Dirty Journalism

Too many awkward things followed the seniors’ return. In the newspaper room the next day, Jackie received odd glances every couple of minutes. It annoyed her greatly, but she tried her best to ignore everyone.

Until, of course, Max walked over to Jackie’s desk, and she couldn’t ignore him. “Yes?” she asked, keeping her eyes on her computer screen.

“Are people staring at you?” he asked conversationally, leaning against her desk.

Jackie’s head snapped up. “Oh my God, yes!” she practically whispered. “You?”

“Every time I turn around, someone’s giving me a weird look,” he answered in an equally low voice. “Did we do something?”

Jackie shrugged. “We didn’t do something,” she said pointedly. “We didn’t fight.”

“I’m going to punch you right now, okay?” Max said in a completely serious tone. “Just so people will stop looking at me like I have a crazy disease.”

Jackie stood up quickly. “Not fair! I should get to punch you. Your stupid basketball caused me severe brain damage!”

“It did not!” Max retaliated. “And besides, you hit yourself that time, plus you hit me with the tennis ball yesterday.”

Jackie narrowed her eyes. “I’m editor. I can do whatever I want.”

Max smirked. “That was number five on the list,” he said, laughing. “The way you flaunt your position.”

Jackie rolled her eyes but smiled. “There’s another thing that won’t be changing,” she said.

“So, did you hear about Jeffrey and Dina’s breakup?” Max said, changing the conversation.

Jackie nodded, her smile disappearing. “Stella and Lexi told me all about it. Apparently Dina was getting rather frolicsome in a tent with another guy.”

“Yeah, Jeffrey’s kind of… depressed,” Max admitted quietly. “He’s dated like fifty girls, but I’ve never seen him so upset about breaking up with one.”

“I hope they’re working together okay,” Jackie said, glancing over toward the sports section. Dina was chatting animatedly with the people around her, but Jeffrey was staring solemnly at his computer screen.

“That’s a no,” Max said.

“What can we do to cheer him up? What does he love doing?”

Max smiled as he said, “I think he really enjoys breaking up our fights!”

Jackie stood up suddenly and screamed, “I hate you, Max Leopold!”

Max stared at her blankly for a second before catching on. As everyone in the room turned to look at them, Max yelled back, “Yeah? Well, I hate you more!”

“Uh… no!” Jackie said back, trying to think of something else to argue about. “I clearly hate you more!”

Max, whose back was the rest of the students, gave her a ‘that’s-the-best-you-could-come-up-with?’ look. “Your hair is a big poofy mass of frizz!” He secretly winked at her, letting her know he was joking.

Jackie couldn’t think of anything to yell back at him, but she knew that Stella and Lexi would be suspicious if she didn’t get upset about an insult to her hair, so she forcefully shoved Max.

Max stumbled backwards into a desk and winced in pain. Jackie tried not to laugh and to give him a ‘sorry-that-was-harder-than-I-meant-to-push-you’ look at the same time. Max glared at her and called, “This fight is getting out of hand! Who will break it up?”

Jackie inwardly rolled her eyes. “Well that was subtle,” she muttered so only he could hear her.

No one responded to Max’s question. A few people chuckled and turned back to their work, while some gave them weird looks. Jeffrey hadn’t even turned around. Max shot Jackie a questioning glance, and she shrugged.

Stella spoke up. “Are you guys… okay?”

“What? Yeah. I mean, as okay as one can be around him,” Jackie said, gesturing to Max.

“Just checking,” Stella said slowly, “because you’ve both been acting really weird since we got back.”

When everyone got back to their work, Max turned to Jackie, a confused look on his face. “I never thought we’d have to fake an argument.”

“And apparently we’re not very good at it,” Jackie muttered in response, sitting back down at her desk. She glanced up at Max. “Maybe we should stick with genuine fights.”

Max smiled. “Cool. I like those better. And by the way, your hair is a little poofier than usual today. I wasn’t lying.”

Jackie reached out to smack Max, but he was already running back to his desk.

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At the end of the day, a few people had returned to the newspaper room to finish up some articles, Max and Jackie among them. Dina was also there, though she didn’t seem to have anything newspaper-related to work on…

“Max!” Dina said vibrantly, sitting next to him. “What are you doing?”

