Inspiration- V

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height



My knuckles clunked the cold wooden door as I stiffened the shivers that rolled up my spine. I could hear the quiet footsteps moving throughout the inside of the house. The latch clicked and the door pulled away from me, revealing Mr. Hendricks as he watched me from below his nose.

"Hello, Sir," I lowered my head respectfully, "Is Karri home?"

She hadn't met me half way like she was supposed to and I had a feeling her father had intervened. I watched him from my beneath my lowered lashes uncomfortable. He always made my skin crawl.

Mr. Hendricks had a strong jaw and thick neck, very stiff perfect form, and a commanding voice people never wanted to refuse. He was cliché' in every aspect of what you would expect. He had willing let himself be molded by the military, for the better of course, and it left his cold and honestly; socially disrespectful to the rest of the world. He was, by all means, the perfect drill sergeant. But he seemed to despise me just as I did him. I was not his choice of friend for his daughter. I watched him patiently, awaiting his reply.

"Alys," He acknowledged, "Karri's in her room right now. Where she should be." I saw his eyes narrow slightly at me and I could smell his disapproval. "I don't appreciate you telling my daughter to go outside in the cold rain storm and to leave my house without my permission."

"Sorry sir," My voice was as soft and polite as I could muster, "I had an extra credit assignment for a class that I just found out about. And I wanted Karri to do it with me." I watched those eyes blankly before me. "May I come in?"

Mr. Hendricks watched me for a second more beneath him. Finally he stepped aside and allowed me in. "Be done by nine," he said, walked away from me and into the kitchen.

"Yes Sir."

My eyes rose to the high ceilings and to where Karri stood against the top balcony of the stair well. "Extra credit?" she smiled, flashing her teeth.

"Yes," I unbuttoned my jacket, "For the animal shelter. For all those poor cats in need of a home."

She grinned. "Lovely, I was just putting the last touches on my poster."

The coat left my fingers and hooked itself against the coat rack. I trudged up stairs until we were safely out of hearing range. She had a towel ready and she placed it over my head, "Sorry about Dad," she sighed, "He blew his top off when I told him I was running out real quick. He said I needed to be studying and not frolicking."

I chuckled and rub my head vigorously with the towel, "You do like to frolic."

We stepped into her room and my eyes glance to a poster on her desk. I picked it up, eyed it for a quick second and then smiled. She had redrawn the quick handed strokes with deeper more prominent lines. In the background, she had drawn over the girls whom actually brought us to state, and had given them crowns and bouquets of flowers.

"I like this," I pointed to Stacey's circlet. "Brings the eyes to the background."

"Yeah, I guess I felt bad for them. I don't really care about sports, but I just felt it must suck to be them and having to stand behind the catfish." she turned to face me.

"So, you never told me what the inspiration for this was?"

"Aw," she tilted her head back remembering, "Yeah well obviously I wouldn't normally openly doodle like this. I don't know, I just kind of couldn't help it. I got to school early and was studying in the library. The catfish were there too putting up the posters before the rest of the school arrived. I don't think they knew I was in the library though," she shrugged as she traced the edge of the poster, now in her grasp.

"Once they were done, they gathered into a small nook in one of the aisles and talked until some of their other friends arrived. You know Jay right? Yeah he was there too, fùcker is way too loud."

I laughed while I grabbed some crackers she had on her night stand. "Well anyway, I was trying to work, but next to me one of the posters they had hung up was peeling away and it half folded on my desk. You know- I thought it wouldn't be funny... I really thought it was just some simple yay us type of school spirit. And then next thing I know I'm fighting not to laugh my ass off- I mean just DYING on the inside, because they must think this is 'sexy'. And god I feel bad for them. So I start listening to what they are saying. They start talking about a prank they wanted to pull; a stupid one mind you."

I snorted at her side note clarification. She smiled at me but continued, "Nothing dramatic, nothing extraordinary. Just another chance to be whòres I guess, though it would also be a social attack on other students. I almost wanted to yell- JUST WALK AROUND NAKED, because they are seriously at the point of desperation." Karri stood and walked over to a small burgundy desk that she had in her room. It was one her grandfather had carved for her, and she dragged her fingers softly across its grooves.

"They wanted to get water balloons full of dye and put on stupid Hillary Clinton masks with white shirts. Their plan is to throw them in the faces of student's; ruining their clothes and tinting their skin, right before graduation. So obviously this prank won't be happening for a month or so. But still... I think we both know that the only ones targeted would be those Shannon hated. I'm sure we can safely assume the dye won't be coming out by the time photos are taken for our diplomas."

I nodded my head slightly.

"And you know our school," she sighed, "We're like the highest ranking institute when it comes to senior pranks. It's like our city has three past times of entertainment, football, the rest of the sports jumbled into one, and then the yearly senior pranks. And with that mentality, our students get the sympathy of it being a 'sport' and we can take it pretty far. Which is where they would take it; if they got caught, they would say it was a senior prank- not bullying. And they would get off with a slap on their wrists."

"So yeah, by this time into their conversation my hand is full on doodling," Karri leaned in to me, "I'm hearing them get all excited about how many people they could target, and how this would make them the 'cool cats' of the senior pranking world." I almost coughed at the pun. "And of course, they can't partake in any activity unless it involves a sexual theme (heaven forbid- I know), so they ramble on about how Jay and the guys will have water guns. Which apparently pairs nicely with white shirts. And considering they have deduced from our school handbook that bras are not mandatory.... I think you can get where this is going. I had to sit through half an hour of my library time listening to their sexual fantasies through the bookshelf."

She smiled at me. My own disgust was apparently evident on my face; "I don't want to see that." I said lowly.

