LM Simpson's tidbits: Did you know that February 9, 2009, is supposed to be the date of a real life lunar eclipse? To celebrate this fact, the tenth chapter to this baby is being updated on Monday (since that's when the lunar eclipse is going to occur). I totally love writing this fanfic, and thanks for the support I've gotten so far!

Enjoy!

Phase Two: Zick beside Teddy

Chapter Ten: The Kids Aren't Alright

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Zick reached Old Mill High School (Home of the Millers!) five minutes before his planned rendezvous with Teddy. Alright, he thought, he swore that he left the apartment complex fifteen minutes ago, so if traffic's good the whole time he should be here right on time…

Seven minutes passed, then ten. Where the hell is he? Elena's gonna be here in a few minutes!

Immediately after he checked his watch for what he viewed as the millionth time, Terrence's car pulled up. Teddy stepped out with his bookbag and what resembled a white paper bag, waved at his father, and walked up the stairs as he drove off down the road.

"What the heck were you doing?" Zick said, more annoyed than angered. "Elena should be going to her locker in three minutes!"

"Calm down! It shouldn't take too long to get there since there aren't three thousand kids here." He opened the paper bag. "You like jelly doughnuts, right?"

"Yeah…" Teddy handed him a powdered doughnut that filled the recipient's hand. Zick tore a mouthful as he followed him into the hall, continuing to take bites that flew sugared powder onto his shirt and the floor. He licked his fingers and patted the residue off when they reached her locker.

"Teddy, stop!"

He was seven lockers down. "What?"

Zick pointed to the top locker to his right. "It's right here!"

They split a chocolate doughnut, leaving crumbs on or encircling the fronts of their shoes. Teddy stuffed his half in and began choking on the dry cake; Zick ate his in thirds, but still felt some stuck in his throat. It was just enough time to kill before the hall's population grew and one of the handfuls of redheads in the school stepped down the hall towards them.

"You remember what to do?" Zick asked.

"Yeah," Teddy replied as he crushed the empty doughnut bag in a ball with his hands, and then stuffed it down his jean pocket.

Elena stopped in front of the duo. She wore an apple green short sleeve shirt and blue jeans, had her cranberry bookbag swung over her right shoulder, and clearly not amused. "Zick, Teddy—"she said the latter name with an especially bitter face—"can you two let get to my locker?"

Teddy almost opened his mouth, but Zick cut him off. "Not until you let me apologize to you first."

"Why should I let you apologize to me? The last time I tried to talk to you last week, you told me to 'fuck off' during algebra II. And you haven't called me at all for the last week!"

Teddy had control over the conversation then. He butted in, "Why should he when you're being an asshole yourself?"

She glared at him. Pointing, she said, "Oh yeah, that reminds me—guess what Zick called me yesterday? I think he got it from being with you all the time!"

"Oh, come on, Elena!" Teddy exclaimed. "You know that I haven't called you that since I was fifteen! Besides, you know I'm not the only one in this school that calls—or called—you—"

"Don't you dare say it—"

"—Potato!"

Zick gulped as he saw smoke and fire brewing in her brown eyes. She inhaled deeply and tried to calm down, but her fists clenched and before he knew it Mount Elena erupted. "YOU FUCKASS!"

His jaw dropped, as did Teddy's. Holy shit, that's harsh! Does she know he's—?

Teddy was apparently thinking the same thing. After his initial reaction, his jaw clenched and it seemed steam was coming from his ears. His face was red. "Say that again."

"Fuck… Ass."

He pointed at her. "You fucking… bitch."

"Say that again."

"Fucking… Bitch… Potay—"

She swung her bag at them. Zick jumped out of the way, but it struck Teddy's face. Teddy grabbed his face, dazed for a couple of seconds, then retaliated with body slamming her to the ground.

What do I do, what do I do? Zick thought as his two best friends began punching, kicking, biting, and pulling each other's hair. Like yesterday's happenings, a crowd had gathered and cheered on the two fighters. It was going to get ridiculously within moments if he didn't do anything immediately.

Teddy grunted as Elena's sandal and hand struggled to push him off her, while Elena cried out as Teddy pulled harder on a handful of hair. Teddy suddenly felt another pair of arms clasping him from the back and a weight on there as well. Zick jerked Teddy up, but not before the fighting boy could let go of Elena's trapped strands. Elena shrieked when Teddy was on his feet, and the two boys looked down at the bunch of red hair in Teddy's hand.

"Oh gee—" Elena lunged at him, but Teddy pushed her back, then against her locker.

"USE THE BAG! USE THE BAG!" the spectators screamed.

Teddy would have listened if it weren't for the fact Zick grabbed Elena's heavy bookbag from the floor, which had been unattended to since the fight began. He then tried to again pull his lover back from his friend, but Teddy kept punching her while Elena kept kicking at him.

I shouldn't do this, but… Zick struggled to raise the bag from the top handle, swung it to the right, then—

"All three of you! Stop that right this instant!"

Teddy, Zick, and Elena simultaneously stopped; Zick even dropped the bookbag and rubbed his wrist. It was Mister Buckertt, the same administrator that cited the junior boys kissing in the hall the week before. The crowd grew silent as they waited for what the elderly, bearded man in the blue suit would say.

