A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's taken me so long to update. Hope everybody had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I wish I could say it was just that that kept me from writing, but alas it wasn't. I just hadn't written much over the last 6 months. Too busy working, playing my Switch, going to see Star Wars the Last Jedi 3 times, watching and reading Fairy Tail and My Hero Academia, and just kind of not being on this site much. But I'm back now, so hopefully you all can forgive me.
I would like to take this chance to apologize again, because for a while I kept saying the it would soon be time for Cody and Courtney to work on their project together and for them to start finally becoming friends. Unfortunately though, I'm gonna have to wait until the next chapter for that (I mean it this time, I swear!), I was going to put it in this chapter, but if I did it along with what else happens in this chapter, than it would've been a really long chapter, and Cody and Courtney's bonding is a major part of this story, so I need time to dedicate myself fully to that storyline. So once again, I am so sorry that once again you guys have to wait for that (especially to you CMR Rosa, who I had just told yesterday that it would be next and a long chapter). I promise though next time will be it (Double swearzies!)
Now that that's out of the way, it's time for Cody to face Duncan, what'll happen? Find out here! Hope you all enjoy this latest chapter :)
Chapter 10 - New Friends
The bell to signal the end of school finally rang, and the twenty or so students surrounding the tech geek gathered up their belongings and left the classroom to head home for the day. Cody barely remembered anything that happened during Trigonometry today, his mind had been racing so much over the last couple hours. Monday was finally over, and so many unbelievable things had happened in that six to seven hour time that Cody still wondered if today had been just a dream.
But he knew better. Today wasn't a dream, and he could be in real danger.
As he gathered his books into his backpack and left class, Cody couldn't help feeling a sense of dread. Heather's warning about a possibly vengeful Duncan was still fresh in his mind, and in anticipation for a possible after-school attack by the punk, Cody had brought all of his other class assignments and backpack with him to Trigonometry. So the geek could skip going back to his locker for them and just rush to his escape Accord at the end of the day.
He prayed that Duncan had already been suspended and left the school grounds after his visit to the Principal's Office. Paranoia was getting the better of Cody as he kept glancing around the halls at the crowds of students heading toward the buses, their parents' cars, or their own cars to go home, looking anywhere for the bright green mohawk that could be hiding amongst them. Cody's Trigonometry class was on the second floor, so he needed to hustle. Luckily there was a set of stairs in the corner of the hallway, and at the bottom was a small hall that contained most of Ocean Falls High's Art and Computer Tech classrooms that led all the way down to an exit to the student parking lot.
Cody took this intended path. First he went down the stairs, and then he turned onto the Art hall beside the staircase. So far everything seemed to be going well. It took a couple minutes for Cody to reach the end of the hall, and he grinned triumphantly as he pushed open the door to freedom...
... only to see a grinning Scott leering down at him on the other side.
"Hiya paaaal." Scott greeted menacingly with his arms crossed. Cody's relief died down instantly.
"Get over here!" he growled, grabbing Cody by his shirt collar, making him drop his backpack, and dragged him roughly over to an enclosed open area separated from the student parking lot. Despite being too scared out of his mind to scream or protest, Cody noticed the three large dumpsters in the corner brick wall, used milk crates stacked in several columns close by and used boxes spread out all around the recycle bins.
"Welcome to the party, Anderson." Scott cackled as he shoved the geek to the concrete floor.
As Cody rubbed a bruise on his shoulder, he looked up to see that they weren't alone. The geek noticed Lightning sitting on a milk crate and Jo leaning against the wall, both giving him rather amused smirks.
"Whassup, Geekboy?" Lightning taunted.
Jo rolled her eyes. "Nice insult, Flash Pants. Not!" Lightning glared at his "feminine" athletic rival.
"Sha-Please! Like THAT'S any better!"
Then Cody looked at the teen standing in between the two jocks, and felt his insides vanish. Sitting on a pyramid stack of milk cartons, giving Cody the most sinister death glare, was Duncan.
"Mr. Anderson..." said Duncan mockingly, now giving Cody a most sinister, wicked grin. "I've been looking for you. Thought you could sneak out of here unseen, huh?" Cody was too scared to answer. "Sorry to say but you had no chance of that. I know all the secret exits of this crappy school like the back of my hand. It comes in handy when I don't feel like going to class, you know?"
Again, Cody didn't answer. Duncan then slowly stood up from his sitting spot before looking down at the terrified tech geek like a lion whose found his prey.
