Summary:

Typical Drake & Josh storyline. Drake and Josh plan to go to a concert where a famous singer will be, but get sidetracked when a mysterious box addressed to Walter shows up and Meghan's pranks take over. Drake also must deal with an annoying girl (who says everything with a "w") from his class, that also shows signs she has a crush on him. When he & Josh go to the concert, something terrible happens.

Disclaimer:

If you think I own anything, go to the nearest psychiatrist. Please. As a service to all humanity.

Note to Readers:

Who's ready for a complete shocker storyline? Well, for this chapter and the next one, all I have to say to you guys is—you had better BE ready for a shocker. And I mean, TOTAL, complete shocker. I hope it's not stupid, though. Hey, what can I say, my mind is… hyperactive! LOL. Anyway, since I stayed up until seven am last night writing this, hopefully it's intelligible.

Story: "Party in a Box"

Chapter: "Girl Fight"; Fourteen

Written By: Ginger

Extras:
Italics in "quotation marks" symbolize thoughts of Drake's.

Italic Bold paragraphs are flashbacks.

Italic, Bold, and Underlined "he's refer to the mysterious man.

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Drake felt the same rush of adrenaline as he had felt earlier that night, as the door swung open, almost as if it were suspended in slow motion. He felt his heart race briskly and a wince cross his face as he looked down at the ground and after a minute that seemed more like an eternity, he lifted his head, forcing his eyes to see who was standing in the door way.

But all he saw was a steak of pink and then he was hit full force with something very heavy. It even almost knocked him fully off of his feet! "Wha--!" he managed a stunned murmur as he shook his head and straightened up.

"DWAKE!" a high pitched voice shrieked in to his ear. "Lyn!" Josh exclaimed, surprised taking a step back from his brother and the girl. "Hi, Josh! Dwake, I missed you so much!" she giggled, squeezing him. "Uh, you just talked to me on the phone like… eight hours ago!" he said in a rather thoroughly disgusted tone as he plucked her arms from his shoulders and also stepped several large steps backward in to the living room.

Anita stood from the sofa and looked at the Lyn as he walked over to Drake's side. "Aniwta, what awre you doing hewe?" the bothersome girl asked, as Josh's eyes got big and he whistled to himself, under his breath: "Oh boy, here it comes…"

"I came to see Drake, earlier. How about you?" she asked, looking a bit jadedly at the girl across from her, dressed in an obtrusive hot pink outfit. "I came to see him. …I missed you sooooo muwch, Dwakie!" she said, turning and grabbing a handful of his lustrous brunette hair and grinning at him as if he were a lovable puppy. His eyes got huge and he tried to carefully back away with out letting her do damage to his hair or scalp.

"Lyn… um, maybe you ought to go home… hum?" Josh queried, clearing his throat and nodding toward the front door which seemed to be getting so much use this evening. Unfortunately, this angered the girl very much and she stamped her foot, letting go of her clasp on Drake's head: "Why would I weave? I want to be with my boyfwiend!" At this statement, Drake and Josh both lost control of themselves and let out a deep, shrill gasp. "What did you say?" Anita said, with a bit of a glare and a hint of an angered scowl. "Oh no, now, Nita, she said um—" "I said BOY FWIEND!" the girl exclaimed in an extra loud lisp, completely interrupting Josh's sentence. "Well that's just plain stupid, because he's my 'boy fwiend'!" Nita said in a deep mock and an innocent look on her face as she arrogantly cocked her head to the side and rested her clenched fists on her hips. "Did you juwst cawl me stupid!" Lyn yelled in a guttural voice. "Yeah, I think I did!" Anita said in harsh reply, stepping up closer to her nemesis.

"Oh, come on, we're all stupid! It's--it's an irresponsible teen age thing! We're you know, um--stupid, party, fun! Nice, right!" Drake exclaimed, so fast that nearly stumbled over his own quick words, motioning with his hand. "You know what, girl? I think you're starting a fight, aren't you?" the much more intelligent of the two yelled. "What if I am, wooser!" "Anyone for a sandwich!" Josh asked, grabbing his half-eaten sub and holding it between the two females. "It's turrrrkey-issssh!" Drake nodded, grinning a teeth baring grin as Josh shook the sandwich in front of himself.

"I don't cawe WHAT you say, he's stiwl MY boy fwiend! Fweak!" "Oh, okay, thank you, Lyn! That is so totally it. You're going DOWN." Anita shouted. "SSSSSSH!" Josh hushed them, after he closed the door to the stairs. Both girls turned and looked at him, teeth clenched. "Umm… okay, never mind!" he grinned, fearfully backing off in to a corner.

