It was
always kinda cool when a building was mostly deserted, like it was a ghost town
or something. If they were back in high
school they would have run around and indulged in high-jinks and whatnot but
now that they were respectable college students they didn’t engage in such
tomfoolery. College totally sucked.
Jay had
never particularly enjoyed high school but now that he was in cegep he realized
how good he had it back in the day.
School required actual work now, and it just wasn’t as fun with so many
people constantly around. They only ever
gamed on the weekends now, and occasionally after school but they hardly ever
seemed to pull all-nighters anymore.
Karl was too busy writing exams all the time. And for his own part, Jay was concentrating
on hooking up with Cassie.
Sometimes
he didn’t even know why he bothered.
Sure it would be cool to have a girlfriend, if only for the bump up to
his reputation but girls required so much effort – more than they were
worth. Of course he should probably
reserve judgement until he’d actually had sex with her. Maybe she was worth it. Probably not, but maybe.
“Ahhh, the
pain, the pain, the pain, the pain, the pain, the pain, the pain… and so on,”
groaned Vani as he joined Jay, Karl and Willy at the empty Munch Box.
“So it’s
painful then?” asked Karl.
“No, it was
fine,” shrugged Vani, opening the coke can he’d gotten from the nearby vending
machine. “Exams are such a joke.”
“Agreed,”
nodded Karl. “We’re actually sitting in
a really sweet position right now ‘cause we actually finished our
semester. Tons of students across the
land have been royally fucked by all the protests, but not us.”
“We rock,
and so on,” agreed Vani.
Jay nodded
along as well but secretly he was disappointed that John Abbott students had
voted against the student strike. All
across the province students in various schools had gone on strike in protest
against tuition hikes but their student body had apparently voted against such
action. Jay hadn’t even been aware that
they could vote on the issue, or else he might have voted to strike. He knew it was bullshit and that tuition in Quebec was lower than anywhere else in North
America but still, all those protests and riots going on downtown
sounded kind of cool. Karl and Sarah
were constantly ranting about how all those students had just screwed themselves
out of a semester and it would have long lasting repercussions, like they’d be
behind in the job market or whatever but Jay still kind of felt like that might
not be so bad. He didn’t really want to
keep doing this whole school thing. And
if he wasn’t so lazy he would have gone downtown for the protests just for the
fun of it.
Oh
gag. Terise joined them, all holding
hands and looking smug. Everyone talked
about their stupid exams and stuff and Jay went along with everyone, acting
like they were no big deal, like he’d aced them all, while he actually wasn’t
sure how well he’d done.
“I’m just
glad it’s over,” Jay said in order to deflect questions about his performance
in the chemistry final.
“Yeah,
sweet, sweet freedom,” smiled Cerise, curling up into Terry
Trebisteroidusingsky’s arm.
“Yeah, the
freedom to go to work,” Terry Trebiannoyingsky replied sarcastically.
“Oooh, ooh,
ooh! My turn to talk,” said Vani, raising his hand. “I totally got a mega job at a mega bakery
from mega Lee ‘cause it’s this place where he mega works. It’ll be totally mega!”
“Sounds
pretty mega. Where is this bakery?”
asked Cerise.
“Beaurepaire Village
Cerise
nodded. “Yeah, I know the place. My mom buys bread from there all the
time. It’s really close to her
bookstore. We’ll be neighbours ‘cause
I’m gonna work there.”
“Mega.”
“Mega, mega.”
“I haven’t
found a job yet,” said Terry Trebiwhocareswhereheworksky. “I was gonna work for the city again but I’m
not a resident anymore so I can’t work under their whole student program thing.”
“Sucko,”
said Cerise.
“Oooh, ooh,
ooh, idea!” exclaimed Vani. “The bakery
is still looking for people! Why don’t
you apply there? I can get Lee to put in
a good word for you.”
“Yeah, that
could be cool. Thanks,” smiled the douche.
“It would
be so mega if we were working at the same place!”
“Yeah, but
maybe it makes more sense for me to get a job in NDG.”
“But it’ll
be so much fun if we’re all working near each other!” said Cerise.
Terry
Trebigrossky agreed and slobbered all over Cerise in a disgusting display of
alpha male dominance. Once she’d
wrestled her moistened face away from the thug she asked the rest of them what
they were doing and Jay told her that he and Karl would be working at the
Beaconsfield Yacht Club as bosuns.
“What’s
that?”
“Well it
involves a lot of crime fighting and web-shooters…”
“It’s
basically just being like a jack of all trades,” explained Karl. “Like handy-men. You know, taking care of the grounds,
painting shit, gassing up boats, whatever, odd jobs I guess.”
“Yeah,
we’re like boating lackeys,” nodded Jay.
“Pain is potential. But it could
be cool.”
“You just
think it’ll be cool ‘cause Karine will be working there again,” said Cerise
with a smirk and the rest of them laughed like it was totally hilarious.
“No way,
I’m not working in that hell hole again.”
Jay spun
around to see that Karine was standing behind him. How long had she been standing there? She sat down and explained that she was
moving up in the world, working in an ice-cream place in the ever popular Beaurepaire Village
“So
awesome! We’ll all be working on the
same block!” exclaimed Cerise.
“I know, so
wicked!” Vani bounced up and down in his seat.
