Spice Up Your Life?
by David Thompson
It was a sunny morning in the wealthy suburbs of Montclair, where Jessica London enjoyed her first high school weekend. Jessica logged into her Facebook account, and started playing the Spice Girls signature song “Spice Up Your Life”.
“God, I love this song,” she thought, as the British accents filled her mind.
Bouncing around her room, Jessica enjoyed the song that she had admired for so long. In a short second of rest, she noticed the television. It was a commercial. “Do you need more spice in your life? The question froze Jessica solid. As the commercial went on, Jessica continuously thought, “Please, please, please!” Could it be? The Spice Girls back together?! After a few minutes Jessica’s questions were finally answered. The Spice Girls were having a reunion tour that was coming to San Jose, California. Estatic with the news Jessica rushed downstairs to ask her mom.
“Mooooooooooooooom!”
“WHAT?!” Jessica’s mom stood there worrying about her.
“Can I go to the SPICE GIRLS concert!!?!?!??!”
“Please! Don’t call me like that. You’ll give me a heart attack. When?”
“December 3rd at 8:00 in San Jose.”
“That’s a school night, plus, a fourteen year old girl does not need to see those whores shaking their humps on a stage. Especially in another city”
“But mom…. Kara’s going.”
“Kara? Kara the senior? that changes everything.” A grin entered Leann’s face as she turned back to the stove.
“Cool, can I go?”
“No.”
A Spice Girl fanatic who had her room covered with multiple posters of Ginger, Sporty, Posh, Scary and Baby. Jessica knew she had to go to the concert. Her cell phone started ringing uncontrollably.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Have you seen it?!” asked her best friend Kelly. “The Spice Girls are having a reunion tour!”
“Damn It! You screamed in my FUCKING EAR!”
“Sorry babe, I’m just so excited. They’re back together!”
“I know! I’m sooooooooooo happy. We have to go to the concert. But it’s in San Jose, and my mom already said no.”
“Make something up! This is the event of a lifetime.”
“My mom is too smart for that. Wait, are Liza, Kara, and Janet going?”
“Yea, they’re coming why? Just say you’re at a sleepover at my house or something.”
At that moment Jessica’s little sister, Monica snuck into Jessica’s room without being noticed. Hours passed with Kelly and Jessica trying to figure out a plan to fool their parents. They finally got their stories straight when Jessica got ready to tell her mom. As Jessica walked down the stairs to the kitchen, she felt so nervous that her mom wouldn’t believe her. She waited till her father left for work because she knew that her mother Leann, was easier to fool.
“Hey sweetie.” Jessica stood there shaking as her mother greeted her.
“Go…Go… Good Mor… Morning.”
She was so nervous she couldn’t even move. Her mother’s lie detecting eyes had her scared as hell.
“Where’s Dad?”
“He’s at work. You know that. But did you need something?” Her mother replied in that sweet motherly tone.
“Ummm, yeah. I do. Kelly’s having a sleepover at her house and she wanted me to go.” Jessica stood there waiting for the instant “NO!” from her strict conservative mother. But surprisingly she said
“Ummmmmmmm. Yeah I guess that would be fine. But remember, this is a one time only chance. I trust you.”
Trust me? Shit! She trusts me. Jessica thought as the “t” word rang through her head just like the spice girls song a few hours ago. Walking up each stair to her room was like quick sand that got her deeper and deeper into an already deep lie. She immediately called Kelly.
“Hey girl! did you tell ‘em?”
Kelly’s tone disgusted Jessica. Jess had never lied to her parents about anything this big before. Blaming it on the dog, knocking the water over, and not painting on the wall were all white lies. But this one was the size of the white house. Jessica didn’t know what to do.
“Hey.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing! I can’t believe I just did that. They trust me!”
“Don’t worry about it! Did it work?”
“Yeah it worked.”
“Great.”
“Whatever.”
“Seriously, don’t worry about it. The first time I lied to my parents, I felt bad about it, but you’ll feel better when the concert comes.”
“I guess. Did you get the tickets?”
