Chapter #21Skanks for the Memories by: rugal b.   There is a tension that fills the air between Chen and Will as each wants something the other doesn't. You thus feel that it's up to you to interject, offering your opinion to try and break the stalemate. "I agree with Kim," you say as you look over at Will, "I don't think it'd be a good idea."
"But there's three of us!" he cries. "What's Justin going to do?"
"What are we going to do?" Chen shoots back testily. "We gonna go over there and tell him we know what he did? He'll just deny it. We gonna kick his ass? Then we're gonna be the ones getting in trouble for fighting at school or some shit. Plus, all we'll be doing is pissing him off and if he's actually behind all'a this..." He lets the thought hang there as he gets up in Will's face.
If he can do this, then who knows what else he'd do to you?
"Whoa, okay, calm down," you say as you try to insert yourself between the two of them. "We can't be fighting one another."
"Sorry," Chen says as he backs off, "it's too easy to get caught up in Gary's personality."
"Well then what the fuck are we supposed to do?" Will whines in a way that causes a visceral reaction in you for it's not at all masculine. "Are we just supposed to accept this or something?"
"I don't know," Chen replies, "no, wait, actually I do know. I wanna talk to Gary, the real one."
"What for?" you ask.
"I dunno yet," he answers with a shrug. "Set the record straight, I guess." He casts a glance towards Will. "Maybe see if I can't get him to stop strongarming people into his operation who want nothing to do with it."
"Yeah? And how the fuck are you going to do that" Will asks icredulously. "He's a freakin' maniac!"
"Look, I'll think of something. But I'm gonna want the two of you to come with me."
"Where?" you ask.
"The Donna," Chen states.
"Why the hell should we do that!?" Will exclaims in a sort of frustrated terror.
Once again, Chen's gaze moves to Will, this time with his lips curling into a devilish smirk as it does. "Like you said, it'd be better if there's three of us, right?" he responds.
With that, you agree to part ways for now but agree to meet up at the Donna after school. You linger a bit, however, while Chen takes off on his own. You get the impression that Will wants to talk to you about what just happened. But if he does then he can't seem to find the words and so after a few silent minutes you tell him that you'll meet him up at the Donna. But as you walk past one of the sets of portables you hear a voice call out to you and it sends a chill up your spine when you do.
"Yeah?" you say as Rebecca Sykes glides up next to you.
"I heard you talking with some guy a minute ago," she says. "You're going up to the Donna?"
The sound of Rebecca's voice does indeed set Jenny on edge but it's not the slightly raspy quality that does it, rather it's the fact that Rebecca is a lot that Jenny isn't. For a start she's a party girl who's out at either the Warehouse or whatever party she can find, dancing and fooling around with her boyfriend.
But more than that, Jenny is put off by the fact that she's something of a skank. She dresses provocatively, in tight clothes that hug every curve of her body and low cut tops that show off ample cleavage. She's also known to get involved with guys who aren't her boyfriend; flirting, dancing, fooling around and more. To be sure she's an attractive girl and as a guy yourself you can look at her and think that, were you yourself, you wouldn't mind getting that kind of attention fom her.
But Jenny's own thoughts and emotions are ones of uncomfortability and revulsion; the exact type of person who she would never want to be around and someone she could never be friends with. Which just makes her occasional attempts to act like they're friendly acquaintances annoying. Jenny can't help but to feel like that some times, Rebecca does it because she knows it gets under her skin. Jenny would have no clue why as they only knew each other from Chorale last year, but that's Jenny's view of her: a skanky bitch.
So you're feeling prickly and like a porcupine decide to hit her with your barbs. "That's not my thing," you say with emphasis, "we just need to talk to Kim about something."
"What about?" she asks to your annoyance.
"Nothing, my friend needs help with something so I'm going to back him up."
Rebecca takes a drag of her cigarette and gives you a curious look. "The inscrutable Jenny Ashton finally found a guy good enough for her, hmm?" she asks with a small smile.
"Bite it, Rebecca," you snap. "There's nothing."
