OK people - this story is set approximately eighteen months before 'Walk before you can Crawl'
The timeline therefore goes like this:
'Remember the first time' - Danny is 13, Rusty 11
'Walk before you can crawl' - the thing in Chicago. 18 months later.
'The more things change' - the thing with the career survey. A year later.
'The lies we live' - the thing with the nurse's office and Mike - 6 months after that.
The football team had approached them when they'd been hanging around the back of the school, smoking. Well, actually he'd been smoking, Danny had just been watching him with a blank expression that Rusty would swear he secretly practiced in front of the mirror. They hadn't had even a round-about conversation about his new-found habit yet; but somehow he suspected it was only a matter of time.
Things had been . . . odd, since he came back from Care. They'd been being so careful. Normal. Sticking to playing ball and hanging around the arcade like the other kids in school did. They hadn't even been spending their Saturdays picking pockets. All in all, life had been pretty boring, and he knew that Danny was feeling as restless as he was.
At any rate they hadn't been doing anything especially important when half the football team had marched round the corner and surrounded them in a loose semi-circle. He'd been aware of Danny tensing beside him. They could be in serious trouble here; they were all in the year above Danny and the smallest of these guys was about a head taller than him and forty pounds heavier. But he couldn't think of anything they could possibly have done to piss the team off. He risked a quick sideways glance at Danny. Great. Neither of them knew what was going on.
The Captain of the football team – David Bannerman, commonly known as The Hulk, cleared his throat. "My little brother said that you got his BB gun back off Hutchins."
They both nodded. The Hulk's little brother Tommy was in Rusty's class and it had been really easy to lift the confiscated toy off the janitor. Still, unless David had a seriously weird relationship with his little brother, this probably wasn't heading anywhere dangerous.
"And we heard about what you did to Norris Carrol. Doug Fletcher was there." Jake Price chimed in. Everyone had heard about that one it seemed, though Rusty was pretty certain that Doug Fletcher had been nowhere near the place. People said that bullies only responded to force, but apparently complete humiliation worked just as well.
Danny was grinning, he could tell without looking. "So you're after a favour." he said, apparently deciding to move the conversation on.
The Hulk squared his shoulders. "There was a history test last week. Tarrant says we cheated. She says she's going to stop us playing in the match against Hill Street next week unless we can pass the make-up test."
Rusty raised an eyebrow. "Can she do that?" he asked.
"Coach says yes." Jake shrugged
"We need to pass the test." The Hulk was frowning. "All of us."
There were a hundred ways he could have told Danny 'no' without the others even realising, but he chose not to. He could tell by the way Danny was leaning ever so slightly towards them that he was interested. And yeah, Rusty was too. This could be just what they needed. So he smiled a little when Danny said, casually "We can maybe do something for you. We'll look into it."
The Hulk frowned again. "That's it?"
"Friday." Danny promised. "We'll let you know."
"How did you cheat the first time anyway?" Rusty asked. It was important. They had to know how these guys had been caught so they could prevent a repeat performance.
There was an awkward silence, broken only by the sounds of the football team shuffling their feet. "We didn't" Jake said finally, staring at the ground.
Ah. Right.
"You need to help us though." The Hulk said frowning, possibly having not followed the rest of the conversation. "It's Hill Street." Possibly something of their indifference showed on their faces, because he frowned harder. "It's important. Team spirit and loyalty and stuff."
Rusty avoided saying anything with an effort. They couldn't have team spirit for a team they weren't part of, and their loyalties were unbreakable. Besides, they'd already said yes. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag. "It'll cost you."
Danny nodded beside him. "Five dollars each. On delivery." Obviously he hadn't cared much for the loyalty bit either.
Most of the football team nodded. Jake was staring at Rusty though. "You smoke?" he asked, in an awe-struck tone.
Everything they'd done and that was what was impressive. He looked down at the cigarette in his hand. "Uh huh."
"Can . . . can I try?"
Rusty grinned. "It's really bad for you." He could feel the full weight of Danny's blank expression directed at him.
"Please." Jake begged.
Rusty grinned wider and passed the cigarette over. Jake inhaled, burst out coughing and passed it back.
Danny stood up a little straighter and did that thing – some trick of personality, or charisma, or something – and suddenly everyone's attention was focussed on him. "Friday." he repeated. "We'll get back to you."
And the football team, surprisingly capable of recognising a dismissal, hesitantly turned and drifted off.
