Chapter 4

“B.S.” Isabella said to Aden as he slyly put his cards on top of the large pile.
Aden grinned. “It’s all yours.”
“Asshole!” Isabella said angrily. “I suck at this game!”
Lana smiled and watched Isabella take the pile of cards, clearly irritated as Aden began to taunt her. The group sat, playing cards, because they hadn’t known what else to do. It had been a week since they had made their ‘vows’, and since they needed to do their English journals they had simply decided to spend extra time after they were finished. The project portion of the meeting took only about fifteen minutes, which left the group wondering what to do with their meeting time.
“I’m so done with this.” Isabella said. “What else can we do?”
“Do your parents have any alcohol?” Aden asked
“Dumbass, that’s the reason your Dad beats your Mom in the first place.” Isabella said, rolling her eyes. “There are other ways to have fun.”
“I’m being sarcastic, wench, don’t give me attitude.” Aden said, dodging a punch on the arm from Isabella.
“What do you have in mind, Isabella?” Jeremy asked, ignoring Aden.
“Ever TP’d a house before?”
“No.” Jeremy said forcefully “Isabella, if we get caught-”
“Whose house would we do?” Lana asked. “I can’t think of anyone that I would really want to TP.”
“You have a point.” Isabella said. “It’s more fun if you know the person.”
“I’ve got an idea.” Tia said.
They were shocked to hear her say anything, but everyone looked to her at once. For the first time in what any of them could remember, Tia gave them a little smile.

* * * * *

“I’m proud of you, Ti.” Aden said, as he sized up which bowling ball he wanted to use. The other three had gone to get a few snacks while Tia and Aden had been left to set up the computerized system that kept score.
Tia shrugged. “I’m trying. And every time I’m with you guys it makes me feel…well, not so alone.”
In the background she could hear the sounds of the pins being knocked down by the other bowlers. It wasn’t very crowded, bowling wasn’t terribly popular, but on Friday nights there was a special price for groups. When she was younger, she and her parents used to go all the time.
Aden picked up a dark green ball and smiled at her. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop bugging you, but you need to feel better sometimes.”
Tia smiled ironically. “Denial is like candy, it tastes sweet and makes you feel good, but then afterwards you feel guilty and wish you‘d never thought about it to begin with.”
Aden raised his eyebrow. “Well aren’t you a regular Shakespeare?”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and quickly stopped as she saw the rest of the group approaching.
“French fries! Ready to have some nourishment, Lana?”
“It’s going to give me a stomach ache, but I don’t care. You know the last time I had french fries I think I was like five.”
“That’s okay, the last time I had food was yesterday. Dig in, everyone!”
“Hey Lana, I thought I saw that punk Neil talking to you the other day.” Aden said, winking at her while stuffing a fry in his mouth. “You two flirting or what?”
“Whatever,” Lana said “That narcissistic scum can find someone else to screw. It’s not going to be me.”
“Power to you.” Isabella said. “Watch out for that guy though, he came on to me one time.”
“No way.” Jeremy said.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? I’m serious, that guy is trouble. In seventh grade, he pushed me into the men’s bathroom and tried to take off my shirt. Gave him a black eye, though.”
“Wait, when we were in seventh grade wasn’t he only a year ahead of us?” Aden asked.
“He skipped a grade.” Lana said. “Tenth grade, I think. He makes a big deal out of it, but word is his Mom threw such a big fit about it that the school did it because they didn’t want to deal with her.”
“Well, watch out.” Isabella said. “I never told because I didn’t think anyone would believe me.”
“That’s awful though, you should have told someone.” Lana said.
“Honestly Lana, would anyone have believed me? Rumors probably would have spread about me making out with him or maybe worse. That’s how it works in this society, the victim gets blamed. ‘Cause of course the victim wouldn’t be the victim unless they somehow wanted it to happen.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Jeremy said. “If you’re the victim you should have justice. If the person is guilty they should be punished.”
“And how often does the criminal get caught, Jeremy? Justice lies with those who have money and power, there’s no such thing as justice like it’s supposed to be.”
“It just seems like-”
“Like the constitution was written by a bunch of old, rich white guys? Like every law we have was written by middle-aged, dirt rich, white presidents or politicians? Give it up, Jeremy, I would have thought you would agree with me on this one. We’re the minorities here.”
“Excuse me.” Lana said. “I’m Asian, that’s a minority too.”
“Half Asian.”
“I’m Jewish” Aden put in, but the girls ignored him.
“But I’m still part Chinese, and it doesn’t really matter if we’re a minority or not, we’ve all got similar situations.”
Isabella nodded. “I agree with that. Pain is pain, and we all know too well what that feels like. Doesn‘t mean we don‘t deal with things white people don‘t.”
“You’re really smart, Isabella.” Tia said. “Why don’t you talk more in classes?”
Isabella was caught off guard. “Why would people listen to me?”
“You really are smart.” Lana said “Take away some of the bitterness and I could see a future president in you.”
Isabella rolled her eyes. “Yeah, don’t get me started. There are so many things wrong with what you just said.”
Aden laughed. “Yeah Lana, girls can’t be president, they’re too emotional.” Lana and Isabella gave Aden a cold glare, which just made him laugh harder. “What do you think I am, a fucking conservative? I was being sarcastic. No more of this political bullshit, isn’t the whole point of this to forget about our lives? Fuck the world, let’s bowl.”
It was at that moment that Isabella looked up at the scoreboard. “Aden! You asshole! My name is not Wench!”
At that point everyone started laughing, and Isabella irritably worked on changing her name on the scoreboard while the rest of the group put on their rented shoes and got ready to bowl.

