Chapter 26
"Okay, dude," Dash said, frowning at his best friend while they sat around in their first class after lunch. "What's up? And why do you keep giving Fenton weird looks?"
Kwan snapped out of his stupor at the question, tearing his eyes away from the grumpy Fenton, who came to class late and was now suffering at the hands of Paulina, who enjoyed getting to play dress up with him as she decided what to force him to wear as the female pig in their play for class. He turned his gaze to Dash and couldn't help but put on a teasing smirk at the frown that the blond jock wore.
"Afraid I might make a move on him before you can?" Kwan questioned, nudging Dash in the ribs with an elbow.
"Dude, so not funny." Dash gave him a shove, nearly knocking his friend right out of his chair. His cheeks were red with a blush. "And don't say things like that here. What if someone overheard you, jerk?"
Kwan chuckled as he righted himself. "No one's even paying attention to us." Which would be surprising, considering their popular status, but most of the theater class was filled with drama students who didn't care all that much about the A list. That fact made this class the perfect opportunity to speak without worrying about anyone else listening in, specifically the other In crowd members. "Besides," Kwan added, still grinning, "you know I have no interest in him like that."
Dash eyed his friend with some suspicion, though Kwan really hadn't shown any interest in Fenton in terms of being attracted to him. "Yeah, but you never seem interested in anyone." He narrowed his blue eyes more as he leaned toward his friend. "What's up with that? You blow off every girl that flirts with you. They just think you're being your silly, thick headed self, but I know you're not that oblivious."
In Dash's mind, his sister couldn't have picked a better guy to have a little crush on, and he appreciated that Kwan didn't want to do anything to hurt her feelings. Though avoiding Lily did exactly that. Lily already knew that Kwan didn't think of her as anything but his best friend's kid sister, but knowing that didn't stop her from liking him. Dash sighed to himself, wishing there was someone he could set Kwan up with on a date, but his friend always rejected the idea of a blind date. Stubborn, Dash thought as he frowned.
Kwan shrugged as he leaned back in his seat, aqua green eyes slipping toward Fenton with that strange look crossing his face again. "I just haven't found anyone that really catches my eye. I mean, we can't all be like you and literally hit on the person we like until three years later realizing we actually like that person." He grinned and dodged as Dash tried to punch him on the shoulder.
"Yeah, but you can't just write people off without getting to know them," Dash argued, folding his arms. "What if you brush off someone at first glance and they turn out to be the one for you?"
"So you think Fenton is your 'the one?'" The skeptical look in Kwan's eyes seemed more like he was questioning the whole concept of 'the one,' of soul mates, in general rather than simply Dash's choice of whom he liked.
Dash shrugged and glanced toward Fenton, who wore a miserable expression while wearing the long ebony wig that Paulina forced onto him. "He could be."
"Then maybe you should go for it already. Instead of just lurking in the background.. If you don't try, someone else might snatch him up before you ever get the chance."
"Seriously, how is there no one you like?" Dash remained flabbergasted by that fact. "Because, you know, if you like another guy," he waved at Fenton, "I obviously won't have a problem with that."
"I don't know." Kwan shrugged, frowning in irritation about the topic of conversation. "I just don't feel anything toward anyone. Not everyone has to meet their perfect match in high school. Maybe I'll find someone in college."
Dash sighed and hung his head in defeat. When the subject of crushes came up in conversation, it always tended to end this way with Kwan denying any interest in anyone. Fingers scratched through his blond hair, and Dash decided to simply give up on the whole thing. Kwan could be stubborn as a freaking rock when he wanted to be. Dash wracked his mind for some other topic to break away from the whole crush thing before his friend decided to start teasing him mercilessly about Fenton.
"Oh," Dash sat up straighter as a thought hit him. Since they were basically free to talk about anything at the moment with no one listening or paying attention to them, he felt it was safe to bring it up now. "You never said anything about what you figured out from that stuff on the techno dork's PDA." He stared at Kwan, who frowned with a troubled look in his eyes. Dash didn't think he was going to like what his friend had to say from that expression.
Kwan shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense." He leaned forward, chin in his hands as he watched Paulina and Fenton, whose face was now bright tomato red.
"Okay. I expect to hear that from Foley. But you know your tech shit. You can figure out basically anything when it comes to tech." Dash bent forward, patting a hand on his friend's back. "Maybe you just need to bounce ideas off someone. I may not be as good at the tech stuff, but I can shoot ideas at you."
