Hard Line

Mackenzie: Written by Christine E. Barker

Hard LineTabitha: Written by Melody J. Simmons

Hard Line is a story based on some real events that teens go through everyday. Finding yourself, friendship, making friends, and keeping them, love and crushes, and a lot more. In this book, the main characters, Tabitha and Mackenzie, written separately by the two authors, tell about their lives and what it's like living in posh New York City. They show that money doesn't always mean anything, and how people who are mean, are already like that, regardless of their financial or social standing. They are seniors in high school, Village High, which is located in Greenwich Village. Mackenzie is a writer, who teams up with Luke, another friend to write a song. She also is into painting. Tabitha shows what it's like to have feelings for someone, but the other person doesn't know exactly how to show theirs. Also, how Nina, the Goth, is not really a 'Goth', she pretends to be one, mainly for people to accept her.

Meet the Characters

Friends:

Mackenzie Anne Lunden: Mac, the shy, but sometimes outspoken good-hearted girl. Lives in Soho, in New York City.

Tabitha Jane Doss: Tab, nice girl . . . that sometimes doesn't know when to shut up. Enjoys painting. Parents aren't home until late; both work long hours so she does not have a strong sense of family. Upper middle class, lives in Brooklyn Heights.

Valley Girls:

Brenda Mildred Somers: Buffy, the wannabe valley girl, who thinks she's all that. Bleached blond. Lives in Fort Green Projects.

Cynthia Tyrell Lopez: Cindy, lives in Brenda's shadow. Basically does everything her friend does or tells her to do. No personality of her own. Also lives in Fort green projects.

Goth:

Nina Rose McCarty: 'Mistress nine', The Goth with a great life, and parents who love her. She has a lot of money, yet she hates her life and hangs around 'dark' friends. Park Avenue apartment, very rich.

Guys:

Connor Perry Shaneson: A moody poet with depth, but has a sweet soul. He hates his parents because they had never taken any interest in him, until his teen years. Lives in Brooklyn Heights. Upper middle class.

Evan N. Kline: The all American all 'A' student who is the star basketball player of Village High. He often feels pressured by his father. To escape that, he drinks, but it is his secret. Not many know about it.

Lucas Peter DeLonge: A music writer and guitarist that turns to music because he feels that it is there for him.

Jordan Scott Rider: Mild-mannered. Easy to get along with, even though he has problems at home.

Carter Randall Hudson: A class fool that makes fun of his friends. Easy to get along with.

Darren Shawn Barker: A talented sculptor. Friends with everyone.

Mackenzie Anne Lunden

Chapter One: 

 Tabitha, my best friend, and I walked to school together, but were then stopped on the way by her crush, Connor. We spotted him coming on the way to school and she went with him. [I saw Luke, my other best friend, and we headed to the park].  When she saw him and smiled this warm smile that she does every time she sees him, talks to him, or hears him, she's not obsessed with him . . . just infatuated. [I'm kidding. I'm kidding].

 Both Tabby and I are friends with him, but somehow, we just don't click as well as she and he do.

"I'm telling you, there's got to be some sort of intelligent life

on other planets," Carter was telling Darren, mimicking one

of the science teachers in our school, Mr. Daniels.

"Carter . . . Shut up," Darren said laughing and pretending to be pushing him away.

They waved and Luke and I began walking up to the bench where they were sitting.

Since our school's in Manhattan, we've got benches all over the place, and we have a park across the street that we go to in the morning and for lunch sometimes. Actually, public parks and benches are all over New York City.

Anyway, there's a park across the street from school, and sometimes we picnic there. Sometimes we'll bring a picnic blanket and sit on the ground.

I like it here because it's really peaceful, and a great place to talk and just hang out.

As I sat here on this May day, the sun shone and a cool wind brushed our faces.

 "How are you guys doing on this lovely morning?" Carter asked.

"Fine," We said at once.

"We heard your impression of Mr. Daniels, you sounded just like him," I told Carter, laughing.

"Really?" he asked, and snickered.

"Yeah, pretty much," Luke said.

 The bell rang and we got up to go inside.

As we all began to leave, "Can you guys wait a second until I get my bags?" Darren said as he scooped up his messenger bag and art portfolio.  

