Day 19- 33,017 Words

I had a lot of fun writing today!  In fact, I had trouble deciding which part I most want to showcase on my blog, so I decided to showcase a huge chunk of it.  I'm not really advancing the plot too far, but it feels good to enjoy myself again!

Penny Lane and Alejandro ran out of the office and down the long, boring corridor.  They flew down the stairs two at a time and hit the streets running.  It just wasn’t going to be Penny Lane’s day, apparently, because she ran directly into a man who was wearing a Tie Domi Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.  She hadn’t seen the men on the other side of the door, but she knew that he was one of them.  She bounced off of him and landed on her butt on the ground painfully.  He seemed somewhat surprised that a small woman had just rebounded off of him onto the sidewalk.  Penny Lane watched as his face changed from surprised to apologetic to enraged.  It took about twenty seconds, probably a little longer than you might think it would. 

The man behind him turned out to be someone that she did recognize.  Well, calling him a man might be a bit of a stretch.  He had medium-length hair that was messily swept up on top in what one might describe as a particularly robust faux-hawk, but someone could probably make a reasonable argument against calling it that.  He was wearing Maple Leafs blue warm-up jacket that had a white stripe across the front and a Leafs logo above his heart (where it belongs) and matching blue tearaways.  His shoes were made to look like hockey skates but without the blades, obviously, because that would be annoying to walk around in.  He appeared to be trying to teach the others some dance moves so that they could move around as a dance pack, but they seemed completely uninterested.  She heard him mutter something about how they should “never say never.”

Yes, she knew, it was the one and only Justin Bieber.  He must have been one of the “Five For Fighting” hockey hooligans, but probably one of the younger ones without any power in the organization that everyone liked to push around.

The first man tapped him on the shoulder wordlessly to get his attention.  Bieber stopped dancing for a moment to look on the ground, and his eyes became wide.

“Hey, everyone, it’s that To(Ron)to(!) writer lady!” he said, getting the attention of the group.  Penny Lane noted that he did not use his hands to signify that he was using brackets, which irked her.  As they all turned and began to circle around Penny Lane and Alejandro, she knew that she had never been more afraid in her life.  This was definitely going to take the number one spot, above that time that she was forced to listen to a children’s choir perform a particularly disturbing version of “Funky Town” (number two), the time that she had watched “The Ring” by herself in her room with a television (number three), the moment when she realized that Zehr’s would no longer sell her favourite brand of Triscuits because it had been discontinued (number four), and when she had looked Emilio Estevez up on IMDB.com and she had realized how ugly he has gotten since his glory days in the Brat Pack (number five).

“Come on!” Alejandro said as he grabbed her arm and pulled her up.  “We clearly have to get out of here!”

Penny Lane agreed, and since she had made a mental list in her head of the five most terrifying moments that she had experienced in her life, and concluded that this event took the number one spot, she felt ready to move on.  She had always said that she was a bitch that got a plan, and a walka not a talka, but right now, she had to be a runna.

“I’mma shake these haters off,” she told Alejandro.  “Straight business start takin’ charge.  When I’mma talk it, I’mma walk it.  Back it up and keep it rockin.’’”

“No one, don’t get involved.  Gotta boss up, bitch, if you want it all,” Alejandro said in agreement.

They dashed through the streets of Toronto, with Five For Fighting in hot pursuit behind them.  If Penny Lane had turned around (which she couldn’t, obviously), she would have noticed that Bieber was falling behind because he was insisting on dancing as he moved.  He may not have been winning any races, unless those races were based on style and dancing ability, in which case he would be winning any race on earth.

Penny Lane’s father may not have been a particularly effective person when it came to  cleaning up, since he mostly would hold things up and ask whose it was, but when it came to moving through crowds, there was no one better.  She darted through the crowds expertly, putting more and more distance between her, Alejandro, and the hockey goons.  She was practically dragging Alejandro behind her, since he apparently did not have a father that would regularly leave him behind as he darted between human traffic. 

“I have a great idea,” Alejandro said as he pulled her to the side and into a shop that appeared to be called “IyIyIy Am Wearing You”.  They quickly threw on some clothes (a red fitted hoodie, a graphic tee and expensive-looking acid-washed jorts for Penny Lane, a faded jean jacket with a black t-shirt and white jeans for Alejandro).  They posed as mannequins in the store front rather than hiding in the back room, because that is obviously a better way to evade anyone who is chasing after you.  Penny Lane was posed holding a prop cell phone as if she was texting someone.  Presumably she was texting someone that she loves, as “143,” accompanied by a winking emoticon, had been drawn on the screen in black Sharpie.  Alejandro was sitting beside her on a black cruiser bike.  Unsurprisingly, the plan worked like a charm.  Five For Fighting ran past them without looking back, and Penny Lane and Alejandro managed to look incredibly cool in the process.  They nodded at each other with their eyes narrowed in approval.

“What are you two doing?” they heard an Australian accented voice ask.  As they turned to face the voice they were greeted by a boy with short and curly blonde hair who must have been about ten years old from the looks of him. 

Alejandro was pretty quick on his feet in more ways than one.  First, he quickly got off of the bike and onto his feet.  Second, he responded without delay, “Didn’t you book two live models for today?  If Roberto mixed up the schedule I am going to be so mad.”

“I don’t remember doing that,” the youthful boy said as he scratched his shaggy blonde hair, looking puzzled. 

“I’ll go check,” Alejandro said, grabbing Penny Lane’s arm and forcefully pulling her behind him.  She was pleased that she had drunk her milk that morning; otherwise the force that Alejandro used to tug her arm (and the Bone Breaking Punkers, obviously) might have broken it. 

Penny Lane checked the cell phone with “143 ;)” written on it and informed the small lad that they had in fact gotten their stores mixed up.  They apologized and left, but not before stopping to buy the outfits because they looked really cool in them.  Particularly the acid-washed jorts.  

Penny Lane

Alejandro

By the way, I had never planned on Justin Bieber making his way into my story.  I just put that picture up because I thought that it was funny.  Thanks for the inspiration, Indigo!