saturday, march 24, 1984- 2:30 pm

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The six teens were sitting in a circle talking. Opal and Brian's arms were linked together as they watched the conversation unfold.

"What would I do for a million bucks? Well, I guess I'd do as little as I had to." Andrew says. 

"That's boring." Claire says.

"Well, how am I supposed to answer?" Andrew asks her.

"The idea is to like search your mind for the absolute limit. Like, uh, would you drive to school naked?" Claire asks the jock.

"Um, would I have to get out of the car?" he asks her, laughing.

"Of course." Claire says.

"In the spring, or winter?" Andrew asks.

"It doesn't matter... spring." Claire responds.

"In front of the school or in back of the school?" Andrew asks.

"Either one." Claire says.

"Yes." Andrew says.

"I'd do that!" Allison exclaims. The five teens all look at her.

"You would?" Opal asks.

"I'll do anything sexual, I don't need a million dollars to do it either." Allison continues.

"You're lying." Claire says. Opal nods in agreement.

"I already have... I've done just about everything there is except a few things that are illegal. I'm a nymphomaniac!" Allison proclaims.

"No way..." Opal mutters. Claire rolls her eyes.

"Lie..." Claire says.

"Are your parents aware of this?" Brian asks.

"The only person I told was my shrink." Allison tells him.

"And what did he do when you told him?" Andrew asks.

"He nailed me." Allison says with pride.

"No he didn't." Opal says.

"Very nice..." Claire says.

"He did. Also I don't think that from a legal standpoint what he did can be construed as rape since I paid him." Allison continues.

"He's an adult!" Claire says.

"Yeah, he's married too." Allison says. 

"Ugh!" Opal says. Claire makes a disgusted face.

"Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?" Claire asks Allison.

"Well, the first few times..." Allison says.

"First few times? You mean he did it more than once?" Claire asks, getting more disgusted.

"Sure." Allison says.

"Are you crazy?" Claire asks her.

"Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing her shrink." Brian says. Opal nods.

"Have you ever done it?" Allison asks the redhead.

"I don't even have a psychiatrist..." Claire responds.

"Have you ever done it with a normal person?" Allison restates the question.

"Now, didn't we already cover this?" Claire says.

"You never answered the question." Bender says. Opal nods. 

"Look, I'm not gonna discuss my private life with total strangers." Claire says, getting nervous.

"It's kind of a double edged sword, isn't it?" Allison says.

"A what?" Claire asks.

"Well, if you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have, you're a slut! It's a trap. You want to but you can't but when you do you wish you didn't, right?" Allison continues.

"Wrong." Claire says.

"Or, are you a tease?" Allison asks her.

"She's a tease..." Andrew says.

"Oh why don't you just forget it." Claire says.

"You're a tease, and you know it! All girls are teases!" Andrew proclaims.

"She's only a tease if what she does gets you hot." Bender says to the jock.

"I don't do anything!" Claire says defensively. 

"That's why you're a tease." Allison tells her.

"Where is this conversation going..." Opal whispers to Brian. He shrugs, and starts playing with her hair. She feels a small tingle inside.

"Okay, let me ask you a few questions." Claire says to Allison.

"I've already told you everything!" Allison shouts defensively.

"No! Doesn't it bother you to sleep around without being in love. I mean don't you want any respect?" Claire asks.

"I don't screw to get respect. That's the difference between you and me." Allison says bluntly.

"Not the only difference I hope..." Claire mutters.

"Face it, you're a tease!" Bender says.

"I'm not a tease!" Claire says, getting mad.

"Sure you are! You said it yourself sex is a weapon, you use it to get respect!" Bender says.

"No, I never said that. She twisted my words around!" Claire says, getting more defensive.

"Oh, then what do you use it for?" Bender asks the redhead.

"I don't use it period!" Claire says, on the verge of tears.

"Oh, are you medically frigid or is it psychological?" Bender asks.

"I didn't mean it that way! You guys are putting words into my mouth!" Claire says.

"Well if you'd just answer the question..." Bender says.

"Why don't you just answer the question?" Brian asks, still playing with Opal's hair.

"It's okay, Claire, just answer it!" Opal says.

"Be honest." Andrew says.

"No big deal." Bender says.

"Yeah, answer it!" Brian exclaims.

