Veronica's Music

Psalm 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of salvation!

April 26, 1977...

In the Gym, everyone was getting ready for the Voting Prompt in two days, Archeble and Joe were blowing balloons, it was hard for Archeble since he has asthma Reggie's wearing a Star Wars Hildebrandt shirt, bell-bottoms, and Pro Specs Sneaker shoes. He was putting the tables down for the voting boxes, Enya, Mark, and Samual was putting something on the stage Principal Thrailkill and Coach Henry noticed and went over there and see what are they're doing?

"What you kids up to?" Principal Thrailkill puts his hands on his hips

"Umm..." Mark getting nervous

"Streamer!" Enya blurred out "Just streamer Principal Thrailkill"

The principal and the coach looked at each other and then went over where Johnny and Matthew, Johnny's wearing a periwinkle long sleeve shirt with the same pants and shoes, Matthew's wearing a navy long sleeve shirt with the same pants and shoes too. They were putting up the banner that they made in art class, they are the creative one in the classroom.

"Nice work Twins," Coach Henry quoted "I love what you did with our school's colors."

The school color in Belkington are red and yellow the banner said 'Voting Prompt of '77' the twins were almost done until Betty and Emily was shaking the ladder from below them, they screamed as they called them names, Coach Henry and Principal Thrailkill ran over stopped them,

"Betty Sawyer!" Henry pushes her aside

"Emily Ross!" The principal pulls her away from the ladder

Betty's wearing a white blouse, bell-bottoms, and Mary Jane Platform Pumps. She crosses her arms with a disappointed look on her face, as Emily tense up, she knows what she did is wrong, and she knows better than that.

"Now why would you girls try to hurt Johnny and Matthew like that, huh!" Coach Henry huffed

"We were just having fun," Betty smiled

"What did I say about rebellious students in this school?" Principal Thrailkill firmly say

Betty rolled her eyes and moan and didn't say anything, just silence, Emily tried not to cry, they went back to what they were doing, putting together cardboard to make a privacy cube, Coach Henry and the principal looked up to see if the twins were alright or not.

"Are you two okay?" Coach Henry asked

"No..." The twins said at the same time

Veronica enters the gym, she's wearing a yellow flounce sleeve surplice crop top with Levi's denim shorts and burnt orange leather heels chunky shoes. She was amazed by how great the gym looks, she can imagine that everybody is taking their time to vote who is going to be Class President, Class Vice President, Class Secretary, and Class Treasurer, she turned to her left and saw Johnny and Matthew climbing to the ladder shaking, she ran over there as they hold their arms with a terrified look on there faces.

"Are you two okay." Veronica worried

The twins nodded their heads as they walked out of the gym, Veronica tried to follow them, but Principal Thrailkill stopped her by holding her back by her shoulder, she turned to make eye contact with the 51-year-old man with a pity look on her face.

"Miss. Finn, I know you are trying to cheer Johnny and Matthew up, and I'm not saying you should stop being friends with them, you're are a really good friend to the twins. really, I do admire that to the heart, but, you need to let them mature and take responsibility for each other." He told her "They're 17, Miss. Finn, you don't have to keep treating them and handling them like they're 12."

Veronica looked back at the gym doors and see that the twins are not there, meanwhile; Johnny and Matthew were in the men's restroom, Johnny was splashing water onto his face to calm down, Matthew was in the stall wiping his sweat with toilet paper. Reggie enters to see that the twins are not okay, Archeble peaked in as he uses his inhaler,

"Are you chaps are okay?" Reggie asked

"No..." Johnny hesitated "Betty and Emily nearly hurt us by shaking the ladder when we were putting up the banner."

