Sequel: In Too Deep ›
Dirty Journalism
Scandal
It was Dina.
Max stared at her, his mouth open in shock. Words had left him.
But they hadn’t left Dina. “What the hell?” she exclaimed loudly, looking between Max, who looked stunned, and Jackie, who looked like she was going to vomit.
“I… Dina…” Max got out, trying to come up with something, but Dina didn’t even look at him now.
“You’re such a bitch!” she yelled at Jackie, who took a step back in alarm. Dina kept going. “And a little slut, too!”
“Dina, STOP!” Max yelled.
Jackie was crying. “I’m sorry,” she choked out. She grabbed her bag, threw it over he shoulder, and ran in the opposite direction.
Max rounded on Dina. “Why did you say that?” he yelled angrily.
“SHE WAS KISSING MY BOYFRIEND!” Dina shouted back.
“Because I kissed her first, damn it!”
Dina gaped at him. “What?”
Max groaned in frustration. “Look, I’m sorry. When you kissed me last night, I only responded so… uh, enthusiastically… because I knew Jackie would see.” It felt good to finally admit to that, even though he hadn’t even realized that was the truth until just now.
“You used me?”
“Yeah,” Max said bluntly, shrugging. “But I heard you’ve been with three different guys since you broke up with Jeffrey, so I don’t feel too bad.”
“What do you think people will say,” Dina said threateningly, “when they find out you cheated on me with Jackie Bodello?”
“People won’t say anything if you keep your mouth shut,” Max said through gritted teeth.
Dina smiled. “I’ll keep my mouth completely shut. I won’t say a damn thing.”
“I’m serious!”
“And so am I,” Dina said firmly. “I’m not going to say anything, but you better be prepared to deal with what you’ve done.”
As she turned around and walked away, Max called out, “What does that mean?”
She didn’t answer.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Three days passed. For three days, Jackie attended classes, worked regularly on The James Journal, and managed to not even look at Max. He was obviously trying to get alone with her, but she never gave him the chance. And she was very proud of herself for it, because avoiding the alluring Max Leopold was quite difficult.
Why was she avoiding him? Jackie didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she had no idea. Everything felt so weird all of a sudden, what with the discovery of her sister’s words carved into a wall, and her sudden relationship… thing… with Max.
“Hey, Jackie.”
A voice interrupted Jackie from her thoughts, and she glanced up from her desk in the newspaper room. The James Journal business manager, a girl named Laura, stood before her.
“I forgot to tell you,” Laura said, “when Brent and I sent in the paper yesterday, the printer said it should be picked up today at noon.”
“Thanks,” Jackie said, rubbing her temples. She was still plagued with intense headaches all day.
Laura looked at her, concerned. “Why don’t I pick them up this time? You don’t look well. You should really get some extra sleep.”
“It’s alright, I can go. I have to check the issue over before we distribute it anyway,” Jackie said.
“Jackie, you have executive editors for a reason!” Laura said with a laugh. “I’ll give the new edition to Caroline and Alex to look over.”
Jackie nodded. “Thanks, Laura. I looked over it pretty thoroughly before you sent it off anyway, so it should be fine.”
“When the execs are done looking it over, we’ll get it ready for distribution in the morning,” Laura said. “Don’t worry, Jackie, it’s all taken care of.”
Jackie smiled gratefully.
She shouldn’t have.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Max was unpleasantly awoken by a loud exclamation of “Holy mother-fucking doughnut hole!”
When he opened his eyes, he saw Scooter, clad in pajamas, holding the newest edition of The James Journal above Max’s face.
“What the hell is this?” Scooter asked.
Max was surprised. This was the first Scooter had spoken to him since the newspaper party when he had kissed Dina. “What… what are you talking about?” he asked, sitting up slowly and rubbing his eyes.
Jeffrey appeared next to Scooter. He gestured to the newspaper and said, “I know you’re a ladies’ man, but this is just crazy!”
Max snatched the newspaper and stared at the front page, his jaw slowly dropping.
SCANDAL OF THE SCHOOL YEAR—BODELLO AND LEOPOLD ARE LYING LOVERS?
