Chapter 2: Psychology and Quarterbacks
The rest of the week continued without any major incident for Dana. She had pegged the identity of the school from the very beginning. Fairfield High was a small school filled with students who have known each other since elementary school. Those types of schools are not usually welcoming to new students. No one approached her, though Dana was positive everyone know who she was. The taunting, though, continued. Nothing monumental, they just snickered behind her back and called out to her. Dana expected something bigger; she felt it coming.
As she walked down the hall alone on Friday morning, her guard was up. She saw the same group that had sent Jason to her locker on Monday further down the hall. As she walked by them, she clutched her books close to her chest as she held her breath. Dana knew it was coming, and it came. A large girl standing on the edge of the group, suddenly thrusted out her hip, making contact with Dana's petite frame. Dana went flying to the ground, her books sliding across the linoleum.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the girl apologized mockingly.
Dana cursed herself for wearing a skirt as her face changed every shade of red. She knew even before she opened her eyes that the entire hall had stopped to see the "hilarious" scene before them. A split second later, the hall erupted in a mocking laughter. For a minute, Dana wanted to cry; then she wanted to scream. She ignored both of these urges as she sat up on her knees to gather her books. She just wanted to leave the horrible scene and forget it ever happened, but she could not gather her books up fast enough.
Just as she reached for her Psychology book, a sneakered foot kicked it across the floor before stepping on her hand. Now Dana was fuming. She grabbed her book and pushed the owner of the foot to the floor on her way up. The crowd suddenly stopped laughing. As she rose to her feet, she saw who was now lying on the floor.
Tiny Dana Scully had pushed the quarterback of the Fairfield High Football Team to the floor. "Oops," she said more to herself than to him. The football quarterback stood up slowly; he did not look happy. Dana knew that by proper etiquette gentlemen did not hit a lady, but she hardly considered the 6'5" man in front of her gentle. He looked as if he were about to raise a fist to her, so Dana instinctively closed her eyes. It appeared that she had gotten herself deeper than she could handle.
She expected the fist to swiftly make contact with her face, but she opened her eyes when it did not. Dana saw another male student step between Dana and her impending fistfight (because if someone hit her, she was bound to hit him back).
"Guys, you've had your fun. Leave her be," the body standing between Dana and a very unhappy quarterback said. "Come on."
The student ushered her down the hall with a gentle hand on her back, guiding her through the slowly dissipating crowds. Dana mumbled a "Thank you" without even glancing up to her escort, but as she felt his eyes upon her face, she warily glanced up. Immediately recognizing the face as the owner of the locker next to hers, she spoke, "I…uh…apologize for yelling at you the other day."
The boy broke his eye contact with her, looking to the ceiling, and shrugged. "No big deal." They continued walking until it dawned on Dana that she needed to go to class.
"My psychology class is the other way."
"I know; I'm in your class. You don't want to walk back through those crowds, do you?"
Dana shook her head.
"I know a short cut," he said mock-mysteriously as he opened an inconspicuous door and steered her though it. "You see, this school is one big horseshoe, but there is a hall that runs between the two main halls. It has a back-entrance to all of the class rooms."
"Oh. Why is no one else back here?" she asked, instinctively becoming suspicious.
"No one knows about it. I don't even think most of the teachers remember. The only reason I know is because my uncles and my mother attended this school when it first opened, and everyone used it then."
"Why don't they use it any more?" Dana asked, not quite following.
"Fire code. It's really narrow, and as the school became bigger, overcrowded hallways became more of an issue. So, sometime between my mother's graduation and my coming to FHS, they just locked all the doors and eventually forgot about it. I came across this key a while ago. It's a master key, and I guess it still fits these doors. Anyway, here we are," he finished as he opened another door, revealing the Psychology/Sociology classroom.
Dana smiled and hesitantly slid into a seat next to…. "I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name. I'm Dana Scully." She confidently held out her hand.
The boy gave her a funny look and replied, "Fox Mulder."
Dana Scully's eyebrow rose, "Fox?"
The boy knew what she meant. "What's wrong with Fox?"
"I dunno," she shrugged. "It's not really a name."
Fox laughed. "It's never been a personal favorite of mine."
"Mulder," Dana replied, calling him by his surname like in the Navy, where her Ahab was referred to as "Scully," which is what Ahab called his children when they were being punished.
"What?" he replied.
"It sounds better. You don't mind, do you?" Dana replied.
Mulder shrugged. "No, I don't mind at all Scully."
Scully laughed as the teacher began class. Later that night, Maggie Scully could tell that her daughter had had a better day, and as Dana recounted the events of her day to her mother, she completely forgot about the incident in the hall.
A/N: Sorry I took forever and a day to update this story. I started this chapter a while ago, but I had a research paper to write, and after finishing it, the last thing I wanted to do was write more. And I hope you guys don't mind the Mulder v. Fox and Scully v. Dana thing. I just couldn't stand them calling each other by their first names, and I hope the reasoning behind it fits. Reviews make me write faster. (but at my rate, I couldn't be writing any slower!!!).