'There's no way this is going to work. So not gonna work, so not gonna work . . .'

Ignoring the negative mantra that was running through his head, Dan decided that he was still going to go through with Smith's plan, at least for now. If he felt like it was taking too long or that Smith didn't know what he was talking about, which he was already beginning to suspect was the case, he would . . . he didn't know. If he didn't go along with what the creep said, he'd be outed. Would the school really believe him though? Maybe he needed to get a girlfriend to help prove it wrong, just in case . . . He would wait though. Who knows? Maybe the psycho actually knew what he was doing. That made him wonder about something else though—what, exactly, had Smith meant when he said that he knew Kowalski's heart better than anyone? He didn't have time to think on it though; phase one of plan Get Laid was about to start.

The first part of the plan—the only part that Smith had actually told him—was simple; get Kowalski to notice him. It had seemed too simple, which was the problem; it didn't seem like it would get him anywhere anytime soon if Kowalski just noticed him. He was impatient already. He would wait though. Smith had, after all, warned him that if he did anything other than what he was ordered to do, Kowalski would just think that he was messing with him. The time for action would be later. For now, the plan was to get Petey "thinking about" him, as Smith had put it. How faggy. The kid better be worth the trouble.

Though the plan was a simple one, it was time consuming. He drew the line at missing practice and lunch—a jock had to eat, after all—but he was missing out on a large part of his leisure time. Maybe he would be able to get his soon-to-be boy-toy to do his homework for him sometime . . . He had to focus on the plan for the time being though. The plan . . .

He had to shadow Kowalski until the kid was bullied. It seemed simple enough—the kid was a walking target—but he had to be careful. He couldn't do anything if the bully was another jock or a prep (Ted was too fond of their parties for Dan to cause trouble), and he had to be careful if it was an actual bully he picked a fight with; he didn't want to deal with Russell, after all. After waiting for the perfect opportunity, he just had to knock whoever it was out, scowl at Kowalski, then walk off. Simple, but effective—he hoped. Smith had assured him that the kid would spend all night trying to figure out why he hadn't had the shit kicked out of him. He would wait a few days and then phase two, whatever the hell it was, would kick in.

After following the kid for about an hour, careful not to be seen by anyone, he finally got lucky; Fatty, of all people, picked a fight with the smaller boy. He was chuckling to himself, marveling at how lucky he was, when his mood soured; Jimmy Hopkins, the prick he was supposed to be keeping Kowalski away from, had just come to the rescue. He clenched his fists, his eyes narrowing. His time had been wasted. He would have to shadow the kid another day since his protector was sure to be with him for the hour and half that Dan had left before practice began.

He walked away, shoving people with his still-clenched fists, understanding how Gary Smith felt; he was, after all, not the only one who wanted Jimmy Hopkins away from a certain boy.

/

"So, how'd your first interaction with Femme-boy go?"

There was an arm around his shoulder; Smith was too touchy, too familiar. It made his skin crawl, but he was careful not to let it show in his face. The sociopath would enjoy it if he did, and Dan didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"Did you rescue him from the big, bad student?"

So he hadn't seen. Dan had the distinct impression that Smith wouldn't be above following him while he followed Kowalski to make sure the job he had assigned got done, but he hadn't actually noticed the boy lurking behind bushes or anything throughout the day, and surely he would have mentioned it if he knew that Jimmy Hopkins had interfered? Besides, the fact that Petey had been attacked by a nerd seemed like something the scarred boy would make fun of.

"Come on, Danny-boy, answer me."

The hand resting on his shoulder squeezed at a slightly painful level, and Dan, no longer being able to stand Gary touching him, shook it off. Somehow, whether it was because of the brunette's smirk or cocky tone, Dan got the sudden impression that Smith knew he hadn't gotten anywhere that day, and he was just toying with him. What a prick.

"I'm working on it."

