Chapter Four: Top of The World

Chapter Four: That's What You Get Part One

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Drake & Josh. I just own the made up characters.

Author's Note: This is a super long chapter.

Drake was lucky as far as hangovers go. The only thing bugging him was the sun screaming viciously into his eyes. He used his Risky Business style glasses to help him out on his way home.

Without a single care in the world, he wandered into his house around noon, disregarding the fact that he had completely disobeyed his curfew. Thankfully, Walter and Audrey were at Megan's music recital, so nobody was home to lecture him or threaten him with Audrey's favorite line: "You're not too old for a spanking, mister!"

It was as if someone had smeared Krazy Glue underneath his lips and now he just couldn't stop smiling, his mouth was stuck in that form. Kim's party was more than he wanted it to be.

"Josh!" Drake hollered repeatedly while jumping steps up to his bedroom where he knew he'd find his brother finishing up an assignment for one of Drake's mortal enemies: Mrs. Hayfer. "Oh man!" He began to gush as soon as he'd jumped in front of his brother. Drake smelt rank as he was still dressed in last night's clothes, but he ignored that fact and threw his hands around like an excited junior high girl. "You'll never guess who I got with last night!" He yanked the giant English text book right out of Josh's grip.

"Kim Kolt?" Josh stated extra carelessly.

"How'd you know?" Drake scratched his greasy head of hair and pondered over the possibilities of his brother being a physic.

"Process of elimination." Sarcastically, Josh reached behind Drake and grabbed his school book back from the coffee table.

"Yeah, and after she was finished, I made out with Giselle."

"Who?"

"Giselle Dobrechowski." Drake guessed that was her last name; he didn't give two shits either way. He was on a natural high and had no plans to come down.

"Who?"

"This hot German exchange student!" He shrieked. "She's staying with Kim for the year and this is her first week in our fair land." Mischievously, the corners of Drake's lips curled upwards as he fiddled with his fingers together. "And I got her number! We have plans for tonight already." Drake was very proud of how well he could schmooze when it came to girls.

Josh, on the other hand, avoided letting his eyes meet with Drake's excited pupils. He couldn't stop thinking about Pem, how she smelt like sea salt and her skin was warm and smooth against his own. He kept picturing mentally in his head how she'd make an intense eye contact with him before their lips parted and then she'd close her eyes shut again.

Josh worried that if he looked up at Drake that he would be able to put the pieces together, but Drake was too caught up in his own world to give a damn.

"She's got the hottest body, Josh; you can't even imagine a girl like this." Drake exclaimed while jumping the ladder and laying down in his own bed, little did he know, his brother could imagine a girl like that and he had been ever since Pem left their house at one in the morning. "She's got this thick German accent and blonde blonde hair. She's straight out of a damn music video." He howled while fishing his cell phone out of his zip-up pocket. He ignored the missed calls and voicemails and went straight to calling Pem.

Since she was his best friend, it was only fitting she hear his news.

"I got to tell Pem!" He exclaimed while pressing the one to his ear and listening to the dial tone. "Josh, why so quiet?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Josh shivered and shut his school book closed immediately. "I don't know a thing about Pem!"

"What?" Drake lowered both his brows, forcing them to join in the middle like one giant furry cocoon. He shrugged it off and ignored how frantic Josh was acting. "That's weird, I got her voicemail."

Serves you right. Josh thought to himself privately.

"What the hell could she be doing that's so important this early in the morning?"

"It's noon." Josh corrected.

"I'm going over." Drake shoved his hand, cell phone inside his fist, back into his sweatshirt and jumped down to the floor.

"You should probably shower first."

"Point taken!" He shot one finger in the air and made a beeline for the upstairs bathroom.

XXX

"Mattie, please, keep your overalls done up!"

Every daycare had its primo rascal and at the Skinner's daycare center which Patricia ran out of the main floor and basement of her house, Mathieu Herbert was it.

With her pajama pants dragging under her feet and dark circles wrapping around her eyes, Pem chased after the seven year old brat until he'd clipped the straps of denim overalls back together. She picked up one of the youngest children off the ground, removing the red plastic block out of his mouth's reach as she went to answer the door.

She was disappointed to find Drake there, mostly because she'd have rather greeted an early parent and she was still a little cheesed off at her friend for missing out on her birthday.

"Hey, you're not picking up your phone." He shook his cell phone in front of her air as if she'd been living in a cave for a decade and didn't have the hottest clue what technology was.

"I'm kind of busy." She figured Drake had eyes and could see at least six of the twelve children that were running about her formerly clean house. Pem was shocked that Drake hadn't apologized yet or even acknowledged what he'd done.

"Well, do you have time to hear my awesome story?"

That's when it became crystal clear to Pem that Drake was still blissfully unaware of his forgetfulness.

