AN: Here it is, the sequel to one of my favorite fics, Don't You Forget About Me. I personally love this fic due to the critical reception it received and the themes I introduced, so this is for you guys. I feel a little insecure about this sequel—sequels are usually anticlimactic in my opinion—but if it's still good, I'll keep posting the other parts. This is less vulgar and sexual than the last one, but I still rate it M for safety.
Disclaimer: I do not, repeat not, own the comedy children's show Kickin' It, and I don't intend to.
It's Monday morning in Seaford, and the high school opens thirty minutes ago. The five students from Saturday detention don't exactly greet each other right away; rather they go to their respective cliques and stay that way. It's not that any of them are scared, it's just that they don't feel the need to talk to each other right now.
However for the school student body, they are shocked, surprised, flabbergasted when a word flies out of the school mute's mouth.
"Move," he says to the gang, standing in his way towards his first class of the day, math.
The wild-haired freak, known as Frank to the whole school, turns around, and notices Eddie standing there, with a scowl evident on his face. "I said move, you're in my way."
Frank almost backs up at the threatening voice, and his friends around him gasp in total shock. "So you do have a voice, mute."
"Just get out of my way," Eddie repeats.
One of the guys steps in front of Eddie, and smirks. "What if I don't want to? Your newfound voice doesn't scare us."
"Hey," a student yells at the group. "I believe he told you to move."
"What are you going to do about it, ballerina?" Frank steps up in front of Jack getting close to his face; so close that Jack merely backs up due to the foul body odor that elicits from the older guy.
"Funny," Jack says sarcastically. "But I have better moves than you do."
"Really—"
The warning bell interrupts anyone from making the first move, and the gang walks away from the classroom, as well as Jack. However, Frank turns around and offers a childish one finger salute to the athlete. Jack rolls his eyes, and turns his head to Eddie, who has a thankful look.
"Thanks a lot," he says, offering a fist bump to Jack.
"No problem," Jack smirks lopsidedly. "I see the school's not taking your new voice very lightly."
"They'll get used to it," the ex-mute waves off. "How are you and Kim getting along?"
"We haven't talked since Saturday... Do you think she's avoiding me?" Jack starts to worry like a girl; particularly because he really likes the cheerleader, and since she promised to show up at the dojo... She didn't come yesterday, so he hopes she can make an appearance today. Since the kiss (or kisses, so to speak,) the athlete hasn't stop thinking about Kim.
"I don't think so, none of us have really talked since Saturday," Eddie clarifies.
"I hope she's okay..."
Eddie rolls his eyes. "Stop worrying so much. I gotta go to class anyway."
"See you later then," Jack waves to Eddie, and speeds off to his first class of the day, still thinking about Kim.
-x-
"Hey Kim!" The blond hears a familiar voice behind her, recognizing the overly strong voice her best friend and her choreographer has. She turns around, watching her best friend Grace power walk over to her with a shocked and amused look.
"'Sup, Grace?" Kim nonchalantly greets.
"So is it true?" Grace smirks. "Are you really dating Jack Brewer?"
Word here spreads faster than Degrassi, Kim thought. "Um... I guess—"
"You guess? Kim, there is no 'I guess' here!" Grace exclaims, her face turning to an obvious look of flabbergast from the reply. "Yes or no; come on Kim. You have to tell me."
"I don't know, okay!" The blond sighs in exasperation, feeling the need to rip her hair off. "During Saturday detention, we bonded, and then I kissed him twice that day. I think I like him... but we haven't talked all weekend. I think he doesn't return the favor. Maybe he was being nice to me."
"Wait a minute, you kissed him twice?" Grace shrieks, causing some of the students to turn towards them.
"Can you like, use your inside voice?" Kim grits. "It's bad enough that the entire cheerleading squad knows."
"Dude, the fact that you're dating Jack Brewer makes you almost the coolest girl in school!" Grace says excitedly, literally jumping up and down in questionable glee.
"Again, I'm not sure if we're dating," Kim clarifies.
