Tuesday, May 24, 2005

   I feel proud of this story. My principal even likes it!!!!!! Oh Yeah! I Don't want any Crappy comments because I use Joey's Manga name and his english name. His School name is Joey, His gangster name is Jonouchi. I made that up myself. I use some gangste


Holding the Grudge
By Ashlee Renee Wheeler
Chapter 1 Trouble!
“Ello!” I’m Joey Allen Wheeler. I am a normal 10th grader who is the center of all pranks. People prank me all the time. But I pull a few pranks myself. I always get caught though. So I guess I’m a troublemaker too. I had a long record until a few years ago. I was in a gang. My Gang name was Jonouchi. But I try to put the past behind me. I still get pressured into joining gangs.
I got to school, Like always. I never missed. Even though I was flunking every one of my classes. The walk to school was harsh though. It was raining like, Ummm, really hard, I guess you could say. I was soaked by the time I got to school, and muddy too. My shoes were covered with mud. My New muscle shoes! I had dirt smudges all over my face and the mud from the wheels on tires got in my hair. I guess you could say I was a mess.
The second I walked into school-Which I was super late for by the way-I heard the voice I really hated. It was the voice of Mrs. Eve, the principal. She really had this thing about getting me in trouble.
“Joseph Wheeler!” She yelled as I half walked half ran down the hall. “Why are you tracking mud down the hall? We just had the floors cleaned!”
“Whatever.” I sighed. I could predict what was going to happen next. I really don’t think she could miss the Spray paint I put on the lockers last night before I went home. I put my name, “Joseph Allen Wheeler” On the lockers, aren’t I smart?
“Joseph! Get into my office right now!” She screamed.
“What did I do this time? Breathe?” I said Sarcastically. But before I could laugh at my own joke, she grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into her office, fire was in her eyes as she yelled at me.
“Why did you spray paint your name on the lockers outside my office last night?” She yelled. Her voice was so annoying to. It was all Middle pitched and she sounded like some sort of judge or something political like that.
“I didn’t do it!” I lied. Even though I knew she saw me do it last night.
“Since you chose to lie,” She started; “you get two months of after school detention.” She yelled, her face turning purple.
Man I hate her. I thought to myself.
“Ohhh! Harsh.” My Bud Tristan said.
“Yeah, It sucks that you got it this time.” My stubby short friend Yugi said.
“Well I think you got what you had coming.” My goody two shoes friend Tea said.
“Thanks for the support Tea.” I grumbled.
“Maybe you should just lay off the pranks and be a good little monkey Wheeler.” My worst enemy Seto Kaiba said in his “rich boy” kind of way.
“Back off.” I yelled at him.
“Don’t play pranks, If you’re going to get caught.” Seto laughed.
“I said, lay off!” I yelled again, except this time I got a little too physical.
“Watch your fists Wheeler.” He yelled. And then it hit me. And when I say “it” I mean Seto’s super hard Brief case. He hit me in the face with his brief case!
“Owwww!” I screamed! That really hurt. ’Specially’ when you already hurt yourself they’re twice that same day!
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Chapter 2 Gym class Blues
Social Studies was a drag. So was Science, Language Arts, and Math. The worst class was about to come though. This was a bad class even if I was having a good day. It was time for gym. The teacher, Mr. Poopsie was the meanest person in the whole wide world. He was one of those Lieutenant Majors from the army, you know, the really mean ones? He gave cruel nicknames to people according to attitude or physical features.
“Roll call!” Mr. Poopsie called in his army general voice.
“Mr. Skinny!” Mr. Poopsie Called

“Here!” Seto Kaiba called, You know, my worst enemy. We also had to solute to him when he called our names and it got really annoying.
“Shorty!” Mr. Poopsie Called

“Here!” My Short Buddy Yugi Called. He was sixteen and was only 5ft tall!
“Miss Attitude!” Mr. Poopsie Called
“Here!” Haley called. She was Yugi’s Twin sister, only she was 2 inches taller. She did have a fiery attitude.
“Pistol” Mr. Poopsie Called

“Here!” I called. I was mocked most of all because I was a hyper Nut Job!
“Sharky!” Mr. Poopsie Called

“Here!” My Pointy Haired Friend Tristan called
“Shy Guy!” Mr. Poopsie called.

