FRIDAY EVENING

  OCTOBER 19th, 2011

  CALVERT STADIUM

  KEOUK SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

  KEOKUK, IOWA

  PLANET (AESHLARA) EARTH

  THE (SAAUDA) MILKY WAY GALACTIC SECTOR

  “And there goes Russell at the fifteen… The ten… THE FIVE! TOUCHDOWN CHIEFS!!!!” cried out Keokuk Senior High School Athletics Announcer/Civics teacher, Mister Patrick ‘Pat’ Hogan, from up in the Calvert Football/Track & Field Stadium’s Press Box after Varsity Running Back, eighteen-year-old senior classman Joshua William Russell, ran in the opposing team’s End Zone for a touchdown.

  The game was now tied in score at twenty-eight to twenty-eight.

  The Keokuk Chiefs were playing against the Mount Pleasant Panthers in their fourth game this year’s football season.

  Keokuk was ‘Three-In-O’ looking to continue on with their winning streak for their highly anticipated Homecoming Game the next week’s Friday, which was set to be played against the Fort Madison Bloodhounds; their county seat rivals.

  After tying the game ‘Twenty-Eight to Twenty-Eight’ (due to a ‘Safety’ earlier in the game) and with only thirty seconds left on the clock, starting Varsity Quarterback, eighteen-year-old senior Brenton Ryan Fuller, called a huddle.

  Josh joined the huddle last after tossing the football back to one of the referees.

  Once he was in the huddle, Josh cheered, “C’mon, guys! WE’RE STILL IN THIS!!!!”

  “Nice job, Josh,” commended fellow senior and starting Varsity Left Guard, Alex Goss.

  “Thanks, Big Al,” Josh nodded back at his friend/teammate whilst smirking behind his glossy purple football helmet’s white painted facemask.

  “Hey, Superstar… GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!” ‘Brent’ barked at Josh with his brow lowered, who he had been best friends with since they were in preschool together.

  Josh directed his attention towards Brent and narrowed his eyes as the fair-skinned, black-spiky-haired, and bright green-eyed twelfth grader announced, “Alright, everyone… LISTEN THE FUCK UP! Coach Dodds wants us to go for the ‘Field Goal’… BUT I SAY SCREW THAT SHIT! We’re goin’ for the two-point conversion!”

  The Starting Offense all gasped in shock and confusion as fellow twelfth grader and Starting Right Guard, Wesley Bradley, asked, “Two point conversion??? Why the hell would we do that, Brent? We’re tied. Why risk a Turn-Over???”

  Glaring at Wesley, Brent ripped, “Because I’m the Captain of the team and what I say goes! IGHT?!”

  “Co-Captain,” Josh coughed, gaining a quick-glare from Brent (whom he shared the ‘Captains Role’ of the Varsity Football Team with).

  Wesley shook his head as Starting Varsity Wide Receiver/Twelfth Grader, Darrion Sanders, said, “If that’s what you really wanna do, Brent… THEN LET’S DO IT. Pass it to me… I can make it.”

  “It’s not going to you, Darrion,” Brent bitterly seared towards his teammate.

  Other Starting Varsity Wide Receiver/Twelfth Grader, Dan Williams, asked out of pure curiosity, “Why won’t you pass the ball to Darrion, Brent? He has the best hands on the team. What would Coach Dodds say about this???”

  “TO HELL WITH DODDS,” Brent blared. “This is MY team! NOT HIS! I make the calls around here! Y’all got that?!”

  Dan and Darrion both rolled their eyes right along with ‘Big Wes’ as Brent looked to his fellow ‘co-captain’ and said, “JOSH… I’m gonna pass it to you.”

  Josh didn’t respond. He just looked off over at the ‘Homeside Crowd’.

  Lowering his sweat-laden brow even more than it already was, Brent shouted, “JOSH!!!!”

  “Huh? Yeah?” Josh asked after returning his ‘drifting’ attention back over to Brent.

  Grunting in annoyance, Brent said again, “Josh… You’re getting the ball after the ‘fake kick’... SO BE FUCKING READY.”

  “Ah, okay,” Josh nodded in understanding. “And why aren’t we going for the Field Goal again???”

  With rage BURNING in his bright green eyes, Brent shouted, “Just be ready! Green Eight on ‘two’... BREAK!!!”

  The huddle then broke up as the Starting Offense went back to their positions on the Fort Madison goal line.

