Chapter Five: Stranger than Fiction

With your feet on the air and you head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
But there's nothing in it
And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind?

Where Is My Mind?, Pixies

The human brain starts shutting down after three minutes of oxygen deprivation.

It dies after six.

Tenni knew these things. She had a good memory for the morbid factoids Medulla liked to drop during Mad Science. However, morbid factoids really weren't doing her any good. In fact, all it was doing was making her more aware of how useless she was right now.

Warren was suffocating.

Warren was dying.

She looked to her left. She looked to her right. No one was doing anything. Why wasn't anyone doing anything?

The one thought that really stuck out in her mind, though, was-

Why am I not doing anything?

The battle had been going, not well, but it had been looking up when Will had pulled out Dad's signature seismic punch. It had shut down Lash and Speed's strong start, and it had given Tenni hope that Will and Warren would actually win this.

And then Speed had started in on Warren.

There were barriers set up around the combatants so the audience would be safe. They were meant to be pretty much everything-proof based on the abridged safety lecture Boomer gave them before jumping into the first Save the Citizen class. Trying to fight her way through one of them would be futile. But going through it wasn't the only way to get to the other side. The barrier wasn't that high. She had powers for a reason, and there were a million different ways she could put herself over it.

Just as she committed herself to marching over, making herself an ice ladder to get over the barrier, and consequently maiming Speed, she suddenly found herself without a reason to do so.

Will, having stood and watched as Speed's spinning vortex of death almost snuffed out Warren without lifting a finger, finally burst into action. It happened so fast, suddenly -

- Will had his hand on Speed and -
- Warren hit the ground, choking and -
- Speed crashed into Lash and -
- Will had his hands on Warren and -
- Warren went flying through the air and -

The buzzer went off.

Her eyes darted to Will, force of habit driving her to insure her brother was safe and unharmed first. Will was fine. Better than fine really. He was triumphant; basking in the attention of the cheering audience. He was practically floating on air as he went to Warren's side to offer him a hand up. It had her wondering if he'd forgotten the fact that the person he was reaching out to had tried to set him on fire only a day ago. That probably was the case. It didn't matter in the end. Warren threw the "citizen" off and ignored Will's offered hand, getting to his feet on his own.

Everyone in the stands surged out of their seats and stormed the arena. As they crowded around Will, Warren quickly moved away to avoid being trampled by them. She watched him skirt the group of students until she lost sight of him disappearing into the changing room. For a moment, she wanted to chase him down and-

And what?

The look had meant nothing. Warren was fine. He was always fine.

There were bigger fish to fry, frankly.

Tenni stood and started heading down, taking the steps two at a time. Soon, she was in the arena, crossing it until she arrived at the pile of broken props and bodies. She stooped, reached out with her thumb and finger, and poked.

She got a groan.

"We had a deal," she said as she stared down, unmoved, at the unseemly heap that was Lash and Speed, "You lost."

"No deal!" Lash spat up at her, his vitriol dampened by how pathetic he looked, "It had to be you and your bro. Since you didn't fight, there was no deal."

"Oh please, you knew when you switched me out for Warren Peace that you weren't going to beat Will and me. And even with Warren Peace, Will beat you. You sure you wanna play that game with us?" She brought her hands up threateningly.

"No!" Speed quickly yelped, cutting off whatever Lash had been about to say.

"Good. So new deal then?" She smiled at them then, all teeth. "You lay off the freshman. If either of us catches you picking on one of them, or anyone really, we come after you. And trust me when I say that I won't worry about getting a detention if I have to make good on my end."

Speed certainly looked scared enough to accept her word. Lash seemed like he was still mutinous, but that was okay. A little part of her wanted him to put a foot out of line. Dare her to prove she'd do as she said. She'd enjoy it. This asshole had caused her and her brother and her friends pain and humiliation and she still wasn't completely satisfied. If he gave her reason, she could pay him back the way she really wanted.

For now, she could be a gracious winner.

"Here," she said, holding out both of her hands.

Lash and Speed both flinched at the motion and she let herself laugh at them. When they realized they weren't being hit or frozen, they opened their eyes to see what she was doing. Each hand palmed a perfect sphere of ice. The bullies stared at the ice with varying levels of confusion and suspicion.

