Love from the Drumming Neanderthal: Chapter 14
Random Question: Do they put sugar in toothpaste? Honestly, why does my toothpaste taste like the junior mints I get at the movie theatre? mmmmmm junior mints! I want some.
I honestly can't think of anything I hate more then gossipy teenage girls. As I walk into the bowling alley, I see a large group of them chattering and giggling. Since this is a coed function, they seem to have over dressed themselves. This includes short skirts, curled hair and enough eye make up to paint a portrait. Just looking at these ladies makes me sick.
“You guys ready?” Roy says as he and Clark come in with me.
"I guess." I nervously reply. Roy eyes the giggling mob of girls and smiles.
"I wish you luck friends." He then begins to fiddle with his hair and scrub his teeth harshly with his index finger. I notice that the girls are checking their contact mirrors and adjusting skirts.
"Come on, let’s go bowling." I say to Clark. He laughs and says,
"No one comes to bowl, Remundo. This is couples' night. No one gets to the bowling until they've snagged themselves a date!"
"But!"
"Come on, grab one before the good ones are all taken!"
My heart has dropped through the bottom of my stomach as Clark pushes me toward the center of the crowd. The girls smile at us and bat their thick eyelashes.
"Why are you interested in girls when you can't see them?" I whisper to Clark, trying to find any way to get out of this situation.
"It's not what you see mate,” He says, "It's what you feel!" He makes a motion of having large breasts. The girls laugh and I feel my face flush.
"Stop that! You want them to think we're crazy?"
"Chicks dig crazy guys. Talk to them Remundo, not me." He gives me another shove, and this time I topple into one of the many bodies surrounding me. There is a clatter and a scream, and soon, I find myself practically sitting on a small curly red head with pink clothes.
"What do you think you're doing?!" She cries.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," I help her up, "I just tripped." She brushes herself off and to my great relief, grins at me.
"That's alright." She says. Is it just me, or is she blushing.
"Umm, are you sure you're okay?"
"Oh, she's fine," Says another girl, "Wanna get a drink with me?" She looks at me with a bubbly expression.
"Hey, he bumped into me!" Says the red head with an angry voice.
"Well, I saw him first!" Says another, "I know you want to go bowling with me, cutie."
"Huh? Wait, ummm." I feel so dumbfounded that I can't see straight. "Clark, where did you go?"
"I'm just listening to you mate!" I notice that Clark is now ten feet away and hooking arms with a skinny dark haired girl.
"You nervous sweetheart?" Asks a blue eyed tall girl. She gets very close to me, and I hear the other girls complain.
"Genna! You always get the cute one!"
"It's not fair!"
Genna gets even closer to me. I think I can smell her lip gloss.
"You know, I think I'm gonna go hang out with Clark." I say and gently remove myself from Genna's grasp. Quickly I push myself out of the crowd of whining girls, who seem to need to touch me.
"Ohh, won't you dance with me?"
"I'm so lonely. Let's go eat."
Finally, I pry myself away from them and dash across the room to where Clark and the skinny girl are trying on bowling shoes.
"Why did you leave me?" I scream at Clark.
"You seemed to be doing pretty well by yourself. What happened?"
"What happened!?" I put my hands down on the table and bring my face right next to Clark's. "They were trying to ambush me!"
"Calm down Remundo. You sound like you've never seen a girl before."
"Let's just go bowling."
"I understand how you feel," Says the skinny girl, "The girls at my school like to suffocate males when they see them. If you picked one, the rest would leave you alone."
"But I don't want a girl like that!"
The skinny girl smiles. She looks much better than the painted dolls that attacked me. She's wearing jeans and a purple sweater. Her long dark hair is allowed to stay in its natural straight look and her nose is pierced.
"Alright Mr. Grumpy, if you want bowling, we'll go bowling. Roy and Jacob are over there." Clark complains.
I felt my stomach turn inside out. Jacob was indeed bowling, but his partner was none other than a blond, made up doll, with a short skirt and matching headband.
"Hi guys!" She beams at us and waves.
"Hey Madeline!" Clark yells back.
We join them, and listen to Madeline delightfully describe her evening. She boasts that she and Jacob had gone out to dinner before hand and decided to meet us here.
I couldn't help thinking "I hate Madeline." The others must have noticed I was slightly grouchy because Roy asked me,
"What's wrong Remundo? You seem kinda quite."
"Remundo got ambushed." Clark explains. "The girls adored him so much they scared him senseless."
"Really?! Can't say I didn't see that coming. We're all jealous of you Remundo."
I just glare at the floor and pretend to be interested in my bowling shoes.
"Hey Remundo!" Madeline grins at me and shows her perfect teeth. "I'm Madeline, it's nice to meet you."
"Oh, hi."
"And I'm Katie." Says the skinny girl. She holds out her hand for me to shake.
