Eric C., To Die For?

By Tabitha A. Chandler
205184@technocom.com

Eric C., To Die For?
A Story by Tabitha A. Chandler

Prologue
If you look around your community, you may see popular singers, actors, or dancers that have become teenage idols. You will notice posters and pictures of that person when you walk into a teenage girl’s room. And you may also notice that they have all their CD’s and records.
Well, my friends have an idol. But they choose to idolize him in a different way. His name is Eric C.

Chapter 1-The Beginning
My name is Heather. I’m 15 years old, and I adore Eric C. In case you have been on a different planet these last few months, Eric C. is a new singer that has just made it really big. He sings mostly love songs. Most girls like him because of his blonde hair and blue eyes, but I just like his music.
My friends, Jeanie, Rebecca, Yolonda, and France are all obsessed with him. Their walls are covered with posters, they all have a T-shirt with his face on it, and every time you walk into their bedroom, Eric C. is playing on their CD player.
Now I wouldn’t go that far. I listen to his music just about everyday and participate in my friend’s once a week meeting, but I’m not obsessed.
Speaking of the meetings, we have one today after school. Usually we just sit around and share interesting facts, listen to music and eat. Basically just chill out. It’s a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.
* * *
“Pass the pretzels please!” Jeanie yelled to me, pointing to the bowl of pretzels. I passed them to her. Jeanie is the bossiest of my friends, she can become very loud and rude some of the time. But I still love her.
I love all of my friends. But only like sisters of course. Jeanie the loud one, Rebecca the beautiful one, Yolonda the quiet one, France my best friend, and me, the average one.
We have all been friends for only about 1 year. But ever since we’ve met, we had some wild times together.
All of a sudden, it got quiet. It seemed as if Yolonda was reading out fascinating world news, considering the way the other girls’ mouths were hanging open. But she was only reading out Eric’s horoscope for the week.
“This month, Pisces will meet new Scorpio’s, even if it takes a long voyage to get there,” she read quietly.
“I’m a Scorpio!” France yelled, a smile descending upon her face.
Everybody looked at her in envy.
“Maybe that means he’s coming here! He could be touring over here this week or something!” Jeanie exclaimed, getting all worked up. Everybody murmured in agreement. It suddenly all got quiet again. They were all looking at Rebecca. She was taking off her sock.
When we saw it, we gasped. For she had a tattoo around her ankle. It was shaped sort of like a charm bracelet, but instead of cute animals, or symbols hanging from the bracelet, all around her ankle were the initials EC. It was absolutely beautiful. It wasn’t quiet anymore.
“When did you get that?”
“It’s so beautiful!” Yolonda sighed.
The room became a flurry of questions and comments.
Rebecca held up her manicured hand, motioning for silence.
“I got mine for free, from this really cute guy at the tattoo shop. He said I can bring all of you in tomorrow, if you want.” Rebecca looked at us pleadingly.
“It would be a good idea if we all got matching one’s, to signify our club membership,” Jeanie suggested.
We all agreed.

* * *

We got our tattoos the next day. We wanted each to be similar, but not identical. We all had EC dangling from the charm like tattoos around our ankle, but we decided to each get a different color.
I decided to get the bracelet part outlined in light green, Yolonda’s in blue, Jeanie’s in red, Rebecca’s in black, and France’s in a mixture of blue and red. They looked great. But we had to hide them; our parent’s would kill us if they saw them. But it was worth it.

At lunch on Monday, we all decided we should have meetings on Friday’s and Tuesdays. That day we also adopted a new member, Rachel. She was pretty, the co-captain of the junior varsity cheerleading squad. After she saw Rebecca’s tattoo, she wanted to join immediately. We were happy to have a new member.

