Not much to say here, really. Meh, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yadda, yadda, yadda! It's not mine! You'd think twelve chapters in you'd all know that by now!
Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood Chapter 13: Party hardly.
"Remind me why we didn't just drop our dignity and beg Kendra to help us," Hunter grumbled, watching Jeffory struggle to put on his bow-tie correctly. He had been at it for about five minutes, managing to tie it, being unsatisfied and doing it all over again. "What dignity?" said kyrii responded dryly, glaring at his own reflection. "Besides, she'd be too busy arguing with Jack to actually get anything done," he reminded the kougra, whose response was to roll his eyes.
Jack came into the room, a bounce in his step. Jeffory inwardly groaned; that was never a good thing.
"Where have you been, Jack?" Hunter asked, irritably. Jack simply grinned at him, before sitting down on his bed. "Dude, the dance is in less than half-an-hour now! You should go take a shower or something..." Hunter nagged. Jack rolled his eyes, letting out a loud sigh. "C'mon, Hunt! Quit acting like Ke-" he caught himself, and looked away, trying to cover his slip-up.
"Kendra?" offered Jeffory, catching on. After one last death glare at the bow-tie in his hand, he tossed it over his shoulder, leaving it forgotten in a corner.
"N-no! I was going to say 'like a girl!'" the mynci snapped, much too quickly to convince Hunter and Jeffory, who shared an amused look.
"Kendra's a girl," Hunter informed him, causing the mynci to let out a growl of frustration. "Whatever! I don't care, man!" he snapped back, getting to his feet. With that snappy comeback, he stalked off to the bathroom, the bounce in his step absent. "Where are you off to?" Hunter asked. "To take the oh, so precious shower," Jack responded, without looking at him.
Jeffory sighed, running a hand through his messy hair; if Jack and Kendra didn't make up, the team itself would be in jeopardy.
"Hey, Hunt?"
"Hmm?"
"How much is marriage counseling?"
Jeffory almost wished he was back in his room, fighting with that cursed bow-tie.
"Why, oh why, did we come to this stupid dance?!" asked Hunter, glaring at his friends. They sat at a small table in a lonely corner. Jingle bell rock was playing over the speakers, as the students who actually wanted to be here danced.
"Don't look at me!" Jack responded, putting up his hands in defense. "It was Jeff's idea!" he reminded the kougra, giving Jeffory a death glare. Jeffory responded with a glare of his own, grumbling: "I thought there'd at least be a couple of good girls that would want to go with us..."
"There's one free girl over there," Hunter said looking over at a lonely-looking Lupe, wearing a poofy dress and sporting rather large glasses. "I believe Jeffory said 'good ones'. I don't think Gretchen Banks counts," Jack snickered, getting a laugh from Jeffory and an amused roll of the eyes from Hunter.
"Mind if I sit here?"
Jeffory looked up at Scott, who had walked over to their lonely table. "Not at all," Jack said, motioning to a free chair.
Scott looked quite strapping. He was wearing a similar outfit to most of the guys present: dress shirt and slacks, but he added his own "flare" to the otherwise common outfit. His shirt was unbuttoned a bit, giving him a mature, confident look, it was also "half-tucked" He also shined his scales.
Jack nodded approvingly. "Not bad, Benson, not bad," Jack praised, eyeing his scales. Scott grinned, looking quite pleased. "You must've gotten a real catch it you're gonna go that far!" Jack continued, and the scorchio's grin grew even wider. "Well, Alexis is new around here. Thought I'd make her feel welcome."
Jeffory, Hunter and Jack all went "Ahhhhhhh," in response, wry grins on their faces.
"What about you strapping lads?" he asked. "Where are your ladies?" The trio in question fell silent. None of them wanted to be the first to admit that they didn't have one. Scott, getting the hint fell silent. "Well, um, I need to go back and find Alexis. Have fun guys!" he told them, patting Hunter on the shoulder and disappearing into the crowd not long after doing so.
Not even seconds after Scott departed, Johnny the jetsam noticed the trio, and began making his way over to them, waving animatedly. The three groaned but waved back. Sort of.
If you consider Jack making a "Go away" motion with his hands, then sure.
