Gutsy: A John Bender (Breakfast Club) Story

Ice Queen

After school was over, I threw my backpack in the car. It was weighted down with extra books from the library about baby names and the history of names of famous people. I drove the two blocks to my nanny family singing along to the radio feeling extremely pleased for it being a Monday. I pulled into the driveway of the MacMurrays. I fiddled with the zipper on my jacket trying to get the ends to line up before stepping out into the cold winter air. I finally got my jacket zipped and grabbed my backpack from the front seat.

Stepping out of the car I had a moment of panic when I nearly ran into John. It took all of my willpower to not freak out on him. Instead, I cocked my head and said in a bored voice, "What are you doing here?"

"Working on the stupid English project with you." John said peering down at me.

I huffed at him, "Nooo....I'm going to do my nanny job and read tonight and you're going to do whatever you do on a Monday. We can figure out how to meet later." I pushed past him and headed for the door.

John followed me up onto the front step crowding into my personal space. I turned and said, "Seriously, we will figure something out. Now, I have a job to do and I plan to get some reading done."

Before John could answer me, the front door flew open, Mrs. MacMurray stood looking frazzled in an evening gown and began to babble, "Laura, I'm so glad you're here! Lizzy and Charlie are bouncing off the walls! I've got to get Bill to this dinner, but we are going to be late if I can't get the twins to eat their food." she paused for a breath and noticed John for the first time. "Whose your friend?" she asked "You've never brought anyone with you before."

Beating me to the punch, John put on his mostcharming smile and began to schmooze Mrs. MacMurray, "I'm John Bender ma'am.Laura and I are working on a big project for school. We are struggling to find a time to work on it so I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I tagged along tonight? It's about a third of our grade, so I really want to get started on it and do good job."

Mrs. MacMurray fell for his charm, suddenly beaming. "Well, I wouldn't want you two to fail a project that important! You are welcome anytime John. It's so nice to see students who care about their grades. I'm sure you already know that Laura is a straight A student."

"Oh yes," John nodded with an earnest smirk, "She's quite the brain."

I smiled and bobbed my head, but inside I was fuming. We followed Mrs. MacMurray into the house and immediately heard the wild cries of the twins. Lizzy and Charlie were seven years old and the highest energy kids I'd ever met, although after seeing how busy their parents were I could tell the apple didn't fall far from the tree. The twins came careening down the hall waving their arms and hollering with excitement. They were always amped up after the weekend. I wasn't sure we'd be getting much studying done with the level of excitement they were already showing.

The twins flung themselves onto me, but suddenly stopped and stared at John.

Charlie glared up at John, "Who are you? Is Laura babysitting you too? Cause she's our sitter and we won't share."

John smiled at him and crouched down, "Nah, she's not babysitting me. We have some homework to work on. Besides, I wouldn't want her to be my babysitter. I bet she's scary."

Charlie laughed, "She's not scary! But she makes you eat all your food and go to bed."

Lizzy piped up, "Laura chases monsters though when they get under our bed. She's good at that!"

John let out a soft laugh, "She's very good at that. Do you two like to play monster?"

"We love playing monster!" Lizzy chirped, "We play chase. You can be the monster and chase us if you want."