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Van stumbled out of her room at about 9:30am. Her legs were so achy. She had just returned from a summer soccer camp for the incoming freshman class of Wiskayok high school.
She ambled to the fridge, seeing her mother’s scrawling chore list attached to the door. She pulled it away from the magnet and set it on the counter.
She poured a bowl of store brand Lucky Charms. It was the last if the bag that had long since had all the marshmallows picked out of it. Thank god. She took a pen and wrote ‘Fruit Loops’ on the grocery list also fastened to the refrigerator door.
With her cereal in tow, she went into the living room and flipped on the tv. She changed the channel to 5, the NBC network station and went to grab an old tape.
She set up a recording on the vcr and right on cue, the television sounded with, “Like sands through the hourglass… So are the days of our lives.” Van rolled her eyes at the dramatic strings of the theme song of her mother’s favorite soap opera.
She removed the batteries out of the television remote and put them into her Gameboy. I better put AAs on the grocery list.
Van was on her way back to the bedroom to rest her legs when the phone rang. It better not be mom adding on to the chore list. “Palmer home.” She said.
Natalie Scatorccio’s voice chirped into the receiver, “Hey jock strap! Finally back from kicking balls?”
“Hey Nat! I’m all done, but my legs are killing me. Wanna come over?”
“Your mom home?” Natalie asked.
“Nah. At work. I’ve got some chores but nothing I can’t crank out in a couple hours.”
“Right on, I’ll be right over!” Natalie said.
“Nice. Can you bring a Dewski on your way? I could use a pick-me-up.”
Natalie had a tone of mischief in her voice, “I’ve got something even better.”
“Better than Mountain Dew? Yeah right” Van scoffed.
~
Van hung out on the couch playing Dr. Mario on her Gameboy until Natalie showed up at her door. She let Natalie in and gave her a firm squeeze. “Long time, no see, pal!” Natalie said.
“Well it’s been busy with lawn mowing gigs and soccer camp. I’m really trying to save up for that Sega.”
When they walked inside Van asked, “So what’s this big surprise?” Natalie’s eyes twinkled. She pulled a ziploc bag of brownies from her bag.
“Those look yummy. Did the old Catholic ladies have a bake sale?”
Natalie laughed, “No way, man. These are ‘special’ brownies.”
“What? Weed? Are you serious?”
Natalie nodded excitedly, “Yes! My cousin Joey got some for me. I had to agree to help him at the junkyard for a couple days so they’re definitely not bogus.”
Van took the bag and smelled the brownies. She detected a slight skunky smell to them. “Whoa… the real deal.”
“So I take it you’re in?” Natalie asked.
“Yeah man, I’ve always wanted to know what the hype was about. Is it fun?” Van knew Natalie had started to dabble in weed with some of her new friends. Van was curious to try, seeing how much fun people were having in movies, but the boys Natalie was hanging out with bothered Van.
“It’s SO fun. Especially on a day like today when you don’t have any shit to do.”
Van was excited. “Let’s do it right now!”
Natalie pulled out the brownies. “It should kick in in about an hour.”
“Cool. Cheers, Nat.” Van bumped her brownie against Natalie’s and took a big bite. “Oh I can taste it! It tastes like grassy armpits.”
Natalie almost spit her brownie out in laughter. “You lick a lot of armpits over at jock camp?”
Van plugged her nose and scarfed the rest of the laced dessert down. “No! You know what I mean.”
“I do. Just messing with you.”
“Now what do we do?” Van asked after finishing.
Natalie grabbed Van’s remote. “Well for starters we can turn this snoozefest off. Where are the batteries?”
Van wiggled her Gameboy. “No can do on the main tv. My mom would blow a lid if she didn’t have her soaps taped. So that means it’s locked up for the next two hours.”
“Bummer! Guess we can go hang out in your room. Got any good shows?”
Van shook her head. “Not really. I have ‘Salute Your Shorts’, ‘Roseanne’, and some MTV. But there’s always my movies.”
“MTV is a good idea. Some music videos will put us in ‘cruising altitude’.” Natalie was using air quotes. “Do you have any snacks? Some munchies are a must.” Natalie walked into Van’s kitchen and nosed into a cupboard.