"Hi." I grumble to her.
Jacob gets up and stretches. "I'm going to go get some chips, do you guys want some?" He asks.
"Jacob! We just went out to eat!" Says Madeline. Her face changes from the perfect smile to an instant disgusted look. "You don't want to buy the nasty food here, do you?"
"I was just offering," Jacob mumbles.
"Still, it's very rude of you to order more food after we just went to eat.”
“Hey, why don’t we get bowling?” Asked Roy. Jacob gave Madeline a hurt look, then mumbled under his breath,
“I paid for the dinner.”
“Excuse me!” Madeline snapped. “We went to Le Frele, which happens to be the best in town.
“Listen, I’m sorry Madeline,” Jacob tried to reach for Madeline’s arm, but she pulled herself away from him.
“You didn’t eat anything at the restaurant. Why? Was there something wrong?”
“No, nothing I just,”
“You just what?”
“I just didn’t like the food that much.”
“Well, that was obvious. You could have told me before hand that you didn’t like the restaurant.”
“Madeline, like I said before, I paid the bill. It doesn’t matter…”
“DOESN’T MATTER!? Jacob, I picked that restaurant. You think it wouldn’t upset me if you didn’t eat!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“You know, if you can’t be honest with me, if you can’t even tell me what food you like, maybe we shouldn’t see each other anymore.”
“What? Madeline, are you serious?”
“Yes! Good bye Jacob!” We watch Madeline pick up her bag and begin to walk away. Jacob runs after her, desperate to make her stay.
“But Madeline, what about the Neanderthals?”
“What about them Jacob? Sometimes I think you’re only dating me because of the Neanderthals!”
“Well, umm….” Madeline stops and begins tapping her foot.
“Is it true Jacob? Is that the only reason?”
“At first it was, but Madeline I…..”
“I don’t want to hear it anymore.”
“At least promise me you’ll come to practices!”
“Humph!” Madeline turns around, flips her hair out behind her and walks out of the bowling alley with her nose in the air. There was a silence for a few moments, when everyone in the room froze and watched Jacob slump into a chair. Then, like a gunshot, the whispers began to fire.
Roy sits next to Jacob and pats him on the shoulder,
“You know, I hate to admit it, but she is right.” He claims.
“Jacob, you really have bad luck with girls.” Clark laughs
“How long did this one last? Let’s see? I think it was about, two weeks.” Roy chimes.
“That’s a record!”
“Shut up.” Jacob grumbles.
“We’re not trying to be mean mate, we’re just telling the truth.”
“Yeah, and according to Madeline, you need to learn that skill.”
“I said shut up!”
“Too bad you couldn’t keep that one, she was pretty hot.”
“ROY!”
“Okay, okay. Hey, she was kind of a jerk anyways.”
“Were you really only dating her for the Neanderthals?” Asks Katie. Her eyes are wide and filled with excitement.
“Well,” Jacob shifts his feet around and doesn’t make eye contact with Katie. “She did say she would think about coming to practice if I took her out.”
“You are such an idiot, Jacob.” Katie grins.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I was never really attracted to her.”
“Jacob!” Roy bellows, “Are you kidding me, she was a babe.”
“I don’t know, I thought she was kind of, kind of, oh what’s the word?”
“Fake.” I say. Finally, my spirits are beginning to rise a bit. I was terrified that Jacob was about to chase Madeline out of the alley. Now that he is admitting he never really liked her, I have the ability to look at him again.
“Yeah!” Jacob says, “Fake.”
“That’s cruel.” Clark says.
“It’s true though.” Katie explains, “You saw her problem with the restaurant.”
“We had girls like that at my school.” I recall, remembering my so called friend Rachel, “They used to steel my lunch.”
“Why would they do that?” Roy asks me.
“Don’t know.” I gaze out at the direction Madeline left, “I don’t know.”
There is a brief silence when we all look at the floor or at each other, when I say, “By the way, who are the Neanderthals? You have a thing with archeology?”
Jacob smiles for the first time that evening.
“It’s the band we’re putting together. We call it the Neanderthals because Kyle is our lead guitarist and you know, with his bangs, he looks kinda like a cave man.”
“Kyle?” I ask, “ The guy in our band class?”
“Yep. He and I were going to listen to you play the drums, to see if you’re up to snatch for the band.”
“Really? You want me!?” My chest flutters.
“Well, we haven’t heard you play yet, but I’m pretty sure you’ll do the trick.”
“And Madeline?” I point to the doorway where Madeline had walked out.
“She was going to be our singer. She had such an amazing voice, you should have heard it.”
“Stupid reason to date her though.” Katie interrupts.
“Well, yeah.” Jacob replies.
“I don’t know about you, but I really want to do some bowling.” Roy declares.
