The Outcasts

A Taste Of What You Paid For

     Three weeks had finally passed since Mr. Smith gave our class the book report. Andy and I had finished ours during the first week. We spent the next two back and forth between each other's houses. After most of the class presented their reports, mainly on The Fault In Our Stars and Divergent, it was finally our turn to present. "Our book report is on Homer's famous epic,  'The Odyssey'. Set in times shortly following the Trojan War, this story takes the reader on a journey filled with undying love and faithfulness, visits from the gods, and strong determination and perseverance as Odysseus tries to make his way home to his family and beloved wife, Penelope...."

    After we concluded our report, we took our seats and awaited our grade. The bell rang shortly thereafter, so Mr. Smith announced, "Alright, class, I shall have your reports graded and returned to you before the week is out. You are dismissed."

"So, Princess, glad that's done?" Andy asked.

I sighed softly and replied, "Yeah. It was fun, though, but that's probably because I'm a nerd...."

"Nah. I mean, you are a nerd, but that's not why it was fun."

   "Then, why, good sir, was it fun?" I asked jokingly.

"Because you got to hang out with me, Princess," he replied.

"Oh, really now? Is that so? What if I said that it was absolutely no fun at all?"

"You wound me, princess. Am I truly so awfully unbearable?" he asked, dramatically placing his hands on his heart.

"Puh-lease, Andy. The only thing I've wounded is your ego. Besides, if you're unbearable, how awful am I?" I laughed.

"Not at all, " he grinned, "quite the opposite, in fact. Would I have an unbearably awful as my bestest friend in the universe?........Nope!"

 Ping!

Andy checked his phone. "Hey, Leah,  Pete wants to know if you wanted to go skating with us- Pete, Iris, and me- this afternoon after school?"

"Lemme ask my folks, okay?" I said. I texted my mom asking if I could go, and she responded that she'd already talked to Mrs. Biersack and that she'd given her some cash for me and that I'd be going home with Andy.

After relaying this information to Andy, we walked to Reading where our classmates did worksheets that we'd finished days ago.

"Thanks for inviting me to go skating today," I said.

"No problem, princess."

     The bell rang at the end of class, and we walked to the carpool area. Once Andy's mom picked us up, she dropped us off at the skating rink, saying "Pete said he'll drop you two off at our place, and Leah, your mom asked me to give you this. We're still on for the cookout, right?", and handing me a small wad of bills. 

"As far as I know.  Thanks, Mrs. B." I said as I left the car and shut the door. 

       As we walked inside, Pete and Iris practically tackled us into a group hug.  We walked to the skate rental  counter and traded in our shoes. As soon as Andy stepped onto the slick rink, he fell flat on his butt. "You alright there, man?" Pete called out. 

"Yeah...." he groaned, pulling himself and holding on to a nearby wall.

"You sure? Because you just kinda........ pffffffft." Iris said, blowing a raspberry and moving her hand  in a spiral motion towards the floor.

  "Shut up, guys. Everyone knows that gazelles don't do well on wheels." I laughed.

   I moved toward the rink and started singing 'Til I Hear You Sing  and skating to the song. "The day starts...", move one foot, "The day ends...", move the other. I continued slowly before grabbing Andy's hand and saying, "Come on," as I dragged him away from the wall. 

"And weeks pass months pass, seasons fly. Still you don't walk through the door." Andy sang with me, mimicking my movements in time with the song. We continued like this, with me occasionally spinning around on my skates, until we concluded, "'Til I hear you sing once more!"

I looked over at Iris and Pete and saw them clapping.  "That was great, you guys," Iris said, grinning. We continues skating for about an hour before everyone wanted a break, so we exchanged our skates for shoes and climbed into Pete's truck.

"Where to?" Pete asked, putting the keys into the ignition.

"There's a record shop a few blocks away I've been meaning to check out," I said, buckling my seatbelt.

"What's it called?" Iris asked.

"Um....Shake It Records, I think...."

"Alright. Pete, you're going to take a left up here at the right, and then it should be across from the KFC and Taco Bell," Iris told him, reading the directions from her phone. Pete pulled out from the small parking lot and drove down the avenue, following Iris's directions until we pulled up to the small record store.

As we browsed through the rock vinyls, I grabbed a KISS album that I knew Andy didn't have, as well as  Metallica for Pete and Nirvana for Iris. I kept looking through the endless rows of cases and found a few that caught my eye. "Whatcha lookin' at?" A familiar voice asked from behind me.

"Andy, there's no use trying to sneak up on me. I always know it's you," I said, not looking back, "I'm looking at Sweeney Todd, Wicked and both Phantom  soundtracks. I just don't have a record player at my place."

     The four of us looked around for a little while longer before checking out at the counter. We walked outside, and I took the vinyls out of the plastic shopping bag. "Guys, I got these for you," I said as I handed each of them their gifts. "Oh, Metallica! This is dope!" Pete exclaimed.

 "'Grunge Is Dead'! Thank you so much, Leah!" Iris said, hugging the plastic-y paper sleeve to her chest.

 I looked at Andy as he grabbed his album. "'Creatures of the Night'? Princess, you didn't have to do this y'know?" Andy smiled as he looked at the blue case in awe. "Do you like it?" I asked.

"Leah, I love it! Oh, and I got you these," he said, pulling four albums from the bag on his arm. I looked at the records in my hands now and saw that they were the ones I had looked at in the shop just minutes before. I threw my arms around him and enveloped him in a hug. "Thank you so much! I love them! You really didn't have to do this." "No, but I wanted to do something for my best friend," he whispered in my ear as he returned the hug.

 "I'm kinda hungry, guys," Pete said, "Wanna go for some ice cream?"

"Sure. There's this ice cream place down the road....Mt. ...something or other," Iris said.

 "Oh! Mt. Healthy. Yeah, I used to go there all the time," Andy said.

   As we got to the small restaurant, Pete said that the ice cream was on him and asked what kind we wanted. He came back five minutes with one chocolate, one strawberry, and two rocky road espresso triple scoop cones. After giving out the ice cream, we all thanked him and started joking around. "...And, he's like, 'Yo, I know more about music' and Pat was all 'YEEEEEAAAAAAHHH!' with his soul voice." Pete concluded his joke. We were all almost finished with our ice cream, and then I noticed something, "Andy, you have a little something right.....HERE!" as I shoved the rest of the ice cream cone onto his nose. "Why, you little....." he started chasing me around the parking lot until I climbed into the truck, screeching, "Pete, Iris, HELP ME!" 

"Sorry, kid. You're on your own with this one," Pete called. Just then, Andy opened the door and started tickling me. "Andy! Stop, please! I surrender!" I exclaimed after about three minutes of this. "Fine..., but don't do that again." 

"Alright," I yawned. "Hey, Pete, can you please go ahead and drive Andy and I over to his place? I'm about to pass out..."

 "Yeah, sure thing." He started driving us to Andy's place, and as soon we got there, I sat down on the couch while Mrs. B called my mom, but I started pass out. Before I completely lost consciousness, I heard Amy saying "She just passed out....Yeah, no problem. I'll drop her off after lunch." I vaguely remember getting a blanket over me and a whispered goodnight.

Hey, Guys

So I finally updated! Tell me what you thought in the doobly-doo.

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