Archeble and Reggie looked at each other with surprised looks on their faces and then they look at the twins

"Well, we're not surprised about Betty, but, Emily Ross?" Archeble wondered

"Emily would never do anything like that, we get that she's bossy and all that, but she would never hurt anyone?" Reggie walked to the window

Archeble walked over to Johnny and rubbed his back, he looked around and see that Matthew is not around, bend over to look to see if he was in one of the stalls, but at the very last stall, he saw a part of Deadstock Nike just like Johnny's.

"Matthew," Archeble called

Matthew walked out of the stall and saw Archeble and Johnny, He turned to see Reggie lighting a cigarette and puff a cloud of smoke out of the window, Matthew gasp and his brother turn where Reggie is doing and he was surprised and upset.

"REGGIE!" Johnny's voice cracked

Reggie turned to the twin, cigarette in hand as he saw them in complete shock

"You smoke!?" Matthew quoted

"Johnny, Matthew look, it's not what it looks like I just have really bad-" Reggie tried to explain

The twins ran out of the bathroom in tears, Reggie felt like a terrible person, Archeble looked at him and looked back at the twins

"--Anxiety" Reggie ended

Reggie put off his cigarette in the sink as Archeble uses his inhaler again and rubbed Reggie on the back,

"Arch, you know I didn't mean to-" said Reggie

"I know, I understand." archeble understood "Sometimes I have bad anxiety too."

Coach Henry was about to go to his office until he heard sobbing from the men's locker room, he walked in and he can hear the sobbing louder he followed the sobbing to the showers, and he couldn't believe his eyes about he is seeing right now, Johnny and Matthew were curled up into a ball up against the corners of the shower room.

"Johnny Matthew!" He ran over to the twins "What happened? who hurt you two? what is it?"

"Reggie..." Johnny sobbed and sniffed "We saw Reggie smoking in the boy's washroom!"

Coach Henry got down on his knees and patted them on their heads, he stopped smoking three weeks ago, he uses to smoke a lot when his daughter was born and now since he's going to be a grandpa he has to quit, for good.

"Really you two?" The Coach quoted

They continued sobbing, Coach pulled them in a hug as they cry on his shoulders, They never felt so betrayed before in their life, they thought Reggie was a good person.

"We thought Reggie was our friend, but he's nothing but a smoker!" Matthew sobbed

Coach Henry pushes the twins and then looked them with a look on his face, he rubbed their face and tilled his head

"Well...I use to smoke, and I'm still friends with you and the other students here in the building. John, Matt when you see other people smoking a cigarette or a cigar, what do you think of them?" Coach Henry asked

The twins thought it throw a bit to see what would they think of people when they smoke? They got their answers

"We think they're terrible people and we think that they're going to hell." Johnny answered, "Uncle Jeremiah told us that."

Henry scatches his head and then he sat down with them as Johnny and Matthew dried their tears and sniffles

"John...Matthew...that's not true at all." Coach told the truth

"Really?" Johnny looked up

"No, The reason why some people smoke, because some people with mental health problems, such as depression or anxiety, might smoke because it helps to alleviate some of the symptoms they experience. Either way, they feel like smoking keeps their emotions under control, helping them to cope. Smoking isn't a sin." the coach explain

"IT ISN'T!!!" Matthew was surprised

The coach nodded his head and then Johnny's face turned sad into mad, his cheeks were red as fire he ran out of the shower room, Matthew followed Coach Henry sigh and got up and went to his office. Johnny and Matthew ran and ran as fast as they could across the hallway in the school they were fast as lightning. they ran pass Principal Thrailkill as he was walking out of the men's bathroom

"NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS!" Principal Thrailkill Hollard

The twins ignored the principal advice, they just continued running every student saw them Veronica saw them burst out the door as she followed them, Principal Thrailkill saw her and he tried to stop her but she already went out the door. Johnny and Matthew ran down the street of Belkington as everyone saw them running like they're been chase Veronica were not as fast as them but she already knew where they were going, the twins ran to their address in Washington Dr. When they got to their house Peter was already exiting out of the door, because it was almost time for him to pick the twins up from school, he turned his head and saw his sons running up to the house.

