Title: What If?
Email address: Rating: T for a few bad words
Pairing: Neil/Todd
Spoilers: Can you really not have any spoilers when it's for a movie? And if you haven't seen the movie are you going to be reading the fan fiction?
Summary: Todd grows a backbone and a voice. Neil's curiosity is roused.
A/N: Ah yes, well this has taken quite a while to get finished. Well it took about an hour to write and then almost two months to make it readable I'm probably more excited about this chapter than I should be, and I owe that to my lovely beta Alex. Without her this chapter would only be two pages instead of five. So yeah, if anyone's still reading, I'm sorry it took so long. Please review, if only to tell me how much the chapter sucks.
Word Count: 1,674
Warning: ummm….about 1/3 script with my own spin to it, other than that? A few cuss words. Disclaimer: I do not own DPS, I make no money off of this.

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It took almost all day, but after lunch, Knox had finally drawn in enough courage from last night's meeting, to call Chris. He had made up his mind to seize any and all opportunities coming his way, and the beautiful blonde named Chris was one opportunity that just couldn't be passed up.

He was running down the hall, aiming for the stairs, when he ran into Charlie.

"Whoa, Knoxious. What's the hurry?" Charlie asked, effectively bringing Knox to a halt by grabbing his arm.

"I'm gonna call her, Charlie!" Knox said, giving a little skip. He shook his arm out of Charlie's grip and continued down the hall, pausing momentarily to throw a backwards glance at his still motionless friend, urging Charlie to join him

Charlie gave a hoot of excitement and ran down the hall after Knox, banging on all of the Dead Poets' doors calling out "He's gonna call her!"

Hearing all of the noise, Dr. Hager stepped into the hall and called out to Charlie's retreating form, "Mr. Dalton, you hooligan! Quit causing a ruckus in the halls this instant!" Not realizing that he himself was shouting in the hall, contributing to the ruckus. All the while the other Dead Poets stumbled out into the hall and charged after the retreating forms of Knox and Charlie.

When they all finally gathered around the phone, Knox was already dialing Chris' number. But before the phone could ring, he was already hanging up, throwing a nervous glance towards the boys surrounding him.

Noticing Charlie's glare he exclaimed, "She's gonna hate me! The Danburry's will hate me. My parents will hate me, hell my parents will kill me." He gripped the phone box until his knuckles were turning white and stared at Charlie for a long time. All the while scenarios of a dull life as a lawyer, never taking risks and never following any of his dreams, flashed before his eyes. Quite frankly this lifeless future he foresaw scared him to death.

Nodding finally he said. "All right, goddamn it. You're right. 'Carpe diem.' Even if it kills me." Muttering under his breath he added, "And it just might."

Knox checked his pockets for another coin, his eyes widening slightly in alarm when he couldn't find another one. "Damn payphones," he cursed, an edge of alarm causing his voice to squeak slightly.

Charlie merely raised an eyebrow and pulled some change out of Knox's breast pocket, sliding it in the bulky phone.

Knox smiled nervously and dialed the number again, this time waiting for someone to answer. "Hello, Chris?" He leaned against the payphone and all of the boys gathered closer, trying to hear the conversation.

"Hi. This is Knox Overstreet," he said while waving them out of his personal space. He listened to the person on the other line and then smiled, covering the mouth piece. "She's glad I called."

Charlie, who was off to the side, the only one who hadn't tried to invade Knox's personal space, sneered. "Of course she's glad you called. Who needs Chet Danburry when there's that crazy guy you've met once."

Knox gave Charlie an odd look, confused at his apparent about-face in attitude, but was quickly distracted by the phone again. "Would I like to come to a party?" His eyes locked on to Charlie, slightly panicked.

Charlie just rolled his eyes. "Yes. Say 'yes' you idiot!"

"W-Well, sure." Knox stuttered but realizing his mouth was too far away from the phone he hastily pulled it closer and added, "Yes. Of course."

Charlie rolled his eyes again. He was worried that if Knox kept this up then he would prove his mother right, and his eyes would be permanently stuck rolling around. Heaven forbid.

Knox was bouncing on the balls of his feet by now, a smile plastered on his face. "Okay, great. I-I'll be there, Chris. Friday night at the Danburrys'. Okay. Thank you." He gave an extra bounce and his voice squeaked again. "Thank you. I'll see you. Bye."

He hung up the phone with an exalted yawp and grabbed the person closest to him - who happened to be Meeks and gave him a good shake. "Can you believe it? She was actually gonna call me. She invited me to a party with her!"

"At Chet Danburry's house." Charlie deadpanned.

Knox turned towards Charlie and gave a small nod, not really seeing his point. "Yeah."

"Well?" Charlie prodded like always when Knox refuses to notice something.

Knox shrugged. "So?"

