Disclaimer: Don't own, so please don't sue!

Author's Note: I would like to point out that my senior English teacher was really wonderful and very understanding, not remotely the vindictive individual I've decided to portray in Mr. Brunswick. I've never had a teacher named Mr. Brunswick either. Just wanted to make that clear! =)

Fish Out of Water

Chapter 2

The rest of the first week of school was less eventful than the first day. Marshall had forgone the cowboy boots in favor of running shoes that seemed suitably average, and while his mother still didn't want him to wear t-shirts to school, a button-down and a pair of jeans didn't stand out too badly and his classmates were largely ignoring him. Gone were the giggles over his footwear. He felt a bit wistful as he left for school the following Monday, his boots abandoned on his bedroom floor, but it was a small enough price to pay not to be the butt of various cowboy-related jokes, which he sensed was a very real possibility in this place.

The morning was for the most part typical. It was the first suit-up day for physical education. Marshall had always performed reasonably well in P.E., enough to get by with mostly B grades, but it wasn't his favorite class. He understood the importance of physical activity but he craved activity of the mind above all. He liked badminton and had planned to try out for the team back home, but his family's sudden relocation had curbed the impulse. He didn't think his new school even had a badminton team.

The day wore on and he found himself in biology. He found there was little to glean from the course this early on, as much of it was introductory science that he already knew. Bored, he let his gaze wander to the window. It looked onto the P.E. fields, where a girls' class was playing field hockey. Marshall's interest perked as he saw a flash of golden hair. There she was; his recalcitrant English partner. He thought about what she'd said after that first English class together.

"You're an idiot for standing up for me. I'm really not worth the trouble."

Marshall had been mulling over her brusque dismissal of his assistance ever since. She'd said nothing to him in the past two days beyond an occasional grunt, and then only if he said something first. He decided she must be the kind of person who felt awkward when others stood up for her, but he didn't understand why she thought she wouldn't be worth it. As far as Marshall was concerned, people deserved to have someone in their corner unless they proved otherwise. As for trouble, sure, she smoked in the bathroom and was apparently regarded as a poor academic prospect, but how much trouble could one girl be?

He smiled as he watched her run down the field. She seemed to be an aggressive player, a fact that didn't surprise him even remotely. He thought about the only other thing he knew about her: her name. After she had called him an idiot that first day, he'd called after her, wanting to know what her name was, at least, and she had paused to answer him.

Mary. It seemed like a plain name for someone with her apparent proclivities. It suggested a certain virtuousness that he suspected might be wholly absent from her personality. He wondered if she acted as she did to rebel against the connotations of her name, or if there was more to it than that.

There was certainly more to watching her play than an appreciation of her drive. She was very fit, physically, well-muscled in a girlish sort of way, and agile, so that watching her move was like watching a predator pursue its prey. Each motion was a study in kinetic beauty, and the overall effect was enhanced by the way the midday sun made her hair gleam, as well as the fact that she was bouncy and curvy in all the places a girl ought to be. Marshall couldn't take his eyes off her.

Until the teacher thwacked his desk with the yardstick she used as a pointer. Marshall nearly jumped out of his skin and a strangled squeak escaped him; he'd been so engrossed that he hadn't even noticed her approach.

"If you're ready to pay attention to the lecture, young man, we can resume," she intoned with humor masked in mock severity. Marshall grinned sheepishly as the class giggled and the teacher returned to the front.

He made an effort to pay attention for the rest of the period, but he couldn't help sneaking an occasional glance out the window at the vivacious blonde. Mary.

When the lunch bell rang, Marshall made his way to the never-used bathroom. After watching her from the window, he really wanted to talk to her again, and he suspected that if he could get her on her own, without other people around, she might let him. He didn't know why he thought Mary would be in the bathroom to begin with; in fact, she shouldn't be, because she'd just been in P.E. class and therefore would logically be in the locker room. He just had a feeling, though, and when he walked in, there she was… and there her shirt wasn't. He turned around quickly, trying not to look, but he'd seen her, however briefly. He should have realized she'd be changing her clothes, wherever she was.