By Caroline Bell, Execute Editor
Everyone in James Academy knows that since sixth grade, Jackie Bodello and Max Leopold have been less than friendly. Everyone remembers that food fight in sixth grade, when Jackie shoved mashed potatoes down Max’s shirt after he called her an unpleasant name. Everyone remembers that physical fight in ninth grade, when Max held Jackie in a headlock for ten minutes because she was flaunting her high test score. And everyone definitely remembers that verbal fight that happened last year, in which things were said that should not be repeated in this article. Needless to say, their hatred for one another has always been quite evident. Lately, however, their relationship has come into question.
The so-called enemies were spotted kissing in an empty hallway at the end of the day last Thursday. Who spotted them? Who else, but the girl Max began dating on Wednesday, Dina Paterson. “I turned the corner, and there they were,” Dina said, with tears in her eyes. “I just ran away. I mean, we hadn’t even been dating a day, and he was already cheating on me.” Something about the situation suggests that Jackie and Max have been in their relationship for awhile, and were trying to draw away suspicion by having Max date someone else.
Why is it obvious they’ve been seeing each other? People have noticed it. For a while now, Jackie has been suffering from severe headaches. Severe enough that she had to leave a James Journal party early, only to fall asleep in Max’s dorm room. Max was later seen carrying her to her own room. These headaches could quite easily be the result of guilty feelings.
The speculation is that Jackie and Max began their relationship while the rest of the seniors were on the annual camping trip. A source says that they were seen together having breakfast, on the basketball court, and playing several rounds of tennis. A junior member of the basketball team, Eric Stevens, also reveals, “We had a small, innocent party for the basketball team while the seniors were gone. Max invited Jackie. Everyone was kind of shocked.”
While no footage or photos were taken of Jackie and Max’s Thursday make out session in the hallway, Dina Paterson is no doubt a reliable source. And all other factors point straight to it: Jackie Bodello and Max Leopold are lying to you about their relationship, and hopefully they will have good enough sense to come clean and apologize.
Max dropped the newspaper and stared numbly at his hands. Scooter and Jeffrey were silent, waiting for him to say something. When he didn’t, Scooter prompted, “Well? Is it true?”
“I… what? Well, partly, I mean… kind of,” he finished lamely. Jeffrey and Scooter stared at him with wide eyes. “But this doesn’t make any sense!” Max said.
“What?” Scooter asked. “The signs are clearly there. There’s no hiding it now.”
“I’m talking about the fact that this article even exists!” Max exclaimed, jumping out of his bed. “This isn’t journalism, this is garbage! How could Jackie let this be printed?”
“Jackie didn’t send the paper in for printing, pick it up, or read over it afterwards. She felt sick, so the executive editors took care of it,” Jeffrey explained, having heard this information from Stella the day before.
Scooter grabbed the newspaper and looked at it. “Hey, Caroline wrote this. She, Dina, and Laura are best friends…”
“Dina!” Max shouted angrily. “Damn it!”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To say Jackie was flustered would be untruthful.
To say Jackie was taken aback would be a gross understatement.
To say Jackie was completely and utterly shocked, beyond pissed off, and ready to vomit up everything she’d ever eaten would be close to appropriately describing how she felt. But only close.
“I can’t fucking believe this,” she said quietly. She was sitting on the floor of her dorm leaning against the wall next to the door. She, Lexi, and Stella had just finished getting ready for breakfast when they opened the door to find the front page of The James Journal staring at them. You know the rest.
Stella sat next to her, stroking her hair as she cried. After Jackie had had a screaming tantrum, which included a series of unpleasant expletives, Stella had calmed her, gotten her to sit down, and told her to take a few deep breaths.
Lexi sat in front of them, holding the newspaper in one hand and a pillow in the other. Jackie had been using the pillow as a punching bag before Stella had gotten her to calm down, but Lexi held it close in case anything happened again.
“Ssshhh,” Stella soothed, “it’ll be okay. This is libel, isn’t it? This can be fixed.”
Jackie cried harder. “It’s only libel if it’s false,” she said, almost in a whisper.
“It’s all true?” Lexi asked quietly. Jackie gave her a hard look, and Lexi instantly held the pillow in front of her face.
“Not all of it,” Jackie said. “I haven’t been secretly seeing Max since the camping trip, I’m not getting headaches from guilt, and Dina wasn’t the one who just ran away on Thursday.”
“But, you did, you know… kiss him.”
“He kissed me!” Jackie said hurriedly. “And I… kissed him back.”
