Chapter 13

"Remind me again why this theater class was a good idea," Dash grumbled as he opened the door to his house.

"You're the one that wanted to sign up for something that would be an 'easy A' as I recall," Kwan replied with a smirk that made the blond jock want to punch him. "Hey, it's not all bad though. We get to skip two days of school when we go to perform for the first and second graders at the different elementary schools."

"Yeah, but we're stuck with Fenton." Dash led the way up the stairs his bedroom.

Kwan rolled his eyes, knowing the only reason for that comment was because of the rest of the A list. Inviting a "loser" over to his house gained Dash sneers from the rest of their crowd even after explaining it was simply for a class project. "Forget about them. Besides he had some pretty good ideas. If we got stuck with Williams, we'd probably still be arguing over a play idea."

Dash stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around to face his teammate. "You're lucky none of the rest of the team is here. You wouldn't want to let them hear you defending the loser." He reached out and flicked the other man lightly on the forehead.

"Hey!" Kwan protested, rubbing at the spot on his forehead. "I don't think forcing the idea of having one of the pigs be female and that Fenton had to play that one was your smartest idea." He shook his head as the blond man snickered, amused by the idea of forcing the "loser" to dress up like a girl. There was an incident in their freshmen year during a school announcement where Fenton was seen tumbling onto the stage dressed in one of the costumes from the school play My Fair Lady. Even four years later, Fenton still hadn't lived down that incident of being seen in that awful dress.

"Like I'm going to pass up the chance to embarrass the loser." Dash finished climbing the stairs and led the way down the hall toward his bedroom. They both knew it was only to prove to the rest of In crowd that he hadn't gone completely soft on bullying Fenton. There were whispers among the A list about Dash's sudden lack of harassment toward the "loser."

Dash's hand barely wrapped around the doorknob when one of the other doors in the hall opened. A familiar face peeked out of the room across the hall. Dark blue eyes lit up excitedly when she spotted the two men. Her cheeks tinged lightly pink as her gaze drifted away from them. Dash rolled his eyes at that reaction before he walked over to her.

"What do you need, Tails?" Dash asked, folding his arms as the blush on the young girl's face steadily grew darker.

"I've told you not to call me that," she complained with her lower lip pushed forward. Her eyes narrowed up at him, scowling at the grin on the man's face.

"What else should I call you? When you're always wearing your hair in those pigtails." Dash grabbed hold of the twin locks of hair and wagged them about in the air.

She slapped at his hands and pushed him away from her. "Stop it, Dash!" His face became even darker, if possible, the blush extending to the tips of her ears.

"Dash, you shouldn't tease her like that," Kwan said as he opened the door to Dash's bedroom. Playing oblivious was an easy task for him, but he was well aware that Dash's little sister had a crush on him. It was cute in that little puppy love kind of way, but he didn't want to lead her on in any way. She would always be only his best friend's kid sister. Who was home schooled. Because she kept having to go into the hospital. Kwan didn't envy having a terminally ill sister to watch over. It explained a lot about why Dash lashed out in anger and frustration at school.

"Let me know if there's anything you need," Dash said with a hand resting on his sister's head. In a moment after hushed whispers, he followed Kwan into his bedroom. "You know, you could talk to her," he grumbled as he closed the door behind him. "You used to actually play her when we were younger."

With a shrug, Kwan dropped into the seat at Dash's computer. "It's just," he frowned, unable to look at his friend, "weird with the whole crush thing." He truthfully didn't know how to act around her anymore. Every time they were in the same room, she did nothing but stare at him with that blush on her face. It made everything weird and awkward. Paulina was much better at handling the whole thing. She would spend time with Dash's sister and do girly things like makeovers and chat about fashion and other stuff. Dash's sister always seemed to enjoy hanging out with Paulina.

Dash sighed as he took a seat on his bed. "Dude, it's not that hard to at least say hi to her. Lily isn't going to cling to you like a leech or something. Just be your usual self." His eyes dimmed with sadness as he leaned back on his arms. "The doctors were saying things weren't looking good again."

"They say that every time though." Kwan frowned miserably at the expression on his friend's face. It was cutting Dash up inside to know that his sister could be only moments away from death. The doctors kept trying new treatments and for a time she would look like she was getting better, but then Lily would relapse again and the whole process would start again. Nothing they tried seemed to be effective in Lily's case. "She's beaten their predictions before. She can do it again." He tried to sound positive for his friend's sake, but even he could hear the hollowness of his words.