"What's that for?" Lash finally barked.

"You both look like you're gonna bruise. Ice helps." That rebellious look returned to Lash, and she wanted to take back her peace offering. Or use it to break his face some more. Her stubbornness had her holding the ice out more insistently. "Take it, or else your faces will be uglier than they already are tomorrow."

"Why?" The taller boy sneered. "Is this a trick?"

"No," she replied, "I'm not cruel like you. I don't kick people when they're down. Even people like you." She got tired of holding the ice out to them and set it on the ground near them. "Take it or leave it, I don't care."

Standing as quickly as she did and turning on her heel to walk away might have seemed cool in her mind, but the vertigo she gave herself almost made her wobble sideways. By the grace of some deity, she managed to walk mostly straight for several paces. However, her intense focus on walking a straight line to the exit resulted in her crashing into something. Tenni could feel her face burning as her shoulder ached from the contact. Hopefully Lash and Speed hadn't just witnessed her walking into whatever it was she had walked into. She pulled her arm away from her shoulder with a hiss, an ineffective attempt to brace it when she'd made impact. It hurt enough that she slipped her hand under her shirt, placing it on her burn and willing cold to permeate it. Just as she started to feel like she could shake it off and continue on her way, she looked up.

It was starting to become stupid, the way they kept running into each other like this.

"Ah." Warren pinned her with his somewhat surprised stare as babbled. "Um. Sorry. About that."

And then she tried to inch away.

"Hey, wait."

She froze. Slowly, her gaze that had fallen to the floor as she had tried to flee crept up his form until it rested on his face. There was a myriad of emotions flashing there and she had to force herself to not waste even a second analyzing any of them.

"You alright?" he asked her haltingly, gesturing with an awkward shake of his hand at her shoulder.

"I'm fine!" He eyed her with definite disbelief and less definite concern. "Really. I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me."

Not that you do anyway.

Tenni resumed her escape and almost growled in frustration when a hand grasped her wrist. She looked him in the eye again, annoyance beginning to overtake her anxiety.

"What?" she asked snappishly.

"I'm sorry. About that." He did the strange gesture thing at her shoulder again.

"Oh..." She let her hand fall away. "Not forgiven then."

He blinked.

"What?" And how it made her heart flutter to see the same startled look that he'd had on his face the first time she'd seen him. "But..."

"Just because you apologize doesn't mean I forgive you. You're still the idiot who tried to hurt my brother and burned my shoulder and that's not really okay." She shrugged carelessly with her good shoulder as her heart raced. "I mean, I'll get over it eventually. Maybe when my shoulder heals and I stop being irritated at you and you stop terrorizing Will, we can try this again, okay?"

He blinked at her again, his expression only more flabbergasted. "Okay?"

"Okay. So bye." She flailed her good arm at him in what was meant to be a wave goodbye and started walking away.

At least, she was pretty sure she was walking away. As opposed to fleeing like a socially retarded coward.

"What was that?" Magenta, still in her PE clothes, demanded as she materialized at Tenni's side, almost jogging to match her pace on the way to the locker rooms.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Magenta, mercifully, let it go.

For a time.

"Come over to my place."

"Why?"

"Because we're friends?"

"Layla's also your friend. Ethan too."

"Yeah, but I want girl time only and Layla's busy with something today after school."

Tenni looked at her sideways with a frown.

"I call BS."

"I'm really not. Layla told me Will was treating her to dinner as an apology for the table thing." Her mouth twitched irritably at the mention of the event. She pointed at where Layla and Will were chatting exuberantly about Chinese food a couple rows up and across the way. "Since I'm down one plant girl, I'm going to have to conduct my interrogation of you solo. And Ethan's useless to me in those kinds of situations. He can't even play good cop right."

"Interrogation?" Tenni asked, immediately suspicious.

"Of course. I saw that Warren thing. Now, I don't pretend to understand the mind of the pyro psycho, but you..." She tsked to herself. "I know something's going on with you. And I'm going to find out. I could've used Layla's freakish ability to always catch you in a lie, but there are other ways to make you talk."

The aquakinetic swallowed nervously.

"You know, I'm starting to think you and Layla have more in common than I thought you two ever should."