As we crossed the street to the school, a girl we know, Nina, who calls herself 'Mistress 9', came up to us.

"Hey guys. How are you?" She asked catching her breath.

"Fine," we all answered.

I looked at her shirt. "Positive message," I thought. It said, 'I'm a disposable teen'. "Really, that's good," she said as she put a piece of her vampire black hair behind her ears with her painted black finger nails, "Well, I'll see you guys later," she said and ran to to meet her friend Silence, and yes, that's her real name.

  We walked to our lockers, and said we'd meet at the park for lunch.

As I walked to my locker, through the crowd of Village High students, Luke and I met up again and he walked with me to my locker.

"How's the song coming?" I asked as I got my books out of my locker.

"Actually, it's coming out okay," he said as he moved to the other side of me as the girl whose locker is next to mine got her stuff.

"That's great," I said.

He nodded as he began playing with the binding on the side of his music book.

It was a really good song. He let me see it before, when he had just started it.

"Yeah. I'm done writing the lyrics, now I'm almost done with the music part " he said as we left my locker and went to homeroom.

I thought about Luke's song, he really is good at it. I've written several and I'd probably never write music for them or anything. So I think it's a great accomplishment. I'd definitely show him my poetry, which is something I'm proud of. Maybe I'll show it to him at lunch. I probably will.

Science 4th period:

"An exergonic reaction gives off energy, so an endergonic reaction needs . . . Mackenzie?"

 I looked up, "Uh, needs energy."

"Yes, correct," Mr. Daniels answered, and I began copying the notes from the board again.

 Every time I begin to do something other than listening, I know when a teacher is going to call on me. I knew Daniels was going to call on me. All I have to do is look up, and then, like clockwork, they call on me.

 Tabitha and I met at her fifth period class so we could meet the others at the park for lunch.

"Hi. How are you?" she asked.

"Good. How's your day going?"

"Fine," she said as we walked out of the school. "Mr. Foster gave us a pop quiz, but I knew the material."

"Guys," Connor yelled, "Wait up."

He caught up to us and we all crossed the street.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," Tabitha said as I watched her face brighten up, again. She looks like a glowworm when she sees him.

Everyone but Luke was at the park when we got there, so we sat and waited.

As he came, we got up. "Hi, sorry for being late, Mr. Cunningham had to speak with me," he told us as we began walking to get lunch. We got lunch from a little Szechwan restaurant down the street and walked back to the park.

Some of us sat on the benches and some, since Nina brought a blanket, sat on the grass. I took my notebook out of my bag and showed it to Luke, it was on a poem called: At night. I watched him read it to see his expressions.

He looked at me when he was done, "This is really good," he said.

I raised an eyebrow and said, "Really?"

He shook his head and laughed. "You sound so shocked," he said and put on a surprised face. "And, yes it's really good. You know . . . maybe we could work on a song together, we're both good, I've been told," referring to the complements each of us gave each other.

"That's a great idea," I said.

"If we had any writer's blocks, we could think of something together, and writing the music together would be fun," he said.

"We could work on it at lunch, or, if you want, you can come to my apartment and we can work on it there," he offered.

"Sure, when do you want to start?"

"Well . . . what are you doing later on?"

 "Nothing. I don't think so, anyway," I said, trying to remember if I had anything to do.

"Okay, so tonight? After school." he asked as he lifted his forkful of rice and took a bite

"Sounds fine."

"Great," he said and smiled.

"Hey guys, does anyone want some of these brownies I baked? They're really good," Mistress 9 asked.

"Sure."

  When we finished lunch, we picked up all our stuff and threw all our garbage away and then began walking back to school.

"Do you think we can meet here after school?" Luke asked in front of the park.

"Yeah."

I walked to my locker once again with Luke.

I closed my locker and we went to class.

"Here's my class," I said. He looked over to the classroom I was pointing to.

"Bye."

"I'll see you later," I said.

I watched him start to walk down the hall and then looked back and smiled this intentional really weird smile at me. I laughed and went into English.

"Class, I want you to read pages 423-492, what you don't finish will be your weekend homework," Mr. Sylvan said.

When I opened my literature book and began reading, I tried to concentrate but I was so psyched about writing the song.

