S.L.T./Anthony "Ant" Vaughn

twenty eight

Ca$h, Darren, and Harper are showing Amerie and I their new house. It's more like a large apartment over a garage but it works.

"Oh, my God, our house is sick!" Harper says.

"Yeah, Roger's a legend," Ca$h tells her.

"Shit, yeah! House warming tomorrow, tell everyone!" Darren states.

Ca$h laughs. "It's perfect."

"Oh. Uh, is it?" Darren asks as they cover their nose.

"Yes!" Harper insists.

"Wait, Sage, Am, help me find where that skanky smell is coming from," Darren tells us. "Don't be human remains please."

"I don't do dead bodies," I tell them. "I will run out of this apartment and leave you to bury it."

"Have you heard from Quinni?" Amerie asks Darren. "I sent her this long message and she just replied a seahorse emoji. I don't know what to do with that."

Darren is looking in a file cabinet. "Yeah, she's being super weird lately. But..." They take another sniff. "Hang on, babe, I think I'm getting close." They cough as they pull a mostly green piece of some kind of meat out of a drawer. "Is that... deli meat?"

I try no to gag. "That's foul."

"Ugh," Amerie groans.

"This does not spark joy," Darren states before throwing the meat at the wall.

"I have a house! I have a fucking house!" Harper shouts. "I'm gonna get letters sent here and shit."

Ca$h cheers. "Like, oh, let's go!"

I smile as they hug Harper and Darren.

Darren, Amerie, Harper, and I walk into school together. I can hear Zoe on the announcements.

"Good morning, Hartley High. With only a week to go until the election, the latest lunchtime polls have seen some big swings. Amerie Wadia and her SLT Party have made some big gains. Looks like her campaign video really paid off."

Amerie flips her hair.

"Ooh, nicely done," Jojo tells her. "You'd better brace yourself for retaliation though. In my experience, men like that don't take kindly to being laughed at."

"Spencer White remains in the lead, but the gap continues to close. He'll need to work really hard to regain his stronghold. And Sasha So and her party have plummeted in the polls, after damning images came to light over the weekend. Boo!"

Sasha walks towards us clearly pissed. "Hey, that video was below the belt. You know my cups are biodegradable. And I was so munted at that party, like, I don't even know what I was doing."

"Hey, just reporting the facts," Amerie tells her.

"Okay, well your "facts" are going to hand Spider the victory," Sasha argues. "And if that happens..."

Darren cuts her off, "The cum'll be on your hands."

Harper laughs. "Oh, my God."

Sasha mutters as she turns away.

"Hey, I love the smell of scandal in the morning," Darren taunts.

"Damn, Am, looks like your video really did the trick," Harper tells her.

"Yeah. I owe Rowan big time," Amerie states.

We're playing T-ball in P.E. I sit beside Darren and Amerie avoiding having to take a turn at bat. Jenny misses the ball again.

"Jenny!" I shout. "Even I can hit the ball of the tee."

"Hand-eye coordination, Jenny," Amerie tells her.