Chapter 2: Flying With the Ducks
A/N- Hmm... this story has been begging to be worked on, seeing as I've neglected it for the last several months. What can I say, I'm lazy. -_-' Did BSB and Nsync exist when D3 came out? If not, oh well, LOL. Scooter's POV
*****
When I wake up, it takes me a bit to remember why I'm not in my room. And why I'm asleep on the floor. I try to sit up—bad idea. "Owwwwww."
"Masochistic much?" Rat is already awake, I assume Linda is too as she's nowhere in sight. "Stay there, at least for a bit. You're in bad shape."
I nod weakly, and pain shoots through my head. Okay, no moving at all. "So what happened?"
"You mean after I yanked you in here and you passed out?" I nod again, but it hurts a little less this time. That's a good sign. I think. I don't even get annoyed at the reminder that I fainted the second I got here. "Well, Riley and Cole showed up, they started hollering at me because I wouldn't let them come in and pound you more, I slammed the door in their faces, and Cole punched it. I believe they both have detention for a week for trying to break into a girls' dorm, and Cole's hand is broken." She shrugs and I laugh, even though I know it's bad team spirit.
Team spirit? Did I just dare to mention team spirit, at Eden Hall? Maybe they hit me in the head harder than I thought.
"So what brought on the slaughter?"
"They were on a Duck hunt and decided I was close enough."
She winces. "Um... dare I ask what happened?"
"They broke into Cole's room and replaced all of his CDs with Backstreet Boys and Nsync ones..." I pause, seeing she looks more amused than surprised. "But you already knew that, you were behind it all."
"Fox was. I just knew about it."
Fox? Who's Fox? I assume one of her soccer teammates and let that question slide. Cat, Rat, Fox... what is it with athletes and three-letter animals? "Well tell Fox it was a brilliant plan, but how did he know that Cole was going to be having a party last night?" I pause to keep from laughing, remembering the look on everyone's faces when he just wandered over to his stereo, hit play, and started blasting boy band music to the whole team. "Or was that part just lucky timing?"
From the expression on her face I can tell it was just luck. "Nothing I knew about... then again, the Ducks are good spies, they might've found out somehow."
I nod, and pass out again.
*****
Sometimes Julie really amazes me.
Wait, that's often. Sometimes Julie just shocks the hell out of me.
"You okay, Scooter?" She shoots me a concerned look, and I try to grin back. "If you don't want to, I understand, I just thought you might—"
"Want to?" I ask weakly. "When do I move in?"
It seems that after last night's mess, Rat decided enough was enough. She and the Ducks got together to brainstorm at least a partial solution to my problems with Riley and Cole. The obvious one? Get me out of Riley's room.
Conveniently, one Jesse Hall doesn't have a roommate.
I will admit Julie's sprung it a bit abruptly. She just wandered in to the campus medical area (they weren't about to let me stay with Linda and Rat, after all), said the usual hi how are you, and gave a graphic description of what'll happen when she gets at Cole. The out of nowhere she came up with, "How would you like to switch rooms? Jesse doesn't have a roommate and he's willing to share."
Yeah. Forgive me for being a bit dazed.
Especially as I know how much Jesse likes outsiders. Maybe he doesn't consider me an outsider? I am on the side of the angels as far as most of the Ducks are concerned, after all. But still, I'm flattered, and I doubt there's any harm in that.
She laughs at me. "We've discussed it with the Dean already, he said if you're sure you're okay with it, it's fine with him, you can switch as soon as possible. Rat says she doesn't think he even listened to her explaining the situation."
"Typical." She nods her agreement. "But I have to go back there and pack, and Riley's gonna be even more pissed off at me than usual. How're we planning to get by that?"
"It's taken care of," she assures me.
I can't get any more out of her on that subject, so I give up trying. Curiosity gets you killed by the Cat.
*****
Something tells me that when these Ducks get out of high school, they're all going to go into the army and join a special operations unit. They're that good. (Or they'll all be in jail before they're 20. They're that evil.) Apparently, my 'defecting' to Jesse's room is giving them a way to carry out phase 2 of their latest plan against the Varsity. I might've known switching CDs wouldn't be good enough for them.
Which is why I'm being escorted by Charlie and Adam, dressed in all black and armed with squirtguns. (In the middle of the winter. This should be interesting.) Goldberg is tagging along behind us, dragging a black backpack. I don't know what's in it, nor do I want to.
I suspect I'll learn anyway.
When we get to the dorm, we stop for a minute and Charlie pulls out a radio. "Is it clear?"
"Clear as crystal," Rat's voice confirms. From what I've been able to pick up, Jay—as Varsity has yet to realize he's on the side of the devil—is going to attempt to distract Riley by posing as a fan. Wish I could watch. What Riley really needs is someone inflating his ego, but this should be worth it.
Averman, Ken, and Russ are already inside, all of them carrying backpacks. Charlie nods to them and they start off down the hallway.
When we get to the door, Averman digs around in his backpack and comes up with a roll of duct tape, a pack of thumbtacks, and various pictures of boybands. They really seem to love that theme. This time around, anyway.
Charlie takes up a guard position by the door, while Adam leaves his squirtgun outside and comes in. Ken glances at me. "So, what's safe to decorate?"
I point them to Riley's dresser. "Anything in the closet's his, too. And be sure you get the walls."
Russ slaps me on the back. "You're gettin' the hang of this, man."
*****
It takes me about fifteen minutes to get completely packed up and ready to go. By that time, the sabotage team is more or less finished. There's toothpaste in all of Riley's socks, pink paint dumped all over his clothes, and the walls are covered in boyband posters (which are, naturally, duct taped up). I think they put thumbtacks in his bed, but I was carefully not paying attention when they did that part. Matter of fact, I was carefully not paying attention to a lot of it...
They've offered to help me carry my bags—undoubtedly they're just looking for an excuse if they get caught, but hey, how can I refuse? We watch Russ smear glue and feathers all over the bathroom mirror, then everyone grabs a bag and we're gone.
