Chapter 14: Life of Crime

Disclaimer: The Ducks and any reference to the past movies are property of Stephen Brill and Disney. Alex and any new characters are property of me! Any songs I use are credited, and this obviously never took place. Read, Enjoy, and Review!

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This life of crime, I'll get used to it in time.
We keep it low, but I think they know
And out secret isn't safe.
You're Awesome! So Awesome! You're everything I want in a girl

--Reel Big Fish, "A-W-E-S-O-M-E"

"Will the following students please report to my office." Dean Buckley's voice boomed over the intercom the Monday following the dance. "Alexzandrea Portman. Dean Portman. Fulton Reed. Thank you."

Bewildered, Alex stood up and left her History class. School had barely started; they weren't even halfway through second period.

"What the hell the did the two of you drag me into?" she hissed, entering the silent office and seeing Portman and Fulton already sitting outside the Dean's office. The secretary shushed and gave her a stern look.

"I was just gonna ask you the same thing." Portman said, sinking down lower into his seat. "I didn't do nothing. That's my story."

"You didn't do anything." Alex corrected, rolling her eyes. "I'm pretty sure you're completely capable of using the English language correctly.

"Ah, I see you made it here in a timely fashion." Dean Buckley said, opening the door to his office and ushering them in. "Come in, come in."

They took their seats in front of his large oak desk, all waiting to here exactly what they had done wrong.

"Well," the Dean said, smiling and folding his hands. "I assume you three know why you're here?"

"Actually, no." Alex spoke up. "We were just wondering what we possibly could have done two hours into the school day to get in trouble. I mean, we're not even fully awake yet." She joked and Fulton and Portman nodded.

"You started a 'mosh pit,'" Dean Buckley replied carefully, looking down at a slip of paper in front of him, "I believe it's called at the Semi-formal dance this Friday." He looked up.

"That was totally Alex." Portman defended and Fulton smacked his shoulder. "Dude! It was her idea!"

"Dean, they were playing AC/DC." Alex gave him a look as though that statement should have being meaningful to him.

"I see." He seemed confused and looked back down at the paper. "This, however, caused Miss Delia Smith to be sent to the hospital with a sprained ankle and action must be taken."

"What kinda action?" Fulton asked with concern.

The Dean waved his hand. "Nothing big. Just a week of dentention, that's all."

"A WEEK!" They all exclaimed together.

"Dean, that's totally unfair!" Alex said, practically jumping out of her chair.

"That's gonna interfere with hockey!" Portman realized. "Do we hafta skip games?"

"No games will be skipped." He assured them. "But you will each be serving five detentions."

"Don't you think that's a little excessive?" Alex asked. "I mean, we didn't mean to cause anyone harm…and all that happened was Delia had to have an ace bandage wrapped around her ankle. It's not like we broken her leg or killed her."

"Miss Portman, this isn't to be taken lightly." The Dean responded sternly. "You cannot for any reason, harm another student."

"We were just trying to have a little fun." Alex pleaded. "C'mon Dean…you were young once. Didn't you ever just throw caution on the wind and jump around at a rock concert?"

They left the office five minutes later with a reduced sentence of three detentions. "Aren't you gonna thank me?" Alex bragged as she Fulton and Portman made their way back to class. "I got us outta two detentions."

Portman stopped dead in his tracks. "Thank you?" he said incredulously. "If it weren't for you I wouldnta even gotten any." He said angrily. "You made everyone dance." He stalked off angrily to his class and Alex could hear the reverberation of the slamming door as he entered.

"Wow." She said, staring astonishedly at the door her brother had disappeared through. 'I'm never helping out that asshole again."

"Don't worry about it." Fulton assured her. "He's been acting weird lately."

"Yeah, I guess." Alex shrugged it off. "See you at lunch."

"You bet." Fulton grinned, and taking a chance, he kissed her check before leaving in the opposite direction for class.

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"I hear we caused a bit of a ruckus at the dance on Friday night?" Tom asked with a sly smile as he handed Alex a can of soda. Alex scowled to herself but did the best she could to bite her tongue; she'd promised her dad she would try to cooperate during her counseling sessions.

