Title: Another Brick in the Wall
Author: Lea of Mirkwood
Disclaimer: I do not own The Faculty. I own the horse ranch. I own Kit and her family and the citizens of Greengrass. I do not own these songs.
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Kit collapsed into the seat at the table next to her mother, smiling giddily. Her hair was mussed and her cheeks were flushed with a light pink. Mrs. O'Connell smiled knowingly and placed a plate of pancakes in front of her daughter. Casey, sitting across from Kit, looked up at her. Kit stuffed a forkful of pancake in her mouth and grinned.
"Want to go swimming today, Casey?" she asked cheerfully. Casey shrugged.
"Sure. I...didn't bring a suit, though."
Kit shrugged also, smiling broadly. "It doesn't matter. Wear your clothes." She stuffed another bite in her mouth. "Besides. Rob has to work today. So there's no chance of you feeling slighted."
"Will you invite the others?" asked Casey shyly. "They're...they're..."
Mrs. O'Connell stepped outside to feed their black labrador retriever. Kit smiled.
"They're better friends than you've ever had for a long time...is that what you were going to say?"
"Something like that."
--- --- ---
Katie, Nell, Kit, Alec and Casey walked their horses along the stream and through the waist high grass. Casey noticed, with some apprehension, that on every saddle but his a rifle hung. He reasoned that it was probably for mountain lions. A tether connected Casey's horse to Kit's hand. Alec turned to Katie and grinned wolfishly.
"Are you wearing that little two-piece again?"
Katie glared at Alec. "Why do you want to know? What does it matter to you?" she challenged in her soft voice.
Alec wolf whistled and then addressed Casey. "Katie's stacked, man."
Kit interjected, "Excuse me? That is so sexist and sizeist and male. Breasts do not make the woman."
"Yeah," added Nell. "The Grand Tetons are out and the Appalachians are in."
"The unbuffered shall shape the fashion industry," put in Kit. "C-cups no longer have the power. Us A and B girls are all-powerful."
"No offense, Katie," Nell said quickly. "But we need this power."
"Aw, come on. There's nothing better than..." Alec trailed off as all three females fixed glares on him. "Uhhh...Casey. What do you think?"
Casey pretended to think about it for a minute. "I think they both have definite advantages. The stacked are like eye candy..."
He stopped as all the girls gasped in indignation and their hands twitched towards the guns strapped to the saddles. Kit held the tether that led Casey's horse out over the ground.
"I'll drop it! The horse will go galloping off across the plains! I'll drop it, I will!"
"No!" cried Casey. "I take it back!"
Kit laughed and put the tether back where it went. "Good."
Once they arrived, Nell took the boom box out of her saddlebag. Casey marveled at this. He didn't know why it was so weird, it just was. The girls unsnapped the straps on their bib overalls and let them drop. Katie, with a glare in Alec's direction, pulled on a white shirt over her camel colored two-piece. Casey awkwardly pulled his blue t-shirt over his head and kicked off his shoes. Alec dove in, having never put on a shirt in the first place. Nell bent over to the CD player and turned it on, checking the CD function. She was wearing a navy style two-piece and her hair was braided in a long rope hanging down her back. The music started to play, sounding out-of-place in such a rural area with no electronics nearby.
"Ohh, it's nice and warm!" called Katie, waist deep in the water. Alec sighed and floated up on his back, letting the water drift him around. Kit finished tethering the horses up to a tree with plenty of grass around and a bucket of water for them to drink out of. She reached over to turn up the music and unsnapped one strap on her overalls, then the other, while trying to put her hat neatly on top of the boom box. She let the denim overalls fall to the ground and she kicked them aside, revealing a black one-piece. Alec hooted from his floating position. Casey, still standing by the shore, turned around to look at Kit with interest. Somehow, he had never actually thought about the fact that Kit was anything more than a best friend, as an object of desire. He didn't like her like that, but he now could definitely understand how someone could see her as sexy. Kit grinned at Casey and ran towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. They bothe fell into the water, Kit laughing as Casey came up for air, his hair plastered to his forehead. Kit giggled and splashed him. Oddly, he felt like his senses were on overdrive. The water seemed wetter, the music more clear, and he was acutely aware of the warmth of Nell's arms as she wrapped them around his shoulders, laughing. The music sounded in their ears. Katie grinned and sang along to the words playfully.
