Dirty Journalism

“You’re joking, right?”

Jackie Bodello raised her eyebrows at the smirking boy in front of her. The boy chuckled.

“Completely serious, chief,” he said with a wink.

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Max, you are so immature. Why don’t you go write something that’s actually publishable?”

The boy called Max motioned to the paper in Jackie’s hands. “But the students of James Academy would love that commentary!”

“’Ten Reasons Why I Hate Jackie Bodello’ is not even a real commentary! It’s you being a jackass!”

Max laughed, snatching the paper from her hands. “You would know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

“Do you want to keep your position?” Jackie threatened. “You’re commentary editor now, but I will demote you in five seconds if you don’t shut up and write what we talked about in the editorial meeting.”

“What would you demote me to?” Max asked tauntingly.

“You could write fake letters for the Ask Stella column,” Jackie said, referring to the section of the newspaper in which Stella Harper answered the problems of James Academy students.

Max pretended to look excited. “I have one! Dear Stella, I hate Jackie Bodello. Should I continue to annoy her forever or just murder her now?”

Jackie stood up from her desk, though she was still much shorter than Max. “I hate you!” she shouted.

Max shouted back. “The feeling’s mutual! And you won’t demote me because you know I’m the best commentary editor The James Journal has ever had!”

“Being a good writer doesn’t make up for the fact that you’re the biggest jackass on the planet!”

“I’m only a jackass to you, Jackie, but you’re a bitch to everybody!”

“I’m the editor-in-chief! It’s my job to be a bitch!”

“Do you get some sadistic pleasure from telling people to rewrite articles they’ve worked incredibly hard on?”

“Oh please, Maxwell! Don’t pretend you worked longer than five minutes on that thing you wrote!”

“Well, yeah, but that’s because it only took me one minute to think of ten reasons why I hate you and four minutes to type them out!”

Jackie opened her mouth to retaliate, but was interrupted by a loud yell. “SHUT UP!”

The quarreling teenagers turned to see Jeffrey O’Connor, a tall African American boy, who was the head sports editor of The James Journal, and often times the peacemaker between Max and Jackie. Jeffrey grabbed Max’s arms a dragged him away from Jackie’s desk.

“You two are going to be the death of everyone in this room!” he said angrily, pulling Max. “You only have one more year together. Can you attempt to be civil?”

Max pulled away from Jeffrey’s grip and slouched to his own desk. Jackie, across the room, crossed her arms angrily. “No,” they said simultaneously.

And they had good reason to. Jackie Bodello and Max Leopold had hated each other since they met at the start of middle school, and six-year enmities don’t wear off so easily. Max and Jackie were students at the prestigious James Academy of Brooklyn, a boarding school in the heart of New York, known for its first-rate reputation, insanely high tuition, and outstanding student newspaper, The James Journal.

“Final drafts are due tomorrow,” Jackie called out to the newspaper room. “We’re distributing the new issue a day early since a bunch of us will be on the senior camping trip when it would normally be released.”

At these words, the lower classmen groaned, knowing they’d have to finish up their articles faster, but the seniors in the room started talking excitedly. The senior camping trip was a James Academy tradition in which the graduating class spent a week in the woods of Canada. While the prospect of swimming, hiking, and taking in the great outdoors was rather appealing, most people were excited for the lack of teacher supervision.

“Who’s bringing the booze?” Max asked, not bothering to keep his voice down, since everyone knew what the seniors would really be doing anyway.

Jeffrey answered, “Scooter said he’s got connections, but it’s Scooter, so who knows.”

Maurice “Scooter” Hickam, the newspaper’s photo editor, and also Jeffrey and Max’s roommate, leaned over in his chair. “For your information, Jeffrey, it’s all covered. Not that you care, you’ll be too busy doing things in your tent with Dina!”

Dina Paterson was Jeffrey’s girlfriend. She was a new student to JA, but had enough experience to be placed as one of the assistant sports editors on the paper, where she had become close to Jeffrey.

Lexi Loring, an assistant entertainment editor, overheard this. “Gross!” she exclaimed, looking between Dina and Jeffrey.

Scooter laughed at Lexi’s reaction. “So innocent, so naïve,” he said jokingly. Lexi smacked him, but smiled.

The phone rang, and Jackie answered it. “James Journal newsroom, this is Jackie,” she said briskly. As Max did a rather rude impersonation of her, the other students watched as her face slowly fell. “What? No. But—I understand. Yes, we’ll be more careful. Thank you. Bye.”

Jackie sighed angrily as she hung up the phone. “The cheerleaders went to the headmistress,” she announced.

There was a collective groan around the room. Last week, a completely objective article about the cheerleaders going to a competition had caused a stir when the girls said they found it “hurtful and offensive.”

Rebecca Wallace, who had written the article, said loudly, “I was being honest when I wrote they placed last. What was I supposed to do, lie?”

Jackie shook her head. “The article was terrific. The JA cheerleaders are just complete idiots.”

“I don’t know, I kind of like them!” Max said with a smirk.

Jackie rolled her eyes at him. “You would. But this is a world of dirty journalism, so everybody better get used to it.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Wow. Way to hide your hangover.”

Max looked up from where he was lying on the courtyard bench. Blinking rapidly from the sun, he made out Jackie’s amused face. “What am I doing on this bench?” he mumbled.

“There was that party in the senior lounge last night, remember? Scooter said you came out here when it was over because you were too hot in your dorm.”

“Go the hell away.”

“Really, I would absolutely love to walk away right now and wait for a teacher to find you,” Jackie said, “but first period started ten minutes ago, and you need to finish your commentary.”

“I’ll do it later.”