When they were definitely out of earshot. Danny turned to face him. "What do you think?"
"Well," he shrugged, "They cheated."
"No kidding. We need to find out – "
" – Mike or Jeff." he suggested, naming two boys who were in that class and might know what had gone on.
"Or Gina." Danny suggested dreamily.
Rusty nodded, slightly unhappily. Danny got weird around Gina. "You talk to them, I'll check out Mrs. Tarrant." he suggested.
"Sure thing." By Danny's smirk he knew exactly what Rusty was thinking. "Meet you in – "
" – you're buying." Rusty said hastily. Served him right.
They had been coming to Mabel's diner for three years now. It was almost always quiet, no-one hassled them, and Mabel made some of the best food Rusty had ever tasted.
Thankfully Danny had always been understanding about things and waited until he had finished his second piece of pie before trying to attract his attention.
"So," Danny began. "Gina reckons that they must have gone in with the answers somehow."
Risky trick. "They wrote – "
" - same wording even." Danny confirmed.
Well, they'd need to be cleverer than that. Shouldn't be difficult. "The make-up test is on Monday." That hadn't been difficult to find out; it had been written on the board in the history classroom. The football team would have known by tomorrow. It did make things more complicated though.
"We'll need to move fast." Danny commented. "Is it written?"
He nodded. "Locked in her desk." Finding that out had just been good luck. He'd been loitering around the classroom and had heard Mrs. Tarrant and the football coach arguing. She'd been gesturing wildly and had hit the desk. Neither of them had paid him the slightest bit of attention. Not that that was unusual. Since . . . since they'd been told he was an attention-seeking liar the teachers had seemed to form a conspiracy not to even look at him. It came in handy.
Mabel came over with a tray and took their empty plates. "Now, can I get you boys anything else? 'Nother piece of pie, Rusty? Or I get some fresh-baked chocolate cake?"
He smiled; the other thing he really liked about Mabel's was her special offers. Buy a main course and she gave you as much dessert as you could eat – for free. "Maybe a slice of cake. Thanks Mabel. And another coke?"
"Cup of coffee here please, Mabel." Danny said. Mabel looked surprised, and as she walked away Rusty raised an eyebrow. Since when did Danny drink coffee?
Danny shrugged and looked faintly embarrassed.
Rusty laughed slightly and leaned back. Well, there was a first time for everything after all.
Mabel was back with their order in a matter of minutes and Rusty watched in amusement as Danny took a sip of his coffee, pulled a face, and started stirring in milk and sugar. "Be easiest to just get a hold of a copy of that paper." he said when he'd succeeded in creating a drinkable balance.
Rusty shook his head. "Tarrant never leaves her classroom. You know that." It was true. There were at least a half-dozen rumours circling as to why. They were all nonsense and he should know. He'd started three of them.
"She doesn't sleep there." Danny said deliberately and it was a moment before he got it.
"You want to break into the school?" he asked, incredulously.
"Why not?" Danny smiled. "Tell me you don't think it would be fun."
He grinned and shook his head. Of course it would be fun.
"Tell me you don't think we could do it." Danny persisted.
Well of course they could do it.
"Then what's the problem?" Danny finished, persuasively.
Rusty had already moved on to 'how?' "We should take a look tonight." There might be more security than they could see in the daytime.
Danny frowned slightly. "We'll need to – "
" – Take a ball or something." No-one would look twice at a couple of kids playing, even if it was later than they should be out.
"So, my place then?" Rusty pretended not to notice the reluctance in Danny's voice, just as Danny was pretending not to feel it.
There were two cars in the driveway. Obviously both Danny's parents were home. Damn.
They heard the yelling before they had even sneaked in the door. It was coming from the living room so without saying a word, they headed upstairs as fast as possible. Unfortunately they were never going to be able to be fast enough to avoid hearing.
" . . . staying out all night. You think I don't know? What sort of example is that for your son?"
"My son? Hell, princess, let's share the embarrassment. He's your son too."
"That's right, blame everything on me! Come on, let's hear what a bad wife and mother I am."
"You're a selfish bitch, you know that? And that boy is turning out just the same."
There was a crash of glass. Someone had thrown something. Rusty winced, gently pulled Danny into the bedroom and made sure to shut the door tightly closed behind them, effectively muffling the din. He knew that Danny's parents had never laid a finger on him, but still he worried. In his experience angry words always led somewhere, and Danny didn't deserve that.
He squeezed Danny's arm gently before letting go, but he said nothing and Danny shot him a grateful look.
