Written By Shaun Blankenship

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Rhonda stuck the key to her car in the ignition and started it. "Jeez, Nadine, did you see Megan?"

Her friend in the passenger seat stared blankly. "Um, I'm not sure. Which one was she?"

"Blonde hair, wears glasses sometimes, into theatre. Her outfit was absolutely atrocious." She checked over her shoulder as she pulled out of her space in the school's student parking lot. "She looked like trailer trash or something."

Nadine shrugged. "Well, they say the poor look is coming in style."

Rhonda's eyes widened at her friend. "Poverty will never be in fashion, as long as my last name is Lloyd."

"What about when you get married?"

"Let's not complicate the matter." She shifted the car into drive and peeled out of the parking lot. "Besides, I don't know Robert's last name."

The car went down Hillwood's main street. Rhonda looked out of her windows as she drove at all of the shops and stores. "This town is so old," complained Rhonda. "How come the closest mall is in the next city?"

Nadine shook her head. "I haven't the foggiest, Rhonda."

She sighed as she gripped the steering wheel. "You just want me to drop you off at home or do you want to go somewhere else, 'cause I have to go to work."

Nadine stared out of her window. "You can drop me off anywhere, it doesn't matter. My home's coming up so you could just drop me off there."

"Hold on, here it is!" Rhonda halted the car and quickly slicked it into a parallel parking spot on the side of the street. She shifted the car into park and rolled down her window. The cold weather greeted her with a powerful gust. "There it is, Nadine. His house."

Nadine looked out of Rhonda's window and saw Robert's home. "Why do you always do this, Rhonda?"

The priss quickly snapped her neck to face the girl. "One day, me and Robert are going to get married, and if you do anything to jinx my chances, I'll flush your bug collection down the toilet."

She leaned away from the driver with her hands at the pockets of her jeans, as if to trap any loose bugs she may be harboring. "You wouldn't! I've collected those as far back as I can remember."

"Just don't cross me, 'Naddie'. That's all I'm telling you." Rhonda shifted her way out of the spot and back out on the road, never taking her eyes off of his house as they drove past it. "I can't describe it, Nadine. Have you ever liked anyone?"

She rolled her eyes up at the roof of the car searching for an answer. "Once or twice, I've had my crushes."

"This isn't a crush, this is… devotion." She drummed on her steering wheel rhytmatically. "Where you'd feel like doing anything for the boy if he'd only ask."

"You have it pretty bad."

"Well, who have you liked? We've been such good friends but I never ask you about your personal life. We always end up talking about me, let's talk about you. Who do you like?"

Nadine looked down at her feet. "I don't know… I don't really want to tell you."

"Oh, come on!" Rhonda looked away from her windshield and at her friend for a second. "There has to be somebody, just tell me! We're best friends!"

Nadine balled her fists up and turned toward Rhonda. "No! I'm not telling you!"

Rhonda slowly stopped her car at the red light. "Okay, then… I'm not going to ask." She looked on to the road ahead as she waited for the light to hit green. "Is it Peapod? If I guess right, will you tell me?"

She banged her fists on her knees. "No!"

The light turned green and she pounded on the gas with a lead foot. "Fair enough. You have your money?"

"Yeah, I do. Remind me to stop at the pet store in the mall. I need a new butterfly net."

Rhonda sighed as she took a corner. "Girl, we need to get you a new hobby."

***

Michael gripped the mic on the stand as he sang towards the audience of three. Auditions for the talent show were in fool swing as his band slammed on their instruments. "I wish I could help or understand you. The girl with the sad eyes needs to cheer up a bit…"

Gerald's knees shook in a weird pattern as he stood off to the side of the stage. He looked to the kid next to him. "You nervous, man?"

He had to have been a freshman. Gerald had never seen him before in his life. "Not at all. Why should I be?"

"What if you get rejected?"

The young kid laid his hands out flat in front of him. "Here's how I see it: if I don't make it, I don't make it and that's the end of it. Are you nervous?"