“Here!” My other buddy Bakura called. He was very quiet and shy.
“Pizza Boy!” Mr. Poopsie called
“Here!” The bully of the school, Frances Freschetta called.
“Frenches!” Mr. Poopsie Called.
“Here!” Mac called. She was Bakura’s French girlfriend.
“Turtle!” Mr. Poopsie Called

“Here!” My Know-it-all Friend Tea called. She was turtle because she was a slow poke!
“Peanut Gallery!” Mr. Poopsie called.

“Here!” Duke called. He’s the showoffy friend!
“Now, Fitness testing! I want you all to do 75 pushups, 60 sit-ups, 50 pull-ups and 65 laps around the school. I will be putting you in groups and then you will do the fitness testing in those groups. I will be watching all your groups and I will be scoring you. If you can’t do all of the given numbers of fitness, you fail! Hahaha! Now for your groups. First group is, Mr. Skinny (Seto Kaiba) Pizza Boy (Frances Freschetta) and Pistol (Unfortunately Me) I got stuck in a group with the school bully (Who had fun beating my face in when I wasn’t looking) and my worst enemy. Could gym get any worse?
“The next group is Turtle (Tea) Shorty (Yugi) and Sharky (Tristan) Lucky them!
“The next group is: Frenches (Mac) Miss Attitude (Haley), Peanut Gallery (Duke) and Shy Guy (Bakura) Now Group one will be doing The Pushups, group two will do the sit-ups, group three will be doing the Pull-ups. You will rotate to the next number forward. Now Go!
“One, two, three, four, five, six,” I counted for Stupid Seto. He was good at pushups, but I’m better. Believe me, if you misbehave in gym, you get punished with hundreds of pushups. And if you’re like me, you do alot of pushups.
“Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four...” and so on.
“Nice pushups wheeler.” Seto laughed. He and Frances were up to something. They were good friends and took great pleasure in making my school day miserable.
“Whoops!” Frances said as he kicked me in the face and knocked me down, making me do only 74 pushups.
“And we have our first person to fail!” Mr. Poopsie announced to the class.
“Who is it?” The class asked, anxious to see who failed first.
“Pistol is our #1 failer!” Mr. Poopsie laughed. “Switch!”
Now I had to do sit-ups. They were easy, except when you have two people in your group who are itching to make you fail.
“1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11” I counted for Frances. He was really good at sit-ups, when we did fitness testing last year; he did 1,232 sit-ups in 5 minutes!
“51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58....” Seto Counted for me. I was determined to pass the sit-ups. One more to go.... Bam! Frances stomped on my stomach and I could do no more sit-ups. I only got to fifty-nine! So I failed that to.
“Switch!” Mr. Poopsie called and I went to pull ups.
“Good job Frances.” I said. We were forced to say “good job” every time someone passed in our group. I was the last one to go in our group.
“Break! You get a five-minute break and then continue what you were doing.”
“Finally.” I heard Frances say.
As I was getting a drink and talking to my buds, I had no clue what was going to happen next.
“Breaks over! Get back to work!” I heard Mr. Poopsie call. So I went back to the pull up bar and got ready to start.
“Are you ready Wheeler?” Seto asked.
“You bet I’m ready.” But as I grabbed the pole and started my pull ups, I figured out what was going on.
“You put butter on the bar?” I yelled. I only could do 15 pull-ups.
Lets just say I failed the laps too because they tied my shoelaces together and I kept tripping.
In the end, Tristan, Duke and I all failed gym.
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Chapter 3 Double Whammy
Gym was the part of the day. But now it was time for my favorite subject, lunch. But as I was walking from the lunchroom to the bathroom, the super nerd hall monitor stopped me, dead in my tracks.
“Do you have a hall pass?” The hall monitor Akitoki asked.
“Maybe.” I said.
“Do you have a hall pass?” Akitoki asked again.
“No.” I said with a sigh.
“Then I’m going to have to report you to the new detention teacher.”
“New? Oh and who is that?” I asked. But let me tell you, I regret ever asking.
“Mr. Poopsie.” Akitoki said with a grin. “He is doing lunch detentions and after school detentions for the rest of the year.”
