Title: Unexpected Places

Author: SP

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider and whoever else own everything.

Rating: K+ for now

Pairing: It's pretty gen at the moment.

Summary: Because of the evil Mrs. Hayfer, Drake is stuck doing a project with that dorky Josh Nichols. But it turns out to be not so bad after all…AU.
Author's Notes: Okay. This isn't finished. My first chaptered D&J! Unfortunately, I SUCK at updating. I'll do my best, though. Put this at S3 age/appearance-wise.

Checking his watch, Drake hurried into Mrs. Hayfer's English class. He did not want to be late again. He didn't want another detention, another trip to remedial English, or another lecture and grounding from his mother. He darted through the door with a whole minute to spare and slid into his seat beside Josh Nichols.

Josh smiled brightly at him. "Good morning, Drake."

"Hey," Drake muttered back, without smiling. It wasn't that he disliked Josh. He was actually a hard person to dislike. But he was just so…dorky. Drake estimated that his coolness would drop by like thirty percent if he was friends with Josh.

"Good morning, class," Mrs. Hayfer greeted the class as she walked into the room. "Drake?"

Drake jumped, then, already knowing what Mrs. Hayfer's next words would be, he replied, "Yeah?"

"I hate you."

Drake sighed. "I know."

Mrs. Hayfer nodded, satisfied, then went on, "So, the end of the semester is coming up in a month. I'm sure you can guess what that means."

"Mid-term projects!" Josh squealed.

Mrs. Hayfer smiled at Josh. "Correct. We have just completed a biography of Shakespeare, and you all should have turned in a half-page mini-biography of a family member." She paused and glared at Drake.

That is so unfair! Drake fumed. I did turn that in! And I even actually spent like a whole two hours on it!

"And so now, I have assigned you each a partner. You will write your partner's biographies, in at least six pages. Obviously, this means you will spend a great deal of time with your partner and get to know them quite well. You will turn in three drafts over the next month. Further instructions, as well as the list of partners and grading rubric, is on this handout." She held up the pile, then passed them out.

Drake scanned his copy. He hoped he'd be paired with someone hot, someone he wouldn't mind getting closer to. He barely bit back a groan when he saw, at the bottom of the column of names, Drake Parker/Josh Nichols. Great.

He turned to look at Josh, and found Josh grinning back. "Hey partner," he said, when Drake's eyes met his.

"Hey," Drake replied listlessly, for the second time that day.

--

At the end of class, when Drake would normally bolt out the door, Josh held him back with a hand on his elbow. "Drake, so I'm thinking you should come over tonight so we can at least make a schedule for working on this project."

Drake had never been so glad to have a little sister as he was then. "I can't, my mom is going out on a date, and I have to watch my little sister, Megan."

"Oh…all right then." Josh looked so crestfallen that Drake felt a stab of regret.

"I guess you could come over to my place," he offered reluctantly.

Josh smiled. "Okay, cool. You live in the big house next to the Carmichaels', right?"

Drake nodded. "Uh, yeah. Why don't you come over at six, six-thirty?"

"Okay. See you then!" Josh left the classroom, leaving Drake a little stunned in his wake. Where did Josh get his enthusiasm?

--

Drake had just pulled a frozen pizza out of the oven for himself and Megan for dinner when the doorbell rang. Drake set the pan on the stove and checked the time. 6:15. It had to be Josh.

"Dinner's on the stove," he called to Megan, who was watching TV in the living room. Then he crossed to the front door and opened it. Just as he expected, he found Josh, wearing a backpack and an uncertain smile.

"Hi," Josh said. He glanced at Drake's hands. "Um…am I interrupting dinner or something?"

Drake looked down himself, blushed, and yanked the floral-print oven mitt off his left hand. "We were about to eat, but it's all right. You're right on time." He stood back and allowed Josh to enter the house. "Have you eaten?" he asked, returning to the kitchen to put away the oven mitt.

"Yeah, just before I came over here," Josh replied.

"You don't mind if I eat while we schedule, do you?" Drake asked, realizing he was more comfortable with the other boy away from all the eyes at school.

