Chapter Ten
JJ huffed as his mother applied rouge to his
cheeks. "I look like a fifth-grader."
"That's the point," she said. "Studies show
that the younger a person looks, the more likely they are to receive a lenient
sentence."
He straightened his tie, brushing the hair out
of his eyes. "Ugh, let's get this over with."
Mrs. Giovanni gave his cheeks a final brush
and deemed him ready for court. In the weeks since his fight with Travis, JJ
had been to court multiple times as the district attorney and the parents of
the others involved in the fight negotiated plea deals; as the instigator of
the fight, JJ was looking at felony assault charges until his parents pulled
some strings and had his charges dropped to misdemeanors.
Travis's parents were livid until JJ's parents
agreed to pay them an undisclosed amount to cover medical bills and court fees
since Travis was facing multiple assault charges himself. When JJ had testified
before the grand jury regarding his role in the fight, he made sure to keep his
answers short and to the point, and the grand jury decided there was enough
evidence to proceed with a trial. As the Giovannis
and Turners wanted the matter settled fast, they agreed to bench trials.
The judge officiating JJ's case was in her
late fifties and had a reputation for being a hardass. JJ's nerves were shot; he didn't get much
sleep the night before and threw up the toast he had for breakfast. Meanwhile,
all his parents talked about was how much shame he'd brought upon their family
and how they had to miss work because of his stupidity. Sometimes he wondered
why he loved them when they couldn't care less about him.
He sighed and dabbed his sweaty forehead,
praying his makeup didn't run.
On the ride to the 50th District Courthouse,
his parents acted like he wasn't there, on their cells like always. The
chauffeur seemed to hit every pothole along Woodward Avenue. When they arrived
at the courthouse, JJ headed to the bathroom to pee and checked himself over
before joining his parents outside their assigned courtroom. He checked his
social media feeds while he waited, tapping his right foot as he did so. Twenty
minutes later, the bailiff called them inside.
A million thoughts ran through his head as he
stood before the judge, her owlish eyes boring into him. He took a deep breath
to calm himself and prayed to St Jude.
He opened his eyes when the judge cleared her
throat.
"In the matter of docket number
17-AP-12345-MI, I find Joshua Giovanni guilty of all charges."
JJ felt faint as his heart dropped to his
feet, and the room spun. He gripped the lectern to balance himself until it
passed.
"Are you all right, son?" the judge said.
"Just a little dizzy, Your Honor."
"Very well. Moving along, taking into
consideration your age, ties to the community, and this being your first brush
with the law, I'm leaning toward going easy on you."
JJ smiled, but the judge wasn't finished.
"That being said, your actions directly
contributed to Mr. Turner's injuries, and I'd be remiss if I let you off with
just a warning. Which is why I'm sentencing you to serve 300 hours of community
service, mandatory anger management classes, and placing you on probation for
three months. You are to report to your probation officer once a week, return
all their calls, and submit to random drug tests. Let this be the last time I
see you or next time, I won't go easy on you. Am I understood?"
JJ's mouth went dry, and he took a swig of
water before answering her. "Yes, Your Honor. Thank you."
"If there's nothing else to discuss, the
bailiff will show you to my clerk, who will give you the information on your
probation officer and anger management courses and the timesheets for your
community service hours."
As they exited the courthouse,
JJ's only thought was, There goes my
whole summer.
***
At school the next day, he broke
the news to the Squad.
"That sucks, dude," Lance said in between
bites of lasagna at their table in the cafeteria. "See ya
when you get off lockdown."
"Yeah," Henry said and then downed his bottle
of Red Bull, burping loudly.
Rachel shook her head, her box braids getting
in her face. "Don't mind those assholes. Me and Bri got your back. Assuming we don't have anything else
planned," she said, laughing.
He shot her major side-eye. "With friends like
you, who needs nemeses."
Rachel bopped him on the head. "JJ, you my boy
and all, but you can't expect us to be holed up at your place all summer. A
girl needs to get her party on. Ya feel
me?"
He held back the curse words on his tongue and
instead said, "Promise you'll text and party up for me?"
Mitchells laughed. "Deal, bro."
After that, everyone talked about their plans
for the summer while JJ scanned the room for Travis, who'd been absent going on
a month now. The paper on Frankenstein was due in a few weeks,
and he still hadn't heard back from Travis about it. To keep his mind off his
court case, he'd dug into the book and wrote a fifteen-page first draft. He
doubted Travis would want to work with him after their fight, but every other
group he asked was either full or had turned in their paper already, so he was
pretty much stuck.
Maybe if I give him a peace offering, he'll
agree to be my partner? It's worth a shot.
He checked his phone. There were still
twenty-five minutes left of his lunch period, so he went to the office and
asked for Travis's schedule and locker code so he could bring him the work he
missed. The secretary refused, citing privacy issues, but caved when he gave
her his kawaii eyes.
