A/N: I lied when I said it would be a week until the next update. I felt inspired to finish this fic so I kept writing. One more chapter left.
It was countless kicking and screaming at the door gone to waste. Even threats couldn't break Lee and May. They merely yawned at the stern voice on the other side of the door. Kevin finally took a deep breath to calm down because it was obvious the girls weren't going to let him out, not anytime soon at least. Sliding down the floor, Kevin curled his fingers into tight fists, squeezing tightly enough to cause his knuckles to turn white. This was dumb, and he was angry. He wanted to scream again. Why did the Kanker sisters always stick their business where it didn't belong?
They did it because they always seemed so intimidating. It made them think they could get away with it all. But it wasn't going to be that way this time. Kevin started to think. There had to be a way out. Looking around him, he didn't see any real useful tools. The janitor most likely had taken all the useful things with him before leaving to clean a few classrooms. But then an idea hit Kevin and slowly, he looked up at the ceiling to find an air vent staring right at him.
A smirk twitched up on his face. "Bingo."
"Kevin will be here," Nazz assured Mrs. Aguilar, "He will."
"Oh really?" Marie asked, placing her hands on her hips, "then tell me, where is he?"
Nazz sighed, thinking of an excuse for her best friend, but really, she had none. She shook her head and shrugged, "Hey, like, I have no idea, but I do know that Kevin wouldn't just drop out. He doesn't back out on big commitments."
Marie laughed. "Are you so sure about that?" She asked the blonde.
"Yes," Double D answered for her, narrowing his eyes at Marie. "Kevin is many things. He can be arrogant, obnoxious, and even a bully-"
"Double D," Nazz whined, "to the point."
Double D smiled and went on, "But if there's one thing I know, it's that Kevin is honest and when he has his mind set on something, he accomplishes it."
Marie stepped forward, closer to the sockhead, making Double D cringed.
"What is it between you two?" She asked, her voice quiet enough for only Double D to hear.
"I don't see what you mean," Double D told her.
"You know exactly what I mean. I thought I made things clear." The blue haired girl grabbed Double D by his costume, clutching the fabric tightly in her hand, "You're mine."
Double D didn't want to show any weaknesses, not at that moment. He wanted to stand up to her. He didn't want to fear the Kanker sisters anymore. He was tired of it. They couldn't control him and his friends forever. Gathering up a bit of strength, Double D wrinkled up his nose as he grabbed her hand.
"Okay, okay," Mrs. Aguilar's voice caught him off guard, "back it up, you two." She gently pulled Marie off Double D, and the sockhead sighed in defeat – his big moment gone.
"No touching allowed unless I say so," Mrs. Aguilar told Marie.
Marie glared at her but said nothing.
"My apologies," Double D said softly, looking down at his feet.
"Now," Mrs. Aguilar said, "if Kevin isn't here by tomorrow's practice..." she looked as if she was hating herself for what she was about to say next. She turned to face Marie and said, "then you can have the part."
Marie and Nazz gasped, both for different reasons – Nazz's face spelled horror as Marie's face spelled success.
"No," Nazz spoke up, "Mrs. Aguilar, you can't do that. It would totally be unfair for Kevin!"
"And it's totally unfair for me that he's skipping practice," Mrs. Aguilar told the blonde, "I mean, I think Kevin is a great Romeo, but that doesn't mean he can't be replaced."
"But you-"
"I know it's last minute... oh gosh, very last minute, but if I have no choice, I'm going to have to go with her."
"But even if Kevin doesn't show up, he has an understudy!"
"Uh, what understudy?" Marie asked, her eyebrows raising.
"That dude, Mas-" Nazz paused as she looked around with said understudy nowhere in sight. "Marie! Where is Kevin's understudy?"
Marie smiled innocently, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Mrs. Aguilar sighed loudly. "So, both of my Romeos are gone. That leaves me with the one who came in."
"No," Nazz tried to protest, but she didn't know what to say anymore to make Mrs. Aguilar reconsider. "Marie is horrible," she tried, "her and her sisters."
"Hey!" Marie snapped, "I'm right here!"
"Yeah, I didn't forget," Nazz told her, "How could I when you're just yelling all the time? Maybe you should seriously think about taking a-"
"Maybe YOU should shut up!"
"Oh, Edd, honey," Mrs. Aguilar said, pulling Double D away from the girls, "if you see Kevin-"
"Mrs. Aguilar, although I don't know where Kevin is at this moment, I do believe now that Marie has something to do with it," Double D furrowed his eyebrows, "or I hope she does."
