May 1995

“This is so not fair, my life is not fair, I should not be here, I should be home in bed, sleeping.”

 

That is what Jean said to her mother this morning when she dropped her off at the school for detention, she didn’t do anything wrong, she just threw a paperball at the teacher, and so he got angry at her.

 

“I’ll pick you up later, and behave yourself.” Jean’s mother told her.

 

“Yeah mom, whatever.” Jean grabbed her backpack and entered the school building.

 

 

 

“Now, you know Christina, this is the last time you do this to me understood, you know how important your cheerleading career is to you and to your grandmother.

 

“Mom, I know, I already remember the routine anyway, Jeez you don’t have to tell me every second.” Christina muttered.

 

“Ok fine, since you are so wrapped up into boys that is why I have to keep reminding you.” Christina’s mom said quietly.

 

Christina looked at her mom and scoffed, with that she opened the car door , closed it and entered the school building as well.

 

 

 

“I understand dad really, I would practice harder.” Justin muttered. “Just leave me alone for once.” He stepped out of the truck, slammed the door and walked off towards the school. Justin heard the tires screech looking back, he saw some other guys coming in, he just shrugged and continued to walk inside.

 

JC, Lance, and Joey barely knew eachother, they were coming from different backgrounds, and from different directions. The last guy that came in, was a troubled guy with tattoos, named Chris, who he preferred to be called Alan, was listening to his Walkman, the song he was listening to was by “Coolio: Gangstas Paradise” and he was rapping the lyrics out loud:

 

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing' left
'Cuz I've been blasting and laughing so long, that
Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone…

 

 

High School library 7:30am

 

The seven teenagers all sat in different spots in the library, each minding their own business, awaiting for the principal.

 

Just then a middle-aged woman walked into the library, she was wearing a flowery blouse, thick-framed glasses, her grey hair tied into a messy bun, and her lips puckered.

 

“Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in, some of you may or may not know me, and if you do, you obviously don’t care anyway, cause you are all young adults and think that you own everything, ahem, allow me to introduce myself, I’m Mrs. Pumperknickle, and you all will be staying here for eight hours, as for your assignments, I want you to each write your names down, and write an essay, fewer than 1000 words telling me why are you here? Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

 

“Perfectly clear.” Chris spoke out, using his pencil to write on the desk.

 

“You do not write on the desk Mr. Kirkpatrick.” Mrs Pumperknickle said.

 

Chris mocked her, “Oh I’m sorry, I just thought that the desks needed some bit of artwork that’s all, cause you know, they are as plain as your face.”

 

“Watch that mouth of yours, do you hear me? Do you want another detention?”

 

Chris just shrugged.

 

Mrs. Pumperknickle scowled at him and handed out the papers, but continued talking, “I don’t anyone moving out of their seats, no listening to your walkmans, no nothing, I’ll come back later for lunch.” And with that she walked back into her office.

 

 

“This is stupid.” Jean said, looking over at the two sheets in front of her, she sighed and decided to write her name down, her real name was Britney, but she preferred to be called Jean, cause she was sick of her parents expecting so much from her, she liked to sing, but her parents wanted her to be a doctor. She didn’t write her full name on, just her first name, she passed the paper to the young brown-haired blue eyed boy that was sitting on the next seat. Reaching to grab the paper, he took it and thanked her.

 

Jean stared at him for a second, she noticed that he was actually writing something on the other sheet of paper, “Is he actually doing the assignment?”

 

Frowning, she looked back at her own paper, and started to write a few things down as well.

 

 

When it was Justin’s turn to sign his name, he used his middle name instead, which was Randall, just Randall, he then passed the paper back, and they all used their middle names, they didn’t even speak to eachother or anything. Christina didn’t have a nickname or any sort of middle name for that matter, so she was just wrote her own name down.

 

 

Mrs. Pumperknickle then came in again, “Did you written down your names yet? Let me have a look.” Jean handed the paper to her, and she took it.

 

“Hmm, let’s see, “Jean?”

 

Jean raised her hand.

 

“Scott?”

 

JC raised his hand, but didn’t look up from his paper.

 

“Randall?”

 

Justin did the same, but he wasn’t writing, he was playing tic-tac-toe on the paper.

 

“Anthony?”

 

Joey let out a whistle.

 

“James?”

 

Lance did a knock on the desk.

 

Mrs Pumperknickle than called out Christina’s and Alan’s name, who also said they were present.

