Simmons slipped the last button in on his dress shirt, and then adjusted his rolled up sleeve.
He looked at himself in the mirror and adjusted his collar.
Nerd Simmons is here, he thought. He felt anxious at the thought of seeing his old classmates.
He tried combing his fingers through his hair, and sighed. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
He left his bedroom and ventured to the guest bedroom.
"Sienna, you ready?" He rapped on the door with his knuckle.
"Come iiiin." Virginia sang. Simmons entered and found himself staring at her. She wore a knee length red dress with a V-neck slit down to the middle of her chest. She had pulled her hair up in a ponytail and wore black heels.
"Simmons, you're drooling." Virginia chuckled as she approached him.
"You look exquisite." Simmons grinned as he put his hands on her waist.
"You don't look so bad yourself." Virginia ran her hands up his muscular biceps. "The things I wanna do to you." She said as she narrowed her hungry eyes.
"O-Oh yeah?" Simmons voice cracked, then he cleared his throat. "W-what would that be?" He rose his eyebrows curiously.
"I'd show you," she began to whisper into his ear, "but your mom would hear us."
Simmons shuddered at her breath on his ear and instantly felt himself getting aroused. Virginia had a mischievous smile as she wrapped her hands behind his neck.
"You're naughty." Simmons sighed.
"You have no idea." Virginia winked as she released him and began to walk out of the room.
Simmons took a few seconds to calm himself, and then, finally left the room.
They descended the stairs and Simmons mom greeted them.
"You both look wonderful! I'll need to take a picture!" She pulled out her cellphone, and then put on a pair of eyeglasses. "Richard, how do you...?" Simmons sighed and went over to his mom to show her the button on her cellphone, then walked back to Virginia and posed.
"Cheese!" Virginia and Simmons smiled for the picture, and then left to head to the high school reunion.
"Are you nervous?" Virginia asked. Simmons wiggled his jaw a bit as he thought about the question.
"I dunno if I'm nervous... just... don't know what to expect." He reached over to stroke her thigh. "I'm glad you're here with m-," he paused. "What's that?" Simmons squeezed an odd lump on her leg.
"Oh..." Virginia opened her mouth, but hesitated to answer.
"Is that a knife strapped to your leg?!" Simmons asked as he kept feeling her leg.
"Yes... yes it is." Virginia admitted.
"What the fuck?! Why?!" Simmons voice rose, partially startled by his armed girlfriend.
"Sorry, but I'm not wearing my armor and I'm not used to going out without that... I just didn't want to go out totally defenseless."
"We're going to a reunion!" Simmons screeched.
"I'm aware." Virginia smirked. "It's going to take some getting used to this... civilian... life."
"I understand that." Simmons nodded. "Just don't stab anyone tonight."
"No promises." Virginia replied, side-eyeing Simmons. He shook his head and chuckled.
They pulled into the parking lot of the high school, seeing the flow of people going into the gymnasium. Lights could be seen flashing from the windows and open door. The boom of the speakers could be heard from outside.
Simmons parked and inhaled.
"Let's do this." Simmons said as he looked at Virginia, who leaned in to kiss his lips.
"I got your back."
They exited the car and walked to the gymnasium entrance, where a table was propped up with a few people handing out something.
"Hello. Name?" Asked the person sitting behind the table.
"Richard Simmons." He looked at Virginia. "Plus one."
The table supervisor handed Virginia a blank name tag and a sharpie. She debated about drawing a penis, but decided against it and wrote 'Sienna', and then slapped it over her collarbone.
Simmons put his tag on his chest and they both began to walk into the gym.
"You think that fruit punch bowl is spiked?" Virginia asked as she leaned in to him.
"Um, I dunno."
"If not, no worries. I snuck in nips. I'll get us drinks." Virginia walked off to the table, leaving Simmons tucking his hands into his pants pockets.
"Richard?!" A voice could be heard hollaring from the side. Simmons looked over and saw a short, glasses wearing nerd from ages ago.
"Eddie!" Simmons chuckled as Eddie rushed to him and they shared a hug. "Man, it's been ages!"
"I know!" Eddie beamed. "Still playing D&D these days?"
"Oh man, I haven't in forever. I've been away in the military-"
"That's right! I heard you left. You got into some crazy shit, right?"
Virginia came up to Simmons side and handed off a drink in a red solo cup.
"Eddie, this is my girlfriend, Sienna." Simmons introduced.
Eddie shook Virginia's hand, looking baffled.
"How'd he land a hottie like you? How much he paying you?" Eddie joked. Virginia and Simmons both chuckled.
"Nah, he just has a super big dick." Virginia said, completely straight-faced.
Simmons nearly spit out his drink and started coughing.
"Ignore her." Simmons said and put a hand over her mouth.
Eddie laughed.
"Hot and funny! Lucky man!" Eddie chuckled. "Come over and say hi to the rest of the clan!"
They followed Eddie to a table, where a group of diverse people sat. They looked at Simmons and all gasped, then surrounded him to give him hand shakes.
"I heard you served in the military!"
"Is that why you have a bionac arm?"
Virginia sipped her spiked drink, watching as Simmons was surrounded by his fellow nerds.
Her eyes glanced around the room as she savored the test of her drink.
People were surrounding a buffet, or on the dance floor.
She debated for a moment about going to get food when she noticed three men walking towards Simmons and his table of nerds.
"Is that Dick?!" Called out one of the men.
Virginia quickly looked them over, easily telling due to their body build that they were athletes.
Simmons didn't looked thrilled as the three guys surrounded him.