"You hope?"
"Yes," Double D shrugged, "it would be better than my first thought."
"Oh goodness." Mrs. Aguilar rubbed her face, "Kevin, come back."
"I'm back."
Everyone seem to stop at that moment – Marie and Nazz quitting their silly argument about who needed to shut up, Mrs. Aguilar turning around and gaping, and Double D feeling relief wash over him at the sight of the redhead.
Kevin smiled slightly at all of them staring at him, ignoring the shock expression upon Marie's face.
"Oh my goodness!" Mrs. Aguilar clapped her hands together. "Where have you been?!"
Going through the air vents wasn't ideal. It was cramped and hot and Kevin could feel his skin practically sticking against the metal from how sweaty he was becoming. He groaned every turn he had to take, looking for the closet vent to the theater room he could find.
"This is so lame," he complained.
"Hold it up to the light, Sarah," he heard Jimmy's voice come through.
"Like this?" Sarah's voice appeared.
"Ah, perfect!"
Kevin raised an eyebrow as he continued to crawl. He came to a stop at one of the air vent openings to find Sarah and Jimmy in one of the classrooms. Sarah was holding up some sort of plant as Jimmy seemed to be inspecting it. Kevin couldn't help but grin at the sight.
"Man, you two," he whispered, shaking his head before moving on.
"What is this you are trying to show Rolf?!" Kevin heard Rolf's loud voice echo through the vents that he cringed a bit.
"Don't you love it?!" Jonny asked. "Plank and I worked ALL night on it!"
"Hmm, yes."
Kevin looked through the next opening he came to and found Rolf staring at some sort of small gadget. It looked to be nothing as nice as anything Double D could make, but it had potential, or at least, Rolf seemed to think so.
Kevin decided this opening was the good pick to go with. He started with trying to get the vent to open, but it wouldn't budge at all.
"Hey, Rolf," he called.
Rolf and Jonny looked around.
"Was that Kevin?" Jonny asked, looking quite afraid.
"Yeah, you idiot," Kevin said, "I'm up here."
The two of them looked up and Rolf laughed at the sight of Kevin.
"Aha! You nincompoop," Rolf teased, "did Casanova Kevin get himself locked up?"
"I got myself in some trouble," Kevin explained, "with the Kankers."
Jonny made a face at the mention of the sisters. "Boy, Kevin, what did they do?! Did they stuff you inside the vents? How stupid is that?!" He and Rolf both laughed.
Kevin rolled his eyes. "Ha ha. It's hilarious. Now help me out. This thing is too hard for me to open by myself."
"Right away!" Jonny proceeded to stacking chairs so he could climb on top of them.
Rolf stood guard at the bottom. Together, Kevin and Jonny attempted to loosen the vent door.
"It's not working," Jonny said as he struggled to keep yanking it.
"I'm trying as hard as I can, man," Kevin told him, pushing the door forward.
"Nincompoops!" Rolf repeated.
"Shut up, Rolf!" Kevin growled, "Like you could do better." But just as he said that, he fell forward into the room, landing on top of Jonny.
"Jeez, Kevin," Jonny choked out, "you're heavier than you look."
Kevin furrowed his eyebrows and jumped up.
"What was that you said about Rolf?" Rolf asked Kevin, smiling smugly as he crossed his arms.
Kevin huffed but smiled at his other best friend. If it hadn't been for Rolf', he and Jonny would still be struggling with that stupid vent door that was apparently sealed shut and only made an exception for Rolf. "Thanks," he said to Rolf, "I gotta go now. I'm already late."
"Late for what?" Jonny asked, picking Plank back up from the floor.
"Practice!"
"Football?"
"The play!"
"Oh," Rolf and Jonny said together, each saying it with their different tones – Rolf sounding more interested and Jonny just sounding plain out confused as he scratched his head.
Kevin didn't run, though he knew he should. It would get him to where he needed to be faster, but he didn't want to risk running right into Lee or May. Walking as casually as he could, Kevin sighed through his nose, glad to be out of those vents. His shirt was sticking against his body and he really wanted a shower, but he also knew he had to suck it up for now. He started to think about how mad Mrs. Aguilar probably was and how annoyed the others most likely were with him for being irresponsible. But he wasn't irresponsible. He didn't try to get captured by the crazy Kanker sisters.
Walking around the corner, Kevin halted in his tracks as he saw Lee and May opening doors and peeking into classrooms.