Kwan turned his head, aqua green eyes piercing into his friend as he continued to frown with uncertainty. "The Fentons make some pretty crazy stuff, right?"
"Well, yeah," Dash agreed, mirroring his friend's frown. "They always seemed to have a few screws loose, but I guess they really aren't that crazy with the whole virus thing."
Kwan's brow pinched as he struggled with the wording for what he had to say. "Do you think they would create a program to aid them in fighting the viruses?"
The question worked its way slowly through his head, and Dash jerked back, blinking in surprise. "Wait. Are you trying to ask if I think the Fentons created the Phantom program?" When Kwan nodded, Dash's brain ceased to function at the absurdity of the very idea. The Fentons? Creating the Phantom program? It was absolutely ridiculous! "But they hate the Phantom program," he argued when he could finally think of something, anything, to say. "They think he's just another virus too."
"Yeah, there's that." Kwan's expression fell, almost like he hoped for some other answer from his friend.
"What do you guys think?" Paulina questioned with a proud smile as she shoved Fenton toward the two jocks.
Dash nearly choked on air when he turned his head to the pair. Fenton scratched embarrassingly with one finger against his very red cheek as his blue eyed gaze was cast away from them. The long ebony wig matched perfectly with his natural hair and still looked rather fitting on the man as it draped down to the small of his back. The dress Paulina chose was pink, to go along with the pig theme, reaching to mid thigh.
"I look ridiculous," Fenton murmured. "Why does there even have to be a girl pig? The characters are all male in the story."
"Nonsense!" Paulina actually looked really happy with the whole idea of getting to use Fenton like some kind of dress up doll. "You look adorable."
If possible, Fenton's face turned even darker red. "I don't want to look adorable."
"I think he looks great." Kwan grinned at his friend. "What about you, Dash?"
Dash turned his gaze away before he was caught staring like an idiot. Folding his arms, he grumbled, "Better than that hideous puce dress at least." Out of habit, a smirk spread onto his face. "You should be happy that this isn't being performed for the entire school."
The bell rang before Fenton could find his voice to snap back at him. Frustration crossed Fenton's face as he stomped off to change out of the dress that Paulina sewed for him as the costume designer for their group. Paulina joined him to make sure he didn't rip it in the process of removing it. Dash grabbed his book bag from under his seat as he left the room with Kwan, who wouldn't stop grinning like a maniac. He gave his friend a hard shove in the ribs with his elbow before they parted ways to head to their next classes.
His remaining classes proved to be as boring as usual with the teachers droning on and on about whatever they were currently studying, and Dash felt like he was being bored into a coma. He spent most of his class time doodling in a notebook, some of his sketches being of Phantom, but the majority of them ended up being Fenton with a number of them in the pink dress that he would be wearing for the play. When he realized that, Dash quickly flipped his notebook to a clean page before anyone could peek over to see what he was doodling. Maybe Kwan had a point and Dash should go for it with Fenton already.
Dash sighed as he packed up his things when the final bell of the day rang. Shouldering his book bag, he followed the throng of students from the room into the main hall. He easily pushed his way through the mass of bodies, people moving aside for the star football player and most popular guy in school. He was almost to his locker when his attention strayed to something happening across the hall. His teeth ground when he spied that jerk Calvin Williams holding Fenton pinned to the lockers. He was surprised, really, that it took Calvin this long to move in on bullying Fenton.
Crossing the hall, Dash seized the other jock by the sleeve, twisting the fabric of his shirt as he jerked Calvin away from Fenton. "Back off, Williams," Dash ordered with a threatening growl in his voice. His dark blue eyes narrowed dangerously with the promise of pain if the other jock didn't do as commanded.
"Sticking up for your girlfriend?" Calvin snorted with a malicious smirk on his face.
Dash didn't dare to glance at Fenton and see his reaction to that comment. "No," he snapped a tad too quickly. "I just don't want you moving in on my punching bag. Fenton is my loser. You really don't want to tangle with me, Williams."
"You better watch yourself, Baxter," Calvin threatened, ripping his shirt free from Dash's hold. They held a glaring match for several moments until Calvin finally broke it and stormed off down the hall, shoving students, roughly, out of his way.
"Uh," Fenton said, stunned and his voice filled with uncertainty, and Dash turned around to face him. Fenton blinked then darted his gaze about the hall, probably noticing all the people that paused to watch the display. "Why did you do that?"
