Neds POV

Ned grunted as he pushed up on the large metal bar in his hands. Small beads of sweat were beggining to materialize on his forehead from the exertion. Vaguely he heard his friend Simon 'Cookie's words of encouragement as he struggled to lift the weight. Arching his back slightly of the bench he was able to push the last little bit, and heavily racked to bar back over his head with a loud bang.

"Eight, count it, I barely helped on that last one," Cookie said as he began sliding off the heavy plates from the bar.

Ned sat up and absentmindedly thumbed the screen to his phone, unlocking it. He grimaced at the picture of him and Moze in front of his house, her on his back, as he quickly accessed his music and skipped to the next song. "It's not enough, I should be at ten," Ned replied in a frustrated tone, "I should be where you are, there is only one week left before school starts." As he said it he leaned forward placing his head in his hands, replacing the one earbud dangling out of his ear. School, Senior year, it's what him and Cookie had been working so hard for. They each had their reasons, Lisa was Cookies and not constantly getting picked on was Ned's. He had been the small kid in the grade for a long time, his body refusing to grow up like all of his classmates. This had been the summer for it though, and right in time for his last year at school. An inch short of six feet wasn't going to get him any basketball scholarships but it did well enough for him, and Cookie had been told by Lisa that the 'awkward nerd thing used to be cute' but apparently she had grown out of it and wanted the same sort of shitty shallow boy that everyone wanted. That Moze wanted. That Moze had.

The thought of Moze with that protein-shake drinking dumbass caused him to sit up and heave a sigh. That guy, Chad, he thought with distaste, was just not worth Moze's time. He was a total jerk, constantly picking on Ned for all of high school even after Moze had tried to stick up for him; but that was a long time ago, when she still hung out with him and Cookie all the time. He felt a tap on his shoulder as he pulled out his earbud again.

"Come on man, it's my last set, the data says I should be able to do 225 a total of six times for this last work out." Cookie said thumbing through one of the many packets he brings with him to the gym. Even thinking about Chad, Ned couldn't help but smile, You can take the nerd away from the computer, he thought fondly as he stood up and moved behind the bench to spot his friend. It had been Cookie's idea to finally start trying to take themselves seriously and not just play video games all day everyday. Ned thought the idea had been stupid in the beginning, not wanting to be like all the boys in school that he didn't get along with. However at the start of summer, when Moze had all but stopped bring friends with the two of them, Ned knew it was time for action. He knew how he felt about Moze, knew that, as far as he was concerned, she was the most perfect girl on the planet. He always meant to tell her how he felt, Ned just thought he would have had more time.

It happened almost overnight for him, since they spent so much time together during the summer and she never dressed up around him, the first day of Junior year hit him like a sledge hammer. She had become hott, like damn hott! Her summer tan skin was shown off by the short jean shorts she had worn along with the small midriff she was showing off with a 'too-small' button down that ended an inch or so above her belly button and the top couldn't be buttoned all the way because she had filled out so much. All Ned needed to see was the way the boys all turned their heads or nudged each other and nodded towards her as she walked by to know he was way, way out of his league and had totally blown his chance.

"Done," Cookie said, interrupting Ned's reminiscing tangent and getting him back on track, "now let's finish out the day with abs and get the hell out of here." Ned groaned loudly at the mention of it but Cookie pushed on, "I know you hate doing abs but it says here that seventy four percent of girls ages 16 to 25 like a man with abs. I'm going with the safe bet and saying Moze is one that does, considering she's dating Chad."

Ned glared at his friend but Cookie stuck to his point. "What? You know I'm right, so quit bitching and let's just get it over with."

Ned nodded and gestured for him to lead the way.

It was late when Ned finally pulled back into his driveway and shut the ignition off to his 2006 Ford Focus that his dad had given him to use. He wanted nothing more than to throw open the door and head inside to a refreshing shower but something had caught his eye. On the porch of his next door neighbors house sat a young girl and guy, girl straddling the guys lap, deep in a make-out session. The girl was of course Moze as it was her house that was beside his and the guy would be Douchebag Chad and that would be his douchey Mustang in the driveway of her house.

With a resigned sigh, Ned pushed open his door and climbed out of the car, pulling a sweatshirt over his head as he did so. It wasn't cold outside, or at least it wasn't cold enough to warrant a sweatshirt but he didn't want anyone to know he had taken up weight lifting, least of all Moze and Chad. Knowing Chad he would make a huge deal about how pathetic I was for trying to steal his girlfriend and blah blah blah, he sucks... Ned thought to himself as he flipped the trunk open and grabbed his gym bag, throwing it over his shoulder.

"Bye Babe," he heard from his side and he glanced over to see Chad opening the door to his Mustang, "See you tomorrow, my place so we can avoid kids staring at us." Chad said loudly as he looked over towards Ned. "Am I right Bigby? See? All you do is stare. Are you really that jealous little man?" Chad said much more quietly as he took his foot out of his car and started to walk towards Ned.

"Fuck off Chad." Ned muttered as he turned towards his house but Chad reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Manners Bigby, find some manners."

"Go hit a tree."

"How about I just hit you instead."