"Holy shit. I heard you went into the military!" The second man gasped. "You're so jacked now!"
"And you're a robot now?" One of them chuckled.
"I'm 1/8th cyborg." Simmons explained. His face went stern. Virginia decide to walk between the men and approached Simmons.
"Hun, let's go dance!" She asked as she put her drink down on the nearby table.
"Oh! Dick got him a woman!" The third man chuckled.
"Wow, you're so smart and observant. You must be part of the special class." Virginia smiled and pulled Simmons along with her as they made it to the dance floor.
"Thanks. That was awkward." Simmons sighed with relief.
"Who were those fucks?" Virginia sounded on edge, and Simmons was relieved she didn't cause any casualties.
"Bobby, Ted and Lewis. The three jocks that jumped me in high school. They liked to knock my books out of my hands, shove me into lockers, you name it! They enjoyed torturing me." Simmons explained as he danced with her.
"You could kick their ass now." Virginia said, trying to avoid looking in their direction. "Easily."
"I appreciate the support, but there's no need for physical violence. It was so long ago."
He put his hands around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss. She smiled as they kissed.
"My vicious Freelancer." Simmons chuckled.
After a few minutes of dancing, Virginia fetched them more drinks and they took a seat.
A person, later identified as the Class President, came to the stage and turned on a microphone.
"If we can have everyone's attention, please! We are going to start the film!"
Everyone hurried to the tables, clamoring among themselves as a movie began to play on the stage.
The word MEMORIES and the class year fluttered onto the screen, along with various stars.
Pictures started to fade into view, showing the classmates from their youth. Pictures from gaming events, theatre class and talent shows started to play next.
The next set of pictures showed people THEN, and NOW. It showed one of the girls becoming a nurse, and one of the cheerleaders becoming a shop owner. One of the jocks became a cop, and another student became a firefighter. Various faces flashed by with their occupation, and the screen suddenly became grey.
"You remember that scene in 'Carrie' in the auditorium?" Virginia whispered to Simmons.
"Um, yeah." Simmons looked confused.
"I feel like something is about to happen." Virginia tensed up as she watched the screen.
A picture of Simmons in his youth appeared on screen. He had a sheepish grin, a few pimples on his forehead and messy hair. He was reading a book.
A few people in the audience chuckled. Someone screamed 'nerd!'
A picture of Simmons wearing his maroon armor with the news headline about taking down Hargrove appeared on the screen.
The Class President came back to the stage.
Virginia looked at Simmons, who was clutching his fist. He face red.
"Richard Simmons was voted as 'The Most Changed!' He is a war hero! Let's give a round of applause for this amazing man!"
The spotlights found Simmons in the audience, and he looked startled to see everyone getting to their feet and clapping.
Simmons glanced at Virginia, who smiled and rubbed his shoulder. Simmons slowly got to his feet, hearing everyone cheering.
"SPEECH! SPEECH!" The audience chanted.
The Class President motioned for Simmons to come forward, amd though he was reluctant, Simmons obeyed.
He climbed onto the stage, shook hands with the Class President and took the microphone.
"Um..." The microphone surged with feedback for a second, and then he continued. "T-Thank you, everyone."
Virginia could see he was uneasy.
Simmons stared out at the crowd. The faces of people who rejected him, bullied him, teased him, hurt him and hated him all stared back at him.
The single table of his D&D friends were the only nice people who accepted him through the Hellish years of high school.
His eyes finally went back to Virginia, and seeing her smile, he began to recall what she said before about him not needing to change...
"I... I was never accepted among you. I had my group of D&D friends, and that was it. I was brushed aside, or bullied, and I fought so hard to try and be accepted by you people." The audience looked stunned. "I thought if I had popularity, that I'd be happy. But... the military taught me a lot of things." He swallowed and stared out into the crowd with intense eyes. "It doesn't matter how many people like you. Not everyone is going to like you. The people you least expect, that you could have literally nothing in common, can become your best friend. People who accept you for who you are; they matter." Simmons puffed out his chest. "As far as I'm concerned, you've all been nothing but a bunch of cockbites." He dropped the microphone and stepped off the stage.
His table of nerds all stood and applauded as he walked away from the stage. Virginia smiled, stood and walked with Simmons as they headed out the exit.
"Hey, fuck face!" Came a voice behind Simmons. Simmons paused and turned around to see the three jocks come storming at him. "How dare you insult everyone-!"
"Can I? Please?" Virginia asked Simmons as she stared at the bullies.
Simmons chuckled.
"Nah, this is my fight." One of the jocks threw a fist at Simmons, who easily dodged the fist and flung him to the ground. The other two attempted to grab him at the same time, but he ducked and threw an uppercut into their ribs. They both gasped and dropped to their knees.
At the doorway of the gym, his friends had flocked and were watching.
"Payback time." Simmons said as he stood over the two men. He reached down and pulled up on their underwear from the back-end, giving them a super wedgie.
The first bully was attempting to get to his feet, but Virginia punched him and he went face down in the dirt.
"Sorry. I had to." Virginia shrugged. Simmons grinned and rushed to her, putting an arm around her as they walked off with the nerds applauding them from the doorway.
Once they got in the car, Virginia and Simmons locked eyes.
"That was so hot." Virginia said as she bit her lower lip.
"Y-Yeah?" Simmons smiled.
"Does your town have one of those places where teens like to go and make-out?"
"Haha, yes. We do." Simmons was blushing.
"Let's go." Virginia smiled and Simmons found himself nearly jumping on top of her and began kissing her.