"Think the ball's under the bed." Danny said.
Rusty nodded and scrambled down to take a look. "You need to clean under here." he commented, trying not to sneeze.
"I'll get right on that." Danny said dryly. He paused. "They're getting worse."
Rusty, having finally caught sight of both the ball he was looking for, and a spider he definitely wasn't, made a noise that might have been soothing and was certainly non-committal.
"I think, maybe they're going to split up." Danny went on.
Ball in hand, Rusty wriggled backwards out from under the bed and flipped over to look up at Danny. "How do you – "
" – I don't know."
He could see where it was difficult. At least the yelling would stop. Nothing in his own experience was remotely helpful. Yeah, his parents could probably be said to have technically split up, but it wasn't the same. "Doug Fletcher's parents are divorced." he offered. "He says it's okay."
"That's just because he gets two sets of Christmas presents." Danny answered immediately.
Rusty grinned, acknowledging the point. "Catch." He threw the ball upwards and Danny managed to just catch it by his fingertips. He got to his feet, wishing he could say something like 'It'll be all right', but they didn't lie to each other. He wondered if it would make a difference if he reminded Danny that he'd be there for as long as Danny needed him. "Danny – " he began, slightly uncertainly.
" – I know." Danny actually smiled. "Believe me, I know."
He grinned and opened the door. The yelling had apparently moved into the hallway so he closed it again quickly. "Window?" he invited.
"Don't mind if I do." Danny opened the window and carefully climbed out.
There was a tree that grew right up beside Danny's house, that was really easy to climb down. It made things easier; they'd had to put a series of pitons under his window.
It was strange seeing the school dark. They'd killed a couple of hours in the arcade and had been playing catch in the street outside the school ever since.
There was a trick to it, like most things. They had to make enough noise that they were obviously playing rather than lurking, but not so much that anyone was going to complain or even notice them too much.
It was about half eleven now and there'd been no sign of a night watchman or anything. One less thing to worry about. He caught Danny's eyes as he threw the ball across. "Think we're all right?" he asked, in a low voice.
"Uh huh." Danny agreed as he threw the ball back.
A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. "Curtain twitcher at number two." he said quietly.
Danny didn't look in the last bit surprised. "And number 14."
Rusty dropped the ball and casually turned round as he picked it up. Danny was right of course; he just caught sight of the old lady in the window, watching him. He looked down the street a little way. There was a place where the street curved inwards and there were no streetlights. It was between the two risky houses. Could work. "Blind spot?" he suggested.
Danny followed his gaze. "Perfect."
They grinned at each other and Rusty tried hard not to actually start giggling. He couldn't believe that they were really planning on doing this.
"Want to get a closer look at the door?" Danny asked.
Rusty nodded and threw the ball over.
"Go out for a long one." Danny said loudly.
Keeping an eye on the school behind him, Rusty ran backwards. Just there should do it. "Okay!" he yelled back. Probably no-one was listening, but it was better to be careful. Within reason, obviously.
The ball went sailing over his head and over the wall, and he turned just in time to see it go rolling neatly up to the school door. "Now look what you've done!" It took a little more effort than he would have liked to make himself sound exasperated rather than impressed or envious. He couldn't throw a ball like that, no matter how often Danny showed him.
"Sorry," Danny said, sounding sheepish. "I thought you were going to catch it."
Rusty started to scramble up the wall. "How tall do you think I am?" he asked, and then turned sharply to Danny, who was right behind him. "Don't answer that." he added in a more normal tone of voice.
Danny laughed quietly.
They managed to scale the wall and jump down the other side with no more than scraped hands. And if they could do it here and now, they'd be able to do it further down tomorrow.
Having retrieved the ball, Danny started to throw it against the wall, while Rusty checked the locks. Most of them they'd seen a hundred times before, but the gate was shut with a length of chain and a large padlock. Nothing that looked like it would give them any trouble. And there was no sign of an alarm either.
He glanced back at Danny and nodded. Danny smiled and they started to walk back across the playground, occasionally passing the ball, just in case someone was looking.
"Do you have a flashlight?" Rusty asked, the thought occurring suddenly.
Danny shook his head. "We'll need to get a couple."
"And we need more hairgrips." he added, and watched Danny's face fall. Danny always found buying hairgrips really difficult. Rusty would never understand why it had never occurred to Danny to just shoplift them, but as long as he found Danny's embarrassment amusing, he wasn't going to suggest it.
