A/N: More Jerome stories! Read and review!

Jerome's POV

I watched in horror as the two ping pong jerks walked away. They were AMAZING! And COCKY! And completely UNBEATABLE!

This was hopeless.

I turned to Alfie who was looking just as excited as before we had met our competitors, holding the whistle too close to his mouth for comfort. I regretted giving him that thing.

"They're amazing. How are we going to beat them?" I demanded, but Alfie just grinned.

"Lots of practice. I want three laps around the school and 200 push ups. Plus, 80 sit ups. Now GO!"

"Are you CRAZY? I'm not doing that! It's PING PONG! Not cross country!" I protested, but was cut off by a shrill blast from the whistle that left my ears ringing.

"Do you want to make that 2 MILLION push ups?" Alfie demanded, completely serious and I shook my head.

"I don't think it's POSSIBLE-"

Another blast from the whistle had me running, more to escape IT then Alfie, though these days there was no difference between the two. It was annoying, not to mention painful. I was sure my ears were never going to be the same again.

I completed one lap around the school with no difficulty. On my second, Alfie quit following me long enough that I was able to slip in a side door and disappear. I took off up the stairs, heading for the closest dorm. This turned out to be Nina and Amber's room, and they were not pleased to see me.

"JEROME!" Amber shrieked as soon as I burst through the door, "Don't you KNOCK? What if I had been changing?"

"I will refrain from answering that if you let me stay here for awhile. Alfie's gone nuts and I need a place to hide." I bargained and Nina gave me a knowing look.

"The whistle."

"Yes. The whistle. I can still hear it." I shook my head, trying to get the odd sound from my ears.

"That's because he's probably downstairs right now. Looking for you." Nina poked her head out and looked around.

"Is he?" I demanded when she reentered.

"Yep. He's down there right now. I would suggest hiding. He's coming this way." She pointed towards the bed and I ducked behind it just as Alfie poked his head in.

"Have you guys seen Jerome? He's supposed to be practicing." He asked and I prayed that Nina would keep me safe. I didn't think I could take more laps around the school. Or that idiotic whistle.

"Nope." Nina lied innocently and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, well Amber will do. Come on Amber!" Alfie ordered, and I heard Amber practically hiss. I could imagine the look on her face, and what she might say to get out of "practice".

"Please don't rat me out, please don't rat me out, please don't rat me out." I prayed as silently as I could. I wouldn't put it past Amber. She hadn't wanted to do this in the first place.

"No. I don't want to practice. I'm good enough as it is. Why don't you just get Jerome to practice? He needs it." Amber huffed and I scowled.

"I need practice, do I?" I muttered darkly, "Well, at least she didn't rat me out. Yet."

"I don't know where he is. Please, Amber." Alfie pleaded, but Amber stood her ground. After a few more sad attempts to lure Amber into practicing, Alfie finally gave up and left. As soon as he did, I shot up and plunked down on the bed.

"Thank you. So much."

"No problem. Though, weren't you the one who started all this?" Nina demanded and I nodded.

"I didn't mean for it to get this far. I was just trying to make up for the fact that I replaced him with Amber." I defended myself.

"You mean you being NICE is what got us into this mess? No wonder you're always mean." Amber crossed her arms and I glared at her.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Besides, you were doing a nice thing when you agreed to help, maybe this is YOUR fault." I accused and she gaped at me.

"MY fault? You can't possibly blame this on me!" She shrieked and I smirked.

"I can and I will."

"No. You can't."

"Yes. I can."

"Nooo. You can't."

"Yeeesss. I c-"

"Guys!" Nina interrupted, "Instead of arguing over who's fault it is, why don't you try and FIX it?"

"You fix it." Amber pointed at me, "You gave him the whistle."

"You fix it. You dated him." I commanded.

"You're his best friend." Amber pointed out, and I scoffed.

"Amber's got a point. If anyone has to do it, it should be you." Nina, always the voice of reason, gave me a pointed look and beckoned to the door.

"Me? What makes you think being his best friend will make it any easier?" I demanded, but they didn't answer. Instead, they shoved me out the door and closed it with a bang.

This was going to be fun.

I spent the rest of the day coming up with an elaborate plan to steal the whistle. Yes, I could have been a man and simply demanded that Alfie stop using the whistle, or something equally as masculine, but decided against it. Stealing the whistle would be much easier and cause much less pain. It was perfect. At least, I thought it was.

That night, when Alfie was asleep, I crept quietly over to his side of the room. Pulling open the night stand drawer, I searched it quickly. Nothing. The next drawer proved equally as bare. As did the next one. ANd the next one. And the next one. It wasn't until the very last drawer that I came to a sudden, terrible realization.

Alfie put everything important under his pillow. The one he was currently lying on.

I stared in horror at my best friend, a war raging in my head. I could risk waking him up and finding me, or I could let him sleep and deal with the whistle for just a while longer. The choice was obvious.

"Maybe tomorrow." I mumbled and crawled back into bed. Before long, I was fast asleep.

And dreaming of whistles.