"Johnny? Matthew?" He questioned, "I was about to pick you two up, what's the matter-"

The twins ran upstairs to the porch and to the front door, they burst in and saw their Uncle Jeremiah on the sofa reading the bible,

"YOU!" Matthew shouted

Jeremiah looked at them and see that both of his nephews are mad he ignores, Johnny stomped over to him and took the Bible from him, Jeremiah got up in a rage.

"What give you the rights to take the good lord's book out of my hands?!" Jeremiah firmly said

"You lied to us, Uncle Jerry! Smoking isn't a sin!" Johnny sobbed

Peter went over and notice something was wrong with his sons

"What's going on?" Peter asked as he adjusted his glasses

Matthew walked in and he crosses his arms and pouted

"I don't know what you are talking about, John, I would never lie to you or Matthew, my hand to the good lord." Jeremiah did the sigh of the cross and looked up to the sky

"YES! You did! It's in the bible Uncle Jeremiah, Lying is a sin. 'Matthew 12:37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words, you will be condemned'." Johnny said a quote from the bible

The doorbell rang and the Koals turned to the door, Peter went over to the door and looked throw the peephole,

"Who is it?" Jeremiah asked

"Hazel eyes, dark brown chocolate hair, fair skin, stood about 5'4, pink lips" Peter examine the person "Looks about 16."

Johnny and Matthew went over to the window to look, after five seconds they turned around in a cold sweat

"It's Veronica!" The twins said at the same time

Peter has gotten a chill crawl up his spine, he heard that name before he didn't notice the name at first when the twins first introduce her two weeks ago he took a deep breath and then unlocked the door and opened it, she was holding a record player and three albums, one was one of the members of The Beatles, George Harrison, All Things Must Pass, another album was a band called Mud, Mud, let's have a party The best of mud. another album was a glittery one that had a star in the middle with the cursive letters spelling Gary Glitter, the last album had a picture of a young Irishman with cooper hair wearing a blue-collar shirt under a cream color sweater with a red G on it on the right side of the cover said Gilbert O'Sullivan himself featuring Alone Again (Naturally).

"Hello," Peter smiled "What brings you here?"

Veronica tried to fix her hair with a blow but her hands were full, Peter helped her with the record player and the albums

"Thank you, and I just came to cheer Johnny and Matthew a bit," Veronica explain "So, why not some music to cheer them up."

Peter smiled and invited her inside, she looked around to examine the house, it looked big from the outside but on the inside, it was small.

"You can walk around the house if you want to, Ronnie," said Peter

They all looked at Peter is confused, he blushed and kinda had an awkward smile and then sweat

"Um...what did you call me?" Veronica asked

He has to think of something quick before it gets more strange so he wipes his brows and then cooled off and act as nothing had happened

"I-I-I meant to say...I'll g-get some cookies out if y-you want some...Veronica." he quickly gave back the record player and walked into the kitchen

The room went silent as the twins and Veronica went upstairs to the bedroom, Veronica has never known that Johnny and Matthew share a room together, she had two brothers and they don't share a room because of privates and she can get her own room.

"Nice room," She quoted as she put down the record player

"Thanks" Johnny slightly blushed and smile

Veronica fixed her pants and then stopped and remember something odd on Peter's left hand, she remembers that there was a ring on his ring finger.

"Johnny, Matthew, I know that both of your mom is dead but I notice that your father is still wearing his wedding ring." Veronica wondered

Matthew sat down on his bed and pushes his hair away from his face and looked at Veronica

"After mamma died, Daddy couldn't bear the pain of taking off his ring, so he kept on to remember our mother," Matthew said in a soft tone

"Really..." she said

the twins nodded as she tries to think about which album should she play, Johnny looked over to see what she was doing and notice the George Harrison one

"Can we listen to George Harrison," Johnny asked

"Sure," Veronica agreed