“Wonderful.” I moaned as Akitoki wrote me a detention slip.
“Now get to the detention hall.” Akitoki said.
I whistled all the way there. But the whistling stopped when I ran into Frances in the hall.
“Hey Wheeler,” Frances said. “I’ve got something for you.”
He pulled me into the bathroom-even though I said I didn’t care what it was-and gave me a swirly! He held my head down in the toilet for about a minute, if not longer!
“Fr....an....ces!” I gasped. I was having trouble breathing because of that swirly!
“Pistol?” I heard Mr. Poopsie yell down the hall. Now not only were my shoes muddy, but I was drenched from the shoulders up with toilet water!
“Get in my office, Right now! Akitoki told me that you got two detentions today! Good you get to spend them with me! Bwahahaha!
“Double whammy.” I said angrily.
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Chapter 4 Guess who’s back, back again
“Man,” Yugi said “Two detentions in one day with Mr. Poopsie and then two months of it!”
“No one deserves that, no matter what they did.” Tea said.
“Hey Joey,” Haley asked, “Why are you all sweaty and red? I never saw you at lunch.”
“Got....a....lunch detention....with Mr....Poopsie.” I gasped. I ran over 250 laps around the school and it hurt to breathe.
“Yuck.” Haley said with a grim expression.
“Ummm, Joey,” Tristan said shakily “That jerk Hirutani is back.”
“What?” I yelled. “He, He can’t be back. They sent him to jail in New York.”
“You do remember what happened last time he came around, right?” Tristan asked.
“Yeah I remember.” Tea said with a shiver.
“All I remember is having my hands tied to a rope hanging on a hook, being beaten after that, being electrocuted by 200,000 volt stun guns twice and then, nothing.” I said shuddering.
“This time don’t go with them, no matter what.” Tristan said with a look on his face that I never saw before. I think it was seriousness.
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Time for detention with Mr. Poopsie. It was horrible. I did a total of: 350 pushups, 342 sit-ups, 125 Pull-ups and 990 laps around the school. By the time I got home, I was a wreck. My shoes were muddy, my hair was drenched with sweat, and I smelled like a toilet. Every step was torture and I just wanted to rest.
I got home around 5:00. I walked up the stairs to our apartment, and knocked on the door. My parents got divorced when I was 5 years old and my mom took my little sister-who was 4 at the time-and left me with my dad. He wasn’t the best man in the world. He didn’t work, he sat around all day, he could barley pay the rent and he was always crabby or mad. Today though, he was really, really mad. Not mad with himself, but with me.
“What’s your problem boy!” Dad yelled at me. “Why would you spray paint the lockers? Why would you go and get in trouble for no reason? What is your problem boy?”
Dad never called me “Joey.” He always called me “Boy” or “Brat.” But he never called me Joey.
“I’m sorry!” I yelled.
“Sorry Ain't good enough! I didn’t raise you to be a trouble maker!”
‘You didn’t raise me at all! I raised myself because you were too busy doing nothing to even notice I was around. Well now you do and it’s all your fault I turned out wrong.
“Don’t you use that tone of voice with me!”
“If you don’t like it then disown me!”
“Maybe I will!”
The fight lasted for about 15 minutes longer. Then we both cooled down and just talked.
“Go get the mail boy.” Dad said.
“Whatever.” I sighed.
I liked to check the mail. But today I checked the mail-which I snoop through to see what we got-I found a letter that was in a black envelope. On the front it said “Jonouchi.” when I opened it-having no clue that The J.Z was watching. The J.Z being one of the worst gangs ever because their leader was Hirutani-I could feel my face losing its color. A Picture of my Sister fell out of the envelope and their was a letter written in blood. I could tell they used a very thin paint brush. The note said: Jonouchi I’m back. We have your sister and if you ever want to see her again, you will come to the J.Z and become Jonouchi again. But if not, then lets just say your sisters in good hands. Hirutani Of J.Z.

