14We have arrived, my lovelies. The last chapter of Maybe Brainiac's Aren't All That Bad. It's been awesome and I want to give one last, final, huge thank you to everyone that's followed, favorited, reviewed or even just viewed it! I do however have some ideas for one shots with the different couples which I may or may not work on and publish so watch out for those...
Alright everyone, enjoy!
Maybe Brainiac's Aren't All That Bad – Chapter 8 – Final
After the dance party John crawled back through the air duct to the closet Vernon had locked him into earlier.
Andrew, Allison, Claire, Brian, and Erin were all sitting (in that order) on the railing.
"Brian?" Claire asked.
"Yeah?" he answered.
"Are you gonna write your paper?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, it's kinda a waste for all of us to write our paper, don't you think?"
"Oh, but that's what Vernon wants us to do."
"True, but I think we'd all kinda say the same thing."
"You just don't want to write your paper, right?"
"True, but you're the smartest, right?"
Brian straightened up with pride. "Oh, well..."
"Hey!" Erin exclaimed in offense.
Claire jokingly rolled her eyes. "Besides Erin, you're the smartest, Brian. We trust you."
Brian glanced at Allison and Andrew, they both nodded. "Yeah." Andrew said.
Brian looked over at Erin. She said, "You're the smartest... and I was struggling earlier. I trust you." She nodded with a smile.
"All right, I'll do it." Brian said.
"You're amazing, Brian." Claire grabbed his shoulder and gave him a kiss on his cheek. Brian's eyes went wide and he fell forward in a daze to stumble to his chair and write the essay.
Claire looked at Allison and Allison silently looked back. Claire laughed and pulled on Allison's sleeve. "Come on."
"Where are we going?" Allison asked.
"Come on!" Claire insisted. They both jumped down from the railing and left the library.
After a minute Erin jumped down from the railing and started walking to the library door.
"What are you doing?" Andrew asked.
Erin stopped and looked back at Andrew. "I'm not sure..." she gave a nervous chuckle and left the library.
Erin walked across the hall to Mr. Vernon's office. She saw him sitting there at his desk with his head in his hands looking at some papers but seeming to be nodding off. Erin lightly knocked on the door and asked, "Mr. Vernon, sir?"
Vernon shook himself awake and sniffed. He looked around and once he caught sight of Erin in the doorway he rubbed his eyes. "Oh, Harley... What do you want?"
"It's almost time to go, sir. Would it be all right, if I let John out of the closet?"
Vernon sunk back down in his chair and waved his hand at her. "Go, ahead, Harley. Go ahead..."
Erin smiled and said, "Thank you, sir."
Vernon nodded lightly, slipping back into semi-consciousness, not even thinking about how Erin knew that John was locked in a closet.
John had told Erin about the closet Vernon had locked him into and where it was. Erin found the closet and took a deep breath before unlocking the door and opening it.
John looked up at the sound of the lock. He crossed his arms with a small smirk on his face when he saw Erin come through the door and close it.
"You lost?" he asked.
Erin could only stare back at him. She had no idea what she was doing there.
John smiled. Erin nervously smiled back.
John chuckled and looked away. Erin nervously stepped toward him and kissed his neck. When she looked up at him his eyes were wide.
"Why'd you do that?" he asked.
"'Cause I knew you wouldn't." She answered.
"You know how you said before, about how you have school and your mom and your dad to worry about all the time? Wouldn't I be outstanding in that capacity?"
Erin smiled lightly then asked, "Have you been 'considering' me as one of your girlfriends all day today?"
"Truth?"
"Truth."
John shook his head and spoke at the same time. "Yes."
After Erin had let John out of the closet the two of them walked back to the library together, exchanging glances and smiling. When they returned they saw Andrew and Allison talking over by the railing.
"Whoa, Allison..." Erin said. Allison looked up at her. The girl's hair was pushed back and you could see her face. She was much prettier than she had seemed before. "You look so pretty!" Erin exclaimed.
Allison glanced down with a smile. "Thank you." She said and returned to her conversation with Andrew.
Erin walked to her desk to start packing up her stuff and John followed her. Erin smiled when she saw Claire sitting at Brian's table, the both of them reading over what Brian had written for their essay. Once Claire had finished she looked up at Brian with a smile.
"It's great." she told him.
"You think so?" Brian asked.