"Hmm?" Magenta arched an eyebrow at her.

"You are both super nosy." She sighed. "I thought I'd finally caught a break when Layla started mooning over Will again."

"She's pretty obvious isn't she?" Magenta commented with a placid smile that almost seemed fond, "Your brother's not only an idiot, but a blind idiot." She reached over and pinched Tenni's arm. "Now stop trying to distract me with gossiping about Layla. Tonight's gonna be about you and Warren Peace and whether or not you've gone mad or if it's just the entire world."

"I can't get out of this can I?" Tenni moaned.

"Nope. I know you're free, so you have to hang out with me."

Before the bus even landed in Maxville, Magenta had already made all the necessary calls on her cell phone to obtain permission to have her over. How easily her parents said yes made her roll her eyes. They seemed like they were over the moon about her actually going out with friends who weren't just Will and Layla. The only conditions she'd been given were that she had to take it easy on her shoulder and that she'd be ready to be picked up and brought home by Josie at 8:30. Will and Layla had seemed a little confused and anxious to see her go off with Magenta and Ethan on her own, but she waved them off and followed after her other two friends with mild dread. The feeling only got stronger once Ethan split off from them leaving her alone with a smirking shifter girl.

Seeing the other girl's house surprised her a bit because she really hadn't expected... well, anything about where Magenta lived. Ethan and Magenta lived in a nice little suburban neighborhood, but somehow, nestled into that quaint area was an enormous, luxurious mansion. A mansion where Magenta lived. Tenni wanted to be impressed, really and truly because it was actually very beautiful and tastefully landscaped and furnished, but it freaked her out.

Too much space, too much distance.

Too easy to pretend no one else lived with you in a place like that.

It was a relief to get to Magenta's room, which was the only place she'd seen so far that felt like a person really lived in it. The room practically screamed Magenta, from the purple and black accents, to the gothic touches, to all of the posters and pictures plastered on her walls of favorite bands and friends. Tenni liked it. She went to take a sip of the glass of water the she had gotten when they had passed through the kitchen, and regretted it the minute the other girl opened her mouth.

"So tell me, what's the what? I get that Peace has kind of got the hot bad boy thing going on, but in the time we've known each other, you've never struck me as the good girl with a rebellious streak stereotype."

Though she didn't spit up her water, she came very close. Once she stopped choking, literally and figuratively, she leveled a mild glare at the other girl.

"Thanks for that. Really. What's got you convinced that I have a thing for Warren Peace?" Tenni demanded, her voice dripping sarcasm.

"I never said anything about you having a thing for Peace." She smirked at me before her expression gave way to consternation. "The point is, whatever it was that I saw happen between you guys was really... I don't even know how to describe that. He apologized to you. The son of Baron Battle apologized to you, the daughter of The Commander. What happened between yesterday and today that made him do that?"

"I don't know," Tenni admitted, feeling just as much confusion, "I don't know anything when it comes to that guy. I thought he hated me."

"Well, I think it's safe to say he probably hates your Dad, and doesn't like Will much either," Magenta commented thoughtfully, "But you? Maybe he doesn't hate you. It might just be me, but I'd rather die than ever apologize to someone I hate."

"Maybe..."

"Maybe he likes you." Tenni flushed, in anger or embarrassment or both she didn't know, as Magenta's serious face became wicked. "I mean, your brother is proof that guys do strange, stupid things when they like a girl. And I mean, we're assuming that Warren Peace is even a little like a normal guy."

"Warren Peace doesn't like me," Tenni insisted hotly, "And for that matter, I don't like him either."

"Yeah sure. Just like you don't stare at him as much as stares at you. And he does stare at you. A lot. When he's not glaring at Will."

"I really don't want to talk about this anymore." The aquakinetic glowered balefully. "Girl talk sucks."

"Okay, okay," Magenta surrendered, "Layla warned me about your low tolerance for these kinds of things. I got what I wanted anyways."

The glower deepened momentarily before giving way to exasperation.

"So what do we do now then?"

Standing, Magenta started moving around her room, picking up a couple things. At one point she stopped, a DVD case and a remote in her hand. She held the DVD out to me.

