Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 99: Middle School Journal

"Oh, damn, when from?" Shayne asks her, abandoning his own packing to move over and take a seat on the floor beside her.

"Fifth grade. This is before any of the ones we've used on Pit before," she explains, flicking through it without reading it, "before the guy we call Johnny, too, actually."

"Think there's much in this one?" he asks, Courtney nodding.

"For sure. Not as many dick drawings as the later ones, but I was definitely already boy crazy. Probably a bit more angst at my parents in this one too," she shakes her head, "god, I was such a cringey kid."

"I mean, we all are, you just wrote it down. I was just a dumb loser without recording it," he replies, Courtney shaking her head at him lightly, although she doesn't disagree.

"We still need Pit content, want to look through this with me and try and find something good enough to use?" she asks him, Shayne nodding as they both abandon their packing and move to the sofa. They place the journal between them, both reading as they slowly flick through the pages and place tabs in the promising sections.

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Courtney types up the scripts herself, wanting to keep the entries as private as possible - and needing to change all of the names - despite the fact she's about to let them go on the internet again. She runs them by one of their Pit producers, reluctantly, anxiety spiking as she watches him flick through them. He just nods, though, and soon, she finds herself sitting down with Shayne, Damien, Noah and Olivia with her journal and a pile of scripts. It's always been her idea to do these, but much like every other time she has, a wave of anxiety hits her the second the director asks her to start an intro. She pushes through it, fingers tapping against the journal as she speaks.

"We're back at it again, guys! I found another middle school journal and I'm going to make these guys act it out again- which was totally my idea but I am anxious," she enthuses, for the start of the video, although she lets her pitch creep up with nerves as she shudders a little.

Shayne jumps in, taking the notification bell prompting from beside her, the rest of them quickly joining in. It gives her a moment to take a deep breath to try and level herself. Her fingers don't stop tapping.

"So when is this one from?" Olivia prompts.

"So this is actually from early 5th grade - before all the other ones we've looked and even before Johnny, but you know I was cringey and boy-crazy from a... young age," she answers, letting out a loud, anxious sigh, "okay, okay, so- we got monologues, we got a couple different boys, and just like usual we're going to mix up the casting."

She glances down to the first script - a monologue about boys (surprise), love, and girls stealing boyfriends - before glancing across her friends as they plead in varying intensity for the part. It's a dramatic one, and part of her really wants Shayne to do it, but her anxiety tells her she'd much prefer he was still sitting beside her.

"Damien, how about you play Courtney this time," she supplies, handing him the script. He cheers at his selection, rolls his eyes a little at the other three who play up disappointment, and moves up to stand opposite them as he modifies his stance and raises his pitch into an intentionally bad caricature of her.

"Aaaah no!" she exclaims, anxiety driving her to lean sideways against Shayne as Damien begins reading. She soon feels the lightest brush of fingers against her hand and she hesitates for a moment, glancing up at the cameras, before she looks back down to entwine her fingers with Shayne's. She would like the comfort.

"Dear Diary," Damien reads, drama deep in his tone, "today my best friend Sam told me that Erica likes Adam, but Adam either likes her or me. Plus she said that Kyle and Davey both said they would like me if I had a better face-"