"Listen, you girls really don't have to do this! I can um, date both of you? How's that!" came the nervous and desperate reply from the boy in question. "He's mine! He wouldn't date a piece of twash wike you!" screamed Lyn in an incredibly high pitched scream. Anita stared with her mouth open in a gape for a minute and then she reared back hand in to the air, letting it fly forward with a loud 'smack' as it struck Lyn's face.

Drake and Josh, who were now beside each other, gasped loudly again and grabbed each other's arms, in shock. They knew that the fight had now begun and there was no more distracting either girl out of it. So instead, they wore stunned faces and watched in horror as it started.

Both Anita and Lyn ran at each other, arms swinging as they shouted arguments back and forth, still. Lyn proved to be a better fighter than she was a speaker. But with a hard slap back from her, Anita backed up and then dove at the other, throwing both of them to the floor behind the couch with a loud clunk.

Drake and his also staggered brother walked together quickly over to take in what was going on. Anita had two hands full of Lyn's long, straight, platinum blonde hair and was clenching it tightly, not even letting go when the tables turned and her adversary was on top of her. Even through the fighting, they were hollering and screaming to the very top of their lungs.

Josh seemed to snap out of the half frightened daze he and his brother were under as the girls neared the large curio cabinet standing against the wall. Rushing over to it, he threw out his arms in protection in front of it and pushed the girls away, in to rolling the other direction with his foot: "Not the china!"

Drake clapped a upset hand to his mouth as Anita and Lyn stood half way and slammed in to the couch, knocking it several inches forward and tumbling over it in a huddled, cat scratching mass. "Nutso guy STALKER!" the slightly saner teenager shouted, clawing her opponent in the shoulder. "BOY FWIEND STEAWER!" she combated, pulling her arm back awquardly.

"Drake! What do we-- I mean, how do we… stop them!" Josh asked, motioning toward the nearly lethal pair. "I don't know!" Drake exclaimed helplessly, as he glanced at Josh in concern.

"HEEEY!" a ground shaking yell emerged from the other side of the room, over all the other squeals and shrieks. Turning quickly, the two boys scanned the opposite corner of the living room, catching their little sister in view. She was over near the door to the stairs, wearing pajamas and wearing a scowl: "WHAT IS GOING ON!" She looked over at the brothers and stomped loudly toward them. "Their-- fighting over me!" Drake shrugged, motioning in the direction of the girls who where still struggling again each other. "Well, make them STOP!" Meghan hissed through clenched teeth as she covered her hands over her ears. "We don't know how!" Josh exclaimed. Meghan moaned and rolled her eyes, pushing Drake and Josh aside and walking across the room. "Hey wait!" Josh said, reaching out to try and stop her, but being stopped, himself by his step brother: "Dude, shut up and let her!"

"YO! CUT IT OUT!" their little sister yelled at the top of her lungs, grabbing a hold of the shoulders of both of the fighting teens, tearing them from each other. "NO! I WON'T STOP! SHE STOLE MY BOY FWIEND!" Lyn repeated, in a shout. "I did NOT, you crazy HUSSY!" Anita began to defend herself. "SHUT UP!" Meghan screamed, grabbing Lyn's arm and dragging her to the door. Pushing her through it, she shouted after her: "GO. HOME." before shutting the door in her face and locking it.

Her brothers stood, watching in awe as Meghan turned and looked at them with a grouchy, sleepy look: "My work is finished. I'm going back to bed. And if ANY of you boobs dares to wake me up again, you'll be sorry you were ever born." And with that, before either Drake and Josh, nor Anita could say a word, she turned back again and trudged through the hall, murmuring: "Spazzes." Drake bent his brow and he and Josh both shook their heads and let out a little chuckle of wonder, before whirling around and returning to their places in the middle of the room, near the couch.

When Drake glanced across to Anita, she was bending down to pick up her purse that had fallen to the floor, stuffing things back inside and struggling to put on her sweater, all the time shuddering and fidgeting like a nervous wreck. "Nita, what are you doing?" he asked, blinking in curiosity. "Leaving, not that you really care." she murmured, in a deeply upset tone as she tried to zip the stubborn purse's zipper. "What? Leaving! Are you nuts, you can't go out there by yourself!" he gasped, following her quickly as she rushed to the door, and grabbing her arm. "I can't stay here now. How could I?" she argued in a quivering voice. The boy lowered his head and let go of her forearm for a moment. Trying to think about what to say, he bit his lip and glanced downward at his hand. His eyes widened in surprise and he looked up, spreading his hand out toward the girl: "Anita! She's hurt you bad!"

