Carrying on the Torch

Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie

A/N:

Chapter 21 (Mason Challenged)

Charlotte made her way through the school with Regina by her side, she was searching around for Mason. They weren't planning on keeping their relationship all that secret, but Regina let it slip that she and Mason were together, and Brittany decided to confront her during first period. It was a truly irritating experience, and now Brittany was likely going to go around letting people know they were together. Mason sent her a text, asking her to meet up in the courtyard near the center tree with the stone wall around it.

When she arrived, she saw him sitting up on the wall, staring at his cell phone, a bemused expression on his face. He looked at her with a soft chuckle. She raised an eyebrow and moved next to him, Regina stood where she was, rubbing the back of her neck. "So what's the big emergency?" Regina was really there because she'd been talking to Charlotte about something when Mason sent the text, so she decided to go with her. Mason lowered his phone and looked over to Charlotte with a silly grin.

"Do you happen to know anyone in any of your classes named Brent?" The name sounded familiar, but she wasn't too sure she had any idea who he was. She shook her head and looked over to Regina, who already appeared to recognize the name.

"That scrawny kid on the school wrestling team!" Charlotte raised an eyebrow and Mason started to snicker. What was going on here? She put her hands to her hips and stared suspiciously at the two. She recognized him now that Regina said something, the kid was in their fourth period class. "Charlotte, he has like this major crush on you, you don't know?" She blinked and turned her attention to Regina while Mason raised up an eyebrow of curiosity. She did not know the kid was into her. She was a little flattered, but at the same time, just a tad freaked. He was a strange guy, into very odd things, always bringing these weird drawings in class and laughing with his guy friends in class, ogling the girls wearing skirts and whatnot.

"No…since when?" Regina folded her arms over and a guilty expression crossed her face. "Something wrong?"

"I thought you knew about it, I should have told you earlier. It's kind of creepy actually. He talks about you to his friends all the time. He's in my fifth period, actually. He goes on and on about how he wants to ask you out, has his locker decorated with your pictures and everything…Dee and I have been watching him for a while now and we agree he's a grade A creep." Her eyes grew momentarily and she cleared her throat. Mason closed his eyes and set his phone in his lap.

"So. Dude's a stalker?" His lips curled into a smirk as the girls turned to him. "I texted you cause this guy sent me a message over facebook this morning. I have my settings set so that anybody can send me messages, I need to limit that to my friends, but either way…the guy apparently doesn't know who I am, he challenged me to a fight after school, apparently he thinks he'd make a better boyfriend." Charlotte twitched and slowly shook her head, her heart was pounding and her stomach lurched. She didn't approve of a fight, but she had to admit, she was curious to see what would happen.

"Mason, don't beat him up…"

"Au contraire, dude presumes he's going to beat me up. Granted he's on the wrestling team, but he's this scrawny ass kid."

"Yet you have muscles," Regina added with a slight laugh. Mason nodded subtly and Charlotte lifted her eyebrows. So it was like a small fly asking a tarantula to fight. "You're no quarterback, but being on the football team, you have to keep in good physical shape, right?"

"Yep. I won't beat him down, I'm pretty sure Charlotte could easily take him out." She laughed once and slowly ran her hand through her hair, sighing calmly. She imagined herself taking the little guy and tossing him over her shoulder, a truly joyous occasion.

"There's one thing about us Duncans, we know how to carry our own weight." She moved her hand to his shoulder and slid it down along his arm, smirking with triumph. This was all hers. She turned her gaze to the side and saw Brittany in the distance, glaring and fuming. The girl stomped her foot on the ground and stormed off. She closed her eyes and chuckled. "Just flex your muscles and I'm pretty sure Brent will leave."

"That's what I'm planning to do." He leaned back and stretched his arms over his head, clasped his fingers together and brought them to rest behind his head. "I don't know if it'll work, but I'll at least tell him to back off."