"Sure, I guess." She sighed and began to walk away from him. "Mattie, don't take off some else's overall's either." Still holding the baby in her arms, Pem made for a mad dash to Mathieu and pulled him away from his little sister. Drake closed the door behind him and slipped off his Chuck Taylor's while Pem tried to fix the little girl's outfit.

"It's about Kim's party last night." He stood behind her and ignored the fact that she was very pre occupied. She stood back up and handed Drake the baby while he babbled. She then led Mathieu's little sister and another blonde toddler to the kitchen table where they could entertain themselves with crayons and big pieces of white paper. "It was crazy shi-…awesome." He refrained from swearing around the daycare kids. "Pem, can't someone else watch these rug rats? They're taking away from my story." He spoke over the crying baby and screaming children that were racing around the house.

"No can do." She shook her head and took the baby from his arms, so she could get him ready for his bottle.

"Where's the rest of your family?" Drake wondered, looking around, thinking he could just pick them out of thin air.

"Dad's with the twins who are at soccer practice, Pete's at the Y, and my mom's upstairs trying to conduct a time out."

"Good luck." Drake scoffed and pulled himself out a chair to sit between the two little girls who were coloring pictures with only pink and purple wax crayons. "As I was saying, Kim and I were all over each other. We got together, in her parent's bed,"

"Why weren't you in her bed?" The tinier of the two toddlers searched Drake's big brown eyes for answers. Pem wondered that question as well.

"Cause it was being used by other people." He answered the three year old honestly like she was an adult.

"Well, congratulations." Pem said with her back facing Drake and most of her attention on the baby in her arms.

"It gets better. I met a German chick! So hot!"

"Does she have a fever?" The tiny toddler asked him again. This time, Drake just handed her a broken magenta crayon in place of an answer.

"Drake, I don't know if this story is entirely appropriate for daycare." Usually, Pem wouldn't care, but she was angry with her best friend and a little confused herself about how she was going to explain her make out session with Josh to Drake. Plus, she was working.

"Is something wrong, Pem?" Drake didn't understand why she was acting the way she was. Usually both her monster eyes were engaged by his facial expressions during one of his stories and she loved when he'd gush over a girl. "Did you get in another fight with your dad?" He asked, nonchalantly, he clearly didn't really care at that moment.

"Pen, pen, pen!" Mathieu came racing around the living room corner and straight into the kitchen. He almost collided with the childproof gate on his way over. He attempted to chant Pem's name then went to tugging on the bottom of her oversized sweatshirt. "Your mom said we could have your left over birthday cake for snack!"

That's when Drake realized the real problem. Pem's sixteenth birthday had slipped out of his mind like a lubed up man on a waterslide. Pem stared at Drake whose jaw was sitting on her kitchen floor and his eyes drilling a hole into her face.

"Don't." She said sharply and adjusted the baby against her chest to burp him. "And yes, Mathieu, we'll have cake later."

"Pem, I can't believe myself. Dude, I'm an idiot!" His hands landed onto his face as he followed her around the house. "How did I screw that one up? As if I forgot."

"You were excited." Pem made excuses for Drake; she was no stranger to that task. Of course, she was hurt, but she tried her hardest to take the high road.

"I'm going to make it up to you. Let's go do the Marx Brothers thing tonight."

"It was only on last night."

"Well, let's go do something you want to do, anything, on me!"

"How about you just come over around six and we figured something out then?" Pem was prepared to grant her best friend some kind of forgiveness. He seemed genuinely upset with his actions, even though he had yet to apologize.

"Oh, I can't at six." Or maybe, he wasn't. "Giselle, the German chick, we're going for an early dinner, but I could come by afterwards."

"Forget it." Pem stopped in front of her front door, standing right in the middle of the decorative rug that was sitting contently underneath a mess of small shoes with the exception of Drake's and two pairs of Pem's fathers work shoes.

"No, I already did that!" Drake stomped his feet. "Let me make this better."

"Please, just go, we'll talk later." With one free hand, Pem ripped open her front door and left it wide for Drake to let himself out. She marched away while rocking the baby.

Drake was stunned. Even though she'd handled the whole situation like a pro, she'd never just asked him to leave; she always loved when he'd pop by. He couldn't help that large quantities of small children made him squeamish. He decided to wait until after his date to give her a call, maybe then she'd be less occupied.

XXX

Just like a woman in labor Josh had to coach himself through breathing. He had the phone clenched between his clammy palms and wore an expression on his face like someone who was baring bad news as he paced back and forth in front of his bed, preparing to call Pem.

What if she really didn't want to talk to him?

She was pissed off at Drake last night. It was plausible that the kiss was strictly out of spite and a little bit of loneliness. Perhaps, he was just reading into nothing.

Nervously, Josh played with the buttons of his cell phone and accidentally hit the green "Tel" button which caused his phone to dial Pem's number on the spot.

