Story of My Life: Ch. 2

Author's Note: Hi all! Just so you know, I'm still working on the dance scene. I need to redo that part but I'm going to post this chapter anyways! Enjoy! :D

Chapter 2
The Parking Lot

“Aren’t guys supposed to get tired of shopping before girls?” inquired Twiggy as we walked out of American Eagle and headed towards the other side of the mall to find our ride home. We had been trying on clothes all day and I was exhausted. I didn’t try on as many clothes as Sir Twigalot over here but just watching him try on all his clothes made me tired. Twiggy practically had to force me to try things on and then buy the stuff he thought looked good. That’s our usual routine and honestly, I’ve never regretted one thing he’s made me buy. However, it’s still a very annoying and tiring process.
“I like mixing things up every once in a while,” I replied as we passed cookie stand; I began to slow down as I debated whether or not to buy one of their extra large, gooey, melt-in-your-mouth cookies. I have a massive sweet tooth, and it had been screaming for sugar since we left the food court a few hours ago. Unfortunately, Twiggy made my decision for me as he grabbed my arm and lightly dragged me away from the intoxicating aroma.
“Why did I get stuck with a best friend who has a small sweet tooth?” I cried as I regretfully walked away from my quick sugar fix.
“Willy Wonka has a small sweet tooth compared to you, honey. Don’t think I’m the unusual one out of the two of us.”
“I still want some sugar…”
“We’ll get you sugar when we get back to my place.”
“You’re no fun.”
“I try.”
We had finally found the exit we needed from the concrete maze and started our search for my car. I own an 8-year-old red Honda Civic and I love it to death. Yeah, it’s got an okay pick up, the breaks have a few issues, and there are a few dents and scratches, but it does the job! It managed to get the two of us the forty five minute drive all the way here in once piece and I’m hoping that it’ll love me enough to get us all the way back home.
“Where are you going?” Chase asked me as I walked off to the right side of the parking lot.
“I’m going to the car,” I gave him a quizzical look and froze mid-step with my foot in the air, “Where are you going
“The car’s this way,” he pointed in the opposite direction I was heading.
“No-o-o, it’s this way! I remember passing by that car on the way in!” I pointed to a black sedan that was nearby.
“Do you have any idea how bad an idea it is to use a car as a landmark. Cars move.”
“So do I!” I gave up on arguing with him and resumed walking down the line of cars in the same row as the black sedan. Twiggy sighed, rolled his eyes at me and joined me on our new adventure. This adventure lasted a while since I have no sense of direction and can be stubborn as hell when I want to be. We walked around the parking lot for about half an hour before we spotted a clearing in the field of cars. Some cars had formed a box and in the box was a group of 12 boys. It was difficult to see what they looked like because we were kind of far way and half of them had their backs to us.
“I wonder what they’re doing,” I mumbled as I peered over the hood of a truck in an attempt to see but not be seen.
“A few of them look familiar…where have we seen them before?” asked Twiggy as he joined me in my spying.
I turned my head towards Twiggy with grin on my face, “Want a closer look?”
He grinned back, “Let’s move in…”
Our “moving in” consisted of lots of ducking and weaving through the isles of cars; it was basically a sad attempt at being ninjas. However, we did manage to make it to the inner ring of cars and could get a better look at the guys. They seemed to be split into two groups. The group closest to us was dressed in a variety of colored cargo pants with dark green shirts. The other group wore plain red shirts with black workout pants and red ball caps.
“Can you hear what they’re talking about?” I asked Twiggy as I stared at the two groups of boys and strained my ears to hear them.
“Not really, how about you?”
“I’m not sure if they’re saying that they need some fudge or a judge. If it’s fudge, I’m going in. If judge, well, we have a long search ahead of us and this is only delaying us more.”
A familiar voice sounded behind us, “A judge.” We jumped a good foot in the air and whirled around to see a familiar face laughing at our terrified expressions.
“Adam?” I looked up at the sneaky newcomer from my sitting position on the hot asphalt floor.
“The one and only!” he exclaimed as he grinned down at us, “I’m glad you found us! We were worried you weren’t going to show up!”
“We wouldn’t even think of missing your competition,” replied Twiggy as he turned to face me, “right C?”
I sent Twiggy a quick “I’ll deal with you later” glare before turning back to Adam with a smile on my face, “Of course not! We said we would come!”
Adam seemed to hear the false sincerity in my voice but he didn’t mention anything as he helped us up and lead us towards the two groups of boys in the center of the clearing. We were half way there when the boys noticed us. The boys closest to us were the same boys Twiggy and I had seen in the food court. I hadn’t seen the other boys before and they didn’t seem happy to see Twiggy and me. The looks they gave us made me want to curl up into a little ball and hide under a car. Adam noticed my hesitation and when I started to slow down he placed a reassuring hand on my upper back and gently pushed me along. His reassuring smile helped a little but the nervous butterflies in my stomach didn’t disappear.