It had been a few years ago that he'd read in a book that it was possible to pick a lock with a hairgrip or a paperclip, and he'd immediately told Danny that they were going to learn how. Danny had never asked why, though Rusty suspected he'd probably figured it out. When he'd been younger his parents had used to lock him in the flat whenever they went away. He hadn't liked it that much.
Suddenly Danny threw him the ball and took off running. "Race you!" he yelled.
Rusty blinked and started running. Fairly obviously, he was going to lose. He grinned, and in his best panicked tone hissed. "Look out! A cop!"
Danny immediately slowed and looked round wildly and Rusty sprinted past and threw himself up the wall. "I win!" he cheered.
"You little cheat!" Danny shouted after him, doubled up with laughter.
The next day he couldn't stop yawning, and by lunchtime, after he'd nodded off twice during art, he was ready to ditch the entire afternoon. Danny, though in better shape than him, was more than agreeable, and so they wandered off and spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around at Danny's, talking about nothing.
He'd slept over at Danny's last night, and would be doing the same tonight. The tree was as easy to climb up as down, whereas he just wasn't big enough or strong enough to pull himself up from the fire escape into his bedroom window. So he'd have had to sneak in the front door and, well, he only did that when there was no other option. He'd been caught out a few times too often.
He was sitting on the floor, leaning back against the bed, shuffling a deck of cards semi-idly. Danny's uncle Ed had taught them how to play poker a couple of months back (Apparently he'd thought it was funny. Danny's mother had been less amused) and something about it had intrigued him.
Danny was sitting at his desk, swinging on a chair, flipping a flashlight on and off endlessly.
"You're going to waste the batteries." Rusty told him absently and dealt out a couple of hands.
"They last longer than that." Danny objected.
Rusty frowned at the Three of Diamonds. Not what he'd been looking for. "Fine, but I'm taking spares."
"You a boy scout now?" Danny asked, swinging dangerously further back in his chair.
Reshuffling the deck and starting over, Rusty looked up. "I'm not the one with the uniform in my closet." he pointed out sweetly.
Danny coloured slightly. "Mom made me." he said quickly, before apparently realising that that really didn't sound any better. "Anyway, you know how long that lasted."
Two weeks, bar the shouting. And the uniform had come in handy a couple of times since. "Is it wrong to impersonate a scout?" he pondered aloud.
"Probably." Danny sighed. "Nearly everything even halfway fun seems to be."
A sudden knocking at the door made them both jump, and a second later Danny's mother walked in. "Danny . . . " she began, then she noticed him. "Oh, good afternoon, Robert."
He wished she wouldn't call him that. It made him uncomfortable. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Ocean." he said politely and with a smile that he didn't bother trying to make ingratiating. She was never going to like him.
Ignoring him, she turned back to Danny. "I just came in to tell you that I'm going to be busy in the study tonight and don't wish to be disturbed. Your father is . . . working late, again, so if you could find your own dinner? There's plenty in the fridge. And if Robert wants to stay for dinner, that's fine too."
She must be in a good mood. That had been almost gracious.
"Rusty's staying over tonight." Danny told her straight-forwardly.
Her expression didn't change. "As long as you don't make too much noise and stay out of my way."
"We will." Danny promised, and Rusty nodded.
"Fine. I'll see you tomorrow." She walked out and Danny visibly relaxed. Rusty knew how he felt.
He leaned his head back against the comforter and closed his eyes.
"We should get some sleep." Danny commented.
"Food first." Rusty insisted. Then he opened his eyes and absent-mindedly dealt himself a Royal Flush. Well. That was the first time that had worked.
He grinned and looked up. Danny was staring at him incredulously. "Do that again." he demanded.
His grin widened. "Food first." he repeated.
Danny threw a cushion at him and the cards scattered all over the floor.
"I still think we should be wearing masks." Danny muttered.
Rusty, working on the padlock, tongue between his teeth, said nothing. If Danny wanted to dress up like the Lone Ranger that was his own look-out.
"It's not the Zorro thing," Danny insisted. "Just to hide who we are."
The lock finally turned and Rusty swung the gate open and moved on to the door.
Danny followed him in and closed the gate over behind them. "Yeah, okay, so if they see us we're already in trouble."
Exactly. He bent down and started fiddling with the lock. This one should be easier.
"But maybe something like the stocking-over-the-head look."
"I think that's just for bank robberies." Rusty pointed out, just as the lock clicked open.