"You and most everyone else who has half a brain." She wrinkled her nose. "But anyways. at this point I'm no longer working, I'm full on drawing by this point - I must hang out with you too much- and I just couldn't help the joke which had already spread my self-control thin," Another cracker crunched in my mouth as I watched her spin in glee around the room, "The idea of them spraying each other made me think of cats!"

I started choking immediately on the cracker that was lodged in my throat.

"You know, cause' cats spray?! So by the end of my morning, I had drawn a for sale sign of cats in heat!"

The words rolled over me and made me choke harder and harder on the cracker. Her hand nonchalantly beat my back as she grinned and fantasized off into the distance, "And it was so relaxing to draw it. I even added the 'for more information' number, and once I saw your face- I knew this was a gem."

I finally leaned up with newly cleared airways and looked towards her grinning face. She glanced towards me and wiped one of my choking tears away.

"Karri," I coughed a little over my smile, pushing my cracker plate away for its treachery, "You can never make fun of me and my weird mind again. Do you hear me?"

She chuckled loudly but nodded. "Yes I suppose." She pursed her lips to regain control over her smirk and searched my face, "And you gave me an idea. Post those posters. Let there be one more prank to the senior class collection, but maybe this one will stunt a future one. Maybe this prank will draw a humiliating eye to their ways enough to make them hesitate parading around in see-through clothes while they ruin everyone else's graduation."

I pondered her words as I watched her. It was odd, I coveted my own work... it was mine and mine alone. Karri felt like my better half so she was always allowed to dwell within those pages, but no one else would ever get that pleasure. My drawings were the physical threads of my mental-being. My skin tightened with goosebumps at the idea of people touching the very fibers to my mind, their mouths breathing moistly on the dark charcoal of my subconscious.    

                           

I closed my eyes suddenly, snapping that box of fears closed. Before Karri could ask anything, I pretended the reaction was in regards to my next words, "Aren't you nervous to circulate these?"

"Meh," she shrugged, "No one will know it was me." She winked now, "Incognita."

"When do they go up?"

"Hopefully tomorrow; the sooner the better if they're so actively planning the dye prank."

I stretched back into the bed and evaluated her. I pictured the reaction if these posters were hung. I suppose the benefits of being a wallflower- you knew what people were like and you knew what to roughly expect.

"They're funny Kare," I finally said, "I hope you're ready for how popular these might be. If so, the catfish will be enraged even more at how much other people will like them. Even the real athletes might be embarrassed by this more than they already are. And if you get caught- you get caught by them all; the school, the catfish, the athletes."

I narrowed my eyes as my teeth chewed lightly on my lip, "Not only that- those who are found guilty of senior pranks still endure some repercussions- despite our school being relatively tolerant of these games. Can you handle being suspended a week or two from school?"

She shrugged but then leaned back with me on her bed, "Yeah, a week at school. A month or more at home." she laughed. "That's the main consequence you should have said. I'd rather face the catfish and athletes than dad."

I glanced to her face but she had her eyes closed now. "Don't worry," I said, "I'm sure he won't find out. And if he does, I'll bring you newspapers from the outside world."

Her green eyes flashed open and she smiled at me, "And please... do bring me some cookies. He boycotted them all because of his new health regiment. Thanks to that- the school cafeteria has been my safe haven."

I grimaced but she shrugged.

"So Al," she narrowed her eyes at me, "I think that you need to go out this Saturday with Tim and Megan."

I raised an eye brow at her. "Do you?"

"Yes... and if you do... that new sketch book that you had your sights on for a while now," My gluttonous eyes lit up unintentionally, "I'll buy it for you."

That beautiful sketchbook danced in my head and whispered sweet nothings that caressed my brain. Her eyebrow rose disapprovingly, "You're disgusting," she laughed. But her hand rose in front of where I lay. "Deal?" she asked. My eyes glanced down to it hesitantly, but still... the phantom sketchbook pole-danced around my sanity and between thoughts.

"Deal," I gave in, and she giggled in glee. "Excellent! We'll tell them tomorrow!"

She hopped off the bed and looked at her clock. "Its 8:55, what time did my dad say to leave again?"

"Nine", I rolled my eyes and slipped off the bed.

"He gave you fifteen minutes?" she asked skeptically.

"He lets you stay up past 8?" I smirked, and dodged a cracker thrown from plate. "I'll see you tomorrow Karri."

She laughed and waved goodbye, and I hopped down the stairs until I almost bumped into Mr. Hendricks.

"Have a good night Alys," He said in a deep monotone.

"You too Sir," I nodded while grabbing my jacket and I stepped out on to the front porch. The door shut behind me and after a second, the locks turned and the lights began flickering off. I stepped forward and glanced high up to the rain as it poured against me.

The night was cold and lonely. But for some reason I still didn't want to go home. I watched the sky for a few seconds longer before I finally gave in and took each slow and steady step home.

The long way was a couple miles longer. But tonight it seemed like a good idea. And I closed my eyes and began walking.



____________________________________________                                                    

A/N: 

Well here's another chapter for you lovelies. I don't really know if this story has a lot of fans or not so I'm hoping you guys like it.

If you have liked this story... please vote... please comment, please do all the things that we, the desperate authors of wattpad, beg for. We spend days of our time to type of these chapters for YOU the reader. And we watch and wait with bated breath, only to see readers stock our books in their libraries but otherwise offer no support or critique.  Please help us out, help me out. Every star and comment changes the dynamics of my story; it changes my chances of being noticed by others. And it's only a mouse move of effort on your part. If you find yourself enjoying my work... I beg of you to help me back. Thank you.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net