“Dude we’re so bare bones here. My mom needs to go grocery shopping so badly.” Van grabbed two glasses and a container of ‘Tang’ she mixed the powder in with water.
“I see.” Mused Natalie. She pulled out a sleeve of saltine crackers and a jar of peanut butter. “This will do.”
When they went into Van’s bedroom, Natalie coughed. “Pew! Talk about armpits! Van, it reeks in here.”
Van blushed and eyed her duffel bag from soccer camp. She was airing out her clothes to do the laundry today. “Sorry.” She hurriedly stuffed the clothes back into the bag and shoved it in the closet. She went back out to the living room and came back with furniture polish. She sprayed a heavy cloud onto her closet door. “Better?”
Natalie nodded. “Yes. A nice lemony armpit.” She grabbed one of Van’s tapes, labeled ‘I Want My MTV’ and put it into Van’s VCR.
The small tv screen lit up with a black and white stage. KD Lang’s ‘Constant Craving’ began playing. “Is this going to be a more sensitive tape?” Natalie asked.
“No, I just love looking at her. Her or Melissa Etheridge kick off most of my tapes. I think I have Cypress Hill on this one. Is it volume 11?”
“It is!”
“Oh there’s lots of hip hop on this one. There was some new guest VJ some cool art guy from the city that also played in a funk band.”
“Perfect for ganja!” Natalie joked.
They watched a number of videos and got up to dance for ‘So What’cha Want’. Natalie was reciting all of MCA’s verses; Van reciting Mike D’s.
They fell down on Van’s beanbag chair. “So.. how was your soccer camp?” Van heard a small hint of sadness in Natalie’s voice.
“It was hard as hell! But a lot of fun! Wiskayok West was with us.” In a couple of weeks, the graduates of the two middle schools in the city, Wiskayok West and Wiskayok East, Van and Natalie’s school, would come together for their first year of high school.
Natalie tried to show an air of nonchalance. “Oh yeah? The bourgeoise joined you all?” The western end on town was the nicer side of town, so many of the kids that went to that middle school were from wealthier families.
“Ha! Yes! There was this one girl that was dropped off in a really fancy car by a driver. It was like a Rolls Royce or something.
“Gross. She sounds awful.”
“She really wasn’t. She’s like 8 feet tall and was really good. She let me have an extra pair of shin guards.”
“How sweet.” Natalie replied, with some snark. “You got the hots for her?”
Van was nonplussed. “Charlotte? Nah. She was cool though. Kind of quiet. Her and Laura Lee hit it off though. They were taking about Wuthering Heights the whole time.”
“Bo-ring. Who else was there?”
Van started to laugh. “Oh god. There was this one girl. I don’t know why she thought she could play. She’s tiny. And looks like a little poodle. I swear she’s not actually in our grade. She tried out but she really didn’t get it.”
“Were you mean to her?” Natalie knew Van had a mean streak.
“Only a little. She asked me like five million questions. She’s a big old nerd. “
Natalie rolled her eyes. “And you’re not?”
“Nat. She talked to me about the musical ‘Cats’. It was awful. Laura Lee let it slip that I saw the show in New York and this goober took it as an excuse to make friends.”
“Isn’t that why you signed up for this bullshit in the first place?” Natalie snapped.
“Okay, chill. You’ll see what I mean when we start school. She’s a weirdo.”
“I think you’re just a butthead.” Natalie replied. “Oh god, was Jackie Taylor there?”
“Of course, why do you think Shauna wanted to join? She doesn’t even like sports.” Shauna Shipman was new to Natalie and Van’s end of town, moving there from West Wiskayok after a nasty divorce of her parents. Van got along with Shauna just fine, but found her fixation on her childhood friend, Jackie Taylor, very annoying.
“Was Jackie as overbearing as ever?” Natalie’s earlier stance on being friendly to new people all but flew out the window.
“Oh yeah.” Said Van. “She was acting like she was the team captain already or something. It was very annoying.”
“Of course.” Natalie groaned.
“There was this other girl though. She was soo good!” Van was excited. “She is definitely going to be the team captain. She was smart, and fast. Shauna was fast too but this girl was great.”
“Yeah?” Natalie cocked her eyebrow. “What’s she look like?”
