Disclaimer: I do not own School of Rock, etc.. but I did write and complete this story. Duh.
Alicia peered into the mirror and smiled. No wire, no metal, just straight white teeth. When her mother had told her on Friday that she had an appointment at the dentist's office to get her braces off Saturday morning, she couldn't have been more thrilled. It was painful, but she's put up with it for the night. She decided not to tell anyone about the appointment. Finally, all this braceface stuff would stop.
Not only did she have a perfect smile, she saw herself completely different in two years.
"You look beautiful, honey," said her mother, as she unbraided her daughter's hair. "Lawrence is gonna be speechless."
"I'm speechless," said her father from the doorway, smiling at her.
Alicia felt her cheeks get warm in embarrassment. She hadn't got this much attention since her parents had watched her perform the first School of Rock show ever at battle of the Bands.
"What time is it?" she asked distractedly.
"6:25," replied her mother, "and you're almost ready. "Look at mybaby's hair. She's gonna be turnin' some heads."
Alicia continued to smile in the mirror as she watched herself transform into a young lady. Tonight was the night.
It was 6:30 the night of the dance, and Lawrence was struggling with his tie big time. He usually had no problem with this, but he was nervous all over. He and Alicia had long established that they were going as friends, but that didn't mean that she still wasn't his first date.
Everything looked wrong to him. His hair didn't look smooth enough, his pants looked short around the ankles, and he kept seeing those annoying little specs on his glasses. He had cleaned them five times already.
"Please, God. Let this night go smoothly. Don't let me do anything dumb," he closed his eyes and said a little prayer.
He took one last look in the mirror, tucked mints into his pocket, and when he reached the stairs to descend, there were a set of flashes.
His mother, father, and little sister were all standing at the bottom of the steps, all of them with cameras.
"Honey, you look so hansom!" his mother cried, hugging him tightly when he was on the last step. "Go get Alicia's corsage out of the refrigerator and her flowers, and we'll meet you in the car."
Lawrence went to say 'okay', but as soon as he opened his mouth, his father snapped another picture. It was going to be a long night.
After a few minutes later and more pictures of him holding the flowers and coming from the kitchen, he and his whole family loaded up into the car to drive off to Alicia's. They arrived there at exactly 7:00, but as if it couldn't get any more embarrassing, they had also followed him to her door.
Alicia's mother opened up and invited them in, and Lawrence shook hands with her father, who had a very strong grip. Alicia's mother was also armed with a camera, and once again he was bombarded with pictures. The parents made small talk until Alicia announced that she was ready. They all rushed past Lawrence to catch her on the stairwell and immediately a bunch of flashes went off. He heard Alicia squeak with shock, and he laughed to himself.
He was the last one to see Alicia descend the stairs, and his heart caught in his throat. She looked like an angel. A very hot angel.
She had on a sparkly, short pink dress with white sandals with a rather large heel. It was a thin strapped dress, and it made her skin look like it was glowing. Around her neck was a small pearl necklace, and she also had small pearl earrings and a pearl bracelet on her wrist. Her hair wasn't braided in a style for once. It was worn down long around her shoulders, and she had two pink barrettes on either side of her part. She smiled kindly at Lawrence, and he couldn't even begin to smile back. She had gotten her braces taken off.
"Lawrence? Lawrence?" Alicia was calling him.
He snapped back into reality and realized that she was now standing right in front of him.
"Lawrence, honey, are you ok?" he heard his mother say.
"I'm fine," he finally said, presenting her with the flowers he had bought for her. "Alicia, you look wonderful."
"As do you, Mr. Cool," she smiled brightly.
Their parents took a billion pictures with them together, and it got tiresome fast. Both of their moms started to cry, going on about how it was their first dance and how one day they'd be off to college. Lawrence's father bragged that Lawrence was already looking into a suitable university. Alicia looked very embarrassed, and Lawrence felt the exact same way. After fifty pictures, or so it seemed, of him pinning the corsage on her, he, Alicia, and his parents loaded into the car and left. Alicia was squished in between Lawrence and his sister, and none of them said a word the entire way there. Lawrence snuck a mint out of his pocket and slyly put it in his mouth and continued to stare out the window. Anything could happen.
