AN: Thank you all for the wonderful comments. They are all so appreciated 3 enjoy!
Drake couldn't hold back his smile as Josh walked away. He was so proud of his brother. Despite not having even liked Mindy until a few days prior, Drake couldn't have been happier for him to have admitted that he loved her. Perhaps if recent events hadn't happened, Drake would've felt much differently, but they did happen, and maybe some good had come from those events after all. Josh had gotten the courage to publicly declare his love to his girlfriend and kiss her passionately in front of her history class. The Josh from two weeks ago never would've done that. Drake kept grinning at Mindy as she reclaimed her seat next to him, a mischievous smile still on her own face as their teacher repeatedly told the class to settle down.
"Damn," Jackson muttered, just loud enough for Drake and Mindy to hear him. "How is former absolute loser Josh Nichols getting more puss than the great Drake Parker?"
"Excuse me?" Mindy warned, turning to look at Jackson as Drake tried to focus on his doodles and tune out what they were saying. "Our relationship is none of your business."
But Jackson and Buck continued on like Mindy hadn't said anything.
"Oh, I know, it's because now Drake is the pussy to be fucked," Buck said. As he spoke, he reached forward and grabbed Drake by the hair and yanked his head back. Drake shot up out of his chair with a gasp.
"Don't touch me!" His breaths were starting to come in quick gasps as he held his hands out between himself and the jocks.
"Mr. Parker, please have a seat," the teacher groaned. "I've had enough interruptions in my classroom for one period. I know you've been through a lot, but I still have a class to teach, so please, sit down."
"I'm sorry," Drake forced out, trying to get himself to calm down. Cautiously, he sat back down in his seat, pulling it forward a few inches, just to create some more distance between himself and the jocks as they snickered behind him.
"If you touch him again," Mindy seethed to them. "I'm gonna break your nose." The jocks didn't say anything, or make any moves towards Drake. They just kept snickering.
Out of the corner of his eye, Drake could see Mindy ducking to catch his gaze. He allowed it, and looked at her.
"Are you okay?" she whispered, so quietly that Drake wasn't sure that she wasn't just mouthing the words and he was imagining their sound. Her eyes were full of concern, and Drake wasn't sure he would ever get used to that being directed at him from her.
Drake wiped at his eyes and took a deep breath. He gripped his pencil tighter in one hand and gripped his sleeve with the other to stop his hands from shaking. Drake nodded, and tried to smile a little bit. Mindy gave him a sad smile in return, then turned back to the front of the class. Drake closed his eyes and thought about how happy he'd been only minutes earlier, when Josh had been so happy and confident. He just needed to get back to that feeling. Wrapping his arms around himself, Drake took another deep breath and thought of how safe he'd felt upon waking up that morning. He was still safe. Buck and Jackson were being jerks, but he wasn't in any real danger. He was okay.
Drake opened his eyes and tried to get himself to relax. He turned the page in his notebook and began another little doodle. This time, it was of Josh and Mindy. They had just gotten married, and the dance floor at the reception was on a raised platform. That platform was being held up by a struggling Buck and Jackson, both of whom were painfully single and forever alone.
Drake smiled. His hands weren't shaking anymore.
He made it through the rest of history okay. Buck and Jackson couldn't physically reach him anymore, and Drake focused so much on his doodles that he couldn't hear anything they tried to whisper to him. He couldn't hear the teacher or Mindy for that matter, and had needed Mindy to crouch down by him to make him realize that the bell had rung - Drake appreciated that Mindy got in his sight line instead of putting a hand on his shoulder, but he wasn't about to say that.
Drake grinned as he and Mindy left the room and were immediately greeted by the sight of Josh at his locker as they turned the corner. Josh returned the smile and kissed Mindy the moment she reached him.
"How did the rest of history go?" Josh asked.
"I made it," Drake replied with a slight shrug. He and Mindy shared a sad look, but luckily Josh didn't question it. "I'm just glad my next class is with you."
"Even though it's with Mrs. Hayfer too?" Mindy asked with a smirk.
"I've handled worse than her at this point," Drake scoffed. "And besides, maybe things will be different now. Maybe she'll just take it easy on me for once."
"Sorry to cut this short, but I've got to make it all the way across school," Mindy said. "I'll see you guys later." She gave Drake another smile, Josh another kiss, and left.
Josh's eyes were fixed on his girlfriend as she walked away, but Drake smiled at the sight of a very familiar cop walking the halls. Deputy Rosa Villarreal walked down the hallway, politely smiling at the kids who smiled at her, her eyes tracking every single person's movements, looking for anything that didn't belong. Drake wouldn't talk to her, not where it would draw so much attention, but they did share a smile that had Drake's stomach flipping just a bit. He shook his head at himself. It wasn't going to happen, for so many reasons, and Drake was okay with that, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to swoon just a little bit at her smile. He was sure all the other guys were doing the same.