Grace narrows her eyes; she can never understand how Kim could be so confusing and prude. Then again, Kim hasn't had many great relationships, due to the fact that Kim can never let a guy touch her past first base... or making out. Grace doesn't blame her; that's all they wanted... her virginity. "Come on, Kim. You have to be dating him. You can't just kiss him twice and call it quits! What if he's... the one?"
"You think so?" Kim questions, suddenly getting red when she sees Jack talking to one of his football buddies by the stairs.
"Oh definitely, he's the one baby," Grace smirks, and turns her head towards Jack. "I've never seen a guy make you so red upon seeing him a few feet away."
"That's nothing," the blond mutters. Luckily Grace didn't hear her.
-x-
It's normal for a few people to come late, but for Milton Krupnick, something has to be wrong. Everything is wrong, really. After a large fight with his parents, he spends the entire weekend in his room crying, and since he has no phone to contact anyone, he has to spend every minute in his room, pretending something's alright and that he's completing his homework or something. His parents haven't checked up on him either. All he knows is that he has an emergency therapy session today.
Truth be told, Milton hasn't touched his book bag since he came home from Saturday detention.
The nerd simply over-sleeps until he hears a large door slamming shut, and he realizes that he's late for school. First hour is over and done with, so he has to stay outside until the door opens for the second hour.
"Dude, what happened to you?" One of his friends ask, the minute he leans his head towards the lockers.
"Overslept," Milton croaks, his voice still rusty from crying all weekend.
"Overslept? This isn't like you!" The other nerd cries, observing Milton's depressing demeanor. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, just leave me alone," Milton lies, and all of his friends comply, going their separate ways to avoid the depressed teen. As soon as they leave, and are out of sight, Milton feels a fresh set of tears threatening to fall.
"There he is." the calming, jovial voice of the badass suddenly makes Milton jump, and wipe his face, devoid of all tears. However, Jerry can already sense that Milton isn't alright. Leaning against the lockers, hiding your face from everyone else - Jerry knew these signs too well to even think that something's alright.
"Alright, come with me," the Hispanic pulls Milton from the lockers, and practically drags him to the storage closet, the same storage closet in which they... had a grand time at.
"What's wrong?" Jerry interrogates, noticing the puffy eyes and the tears threatening to fall from his boyfriend's eyes.
Milton shakes his head, "Nothing, I'm fine. I should go to class—"
"No," Jerry blocks the doorway and the doorknob, preventing the melancholy teen from leaving the closet. "You're not fine. What happened?"
"I had an argument with my parents on Saturday," he reveals. "They took my phone away so I couldn't call you all weekend. They basically scolded me for kissing you, and I have an emergency therapy session today. And, if that's not it, my parents basically called me a worthless piece of shit."
Upon saying that, Milton sobs quietly, and leans his forehead against Jerry's chest. The Hispanic, not really knowing what to say despite having the same verbal abuse in his own home, wraps his arms around the crying teen. "I know they're going to make me feel worse than I already feel, but my parents will disown me if I don't go."
"No, you can't go!" Jerry exclaims, his anger rising. "They shouldn't even think about disowning you because you refuse to go to conversion therapy."
The pale teen sniffles, feeling bad that he's getting Jerry's shirt wet. "I have to. I don't exactly have a choice. Everyone else in my family quite agrees with my parents' right to send me to therapy."
Jerry never realized that Milton is in a very bad situation, and he doesn't want to exactly end things, but it seems that it would work for the sake of Milton staying in his house and not getting kicked out of his parents' home, being a homeless teen. Jerry would never let his boyfriend spend two minutes in his own home, either, considering the verbal and physical abuse he gets whenever his father decides to come home. "Then maybe we shouldn't—"
"No, I refuse to end things with you because of my parents' homophobia," Milton argues, picking his head up and his blood boiling.
"But, this relationship is making your parents more—"
"No," the suddenly angry teen growls, with an uncharacteristically mean scowl. "I can't let my parents win this war. I love them, but I also—I mean, I just don't want us to break up because of our parents."
A silence follows it, with the two trying to figure out what to say. It hasn't occurred to them that Milton almost professed his love for the Hispanic standing before him, and it's not important, since they basically have to find a way to beat their parents' hate for their sexuality. The silence breaks when they see the door open, revealing the custodian who grabs the mop and the rolling bucket, ignoring the couple in front of him. After the door closes, they start to laugh; their first shared laugh since Saturday.