"I guess you could call it that." She replied, popping open the can of Coke and taking a long swig. "I call it having fun."

"Fun that included spraining Delia Smith's ankle?"

Alex shrugged and looked around the room, taking in all of the sights again, she wanted to start fresh. "She got in the way." She finally shot back.

"Uh huh." Tom looked at Alex closely, trying to get her to look him in the eye. He was certain there was some type of ulterior motive behind this seemingly innocent acting out. Alex was unwavering, her eyes constantly moving around the room and her attention never lingering for more then a few seconds on one object. "Ok, I want to try something new with you."

"Yay." Alex faked excitement horribly. "I so love change. I mean, I just loved moving from the place I was born and raised in to this lovely stuck up school in the middle of the wilderness."

"Try it. It'll be painless, I promise." He switched on one of those sounds of nature tapes that were supposed to relax people. "No electric shocks."

"I was kinda hoping they're would be some shocking, I hear it helps de-static your hair…" she fingered the ends of her hair and trailed off.

"Just close your eyes." Alex rolled them instead. "Close your eyes." He repeated. Alex grumbled ad slouched down in her chair before complying. "You ever watch Happy Gilmore?"

One of Alex's eyes fluttered open. "Are you serious?" she snarled. "Of course I've seen Happy Gilmore. I'm not a shut in."

"Eyes closed." Alex grumbled again shut her eyes. "I want you to go to your happy place."

She burst out in laughter, but quickly shut up when she caught Tom's glare. "Sorry. Eyes closed. Be serious."

He gave her a few moments to think before continuing. "Are you there?" Alex nodded. "Describe it to me, give me every detail you can."

Alex took a deep breath and scrunched up her nose. "I'm on a beach. It's early morning I think."

"What makes you say that?"

"The sun is low in the skyline…maybe it's sunset, I'm not sure."

"Anything else?"

"It's windy. My hair is whipping around my face as I look at the waves crashing on the shoreline."

"Anyone else there?"

"No, it's just me, the soft sand, and a surf board. I've got on board shorts and a hoodie. The shorts are still damp."

"Go on."

"The air is salty." She continued. " I can smell fish and sand and sweat in the wind….." she trailed off.

"What else? Alex, did something change?"

"And…And…the snozzberries taste like snozzberries!" she burst out in laughter, unable to contain herself.

Tom shot her a sharp look and she attempted to keep a straight face. "Very funny Alex."

"I'm sorry." She said, heaving her shoulders to contain her laughter. "Totally--Set yourself up for that one."

"I think we're done for today." Tom replied evenly as he opened the door. "Notebook for Wednesday."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah.' Alex grumbled and grabbed the notebook from the bookcase as she left.

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"Fulton." Alex said testily, wrenching her neck away from his lips. "Study." She was sitting at her computer desk with her Biology book open and a stacks of notes scattered around her.

Fulton groaned and lay back on her bed. "I don't wanna study."

"Well," Alex turned around. "I need to. And so do you, you have a test tomorrow. But if you're not gonna study, you need to get out."

"Fine." He settled back down and looked at the flashcards in front of him, a distinct frown on his face. Studying with Alex around no longer seemed like a real option, especially since they had been using it as their cover for their relationship.
Alex threw down her notebook in frustration. "I can't concentrate!"

"Neither can I."

She shot him a look. "I can't study because of you." She said angrily, putting her head in her hands. "And I need to study for this test."

"I'm the problem?" he asked.

"Yes." She looked up, an irritated look on her face. "I can't concentrate with you moping in the corner."

"Well," Fulton replied with a grin, pulling on Alex's hand to get her to leave her computer chair. "Make me stop moping." Alex fell on top of him on her bed and felt his lips on hers.

"Dude, I got a pizza." Portman barged into the room unannounced and Alex and Fulton jumped apart as just before he could get a good enough glance around the room.

Alex cleared her throat. "No, Fulton. Gutenberg invented the printing press…Martin Luther wrote up the Ninety Five Theses…" she trailed off.

"Hey, Portman. Dude, do you get any of this stuff at all?" Fulton covered, hoping that Portman hadn't seen anything.

Alex crossed her fingers under her desk and bit her lip as her brother eyed the two of them. 'Please don't say anything, please don't say anything.' She silently begged.