“She’s tall, like Charlotte. Her legs are like tree trunks. And she’s intense, but in a deep way. Like she means business. She wasn’t afraid to put Jackie in her place.”
“Mhmm..” Natalie had a smile forming on her face.
Van didn’t notice. “Yeah, she’s also pretty funny? She was talking some trash and she wasn’t afraid to go deep with it. She also wears the coolest clothes. And the way she does her hair is really pretty. It brings out her eyes..”
“Sounds like you have a crush.” Natalie said.
Van realized she was babbling about the girl and a deep blush crept up on her face. “No. Shut up I don’t even.”
Natalie’s grin could not get any bigger. “Oh you doooo!” She cooed. “Cute! What’s her name, loverboy?”
Van hid her face. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this. Her name is Taissa and it’s not like that. There’s no way she’s gay. She could probably date any guy she wants, though none of the guys in our grade are worth her.”
Natalie’s face softened at Van’s discomfort. She put an arm around Van’s shoulder. “Hey, you never know.”
“I do know.” Van had a grumpy expression. Natalie knew she had to drop the subject.
She chose to be quiet and focus on the music videos on Van’s tv. The song ‘What About Your Friends’ by TLC started to play. She looked at Van to see if Van would start dancing. Her eyes were very wide and watery.
“Are you upset with me?” Natalie asked.
Van didn’t respond.
Natalie felt a hot surge of shame. Great, she thinks I’m making fun of her. She got up, getting ready to leave when she heard Van say “Whoaaaa…” She was staring at Left-Eye dancing in her colorful outfit on screen.
Nat got excited, “You feeling good man?”
Van slowly turned her head to Natalie. Her face was split into a cheesy smile. “Yeah.. trippy. The colors.”
“Hell yeah!” Natalie sat back down on Van’s beanbag.
A couple of songs later, Van’s tape ended. Natalie was finally feeling her brownie. “Van, can I pick the movie?”
“Yes, but I get two vetos.” Van was staring at her poster of the Candy-O album art.
Natalie flipped through the milk crate that held some of Van’s tapes. “How about ‘The Wall’? Pink Floyd will totally be trippy”
“Oooh I like that, but ‘The Wall’ is a little sad.” Van gasped and jumped up and down. “Wait. Dark Side of Oz!”
“That sounds cool, what movie is that?” Natalie said.
Van shook her head. “No, it’s this urban legend that when you play ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ it syncs up with the Wizard of Oz.”
“Oh yeah! I’ve totally heard that before. You have that on tape right?”
Van thought about it. “Yeah but it’s got commercials because I recorded it. That would be too annoying to pause the tape and stuff.”
Natalie went back to digging through Van’s tape collection. “We could try a different movie. Ooh. I know!” She went to Van’s bookshelf, where her older tapes were held.
Natalie pulled out ‘the Exorcist’. “Whaddya say?”
“You genius!” Van said.
“Right? We could totally uncover some Satanic Panic nonsense!”
“Oh shit, that’d be so cool. We could wind up on daytime tv!”
Natalie went over to Van’s bed where her cassette tape collection was stacked neatly on her bedside table. “The important question is: What’ll we pair it with?”
“Oooh. ‘The Wall’.” Van said.
“Real creative. No we have to think of something darker.”
Van scrunched her nose in thought. “Uhh. R.E.M.?”
Natalie let out a huff. “Van, your music is too soft. This is ‘The Exorcist’ we’re talking about. We need the type of music that makes Sally Jessie Raphael clutches her glasses.”
“Fine, how about Led Zeppelin? Vicky’s got all her hippie dippie tapes.”
“Nah.”
“‘No Stairway? Denied!’” Van said, imitating Michael Meyers. She pondered a moment before a thought crossed her head. “Wait right here.”
She quickly went out of her bedroom and came back in. She threw a cassette tape to Natalie. It was Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘No More Tears’.
Natalie looked up at Van who was wiggling her eyebrows. “Who’s the genius now?” Natalie said.
“Dark side of Oz: the sequel!” Van set up her Boombox next to the tv.
“Since when did our mom get into hard rock? She’s all ‘Peace and Love’.” Natalie finished rewinding the MTV tape and swapped it out for the horror movie.
