by Shari Copell
Her oldest daughter was a decent student, but staying after school nearly every night had cut into her study time. Nicks didn’t like school as it was. Chelsea didn’t want to imagine how she’d feel if she couldn’t maintain her grades because of the detentions.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the door from the garage into the kitchen open and close. It could only be Nicks. Everyone else was present and accounted for.
The lanky teen breezed into the family room. “Sorry, Mom.”
“What happened this time?”
Nicks threw her backpack to the floor and dropped into a chair across the room. “Hell if I know. Miss Powell told me I was caught up on the detentions I owed this past Monday. Marius snuck up behind me as I was about to leave and told me I owed him two more. He said I had to serve one tonight or tomorrow. My choice.” Nicks shook her head firmly. “I don’t do Friday detentions, no matter what that asshole says.”
Chelsea took her reading glasses off. “What do you mean ‘snuck up behind you’?”
Nicks slumped back in the chair with a dramatic sigh. “He’s always slinking around watching me, trying to catch me doing something wrong so he can punish me for it. I didn’t hear him come up behind me when I was at my locker. When I turned around, I nearly ran over him.”
Chelsea nodded. Nicks had once served three days of suspension for “mistreating a book.” She’d evidently thrown it into her locker in a manner that didn’t suit Mr. Marius.
“I might have said fuck or something to him. I didn’t expect him to be there behind me,” Nicks said with a smile.
“If I know you, there’s a one-hundred percent chance you said fuck.”
Nicks hung her head. “Yeah, I did. And I got another week’s worth of detention for it.” The smile left her daughter’s face.
Chelsea’s heart clenched. She’d seen that bereft expression often enough. It brought back memories of the bullying that Nicks had endured early in life.
“Nicks...I don’t know how to ask you this but...Mr. Marius has never done or said anything inappropriate to you, has he? He’s never touched you?”
“Hell no. I’d break his damned arm if he ever touched me. He’s beyond disgusting. It makes me want to barf just thinking about it.”
“Do you want me to go to the school and talk to him? This seems to be getting out of hand.”
“No. It’ll only make it worse. And I like working with Willow in the library. She let me study for my English Lit test for a while tonight, while she and....” The girl sat up in the chair, her face illuminated with excitement. “Mom, you will never guess who helped us shelve books tonight. I don’t believe it myself.”
“Who?”
“Stone Jensen!”
Chelsea furrowed her brow, trying to recall the name. “Is that the boy who also plays guitar? The one who said such awful things about you?”
“Yeah, that’s the one! And he’s not a boy, mom. He’s twenty-four.”
“What was he doing at the high school?”
“He works with the autistic students, teaching them guitar. Isn’t that nice?”
“Yes, it is. Did you say fuck to him too?”
Nicks laughed. “No. I wanted to. He cornered me out in the hall, and I wanted to go all pissed-off alley cat on him. But he apologized, Mom. Do you believe it? He said he was sorry for all the things he said about me.”
“I’m shocked.” Chelsea truly was. She was even more shocked that Nicks hadn’t ripped him apart. Her daughter had been so furious about the things Stone said that Chelsea feared she’d have to wrap the girl in a straitjacket.
“Yeah, me too. He said he was jealous. He’s going to come and help shelve books during my other detentions. I hope Marius doesn’t find out about it, or I’ll be cleaning toilets instead. With a toothbrush. Anyway, Stone wants me to forgive him for everything he said.”
“Are you going to?”
Nicks got to her feet and picked up the backpack. “I don’t know yet.”
“Nicks! When someone asks forgiveness for something...”
“I know, I know. You’re supposed to be gracious and give it.” Nicks smiled. “And I will. But I’m going to make him work for it.”
It was nearly ten by the time Nicks finished studying. Eyes bleary, she closed the book, shoved it into her backpack, and got ready for bed.
She was about to turn off the light when someone knocked on her door. “Who is it?”
“It’s T.J.”
“Why aren’t you in bed?”
“I missed you tonight. Can I come in?”
“Just a minute.” Nicks got out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. “Okay, you can come in.”
Her little brother timidly opened the door and peered in. “Dad and I were in the basement building a model airplane when you came home. Mom said you were studying and I shouldn’t bother you. I can’t sleep without a good-night kiss though. I hope you’re not mad.”
She opened her arms to the boy. “C’mere, dude.” T.J. ran across the room and jumped into her bed. She pulled the covers over both of them.
He snuggled against her. “Did you get another detention tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Is Mr. Marius a bastard?”
“You shouldn’t say that word, but yeah, he is. To me, at least.”
“Do you want me to beat him up for you?”
She kissed the top of his head. “No. I don’t think that’ll help very much, T.J.”
“I would do it for you.”
“I know you would.”
“Do you have a boyfriend who could do it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Well, that was the question, wasn’t it? The guys at school avoided her like the plague. “I don’t know.”
T.J. looked up at her. “Lindsay says it’s because you’re such a bitch.”
Normally, a statement like that from her sister would’ve pissed her off royally. Tonight, it was the perfect end to a day full of “let’s kick Nicks when she’s down.” She was too tired to get mad.