Max kept his eyes on his computer. “Just finishing up this commentary,” he said tiredly.

“You sound exhausted. You should finish it after you’ve gotten some sleep.”

“Jackie wants it done before tomorrow,” Max replied. “I’ve only got a little left, I’ll be fine.”

“Jackie’s such a bitch,” Dina muttered, loud enough only for Max to hear.

Max shifted uncomfortably. He had never had a problem hearing people call Jackie a bitch before, but it suddenly made him a little angry. Of course, it was alright if he called her one, because insulting Jackie was his thing! But Dina? She had been at James Academy for only a few weeks.

“Well, she has the paper’s best interests in mind, so it’s cool,” Max said carefully.

Dina shrugged behind him. “I’m sorry you couldn’t go on the camping trip. I was hoping to hang out with you.”

Max looked over at her as she smiled brightly. She had very straight white teeth and very straight blonde hair. Her eyes were exceptionally blue. All the guys lusted after Dina, so Max felt pretty proud that she had wanted to hang with him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t go too,” he replied.

Suddenly, Max thought about Jeffrey. What am I doing? he thought. This is my best friend’s ex-girlfriend! And apparently she’s a huge slut! He turned away from her. “I have to finish this,” he said shortly.

Dina seemed shocked by his sudden change in mood. “Let’s hang out sometime,” she persisted.

Max shrugged. “If I’m not busy. You know, being commentary editor. It’s tough.”

“Right, but whenever you get a chance, I’d love to get some coffee or something,” Dina kept on. “You and me? Promise we’ll chill sometime?”

Max looked up from his computer screen and saw Jackie watching him from across the room. She had an amused look on her face, and could probably hear the entire conversation that was going on. Max made a mental note to say something rude about her hair later.

“Max? Did you hear me?” Dina was saying.

“Huh? Oh yeah. We’ll see, Dina. I have to finish this. The bitch wants it soon,” he said, shooting an evil glance at Jackie, who rolled her eyes.

Dina grinned. “Awesome, I’ll talk to you later!” She got up and left the newspaper room, leaving Max, Jackie, and just a few others.

Jackie went to Max and leaned against his desk. Max tried to ignore her. “So…” she said, a smile tugging at her lips. “Are you going to chill with her?”

“Shut up.”

“You seemed really enthusiastic when she mentioned getting coffee.”

“Shut up, before I kill you.”

Jackie pretended to gasp. “But then you’d go to jail, and poor Dina would be heartbroken without her coffee date!”

Max jumped up and pulled Jackie into a headlock, keeping it gentle so he wouldn’t actually hurt her. Jackie shrieked and tried to break free. She suddenly felt a new set of hands pulling Max away from her, and she looked around confusedly.

One of the executive editors of the newspaper, Alex Daley, was forcefully pulling Max away, shouting, “Stop killing each other!”

Jackie laughed hysterically as Alex tried to pin Max down. “S-stop!” she managed to get out between laughs. “Stop, Alex, he wasn’t hurting me!”

“He… wasn’t?” Alex asked, looking between them.

Max angrily pulled away from Alex’s grip. “No, I wasn’t,” he said, “but thanks for that punch in the arm, anyway.”

Alex shrugged. “How the hell was I supposed to know? Since when have you two ever joked around in a fight?”

Max and Jackie glanced at each other. “Uh…” Jackie thought about it. Nothing except incidents of their week alone came to mind.

Alex gave them a pointed look. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you guys halfway, sort of, kinda, maybe like each other… a little.”

“And I’d say that you’re a total dumbass to think that could ever happen,” Jackie said quickly. Alex shrugged and returned to his desk. Jackie looked at Max awkwardly and said, “Well… maybe a little.”

She gave him a small smile and walked away.

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In the next chapter of Dirty Journalism…

“Would you list all the females you’ve screwed in the past or just the ones you plan on screwing in the future?”
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“One second you hate Max, the next you’re sitting at your desk talking and laughing with him. Don’t think we haven’t noticed.”
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“Are we missing something?”