Josh shook his head.

"Okay. Let me just grab a plate, then we can go up to my room." Drake pulled a plate from the cupboard, piled two slices of pizza on it, then looked out the pass-through window. He was relieved to see Megan sitting on the couch, eating pizza like a normal little eleven-year-old girl. "Megan, this is Josh." Josh waved. "We're going up to my room to work on a school project."

"Whatever," Megan replied.

Drake shrugged and led Josh upstairs to his room.

"Wow, cool room," Josh said, looking around at all the posters, license plates, and guitars.

"Thanks," Drake answered, sitting on the couch. He gestured to the seat beside him, and Josh sat after taking off his backpack. As Josh pulled out a notebook and the project description sheet, Drake took a huge bite of pizza.

"So, the first draft of this project is due in two weeks," Josh began, consulting the sheet. "We should probably start right away. Do you have a job or anything that we have to plan around?"

Drake sighed. Right, Josh was really into school. He supposed he had better actually put some effort into this project, so that he wouldn't bring Josh down with him. "Well, I have a band, but I'm missing a drummer right now, so we're not rehearsing. If I get a drummer, we might start rehearsing again."

Josh nodded thoughtfully, sucking on the end of his pen. "Okay, and do you have to watch Megan a lot?"

"Only sometimes when Mom goes out. She stays by herself a lot of the time, just not at night. I can't plan that, though. Mom has this on-and-off relationship with this weatherman. I think she only likes him for his hair, actually…"

"Bruce Winchell?" Josh asked.

Drake looked surprised. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"My dad's the weatherman on channel 7," Josh replied. "He always talks about how more people watch Bruce Winchell because he has good hair."

Drake suppressed a laugh. "That's too bad."

Josh shrugged. "Well, you know. Okay, so I work at the Premiere four days this week--Wednesday through Saturday--and four next week--Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. So…would you mind coming down to the Premiere to work on this during my shift?"

"I wouldn't mind. What's to mind about a movie theater full of candy and hot girls?"

For some reason, Josh deflated a little. "Right. Then…I know school isn't your thing, but what if we met every day after school this week and next week, and on Saturday this week? That gives us five days each to interview each other. Then we could probably not see as much of each other the last two weeks--just to check facts and stuff. It'll make writing the biographies easier if we have all the information to start with."

"Sounds good," Drake agreed, sighing again. There went ten days of free time, devoted to school instead.

Josh looked apologetic. "I just really want to get a good grade on this assignment, y'know?"

"Yeah," Drake answered. "So, do you want to do me first, or should I do you?"

Again acting weird, Josh blushed a little. "Um, maybe we should alternate? That way, we both have about the same amount of time to work on the first draft with the same amount of information."

"All right. So, you wanna ask me stuff tomorrow, and then I'll ask you stuff on Wednesday?"

"Sure. Do you want me to come here again tomorrow, or do you want to come to my house, or should we meet somewhere else?"

"I'll go to your place. Right after school?"

Josh nodded. "Yeah, that works. On Wednesday, my shift at the Premiere starts at four, so you could go there about four-thirty?"

"Cool. We can figure out other times then, right?"

Josh nodded again. "Yeah."

"Okay, I guess we're all set." Drake looked out the window. "It's raining," he announced. "You just rode your bike over, didn't you?" he asked, recalling seeing one leaning against the house.

"Yeah," Josh groaned.

"Well, you can stay here until it stops, or until my mom gets home, and then she can drive you. I'm not gonna make you go home in the rain."

Josh laughed. "That's good news! Listen Drake, I know you're not overly excited about being partnered together." Drake tried to protest, but Josh just shook his head. "No, I know we hang out at totally different ends of the popularity spectrum. But I'm kind of interested in getting to know you, too. We've been going to school together since seventh grade, and we don't know each other at all."

Drake wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"Um, yeah, so…" Josh trailed off, looking kind of embarrassed.

"You have a point," Drake said hastily. "About not knowing each other. This might actually be an okay assignment." He gave Josh a smile.

Josh smiled back. "Definitely."