“Lindsay shouldn’t talk like that. Give me a kiss. You need to get back to bed.”
T.J. made a big production of kissing her. She walked him down the hall to his room, kissed him again, and tucked him in.
“I love you, Nicks.”
She ruffled his hair. “I love you too, little brother.”
Nicks went back to her room, locked the door, and cried herself to sleep.
Chelsea saw the children off to school the next morning, anxious to call Willow about Mr. Marius. There was something about the situation that didn’t feel right to her. Kids that bullied were one thing. She’d be damned if she’d let Nicks be bullied by an adult—a school official, no less— who should know better.
Willow picked up immediately. “I can guess why you’re calling. I don’t blame you a bit.”
“What’s going on with Marius? Do I have to come in there and tell him to back off?” Chelsea frowned as she nibbled on an English muffin.
“I can never get a read on him, Chels. You don’t see him for days on end then he’s in your shorts every day for a month about something. He doesn’t only pick on Nicks. He does it to the teachers too, especially the ones he’s relegated to the basement. Art, music, reading, metal and wood shop. It’s like he hates anything creative.”
“That’s what Nicks said. Do I have a shot at getting him fired if I go to the school board about this?”
“Not likely. He’s the brother-in-law of the superintendent of the school district. And if you try and fail, you might put a bigger bull’s eye on Nicks’s back.”
It was the one thing Chelsea didn’t want to hear. Her hands were tied.
“It’s cutting into her study time, and she’s frustrated enough. I don’t want to do it, but if I see her grades starting to fall, I’m going to let her withdraw and take her GED. Marius has never even sent a note home about her behavior. I get the feeling he’s pl
aying cat and mouse with my eighteen-year-old daughter, and it freaks me out.”
“I know. I’ll keep an eye on her to the best of my ability at school. I love that girl like she’s my own.”
“I know you do. I appreciate that. Thank you.”
Chelsea ended the call then eyed the rum bottle behind the leaded glass of the hutch. Why couldn’t life just go smoothly for a change?
CHAPTER SIX
Five minutes until the weekend officially began. Nicks bit her lip, trying not to focus on the second hand of the wall clock in her biology class.
Yesterday had sucked. Today had been fairly decent. She’d passed the calculus test with a B, and the English Lit test had been postponed indefinitely due to Mrs. Donovan’s emergency appendectomy. Even better than that, she hadn’t seen Mr. Marius once.
When the dismissal bell rang, Nicks leapt up from her seat and ran for the door.
Still nervous about running into the principal, she took the longer route to her locker. She wouldn’t stay tonight, no matter how many detentions he piled on. She needed to go straight from the school to Tapestries to help Charm and Pip set up for their Friday night gig. Then she’d go home and spend time getting her game face on. She had a new killer leather outfit she was going to wear that night.
She dropped off her books, grabbed her sweatshirt, and eased the locker shut. Prepared to do battle for her Friday night freedom, she inhaled and checked out the hallway in both directions. Still no Marius.
Nicks sprinted for the front door.
Charm and Pip were already at Tapestries when Nicks turned into the parking lot behind the bar.
Pip was pulling her drum kit out of the back of her mother’s mini-van. “I have a free hand available. Can I help you with anything?” Nicks asked.
“Yeah, take these cymbals for me.” Pip handed her a round, black leather case. “I have the kick drum to take in, and I’m done.”
Marybeth held the back door of the bar open, a cigarette in one hand. She blew a ribbon of smoke into the air. “Hey, Nickles. How’s it goin’ today?”
“Today was much better than yesterday.”
“That’s my girl. Hurry up, Pip! I got shit to do!” Marybeth shifted impatiently from one foot to the other.
“Okay! Jeez, gimme a minute.” Pip slammed the back of the van and penguin-walked to the door with the bass drum in both hands. Marybeth swatted at Pip’s ass with a dishtowel when she walked past, making her squeal with laughter.
“I can’t wait to tell you guys what happened this week.” Nicks laid the cymbal case down near Pip’s drums.
Charm sat on the edge of the stage and prepared to change the strings on her bass. “Something good?”
“I don’t know if it’s good yet. It was definitely a surprise.”
Pip dropped the kick drum near the rest of the drum cases and collapsed dramatically to the carpeted stage. “So let’s hear it.”
“I had to serve a detention on Thursday…”
“Fucking Marius. He used to catch me all the time,” snarled Charm. “And for the stupidest shit too.”
“Really? I don’t remember you serving that many detentions,” said Nicks. Maybe there was something to Stone’s theory about Mr. Marius’s choice of victims after all.
“Trust me. I touched every single goddamned book in that library at least once. Thank God for Mrs. Jeffers. Sorry…go on with your story.” Charm wound up a fat E-string with the tuning key on her bass.
“Well, I was about to get started with shelving when I heard a voice behind me. You’ll never guess who it was.”
“Jimmy Page. Steve Vai. Eddie VanHalen.” Pip got up and started to unpack her orange metallic Pearl drum set.
“Close. It was Stone Jensen.”
Both girls stopped what they were doing and stared at her, open-mouthed.
“How big of a pool of blood did you leave him lying in?” Charm arched her eyebrows with the question.