Dash shook his head in that way he had when he was trying to rid the weight of the world from his shoulders but completely failing in the effort. "I just want her to have as happy a life as she can." He rolled his shoulder with his eyes cast away from his friend. Silence fell like a thick blanket over them, so heavy it was like having cotton swabs jammed into his ears. "So," Dash broke it in an awkward tone as his blue eyed gaze swung back around to his friend, "you wanna explain why you snapped at me when I only asked if you wanted me to give you a ride home?" A thick eyebrow lifted in question, and Dash's face clearly said he wouldn't drop the topic if Kwan tried to pass it off as nothing.

Kwan sighed as he turned around in the chair, his attention falling to the computer. "My brother came back yesterday," he grumbled as he started typing on the keyboard, messing around with Dash's computer. The thing was a minefield of problems, lagging like crazy, malware infesting it, not running at its optimal levels. If Kwan didn't come over from time to time to combat all the crap that Dash let attack his computer, the poor thing would crash and never recover.

"Jing came back?" Dash's gawking face reflected on the screen. "Why? I thought he was living it up in his own place?"

Kwan shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it. "I guess Mr. Perfect failed at having a relationship so he had to come slinking back to Mommy and Daddy until he can a new apartment." He knew there was bitterness in his voice, but he couldn't stop it from seeping out. Things at home were never all that great between him and his parents. With his brother added into the mix, it only got worse.

"Dude, your brother is not perfect." With a snort, Dash reached out his leg and kicked at the chair.

"Yeah, try telling that to my parents." Kwan tossed a sour glower over his shoulder at his friend.

"Do you want to stay over for dinner then? Think Mom's making her famous meatloaf tonight." Dash offered a grin, thinking perhaps that the comment would garner some amusement from his friend since they both knew how bad Dash's mother's meatloaf tasted. They often made jokes about taking chunks of it and rolling them into balls to pelt at each other like some bizarre form of having a snowball fight. The meatloaf was barely edible, and Dash's mother still never understood why the pair would laugh madly at the end of the dining table whenever she served it for dinner.

Kwan shook his head as his attention returned yet again to the mess that was Dash's computer. "Mom wants me home for dinner." He rolled his aqua green eyes and felt like gagging at the thought. "A special homecoming dinner for their perfect son." His voice filled with false cheer and enthusiasm. It would be a miserable experience. Something on the screen caught his attention, drawing a frown from him. "Hey, did you use your webcam recently?"

"Uh, no." Dash made a face at the question. "So are you going to play on my computer the whole time? Or were we going to get down to the studying?"

The frown didn't leave his face as Kwan stared at the information on the screen. "Yeah," he mumbled absently as he closed out of everything, though the webcam thing was bugging him. "I wouldn't have to play with your computer if you would stop being dumb with it." Getting up from the chair at the desk, he joined Dash on the bed as they broke out their books to work on class assignments.

The time ticked by quickly as they worked on their studying. Every once and a while, Kwan slapped Dash on the back of the head when he caught the blond jock doodling sketches of Phantom and someone else in the margin of his notes instead of actually working on his assignments. Dash developed into an amazing artist over the years. Kwan could still remember the doodles that his friend would do back when they were five and everything looked like a scribbled mess of colors. Now, with Kwan's help, Dash ran a small website where he posted his comics about the rogue program known as Phantom. A lot of the plot was completely made up and featured one particular virus as the villain that kept seeking to destroy the hero.

When night started to settle in, Kwan decided it was time to head home, as much as he didn't really want to go. On the way out of the house, he ran into Lily as she was skipping up the stairs. He ruffled her blonde hair like he used to do when they passed, and he caught a smirk on Dash's face. He punched his friend in the shoulder as Dash dissolved into laughter.

"I'll see you later, man," Kwan said as he exited the house. Dash said goodbye, waving his friend off before closing the door.

He dragged his feet on the walk home, taking his leisurely time to avoid seeing his family again for as long as possible. His house was only about a half hour walk from Dash's house, but he managed to extend it to a fifty minute walk. When he arrived at his home, he took a deep breath before pushing open the door. He dumped his book bag on the bottom step of the stairs.

"You're late," was the first thing out of his mother's mouth as Kwan walked into the dining room.

Plates of his brother's favorite foods were laid out over the dining table, and Kwan groaned at that fact. He would rather stuff his face with Dash's mother's meatloaf than suffer through the overly sweet and sour chicken that his mother always made for his brother.

"Sorry," Kwan muttered with his gaze lowered as he took his spot at the dining table.