When they were dropped off outside, they both took deep breaths and stared ahead at the school.
"Are you ready?" Alicia asked.
"Yes," Lawrence lied.
"No, really," replied Alicia, looking at him with apprehension, "because we can just skip this whole thing and go hang out at McDonalds or something."
"Are you that nervous?" he asked her, sitting in the front steps of the school. He could hear the music playing from the gym loudly.
"Yes," she sighed. "I mean, I know it's just a dance, but... don't you get the feeling that anything could happen tonight? Including the bad?"
"Well, yeah," said Lawrence, scratching his head and then quickly smoothing his hair back down, "but whatever it is, good or bad, we'll just have to deal with it, won't we?"
"What if you don't want to deal with it? What if you're expecting the worst?"
"We came here because we wanted to have fun. We're here together as friends, meaning..."
"--That we have each other's backs," added Alicia for him.
"Yeah, so if the worst happens to you, it happens to me too. We're in this together. Wasn't that part of the plan?" Lawrence smiled friendly at her. "Come on. It'll go... it'll go smoothly. Yeah."
He confidently took her hand and they walked through the double doors together. Whatever he had just said to Alicia, he had said it to make her feel better. But truth was, he felt like he was holding on for dear life.
The Horace Green Middle School gym looked exactly how Lawrence pictured it to look, cheap and right out of some horrible teen movie. There were different colored streamers hanging all over the place, and a table with punch and other goodies, including cookies, candy, and a fruit plate. There were a couple of chairs sprawled out with girls and boys, who hadn't come with dates, already placed in them, and a dance floor full of students who couldn't dance, but nonetheless were having a great time. The music was lame, and all of the girls looked as though they had over done it on the make up and hair. For some reason, Lawrence liked it.
"Come on, let's find Tomika," Alicia said, still holding on to his hand.
She led him through the dancing crowd and spotted Tomika and Zack right away. Zack was joking around, doing strange moves, and Tomika was cracking up while she tried to dance herself. They made a strange couple, but Lawrence thought it was very cool how they didn't care what people thought of them. He could see how much they liked each other just by the way they were so comfortable with each other. He wanted someone like that, someone that didn't make him feel stupid like Eleni once had whenever she came around. He wanted someone where he could fall into conversation easily, someone who liked the same things as him, someone that would see him more than the quiet guy.
"Hey, Alicia, girl!" Tomika yelled, waving them over. "Lawrence, what's up?"
As soon as he and Alicia reached them, Zack blurted out, "Woah, Alicia. You look hot!"
Tomika, who had on a light blue dress, crossed her arms with attitude and looked him over.
"But of course, no hotter than Tomika," he added, with a nervous chuckle.
"You guys look nice too," Alicia smiled widely.
"Larry, buddy, nice suit."
"Thanks, yours too," said Lawrence to Zack.
"Come on, let's dance," Alicia said to him, and he was happy that she didn't seem nervous anymore.
"Ok, but remember. You only taught me for a couple of days."
"No one's watching you, I promise," she assured him, "and if they are, just show them who the real Mr. Cool is."
At first Lawrence couldn't loosen up, but Alicia kept telling him to relax and to just move to the music. Pretty soon, he was able to keep up with her. They danced next to Tomika and Zack, who were doing their own thing. He noticed the others and said hi if they spotted him.
Michelle and Billy looked to be having a great time out on the dance floor. He kept spinning her around and dipping her randomly in parts of the songs, and she'd toss her hair back and laugh. Summer and her date were dancing off rhythm the entire time, but they looked like they were having fun. Her date (was it Joe?) sported a forest green tie that matched Summer's green dress perfectly.
Marta and Marco weren't doing much dancing. They were kissing the entire time, and they'd duck out of sight whenever Marco's mother tried to get to them in order to break them apart. Katie and her date weren't on the dance floor at all. They were sitting by the punch bowl, listening to seperate CD players and having what looked to be a lively conversation, although Lawrence couldn't figure out how they could do both at the same time. On the other side of the punch bowl, Freddy was surrounded by a ton of girls, both in seventh and eight grade. He looked rather bored.