“Yea, I got them. They were hella expensive, but you can pay me back”
Jessica couldn’t believe Kelly’s reasoning. But she didn’t worry over it much. The day of the “sleepover” came and Jessica wasn’t paying attention to the lie she told anymore instead she was focusing on listening to her favorite songs with her best friends thinking that the concert would be the time of her life. Jessica’s mom dropped her off at Kelly’s house. The shutters were pristine, with the manicured lawn, and a Porsche in the driveway.
“No Drinking, No Smoking, and No Boys” she said sharply.
“I wouldn’t want to.” Jessica said innocently.
The glass door opened and there stood Kelly waving. Jessica got out and unloaded the family wagon of her sleepover gear.
“I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Ok?”
“Bye mom.”
As the green Toyota wagon pulled off, Kelly put on her convincing face.
“Bye Ms. London,” Kelly said as loudly as she could, but then whispered,
“Wait for it… wait for it,” in Jessica’s ear. Jessica laughed.
“Come on. Kara’s around the corner with her brother’s SUV.”
“Did Kara get his okay to drive it?”
“No it doesn’t matter.”
“Oh my god! What the fuck?”
“Stop being such a square!”
The journey began. After several hours of non-stop driving from Montclair to San Jose; the girls started to get hungry. They stopped in a restaurant’s parking lot. They got out without a care in the world. They walked into the restaurant and ordered.
“What does everyone want?” Kara said
“I’ll take a burger”
“Me too.”
“Me three.”
“What do you want Jessica?”
“I don’t know. A burger? It’s so cold in here, give me the keys, I’m going to go get my jacket.”
“Here.”
A few minutes later Jessica came back in. She looked dazed and confused.
“What’s wrong with you?” Kara asked.
“The car.”
“What about the car?”
“The car.”
“What about the car?!”
Kara was getting worried. She ran outside only to find that her brother’s Mercedes SUV was gone, nowhere to be found. Now she had to face the consequences of taking and losing her brother’s prized possession. The five girls stood in the parking lot cold and confused.
“I’ve got to call the cops.”
“NO! Call them when we get back home,” said Kelly.
“Look the FUCK around!, How the hell are we supposed to get home?”
“We can call a cab.”
“Listen to Kelly, we’ve come too far to turn back now” said Janet.
As Kelly called a cab company, Jessica started to replay the words that her mother said to her. Trust, trust, trust. She shook them off, as the cab arrived. The five were not that far from the concert hall. After a thirty dollar cab ride, the girls finally got to their destination still bickering, with Jessica in the background thinking I should have never done this.
“Oh my god! We’re here!” Jessica said happily.
“I told you we had to come” Kelly replied.
A man with a security shirt approached the five claiming that he was a part of the Spice Girls crew.
“Are you girls here to see the Spice Girls?”
The five nodded their heads. He seemed like someone you could trust. But Jessica still had her guards up.
“There are a lot of people here. If you give me your tickets and follow me, I could get you in there faster.”
“Are you serious?” Kelly said vibrantly.
Jessica pulled Kelly to the side. Not believing that after all of the obstacles that they had gone through she was ready to create another one.
“Are you serious?!” said Jessica “We don’t even know this man. He could be a snake.”
“I know what I’m doing.” Kelly said smartly snatching her arm away. “Here you go sir.”
“Wowwwwwww… these are great seats. Follow me.”
Moving through the crowd walking faster and faster trying to keep up with the unknown man, they soon lost him. Jessica knew it all along. She knew nothing good would come out of this. Everyone turned against Kelly.
“DAMMIT KELLY! How could you be so stupid!?” Janet screamed.
“I thought he was with the band,” said Kelly in a defeated tone.
“Guys we can always buy more tickets.” Jessica was upset with Kelly but didn’t want to see her friend get “jumped”.
“Liza, you’re the treasurer, how much money do we have?”
Liza looked in her neon green purse. She soon found nothing but a huge gaping hole big enough that her hands can go through in the bottom. Now they were screwed. No money, No tickets, No car. No nothing.
Back in Montclair Jessica’s dad was just getting home from work around 5:30.
“Honey, I’m home.”
“Hey my love. How was your day”
“Stressful. Where’s Jess? Where’s Monica?”
