Disclaimer: I don't own it! You know that.
A/N: Hey there. This is my First Radio free Roscoe story. I would really appreciate reviews! Be nice. I can handle a flame, but they still aren't fun J I'll warn you now, that this is Travis/Lily (The best of both worlds, hehehe, I killed myself when he said that!)
Summery: Let's say that the kiss never happened. Robbie never saw or heard anything, and Ray, Lily and Travis weren't stuck in a bitter love triangle. Fast-forward to now, a regular Friday in early June. All the feelings are still there…some just haven't been recognized. Yet…
Best of Both Worlds
Chapter one:
Robbie's StoryWhat you thought
was real in life, somehow steer you wrong
And now you just keep trying and trying to find where you belong
~The Road I'm On, Three Doors Down
***
Two trains that are traveling in opposite directions leave from the same station. Train A is traveling at 75 kilometers an hour. Train B leaves two hours later, and is traveling at 80 kilometers an hour. Three hours after Train B departs, how many kilometers apart will they be?
Robbie looked down and blinked. Math. He absolutely hated math. It was with out a doubt his least favorite subject. When was he ever going to use the stuff? He took a deep breath, and tried to, once again, solve the problem rationally, with out freaking out, tearing the ruddy test up in frustration, or screaming 'I HATE MATHEMATICS' at the top of his lungs.
He glanced at the person next to him, Travis Strong, who had already taken his test and flipped it over, placing it neatly on the corner of his desk. He looked up, and offered Robbie a sympathetic nod and half smile.
It wasn't fair. Since the day Robbie met him, Travis had always been the guy who 'Got things'. It didn't even seem like he had to work at it, it just happened. Tough math problem, Travis got that. Shakespeare, Travis could understand that. Advanced Nuclear Physics… Well, Robbie hadn't actually heard of a high school that offered Advanced Nuclear Physics, but he was sure that Travis would excel in it.
"Ten minutes left." The teachers' voice broke into his bitter thoughts, bringing him back to reality. He was writing a Math Unit test and still had two questions left.
Abandoning his earlier muse, Robbie picked up his calculator and began punching in numbers, desperately hoping to at least pass the test.
***
The bell rang not a moment to soon. Robbie was just putting his test face down in the corner, when everybody else was hurrying out of the classroom, ready to salvage the weekend. He packed his calculator and pencil into his bag, and followed his classmate into the busy hall. Ray and Travis were waiting for him outside the door, Ray waving at a few people as they passed, and Travis leaning casually against the wall.
"Hey, guys" Robbie said as he approached them.
Travis nodded and smiled back, and Ray, now finished saying his good-byes smiled widely, "How did your test go?"
Robbie shrugged. He never told how a test went before he got his mark, afraid to jinx himself. Ray pulled a face.
"That good, eh? Aw, well, you have a whole weekend to get over it. Hey, have you seen Lily?"
"No," Travis said, readjusting his bag on his shoulder. "I think that she had Music appreciation, though."
Ray nodded, "Cool … cool." He was scanning the crowd over Robbie's shoulder, unaware that Lily was walking up behind him.
"Hey Guys." Ray jumped, and turned around quickly. Both Robbie and Lily burst out laughing (though Lily seemed a little confused) and Travis shook his head chuckling.
"Not cool, Lily, not cool." Ray said, scratching the back of his neck, embarrassed. Lily continued to laugh, and Ray shoved her playfully in the shoulder.
Now, behavior like this is normal. This is actually how it is every day, Ray being a goof, Lily being her silly, creative self, and Travis with his cool ever cool aura surrounding him. But this day, something changed. Something was different.
Ray playfully shoved Lily, normal. Lily pretended to be emotionally hurt, placing a hand over her heart, normal. Travis and Robbie laughing at both of them, normal.
But Travis wasn't laughing. In a split second, Robbie saw something that he had never seen before. Something, some kind of emotion, flashed in his friends' eyes' that was so dark, and so … so … He didn't know. It was gone before it started. Once again, Travis was laughing, like he always did. Like normal.
Robbie continued to stare at him, barely blinking, mouth half open. He didn't even realize that the rest of his friends had gone silent, and were now shooting him odd looks...
"Uh-" A hand waved in front of his face, bringing him back to reality. "-Earth to Robbie. You still with us buddy."
He shook his head to clear his mind, and glanced over at Lily who was giving him a slightly concerned, slightly amused look. He apologized quickly, "Erm, yea, sorry. I zoned out for a sec."
Lily waved her hand in a dismissive manner, and looked around the group, " I guess we should be going, right?"
"Mmhmm!" Ray said happily, gently bumping into Robbie as he passed. He turned back a second later, clearly about to apologize, but stopped, his mouth open. "Man, are you OK?"
"Fine … Fine. Com'on, lets get out of here."
"You got it, bro!" Ray slapped him cheerfully on the back before prancing towards the door.
***
They walked together in relative silence, Lily had her headphones on, and was humming pleasantly along to the music, Ray was transfixed with watching Lily, and Travis had his gaze set steadily on the pavement.
"Hey." Robbie said softly, slowing his pace down a bit so he was right next to Travis, "What's up?"
He looked up, shrugging.
"Uh, not really the answer I was looking for. Lets try thing again … what's wrong?" He inquired. Travis sighed, but then shrugged again.
