15"Check out these guns!" Stacy shouted,"I'll have to put the saftey on."
"Guns?Are they silenced or something?" Jessie laughed insanely at her own joke and flopped down on the pavement. "What are you looking at,freak?" she yelled to a semi-ugly girl who was watching us,then spread out on the sidewalk."Where are those skittles at?" she spat at me,"I'm hungry...!"
"I'm looking,I'm looking.I have so much shit in here" I muttered resentfully,"You really don't need any more sugar." I pulled the pack out and tossed it to her.I watched her thin carmel arm grope lazily for the candy,till her long fingers stumbled upon sat up and eagerly flipped open the plastic container,picking out the shades of blue skittles that matched her outfit best.
"They shouldn't even be considered candy. I mean, it's mint flavored. Whoever heard of mint flavored candy?"Stacy pondered in her faint hispanic accent,"And altoids don't count either."
"What about those little peppermint thingies?" I argued,"I used to eat those all the time,or candy canes. Those have 'candy' right in the name!"
"Well,besides ,get off the ground so we can go" Stacey said as she nudged Jessie with her toe,"I want some real food."
"I'LL GET OFF WHEN I'M GOOD AND READY!"she shreiked at the top of her lungs. Everyone within hearing distance immediately burst into laughter. Jessie pretended to jerk off like a boy,before clumsily running into her Jeep door on purpose. She started the engine and drove off,leaving me and Stacy temporarily stranded.
"I hate when she does that 'd better not leave.I'm so not in the mood today" Stacy moaned,pushing a strand of long brown hair out of her face and pulling down on her red miniskirt. I lit a ciggerette and sat on the curb,waiting for Jessie to circle the school parkinglot as she wuz apt to do from time to time."Cut me duece" Stacy demanded. I gave her my ciggerette and let her smoke the first half before handing it back.
It was such a hot sunny day,but there were still patches of snow on the ground. So surreal, like a snowmen graveyard. I sat listening to Stacy go on about a botched date with some guy from a different highschool,while reorganizing my purse contents and watching Jessies yellow jeep navigate the huge parking lot at the time she'd finally come back, I had a nice tan line to bitch about on the way to the food court.
We piled into the jeep, cursing Jessie for wasting precious time. Before Stacy could spew vitriolic nothings, I stuck a mix tape into the cassette player and drowned the pre-argument with my obnoxious off-key rendition's of the latest pop songs. Soon, they were singing along with me, and we reached Sterling Mall with no problems. The first stop was 'The Great Wall', a chinese buffet in the food court. We ordered 3 fortune cookies, then walked around collecting food samples from various pretzel and smoothie vendors througout the mall.
"What'd you get?" Jessie asked,"Mine says 'there will be a stranger in your future'."She rolled her eyes, and stuck the crumbled strip into one of the many pockets making up her jeans.
"These things are so stupid!That's not even a fortune!What the hell does 'he who laughs last,laughs best' have to do with anything?" Stacy demanded in disgust.
"Well,"I started slyly,"I got a good one!"
"...What?"Jessie asked carefully,annoyed at my failure to volenteer the information.
"It says:'When the time comes,you will know'."Stacy announced,having snatched the slip from my hands."Blah,they all should get a you think we could get our money back?"
"OOOoo,a whole seventy-five cents"Jessie muttered sarcasticly.
"Who cares!?"I said,exasperated."I'm 's go look at the posers by Chicainery."
They perked up at the is a store that caters to punk rock angel manufacture the gothic lounge lizard look for those who want to rebel on an high-income 's popular among angsty-wannabe music selection sucks, and the overpriced clothes could easily be made at home. Why anyone would pay $27 for a pair of thumbless mittens is beyond we reached Chicainery, we discovered the pressence of some friends already perched outside the store hurling insults to whomever exited and preaching the word of True Punk to the innocents happening to walk by that side of the mall.
"Why,hello ladies,"Trever greeted us"Your not planning on joining these fashion oriented posers are you?"he accused,hurling the word 'poser' toward a blue haired 8th grader emerging from Chicainery with 2 shopping bags of chained pre-ripped black jeans."What the hell are you looking at,you little freckle-faced think wearing big jeans will help you skate?You disgust up to your mommy in Sears before she leaves you with a 'Dear Diary' tale of why you can't wear eyeliner anymore!"
" 't you wearing eyeliner now,Trev?"I asked cautiously after the kid scrambled away,half-afraid Trever would yell at me too.
He peered at me before answering with a smile," it looks good on me."
"Yup,your so !"Jessie squealed before throwing her arms around Trever,springing an impromptu makeout session.