He kept his head bowed and tried to eat quickly so that he could get away from his family and disappear into his bedroom for the rest of the night. Despite his attempts to ignore the conversation going on around him, he kept catching bits and pieces of it. His parents, as usual, gushed over their eldest son, happily listing all of his accomplishments from graduating at the top of his class and being the star football player throughout high school to his wonderful career. It was nauseating to listen to them, but the worst was when they would turn the conversation onto Kwan and his failures, his inability to accomplish anything, and the fact that he would never be as successful as his brother. It was the same comments they made all the time, but it didn't hurt any less to keep hearing them.

When he finished his meal, Kwan excused himself, carrying his dirty dishes to the kitchen to clean them before heading up to his bedroom. He snagged his book bag on his way up the stairs. Most of his homework, he managed to finish at Dash's house, despite constant interruptions from his friend being distracted. The rest of his evening was left to fool around, or get a head start on other homework or read ahead for class. He barely sat down at his desk when the door to his room opened. His body tensed, and his eyes barely flicked over his shoulder.

"Your room hasn't changed at all," his brother Jing said as he took a look around the tidy bedroom, which was a lot small than the shrine of a bedroom that their parents kept for their precious perfect son.

"What do you want?" Kwan kept his gaze on the computer in front of him.

"I can't come check on my baby brother?" Jing stood behind him, checking out the work that Kwan was doing at the computer. "That line of coding isn't right."

Kwan gritted his teeth, glowering as he corrected the line. "I don't need you to point out my mistakes." He already got enough of that from their parents.

"I was only trying to help." Jing moved to lean against the desk as he folded his arms.

The resemblance between the brothers was obvious with their shared bronze skin and raven locks, though Kwan kept his hair longer than his brother and Jing was taller with broader shoulders. Their biggest difference was their eyes. Jing had the same dark brown, nearly black, eyes of their parents while Kwan's eyes were a strange aqua green. It was something that made Kwan stand out in the family, and one of the many reasons his parents sneered at him.

"I didn't ask for your help," Kwan grumbled as he tore his gaze away from the computer screen to glare at his brother.

Jing sighed as he turned to face his brother, leaning an arm on the desk. "And what exactly were you doing with Mr. Lancer in the teachers' lounge?"

Kwan's hands curled into tight balls, and his eyes narrowed. "Wasn't that obvious? I mean, you are the perfect son. Surely something so painfully obvious shouldn't leave you, of all people, completely puzzled." His teeth ground as his mind screamed for his brother to leave already.

"You should leave viruses to the professionals," Jing said with a severe frown on his face, the kind of look he always wore when he thought his brother made a mess of everything.

"Sorry to be such a disappointment. Again." Kwan turned his head away from his brother.

"Kwan, that's not-" Jing sighed, running a hand over the short fuzz of his hair. "I'll probably find a new place in a few days." He pushed away from the desk then headed toward the door. "You have a game on Friday, right?"

Kwan merely nodded in response, not taking his eyes away from the computer. He didn't want his brother coming to the game and prayed that his brother wouldn't think of dragging their parents to the game too.

"Great. I can't wait to see you play." Jing closed the door behind him as he left, missing his brother's cringe at that comment.

Kwan dropped his head into his hands with a sigh. He didn't want to hear the conversation that would take place after that game where his parents would point out all the errors he made during the game and how Jing was so much better at playing football. Shaking his head, he decided to focus his mind on something else besides his family problems.

When he turned his gaze back to the computer screen, he frowned as a thought wiggled through his mind. He recalled seeing evidence that someone tampered with the webcam on Dash's computer. His mind started turning over that fact as he started typing. In only a few moments, he discovered that his webcam was also accessed recently from an outside source. He puzzled over that, wrinkles forming over his brow as he concentrated on tracking the person that hacked into his webcam, last night according to his data. One thing puzzling him was why anyone would bother to hack his webcam.

It wasn't difficult to track the person down as they didn't bother to hide their activity, clearly an amateur. Kwan blinked dumbly a few times when he uncovered the person's name, staring at the truth on his screen but hardly believing it to be real. "Fenton?"

swagdanny: *pats Vlad* He never has a happy life. =(

jeanette9a: Clockwork doesn't tell people things unless it's absolutely necessary? XD;;

DB-KT: *still hiding* Haha, when they aren't complaining about being a thousand years old and senile? Danny needs his own home on the NetZone, doesn't he? XD;;

Anon: The plan is romantic. If they ever stop butting heads with each other. orz

Sammi: No one ever listens to Vlad! D8 Danny'll learn... hopefully.

midnight: I considered Wulf. XD;;