Lawrence spotted Eleni with a boy that he had never seen before. He was talking to some older girl while Eleni sat there with her arms crossed. She didn't look happy at all.
He was having a great time with Alicia so far. She was a good dancer like he assumed she would be and even better than she had let on when she was teaching him how. She and Tomika were the best dancers on the floor. When a slow song came on, Alicia didn't hesitate to aniciate the action. She looped her arms around him as if they really were a couple, and he put his hands lightly on her waist. They swayed to the music, and that's when Lawrence realized something. No matter how pretty or funny Alicia was, he couldn't see her as his girlfriend. She was just a friend.
They danced to a couple more fast and slow songs, and she told him that she wanted to sit down a for awhile. He needed to take a chill pill himself because he was sweating like a pig. They sat down by the punch bowl a few a chairs away from Katie. Katie, who was wearing a slender back dress, said hi and introduced them to her date, Tim, who had shaggy blonde hair that covered his eyes.
"How come you guys aren't dancing?" Alicia asked them.
"The music sucks, but I guess we could go get a few turns and dips in before we leave," Katie said, but when Tim turned pale from her suggestion, she quickly added, "You know, not because we want to, but because it'd be a waste of our $5.50. Make that $5.00. The punch is pretty good."
"Getting a head start on that rebel thing, huh?" Alicia laughed.
"Watch our CD players for us!" she called back to them, her arm around Tim's waist as she led him out onto the floor.
"Would you like me to get you some punch?" Lawrence asked Alicia politely.
"Sure," she smiled at him. When he got up to go, she pulled him back down. "Hey, listen. Thanks for bringing me here. I'm having a lot of fun."
"Me too," he smiled back and made his way over to the punch bowl.
"Freddy, when do you want to dance?" Lawrence heard one of the five girls surrounding Freddy ask as he dipped the ladle into the red liquid and poured it into a cup.
He glanced over at Freddy, and Freddy shot him a dirty look.
Alicia sat there, full of energy. She was having ton of fun so far, and Lawrence had proved to be an excellent and polite date. The dance was everything she had hoped it would be, but there was only one problem.
Lawrence made a great friend, but he just wasn't the guy she wanted to be there with. Sure, he was sincere and kind and understanding, but that's not necessarily what she wanted in a guy. Maybe he was too nice. However, she was happy to have made a good friend in him.
A slow song came on as Lawrence made his way back to her with the punch. She said thank you and sipped some, feeling someone's eyes on her.
She looked to her left and saw some seventh grade boy checking her out. "Is there a reason you're gawking at me?"
The boy looked caught off guard. "Um... no. I was just..."
"You're were just being a stupid ass, huh?" she snapped.
The boy blushed and got up and walked away. She hadn't lost her touch at all. Lawrence laughed at her triumphant smile, but then he stopped.
"Oh no," he moaned.
"What?"
"Freddy. He's coming this way. I hope he's not going to start trouble."
When she looked past Lawrence, Freddy had ditched the group of girls and was heading straight towards them. The group of girls sighed and broke apart going their various ways.
Lawrencesank in his seat a bit, and Alicia pretended she didn't see him. Freddy stopped directly in front of her.
"Hey, Larry," he said quietly.
"Hi."
"Hey, Alicia."
Alicia glanced up at him quickly and looked away. "Hey."
"I was wondering," he shifted in his place, "if you, like, wanted to... I dunno, dance with me or something?"
Alicia's head snapped up. Was he asking what she thought he was asking? She couldn't lose her cool now. She looked at Lawrence who simply shrugged.
"Ok. Sure. Whatever," she said nonchalantly, before she could really give it some thought.
She got up and followed him out onto the dance floor feeling nervous all over. Was her hair ok? Was her lip gloss still in place? Did her dress look alright? Wait a minute, why did she care? This was just Freddy. He was probably only dancing with her to taunt her about it later.
He placed his hands gingerly on her waist, and she slowly looped her arms around his neck, trembling. They looked everywhere but at each other as they moved back and forth to the music.
"So... you look awesome. Really awesome," Freddy shrugged. "I've never seen your hair down and... yeah."
Her heart started pounding, and she felt her body grow stiff. "Yeah, you look nice too."