“Why?” Stella asked. “After all Max did to Jeffrey by dating Dina? After all the shit between you two the past six years?”
Jackie didn’t get a chance to answer. At that moment, there were many frenzied knocks on the door. “It’s the guys!” came Jeffrey’s voice. “All three of us, let us in!”
Lexi gave Jackie a questioning look, and she nodded. Lexi stood up, threw the pillow aside, and opened the door.
The three boys came bursting in. Max, seeing Jackie in a ball on the floor, said hurriedly, “Are you okay?”
Jackie stood up slowly. “I’m just great,” she said sarcastically. “I feel fucking brilliant now that my personal life and my newspaper have been completely trashed!”
Max looked taken aback. “Don’t get mad at me, it’s all Dina’s doing!”
“Yeah, nice call dating her!”
“Blaming me won’t fix this!”
“Nothing will fix this!”
“Stop being so damn pessimistic!”
“I’m being realistic, you idiot!”
Scooter startled everybody by screaming “HOLY SHIT!”
Max and Jackie, who had been standing two inches away from each other and shouting at the top of their lungs, looked at him oddly, confused by the sudden interruption. Scooter continued, “You’re going to have to face everyone regardless! Geez, you guys have two settings: arguing and making out.”
The room suddenly became incredibly awkward. The whole Max-and-Jackie-making-out-last-Thursday-thing hadn’t really been addressed, so Lexi asked timidly, “Are you guys like… dating?”
Max and Jackie glanced at each other. “Uh…” Max began, but at that moment, the bell for first period rang.
“Gotta go!” Max and Jackie said at the same time, grabbing their bags and running out the door.
Scooter turned to the three others left in the room. “Was that a yes?”
Stella shook her head slowly. “No freaking clue.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the next chapter of Dirty Journalism…
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
-
-
“Blowjobs aren’t going to be as easy with your lip like that, are they?”
-
-
“This is really awkward.”
“Just a little.”
-
-
“You caught me. I am deeply, madly, totally, unfathomably in love with you.”
Max stared at her, his mouth open in shock. Words had left him.
But they hadn’t left Dina. “What the hell?” she exclaimed loudly, looking between Max, who looked stunned, and Jackie, who looked like she was going to vomit.
“I… Dina…” Max got out, trying to come up with something, but Dina didn’t even look at him now.
“You’re such a bitch!” she yelled at Jackie, who took a step back in alarm. Dina kept going. “And a little slut, too!”
“Dina, STOP!” Max yelled.
Jackie was crying. “I’m sorry,” she choked out. She grabbed her bag, threw it over he shoulder, and ran in the opposite direction.
Max rounded on Dina. “Why did you say that?” he yelled angrily.
“SHE WAS KISSING MY BOYFRIEND!” Dina shouted back.
“Because I kissed her first, damn it!”
Dina gaped at him. “What?”
Max groaned in frustration. “Look, I’m sorry. When you kissed me last night, I only responded so… uh, enthusiastically… because I knew Jackie would see.” It felt good to finally admit to that, even though he hadn’t even realized that was the truth until just now.
“You used me?”
“Yeah,” Max said bluntly, shrugging. “But I heard you’ve been with three different guys since you broke up with Jeffrey, so I don’t feel too bad.”
“What do you think people will say,” Dina said threateningly, “when they find out you cheated on me with Jackie Bodello?”
“People won’t say anything if you keep your mouth shut,” Max said through gritted teeth.
Dina smiled. “I’ll keep my mouth completely shut. I won’t say a damn thing.”
“I’m serious!”
“And so am I,” Dina said firmly. “I’m not going to say anything, but you better be prepared to deal with what you’ve done.”
As she turned around and walked away, Max called out, “What does that mean?”
She didn’t answer.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Three days passed. For three days, Jackie attended classes, worked regularly on The James Journal, and managed to not even look at Max. He was obviously trying to get alone with her, but she never gave him the chance. And she was very proud of herself for it, because avoiding the alluring Max Leopold was quite difficult.
Why was she avoiding him? Jackie didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she had no idea. Everything felt so weird all of a sudden, what with the discovery of her sister’s words carved into a wall, and her sudden relationship… thing… with Max.
“Hey, Jackie.”
A voice interrupted Jackie from her thoughts, and she glanced up from her desk in the newspaper room. The James Journal business manager, a girl named Laura, stood before her.
