Chapter 20: You Can Always Go Downtown
By Cimmy and NYgoldfish54
Ken's POV

The first cloud I've seen all week settles over our heads a few hours into our pool-time. I suppose we could you a bit of rain to wash away the daily disasters. Also, I'm tired of being drowned by Dwayne and Russ all the time.

"We could go to the pool they have inside," Connie suggests, jumping into Guy's arms. They both disappear under water for a second.

"Or we could go grab something to eat," Goldberg continues, hauling himself out of the water. "Food!"

"Food sounds good," Charlie ponders. Not all of us got to finish our breakfast earlier, for different reasons. "We could go into town and look around."

Connie shows up again, snorting water out of her nose. "In the rain?" she asks.

"Cool, let's do that!" Julie exclaims and pushes past me to get out of the water. "I like shopping."

"We know," most of us answer, knowing how many hours she spends in one store. Connie can be bad sometimes too, but not as bad as Julie.

Charlie gazes over to the two missing Ducks, Fred and Cecilia. I haven't heard much from them in a long time, thank God almighty. "I'll go get them too," Charlie sighs. "Well, they are part of the team!" he says when we all moan.

"I think we should vote about that," Portman growls and climbs out of the pool.

"Come on!" Connie protests. "It's all good now! I'll go get them."

Charlie rolls his eyes and pushes her back into the water. "Stop being so annoying, Connie. Otherwise we have to vote about you as well."

"Maybe we should vote for a new captain while we're at it?" Adam muses. Charlie tries to drown him, but falls back into the water himself instead.

I decide to swim over and announce our exit to the reconciled idiots. "Hey, we're leaving now. Are you coming?"

"Sure," Cecilia answers. She's has her arms around Fred's shoulders, and when she tries to break free, he grabs her hand.

"What did you mean by that?"

You know, if they begin to fight again, I'm forced to kill myself. Or them. I just can't take their stupid whining anymore.

"Nothing, I'm just saying that..." Cecilia leans in to kiss him. "...I like you."

Fred doesn't seem content with that answer, but smiles anyway. "Fine, I'll buy that for now. Say that thing again."

Cecilia splashes off to the side. "Maybe later," she says quietly. Fred swims up to her and lifts her out of the water, to place her on the edge.

"So, where are we going?" Dwayne wonders from behind me.

Julie bounces up and down on the spot, not unlike Connie. "We're going shopping!" she cheers. "Are we taking the bus?"

"Well, since none of us have a driver's license, I think that's for the best," Charlie snorts. "There will be no visits to the jail this time."

"Yeah, we can always do that next summer!" Guy and Connie wail at the same time. Wow, that was seriously painful.

Charlie rubs his temples and moan loudly. We follow him inside, receiving angry looks from the cleaning lady, for dripping water all over the lobby. I decide to wait up for Adam and Luis, walking next to Matt and Jeff. Fred walks past us and hurries up to Connie and Guy.

"Ken, wait up!"

I turn around to look at the person shouting, and it's Cecilia. I'm kind of surprised, since she usually calls out for Adam when he's around. I think Adam's the closest friend she has on this team, mostly because he's not as easily annoyed with her. I wait for her by the doors, and the other four stop to wait for me.

"Oh no," Matt mutters. "It's her again." He sounds so much in despair that the rest of us laugh. I actually don't have anything against her; she's just very unlucky sometimes.

Anthony and Lex show up to join us at our rooms. Lex instinctively steps back when Cecilia comes up to me. "What's up?" I ask.

"Nothing," she smiles. "I just wanted you to wait for me."

"Ah, how well you disguise your intentions," I say, dragging her along. I hear Charlie yell something about 'leaving us all behind', so I guess we've done something bad again.

Adam runs up to them to see what's going on. A second later Luis and Jeff join him. Charlie is always entertaining when he's about to explode. He gets that furious look, and someday, he might actually blow up. We all want to be there when that happens.

"Umm, I think I'll go see if they have destroyed anything," Lex mumbles and leaves us behind. I think she and Cecilia destroyed enough for all of us earlier. I'm still sure that Fred had to pay a lot of money to cover the damages Cecilia made. I'm just glad neither of them are my girlfriend.

"So, are you going to talk to him?" I ask little mini-Psycho.

"Fred?"

"No, the other one," I say pointedly, smiling at the memory of her crashing into the food cart. "I think you should." I'm helping out, because I need some peace and quiet. We all know about Cee's adventures with Anthony, and I could've bet money on that she was falling for the guy just the other day.

Cecilia shakes her head. "I don't think I want to," she explains. We're a few steps behind, Cecilia limping from the fight. She's definitely the more bruised one, and I feel bad for her. I know I shouldn't, but I'm too nice to point fingers when people are in pain. There's always time for that when she gets better.

