A/N: Thanks for reading!

Chapter Thirty-seven: And What Is That Supposed to Mean?

Andy pulled his shirt on over his head and reached into his locker for his shoes. On the other side of the locker room, some of the guys were swapping stories from the party on Saturday, mostly about sex. Andy rolled his eyes and tugged on his socks and shoes while he waited for John to finish dressing on the next aisle over.

"Which one of you asswipes stole my underwear?"

Andy grinned as Caleb stalked back and forth across the walkway by the urinals. He wasn't wearing anything except for a towel around his waist and very sour expression. "It was you, wasn't it, Evans? You better give 'em back, you fuckin' prick."

Andy laughed when he heard the boys start arguing on the other side of the locker room. Just as he finished tying his shoelaces, John emerged from the aisle over smelling faintly of cologne. "You ready?"

"Yeah." Andy grabbed his gym bag and the two of them started walking towards the cafeteria.

"So, what'd your dad say when you got home?"

Andy shrugged. "He wasn't there. He had to take Nicole to a friend's house."

"He still on your ass about the meet this weekend?"

"What d'you think?"

John shrugged. "It sucks, dude. I think you should just tell him to fuck off, you know? You're gonna win anyway. He doesn't have to be such a prick about it."

Andy considered John's words for a moment, but not the part about telling his dad to back off; he'd been dreaming of that day since he was thirteen, maybe even earlier. It was the part about him winning that threw him off a bit. He loved wrestling. He knew he did. But if he was able to wrestle the way he wanted, to have fun instead of playing the star, would it be the same? John loved wrestling, too, but he didn't practice much. His parents had enough money to send him to college without a scholarship, so he'd never pushed himself and, as a result, didn't win very often. What if Andy's father was like John's? Would he be a winner if his dad hadn't pushed him so hard? Would he still be Andy Clark, State Wrestling Champion… or just another guy in tights?

Andy and John took a seat at the wrestling table, where a couple of guys had started unpacking their lunches already. Corey Johnson, a tall, awkward boy with hair so blonde it was almost white, was peeling an orange on the other side of the table next to John. He smiled kindly at Andy, but didn't say anything.

"Hey, Johnson, were you at Dakota's party on Saturday?"

Corey glanced over at John. "No."

John shook his head. "You never come to these things, man."

Corey shrugged. "I'm just busy, I guess."

John grinned. "Oh, busy? Busy with what?"

"Oh, you know, school, work-"

"Girls."

Corey blushed slightly. "No, I didn't mean that."

"Sure, you didn't."

Andy rolled his eyes. "Lay off, John."

John laughed. "Come on, man. Tell us all about her."

Corey's face was turning redder and redder by the minute. "No, really. I wasn't with anyone."

"Why not? You're a good-looking guy. I'm sure the chicks are crawling all over you."

"No, really. I don't date that much."

John stroked his chin and narrowed his eyes. "You know what we need to do?"

Corey almost looked afraid. "What?"

"We need to set you up with someone."

The blonde boy's eyes widened. "No, that's okay. I don't-"

"I mean, I know for a fact that Josie is free." John nudged Andy in the ribs. "Ain't that right, Clark?"

Andy chuckled. "So I've heard."

John nodded in Andy's direction. "See? I'll do a little sniffin' around for you, see if she's interested."

"Oh, no, don't do that. She wouldn't be interested in someone like me."

"Why not? She digs wrestlers. You're a wrestler. One and one make two, last time I checked."

"But, I mean…" Corey glanced over at Andy for help, but Andy just shrugged. He listened distractedly as the two of them talked for a few minutes. It was funny how much the shy, blonde wrestler reminded Andy of Brian. They were both so awkward and… nice. Andy wondered why he'd never gotten to know Corey very well since he joined the team the year before.

"Come on. What's the worst that could happen?" John asked.

Corey sighed. "I don't know. Something bad."