"Come in here to sneak a peek, Pervis?" she asked, a teasing tone in her voice. "I change in here so I don't have an audience."

"I'm, uh… I'm sorry," Marshall stammered. "I didn't expect you to be… you know."

"Half-naked?" she goaded.

Marshall squeezed his eyes shut, trying to push away the mental imagery which, moments before, had been actual visual input. She'd been slightly sweat-slicked, her skin glistening and looking amazing even in the crappy artificial light of the bathroom; pale flesh segmented by the straps of a dark purple bra, and when she'd turned around…

"Indisposed," he corrected.

"Do you always talk like you're old?" Mary asked, laughing dryly.

"So I've been told, on occasion," Marshall fidgeted as he spoke. If she kept engaging him in conversation, he couldn't politely leave, and if she didn't put her shirt on, it was hardly appropriate to stay, however tempting. If someone walked in, however unlikely Mary claimed that possibility was, it could lead to rumors, and suspension… maybe even expulsion. He couldn't imagine what his father would do to him if he got expelled for being caught with the half-naked bathroom-smoker.

"Relax, Prudence, I'm decent. Well, I'm dressed, at least," she called to him.

Marshall turned toward her, but his gaze failed to meet hers. He found himself looking to the sink, the floor, his own shoes, anything to prevent himself from having to look at her directly.

"Um, hello? I'm over here," she muttered. "You're acting like you've never seen a half-naked girl before."

His eyes shifted guiltily to hers and back down.

"Oh my God. You haven't, have you?" Mary cried incredulously. "You totally have never seen a girl with even some of her clothes off!"

"I've seen women in bathing suits…"

"That doesn't count! If they're out in public it isn't like you're seeing anything special. And walking in on your mom getting out of the shower definitely doesn't count either."

"Okay, I've never seen that!" Marshall barked defensively. "Anyway, I've seen pictures."

"Of your mom naked?" Mary wrinkled her nose. "Kinky."

"Not of my mom! I mean like, you know…" he trailed off, trying to ignore the burning pink on his face.

"Oh, like porn," Mary eyed him, squinting. "But not real porn. Not you. You're more like a swimsuit issue or lingerie catalog kind of guy. No, wait… National Geographic."

"Actually, if you must know," Marshall replied in a haughty tone. "My dad has some magazines hidden in the garage."

"Your dad's porn stash, huh? Nice. More than I expected from you," she paused, adopting an air of casual indifference. "So… what did you think?"

"I think you really might be that girl my dad always warned me about," he muttered.

"I think everyone in my family is that girl," she stated cryptically as she picked up her backpack and stuffed her gym clothes inside. "Let's get lunch before class starts."

"Can you believe that bastard Brunswick?" Mary fumed. "I mean, where does he get off, assigning us that?"

"Literary study of Romeo and Juliet is a fairly common assignment in high school, Mary. It seems reasonable to me," Marshall said placatingly.

The pair walked home in the hazy glow of late afternoon. The September sun was warm, but it would soon set and the nights were becoming chilly. It would have been a peaceful walk, really, had Mary not been so upset. Marshall was rapidly beginning to realize that an upset Mary was not a good thing for anyone involved.

"I've got your literary study right here. They were stupid for killing themselves, the end. That's our term paper."

"That's all you know about the plot, isn't it," Marshall remarked dryly, more of a statement of fact than a question.

"Maybe," Mary glanced away uncomfortably. She hated to admit she knew less than other people, but it was a reality. While others had spent their young lives preparing to step into the adult world, she'd been caught up in just trying to make sure her whole family made it that far. What was left of her family, anyway.

"Fortunately for both of us, at my former school, my sophomore English class covered Romeo and Juliet, so at least one of us will be capable of writing this term paper properly," Marshall intoned with a meaningful glance at his companion.

"Don't you even go suggesting that I can't pull my weight, dillhole, because I can, and I will," she barked sternly.

"If you say so," Marshall demurred. "You don't really have to know anything about it from the outset anyway. That's the point of studying it. It's an opportunity to learn."

Apparently satisfied with that, Mary returned her attention to her grievances with their English teacher.