"Mackenzie, you have to read now," I thought to myself. I really do. I don't want to have to read all of this later on when he's giving us time to read it now.

Later on in trig, which is one of the only classes I have with Tabitha, well, this and lunch, we wrote notes to each other.

1.) We copied the notes down.

2.) Learned, (didn't you like the way I said that we just 'learned', so nonchalantly?).

3.) Listened to our teacher. And then,

4.) Wrote each other.

Notes:

Me: Hey, Tab.

Tabitha: Hey. Remember that sculpting class my Mom looked into? Well, I'm going to it today, I'm so excited; Connor is taking a class there too! What are you doing after school?

Me: Nothing. I'm going to Luke's house tomorrow though. We're planning on working on a song together.

Tabitha: Really? Cool.

Me: Yeah.

I scribbled down my last thought as I glanced at the clock. One minute left. The bell rang and we gathered our books and went to our lockers.

"I'll call you later on, Tab," I told her.

"Okay, Mac," she said and we laughed at our nicknames and ourselves.

"Bye," I said and went to my locker.

 I got my bag and jacket from my locker and went to the park. As I left school, I saw Evan "Nelly" Klein, the star basketball player of Village High.

"Hey, Evan, I haven't seen you in a while, how are you?"

"Okay. We've been playing at other high schools, but today I had to come back and get something out of my locker."

  Oh, I thought, liquor. He's been drinking for the past year. He used to be part of our, I guess you could say, 'clique', but then, kind of just drifted away.

"Oh. Well, I'll see you soon."

"Yeah, later," he said.

I saw Luke at the park and ran across the street.

"Hi Mackenzie," Luke said.

"Hi."

He picked up his portfolio and backpack and we walked to his apartment.

When we got there, and were settled down in his kitchen, he asked me if I wanted anything to drink.

"No thank you."

He opened his refrigerator and took out a bottle of bottled water for himself.

He leaned against the counter top.

"You know which artists I think are really great, and I look up to as an artist?"

"Who?" I asked.

"Savage Garden. Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones are so talented. Darren writes the words, and Daniel writes the music."

"Really? I love their music."

"Really? Do you want to hear Affirmation?"

"Sure."

  He went into the living room and put it on.

"I don't know what you'll say, but I was wondering if you'd let me see your songs and poetry." He asked from the living room.

"Of course you can," I said and got my book out of my bag. "I really liked that one poem, At Night, it's really sincere."

 If he only knew how sincere it really is. (It was about him).

I got up and handed him the book.

"Thanks," he said.

 I sat down on the sofa and looked through some of my papers that had fallen out of my notebook. I had written some of my songs on stuff like construction paper, the same sheet, like a million times over. Then, when I finally perfected the song or poem, I wrote it in my notebook.

 After being there and brainstorming for a few hours, I said, "Well, I've got to go now." It was six o'clock already.

"Okay," he said

"Thank you for inviting me," I said as I walked to the door.

"No problem," he said as he came out from the living room to let me out.

We wrote almost half a song, it was hard, but we came up with something. It's called 'I Feel'. It's actually really good. Next time we'll probably write the rest and add the music to it.

"Bye," I said.

"Bye," he said as he opened the door for me.

 I went to the elevator and pressed the button. I watched him go back into the apartment, and he saw that it was raining outside and grabbed an umbrella.

"Mackenzie, wait," he called, running down the foyer.

I turned around and saw Luke coming toward me with an umbrella.

"It's raining out, and I was wondering if you would like me to walk you home," he asked.

"Oh, no, but thanks anyway,"

He paused and thought a moment. "No, please, I want to," he said.

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he said; so I agreed.

When we got to the lobby's entrance, he opened the umbrella.

 We walked out onto the busy streets, among the other New Yorkers, going places. The city is weird when it is rainy out. It wasn't like in other towns; when people see rain, they go inside their homes and enjoy the sound of a thunderstorm. Nope. New Yorkers go on. Same amount of drivers, and people, and homeless people outside still begging. Life never slowed down. I've always observed that.

"Mackenzie?" he asked after we had walked a few minutes.

I looked over, "Yes?"

"I had a really good time writing the song . . . And I hope we can meet again and finish the rest soon."