The rest of the night went pretty well after that. For some unknown reason, I bowled the best score of the group. Well, maybe it wasn’t that unknown
I honestly can't think of anything I hate more then gossipy teenage girls. As I walk into the bowling alley, I see a large group of them chattering and giggling. Since this is a coed function, they seem to have over dressed themselves. This includes short skirts, curled hair and enough eye make up to paint a portrait. Just looking at these ladies makes me sick.
“You guys ready?” Roy says as he and Clark come in with me.
"I guess." I nervously reply. Roy eyes the giggling mob of girls and smiles.
"I wish you luck friends." He then begins to fiddle with his hair and scrub his teeth harshly with his index finger. I notice that the girls are checking their contact mirrors and adjusting skirts.
"Come on, let’s go bowling." I say to Clark. He laughs and says,
"No one comes to bowl, Remundo. This is couples' night. No one gets to the bowling until they've snagged themselves a date!"
"But!"
"Come on, grab one before the good ones are all taken!"
My heart has dropped through the bottom of my stomach as Clark pushes me toward the center of the crowd. The girls smile at us and bat their thick eyelashes.
"Why are you interested in girls when you can't see them?" I whisper to Clark, trying to find any way to get out of this situation.
"It's not what you see mate,” He says, "It's what you feel!" He makes a motion of having large breasts. The girls laugh and I feel my face flush.
"Stop that! You want them to think we're crazy?"
"Chicks dig crazy guys. Talk to them Remundo, not me." He gives me another shove, and this time I topple into one of the many bodies surrounding me. There is a clatter and a scream, and soon, I find myself practically sitting on a small curly red head with pink clothes.
"What do you think you're doing?!" She cries.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," I help her up, "I just tripped." She brushes herself off and to my great relief, grins at me.
"That's alright." She says. Is it just me, or is she blushing.
"Umm, are you sure you're okay?"
"Oh, she's fine," Says another girl, "Wanna get a drink with me?" She looks at me with a bubbly expression.
"Hey, he bumped into me!" Says the red head with an angry voice.
"Well, I saw him first!" Says another, "I know you want to go bowling with me, cutie."
"Huh? Wait, ummm." I feel so dumbfounded that I can't see straight. "Clark, where did you go?"
"I'm just listening to you mate!" I notice that Clark is now ten feet away and hooking arms with a skinny dark haired girl.
"You nervous sweetheart?" Asks a blue eyed tall girl. She gets very close to me, and I hear the other girls complain.
"Genna! You always get the cute one!"
"It's not fair!"
Genna gets even closer to me. I think I can smell her lip gloss.
"You know, I think I'm gonna go hang out with Clark." I say and gently remove myself from Genna's grasp. Quickly I push myself out of the crowd of whining girls, who seem to need to touch me.
"Ohh, won't you dance with me?"
"I'm so lonely. Let's go eat."
Finally, I pry myself away from them and dash across the room to where Clark and the skinny girl are trying on bowling shoes.
"Why did you leave me?" I scream at Clark.
"You seemed to be doing pretty well by yourself. What happened?"
"What happened!?" I put my hands down on the table and bring my face right next to Clark's. "They were trying to ambush me!"
"Calm down Remundo. You sound like you've never seen a girl before."
"Let's just go bowling."
"I understand how you feel," Says the skinny girl, "The girls at my school like to suffocate males when they see them. If you picked one, the rest would leave you alone."
"But I don't want a girl like that!"
The skinny girl smiles. She looks much better than the painted dolls that attacked me. She's wearing jeans and a purple sweater. Her long dark hair is allowed to stay in its natural straight look and her nose is pierced.
"Alright Mr. Grumpy, if you want bowling, we'll go bowling. Roy and Jacob are over there." Clark complains.
I felt my stomach turn inside out. Jacob was indeed bowling, but his partner was none other than a blond, made up doll, with a short skirt and matching headband.
"Hi guys!" She beams at us and waves.
"Hey Madeline!" Clark yells back.
We join them, and listen to Madeline delightfully describe her evening. She boasts that she and Jacob had gone out to dinner before hand and decided to meet us here.
I couldn't help thinking "I hate Madeline." The others must have noticed I was slightly grouchy because Roy asked me,
"What's wrong Remundo? You seem kinda quite."
"Remundo got ambushed." Clark explains. "The girls adored him so much they scared him senseless."
"Really?! Can't say I didn't see that coming. We're all jealous of you Remundo."
I just glare at the floor and pretend to be interested in my bowling shoes.
"Hey Remundo!" Madeline grins at me and shows her perfect teeth. "I'm Madeline, it's nice to meet you."
"Oh, hi."
"And I'm Katie." Says the skinny girl. She holds out her hand for me to shake.
"Hi." I grumble to her.