“It’s her new boyfriend. He’s pretty cool. He’s got a motorcycle. I got to ride on it on The Shore last month.”
“He sounds nice. Does your mom like him?”
Van bit her cheek. “My mom thinks he’s great. He used to hang out around here more but now they go out all the time.”
“Nothing wrong with having the house to yourself though.” Natalie tried to cheer up the somber turn of the conversation.
“Yeah, that’s true. It just gets a little lonely some nights.”
“Well I’m here right now and soon Pazuzu and Ozzy will also be here. Let’s summon a demon to your room!” Natalie put her fingers up like devil horns and rolled her eyes back.
Van broke into a fit of giggles. they started the movie and tape, and cuddled on Van’s beanbag.
~
Forty five minutes in, Van was completely transfixed by the effects of the movie, and while it was amusing to Natalie, she was growing bored and hungry. She hadn’t eaten all day. “I’m hungry. Let’s go to 7-11.”
“I’m broke.” Van said. “I can make some Hamburger Helper though. It’ll have to just be ‘Helper’ because we only have one more pound of meat until my mom goes grocery shopping again.”
“That sounds nasty.” Complained Natalie. “We need snacks.”
Van turned away from the tv and towards Natalie, “Aww.. you come to my house and you don’t like-a the pasta. I cook all day and you insult me. Maron!” Van was gesticulating in a cartoonishly Italian manner.
Natalie rolled her eyes. “You’re ridiculous. Listen, I’ve got a little bit of money, if you can spot me like two bucks for a Big Gulp or Slurpee, I’ll get the rest, okay?”
“A Slurpee sounds so good right now oh my god.” Van stopped the movie and cassette tape. Let me see what I can come up with.
Natalie listened to her Walkman while Van scurried around her house foraging for change. She dug in the couch cushions, emptied out her dirty laundry pockets, and even snuck a few quarters off of her mother’s cluttered nightstand.
She burst back into her bedroom triumphantly. “Success! I have procured exactly two dollars and forty eight cents.”
“Excellent. Just enough for Slurpees.”
Van grabbed her skateboard and a jump rope out of the bedroom. “My bike chain is still all jacked up. I should have enough to fix it soon, but you’re gonna have to pull me.”
“Dream on! It’s six blocks, you can catch up on your board.”
“Dude, my legs are so sore from camp. Pleeeease?” Van fluttered her eyelashes.
“Okay. Put your baby blues away. You’re lucky you’re so cute.” She said, giving her a soft kick out the door.
“Ew, you’re not my type.” Van said. She tied the jump rope to Natalie’s handlebars and held the other end. They rolled out of the driveway and down the bumpy sidewalk. What should have been a five minute endeavor took twice as long due to Van getting a slight case of vertigo from the weed.
They arrived at 7-11. Natalie held the door open for Van who was a little dazed from their ride over.“Okay you’re in charge of Slurpees, I’ll get the chips and stuff. You good?”
“Aye aye Commissar.” Van saluted Natalie.
“Dork.” She grumbled, walking to the chips.
Van walked to the back of the store by the Slurpee machine. She heard ‘Como la Flor’ blaring in discordance with whatever top 40 hit was warbling out of the store speakers. There was a pigtailed brunette perched by the machine with a boombox.
“Vanessa?” She asked.
Van waved at the girl. “Oh, hey Mari. It’s Van, actually.”
Mari nodded. “My bad. Refueling after all those drills? You looked like those sprints were going to send you to the hospital.” Van grabbed a cup and began pouring a Coca-Cola Slurpee for Natalie.
Van said, “Yeah, I don’t know how you make it look so easy.”
Mari beamed. “Been at the pitch since I could walk. You’ll get used to it.”
“I hope so. What brings you this way? Don’t you live on the other end of town, by the golf course?”
Mari fussed with the collar of her Lacoste polo. “Can you keep a secret? Oh look at you. Of course you can.” She said as Van was sampling different Slurpee combinations from her cup. “I’m here to see Danny.”
“Danny?”
“Yes!” Mari said. “Danny Mears. He’s at the counter, working. I saw him first, though.” She swatted Van’s shoulder.
