A/N: All I can say is whoa! I mean this one is big. Um this chapter originally probably would've just consisted of the first scene with Chris and Derek talking, but since has been out of commission (except for read only mode) for the past 48 hours, I've had plenty of time to work on it.
Karone Evertree: Everything in good time. I know you said you liked the glimpse into Jondy's past, so I included another short one in this monster of a chapter. Hey, I made the chapter a lot longer. Don't ya love me?
mel11: Mine too! Well, I guess that's kind obvious, but anyways…I know what you mean. Since they're like my two favorite shows ever I hoped there would be a buncha crossovers, but there weren't so I decided to make my own. I'm glad you like it.
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"So...how've things been going with you and your girl?"
Derek's innocent question immediately got Chris' attention. "Fine. What do you mean?"
Giving his friend an incredulous look, Derek commented, "Well, it's just I expected you to act differently once you and Jondy started talking, maybe less mopey…" he added as an afterthought. "So I'll ask again, how've things been going with you and your girl?"
Chris growled in frustration before replying, "I just don't get her!" He took in Derek's raised eyebrow before continuing, "Sometimes I think I'm getting through to her, but then she goes and just shuts herself off from me. I just don't get her!" He restated.
Derek raised his eyebrows at this and replied, "And so now you're feelin' frustrated?"
"I just…well…I care about her and…I just feel like she's keeping me at arm's length the whole time we're together."
Derek observed his friend's distress with interest. He wasn't a cruel person. He didn't like seeing people in pain, especially someone who was his friend.
But he couldn't help but think it was somewhat humorous that someone who always seemed like nothing could touch him was two steps from tearing his hair out over a girl. One of the Chris' best traits was his ability to roll with the punches. But ever since the whole English thing with Jondy had begun it was as if Chris had lost his ability to think on his feet. He had always been that way to an extent around Jondy, but their recent closeness had brought it to a whole new level.
Overall, amusing as it was to see Chris so wound up, he wanted the I-can-take-anything-anybody-throws-at-me Chris back.
"Dude," he said with a smirk, "do you need me to help you get the girl?"
Chris just groaned.
"What was that?" he asked with false happiness. "'I'd really appreciate your help, Derek.' Or how about 'Thanks, dude, you rock?' that's what you really meant to say, isn't it?"
"What makes you think you can help me, Derek?" Chris remarked wearily.
"Are you kidding?" Derek asked with a lazy smile, "The ladies love me."
Chris smiled slightly, "Are you trying to cheer me up, Derek?"
His friend gave him a charming smile followed by a questioning look. "What do you mean by that? Do you doubt my Casanovaness?" he countered with a twitch to his eyebrow.
Chris' smile broke out into all out grin at that statement. Seeing the you'd-better-watch-it look Derek was shooting him he shook his head to dispel his best bud's anger.
"Naw man, of course not," he said quickly before he began laughing so hard he thought his gut would burst.
Derek glared at his friend before growling out in false anger, "You'd better watch it, Halliwell."
At this warning, Chris' laughter, which had almost stopped, began again in earnest. "So, what are you saying? That you're irresistible to women?"
Derek's look told Chris clearly 'I cannot believe you just said that.' He then began his defense with a supremely confident smile, "Of course I am irresistible to women. Jondy's friend Heather certainly thought so."
This logic caused Chris to chuckle. "What? like she's particular?"
"No one is particular compared to you, my friend," Derek said giving Chris a raised eyebrow.
Chris raised one right back before retorting, "What is that supposed to mean?"
Derek shrugged innocently, "Just that you obsess over this one girl for four years, and when you actually start having an actual relationship with said girl you don't even seem happy about it."
Chris groaned unhappily before replying, "It's just that I really like her, and I feel like she's hiding something from me."
"Hiding something from you?" Derek repeated disbelievingly. "Dude, she's a girl. They can't tell us everything. Part of what makes the ladies so lovely is that we don't understand them. They're a complete mystery. For all you know, Jondy's secretive side could be what you're most attracted to. Besides you've only really known her for a coupla days. I bet you haven't told her all your secrets, so you can't expect her to tell you all hers."
