Saturday:

"So, Janey... What's going on with you and Dirk?"

Jane rolled her eyes as she heard her best friend's question. Roxy was a good person, but she got caught up in gossip too often.

At the moment the two of them were spending some time at the Crocker estate, Jane's home away from home. It was a nice place right on the outskirts of town, with state of the art everything. Television, computer systems, indoor pools... It had it all. Every once in a while the head of Betty Crocker would let Jane spend a few days in this place, mainly as an incentive to keep her working on all those commercials that she endorsed. This time the old lady had let Roxy tag along, even if Jane's friend had a deep hatred for "the batter witch" (as if that was actually a thing).

"Dirk? Who's that?" She asked, pretending to focus on the script for the next Crocker commercial that she was holding. "I don't know any Dirk."

"Come on, you know I'm talking about Strider!" Roxy exclaimed. "My little sis told me that you two did some "talking" at the grocery store."

"Your little sis..." Jane repeated, tilting her head to look at Roxy. "You mean Rose? How would she know anything about that?"

"Because Dirk's bro told her, duh," Roxy replied. "Those two are crazy tight, Jane."

"Oh," Jane said. Did that mean that Dirk had told his brother about their encounter? That was interesting. "Well nothing happened, so you can relax, Rox."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Roxy asked. "You can't say nothing happened! You talked to Dirk Strider! Do you know how anti-social that guy can be?"

"He seemed fine to me," Jane replied. "Even if he refused to take his glasses off."

"All the Striders do that, Janey," Roxy informed. "Their eye colours are like this huge impenetrable mystery thing. Some people say they're blind, and that's why they do it. What do you think?"

"I know they're not blind," Jane answered. "Dirk made that much obvious. But I don't know anything else... You said it was a big mystery, right?"

"Yup."

"The kind of mystery that would need a gutsy gumshoe?"

"Janey, what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that someone could get to the bottom of this, Rox. Someone like me."

Sunday:

Dirk was in the middle of doing absolutely nothing when he got the text.

Now, keep in mind that Dirk's version of doing absolutely nothing was very different from the average person's. When Dirk did absolutely nothing, it was an important nothing, a contemplative nothing. He liked to think of it as ironic nothing, personally. Dave said it was a dumbass nothing, but seriously now, fuck Dave. What did he know about these things? Nothing. Sweet, ironic nothing. The kind of nothing that should definitely not get interrupted by a text.

Beep! Beep!

Sighing, Dirk reluctantly picked up his cell and skimmed over the new message. Shit, it was from Dave. That was never good news.

bro. roof. now. don't bring cal.

That text was quickly followed by another one, also from Dave:

where doing it man. where MAKING THIS HAPEN

"God damn it, Dave," Dirk slammed his cell down on his desk and stormed out of his room, grabbing the nearest sword and making his way up the stairs to the roof. Why did his little bro always have to pull shit like this? It was fucking ridiculous. Definitely not the kind of thing that he'd do in any possible alternate reality. No, there was not one single chance of that. He was sure of it.

Before long he was on the roof, waiting for Dave to make his move. The sun beat down on his frame as he took a few steps forward, the heat of it making him regret wearing his jacket today. It looked like things had warmed up considerably since Tuesday.

"You bring Cal?"

Dirk turned to find Dave standing near the edge of the roof, facing his older brother with his hands tucked into the pockets of his white jeans. He didn't seem to be holding any kind of weapon.

"C'mon," Dirk laughed. "I don't need Lil Cal to kick your ass, Dave. Even if he is the shit."

"Lil Cal is creepy as fuck," Dave replied. "And you know it."

"We both know this isn't about Cal," Dirk said. "Why do you want to fight this time, little bro?"

"Just got a call from Rose," Dave answered. "She wants to know what happened between you and Crocker. I guess she owes Roxy a favour or something, I don't know. So here's the deal: I win, you tell me what happened. You win, I help you find out more about Jane. Sound good?"

"Hm..." Dirk considered the offer. May as well. It wasn't like he was going to lose, after all. "Okay."

"Sweet. Ready when you are, bro."

Dirk held out his arm and gave Dave a thumbs down. "Bring it."

Dave pulled out a slightly mangled puppet head, displaying it to Dirk with a smirk. "Alright."

"You little shit," Dirk's eyes narrowed as he stared at the puppet head. "You did not do that to one of my puppets."

"Sure looks like I did."

Dirk raised his sword and leapt forward.

Dave tossed the puppet head off the side of the building and drew his own sword.

It was on.

Monday:

Jane was doing pretty much everything when she got the call.

School had just ended an hour or so ago, and she was currently trying to balance an essay on endangered whales, a ten-page science report, and the ongoing case of the mystery Strider eyes. That case was going pretty well, actually. She already had some pretty good clues and theories, and Roxy said she had managed to find an actual eye-witness. That was more than she could see for most cases.

Because she was so busy, she almost didn't answer the call when she saw it. Caller ID had no idea who was calling, and that usually wasn't a good sign. But for some reason she gave in and answered. It couldn't be too bad, right?

"Jane Crocker here," She didn't try to hide the edgy tone in her voice.

"Sup, Crocker. Strider here."

Jane's eyes widened. "Dirk Strider?"

"Uh, no, it's Dave. You know, the actually awesome one?"

Jane's excitement level dropped considerably. "Oh. You couldn't have said that earlier?"

"Well I kinda assumed I was the main Strider. Anyway, I have a question for you."

"And I'm supposed to care because...?"

"Shut it Crocker, this is some actually serious shit. Are you free tomorrow?"

"Why do you want to know?" Jane asked.

"Hey, I personally don't give a shit, but I kinda owe my bro a favour now. And he wants to know if you're free tomorrow."

"Wait..." Jane said. "You're talking about Dirk?"

"'Course."

Jane perked up. "Tell him I'm free."

"Will do, your bakerness," There was a brief pause before Jane heard Dave shout away from the phone: "BRO, SHE'S FREE!"

There was another pause.

"Okay, he says you should meet him at that grocery store at 1. Sound good?"

"Uh-huh," Jane couldn't help nodding frantically as she replied.

"Sweet. Later."

"Wait, Dave..."

"Yeah?"

"How did you get this number?"

"I have my ways. Have fun with my bro, Crocker. Don't do anything crazy."

And then the call was over.

Jane grinned. Dirk wanted to see her again, and there was a set date and location for it. If she was lucky, she might even see his eyes!

Tomorrow was going to be pretty great.