Van looked at the soon-to-be Sophomore boy stationed at the front of the store. He was gangly, had unkempt hair, and a patchy mustache. Van couldn’t contain the scoff that escaped her mouth, quickly evolving into a fit of giggles. Mari’s face fell.
“Jesus, Palmer. I leave you alone with one simple task and you’re here laughing like a dipshit.” Nat came trudging over with sour cream and onion chips, Sour Patch Kids, and a pack of gum. “Oh.” She looked at Mari. “Don’t mind my friend, she’s been imbibing in the devil’s lettuce.”
“Natalie!” Van hissed.
“Huh?” Mari asked. She glanced at Natalie in her Beastie Boys t-shirt, the heap of snacks, and Van’s squinted eyes. “Holy shit, Palmer! You smoke chronic? I didn’t realize you were so badass.”
Van fell into another fit of giggles.
Natalie grew defensive. “Who the hell are you?”
Mari cocked an eyebrow. “Lay off, Courtney Love. I’m on the soccer team with Van.”
“Oh. I see.” Natalie’s reply was curt. “Let’s get going, Van. I’m losing my buzz.”
“Buzz buzz buzz… see ya around, Mari.” Van said.
Mari smiled at Van. “Yeah! See you at school! Save some for me next time.” She nudged Van with her elbow.
Natalie and Van checked out at the counter. “Will that be all?” Danny’s voice squeaked. Van was overcome with the cheap cologne he seemingly bathed in before his shift.
“Yes, gimme a lighter. Not a white one.” Natalie said.
Van spoke to Danny, “Hey bro, you might wanna go ask that girl out before she drinks your entire supply of blue raspberry. She’s totally into you.”
They stepped out of the store and plopped down on the curb to enjoy their Slurpees. Van’s, an overfilled mix of all four flavors was spilling out on to her freckled hand.
“Clean up on aisle five.” Natalie deadpanned.
Van licked her sticky hand. “Damn this tastes good.” She moaned.
“That’s the weed, man. It makes shit taste good.” Natalie set her beverage on the sidewalk and opened her bag of chips. Once Van got her beverage drank down to a more manageable level, she tore the bag of Sour Patch Kids open with her teeth.
“Don’t eat all the red ones this time!” Natalie warned.
“Sorry, but they’re the best ones!” Van said. She poured a small handful and put them all in her mouth at once.
Natalie laughed as she lit a cigarette. “You’re an animal, you know that?”
“And you shouldn’t smoke.” Van replied.
“Thanks, Nona. It’s not like I’m trying to join the soccer team.” Natalie looked at Van putting a Sour Patch Kid on a chip and scrunched her nose. “You know, maybe you should lay off the snacks.”
Van immediately dropped the chip and frowned.
“What?” Natalie asked.
“You sound like Mrs. Taylor. Jackie’s mom.”
Natalie’s nose really scrunched up. “What the hell? Why?”
Van’s voice was quiet. “She brought in caterers for the event and it was really good stuff. There was one point where Shauna and I were loading up- she had these really bomb cookies. And she came up to us and told us we weren’t allowed to take more than two.
She said that we are ‘hefty’ and need to ‘get back to the running drills’ before we can have more.” Van but her cheek to keep from tearing up in front of her friend. “Everyone was eating multiple cookies. That girl Mari? She had like six.”
Natalie looked like a dragon as her nostrils flared in anger and a big stream of smoke pushed out of them. “Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me.”
“Nat.” Van said, knowing she just lit a fuse on her friend’s fiery temper.
“No! That’s absolute crapola. Fuck that!” She stood up and started pacing, so angry she was letting her cigarette burn away on her fingers. “You know what? It’s those rich snooty moms that must’ve tummy tucked so hard their WASPy assholes got sewn shut! They are so miserable they have to tear us all down.” Natalie yelled.
“Sewn WASP asshole? You really know how to paint a grody picture.” Van made a fake gagging gesture.
“Well I’m sick of that shit. It starts with little put downs like that. Then before you know it, it’s about making sure you don’t get off the bench if you’re better than Miss Priss. These jerks think they run the whole town and it’s time to stand up.”
“Easy there, Norma Rae. It’s not a like I can really do anything. I’ll be fine.” Van reassured.
“She needs an exorcism.”
Van countered. “She needs to get barfed on. ‘Yer mother sucks cocks in hell!’”