"Oh crap!" His lips smacked together and he immediately hung up.

He sat down on the coach that sat in the middle of the room covered in Drake's guitar, empty soda cans, and one crumpled up jumbo bag of Sour Cream & Onion chips. He was trying to convince himself to play it cool and be calm. Besides, Pem had always been very kind to him. Maybe, she'd be friendly and polite.

Before, Josh could fully convince himself his cell phone began to buzz loudly as it vibrated on his lap.

"Crap, crap, crap!" He repeated over and over as he read her name and number flash like a neon sign on the front of his cell phone. Finally, he just flipped it open and held it, shaking in his hand, against his ear. "Crap?" He let slip accidentally. "I mean, hello, hi, uh, hi."

"Hey, did you just hang up on me?" Pem had just begun to walk the Skinner's family pug, Pugsley. She held his leash loosely as he doddled down her driveway and onto the residential street.

"Yeah, I did, sorry." Josh answered honestly.

"Oh,uh," Awkwardly, Pem attempted to cough up a chuckle. "Any reason why?"

"I didn't mean to call you, actually."

"Okay," Pem was surprised when her heart sank in disappointment to find that out. "Well, in that case, see you."

"But, I wanted to!" Josh tried to make a quick save. He stood up on his feet from the sofa and wandered over to his bed, trying to keep his body moving in hope's it would help his brain work.

"Josh, I'm getting confused."

"I was just curious, you know, how your day went and…stuff?"

"Busy." She let out honestly. Since, she was in the middle of a grudge with Drake; it was nice to have someone to talk about little things with.

"You had to work at your mom's daycare, right?"

A smile appeared on Pem's face as fast as magic beans make a bean stock grow. She didn't expect Josh to remember anything she had told him earlier.

"Yeah, I did, which isn't usually a big deal, but Pete,"

"Your oldest brother?"

"Yeah, he was busy, so it was just my mom and I and twelve little weasels." She sighed. "Oh well, it's all over now, thankfully. How about you? How's your day been going?"

"Well, nowhere near as eventful as yours." Josh had immersed himself into a complete comfortable state; he had wandered back to the coach with his legs sprawled out and his back straight against the arm of it. "I just finished up some homework and I took a small three hour shift over at The Premiere."

"And how'd that go?" Pem was genuinely interested in the conversation. She had forgotten that she was out walking her dog; she was just going through the motions.

"Not busy at all, actually. Afternoons never are."

"I'm surprised you're not working tonight since its Saturday."

"Yeah, it's my first Saturday off in months."

"Lucky you! What will you do with yourself? Sneak into a casino? Download she-male midget porn?" Pem giggled as she poked fun at Josh.

"Porn? That sounds dirty. I prefer the term 'adult film'." Usually, a topic such as pornography with anyone would make Josh sweat, but even though Pem was just an acquaintance, he was strangely at ease. Her voice sounded as sweet as honeydew, he couldn't help, but be peaceful while talking to her.

"My bad." She chuckled.

"Actually, my friends, Craig and Eric, they're in this debate against your school and I told them I'd check it out – "

"That was nice of you."

"I guess, but uh," Here came the hard part. Josh knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted it to come out. Even though he was comfortable on the phone with her, there was no way around the jitters and nerves that were pinching his throat. "I was sort of thinking, well, who doesn't like a good debate?!" Quickly, just to get a sentence out, Josh said.

"I do enjoy well organized arguing."

"Then, so, you'll come?"

Whoa. It came like a blood sucking bat out of a pitch black cave. Pem really wasn't expecting him to want to hang out. After, she let it sink in, she smiled at the idea of spending more time with Josh. She had enjoyed herself the night before and he was very kind about making her feel better when she was down. Plus, the boy made a mean marble cake.

"Sure, that sounds like fun."

"Okay, uh, I'll pick you up around seven?"

"Yeah, do you know where I live?" Pem wanted to make sure.

"Yep, you live in Epiphany Spring, right?" He wanted to double check, just in case. "25 Easy Dell Court?"

"That's the one."

"Great, see you at seven."

"See you."

"Oh, and Pem," He rushed his words together before she could hang up.

"Yeah?"

"Can we keep this between you and I, like, don't tell Drake, maybe?"

"Of course."

Pem never fully understood how Drake could flutter from girl to girl like a butterfly that had just dropped acid and she couldn't even grab McDonald's with a guy friend, but that's just how it had always been. Drake would throw a temper tantrum if Pem bought People's Sexiest Man Alive issue. It was just best if Pem and Josh kept things to themselves for the moment.

XXXX

Part two will be up soon! I have to work all day tomorrow, but hopefully by Sunday, I'll be able to begin writing it.

Let me know what you guys think! Thorough reviews are beautiful.

That's What You Get - Paramore