"I should really go to class - I missed first hour," the nerd says, breaking the sentimental moment between the two.
"But we will talk about this later, right?" Jerry asks, wiping Milton's face with his bare hands.
Milton nods, but it's halfhearted. Jerry frowns, noticing the halfheartedness in the head shake. "I'm serious, Krupnick."
"Yes," the nerd whispers, and wraps his arms around the other's shoulders in a meaningful hug. Jerry immediately hugs back, fighting back tears of his own.
-x-
The bell rings, signaling lunch time for the Seaford students. They rush inside the cafeteria, except for five other students. Those five students find themselves in the principal's office, since principal Bucket called them inside during their lunch period. They figure they have to spend another Saturday with each other (not that any of the five friends care) or that they are expelled since they lied about the destroyed library on Saturday.
Whatever it is, it has everyone on the edge of their seats.
"I hope none of us are in trouble again," Eddie whispers. "I didn't attempt to cut class again."
"And I haven't done any bad things today... Except being late for class," Jerry admits, causing all of the other students to stare at him. "What? I had some business to take care of." He stares sternly at Milton, who hides his face in embarrassment.
"None of you are in trouble," the principal walks in, and takes a seat behind his desk. "I did call you in because I demand to know why none of you did the assignment that was asked."
Although he gave them some slack, principal Bucket is still wondering why they did it that way. These five students that never seen each other before Saturday share a similarity, and the principal has yet to observe it for himself.
"Sir, we just thought that it would be best to write one paper for all of us," Eddie speaks up. The principal is still surprised to hear him speak, but he supposed it has something to do with Saturday. "We thought that since we're all similar in our own way, we would just write about it."
The principal nods, but he still doesn't understand. "And how, pray tell, are you all similar?" He refrains himself from making a mean comment towards Jerry; after the revelation that Jerry has a tough home life, he feels that picking on the supposed badass wouldn't suffice for anyone.
"Well... we're all put in categories because of who we hang out with," Kim explains. "I'm categorized as part of the school's... um, slut list, because I'm a cheerleader, but I never done what the school thinks that I've done, ever in my life. As a matter of fact, I genuinely talk to one of the girls on the team. It's surprising how they still think I'm a slut, because I wear short skirts and I put my hair down... well excuse me for being a girl! Oh, and Grace started the food fight, not me."
"I'm on the football team because my father was star quarterback in this school," Jack continues. "But I don't really like football. My father pushed me to try out for the football team, and I did to make him proud, but it still isn't making him happy because I rebel against it. I just want to do what I want to do, and stop impressing people."
"Everyone thinks I'm the school's mute because I don't talk," Eddie explains. "But the reason is, I'm just insecure about making friends. Until I met these four, I never felt the need to talk to anyone... mainly because I never had any real friends. People have always abused my kindness when I was young, so I became misanthropic and insecure."
"I don't know why you look at me as a sociopath," Jerry shrugs. "I get physically and verbally attacked by my father because of my sexuality. I really don't need any more of that shit when I get here. And I act out because of it. I never had any relationship with my parents... I hate it when anyone says they hate their mom or dad because they have everything. I have nothing. I barely have a roof over my head." The Hispanic refrains himself from yelling, and continues. "So I come here, because it's the only place where I don't feel inferior."
Milton shifts in his seat, trying to think of something to say. But the situation at hand makes him tear up. He feels someone's hand intertwining with his own, a reassurance that it's fine and that no one will judge. "I don't know why I seriously got detention... I should have expected something else. The minute you suspect that a nerd is not acting like himself, say, trying to self-harm himself because the stress of his parents and the conversion therapy, you act upon impulse and assign Saturday detention. I expected a more sympathetic reaction, like, 'off to the school psychologist' or something. No, instead, I waste my Saturday in school. But I'm kind of thankful that I did get Saturday detention. I would have never met these four wonderful people, and I avoided another day of therapy. But I still have to deal with my parents sending me to therapy, in which I don't really need because I don't have a disorder... maybe depression, but that's it. And my depression will get worse if my parents will never stop sending me to conversion therapy, because it will never change how I feel. I'm gay, and I think that's okay."