"Yeah, good idea. I don't like thinking that there's some kid out there with my pictures all over his locker." She almost wanted to ask if Regina and Dee ever saw just how bad the locker shrine was, if it were one, but she didn't want to bother thinking about it. "You'd think knowing who my crazy adoptive mother was, he wouldn't bother with all that."

"Yeah, you think?" Mason pushed himself from the wall an exhaled. Charlotte leaned back, pushing her hands into the flower bed surrounding the tree. She watched him land on the ground and felt a sudden rush of heat wash over her. He looked to her and smiled, melting her in an instant. Damn it, this wasn't even the time for that! "Anyway, apparently it's behind the school. Think Mr. Duncan still has the suit, or did he return it to Gabe's martial arts teacher back then?" She laughed and shook her head. It was amazing how well Mason and her friends remembered her zany tales that Skyler and PJ told her regarding her family. They paid attention to her, a true sign of genuine friends.

"You don't need a self defense suit unless you're actually afraid Brent could twist you up like a pretzel. Although…" A sly smirk formed on her face. She leaned forward, narrowing her eyes, teasing him. "You might make a delicious pretzel." His face grew red, and Regina quickly smacked her forehead. Poor girl probably didn't want to hear jokes like those. "Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing you talk to him. I wonder what he'll do when he see's you're actually ten times his size…"

After school, Regina was actually shooting a webcam for Charlotte, who was on her way to her Tae Kwon Do class. She was going to leave the webcam running. They used Skype, which was now the world's most popular webcam chat feature. It had an upgrade, paid for, that was able to freely record and save webcam conversations with people for later viewing. Back when her family were still alive, Skype was a fresh thing, it didn't come automatically with this feature unless you downloaded a piece of software. Skyler said Teddy and the others downloaded something called the Evaer Skype Video Recorder. There was another thing called the VodBurner, but Evaer was more popular. Evaer supported recording Skype video calls into the hard disk with side-by-side files for audio-only, local-webcam, and remote-webcam mode. It was truly a good feature to have, and now it came with Skype, all these years later. Her sister would have loved it! So she would get to see how the confrontation between Mason and Brent would go, but her mind was already wandering to those medieval days.

The troll stomped its way over its bridge, swinging its spiked club through the air and laughing wildly as the charming Prince Mason sat upon his steed. Mason shifted his long sword towards the troll, narrowing his eyes. "Have at thee, brute!" Mason declared, confident in his ability. The troll pointed his club at Mason and snickered.

"I duel you for the princess's hand!"

"Aide!" The fair maiden, Regina, dressed in a long pink dress, hurried up to Mason, awaiting his request. "Take my coat, if you will." She nodded and removed the long brown cloak around his body. The troll stared in shock as the prince's muscles bulged into his eyes. Mason slowly opened his eyes and smirked. "How confident are you, Troll? That you shall take my Queen?"

"Have at thee!" The troll charged and Mason tapped his heel to the horse's side. The horse neighed and reeled back on its hind legs, kicking its front legs high in the air. As the animal did this, Mason whipped his sword high into the air, letting out a loud battle cry. He started swinging his sword in a circular motion as the horse broke out into a run. He narrowed his eyes and slid the blade through the troll. Regina did a cheer and applauded.

"All hail the mighty Prince Mason!" Suddenly a tree began to talk, calling out Charlotte's name.

She chuckled nervously and glanced straight ahead at Jo in the front of the room, watching her curiously. The other students were watching her closely, and Brittany was snickering at her. Once again, caught daydreaming in a crucial class, not fun. "Charlotte, have you returned from la-la land now?" She bowed her head and muttered a curse.

"Yes, I'm sorry Teacher." Jo closed her eyes and sighed. She'd just been asking for a volunteer to show the class a new move she wanted to teach them.

"Charlotte, front and center." With a heavy, defeated sigh, she quickly moved towards the front of the class. She knew better than to disobey or question, she just had to pay the penalty. She faced the class, spreading her legs and holding her hands behind her back. She titled her head back and closed her eyes, trying hard not to groan. Jo walked around her, clicking her tongue. "Okay class, this move that I want to show you is going to be something that I want you to put into your practice routines. Engrave it deep into your minds…"

After class, she made her way to Skyler's car. Teddy was in the car seat in the back, babbling adorably. She gave way to baby talk for a minute, then turned her attention to Skyler. "How was class?"