Finally, Drake dragged Josh away from the sight of Mindy leaving and towards his locker. Drake took a breath, then opened it. He let out a sigh of relief. Once again, it was free from those cruel drawings. Drake exchanged his history books for his English ones, and closed his locker. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see another deputy turning the corner, just walking around. He knew that there was going to be a heightened police presence at school, he'd been told that, but Drake wasn't sure if the other students had been told. Maybe the reason why everyone stared at Rosa wasn't because she was hot, but because other students were confused to see her. She wasn't their normal school resource officer, and now it wasn't just her, but four other deputies, if Drake was remembering correctly, that would be patrolling the school grounds all day.
The rest of the students had to know, right? Without telling them, they would freak out and parents would freak out, thinking they had something big to worry about. They must have been emailed at least.
"Hey," Josh said, interrupting his thoughts. "What's going on? You good?"
"Yeah, yeah," Drake quickly assured him. "Just thinking." At Josh's incredulous look, Drake rolled his eyes and continued, but lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm just wondering what everyone else thinks about all the deputies around. Like, do they know they're here because of us? To make sure that J- that he doesn't get here and find us?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure," Josh answered with a shrug. "I'm sure the parents at least have been told something, but I don't know what. But I do know it's not worth worrying about. Now come on, we gotta get going." Josh nudged him and started walking.
"Do I have to?" Drake whined, dragging his feet behind Josh. No matter what he'd said in front of Mindy, he really wasn't looking forward to whatever Mrs. Hayfer might say to him.
"Come on," Josh encouraged. "I'll be right there with you, and she loves me. We're gonna be okay."
Drake quickly caught up with his brother and followed him down the hall and into the next, then into the third classroom on the right. His heart was hammering in his chest at the sight of his least favorite teacher, but at least there was no one else in the classroom he had to worry about - at least, he didn't think so, since they were all just average kids that he had never really talked to much.
"Oh, Josh!" Mrs. Hayfer exclaimed with a smile full of pure joy the moment she saw her favorite student step through the doors. "I'm so glad to see you back in my class, you've been dearly missed."
"It's good to be back," Josh responded with a polite smile as he and Drake made their way to their seats.
Head still somewhat lowered, Drake looked up at Mrs. Hayfer, knowing that some remark had to be coming.
"Drake," she said. Drake held eye contact with her, but didn't verbally reply. Mrs. Hayfer stared at him, then shook her head and turned away, back to her lesson plan. "Alright, class," she continued. "Today we are going over the assigned Shakespearean sonnets. Josh, I assume you've had these sonnets memorized for years, Drake, I assume you don't even know what a sonnet is."
Drake decided to grin and bear it like he always did when it came to her, and ignored the chuckles of other students. But he didn't miss the way that Josh's gaze darkened, or how his glare immediately silenced the chuckles of anyone he looked at.
Despite her words, Mrs. Hayfer passed out a few sheets of paper to both Drake and Josh, containing several short pieces of writing that Drake assumed were the sonnets she was talking about. It looked like poetry to him, or maybe lyrics, with how the sections of each sonnet were separated into different rhyming schemes. Beyond that, Drake wasn't sure what they were saying. It had always taken him longer than other kids to read a short passage, and it didn't help that it barely even felt like he was reading English. Was he that stupid? Most passages of that length, he could make out if he concentrated and was relaxed, but with these, no matter what he did, they just didn't make sense. It truly felt like half the words weren't even English.
"Drake, summarize Sonnet 18 for the class, please," Mrs. Hayfer said.
"I- I can't," Drake immediately replied. "I don't-."
"You have had ample time to read it, Drake, now just tell me, in your own words, what it's saying. This isn't meant to be challenging, even for you."
"But, I don't- I don't know, I can't-." Drake broke off and looked over at Josh, willing himself not to panic, but Josh wasn't looking at him, Josh was staring daggers at Mrs. Hayfer.
"I understand you've been through a lot recently, but I will not have you use that as an excuse to pretend you are completely illiterate."
"No, I-." Drake was cut off by Mrs. Hayfer's heavy sigh and shake of her head.
"Drake, I hate you," she said, before shaking her head again in disappointment and turning away.
"I know," Drake muttered, his voice breaking as he stared down at the twisting lines of letters that wouldn't stop moving long enough for him to put them together and make sense of them.
"How dare you?"
Drake looked over at Josh, who was staring at Mrs. Hayfer the same way he'd looked at- at them. Josh slowly began rising from his seat.