Natalie nearly spit out her Slurpee. “Oh my god, you have to scream that at her. Her asshole might come unstitched.”
“Gross! Maybe we should just call her..”
Natalie’s eyes lit up. “Dude… yes. Yes!”
Van laughed, then saw Natalie’s eyes flit to the payphone. “Are you serious?”
“One thousand percent.” Natalie stood up and yanked Van’s arm, making her drop her bag of Sour Patch Kids. She had her hand in her pocket to grab her change.
“Hey what the heck are you doing?” Asked Van as Nat handed her the phone.
She began flipping through the faded phone book hanging off the chain. “What’s Jackie’s dad’s name?”
“Rick the Dick. Oh, I mean Richard.” Van recalled all of the furniture billboards and the graffiti’d nickname.
Natalie placed her thumb on a spot in the book and put coins into the phone. She glanced down at the phone book before she began dialing. “Wait,” Van said, “Shouldn’t we star-six-seven?”
“For a fucking payphone? It’s fine. Get ready.”
“Okay…” Van’s hand grew sweaty on the receiver.
The phone rang twice before a man’s voice came across, “Taylor residence.”
Van instantly panicked before throwing on her best ‘Golden Girls’ impersonation “Why hello there, good sir. Might I speak to the Lady of the house?”
“May I ask who’s calling?”
“Yes, this is Blanche.. Zbornak from the.. siete-once foundation for underprivileged children. I’m calling about her consultation on the slerpé fundraiser.” Natalie had both of her hands clasped over her mouth to keep from laughing. Van held off a snort and slapped her.
“Oh yes, let me fetch her at once.” The man said.
“You’re killing it, dude!” Natalie whispered.
Van shushed her when a woman’s voice came on the line. “This is Mrs. Richard Taylor.”
Van’s voice rasped, “Oh yeah? Well yer mother sucks cocks in hell!”
“My heavens!” Mrs. Taylor yelped.
The duo broke into hyena cackles before hanging up the phone. “That was hilarious, man. Well done.” Natalie said.
“You think so? Did I sound like Regan?” Van asked.
“Hell yeah, you did! Listen, if she ever gives you shit again, just pull that voice out. It’ll totally fuck with her head.”
Van snorted. “Should we head back and finish the movie?” She turned out the pockets of her jean shorts. “That was the last of the couch funds.”
Natalie pulled out her wallet. “Ten bucks. Arcade?”
Van beamed. “Seriously?! You never wanna go to the arcade anymore.”
Natalie’s face was wistful as she glanced away. “Yeah, we’ll we gotta send the summer off right, before we are high schoolers and we start going down some different paths…” She broke off the silence with a nudge of her elbow, “Besides, maybe I can actually beat your Stoney baloney butt at ‘Street Fighter’.”
Van giggled, “You wish, loser.”
Nat slapped her money into Van’s palm. “Money where your big mouth is, Palmer.”
~
When they got to the arcade, it was less busy than usual. “Oh score! Maybe ‘Street Fighter’ will be available.” Van said.
When they walked inside, they spotted two boys crowding the game’s machine. “Ugh, not Randy..” Nat groaned.
“He sucks at ‘Street Fighter’. He won’t be there long.” Van said.
“What do you wanna play in the meantime?” Natalie asked.
They eyed the available machines from the token machine. Van put both five dollar bills into the machine and held out her shirt to collect the coins that tumbled out. “Should we see if we can finally get past Dreamland on ‘The Simpsons’?”
“Okay. But I only wanna use ten tokens max. I’m serious about beating you.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Van waved a dismissive hand and almost fumbled the coins. She and Natalie stuffed the coins in their pants pockets.
When they got to the machine, Van immediately went to select Marge.
“Van, can you please be Homer for once? We’re going to get our ass kicked.”
“Natalie. Marge and her Vacuum of Justice is my secret weapon.”
Natalie reluctantly selected Bart. “You know Homer and Lisa are the best combo.”
“‘Don’t have a cow, man.’” Van said, quoting Bart.
They blasted through their tokens quite quickly. Van was not used to playing in such a hazy state and it seemed as through she couldn’t get the timing of her reactions to line up with her button pushing.