While they were busy annoying the elderly couple scooting by with raunchy public displays of affection,I took a moment to say hey to everyone else.
"Everyone Else" was the rest of Trevers band,'Monkey Sock'.They played revolutionary punk rock, and spoke about fighting conformity. To protest against their misguided younger fans was semi-ironic considering true conformity doesn't exist anymore. I'd asked Trever about this before and now he claims to fight the poser conformity of Gen-Y,which is why he was standing in the middle of Sterling screaming at kids 10 years younger than himself. Although he was currently liplocked with my best friend, there is no history there. He's just that kind of guy,and with his red mohawk,multiple peircings,tan lanky build and angsty outlook,it's no wonder he prefers the free drummer Scuba Steve had a similar oldschool punk look,with dyed dreads and a bulky 18,he was a nympho,having sex with at least 4 different people a in the band was his most beneficial career to and his little brother Dan(dubbed 'the man' as he's the youngest at 16 with an adorable baby face) played bass and backup had gone out with Jhonny a few times in the past but nothing ever came of it.
After a few minutes,I pulled Jessie away and we said our goodbyes.
"Are you coming to our next show?"Scuba called after us.
" is it?"Stacy yelled back.
By now we were about 20 stores apart and people were shouted something in response,but it was lost in echos by the time it reached was getting late and Jessie needed to get home so we made one last trip around the mall and headed out.
When I got home, there was a strange car in the driveway. Excited at the prospect of a visitor, I barely waved goodbye before tearing across the lawn to the front porch. I rang the doorbell repeatedly,growing impatient as I heard someone trudging slowly behind it. Suddenly my older brothers face appeared,ablaze in anger.
"Didn't you have your key?"he asked,turning away before I could reply.
"Who's here?" I responded, grinning of answering,he gestured to follow him into the den.
As we nearerd the room,I could already hear the voices of 2 males and later,a female chimed in. I dashed down the hall of our 2 story Ranch to the I was about to meet new people,I had to make sure my cherry gloss and blue eyeliner hadn't a final look in the mirror,I ran a little water through my curly blonde hair and checked my teeth for food particles. Satisfyed,I ran back to the den and popped my head in the door till Joel noticed me.
"Kristen!Get in here.I want you to meet some people from my Rapid Visualization class at the Art Institute."Joel instructed me cheerfully,seemingly over the doorbell incident,"Everyone,this is my lil sister 's about to graduate this 's a better artist than me,if only she'd stop wasting her gift."
"She doesn't seem to be wasting at how she puts together 's completely preppy,but the result is so street."A guy with short purple hair gushed about my long sleeved button up shirt that I'd thrown a fitted polo over,and the khaki miniskirt worn over the work pants with 3" penny loafers.
"Very cute.",the other guy said,winking at me.I could feel myself starting to blush, so I stepped into the den and sat on the rug in front of them,hoping the bold move would let my insecurities melt away.
"So what's your name?"I asked the pretty blonde girl donning a black velvet ensemble and dark dramatic was definately the coolest chick I'd ever seen.
"Badria,it means 'Moon Like'.He-,"She said, pointing to the cute purple haired guy,"is Cullen, which means 'Handsome', and that's just Dave" she waved Dave aside as though he were a close friend expected to know she was kidding.
"Why are you all here?Just for me?" I asked curiously.
My brother shot me a look of daggers,but Dave just smiled.I noticed his vampiric canine noticed it too and gave me a look far more severe than the last.
I decided to ignore him and risked asking the question since I'd probably never see them again,and blurted,"Oh my God,Dave!What's wrong with your teeth!?" with mock shock.
Luckily, he picked up on it and explained they were caps he'd added to fit his gothic lifestyle.
I stayed up all night asking questions till they had to go, but Badria promised to call later so we could do something.
After they had left, I ran up to my room and locked the door to avoid Joel's was home from college on spring he returned,he acted as though he'd never been gone for 6 months,and immediately picked up his bossing right where he'd left off.I sank into my fluffy pink comforter,and starred up at the lace canopy till I fell asleep and dreamt of Badria and Cullen and Dave.I was even dressed like them,in ruffly shirts,lace and crushed velvet,complete with the dark heavy Stacy and Jessie appeared in it,and they began taunting me cruelly.I woke up in a panic,afraid it hadn't been just a dream,it was almost too real.I welcomed the site of my light pink room with it's stripes and cute acessories.I fought the urge to call either Stacy or Jessie,fearful of the rumers it may have started,and eased myself back to sleep,only mildly aware of my parents calling 'good night' through my door.