"If you could apologize to Lex, I know you can talk to Anthony," I sigh, getting tired of the whole situation.

"I think he's mad at me," she whispers back, sounding sad.

"So make him not angry at you, then," I suggest and pat her on the shoulder. She squeaks with pain, and I give her a regretful look. "Sorry."

Adam comes back to us, smiling. "Charlie feels better now. He's just mad because Connie teased him a little."

"And you didn't have anything to do with it?" I ask. Adam just grins, while shrugging. Cecilia lets go of my arm and sneaks up to the other two. I hope Matt doesn't kill her. I don't think I have time for a trial.

"Anthony? Could I... Can I... Could we speak?" she stutters and he turns to look at her.

"Uh, yeah, sure," he smiles at her, waving off Matt from his left side.

I can't help but eaves drop to their conversation. Adam seems guilty of that too. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened earlier," Cecilia mumbles, and I'm surprised she had the guts to say that. She would rather just kill disagreements with silence.

"That's okay," Anthony replies, trying to show off some fake cover of happiness.

"No, it's not! I just wanted you to know that... I really did have a great time the other day, and I'm sorry things didn't turn out that well. And I'm sorry for punching Lex, I was wrong. Please don't hate me."

Anthony laughs. "Of course I don't hate you. I had a great time too."

"I mean, I do like you, but I'm in love with someone else. And even though I have feelings for you, I think my feelings for Fred are stronger. I'm just not used to be the girl guys run after. I mean, I had to literally chase Fred around for quite some time before he even noticed me. And you just liked me for who I am, I didn't have to do anything to get your attention. I guess I liked that..."

We're a pretty loud mouthed team altogether. Charlie and Adam always say things to each other they don't mean. Portman continuously insults people, sometimes by purpose, sometimes because he's too stupid to know the difference. Dwayne has his moments of insanity, and I can't really say that I always think before I speak either. And Guy? I don't think he ever really knows what he's saying.

Then there are the reasonable ones. Like Connie. She's very bright, she knows what to say, and when to say it. She's annoying, but bright. Julie is also very smart. She knows when to shut up, and she always considers things thoughtfully before saying them. Maybe not all the time, but almost.

And then there's Fred. He's the biggest idiot of us all. He throws insults all over the place, before he panics and takes it all back again. He screams things out of the blue, always trying to hurt people as bad as possible. And then of course, he changes his mind and spends the rest of his day sulking, trying to come up with a plan to make it all better again.

"You didn't spend the day with me because you had to, and you didn't find me unbearable or annoying. Fred doesn't even put up with me sometimes, but you did. And I really liked you a lot. So, I'm sorry for having feelings for you, and forcing you to spend time with me, which you could've spent with someone else. I sort of wasted your day, didn't I?"

Anthony doesn't answer, he just looks at her. That probably made her nervous, because she takes one step back to leave. Then she turns around again, leans up to him and kisses him on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Okay," Anthony says, looking very confused and sheepish. She limps away, and Matt puts his hand on Anthony's shoulder to get him to come down to earth again.

I wish I knew what just happened. Cecilia probably spoke her heart right now, and she never does that. I can see why. Because the silver lining in all of this is: Cecilia admitted she has feelings for Anthony, even enough for him to be able to fight for her heart.

Now I finally know who the most confused one of all of us is.

"So, does this mean they're friends again?" Adam asks me. Oh, look, we have a new winner...sheesh.

---

Dwayne's POV

Downtown Orlando is a lot like downtown Dallas, but not. Nobody's wearing a Cowboy hat but me…not that I mind. I'm usually the only one. The similarities are that there are lots of people and lots of little shops and stuff to walk through.

Connie, Julie, and Anna disappeared into a clothing shop and we haven't seen them since. Guy, Fred, Adam, Russ, Lex, Jeff, Goldberg, and Charlie are all still checking out hockey equipment and pro-jerseys at a sports equipment store. I was in there earlier, but I left. While I was in there though, I noticed the hockey sticks are right next to the jerseys. Charlie was looking at the hockey sticks and Lex was sifting through old New York Islander jerseys. Charlie seemed to be checking out Lex more than the hockey sticks, though. Fred went to talk to Lex, and Charlie looked incredibly jealous. Lex didn't seem all that thrilled when Fred was talking to her. She kept glancing around and I can only guess she was looking for Cecilia. All that changed, though, when Fred discovered a Bobby Nystrom #23 jersey and handed it to her. Her eyes lit up in excitement, she threw her arms around his neck, said 'Thank you, thank you, thank you, Fred!' in a nothing-could-be-better-than-this-jersey voice, and raced off yelling 'Jeff! Jeff! Look what I have!'

