Chill Your Brain

Chapter 1: Michael Does His Research

Michael Mell stood outside the 7-11 near his school, waiting to meet his friend Cory. Michael remembered this particular 7-11 as the one where he had dared Jeremy to mix all the Slurpee flavors into one large cup and drink the whole thing. Jeremy actually did just that, declaring that it was "good in its own sort of way". Michael had lost a good five dollars from that dare. Jeremy, who was rather budget-minded at the time, was self-satisfied that day.

After replaying the memory in his mind, Michael recalled his more recent interactions with Jeremy. Jeremy had been ignoring Michael ever since he had gotten his SQUIP, and what few interactions there were between the two of them were unpleasant, at best. All Michael wanted was his best friend back. He reminded himself that the reason he was here at 7-11 in the first place was to help Jeremy and took a deep breath as he smiled at Cory, who was pulling into the parking lot.

Cory and Michael knew each other from playing Warcraft, as well as the fact that they are in the same English class, and when Michael found out about what had happened to Cory's brother, he knew that he had to find out more. Cory's brother had gone from a freshman at Harvard to completely losing it, and having to have been put in a mental hospital. This was a sure sign that the SQUIPs were no good.

"Oh, hey there Michael!" called Cory as he approached the 7-11.

"Hey Cory", answered Michael.

After getting their Slurpees, Michael and Cory sat outside the 7-11 drinking their ice-cold cups of heaven. They just sat in silence for a few minutes, until Michael asked the question he had been itching to know the answer to ever since Cory had first brought up the subject-is there a way to get rid of the SQUIP?

Cory searched the parking lot for eavesdroppers, then whispered to Michael, "Mountain Dew Red. Green activates it-red shuts it off," and then quickly changed the subject before Michael could ask any questions.

"Hey, what flavor did you get?" Cory asked.

"I...I mixed all of them, actually," answered Michael. "I hear it's good." Actually, the combination was oddly tasty.

Suddenly, Cory let out an ear-splitting shriek.

"CORY!" Michael panicked for a second, until Cory calmed him down.

"Ack, it's fine Michael. Ugh, just a really unexpected brain freeze," explained Cory, still groaning a little from the ache in his head.

Then something clicked in Michael's brain. He turned to Cory and whispered, "Just a theory, but...do you think maybe drinking a slurpee could somehow freeze the SQUIP? As in, stop it in its tracks until I can get my hands on some Mountain Dew Red?"

"That could work...it sounds a little crazy, but then again so did the whole concept of a SQUIP and look where we are now."replied Cory. "Except here's the problem. This is for Jeremy, right? How are you supposed to get it to him if he's ignoring you?"

"Ah, right. That's never going to work. He'd only accept it if it were from Christine, or one of the popular kids." Until Michael was struck with another idea. "Except...maybe if I could somehow get one of them to give Jeremy a slurpee. That could work, but if Jeremy, my best friend for years, won't have anything to do with me, then how am I supposed to get the attention of someone I've never interacted with in my life?"

"Unless you don't give it to them at all!" suggested Cory.

"Huh?"

"Well, Jeremy likes Christine, right?" Cory asked.

"Yeah..." Michael mumbled. "Wait...how did you know about that?"

"Well, he's not exactly subtle about it. The other day, I could have sworn I heard him singing, 'Christiiiiine' under his breath as I passed him in the hall." remarked Cory.

"Well, there is that."

"Also, you can see how much he stiffens up whenever she's around. Any interaction whatever between the two of them causes Jeremy to go full-out awkward mode. Bright red face at the slightest mention of her. The fact that he has the most random information about her, like her dad's licence plate number. There's more, but I think you get the point." Cory explained.

"Wow."

"Yup," said Cory. "Anywho, I was thinking that maybe you could, like, leave a slurpee in the drama room before play rehearsal, with a note saying that it was 'To Jeremy, love Christine' or whatever."

"Dude! I sure didn't know you were this clever. Thanks, I'll try it."

"No problemo. Hey, I gotta go, my mom has been texting me like crazy and I probably forgot some chore or whatever, but see you 'round!"

"Wait, how'd you know it was your mom? You didn't even look!" asked Michael.

"I felt the vibration like 5 million times in my pocket. Only she texts me that many times in a row." answered Cory, laughing.

"K, see ya!" called Michael as Cory left the parking lot.