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You Killed Wesley Payne

Page 29

by Sean Beaudoin

noun

  A word used to verbally test the identity of spies, soldiers, or foreigners. If you’re a night sentry and someone approaches your post, for example, you might say, “What is the frequency, Kenneth?” not because you thought the soldier on the other side would actually know the frequency, but because if he cannot correctly pronounce Kenneth without an accent, you start shooting. The word lollapalooza was often used by American soldiers as a shibboleth during WWII.

  Shorthairs |‘schort airz|

  noun

  Those which one should neither pluck nor shave, but by which one may, in the end, be dragged around.

  Sitting on Your Ham |sett in’ on yah hem|

  phrase

  Being lazy. Coasting. Parking your donk at the end of the bench and refusing to move. Trading up three jeans sizes in one semester. Ordering a pair of McGriddles to go with your order of four McGriddles. Flipping channels. Chillaxin’. Adding a few more broken lamps to the pile of junk that’s already flowing out of your big ol’ steamer trunk.

  ALTERNATE: “Get up off of that ham right now, young lady, and come help swab your brother!”

  Sleep with Danger (Mother May I?) |sle pah wif dan jur|

  phrase

  Oh my Bob, Tori was so good in that.

  Doing something outrageous and possibly illegal.

  Slide |sld|

  verb (past: slid|slid|) [intrans.]

  Sex.

  Move along a smooth surface while maintaining continuous contact. Ex: Same thing.

  Snooper |cnu puhr|

  noun—pejorative

  A guy who sneaks into your room and goes through your drawers, finds something embarrassing, and shows it to everybody.

  ALTERNATE: Creeper |kree puhr|

  A guy who sneaks into your room, goes through your drawers, finds your underwear, and keeps it. Also see: Fat man on Internet chatting as goth girl named Kendra who just got in a big fight with her stepmom about navel piercings.

  The Snouts |‘sah knout|

  noun

  Cops. See also: Police, Fuzz, Le Flic, the Man, the Filth, Pigs, Po-lice, Five-O, the Constabulary, the Federales, Johnny Law.

  ALTERNATE: The Snout Huts |‘sah knout hyut|

  noun

  Cop shop. Po-lice station. Downtown. The lockup. The brig. The stripey hole. Attica. The cooler. Inside. Suge’s pad. The Turkish bath. Motel Six years without parole. The pokey. Maximum.

  “The Spanish Inquisition” |spensh qui sitsh un|

  noun

  A skit by the comedy troupe Monty Python rumored to be based on a real historical event, where Cardinal Ximenez tortures someone with a dish rack and a “comfy chair.” If you ask your uncle Morty about it this Thanksgiving, he will immediately launch into the world’s worst English accent and recite all the dialogue from memory, causing not a single person to laugh, and resulting in Aunt Alice storming into the kitchen to eat her way through an entire tray of leftover Stove Top Stuffing.

  Spinderella |speen da rhel la|

  noun

  A girl with a reputation for lying, thus giving you “the spin.”

  ALTERNATE: Spinderfella |speen da fel la|

  A politically correct inclusion of the reverse gender slur that no one actually ever uses, but will make certain people feel better. Or at least less likely to sue.

  Splashbox |‘splash bôcks|

  noun

  Bathroom.

  ALTERNATE: Lungbox |lng bôcks|

  noun

  A splashbox people are known to smoke in.

  Sploets |‘spah low etz|

  noun

  Guys who write haiku about the Super Bowl and odes to the ’27 Yankees.

  Ex:

  Joltin’ Joe hit the ball

  And then ran so very fast

  His team scored and then they

  Won

  Stanley Kubrick |coo brook|

  person

  Notoriously perfectionist film director who made a handful of films that count among the greatest of all time. The Shining, in which an old hotel’s elevator doors repeatedly open to release thousands of gallons of blood, is essentially a series of indelibly frightening images some writers are relegated to carrying around for a lifetime as a result of having seen it at far too young an age. Poor Scatman Crothers gets it at the end. He could easily also have been named Catman Scrothers.

  Stylish |‘st lish|

  adjective

  The opposite of its usual meaning, typically said with acid irony.

  Take a Sniff |tek uh shniff|

  verb

  Leave quickly. Being told to leave.

  Tear a New Clasp |tare ah nu klasp|

  verb

  To lay into someone verbally, or dress someone down.

  Thank Bob |thuh anq bhap|

  phrase

  What you say when you want to lard some appreciation on a higher power, but realize it’s probably not something that’s important enough to bother the deity with. “Thank Bob, you remembered to bring the mayonnaise.”

  ALTERNATE: “Oh my Bob!”

  Tuned Up |twooned op|

  verb

  Given a beating.

  Tunguska Event |ton gus cah iv int|

  noun

  An explosion in Siberia in 1908 that knocked down 80 million trees over 2,200 square miles and is thought to have had five times the power of a thermonuclear bomb. While most scientists agree the blast came from a meteorite or comet, there are those who think the source was alien, with a Heavy Raider crash being the most frequently espoused theory. If that is the case, the blast is more than 74 percent likely to have been Cylon in nature.

  Uddersuck |uh der sahk|

  adjective—pejorative

  Really, really bad.