"I did too."

As it rained harder, and got more smoggy, I stopped walking, turned to him and said, "How about you only walk me to where the train station is, then I'll walk the rest of the way."

"Okay."

As we approached the train station, he put the umbrella over me while he got soaked. We laughed at his usually neat black hair that was now soaked. He smiled.

He put his hand out under the umbrella and got a handful of water.

"Would you like to take the umbrella with you?"

I shook my head, "I'm fine, thanks"

"No, here," he said and gave me the umbrella. "I don't want you to get wet or anything."

"And what about you? I don't want you to catch a cold," I said.

He laughed, "I'll be fine. You take it."

"Thank you," I said and took it reluctantly. Reaching my hand out.

"I'll see you later, then," he said.

"Bye," I said.

As I began walking, I looked behind me. Luke was standing there. His clothes and jacket were wet. He had one hand in his pocket, and smiled. He turned around and started to walk home. As he did, I watched his gray-clothed silhouette vanish into the crowds of people.

Chapter 3

 As I reached my building, I closed the wooden handled umbrella, and the doorman opened the door for me. "Thank you." I said.

"You're welcome," he replied.

 I smoothed back my black hair as I walked into the lobby.

When I got into the elevator, I pressed the button for the thirtieth floor where my apartment is.

As I rang the door, my Mom opened the door.

"Hi honey," she said and let me in.

"Hi Mom."

"Do you want something hot to drink?"

"Oh, no thank you. So, how was your day off?"

She had been home today. She works at her own law firm. Michela A. Lunden, attorney at law. It was funny how such a softie could be an attorney. I love her so much. She is the sweetest person you could ever meet. She loves to cook, and sew, and all that kind of stuff. At a very young age she was taught that by her mother, my Grandma Capelli, in Italy.

One really ironic, but a nice thing in my family, is that my Mom married and African~ American man, my father, Don Lunden.

So I came out with looking mostly like my Mom, hazel eyes, and black hair. But I came out with my Daddy's slightly curly hair.

"How was your day?" she asked.

"Good. I went to Luke's house afterwards."

"Really? Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah."

"That's good," she said, mixing her tea.

"I'm going to change out of these clothes," I said getting up.

"Okay," she said.

I went to my bedroom and pulled out my flannel pyjamas. They were blue with white snowflakes on them.

I l got on my bed, grabbed my phone and dialed Tab's number.

"Hi Mac," she said as soon as I said who I was.

"Hi. How was your sculpting class?"

"It was okay. The instructor was very good at it, but not as good as Darren."

"Why don't you ask him to teach you? It's his craft, well, that and painting. He'd probably say yes."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. That's how Darren is. He'd probably like teaching you."

"Yeah, maybe I will call him." She said. There was a brief pause. "So, how was the song writing session with Luke?"

"Good. We were able to get the song started and half way finished."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I had a good time."

"So, anything new?"

"No."

"Well. Connor was in the sculpting class."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about him."

"Well, he was there, so I sat next to him."

"Oh."

After talking for a few minutes more, we hung up.

Chapter Four

Wednesday:

After School:

Tab invited me to come and sleep over at her house, so I had an extra bag today.

"Thanks for inviting me," I told her.

"No problem," Tabitha replied.

When we began walking to the subway, she said, "I'm really upset now."

"Why?"

"Well . . . you know Cynthia, right?"

I thought for a moment and said, "Is she the one that always hangs out with Brenda?"

"Yeah."

"Then I know who she is," I said as we got onto the train.

"Well. I was in the bathroom at school yesterday and heard her telling Brenda how she and Connor are working on a project together. For the past few days he's been going to her home, and doing more than studying. She said he stays longer than he needs to with her."

I opened my mouth in bewilderment.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yeah . . . Cynthia also said that she was going to get him to like her more than he likes me because she despises me," she said.

"Well . . . maybe she was lying and Connor was really only there to work on their project," I said.

"That's a possibility, but I still am kind of upset about it," she said.

"Yeah. I always thought he had better taste," I said jokingly.

Tab laughed, "Yeah, so did I. I thought he'd like someone like me."

"Really, Tabitha," I said as we went down the steps into the subway. "I doubt that it's anything more than he and she working on a project," I said.