"Gotta say, dork boy. I never would've pegged you as the guy to give me this." Duncan motioned toward his face. Cody looked closer to see what the punk was talking about before finally spotting the large bruise next to Duncan's left eye. "You, of ALL people, actually managed to knock me out cold..."
Duncan's voice was dangerously low when he said that. Cody's body shook as he saw the mohawked teen tilt his head down. The punk had never felt so embarassed in his life! The fact that this kid, this scrawny, pathetic, little virgin loser, had become the first person to lay him out was beyond infuriating. Scott, Lightning and Jo looked between Duncan's rage and Cody's fear with anticipated smirks.
"Don't get a big head about it though." Duncan continued in a low voice. "It was just a lucky shot. You snuck up on me while I was dealing with Courtney. Over the last couple hours, I've heard all the losers here in this damn school mocking me about what happened. They wouldn't of dared do that before, but now... you've humiliated me Cody Anderson..."
Cody's heart froze when Duncan's head raised back up to face him. The look in Duncan's eyes were murderous. "I'M TOTALLY GONNA DIE!" Cody screamed mentally. Suddenly, Scott grabbed him tight by his elbows before holding them behind his back, leaving Cody's arms useless.
As Cody struggled in Scott's grasp, Duncan finished his earlier statement with an evil grin. "...And now it's time to right that wrong."
Lightning and Jo smirked in anticipation as Cody continued struggling in vain to get out of Scott's hold. Duncan slowly approached Cody and Scott before stopping mere inches in front of the geek. "Any last words before I beat you to within an inch of your life?"
Cody was scared, for a moment he couldn't think of anything as he had too many thoughts flying through his head at once. He thought of screaming out loud for help, they were only just meters from the Student Parking Lot after all. Maybe someone could hear him. But Duncan could probably silence him within seconds so that wouldn't work.
He thought of possibly begging for mercy. Maybe Duncan would spare him a little bit of pain if he just apologized and begged for his life. But the look on Duncan's face told Cody that any hope for negotiation was now impossible.
Then a third thought came to mind. He stopped struggling as he thought of his earlier moment with Courtney. How she had swallowed her pride and thanked Cody for stopping Duncan, for saving her from whatever the punk planned to do to her. If he tried to weasel his way out of this, then that would be an insult to Courtney's pride. She was finally willing to give him a chance, and he was thinking of dishonoring that girl, just to avoid receiving pain. Then Cody thought of Bridgette, and Noah, and Dawn, and all of his friends who had been proud of him for finally sticking up for himself. He would be dishonoring them too...
Cody had made up his mind. Even if it meant possibly ending up in the hospital, he would choose to be defiant. Cody looked up to give a surprised Duncan a fierce glare.
"You know what? Yeah, I do have something to say Duncan!" Cody growled defiantly. "SCREW YOU!" Duncan's eyes widened in shock. "What you were about to do to Courtney! What you've done to me and other kids throughout the years! Screw you for all of it! I'm sick of dealing with your crap! That punch I gave you earlier is something you've deserved for YEARS!"
Duncan, Scott, Lightning and Jo stood in shocked silence as the tech geek went off.
"You had a great girl like Courtney and decided to blow it because you were so damn impatient to get her in bed that you slept with someone who was her friend! You even had the gall to talk about doing other girls behind her back! I don't care if they hate me or not, someone like you doesn't deserve to date women as strong as Courtney or Gwen, or even LOOK at girls as pure as Bridgette or Lindsay! And you're so insecure about me getting a lucky shot on you that your ego won't accept anything else but getting back at me, will it?"
Duncan could feel his shock turning into anger when Cody's rant brought up his relationship with Courtney. Who was this loser to tell him about how he should date his girlfriends? "Sounds to me like someone's just jealous that Duncan's got game and he doesn't" Jo retorted, trying to hurt Cody's pride. Lightning nodded in agreement.
But Cody didn't back down. "Screw his game!" silencing Jo before looking back at Duncan. "Even if Courtney and Gwen hate me, I will still defend their honor against a punk like you! And let me tell you something MYERS!" Cody said the last word venomously, making Duncan raise an eyebrow. "You better shape up soon! If you keep going down this rebellious road your on, the only place your gonna end up is juvie or prison! Just like Mal..."
Cody had finally gone to far. Duncan's rage had overtaken him. "You SHUT UP about Mal!" Duncan then raised his fist, ready to give Cody the mother of all concussions. Cody looked away, bracing himself for the punch coming his way.
But the blow never came, because someone had just caught Duncan's fist in their hand.
Cody opened his eyes to see Duncan staring in surprise at Trent, one of Bridgette's friends and his classmate from English class. Stunned, Cody merely stared at the guitarist, who held Duncan's fist firmly as he glared daggars at the punk.
