A/N: A Gibby-centric story that I'm excited about. I haven't seen a Gibby/Faye pairing before (or actually Faye in any fics) so here you go. There will later be sideplots involving some Seddie and a neurotic Carly. Hope you enjoy.
"Misfits of Dance"
by: the archduke
"Do all the ladies love you?"
"Why yes, yes they do."
"And are you the best catcher the school's baseball team has ever had?"
"Why yes, yes I am."
"And did you dance during every song at prom, not stopping once?"
"Why yes, yes I did."
"Are you a rock star?"
"Damn straight I am."
As Gibby recited the affirmation exercises his therapist had suggested, with a bit of a tweak of course, in front of the mirror of the boys' restroom, he couldn't help but be psyched. High school was done and he had been the king of it for the last two years. Star player of the baseball team, with girls hanging all over him. And now he was going to Boston College on a full athletic scholarship after a summer that was going to be awesome. His mom had surprised him with a two months backpacking trip across Europe. Could life be any better?
As he stared at himself in the mirror he had to admit that it could have been a bit better. While the adoration of cheerleaders and cute jock girls was flattering, he still hadn't met anyone that got him. Like, really understood the man underneath the awesome, usually shirtless, package. He wasn't just a fun-loving dancing machine. He had hopes and dreams and he'd like to find someone to share those hopes and dreams with.
He sighed. High school was over. Maybe he'd find someone at college. Or some hot Italian chick. That could work too.
She grumbled as she snapped shut her cell phone. What was the point of breaking up with a guy if he kept on calling? Richard was a year older and had graduated the year before. She broke up with him a month after he left for college, the long distance thing not working out like they thought it would. Emails and texts only went so far. When she wanted to cuddle or go see a movie he was in Michigan while she was in California. And to be honest she had been more than a little tired of listening to him go on and on about college life and how superior it was to high school. He had never seemed so pretentious when they had been a couple.
But now that she was graduating, he had begun calling her again, trying to get back together. She wasn't even going to the University of Michigan but to Wellesley, in Massachusetts. Boys didn't make sense sometimes. Actually, they didn't make sense most of the time.
Trying to get her mind off of Richard, she wandered through the auditorium where her cousin's graduation was being held. Her parents insisted they come, since they wanted to make sure Carly kept in touch with her mom's side of the family as well as her dad's. That was why they stopped by Seattle once a year, to keep those family ties that would otherwise be lost. Family was big with the Dorffmans, and Carly and Spencer were family.
She liked her cousin just fine, thought her webshow was great, but she would much rather have stayed in California. She was still deciding on what to do this summer. Some of her friends were going to Europe, but she was leaning towards getting a job and earning some extra cash. Her parents were paying for college, but it never hurt to have some extra pocket money that she didn't have to go to her parents for. Her graduation had been last week and she was already feeling restless. She had always been busy with school and other activities and it was strange not having any schedule to stick to.
She decided to try to get rid of her restlessness, at least temporarily, the best way she knew how. Finding a back corner of the auditorium that looked as if it hadn't been used in years, she checked the time and saw that she had twenty minutes before the ceremony began. Perfect.
She took out her cell and found one of her favorite songs. She pressed play, and through the tinny, minuscule speaker, the music began to flow. And she began to flow with it.
Gibby was on his way to the staging area so he could get in alphabetical order with the rest of his class, when he heard what sounded like music coming from an open doorway. When music was playing he was helpless to ignore it, so he went to investigate. He stopped at the doorway and blinked his eyes because he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
A girl was dancing to a popular song that he could barely recognize coming out of an obviously low quality speaker. But it was the girl who got his attention. Her movements were graceful and smooth. She obviously had some training, she was too good not to have had any. He stood staring, watching her dance, when she turned and spotted him.
Her eyes widened when she saw him. After a few seconds of silence she spoke. "Hi."
He swallowed. "Hi," he said back. "I have to go graduate." And then he left.
All through graduation he would berate himself for leaving like that. So much for being a ladies' man. He was an idiot. An idiot who had lost his chance with a pretty girl who liked to dance.