"Even so. Now he's no longer my crush or prospective boyfriend, his new name is, well, I don't know . . .he's a nothing!" she said yelling.

I looked up surprised and started laughing. So did most of the rest of the people in the subway car. In our eleven years of knowing each other, (we're seventeen now), I've never heard her say anything about Connor, or anyone seriously. "Tabitha," I said still laughing.

She looked at me, her face was totally serious, and then she started laughing, realizing she called her long time crush, and prospective boyfriend such a nothing, and woke up other passengers. As we got off at her stop, she laughed. "Do you think anyone really cared?"

I shook my head.

"Good," she said. "Well . . . he is no longer 'Connor', so if you use that name, I won't know whom you're talking about," she said as we got to her building.

"Okay," I said.

I never knew I'd see her talk about Connor. Not badly anyway.

 As we went upstairs on the elevator in her building, I thought about Connor's nameless self.

When we got off, we went to her apartment and her maid answered the door. "It's me, Miriam," Tabitha said.

She opened the door and let us in.

We hung up our jackets and sat in the dining room. "What would you girls like to eat?" Miriam asked.

As soon as she asked, Mr. Doss came from his bedroom down the foyer.

"Hello, Sweetheart," he said in his British accent. "Hello Mackenzie."

"Hello Mr. Doss," I said as Tabitha stood up and hugged her dad.

"How were your days, girls?" he asked us.

"Fine," we said.

"Well, I have got to be getting down to the office. Goodbye Tabitha, it was a pleasure seeing you again Mackenzie."

"It was nice seeing you as well, Mr. Doss," I said.

"Goodbye Miriam," he said.

"Goodbye Mr. Doss."

"What do you want to eat?" Tabitha asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. Miriam offered us fruit and potato chips or cheese doodles, sandwiches, etc., etc.

"May we please have sandwiches?"

"Of course," Miriam said.

She handed us sandwiches, water, and a bowl of chips, for afterwards.

"Thank you," we said.

Miriam said we were welcome and left, and we started talking about Connor, I mean, well, you know who, and Cynthia again.

"The thing about this whole situation is that he's not my boyfriend or anything, so I can't really confront him without looking nosy, do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah. Why don't you tell him you like him and you might find something out?"

"That's true. But I'm not sure if I want to. The thing I hate about this is that every time I like a guy, I find out either he's got a girlfriend or a crush already, and then I have no other choice than to forget about him, or, some guy likes me and I don't like him, it always happens that way."

"Well you'll never know if you don't ask him, on a friend to friend basis, or tell him that you like him."

"Actually, I think that he already knows that I like him, and he does too. So, I'll be reasonable . . . I'll just forget about him for a while, and I won't speak to him either."

"That's an idea. But Tab, do you really think that's reasonable?" I asked, smiling.

"Yeah," she said, and upon realizing what she had said, she started laughing. Tab's really funny because she says thing and then thinks about what she says afterwards. So she's ALWAYS surprising herself.

"I guess it's not that reasonable."

We laughed.

"Do you want to put your things in my room?"

"Sure."

We got up and I put my things in her closet.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"I'm going to call my Mom really quickly, okay?" I said.

"Sure."

 I took my cell phone out of my bag and called my Mom to let her know that I was at Tab's house.

"Hi Mom, how was your day?"

"It was fine. How was yours?

"It was good. Thanks for letting me go to Tabby's house."

"Your welcome, have fun. Oh, your Father said 'Goodnight' and that he loves you."

"Tell him I love him too."

"Okay, Mackenzie, I will."

"I love you too."

"Me too. Tell Tabitha I said 'Hello'. Oh, one more thing, Mackenzie, Luke called you, he asked if you could call him back."

"Okay, I will. Thank you."

"Tab," I said turning to her, "Mom says hi."

"Hi, Mrs. Lunden."

"Goodnight," I said to her.

"Bye. Goodnight," I said and blew her a kiss.

Tabitha got up went to her bathroom, so I took my phone out again and called Luke.

"Hey, Mackenzie," he said.

"Hi."

"Thanks for returning my phone call. I wanted to say hi to you. I've got the flu and I am totally out of it."