 

“Ok, so that’s everyone right?”

 

They all nodded.

 

Mrs. Pumperknickle then checked the list and went back to her office.

 

 

After a few minutes, Chris wanted to find something to do, he crumpled the paper up and tossed it in the trash, he looked at the blonde girl in front of him, who was busy drawing some flowers on the paper.

 

“Hey blondie.”

 

Christina turned around and glared at him, “What do you want?”

 

“Are you like, a girly girl? Are you drawing flowers on the paper, when you were supposed to be writing that essay?”

 

“Why does it mean so much to you anyway? I don’t even know you.” She replied.

 

“Because you look like the kind of girl that should finish her work, are you like a popular girl too?”

 

“Can you just leave me alone and let me finish?” Christina sighed and turned her back on him.

 

“Let you finish what? Drawing flowers?” Chris added.

 

And with that Christina got up from the chair and walked to where Jean was sitting.

 

“Hey, we weren’t supposed to move, that’s what Mrs. Bumblebee said.” Chris called out.

 

“It’s not Bumblebee, it’s Mrs. Pumperknickle.” Lance corrected.

 

It was Chris’s turn to glare at him, “Who asked you?”

 

“Well, why don’t you leave her alone Alan, she’s not bothering anyone.” Lance responded, getting up from the chair, trying to put on a brave face.

 

The other guys in the room were all staring, except for JC who was trying to break up the argument.

 

“Hey guys, don’t do this here, we’ll get into even more trouble, you wouldn’t want to spend another Saturday here right?” JC explained.

 

Lance just looked at Chris then grumbled to himself, and plopped down back on the seat.

 

“I thought so.” Chris added, “You are just like all of the others varsity boy.” He then stopped and looked at the corner of the room, he saw a Fuse box and he walked up to it.

 

 

“What is he doing?” Justin asked.

 

“I hope he injures himself.” Lance replied.

 

Chris opened the Fuse box, his idea, was to turn off all of the lights, except for the library and the principal’s office, since her office was next to the hallways, she would notice something wrong. He started to flicker them on and off, then on and off again, then he left them off; and ran back to his seat before the principal came.

 

“What is this?!” They all heard her say in the room, and they could hear footsteps.

 

“What is going on? Who tampered with the lights?”

 

“How should we know about the lights, you told us not to move out of our seats remember?” Chris answered politely.

 

That sent a giggle to Christina and Jean.

 

“You think this funny?” Mrs. Pumperknickle asked the girls.

 

Christina then stopped giggling and shook her head no.

 

“I’m keeping my office door open, I’ll be watching your every move, don’t mess with me.” The principal scowled.

 

“Nobody wants to mess with that old hag anyway.” Chris muttered under his breath.

 

“What was that Kirkpatrick?”

 

“Oh, I said I don’t wanna mess with that old bag right there.” Chris said innocently, pointing at nothing near the doorway.

 

That made the principal look, and as she was looking, he threw a spitball on her hair, she didn’t even notice it, and with that she headed back to the Fuse box to turn all of the lights back on, she was still frowning at them, then she went back to her office, keeping the door open, but the library doors closed.

 

That sent out a laugh in the room.

 

“She didn’t even notice the spitball on her hair.” Joey responded.

 

“Hey, you got the time? That clock is not working.” Justin asked.

 

“It’s only 8:30am dude.”

 

Justin sighed, “Your name’s Anthony right?”

 

Joey nodded slowly, “Yeah?”

 

“Well, this is gonna be a long day for us.”

 

“You said it boy, you said it.” Joey replied and put his head down to take a nap.

 

JC continued to write on his paper, but he too quickly dozed off, he could hear the other girls sitting next to him talking.

 

“So why are you here for?” He heard Christina say..

 

“Well, I threw a paperball at a teacher, that’s it actually, stupid isn’t it?” Jean told her.

 

“Wow, that’s dumb, I got here because I smart talked the teacher, I talked back to her and everything, you don’t seem like the kind of girl who should get in trouble.” Christina said.

 

“That’s what they all say, I’ve seen you around, though you were never in any of my classes.” Jean replied.

 

“That’s true, I have honors classes, the only fun program that I have is a music class.” Christina told her.

 

Jean’s eyes lighted up, “Music class? What block do you have it on?”

 

“Block 5.”

 

“I have Block 7, I never knew you were into music, do you play any instruments or something?”

 

Christina was quiet for a moment than spoke up, “I sing actually.”

