6teen Fan Fiction ❯ 7teen: For Love, For Jude. ❯ Rita and Claudette ( Chapter 1 )

CHAPTER ONE

 

It took a while to convince Jude to get back up into his seat, but who could blame him. Even I heard stories about Rita; the girl so incredibly obsessed with boys that most men ran in fear of her… yet she was son incredibly sneaky too.

 

Jonesy remembered the time he dated her as a rebound-chick and was denied an invitation to her party. “Jude… seriously, why is Rita emailing you?” Jonesy asked. “Didn't she get it straight when I dumper her for you?”

 

“Dude… she's a psycho-chick!” Jude practically sneered. “No matter what you try and tell her these days, it's as if she has chopped ears.”

 

“You mean clothed-ears.” Jen corrected him.

 

“No… I mean chopped-ears so she doesn't hear you at all.” replied Jude. “I could still hear if I had clothed-ears.”

 

The rest of us winked strangely. “Whatever… I got to bounce.” Jonesy said.

 

“What… you got a new job already?” asked Caitlin.

 

Jonesy nodded. “Totally... You are looking at the new assistant at “Dingo-Dungeon”

 

“Dingo-Dungeon…?” Wyatt asked. “I've heard of that place, isn't it supposed to look exactly like the Khaki-Barn?”

 

Nikki sighed irritably, “Yeah… it is.” She answered for him. “The only thing different about it is that all their clothes have an Australian theme. That and the fact the Clones don't work there. I only wish it had opened a few years earlier.”

 

“Whatever… I'm gone.” said Jonesy.

 

Nikki was the next to leave, “Khaki-Barn prison duty calls.”

 

Then I left too, “I may be the owner and manager of Comic-Cavern, but I'm still the only one who works there.”

 

Jude had to get going to. “I still got to mop-up “Stick it” before I head to the ice-rink.” He said as he hopped on his skateboard. “Later…”

 

“Bye…” Caitlin and Jen called to him. Then Caitlin put a hand to her ear. “What are you doing?” asked Jen.

 

“Listening for Coach Halder to call you back to work…” Caitlin answered, “Usually he barks at you about now. “Msterson, Get back in the game.”

 

Jen laughed at Caitlin's impression, but she wasn't worried about that, “Not this time… he's preparing to teach figure-skating at the rink again and I have the whole morning to myself.”

 

Just then, her cell-phone rang. “Hello…”

 

“MASTERON… I need a right hand wing to give me a hand with my new ice-skates. Fetch' em for me and report to center-ice, NOW, NOW, NOW!”

 

Jen sighed as she rubbed her hand over her eyes, “Yes Coach…”

 

Caitlin knew it all along, and Jen had to go. “Sorry Cait… gotta' go.”

 

Caitlin sighed that she was alone again, but that's when her cell-phone rang, it was Charles asking her out to “Grind-Me” for a coffee-date. Caitlin cried for joy and she zipped away closing the lemon-down.

 

Meanwhile…

 

Jude was doing his best to make sure that “Stick-It” was spic and span. The last thing he needed was a repeat of him getting shut-down by the health-inspectors again, but while he was cleaning, he noticed a letter addressed to him on the counter by the cash-register.

 

Jude eyed all around him, and then snuck off to the back room to read the letter. All it said was, “Meet me in the back alley behind the mall after closing. Come alone, tell no one… Anonymous.”

 

Jude felt confused, “whose Anonymous?” he wondered, “And why do they want me to meet in the back alley?”

 

Just then, the service bell at the counter rang. As manager, and the only worker at the stand he was obligated to answer, but when he made it outside he gasped. “R-R-Rita…?”

 

The red-haired girl hugged Jude so tight he almost couldn't breathe. “Ooh… I missed you so much, my little Judykinns!” she cooed. “What happened to you, you haven't been answering my emails?”

 

Jude finally managed to shrug her off. “Well, it's kinda' hard when you send me like, a hundred different emails everyday!” he said to her. “Now can I get you anything or what?”

 

Rita narrowed her eyes flirtingly. Jude gulped hard because h knew what it meant when she got that look in her eyes. “Well… maybe just a little kiss to go?” she asked softly, and pursed her lips.

 

“Uh… I can't.” said Jude, “There are no kisses on the menu.” but Rita moved in closer training to make her lips contact with Jude's. Jude did the old fingers on the mouth trick again.

 

Rita finally started walking away. “Meet for a coffee later at Grind-Me!” she told Jude instead of asking him. Jude smacked his head in stupidity, and then he realized, “Aw… man… I gotta' hit the rink.”

 

…

 

Jude thought it was cool that he got to be back at Stick-It, and manage the Zamboni too. This meant twice the pay, and loads of coin. “How's that ice coming there Jude?” asked Coach Halder. “I want it to be smooth like axel-grease for this lesson.”

 

Jude drove the Zamboni up to him, “It's all set for you Coach, man.” he said as he hopped down and tested the slipperiness of the ice. “Mmm, hu-hu-hu… nice…!”

 

Coach gave Jude a Thumb-up and then he yelled in French over to the locker rooms. “La hâte le long soutiennent là, Claudette.”

 

Jude wasn't sure what Coach just said, but he did catch that last word, “Claudette…? Where have heard that name before?” he wondered as he went to the tool-shed, but that's when he passed by a Canadian French figure-skater who looked identical to Rita, only she had brown hair, and could only speak French.

 

“Judas…Est que vous?” she asked in a familiar voice. Jude turned round and saw the girl, and at once his mind was racing like his heart. “Whoa… Claudette?”

 

The two gazed at each other with twinkles in their eyes and then they ran over toward each other, and Jude twirled her around in his arms, and they shared a kiss. “I can't believe how long it's been.”

 

“Oui… Je vous ai manqué tellement.” said Claudette. Though Jude still didn't understand what she was saying he was so happy to see her again. It was only a year ago that Jude first met Claudette on the ice, and it was love at first sight.

 

Then Claudette landed a place in the escapades, and Jude had to let her go.

 

The moment was suddenly interrupted when Coach hollered “Claudette, nous a laissés vont ici!”

Obviously he was calling her to start her ice-coaching, Claudette and Jude kissed once again and she was off on the rink pirouetting so gracefully. To Jude she was like a star in the sky.

“Starr…?” Jude said silently to himself, and then he realized what he had just done. “Aw, Man… what's happenin' to me?”