Rising Above and B Yaun Final Part

Marilyn and Cherokee meet up with more classmates, which in Marilyn's
case more people to ridicule. "You were right, Cherokee. I am having fun
at this reunion." "Yeah, at others expense, Marilyn. There are people
who are ticked off with you about how you're telling them about
yourself." Cherokee tells him. "Wait, you're the one who said I should
be happy with how far I've gotten and let other know." "Yeah, tell them
how well you've done for yourself, not exaggerate or gloat about it!"
The two go to a private area to chat. "Cherokee, you don't understand.
You were the girl that everyone loved in high school, I had to face
these people everyday and was tormented, so I have no choice but to get
in their faces and tell them I'm doing better than they expect." "Fine!
you go and tell them about your wonderful life, but you're doing it by
yourself!" Cherokee declares angrily and leaves Marilyn to go back to
Charles and Bella.

Charles and Bella are talking when they see
Cherokee return. "Hey, Cher. What's wrong?" Charles ponders. "It's
Marilyn. He's been doing a whole lot of embellishing on his life story.
I've never seen him act like this before." She takes a sip of her drink.
"Charles, you've never had feelings of revenge for people, have you? I
heard high school was a blast for you." Before Charles gets to answer
Bella pipes in. "Well, there's something he didn't quite explain over
that." Charles almost chokes on his drink over what Bella's doing to do.
"No, Bella! Don't tell her anything!" "Don't tell me what?" "Please,
I'm begging you!" "It's just that Charles was like Marilyn in high
school, he was a nerd." Bella explains. "Really?" Cherokee asks Charles,
who is now sighing and whimpering a little. "Yeah, everyone would pick
on me and beat me up..." "But that was before you met Bella, right?"
"No, she would beat me up too." "Bella?!" Cherokee turns to Bella.
"What, he was a nerd but I really liked him. Then he really became a
stud, later and it has been like that since." "Well, I guess I didn't
see it from Marilyn's point of view. I would be upset too if people gave
me trouble for nothing." The lights suddenly go dim.

A gentleman
appears on stage and to the podium. "Ladies and Gentleman. We like to
thank you for joining us for our high school reunion. Right now we want
to give a special award to the one person who has managed to redeem
himself from tribulations..." "Redeem himself? What does that mean?"
Cherokee wonders from where she is sitting. "...May I have the envelope,
please?" Charles looks suspiciously. "I don't like where this is
going." "Me neither, what is this?" Bella asks, curiously. "...And the
winner for the title of 'Most Redeemed' and the respect of their fellow
classmates is..." The guy opens the envelope. "Marilyn Madison!" Marilyn
hears his name and is confused of this title, but goes onstage to
receive his 'award'.

Marilyn is now at the podium and is ready to
speak. "I feel so honored to receive this award and I got one thing to
say to everyone who made all this possible... YOU MAKE ME SICK AND YOU
ALL SHOULD GO TO HELL!"

Everyone in the ballroom was in complete
shock at the last statement and Marilyn continues to speak. "I mean,
seriously. This has got to be a joke! How dare you all come and tell me
that I finally earn your respect! I admit, I may have exaggerated a few
things about my life since high school, but you guys have been putting
up fronts while we were in school and you're doing that now!" he says angrily.

"Oh
boy. This won't look good for their next reunion." Charles whispers. "I
don't know about that. A few actually agree with him." Bella points
out. "The only thing I regret doing tonight was telling you about my
life so much to the point that it made my girlfriend upset with me and
I'm very sorry. I felt a bit desperate to have all of you see me in a
higher regard, but that doesn't matter now. In fact, I have every right
to reveal what all of you are doing right now!" Cherokee, Charles and
Bella are wide-eyed and are praying that their green-haired friend does
not expose everyone. "But, I'm not going to do that. For a lot of you,
high school is the one positive thing you have to hold on to in your
lives. Thank you for your time, this award and I never want to see you
people again!" Marilyn finally declares. He leaves the stage and goes
back to the table, His friends sigh in relief.