"Oh. I was going to call and see how you were doing since you weren't at school. Do you think you'll be going to school tomorrow?" I asked.

"I don't think so. But I'll probably go back on Friday."

"Do you think I can drop by tomorrow? I'm vaccinated . . . I'm not sure that'll help . . .if you want company?"

"Of course I want you to come, but if you do, you could catch it. It's not that I don't want you to come though."

"No. I'll be fine, I'll only come over for a few minutes, and I don't even have to come in. I just want to leave you something."

"Okay."

"Thanks. I hope you feel better though, okay? I've got to go now, but I'll see to you tomorrow, I'll come by at about five o' clock."

"Okay, bye. Thanks for calling."

"Bye. Feel better."

"Thanks," he said and hung up.

As I put my phone in my bag, Tab came back in.

 We watched a couple of rerun episodes of the Facts of Life, and then the Wonder Years in Tab's room. We love to watch shows like that on Nick at Nite and TV Land.

Chapter 5

"Bye Tabitha. Thanks again for letting me spend the night. Next time, you can come to my house," I said to Tab after school.

"Okay," Tabitha said.

"Bye."

"Bye," she said.

When I had spoken to Luke yesterday, I got the idea to make him chicken noodle soup.

I went home and got out some of our cookbooks. I found a recipe for chicken noodle soup and got out all of the ingredients.

I was done in almost two hours and put it into a container.

I put it in a bag, left to Luke's house, and on my way, went to the flower shop.

I bought a dozen whites roses. Of course you know, it means friendship, and bought him a 'get well' card.

The florist gave me my change and I walked to Luke's house.

"Who is it?" he asked, after I rang his doorbell.

"It's me, Mackenzie."

He unlocked the door. "Hey," he said smiling.

"Hi. Do you want me to come in or give you what I have here at the door?"

"You can come in . . . if you want to," he said smoothing out his hair.

"How are you feeling?" I asked as I walked into the apartment.

"Actually, I'm feeling a little better."

"Well, I hope I can help you feel a lot better. I bought you these." I said as I gave him the flowers.

He took them and thanked me.

"You're welcome. And I made you chicken noodle soup. If you want, I can heat it up for you, I just made it, so it should be slightly warm."

"Thank you so much," he said, surprised.

"No problem," I said.

He put his arms out to hug me, but then pulled away because he remembered he was sick.

So, I went over to him and hugged him. "If I get sick, it'll be okay," I said.

I told him to sit back down on the couch and relax.

"Do you want me to heat it up for you?"

I asked him.

"No, I'll do it, thanks anyway," he said getting up.

"I'll do it. Now lay down," I said joking.

I smiled and asked him where I could get a pot, a bowl, and a spoon. I put the flowers in a vase he told me that I could put them in and put them on one of the tables in the living room. He leaned forwards and smelled them.

"These smell good!" He said to me.

I looked at him from the kitchen, "Really?"

"Yeah."

I brought the soup over to him on a tray.

"Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome."

I sat in the armchair beside the couch he was laying on.

"This is great," he said.

"Thanks. I didn't know how it would turn out since I've never made it before."

"I know how that can be. I once tried making cookies and . . . well, they were disgusting. But your soup is really good."

"Thank you."

When he was finished, I took back his tray for him.

"So how was your day?"

"Good. I watched television and just kind of stayed in the living room. How was your day?"

"It was pretty good. I had slept at Tabitha's, so we went over to school on the train together, and otherwise, school was pretty much the same."

"So, what time do you have to be home?" he asked. "Anytime, really. Just as long as it's the same day," I said. "Really, uh, on a school night, ten's the latest."

"Oh."

"Yeah, that's pretty good, actually, weekends it's midnight, as long as my parents know where I am, and whom I'm with."

"Yeah, that's my curfew for the weekend too. Unless it's something that I tell my parents that I'll be home later."

"Thanks again for everything. There was no way I would have been able to make that, and the flowers and card are really nice," he said and looked into his lap.

"I think it was totally worth it."

"I'm glad I'm worth it . . . to you," he said, looking up now.

I smiled as I got up. "Well . . . I've got to go now. If you're not in school tomorrow . . . if you want, I'll visit you."

"Yeah, sure."