This fic will be an AU, taking place after the events of The Geography Club, Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies and The Elephant of Surprise. It would be highly recommended to read or get a summary of those books before reading this fic.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the books of the Russel Middlebrook series. That's all the work of author Brent Hartinger
"Look alive, Russel!"
I snapped out of my stupor of watching the picturesque sunset over the Pacific Ocean as a white and small red-stitched circular object hurled my way with incredible velocity. Luckily for me, seventeen year old Russel Middlebrook, I was able to anticipate the trajectory, easily catching the baseball in its tracks with my black baseball glove, despite only being in my red and black Hurley boardshorts.
"Docious catch, brah!" the tall, dark, handsome, and muscular dude across from me doted with an impish grin, sporting on a pair of pair of navy blue Billabong boardshorts while a black-plaid Hurley cap covered over his brunette locks and shaded over his slate blue eyes. His looks are akin to that male model that used to be on The Price is Right, Rob Wilson. His doting definitely caused my somewhat pale face to blush rosy red as I tossed the ball right back at him with force, a thwack emitting from the other dude's glove.
"Thanks babe!"
And who is this handsome dude that I've just called a babe right now? Well, it's no other than my boyfriend for about a steady year and a half now, Kevin Land.
You see, Kevin Land and I both attended and graduated from Robert L. Goodkind High School in a small town near Boise, Idaho, along with my best friends, Min Wei and Gunnar Skogstad (1). Kevin was this big and macho popular baseball jock with everything going for him, while Min, Gunnar, and I just kept in our own world in respectable land. One night, I was browsing some online chatrooms, which was a popular thing back in the day, and found a gay teen chatroom for my town. Being the brilliant dude I was, I entered in and found only one other user in the room under the screen name of GayTeen, while I was Smuggler (I still have yet to this day figure out why I picked such a lame-ass alias). Of course, we made that whole initial awkward conversation until we decided to meet up in person at this one park by the swamp under a gazebo, which I still affectionately call to this day the Stinky Picnic Gazebo.
And lo and behold, who do I end up meeting face to face? None other than popular jock himself: Kevin Land. We were both initially freaked out by the encounter, but soon we got mellowed out and began to talk to each other even more, but of course out of sight from public.
And that's also how the whole secret Geography Club began at my old high school.
When I confessed my knowledge of Kevin's sexual orientation to Min, she also came out to me as bi, while I in turn came out to her as being gay. Along with her ex-girlfriend, Terese, and few other closeted gay and bisexual students at the school, we formed this secret club where all of us could have a safe space to just chillax and have fun, while talking about issues that range from our struggles with our sexuality to pretty much about anything. Kevin was the clever one who came up with the Geography Club moniker as it was intended to deter others from joining such a boring club. We definitely had fun times in there.
During the life of the Geography Club, I even joined the baseball team just to be closer with Kevin, and in turn, got admission into popularity land with all the jocks on the baseball team (so many hot guys to stare at be around with). We even shared our first kiss (and much more) under the stinky picnic gazebo one night. I still treasure that memory as of today.
However, like all great stories, the Geography Club came to an end when it subsequently evolved into the first Gay Straight Alliance organization at our high school. Kevin and I broke up as he was being a selfish asshole for not wanting to come out and chose to keep his popularity and join in on the homophobic bullying to keep the respect of his friends. I admit though, I was extremely heartbroken at the time and went through sometime with mad depression. Thank God for Min and Gunnar helping me through those times.
After being in another relationship and breaking that off (Otto and I are still good friends, however), in the span from eight months to about a year from the breakup, Kevin decided to come out gay to the entire school, losing a lot of friends and popularity in the process. He even became less of a selfish douchebag, volunteering his time by working with kids with autism and feeding the homeless. He even became such a huge jerk to me, wanting me to forget about him so that Otto and I would have a chance to make our relationship work (which didn't hold up at the end, as I've mentioned earlier). Kevin and I got back together under the same stinky picnic gazebo after he told me to fuck off, which I still view the two words with love and affection, as that was part of his plan mentioned earlier for me to hate him. Ever since then, we've never let each other go.