"What the?!" Lightning exclaimed in shock, swiftly standing up from his seat along with Jo. "Where'd they come from?"
"They?" Cody thought as Duncan and Trent continued to glare at each other. Suddenly, Scott felt a tap on his shoulder from behind him. He turned his head to find the green-shirted and massively-muscled chest of DJ, with his hands at his hips. Scott looked up in alarm to see DJ with a look of disapproval on his face.
"Let him go..." DJ spoke uncharacteristically fiercely.
Scott obeyed immediately, releasing Cody's arms and standing with his hands up. Cody turned around to see Ocean Falls High's best defensive player and another one of Bridgette's best friends. But DJ wasn't alone. Behind him stood his teammates, Tyler and Brick.
"What do you think you're doing, Stephans?" Duncan asked hatefully.
"I could ask you the same thing, Myers." Trent replied with equal venom. Duncan yanked his fist out of Trent's grasp as the punk and musician stared each other down.
"Anderson got a cheap shot on me..." Duncan explained angrily "... and I mean to get him back for it!"
"I heard about that." said Trent with his arms crossed. "However, from what I've heard, you definately deserved it."
"What?!" Duncan snapped with shaking fists.
"You heard me!" Trent smirked.
"We heard you tried to attack Courtney, and Cody knocked you out to stop you." Brick said with a frown. "Such a dishonorable act."
"Yeah, trying to attack your ex?" added Tyler. "That's a new low even for you."
Cody took a few steps away from Duncan and glanced back and forth between the furious Duncan and Scott, and his saviors Trent, DJ, Tyler and Brick. He couldn't believe what was happening right now. Trent, his classmate, and DJ, Tyler and Brick, three football players, were here defending little old him! Cody barely knew these four cool kids, and here they were saving him from getting his face caved in.
Lighnting apparently thought the same thing. "DJ! Whaddaya think you're doing?! You're interferening in something personal here." he questioned his fellow teammate, as he and Jo got up to approach this standoff to stand next to Scott.
DJ glared uncharacteristically at his team captain. "Trent and I got a call about what Duncan was planning to do, so we called Ty and Brick and we rushed right over here."
"You... you came to help me?" Cody asked with a stutter, still in disbelief. Tyler smiled at him and flashed the thumbs up.
Duncan and Scott turned to look at each other in surprise. How had they found out about that? They had been alone in the Nurse's Office when they made their plan to corner Cody today. "How did you know about this?" Duncan asked through gritted teeth.
Before either DJ or Trent could answer, and new voice spoke up from the entrance. "We overheard you!"
Everyone in the backlot turned to look in surprise at the two newcomers. Cody's mouth fell at the sight of Gwen, entering the area with Leshawna, both staring at Duncan with angry eyes.
At the sight of his ex-girlfriend, Duncan couldn't help but smirk. "So you're behind this huh Pasty?"
"Actually, I'm the one who called these guys." Leshawna answered as she and Gwen stopped next to Tyler and Brick. "We overheard your scrawny self plottin' in the Nurse's Office." Duncan glared at the sister.
"We were going in there to make fun of you, but then you decided to get all "I want my revenge"" Gwen stated, doing the last part with a surprisingly good masculine impression. "So you kind of left us no choice." She took a second to glance in Cody's direction.
On his end, Cody hadn't stopped staring at Gwen since she had made her prescence known. Trent, DJ, Tyler and Brick helping him was shocking enough, but Gwen? The girl who hated his guts? The girl he had sexually harrassed two years ago, was also here? AND she and Leshawna had called these guys here? His brain was struggling to process all these shocking moments at once. Cody then saw Gwen turn to look at him. Then, she flashed a genuine smile at him. This made Cody blush. Gwen had never once flashed a smile at him in all his life.
"We called our friends to help him after that." Gwen said to Duncan while still glancing at the geek. At that, Cody felt his heart soar, and he thought he might cry.
"No way..." Cody cried inwardly. "Has Gwen... actually forgiven me?"
Duncan just scoffed. "I see you're not gonna make this easy for us now." he sounded bitter about that before smirking. "But I don't mind having a little parking lot brawl between everyone here." Duncan cracked his knuckles as Scott, Lightning and Jo got into defensive positions themselves.
DJ, Tyler, Brick and Trent mimicked their rivals stances. Before the eight teens could clash however, Gwen spoke.
"Go ahead, I'm sure the police will love filing additional charges against you."
This made Duncan's side freeze and their eyes widen. Duncan himself looked in terror at his ex. "What?"
