Wine Red
Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Drake & Josh. I just own the made up characters.
Chapter One: Who Shot That Arrow In Your Throat?
As per usual, Josh found his step-brother and best friend, Drake, sitting at the "cool" lunch table surrounded by seemingly entertained people. Josh knew that Drake wasn't necessarily embarrassed by him, but he was well aware that he'd be annoyed if he just wandered over to him while he was working his charm on an easily influenced crowd.
Still, Josh was too excited to keep his news to himself. He thought he might forget to breathe, if he didn't remind himself to. He marched over proudly with a smile permanent over his face to the lunch table where his brother was sitting.
"Hey Drake." He tapped his brother on the shoulder and attempted to grab his attention.
"Hold on." Drake didn't even turn away from his friends; he kept his back to Josh and just waved his hand in his face.
"Drake." Josh tried again.
"Hold on."
"Drake."
"What?!" Drake snapped as he spun around on the table top he was sitting upon. "What is so important?"
"I just wanted to let you know I can't drive you home today."
That totally put a damper on Drake's plans. He and his guy friends were going to go over to the nearby Clocktower to hear a new local band play that people said "could be better than Drake." Drake had to scope out the competition.
"Why?" Drake crossed his arms over his chest, curious to hear what excuse Josh could possibly have.
"Mrs. Hayfer..."
"Oh, I know where this is going." Drake rolled his eyes.
Josh sighed and tried to get his explanation out again.
"Mrs. Hayfer asked me to catch the new girl up in English after class, so I'm staying late."
"New girl?" This caught Drake's attention and excited him like electric shocks traveling through somebody's body. Frantically, Drake began to look for her. New girls were one of the few things Drake treasured.
"Yeah, I think Mrs. Hayfer said her name is Joy Catto." Josh thought back, his dark brown eyes rolling into his head for a moment. He was positive that's what his teacher said the student's name was.
Within a split second, Drake's face went ice white and he froze as if one of Josh's many magic trick attempts was successful. His eyes were still and as large as coconuts and just as dark. There was no expression, no movement, in the usually animated teenager.
"Dude, are you listening?" Josh checked.
"Yeah, whatever, I'll get a ride with Travis." Drake shrugged his shoulders non-chalantly and turned back to his group.
Josh didn't bother to keep pestering his brother. They shared a room together; he was bound to find out what was under Drake's skin, if anything was at all. Merrily, Josh went to wander off and tell his friends about how he was going to get to spend time with the new girl.
Drake sat at the lunch table, squished between Travis and a girl named Mona who he remembered hooking up with a few parties ago. He laughed along with his friends, saving face and going through the motions.
In the back of his mind, he remembered his mom mentioning that Joy was going to be transferring to her school. She had heard through word of mouth, but Drake had repressed it like he did most significant things that bug him. He was sure that until he actually laid eyes on her, he probably wouldn't believe that they co-existed in the same school at all.
XXX
The minute hand on the clock that hung right over the door to Mrs. Hayfer's room tocked by quickly and the new girl was becoming ever later for her meeting with Josh. It was now quarter to four when she was supposed to meet him at three thirty on the nose.
He hoped she wasn't like most of the girls at Belleview, ditching school and twirling her hair at the football games, breathing loudly between syllables and giggling when nothing was that funny. He spent the extra time convincing himself she was just lost in the halls of the school or she was in the principal's office getting acquainted with the entire faculty.
Interrupting his thoughts, he heard a pair of sneakers screech at the door. Quickly, his eyes lurked up to notice the girl standing before him. She couldn't be much taller than 5'2". She had extra meat on her bones, especially her arms and eyes that reminded Josh of Nutella spread. She wore a smile like you would a necklace which Josh noticed she was wearing a thin bronze chain, the pendant obviously tucked behind the collar of her Ed Hardy baseball style shirt. She had a pair of grey jeans on and yellow Keds.
"Are you Joy?" Josh stood up at his desk and asked the chubby cheeked girl.
"If you're Josh." She grinned and played with the strap of her oversized book bag.
"That I am." With a goofball smile, he extended his hand to shake hers and he waited until she was seated in the desk next to him before sitting.
"How's your first day at Belleview?" He asked before diving into the novel they were studying, Of Mice and Men. He already had his book open and had made post it's to help her study.
"Well, so far everybody's been nice." She told him with a light almost sugary quality to her voice. "Just coming mid-semester, I'm really behind."
"That's why you got me."
"Thank goodness for that." She pulled her desk closer, casually, to peer over at the book.
"I made some notes for you, I hope you don't mind."
She looked at him with her whole face smiling.
"No, that's awesome. Notes are very welcomed."
"Good. We just started, so you're not trailing too badly, but we do have a 1,000 word essay due on the theme of the first chapter due Friday."
"Great, two days."
"Don't sweat, if you need extra help, you can call me."
"Thanks." She said while taking one of the books off his desk to look at it on her own.