“Serenity!” I yelled. “How could I let them get you? What kind of brother am I?”
“Hahaha. Yeah Jonouchi, what kind of brother are you?” My Most evil rival’s voice came from the bushes. It was Hirutani.
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Chapter 5 A trip to the past: Becoming Jonouchi the gangster Once more
“You dirty rotten....” I sneered angrily at Hirutani. How could he do such a horrible thing?
“Now, Now, Now Jonouchi, watch your mouth.” Hirutani said with a laugh.
“I told you once, and I’ll tell you again, I’m am Joey, Not Jonouchi. I was Jonouchi when I was part of your gang. But am I now? No I’m not so stop calling me that.
“Oh, you think you cleared your past but you didn’t. You may be Joey on the outside, but deep down in your heart, you are still Jonouchi of The J.Z gang. Nothing can change that either.” Hirutani said with a smirk.
“What did you do to Serenity?” I roared.
“She is over in the same place you were, though I doubt you remember, you were out like a light half the time.”
“Get her out of there, now!” I yelled.
“Come with us,” Hirutani said, “And we’ll let her go.”
‘Hey Joey!” Yugi’s voice came ringing over our yelling voices. “What’s going on here?”
“Yugi...” I started, “You know how I promised you I would never join a gang again?”
“I remember.” Yugi said.
‘Well, I’m going to have to break that promise. They took Serenity and the only way to keep them from killing her, I have to join them and become, *gulp* Jonouchi the gangster once more.” I said with invisible tears in my eyes.
“I understand.” Yugi said. “Do you want me to tell the others?”
“Yeah. But tell them not to be mad.” I said.
“Okay, I will.” Yugi said, and then it was just the whole J.Z Gang and me. What was I going to do?
“I will go with you.” I said as the invisible tears grew a little heavier but they still were invisible.
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“Here we are, Jonouchi.” Hirutani said with a sly tone in his voice.
We walked down to the empty store room where the torture chamber supposedly was. We walked for about 10 minutes and then I saw her for the first time in 10 years.
“Serenity!” I yelled when I saw she was not harmed.
“Joey!” She yelled back, happy to see her big brother.
“You remember our deal. Now let her go. I became part of your gang again so let her go!” I yelled at Hirutani.
“You heard him boys, let the girl go.” He said. And his words meant something. One second after he finished his sentence, they cut the ropes that bound her to the same hook I was bound to. The second she was cut down, she rushed over to me.
“It’s been so long.” She said with tears in her eyes.
“It’s great to see you too Serenity.” I said with a little smile.
“Get the girl out of here.” Hirutani said. “I need to talk to Jonouchi alone.” And with that, the gang grabbed her arms and let her out of the dreadful torture chamber, leaving only Hirutani and Myself.
“We’re so happy to have you with us again Jonouchi.” Hirutani said.
“Lets just say I’m not happy to be back.” I said.
“Fine, be that way.” Hirutani said. “But you will be happy when you finally get to join in our big gang fight on Friday at 5:00. Let’s see you get that old look back in your eyes. But for now, spend time with your sister. This might be the last time you ever see her.”
“Okay.” I said. I felt like a slave. A slave Monkey. This was one of the worst days of my life. But there would be worse days, I could feel it.
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Chapter 6 The Writing on the wall
When I got home that night, My dad and mom were sitting on my bed, waiting for me. They looked worried but softened up when they saw Serenity and Me together.
“Good job Joseph.” My Super Religious mother said.
“Nice way to bring your sister back.” My unloving dad said.
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