He was wearing a pair of black slacks, a white dress shirt untucked with the sleeves rolled up, and a regular black tie. Of course, he sported a Green Day wrist band. His hair was spiked like he always wore it. He was good looking as always.
There was an awkward silence between them.
Freddy started drumming a rhythm on her waist with his fingers nervously. Leave it up to him to still want to drum at the strangest of times.
"Freddy?"
"Yeah?"
"Stop it before I break your fingers."
Alicia could feel her palms getting sweaty. She wanted the song to be over. This was stupid, incredibly stupid.
Suddenly Freddy blurted, "Ok, really, are you using Larry to play with me?"
Alicia stopped moving. "Excuse me?"
"This whole thing with Larry. Are you guys together or are you trying to get me jealous?"
"Jealous?" Alicia stared at him in disbelief. "You're jealous?"
Freddy shrugged timidly. "I don't know. I just always thought it was me and you."
"Freddy, all you ever do is diss me. I never know what to think," she started to sway to the music again, her heart pounding even more now.
She felt like everyone was staring at her, waiting for Freddy's cue to laugh and point at her, but he was staring at her seriously. He even gripped her waist a little tighter.
"I only do that because it's the only way I know how to get your attention. I like you. A lot. I've liked you since last year, even when you kicked me in the balls. I mean, you don't care that I'm some drummer in a band like half of these brain dead girls, and you're tough and can keep up with me. That's really cool."
Alicia stopped and put her hands on her hips, "Keep up with you? Boy, I can school you in anything."
Freddy smirked at her. "Plus, I love how you get all 'Miss Diva' on me and tell me off."
Both of them laughed a bit, and Alicia could sense that the end of the slow song was coming up. She didn't want this to end, not now, when Freddy had said what she had wanted him to say for a good year now. She had never told anyone about her crush on Freddy. Tomika had sensed it and called her out on it many times, but Alicia had always ignored her. Once, she came very close to telling Freddy after one of School of Rock's shows, and ever since that night, he had started being mean to her for no reason at all. She felt stupid for not realizing that it was just his childish way of saying 'I like you'.
"But if you don't like me back then--"
"I like you too!" she said quickly, cutting him off. "Like, foreal. I wanted to tell you, but I thought you hated me."
It took awhile for it to sink in that she had said it. It felt like an extremely large weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she felt relaxed all over. She could feel the ice around her melting. Everything she hadn't dealt with, she was dealing with it. Everything she had buried, she set free.
"No way! I could never hate you," said an excited Freddy, leaning in to kiss her.
"Woah, Freddy, woah!" she pushed him away before he could be successful.
He looked at her confused. "What?"
"You can't just kiss me. I mean, I like you and all, but I'm going to need to hear 'Alicia, will you be my girlfriend' or 'Alicia, can I kiss you' or something like that? I'm not one of those stupid girls that always follow you around," she told him like it is.
"Leave it up to you to make things difficult," he replied.
She rolled her eyes, and quickly he gave in. "Fine. Alicia, will you go out with me?"
"Yeah."
"Can I kiss you now?" he whined, looking ever so cute.
"That's much better," she laughed, as he brought his mouth down to hers, kissing her lips softly and awkward.
This wasn't a dream. This was real. She and Freddy were kissing on the dance floor in front of everyone. It was her first kiss and first dance, and both turned out to be absolutely great.
"Yes!" Alicia heard someone whoop loudly when she and Freddy pulled apart, grinning sheepishly at each other. They both looked around only to see Zack and Tomika.
"Yes! It's about time you told her, man," Zack whooped with his fist.
"Ain't that the truth," said Tomika, beaming.
A fast song came on, but she and Freddy continued to dance slowly, laughing at how supportive their friends were. Alicia looked over at Lawrence and hoped that he could understand. Lawrence nodded his head at her, and she got her answer.
Lawrence watched Alicia dance with Freddy. He had also watched Freddy kiss her in the middle of the dance floor. Who would've known that all of their bickering was just sexual tension.
Things seemed to make a lot of sense now. That's what Gordon had meant Thursday in the library. Freddy was upset because of the attention Alicia was giving him. He had probably thought that Lawrence was moving in on his crush, and in return, did the 'guy thing' and fought for her. If only Lawrence had realized that when the fight was happening.