"Excuse me?" Mrs. Hayfer furrowed her brows, a confused look on her face that Drake hadn't ever seen before.
"How dare you say that to him?" Josh repeated. He was standing up now. "You have no idea what he's been through, not just over the past two weeks, but throughout his whole life. How dare you say that you hate him? You're his fucking teacher-."
"Josh!" Mrs. Hayfer exclaimed.
"-and you tell him you hate him every single class, even now, when we're lucky to even be alive. What is wrong with you? Who cares what teaching awards you've won when all you do to Drake is put him down and tell him you hate him? What kind of a teacher does that?" Josh was shouting now, and the rest of the room was silent, including Drake and Mrs. Hayfer. "Well I'm sorry that Drake doesn't fit your perfect little academic mold like I do, but he's a better person than you'll ever be. And better than any of you, too!" he added, turning to gesture to the rest of the class.
"Josh, it's okay," Drake muttered, but his brother kept going.
"All of you, just laughing at any chance you get, laughing at what happened to him and those stupid pictures, laughing because you just think you're so much smarter than he is. You disgust me," Josh sneered.
"Joshua Nichols, that is enough!" Mrs. Hayfer shouted, her face beet red. "I want you out of my classroom, now. I would expect an outburst like that from your step-brother, but not from you. I am so disappointed in you, in both of you. Go to the office, immediately."
Josh grabbed his books in his good arm, sneered again at her in derision, and walked to the door. Drake immediately grabbed his own books and stood.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Mrs. Hayfer asked in a tone that clearly said he wasn't allowed to leave.
"I'm going with Josh," Drake answered, taking a step towards the door, where Josh was waiting.
"Sit down, Mr. Parker!" she shouted. Drake flinched back heavily, but shook his head and walked towards Josh. He couldn't stay there with her, not after what she'd said and how Josh had reacted, and he couldn't let Josh go to the principal's office alone.
"I said sit down!" Mrs. Hayfer took several long strides and stood between Drake and Josh, pointing angrily at Drake's now vacated seat.
"You can't physically block a student from leaving a classroom without a compelling safety reason, and you know it," Josh said.
Mrs. Hayfer sighed, but said nothing as Drake slowly walked around her, and out of the room with Josh.
As soon as they were a few rooms down the hall, Drake turned to his brother to ask him what the hell that was, but found that Josh was already walking while staring at the ceiling.
"I'm sorry, Drake," he started, his voice low. "I didn't mean to make things even worse for you, I just can't handle people talking about you like that anymore, no matter who it's coming from."
Drake stayed quiet. It was clear that Josh wasn't done yet as he sighed and let his head fall back to looking forward. Drake could see a watery shine to his eyes that he was desperately trying to get rid of.
"I just, I don't know, I can't handle my anger anymore. Not when it comes to you."
"Not that I don't appreciate you defending me, but maybe she was just trying to make things normal," Drake suggested with a shrug. What she'd said wasn't all that more cruel than what she normally said to him on a daily basis.
"That's not a normal I'm okay with." Josh gave him a sad smile as they kept walking towards the office. "Her saying she hates you every day? That's not okay. It's never been okay, and I'm sorry I haven't said anything about it until now. And I'm also sorry I said it the way I did." Josh shook his head. "I didn't mean to make it look like you can't stand up for yourself or anything like that, I just wanted to protect you, that's all I wanna do."
"I get it, Josh," Drake quietly replied. "Mindy explained some things to me and it makes sense, like psychotically, or whatever."
"You mean psychologically?"
"Yeah, that." Drake took a breath as they continued walking. "I'm not mad at you. Yeah, I'm embarrassed, but I'm not mad. I've been embarrassed all day anyway, so what's the difference?"
"The difference is that this time I caused it," Josh said, his voice taking on a pleading quality that Drake didn't like.
"But I'm still not mad," Drake insisted. "If I don't have you, I don't have anyone right now. I can't afford to be mad at you. And besides, if we're lucky, people won't talk about me not being able to read Shakespeare, they'll be talking about Josh freaking Nichols screaming at Mrs. Hayfer." Drake broke out into a grin and lightly shoved Josh, careful of his injured shoulder. "It being about me aside, that was awesome, dude. I've always wanted to yell at a teacher and get kicked out of class, and you've done it." He smiled wider and ducked his head to catch his brother's gaze. His smile forced Josh to wear one too.
"I guess maybe that's pretty cool," he admitted with a slight chuckle. "I know I didn't go about it the right way, but I do stand by what I said anyway."
"And coming off what we've been through, I don't think you're gonna get in too much trouble," Drake added. "Nothing that would screw up your college applications or anything like that."
Upon reaching the office, Drake stepped in first and held the door open for Josh, since his hands were both occupied with his sling and books. The secretary offered them both soft smiles.
"Mrs. Hayfer already called. Dean Ferris will be with you in a moment," she said, gesturing towards the seats. The brothers sat down in the seats for the next few minutes in silence, just enjoying being next to each other in a place where they didn't have to worry about other students finding a reason to torment them.
Dean Ferris walked through one of the office doors in the back.
"Josh Nichols?" she asked. Josh stood, as did Drake right behind him. "No, just Josh please."
"You get both of us or we're just gonna get one of the deputies to drive us home," Drake said. Maybe that was a little extreme, but he really didn't care.
"Fine," Ferris said with a sigh, then gestured for them both to enter her office, past a sign that read "Dean of Students". The boys took seats in front of her desk while she went to sit behind it. "Mrs. Hayfer called. Josh, do you want to tell me what happened?"
"I've had enough of what she's said about Drake," he immediately answered. "All she ever does is pick on him. Every single day in class, this entire semester and when we had her last year, she's told Drake that she hates him, to his face. How is that okay? I'm sick of it and I finally said something. And yes, I know that's not the way I should have done it, but what's done is done."
"Okay," Ferris said with a nod. She didn't judge what Josh had said or give any indication as to how she felt about it. She turned to Drake. "Now, why are you here?"
Drake began fidgeting with his sleeve under her scrutiny. He dropped his eyes down and stared at the books in his lap.
"I didn't want to be alone," he finally said with a slight shrug.
"You wouldn't have been alone," Ferris replied. "There was still a room full of people. I know you've been through a lot, but coming back to school means you're ready to abide by the school's code of conduct. If you're unable to do that, then maybe you need to take more time before coming back. Both of you."
Drake raised his head and looked at her. There were tears in his eyes, but for once, he didn't care.
"I know you've heard some of what we went through, but you don't get it. No one does," he said. "No one but Josh. You don't know how hard it is to be apart from him now. I know that's not healthy or whatever, but nothing that we went through is healthy. What we need is to be together, no matter where that is." Drake forced back the tears he felt, and a small part of him was proud that he didn't let any fall.
"Look, I'll apologize to Mrs. Hayfer later, I promise, but with all due respect, she also needs to apologize to Drake," Josh added. "And so do all of the people who've been messing with him ever since we came back. Did you see what someone put in his locker?" Ferris nodded with an apologetic smile. "So why is it that you're not talking to someone else right now about bullying and sexual harassment instead of talking to me for standing up for my brother?"
"We don't know who made the picture-."
"Of course not," Josh scoffed, shaking his head and leaning back in his chair.
"-but we are investigating it. It is serious and it's not tolerated at this school. But neither is yelling at your teacher. Due to the circumstances, I am going to let you off with a warning this time, but Josh, this can't happen again. No matter what the two of you have been through, you're at school now, and you're still expected to abide by the code of conduct. If you can't do that, then perhaps a suspension is the best thing for you." She looked between the two of them, but the brothers were silent. "Think about what I've said. Now go on, get out of here, get to lunch."
Drake and Josh stood up without another word and left her office, then swiftly left the administration wing.
"Maybe she's right," Josh said. Drake looked at him as they walked, waiting for him to continue. "Maybe it was too soon for us to come back, I mean-," he broke himself off and stopped walking, and leaned against the brick wall. "Me? Shouting at Mrs. Hayfer? That's not me. And you? So quiet and non-confrontational? That's not you. This isn't us, Drake. Maybe she's right, maybe we should go home until we can be us again."
"But what if we can't?" Drake asked, finally voicing one of his biggest fears. "This happened, and now we have to deal with it, and yeah, neither of us is exactly doing it in a healthy way, but come on, man. After what he did to me, what he forced you to listen to, can you blame us? What is staying home gonna do? How are we gonna get past this any more at home than we would here?"
Josh let out a small laugh and shook his head.
"Never thought I'd hear you advocate for going to school instead of staying home." Josh smiled that fond, gentle smile that Drake loved, that he only ever gave to Drake.
"Maybe the new me isn't all bad," he offered.
"Let's just get to lunch," Josh said after a moment of silence. "We'll figure it out, but we may as well eat at least."
Drake nodded and followed Josh as they began walking once again. He wasn't exactly hungry, or looking forward to being in the crowded cafeteria, but maybe he was wrong, maybe it would be nice. At the very least, Drake knew he would be able to sit with Josh instead of some random girl, and probably with Mindy, Craig, and Eric. It could be nice to hang out with them. It wasn't the popular table that Drake was used to perusing from time to time, but really, Drake felt like this would be better.