"What are your names? And I mean full names?"

"Teddy Thaur…"

"Elena Potato…"

"Ezekiel Zick…"

"All right then… Mister Thaur, Mister Zick, and Miss Potato, please come with me to the front office this instance; I'm going to need to call your parents…"

"I can't believe we're not going to jail right now," Elena whispered as the trio walked behind the administrator. The school had a policy where anyone caught in a fight on school grounds would be arrested.

"That's because they wait until after school ends, usually really late at night, before they do it," Teddy said. "I know someone that got arrested at one in the morning after having a fistfight in the cafeteria."

"One in the morning? What if you were in the middle of sleeping?"

"Stay up all night then, I guess." He shrugged.

Mister Buckertt opened the door to his office, and then redirected them to the wooden and dark red leather chairs in front of his paper, pen, and computer cluttered desk. "Sit down, and be good little children while I go get your contact information in the attendance office. " And with that, he left; Elena sat on the farthest right chair in direction to the desk, Zick in the center, and Teddy to Zick's left.

"Do you think I'm going to be arrested too?" Zick said.

"Maybe—you kinda, um, intervened."

Zick groaned and threw his head back. "You two just had to decide to beat the shit out of each other!"

"Well, sorry, Zick, but Elena here just had to call me a 'fuckass!'"

"And well, sorry, Zick, but Teddy here just had to call me a 'bitch' and 'Potato!'"

"And you should have just let me saying my apology in the first place! I know what a fucking dick I've been, okay? I'm sorry for telling you to 'fuck off' last week, I'm sorry for not calling you, and… part of that was because I was trying to find out what Teddy's secret was and didn't want an interruption!" Okay, that was not exactly a white lie—that was part of the reason why he left her house early on Monday…

Elena's eyes widened, but not to the degree Teddy's did at "Teddy's secret." "So did you?" she smirked.

"Yeah…" Teddy was squirming by now.

"What is it?"

By now, Teddy's hands were positioned as if he were in prayer and his lips mouthed silent words repeatedly. If Zick was going to divulge his real secret it would be the worst betrayal he ever encountered up to that time…

Zick needed to come up with something now (leave it up to me to just blurt something out! ...). He required a total lie, if not another white one. Otherwise, Teddy and he would already be through in less than a week.

"He, uh, likes Happy the Happy Hippo!" Eh, close enough, considering the Yogi Bear and Ranger Smith t-shirts and the "Boo Boo Bear" pet name… Besides, Hanna-Barbara anything was more acceptable than the babiest of preschool shows.

Teddy's face was split between the relieved and the not amused as Elena burst out laughing. "That was not exactly what I was expecting, but that is just gold!"

"Can I see you after school again, then?" Zick asked.

"Of course!" Elena said. "I'm so sorry for misunderstanding you!"

The door opened; Mister Buckertt's head dove in. "Your parents are here. Come with me again."

All three pairs of parents, plus the campus officer, were already crowded around the desk of the principal when the quartet entered.

"Good morning, you three!" Mister Bartow said. "Come, have a seat. We'd love to hear from you all!"

There were three free seats, each one next to a parent's pair. The condemned trio separated and sat beside their flesh and blood.

"So, would anyone want to tell their account of what exactly happened?"

Teddy rose up and pointed to the girl to his far right. "She called me a 'fuckass!'" Terrence covered his face and shook his head immediately afterwards.

"… Okay, then… Why did you call Mister… Thaur, it is? a… 'fuckass?'" he turned his head to Elena.

"He called me 'Potato!'" Julie covered her face and shook his head immediately afterwards.

"So… a bunch of name calling lead to a lot of fighting?"

The three nodded their heads.

Mister Bartow shook his head. "You kids do know that there we have guidance counselors and peer mediators to avoid this, right?"

The three nodded their heads again.

"We just have bad anger management problems," Elena excused.

"That still shouldn't mean you should have fought on school grounds, young lady… I'll say this: the good news is that you will not be arrested, even though you fought on school grounds. If I get one more fight I need to report this early into the school year, the school will lose some serious budgeting. Instead, you will be required to participate in anger management classes every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon for the remaining weeks this semester. The same will go to Mister Thaur and Mister Zick."

Zick started to rise up, but Zob pushed a hand onto his leg. "Don't," he said, "we'll work it out later."

"However, the twenty days out of school suspension will go on as normal. It will start today and you will be forbidden from being on school grounds or making up assignments given to you this semester through the end of the suspension period. I am so sorry for doing this, but it is school policy. There's always next semester though…

"Have a nice day."

Elena waved goodbye to Zick before she walked beside Harvey and Julie through the front door, as did Zick. He could hear Teddy's parents behind him; he was clearly getting screwed the most, being a senior and all (his mother was especially disappointed).

"Don't worry Mom," Teddy reassured her, "I only need government left to graduate and I have it next semester!"

"That doesn't mean your GPA will not suffer!" she retorted.

"See you later, Teddy," Zick called out.

"Yeah… I hope so," he said before Johanna continued chewing him out.

Zick's face was distant as he was met with gloomy gray clouds and cool air outside.