John laughed. "You're so pessimistic. Josie's suffering from a broken heart. She needs someone who'll listen to her, someone to let her cry on their shoulder and, most of all, someone who won't cheat on her." John paused dramatically. "You wouldn't cheat on her, would you, Cor?"

Corey's eyes grew incredibly wide. "No, of course not."

"See, that's one thing you've already got going for you. Just leave it to me, alright?"

Corey nodded uncertainly and went back to his orange. Andy looked over at John, who had unwrapped his sandwich and was taking large bites. When he looked up at Andy, he smirked. "What?"

"You're such an asshole."

John grinned. "Guilty."

When Larry plopped down at the lunch table on Monday, the first thing he noticed was Brian's arm. "What happened to you?"

Brian blushed and glanced over at David, who was grinning. "You tell him."

"Well, he was attacked by a dragon and just as he was escaping through the tunnel on level six, he got caught in the dungeon, but his arm-"

"Okay, I'll do it." Brian rolled his eyes. "I fell of the slide in the park."

Larry furrowed his brow in confusion. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"That sucks."

Brian nodded and started unwrapping his sandwich. Just as he was about to take his first bite, Allison appeared out of nowhere and plopped down on the bench next to him. "Hi," he said.

Allison didn't answer, just threw her knapsack on the floor and pulled out a pen and a pad of paper. She flipped to a blank page and huddled over the paper without looking at any of the boys. Larry shot him a questioning glance, but Brian just shrugged. Everyone was silent for a few minutes, not sure if they should say anything or not. Finally, Larry cleared his throat. "Um, I promised Mr. McIntyre we'd hang up posters for the Math Club tomorrow at lunch."

Brian nodded. "Yeah, okay."

Again, the table descended into silence. Larry and Brian were sneaking worried glances at Allison, but probably for different reasons. David was staring at her sketchpad without expression, as if it wasn't strange at all that she was completely ignoring them.

Brian cleared his throat nervously. "So, David, um, how was your Chemistry test last week?"

"Fine."

"That's good."

Brian glanced over at Allison once more and took another bite of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "So, uh, convention this weekend."

"Yep."

"It's gonna be cool."

"Yep."

Again, the silence. After a few uncomfortable minutes, Brian dug into his bag and pulled out a black Sharpie. "Okay, who wants to write something cool on my cast?"

"…so, she stormed upstairs and flung open the door and was like, 'You pig! I trusted you!' and he was like, 'No, it's not how it looks, Josie!' even though it totally was."

Jamie Coogan sighed. "It's so sad."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Why, because he's 'so hot'?"

"No, because I heard Josie's really upset about it."

"They'll be back together again by the end of the week," said Amy.

Jamie shook her head. "No, I don't think she's going to forgive him this time."

"She always forgives him."

Jamie shrugged doubtfully, but kept her mouth shut. Claire finished off the last of her crab salad and stuffed the container back into her white shopping bag. When she dug around in the bag for the rest of her lunch, she found that Martha had packed passion fruit that day. How appropriate.

Clarissa plopped a grape into her mouth and looked over at Jamie. "Did they reschedule the student council meeting? I heard Mr. McFarland's sick."

Jamie shrugged. "I think Vernon's running it today."

Clarissa wrinkled her nose. "Oh."

"Yeah."

A few minutes later, the bell rang, dismissing them to fourth period. Claire started following Amy and Clarissa to their American History class, but Natasha grabbed her before she could get too far. "You're being quiet."

Claire blushed. "Is that not allowed?"

Natasha smirked. "After school. I expect all the mushy details."

Claire couldn't keep the smile off of her face. "What details?"

"Don't be stupid. Meet me in the parking lot, alright?" Without waiting for an answer, Natasha swung her purse over her shoulder and started walking in the opposite direction.

Claire sighed and walked out into the hallway. Amy and Clarissa were nowhere to be seen, but she spotted Brian a few feet away taking a drink from the water fountain. She walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped slightly, spraying a little bit of water in his eye. "Oh, God, I'm sorry!"