“The paper is going to the printer tonight, Max, there is no later. Get your lazy ass up!”

“No.”

“You have a deadline to meet.”

“Shut up.”

“Maxwell Leopold, don’t make me tip this bench over!”

“I dare you to,” Max slurred, yet he seemed quite shocked when he found himself face down in the grass.

Jackie smiled sarcastically, setting the bench back down. “Rise and shine! You’re late for school because you got shit-faced last night and fell asleep on a bench outside.”

Max stood up and glared at her. “I’m going to take a shower,” he said through a clenched jaw.

“I don’t think so!” Jackie said quickly. “You are going to go to the newsroom and finish your article right now!”

Max began to walk past the courtyard fountain, toward the door to the dorm rooms. Jackie followed him angrily, saying loudly, “Maybe if you hadn’t wasted time writing that jackass article yesterday, you would be finished!”

“I don’t regret a single thing,” Max said back, still walking to his dorm.

Jackie grabbed his arm and forcefully pulled him around, her eyes filled with anger. “You’ve done this before,” she furiously shouted, “and your assistant editors had to pick up the slack! You know what? Half the people in the newsroom got drunk last night, but they’re still working right now, because they’re not irresponsible bastards!”

Max was already in a bad mood, and Jackie calling him an “irresponsible bastard” did nothing to help it. Instead of punching her in the face as he dearly wanted to, Max rolled his eyes and threw his angry editor over his shoulder.

“What the hell?” she screeched, beating his back with her fists and kicking her legs. “Put me down!”

Max didn’t respond. Instead, he walked to the courtyard fountain and stepped up on the rim. As he prepared to throw Jackie in the water to get her to shut up, his foot hit a slick spot and he found himself tumbling in beside her.

When both had resurfaced, Jackie couldn’t help but laugh. “Did you mean to fall in too?” she taunted.

Max—now thinking straighter, as the icy water had cleared his head—angrily splashed her in the face. Jackie rubbed her eyes and said, “Like I’m not soaking wet already.”

“Why are always such a bitch?” Max yelled, standing up in the water.

“I’m not the one who just threw you in a fountain!” Jackie retaliated, standing up to face him.

“But you’re always making those sarcastic, catty little comments!”

“Maybe I wouldn’t make them if you didn’t act like such a jerk all the time!”

“No other girl seems to think I’m a jerk!”

“That’s because you’ve freaking slept with every girl in the school!”

“That is not true!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, you’ve just drunkenly made out with every girl in the school… because that’s so much better!”

“A, it is better than sleeping with them, and B, IT’S NOT TRUE! You’re the one who had like six boyfriends last year!”

“I did not!”

“Yes, you did, because you’re a–”

“SILENCE!” What Jackie was, Max never got out, because their ever-so-private argument was interrupted.

By the headmistress.

The two teenagers slowly turned to see the headmistress of James Academy, Dr. Barrie, staring daggers at them. Dr. Barrie was a stout, gray-haired lady who actually looked sort of like a fat twelve-year-old boy. However, she had the ability to appear much more menacing than any young boy could.

“What is the meaning of this?” she screeched, gesturing wildly in front of her. Max realized how the situation must of have looked—two seniors, soaking wet, having a screaming argument in the middle of the courtyard fountain, when they should have been in first period.

“Uh…” Jackie began, looking nervously at Max.

“It’s for the newspaper!” Max invented. Jackie gave him a startled look, but he kept going. “Yeah, we wanted to see… teachers’ reactions to… um… conflict?”

Dr. Barrie didn’t buy it, not that anyone would, because it was sort of the worst lie ever. “You two. You two. You’re seniors! You’ve been at this school for six years and we’ve hade numerous problems between you! And now you’ve resorted to skipping time you should be working on the newspaper so you can battle it out in the fountain?”

Jackie spoke before Max could say anything else stupid. “Please, Dr. Barrie, it wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Dr. Barrie said loudly. “We’ve torn you two apart from headlocks, we’ve stopped you from strangling each other, we’ve held you back from literally scratching each other’s faces off!”

Max looked at Jackie, startled. “When did we try to scratch each other’s faces off?”

“Mr. Leopold!” Dr. Barrie exclaimed angrily, causing Max to snap his attention back to her. “The point is, you two should be ashamed of yourselves. You’re too immature to put your differences behind you. You’re setting a terrible example for the younger students, and you’re setting a terrible standard for James Academy.”

Jackie shot a ‘this-is-all-your-fault’ glare at Max that did not go unnoticed by Dr. Barrie. “Ms. Bodello, don’t act like Mr. Leopold is the only one. You are both excellent writers who make excellent grades. But you’ve both behaved abysmally, and that is unacceptable.”

“How many detentions do we have?” Max groaned, eager to get out of the uncomfortable situation.

“None,” Dr. Barrie said simply. Max and Jackie looked at her with shocked expressions. “Don’t look so surprised, you still have a punishment. You’ll both be spending next week at school instead of on the senior camping trip.”

“WHAT?” Max yelled. He had been looking forward to the freedom of the camping trip since… well, sixth grade.

Jackie felt similarly. “Dr. Barrie, is that really necessary? We promise it won’t happen again! Right, Max?”

Max nodded enthusiastically, but Dr. Barrie pursed her lips and shook her head. “No. You’ve said it won’t happen again before, and look at that! It’s happened again and again and again! My decision is final. Now get out of the fountain and get to class!”

In the next chapter of Dirty Journalism…

“It won’t be hard for you, considering you don’t drink!”
-
-
“I don’t know. Just being around alcohol must be getting to me.”
-
-
“Come on, Jackie, live a little!”