* * * * *

As the group walked home around 8:30 that night, Tia and Aden split to walk towards their houses and Lana, Isabella and Jeremy began walking in the other direction to go to their houses.
“Have you guys noticed they’ve been pretty close lately?” Jeremy asked, indicating Tia and Aden.
“I guess they have.” Lana said. “He’s really been reaching out to her though, I think it may be the best thing for her. Whatever is bothering her is hard enough, I can’t imagine her telling four people at once.”
“Still,” Jeremy said. “Tia’s a pretty girl. You don’t think…”
Isabella gave a short laugh. “Aden may be an ass, but he’s not that type of ass. His Dad beats his Mom, he’s gonna be the last guy on earth who would ever take advantage of someone.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Jeremy said, suddenly thinking back to a conversation he’d had a few days earlier. “Lana, I have a question for you, and Isabella I’ll kill you if you ever repeat this.”
Isabella rolled her eyes. “Yeah whatever.”
“You know Gordon?”
Lana nodded. “He’s your friend right? I’ve seen him a few times, he looks like a nice guy.”
“Well, he is sort of interested in someone you know.”
“Who?”
“Well, he was talking about Gwen.”
Lana paused. “Gwen? Oh, Jeremy, she’d be terrible for him, do you know how mean she is?”
“So I take it, it wouldn’t be a good idea for him to do something crazy like ask her to homecoming?”
Lana stopped walking. “Seriously? Jeremy, you have to talk him out of it.”
“But why?”
“Because I may not know him, but I don’t want to see him crushed, and that’s what she’ll do to him.”
Jeremy wasn’t looking at her, but Lana sighed. “Look, Jeremy, I’m not proud of it. I’m not proud of some of the people I hang out with. Frankly, most of them are jerks that are more concerned with who is dating who and what shoes to wear then anything about their future. Most of them are that way because they don’t have to worry about their future; mommy and daddy will pay for them. I get it, I get that I’m lucky, but I still want to make a living on my own and not off of what my parents leave me. Not everyone is like that. Gwen is the type of girl who will walk all over Gordon just because she has such low self esteem she likes to see other people suffer.”
“Why the hell do you hang out with people like that?” Isabella said, clearly disgusted. “I mean, I haven’t really brought it up before, but if you don’t even like the people you call friends, why bother?”
Lana shook her head. “I don’t know sometimes. All I know is it’s not as easy as it should be. My family is rich, and everything about me represents that. In a ridiculous way, it’s a part of who I am whether I like it or not. I don’t want to be like them, but it’s like I’m expected to be. It’s only recently that it has been a problem.”
“With Neil?” Jeremy suggested.
Lana nodded. “It’s so stupid, it’s like everyone just expects me to date him because he wants to date me and he’s this jock who most every girl swoons over. In real life, he just wants to screw me for a month or two and then move on the next girl he wants.”
Isabella couldn’t help but give a snort. “Well put. Anyway, if you ever feel like becoming unpopular, we’re all here for you.”
“And if you ever feel like not going hungry, I’m here for you too.” Lana snapped.
Isabella rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I get it. It’s not that easy. I guess I just have a hard time picturing wealth as a burden.”
“It’s not a burden, it’s what comes along with it that is. Look, I’m not saying that it’s any more of a burden than what comes with going hungry or having your home life in a ruin, but most people like me give me a bad name before anyone has a chance to get to know me. I get to live with the prep stereotype and the selfish stereotype. It sucks in its own way.”
Jeremy smiled. “I think everything sucks in its own respect. It’s okay though, Gordon never said anything about asking Gwen, he just likes her a lot. Guess they were even friends in elementary school.”
“I wouldn’t know.” Lana said, shrugging. “They both went to a different school than us.”
“You two were friends in elementary school, weren’t you?” Jeremy asked, timidly.
Isabella and Lana exchanged glances.
“Yes, we were.” Lana said.
“I have to go.” Isabella said. “My Mom will get worried. See you guys.”
As Jeremy and Lana watched Isabella walked away, Lana sighed. “It was a long time ago you know. I never meant it to happen the way it did.”
Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “What exactly happened?”
“Our family situations changed. You know before her Dad became addicted to drugs he worked at a computer company and her Mom stayed at home to watch the kids. They lived in a nice cookie cutter house near the Stonebrook complexes. It was around fourth grade that things changed, right when her little sister was born. At the same time my Dad got promoted and began traveling with his business partner.”
“So what does that have to do with you?”
Lana turned away for a moment to look at the ground. After a moment she looked up again. “I didn’t understand her situation. I didn’t know how to handle it. All of a sudden her whole family was falling apart. She had to move, her Mom started working, they lived at a shelter for a while. It was terrible, but I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even understand my mother, it wasn’t until fifth grade that my Dad was gone so much I had to take care of her.”
“Your Dad knows?”
“He knows alright. He doesn’t care, as long as he doesn’t have to deal with her. He thinks she’s just being selfish and a ‘stupid woman’ as he puts it.”
Jeremy smiled involuntarily. “Sounds like my Dad.”
“Just do me a favor,” Lana said. “And don’t be one of those asshole Dads who doesn’t care and won’t take responsibility for anything including their own children.”
“Those aren’t Dads.” Jeremy said, shaking his head. “They might be biological parents, but that’s not a Dad.”
“Amen.” Lana said.