“Does he still have testicles?” Pip snorted as she unzipped the leather cymbal case. “If I know you, he’s presently minus at least one.”
“Oh, c’mon!” Nicks protested. “I would never do something like that.”
“I don’t know. You were raging pretty good when you heard what he said. I’m guessing you didn’t hurt him then. So what happened?” Charm asked.
“He gives guitar lessons to the autistic students at school. I think it’s so cool that he works with them like that. You know how those poor kids get picked on.” Nicks plopped into a chair at one of the dining room tables. “Stone helped Willow and me shelve books all night. The extra pair of hands was awesome. I actually got home at a decent hour.”
“So…you talked to him and everything?” Charm used her wire cutters to remove the excess string from the headstock of her bass.
“Yeah. Some. I was pretty quiet. I’ve been pissed at him for so long, I didn’t know how not to be pissed. It was weird being around him, so I said as little as possible. I just listened to him and Willow talk.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t kill him.” Pip snickered as she unfolded her cymbal stands.
“I was going to let him have it, but he apologized. He said he was jealous, that he thought I was better than he was. He told me what he said about me was unkind and unfair.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Charm. “Too bad he didn’t think of that before he opened his big mouth.”
“He’s just trying to save his sorry ass,” growled Pip.
Marybeth came into the dining room with cheesy jalapeño nachos and three cans of Pepsi on a tray for them.
“You need to write that down somewhere, if that’s what he said. Men like Stone Jensen don’t say things they don’t mean. And they don’t apologize. Trust me. That sounds like some pretty heartfelt ass-kissing to me, Nickles.” Marybeth winked at her and set the tray down on the table. “This isn’t much of a supper for you gals, but I know you don’t like to eat a lot before you play. Your mother would have my hide if she knew I fed this crap to you every Friday afternoon.”
“She won’t find out from me.” Nicks popped open a can of Pepsi. “Do you know Stone Jensen?”
“I made it my business to find out who he was after he said that shit about you. It pissed me off.” Marybeth got a faraway look in her eyes. “He reminds me of a man who used to work as a bartender at Tapestries. Asher Pratt. Arrogant, gorgeous, talented. A real pain in the ass. He played guitar too.”
“Really?” Nicks picked up a gooey nacho and shoved it in her mouth. “Never heard of him.”
Giving one of her mysterious gypsy smiles, Marybeth patted Nicks on the head and walked away.
It didn’t take the three of them long to get the stage set up once they got down to business. Nicks did a quick sound check in the booth at the back of the room then joined her friends onstage.
“You want to run through the new ones before we play them tonight?” Charm played a scale of notes up and down the neck of her bass, adjusting and tuning as needed.
“Yeah, I do. Let’s play Don’t Fuck With Me first.” Nicks dropped the strap of the Fender Strat over her head. She quickly tuned it then turned to Pip. “Click the sticks, you awesome bitch!”
“I’ve been waiting all week to hear you say that.” Pip stuck her sticks in the air and clicked off a count for them.
The first note they hit vibrated the walls and sent Nicks’s heart soaring. She lived for this shit!
They played through the intro, carefully picking their way through some places in the song that’d given them trouble. Pip laid down a solid beat behind her, as Charm played a whole shitload of tasty, crisp, bottom notes. Nicks stepped up to the mic and let it rip.
“You think you can play with my heart
You think you can own my soul
You think you can crack the whip
And I will no longer be whole
I got news for you, boy
And you better take my advice
This girl’s gonna take
you down
And I don’t like to play nice.”
All three of them sang the chorus.
“Don’t fuck with me!
You don’t want me as an enemy!”
Nicks got a chill at the way their voices blended together in harmony. They were three of the baddest bitches on the planet when they sang together.
“Don’t fuck with me!
I ain’t no wounded wannabe!
Yeah!”
She watched her partners in crime as her fingers raced over the neck of the Strat. She loved them both so goddamned much.
“Yeah!” Nicks shouted as the last chord reverberated through the air. “That’s our best song yet.”
“My thong is soaked,” said Charm. “Jesus, that sounded good.”
“Hey, I got a great idea,” said Nicks. “What do you say to us taking our bad little selves on tour next summer? I’ll be graduated by then. You’ll both be home for the summer from college. C’mon guys, we’re awesome! Let’s let the world hear it too.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” said Pip. “I’m in.”
“Me too,” said Charm. “But we’ll need a manager.”
“We can worry about that later. I’m sure my dad knows someone who can act as manager while we’re touring. I’ll ask him,” said Nicks.
Marybeth came around the corner of the dining room. “You three keep singing songs like that, and you’ll never get boyfriends.”
“Who gives a shit? We got each other,” said Pip, throwing both arms into the air.
They high-fived and ran through the other two songs, Take Me As I Am and Who’s Your Bitch Now.
Nicks grinned as the last chord faded away. They were going to blow the damned doors off this place tonight.
“Be back here at eight?” Charm wiped the fingerprints from her bass and laid it in the case.
“That’s fine. I’ll be here early. I’m coming with my parents. I have to help out in the kitchen before we play.” Nicks removed her guitar and laid it in the case.