"Yeah, it's easy dude," Portman finally replied, putting the pizza box down on Alex's desk. "Lemme go grab a soda and the three of us can look at it." He left and Alex turned to Fulton.

"We gotta stop doing this." She pleaded. "I hate lying to him. I feel like he knows I'm lying."

"I know." Fulton agreed sadly. "I know."

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ALEX'S JOURNAL

There's something…missing. That's the only way I can describe it to anyone, because very few people will ever experience anything like this in their lifetime. You know those stories about those people who lost limbs or fingers? How they can feel pain in the limb, even though it's been missing for years? Well, maybe that's they best way to describe what I feel.

Since we were born, I've had this unspoken connection with my brother. I could always tell if he had gotten hurt or something. Mysteriously, Dean would show up if I was in some kind of trouble. We finished each other's sentences. We could read each other's thoughts. Secrets didn't exist between the two of us because it was impossible to keep any. I'm not even sure if I fully understood the term secret as a child.

Twins have fascinated people for years. Special. Unique. Intriguing. The ironic part is, when you grow up as a twin, you never get treated as though you're unique. Someone else gets treated just like you. Someone else shares your birthday, and your birthday cake, and even your room for the first ten years of your life. Pretty much any milestone in my life, my brother's been right there going through the same thing, or something really similar. Someone else is vying for the same attention you are. You cease to become "Alex" or "Dean" and become "the twins." One person, two bodies.

Then all of the sudden, I lost that feeling. Instead of feeling like there was this extension of me I could feel but not see, I felt like I lost a part of me. As though my body was no longer complete. I couldn't feel what my brother was feeling. I couldn't read his thoughts. I didn't get a sudden assurance that everything would be ok when I was upset. Nothing. It takes some getting used to, realizing that part of you has another life.

Every morning, I wake up expected to see that I'm restored. That I'm whole. And if I think hard enough, I get the faintest sensation that my missing limb has returned. I was just imagining it all and when I look down, my limb will still be there. Flesh. Blood. Bone. Real. But it's never there.

I'm keeping a secret from my brother for the first time in my life. A huge secret. And I hate doing this. I hate lying to him….but I hate him for not even noticing. For not being able to read me. For making me feel like part of me is dead.

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"We need to work on that science project." Sarah said as she waited by Alex's locker a few days later. "It's due soon."

Alex dumped a few books into her bag. "Yeah I know." She apologized. "Detentions, hockey, helping Fulton study. I'm so busy I barely feel like I can breathe."

"Speaking of the object of your affections," Sarah said, nodding her head towards Fulton's locker. "Looks like the Plastic Princess is bugging him again."

Alex peeked around her locker door and looked. Sure enough, there was Amy. Once again trying to cozy up to Fulton. He was attempting to get by her to go to class. Scowling, she slammed her locker door and stalked off in their direction.

"Where are you going?" Sarah asked her worriedly, practically running to keep up with Alex.

"I'm gonna put an end to this right here, right now." Alex said determinedly, a mean glint shining in her eye.

"Alex!" Sarah said in warning. Alex had a habit of losing her temper. "Alex! What are you gonna do?"

Alex, however, had stopped listening. In fact, she had stopped noticing altogether. The people she knocked into, the people yelling at her as see made her way to Fulton's locker. None of them mattered. Her vision had tunneled on to one thing. Amy pulling on Fulton's flannel shirt, lifting her leg, bating her eyes. Him trying to brush her off. Alex's blood boiling.

Fulton mouthed something to her as she approached, but she didn't hear it. She pinned him against the locker and locked her lips with his. Shocked, he didn't respond at first, but slowly he reacted. His hand grabbing her waist. She could feel him smile as he returned the kiss. Amy shrieked and he pulled away, a complacent grin on his face from his still lingering state of shock. Alex thought he was going to slide down the lockers to the floor.

Amy yelled at her, and she yelled back, but she it didn't feel like the words were coming out of her mouth. Amy got angry, Alex Kept taunting. And then, as though someone was holding some type of all-powerful remote control, a fist came flying at Alex's face in slow motion. A diamond clad fist.

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