A/N: Um, sorry if this one's a bit odd. It's like, two in the morning, and I attempted to write it all out before I forgot it for the last hour or so. It was fun to write though. Hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own whatever you assume I don't, which includes Starry Night, Carlos, James, Kendall, and Logan, as they belong to somebody else who isn't me. Just making that clear.
Kendall was sitting next to a, simply put, geek.
Carlos was telling him and James about this new kid he made friends with while he was taking a few sick days from school to recover from a bad cold- unluckily, Carlos had broken his arm and James, who had received the cold from him, had one more day to stay home-
Funnily, the last day he had to be out of class was the day a casting director came to town, seeking new talent, and also the day his science class was heading to the local museum. They had a lesson in paleontology, and James would come last in line at a chance to mess up his hair. Kendall believed he may have shaken his picky attitude by the time they got older, but at the intensity his habits were going now, it was a shot in the dark. But he sat on the bus next to this scrawny kid, and he remembered what Carlos was telling him.
"He's a bit shy, I mean, he didn't open up to me right away." Kendall figured that whoever doesn't open up to Carlos's warm smile right away had to be mentally disturbed. The boy (who Carlos never told him the name of) didn't look like bipolar, or anti-social, or like a schizophrenic. Just a typical, happy kid, clicking away at his calculator and writing down various times, placed next to errands. Most likely a to-do list. Kendall decided to try Carlos's word and talk to the kid.
"A to-do list?" Kendall instantly felt like he was trying to impress this kid. Of course it's a to-do list, you idiot. Way to make the smart kid think less of your intelligence.
The boy glanced over and smiled a small smile. He nodded, then continued clicking away at the planned schedule.
"I see you have..." Kendall tried to look interested, going down the list. Try out for math decathlon, go to youth's medical seminar, study at library, buy hockey sticks, Janine's birthday, science fair... wait. "Buy hockey sticks?" It suddenly wasn't so hard to sound interested. "You play hockey?"
"Uh, only a few times when I was living in Maine for a bit." He fiddled with the edge of his to do list nervously, etched in his notebook, as if talking to a king. Kendall certainly wasn't the most popular kid in school, but some girls did like him, and his name was heard around once in a while on campus, so the boy's nerves were understandable.
"Way cool! You're trying out for the team, right?" Kendall beamed.
"Uh, I don't know... maybe next year, in high school. I need to get better than I am now before I expect to make the team." The boy's smile slowly melted. "I have a pond that freezes over in the winter in my backyard, so if I practice by myself, once a day..." He began to count. "I'll be good about three days before the expected try-outs next year, which I heard is a winter sport."
"What if you had a partner?" Kendall offered his service subtly. He didn't want to appear too forward. "That would throw off your equation completely, now wouldn't it?"
"A partner? That would increase my learning rate by-" He began counting again, and turned over his to-do list to a blank page, where he began etching out numbers quickly. This dude was smart.
"What if you had... say, three partners?" Kendall's face grew to a smirk. With a bit of convincing, James would agree to (reluctantly) helping this boy, and Carlos was down with absolutely anything, and seeing how he already told himself he enjoyed this boy's presence, Carlos was hands-down ready to train him.
"Three partners? That will bump me up to getting good enough to making it on this years team- but... where am I supposed to find three partners? I have no idea who anybody is around here." He paused his intense work.
"Well, I was hoping you'd let-" Kendall was cut short by his teacher, who began the whole safety speech as they arrived at the museum.
"The person you are seated with is your buddy- stick with your buddy and make sure they stay with the group. You two are a team. Stay safe. I'll explain the rest of the rules as we step out." Their teacher explained, as the class stood and sluggishly, the bus emptied of teens. They were standing out on the prominent staircase of the museum as the bus turned a corner, finding a place to park. Kendall decided to mimic his buddy's actions and actually pay attention to their teacher's lecture.
Kendall noticed that his friend was so silent, and so intrigued by the various exhibits in the museum. He looked almost disappointed when their teacher skipped parts of the fine arts, but seemed to make up for that loss whenever their teacher lectured about the fossils. Kendall could tell that he either loved to learn, or the teacher was attractive to him. But their teacher was about sixty, and looked about seventy, so he didn't assume his second assumption was true.
"Alright, free time." Their teacher announced. "Please stay within museum grounds. To make sure you do, security officers will be at the front. And by all means, feel free to learn something. Oh, and remain with your buddy. Meet me back here in one hour, or detentions will be readily available!"
The pairs walked off, and Kendall and his buddy wandered. He began spewing facts about the random exhibits. "That is a replica of the painting Starry Nights, created by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889. It was heavily influenced by Lord Rosse's sketch of the whirlpool galaxy, which was first drawn in 1845, forty-four years before Van Gogh painted his piece."
Kendall was actually intrigued, replying with, "Interesting. Wish I could paint like that." He longed for something to intelligent to say. But as the two wandered farther and farther into the museum, they came across a section of the museum hidden behind a door. The sign above it read Pop Culture History. Kendall thought to himself, perfect. Popular stuff. Something we can both talk about. They opened the door that was slightly propped ajar by a small, wooden door stop, which they set aside.
