Drifting Blind

Cracking Skulls

Chapter 3:

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Brian smiled at Maryanne, holding his stare just a little while after she looked away. Bender was currently stopping Claire in the middle of her ranting.

"S'cuse me a second," he interrupted Claire, "What are you babbling about?" Bender gingerly asked Brian, who turned to face him.

"Well, what I said was I'm in the math club, the Latin club, and the physics club." Brian counted on his fingers, Bender nodded.

"Hey, Cherry!" Bender called out, Claire turned to him with a glare, "Do you belong to the physics club?"

Claire sneered, "That's an academic club!"

Maryanne scoffed and rolled her eyes, "That's how it is," she said to herself, Bender smirked at her once more while Claire sent her a quizzical look.

"So?" Bender continued.

"So, academic clubs aren't the same as other clubs!" She retorted.

"Ah, but to dorks like him," he pointed at Brian, "They are! You, what clubs are you in?"

Maryann realized he was pointing at her, "Track club, and uh, I guess the gymnastics club. They're different than the school teams, less competitive, I haven't been to the gymnastic meetings in awhile, but-"

"See? Would you go out for the sports club? It's not an academic club!" Bender asked Claire once again.

She shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, if I was athletic maybe!"

"What do you guys do in the physics club?" Bender asked.

"Well, we talk about physics, uh, we talk about the properties of physics, we-"

"So it's sort of social, demented and sad, but social! Right?" Bender explained and Claire put her head down.

"That's not demented and sad you prick! It's just not what YOU like," Maryanne spat at Bender, who acted as if he was shocked and had just hit a brick wall.

"Calm down, doll face, it was an exaggeration. Maybe," he winked at her, then made a snorting noise.

"Yeah, well I guess you could consider it a social situation. I mean there are other children in my club and uh, at the end of the year we have, um, you know, a big banquet at the, uh, at the Hilton." Brian perked up a little.

"You load up? Ya party?" Bender seemed to perk up in hopes of "defending" Brian's case.

"Well, no, we get dressed up, but uh, w-we don't get high." Brian said.

"Only burners like you get high," Claire stated quietly, rolling her eyes. Bender briefly glanced at her before looking back at Brian.

"And uh, I didn't have any shoes, so I had borrow my dad's shoes. It was kinda weird because my mom doesn't like me to wear other people's shoes. And once, m-my cousin Kent-" he paused as he stuttered, "My cousin Kendall from, uh, Indiana, he got high once, and he started eating like really weird foods. And uh, then he just felt like he didn't belong anywhere. You know, kinda like, you know 'Twilight Zone' kinda?" Brian rambled on, Bender looking like he was crazy.

"Look, if you guys keep talking Vernon is gonna come right back in here," Andy interjected, sparing Brian from anymore stuttering, "I've got a meet this Saturday and I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads." Andy snuck in a glance at Maryanne with a sort of forgiving look, almost like saying 'but not you!'

"He's right, we'll all be in here next Saturday probably, if we keep talking." Maryanne leaned back in her seat and got quiet.

"Oh? And wouldn't that be a bite! Missing a whole wrestling meet!" Bender mocked with a pout.