"Well, I guess not," Chris said uncertainly.
"'Course not," Derek drawled smugly.
"So you think I'm overreacting?"
Derek grinned. "Maybe just a little bit," he said sarcastically.
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"Jondy," A voice whispered from Jondy's right.
After waiting a second without a response, Chris tried to get her attention again.
"Jondy," he hissed a bit more urgently.
She looked over at where he sat, and tried to hide her smile. He had moved from his customary back-corner-seat to one a bit closer to the middle, and a bit closer to her.
"What?" she hissed back with the same amount of energy, but a lot more exasperation. Of course, it was becoming difficult for her to be exasperated with him when he was being so cute.
'Damn, I'm starting to sound like Heather. Next thing I know I'll be going around checking out guy's butts to see whose is the cutest.' She shuddered mentally at that thought as she tried not to grimace. 'If Lydecker could see me now…' she added with a mental snicker, 'big, scary super weapon, yep that's me.' She barely resisted the urge to giggle madly at the thought. It wasn't like her to act so…silly. On the other hand, she always did feel weird after a bout of seizures.
'I blame it all on the Tryptophan. What is in that stuff anyways? Oh well, I guess it could be worse. I'm just lucky that I've never gotten them as bad as some of the others. Like Max…or Jack…'
Jack's trembling eventually got to the point where his legs could no longer support him. They gave out beneath him, and he suddenly fell out of line with a gasp. Jondy heard him hit the cold, hard floor, but she didn't dare so much as look-
"Jondy? Hey, you okay?"
Jondy snapped out of her memory to stare up at Chris.
"The bell rang," he told her with that concerned look still written clearly across his face.
She picked up her books and walked with him out the door. "I'm fine, Chris. Really. So what were you trying to tell me during class today?"
"I was just gonna ask you if you were coming over tonight," he asked giving her such a hopeful look she was tempted to say 'yes'. Very tempted.
"I'm sorry, Chris, I can't," she told him regretfully, hoping he would just let it go.
But apparently Chris wasn't the letting it go type. "Why not?" he demanded, probably more forcefully than he had intended.
She gave him an odd look and said, "I've just got a few errands to run. What of it?"
"What sort of errands?" he asked. He was being so forceful and demanding and so…unlike himself that the what-the-heck-is-going-on look on her face got even more concentrated.
Jondy glared at him before insistently asking him, "What business is it of yours?"
Chris swallowed hard. He then started shuffling his feet in a manner that clearly stated how uncomfortable he was.
"Um…well, ya see…" he began, "I…um…you're meeting another guy aren't you?" Chris looked supremely uncomfortable with the question, as if the second it escaped his mouth he wanted nothing more than to stuff it back in.
She chuckled at his discomfort saying with a laugh, "Naw, it's nothing like that."
"Oh," he said with surprise. "Oh, um, okay. Well I guess-"
"We can work on the project tomorrow," she told him with a beatific grin.
"Okay, well, I guess that'll be fine," Chris responded automatically, as he tried to get his higher brain functions working again.
"I'll see you around," she told him as grabbed her book bag and books from her locker. Chris looked puzzled as she seemingly got her stuff ready to go.
"Um, Jondy, you do know that we still have one period left to go, don't you?" he queried.
She shrugged in a way that projected extreme unconcern. "Not for me. I've gotta go."
"Are you serious?"
Jondy shot him a look that said clearly that she was not kidding.
"Okay, so you're serious. Where're you going that requires you to bail on school?" he asked, sounding a little too paternal in Jondy's opinion.
"Don't worry about it. I'll see you tomorrow," she told him as she walked down the hall and toward the front doors like she owned the place.
"Alright, now it's official," he remarked nearly inaudibly as she left. 'I just don't understand that girl.' He thought as he shook his head, and headed back down the hall and toward class.
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A/N: Just for the record I thought up the whole her-ditching-class-to-take-care-of-Zoë thing before Karone Evertree's suggestion. But it just goes to show you that great minds thing alike, huh?