***
Textbooks and assignments in his backpack, he
lugged it onto the seat next to him and rode the SMART bus to Travis's side of
town, walked the familiar path to the Turner house, then rang the doorbell. As
he waited for the door to open, JJ's insides squirmed with eels of nervousness
and excitement at finally being inside Travis's house. He'd imagined this
moment countless times, and now it was--
"What do you want?" Travis said, his voice
nasally as if he'd been crying. He was wearing Ray-Bans and a raggedy gray
hoodie with matching sweatpants.
JJ commanded his mouth to make with the words.
"Um, since you've been absent a while, I've brought the assignments you
missed."
Travis grunted. "Where are they?"
JJ's face warmed with embarrassment. "Sorry.
One second." He opened his backpack and handed Travis his books one by one,
then the worksheets. "If you want, I could help you?"
Glaring, Travis said, "I don't. But thanks for
the assignments and getting my textbooks. How did you get them and know where
my house is?"
"The secretary in the office told me," he said, not missing a beat. "Maybe we could do that Frankenstein paper
together? I have a first draft done."
JJ rummaged in his backpack and pulled out the
paper, handing it to Travis with shaky hands. He prayed Travis found the paper
worthy.
"Well?" he said when three minutes had passed.
With a pensive look on his face, Travis said,
"Not bad, Giovanni. And here I thought you were an idiot like the rest of the
kids at AP Prep."
"Hey, I resemble that remark," JJ said, doing
his best Groucho Marx impersonation. Travis's lips quirked up in a smile before
changing to a frown.
"Goodbye, Giovanni," he said, closing the
door.
"Wait! The Frankenstein paper
is due in three weeks, and no one else wants to be my partner."
Travis opened the door. "Then I guess we can
be partners. Leave your paper with me. I'll combine it with mine, and we can
workshop it together over Google Docs."
JJ smiled. "Whoot!
And Travis?"
"What, Giovanni? And I told you, it's Turner
to you."
Sweaty and cheeks flushed from being this
close to his crush, JJ swallowed the lump in his throat. "Sorry for the fight
and always teasing you."
"It's a little late for that." Travis slammed
the door shut, and when he didn't open it after JJ banged for two minutes
straight, JJ walked away, head low and a pit of anger building in his
chest. Screw Travis in the cute ass.
***
On the ride home, JJ called up his friends,
starting with David.
"Sorry, dude, but unlike you, The David is
getting laid tonight."
"Bastard," JJ said to himself as he dialed
Jason's number. He, too, was busy, and it was the same story when he called the
Squad.
Assholes! When I throw a party, they can't get
over here fast enough, but ask them to watch kaiju movies or anime, and they
act like I'm contagious or something.
He went to his walk-in closet, selected his
battered copy of Stand by Me from his DVD collection, then
called Mariana on the intercom and told her to bring him a bottle of vodka and
orange juice.
She set the tray down, brow furrowed,
grimacing. "JJ, I don't like it when you drink."
He removed a wad of fifty-dollar bills from
his pocket and handed her a few. "It'll be our secret."
She looked at the money, tutted, and
then took the bills. "Don't drink too much, Mijo. It's not good for growing
boys."
He smiled. "I promise."
She left, telling him dinner would be ready in
a few hours.
He settled in, singing along and laughing at
his favorite parts, wishing that he had friends like the boys from Castle Rock.
Sure, I'm popular. But no one knows the real
me, and I'm sick of hiding who I am. I wish I could go so far away no one knows
me or my family. But I can't. I'm just a kid.
He fought back the tears. Would anyone
even notice if I were gone? Would anyone care if I didn't show up to school
tomorrow? I thought Travis was different, but he hates me!
JJ let the tears out. It wasn't like Marianna
hadn't seen him cry before, and as usual, his parents were gone.
After he cried himself out, he dried his eyes
and watched the rest of the movie.
At dinner that night, his parents actually showed up, but they were so busy on their phones,
they might as well have not been there. He asked them about getting a dog or
maybe an iguana, but they shot him down, saying he was too irresponsible.
After a torturous half hour, he excused
himself to his room and spent the rest of the night listening to his Lonely
Boy playlist. It was filled with his all-time favorite songs by Simple
Plan, My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, Paramore, My Darkest Days,
Skillet, Linkin Park, and Trading
Yesterday.
The good thing about having the second floor
to himself is no one could hear him scream-cry his lungs out. When he was done,
JJ's thoughts turned again to Travis.
After the explosion, St. Michael's transferred
David and the other patients to nearby hospitals, telling them a patient on
oxygen had been smoking. However, JJ didn't believe that at all, especially
given the supposed terrorist attack that happened mere feet from the hospital.
No, his gut told him Travis had something to
do with both incidents. He couldn't prove it yet, but he'd keep an eye on
Travis, whether the other boy liked it or not.
Author's Note: JJ and Travis
both need to heed the adage: Be kind to everyone you meet, for they are
fighting a battle you know nothing about. Next time, JJ attempts to befriend
Travis and it doesn't go as he planned. Also, Travis prepares for his trial re:
the brawl with JJ.
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