"Isn't this awesome, Russel?" Kevin had walked up next to me as he took off his baseball glove, wrapping his toned, sun kissed arms around my pale stomach, gently caressing the curvature of my toned abs, resting his chin on the crook of my neck as he inhaled my scent. We both took a long gaze out towards the western horizon the Pacific, the sun starting set behind the distant waters.
"It sure is, Kevin…" I smiled as I leaned the side of my head onto his. "It's perfect."
And now, here we are in beautiful Laguna Beach, California, in Orange County, playing catch on the sand while the ocean waves from the Pacific crashed on shore nearby. It wasn't quite a full on vacation that we were on, despite having gone to Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim the day before (and how I so miss The Happiest Place on Earth already). The real reason why we were both in Southern California is for our upcoming college orientations we were required to attend. Kevin had decided to attend the University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine), while I chose the University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside). Min and Gunnar also joined in on the diaspora to California, with Min going to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD or UC San Diego) and Gunnar attending the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB or UC Santa Barbara). Luckily, we were all within driving distance to each other, with Riverside and Irvine only being about less than an hour from each other, without traffic of course. We all made a pact that we must hang out with each other at the very least twice a quarter with Los Angeles being middle ground for all of us.
A couple of changes for me in appearance have occurred since Kevin and I got back together. For one thing, I was no longer this skinny and lanky dark-auburn haired dude. I now had bulked up in weight just a little bit, so I was carrying a bit more muscle. This was all thanks to Kevin, being the gym and fitness rat that he is. Practically, I now had a similar body type to Kevin, though he was more toned than me. In addition, I had my hair shaved and I now sported on a faded, short Mohawk haircut, a definite 360 from the poofy style hair I had in high school. Kevin actually still gives me shit from time to time about my hair, but he's now chilled out about it.
"Dude, you hair…" Never mind the last part as Kevin began to gently play with the short dark auburn Mohawk spikes on the top of my head that ran all the way to the back above my neck.
"Whhhaaattt?" I playfully pouted to the brunette behind me. "You still don't like it? I told you that wanted something different to start off my secondary education career."
"Hahaha," Kevin chuckled at my remark. "You sure are making a statement, and that's one of the reasons why I love you," he gave me a quick peck on the cheek. If you'd known Kevin when I first dated him, you would never ever see the amount of PDA he was giving to me right now. How I'm so glad for what Kevin had done in the Fall of last year.
I decided to reward him by turning around and placing my lips upon his. We began to kiss each other with much vigor, giving the crowd on the beach an unintended show as our lips captured and recaptured each other, the force becoming much greater each time. The public make-out session escalated just a bit as Kevin's tongue licked my lips, seeking entry into my wet caverns, which I had no problem granting. I was now effectively sucking his tongue as my hands made their way from this neck, tracing down his smooth and tanned back before reaching his bulging ass from behind, taking a firm grip of them, causing the baseball jock to gasp. I now effectively had control of the kiss now. Yup, we were definitely exhibitionist at this point on the beach.
"Oh, get a room you two!" a spectator nearby sarcastically whistled, which caused the make-out session to end as Kevin and I couldn't hold in our laughs at the remark.
"Thank God this is California," Kevin began to chortle. And he was so right about that statement. If we'd done this in our old hometown of Idaho, the backlash would've been unimaginable. Luckily, the attitude is much more relaxed here.
"Couldn't agree more," I smiled as I placed a small pack on my boyfriend's cheek. "Let's go grab dinner. It'll be two big days for us at our respective college orientations."
"Docious!" I've always loved it when Kevin said that word.
We began to gather up all of our belongings before making the trek back to our hotel a few blocks down on Coast Highway. The rest of the night was rather leisurely as we had dinner under the night sky before heading off to bed early, knowing that we'll need all the energy we can get for the next two days as our lives officially head to college.
– I have Gunnar a Norwegian last name as I do not know what his surname is in the books. If anyone has an answer for this, please let me know and I can make the correction accordingly. Thanks so much!