Boseman High School Shenanigans: Episode 1

The Banks

"That's cool. Not so much that he needs to hide it if its true. Kids are jerks but I could help him adjust and own it."

Such a long day. Such a peaceful night. He hasn't had to chew an antacid for an hour.

Then she asks. "Your family? I mean, I guess someone asked me about Steve on Monday, but that was just at school. He's kind of a dillhole around girls. Why, what's up?"

He waits and then adds, "I'm am expert at keeping secrets." It isn't a line. He says it with conviction.

"You would do that? You're not like ... you know ... embarrassed or anything? You're so sweet." Emily slides her leg from over Freddie's hips and sits up abruptly when he mentions the someone. Looking down at him her eyes narrow.

"Someone?" Her heart thuds and this time it's not a good thud. "Who was it Freddie? What did he want with my brother?"

The Banks

"Whoa, it was Darryl, number 5 Darryl. His girlfriend is Trish Whitman. Said she complained about Steve looking down her shirt in class. Darryl is one of Banks' friends. Maybe that's why that scuffle happened in the cafeteria."

A scuffle that lead him to white knighting into Kelly Fucking Unger's panties. Best scuffle ever! Just the thought of that began to put ideas into his lower body.

Emily's shoulders visibly drop as her tension eases. Freddie hadn't seen any goons. It was some other harmless dude.

"Yeah, Steve is like this energizer bunny of horniness. It never quits. I'm just glad I'm not a guy having to deal with that all the time." She would have embarrassed herself with that remark had she not been so wasted. Instead, she was happy to have shared something real with the boy. Something deeper.

"I am glad I can trust you. It makes life a lot easier to be able to confide in someone." She wanted to tell him more about her family but she didn't want to risk losing him. She had done enough confiding for one day anyway.

The Banks

The conversation is sidetracked then, by bare skin and roaming hands.

It's way too late when Freddie gets home, and he wonders if he can even arouse himself to go to school. A problem for 7am Freddie, so he washes up and hits the sack.

Aaron

Zach closes his eyes, letting himself melt into the kiss until it ends far too soon. He gets out of the car along with Aaron and follows him inside. It's too late for Zach to really be hungry, but he orders something anyway, then the two boys find a booth out of the way. There isn't much talking happening, mostly just wistful looks into each other's eyes, but they do talk a bit, feeling each other out as they really don't know much about each other. Aaron talks about his hiking and interest in nature, which Zach finds fascinating but can't contribute much to, having grown up in the city and not really done much about since. They talk about music, with Zach mentioning that he used to sing but doesn't really anymore. They talk about the upcoming dance. Zach tells Aaron about his arrangement with Lily and about Lily's interest in Wendy.

But as they're sitting and talking, Zach does feel the long and exciting day catch up with him. He was already mostly asleep when Aaron messaged him and he's now finding it harder and harder to stay awake, so soon Aaron decides to take him home. At some point in the car, Zach must have fallen asleep because Aaron wakes him when he's parked in that same spot near Zach's house again. "This was incredible," Zach tells the other boy. "I... uhm, I'll see you tomorrow." He takes Aaron's hand, then leans over and kisses him again before getting out of the car, feeling regret that the night had to end, that he couldn't just spend the rest of it sleeping in Aaron's arms...

He quickly makes his way back to the house and in through the backdoor. Everyone has to be fast asleep at this point, so he gets back to his room and gets changed into PJs. It's past four in the morning now, but he'll need to catch at least a bit of sleep if he's going to survive the next day at school.

Once in his PJs again, he quickly sends out messages to three people - Aaron, Abby and Emily - then falls into bed and is asleep practically the instant his head hits the pillow.

Zachary: Thank you for tonight, Aaron. We need to do something like that again soonZachary: Maybe not quite so late
Zachary: That was amazing, Abby! I'll tell you all about it tomorrowZachary: It kind of was a booty call
Zachary: Hey Emily. We need to talk. Tomorrow before school?

Zach's Bedroom

Zach is pretty much dead in his bed. He usually goes to sleep at a fairly reasonable time, so staying up all night, the stress, the excitement, the raging hormones, it all took a toll on him.