"Are these just for decoration?" Dash reached out and tugged on Fenton's ears. "You think I'm going to let that dick move in on my loser?" He smirked until he noted the offended look Fenton wore at that comment. If Kwan were there, the other jock would probably be shaking his head at his friend's misstep in trying to woo his crush. It was a force of habit now to refer to Fenton as a loser, but that certainly wouldn't win him any points with the other man. He tried to think of something to say that might fix things, but a cough interrupted him.
"Is there a problem going on here?" Lancer questioned, green eyes narrowing down at the pair of students.
"No, Sir!" Dash answered immediately as he half stepped away from Fenton to put some distance between them. "We were just discussing stuff about the play for our theater class."
"We were?" Fenton questioned, though his confusion might be more than simply over the jock's lie.
"Of course." Dash snapped his gaze toward the raven haired man, silently telling him not to say anything about what transpired between him and Calvin.
Lancer frowned like he suspected they were discussing no such thing upon his arrival. "I'm quite looking forward to the performance of your play."
"Uh," Dash blinked rapidly in his bafflement, "what, Sir?" From what their theater teacher said, he was fairly certain that they would only be performing for the first and second graders of the elementary schools, not for the whole of Casper High.
"Mister Lawrence records all of the performances for his class," Lancer explained with a smirk. "He lets me watch them when they're all finished. I like to see who took the class because they were serious about it and who," he frowned, glaring down his nose, "was merely looking for an easy A."
"Oh, we're totally serious about it," Fenton assured their teacher while Dash gulped nervously because he certainly went into the class expecting it to be easy.
Lancer turned his gaze onto Fenton and smiled with a little more pleasantness. "Ah, Fenton. I'm looking forward to your next essay for class. I hope it will be at the same high quality as your last one."
Fenton flushed lightly at the praise and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I'll try my best, Sir."
"Excellent." Lancer looked quite pleased with Fenton's response. "Now if you'll excuse me." He walked a little farther down the hall. "Miss Farborne, I believe it's time we have that chat with your parents." He guided a young woman with frizzy orange hair down the hall, having apparently caught her in the act of doing some that broke school rules.
Dash turned his gaze toward Fenton, who already turned away to open his locker and retrieve some books. "Uh, look. About-"
"I really have to get going," Fenton cut him off as he shut the locker door. "Lots of homework to get done." There was a troubled look in his blue eyes, like some terrible problem was weighing him down and he couldn't figure out the answer to it.
Dash glanced about the hall to see if anyone was still watching them. Then he stepped in closer to Fenton. "Look. I didn't actually mean what I said, about you being my loser and all that shit," he explained quietly, but Fenton's expression looked doubtful. "I just had to say that to get Williams to back off." He tossed a thumb over his shoulder like Calvin was right there behind even though the other jock was long gone. "Trust me when I tell you, you don't want to get beat on by that guy. He won't hold back."
"Like you do?" Fenton shot back, frowning and glaring.
"Surprisingly, yes," Dash hissed in return. "I always held back. Even before-" He shook his head and pulled away from the other man. Those words wouldn't fall easily from his lips, even if he wanted to confess to the other man. He didn't think Fenton would be willing to listen to it or believe he meant it. "Just - I'm not going to let that ass hurt you." Shoving his hands in his pockets, Dash walked away and refused to toss a glance over his shoulder, despite the temptation to see if Fenton was watching him leave.
swagdanny: I can hear the digital wedding bells now~ 8D
Silluevenperrosygatos: It's always the dog~ XD They know their masters' feelings better than their masters themselves. Hopefully that will be coming! XD;;; Yes~ Healing is definitely something Danny needs to learn. XD;; Well, Vlad still has the horned hair look. XD;;; And still a white costume. You're welcome~ (And yay!) =)
Sammi: Probably not. =( Since Vlad doesn't really have any reason to try cloning Danny.
Anon: It's a slow process with them! D:
midnight: XD Yeah. *pats Danny* It's better to be nice to him. Stop antagonizing your future love~ D8 That'll come up. =) Eventually...
DARKLOVEFORFANFICTION123: I'm still waiting on that myself! XD;; Haha. They need to meet up again before things start happening between them. *sighs* But when does Danny ever not learn things the hard way? XD;;
DB-KT: Danny begs to differ. XD;; Soon~ Maybe.
maltese: One day indeed. Hopefully sooner rather than later. XD;;;;