Tibbs (pt 2)

A Story by Kyndri Hopkins

The second part of my story about a snarky high school student and her bizarre friends.

I paused at the vending machine, on the way to the principal’s office, and grabbed some oatmeal raisin cookies for the secretary Ms. Waltham. She was a nice woman, early 50’s never married, loved oatmeal raisin cookies and old country sayings. I figured it would be better to have her on my side. I pushed open the office door and gave Dahlia Waltham the biggest smile I could muster. She looked up and smiled right back.

“I’ve got a surprise for you.” I half said half sang. Her eyes lit up as I handed her the cookies.

“Oh you naughty girl, you shouldn’t have! I know you’re just trying to butter me up but it won’t work, not today.” She laughed while she said it.

“Now I know you didn’t come all the way down here to try and get on my sweet side what brings this little crow to the roost?”

“Well I may have had a slight verbal disagreement with Mrs. Carothers. Maybe. But I’d like to think of it more as a learning experience. What is it they say down south? If you can learn from it or cover it up with some bacon it wasn’t a mistake.” I tried to add my sweetest most innocent little girl face to the equation. I could see her mind change, and slowly she rolled her eyes and said.

“Well how about this, you try your very hardest to get along with your teachers for the last week before spring break and I will “forget” to tell Mr. Dougherty about this little kerfuffle.” I nodded fervently and gave her a big hug. Always seal the deal with a hug, or at least that’s my opinion.

I chatted with her for a little bit to get out of the last few minutes of class and then wandered out to the field to meet Isaac and whoever Denny had decided to be today. The horizon was full of dark stormy clouds but it was sunny where I was lending the atmosphere a kind of dream like quality. I started singing, at first The Beach Boys and then slowly some Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer. Singing louder and louder,

“God it’s been a lovely day, everything’s been going my way I took out the trash today and I’M ON FIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE! I’M ON FIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRREEEEEE! I’M ON FIIIIIIIIIIR-“

Suddenly there was a splash of water on my face and I let out a little scream, one which I am not proud of. I sat up quickly and wiped the water out of my eyes. When I opened them Isaac was laughing hysterically on the ground a few feet away and Denny (presumably) was standing over me grinning.

“Are you still on fire?” Denny smirked that smirk that made me want to punch her and kiss her at the same time.

“Ha ha very funny. How was Physics?” Denny hated physics and growled at me. Isaac wiped tears from his eyes and sat upright, leaving Denny as the only one standing. Isaac gave me a hug and then threw his arms out towards Denny and said in a grandiose tone,

“This is Madame Tallulah Freemont. A steampunk princess from the planet Zorng.” The speech apparently over he put his arms back down.

Denny/ Tallulah was definitely fitting the description given of her. She had her bright purple hair in an intricate up do with a little top hat woven in. She wore a puffy white blouse and purple corset with little gears and clockwork all over it. Her multi layered skirt was paired with some brown pin stripe tights and long archaic boots that was completely jealous of. She topped the whole look off with a dash of perfect makeup done in purples and browns and with just a touch of alien shimmer around the eyes. She bowed as I looked her up and down, and I laughed a little bit. She certainly did what she wanted. Some days she’d come in with penciled in five o clock shadow and fake male pattern baldness. A false stomach under a ratty t-shirt and dirty jeans, she’d make us call her Bill all day. Some days she’d come in dressed like one of us, usually me, Isaac mostly just wore plaid. Nobody at school ever saw the real Denny, but you get her at a sleepover when the wigs and make up and costume pieces come off and she’s just in a comfy pair of sweat pants and a completely un ironic Buffy t-shirt and she’ll amaze you with a whole new personality. I loved that girl.

Isaac was completely different than Denny. He always wore the same five plaid shirts over any one of his hundreds of funny t shirts with some jeans and call it good enough. His t-shirt collection was massive, I guess when you never have to buy any other clothes the options for shirts are pretty unlimited. His shirt today had a kiwi bird sliced open with kiwi fruit inside. Clever. Isaac was an old soul in a young body. He was always reading a different book. Today I could see Coraline sticking out of his bag, an old favorite of ours. Denny never cared as much about reading choosing to draw or make terrifying Sims families instead, so when we hung out Isaac and I usually read the day and night away while snacking on whatever was in our respective pantries, occasionally pausing to share little pieces we enjoyed from our stories or sharing a note the other had written in whatever book we were reading. We shared a library and made little obsessive notes and comments and thoughts in all of our books. Highlighting passages that made us smile or that shook our brains up. It was usual for us to take a book the other had finished and have little squabbles in the notes on the margins. Little arguments about plot points going back for years and years. These were my comrades, my partners in crime. Or I guess not real crime just common mischief.

“So my little jailbird there’s a rumor going around that you clocked old Mrs. Carothers. I knew it couldn’t be true because I saw her walking around and if you had punched her I know you would have used the techniques I showed you for a T.K.O. So please all the details, none spared.” Denny was never brief when it came to words.

“All I did was explain what a diphthong was. I am innocent, innocent I tell you!!!!” I tried to add some drama to our lives, I guess that was my thing. I did plays and music clubs. Not playing music. I couldn’t stand the snobby piano teacher telling me,

“Now Ms. Tibbs if you don’t buckle down and learn the names of the piano chords nobody will ever come to hear you play.” Whatever, my hit song ‘If this is a pineapple, what did I eat for breakfast’ in the chord of wherever my fingers landed when I started playing, was a smashing success among my fan base (Denny, Isaac, and my parents). Drama Club was my passion though, being onstage and creating characters and scenes out of thin air was the best feeling. Unfortunately along with home ec our drama club had been axed leaving me with a severe void of drama.