"So, Knox, you don't really think she means you're going with her, do you?" As much as he was being an ass about this, Charlie didn't want him getting hurt because he didn't realize something as obvious as this.

"Well, of course not, Charlie. But that's not the point." A stupid grin graced his face. "That's not the point at all."

"Well, what is the point?"

"The point, Charlie, is, uh--" His face fell slightly and he glanced around at the other guys for some help. Unfortunately they provided none.

"Yeah?" Charlie prodded, perhaps a bit too roughly.

"The point is - is that she was thinking about me." Knox said, almost triumphantly. "I've only met her once, and already she's thinking about me. Damn it. It's gonna happen, guys. I feel it. She is going to be mine." He jumped up and flung his scarf around his neck.

And all Charlie could do was watch as Knox charged up the stairs with the war cry of 'CARPE DIEM!' on his lips. But it wasn't until everyone else had emptied the hall before Charlie was finally able to move. "Carpe, Knox. Carpe." He whispered as he turned and strode in the opposite direction. He had a pack of smokes and an open window to attend to...and maybe some college girls to call later.

Later that night

After the excitement of Knox's call had died down, the rest of the day was fairly boring. Just another lazy Saturday of homework and naps. Neil just waking from the later and Todd sitting at the desk doing the former. It wasn't as if neither of them didn't have anything better to do, it was just...well neither of them had anything better to do.

"Neil?"

"Yeah Todd." He coughed, voice raspy from sleep.

"Why is Knox so fixated on Chris?"

Neil peered sleepily at Todd from the corner of his eye. "Why shouldn't he be?"

"Well she just doesn't really seem to be his type."

"Oh, and what type is she? Beautiful? Intelligent?"

"Stuck up. Vapid."

Neil finally turned to look fully at Todd. "I never thought you to be so judgmental."

A deep red blush spread across Todd's cheeks. "I-I'm not. Usually. And I don't really know her - not well. But we went to the same summer church camp a few years back, and she always had all these guys fighting over her."

"Jealous?" Neil teased but at Todd's somber look he finally sat upright and became more serious. "She likes to feel needed I guess. A lot of people do."

"It wasn't just that. She enjoyed the fact that guys were willing to beat each other up for her. Good people, nice people, don't enjoy other people's suffering."

"I wouldn't let Knox hear you say anything like that about her. He'll clobber you. Hell, any fella would act just like those guys at your camp when they think you're insulting their girl."

"But it's the truth!"

"It may be, but he's blind to any and all of her bad fallings."

"W-well then someone, someone should talk to h-him."Todd tried to sound determined, but his stutter was becoming more pronounced, always more intense when he became flustered.

Neil snorted. "Yeah, right. He won't listen. When Knox gets an idea in his head, he just won't care for rhyme or reason."

Todd frowned and turned in the chair to continue working on his trig homework, slightly hurt that Neil wouldn't understand him.

After a long and uncomfortable pause Neil asked, "Are you coming to the study group tonight?"

Todd shook his head. "N-no, I have to catch up on my Chemistry work." He replied without turning away from his work .

"Meeks can help you. That is what everyone is going for - help on their homework."

"I'd rather do it by myself," he sulked.

Neil was puzzled by his roommate. "Meeks has an 'A' in the class." He tried one more time, not wanting to exclude him from anything.

Todd scowled. "I don't n-need anyone's help! I can do m-my own, own w-work."

"I didn't mean to imply that you couldn't Todd." Neil paused momentarily, unused to seeing the normally composed boy so emotional, not knowing if he should push. "Are you mad at me?" he asked plaintively, truly puzzled by his friends anger.

Todd shook his head slowly and turned back to his work. "No."

"No? It sure as hell seems like it, well for you anyways." Neil stood and walked over to the desk, kneeling beside Todd. "You're so damn shy, you hide from emotion. Anytime someone gets frustrated or-or angry you just pull your head back into your shell like a turtle and hide." He let out a nervous laugh. "You're just like a turtle."

"N-Neil," Todd ducked his head, staring at his trig. homework. "Could you just leave m-me alone for a bit. I've got stuff on m-my m-mind."

Reluctantly he nodded and stood straight once again. "Sure. I'm gonna go talk to Charlie. If you need me..." He moved to leave the room, but once inside door frame he paused and glanced up at his roommate. "You know Todd, it's alright to need help every once in a while. Everyone does."

Todd nodded almost dismissively, never taking his eyes off of his textbook. Neil merely shook his head sadly and left, closing the door behind him. As soon as Todd heard the snick of the door shutting he let out a sigh in relief and let his shoulders slump.

> > >

AN2: Ok, yes I now realize that the meeting in the cave and when Knox calls Chris are the same day, but when I wrote Ch 2 I was going from memory and I didn't remember them ever having a meeting during the day, so how I have it seemed quite logical and canon at the time. So yeah…this is a fanfic…screw canon