He was happy for Alicia, really he was. However, now that it was apparent that she would spend the rest of the night with Freddy, what was he going to do? Freddy, the hottest guy in the seventh grade had stolen his date.
"Is this seat taken?" came a shy, sweet voice.
Eleni. She had slid into the empty seat next to him.
"Not anymore," Lawrence forced himself to smile.
"I see Alicia's hooked up with Freddy. Didn't see that coming," said Eleni. "Sorry that your night isn't going so well."
"Actually, I'm having a blast," he tried to sound polite as possible. "This is the first time I've sat down all night. How's your date?"
He knew that would strike a bad cord in her. She pouted and looked over towards her date, who was now slow dancing with the girl he had been talking to earlier.
"He's a real jerk. He brought me here, only to hook up with some girl in his grade. He didn't want to look stupid not having a date," she replied.
"Yeah, I know some jerks," he mumbled under his breath, thinking of her and how she had acted towards him.
"Larry, listen. I'm sorry about the way I treated you. I realized that it's not how cool the date is, but how nice he treats you. You're a really nice guy. You've always been," she smiled warmly at him.
He wanted to escape from her quickly as she went on and on, apologizing for things he knew she wasn't really sorry for. If she was sorry for anything, it was not coming with a respectful guy that would've paid attention to her all night. That's exactly what she wanted. Attention. He looked around hopefully, but saw no one who could rescue him. He had to do the rescuing.
"So would you like to dance?" she asked.
"Sure," Lawrence smiled, standing up, and Eleni's face lit up, "Just not with you."
Her jaw dropped and Lawrence walked away. Now she'd know how it felt. He started to head outside, hoping to figure out something to do while Alicia was with Freddy, but a raven haired girl caught his eye. She was staring timidly up at her, and when they met eyes, she smiled at him and sank down in her chair. She was sitting among all of the dateless girls, and she had on a pretty purple dress and flats.
It was worth a shot, and that night, anything could happen. He made his way over to her and asked, "Would you like to dance with me?"
"Yes," the girl smiled taking Lawrence's hand, and he led her out onto the floor.
They began to slow dance quietly until the girl broke the silence.
"You're Lawrence, right?"
"Yeah."
"I think we're in the same math class. Ok, I know we're in the same math class," she admitted, laughing nervously.
"Yeah," said Lawrence. "You sit on the other side of the room, don't you? Kristen?"
"That's me," she introduced herself. "You play the classical piano, right?"
"How did you know that?"
"I play too. The woman I take private lessons with, Mrs. P, you used to take lessons with her, and she's always comparing my technique to yours. I hate it. She makes me feel so stupid because I know you're so good."
"How do you know I'm so good?" Lawrence asked, starting to think this girl knew more than she was letting on.
Kristen blushed and then answered, "Ok, truth is, I know who you are. You're the smartest kid in our math class, you're brilliant at the piano, and you play keyboard in the School of Rock. I've been to a lot of your shows. I swear I'm not a stalker or anything, I just... I notice you, you know."
Someone noticed him? He suddenly felt bad that he knew nothing about her. She was pretty in the face and the fact that she also played classic piano was a plus. She also seemed very shy as they moved back and forth to the music.
"Ok, now you think I'm weird," she sighed, dropping her arms from his neck. "Maybe this was a bad idea."
"Wait, no. I don't think that," he stopped her from leaving. "I just wish I knew more about you. I don't mean to be so boring."
"No!" the girl squeaked, blushing harder. "You're not boring at all. I just feel like I'm talking your head off, and I start to talk a lot when I'm nervous."
Lawrence chuckled, "It's ok. I like it. So what kind of piano do you play?"
It was time to announce Spring Fling King and Queen.
Everyone gathered around the front of the stage as Ms. Mullins spoke into the microphone, ordering everyone to stop what they were doing so she could make the announcement. No one was listening.
"You're a shoe in, babe," Freddy said playfully in Alicia's ear, with his arms wrapped tightly around her waist from behind. "You're the hottest girl in the crowd."
"Yeah right. You'll probably get King. Every girl in here is obsessed with you," said Alicia, seeing a couple of girls that were watching her and him. She glared at them, pulling him even more closer to her.