Just then
Sarah sent a mass text inviting them all to come hang out on the lawn ‘cause it
was apparently a gorgeous day. They all
marched outside and joined Sarah and Cassie and that Tom guy. They kept talking about their summer plans
and Sarah announced that she too would be at BYC, except as a sailing
instructor. Karl seemed non-plussed by
the news but Jay wondered if that was a step-up from bosun. She wouldn’t be able to give them orders or
anything, would she?
Cassie said
she was going to do an internship at her dad’s law office and Cerise spoke
enviously of her access to air-conditioning.
Apparently her mom’s dinky little bookstore was from like the 1800s or
something and they only had a shitty fan to keep them cool.
“How ‘bout
you, Tom? What are your summer plans?”
asked Cerise.
“I’m gonna
go on tour with my band,” he said casually.
Even though
his band was totally lame no one could hide how impressed they were. That was seriously the coolest way to spend
one’s summer. He downplayed it, saying
how they were just playing the con circuit as well as a few skank-ass bars in Ontario but still, it
was pretty cool.
“That’s so
awesome! I’m totally jealous!” enthused Cassie.
“When do you leave?”
“We’re
gonna play a few places here in June and then we go on the road in July. We way need to get some rehearsal in. We crazy need it.”
Jay never would have predicted himself to be
jealous of this stupid goth poseur dude but Cassie seemed extremely impressed
and was already trying to make plans for them all to go see his local
shows. Tom played it all humble and complained
about how they didn’t have any new material.
“What about
that song I gave you?” asked Cerise.
“You’re
still cool with us using it?”
“Yeah, of
course. I mean as long as I get some
royalties, right?” she nudged Tom playfully.
Jay would have expected Terry Territorialsky to grunt or something but
he just sat there like nothing was going on.
“Like there
are any royalties to give. We’re not
getting paid much for these gigs. We’ll
be lucky to break even. But yeah, I did
write music for that one song you gave me.”
“I have
tons of others if you still want.”
“Yeah
totally!” His enthusiasm was almost at
Def Con Vani level and this time Terry Trebiposessivesky did raise an
eyebrow.
They
yammered on about all this band crap and finally Willy interrupted to announce
that he too had summer plans in case any of them were interested, which they
most certainly were not. Why did he
always set himself up like that? For his
efforts all he got was a dry insult from Karl and a fist in the gut from
Vani.
“So I guess
today is the official start of summer,” said Karine, turning her face up to the
sun. God, she was hot. “I mean not like calendar wise but I mean
like school being over wise. We should
celebrate.”
“Cue the
air guitars!” whooped Jay, getting up and making obnoxious guitar sounds. Only Cassie seemed to appropriately
appreciate his joke but that was all he needed.
When was he gonna hook up with her anyway? He was getting tired of waiting. Should he just straight-up ask her out?
Terry Trebiwhateversky
suggested they all head off to Cunningham’s but Cerise reminded him that he had
to babysit his little sister. After some
back and forth it was decided that they’d all meet up later that night to go to
bars downtown. Jay’s immediate reaction
was to be annoyed by this plan. Going
all the way downtown would be such a bother.
Would they have to take the bus?
Karl could probably borrow his mom’s car and he was the ideal designated
driver so it probably wouldn’t be so bad but still, they were due for some
serious gaming.
Then again,
this was the perfect opportunity to finally get with Cassie. Maybe he should try to get his mom’s car and
offer her a lift. But then he wouldn’t
be able to drink much. Would it be
totally lame to offer her a seat on the 211?
Unfortunately
he didn’t have time to solidify his plans because Cassie rushed off with the
other girls, blabbing about their outfits and stuff. For some reason Jay was hit with a wave of
sadness as he watched the gang dissipate.
It was almost like he was upset that the semester was over and they were
on to the next chapter, which was weird ‘cause he’d hated this school
year. But would working be any
better?
He missed
those days of yore, when he’d been too young to work. When he could just play X-Box all day and not
worry about anything. When all that
mattered was gaming and watching Stargate.
Life was so complicated now, with jobs and grades and girls. He should have appreciated his youth more
when he had it. But now it was gone and
he was almost eighteen. Everyone
expected him to be mature and shit. In
another year he’d have to go to University.
Everyone was already talking like it was a given that they’d all go to
McGill. But Jay had no idea what he’d
study there. He didn’t really want to
study anything at all. But getting a
real job wasn’t very enticing either. If
only there were such a thing as professional gamer. Maybe he could be a tester at Ubisoft or
something. That was a legitimate job,
wasn’t it? Hey yeah, maybe instead of
going to University he’d go to video game design school. They always acted like Karl was the creative
one, ‘cause he was the GM, but Jay came up with cool gaming ideas too. He could totally make games for a
living!
Was this a
plan? The germination of a goal? How much did gaming school cost anyway? Would the classes be downtown? Well, it was something to google in any case. At least now he didn’t feel so
shiftless. He should really think about
switching programs. Screw this science
shit, he should be in computer programming.
But switching programs was probably a lot of effort. How did he go about it? Was it something he could do online or would
he have to book an appointment with someone?
Ehh, he’d think about all that later.
Tonight was supposed to be fun.
He was totally gonna hook up with Cassie and everything would be
cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment