Scenes 5 and 6. #lovetucker2k15

Footballer's Wife

March 15, 2015

Sam Manson leaned back at her desk and stared at the student across the room with narrowed eyes. She didn't know how to feel about the black kid who'd started carrying a camera around with him wherever he went.

On the one hand, it was impressive the lengths to which he had gone to start up his business and get to the point where he monopolized the filming industry at Casper High. Especially for someone with no ties to the theatre department and the remains of whoever had been running the A/V section back when they had existed in the school. When the place had been deemed important enough to warrant filming any of it. If such a time had ever existed.

She had to admit that it was impressive, a simple technogeek taking on an assignment like that and turning them to his benefit, getting his handiwork displayed online with the school's permission. Blessing even.

At the same time, however, why on earth he chose to use that influence and power and airtime to let Paulina say absolutely nothing when there were real issues out there that they could be addressing was beyond her.

Did he not know what opportunities he was wasting?

She could inform him.

Did he not care?

That would be impossible to rectify.

Or did he just not have any other options at the moment?

That was a very real possibility, given the material he had to work with. Sometimes you needed to build a base of support before you could branch off into what you really wanted to do, too.

So if that was his problem, she could supply him with a very long list of issues and causes he could find people to talk about to fill up any number of videos. Any one of them would be a valuable and worthwhile use of airspace.

And so much better than listening to the high pitched whining about makeup and manicures and keeping your hair perfectly coiffed while doing flips. Ugh. Talk about shallow. Paulina could dissolve into a puddle on the football field and Sam would never known she'd gotten anything on her shoes.

Nodding to herself, Sam decided to confront Tucker after class to figure out where he stood on the matter one way or another.

…

Tucker was a popular man after class.

He didn't know exactly what it was that had the semi circle closing in around him this time.

It could have been filming the extra special with Paulina. Or winking at Star while she giggled and waved from across the room. Or covering the basketball team instead of a scrimmage football practice.

Wes had made some good shots, though, so that footage was worth it even if Lancer hadn't specifically told him that a spot on the basketball player would be a good idea.

The crowd surrounding him now wouldn't really care what Lancer had suggested. Or anything else that Tucker might say now to try to explain his apparently unforgivable lack of appreciating football.

"Come on, guys," he pleaded, backing up. "I need to get to my locker before English. I'm gonna be late."

"Lancer doesn't care if you're late."

"Yeah, you have special privileges now."

Which, yeah, that was true, but it didn't mean he was allowed to skip class whenever he wanted. Or whenever he was waylaid by football cronies.

He didn't appreciate the fact that they now thought they could manipulate that bonus on his end either.

"Well, you're going to be late," he countered.

"You can say you were filming."

Tucker threw up his hands. "I don't even have my camera!"

"Then looks like we don't have to worry about breaking it, do we?"

Gritting his teeth, Tucker backed up until he hit he wall. He threw up his hands defensively even though he knew it wouldn't do him any good. He had to just wait, bracing himself for when they reached him.

"Hey!" a voice shouted.

Everyone turned to see, not a teacher, but a girl dressed in black and purple, hands on her hips as she stared down the group.

"Yeah, you, you jerks," she continued. "I'm talking to you."

Dash turned around like he couldn't believe his ears. "What did you say?" he asked, thinking it made him look controlling when in reality it just made him look dumb.

"I said I'm talking to you."

"Oh yeah?" he sneered, walking up to get in her face. "I'm listening."

She didn't move. Stared right back at him with piercing eyes. "Tell your goons to back off."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, you numbskull. Leave the guy alone." Tucker stared in shock and everyone else fidgeted at the insult. But the girl wasn't done. "Maybe if you actually paid attention in class instead of coming up with your next plan to corner him between periods, you'd actually get good enough grades that you wouldn't have to rely on your football career carrying you through high school."

Dash's teammates, who hadn't quite known what to do until that point, made disconcerted noises and started advancing on her, the slight to their sport clearly marking her as their new and improved target.

"Hey!" Tucker yelled, getting the attention back on him. "How about we call it quits for today, okay guys?" he offered, hoping to diffuse the tension before both of them got beat up. "And I'll see you on the field later this week?"

"Yeah," Sam said, and the heads swiveled back to her. "But how about we call it quits forever?"

"And why would we do that?" Dash asked with a smirk. "Why would I do anything you say? I'm the King of Casper High!"

"Because," she said with an easy smile. "I know how to topple kings. And I also have steel enforced combat boots and I'm not afraid to kick you until you're kneeling and talking like pretty princess in pink Paulina."

She stared at him for a moment.

"Please tell me you're not so dumb that you didn't understand that," Sam sighed. "I can give you a demonstration if you want," she added loudly enough that the whole group heard her.

The bell rang.

"Alright gang," Dash said as the echoes of the bell finally stopped reverberating against the metal lockers. "Let's go."

To be continued.

Wes, if you weren't around for his creation and subsequent rise to instant fame in the tumblr phandom, is a minor character (minor minor character with no lines and about 4 seconds of screen time on the basketball court) that some awesomely creative people latched onto and decided to flesh out a few months ago. General consensus is that his name is Wes Weston and his dad is the guy who wished for a million bucks in What You Want. Further back stories include his dad working for/with Vlad (there is a ship? an almost ship? a confusing canoe that keeps getting overturned or something anyway) and that Wes is the only person to figure out Danny's secret on his own. He's the one who keeps getting mistaken as Phantom's human half, though, no matter how hard he tries to inform the population of Casper High that Danny's the halfa. That's what I understood, anyway, and as I needed a non football playing athlete in this chapter, I decided to give a nod to the most well thought out fanonization of a practically non existent character that I have ever seen. Not planning to use him anymore I don't think, because I'm scared of treading on toes when I'm not as familiar with people's brainchildren as I should be. But now you know his history if you ever hear stuff about this Wes character. XD