How To Make Friends With Teenage Anarchists - eBook

They are the largest minority in the world. They have no rights. They are told how to think, how to worship, and how to socialize.

They are children.

Some will grow up and repeat the pattern.

Some will break from the vicious cycle and use their voices whether it be in the present or in the far, far future.

How to Make Friends with Teenage Anarchists is a collection of young adult stories spanning many genres that will make you think twice about children and join their rebellion.

Community Standards

Friday afternoon, Juliana Marshall stood in front of Bradley High School, hugged her books, and waited for her late father. The buses were long gone but kids still roamed inside the school’s front wide windows. She didn’t feel safe at all. He wasn’t in the school anymore and no one knew it was she. Yet one day with all the press and gossip going around they might find out. Definitely after the trial.

She readjusted the book bag on her back, sighed, and cursed her father’s lateness.

**

Mrs. Romano and Mr. Romano sat in the rented van down the street from Bradley High and watched the slight teenager. The school was the only building on the barren road. Mr. Romano bit his manicured nails and wrung his hand around the steering wheel.

“Is he sure that she’s the one?” he asked.

Mrs. Romano rolled her eyes, backhanded his shoulder, and readjusted the diamond on her finger.

“Jesus, Charles. Not now.”

He sighed and widened his tie. “Okay, okay.”

“Let’s get this over with,” she said. “You have to pick up Russell from Boy Scouts later.”

**

Juliana woke up on the concrete floor of a closet with a ball gag in her mouth, a blindfold over her eyes, her legs bound with string, and handcuffs behind her back. She burst out kicking and squirming until the residue of the drug eased her down. He took her. He’s going to kill her so she can’t speak against him at the trial. Then she heard the laughing and talking children in the distance. He doesn’t have children.

**

That night, Mr. and Mrs. Romano stood in their furnished basement with Mr. Anton, a man in his late thirties with highlighted hair and manicured features that couldn’t hide the worry he revealed to the couple. Upstairs, their kids watched television.

Anton studied Mr. Romano’s fresh black eye and said, “I don’t understand why you called me here.”

Mrs. Romano poked his chest. “We need you to confirm it’s the girl. Everything must be one hundred percent, darling.”

Anton dazed off and said, “This is insane.”

Mr. Romano, behind his wife, lit a cigar, nodded his head, and sighed.

“Yes, this is insane,” Mrs. Romano said. “But if you kept your pants closed then we wouldn’t have to do any of this now would we.”

“I didn’t touch her,” Anton said through gritted teeth.

Mrs. Romano gleamed. “I could care less if you had sex with the whole class. You’re school productions bring money and awards. Bradley is a respectable township. Rated top three in New Jersey. The last thing we need is a scandal about a fifteen-year-old slut. Now, go make sure we have the right girl.”

**

Anton opened the closet door. Juliana was perfect. He should have had her like that the night of the cast party after the play then maybe he wouldn’t be in this mess. He stepped forward, licked his upper lip, and felt the swelling in his Dockers.

**

Juliana heard the door open. His scent rushed up her nose. Her breath caught. He did take her! She screamed through the ball gag. The door slammed shut.

**

“It’s her,” Anton said. “What is she bound up with?”

“The bondage equipment I use on Charles.”

Mr. Romano blushed and stomped. “Too much information, lamb chop!”

“Aren’t those rigged so the wearer can remove them?” Anton asked.

“She just a child,” Mrs. Romano said. “She won’t figure it out.”

**

The door opened. Juliana woke up. Her head was clear and her stomach rumbled with hunger. Someone removed the ball gag.

“Do you want to live?” a woman asked.

Juliana shivered and nodded.

“We will let you go if you promise to drop the charges against Mr. Anton,” the woman said.

“I’m...”

“Don’t speak. I know what you’re going to say. I’m a woman too. I know the fun and games, the control,” she said. “You have twelve hours to think about it. Drop the charges or die.”

**

The ball-gag back in her mouth, Juliana cried and screamed as she kicked and pounded at the wall. It was not her fault. She didn’t do anything wrong. And she was definitely not in control.

Calm and on her side, she noticed that the cuffs felt looser than before on one wrist. Were they broken?

Juliana jerked her hands up. Bit by bit the cuffs clicked wider. She sobbed in relief.

**

Saturday evening, Mrs. Romano placed the tray of wieners and mozzarella bites on the coffee table. The women from the book club sitting on the couch and chairs hovered around the food and snatched their share. They all complimented her snacks and home. She flattened her blouse and beamed.

When housewives settled down, she held up The Catcher in the Rye. “So did everyone finish this week’s book?”

Everyone turned to Mr. Romano and Juliana, embraced, falling out of the kitchen and landing on the floor. Mrs. Romano gasped. The women screamed. Juliana kneed the man in the apron between the legs, sending him off and moaning.

The teen stood and faced the stunned mothers.

“Isn’t that the missing Marshall girl?” someone asked.

Juliana sprinted across the room and out the front door.

**

She ran down the dark wooded road, knowing there was a Wawa a mile ahead.

From behind, Mr. Romano grabbed Juliana’s shoulder and pulled. They stumbled to the sidewalk. His panic-filled face stared into her enraged eyes as he straddled her.

“Please, stop?” he asked. “Don’t do this.”

Juliana screamed and pressed her thumbs into his eyes. Mr. Romano howled and rolled off her. She scrambled back onto her feet, kicked him in the side, and ran.

By the time she reached the WaWa, she didn’t have to ask for a phone. A police car pulled up and two officers came out to buy chilidogs.