The rest of the ballroom is still in shock, as hours go by and everyone
is about to leave. "Phew! Marilyn, you had us worried up there! I
thought we were all going to get kicked out the reunion." Charles says.
"No, I don't want that to happen, I just wanted to say my peace." Amber
appears again to meet up with the group. "Hey Marilyn, I got something
to tell you, before you go." "You, do?" "Yeah, I wanted to say I'm
sorry..." "You're sorry, for what?" Marilyn asks in confusion. "I'm
sorry I didn't come up there to join you when you did your speech! You
said everything I wanted to say to those jerks! The only problem is I
could be out of a job, if I did that. You know we have plenty

of rooms available if you guys are willing to check in." "Really? I
thought all the rooms would be taken." "Are you kidding? Less than half
of this group can even afford to get a ticket, let alone check into this
hotel." Amber laughs. "That's a great idea. We can check in to a room."



The four of them go to get keys for a couple of rooms, Charles and Bella
in one room, while Cherokee and Marilyn in another. "Well, this turned
out to be okay, for most part." "What do you mean?" Bella asks Marilyn. 
"Well, I saw and confronted everyone that gave me trouble except
for..." He then sees a large muscular, bald dingo come his way.
"...Curtis." "Who?" "Curtis Dingo. He was the main bully and jock in my
class and Shanice's old boyfriend." "Hey, you! You're that Marilyn guy,
aren't you?" Curtis says.



Marilyn, no longer having fear of the large man, steps up to him. "Yeah,
that's me." "I heard what you said up there!" "Look, Curtis! We're not
in high school anymore and you can't intimidate me! If you think, I'm
going to let you hit me, because your feelings got hurt..." "Whoa! Take
it easy! That's not why I'm here." "You're not?" "No! I'm here to
congratulate you on your success." Marilyn is still not convinced on
this new change of heart. "You are? What's the catch?" "There is no
catch, but I don't blame ya for thinking there's one. I was a complete
jerk back then." The two men chat with each other and catch up.



Later that night, Cherokee and Marilyn are in their hotel room. Marilyn tells

Cherokee about the talk with Curtis. "...You know, I found out Curtis
never dropped out of school. He transferred to another college that had
his major."

"I wonder why that Shanice girl said he dropped out?" "Well, the truth
is he did get hurt playing football and decided to put his education to
good use. Some of the schools run into problems, where they only focus
on sports and

make the athletics choose majors that would not help them in the long
run, but by then, they're heads would be filled up with wanting to be
professional athletes and Curtis didn't want to end up like that. At the
same time, he found our that Shanice was really looking to be a
pro-baller wife and when that fell through, she tried to start her own
business and she's struggling. To think I actually liked that girl." he
says. Cherokee gets ready to go to sleep and goes to hug him. "Don't
worry about her, you have me."  "I do? You're not mad at me anymore?" "I
was, but then I saw what some of you old classmates did."

"I wonder, would you have gone out with me, if we were in the same high
school?" "Of course, why wouldn't I? Miss Thing would have had some
competition, but I would have gone out with you." Marilyn blushes "Who
knows, I would have been a stud, like Charles."  "Speaking of Charles,
there's something I got to tell you..."



In Charles and Bella's room, Charles grabs Bella in a hug and she
squeals. "Hey, what's the big idea?" "Nothing, just having fun." he says
laughing. "This turned out to be fun, I might even think of going to
ours." "Is that a promise?" Bella asks. "I said I might go, as
long no one calls me a nerd there." There's a knock on the door. "Oh
Charles! Why didn't you tell me you were a nerd too?"

Marilyn says on the other side of the door. "Huh? Charles, what did you tell him?" "Um..."Charles says. "Oh, I can't wait 'til your reunion!" Bella and Cherokee are left laughing at their mates.





The End