“Well that was a bust.” She groaned. “Nat, can I have some gum?”
“No. It’s my gum. I bought you chips and candy, which you dumped on the floor I might add.”
“Hey, you pulled me up while I was trying to eat them! Not my fault— oh look!” Van pointed at the ‘Street Fighter’ machine. Randy was walking away.
“DIBS!” Natalie yelled and ran over to the vacant game. Van quickly followed suit.
“Blanka. Of course.” Natalie drawled.
“What’s wrong with Blanka? Lovable redhead that got dealt a crappy hand in live, but overcoming and thriving!”
Natalie laughed and selected Ken. “Ah yes, so relatable. Down to the whole plane crash in the jungle and special wilderness powers stuff too, huh?”
They began their rounds. “Van, can you stop spamming the fucking shock attack?” Natalie asked
“Why, so you can come on up and freaking Dragon Punch me again? No dice.” Van knew that the minute she stopped spamming Blanka’s shock move, that Natalie’s Ken would quickly exploit any gaps. Van found herself struggling to focus on the game because the colors of the screen were so pretty. The din of all the arcade music blended in her ears to make a chaotic song that fascinated her.
Natalie took full advantage of Van’s moments of distraction to beat up Van’s fighter.
~
“That’s it!” Van said after her third straight loss. “I challenge you to a boobie brawl.”
Natalie smiled. “You sure about that?”
“Oh yeah!” Van moved her joystick over to Cammy, the British spy wearing nothing but a beret and a green singlet.
Natalie went to select Chun-Li, the fast kicking heroine of the game. “You sure you can handle my bodacious bazangas?”
“Oh don’t worry about me, I can handle some bazangas.” Van said arrogantly.
“Yeah, what’s her name, Taissa’s.” Natalie quipped right as the match began.
“Shut UP!” Van’s face was beet red. She glanced around nervously to see if anyone was eavesdropping. Natalie took the advantage to pummel away half of Van’s HP.
Soon enough, the duo eventually ran out of quarters. Natalie kicked Van’s virtual ass. “I can’t believe I beat the Mighty Palmer Flaming Palm technique.”
Van was irritated, “Only because you plied me with drugs beforehand. You had to cheat to win.”
Natalie laughed. “You’re such a sore loser. You’ll have to work on that for your soccer career, Jock Strap.”
When they exited the arcade, they glanced around. The haze of summer was settling into the ground earlier and earlier these days.
Van looked at the clock on Wiskayok First National Bank, 3:35 p.m.. “Shit, Nat. I gotta get back and get my chores done.”
“Damn, we were in there forever.” Natalie unlocked her bike and unwrapped the jump rope from her handlebars. When Van had a good grip, she began a fevered pedal. “You need me to help with the chores?” She panted.
“Nah. Unless you need to crash?” Natalie was a frequent guest at the Palmer house, but Vicky’s mom expected her to participate in home chores, especially if she was eating from their limited pantry of food. Natalie was always willing to work on some of the more challenging tasks with Van.
“No.. he’s on a construction gig in the city. But thank you.”
They pulled into Van’s driveway. Natalie untied Van’s jump rope from her handlebars. “Did you have a good day?”
Van beamed. “Are you kidding me? That was the best shit ever. I can finally see what the hype is about weed. But I think that’s because of you.”
Natalie said, “would you want to do it again sometime? Like, when you have time with all your new friends?”
“Stop that.” Van’s voice was serious. “You’re my friend. High school isn’t going to change that.”
“Everyone says that Van, but we know how it actually goes.” Natalie frowned.
“Natalie Scatorccio. Look at me.” Van grabbed her shoulders. “I love you. You are my family. That is never going to change. Capisce?”
Natalie smiled. “We have to work on your pronunciation. Your Italian really sucks.”
Van said nothing and jutted out her jaw.
“I love you too, bro. Let’s do this again sometime before those jocks make an honest woman out of you.”
Van scoffed, “Please.. me? Yeah right. I’m deep in the gutter with you.” Van looked at the sun going into the trees on the horizon. “I must go bust my ass on cleaning duty before Vicky comes and throws me into a literal gutter.”
“Message received.” Natalie spun off on her bike. “Later, loser!”
“Arrivederci, dickhead!”