That Tuesday, Rachel surprised us by inviting us over to her house, instead of going over to Jeanie’s house like we usually do.
When we walked into her room, we felt comfortable immediately. She had red tinted lights dimmed low, quite a few candles and incense burning, and pictures of Eric scattered about her room. Some in frames, some on her wall, some just laying around. It was definitely cool.
She instructed us to take off our shoes and coats and sit in a circle. So we did. It was weird at first, everybody being all quiet and everything, but then things really started to get fun.
“My aunt taught me this love spell that is guaranteed to work,” Rachel said in a low voice. “It’s been passed on for many years.”
France snickered. She didn’t believe in this kind of stuff. I thought it was interesting.
“Now repeat after me. If you should ever stumble upon my face, please recognize me. For I am your one and only love, love me, now and forever.”
First it was quiet, but then we all stumbled upon the words together, chanting it three times in a row. I had a satisfied feeling afterwards.
“The spells not done yet,” Rachel informed us, pulling out something from her pocket.
She pulled out a small pocketknife, with a yellow handle.
“To complete the spell we must each place our blood in a cup, and put the cup away until we cast the spell again. When the cup is full, we have to stop the spell immediately.” Rachel repeated the memorized phrase with glazed eyes.
I looked around. All the other girls looked as terrified as I was. Yolonda was biting her nails, and Rebecca was admiring her smooth white arms.
Rachel pulled out a fancy goblet type of cup, something that looked very expensive.
She then unfolded the knife, and cut about an inch long slit down her index finger. She blood dripped into the gold cup, drop after drop. We each dreaded our turn.
When the cup got around to me, the bottom was filled with the dark red liquid. I quickly cut my finger, and let my blood blend in with the other’s. It made me feel sick.
When everybody was done, Rachel had this satisfied look on her face. She looked evil. It was scary.
Around 6:00, we all left. As me and France walked home together, she didn’t say a word.
“So what did you think of all that France?”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, I think it was creepy, I don’t know if I’ll go back.”
“Hmm.” France sighed and looked around the darkened neighborhood.
We got to our own houses and departed.
“See ya tomorrow France.”










Chapter 2-The next Stage
The next day was just like a regular day. Everything was the same except for we all had a band aid on one of our fingers. We didn’t talk about what had happened last night. We were afraid to.
While we were eating lunch, France spoke.
“You know how Eric has that earring in the top of his ear? I think we should all get one, and get those initial earrings put in. We could all get E’s.”
Everybody looked up with a smile on their face, and so we agreed to do it after school.

* * *

A tear rolled down my cheek. The piercing gun stung me. This wasn’t the first time I’ve had my ears pierced, it’s just that I’m kind of sensitive. Everybody was already examining their E earrings in their ears. They really did look pretty cool.
“This was such a good idea!” exclaimed Jeanie, holding her long blonde hair back, showing off her earring.
France slowly smiled.

On Friday, our next meeting took place at my house. I did up my room like Rachel’s and I thought it looked pretty cool.
Right after school, everybody came over, Rachel carrying the gold cup, covered with some kind of scarf.
First, we cast the love spell, and then we did our little cut your finger thing. The cup was now about an inch full.
Halfway through the meeting, Yolonda dug around in her purse for our “surprises” as she called them.
She pulled out 6 different color pimp rings. On the front of them, they each had somebody’s first initial, and an E. they were decorated with similar patterns, but they each were different. I got a bright pink one, with a sky blue H&E on it. They were really cute. We all decided to wear them on the finger that we cut. Mine was on my left index finger.
At that particular meeting, we decided to have meetings every day. We would alternate at each other’s houses. Everyone agreed.