“I forgot to tell you,” Laura said, “when Brent and I sent in the paper yesterday, the printer said it should be picked up today at noon.”
“Thanks,” Jackie said, rubbing her temples. She was still plagued with intense headaches all day.
Laura looked at her, concerned. “Why don’t I pick them up this time? You don’t look well. You should really get some extra sleep.”
“It’s alright, I can go. I have to check the issue over before we distribute it anyway,” Jackie said.
“Jackie, you have executive editors for a reason!” Laura said with a laugh. “I’ll give the new edition to Caroline and Alex to look over.”
Jackie nodded. “Thanks, Laura. I looked over it pretty thoroughly before you sent it off anyway, so it should be fine.”
“When the execs are done looking it over, we’ll get it ready for distribution in the morning,” Laura said. “Don’t worry, Jackie, it’s all taken care of.”
Jackie smiled gratefully.
She shouldn’t have.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Max was unpleasantly awoken by a loud exclamation of “Holy mother-fucking doughnut hole!”
When he opened his eyes, he saw Scooter, clad in pajamas, holding the newest edition of The James Journal above Max’s face.
“What the hell is this?” Scooter asked.
Max was surprised. This was the first Scooter had spoken to him since the newspaper party when he had kissed Dina. “What… what are you talking about?” he asked, sitting up slowly and rubbing his eyes.
Jeffrey appeared next to Scooter. He gestured to the newspaper and said, “I know you’re a ladies’ man, but this is just crazy!”
Max snatched the newspaper and stared at the front page, his jaw slowly dropping.
SCANDAL OF THE SCHOOL YEAR—BODELLO AND LEOPOLD ARE LYING LOVERS?
By Caroline Bell, Execute Editor
Everyone in James Academy knows that since sixth grade, Jackie Bodello and Max Leopold have been less than friendly. Everyone remembers that food fight in sixth grade, when Jackie shoved mashed potatoes down Max’s shirt after he called her an unpleasant name. Everyone remembers that physical fight in ninth grade, when Max held Jackie in a headlock for ten minutes because she was flaunting her high test score. And everyone definitely remembers that verbal fight that happened last year, in which things were said that should not be repeated in this article. Needless to say, their hatred for one another has always been quite evident. Lately, however, their relationship has come into question.
The so-called enemies were spotted kissing in an empty hallway at the end of the day last Thursday. Who spotted them? Who else, but the girl Max began dating on Wednesday, Dina Paterson. “I turned the corner, and there they were,” Dina said, with tears in her eyes. “I just ran away. I mean, we hadn’t even been dating a day, and he was already cheating on me.” Something about the situation suggests that Jackie and Max have been in their relationship for awhile, and were trying to draw away suspicion by having Max date someone else.
Why is it obvious they’ve been seeing each other? People have noticed it. For a while now, Jackie has been suffering from severe headaches. Severe enough that she had to leave a James Journal party early, only to fall asleep in Max’s dorm room. Max was later seen carrying her to her own room. These headaches could quite easily be the result of guilty feelings.
The speculation is that Jackie and Max began their relationship while the rest of the seniors were on the annual camping trip. A source says that they were seen together having breakfast, on the basketball court, and playing several rounds of tennis. A junior member of the basketball team, Eric Stevens, also reveals, “We had a small, innocent party for the basketball team while the seniors were gone. Max invited Jackie. Everyone was kind of shocked.”
While no footage or photos were taken of Jackie and Max’s Thursday make out session in the hallway, Dina Paterson is no doubt a reliable source. And all other factors point straight to it: Jackie Bodello and Max Leopold are lying to you about their relationship, and hopefully they will have good enough sense to come clean and apologize.
Max dropped the newspaper and stared numbly at his hands. Scooter and Jeffrey were silent, waiting for him to say something. When he didn’t, Scooter prompted, “Well? Is it true?”
“I… what? Well, partly, I mean… kind of,” he finished lamely. Jeffrey and Scooter stared at him with wide eyes. “But this doesn’t make any sense!” Max said.
“What?” Scooter asked. “The signs are clearly there. There’s no hiding it now.”
“I’m talking about the fact that this article even exists!” Max exclaimed, jumping out of his bed. “This isn’t journalism, this is garbage! How could Jackie let this be printed?”
“Jackie didn’t send the paper in for printing, pick it up, or read over it afterwards. She felt sick, so the executive editors took care of it,” Jeffrey explained, having heard this information from Stella the day before.