"He had to be around here somewhere," Lee said to May, "He couldn't have gone that far."
Kevin cursed under his breath as he quickly hid around the corner.
"I told you he was being quiet too long," May said.
Kevin could hear them getting closer and he knew he would need to take the other route to the theater room, the longer route. That thought irritated him, but he quickly took off before the girls could see him.
"I have an idea," May said as they walked around the corner.
"What is it?" Lee asked.
"I bet he's heading back to practice. Let's get there before he can!"
"You're using your brain. I like that plan. Let's go!"
The girls immediately began running towards the auditorium. Kevin ran down the stairs, hoping he wouldn't slip or trip since he knew the janitor liked to mop after school.
"Hey! I see him!" He could hear them catching up to him and Kevin picked up speed. He was almost there... he was so close.
"We're coming to get you, Kevin!"
Kevin furrowed his eyebrows, determined to at least make it to the theater room first being they got him. Running around another stupid corner, he saw the door. He looked over his shoulder and saw the girls were still way behind him. He smirked at them and continued running until he was in front of that door.
When Kevin was done with his explanation, everyone turned to stare at Marie with arms crossed.
"Just because my sisters were after you doesn't mean I had anything to do with it," Marie said, rolling her eyes as she turned away from everyone.
"You and your sisters need help," Nazz told her.
"There he is!" Lee shouted as she and May ran in.
Mrs. Aguilar shook her head and stood in front of Kevin. "If you two take one more step into my room, I will personally call the principal to come deal with you right here, right now."
The sisters groaned but halted in their tracks.
"Way to go," Marie sarcastically told her sisters.
"We did manage to keep the other guy away, though," May told her.
"What other guy?" Kevin asked.
"Your understudy, I'm assuming," Mrs. Aguilar said. She took a deep breath, trying not be angry, but these girls had pushed her buttons too far. "I don't want to bother the principal right now, but oh, that doesn't mean you three aren't getting what you deserve for kidnapping Kevin, keeping him hostage, and I don't even want to know what you did to poor Mason. I can only assume it's bad if it kept him away."
"I had a reason," Marie defended herself.
"Being jealous? That's not a reason for trying to ruin something Kevin worked so hard on."
"Yeah, I'm sure stealing my boyfriend was real tough."
Kevin wanted to roll his eyes, but instead, he smirked, "You're not giving Double D enough credit. It was a working progress for months."
Double D's eyes widened as Marie just sneered at Kevin.
Mrs. Aguilar pointed to the door. "Out," she said to the girls.
The Kanker sisters crossed their arms but obliged as they turned around and began heading out.
"Expect to be called into the principal's office tomorrow," Mrs. Aguilar told them before they were gone.
"A working progress?" Double D asked, his head tilted slightly.
Kevin turned to look at him. He shrugged and said, "It got to her."
Nazz smiled as she wrapped her arms around Kevin, "Oh gross, you're sweaty," she mumbled and Kevin laughed. "But it's okay," she said, "I knew you didn't purposely skip practice. You're more dedicated than that."
"To football, yeah," Kevin said when Nazz stepped back. "To this, I'm just going with it so you won't be mad at me."
"Don't lie."
"Not lying."
"You like this play. You like acting. You're having fun." Nazz brushed away some hairs trying to stick to Kevin's forehead, "Probably more fun than you've had in a while."
Kevin expected himself to feel tingles from her touch, to get the urge to smile and having the smile be such a goofy one. But nothing happened. The touch was nothing to him. So what if Nazz was brushing some hair out of his way? It didn't mean anything. It was like she was just Nazz – his best friend. She wasn't his best friend and secret crush. Just Nazz.
He swallowed hard at that thought. He never saw himself without having a crush on her, and it was strange, but he had to admit that it was a bit of a relief.
"I'll see you later?" Nazz asked him, and he nodded.
She made her way out of there and Kevin focused his attention on Double D again.
"You alright, Double D?" He asked as he noticed the uneasy look on the sockhead's face.
Double D nodded. "Well, if I'm being honest, I surely did think you were avoiding me."
Kevin squinted his eyes at him. "Why?"
"I assumed our kiss scenes were too disturbing for you." Double D turned away after saying that, feeling pretty foolish for admitting it. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to see Kevin smiling at him.
"Why would they be?" Kevin asked.
How confident and friendly Kevin sounded saying that, with his usual smile, Double D felt something tug at him.
And slowly, he returned the smile.