Cecilia, Portman, Fulton, and Sammie are in a shop across the street that sells merchandise advertising heavy metal bands. Portman is warming up to Sammie, he didn't seem to like her at first. He's also going out of his way to be nice to Cecilia. I think he felt sorry for her earlier. I felt sorry for her too, and for Lex, but not for the same reasons.

That reminds me, I wonder if Fulton and Portman were kidding earlier, about how they were gay, that is. It was in such a weird moment, maybe they were kidding? I don't know. I guess that'll be something we'll consult them about later. Honestly, I don't really mind. They're consenting, right? They're happy? That's all that matters. I'm not especially in love with the idea of being gay. I enjoy the company of ladies, and I'll never understand why they don't, but hey, who am I to judge? Besides, even if you don't like gay people, how could you not like Portman and Fulton? The Bash Brothers! They're so cool. How could you not love them? They're part of our team, our friends. You can't help but love them anyway.

Averman, Ken, Luis, Matt, Chris, Luis, Anthony, and I are in a shop right now that sells musical instruments. Matt, Chris, and Anthony insisted they needed to check some stuff out and dragged the four of us hockey players into the shop. I join Chris, who's looking at bass guitars.

"You play bass?" I ask him.

"Yeah. Sometimes. Jeff and I split the time…wow, this is a really nice guitar," he says. Then, looking at a price, he says "Oh shit. I don't have that kind of money!"

"Huh? How much?"

"I don't have four hundred dollars for this!" he exclaims.

"Wow. The finest Texas banjos don't cost that much!"

"Really," Chris says, looking very disbelieving. I chuckle to myself. I love doing that to people. I bring up Texas, and for some reason, everyone looks a little nutty.

"Wait," he says. "Do you play?"

"Yeah, acoustic guitar," I explain. It's true. I do play. Not as much as I'd like, but I do play.

"You know how to play banjo?" he asks.

"Yeah," I answer quietly. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this. Banjo is considered such a hillbilly instrument. Contrary to popular belief, not all southern people are hicks. I mean, yeah, sure there are some, but not all of us.

But to my surprise, Chris looks excited rather than disgusted. "Really? That's awesome! None of us know how to play banjo, and it's really hard to improvise when we do some songs! Do you think you could teach me if we ever have time?"

"Sure, I'd love to," I say, taken aback by this enthusiasm over banjos.

"Your name is Dwayne Robinson, right?"

"Robertson," I correct him.

"Robertson, Robertson," he says quietly, as if memorizing it. "If you're ever in New York, look us up," Chris says, "maybe you can join us on stage some time!"

"I'd love to," I say again, grinning, glad someone appreciates my banjo skills.

Chris turns his attention back to the bass guitar he'd been looking at earlier. "Hmmm…" he mumbles, "I don't have that money…"

"It's a nice guitar," I say and he gives me this look like 'yeah I know.' Good Lord, am I good at consoling people or what?

"Where's Lex?" he says finally.

"At that sports shop. Last I saw her she was running to show Jeff a jersey Fred pulled off the rack for her," I explain. At the mention of Fred's name, Chris's face contorts a bit. I guess Fred is a sensitive subject, but I feel the need to defend him. I don't know why. As far as I'm concerned, Fred shouldn't have led Lex on, and should have been straight with Cecilia the whole time. "Hey, Fred's not such a bad guy. He's a bit of a jerk, yeah, but he's not really all that bad."

"Yeah, I guess. It's just…he should have been straight with Lex and that Cecilia girl. It was kind of mean of him, stringing the pair of them along like that."

"He's just confused. He's a bit slow, but he does eventually work things out. Just give him a chance," I say. Fred's not really too bad of a guy. An idiot sometimes, sure, but hey, who isn't?

"You seem like a good guy, Dwayne, and Lex and Jeff obviously like him, so I guess he deserves another chance," Chris says, finally, after thinking for a few moments. "That reminds me, Lex will buy this. She buys most of our stuff anyway, and I really need a new guitar."

Just then, Sammie comes flying into the shop like a man on fire. About three nanoseconds later, Portman comes running after her covered in white stuff. It looks a bit like shaving cream.

"Matt! Matt! Help me!" she screams, leaping into Matt's arms where he's standing by a bunch of different drum sets.

"You little…!" Portman runs over to Matt and begins tickling Sammie, who falls out of Matt's arms and is shrieking with laughter. Matt looks very confused.