"You'll notice that in the first paragraph alone…" Josh was cut off by the bombastic sound of her cell phone vibrating.
"I'm sorry." She pouted while digging through her book bag to get it. It was underneath a large mess of free papers. "It's just a text." She opened her phone up and glanced over it.
"Something important?"
"Just a guy." She shrugged and tossed it back in her bag.
"Is his name Drake Parker?" Fully knowing his brother's reputation and addiction to girls, especially new ones, Josh could only assume that Drake had already gotten Joy's number, e-mail, address, star-sign, and a dinner date for the weekend.
"No." Joy hesitantly answered. "It's just a friend from my old school." Joy figured it would be best if she didn't share with Josh that they both knew of Drake. Maybe, he'd find out, maybe, he wouldn't. Joy wanted to stay as drama free as she could for now. It had only been in the last year that Joy had found out about Drake, she didn't really know what to think about the situation, actually. She tried to just not think about it at all.
XXX
"Drake?" Audrey glanced out through the wall window in the kitchen at her son, who'd just came in the door and plopped right down on the couch in front of the television screen. He picked up the remote and changed it to a music station. "I thought you were going out with some friends."
"Nah." He just shrugged, staring at the picture on the screen.
"But, you said you had to put this new guitarist guy in his place. Make him put his money where his mouth is." She teased. Drake was never very externally emotional, but Audrey was still very aware when something was up with her son.
"I will some other time."
"Drake…"
"Mom," For the first time, Drake looked away from the TV and made a melancholy eye contact with his mom, who suddenly looked much more concerned about her boy. "Can we not talk right now?" He asked, hoping she'd agree.
"No." Audrey took off her green oven mitt and scooted out of the kitchen and on the couch next to her son. She took the remote from next to him and muted the TV program he had been staring at. "Something is wrong, I can tell."
Drake just sat silent and tried concentrating on the picture in front of him until Audrey shut off the TV entirely.
"Drake, we don't talk half as much as I'd like, but still, I want to know if something is wrong." Drake still didn't say a word. "Is this about sex?"
"Mom, ew!" He shouted and sent a shiver down his spine.
"Well, I don't know what they're telling you in school and your friends, well, they aren't exactly Disney characters."
"Mom, it's not….it's not about that."
"Good. Is it a girl?"
"Joy Catto?" With a snarl, he rolled his eyes and went back to holding himself. It was some sort of defense mechanism he'd created a long time ago, subconsciously.
"Uh oh. She started today?"
"Yeah."
"Did you run into her?"
"No, Thank God, but Josh is tutoring her."
"Damn, the big man upstairs has a messed up sense of humor, huh?" Audrey had never been a very religious woman, but she had nobody else to help her comprehend this scenario.
"But, Belleview is small, Mom, I'm going to run into her and…I don't want to."
"Drake, you can't blame her. She was just like you, eight years old. She is not at all guilty." Audrey tried to help her son understand. "Maybe, she doesn't even know."
Drake fixed his mom with a stare that told her he knew she was just trying to make him feel better.
"Can I just skip the rest of this year and hang out here?"
"Drake, when you were four and your like OshKosh BaGosh's fell off at the zoo in front of the monkey cages and you suddenly became the main attraction, you were mortified, cried the whole way home," Audrey rambled on even though Drake wished she'd keep that story private. "I told you this then, and I'm going to tell this now, you can't hide from your problems. You've got to face facts, hiding and pouting solves nothing."
"Yeah, I get that and all, but it feels good."
"Do you want me to call your dad, Drake? If this is really bugging you."
"No! I don't want to talk to him!" He snapped. "No, Mom, don't worry about it. I'll just face the facts."
"Atta boy." She leaned it to kiss him on the cheek before returning to the kitchen to tend to her pork chops and steamed vegetables.
As much as he didn't want to, Drake knew he was going to have to go to school tomorrow and see Joy in his English class. He'd only seen a picture of her and it was when she was eight years old. Even back then, he had a huge love for girls, but he remembered thinking she was ugly. Maybe, it was because she had tee shirt with Rainbow Brite on it, he was more of a Smurf's guy. It could've been because she had her hair done up in a palm tree style pony tail with a fluffy pink scrunchie. No, at the end of the day, Drake knew, deep down inside, he didn't hate her because of who she was, but what she was. The girl who took his dad away. It was her mom that Mr. Parker had been seeing and Joy was the girl who captured his heart. Drake had heard from his mother's gossipy friends that it was only six weeks into Mr. Parker dating Joy's mom that he'd already bought her and Joy a house and he was getting ready to move in.
Drake sighed exasperatedly and flipped the TV back on.
He couldn't ignore the truth. Joy Catto was now somebody he'd have to see on a regular basis. Like his mom instructed, he had to face facts, but that doesn't mean he has to be kind.
Let me know what you guys think so far. This is my first Drake and Josh story.
This is just the intro chapter, but I love feedback, suggestions, and comments. Anything but, flames.
Wine Red by the Hush Sound.