"Answer the question, Claire." Andrew tells her.

"Talk to us!" Bender and Opal say at the same time.

"Come on, answer the question!" Brian and Andrew say at the same time.

"It's easy, it's only one question." Bender says. 

"No! I never did it!" Claire shouts, silencing the four teens. Brian stops playing with Opal's hair, and Opal sits up.

"I never did it either, I'm not a nymphomaniac, I'm a compulsive liar." Allison says.

"You are such a bitch! You did that on purpose just to fuck me over!" Claire shouts at her. 

"I would do it though. If you love someone it's okay." Allison continues. Opal nods.

"I can't believe you, you're so weird. You don't say anything all day and then when you open your mouth, you unload all these tremendous lies all over me!" Claire says.

"You're just pissed off because she got you to admit something you didn't want to admit to." Andrew says. 

"Okay, fine, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre." Claire says.

"What's bizarre? I mean we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." Andrew says.

"How are you bizarre?" Claire asks Andrew.

"He can't think for himself." Allison answers for the jock. 

"Really?" Opal asks. Andrew nods.

"She's right. Do you guys know what, uh, what I did to get in here? I taped Larry Lester's buns together." Andrew says. Claire and Opal laugh.

"That was you?" Brian asks Andrew.

"Yeah, you know him?" Andrew asks.

"Yeah I know him." Brian says.

"Who's that? I don't really know anyone here, except for you now I guess." Opal says.

"Larry's this guy in my English class." Brian says. The female nods.

"Well then you know how hairy he is, right? Well, when they pulled the tape off, most of his hair came off and some, some skin too." Andrew says. 

"Poor guy." Opal says.

"Oh my god..." Claire says.

"And the bizarre thing is, is that I did it for my old man. I tortured this poor kid, because I wanted him to think that I was cool. He's always going off about, you know, when he was in school, the wild things he used to do. And I got the feeling that he was disappointed that I never cut loose on anyone, right. So, I'm sitting in the locker room, and I'm taping up my knee. And Larry's undressing a couple lockers down from me. Yeah... he's kinda, he's kinda skinny, weak. And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness. And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him. And my friends, they just laughed and cheered me on. And afterwards, when I was sitting in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father. And Larry having to go home and, and explain what happened to him. And the humiliation, fucking humiliation he must have felt. It must have been unreal." Andrew explains. He starts to cry.

"I mean, how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way. It's all because of me and my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him! He's like this, he's like this mindless machine that I can't even relate to anymore. 'Andrew, you've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family. Your intensity is for shit! Win. Win! WIN!!!' You son of a bitch! You know, sometimes, I wish my knee would give, and I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me." Andrew continues.

"Oh my goodness..." Opal says. She scoots over to Andrew and hugs him slightly. He pats her back.

"I think your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling." Bender says to Andrew. He laughs a bit. Opal scoots back to her spot next to Brian.

"It's like me, you know, with my grades. Like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? And I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't." Brian says. 

"What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?" Claire asks. 

"Yeah, you're a really nice guy." Opal says.

"'Cause I'm stupid. 'Cause I'm failing shop. See we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant, and um, and we had eight weeks to do it and we're supposed to, and it was like a lamp, and when you pull the trunk the light was supposed to go on, my light didn't go on, I got an F on it. Never got a F in my life. When I signed up, you know, for the course I mean. I thought I was playing it real smart, you know. 'Cause I thought, I'll take shop, it'll be such an easy way to maintain my grade point average." Brian says.

"Honey, you're not stupid." Opal says.

"Why'd you think it'd be easy?" Bender asks the blonde.

"Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?" Brian says.

"I take shop. You must be a fuckin' idiot!" Bender exclaims.

"Hey, I take shop too!" Opal says.

"I'm a fucking idiot because I can't make a lamp?" Brian asks the brunette.

"No, you're a genius because you can't make a lamp." Bender says.

"What do you know about trigonometry?" Brian asks.

"I could care less about trigonometry..." Bender says.

"Bender, did you know without Trigonometry there'd be no engineering?" Brian says.

"Without lamps, there'd be no light!" Bender exclaims, getting fed up.

"Okay so neither one of you is any better than the other one..." Claire says. 

"Yeah, so it's fine." Opal says. Claire nods.