An awkward silence follows, but the principal dismisses the five students to lunch, since they have forty-five minutes left of the hour.
-x-
"Kim, I need to talk to you," Jack catches up to the speeding girl on her way to the cafeteria. Kim reluctantly stops, while the three other students bypass her to get to the cafeteria. They look back and wave to Kim, with obvious smirks on their faces.
"What's up?" The cheerleader asks, turning her body over to Jack.
"Why are you avoiding me?" He questions, causing Kim to raise both of her eyebrows. So he did catch on... "I thought we were friends."
"I was busy," Kim lies quickly. "I had to finish an assignment with Grace, and cheerleader stuff, you know. Being a popular student and all..."
"If you haven't noticed, I'm popular too... by default," he mutters the last sentence, but quickly glares at Kim. "If you didn't want to talk to me, you could have just said so."
"No, that's not what I meant!" Kim exclaims, trying to stop Jack from walking away. The athlete waves her off and keeps walking. "Jack, please—"
"No," Jack stops, and turns around, glaring at Kim. "I thought you aren't like the rest. You basically lead me on, thinking that we had something on Saturday, and now you avoid me, and you don't want to talk to me until I have to confront you in the middle of the hallway—"
"I know, and I'm so sorry," Kim cries; the most sincere apology she's ever had to say to anyone she likes a lot. "I just... I was scared, okay? I didn't know if you liked me as much as I liked you, and that you only were being nice to me because I'm a cheerleader, and a prude, and I never really had a relationship where I felt strong feelings for the guy, and he actually wants to talk to me and not get in my pants... and... and, please Jack. I just - I can't afford to lose you, especially when we get along so much!"
Jack notices the honesty in the girl's voice, and immediately feels bad. He never meant to make Kim feel this bad. "Kim... I'm not that type of guy. I thought you knew that."
"I know... but I'm still insecure - I never met a guy like you, you know?" She explains further.
Jack smiles; he immediately feels special, knowing that Kim never had one guy in which she can have a conversation with, and have feelings for at the same time. All she wants is a real boyfriend, or a real guy friend at least, the athlete thought. However, they like each other too much to be friends. He walks over to the crying teen and pulls her closer to his chest. Kim hugs back, noticing the reassurance around the guy.
"Don't hurt me, okay?" The cheerleader whispers.
"I promise - I'll never hurt you." The athlete then raises Kim's chin up, and kisses her reassuringly.
-x-
It's the end of the day, and a station wagon awaits in front of the school. Milton always fears that station wagon. He knows what it means - therapy. He definitely doesn't want to go, and Jerry doesn't want him to go. He's pretty sure that none of his new friends want him to go, but after the argument with his parents, he has two choices - get kicked out, or attend therapy.
He steps inside the car quietly, ignoring any type of greeting from his parents. He just wants to get this over with, go home, and lock himself in his room, the only place he feels safe until he goes to school the next day. It doesn't matter; his parents never acknowledge Milton's presence, and speed off to the therapy clinic.
Jerry watches the station wagon pull itself from the curb, and holds back his tears. He never wants to see any of his friends, or anyone he cares about, go somewhere in which they have to change what they really are. He understands therapy for disorders like manic depression, or substance addiction maybe, but for homosexuality, is beyond the angry teen.
"Yo Jerry, where have you been all day?" His friend Frank yells at him.
"Busy," the badass half-lies; he's been busy going to class and trying to help his boyfriend and his constant battle with his insensitive parents.
"Pulling wedgies, eh?" The idiotic older boy jokes. "Anyway, you coming with us? We're gonna hang out at Falafel Phil's."
It's a tempting offer; the dojo Jack mentioned on Saturday is adjacent to the halal food restaurant, but is that the only reason why he wants to hang out with his friends today? Or is it because he wants to also get his mind out of how Milton is dealing with therapy, or to get away from his distant mother and abusive father?
"Yeah, I'll come."
Jack walks inside the dojo, telling Kim to wait outside. He wants to surprise the students with a female student that's not the lunch lady.