"Ever seen this before?" she asked, shaking the copy of the movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in the Stronghold girl's face.

"No," Tenni answered, eyeing the movie critically, "It looks old."

"It's a classic," the shifter stated, crossing the room to stand in front of a cabinet that extended along the far wall.

Her tone brooked no argument. She threw open the doors of the cabinet and Tenni gaped. An entire entertainment system, with a ginormous flat screen TV, was fitted into the space within the cabinet. It shouldn't have been a surprise considering the house the girl lived in, but really. Magenta fired everything up and popped the DVD in. Once she finished that, she reclaimed her seat on the bed beside Tenni.

"Don't worry, you'll like it."

And she had to admit Magenta was right about that. She was still catching up after twelve years of zero exposure to pop culture. Magenta had been mumbling something about how "Whedon is God" and "make you watch the TV series" and "Angel!" It made Tenni a little relieved that her friend had chosen to ease her into all of this by showing her the nineties movie first. The story was enthralling. Many times, Tenni found herself relating to the title character. If only Buffy were real, she'd certainly understand her. She wanted to be normal just as bad as the girl who had had those powers and the job of slayer shoved on her.

Though, she could've done without Magenta's unsubtle hint at what she had dubbed "the Warren thing" whenever the shifter jabbed her elbow into Tenni's ribs every time Buffy and Pike had a "moment." Magenta was proving to be worse than even Layla at trying to make her act like a real girl with real girl feelings. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered the month Layla was convinced she and Zach belonged together in middle school. Turnabout was fair play when she dropped her own comment about Zach's interest in Magenta despite her prickliness towards the walking glow stick. The smallest chink in the shifter's sarcastic armor, the tiniest flush at the mention of his interest in her, was a win in Tenni's book.

Magenta let Tenni take over her kitchen for a bit to make some pasta and steamed broccoli for just the two of them. It was simple enough to make and doing the cooking made the aquakinetic feel less bad about eating the other girl's food. There was no way she could wait until her mom brought her home to eat. Making the food meant that she deserved it in a sense, and that put any worries she had about mooching off of Magenta to rest. They were discussing when they would continue Tenni's "educational sessions" and whether to include Layla when the doorbell rang.

"Hey Mom," Tenni said, giving a mental sigh of relief when she saw Josie dressed in her casual clothing.

Normal clothes meant she had probably come in the car. That meant they weren't flying home. Tenni had never let on to Josie that she didn't like flying. She really hadn't wanted to disappoint Josie, so she'd never let her know.

"Hi sweetie. Time to go."

"Okay." She paused and turned to Magenta. "Thanks for having me over Magenta. I'm looking forward to watching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series with you."

"No problem. I'll draw up a schedule for our marathon nights then."

"Yeah, you do that," she laughed, waving her goodbye.

Magenta returned it as she closed the door behind the Tenni. The girl looked to her Mom and immediately worried when she saw her eyes watering.

"Mom, what-?"

"Oh, my babies are all grown up and making friends!"

The sad thing was that she couldn't tell if she was making a joke or actually being serious. It really didn't matter, because she was shuffling Tenni into the car and asking her to tell her about her day. She made sure to talk about how Will was in most of her classes now, focusing on how happy she was that she could see him more and completely avoiding the personality one-eighty he had when the popular group started acknowledging him. And she also tried to downplay Lash once again assaulting her and then Tenni goading him and Speed into a Save the Citizen match. Mom would probably lecture her for the rest of the car ride if she found out. She had told Will and Tenni time and again to never bite off more than they could chew in battle unless there was no other option.

However, it seemed that her Mom already knew. She explained that Will had come home and told her and Dad all about it during dinner. Something bothered Tenni about that comment. She couldn't quite put her finger on why, but it did. Mom was also being really coy about something else. It definitely had to do with Will. And dinner. When she managed to let the word dance slip, Tenni seized upon it.

"That's it!" the girl explained, causing Josie to jump.

"That's what?"