She studies you for a moment, then her expression falls as she shakes her head. "You know, Ashton," she starts as she takes another drag, "you'd probably be a bit better off if you took the stick out of your ass. I'm just teasing you."
"No shit."
"It's friendly, I don't mean anything by it. Hey, come on!"
But her cries are lost on you. You're ignoring her and doing everything you can to completely shut her out as you make your way back to the school building. God, you think to yourself, she really is insufferable. And yet you still hope that whenever you switch back, you'll run into her at the Warehouse during one of her apparent dalliances and have the chance to bury your face in her tits.
* * * * *
You make your way into AP Environmental Science, Jenny's sixth period class. It's one that you feel like would be way out of both your depth and area of interest. But Jenny's interested enough in it and Ms. Maxwell is one of the teachers that Jenny likes to any reasonable degree as she's got the sort of look and demeanor that would make one think of a friendly middle-aged aunt.
"Yo Jenny! The fuck did you go for lunch?"
Ah, but there is one of the irritants for Keith greats you. And internally you kind of want to kick him in the balls since in a way it's his fault all of this happened to you. But you wouldn't do that and neither would Jenny (not in class, anyway) and so you hold back. "I had to meet up with someone," you simply say hoping that he takes the hint.
"Tch, man there wasn't no one there today!" he complains. "It was a total sausage party."
You hear a groan from behind you. "Of course none of us were there, we had more important business to deal with," Jessica Garner says as she pulls up next to you.
"Yeah? Wuzzat?" Keith asks.
"None of your business," Jessica snaps. But then she looks at you and motions for you to head back out the door with her. "So don't tell anyone about this since it'll be announced tomorrow," Jessica says as she leans in close to you, "but we decided on a new captain for the squad."
"Already?" you say in surprise.
"That was the important business," she replies. "Like I said, don't tell anyone but we wound up picking Yumi."
"Yu—" you start before catching yourself. But still, you're shocked. "I thought it would have been Cindy," you say quietly.
"That's who we were going to pick but she said it would look bad given the circumstances," Jessica states. "You know, like she'd orchestrated the whole thing to take control. But it wasn't going to be any of Chelsea's friends and then Michelle was a non-starter because nobody likes her and Sydney only just joined today."
"So Yumi got it by default?"
"I guess so. She's never angled for it and those are a lot of the points that Cindy brought up so Yumi was sort of a compromise choice. Still, I'm happy for her. She deserves it."
And you're happy for her too, largely because she's Jenny's best friend and so you feel positively ecstatic over the news. Yumi Saito: Head Cheerleader. You wonder what will change for the squad. It certainly can't move in anything but a more positive direction now that Chelsea's gone. Yumi's well-liked, she's nice, she's levelheaded so it should work out.
Your mood is only slightly soured when you head back in with Jessica and walk by Jelena Petrovic, the hip too cool for school bohemian queen. She's always struck Jenny as arrogant and haughty and plus she's a prominent and out lesbian and Jenny's sure she's checked her out a few times.
* * * * *
can u meet me @ sunshine? gotta stop there 1st
That's the message that Will sends you after you've already left the school and begun making your way out to the Donna. Proximity to the Donna aside, you're not sure what he could have to do there but you don't feel like arguing since trying to front Kim—that is the real Gary Chen—is already stressful enough as is. So you sit there in the diner's parking lot on your phone when you see his—your—truck pull up... and to your surprise Rebecca steps out of the passenger side. Then she walks over, talks to him for a second, gives him a hug and heads in.
"The fuck is this all about?" you demand as you hop out of the car.
"What do you mean—"
"Why are you driving around that ska—Rebecca around?"
His eyebrows shoot up. "Because she asked me to?" he says. "She caught me as I was going to the parking lot and said she heard I was going to the Donna with Jenny and she needed to come here and since I'm going out this way why not give her a ride?"
"She said—" you start and then growl in disbelief. But disbelief turns to worry. "Fuck, wait, she was listening the whole time!? Then how much did she... fuck!"
You're now wondering if you should text Chen and tell him to confront Kim on his own because you're suddenly thinking that it might be a good idea to head into the Sunshine and try to feel Rebecca out to determine how much, if anything, she may have heard.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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