"It was good, but I got caught daydreaming." She knew the way to stop was to focus on the realities in front of her, but it was so hard not to just get caught up in the fantasies.

"Again huh? I'm not putting you on any medication." Skyler was against using behavior modifying medicines when it came to her own young, there was no secret there. "However if I have to sit you down and help you to focus more, I will. However that's the first time I heard you daydreaming in your martial arts class."

"Yeah that doesn't happen usually. I think I started before the class and it carried over. On the bright side, I was volunteered to learn a new move! Painfully." Skyler closed her eyes and shook her head, smiling lightly. She reached in the backseat and grabbed her laptop. "Did the video record?"

"The one with Mason and that boy?" She nodded as Skyler started up the car and began to drive. "Yes…if he becomes a further problem at school, please feel free to let me know."

"Okay." She opened the laptop and grinned brightly. The screen flashed on and she quickly went into her Evaer files. The video clicked up and Regina was the first person she saw. Of course, Brent was leaning against the school, his arms crossed and his greasy black hair was falling in front of his eyes. He looked so thin, she was sure he didn't weigh more than one hundred pounds.

"So you're the one challenging Mason?" Regina asked while tapping her foot on the ground. "Tennis practice starts soon and I'm wasting my time watching Charlotte's date face a bean sprout…great…" She rolled her eyes and slowly walked towards her laptop which was sitting on the bench not far from the area. This sounded like something Dee would say, maybe the girl was rubbing off on couldn't help but to laugh at her friend's reaction. "Charlotte, this has got to be a joke."

"Hey, I'm the one missing football practice," Mason's voice erupted from behind the webcam. Regina looked up and Brent pushed himself from the wall. As Mason walked into view, he started to take off his letter jacket. "Regina, could you set this on the bench?"

"Gladly." Charlottes eyebrows rose and her lip twitched into a smirk, just like her daydream! Regina took his coat, folded it up neatly, and set it down on the bench. Brent's eyes widened for a brisk moment as Mason crossed his arms over.

"Holy shit, you're Mason?"

"You don't watch our school's games much, do you? I'm the running back." He did seem fully prepared to run circles around this twig of a man. After all, what should a twig think, if it could think, when it stared down an ox? No, Mason wasn't the ox, he was Paul freaking Bunyan. Mason cracked his neck from side to side and moved his hands up, closing his hands and sighing. "So you wanted a fight, but I am obliged to warn you, fighting really isn't my thing." Hell, if Ivy or Emmett knew what he was getting into here, they probably would ground him for life.

Even Skyler parked the car to watch the video, she was having some difficulty not laughing. "Man this guy reminds me of Brock, he's such a lightweight."

"Whatever happened to Brock, Skyler?"

"I don't know, last I heard, he got his butt kicked in college and moved in with his parents. Probably got a little cocky from challenging every single guy around. Only difference was Brock was supposedly the wrestling captain, this guy here is…"

"No captain of anything."

"Then this will be easy," Brent replied arrogantly. Though, his nervous chuckling did seem to give away how fearful he really was in this moment. Brent started moving towards Mason. Mason extended his hands and set them on Brent's shoulders, holding him back. Brent let out a shout and started swinging his fists. "Hey! Come on!"

"Seriously, the guys on my team actually are on their way here…they wanted to know why I just had to miss football practice." Brent choked and did a double take, he stopped moving and stared Mason in the eyes, once more letting out a nervous chuckle. "I'm not going to beat you up here, Charlotte asked me not to use any violence, so…I guess I should just give you a warning." Charlotte put her hand to her chest and smiled with pride. Her eyebrow rose when she saw Regina holding a tennis racket and groaning miserably.