By the time we reached the two groups, I was shaking in my converses. Half of these boys seemed like they wanted to murder us just for kicks and giggles while other half seemed indifferent to our existence. We stood in silence for a minute before Adam spoke up and began to introduce everyone.
“The group to your left is the crew I’m in. We’re Jacob, Mike, Daniel, Kyle, Sam, and me.” He pointed to each crewmember as he said their names and they nodded their heads and gave a small smile at us in response. “The group to your right is our opponent tonight. They’re the Helz Bois crew and they consist of Nick, George, Zack, James, Mathew, and Gabe.” They gave grim nods towards us as their names were called out and then turned back towards Adam’s crew to stare them down who was doing the exact same thing to the Helz Bois.
The silence resumed and Twiggy decided to speak up, “Hi, my name’s Chase…it’s nice to meet you all.” He gave a smile and a nod to each group who looked over at him, nodded then turned to stare at me.
I gave a nervous laugh and gave each group a small smile and wave, “Uh…hi…my name’s CJ…nice to meet you all.” They all nodded at me then turned back to their opponents.
Adam turned to Twiggy and me and gave us a guilty smile, “So, we kind of have a small request for you guys… if you don’t mind of course!”
“What do you need us to do?” Twiggy asked, caution could be heard in his voice.
“It’s nothing big! We just need to you to act as temporary judges for the competition.”
Nothing big my ass! I didn’t want to die! If I chose the “wrong” crew then I could end up in a gutter somewhere! I stared at him, uncertainty written all over my face, as I glanced back and forth between the two crews.
“We’ll do it.” My head whipped around to stare at Twiggy with wide eyes. I couldn’t believe that Twiggy just agreed to judge between two groups who seemed a bit more than slightly hostile towards us.
“Great! You guys can sit on top of my car. It’s the green one behind you.” Adam pointed to the green Jeep Wrangler, which was about 15 feet behind us. And right behind that was something very familiar.
“CLIFFORD!!!” I beamed as I ran over and hugged my car’s hood with a giant grin on my face. All my worries were wiped away once I saw my beloved, personal death trap. The staring match abruptly stopped at my sudden outburst and both crews turned and gave me the “there’s something wrong with you” look. Twiggy, who had seen this happen multiple times before, calmly walked over and gently guided me away from my beloved Clifford and onto the Jeep in front of it. One glance at the crews showed that they were a bit uncertain about having me as their judge for their performances. My cheeks turned light pink when I realized the idiocy behind my actions so I looked at the floor and emitted a nervous laugh.
“Okay, now that that’s out of her system, let’s begin the competition,” Twiggy called out to the two crews who turned their attention back to each other. They had flipped a coin earlier to see who would go first and Helz Bois had won.

Helz Bois was really good! They were doing some aerials, waves, and all sorts of amazing moves and I started to wonder if Adam’s crew could beat them. At the very end, however, two of the crewmembers fell when they were performing a move together. Thank goodness for Advil. Up next were Adam and his crew. They got into position and I was excited. If Helz Bois was this good then how good was Adam’s crew since they were competing? My question was soon answered because the music started and they began dancing. They were amazing. I don’t know how they did some of that stuff, but they pulled it off flawlessly. They danced for about a minute maybe a minute and a half, just like Helz Bois, and then they were done. No one had messed up and they had pulled some crazy moves out there.
“Okay guys! CJ and I need to deliberate on this for a few minutes so stay out of earshot!” Twiggy called out to the crews who proceeded to mingle amongst each other. Their tough guy acts fell as they joked, teased, and poked fun at each other about their dancing. I actually saw smiles coming from each of the Helz Bois crewmembers, which was very unexpected.
“So,” Twiggy turned to face me, “who do you think should win?”
“Well, Helz Bois screwed up at the end while Adam’s crew was flawless.”
“True…”
“Although, if we don’t choose Helz Bois they might just try to kill us. You saw the looks they gave us when we got here!”
“You have a point. So basically it’s our lives or their honor.” I groaned and laid on top of the hood, “What tha hell did we get ourselves into?” he asked as I sighed.
“What tha hell did you get us into? You were the one who agreed to this!” I pointed out
“At least we’ll go down together.” That wasn’t comforting at all.

We talked for about ten more minutes before we came to an agreement and called the boys back over.
“Okay, we have come to a decision!” I called out, “the winner of the Parking Lot Competition as judged by Twigglers and me is…” I paused for dramatic effect and Twiggy played a drum roll on the hood of the car, “Adam’s Crew!!!” The crew jumped for joy and began to dance around again, this time out of excitement.
I turned to Twiggy, “what’s their crew name anyways?”
He shrugged “search me.”
We turned back to watch the overjoyed boys rejoice and tease the Helz Bois who were scowling and demanding a rematch.
“Sorry fellas!” I called, “either find a new judge or schedule a rematch for some other time when we happen to cross paths because we have to go! I’m his ride and if we don’t get back soon it’ll be hell to pay.” I cringed at the thought of being late to check in back home. All the boys waved goodbye and thanked us for our help as we jumped down from the jeep and walked over to my lovely Clifford.
Once in the car I turned to Twiggy, “You still owe me sugar.”
“We’ll make fudge when we get to my house,” he grinned as I squealed and stepped on the gas. We made it back home in 25 minutes.