Gerald's eyes widened twice their normal size. "Yeah, I'm nervous! What if I suck out there?"

"Think of it this way. If you feel embarrassed about doing your routine to three people, how are you ever going to do it for the entire school?"

Gerald thought for a minute. "Good point. I'm still nervous, but a very good point."

Michael tightened his grip on the microphone as his band pumped out a fast rocky melody. "I just need your hand to harbor. I cannot do this without you by my side. I just wanna let you go… but then take you back to my home!"

Gerald lifted an eyebrow. "Well, I have to be better than this guy. That shouldn't be hard."

The band stopped playing and Michael stepped away from the mic a little bit. "Am I in, Miss Squire?"

The drama teacher looked up from a small notepad. "It's Misses Julienowski now. I'm married."

"Sorry, Misses Jul… Misses J."

She scribbled on the pad and looked displeased. "I'll get back to you on that one, Mike. What was the name of your band?"

He cleared his throat. "Scary Ferret."

"Yeah…" Her pen quickly slashed on the paper 'Do not invite Scary Ferret!!!' "I'll tell you on Friday. Next!"

Mike scowled and waved off of the stage to his group. The band quickly grabbed their instruments and stepped off of stage. The drummer placed his pieces into cases and stormed off angrily. Gerald stepped up and took a deep breath and moved to the microphone. "Um… my name is Gerald."

She tapped the pen at the top of the pad. "And?"

"And what?"

"What do you do? Are you going to sing? Do magic? Dance? What?"

He searched through his pocket and pulled out a cassette. "Um… I was going to rap. Do you have a tape deck?"

"You might as well just leave. We're trying to keep a rated G show here. You may be a little too explicit."

Gerald cocked his head in confusion. "I planned on keeping it clean."

She tapped the pen again and looked up. "Okay, then. The boom box is at the steps of the stage. Just hand it to that tech right there and he'll get it playing. What was your name?"

"Gerald, ma'am."

"Do you have a stage name like MC Gerald or something that you'd prefer everyone to call you?"

He tossed the tape to some kid down below the stage in the band pit and thought about a name for a minute. "How about Gerald?"

"Whatever works for you."

***

The weekend had finally arrived on the city of Hillside. The days of the audition had passed the day before and the town seemed at peace. The town's streets were clean and slick, but the near by sidewalks had about a centimeter of snow on them. It's not much, but it gave the streets a nice touch.

The sun beat down brightly on Brainy as he walked slowly down the street. When is a nicer day going to come in January? Brainy often would take long walks outside. Unfortunately, every time he did, Helga would be off in a corner confessing her love to a locket and poor Brainy would show up and get rocked in the face with Ol' Betsy. Thank goodness her secret had finally been revealed. It now felt safer to walk the streets. It also felt safer to walk through the alleys to take a shortcut home. A fist in the face from Helga is scarier than any kind of mugger or murderer could be.

Yet there was still one fear left when walking the street: her. The one girl who has been chasing Brainy since High School started. Just the sound of her voice brought a chill to his skin. A voice that seemed specifically designated to reverberate through the air and send all the hair on your arms and neck stand straight on end to where it hurts to bend it.

Back in fourth grade, the big question with the kids was would the guys feel any different towards girls in the future? The answer was almost a no. They all still acted shy around them, some still kept crushes, and others would run away from love's knock at their door. Even hanging out with a girl is sometimes risky. Being seen together usually meant that the two are going out, and then rumors spread until the final version ends up being something about engagement plans and a midget circus. It's not that much mature than the old "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" routine yet was far more severe.

At the irony of all the moments Brainy had just been recalling, he heard that old familiar voice from down the street behind him; "Brainy, is that you?"