 

“Really? I sing too, do you sing any good?”

 

“Well, I guess so, the teacher tells me that I’m a natural.”

 

“My teacher tells me the same thing, and I would like to listen to you sing.” Jean told her.

 

“I would like that, but not in front of these guys.” Christina muttered.

 

Jean didn’t know that Christina and her shared similar interests; they both liked to sing, but never really showed it.

 

Chris was overhearing their conversations, “What are you girls talking about?” He yawned and rubbed his sleepy eyes and went to where they were seated.

 

“Nothing that suits you.” Christina snapped.

 

“Aww, I’m hurt, you girls were talking about music right? I like music, I have a few rock cassettes and CDs in my bag.” Chris took his bag and dumped it on the table.

 

“Don’t put your junk on our desk.” Jean cried.

 

“It’s not your desk; it’s the school library’s desk.” Chris smirked.

 

Jean gave him an eyeroll, but Chris continued his rant.

 

“So anyway, here they are, this one is my favorite, but little innocent girls like you can’t listen, it has explicit lyrics.” Chris whispered.

 

“Oh please.” Christina scoffed.

 

“We aren’t interested in your crappy music, so put that away.” Jean told him.

 

“Its not crappy, some of them aren’t, it has a nice acoustic guitar feel.”

 

“Does it look like we care?” Christina asked.

 

“I guess not, you girls are just like my crappy ass parents, who don’t even freakin care that I exist.” He flipped the middle finger at them, rose up from the seat, gathered up his things and went to go sit on the stairs.

 

The girls were silent for a moment, the noise caused a stir and caused the other guys to wake up from their slumber.

 

“What’s up with him?” Lance said with a yawn.

 

“Nothing he’s just being rude that’s all.” Christina asked.

 

Jean just nodded but was thinking of what Chris said about his parents.

 

“Do you think we were too hard on him? I mean, he only shared a couple of CDs with us, but it wasn’t anything.”

 

“Look Jean, if you have a soft spot for him but go ahead, I know a rude guy when I see one.” Christina said.

 

Jean looked to the direction of the stairs where Chris was sitting, she rose up from the seat and went to where he was.

 

“Alan?” Her voice came out tiny, barely a whisper.

 

“What.” Chris sighed.

 

“Look, I’m sorry if we acted this way to you and we-

 

Chris cut her off, “I’ve been wounded before, it doesn’t bother me really.” He snapped.

 

Christina was listening and decided to go join Jean and Chris.

 

“Music is the only thing that can relax me, besides doing drugs.” Chris continued saying. “And when I overheard that you little princesses were talking about it, I kinda wanted to join you.”

 

Christina and Jean never saw this coming, but when Chris was talking, it was like he wanted to open up to them, like he had no one else to talk to, and if he did, they wouldn’t listen to him anyway because of his crazy lifestyle.

 

“Alan, do your parents treat you bad?” Christina said, she was beginning to feel sorry for him.

 

“They ignore me that’s what they do, my dad especially, he doesn’t care about me.” Chris muttered, he was slient for a moment but didn’t continue talking.

 

JC was listening to the conversation as well, he, Joey, Lance, and Justin were all there. Just then the doors of the library opened, Mrs. Pumperknickle came in, her lips still pursed.

 

“Didn’t I tell you all not to move out of your seats?” She hissed.

 

JC spoke up, “If we don’t move, our legs would fall asleep and can cause a bad circulation, that would be far worse don’t you think so?”

 

Mrs. Pumpknickle glared at him but quickly changed the subject, “It’s lunchtime, you guys all go ahead and get your lunches, a security guard is in the cafeteria waiting for you.”

 

“Yay.” Justin said weakly. He grabbed his jacket from the table and his bag, Joey got his, and everyone grabbed their belongings and headed to the cafeteria, nobody said a word to anybody.

At the cafeteria

Joey broke the silence, “Yeah let me get some potatoes please?”

 

The lunch lady just frowned and splashed the mashed potatoes like it was some sort of mush.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“This food is disgusting, I’ll just have a chicken wing then.” Christina asked making a face.

 

After all the students got their designated lunches, they all sat together on one table. The guard glared at them and blocked the entrance in case they wanted to escape.

 

“Why are they treating us like we’re in freakin jail?” Justin whispered.

 

“Beats me.” Lance replied, pouring some milk on the potatoes and mushing it around.

 

“Eww what are you doing?” Jean asked.

