Author's Note: I know I just started Wine Red, but I like to have more than one project on the go. I have not forgotten about Wine Red, I love that story dearly and have ideas for it.
Chapter One: Stand By Me
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Drake & Josh or anything affiliated with it. However, I do own up the made ups of Pem and the Skinner family.
Racing up the stairs like an athlete training for the Olympics, Drake slammed his bedroom door behind him causing the walls of his room to rumble. He was still fuming from his argument with Josh while he stomped around and smashed down on the couch to try and strum the anger out of his system.
"Don't slam the door on me!" Josh tossed the door behind him and listened for the bang. He huffed over to Drake and pulled the guitar by it's neck out of his brother's hand. "I'm not done!"
"I am." Drake reached for it back and then sat back down on the couch.
"This isn't fair, Drake." Josh whined. "You don't even like Math. If you join the Mathletes, you're just doing it to get to Kim. I want to do it!" Drake snorted a laugh at the sound of that. "I want this to go on my resume."
"You know what, Josh, that hurts me." Very dramatically, Drake proclaimed. He rested his guitar next to him and rubbed the right side of his chest assuming that's where his heart was located. "Maybe, I'm tired of being the awesome one. Perhaps, I, too, want to be an intellest."
"Intellect." Josh corrected him.
"You get the point." Drake waved his hand in the air.
"Okay, clearly, I'm not going to get any sleep." Pulling her head off of her best friend's pillow, Pem Skinner yawned while balancing her body weight on her two arms and climbing down from Drake's bed. "Drake, did you honestly say you want to an intellect with a straight face?" Tired from a long day at school, Pem rubbed her eyes while making her way to the couch where she collapsed next to her friend.
"No, he said he wanted to be an intellest, actually." Josh rolled his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Drake, why do you want to join the Mathaletes?"
"Well, there's this girl…" His whole face lit up, his brown eyes jumping from his face as he turned all his attention on his best friend.
"As there always is."
"Her name's Kim and she's not like all the other girls."
Pem nodded her head with an amused smile plain and clear on her face.
"They never are." She commented. Pem had heard this from Drake a million times over. They'd been best friends since daycare. Pem's mom ran a daycare through their house and Drake always ended up staying till after dinner since Audrey couldn't pick him up. Even though Pem went to school across town, the two remained closer than Velcro straps. With dark brown features, the two were either mistaken for a couple or twins.
"She's so hot, Pem, like, you don't even know." Drake shot his legs up and rested them on the table, shutting his eyes while envisioning his latest conquest.
"And she's a Mathalete?" She tried to follow along, her eyes beginning to slug down again.
"Yes!" Josh piped in from behind them where he had his textbooks opened on his bed. "And I want to be on the team because it would set my application apart, Drake just wants to get on to get with Kim."
"A noble goal." Pem chuckled while patting her best friend on the shoulder. "Well, no offence, Drake, but Josh, you're all about academics, you have nothing to worry about. They'll put you on the team for sure." Pem attempted to calm the storm.
"Not so much, Belleview's a little different then St. Christopher's Academy." Josh chimed in, rushing over to sit on the other side of Pem, who was falling asleep. "Greg Belton just transferred school, so there's an opening on the team, they're just taking whoever shows interest first."
"Then, you two will have to race to school." Pem shrugged her shoulders.
"That's what I said." Drake nodded along with Pem's suggestion while going back to playing guitar.
"That's not fair! There's no way I'd beat Drake, he's faster."
"Exactly." Drake cackled.
Josh stared down at Pem's small pale face that had big Spanish features even though she wasn't even slightly Latin. He waited for her to help out, anything at all would help him. He cleared his throat loudly to wake her up fully.
"Oh," She made a thick eye contact with him before turning to focus on Drake. "Drake, maybe, just because Josh's reason for joining this team has a little more moral to it, you should let him try for the team."
"No fair! Come on, Pem, if you saw this girl, you'd join the team, too!"
"I believe you." She stood up and stretched and then turned to face both the boys with her arms above her head. "But, you've never had any trouble mating, buddy," She laughed. "Whether or not you join this team, I have no doubts you'll manage to get a date with this Kim girl." Pem walked over Drake's legs and grabbed her bag that sat by the door.
"You're the crappiest best friend, Pem." Scoffing, Drake pouted and didn't even turn to watch her pull her jean jacket over her green school uniform.
"You can be my best friend!" Happily, Josh jumped up from the coach and cackled.
"Well, we'll see how crappy I am when I buy you Burger King tonight." Pem pulled the straps of her bag over her shoulder and waited for Drake to get ready. The promise of Burger King was enough to get him off the couch and at the door.
"What are you guys doing tonight?" Feeling a little left out, Josh asked, watching from his bed.
"Who knows." Pem told him, honestly. "Just sort of cruise around. You're welcome to come." She invited him, she was the one driving and Josh wasn't exactly a stranger, she saw no problem with it.
"No way." Drake tied up his last Converse and followed Pem out of the bedroom doorway. "Josh, I'll see you later." He wasn't about to share his best friend with anyone. He completely dismissed the sudden sad look that took over his brother's face in a second of him turning him away. But, Pem was the only thing that was entirely Drake's, or so he thought.
"Drake, that's horrible, invite him." She held her hips and let one jet out to the side like Daphne from Scooby Doo would do.
Drake turned around to face her glare after closing his bedroom door.
"No, he'd just be third wheeling it." Drake didn't know why he was possessive over his friendship with Pem, but he was. She was the one girl he'd never thought about sexually, never kissed, never even thought about doing anything with. She could keep up with him when jamming, she could outrun him or play him in baseball, she liked playing chicken, drag racing, and doing silly things like pudding balloon fights, go-karting at two am, and skipping school to paintball in an empty field.
Whenever she'd pick him up from Belleview, he never let his friends meet her, when they'd go out for his birthday, he was very adamant that she didn't talk to any of his guy friends. Her opinion was the only one he valued when it came to problems or girls.
"Third wheeling it?" Pem followed Drake out of his house, saying goodbye to his mom and stepdad on the way out the door and into her used red '95 Chevy Malibu, lovingly named Little Red. "How would he be third wheeling it? Are we a hot couple?"
"Ew, Pem, that's sick!" Drake acted as if shivers had taken over his body and he shook in his seat. "Come on." He pulled his seatbelt on and fiddled with the radio stations while she pulled out of his driveway.
"Oh, leave this on!" Pem screamed, shocking Drake, he fidgeted with the buttons and got back to the radio station she liked.
"This is such an old song."
"Oldies are golden. They're making a comeback."
"Whatever." Drake leaned back in the passenger seat chair, rolling the window down and leaving his hand hang out.
"Just as long as you stand, stand by me, so darling, darling, stand by me…" Belting out the lyrics to a song she'd grown up listening to, she made exaggerated funny faces at Drake while driving. "I won't stop until you join in!" She teased.
With nothing to worry about, Drake sang along with her, she was his, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He could put her back on his shelf.
Alright, so this doesn't give you a very good idea about where I'm going to take the story, but I'm really excited about this one, so let me know what you think!
Read and review, please!!