They walked in, opening the glass door, and shutting it behind them, the click of the door ringing in the hall. As they looked around, surveying, they saw that all the exhibits were covered in canvas tarps. It was peculiar.
"Oh, this must be that new wing the gee..." He caught himself before he said geek, "...guys in history class were talking about. Oh, well. Let's go back."
"Wait a second. If the wing isn't finished..." His friend instantly turned around. "Then the doors must be..."
He shook the long, steel handle, trying to open it, but the door wouldn't budge. The two looked at each other in unison. Simultaneously, they muttered, "...locked."
"Oh, crap, oh, crap, oh, crap, what do we do? What do we do? We've searched all over this hallway! No way out!" The boy paced, trying to figure a way out. He seemed to be running out of options, and considering how logistic he was, having no options never seemed to occur to him often. "We're gona be trapped in here. I've never gotten a detention in my life, that is if we do get out."
"We're gona get out. Just calm down and think about this, alright?" Kendall reasoned. "You're extremely smart, you've shown me today, and my friends say that I've got a good sense of leadership. Put those two together, and you've got yourself a grade-a team. We can find a way out of this place."
"Obviously banging on the door and screaming help didn't work."
"Yeah, this isn't the most happening place in town."
"Now it is! I can see the headlines now, 'Two Boys Die of Hunger, Trapped Inside New Wing.' All of Minnesota's going to be talking about it."
"You forgot to add in the headline pun about chicken wings." Kendall chuckled. The boy froze, looked at him with an absurd face, and then busted out in laughter. "You see? Never let life give you a reason not to smile."
"Alright, alright." He sighed. "I'm calm. What do you propose we do to get out of here?"
"Um... let's see." Kendall began pacing slowly. "There are no windows, both entrances to this hallway are locked, and we don't want to get arrested for property damage, so breaking open the doors is a worst-case scenario."
"And this isn't?"
"A worst-case scenario would be if zombies were upon us." Kendall continued. "My mom took away my cell phone, and yours gets no signal. All we have to eat is the bubble gum in my pocket, and the air vents aren't working."
"Say that last part again." His friend had a thinking kind of face on.
"The air vents aren't working. But how does that-" His buddy instantly broke his quote when he began pulling a ladder from the corner of the hallway nearby. Instantly, Kendall realized it all. "Duh! How could we be so naive?" Kendall smiled, as he watched his friend climb the ladder and inspect the wide air vent shield. He ran his finger onto the screws of the vent.
"There has to be a screwdriver here somewhere." He came down from the ladder. "Let's go find one."
After finding the screw driver, and slipping into the vent, the two were crawling through, searching for the closest opening. They were going and down through the maze of the wide, stainless steel vents, praying for any form of freedom. They began to panic, as they continually stressed over the time, Logan calculated the estimated collection time of their class.
"We've got about fifteen seconds before teach begins calling roll. We're not technically tardy until we hear our names." Behind him, his friend commented. Inside, Kendall thought to himself, Good, there's a lot of names before me. No telling for... what's his name over here, though.
"Only fifteen seconds?" Kendall exclaimed, bringing up the pace of his crawl.
"Fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, twelve..."
"Not helping."
"Sorry."
They crawled on, until they heard their teacher call out, "Alright kids. Roll call!" Muffled from a tunnel in the vents. Kendall listened carefully. "Mia Abraham."
"Here!" Mia chirped. Kendall followed the sound and began taking much more of a leading stride in his crawl, signifying he knew the way perfectly. Their teacher began going down the list, and they soon entered J's territory from the attendance sheet. He could feel himself getting closer to the vent opening. You'd think they'd have more vents in such a cold museum. Kendall muttered to himself, looking back occasionally to check if his buddy was keeping up fine. He was, luckily.
"Erik Jarrett." Their teacher called.
Erik responded with a, "Here!"
"Hurry!" Kendall announced, "The openings right there." It was within his eye line now.
"Dana Johnson."
"Here!"
They were so close, as they began terribly rushing towards the hole in the vent. "Screwdriver!" Kendall had his hand held out to the back, as his follower handed him the screwdriver, and they slid slyly to the vent, quickly turning the bolts on the corners to escape.
"Kayla Karlson."
"Here!"
Dropping, the two clumsily fell upon the tile, on their feet to their knees, slowly rubbing at their agonizing bruises, simultaneously darting towards the group in the prehistoric section.
"Kendall Knight." Their teacher called, and just in time, Kendall bounced into the group.
"Here!" He said through heavy pants and turned calmly to his friend to offer a high-five. Gladly obliging, they exchanged a look that told each other that they made a great team. Their teacher continued on with the list, and they stood idly, although not saying any words, their heavy breaths and laughs were just enough to convey the message that the two now were best friends.
"You know..." Kendall finally said, rubbing one last time at his bruised knee. "... I never got your name."
"Logan Mitchell." Their teacher chimed in.
"Here." He raised his hand, then extended it to Kendall's reach. "Logan Mitchell."
As their teacher finished their roll call, she led the kids out to the front of the museum steps to load back onto the bus. Logan began conversation, "So, you're the Kendall Knight? You know my friend Carlos then..."
"Yeah, me and him go way back..." Kendall put his arm around Logan's shoulder, about to deal a proposition. "So what do you say about three hockey partners…"