 

“I’m not gonna eat this, its all lumpy.” Lance told her.

 

“Then what are you eating homeboy?” Chris mocked him.

 

“Just this peach, I had a good breakfast this morning.”

 

“Well, lucky you, at least your parents make you breakfast, you know what I get for breakfast? Chris said standing up from the table, he was about to say something but the guard told him to sit down.

 

“Make me!” He shouted back.

 

“Alan, stop, don’t start anything.” Christina whispered to him.

 

The guard approached the table and glared at the students, “Is there a problem here?”

 

“No sir.” JC said.

 

“Then why did you get up from your seat?” He replied looking over at Chris.

 

“Because I wanted to grab an orange, I’m allowed to do that right?” Chris responded in a mocking tone.

 

The guard backed way and told him to get an orange, shortly after he went back to his post, when the guard had his back turned, Chris flashed his middle finger to him, and went back to his seat to join the others.

 

“You guys wanna share an orange?” He asked simply.

 

They all shook their heads no, and sat in silence for a moment, Chris just shrugged and started peeling the fruit.

 

JC was eating his chicken wing and potatoes, like it was last meal or something.

 

“Dude, you can slow down when you’re eating you know.” Justin said looking at him intently.

 

“I always ate like that, it’s not my fault, my mom always used to say to eat everything, leave no plate empty.” JC replied.

 

“Yeah but if your full do you have to eat it?” Jean continued.

 

JC just shrugged and continued eating, after what seemed like hours, the students all cleared out their trays into the trash, and headed to the restrooms to wash up, the principal was waiting for them at the end of the hall.

 

“This woman is everywhere.” Joey muttered.

 

“If I see her hiding in my closet tonight, I’m gonna freak.” Jean added.

 

Mrs. Pumperknickle glared at them from a distance, cause they started to giggle when they were talking about her.

 

“Did you enjoy your lunch?” She said, her lips pursed.

 

“The lunch was very nutritious for us, thank you so much for asking.” Chris replied sarcastically.

 

“Good, now get back to the library.”

 

“Yes ma’am.” Chris gave her a salute, only to reveal his middle finger again when she wasn’t looking.

 

Christina giggled behind him and followed the class to the library, they all sat down in their designated areas.

 

JC looked at his watch, and saw that it was only 12:30 in the afternoon, he looked at the rest of the guys in the room.

 

“What time do we get out of here again?” Jean asked.

 

“I think three, damn, its just like school, only no teachers, and no kids, just us and the principal.” Lance added.

 

“Dude, we are in school you clueless bastard.” Chris said with a scoffed.

 

“On a Saturday.” Lance corrected.

 

“Whatever.” He replied and checked his bag to go find some matches.

 

“Hey, what are you doing?” Justin said, looking up from his seat.

 

“I’m gonna go smoke, what does it look like I’m doing.” Chris muttered.

 

“No, don’t do that in here, the fire alarms might go on and-

 

“Just shut up dweebie.” Chris told him and went into a room in the back of the library.

 

Everyone just stared, Christina was the only one that was fascinated by the situation.

 

Lance caught her staring towards the room. “Don’t even think about it girl.”

 

Christina just shrugged, took her bag, and left to where Chris was.

 

Soon after, Jean followed her, then JC followed her, and Justin followed him, and so on and so forth.

 

“This is so ridiculous.” Lance murmured under his breath, but he quickly gave in, and joined the others.

 

Meanwhile, in the room.

 

“I am the most popular girl in school, everyone loves me.” Christina told them, smoking the cig into her mouth and coughing up a fit.

 

“That’s not how you hold it.” Chris asked.

 

“Well, how do you hold it Mr. Smartypants.” Christina said with an eyeroll.

 

Chris gently took her hand and showed her how to smoke, he looked into her eyes for a minute, and Christina looked into his, she had a strange feeling all of sudden, maybe, just maybe, this guy wasn’t as bad as people thought he was.

 

“Hey guys, what happened, you both seemed lost there.” Jean said, snapping her fingers in midair, taking Chris and Christina out of their daze.

 

Chris cleared his throat and resumed to what he was doing.

 

JC just looked at Jean, she was having trouble lighting a match, “Stupid match.”

 

“You know, you shouldn’t be able to smoke, a girl like you I mean.”

 

“Who asked you? Why should you care?” Jean snapped.

 

“Because its not right for you to smoke, you’re too pretty to smoke.” He told her softly.