"Nothing. Why?" He asked, looking down again. This was clearly going nowhere.
"I don't know, you just seem … down, that's all." Robbie shrugged, trying to keep his voice cool and nonchalant.
Travis chuckled, shaking his head slightly and looking up a the dark gray-purple sky, "Looks like its going to rain."
And although Robbie noted that he was obviously avoiding the question, he decided to let it go. For now…
"Yea, it does." The clouds were swirling quickly above them, so dense and dark that it could be mistaken for nightfall rather than early afternoon. An extremely bright bolt of lightning darted in the distance, and was followed a few seconds later by a laud clap of thunder. Robbie actually liked the rain, it was peaceful, nice; nut Robbie loved storms. They were exciting, dangerous, adrenaline pumping goodness. There was almost nothing that Robbie didn't like about storms.
He turned back to Travis, about to tell him about his love for storms, but he was no longer paying attention to Robbie. He was looking forward, more specifically, towards Lily and Ray. For a second, he seemed completely out of it, but he seemed to shake it off, and turned towards Robbie, smiling. "Aw, well. Won't let it ruin my weekend."
Robbie nodded, laughing, "That's the way to be." He reached over and patted him on the back. He watched Ray open the door to the hangout for Lily, bowing in a completely fake, but somewhat humourous, way. She laughed, curtsied, and leaped in cheerfully. Robbie felt Travis' muscles tighten beneath his jacket, and he lightly shook away Robbie's hand. Robbie stopped, as Travis took a few steps forward.
Travis whirled around, "You coming?" Any awkwardness that might have been on his face a few second ago were gone. Robbie tried to smile normally.
"Yea, let's go."
***
"Welcome to Radio-"
"-Free-"
"-Roscoe!"
Shady Lane started by saying: "And lets all welcome an exciting, fun-filled weekend, away from school, In which we have the freedom to do whatever we choose-"
A loud and low rumble ripped through her speech.
"-Unless you plan on going outside…" Pronto said, laughing.
"You know, Lots of people like the rain. It's good for … uh…"
"Fishing?" Smog offered, a note of humour in his voice.
"Yea! Fishing." Said Question Mark, shaking his head, "A noble sport."
"Agreed." Shady Lane said, "But what I want to know is, what's the best way to kill the rainy-day blues?"
"Well, I think that it's snuggling up on the couch "watching" movies all day long…"
"You would-" Question Mark added, laughing and ducking as Pronto sent a pencil at his head. "-Ouch, no need to get violent. How 'bout you, Smog."
"I don't know. I don't really look at rainy days differently than I do sunny days."
"-You don't go outside?"
"No, not like that, I just mean- I roll with them." Shady Lane was nodding, and Pronto laughed.
"You roll with the rain?"
"Yep"
"… Yea, that's cool." He said, smiling at Smog in the booth. He held up the chalkboard, nodding at Shady Lane.
"Clover, what do you do to kill the Rainy day Blues?"
"I do things that I enjoy. Read, doodle and write. Avoid the music and stuff that has bummed out messages, you know? Nothing that could bring me down, rain's bad enough."
"Cool! What about you Crystal?"
"I like to get away from the house to keep my mind off the weather, like go bowling or something."
"A very good suggestion. And on that note, I think its time for a song! What d'we got, Shady?"
"Well, Question Mark, we have a warm helping of 'Cold Front' on the way. This won't bum you out Clover."
The music started to pulse, and the Robbie took off his headphones. "That was a hideous pun, Lily."
"Pfft, Shut up! Like you could do any better!"
"True" He held up his hands in a peace offering, laughing. Another loud clap of thunder disturbed them, and Lily visibly shuddered.
"What's up?" Travis asked, sounding slightly worried (Though probably not enough for anyone but Robbie would notice.)
"Err, nothing." She smiled, sitting back down, and repositioning her headphones. Travis' expression darkened, but he also sat down, and picked up the phone.
"Hmmm." He pushed a button and held the phone to his ear again, "Wha-?"
"What is it?" Robbie asked, standing up and walking towards the little booth.
"Well, there were at least three callers here before the song started, and now-" He held the phone to Robbie's ear. No sound.
"Dead."
Travis nodded, "Yea."
"Wait-" Lily said from the doorway. She leaning on the doorframe completely unnoticed by Robbie, and a second later Ray had appeared behind her. "-Are you saying that the phone line is … dead?!"
"Uh." Robbie looked over at Travis who was dialing a number on his cell phone. He waited a second, and then tucked it into his pocket.
"Yea, they are." Travis looked up at Lily, offering a small smile. She took a deep breath in, but tried to smile back. The song had stopped now, leaving the entire station in an uncomfortable silence. Travis leaned down to his Mike.
"Uh, Hey out there. I'm not sure if the systems up, but if it is, give us a second to regroup here." He flicked it off, glimpsing around the room.
"Hey guys…" Ray started, after a second. "Don't Dead Phones usually come and in hand with-" But he was cut out by a large bang from outside, and a blinding flash less than a second later. Lily let out a small screech.
Everything in the room went dark
"…Blackouts?"
***
Tada!
What did you think? Please review!
I will keep updating, and it wont all be from Robbie's perspective. I really hope that you like it so far.
Remember, this is like none of the last few episodes happened. Its AU-ish I suppose… not really. Ahh, I don't know. Let me know what you think.
~Angi :o)