* * *

Sunday:
Well, I must tell you about my experiences yesterday. Well, what I can remember of them anyway. It all started when we went over to France’s house…

“Guys, I have the greatest idea.” France looked around at us, sitting in a circle on her bedroom floor.
“What is it?” Rebecca curiously asked.
“I can’t tell you right now, but right now, you can have some of this,” France pulled out a couple of joints from her purse. Marijuana. We each took one.
“Also, some of this,” France pulled out a bottle of whiskey from her closet. We all took some of that too.
Soon, I guess we were all either high or drunk. Either way, we couldn’t feel anything.
“Heather, come here.” France pulled me into the middle of the circle. I remember a blur of faces.
“Turn around and pull up your shirt.”
I did as France said.
“Now everybody watch.” France made sure she had everybody’s attention.
All of a sudden, I felt a sharp, burning feeling. I didn’t experience any pain, I was too drunk. But when it was over, everybody gasped. I tried my best to look at my back in the mirror. When I didn’t succeed, France gave me another mirror, and together, I could see my back. What I saw frightened me.
On my left shoulder blade, there was a bright red E. It was bleeding a little, and some of the skin was falling off. Apparently, France had done it with her joint. And I was too drunk to stop it.
After everybody saw mine, they all stupidly agreed to get one. France did everybody’s, and then Rachel did France’s.
By the time I was halfway sober, I could feel the pain. It hurt a lot. Why was I doing this??
Now it’s Monday night, and all the girls are at my house again. We are all surprised at what we did last night, but are cool with it. It just shows how loyal we are to Eric.
“Pass the popcorn please,” Yolonda asks quietly. We are all sitting in my living room watching TV.
“So how are you guys doing in geometry? I have an F,” Rebecca stated, picking up the channel changer to change the channel.
We all muttered something in return, but we were all tired, and had no energy.
“Oh my god Rebecca, turn it back!” France’s eyes were wide as she waved her hands frantically. Rebecca obediently changed the channel.
It was a news program, and the headlines were, “Teen Idol Eric C, SHOT.”
We all gasped and listened. The news reporter said that Eric had been shot twice in the back, and died instantly. Those were the only words I heard. The rest was all blah blah blah to me. I sat back in my chair and stared at my friends. They were all in shock. Nobody was moving. But in a few seconds, the room was full of 6 screaming girls. Nobody believed it was true. Not until we saw the stretcher that was being loaded into the ambulance on TV. Not until we saw all the screaming fans reaching for the covered body. Then we believed.

Chapter 3-We Believed
That night we cried and mourned. Rachel said since we didn’t need to cast any more love spells, so we didn’t need the blood in the gold cup. So we each drank a little.
It was disgusting. I threw up a little.
While we were in our sleeping bags, watching the news, Jeanie spoke up.
“ Remember that horoscope we read a couple of weeks ago? How Pisces will meet new Scorpio’s, even if it takes a long voyage to get there? Well, it’s true.”
“What do you mean?” asked Yolonda.
“Well, a certain Scorpio could meet a certain Pisces if they wanted to.”
“I still don’t understand,” Yolonda said, a confused look on her face.
“Who in this room is a Scorpio?” asked Jeanie.
France timidly raised her hand.
“You want to meet Eric, don’t you France?” Jeanie questioned.
“Yeah, but that’s impossible, Eric’s dea…” France’s eyes got big.
“Exactly.” Jeanie was staring at France, her eyes glazed over.
“What are you trying to say Jeanie?” France stood up and backed up to the other end of the room.
“Where are you going France?” Jeanie stood up, followed by Rachel. They each reached into their pockets, I saw a flash of yellow.
France backed up to the door, but unfortunately, it was locked. The key was in my pocket.
Jeanie and Rachel advanced on France, trapping her in the corner.
“It’s your time to meet Eric France, why are you so scared?” Rachel asked with a smile on her face, raising the yellow object in her hand.
France put her hands up as if to shield herself and Jeanie grabbed both of them and pinned them to the wall.
“Bye bye France. Say hi to Eric for me.” And then there was a slash of yellow.

* * *

I’m sitting here in my own private room telling you my story. In the room next to me, I can hear Yolonda yelling and banging on the walls. She’s not shy and quiet anymore.
Yolonda, Rebecca, and I have been here in the New York Psychiatric Hospital for the last 3 months. It’s not that bad really, it’s just kind of boring.
Jeanie and Rachel got sentenced to 10 years in jail, for murder.
And France, well, I hope she gets to see Eric.