"Yeah..." Claire bit her lip and placed her hand on the back of Brian's neck. Erin bumped John's leg with her hip and they watched as Claire pulled Brian in for a kiss while Brian sat there in wide-eyed shock until his eyes slipped closed. Claire ended the kiss and gave a small smile to Brian who couldn't see it because his eyes were still closed.
"Nice job, Brian." John said, which made Brian's eyes fly open and his face go red.
Erin laughed and swatted playfully at John's arm.
At four o'clock the group gathered their stuff together and left the library. Claire and Brian holding hands and leading the group, then Andrew and Allison, and Erin and John. They passed by Carl and Brian smiled at him with a nod of his head.
"See ya, Brian." Carl said.
"Hey, Carl..." Brian said in return.
As John and Erin passed by the janitor they grinned, "See you next Saturday!" they said together.
"You bet!" Carl called after him.
Claire and Brian exited the school's doors and Brian panicked when he saw his father's car. Claire and Brian walked down the school's steps together until they reached the bottom and faced each other.
"You know, we really shouldn't- I mean, my dad, he's right there and- he'll tell my mom-"
Claire silenced him by covering his mouth with hers. Brian melted into relaxation and when they parted his eyes were glazed over.
"See you Monday?" he asked, his voice breaking slightly.
Claire chuckled and bit her lip. "Yeah... see you, Monday." She watched Brian get into his car then waved to everybody else and jogged to her father's BMW.
Erin stopped at the bottom of the school's steps and John stopped next to her. She watched as Andrew and Allison kissed and Allison ripped a patch from his jacket with a small smile. Then Allison backed up until she bumped into her car and got in. Then Andrew got into his car and his dad drove him away.
The parking lot was empty.
Erin glanced around, she hadn't expected her dad to be on time, he rarely was. She looked over at John and gave a small smile. "He's on his way, he's just late." John nodded and Erin smiled, "C'mere." she beckoned. John gave her a look and sauntered closer and Erin burst into laughter. "No! Geez, you weirdo, it's not anything like that..."
John watched her silently as she reached up and began parting his hair into sections on the left side. Then she started to braid it. He didn't mind in the least. Sure, it felt weird with the kind of air he put on to have a braid in his hair, but it was something Erin was giving him, and he was a-okay with that.
Once she was finished she held onto the end of the braid and started digging through her bag. After a moment of struggle she sighed and asked, "Can you hold this for a sec?" John nodded and held onto the end of the braid so Erin could use both hands to find whatever she needed. She lifted her head when she saw a green car pull up. She waved her hand at the car and bent her head to look through her bag again. Finally she pulled out a small box filled with tiny black rubber bands. "I carry 'em around... just in case..." she explained as she tied off the end of the braid with one of the black bands. When she was finished she put the box back in her bag and looked up at John. "Is it okay?" she asked.
John reached up and felt the braid. It was loose and smooth. He smiled, "Yeah... I like it..."
They stared at each other for a long moment. Then John gently cupped Erin's cheek and brought her closer to him. She held onto the arms of his jacket and closed her eyes, more prepared for this kiss now than the one they were almost going to share earlier. They're mouths connected and they shared a long and sensual kiss. Once it ended Erin's cheeks were bright red. They both stared silently at each other for a moment before Erin let go of him and began walking backward toward her car. She watched John at the school's steps as she got in her car and drove away. She didn't look over at her dad until John was only a speck on the rear view mirror. When she finally looked over at her father he was already looking at her, his eyebrow raised quizzically.
"Who was that?" he asked.
"A... um... a boy I've liked for a while."
"Ahh..." her father said and smiled at her. "I'm happy then."
Erin smiled, understanding.
Mr. Vernon entered the library, his feet shuffling slightly on the carpet as he was still groggy from the long Saturday he had to spend in this school. He looked around at all of the desks, hoping to find a finished essay on all of them but, of course, there was only a single piece of paper in the place Brian Johnson had sat. With a tired sigh, Mr. Vernon walked to the table and picked up the paper. He was confused to see only a single paragraph written on the paper and decided to read it now rather than wait.
"Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think you are. You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each of us is a brain, an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, a brainiac, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club."
Erin leaned her head against the window of her father's car as they drove home, an excited smile growing on her lips. She couldn't wait to find out what fun they were going to have next Saturday.
Sincerely yours, littlemonalisaliar.