"Seriously, he had to just announce it to the class, for everyone to hear!" Mary's face burned at the memory of a roomful of whistles and catcalls. "And he didn't even say he was assigning it to us. He said, 'And you two are Romeo and Juliet.' Like that doesn't make everyone think we're… you know…"

"I'm sure no one actually thinks that," he sighed.

That part of the matter had bothered him too, though he wouldn't admit it to her. It was bad enough to like a girl like her, but to have the spotlight put on them like that had made him wonder how transparent he was. He hoped that hadn't been a factor in Mr. Brunswick's choice for their assignment, and Marshall reminded himself that it probably wasn't; more likely, it was the man's dislike of Mary and his choice to make the two of them his pet project that had led him to made the selection. That thought, however, was not as comforting as it should have been. It was still possible, and not to a degree small enough to be ignored, that the teacher was turning the screws in revenge for Marshall talking back to him on the first day of class as well.

"He freakin' hates me, Marshall! Telling us we're Romeo and Juliet is practically like saying, 'I hope you die.' Well I've got news for that asshole. I'm going to live forever, and I'll make a point of dancing on his grave someday."

"Come on, Mary. He doesn't want us to die. He just wanted to…" Marshall trailed off. They both knew damn well what Mr. Brunswick wanted.

"He just wanted to humiliate us in front of the class by implying that I'm boning you," Mary spat as she pulled out a cigarette.

"First, I think you have something backwards in that statement. Second," Marshall grasped her wrist loosely as he spoke, keeping the cigarette from reaching her mouth, "do you have to do that?"

"Seriously, Marshall, I am going to snap that hand off," she grumbled. Marshall removed his hand with a grimace; it was ultimately her choice, but he didn't have to like it. "You're unbelievable. You've known me a week and you actually give a shit whether or not I smoke?"

Marshall shrugged, and Mary contemplated the cigarette in her hand.

"Whatever. If it makes you feel better I'll just smoke it later when you aren't here," she said as she tucked the cigarette back into the package. They walked in silence a while longer, until they came to a small intersection.

"Yeah, so… I'm going that way," Mary gestured to the left; Marshall would be going straight and then right a bit further along.

"Okay," he nodded before continuing tentatively. "Do you want me to walk you the rest of the way?"

"Trust me, no," she laughed with a faint trace of bitterness. Marshall cocked his head to one side, perplexed.

"It's just… my family isn't…" Mary fumbled. "You wouldn't understand."

"You don't know that," he murmured softly.

"No, but I'm pretty sure," she replied. "Look, I don't really want to talk about it, and I don't need to be walked home, so..."

"I was thinking," Marshall interjected, "we should set aside some time to work on our project, maybe something like one night a week? I was thinking Fridays. We could walk home after school and we wouldn't really have to worry about how late it goes."

"Party nights are no good, I'm usually pretty busy on Fridays and Saturdays. Especially at night," Mary spoke quickly. "Besides, I'm not great at meeting people's families. I'm that kid from the wrong side of the tracks that no one wants their kid hanging around with."

"I don't think it would be that bad," he replied, even though he had the feeling that she was exactly right. His dad wouldn't like her at all.

"I have to get home. See you around," she replied noncommittally as she departed with a wave of her hand.

Marshall stood on the corner, watching her as she made her way down the street. Halfway down the block, she fished out a cigarette, and a moment later, smoke drifted into the breeze. His brow furrowed. She was exactly the kind of girl he shouldn't find appealing at all, so why did he feel so drawn to her? She made him feel like he was tangled up in knots, which should have been awful, but he liked it, and he didn't really understand why.

When she was out of sight, he turned and headed for home, trying to sort through his confusion.

A/N: Romeo and Juliet! Don't worry, I have absolutely NO intention to write any suicides in here. This isn't that kind of story! I chose Romeo and Juliet because it's a common high school assignment and there are a lot of parallels to draw that even Mary can't miss... if she actually bothers to study, which remains to be seen! =P Tell me what you think of Chapter 2, and I hope to see you all again in Chapter 3!