  Josh went to his position in distaste because he thought that ‘passing the ball to him’ was ‘overkill’... AS WELL AS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING STUPID.

  Any other ‘sane player’ would just go for the obviously easy ‘extra point field goal’... But Brent always lost all sense of ‘sanity’ and ‘reasoning’ whenever he was questing for ‘gridiron glory’.

  _

  Whilst the ‘Starting O’ got ready out on the field, located up in Keokuk Senior High’s ‘Student Section’ over on the far-left side of the ‘home side bleachers’ were four ‘particular’ junior classmen.

  Their names were Derek Clark Bentley, Kyler Lee Gordon, Erickson Rhett Lang, and Jameson Orgoglio Hunter.

  Having all been friends since kindergarten, these four ‘social rejects of the HIGHEST order’ sat all by their lonesome high up in the student section with the rest of the ‘freaks, geeks, and absolute social pariahs’ whilst the other more ‘popular, high-class’ students crowded around the bottom first three rows.

  The ‘mid-level’ popular students… or ‘average students’ sat in the middle level rows of the Student Section between the ‘Preps’ and ‘Losers’… But nobody cares about them.

  As Kyle, Eric, and Jim argued with one another over trying to ‘find a party’ to go to after the game had finished, Derek had his eyes set on none other than… THE VARSITY CHEER SQUAD.

  Amongst the several cheerleaders, it was their one of two Captains, Senior Classwoman Amber Swanson, who always held his eye the most.

  Amber was eighteen-years-old, the ‘Queen Bee’ of ‘Social Hierarchy’ at K.H.S… AND one of the most beautiful girls on the face of the Earth (so Derek thought).

  She had long and flowing, brass-colored-hair, perfect green eyes, and soft, milky-skin.

  Being the ‘Co-Captain’ Varsity Cheerleader for K.H.S., Amber was down on the ‘reddish-orange’ colored track performing a ‘cheer routine’ with the rest of her team.

  Cheering right alongside Amber was her fellow ‘co-captain’, best friend, and SECOND ‘hottest chick’ at K.H.S. (so Jim thought), Layla Check.

  Amber, Layla, and the rest of the all-female Varsity Cheer Squad were all brandished in their ‘purple and white’ cheerleader outfits that had the school's ‘Big Purple ‘K’’ logo stitched over their chests.

  Whilst Amber shook her ‘purple and white pom-poms’ around in the air over her head for the Home Crowd Fans, Derek watched her from his place alongside his lowly friends with a mesmerized look in his eyes.

  “JIM… How in the hell did you find out that Layla was having an ‘after party’ tonight,” Kyle asked whilst narrowing his ‘baby-blue-eyes’ at his half-Italian, half-Irish ‘friend’ (I say this term very loosely).

  “BRO… I already fuckin’ told you,” Jim erupted with a very erratic look on his ‘olive-skinned’ face. “She sent me the invite *via text* in Study Hall today!”

  Shaking his shaggy head of blond hair, ‘pale-skinned’ Kyle replied, “Mm-hmm. Via text, you say??? Y’know, Jimbo, I smell bullshit lingering in the air… A LOT OF IT.”

  Out of habit, Jim slicked back his ‘over-product gelled’ brown hair whilst he snapped, “DUDE, I’m not lying! I swear to GOD that Layla ‘BODY-KARATE’ Check invited me to her house party tonight!”

  “Okay… So now you’re going to Hell, Jim. How’s that feel?”

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “Shit, fool! With all the other bad shizz I’ve done in life, hell won’t be any different!”

  Kyle then rolled his eyes as Eric said, “Jim, the only… ‘bad shizz’ that you’ve probably done in your life is color outside of the lines in a coloring book.”

  “You know what, E? You're right,” Jim nodded, causing Eric to scrunch his brow in bewilderment briefly.

  Slicing his straightened right hand across the air slowly in front of himself, Jim said in a ‘nineteen seventies radical-stoner’ kinda way, “The lines of society…”

  “Dingus… You’re so fuckin’ lame that it actually pains me,” Eric replied whilst rolling his eyes and shaking head as Jim chuckled giddily.

  Looking over at Derek, Kyle asked, “Yo, D… What do you think? Derek? Uh… EARTH TO D-BENT???”