"I got the girl I want, and she's no queen. She's a real witch though," Freddy laughed and got elbowed in his stomach. "Ow! Haven't you done enough damage to me?"
"Keep it up, and I'll do more," she threatened him.
Alicia couldn't stop smiling. She was having a great time and was both surprised and relieved that Lawrence had been dancing and chatting up a girl in their grade. The night had not went the way they had planned, but it was good that they both got what they were looking for.
"Larry," Freddy called over the crowd to where Lawrence was still talking with the girl. "Get over here."
Lawrence looked surprised at first, but then led his new friend over towards them.
"Who's your new friend?" Alicia asked, eyeing the girl over and then deciding that she was ok for Lawrence.
"This is Kristen," said Lawrence. "She plays piano too."
Kristen said hi to them, and over came Katie, her date, Tim, and Tomika and Zack.
"Hey, Larry," said Freddy, "Sorry about the fight, dude. Really. I just thought you were trying to steal my girl, and I guess I wanted to let you know who's boss. It was stupid."
"It's fine. I'm glad everything's solved," said Larry, and they did the rockin' handshake.
"Now listen up, everyone," shouted Ms. Mullins into the microphone again. "I can't announce the winner if you don't quiet down."
Everyone took their time getting silent, and finally she opened up the envelope. She read the card then announced, "SUMMER HATHAWAY AND BOBBY JOHNSON!"
Summer and her date made their way up on the stage to get their cheap looking, plastic crowns. Summer was cheesing up a storm, and Bobby, a tall, sandy haired boy looked both embarrassed and excited.
"Bobby? I thought his name was Jeremy," said Freddy out loud, and everyone began to laugh.
Soon after, the dance was over. Only a couple of people were left in the gym. Freddy had kissed Alicia goodnight before he left. Lawrence could tell that Alicia and he were going to be the new Zack and Tomika. Freddy didn't seem to want to let her go, and Alicia surprisingly didn't seem to want him to let her go. Lawrence said goodnight to Kristen and had even exchanged phone numbers with her... you know, just in case she needed help practicing a piece of music or something. The night had gone perfect.
"Do you feel different?" Lawrence asked Alicia, while the janitor swept the floor and the DJ packed up his equipment. "I feel different."
"In a way," Alicia tilted her head in thought. She had taken her shoes off and had her legs propped up on a chair, while he sat in a chair backwards. "I feel like tomorrow morning, I'm going to turn back into a pumpkin or frog or something."
"I don't think Freddy wants to go out with a frog," Lawrence joked.
"Exactly!" she exclaimed. "Can I have your advice about something?"
"Yeah."
"What if... what if he changes his mind or something? I mean, I'm not exactly Princess of Horace Green Middle School, and I always thought Freddy liked that sort of girl... stupid, giddy, and obsessive over him. I'm not any of those things."
"You're a lot more than that," said Lawrence sincerely. "You're better than any of those girls. Freddy likes excitement and chaos. I mean, you should see him in gym class. Those type of girls aren't like that, but you are."
"That's what he said."
"Then why am I giving you advice?"
"Because," she sighed. "I'm just afraid I might turn into that type of girl for him. I don't want to change."
"We've already changed, and you changed for yourself, not anyone else. Besides, change is good. So are risks."
Alicia laughed out loud, "I can't believe you're saying this. If you took your own advice, you'd be the most popular guy in school."
"I don't want popularity anymore. I got what I wanted."
"What was that?"
Lawrence looked at her and smiled. "A friend. A real friend. Not to mention the best date ever."
They smiled at each other, and he got up to head outside. His mother would be there any minute, and he was exhausted from a night of fun. He turned around to see if Alicia was following him, but she had ran out into the middle of empty dance floor.
"Hey, Lawrence, may I have this dance?" Alicia called out to him.
"There's no music," he said awkwardly, as the janitor shot him an amused look, "They're taking everything down."
"Who cares," Alicia yelled, running over to him and pulling him out onto the floor. "You're going to dance with me this last dance. Deal with it."
She began to dance around him happily, and eventually he gave in, acting silly and celebrating a wonderful night of crushes, new friends, and new beginnings.