"It's okay." Brian blinked and squinted up at her. "How are you?"

"Fine, you?"

"Fine."

The two of them stood in awkward silence for a moment until Brian cleared his throat. "So, uh, you had physics earlier, right?"

"Oh, yeah. I did."

"How was… I mean, how did that go?"

Claire wrinkled her nose. "It went alright, but we got our quizzes back from last week and I failed mine."

Brian's eyes went wide. "Oh."

"Yeah."

Brian furrowed his brow thoughtfully. "Are you failing the class?"

"No, I think I've got a C or maybe a D."

Brian nodded slowly. "I can talk to Mr. Waverly for you. Maybe he can give you some kind of extra credit assignment."

The idea of extra work for physics made Claire a bit nauseous, but she knew that a D wouldn't cut it when it came to applying to colleges next fall. Besides, maybe Brian's connections with Mr. Waverly meant that the assignment wouldn't be too bad. "That would be great. Thanks."

Brian smiled shyly. "No problem. I'll, uh… I guess I'll see you later then."

Claire nodded. "Bye."

"Bye."

As Claire continued down the hall towards her history class, she realized that maybe things were starting to look up.

……….

When fifth period rolled around, Claire was starting to think that maybe she'd been a bit hasty with her prediction. The first person she saw when she walked into her geometry class was Andy. Part of her wanted to find a seat on the opposite side of the room, as far away from him as possible. The other, larger part was ready to thrash him for what he'd done to John. She plopped down into the seat next to him and glared at the side of his head.

"Hey," he said, hardly looking up from his homework. She didn't say anything, just kept glaring at him. Finally, he looked up. "What?"

Claire found that she was almost too furious to answer him. "Anything you want to tell me?"

Andy furrowed his brow in confusion. "Like what?"

"Like about John?"

Andy rolled his eyes and went back to his homework. "Not this again."

"Yes, this again!" Claire grabbed his pencil, nearly stabbing him in the palm in the process.

"Hey!" Andy grabbed for the pencil, but she pulled her hand away. "Claire! This is so fucking ridiculous! Are you trying to make me fail?"

"Maybe. It's not like you wouldn't deserve it if you did."

"Oh, really?" Andy's eyes were blazing. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're an asshole."

"What did I do this time?"

"You know what you did!"

Andy glared at her. "Is this some kind of joke? Because I'm not psychic, you know."
"No, just a jerk."

Andy sighed. "This is so stupid. Just give me back my pencil."

"No, not until you tell me why you sent your friends after him."

"After who?" Andy grabbed for he pencil once more, but Claire jerked it out of the way.

"After John."

"Just give it ba-" Andy paused. "Wait, what?"

"I want to know why you sent them to beat him up."

"Beat him up?" he echoed.

"Yes, on Thursday."

"No one beat him up. We got into it in the hall. No one was hurt."

Claire scoffed. "I saw him on Saturday. He looked pretty bad."

Andy paused thoughtfully. "Well, it probably wasn't anyone from school."

Claire felt her face getting warm. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Andy looked at her as though the answer should be obvious. "Come on, Claire. You know what his dad does to him. Who said it's-"

"It wasn't his dad!" Claire yelled. A few people turned to stare at them, but she just glared at them until they turned away, embarrassed. She turned back to Andy. "You know anyone by the name of John Hamilton?"

Andy rolled his eyes. "Duh."

"Well, maybe you should ask him about it."

Andy stopped cold. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that some wrestlers beat up John on Thursday. One of them was your friend."

"That's not true. Bender's lying."

"Oh, is he?" Claire narrowed her eyes. "That's right. He lies about everything, doesn't he?"

Andy glared at her, but she could see his expression softening. She swallowed deeply. "So, did you really not know?"

Andy didn't answer, just took the pencil out of Claire's hand and hunched back over his homework. She didn't stop him this time.