"Oh didn't we tell ya?" Leshawna asked with a smirk. "We called the police right before we got here. Told 'em all about your threat to beat up a student after almost assaulting another student earlier."
Duncan felt a sense of panic course through him at what the sister just said. It was then that Lightning exclaimed in fear. "NOPE! Na-ah! Lightning ain't goin' to jail today! I wanna join the NFL one day! Later Duncan!" Lightning suddenly sprinted out of the back lot and out of sight.
"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm with Jockstrap." Jo stated simply before leaving herself. "Later Shortpants!" she called Duncan before disappearing from the area.
"Really?!" Duncan shouted after the two athletes. After Jo and Lightning left, Duncan and Scott turned to see Gwen, Leshawna and their four male friends wearing triumphant grins on their faces. Duncan glared daggers at them all while Cody stood behind everyone looking between his saviors and his aggressors in utter confusion. Were the cops really on their way?
Scott was wondering the same thing. "Your bluffing..." he stated skeptically.
"Oh we are?" cackled Gwen. "Show him Leshawna." Leshawna raised her cell phone up to show Duncan and Scott her Recent Calls screen. Sure enough, a call to 911 had been made not even five minutes ago. Leshawna put her phone away after only two seconds, and now Duncan and Scott really started to panic.
"Oh crap." Duncan exclaimed.
"By all means, stay here and get arrested." said Gwen fiercely. "I'm sure your dad, a cop by the way, will be pleased to hear about his son getting carted away in cuffs by his own colleagues."
Duncan laughed out loud, cossing his arms. "Please, my dad is hardly around home to care about me like that."
That got Cody's attention. Was Duncan's family really not around much? If it was, then he supposed that that could've been a good reason why Duncan was acting up. In fact, after looking at the punk closely, Cody thought he almost saw a pained expression flash across his face after stating his dad wasn't ever around.
"Maybe..." Gwen continued with her arms crossed, bringing Cody's attention back to her. "But you'll still be arrested for attempted assault either way." That wiped Duncan's smile of his face real quick. "But... if you promise, right here and now before the cops arrive in the next two minutes, to leave now, not beat Cody up over what happened earlier, and leave him alone from now on..."
Both Cody and Duncan looked at Gwen incredulously. There were negotiations to this?
"... Then we'll tell the cops that this whole thing was a misunderstanding, and you won't be hauled off to Juvie." Gwen finished before flashing her ex punk boyfriend a triumphant smirk. "So guys... what's it gonna be?"
Cody looked between the teal-haired gothic beauty and the green-mohawked punk like he couldn't believe this was happening. On his end , Duncan was furious. He wanted so badly to get back at Cody for knocking him out. He would never live that embarrassment down, and the student body was going to joke the ever-loving crap out of him for possibly his remaining years in this stupid school. But the police were only a little over a minute away from arriving, and he sure as hell didn't want to go to Juvie. The punk glared at Cody angrily, making the geek recoil.
Looks like there was no choice.
"Looks like you lucked out loser." was all Duncan said to him before rushing out of the back lot. "Let's scram, Scott!" Scott didn't need to be told twice as he followed after his friend, and within seconds, the pair of delinquents disappeared from the remaining teens' view.
Cody stood with his jaw dropped as DJ, Brick, Tyler and Trent high-fived and congratulated each other on a job well done. He couldn't believe it! He came out this encounter completely unscathed. And it had all been thanks to a girl who he had thought absolutely hated his guts. Speaking of that girl, Gwen, and Leshawna and the guys, were all standing in front of the geek.
"How you doin' Shortie?" Leshawna asked with a smile.
Cody mumbled "fine" as Gwen stepped up closer to him. She was smiling down at him too. "Thank you, but... can I ask, why you helped me?" he looked away from Gwen in shame. "After... after what happened two years ago, I thought you hated me..."
Gwen frowned. "I did. I absolutely loathed you." she stated bluntly, making Cody wince, before she sighed. "But... after watching what you did to Duncan earlier, standing up to him and protecting a woman for once, I came to the conclusion that Bridgette has been right about you changing your ways since then."
"We both did." Leshawna added, feeling guilty about her behavior earlier as well. "Sorry about giving you the evil eye earlier, Shortstuff. I was just looking after my girl Bridgette and... well, you hadn't completely redeemed yourself at that point yet."
Cody felt his heart racing. Gwen and Leshawna HAD forgiven him. He couldn't believe this turn of events. He almost wanted to burst into tears of joy right here, but he didn't want to look like a sissy in front of all these cool kids. It took everything in him to now cry right now.