"I thought Sammie was in love with Fulton," Chris says to me, turning his back on the scene, "but since it seems he walks the other side of the line, that's obviously not right. I'm glad Sammie's getting on with Fulton and Portman though. She said that she and Fulton have a lot of the same interests and it'll be nice now that she's found someone to recite 'I Love Lucy' episodes with."

"Sammie doesn't have a boyfriend?" I ask, gazing at her.

"Nope…she and Matt went out for a while though," he says.

"Are they friends or more than that?"

"Friends. Their relationship works better when they can go to a movie with a group of friends and be expected to throw popcorn at the screen rather than make out through the movie."

"Anybody else?"

"She dated this jerk at school for a while, but that's over too, and will never restart again, trust me."

"Why? Bitter ending?" I ask.

"Bitter? It was downright nasty. It ended at a school dance, when he was close to raping her in the boys' locker room. Someone caught sight of it, and told us about it. Matt, Jeff, Anthony, and I walked through the doors just in time, and proceeded to kick the shit out of the guy. Sammie cried a lot, and was unhappy for a very long time. She'd skip rehearsals, and cry, and lock herself in her room for hours at a time. Lex finally paid for a visit to the psychologist. That seemed to do the trick, but it still took her a good two months to come out of it."

"Oh jeez, that's terrible, I'm so sorry…so she's available?" Oops. That sounds kind of insensitive. 'She was nearly raped…so is she single?' Oh well. I'm not as dumb as I play, but I'm not brilliant either. I have that problem most people have. You know, that problem where I don't think before I speak sometimes?

"Yeah…wait, do you want to ask her out?" he looks more suspicious about me asking her out more than my insensitivity. I'm relieved for that. I didn't mean to be insensitive, it's just, well, how do you respond to a story like that? Certainly not the way I did. I should have been more tactful, more caring, more like a gentleman…more southern.

"Well, she's very pretty, she seems nice, and I have talked to her a few times," I explain. It's true. Sammie's got blond hair and brown eyes and she is very pretty, and she was sweet when I talked to her.

"Fine, ask her. But if you hurt her, I'll be forced to kill you," Chris says.

"What? I haven't even decided if I want to ask her yet!"

"Oh. Sorry, but I may as well warn you now. Don't hurt her, Dwayne. You seem like a nice guy, I don't really want to kick the shit out of you."

"Why would you?"

"It's policy with us."

"Policy?" What the hell is this guy talking about? Who has a kick-the-shit-of-somebody policy?

"Yeah. You hurt one of our girls, and we have to kill you. It's just the way it works. In a way, it's sort of a miracle Fred is still alive and well. Believe me, if Matt had his way, Fred would be in a hospital bed right now," he says, grinning apologetically. Oh, ok, I get it now. It's sort of the way we are about Cecilia and Connie and Julie. Although I think that if it was just some male Ducks plus Lex or Anna or Sammie and some random guy tried to hurt one of them, we'd protect them…and if it was female Ducks and the male band members, I'm sure the guys would do the same if somebody tried to hurt Connie or Julie or even Cecilia.

Everyone else has left the shop, and Chris and I head for the door. Chris catches Lex walking by with Adam. He whispers something to her, and she nods. They disappear and Adam and I wait outside for them to come back. When they walk out again, Chris is carry a new guitar case.

"It's amazing you carry that much cash," I say to Lex.

"Cash? You crazy? I use my father's credit card. It's a wonderful thing," she says, grinning up at me.

"How'd you get your hands on that?" Adam asks.

"He just left it, lying around in plain sight…in his wallet…in his sock draw," she answers at him, grinning again.

"Won't he know it's gone?"

"Probably not."

"How could he not?"

"Well he's got a zillion credit cards. Plus, we've got millions of dollars, a couple hundred won't hurt. Besides, my mom does the tax and finances and stuff. My dad is pretty clueless. My mom is cool with it as long as I don't spend too, too much."

Sammie comes running up to us. "Hide me!" she squeaks.

"Why?" Adam asks looking confused.

"Portman's after me. I accidentally dropped his bandana in the sewer."

Portman runs by me and I step in front of Sammie, granting her request.

"Where's the blond pipsqueak! I'm going to kill her!"

"She went that way," Chris says, pointing in the other direction. Lex's head is buried in Adam's chest and she's shaking. She's obviously trying not to laugh.

Portman runs off, and Sammie steps out from behind me.

"Thanks!" she says, kissing my cheek, before running in the opposite direction of Portman.

I watch her leave, and Chris says "Go for it." Lex looks between me and Sammie, eyes narrowed, and then gets the idea. She looks at Chris for confirmation, and he nods. She grins at me, but doesn't say anything. Banksie seems to have caught on too. He grins at me and gives me a thumbs up sign.

"Hey Ducks!" comes Charlie's voice. "Lunch!"