The Cat on the Balcony

9- The Bet

UNEDITED

Tyler was back at school on Wednesday, and was fine for the rest of the week. In school, we already had a quiz on Monday in two classes, which is unfair in my opinion. Pete has made it a point to always sit next to Patrick in any class they shared together, which happened to be three of the six classes and they had the same lunch period. He shamelessly flirts with Patrick every time. Patrick has finally started talking back to Pete, but has yet to flirt with him.

Brendon and Jack both already have an after-school suspension on Monday, because both of them ganged up on one of their teachers, making sarcastic and witty comments after almost everything the teacher said the entire class.

Jack and Alex sit next to eachother in their classes, and they were actually going to hang out today after school. When he told us, Brendon patted him on the back and congratulated him for "finally growing a pair of balls."

The three guys that glared at me in chemistry Tuesday glared at me every day this week. Again, what did I ever do to them? One of them even made a point to ram into my shoulder in the hallway today in-between classes, which ticked me off. I can't stand it when people are rude or mean for no reason. I asked the others about them. Their names are Kellin, Ronnie, and Max. Apparently, they hate everyone.

We planned to meet at Tyler's house tomorrow, Saturday, to start putting together our pieces of the song. Tyler and I had spent several hours Wednesday after school collaborating on the music. It was mostly Tyler playing a few different little tunes until we both said "that's it!" and then building off of that.

When I first read through the lyrics Brendon, Jack, and Patrick had written, at some points I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. After adjusting the lengths of time each section of music ran for, we began to try to record the song. I say try, because we had to restart many times because one of us would start laughing and ruin whatever section we were trying to sing.

We got about halfway through the song before we decided to take a break. We ordered a couple pizzas and sat in Tyler's living room and started talking.

"So Josh," Jack said around a mouthful of pizza, "what was it like in bright and sunny LA? Were you one of those surfer dudes, but when you found out you were moving changed your personality?"

"Nope, I've always been this way. It was ok. The weather was great and I didn't live that far away from the beach. Our house was smaller though, since housing is more expensive there. The school I went to was a bit bigger than this one, but that meant there was a lot more bullies. I never got bullied, but a lot of others did."

"That's horrible!" Patrick said, "We don't have very many at this school. There's just those three, I think."

"What about your friends, are you missing them?" Brendon asked.

"Well, uh, I didn't really have any. I had a few people I'd talk to every now and then, but no one to really hang out with outside of school. Honestly, I'm closer to you guys right now than I've been with anyone. Well, I take that back, I had a best friend in Kindergarten, but he moved away in third grade. Since then, I haven't really had any close friends."

"Well, you'll always have us, Josh." Tyler said, putting his hand on my shoulder and giving me a genuine smile. The others all nodded in agreement. I smiled back at all of them, I know I've said this before, but I really love Ohio.

After all the pizza was gone, we started playing video games. After a bit though, it ended up just being Brendon and I playing because we were getting too competitive for the others. Mario Kart has ruined just as many friendships as Monopoly. We kept shouting insults at eachother and bumping each other's arms trying to make the other one mess up.

"Okay Dun, I have a proposition for you."

"What would that be, Beebo?"

"Don't call me that!"

"Then don't call me Dun!"

"I'm so Dun with you!" After he said that there was a chorus of boos from the others sitting on the couch next to us, and Jack even threw a pillow, which hit Brendon in the face.

"Fine, fine! I'm sorry! Anyways, let's make a bet. If I win the next round, you have to do whatever I say at school on Monday. If you win, I have to do whatever you say. Deal?"

I grinned; I'm so going to beat his ass. "Deal."

It was a four race round, and it was intense. Shells were being shot, insults shouted, banana peels thrown, and people blown up. Finally, at the end of the fourth race, we both stood silent staring at the screen.

We tied.

"Well, what now?" I asked.

"We could split it up, you do what I say on Monday, and I do what you say on Tuesday?"

"Fine."

Shortly after that, the others left, Brendon saying how he had to go plan what all he was going to make me do on Monday, which concerned me. They were all going to come back tomorrow to finish up the song so Tyler could edit it on Monday night. It was due on Tuesday.

"Hey Tyler, can you take me to the store? I don't want to go by myself and I need more hair dye."

"Sure, are you going to do pink again?"

"Actually, I was going to do either purple or blue. Which do you think?"

"Purple."

"Sick."

A/N- I love purple hair Josh! After he's done with the red he should go purple again, but that's just my opinion.