Indeed, his hand was partially covered in blood from touching her wounded shoulder. She swallowed a deep breath and closed her eyes: "I'll… I'll be fine until I get home." "Nita, listen to me, you can't go home--I won't let you! I got you in to all of this mess and I'm certainly not going to stand around now, waiting for you to be bumped off by a crazy psychopath! Besides, that shoulder's all cut up! You wouldn't want to go home like that." She sighed and was silent for a minute. "Look, why don't you fix up your cut in the bathroom upstairs and by the time you get back downstairs, you can decide whether to go or stay for a while until things cool off?" "…Okay. That's reasonable." she finally agreed, stepping slowly toward the stairs. "You'll find all the bandages and peroxide in the cabinet to the left." Josh added quickly, before she disappeared up the steps.

He and Drake sat down across from each other, wearily, and the brown eyed boy blew his dark chestnut mane from his eyes, with a sigh. "What's the matter, bro?" Josh asked, looking over to his brother. "Oh, nothing, just about Anita. …I don't know about all of this. I really don't want to loose her again. And it seems that's exactly what Lyn wants. But I just can't let go of her, Josh! She's special to me, kind of like--oh never mind. …Maybe even if I did loose her, it'd be for the better." he answered in a quiet voice. "What does that mean?" Josh queried, carefully. "It means… well, I don't know. I just feel so guilty for dragging Anita in to all this mess. And it was bad enough of me to drag you in to it, but now her too. I mean, maybe if I hurt her so bad on accident, then I should just stay away from her." he spat out, almost speaking to himself with his words. "Dude, don't take it so hard like that! If you like Anita as more than just a friend, you should open your heart to her. You say that you feel guilty for getting her 'in to' this, but brother, did she or did she not come over here even after she got a threatening call from him? He warned her that she had better stay away from you, but she came anyway. So I don't think you shouldn't blame yourself for something you didn't do. You didn't push her in to this mess, she did." "I know, I know," Drake sighed, massaging his tired brow with his deft fingers: "But it's just all so… confusing. I barely know what to make of it any more." The two step brothers felt a silence fall over them and as they tried to keep themselves from falling asleep, they waited for Anita to return to them.

After almost what seemed like half an eternity, the pitch in the air changed and hearing the rustle of her blue jeans and the soft padding of her feet, they both turned to see her. She was looking down at the floor, through her eyelashes and biting her lip with a slight flush and an embarrassed smile at the corner of her lips.

Drake stood, as did Josh and the first brother began to step forward, while the other lingered in the same spot for a moment and then walked quickly in to the kitchen.

"Drake—" the girl began, managing to look up from the floor. When she did, her hearted nearly melted. The handsome brown eyed boy was standing in a tense fashion, looking back at her with those glittering eyes and an apprehensive wrinkle in his brow. His brunette hair framed his face and the light made it look soft and the sweet curve of his mouth made her know that he was genuinely concerned. "…Nita—please don't hate me because of all of this mess." With a deep bend in her brow, she shook her head and took a step forward, putting her arms around Drake in a hug. "I could never hate you, Drake." she said slowly, forcing herself to stay put within his embrace, instead of jerking back in shyness. At first, Drake seemed stiff, almost surprised that she had done this, so much so that her heart almost fell in a saddened feeling. Pulling away a little bit, he looked at her: "…Really?"

She couldn't help but let a sweet and gentle smile slide to her lips and she made herself lean in closer and speak softly: "…Really." Both of the teenagers shy hearts sped up quickly as the air seemed to suddenly become unusually warm and after a moment, they came close and felt their pulse skip, the second before their lips met in an awquard softness.

This was the kind of kiss you treasure the rest of your life. The kind of kiss that makes you tingle all over and makes the butterflies flutter around inside. Anita pulled both of her arms closely around his neck, as the last most intense moment of their kiss passed away.

Pulling back, they both let out a shuddery sigh and Drake dropped his arms from her waist. "…Will you stay here for a while, or are you intent upon leaving, still?" he asked, with a shy smile. "There's no reason to leave now. I had just lost my head earlier with all of the commotion and such." she said, with a kind dimple, as she removed her light jacket-sweater. "Good. Because I wanted you to be a witness to something special." Drake grinned. "Are you going to kill Josh or prank Meghan?" she joked, teasingly in a happy chuckle. "Neither unless either of them gets to be too much of a bother. It actually has to do with him. But it's not very dangerous. Atleast, I don't think so."