He could probably sleep all day, but he's woken by a painfully loud screech into his ear. Scrambling into a sitting position, heart hammering in his chest, he looks around and finds the grinning face of Rose right next to his pillow. "What the fuck?" he asks his sister. He then stretches and lets out a yawn. "Why are you screaming in my ear? And why are you already fully dressed for school? Well, what passes as fully dressed for you."

"Question is why are you still in bed?" Rose grins. "Dad is fucking pissed at you. He tried to wake you up. For our family meeting, you know?"

Zach rubs his eyes. "What time is it?"

"About fifteen minutes after we usually leave for school," Rose says with a sweet smile.

Zach finds his phone and unlocks it. There are some messages, as well as a notification about his missed alarm, but he focuses on the time for now. "Oh shit," he mutters, climbing out of bed. "I'll be ready in ten minutes."

"Take your time," Rose says as she moves out of the room. "If you're lucky, that vein in dad's neck will explode before you're done, saving you from having to talk to him."

Lily hadn’t rushed to bed. She wanted to stay up, and savour the day a little longer, and so she took her time, finding little excuses to stay awake a little longer. She wondered if Wendy was doing the same. She found, of all the things that happened that day, her mind was full of her.

The next morning, she wakes and prepares for school. She looks in the mirror, and debates if she should brush her teeth, or wash her face. To do so felt like it would be scrubbing away something. Some trace of the night before.

She did clean up in the end. She thought, with the dam now broken, that more might follow today, and so it was best to be prepared. She runs downstairs, dressed for another day at school, gives each of her parents a big hug and kiss good morning, to some confused looks, and waits for them to hop in the car and go pick up Wendy. It was their turn to drive today.

"Just five more minutes, mom."

Did he dream that? Did he say that earlier? Clawing his way from sleep he struggles. His body is done, he thinks, pain lancing through his chest like there is smouldering coal in his bones. He can't move. Just give up. It's not getting better. I'll never be whole.

He rolls to the edge and half falls onto his knees. He checks his phone. Fuck, it's first bell! Ignores the half dozen messages.

He crawls to the shower and rinses himself, then only takes ten minutes on his hair, getting it to look like it's messy, but purposefully so.

Dressed, Sarah isn't in her room, and Belinda's SUV, it's gone. Did they let him sleep in?

He struggles to the car with two pieces of cold pizza in a paper towel. Each step is agony. Sitting in the Tesla is a relief, and he leaves the door open, unable to comprehend there will ever a time when he can lean over and pull it closed. Breathe through it. You are healing. You just need more sleep.

With sheer willpower and self-hate, he closes the door and heads to school.

Emily awoke feeling pretty pleased. She smelled like pot but she didn't care because she also smelled like Freddie. She was so tempted to forget about a shower but that would have been too gross, so reluctantly she grabbed a fresh set of clothes and hopped in the shower, the feel and taste of the sexy boy washing away down the drain.

That's ok. There's more where that came from.

Downstairs she flicked her fingers at Steve's head. Mom and dad were nowhere to be seen.

"Are you ready dufus? Let's get going."

Emily couldn't wait to see Freddie. No doubt they would exchange knowing glances at each other.

Math Class

As Mr. Edge does not seem to care in the slightest about what his students are up to during his class today, Zach spends most of it on his phone, hiding it under the table as he recounts every last detail of the previous night to Abby in detail many times over many text messages. He can still barely believe that it happened, that he got to make out with Aaron Connery. That the cutest boy in school is not only gay but interested in him.

He hasn't spoken to Emily yet. Both of them were too late to talk before class and Zach does not want to talk in class about what's on his mind. He'd rather do it in private. He does keep glancing over to her regularly, however. She never replied to his 4 am text so he has no idea what she's thinking. He decides to catch her once Mr. Edge lets them out after this 'lesson'.

At one point, he leans over towards Lily, indicating for her to lean towards him before excitedly whispering to her, "I kissed Aaron!" He needs to share it with someone in person. Talking to Abby is great, but it's not the same if she's in another city and he can't see her face. And Lily is the only person in this town, except Zach's family, who knows that he is gay. "We went out last night and... ohmygod!"