"The dance, he asked her to the dance!" Will must've invited Layla over to dinner instead of taking her to the Paper Lantern. Tenni shook her head. The boy's hatred for Chinese food struck again. Layla had probably been really disappointed. Then again, getting asked to the dance probably made up for it in spades. Layla had been waiting for years for Will to notice she had feelings for him. If Layla hadn't sworn her to secrecy, Tenni probably would've already told Will by now. It would've saved Layla the time Will had wasted being dense. "Finally. Can you tell me how it went Mom? And please tell me he didn't ask as just friends."

"Well, actually, she asked him." She smiled understandingly. "Not just as friends. And Will said yes."

Tenni's eyebrows shot to her hairline. Woah! Layla had been the one to make the first move? Awesome. The girl talked all the time about the problems with gender roles and yet she still expected Will to make the first move. It was about time she took matters into her own hands.

"Good for her!" Tenni said to herself, a smile of her own stretching her lips, "It's really about time."

"Oh." Josie took her eyes off the road to glance at her. "She's liked him for a while then?"

"Uh, yeah," the girl said, confusion and incredulity creeping up on her, "Yeah, she's liked him for a really long time. Forever, kind of. You mean you've never noticed before? Ever?"

"Tenni, I just met the girl. It's a little hard to get that kind of read on someone after one meeting." Her voice reflected how Tenni felt.

"That doesn't make sense," she mumbled to herself, before looking over at the woman, "Are we even talking about the same person? You know, Layla, lives on our street, has the most obvious crush on Will?"

"Oh!" Her mom exclaimed, "You thought I meant Layla. Oh honey, no. Oh, I completely forgot about Layla. The poor girl."

"You mean..." Tenni's mouth went dry. "You mean someone else asked Will to the dance?"

"Sweetheart," Josie uttered softly, her voice heavy with sympathy, "I'm sure you feel bad for Layla-"

"Who's the girl?" the girl asked, cutting her off.

She racked her brain for possibilities of girls that would ask Will to the dance and came up with nothing. For one fearful instant, she worried that it had just been some random girl from school who decided that now Will was cool, she was going to latch onto him. A fierce scowl twisted her lips. Tenni wasn't the confrontational type, but if it was some shallow popularity chaser, she was going to run the girl off. Will, her sweet and lovable brother, was an idiot when it came to girls. He just didn't know how to pick them at all. It was an utter mystery as to how he could read Tenni with such ease when the rest of the female population baffled him. And, well, she owed Layla this much at least.

"Her name's Gwen Grayson," Josie finally answered, slowly and measured, "She said she was a friend of yours and also Will's tutor. Your father and I liked her very much."

Well.

Well.

This was apparently all her fault.

The desire to go into this situation all guns ablazin' died a swift and sad death as she deflated into her seat.

"Tenni?" She felt a hand on her arm but didn't acknowledge it. "Tenni?"

"Gwen huh?" she mumbled, "Yeah, she's nice."

"But she's not Layla?" her mom said, cutting straight to what she was really upset about.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Maybe it was me just having wishful thinking. My brother and my best friend." She sighed. "For as long as I've been here, I've just had this idea that Will and Layla belong together. And, I like Gwen. I really like her. But it just feels wrong."

"It will be okay sweetie," the woman finally spoke, "Maybe those two are meant to be, maybe they aren't. Try giving Gwen a chance. That could work just like it may not. Just leave figuring it out up to Will and Layla."

She tried to convince herself that her mom was right, but was time really the solution? Could those two really work things out?

The burgeoning optimist in her had nothing to say to reassure her.

It would've been nice to have went straight to bed when they got home. Tenni didn't really want to see or talk to anyone else for the rest of the night. It had been a trying day already what with Will snubbing the others, the Save the Citizen Match, and then the conversation in the car. She really didn't want any more stuff to add to her emotional stress. Obviously, it wasn't her day, because Will pounced on her the minute she walked through the door, gushing about dinner with Gwen, and going to Homecoming with Gwen, and Gwen, Gwen, Gwen.

For the life of her, she couldn't make herself say anything nice. Not a single congratulations or even a, "great." It would be a lie if she had. More than that, it would be like a betrayal. All that she could do was be neutral and tell him she was tired and disappear up the stairs before he could stop her.