"Alright, then, Mister Parker. Do with me as you will." she teased, holding out her arms in a shrug: "Shall we go summon your brother for this deed?" "I think we should, since it he is in just as much danger as we are." Drake winked, grabbing her arm and hurrying across the room to the kitchen door.

When he pulled it open, suddenly the body of his brother flew forward, limply falling to the floor at Drake's feet. "Josh!" the stunned boy gasped, looking down. "I'm--I'm okay!" he exclaimed agitatedly as he jumped up from the floor and grinned an over-emphasized grin. "What where you… doing!" Drake asked quickly. "Umm, nothing! Just er… cleaning the door off!" Josh replied. "With you're ear?" the other brother replied sarcastically, crossing his arms. "Uh, well--" "Okay, never mind having to make up a gigantic story! Whatever to the eavesdropping thing. Just don't do it again." Drake interrupted the other teen's stuttering words. "But I wasn't listening! I was just um--" "Are you coming out in to the garage to open the crate or what!" Drake asked, with a pop of his eyes as he pushed past his step brother, in to the kitchen and opened a drawer.

He pulled out a large steak knife and held it up, to examine it in the light. "OKAY! I'LL COME!" Josh shrieked, stepping quickly backward and throwing his arms up in front of himself, as if to guard off a blow dealt by an enemy. "The knife isn't for you, ameba brain." Drake said, rolling his eyes and walking back out in to the front hall. "…You actually know what an ameba is?" Josh asked with a large wrinkle in his brow and an unbelieving smile. "Come on!" Anita and Drake exclaimed at the same time, hurrying through the next room and the door leading to the garage. "Comin'!" came the shrill reply, as Josh ran behind them.

The three teens slowed down upon reaching the hall and stepped inside. "Okay, Anita, well, remember when I told you a while back after I come home from the hospital, about the strange crate that arrived a long time ago?" "Yes." Anita replied, looking over at the brown eyed boy who was speaking to her. "That's what we're doing—we're going to open it. We don't really know what's inside, but it can't be anything really too bad." He explained, with a smile and a shrug. "Well I'm ready if you two guys are! I'm actually rather excited to find out what it is!" she said, shrugging.

Drake grinned back and started to set his hand on the knob, but Josh stopped him: "Hey!" "What?" the brother asked, rolling his eyes. "Let me have that knife!" "Why should I do that?" "Because it's safe with me." Josh said, grabbing it and holding it close, backing a step away from his brother with a slightly frightened look in his eyes. Anita giggled and Drake moaned in annoyance, turning back and grabbing the door knob.

All that took place next happened so fast that none of them really knew what had happened until afterwards. With a loud "whoosh", something flew at Drake's head from the right side and entrance of the garage, hitting him and causing him to cry out in pain, as he sunk to the floor slowly. With a deep gasp from Josh and a muffled and shocked scream from Anita, Drake began to loose the feeling in the rest of his body and everything started to whirl and twist dizzily in front of him. He tried to figure out what had hit him and simultaneously sit up and keep himself from loosing consciousness, but he failed eventually at all three. It all happened in a flash, but to Drake it seemed so very, very long. He was just starting to wonder where his brother was and then the blank darkness began to blacken the sight before his eyes. He felt as if a dark colored handkerchief had been pulled over his eyes, and he reached up, trying to rip it away, but realized that it was indeed only the veil of shadows that came before the state in which he dreaded being in.

With a last burst of strength, he struggled against the loss of consciousness for a few more seconds before with a heart sailing in to hopelessness, he gave up and slipped away in to the dimness.

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Josh dropped to the floor and shook his step brother, with a shocked, deep wrinkle in his brow: "Drake!" After Drake didn't move for a long time, Josh turned to wide eyed Nita, who was clasping a hand to her mouth: "Nita, find out what hit him." She nodded vaguely and turned, looking around on the floor. Josh continued to try and awaken his brother and he murmured: "Gosh, Nita, he's really out cold!" "Look!" the girl's voice suddenly rang out after a moment of quietness. Josh looked quickly over and saw her holding out a heavy metal ball. "Oh my gosh, it's dad's solid gold golf ball! He won it in a golf tournament at the country club! It must weigh almost five pounds!" "By the speed it was coming at-- Josh, is he okay!" she said, looking down at the very heavy metal ball that measured in about four to five inches in width. Josh bit his lip: "I think so… but how did it hit him? I mean a ball just doesn't come flying from no where!"