Ned's gym bag came off his shoulder and hit the ground as he whirled around, bristling with anger. Taking a step forward, he held Chads gaze, neither of them blinking. He's not so tall Ned oddly found himself thinking as his face heated up and his breathing quickened. He knew it was his brain releasing adrenaline into his body, getting ready for a fight, as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

"You really want to do this little man?" Chad said dangerously quietly and Ned paused. Beating up this asshole would deffintly NOT win Moze over, especially if it was in front of her house while she watched, and Ned wasn't even sure he could win. Losing in a fight to Moze's dick boyfriend while she watched was not high on his list of things to do.

Biting his lip, Ned did the last thin in the world he wanted to and took a very painful step backwards, letting out a sigh as he did it.

"Good boy." Chad said with a smirk as Ned heard a crunch of gravel behind him.

"What are you two doing?" Moze asked as she stopped in front of both boys.

"Aw nothin' babe, we were just doing a guy thing, no big deal."

"It looked like you guys were going to fight or something."

"Nah, right Ned?" Chad answered, giving a superior look to Ned, "Besides, there is nothing to fight about, right?" he continued as he wrapped Moze in one arm, making a point to leave his hand on her ass.

"Right," Ned replied, Besides you man-handling the most beautiful girl in the world that I have been crazy about forever, "whatever, I'm headed inside." Ned finished, promptly turning around and grabbing his bag. He kept his eyes straight and concentrated on the door but nothing blocked out the loud kissing going on behind him.

Slamming the door behind him, all Ned wanted to do was run upstairs, beat the ever living shit out of his pillow, and take a shower.

"Ned," he heard from the office to his left, "come in here please."

I can't even get a break in my own house, he thought as he kicked off his shoes and turned into the room, "Yeah dad?"

His dad was sitting at his desk with his laptop out, writing up some sort of proposal for a carpentry job he was looking at. His glasses were pulled down a bit on his nose as he studied his son from behind slight steam vapor coming up from his coffee. Coffee at Eight pm again Ned thought. His dad was silent for a few minutes as he looked over his son, Ned shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably a few times before his dad sighed and calmly put the coffee cup down on a coaster on the desk. "Were you about to fight that boy Chad?"

Ned glanced quickly at the window in front of the desk that showed clearly the driveway then back towards his dad. "I was thinking about it." Ned replied, licking his lips.

"Why?" his dad simply asked.

Shrugging his shoulders a bit, Ned suddenly felt very foolish. 'Because he's a douche' was not going to be a very good answer, 'Because I love Moze and I'm better for her than him' would have been the truth but couldn't say for obvious reasons, so he resigned himself to the good ol' teenager standby response.

"I don't know."

"Huh," was all his father acknowledged him with before turning back towards his computer. Ned turned to head up to his room but his father stopped him before he took a step.

"Ned, wait."

"Dad I just want to head upstairs and take a shower-"

"And I just want to be done this proposal and go to bed but we can't always get what we want, can we?" His dad interrupted with a smile, "Come wih me for a second."

Ned rolled his eyes but dropped his bag at the door and followed his father through the office to the kitchen and out into the garage. Ned immediately noticed that in the middle of the garage was a covered car, which would explain why his mother had been parking in the driveway lately. "Dad, did you buy a new car?"

"Yes and no." his dad replied with a grin as he grabbed a corner and pulled the cloth off the car.

Ned's eyes went wide and his breath caught slightly, the only word that came to mind spilled out of his mouth, "Badass!"

"Yeah she is isn't she," his dad replied very happy with himself, "One of the contractors I work with spotted it for sale and knew that I would be the right guy to call."

"What is it?"

"67' Chevy Impala SS, it was my first car as a kid, 6.7 liter V-8 engine with 425 horses to the tires."

"It's awesome," Ned said, running his hand along the smooth fender, taking it all in. He didn't want to get his hopes up but..."Why are you showing me this now?"

"Because you are going to help me fix it up."

Ned looked confused, "But it looks great."

"The engine compartment needs some work. We don't get enough time together anymore Ned, I feel like I don't even know what's going on in your life. I'll tell you what, if you agree yo hang out with your old man some times on the weekends and help me with this car, I'll let you drive it to Prom, deal?"

Ned's eyes lit up, "Not the Focus?" and his dad laughed.

"No not the boring old Focus."

"Deal," Ned declared excitedly, grabbing his father's out-stretched hand, "I'm beat for the day though, headed in the shower."

"Roger that," his dad replied, gazing at the car, "And Ned?" he called just before Ned had closed the door to the foyer.

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry about that jerk Chad, Jennifer will wise up soon. Your mom and I always knew there was a spark there." he said with a wink at his son.

Ned stood in the doorway dumbfounded, "W-what?" he stammered, did his dad know he had a huge crush on Moze?

"Ned, I'm going to let you in on a secret, just because Dad's let their kids behave like kids and make stupid decisions like kids, doesn't mean we don't know exactly what's going on. Remember, I was doing the same stuff when I was your age. Another piece of advice, kicking this boy's ass is not going to win you Jennifer's heart. When I was in the service we had a saying, 'Blind-side 'um with everything you've got'. Don't go after her through this kid Chad, blind-side her, hit her somewhere she isn't expecting, and hit it with everything you've got. Goodnight son."

"Night dad." Ned replied, shutting the door and leaning his forehead against it, thinking about the last words his father had spoken.