Only the Curious Have Something to Find
Note: Hey, everybody! Sadly this is going to be my last update for a while…updates are gonna be pretty slow for the next two months, but I'll get some in. Here's how the next two months look: in exactly three weeks I take the SAT, about a month after that I make my confirmation. Before both those things I've got prep course and C.C. classes, which, IGNORING the time I take for schoolwork, take up my time during the week. But thankfully three weeks from tomorrow I'll be done with my SAT prep course (GOD that class literally makes me want to kill myself). I'll get an update in within the next three weeks but it is gonna be slow for a while, so I hope you can all be patient with me! The next chapter is the dinner scene so hopefully you'll be so excited for that you'll hang around :D
Jeez, that was a long note, if you read all that thank you! And enjoy!
-Chapter 3-
"Hello?"
"Hi…is this…is this Juliet?"
Juliet's eyebrows raised in surprise at the familiar - and very tired sounding - voice on the phone. "Yes…Shawn Spencer?"
"Yea…this is Shawn."
"Shawn are you awake?"
"I think so…sorry. Did I wake you up?"
"It's ten in the morning, Shawn. I've been awake for hours."
"Huh, yea, unfortunately me too…" She could hear him yawn on the other end.
Laughing slightly she politely asked, "Is there something I can do for you, Shawn?"
"Yea." He yawned again, then his voice was a little louder. "Yea, I wanted to ask you about something."
She paused, "This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain friend of mine would it?"
"What? No…well, since you brought it up do you know if he likes pineapple?"
She snorted loudly at the question, "Well, I think so. We go for smoothies at the shack by the pier when we cram for tests and he gets those pineapple mango ones." She could hear a strange gasp, he sounded almost startled, but more so delighted. "Shawn?"
"Yea…uh, yea. Sorry." He cleared his throat loudly, as if trying to control himself, "That wasn't why I called. What's your favorite color?"
Juliet stopped, surprised, "My favorite color?"
"Well, your birthday is coming up isn't it?" He used a tone as if the two were obviously connected somehow.
"Yea, but-how did you know that?"
"Heard it through the grape vine. Anyway, what's your favorite color?"
"I…" She paused, utterly confused, but relented, "Orange…but why do you want to know?"
"No reason, thanks Juliet!"
"Wait, Shawn—fine if you were just curious about that then I have a question for you."
"Hmm? I'm all ears, Jules." She paused again, Jules? "Sorry, sorry. Again with the weird nicknames. I'm sure Lassiter told you."
"Uh, yea…" She shook her head, "Any-anyway. How are you?"
"How am I?"
"Well, Carlton told me about what happened. Are you ok? Did they break anything?"
"Nah, just some sprains or whatever. I'm fine. At least I have an excuse to get out of gym on Monday. You're brutal with the dodge ball, Jules—I mean, Juliet."
She smiled, laughing slightly. "Yea, I guess. Well, once you're ok again I'm gonna kick your ass, you know that right?"
"Ooh, sadly I do." He chuckled.
"And also…I don't mind if you call me Jules, I think its cute."
"Ahah, oh well now." He laughed, "If I wasn't so sure you knew I was gay I would think you were flirting with me."
"Oh you wish, Spencer." She shook her head, the two sharing a laugh. "Hey, I—I should go."
"Yea, me too. Gus is gonna be here soon and I'm so tired I could spit. Bye, Jules."
"Bye Shawn-oh! And Shawn?"
"Yea?"
"Lassiter likes his nickname, just so you know." Juliet heard the gasp again and smiled as she hung up the phone.
--
Shawn lay on his back on his soft comforter, staring at his rabbit, Pineapple, who was playing happily in her cage. Shawn loved his little brown dwarf bunny, he'd bought her two summers ago at the County Fair. Shawn was so good to her that he bought her a cage that was three stories high, and about two feet wide, complete with a hammock at the top (Shawn had managed to find one with pineapple print on it). It had cost him two hundred dollars…he still owed his dad for some of it.
"Shawn, stop staring at Pine and pay attention to me!" Shawn turned his head, which was still aching a little, to see an exasperated Gus. He blinked sleepily, still tired from waking up at five in the morning to go fishing with his dad for their dinner.