In true Johnny fashion, he didn't get the not-so subtle hint, and pulled up a chair, making it screech loudly against the floor. Jeffory's ears twitched violently, while Jack made a face that screamed "go die" at the oblivious jetsam.
"So, are you, uhhh, enjoying yourselves?" he asked them awkwardly, wiping his nose with his fin. "Eww..." Jack muttered in response, making a revolted face. "Oh, yeah! We're having a great time," Hunter lied, glaring at Jack when he muttered "It would be better without you" under his breath. "Oh, that's great!" Johnny replied, giving them a brace-filled smile. "Who needs a date to feel good about themselves, right? I mean, look at me!"
As he said this, he threw his fins out on both sides for his emphasis, smacking a passerby where the sun don't shine, sending him down with a yelp.
Jeffory, Jack and Hunter all winced, while Johnny, noticing this strange student lying down under his chair, bent down to scold him for being rude.
"Get me another!" Jack demanded, sounding quite drunk. Jeffory, who was sitting next to him, shook his head. "Dude, you realize it's punch you're drinking, right?" the kyrii asked him, jerking his hand to safety when Jack slammed the empty cup of punch down on the table. "So what?!" Jack snapped in response, crossing his arms and slumping back into his chair, pouting.
Jeffory sighed. "C'mon, man. Are you still upset about Kendra and Tom?" he asked his friend.
"..."
Jeffory's ears drooped, frustrated that he couldn't say anything to help the crushed Mycni.
Earlier, Jeffory, Hunter and Jack had gotten a glimpse of Kendra slow dancing with Tom. She looked so happy, content in his arms, and that destroyed Jack. His usual upbeat personality had disappeared within an instant, and he became like this.
"Look, man," Jeffory started, placing a hand on Jack's shoulder. "don't let it get to you. Kendra's smart; sooner or later she's going to realize that Tom isn't the kind of guy she wants in her life, and you'll have your shot again."
Jeffory, who noticed Jack's eyes light up with that oh, so devious glint, spoke up again. "But that doesn't mean you can try and sabatoge them!" he added quickly. Jack slumped again, losing the glint.
"What does he have that I don't?!" he asked Hunter, who was purposefully staying out of the conversation. Hunter groaned when Jack addressed him, but attempted to shake it off. "Well, he's got confidence, street smarts, he's cool..." As Hunter droned on, Jeffory started shaking his head at the oblivious kougra, noticing Jack looking more and more depressed.
"Oh, and he's tall." Hunter finished. Jack had now resorted to banging his head on the table. Jeffory shot Hunter a glare, to which Hunter just shrugged. Jack got to his feet. "I'm going outside for some target practice," he notified them, patting his pocket. Jeffory rolled his eyes as he walked out of the gym; only Jack would've brought his pistol with him to a school dance.
Jack stalked his way to the training field out back, grumbling rude things about a certain shadow techo. He took out his pistol, and aimed for a practice dummy's head.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Jack hit the dummy three times right between the eyes, feeling a little bit better, as its head sparked with electricity with each shot. His wicked grin fell, however, when he remembered the electricity he enjoyed so much was only there thanks to the bullets Kendra made for him. The glint in his eyes disappeared and he plopped onto the ground, not even noticing the cold snow beneath him.
It wasn't like he needed Kendra, right? He looked at the gun in his hands and sighed, raising it in the general direction the poor practice dummy and fired.
Had he felt better, he would have patted himself on the back for his blind head shot.
He sat in silence for a few moments before a strange sound caught his attention. It was faint, too faint for him to make out. He got to his feet, straining his ears to hear.
Whirring.
That was weird. Was Jake working on something in the hanger? No, he was too close to the ground to be able to hear him so well. As he pondered what it could be, the whirring only grew louder. On top of that, a low, rumbling had joined with the whir. He subconsciously patted his stomach. It hadn't been that since he last ate.
The sound had gotten so loud, it seemed to be right on top of him... When he looked up, he realized something: it was.
At least he knew it wasn't his stomach.
I'm not gonna make a big deal about how long it's been since my last update, considering it's becoming a hell of a trend. So, for anyone out there who's still reading this, thank you. With that, I will see you all next week, most likely.
LaDude out.