He wheezed in terror at the sound of the wretched voice. Even if there wasn't an obsessed stalker behind him, he would've wheezed anyway, but that's irrelevant. He broke free of anything that had been causing him to walk slowly down the sidewalk and ran until he could find shelter. He sneaked into an alley and hopped five feet into a Dumpster. His body hit the garbage with a powerful thump as paper and banana peels flew everywhere.

***

Robert sat at the counter of Slausen's. The entire parlor was empty with the exception of him at the counter and the soda jerk behind the counter. "So, Rhonda doesn't work here today?"

Sheena shook her head as she wiped the counter. "No, she doesn't. Were you expecting her?"

"Oh, no, I was somewhat relieved." He swirled his finger in a small puddle of water on the counter in front of him. "How come whenever I come in here, there's always someone cleaning the counter? In fact, in every movie I've ever seen has someone wiping the counters of the ice cream parlor."

Sheena shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it's just out of boredom. What else am I going to do? You're the only customer in here and you haven't ordered anything."

Robert dropped his finger at his side out of view. "Sorry. I think I'll just take an egg nog shake. You still have those?"

Sheena nodded. "Yeah, we'll have them until February. Then we'll have cherry or something else red."

Robert silently agreed to nothing. He almost nodded, but stopped before the first could set in. "Okay then. I just have a craving for nog at the moment."

Sheena fumbled with the machines behind her and eventually came back to Robert with a large glass and a big metal cup with his shake inside of it. "Here ya go, Robert. That'll be three twenty-five."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the proper funds and placed them on the counter. He then dug back in and pulled out an extra dollar. "Here ya go. This is also some tip for you."

She took the money off the table, pocketed the one, and placed the rest in the register. She slammed the drawer inside and placed he elbows on the counter. "So, what's going on with you and Rhonda?"

He sipped from a thick straw and nearly choked on the thick shake. He coughed and cleared himself up to respond. "Why do you ask?"

"Well… she's always talking about you all the time."

"Rhonda has this unhealthy obsession with me and I don't know why." He sipped from the straw again. "Maybe it's my animal magnetism."

Sheena let out a small chuckle and quickly came back to her seriousness. "How do you feel about her."

He swallowed a mouthful of shake and cupped his hands in front of him on the counter. "See, back in elementary school, I had the biggest crush on her. Remember?"

"Uh-huh."

"After I was turned down by her, I found out that she liked me too. I turned her down then and since that time, I guess she has been mentally disturbed about me. Did you go to the Halloween party?"

She shook her head back in forth. "I was at home practicing for the band concert on Halloween. I wanted to go."

"Eh, you didn't miss much." He placed his finger back on the counter and swirled it once again. "She blew up about it all there. Because of me, she ended the party early."

"That doesn't sound good."

He took another sip and cleared his throat. "No, it wasn't."

Sheena lifted her elbows up. "Well, what's so bad about Rhonda? You liked her back then, why don't you like her now? Why are you running?"

He sighed and made direct eye contact with the girl. "The thing is that… I've tried so hard to forget about her. All those years ago, she didn't want to be seen with me for some reason or another. Now, she can't stop talking about me obviously." He bent his head down and admired the shine of the countertop. "I had to strive so hard to move on to someone else and other girls, and she just comes out of left field and expects me to give up everything I've achieved and run back to her."

"Well, do you like her?"

His head snapped upright and a petrified glare from his eyes burned forward to the scenery behind Sheena. "Of course, I still like her, but how do I know she's not going to bring me down again? What if it's 'Oh, Robbie, I'm rich and you're not as; bye-bye.' I don't think I can go through that crap again."

Sheena picked her rag back up and began to circularly wipe off the counter again. "Quite a situation you have."

"Yup." He held his hands together again and twiddled with his thumbs. "Hey, do you wanna go see a movie or something?"

She stopped wiping and glared scornfully. "I have a boyfriend." She then bent her head down and focused her scrubbing on a piece of stuck-on food. "Eugene."

"Huh." He stopped twiddling his thumbs and diverted his attention to his soda cup. "I'm sorry to hear that."