“Jess is at Kelly’s house having a sleepover and Monica is in the living room watching cartoons.”
John stole the remote control and turned on the Fox news. They started to report a fire at “1524 Levi Street”.
“Where is Kelly’s house?
“Uhhhh…Levi Street, why?”
“Don’t panic. But a house on that street is on fire.”
“What?!” She screamed in horror.
Getting ready to drive over, they saw Kelly’s grandmother being interviewed by the news channels. They overheard her saying she had been the only one in the house when it ignited.
Jessica’s parents grew happy and worried at the same time. They worried where she was and if she was safe.
“Where could Jessica be?!” asked Leann
“I know where Jessica is.” Monica whispered
“What’d you say, Monica?”
“I know… where she is.”
“Where?!” interrupted John.
Monica pointed to the television. A news broadcast covering the Spice Girls was being shown,
In Entertainment news, the Spice Girls reunion tour is getting started in San Jose tonight, blasted from the television.
“You don’t think that she….”
“No. No! Jessica knows better. Especially after I told her no this morning.”
In San Jose all hell was breaking loose. The girls were turning on each other.
“What the hell do we do now?” Janet asked.
“I guess it’s time to call it quits.”
“No!” Kelly intervened.
“It’s time to suck it up and face the facts! I’m getting tired of you Kelly….”
“Jessica? Jessica London is that you?” Ron said, a laid back family friend, who was at the concert with his daughter who noticed the five girls were standing outside the concert hall, screaming at each other.
“Ron! Thank God! We’ve had the WORST night in teenager history. First I lied to my mom then we got hungry then I got cold so I went out to go get my jacket and the car was gone then we lost the tickets to some guy who said he was apart of the band now were all arguing.”
Jessica stood there tugging on Ron’s shirt explaining the situation
“Wow. Slow down. Ron chuckled. Do John and Leann know your here?”
“No, can you help us?.”
“Yeah I guess I have to now. I’ll give ‘em a call. Hopefully the long drive will release some of their anger” Ron joked.
“Thank you so much.”
Ron called Jessica’s parents who thanked god that she was all right. They were glad to have the privilege of killing her the way they wanted too. After a seemingly endless drive to San Jose, Jessica’s parents were standing there in the flesh.
“GET IN THIS CAR RIGHT NOW!!”
A quiet drive back to Montclair was all that filled the air. No girl dared to say anything to John or Leann.
“Mr. and Mrs. London…”
“Kelly WHAT do you possibly need right now.”
“I was wondering if you were going to tell our parents about this.”
Leann turned around in disbelief and turned back.
“Kelly dear. Each parent that I could find in my telephone book is at my house as we speak. Does that answer your question?”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
They dropped each off one by one. Leann saved most of her anger until their key touched the front door lock.
“You bring yourself into this house right now! And, if you think that long ride home was something, believe me, honey, we've only just begun!” So filled with anger, Leann slammed the door right into John’s face. He stood there for seconds before opening the door. Jessica sat there sobbing.
“How was your night Jessica? Let me tell you about mine. It was a living nightmare.”
“Mom, I’m sorry”
“We think you're lying on the floor of some burning building, dying of asphyxia, and you're down in San Jose, having BIG FUN! Weren't you, Jessica? Isn't that where you were? Didn't you go down there to San Jose to have big fun, Jessica? Tell me, didn't you go for big fun?”
“Mom…”
“SHUT UP! Don't you dare open your mouth when I'm asking you a question.
Now go upstairs and go to bed!”
“Mom, I said I was sorry. This is not going to happen again!”
“For all I know, you are lying right now! GO TO BED!!!”
The end of a long weekend came to a screaming halt.
For months, Jessica wasn’t able to leave the house without her parents watchful eyes. She learned from that moment on not to go against her parents, and learned to not trust her friends as much as she thought she could. Jessica’s cell phone rang… It was Kelly.
“Hey!” “Hello, Kelly.”
“I just wanted to let you know that The Wretch is having a concert, wanna go?
“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
“Come on! Don’t be a square.”
“I don’t think so, I think I’ll be a square this time.”