 

Jean stopped lighting the match, “I’m pretty?” She said, looking at his cobalt blue eyes, this was the first time that she actually looked at him, he was pretty handsome, and kinda hard to resist.

 

JC nodded slowly but looked away from her, he felt really shy all of sudden.

 

Just then, Lance spoke up, “Hey guys, wanna play a game or something?”

 

“What are playing James?” Chris asked, cleaning his teeth using Christina’s makeup kit.

 

“We are playing cards.” Lance said simply.

 

“I wanna play Strip Poker, we have two girls here, that I would love to see them strip down and bow down before me, giving me a lap dance.” Chris rambled.

 

Jean and Christina cheeks turned a deep shade of red.

 

“Alan, don’t say that.” Justin said.

 

“Oh shut up Randall, you wish a girl can give you a lap dance.” Chris added.

 

“I already had a girl that gave me lap dance.”

 

“Oh yeah? Name one.”

 

“I’m not gonna tell you, that’s my personal business.” Justin told him.

 

“Yeah sure, at least I had my fair encounters.”

 

Joey wanted to stop them their bickering, “Guys, guys hold on a minute, please stop fighting and play the game.”

 

Chris and Justin looked at eachother, and Chris took the cards from Lance.

 

“Ok, in this game, while we play, just shuffle the cards, and let’s just talk, you know expand out horizons a bit.”

 

Chris just scoffed, “Why would I tell you all my stories to a couple of strangers?”

 

“Because it’ll do you good, to pass the time.” Lance added.

 

“Ok, whatever you say James.”

 

They all sat down in a circle and shuffled their cards, and each one of them began to tell their stories.

“No freakin way, no way your parents did that.” Justin told JC.

 

“Oh they did, they want me to do so much for them, and if they did I got sent to bed without supper, which is why I always used to sneak back out, I was hungry, so I went down the street to get a slice of pizza, came back, and they didn’t even notice I was gone.” JC explained.

 

“That’s like my parents though, only mines are a bit softer.” Joey told them. “I like to go out clubbing, and one night, I brought this girl home, we were dead-beat drunk, and we were going at it. My parents walked in on us, well, my dad was the one, and he completely went berserk. He was yelling at me and he offered to drop the girl off home, but he didn’t finish with me yet. He told me is this what I wanted to be for the rest of my life, and I just cursed him out, I ran out of the house that night, and I went to sleep behind an alley, and I stayed there until my parents went to work the next morning.” He explained, his voice cracking a bit.

 

“Oh Anthony, that is just sad.” Jean replied.

 

“It’s alright, tell me what’s your story?”

 

“She doesn’t have any sort of problems, she’s a princess, and not rough and tumble like us.” Chris mocked.

 

“Shut up Alan, I’m actually tired of being little miss rich girl, every morning is the same thing, I have a routine, I can’t do anything at my house, people do stuff for me, and its really annoying, my mom wants me to become some sort of beauty queen, I hate that stuff, what I really like to do is break down my barriers and sing, but she keeps saying that singing doesn’t get you anywhere, its driving me crazy!” Jean let out an aggravated sigh and threw a pencil across the room.

 

“You like to sing?” JC asked, suddenly getting interested.

 

Jean nodded.

 

“How bout you Christina?” He said turning to her.

 

“Oh, I like to sing, me and Jean were talking about it earlier, we are both in the same music class.” She responded.

 

“You’re in the music class too?” Justin asked.

 

The girls nodded, “yeah we just have different blocks.”

 

“I’m on the first block.” Justin said, “anyone else in the music class?”

 

“I’m in Piano IV.” JC said simply.

 

“Piano IV?!” Everyone gasped and turned to him.

 

“What?” His cheeks suddenly pink with embarrassment.

 

“Dude, you have to be really good to get into that class.” Chris replied.

 

“Yeah you have to play like “Mozart” or something to get in.” Justin added.

 

“I know.” JC said, his expression still the same.

 

“Why aren’t you excited about it?” Jean said.

 

“There’s a piano in my house, and my parents don’t let me use it, they think that I might break it or something, and so when they are not home, I play on it, and it really fascinates me, I even wrote my own songs, but nobody knew about it, I just realized that you guys are the only ones that I know about it.” JC said quietly.

 

“That’s amazing!” Christina beamed.

 

“How bout you Alan, you have a musical interest?” Justin said, turning to him.

 

“Blowing my nose.” He joked.

 

That sent out a laugh.

 

“No, I’m serious, do you?”

