Nightshade: A SimLit | Chapter 25: Mischief and Mayhem

The winter months had passed, and on a warm spring evening, Alexander and Brynn were hard at work on a school project.

"I told you we shouldn't have put it off until the last night!" Brynn sighed, stabbing the screwdriver into a screw on the metal plate in her hand.

"I wasn't putting it off! I was just... busy. But hey, we're working on it now, right?"

She glanced at the sun setting through the window and shook her head. "We'll be up all night!"

He fitted a wrench over a bolt and turned, gritting his teeth as he struggled to tighten it.

"Wow, Alexander, you're so strong," Brynn began sarcastically, "keep flexing those big sexy muscles for me."

"Shut up, Brynn," Alexander grumbled. "Almost done..."

After their project was complete, they cleared away all of the spare parts and table they were working on, leaving the finished project sitting on the floor.

"Well, let's hope this robot works," she sighed, a little unsure. "What are we gonna call it?"

"Wesley, of course. You know... after me, the genius inventor." He picked up the robot and walked over to the nearby shelf, admiring their work. "We make a great team, you know." 

Brynn raised an eyebrow and approached, stopping to admire the robot for a moment before turning her attention to him. "Are you going to name me Wesley someday, too, babe?"

Alexander blushed, but didn't let his confidence fail as he returned her grin. "I don't know. Am I?"

His arms wrapped around her waist and she reached up to run a hand through his hair. "I... um..." Suddenly feeling shy, she couldn't meet his gaze and desperately tried to change the subject. "...what do you want to do now that we're done with our project?" 

His grin widened. "I don't know... any ideas?"

 "N-No... do you have any?"

 "Maybe a few..."

---

The next morning at school, Alexander and Brynn excitedly presented their project.

"So this... is our robot, which we named Wesley," he began.

"Thanks, captain obvious!" Vance yelled from the back.

Ignoring him, Alexander continued on. "He has a battery life of 12 hours. He can walk, talk, take pictures, and even dance!" he beamed and turned his head to the small robot. "Hit it, Wesley!"

The small robot turned its head toward Alexander, processing his command before performing what someone might call either a dance or... some sort of seizure. 

The teacher, Mr. Bjergsen, watched in half amusement and half disappointment. "Very... interesting... Alexander. Yes, interesting indeed... you and Brynn have built quite the interesting robotics project..."

Brynn beamed at the teacher. "Amazing, right?"

"...It's utterly useless." Mr. Bjergsen raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "But I suppose... it's interesting, like I said. I'll give it a B."

Alexander frowned. "You're giving it... a B?"

"Yes. It would have gotten an A if it did something more useful." Mr. Bjergsen adjusted his tie and looked out toward the class to figure out who was going to show their project next.

Alexander stood staring blankly, lost in thought. 'Mom's going to kill me... I've never gotten a B before...'

"...Are you going to sit down, Alexander?" Mr. Bjergsen asked. "...And you too, Brynn?"

He quietly nodded and return to his seat, Brynn following to sit at the adjacent desk.

---

"I can't believe he gave us a B!" Alexander whined to Brynn. It was the end of the school day, and they were the only two left in the hall to gather their things from their lockers. "Do you know what my mom told me when I was in Kindergarten? She told me B stands for Bad, and if I ever got one she'd ground me for a year!" 

"What the heck? Your mom's insane." Brynn bluntly stated and turned to her locker. "Maybe she was just trying to scare you?"

"I'm going to get grounded for a year... what about my video games!? And my cell phone!? How am I going to text you every 5 minutes!?"

Before she could respond, the snickers of two familiar students could be heard behind them. They turned around to face them with a frown.

"Your mommy is going to ground you?" Vance cackled. "I would too, if my son made as stupid and pathetic as that thing." He paused to glance at Brynn. "I can't believe you were cheating on me with Alexander out of all the loser nerds you could have picked!"

"It's not cheating anymore!" Brynn stated matter-of-factly. "Because I dumped you, right into the garbage where you belong.

He clenched his fists. "It doesn't matter if you're cheating, you're still the sleaziest girl in this school."

"Sleazy!?" Brynn snapped. "And just what do you mean by--"

Before she could finish, he approached, towering over her threateningly. "You know exactly what I mean. You're screwing around with a new guy every month." Without looking at Alexander, he addressed him. "And you won't be any different, Wesley."

Alexander scowled and took a step forward. "Get away from her."

Vance only leaned in closer to Brynn.

"I said get away!"

In an act of something between bravery and stupidity, Alexander gave him a rough shove, sending him stumbling a few steps backward. "Don't even think about putting your hands on her!"

"You think you can tell me what I can and cannot do!? She's mine!"

"She's a person that doesn't belong to anyone, especially not you!"

Brynn stood in shock. As much as she liked Alexander, she hadn't expected him to be willing to stand up to Vance for her. Regardless, it could only end badly.

Vance growled and shoved him back. "You're asking for trouble! Beat it before I beat you to a pulp!"

"Make me!"

"You asked for it!" Vance lunged, fists swinging in an aggressive assault.

Brynn and Dominic watched the squabble helplessly from the sidelines. 

"Stop! Just stop it!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

After what seemed like ages, Vance stumbled backwards, gripping his head tightly.

"That'll teach you not to mess with a Wesley! You should have learned that when you got into a fight with my sister..."

"What I learned is that you fight like a girl!" Vance snapped, not knowing how else to boost his ego after managing to lose a fight against one of the biggest losers in school.

"And you fight worse than one." Alexander grinned.

"That's it! I'm out of here! Let's go, Dominic!" The two bullies disappeared down the hall, but Alexander was sure they hadn't seen the last of them.

As they disappeared, she pulled him into a hug. "Thanks. You really showed him."

"I know, right?" Alexander bragged. "Did you think I was gonna lose?"

"...maybe?" She turned to walk out the front doors of the school. "Hey, can I come over to your place?"

He couldn't believe that she would even imply he could lose a fight, but he smiled regardless "Yeah, sure. But... there's one more thing I have to do before we leave."

Brynn raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

---

"Alexander... I'm really not so sure that this is a good idea..." Brynn frowned. "What if someone catches us?"

"I'll be done in a minute, Brynn. No one's gonna find out. I can't let my mom know I got a B... a simple grade change... and bam, it's all fixed."

"But should you really be hacking the principal's computer?" She asked, glancing over at the door every few moments to make sure no one was coming.

"And... done!" Alexander exclaimed and jumped up out of the chair quickly.  "See? Didn't get caught. Now let's go."

______

That evening, after Brynn went home, Alexander was hard at work on his next big project...

He stared down at the bottle of red liquid with a smirk. "This will show Vance once and for all..."