Our TP-disposal efforts had progressed to the front yard, and we all gathered the two-day-old toilet paper into a gigantic heap in the middle of the lawn. I crouched to get the last square of TP in the whole property, and almost got my hand stepped on by a random passersby. Ariel knocked on the old man's front door, and told him we were finished cleaning the ground and ready to start on the roof. He told us get the ladders from the shed.

"Okay, who wants to do that?" Ariel said, turning around. None of us offered. Finally Willa spoke up.

"Sheesh, why is everyone so afraid of the shed?!" Willa exclaimed with spunk. "It's just full of zombie-spider's and Hannibal Lecter!" Willa skipped over to Rae and took her hand. "Come on, Rose, let's go get some ladders!" She and Rae skedaddled to the shed located in the far right corner of the backyard. I looked at Ariel, who was applying another layer of overly-red lipstick.

"So...," I said. "Where do you go to school?"

"Uh, it's west, somewhere," she said, not breaking her intense stare into her tiny-pocket-mirror. Somehow, she looked amazing in the close-up side of the compact too, and nobody looks good in that side. "Why, where do you go?"

"Knowsley Park Centre for Learning - Serving Prescot, Whiston and the wider community."

"'K," Ariel said. She closed her mini mirror and put it back in her jacket pocket. "Hey, what's up with Rae? She, like, single?"

I blinked twice. I took the two-year-old granola bar out of my pocket and threw it a few feet in front of me.

"Oops. I dropped my granola bar."

I walked away to retrieve it.

Rae and Willa came back around the house and set down the ladders. "Mind helping us, ladies?" Willa asked.

I silently helped Rae stand the ladder up.

"I'm just gonna use the little-girls room," Ariel bailed out.

Once the ladders were up and ready, Rae went and sat down on the porch step, apparently trying to scrape the extra toilet paper off her shoe.

Willa sidled up on me. "Sorry, Jack, couldn't get a word out of her," she said.

"Did you ask her about the..." I said, pointing discreetly to my cheek.

"Yeah. No good," Willa said, picking a piece of toilet paper out of her hair. "I'm not surprised she wants to hang out with Ariel."

"Why?" I asked naively.

"Because we both badgered her about her bruise, but Ariel hasn't said a word about it."

I stomped my foot on the ground. "Ariel doesn't even fucking care about her. Meanwhile my heart has been in a state of continual flutter, and not the good kind of heart flutter — the bad one!"

"Sounds like you're kinda jealous," Willa said, one eyebrow raised above the other.

"I'm the type," I said, shrugging. "What is up with Ariel?"

"Seriously, I don't know. She flirts with everything that moves. She used to flirt with me. And how could she not with hair like that?" Willa exclaimed, gesturing to Ariel, who walked out the front door in slow-motion. "She just wants attention."

"Okay, girls," the old guy said, and we all turned our attention towards him, "here comes the hard part: two of you need to get the toilet paper out of the gutter, and two of you should steady the ladder. That's how they did it in my day, anyway. Get to work. I'll make sure you don't mess anything up. But, first, who wants to clean and who wants to steady?"

We exchanged looks between each other.

"I'll clean," Rae said.

Ariel put up her hand. "I'll also clean!"

Rae and I caught each other's eyes. She looked away. I hung my head in heartsickness. Willa patted me on the back, and we went to stable the ladders once Rae and Ariel were positioned in the best vantage point to clear the TP from the drain.

I felt as though there was a jackhammer (no pun intended) chipping away at my psyche. All I heard was Ariel giggling enticingly, the old man cough because of his cigarette, and then smoke because of his mysterious cough, all while the girl I liked, and wanted to help, flirted with someone else above my head.

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aaaaaaaaAaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

HOW MUCH WORSE COULD IT GET??!?!?!

No, actually, that's an exaggeration. It could get a lot worse..

Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter! And I promise chapter 17 will be much lighter in tone, and subsequently make all your dreams come true!!!

......he he he......

Well, have a good one(day, that is)!!