Blog Story, P4

As Emily would say, MAHALO (weird!) to Elizzy for names!!!! Mahalo means thank you, not an insult as i originally thought. So yes...NAMES!!!!!

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I left as soon as i possibly could. I didnt talk to Eric because i just didnt
feel like dealing. It was his fault anyways, and what with having Science 8th period, i didnt need anymore drama.

Because did i mention that Luke is in my science class? And that he's my partner because every teacher in this stupid school is obsessed with alphabetical order? No, i don't think i did. But needless to say, by the end of the day i felt like i was going to punch the next person who could possibly have been doing something stupid to me in a past life. or something. Basically, i was touchy to the extreme. And Luke is not a good person to be touchy around.

"Okay, here's what's gonna happen, dude," he said, with the most obnoxious look ever on his face. "I don't feel like working, so you're gonna do whatever the hell we need to do with these acid things, and i'm gonna observe."

This guy was in for a major reality check. What i wanted to do was pour the acid all over his head, but the teacher was watching, so i settled for saying, "Um, okay, here's what's really gonna happen, DUDE. YOU'RE going to do something for once in your life and get some test tubes and gloves and stick the test tube in the holder and we're going to do the freaking experiment thing and YOU are going to type the lab report this time." He started to protest. "Unless you want me to stick that test tube somewhere else, you're going to do it NOW." He muttered something rude under his breath and walked off.

That felt better.

Not as good as pouring acidic substances over his snarky head.

But still.

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"Chocolate banana split with two cherries and rainbow sprinkles. Oh, and with a banana."

That part was kind of included in the whole 'banana split' thing, I thought. But that's not what came out of my mouth. Not unless i wanted another lecture on respecting the customer. "That's $4.50, please." I handed the kid the banana split. "There IS a banana in this, right?"

"Look, why do you keep asking that? It's a banana split. It even says BANANA right there on the chalkboard," I said, forgetting about respecting the customer for just one minute.

"Because the last time I ordered this, the guy with the moustache gave me a fish."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. Not again."Well, it's a banana."

He looked doubtful. "You swear?"

I held up my right hand and touched my pinkie with my thumb. "Girl Scout Promise." I'm not a girl scout, but the kid didnt need to know that.

I waited until there was a lull before i started yelling at Ted.

"Ted?"

"Yeah?"

"I had some kid out here about an hour ago who said that you made him a banana split with some interesting ingredients." Silence. "As in, a fish."

More silence.

"Ted, seriously, we talked about this. Mr. Boss will kill you if you do that again and i will have to dispose of the body and it will NOT be pretty. I know what you made in Utah; you explained that to me after the Double Caramel-Pickle Crunch Incedent. But this isnt Utah. It's West Virginia. We're not as, uh, daring around here. So just stick to the classics, okay?" He grumbled and went into the back, probably to find out if we had any roadkill to mix into the Bubblegum Float.

Employees at I-Skreem (har de har har) are usually a little...interesting. I get to boss everyone else around becuase i'm some sort of Junior Manager or something. It kind of worries me that the Junior Manager is 15 and supposed to control people who are up to twice her age and are routinley discovered to be on the run from the law or actually a man. But it pays really good and i get free ice cream to bring home to my siblings.

Suddenly, a huge crash came from outside, followed by an "Oops" and what sounded like six other kids cracking up. And it was getting closer.

Oh, no.

I knew that noise. It was the noise of the absoloute terror that was...my family.

Well, okay, not ALL of them were in my family. But three were. My brothers Dennis and Craig, and my sister, Blaire. The other four were their friends, Alyssa, Natalie, Owen, and Eli. They left the animals outside this time, thank God. But judging from what Owen was wearing, i.e. paint, he had just knocked over the guy touching up the sign outside the hardware store. And the hardware store people arent traditionally the nicest bunch.

And instead of being all, Get out of here, and leaving them to their fate, which i totally should have, I explained to the hardware store man (a balding guy who got toatlly red in the face every time he yelled, which is often, so he spends most of his life looking like a couple of tomatoes lumped on top of each other) that there was no way any kids had ran in here, while the aforementioned kids hid under the counter.

After he left, they started running around back there. "Guys," I said kind of tiredly, "why are you here?"

"Mom's at work, Dad's at work, you're at work," Blaire sang. "Everyone's at work! So we walked here from the bus stop instead of going home on the bus."

Yes, my clueless mother lets my brothers and sister, ages 10 (Dennis), 8 (Craig), and 6 (Blaire), along with their friends (whose ages rage from 11, Owen, to 5, Eli) ride the bus. Not the school bus, either, because we don't really have school buses around here, but the city bus. Or at least she's letting them until she quits her job or i learn to drive or both. Her rationale is that nothing goes on here anyways, so there's no way they'll get abducted or anything like that. I know people whose moms would have rather cut off their left hand than have them ride the bus when they were in kindergarten.

"Does Mom know you guys are here?" I asked, because we basically take care of Alyssa, Natalie, Owen and Eli. Their parents work more than mine do, and for longer, and they do buisness trips.

"No, but you can call her. Now give us ice cream!" Craig demanded, pulling together a couple of tables so they could all sit together.

Which is how i ended up spending my Thursday afternoon doing German homework under the glow of the flourescent lights of I-Skreem, in that tiny little semi-deserted shopping center, babysitting essentially the entire under-12 population of my neighborhood and answering questions about double-didget multiplication until 8 PM, when i took them all home because my mom was too busy and my dad was too busy and their parents were in Australia and i'm expected to because i'm The Responsible One, whether i want to be or not, even at work, and if Ted does that again Mr. Boss won't have to kill him, i'll kill him, and that stupid Luke, why does he have to be my science partner, and Eric is stupid, auditioning for Fiyero, and then i went to bed and fell asleep with all of these thoughts swirling around in my head.