This story is set between the end of Season 4 and Season 5, and is inspired by Reese briefly mentioning 'this cute lab partner in Science', Cheryl in Episode 5x02 'Watching the Baby'. Also my first fan fiction attempt — would appreciate any constructive feedback. Planning for the story to be five chapters long.
There was another loud rap on the bathroom door.
"Reese, get out of there! You've been in there for like, 15 minutes!" Malcolm barked, in his usual unnecessarily angry tone.
Reese sighed in frustration and annoyance at his younger brother and finished checking his hair in the bathroom mirror.
"All right, I'm out," he replied, his tone of voice sounding much more defensive than he would have liked.
"What the hell were you doing in there?" Oh great, here came the interrogation.
"Nothing." Reese replied flatly, again desperately trying to disguise his desire not to reveal why he needed to spend so much time in there.
"Whatever". Thankfully, Malcolm had apparently lost interest for now.
Reese proceeded downstairs, into the kitchen. His mother Lois was feeding his baby brother Jamie, his other younger brother Dewey sat at the table eating a bowl of cereal while his father Hal drank a cup of coffee and read the morning newspaper.
The kitchen table was the hub of the morning routine in the Wilkerson household, if you could call it that. It wasn't so much a routine, as a mad dash each day to get everything done and get everyone out the door. This morning, though, there was a strange calm about the place.
Reese walked across the room and popped a couple of slices of bread into the toaster. His mind drifted for a moment; he was thinking about Cheryl again — and whether today would be the day he finally summoned up the courage to ask her out. He caught himself thinking about this and stopped himself; it was almost as if he were scared someone would read his thoughts and find out his intentions. He sat down and began to butter his toast.
Before long, Malcolm, Reese and Dewey were ushered out of the door and in the direction of school. As usual, Malcolm had found something to complain about, while Dewey seemed calm and sedate; wrapped up in his own world perhaps. Reese walked towards the schools with his brothers, on de facto guard duty. Few people would be able to physically challenge Reese, so despite the Wilkersons being fairly universally despised amongst 'normal people', as Malcolm put it, they were pretty much safe. After a while, Dewey peeled off to the junior high school and Malcolm and Reese continued on to North High.
The two remaining brothers bid each other a reluctant goodbye, their voices still somewhat strained with an awkwardness due to the earlier bathroom conflict. Reese headed towards his form room and, now alone, returned his thoughts to Cheryl. Not really paying attention to where he was going, he bumped into the very girl.
"Ouch! Watch where you're —" Reese initially reacted with his usual aggression, quickly regretting doing so as he realised with whom he had collided. "Hi, Cheryl. I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
"Right… whatever," came the distant reply, as she turned and walked away.
"I'll see you in Science!" Reese called back, desperate to stop her walking away, to prolong this unexpected exchange and maximise the amount of time he spent with her today. He exhaled in frustration, he rued reacting initially as sharply as he did, not knowing who it had been. Still, the game wasn't up yet, there was a whole hour he could spend with her later.
Someone bumped into Reese exactly as he had done to Cheryl moments before. It was a younger kid: a short, skinny boy who looked about 13.
"Hey, watch where you're going, dumbass!" Reese shouted at the little kid. "Now, scram — before I throw you in a garbage can or something!" Reese's instructions were followed without hesitation. Exercising his power over the kid eased some of the frustration and anger at himself — and Malcolm — that he had felt over the course of the day so far.