Dirty Journalism

“What is wrong with you?” Jackie screamed as she entered the newspaper room for first period. She was looking between Dina, Caroline, and Laura, all of whom were sitting next to each other.

Max came into the room a moment after. “I can’t believe you did this!” he shouted at Dina in particular.

As Scooter, Lexi, Stella, and Jeffrey ran into the room, a wide smile appeared on Dina’s face. “Are you denying it?” she asked sweetly.

The entire newspaper staff stood still, waiting for the answers. Max looked at Jackie awkwardly, but Jackie brushed it off. “No the point!” she screeched. “The James Journal is a serious newspaper, and you three put a shitty, subjective, and gossipy story on the front cover without editor approval, and–”

Max interrupted, “It’s newspaper policy that you have to have the consent of a student before writing about them! I don’t ever remember saying you could write about me!”

“I wasn’t done,” Jackie said angrily to Max, before turning back to the smirking girls. “And you three tricked me so you could get this article on the front page, which means–”

“You’re not the only one who has something to say,” Max retorted to Jackie. “This is a complete invasion of privacy–”

“This is totally against our standards–”

“–you said you weren’t going to say anything–”

“–congratulations, you’ve fucked up the whole newspaper–”

“–I don’t know why you think it’s okay to invade like this–”

“SHUT UP!” Jackie and Max screamed simultaneously, facing each other.

There was some light laughter around the room, seeing as Max and Jackie were acting just like they used to. Dina laughed loudly and stood up.

“Caroline,” she said, looking at her friend, “why don’t you tell them why you wrote that article?”

“Gladly,” Caroline responded with a smirk. “I’m a journalist. I’ve made it my personal mission as executive editor of The James Journal to find school-related stories that will inspire students and make them want to know more. Isn’t that what journalism is?”

“What a load of bull!” Jackie screeched. “You wrote the article because Dina asked you to! Because Dina is your best friend, and she wanted payback!”

“So you admit it?” Dina asked suddenly.

“What?”

“You said I wanted payback. Wouldn’t something have had to happen for me to want it so badly?”

A smile was tugging at Dina’s lips. It made Jackie sick. As much as she wanted to deny it, say nothing had ever happened, she and Max had never become friends, never kissed while he was dating someone else… it would all be a lie.

When Jackie didn’t say anything back, Dina narrowed her eyes. “You’re just a slutty tramp, you know that? When Eric Stevens told me about the party during the camping trip, he also said he saw you two making out and going into a bedroom. Getting drunk and having sex, making out with guys who have girlfriends… all those headaches? Probably a result of excessive drinking or drugs or blowjobs…”

Jackie Bodello had a breaking point, and it had just been reached.

As Dina began to turn around and walk away triumphantly, Jackie jumped forward and brought her to the floor. Jackie kicked and punched and rolled around–anything to cause Dina Paterson as much physical pain as possible. Jackie vaguely heard chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Two strong arms surrounded her waist and pulled her up. Jackie continued to kick and struggle, until Max’s voice came into her ear. “Shit, Jackie, calm down!”

Max was holding her from behind, talking into her ear to calm her down. Jackie stopped fighting against him, and tried to take a few deep breaths. Laura and Caroline helped Dina up, and Jackie was satisfied to see she had blood dripping from her lip.

“This has gone on long enough,” Jeffrey said loudly. “We all need to cool it.”

“Oh, shut the hell up!” Dina spat angrily, nursing her lip.

Jeffrey looked at her a moment before saying, “Blowjobs aren’t going to be as easy with your lip like that, are they?”

There was a loud chorus of “buuuuuuuurn!” heard throughout the room. Dina opened and closed her mouth angrily, but no words formed. With a frustrated little screech, she, Caroline, and Laura fled from the room.

As chatter began to fill the room once more, Max realized his arms were still securely around Jackie’s waist. “Sorry,” he mumbled, releasing her.

“I told you before, don’t be sorry.” She faced him. They stood silently for several seconds, looking anywhere but each other’s eyes.

“This is really awkward,” Max said, breaking the silence between them.

“Just a little,” Jackie agreed breathlessly.

Before either one could say anything else, Scooter walked up to them. “If you guys are going to start kissing, let me know, so I can leave the room.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Why would you have to leave the room?”

“I don’t want to see you two eating each other’s faces. Not very attractive, I’m sure.”

Max was getting exasperated. “Dude, you’ve never had a problem with me kissing girls before.”

“Yeah, but it’s Jackie. It’s just too weird.”

“You are so stupid, man!” Max exclaimed.

Scooter shrugged. “Whatever. Just let me know, so I can leave.”

“Leave,” Jackie said suddenly to Scooter.

“Wha–?” Max began, but Jackie silenced him with her lips.

“Shit!” Scooter yelled, turning around and running in the opposite direction. “You did that on purpose!”

Jackie would have smiled and nodded, but she was a little preoccupied. About a minute later, when she and Max decided it was time for some oxygen, most of the newspaper staff was staring at them with wide eyes.

After a brief awkward silence, Jackie looked around and said, “What? Get back to work.”

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

Everyone at James Academy knew about the ongoing Jackie-Bodello-Max-Leopold feud that began in middle school. Everyone knew that Jackie hated Max, Max hated Jackie, and nothing was ever going to change that.

And then they started dating. To put it lightly, people were puzzled.

It was common knowledge by the end of that day that Dina’s article was full of falsities, but Max and Jackie were in fact a couple. Students stared at them as they walked down the halls, sometimes wondering out loud why they weren’t holding hands, or why Max wasn’t carrying Jackie’s books.

After one particularly loud freshman girl questioned this as Max and Jackie made their way down the hall, Max looked at Jackie with a frown. “Should we be holding hands?”

She snorted. “Do I look like I have a free hand?” She had her bag on her shoulder, two textbooks in one hand, and a stack of newspaper articles in the other.

“So… should I be carrying your stuff for you?”

“I don’t trust you with my stuff,” Jackie said.

“Good, because I sure as hell don’t want to carry it,” Max responded. They both laughed, earning themselves more weird looks from passerby.

“Haha, we’re freaking people out!” Max whispered, a huge smile on his face.

“What do you mean?”

“The fact that we’re not screaming at each other… it’s blowing people’s minds.”

Jackie laughed. “Maybe we should fight so they’ll stop staring.”

“That’s it!” Max exclaimed, grinning. “Let’s stage a fight!”

“I was joking, that’s the dumbest idea ever.”

“Come on, it would be funny!”

“It would be immature.”

“What is it with you and calling anything remotely fun ‘immature?’”

“Because your idea of fun is the same as a ten-year-old boy’s!”

“At least I have fun in life! And I have friends!”

“You’re such a jackass! I have plenty of fun and plenty of friends!”

“Oh yeah, you and your laptop. BFFs.”

“What the hell?”

“I’m being honest!”

“I hate you!”

“I hate you, too!”

Jackie and Max stopped yelling and realized that everyone in the hall was silent, watching them. “Whoa,” Max mumbled, as people began to move again. “We had a fight about staging a fight.”

Jackie smiled at him. “Is it possible for me to hate you and like you at the same time?”

Max pretended to pout. “Just like?”

Jackie rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, “You caught me. I am deeply, madly, totally, unfathomably in love with you.”

“Good. I feel the same.”

“But I still hate you.”

“Good. I still hate you too.”