My first "story", please be gentle with me. Constructive criticism only, if you pleeease. Every one shot is different, and may not pertain to the previous one, or the following one. Rated M for a reason, but that's probably later on in the chapters and I apologize for overusing the terms 'he' and 'she'. Also, the characters are probably very outside what you see on tv; this is a show for 8-12 year olds or something, but I'mma twist it around.

I do not own any of this, sadly enough. I wish I owned a human version of Jay, though.

01. Denial Isn't Just A River

She was just so strong, so independent, so driven. Jay's head tilted to the side just slightly, his open textbook temporarily forgotten on the desk in front of him. A smile graced his slightly tanned face as he watched her bend over her binder a little more, the ponytail containing her fiery red hair falling forward and brushing her creamy cheek; Theresa was evidently having a very difficult time with whatever school work she was staring down at.

"Gawk a little harder at her, and you could quite possibly burn a hole straight through her. Which might be messy."

Jay's head whipped around so fast he could swear he heard a faint crack; Archie was gazing at him from across the table, giving Jay a patient yet clearly amused look. "I, I wasn't staring at her," Jay stammered, looking firmly down at his math textbook now and ignoring the sniggers from the other burly young man next to him, whose face was buried in a Sport's Illustrated.

"Why don't you go help her?" Archie asked curiously, watching Jay peek over at the redhead again. "Theresa's always struggled with math, and may I remind everybody at his table who has a eighty something in Pre Calculus?" He smiled in satisfaction when he noticed Jay was now inspecting his English essay; Archie could almost see the little gears whirling around in Jay's head; to leave it or not to leave it. "C'mon man, help her. Clearly you like her any - "

"I don't!" Jay exploded, looking up at Archie harshly. "I don't like her, I don't. So shut up and do your work, alright?" He waved a hand vaguely at Archie's open school work. "She'll be fine," Jay added as he stood up, slamming his textbook shut and grabbing his notebook. "I'll see you guys later."

Herry peeked his face up from his magazine just in time to see Jay's retreating back exit out of the library. Brow furrowed, Hercules's descendent turned back to Archie and went to say something, but Archie had his attention on Theresa now. "Wonder what that's about.." Herry muttered after a moment to the other teen, flipping the page of his magazine and finding a very interesting photo indeed, just as Archie glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Do you really have to wear that face when you read that? Its like.. its like you're playing with yourself underneath the table," He muttered in utter disgust, eyeing the front cover of the magazine. "Can't you get some of the real thing?"

Herry lowered the magazine, his face reddened from a mixture of embarrassment and irritation. Despite this, he was smiling slightly. "You mean the face that Jay has whenever he sees a certain girl in her nightgown, that certain girl being - OW!"

Archie had spotted Theresa approaching their table, her binder and notebook in her arms and her bag slung over her shoulder. Upon figuring out what Herry was about to say, the purple haired teen had hurled his pencil right at Herry's face, with no hesitation or second of regret.

Herry face tilted upwards to see Theresa stopping at their table, adjusting her books in her arms at the same time. "H-Hey," Herry said in greeting, absentmindedly rubbing his forehead.

"Hi," Theresa began breathlessly, her bright green eyes flying around the room before settling on the two. "I noticed Jay was here earlier, I was hoping to talk to him." She was chewing at her bottom lip, looking between the two edgily.

Archie blanched; why did she want to know where Jay was? "Hoping to talk to him means what, exactly?" Archie boldly questioned, watching as Theresa flushed in the face. Sure, Archie knew Jay liked Theresa a fair bit. It was obviously, as Archie did happen to have a bedroom right next to Jay's, and more than once had he heard the certain red head's name come from that room at night. And more than once did Archie rag on Jay for his incessant dreaming.

"What else does it mean, Arch? I was hoping to have a word with him about something." Theresa tucked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear and then sighed. "Its okay, I'll see him later at some point." And with that, she twirled on her feet and walked off, leaving the two confused males staring after her.

Archie looked from Theresa to Herry, fixing him with a blank stare before cracking a small grin. "Herry, I do believe that love is very much in the air." He picked up his pencil casually and went to continue, but Herry suddenly let out a low whistle, and Archie looked up again to see a very pleased expression on Herry's face as he lowered his magazine and spun it around. Archie blinked, now being able to check out the page Herry was looking at.

"Arch, my man, imagine Theresa in this bikini."