"Sorry, what were you saying?"
"I said how about this…you wear that black t-shirt, with this shirt over it…" Gus held up a green flannel button up shirt, "With these jeans." He held up Shawn's best pair of jeans, they were dark blue and had no stains and no rips.
"I like it." Shawn smiled, "Better than your first three ideas…because there is no way I'm wearing khaki." Shawn sat up on his elbows and glanced over at the pile of discarded clothes, deciding not to comment on how all of his orange items were set aside – the two borrowed each other's clothes all the time. "Geez, Gus. I thought I was the gay one." Shawn merely got his black t-shirt thrown in his face in response. "Pfft!"
"So, you've set your sights on Carlton Lassiter, huh?"
Shawn fell back on to his back, not bothering to remove the shirt from his face. "Yea…seems to be so." Gus reached over and tugged the shirt off his face, before laying it down neatly next to the rest of the outfit. "I don't know…I just keep having these flashes of us in my head, ya' know? And Friday, the reason I was late after school was because I had to draw a picture." Gus nodded, knowing what Shawn meant. Gus was the only person who knew about Shawn's powers besides Henry and Henry's father Lawrence. Gus had helped Shawn deal with them since before he could remember.
"What was the picture of?"
"My dad…and Lassiter. They were sitting at the counter downstairs, and they were both smiling."
"Well, that's weird."
"But that's not even the worst part. When Lassiter rescued me I had this flash in my head of the two of us joking around, and I called him Lassie in the vision, so I accidentally called him Lassie in real life."
Gus' eyes widened as he tried not to laugh. "You did?"
"Shut up! It was embarrassing! He probably thinks I'm a freak!"
"I'm sure he does already."
"You know my father made a similar jab the other night. So not funny." Shawn then reached over the edge of his bed and flipped Pineapple's cage door open. The little ball of fluff blinked up at Shawn's right hand, sniffed it, and climbed in. He carefully pulled his hand back and placed Pineapple on his chest, where she happily snuggled in and fell asleep.
Gus watched her, and without taking his eyes off her asked, "So, how's your…everything? You still hurtin'?" Shawn glanced over at this friend and shook his head. "I may not be psychic, Shawn, but that doesn't mean you can lie to me."
Shawn rolled his eyes and smiled. "All right, fine. My wrist is still throbbing, my knee hurts when I walk and my headache won't go away. Happy?"
"You want something for it?"
"Nah. I'm fine."
Gus rolled his eyes. "Oh that's right, I forgot. Spencers are always fine."
--
"I've already told you my suggestions." Juliet said exasperatedly, falling onto her friend's bed. Lassiter could be so stubborn sometimes.
"But Juliet, I—isn't all this too casual?" He asked, gesturing to all the t-shirt and jeans combos she'd laid out on his bed. "How about…this one?" He pulled a black button up shirt from his closet.
"Only if you wear the purple shirt under it."
"But won't that be too casual?" He asked agitatedly. They'd been having this argument for the past half an hour.
"Shawn's a very casual person."
"I guess, but—how about I button it half way?" Juliet's eyes sparkled as Lassiter finally began to give into her demands.
"Ok, that buttoned up halfway over your purple t-shirt…" Juliet didn't bother to move or even uncross her legs as she reached down to the edge of the bed, "And…these!" She grabbed his lightest pair of blue jeans from where they had been sitting on the edge of the bed. She then reached over and grabbed the dark purple t-shirt that had been sitting with a darker pair of jeans and tossed the shirt to her friend.
"Jeans? Juliet, I already agreed to the casual top…"
"If you wear a casual top with un-casual pants-"
"Formal pants."
"-un-casual pants then you'll look weird." Juliet said, giving her friend a look. "You can't go half-in-half. It's just awkward. Like you don't know what you're doing."
"I don't!"
"Well I do! Sort of." She paused, shaking her head, "I know what I'm doing with clothes, ok? Just trust me." She shook the pants she held in her hands excitedly. "Put it all on." Lassiter looked at the clothing in his and his friend's hand before taking it with a sigh.
"All right, hang on." He opened his bedroom door, entering the bathroom directly across from his room.