She didn't sleep very well through the night and came down for breakfast more than an hour early. Dad, the breakfast maker of the morning, had only just woken up and started making coffee for himself by then. He blinked owlishly at her, not understanding why she was awake so early and began peppering her with questions about her shoulder and what Will's match had been like the other day. Neither topic was something she felt comfortable talking about, but she tried to answer all of the questions as succinctly as possible. Steve Stronghold was such a successful real estate agent in part because he was charming, but mostly it was because he was persistent as all hell. If he wanted something, like getting you to buy a house or answer his questions, he was going to get what he wanted one way or another. Sometimes it was easier to get it over with.

Once the food was done - scrambled eggs, toast, and cut up strawberries - she put some egg between two pieces of toast and shoved a handful of strawberries into her mouth before darting upstairs. Thankfully, no one stopped her on the way up to her room. She was dressed and her teeth were brushed already, so all she had to do was grab her backpack and leave. Feeling a little crazy and desperate to not talk to anyone else in her family for the rest of the morning, she slung her backpack over her shoulder, dropped a scribbled note of explanation on her desk, and pulled her window open so she could slip out.

Holding her dribbling egg sandwich in one hand, she used the other to climb out into the tree near her window. It was child's play getting down. If she needed an extra step anywhere, she'd just materialize herself one out of water and ice. Soon enough, she was on the ground in the backyard and scurrying off. It took very little time to get where she wanted to, but she stopped herself short. Neither Layla nor her mom would much appreciate her knocking on their door with a scrambled chicken fetus sandwich in hand. She started taking slow bites, using the time to think.

Honestly, she hadn't really been thinking clearly when she dashed over here. The most pressing need had been to get away from Dad, Mom, and Will. It almost seemed that since high school had begun, most of her problems always stemmed from her family unintentionally finding ways to make her life harder. Resenting them for something they weren't doing on purpose may have been petty, but no one accused Tenni of being the most mature person. Frankly, as long as she was only that much more mature than Will, it really didn't matter to her how petty and childishly she behaved. Now, all she wanted was someone to dump this on.

But.

Layla was her usual go to person when she wanted to complain about Will, primarily, and Steve occasionally. It was why she was standing in front of the other girl's house this early in the morning after escaping through her second floor bedroom window. However, the fatal flaw of her plan was starting to dawn on her.

Layla was part of the problem as well.

Sometimes the drama that came with the Layla-Will thing got exhausting too. Layla was a smart girl, but Will seemed to always turn her into an idiot and Tenni was starting to get sick of it. Her stupid promise to not interfere always came back to bite her in the ass every time Layla came back to her crying about some dumb thing oblivious Will did. Why does Will not notice me? Why does Will not understand how I feel? Why does Will not like me the way I like him?

There were only so many times that Tenni could tell the girl to make the first move instead of waiting for him. She was just so tired of this bullshit. At least Gwen had been bold enough to ask Will herself.

Tenni blinked once and then twice at her own thoughts. And then surprised herself when the expected sting of her mind trying to reprimand her for her traitorous thoughts never came. It was strange. Sleeping on it had finally made it clear to her. She was done with it. Done with dealing with Will and Layla and their mess. Done with getting upset over insensitive things Dad said. They weren't her problem anymore. She could just- she could just tune out from now on.

After she did this one last thing. She owed the girl one last good talk before she took Mom's advice.

"Tenni?" She looked up and saw Layla there, looking a strange mix of dejected and hopeful. "What are you doing here?" There was a long pause as she hesitated over the next part. "Where's Will?"

"We're gonna walk to the bus stop together." The Stronghold girl managed a weak smile at the other girl. "Will will catch up."

They started off to the bus stop, neither talking to each other for a long length of sidewalk. Tenni counted the squares nervously as they went. Finally, she opened her mouth when it appeared obvious Layla wasn't going to first.

"I'm sorry Will ditched your dinner plans last night."

"No, it's okay, I-"

"No, it isn't," Tenni cut her off harshly, stunning Layla into a halt, "It isn't okay. You always do this Layla. You get upset because of something Will does and blame yourself and make excuses for him. And it's not okay. I don't like watching you do this to yourself. Can you just stop it? For once?"

"Tenni, I, why are you saying all of that to me?" the red haired girl asked, looking confused and hurt.