"Looove...love is strange. Lot of people take it for a game. Once you get it, you never wanna quit."
"After you've had it, you're in an awful fix. Many people don't understand..." added Nell. She laughed and dunked Casey underwater.
"Silvia..." called Alec to the music.
"Yes Mickey?" replied Kit, rising halfway out of the water and tilting her head playfully.
"How do you call your loverboy?" asked Alec, tossing his head.
"C'mere loverboy!" cried Kit, laughing, now stalking around the edge of the waterhole, waist deep.
"And if he doesn't answer?" sang Alec and Nell in unison.
"Ohh loverboy!" called Kit cajolingly.
"And if he still doesn't answer?" inquired Katie.
"I simply say," said Kit sweetly, spreading her arms. "Baby...ohhh baby, my sweet baby...you're the one!"
Katie treaded water around Alec, teasingly. "Baby, ooohhh baby, my sweet baby, you're the one!"
--- --- ---
"Stay..."
"A-a-a-a-ah, just a little bit longer!"
"Please, please, please, please tell me you're going to."
"Now your daddy don't mind-"
"And your mommy don't mind-"
"If we have another dance-" added Casey, feeling completely carefree.
"Yeah, just one more!" wailed Alec melodramatically.
"One more time-"
"Oh, won't you stay just a little bit longer?"
"Please let me hear," all five sang together, "you say that you will, say you will! Won't you press your sweet lips to mine! Won't you say that you love me all of the time!"
"Stay just a little bit longer!" sang Kit loudly.
"Please, please, please, please, please tell me you're going to!" sang Katie.
"Come on, come on, come on..."
--- --- ---
Kit rode up to the house, softly singing under her breath.
"All you have to do is touch my hand, to show me you understand. And something happens to me that's some kind of wonderful. At any time my little world seems blue, I just have to look at you and everything seems to be some kind of wonderful."
Casey heard the quiet tune and finished for her, a bit awkwardly. "I know I can't express this feeling of tenderness. There's so much I wanna say but the right words just don't come my way."
Rob was waiting for them by the barn gate. He walked up to Kit's pinto and reached up and put his hands on the saddle horn. Kit leaned down to kiss her boyfriend, the gesture reminiscent of Ashley leaning down to kiss Melanie before going off to war in Gone With The Wind.
"Hey now, Robert McKay. Don't you let me catch you kissing my daughter!" said Mr. O'Connell, walking out of the barn. The couple broke apart sheepishly and Rob put his hands on Kit's waits and lifted her off her horse, Painted Thunder. "Casey, can you get off okay?" asked Mr. O'Connell. Casey nodded.
"Sure." He swung his leg over the back of the saddle and accidentally banged his elbow on the saddle horn. He dropped to the ground hard, but on his feet. He lifted one foot off the ground, then the other, attempting to bring the feeling back into the soles of his feet. He gratefully handed Highboy's reins to Mr. O'Connell, who patted Casey on the shoulder in a fatherly way.
"You liked riding?" he asked. Casey nodded again.
"It was great. So...real. I'm...thank you for having me here," said Casey with feeling. The corner of Mr. O'Connell's mouth turned up in a half-smile.
"It's nice having you here, Casey. You're a good guest. I hear you're even a nice guest completely hung over. And you're a gentleman. There's something to be said for that."
Casey nodded dumbly, and then the meaning of what Mr. O'Connell had just said sunk in. "You...you...know? How? I mean-" Casey stammered.
"She told us. It was probably easier on her conscience to tell. And we understand. She did a good thing. I'm not one to pry into other people's domestic lives, but it probably was better that she did that instead of just driving you home completely sloshed. I don't approve of the method she used to get you out of there, let me tell you, but there's nothing to be done about that." Mr. O'Connell smiled again. "Let's go in. It's time for the real birthday party. I hear there's cake."
Casey managed a smile, but his mind was still reeling with the knowledge that these people had let him into their home after knowing about the...the...thing.
"Oh, and by the way," added Kit's father. "I wouldn't sit on anything hard. Sit on nice, soft cushions. Your seat's going to be plenty sore for a while."
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