way down the stairs and to the kitchen to get my lunch. I then got in my dad's truck and sat in the middle silently. My brother got in and done the same.
We arrived at our destination, school. I looked at the tall building that I liked to call hell. I saw a student get out of her father's fancy BMW and I rolled my eyes. My dad started talking to my brother as I thought to myself.
I shouldn't be here on a Saturday. Hell I shouldn't be here at all, it's not my fault that a preppy girl stole from me and I had to beat the crap out of her.
My brother opened the truck door and got out.
"Emily, I'm disappointed in you too. You know if you have a problem with someone you tell an adult," He said.
I tried but the dumbass didn't pay attention to me, I thought annoyed.
"I'll see you two in a little while."
I got out of the truck and my brother shut the door and we started walking into the school.
"You could've came to me Emily," My brother said
"Why? I can take care of things myself," I said stubbornly.
"Really? Look where it got ya."
"I could say the same thing for you, temper tantrum."
"Whatever," He said blowing me off as we made it into the library.
I saw the preppy redhead from a few minutes ago sitting at the front desk on the left hand side. My brother sat down next to her.
Figures, I thought.
I made my way to the very back desk on the left side. I sat down in the chair that was closest to the railing and leaned on it. A few minutes of silence past and then someone came in. He was a dirty blonde, with a green sweater, and a brown coat. He sat down at the table in front of me. As soon as he sat down here came the king of trouble, John Bender. He had to touch everything on the librarian's desk and stole a little notepad. He stood in front of the desk where the geek boy was sitting at and motioned him to move. Geek boy got all of his belongings and went to the desk that was across from the one he'd just been sitting at. Bender then sat down and propped his feet up on the chair that the geek boy was sitting in. I sighed silently and looked away from Bender, I guess you could say that I have a slight crush on the guy.
I have a feeling that this is gonna be a long day.
Then a girl wearing a brown coat with fur outlining the hood came in and walked briskly to the back desk on the right. I heard the redhead and my brother snicker. I rolled my eyes at them for being so rude. I heard heavy footsteps come into the library, it was the devil, I mean Mr. Vernon. He stood there silent for a few moments before he began talking.
"Well, well. Here we are. I want to congratulate you all for being on time."
Then the preppy redhead raised hand up and said,
"Excuse me, sir. I think there's been a mistake. I know we're in detention but I don't think I belong here."
You got that right, I DON'T belong here, I thought.
Vernon ignored her and continued,
"It is now 7:06. You have exactly 8 hours and 54 minutes to think about why you are here - to ponder the error of your ways."
Bender was fiddling with something then he leaned his head back and decided to spit up in the air then catch it back in his mouth. I scrunched my face up in disgust. Even though it was disgusting, it was pretty talented too. I mean how many people can do that? I saw the redhead looking at Bender with disgust and then turn back around. Vernon started talking again when he saw the redhead open her mouth to protest and the geek boy start to switch seats.
"You will not talk... you will not move... from these seats."
Geek boy moved back to his seat and sat there quietly. Vernon started walking towards Bender saying,
"And you... will not sleep."
He then yanked the chair out from under Bender's feet.
"All right people, we're going to try something a little different today. We are going to write... an essay... of not less than a thousand words," He said handing out the blank sheet of paper.
"Describing to me who you think you are."
Bender then asked,
"Is this a test?"
Vernon once again ignored a student and kept explaining while Bender put hit feet up on the desk.
"And when I say 'essay', I mean 'essay', not one word repeated a thousand times. Is that clear, Mr. Bender?"
"Crystal," He said with a bored tone.
"Good. You might learn a thing or two about yourself."
I had my eyes closed as I was trying to block out Vernon's annoying voice but I was having trouble because someone had their eyes on me. I silently let out an annoyed sigh and opened my eyes to see Bender staring at me. I couldn't help but stare back at his gorgeous brown eyes.
"You might even decide whether or not you'd care to return."
Then from the corner of my eye I saw the geek boy stand up, so I turned my gaze on him and he said,
"Excuse me sir, I can answer that right now. That'd be no."
"Sit down Johnson."
He sat back down.
"My office is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?"
We all shook our heads except for Bender.
"Yeah, I have a question. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"
I couldn't help but snicker at that.
"You'll get the answer to that question, Mr. Bender and Ms. Clarke, next Saturday."
I put my arms out in front of me with the 'I didn't even do anything' face.
"Don't mess with the bull, you'll get the horns," Vernon said making horns with his thumb and pinky, then left for his office.
Once he was gone Bender said,
"That man... is a brownie hound."
Everybody started getting comfortable, including me. I put my head on the desk for a few moments before hearing this snapping sound. I looked in the direction of where that noise was coming from and found the girl in all black biting her nails.
"You keep eating your hand and you're not gonna be hungry for lunch..." Bender said.
She bit off one more and spit it at him. He ignored it and then said to her,
"I've seen you in here before."
I put my head back down and ignored what the geek boy was saying and Bender who was going nah-nah-nah...
"Oh shit!"
I heard Bender say, so I raised my head up curiously.
"What are we suppose to do if we gotta take a piss?"
He shrugged his shoulders and continued,
"You gotta go. You gotta go."
I then heard an unzipping noise and I started to get uncomfortable.
"Hey, you're not urinating in here, man," My brother said
"Don't talk. Don't talk. It makes it crawl back up."