"Does this mean I can't treat him like a tennis ball a couple times?" Charlotte and Skyler both laughed and Teddy started clapping her hands together, laughing joyously.

"Nah, you might break the tennis ra…never mind, the racket might break Brent."

"This is true." Brent narrowed his eyes. Mason released his shoulders and he immediately fell towards the ground with a loud yelp. Before he could try and push himself up, Mason put his foot to his back and bent forward, set his elbow to his knee, and his closed hand to his chin. This reminded Charlotte of the mighty "Thinker" statue. Brent struggled in vain under Mason, who was shaking his head at him. Regina rolled her eyes and started putting her tennis racket back in its container. "And here I thought being on the wrestling team actually made you good. I thought for sure we'd have a repeat Brock here…this guy's boring…I can't believe he's the one stalking Charlotte, she'd kick his ass in a heartbeat!" Mason looked at her and clicked his tongue, he could not deny the truth of that statement. He returned his gaze to Brock and tapped his foot on the boy's back.

"That's what I wanted to talk with you about, Brock. Charlotte can handle herself just fine, Tae Kwon Do and all, but…I have the whole football team backing me up here, Regina's got her tennis girls, Dee's a crazy chick, and you don't even want to mess with Charlotte's family. Trust me." Skyler grinned at that statement, of course Charlotte knew Mason was winning major brownie points with her right now. "Back off of Charlotte, do not stalk her, do not go near her, do not even look at her in any way that shows a manner of lust. We have eyes everywhere, and I don't much like seeing her stalked. No one likes it, not even herself, and I'm pretty sure she won't hesitate to kick your ass."

"It's true Brent, Charlotte would do it!"

"Exactly. This is your one and only warning. Consider it some helpful advice, because clearly…you're not all that strong as you make yourself out to be…" Mason removed his foot from Brent and turned around to face Regina. He shrugged and she started turning to the laptop. Brent slowly rose up as three football players, the quarterback and two important players, started walking up from behind. Brent started to throw a punch at Mason's head, but the quarterback quickly tackled him to the ground. Mason turned around, his eyes wide. "Well…at least Charlotte's going to know I didn't beat him up, right?"

Regina stared as the three football players started dragging Brent away. She slowly nodded her head and responded with a dry chuckle. "Uh huh."

After the webcam clicked off, Charlotte closed the laptop, shaking her head. She felt bad for Brent, but at least he would get the message not to stalk people too much. Thankfully he was dealt with before he became a problem. She looked to Skyler. She had continued her drive in silence. She smiled at Charlotte. "Well, I'm glad you have friends who are willing to look out for you. I always knew I liked Regina and Dee."

"And Mason?"

"He's a good guy. I'm just surprised I haven't seen him around as much as I've seen the girls." Charlotte blushed and turned her eyes down to the laptop with a smile.

She had to wonder about the use of Skype, had Teddy ever been sharing that video on the plane with anyone? It would have been nice to see what the inside of a plane looked like, but god forbid the viewer of that video be watching when the accident happened. What a tragedy that would have been.

"Can't wait till PJ's back home with Nana." She'd already decided that she would continue calling Grandma Bosca as such, Grandma, and Petunia would be given the name Nana. This way, no one got confused. Even PJ seemed to like that idea, he said Petunia didn't mind either.

"It's only a few more days sweetie, they'll be home before you know it." Skyler reached over and rubbed her shoulder. "Until then, it's just us girls. You, me, and Teddy." Teddy babbled at the sound of her name and clapped her hands in the air. Charlotte glanced back at her and felt her heart flood with joy. She loved her baby niece. The family would be so excited to see her. Already they were excited just knowing she existed. Hopefully it was true and baby Teddy would bring them all closer together.

"We're doing monthly meetings, right?"

"That's the plan. Right now we're going to see how the first get together works this Saturday, and if it goes as planned, everyone's agreed to make it a family tradition." She had her fingers crossed, there was a lot of planning to do, but hopefully they'd make it a perfect experience for everyone.

Well, I'm pretty sure a serious lesson was learned here on this day!