Scooter grabbed the newspaper and looked at it. “Hey, Caroline wrote this. She, Dina, and Laura are best friends…”
“Dina!” Max shouted angrily. “Damn it!”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To say Jackie was flustered would be untruthful.
To say Jackie was taken aback would be a gross understatement.
To say Jackie was completely and utterly shocked, beyond pissed off, and ready to vomit up everything she’d ever eaten would be close to appropriately describing how she felt. But only close.
“I can’t fucking believe this,” she said quietly. She was sitting on the floor of her dorm leaning against the wall next to the door. She, Lexi, and Stella had just finished getting ready for breakfast when they opened the door to find the front page of The James Journal staring at them. You know the rest.
Stella sat next to her, stroking her hair as she cried. After Jackie had had a screaming tantrum, which included a series of unpleasant expletives, Stella had calmed her, gotten her to sit down, and told her to take a few deep breaths.
Lexi sat in front of them, holding the newspaper in one hand and a pillow in the other. Jackie had been using the pillow as a punching bag before Stella had gotten her to calm down, but Lexi held it close in case anything happened again.
“Ssshhh,” Stella soothed, “it’ll be okay. This is libel, isn’t it? This can be fixed.”
Jackie cried harder. “It’s only libel if it’s false,” she said, almost in a whisper.
“It’s all true?” Lexi asked quietly. Jackie gave her a hard look, and Lexi instantly held the pillow in front of her face.
“Not all of it,” Jackie said. “I haven’t been secretly seeing Max since the camping trip, I’m not getting headaches from guilt, and Dina wasn’t the one who just ran away on Thursday.”
“But, you did, you know… kiss him.”
“He kissed me!” Jackie said hurriedly. “And I… kissed him back.”
“Why?” Stella asked. “After all Max did to Jeffrey by dating Dina? After all the shit between you two the past six years?”
Jackie didn’t get a chance to answer. At that moment, there were many frenzied knocks on the door. “It’s the guys!” came Jeffrey’s voice. “All three of us, let us in!”
Lexi gave Jackie a questioning look, and she nodded. Lexi stood up, threw the pillow aside, and opened the door.
The three boys came bursting in. Max, seeing Jackie in a ball on the floor, said hurriedly, “Are you okay?”
Jackie stood up slowly. “I’m just great,” she said sarcastically. “I feel fucking brilliant now that my personal life and my newspaper have been completely trashed!”
Max looked taken aback. “Don’t get mad at me, it’s all Dina’s doing!”
“Yeah, nice call dating her!”
“Blaming me won’t fix this!”
“Nothing will fix this!”
“Stop being so damn pessimistic!”
“I’m being realistic, you idiot!”
Scooter startled everybody by screaming “HOLY SHIT!”
Max and Jackie, who had been standing two inches away from each other and shouting at the top of their lungs, looked at him oddly, confused by the sudden interruption. Scooter continued, “You’re going to have to face everyone regardless! Geez, you guys have two settings: arguing and making out.”
The room suddenly became incredibly awkward. The whole Max-and-Jackie-making-out-last-Thursday-thing hadn’t really been addressed, so Lexi asked timidly, “Are you guys like… dating?”
Max and Jackie glanced at each other. “Uh…” Max began, but at that moment, the bell for first period rang.
“Gotta go!” Max and Jackie said at the same time, grabbing their bags and running out the door.
Scooter turned to the three others left in the room. “Was that a yes?”
Stella shook her head slowly. “No freaking clue.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the next chapter of Dirty Journalism…
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
-
-
“Blowjobs aren’t going to be as easy with your lip like that, are they?”
-
-
“This is really awkward.”
“Just a little.”
-
-
“You caught me. I am deeply, madly, totally, unfathomably in love with you.”
♠ ♠ ♠
First off, to all those who have left comments, THANK YOU! I love you guys so much and I smile every time I read what you’ve written. :-) Thanks for being the most awesome people ever. Second, I’m not a journalist and I don’t pretend to know exactly what goes on with school newspapers, considering I’m home schooled. I’m just going off what my mom remembers from her high school days! But just to clear a few things up, a commentary is like a persuasive essay. It’s someone’s opinion. It’s subjective. All other articles are objective, which means they are completely unbiased and contain no opinion.