The Seventh Grade Wars

CHAPTER 38: JK

To be honest, the only reason I kept my grades up was so I would still be allowed to play football.

My mom was happy with me, because now instead of getting Cs and sometimes Ds, I earned Bs. And I was kind of proud of myself, too. Maybe I wouldn't fail the seventh grade.

One day I was dutifully doing my homework in my room (football had been cancelled because of a thunderstorm) when my laptop computer beeped. It was Jessica.

JessicaMalboyXOXO: Get on the group chat.

I groaned internally. I hated group chatting. Dyslexia made it so hard for me to catch up with what everyone was writing. Not to mention all the texting shortcuts people sometimes used. But I logged on anyway. I was interested. What did Jessica want?

JK.Kennedy: OK, I'm here. What is it?

RyanMarinoff: it better be good. I was watching football!

JessicaMalboyXOXO: Oh, it is. Check out this link.

glittermacy: isn't that the link to the C Side blog?

JessicaMalboyXOXO: YES, MACY. Just read the most recent blog post.

I clicked on the link she'd sent. It took me to a brightly colored blog entitled C SIDE FOR THE WIN: WAR WEBPAGE, and I scrolled down to the latest entry.

Hey, guys. It's Marcus here again! And guess what? We have an AWESOME prank set up just for A and B Sides. (Note to B Side: Hello. We stole it from you!) Hope you enjoy! Oh, and keep an eye out. Not that it'll do any good. You won't be able to see it coming!!

I returned to the chat room, where my teammates were already chatting away, having read it faster.

FootballJockTHOMAS: So C Side stole B Side's prank?

JessicaMalboyXOXO: Who even cares?? Point is, they've got something really, really good, and we'd better watch out.

JK.Kennedy: Aw, what's the point? We should just take their prank and be done with it.

JessicaMalboyXOXO: Oh, that reminds me, JK. I need another prank quick. Maybe by next week, okay? GOOD.

Part of me wanted to type, Think of your own prank! I'm not your servant.

The more realistic part of me replied, Sure, Jessica. I'm on it!

Jessica cornered me at school the next day. 

"Okay, what's up?" she said irritably.

"What?" I said.

"You seem to have a problem every time I tell you to think up a prank."

"Well, yeah," I said. "Why can't you think of your own pranks, huh?"

"Because you're here to do that for me," she said. "And I thought you liked playing pranks."

"Sure, but—"

"JK, honestly. If you weren't in this team, you would have gotten yourself landed in the principal's office every time you played a prank. I'm protecting you."

"Uh huh," I said sarcastically.

"You forget," she said smoothly, "that my mother is the counsellor? I have power here. I've already destroyed a detention notice for you. Luckily she's forgotten about it."

"Detention notice?" I said blankly. "I guess you're not doing a good job 'protecting' me if I've gotten a detention notice."

"That wasn't my fault," said Jessica. "Remember when you and Thomas and Ryan were throwing those oil spitballs at the ceiling? When we had to stay in our classrooms because C Side pranked us? My mom made a note to put all three of you in detention, but I got rid of it. Didn't know about that, did you?"

The annoying thing about Jessica Malboy. She's almost always right.