"You whip it out, you're dead before the first drop hits the floor," My brother threatened.
And to my surprise Bender listened.
"You're kind of sexy when you're angry, grr," Bender said while zipping his pants back up.
He let out a breath, looked at the redhead then at me and then turned to the geek.
"Hey, homeboy, what do you say we close that door, we'll get the prom queen and shy girl impregnated.
" !" My brother said to Bender.
"What?"
"If I lose my temper you're totaled, man."
"Totally?"
"Totally."
"Why don't you just shut up, nobody here's interested," The redhead said.
I then heard my brother mutter something, most likely agreeing with the preppy girl. Then he said,
"Butt face."
"Well hey Sporto, what did you do to get in here? Forget to wash your jock?" Bender taunted.
"Uh, excuse me fellas but I think we should just write our paper," The geek boy said, trying to defuse the tension between my brother and Bender, but they ignored him.
It was a tennis match between the bickering boys. Then redhead piped up,
"He's just doing it to get a rise out of you. Just ignore him."
Bender flipped his hair and looked at the redhead.
"Sweets...You couldn't ignore me if you tried."
I let out a slight snort on accident then he turned and looked at me with a smirk.
"Neither could you."
He turned back around to face the redhead and my brother and kept up his assault on them.
"So... so. Are you guys like boyfriend-girlfriend? Steady dates? Lo-vers?"
They kept quiet, trying to ignore him.
"Come on, sporto, level with me. Do you slip her the hot-beef-injection?"
"Go to HELL!"
"ENOUGH!"
The redhead and my brother said in unison. Then we heard Vernon yell,
"Hey. What's goin' on in there?"
And everything got quiet again. My brother muttered something and Bender got up from his seat then jumped up on the railing and sat down on it.
"What do you say we close that door? We can't have a party with Vernon checking us out every few seconds."
"Uh, The doors are supposes to stay open," The geek kid said.
"So what?" Bender countered.
"So why don't you just shut 's five other people in here you know." My brother snapped
"God, you can count. See I knew you had to be smart to be a...wrestler."
"Who the hell are you to judge anybody anyway?"
My God Andy, shut up! I thought.
"Really," The redhead said agreeing.
Then my brother went on saying that the school and the students wouldn't care if Bender disappeared forever, which irked me a little. It looked like Bender was hurt by those words but regained his composure.
"Well, I'll just run right out and join the wrestling team..."
Redhead and my brother snickered at that.
"Prep club...Student council," Bender finished.
"Na, They wouldn't take you."
Why do you always have to put someone down Andy... Including your own sister, I thought angrily
"I'm hurt."
"You know why guys like you knock everything?"
This should be entertaining.
I finally got up and made my way over to the group. I stood about a foot away from Bender with my arms crossed over my chest, ready for the explanation.
"Oh, this should be stunning," Bender said.
"It's because you're afraid."
Yep, that's exactly why I'm not in a club, I thought sarcastically.
"Oh God, you richies are so smart, that's exactly why I'm not heavy into activities."
"You're a big coward."
I heard the geek boy started naming things off but I couldn't make them out.
"See, you're afraid that they won't take you, you don't belong, so you have to just dump all over it.
"Well, it wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes, now would it?"
"Well, you wouldn't know, you don't even know any of us."
"Well, I don't know any lepers, but I'm not going to run out and join one of their fucking clubs."
"Hey. Let's watch the mouth, huh?"
I just rolled my eyes.
"Excuse me a sec. What are you babbling about?" Bender asked with an eyebrow raised at the geek boy.
"Well, what I had said was I'm in the math club, uh, the Latin, and the physics club... physics club."
"Hey, Cherry. Do you belong to the physics club?" Bender asked looking at the redhead.
She glared at him.
"That's an academic club."
"So?"
"So academic clubs aren't the same as other kinds of clubs."
"Ah... but to dorks like him, they are. What do you guys do in your club?"
"Well, in physics we... we talk about physics, properties of physics."
"So it's sorta social, demented and sad, but social. Right?"
"Well, I guess you could consider it as a social situation. Uh, I mean there are other children in my club. And uh, at the end of the year we have a big banquet at the Hilton."
"You load up, you party," Bender said.
"Uhh, no, actually, we dress up."
"Only burners like you get high," The redhead said.
Then there was a staring match between Bender and her. Then geek boy started rambling on about shoes and about his cousin getting high.
"Sounds like you," She said to Bender.
"Look, you guys keep up your talking and Vernon's gonna come right in here. I got a meet this Saturday and I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads."
"Oh, and wouldn't that be a bite, huh? Missing a whole wrestling meet!"
"You wouldn't know anything about it, faggot! You never competed in your whole life!"
"Oh, I know. I feel all empty inside because of it. I have such a deep admiration for guys who roll around on the floor with other guys."
"Ah, you'd never make it. You don't have any goals."
"Oh, but I do!"
"Yeah?"
"I wanna be just... like... you. I figure all I need is a lobotomy and some tights!"
"You wear tights?" The geek boy said, suddenly interested.
"No, I don't wear tights. I wear the required uniform."
"Tights," Me and geek boy said in unison.
"Shut up."
"Who are you telling to shut up?" I asked my brother with a glare.
He ignored me, big surprise. I just went back to my seat and sat down.