  The Velvet Underground |vev et un dah grund|

  noun

  The band for people who think every other band blows. These people are pretty much right. Hey, man, they had a female drummer in 1965.

  Vines |vhines|

  noun

  Nice clothes.

  A ridiculously sharp outfit.

  Voltaire |volt air|

  person

  François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694–May 30, 1778). Quite possibly the coolest, funniest, most bad-arse French Enlightenment figure you’ve never heard of. The original crackstar. Seriously, everyone should have a Voltaire poster above his bed.

  War Paint |whoor paynt|

  noun

  Makeup. Usually tending to be on the heavy side.

  Where’s the Opera? |‘warez thuh hop rah|

  phrase

  What’s your hurry?

  ALTERNATE: Who’s Singing Opera?|whoze cing ing hop rah|

  phrase

  What’s the big rush?

  Whiskey Lick |whus kee lek|

  noun

  The state of being way too hot.

  Why Can’t You People Understand What I’m Going Through? |y kent u pe ple un ne stan wha I gone throo|

  phrase

  After many, many years of study, like a demi-glace made from boiling down thousands of meat bones into a delicate spoonful of complimentary sauce, this sentence has been scientifically proven to be the single phrase in which the entirety of the awkward, mortifying, painful, hormonal, vain, transparent, overweight, undersexed, and ultimately ludicrously impossible experience that is human adolescence can be distilled.

  Wilson Pickett |‘wul sen pek et|

  person

  Shake that thing. The man who put raw in raw. The man who put raspy in raspy. The man who put soul in soul. Stax of wax. Download him now.

  Yalta |yahl tah|

  place

  Where Donna Summer, Bruce Willis, Stalin, and one of the Jonas Sisters met to decide the fate of modern Europe after World War II.

  Zoot Suit |zute sute|

  noun

  High-waisted, tight-legged, pegged hipster vines that were the Members Only jackets of the 1940s. Seriously wide lapels and padded shoulders. Killer-diller drape s
hape with a watch chain dangling down like the hippest Pachuco around.

  Zounds |za ow nahs|

  noun

  How Kurt Tarot says “sounds.”

  Contents

  WELCOME

  SALT RIVER HIGH CLIQUE CHART

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER 1: HOW DALTON CAME TO SCHOOL

  CHAPTER 2: A BUCKET HALF EMPTY

  CHAPTER 3: EYES LIKE BURNING FIRE. AS OPPOSED TO THE OTHER KIND.

  CHAPTER 4: WHEREIN DALTON GOES TO THE SHOP FOR A MAJOR TUNE-UP

  CHAPTER 5: YES, IT’S A FLASHBACK

  CHAPTER 6: A SNOUT’S WORTH OF TLC

  CHAPTER 7: BLOOD EUCLIDIAN

  CHAPTER 8: SOMETIMES A SEXY NOTION

  CHAPTER 9: BINGO BANGO BONGO. DESTINY.

  CHAPTER 10: TWO HALF-BEEF PATTIES, NOT-SO-SPECIAL SAUCE

  CHAPTER 11: KNEE-DEEP IN NURTURE, NATURE TAKES A WALK

  CHAPTER 12: TWO EGGS, CRISPY BACON, AND A UNIT OF TURD SLURPING CEREAL

  CHAPTER 13: ALL ALONG THE DONGTOWER

  CHAPTER 14: THE MEETING AT YALTA

  CHAPTER 15: SALT RIVER STEEL

  CHAPTER 16: CAUGHT DEAD-HANDED

  CHAPTER 17: CRACKSTAR NOIR

  CHAPTER 18: MAMA, DON’T TAKE MY KODACHROME AWAY

  CHAPTER 19: CLIQUE. CLICK. BANG.

  CHAPTER 20: THE REVENANT

  CHAPTER 21: FLASHBACK II: TIME IS FALLIBLE, HEROES LIVE OR DIE

  CHAPTER 22: REVIVE ME HIGH

  CHAPTER 23: KISS FIST, EAT FLOOR

  CHAPTER 24: TERMS OF ESTRANGEMENT

  CHAPTER 25: RIVER SHALLOW, MOUNTAIN LOW

  CHAPTER 26: A MAN OF WEALTH AND TASTE

  CHAPTER 27: REVIVE ME HIGH

  CHAPTER 28: IF IT HADN’T BEEN FOR THE MEDDLING OF YOU DAMN SKIDS

  CHAPTER 28 ½: WHAT, YOU’VE NEVER SEEN A FRENCH MOVIE BEFORE?

  CHAPTER 29: I SENT THE MALCONTENT

  CHAPTER 30: WILL THE REAL JETT RINK PLEASE STAND UP?

  CHAPTER 31: KISS POINT BLANK

  CHAPTER 32: WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE

  A PREVIEW OF A KISS ME ONCE, KISS ME TWICE

  HARVARD ADMISSIONS PROGRAM

  SALT RIVER HIGH CLIQUE INDEX

  THE GLOSSARY

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2011 by Sean Beaudoin

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  www.hachettebookgroup.com

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  Second e-book edition: February 2011

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

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  ISBN 978-0-316-12222-1

 

 

 


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