 

Chris nodded, “I have no music class, but I do have a guitar in the attic at my house that I also play when my parents are out getting drunk, it’s the only time that I feel like I’m someone, and not something. I actually sing sometimes too, but I’m not the best at it.

 

Christina stared at him for a moment, maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all, sure he had a criminal streak, but inside, he was actually really nice, and she didn’t know why, but she was beginning to fall for him.

 

Justin then told his story about how his dad, wants him to play basketball, and to have a career off of it, he said he may be interested in it, but he also likes to have a career in music, maybe pop or hip-hop.

 

Lance was the last one for his story, he was a born and raised country boy, his dad wanted him to be a farmer; and to stay there, and he said that he didn’t want to be in his father’s footsteps, so he got up and left the farm and went to live with his grandmother, who he loved dearly. He was in theatre class.

 

“Wait a minute, you’re in theatre class?” Joey asked.

 

Lance nodded, “Yeah I have it for the last block.”

 

“Me too.” He replied, in fact, that was the only place where he can get away and be free of his troubles at home.

 

“What block you have it?” Lance responded.

 

“Block four.” Joey added shuffling the cards once more.

 

It’s funny that they were telling eachother their own stories about their lives, in which Lance has wanted, he didn’t like to see people arguing, and he felt that this bunch could prove that they can overcome whatever trouble they have been having, it felt really nice, cause it was actually the first time, that they were all smiling.

 

“Tell you what, how do you think we sound if we sing all together?” Chris said.

 

“Just us guys?” Justin replied.

 

“Yeah, I think the girls could sing solo, but we’ll check first.”

 

“Ok, so what do we sing?” Lance added, putting the cards back in the box.

 

“How bout the Star-Spangled Banner, that seems simple enough.” JC told them.

 

The guys remained sitting on the floor, while Jean and Christina watched.

 

When they all sang, something magical was in the air, they sang like professionals, from beginning to the end, it was like they were meant to sing together, when they finished, the room was so silent that you can hear a pin drop.

 

“Wow.” Christina gasped.

 

“Wow is right!” Jean whispered, “You guys sound amazing!”

 

“We may be onto something here guys.”  Joey responded with a grin.

 

“Alright girls, your turn, let’s see what you got.” Justin said, turning to them.

 

It was Christina singing the national anthem, and she had a voice, it was breathtaking.

 

“Did that come out of you little girl?” Chris asked, his mouth open in shock.

 

Christina nodded, suddenly feeling very shy.

 

“That was great!” Jean asked.

 

“It was Jean’s turn to sing, her voice was melodic and soothing, like a lullaby, it wasn’t powerful like Christina’s, but her voice was just as good as hers.

 

“Your voice reminds me of a spring festival or something.” Lance said.

 

“It’s beautiful.” JC replied.

 

Jean felt her cheeks grow hot, nobody said that her voice was beautiful, sure, her teachers said it, but not her fellow peers, JC was still staring at her, then suddenly looked away and looked at his clock.

 

“Hey, we have two hours left.”

 

“That’s good, so what are we gonna do, are we gonna see eachother again, cause I consider you guys my friends, and I don’t want to go back to that old lifestyle.” Chris explained.

 

“It doesn’t have to be.” Christina said with a smile.

 

“Oh and guys, my name is not really Jean.” She said.

 

“It’s not?” Chris asked.

 

“No, it’s Britney, Britney Spears, Jean is just my middle name, I just used it, cause I didn’t know you guys well, so I figured, I should be honest here.”

 

“Britney Spears? I like it, it has a nice little ring to it.” JC smiled.

 

Chris cocked his eyebrow and chuckled a bit, “It’s funny, cause I also used my middle name.”

 

“You mean, your name is not Alan?” She asked.

 

“No, that’s my middle name, my real name is Chris, Chris Kirkpatrick.”

 

“Same here.” JC said, with a wave of his hand, “my middle name is Scott, my real name is Josh Chasez, but you can call me JC, it fits better.”

 

Then it was Justin’s turn to laugh.

 

“What about you Randall?” Chris joked.

 

“I hate that middle name.”

 

“What?” You too?”

 

“Just call me Justin, Justin Timberlake.” He grinned.

 

“I’m Joey Fatone” Anthony is my middle name.

 

“Wow, so you all were just going by your middle names?” Lance added.

 

They all nodded.

 

“Well, in that case, I’m Lance, Lance Bass.” James is my first name, but I like Lance better.”