The Parking Lot

What was Belinda doing here? And with Mr. Unger again? He hasn't forgotten the message from Kelly, that her dad was going to make trouble for him. He is tempted to just let the chips fall where they may, but his entire future resolves on getting good grades and qualifying for a good school. He doesn't need such grades as to get a full ride, but he does need to be accepted. Competition was stiff, and any blemish on his record could see him passed over. Charges of sexual malfeasance, or whatever they called that in school records, would be the end of his favorite schools.

He chews three antacids, and stashes the full bottle in his pack, then heads inside. First, he needs to find Belinda. Visions of her and Mr. Unger flash through his head, along with the near tantalizing peek that he should have taken last night, and his heartrate increases.

Entering the school quickly, he makes his way through the halls, trying to intuit where they would be hanging out for some kind of depraved, kinky, party time. He heads for the office. His mind races, trying to see a way out of this. He talked big about wrecking the Unger marriage by exposing an affair, even the idea of such, but it was just talk. How far would he push that, knowing that his family would be caught in the crossfire? Even if he was willing to sacrifice Belinda's reputation (and he wasn't) would he risk any further embarrassment and upheaval with his sisters? He had a bad hand in this game of poker; he had a three.

Math Class

"Steve you'll be fine. Chill out. Yesterday was yesterday. I know it's going to be a little weird at school but you'll be fine."

Emily uncharacteristically gives Steve a playful shove to send him on his way as she hurriedly walks to math class. She doesn't particularly want to bump into anyone and seeks the shelter of the classroom. Along the way, she feels the strange vibe hovering in the atmosphere. Too many odd things have been happening, from the cafeteria incident to the disaster at Frediie's, and speaking of Freddie.... the girl lets a smile play on her lips as she remembers.

As she steps into the classroom she notices some of her her friends are late. Slumping into her chair, she shoves a few errant strands of hair away from her face and pulls out a book from her bag. Delighted that Mr. Edge doesn't want to teach she avoids looking at him and daydreams out the window. When Zach arrives he looks particularly excited. She throws him a puzzled look each time he glances at her. Then she remembers the text and gives him a nod and a thumbs up the next time he looks over at her. She'll see what he wants after class.

Lily is stuck in her own thoughts, while sketching the outline of next weeks front page into her copy book.

Your Homecoming King And Queen:

And beneath that stand two silhouettes, persons as yet unknown!

When Zach leans ins, she grabs up a spare pencil, ready to hand it to him. Then he drops the bomb, and all Lily can do is make her eyes go wide, and mouth:

WHAT?!…

She makes a motion of spinning her hand. She smiles at the boy.

Tell me more. Tell me more.

Math Class

Lily's reaction is exactly what Zach had hoped for and he can't stop a huge grin from growing on his face. He leans in closer to her and whispers in her ear, "After I got home last night, I went to bed. I was basically already asleep but then Aaron texted me. I thought we'd just text each other for a bit, maybe exchange some cute bedhead selfies or whatever if things went well. But then he asked me to meet, so I got dressed and snuck out and he picked me up and we went to this truck stop and then... I don't even know how it happened. I was in his lap, we were making out, his hands were all over me, it was incredible!"

---

A few minutes earlier

Zach and Rose climb out of the car and tell their father goodbye. Zach has managed to avoid his eyes the entire trip to school, but it's still been pretty obvious that the man is annoyed at his son. Zach hopes he'll calm down before school ends. He probably will, right? Zach just overslept.

As the siblings enter the school, Rose immediately turns to go in the direction to her classroom. "See you later, dork."

"Rosie, wait!" Zach interrupts, grabbing her arm to stop her. She turns to look at him and he explains, "We're already late. No need to rush to class now." Rose doesn't keep going. She looks at her brother with a raised eyebrow. "I've been wanting to speak to you. About, like, everything." He sighs, then says, "First of all, I'm really sorry about getting you grounded earlier this week. I was so mad at our parents because they always treat you like an adult and me like a little kid, so I lashed out. Except I lashed out in the wrong direction. You didn't have anything to do with what happened. That was a dick move on my part."