Why I Hate Romeo and Juliet

Why I Hate Romeo and Juliet - Chapter Five

Chapter Five

“JOHNNY!” I exclaimed happily. For the nerd he was, Johnny always looked adorable. He wore his chic, grey-rimmed glasses, and a bright red argyle sweater that’d get him noticed anywhere.

“Hazel!” He called excitedly. I ran into his arms for a hug.

It was uncomfortable. I didn’t like hugging people. I’d only let a few people hug me. I just hadn’t seen the kid in so long, I had to. It was a reflex, almost.

I wriggled free quickly, and Spencer and Lucas gave him a one armed hug on each side, at once. I grinned at their unease. “Missed you, man,” Spencer laughed.

“The group wasn’t the same when you left,” Lucas added in. It was true. After Johnny left, we didn’t have a techie to our use. All our plans from there on were manual.

“Where’s Nathan and Matt?” he asked, looking around, his eyes stopping at Erick.

“Nathan’s coming in just a bit, he’s got football,” I started. “And Matt started ‘dating’ Macy, so now they’re a package. And I just can’t deal with that kind of gushiness.” I crinkled my nose.

He laughed in understanding, and then caught sight of Erick. “Who’s the new guy?” He nodded in Erick’s direction.

“I’m Erick,” he said, lending his hand for a shake. “Nice to meet you, man.”

“Good to meet you too,” Johnny took Erick’s hand and gave it a shake.

“Hey, it’s Nate!” Spencer shouted. Nathan’s silver jeep pulled up into the Kingston’s driveway. His expression went from blank, to that of complete surprise.

“JOHNNY!” He yelled, running out of the car and into the house. He too gave Johnny a one-armed hug. “What’s up man? How’s private school?”

“It’s way too posh man. I’ll have you know, I made some friends though. We pulled a killer stunt last year. Completely trashed the lunch room. And I totally screwed up the system. It was epic,” Johnny answered.

“That sounds great man,” Nathan grinned cheekily. Nathan loved pranks just as much as the rest of us. It was sad that he had to worry about football on the side.

“Oh it was, believe me,” Johnny grinned back. “So what’d you need me for again?”

“Apparently, Haze-y has got a good plan,” Lucas looked at me. I was standing in front of the whiteboard, black marker in hand.

“So I was thinking we need to end this year big. Like, huge,” I began. “Then Luke brought you up, and then he brought up the prospect of doing a dual-school thing.” I wrote Greenwood and Riverside in big letters across the board. “Anyways, my idea was that…”

“Cut to it Haze,” Lucas groaned.

“Don’t interrupt me!” I snapped at him. He rolled his eyes. “I wanted to do something involving hacking, for Johnny. Not the grade change thing, that’s been done,” I looked at Johnny. He looked proud at his previous hacking job. 

“I’m so glad we didn’t get caught on that one. We’d have gone through hell for it,” Spencer sighed.

“So, back on subject,” I snapped at Spencer. He gave an innocent look, to which I replied with a wry smile. “I’ve got one thing you’ve got to do, but it’s kind of big.”

“Shoot,” Johnny smirked.

“You’re going to have to shut down both Greenwood and Riverside’s systems. Everything. But not at the same time!” I added in quickly. I didn’t want Johnny to get sick from the idea.