Jacob gets up and stretches. "I'm going to go get some chips, do you guys want some?" He asks.
"Jacob! We just went out to eat!" Says Madeline. Her face changes from the perfect smile to an instant disgusted look. "You don't want to buy the nasty food here, do you?"
"I was just offering," Jacob mumbles.
"Still, it's very rude of you to order more food after we just went to eat.”
“Hey, why don’t we get bowling?” Asked Roy. Jacob gave Madeline a hurt look, then mumbled under his breath,
“I paid for the dinner.”
“Excuse me!” Madeline snapped. “We went to Le Frele, which happens to be the best in town.
“Listen, I’m sorry Madeline,” Jacob tried to reach for Madeline’s arm, but she pulled herself away from him.
“You didn’t eat anything at the restaurant. Why? Was there something wrong?”
“No, nothing I just,”
“You just what?”
“I just didn’t like the food that much.”
“Well, that was obvious. You could have told me before hand that you didn’t like the restaurant.”
“Madeline, like I said before, I paid the bill. It doesn’t matter…”
“DOESN’T MATTER!? Jacob, I picked that restaurant. You think it wouldn’t upset me if you didn’t eat!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“You know, if you can’t be honest with me, if you can’t even tell me what food you like, maybe we shouldn’t see each other anymore.”
“What? Madeline, are you serious?”
“Yes! Good bye Jacob!” We watch Madeline pick up her bag and begin to walk away. Jacob runs after her, desperate to make her stay.
“But Madeline, what about the Neanderthals?”
“What about them Jacob? Sometimes I think you’re only dating me because of the Neanderthals!”
“Well, umm….” Madeline stops and begins tapping her foot.
“Is it true Jacob? Is that the only reason?”
“At first it was, but Madeline I…..”
“I don’t want to hear it anymore.”
“At least promise me you’ll come to practices!”
“Humph!” Madeline turns around, flips her hair out behind her and walks out of the bowling alley with her nose in the air. There was a silence for a few moments, when everyone in the room froze and watched Jacob slump into a chair. Then, like a gunshot, the whispers began to fire.
Roy sits next to Jacob and pats him on the shoulder,
“You know, I hate to admit it, but she is right.” He claims.
“Jacob, you really have bad luck with girls.” Clark laughs
“How long did this one last? Let’s see? I think it was about, two weeks.” Roy chimes.
“That’s a record!”
“Shut up.” Jacob grumbles.
“We’re not trying to be mean mate, we’re just telling the truth.”
“Yeah, and according to Madeline, you need to learn that skill.”
“I said shut up!”
“Too bad you couldn’t keep that one, she was pretty hot.”
“ROY!”
“Okay, okay. Hey, she was kind of a jerk anyways.”
“Were you really only dating her for the Neanderthals?” Asks Katie. Her eyes are wide and filled with excitement.
“Well,” Jacob shifts his feet around and doesn’t make eye contact with Katie. “She did say she would think about coming to practice if I took her out.”
“You are such an idiot, Jacob.” Katie grins.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I was never really attracted to her.”
“Jacob!” Roy bellows, “Are you kidding me, she was a babe.”
“I don’t know, I thought she was kind of, kind of, oh what’s the word?”
“Fake.” I say. Finally, my spirits are beginning to rise a bit. I was terrified that Jacob was about to chase Madeline out of the alley. Now that he is admitting he never really liked her, I have the ability to look at him again.
“Yeah!” Jacob says, “Fake.”
“That’s cruel.” Clark says.
“It’s true though.” Katie explains, “You saw her problem with the restaurant.”
“We had girls like that at my school.” I recall, remembering my so called friend Rachel, “They used to steel my lunch.”
“Why would they do that?” Roy asks me.
“Don’t know.” I gaze out at the direction Madeline left, “I don’t know.”
There is a brief silence when we all look at the floor or at each other, when I say, “By the way, who are the Neanderthals? You have a thing with archeology?”
Jacob smiles for the first time that evening.
“It’s the band we’re putting together. We call it the Neanderthals because Kyle is our lead guitarist and you know, with his bangs, he looks kinda like a cave man.”
“Kyle?” I ask, “ The guy in our band class?”
“Yep. He and I were going to listen to you play the drums, to see if you’re up to snatch for the band.”
“Really? You want me!?” My chest flutters.
“Well, we haven’t heard you play yet, but I’m pretty sure you’ll do the trick.”
“And Madeline?” I point to the doorway where Madeline had walked out.
“She was going to be our singer. She had such an amazing voice, you should have heard it.”
“Stupid reason to date her though.” Katie interrupts.
“Well, yeah.” Jacob replies.
“I don’t know about you, but I really want to do some bowling.” Roy declares.
The rest of the night went pretty well after that. For some unknown reason, I bowled the best score of the group. Well, maybe it wasn’t that unknown