"Because you can't sit around waiting for Will to stop being oblivious anymore. Gwen Grayson asked him out to Homecoming," Tenni said in a rush, watching as Layla crumbled before her but forcing herself to for once not immediately go to comfort her, "So now you need to decide what you're going to do about that. Just do something, alright?"

"But what can I do?" Layla whispered pitifully, "She's Gwen Grayson."

"Think of something. Win him back, let him go and move on, whatever," the aquakinetic suggested, before her tone became more uncharacteristically forceful, "Do. Something."

"I-" She stopped, tears welling in her eyes and her lip pulled between her teeth. Then she nodded.

Tenni breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay." As a peace offering, she stuck her hand out to Layla. "Come on, let's get to the bus stop already."

The plant girl sniffled some, but without letting any tears slip took Tenni's hand and they went the rest of the way to the bus stop in quiet, contemplative peace. Will arrived only a couple minutes later, and Tenni was pleasantly surprised when Layla intercepted him from his intended sister-interrogation path. She moved away to give the two of them their privacy as they talked. With any hope, Layla was finally listening to her for once.

In fact, things were looking very good on the dazed and scandalized look on Will's face after he and Tenni broke off from the others at their lockers. It wasn't until they were standing just outside of Medulla's classroom that Will pulled her aside looking very serious. She huffed impatiently at him as he gathered his words.

"Tell me you didn't know," he demanded, his hand on the elbow of her good arm.

"Know what?" Tenni asked, rolling her eyes.

"Know about Warren Peace, my biggest enemy, asking Layla to Homecoming and Layla being crazy enough to say yes!" he exclaimed.

Her mouth fell open. It took her some flapping of her mouth until she got out an unintelligible, "What?"

Will sagged in relief as he took in the look on her face. "Guess she hadn't told you. Jeeze. It's totally crazy. She must be kidding. I don't even know what she was thinking saying something like that! Was she even thinking?"

He kept muttering but Tenni was still desperately trying to catch up with what Will had just said. Layla and... Warren? No she'd heard it wrong. Those two names didn't belong in the same conversation let alone in the same sentence.

"What?" was all she could say, feeling like a broken record.

"Crazy," Will said again, shaking his head and he steered her into the classroom.

The following classes passed in a blur. Tenni answered questions when she was asked and turned homework in when she needed to. Her mind really wasn't there. She was torn between completely writing off what Will had said and believing it because well... she knew what she had said this morning to the other girl. Maybe Layla was taking her seriously for once. Too seriously.

That was a terrifying thought.

Nightmarish even.

It turned into a waking nightmare the minute she walked into cafeteria with Will and Gwen (while purposefully ignoring Penny) and walked past table Layla, Magenta, Ethan, and Zach were sitting at. There was no mistaking the dark figure sharing space with them at the table. Her footsteps faltered, much like Will's in front of the table. Unlike her brother, however, she came to a complete halt. Her eyes darted back and forth between her friends' faces and the unexpected party.

Layla, guilty as sin and yet somehow defiant. Zach and Ethan, equally confused. Magenta, completely unruffled.

Warren Peace, looking for all the world as if he would happily greet the gaping maw of the Earth opening beneath him to swallow him whole.

And it seemed the word of the day was, "What?"

Chapter Five: Stranger than Fiction - End

Nana: Ok, this is ridiculous and I apologize for how late this is. (Frak) This chapter is a mess, but hopefully some of you will like it. I have a beta but I just wanted this posted and done with, so she hasn't looked at it. So sorry for its ugly Whedon obsessive tendencies shone through a bit too. Heh. I played around with my writing style here, so hopefully that was interesting. And the ending felt super rushed but eh-eugh.

Things that are different than the original: Tenni didn't really help Lash out. Holding out the ice was less a symbolic olive branch and more of a "ha ha, I'm throwing my win in your face, and threatening you!" And Magenta has the inside track on the Warren thing as opposed to Will. Both Tenni and Layla are also no longer being martyrs about their feelings and pushing back a little. Teenage girls are melodramatic and catty. But within reason in my stories. So Layla wake up call. Not really going to impact the plot line too much, but I liked it. Question though: should Tenni know about the fake relationship or should she be kept in the dark like in the original?

Next Installment:

Chapter Six: Three's a Crowd