"Hey guys!" He greets the small group sitting on the place mats. There's only two students excluding himself and the lunch lady - Brody, an ex-Black Dragon, and Carson. They're the only young students in the dojo, but they surprisingly attend Swathmore, a rival school of Jack's school, Seaford High. Besides Jack being a black belt, they're both one step towards getting their black belt, and Jack's the only black belt student.
"What's up Jack?" Brody greets.
"You look like you're in a good mood," the sensei Rudy points out.
"I got a new person to join the dojo!" As if that was a signal to walk in, Kim suddenly steps inside the dojo, ignoring the faint smell of sweat and stands next to Jack, with an amused look on her face.
"Guys, this is..." He stops, and stares at Kim, who rolls her eyes and waves him off. "This, is my girlfriend Kim."
"Hi Kim," the boys wave at the blond, who waves back.
"Kim, these are the other students, Brody and Carson," Jack says, pointing to each of the students. "They're almost upgrading to their first black belts. And, I assume you know who this is," he points over to Rudy, who has an eccentric smile on his face.
"Oh, so this is Rudy," Kim holds back her laughter.
"What have you told her about me?" The sensei questions, feeling insecure about Kim's amusement in this situation.
"Nothing," Kim answers for herself. "I just... I've seen your commercials. You're basically a crack-up with my friends." She looks over to the younger guys. "How come I've never seen you guys before?"
"Oh, we go to Swathmore Academy," Carson replies. "My parents don't really like Seaford High."
"Same here," Brody agrees. "I also was a Black Dragon, but they cheat, so I continued my training here. I'm better off getting belts I deserve than getting belts because I look good. The sensei's more of a nutcase over there than this one."
"Wow, that almost meant something," Rudy says sarcastically.
"As for me, I've been here since birth," Carson smiles. "I was Rudy's first student."
"So you're second," Kim points to Brody, who nods in reply. "And, you're third?"
"Nope, I'm fourth, if you count the lunch lady," Jack snorts.
"I stand corrected," Kim drawls.
"So Kim," Carson smirks. "We should see what you can do... Or are you starting as a white belt?"
"I don't know," Kim shrugs. "It's been so long since I've done any karate, and I'm probably a little rusty—"
"How long?" The sensei asks.
"Three years exact," Kim replies.
"Tell you what," Jack turns over to his girlfriend with a smile. "If you can beat one of us, without using any tools... just your natural talent, then you will get the black belt. If not, then we'll start you off with a green belt. How does that sound?"
"That sounds reasonable," Rudy shrugs.
"What? I came here and I started with a yellow belt!" Brody exclaims.
"That's because you couldn't break a single board," Jack points out. "Come on Kim, let's spar."
"You and me? Together?" The blond asks frantically, afraid that the black belt would hurt her, or worse, she might hurt him. "Uh—"
"Come on, I won't hurt you," Jack smiles genuinely. "But I won't go easy on you."
"Alright, but don't be surprised when—" the sentence is cut short when Jack throws the first punch, and Kim quickly throws her head to the side, blocking the punch effectively. "Oh, so that's how you want to play it, Brewer." The blond quickly sidesteps, blocking the second punch, and grabs Jack's arm. She flips the boy effectively on the mat, but he gets up suddenly. The other boys, and the sensei watch in awe as the high school couple throw and block a series of punches and chops, mostly Kim blocking most of the throws on her. Without even noticing, Kim delivers a kick in mid-air, throwing everyone, even Jack, off, and he suddenly gets hit with the blow and crashes on the place mat.
"Wow," Kim gasps, helping Jack from the floor. "I'm good! Any more takers?"
Both Brody and Carson back up with their hands in the air, signaling defeat. "Oh come on, you Swathmore babies! Let's go!"
"How about we test your ability to break a board?" The sensei asks, holding up a piece of wood in front of him. Kim shrugs, and takes a deep breath, before focusing on the board. She hasn't broke a board in years, despite the one time she broke the wooden table in school in frustration. She focused on that, and she channels some of her energy on the board, breaking it effectively with her fist.
"Well...?" Kim raises her eyebrow.
"Welcome to the dojo!" The sensei exclaims happily, albeit being a little scared of her.
Thanks for reading! The rest of the story should be posted every other day.