  Realizing that his ‘best friend’ was staring at Amber (like he always did whenever she was around) Kyle sighed, “Ugh… Man. What a damn shame. Yo, E… Check this sad-ass-shit out.”

  Looking at Derek now, Eric muttered, “Jeez… Not again. This is like the FIFTH FUCKING TIME tonight that he’s done this.”

  As Kyle and Eric shook their heads in disgust, Jim looked down at Derek and grinned.

  “DEREK! YOU FUCKING CREEP! STOP STARING AT AMBER!!!” Jim blurted, causing EVERYONE (including the Varsity Cheer Squad) to ALL look up at him and the rest of his ‘socially classless’ friends.

  Eyes widened and jaw dropped, Derek sat in frozen-awkward-shock as Jim rose and ‘formally addressed’ whilst holding up his hands above his overly-gelled haired head, “FRET NOT, FELLOW K.H.S. PEERS! THE J-MAN’S GOT THIS SHIZZ-NIT ALL UNDER CONTROL!!!”

  “SHUT YO ASS UP, HUNTER,” Senior Classman, Tyrell Stone, the greatest All-State Track Star K.H.S. had ever seen, shouted/threatened up at Jim from down, front and center in the first row of the Student Section.

  “Oh yeah?! OR WHAT?!” Jim shouted back down at Tyrell, causing everyone… And I mean EVERYONE in the Student Section to all widen their eyes in shock… AND FEAR.

  “Jim, for the love of God… SIT DOWN,” Kyle said in a ‘petrified’ tone to his ‘very fucking foolish’ peer.

  “Heh, heh… Shit,” Eric chuckled at Jim’s expense. “You’re in for it now, Dingus.”

  Lowering his brow, Tyrell asked, “WHAT WAS THAT… BITCH?!”

  “Oh fuck,” Jim uttered as he finally realized the totally ‘heinous act’ that he had just committed by ‘running his fucking mouth’ to the ‘wrong person’... AGAIN.

  “Wanna run yo mouth some more, bitch?!” Tyrell shouted up at the physically and mentally frozen Eleventh Grader. “Want me to come up there and BEAT YO ASS like I did the first week of school this year?!”

  “Ah, that was a fuckin’ BRUTAL beating,” Eric remarked to both Kyle and Derek whilst Jim started to sweat literal ‘nuclear missiles’ from his forehead and cheeks. “I STILL can’t believe Tyrell made Dingus drink his OWN bottle of Hair Gel. Ha-Ha! CLASSIC!”

  “Leave him alone, Ty!” Layla called out to the Track Star, who she had an ‘unspoken, strictly physical-based’ relationship with… Even though everybody at School knew it… Even Jim, who REFUSED to believe it and referred to the notion as ‘fucking bullshizz-it, fool’. “He’s a ‘Special Kid’ from my Study Hall Hour! He doesn’t know what he’s saying!”

  Jim’s face then dropped as both Kyle and Eric immediately burst out in hysterical laughter (Eric more than Kyle, of course).

  Looking back up at Jim, Tyrell snapped, “Sit yo ass down, you fuckin’ freak,” before returning his own seat.

  Jim immediately collapsed to his seat alongside his friends as Tyrell and the others went back to watching the game.

  “God, Jim… That was FUCKING hilarious,” Eric chuckled at the expense of his totally embarrassed and scared shitless ‘friend’.

  “Fuck you, Eric,” Jim snapped back whilst his fellow peer continued to laugh at his plight.

  “I mean, like, Layla even joined in on it,” Eric continued whilst Jim seethed alongside him. “And THE BEST PART is that she thinks you’re…”

  “FUCK YOU, ERIC!!!” Jim blared at his supposed ‘friend’, causing him to laugh and cackle even louder.

  “I wuh-wanna guh-guh-go home nuh-nuh-nuh-now,” fumbled Derek (who had a constant stuttering problem) as Kyle looked over at him in confusion.

  “Home? But why, Der,” Kyle asked his also ‘totally embarrassed’ best friend in confusion. “There’s like thirty seconds left in the game… AND WE’RE TIED.”

  “Yeah, D… This shit’s just NOW startin’ to get good,” Eric stated once his ‘ravenous bouts of laughter’ at Jim’s expense faded out.

  “I second ‘Duh-Duh-Derek’,” Jim followed whilst ‘crudely’ making fun of his friend’s stutter.

  POW!

  “OW! Da hell was that for, you fucking douche,” Jim yelled at Kyle after being stuck in the arm by his fist.