/

The second day of shadowing Kowalski went about as well as it had the first—the only difference being that instead of Hopkins showing up and getting in the way, it was Smith. The bastard was smirking and glancing around as he led the smaller boy away, probably to their dorm room, and Dan knew that the sociopath was looking for him, just to laugh at how pissed off he probably looked.

/

"Danny-boy! How's—"

"I'm working on it."

/

The third day was definitely the most stressful. It took somewhere around an hour and forty minutes to even find Kowalski, and by the time he had finally caught sight of the uncliqued boy, lunch was about to begin. He glanced between the kid, who was loitering around the outside of the library, and the main school building. After a minute, his decision was made; he would stay put and keep an eye on Kowalski, not liking his chances of finding him again before practice began. After that, he had to hide, crouched behind a bush, for nearly twenty minutes for someone to finally show up and hassle Kowalski—and then, seeing who it was, he muttered to himself that the kid better put out on a daily basis before, making sure no one saw where he was coming from, he came out from behind the bush.

Wade Martin didn't scare him; jocks didn't scare easily, after all, especially not because of prick bullies with daddy issues. He wasn't tall, though Dan wasn't either, but he was strong—and angry. There was no way that Dan could just bump into him and scare him off; he would have to fight. He refused to stalk Peter Kowalski around for one more day though, so, making it look like he was just trying to get by the red-head, he rammed into Wade's shoulder, snapping at the bully to get out of his way. It worked. Wade immediately lost interest in Kowalski, who was watching the scene before him with surprise, and turned his full focus on the jock who had the nerve to touch him.

"You wanna see me lose it? Huh, Dad? I mean, you're dead!"

They both got one good shove in before the prefects showed up, warning them of what would happen if they didn't cut it out. Wade was the first to walk off, though he gave Dan a look that held a promise of a later beating, and one of the prefects followed after him. The second prefect glared at him for all of twenty seconds before also walking off, leaving Dan alone with . . .

"Pricks like that will tear you apart if you're not careful. Watch yourself."

He scowled, picked up the book—something on art—that Wade had tore from the smaller boy's hands and thrown to the ground, tossed it to him, and walked off before he could see the kid scramble to catch it. He was sure he had gone to far; Smith had specifically told him not to actually say anything to the boy. Later that night though, when he was laying in bed, hungry and exhausted from a practice session that had lasted twice as long as they usually did, as he thought over the day's events, he couldn't let it bother him. He was proud of himself, if anything. He had ignored Smith's orders and taken matters into his own hands . . . sort of. Maybe he didn't need Smith after all . . . Kowalski was probably in his bed at that very moment, jerking off to him.

/

"Gary . . ."

There was an eerie silence in the room after his orgasm. With his luck, his roommate would choose that moment to show up—and he would be ecstatic because of it, because it would mean that he'd actually get to see Gary. He would be made fun of, no doubt, but he would put up with it as long as it meant that Gary would actually be around; the brunette had been staying out until odd hours since he had brought up his plan to take over the school, and because Jimmy was always around, he never got to see his friend. Not that he was complaining about Jimmy; Petey would welcome any friend he could get. Sometimes he missed Gary so much that it physically hurt though, and he wished his new friend would give them some alone time. He didn't even care how pathetic it sounded. If he knew Gary wouldn't just laugh at him and call him a girl, he'd tell his friend . . . but Gary was Gary, and it was never a good idea to be sensitive around the boy.

It was around one in the morning when his roommate finally came in, and though he was still awake, Petey pretended to be asleep. He had long since showered, but as Gary stood over him, he felt exposed; he knew that it was paranoid, but he couldn't get the idea that Gary knew what had happened out of his head. It was then that a memory from the previous day came back to him—"I hear everything." Gary was getting out of control, he knew, but as the taller boy's hand rested on the back of his neck—Gary had never had an issue with touching people, and since Petey was his oldest friend, the smaller boy was used to it, though he thought he'd never get used to the fluttering feeling it caused his stomach to have each and every time—he couldn't bring himself to care.

"I have big plans for us, Petey. Big plans."