Running foot steps where heard in the hall. "HA HA!" came Meghan's young laughter as she ran through the hall toward the garage: "So you boobs fell for the trick, didn't you!" Josh and Anita looked up as the eleven year old appeared in the doorway. Suddenly the amused smile was wiped from her face when she saw Drake sprawled helplessly on the floor: "What… what happened to him?" "Meghan… you pulled this prank on us?" Josh asked, standing up with a serious look written on his brow. "Yeah! But I didn't know that--" "How many times have I warned you that someday your pranks were going to go too far? Look at your brother, now!" Josh cried in a deeply effected voice. "I didn't mean to hurt him! I just wanted--" the worried looking girl was interrupted by Anita: "It's okay, Meghan, he'll wake up in a few minutes, but just let this be a good lesson to you not to play such dangerous pranks, okay?" Meghan gulped hard and nodded with a bit of a frightened glance cross her eyes as she glanced at her older teenage brother lying on the floor unconsciously. "I am really sorry… I was just trying to have a little fun. I didn't think that I would hurt anybody. I was trying to aim the ball across the garage, not toward the door." "Don't worry, Megs. He'll be fine in a little while. You go ahead and go back to sleep and don't even think about it. I'll come get you when ever he starts to wake up, if you really want me to." the other, more mature girl answered, patting the pre-teen's shoulder. "Okay, Anita. Thanks for forgiving me. But you really don't have to come and get me later, if I wake back up I'll come see him, but if I don't I'll see him in the morning. So don't go to the trouble. But thanks anyway. And… I really am sorry. I'm glad he's going to be alright." and with that, the slightly anxious little girl turned and walked out of the room, leaning the door to behind her and hurrying up to her room.

A silence filled the air, but when Anita looked up at Josh's expression as he bent over his oblivious brother, she became fearful and quickly asked: "Josh, what is it!" "His head! There's a huge gash in it and it's bleeding! I think he fell in to the corner of the wheelbarrow when he turned over in to the floor after Meghan's prank." "Oh no!" the girl murmured in a panicked voice and began to walk toward the two boys. "No!" the conscious boy said, suddenly, as he held out a hand: "You don't need to see it. It's… it's really bad. Go--go get the paramedics fast." Anita had never heard Josh sound so sickly serious in the time that she had known him. She felt her stomach turn at her friend's words and she stepped a few steps back toward the door, before turning fully and running quickly toward the living room and the telephone.

She couldn't seem to get to the phone quick enough as she wanted to. It felt as if from the tip of her head to the bottom of her toes, her energy was at the zero point-- almost like every last drop of it had been drained from her body in mere moments. When she finally reached the table on which it sat, she picked it up and noticed it felt much, much heavier than before. She dialed the emergency nine, one, one number as fast as her clumsy fingers could manage and she held it up to her ear, trying to calm herself to the point where she could converse with who ever answered.

"Hello, San Diego emergency line, how can I help you?"

"My name… my name is Miss Anita Prescott. I'm at the house of Mr. And Mrs. Parker-Nichols. We need the paramedics out her as fast as possible."

"What's the problem, Miss Prescott?" the woman said in a voice that under stood the urgency of this situation.

"My friend fell and cut a terrible gauge in his head on the corner of a wheelbarrow and he won't wake up. Please someone out here quick." Anita managed to speak in to the phone, with out bursting in to panicked tears.

"Okay, don't worry. Just stay calm and we'll get somebody out there within the next five minutes." the female voice answered over the line in a reassuring tone.

"Thank you so much." the girl murmured, setting down the telephone and staring blankly in to space in slight shock. She couldn't believe that this was all happening. To Drake! After a while, she realized that she had left Josh alone with the injured boy and so shaking herself from her weary daze, she pulled herself back in to reality, walking out toward the garage.

"Josh, the paramedics are coming within the next five minutes, the woman on the phone said, anyway. I--" as Nita walked forward in to the room, Josh looked up with a disturbed and frightened face with a hint of alarmed madness running in his teary eyes which made her stop speaking and widen her own eyes, managing a whisper: "What's the matter?" "It's too late for the paramedics, now, Anita. …He's not breathing anymore." And with heavy hearts, they both knew it was true-- it was too late for anything now. He was gone.