"Okay. We'll do that next." Danny said, apparently seriously.
Rusty grinned and tried the door - which completely failed to open. His heart in his throat, he turned to Danny who smiled and pointed upwards.
Ah. Another lock. Just above his line of sight.
With as much dignity as he could muster he stepped aside and passed the pack of hairgrips over to Danny who was doing a fairly good job of not laughing.
It only took a couple of moments for Danny to get the last lock, and they stepped inside the dark building. Okay. The school by torchlight was a little spooky. There were definitely more shadows than he was expecting, and he wasn't completely convinced that theirs were the only ones moving. He exchanged a long look with Danny.
"Is it just me," Danny began hesitantly, "or does this remind you –"
" – that was just a movie." he said, not quite as certainly as he would have liked.
They walked down the corridor a little closer together than they normally would have, and he wasn't the only one peering into dark corners.
He noticed that Danny was humming under his breath as they turned into the history corridor. It took him a moment to place the tune. Mission Impossible. He glanced sideways. Danny was watching him. He knew exactly what he was doing. Rusty smiled slightly and joined in on the loud bit.
Mrs. Tarrant's room wasn't locked. Even better it turned out that she really didn't sleep in there.
"Spare key?" Danny asked, finally stopping singing.
"On top of the blackboard." Rusty told him.
Danny frowned. "We're going to need to stand on the desk." he observed.
"You're taller." Rusty said immediately.
Danny just looked at him.
"I'll hold it steady." he offered.
Danny sighed but helped him move the desk.
"Take your shoes off first." he advised. Footprints on the wood could make this a little difficult to explain.
That was definitely a glare, but Danny did as he suggested. The sight of Danny wearing socks and standing on the desk did a lot to dispel the whole Mission Impossible feel.
"Catch." Danny said as he threw the key down.
"Thanks. Put your shoes back on."
Danny made a rude gesture at him as he clambered down.
Rusty grinned at him. "Shall we?" he gestured at the desk.
"Go for it." Danny said, leaning over his shoulder.
Reverently he unlocked the desk. The test paper was sitting right on the top. He looked over at Danny. They were in business.
"Okay, then." Time to get copying.
It took about half an hour for them to both write out the paper and check each other's work. To be honest, it was pretty boring.
Rusty stretched. "Feels like being in school." he complained.
Danny looked sideways at him. "We are in school."
"Oh yeah." He'd actually kind of forgotten that.
"We done?" Danny asked.
He nodded.
"Then it's your turn to climb on the furniture." Danny said, smiling cheerfully.
They spent the next half hour or so making sure there was no sign anyone had been anywhere near the place – everything was back where it should be, and they locked all the doors and the gate with the Janitor's set of master keys. Of course, that left them on the outside of the school with a set of keys they had absolutely no business having, but that was only a small problem. They'd go in early tomorrow and leave them somewhere they'd be easily found. The only consequence should be that Hutchins would get a bit of a reputation for being absent-minded. A careless janitor was far more believable than the truth anyway.
As soon as they dropped down from the wall, Rusty reached into his pocket and pulled out his cigarettes. Once again he could feel Danny looking at him. He closed his eyes as he took the first drag, and waited.
"Why?" Danny asked, calmly.
He opened his eyes and considered it for a moment. "It makes me feel better." he answered, honestly.
Danny nodded thoughtfully. "Can I have one?"
"No!" he snapped automatically. He remembered how he'd given one to Jake, and felt like a hypocrite. "They're bad for you." he muttered.
Danny watched him until he had to look away.
The football team had gone away more than happy with their copies of the test paper. And so they should be. It had taken them ages to write out six copies.
Danny counted out the money. "Fifteen dollars for you, and fifteen for me." He smiled. "There's a fair in town this weekend."
Well then, they'd have fun spending it. "Easy come, easy go." Though they'd undoubtedly be able to pick up more money at the fair. People didn't tend to be too careful with their wallets at that kind of thing.
He lit a cigarette and Danny calmly reached over and took one out of the packet.
"My choice." he said, in response to Rusty's look. He lit it with an ease that told Rusty exactly how closely he'd been being watched. Then he coughed.
"It gets easier." Rusty told him.
Danny leaned back against the wall. "When?"
He shrugged.
Just then, Jeff Thomson came round the corner, with a nervous expression on his face. "I hear you can get test papers . . . ?"
So, congratulations on reaching the end of this. You know, if you review there's a special prize. OK, I admit it, that was a lie. Sorry.