 

“Bass? As in the instrument or the fish?” Chris joked.

 

They all laughed, and were thinking who was gonna write the essay.

 

“We don’t all have to write it, just one of us could.” Britney replied.

 

“What was the essay about again?” Justin said scrunching his face.

 

“It was something that why we were in detention and all that crap.” Joey added.

 

“Well, I’ll write it then.” JC took a sheet a paper and started to write what he thought about today and why they were all in detention.

 

 

2:55pm

“Finished!” JC called out to them with a big smile on his face, he looked at the paper again and kissed it.

 

“Leave it on the desk; hopefully dragon breath would emerge from her cave.” Chris joked, grabbing his jacket.

 

JC agreed and left the paper on the desk and started to gather his things.

 

“Where’s my lip gloss?” Christina called out from the back of the room.

 

“You don’t have to be worried about the lip gloss Christina, they have a bunch of other flavors just like it.” Britney said with an eyeroll.

 

“I know, but I like that one, its my favorite.”

 

Britney sighed and grabbed her bag, and held the door open.

 

“Thanks doll.” Joey grinned.

 

Britney just smiled at him, and soon after the library was empty and they all headed into the hallway and there was Mrs. Pumperknickle waiting for them with her lips pursed, she was blocking their exit.

 

“Where are your assignments?” She hissed.

 

“On the desk in the room.” Chris replied simply.

 

“You all did the assignments?”

 

“Yes.” They all said in unison.

 

The principal let out a “hmm.” and still stared at them.

 

“Uh miss, we have to go now, our parents are waiting outside, so if you excuse me.” Lance slowly and cautiously moved towards the door and opened it. Beautiful sunlight shined on their faces.

 

Justin breathed out a sigh of relief, “Ahh, this feels so great! Freedom! Woo hoo!” He started jogging out and into the front of the school.

 

“So are we gonna see eachother again?” Chris asked Christina.

 

“Hopefully.” And with that she gave him a light kiss on his lips.

 

Chris eagerly kissed her back, she then quickly stepped away cause her parents had just arrived.

 

“See you Monday.” She told him.

 

Chris just nodded and waved at her, and walked towards the back of the school.

 

“Smooth move Chris.” Joey said with a wink, “I’ll see you soon man, take care of yourself.”

 

“Same goes for you.”

 

JC and Britney were both sitting on the stone steps of the school, lightly conversing with eachother;  JC had a smile on his face.

 

“What’s so funny?” Britney asked him.

 

“Its amazing that we all came here for detention this morning; and in those eight hours, we found out that we have a few things in common with eachother.”

 

Britney nodded, “Yeah.” She turned to look at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

 

“What was that for?”

 

“Oh that’s just something.” She shrugged.

 

“No, that’s not something, this is something.” JC cupped her cheek and gave a sweet kiss on her lips.

 

She eagerly returned the kiss back and stopped when she heard a car horn, looking up, it was her mom.

 

“I gotta go JC, see you on Monday.” She said with a wink.

 

JC waved at her and watched her leave, he then got up and walked towards the direction to his house.

 

“Hey man, you need a ride?” Justin asked.

 

“Sure.” JC hopped into the backseat of the car, and told Justin and his dad where he lived.

 

“No kidding man, you live right on the next block as me.” Justin said surprised.

 

JC smiled, “Yeah we need to get together you know, and talk more about music.”

 

“I like that idea.”

 

Justin’s dad cleared his throat for a moment, “What’s this about music?”

 

“I’ll tell you about it soon dad, we are still working on it.” Justin told him.

 

JC just nodded and continued lightly conversing with them until the drive home.

 

Meanwhile back inside the school

The principal made her way back to the library, she saw the paper on the table and silently read the note to herself:

 

Dear Mrs. Pumperknickle

We accept the fact that we had to spend a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think it's stupid for you to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms and in the most convenient definitions; we found out is that each of us is a perfectionist, a basketball player, a football player, a nobody, a princess, a good girl, and a badboy. But little did we all that by the end of this ordeal, we found out that even if we all came from different backgrounds, we realized that we are all the same, in the most common way, singers/musicians/dancers that’s right pop stars, you don’t have to believe us if you don’t want to, but one day we are gonna tell the world who we are, the seven of us, we are gonna be treated fairly, and people are gonna respect us, did that answer your question?

Sincerely Yours,
The Seven of Clubs…go ahead, play the cards right.