Juliet smiled excitedly, she loved it when he actually listened to her. She sat for a moment before her eyes fell on Lassiter's guitar. She picked it up and pretended to play, Lassiter had taught her fingerings, but heaven help her she couldn't remember them, so she just strummed the strings as if she knew what she was doing.
As she sat she contemplated Lassiter's situation. Two days ago Lassiter had been asking her, in so many words about a hypothetical situation, how to get Shawn to notice him and now he was going to the boy's house for dinner. Boy was he lucky.
Well, so was she.
She'd had her eyes on Gus for months now. Almost a year, actually. He was part of 'pep club', the club that tried to get people excited about the school's activities, and he'd come to a few of her soccer games. One in particular she remembered, he'd cheered her – well, the team – on excitedly the whole time, and when they finished he'd complimented her in particular. The shy way he'd said "Wow, Juliet. Awe-awesome job!" had just tugged so hard at her heart strings that she'd practically melted for him. One of her teammates said the only reason he came to the game was for her.
Now that her best friend was getting closer to Gus' best friend, possibly getting into a relationship with him, Juliet could possibly get closer to Gus, maybe have a relationship of her own. She shook her head excitedly, the thought of being with Gus giving her shivers.
But whether she got with Gus or not, she was beyond excited for Lassiter and his developing relationship with the boy he'd wanted for so long.
"How do I look?" She looked up at Lassiter, torn from her thoughts, and took in his look.
She smiled excitedly, "Perfect! You've still got your own style in there, but you've got some Shawn splashed in there too." She stood and walked to him, unbuttoning one of his buttons before adding with a smile, "He's going to love you."
--
Henry turned as he heard Shawn come into the kitchen. "Gus leave?"
"Yea, just now. His mom wanted him home for a party thing."
Henry stopped his cutting of onions and turned to his son, "A party thing?"
Shawn shrugged, "Gus' aunt is pregnant. That's what the party thing is for."
"Really? Gus tell you that?"
"Nah, fell asleep for a second while Gus was here and saw it." Henry nodded and turned back to his onions. "Need help?"
"Sure, feel like gutting the fish?"
"Been waiting my whole life for it." Henry snorted as Shawn walked up next to him and grabbed the big knife.
Shawn mindlessly cut up the fish as he had done a million times before when suddenly an image flashed in his mind. The one he had drawn before, Lassiter and his father sitting in the kitchen, but this time it was longer, more animated. They were laughing. Shawn shook his head, focusing again before he cut himself.
"So…you excited for tonight?"
Shawn shrugged at his father's question. "Eh."
"Eh." Henry mocked, smirking. "That's all you got to say? Is that why you - Shawn be careful, you'll get fish juice on the brace – is that why you had Gus pick out an outfit for you?"
"Pssh, no. He just decided to help when I told him about it." Shawn left out the part about Gus needed to steal some of his orange clothes.
"Huh…so calling him and declaring a 'code teal' had nothing to do with it?"
"You don't know what code teal is."
"I don't? Because I seem to remember you declaring code teal when I tried to wear my Hawaiian shirt out doors once. You screamed it at the top of your lungs and Gus practically tackled me to ripped it off."
"…ok fine, maybe you do know what code teal is. But seriously, Dad. That shirt should only be worn to a 'blind guys only' convention."
"Why would I be going to a convention for blind people?"
"I don't know. You're a strange person, father. I don't know about your creepy fetishes." Henry rolled his eyes, before grabbing a green pepper and beginning to slice that up.
"Sure. Because I have fetishes about blind people."
"Your words, not mine." Shawn grinned before finishing the fish and crying out, "Fish gutted!" He threw down the knife dramatically, before turning to his father. "Can I go get changed now?"
"Sure thing there, Code Teal." The only answer Henry got was a dishtowel being thrown at his head.
-TBC-
I'm sorry this is two days late but as you probably know (unless it was only for me, which is weird because I tried on three different computers) the site was having problems and wouldn't allow logins, let alone posting. So I hope you can forgive me, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I posted a short Shassie oneshot as an apology for my lateness, if you're interested. :D
See you all in the next chapter - the dinner scene!!
-claire