  “For making fun of Derek’s stutter, you fucking prick,” Kyle raged in Jim’s face.

  Brow scrunched, Jim was about to ‘stupidly’ reply until he was struck in his other arm.

  “OUCH! HEY,” Jim shouted angrily. “Da fuck, Eric?! Why’d you do that shit?!”

  “‘Cause you’re a douche-bag for making fun of Derek’s stutter… AND because Kyle hit you. I thought it looked like fun,” Eric smirked.

  Whilst Jim ‘scowled’ at Eric, Kyle focused his attention back on Derek to ask, “You ‘good’, bro?”

  “I juh-juh-just wanna guh-go huh-huh-home,” Derek stuttered, causing Kyle to feel bad for him.

  Patting Derek on his back now, Kyle nodded, “Alright, man. Fine. I’ll drop you off at your crib after the game… Sound gucci?”

  “HEY… Aren’t your ‘rents spposed to be outta town this weekend, D,” Jim asked Derek as the pain in his arms started to subside.

  “Yuh-Yeah,” Derek replied. “Thu-They’re up in Nuh-Nuh-North Puh-Point at muh-muh-my Aunt Sh-Sh-Sh…”

  “Shauns?” Kyle asked Derek with a grin, to which Derek nodded.

  “Oh really? Well, that’s interesting,” Jim said in a suspicious vocal tone before turning to Kyle. “What about you, Gordon? Is ‘the Captain’ hauled up at Fort Breyer this weekend?”

  “Yeah,” Kyle replied in a sour tone. “My Dad’s gone ‘til Monday… So I’ve got the house to myself all weekend.”

  “Gee, what a coincidence,” Jim gleefully cheered before finally turning to Eric.

  “ERIC! What about you, lame-ass? Are you ‘sans parents’ as well???”

  “ONE… Go fuck yourself,” Eric bitterly spurred back at Jim, who snickered at him. “And ‘yeah’... Even though it’s NONE of your fucking business, Jim. Ugh… My Mom’s out with Sampson tonight… And Sam’s going to a ‘Punk Band Party’ in some dingy-ass basement up in Fort Maddie so I’m ridin’ solo at my crib as well.”

  “Ah, so FINE-ASS Evelyn is gettin’ RAW-DOGGED by your ‘soon to be stepdaddy’ tonight, eh? THAT’S HOT AS FUCK, DUDE,” Jim joked, causing Eric to LITERALLY almost go full ‘Rambo-Mode’ on him… Until Kyle got him to calm down… For now.

  As Derek, Kyle, and Eric went back to watching the game Jim’s eyes lit up.

  “Well, call me crazy for proposing this ingenious idea,” Jim started. “But if Derek’s too sick to go out and we can’t go to Layla’s for some unknown reason… Even though WE ARE INVITED, why don’t we just have our own little shindig, boys? Eh? What do you say about that, Ky-Ky?”

  Eric glared at Jim as Kyle said, “No way, man. Not at my place. Y’know my crib’s like a museum. Come Monday morning when my Dad’s back, if he finds so much as a chair out of place then he’s gonna make me do push ups ‘til my fuckin’ arms fall off.”

  Nodding, Jim said, “Alright then… So you’re out. What about you, Eric?”

  Eric shook his head as he asked, “Y’serious?”

  “What? You said it yourself. Sam’s gonna be gettin’ in ‘mosh pits’ until dawn up in GODFORSAKEN Fort Madison… AND your ‘fine-ass’ mom’s gonna be too preoccupied going all ‘reverse cowgirl’ on Sampson in his Escalade down at the river so your place is obviously gonna be empty.”

  “Why you son of a…”

  Leaning forward, Kyle looked at Eric and said, “Not here, Dude.”

  Gritting his teeth at Kyle, Eric looked back over at Jim and growled, “Urgh… You’re lucky we’re in a public place, Dingus.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Jim replied whilst rolling his eyes and ‘waving off’ Eric. “Calm your titts, broseph.”

  Eric growled again as Jim looked down at Derek and said, “Welp, that leaves you, Derry-boy. So, whaddya say? You down to throw ‘a bash’ at your crib, homie?”

  Derek was about to speak until everyone in the homestands rose up out of their seats.

  Derek, Kyle, Eric, and Jim all did the same as they directed their attention out onto the football field… Where the real action was about to begin.