Brick saluted Cody. "You do us proud by looking out for our friend, Cody."
"Especially after knowing Courtney hated you and you still helped her out." Trent stated cooly. "That was awesome of you man."
"I also heard you stick up for my girlfriend when we arrived." Tyler said happily before clapping Cody on the back. "So thanks for that."
Cody flushed, he didn't know Tyler had heard him talking about Lindsay earlier. That just made him even more keen not to tell him about he walked into Lindsay's chest on the first day of school, or earlier when Lindsay hugged him. Now Cody was grinning, he felt so touched by all of these people helping him out and now getting congratulations from them.
"Good to see you're alright." DJ sated, before offering his massive hand to Cody, who shook it. "We should hang out some time now that all this drama has blown over."
Cody was surprised by DJ's words, but he was thrilled nonetheless. He would love to hang out with DJ some time, and everyone here for that matter. Cody only hoped that maybe Gwen felt the same way, and looked at her expectantly.
Gwen sighed. "I guess it's been long enough for me to forgive you for groping me." Gwen told Cody, who again looked down in shame. "But do it again, and I WILL bury you six feet under. Got it?" She warned fiercely, making Cody nod his head fearfully. This made Gwen smirk. "Good... well then, here's to starting over, as friends this time." She too held her hand out for Cody to shake.
This gesture finally undid Cody's waterworks. With tears pouring down his face, he forgoed the hand shake and threw his arms around the stunned goth girl. "Sure thing, Gwen! I'm so sorry for what happened two years ago!" he shouted happily as he unknowingly buried his face deeper into Gwen's cleavage like he had done to Courtney earlier. Leshawna, DJ and the other guys gawked in surprise at Cody's display of affection toward the goth. "I would love to be friends with you, Gwen! Thank you so much for giving me another chance!"
Gwen was flabberghasted on her end. She hadn't expected her words to make Cody cry, or make him leap up and hug her. She also cursed him being slightly shorter than her, because of where his face was. She was about to yell at him before Cody suddenly realized where he was. He quickly let go of Gwen before apologizing.
Gwen sighed again before saying "Whatever, it's fine."
Cody chuckled nervously, before he noticed something. He hadn't heard any sirens yet, and two minutes had long since passed since Duncan ran away. "Um, wait. Weren't the cops supposed to be here by now?" he asked, looking around the parking lot for a police car or uniformed officer. Gwen and Leshawna suddenly started laughing.
"Nah, there are no cops." Leshawna stated simply, making Cody's jaw drop.
"WHHAAAAAT!"
"Yeah, we only dialed 911 for about a second so it would end up in the call history. We didn't actually call them." Leshawna explained humorously. "Loopholes and all that. That was just to scare Duncan and his pals away. and to get them to leave you alone."
Cody just stood, hunched over in shock. "Oh man, and they totally fell for that...?" he mentally sighed, dreading about what might happen if Dunacn ever finds about this revelation.
Cody exchanged numbers with Gwen, Leshawna, DJ, Tyler, Trent and Brick. As his new friends discussed what they're plans were for the rest of the week, Cody noticed the time on his phone and felt his heart drop. 4 'o clock!
"Oh crap!" Cody screamed suddenly, startling the other teens.
"What's wrong with you, Cody?" Gwen asked curiously.
"My English project!" Cody exclaimed, picking up his backpack. "Courtney's coming over to my house at five today so we can start working on it! And it's already four! I gotta go or I'll be late!" Cody fished his car keys out of his pocket and dashed toward the parking lot. "Thanks again you guys, I'll see ya tomorrow!" he shouted to his new friends before leaving them.
It only took a minute for him to reach his car. Luckily most of the students had left for home by now, so Cody was able to find his car easily. He also didn't have to take Dawn home today, since she had told him during lunch that she would be getting a ride from Bridgette so they could work on their project together like him and Courtney were, so he could just head straight home to get things ready for Courtney's arrival.
And probably get chewed out by his parents for earning a Saturday School Detention.
Yeah, he couldn't forget that!
So what did you all think? Cody stood up against Duncan and defended several girls in the process, Gwen has finally forgiven Cody and is now interested in becoming his friend, as are Leshawna, DJ, Trent, Tyler and Brick, and he's off the hook from Duncan... for now (Dun dun DUNNN!) So what'll happen when Cody and Courtney FINALLY (And I mean FINALLY) meet to work on their friendship-building project? Stay tuned to find out.
I'm not sure when I'll get the next chapter uploaded, but I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Until next time, leave a fav, let me know what thought by reviewing, and hope you all have a happy 2018 :)