The following Monday in school, everything felt a little different. Lawrence felt it all around the school hallways as the usual chatter and movement went on of kids trying to get to class before the morning bell. The girl who had her locker next to his was going on about how she had broke up with her boyfriend that night, and the boy on the other side of him was talking to his friend about how it was the worst night of his life.
He grabbed his English book, and when he turned around to go to class, Kristen came up to him.
"Good morning, Lawrence," she said timidly.
"Morning," he smiled at her. "How was the rest of your weekend?"
"It was good. I had piano lessons with Mrs. P. They went really well. What did you do?"
"I finished up my homework and practiced a little, and I hung out with my friend, Alicia."
Kristen's smile dropped and she looked a little embarrassed and sad. "Oh, are you guys really close or something?"
"We're just friends," Lawrence quickly said. "She's actually with--"
"Hey, man, who do you think you're staring at?" someone said from behind him, and he spun around to see Freddy pushing some boy up against the locker. Alicia was with him.
"I didn't mean to," said the boy, cowering on the floor in front of everyone. It was the same boy that Alicia had caught staring at her at the dance.
"Don't look at my girl again, or I'll find somewhere to stick these drumsticks," said Freddy, pointing a drumstick in his face, then turning away from him and continuing to walk down the hall with his arm around Alicia.
Lawrence chuckled and said, "Actually she's with Freddy. They make an interesting couple, don't you think?"
"Yeah, they're both kind of... tough," Kristen winced as the boy who Freddy had attempted to stand up but fell back down from the weight of his bookbag.
"So what class do you have first?"
"French with Mrs. Gavin."
"I'll walk you," Lawrence took her books that she was holding and both of them headed down the hall starting up a conversation.
"I can take care of myself, you know," Alicia snapped at Freddy, who had just high-fived Zack as they walked down the hall to their first class.
"I know," said Freddy, "but he had it coming. I saw him checking you out on Saturday."
"In other words, I have a jealous boyfriend."
Just then some girl said hi to Freddy and smiled suggestively at him, completely ignoring the fact that Alicia was there.
"Excuse me!" Alicia stopped the girl, who now looked confused and afraid. Her eyes snapped to Freddy's arm around Alicia. "Exactly who were you staring at a second ago?"
"I just said hi to him," said the girl quietly, as if any minute she was planning to make an escape and run down the hall.
"Oh yeah? Say hi to him in that way again, and you'll be saying hi to my hands ripping out all that pretty brown hair of yours. He's taken," Alicia snapped, and the girl looked on the verge of tears and was hurried away by some of her friends who were standing close by.
Freddy bursted out laughing. "And I'm the jealous one? Yep, we're perfect for each other. The witch and the--"
"--The asshole," Alicia suggested and playfully pushed Freddy off of her.
Freddy took Alicia's hand, holding it tight, and the students parted for the new couple that they all feared and hurried into their classrooms. Pretty soon the bell rang, and Alicia smiled to herself. They were both late to English, and Mrs. Crosley was going to give them hell for it. Freddy didn't even seemed bothered.
"Alicia and Freddy... the witch and the asshole," he thought out loud, "I like the sound of that."
(AN: ...yeah so Freddy ends up with Alicia. Sue me. You won't get much lol. That was going to happen since the beginning and there were hints throughout the entire story. I've wanted to write a Freddy/Alicia fanfic since I watched and listened to the Kids Commentary on the DVD, and it's at the end where they're doing It's A Long Way To The Top and Kevin Clark says something like "Hey, Aleisha. We miss you, babe". I just thought it was cute that he said that, and I didn't know that most people had already established Katie/Freddy and Summer/Freddy ships. So I'm guessing people now hate this story. As for Lawrence, I think it was important for him to do his own thing towards the ending. He needed confidence and he got it w/o even realizing it. I don't have a favorite SOR shipping or anything (Lawrence and Tomika would be cool), but I've read a lot of the SOR fics that people post, and I'd have to say if I had to choose right now, it'd be Freddy/Katie.
So yes, feel free to throw stones at me in the form of REVIEWS. All reviews are welcome, but I won't respect pointless, rude reviews. If you didn't like it, simply explain why. 'this was stupid and you're a horrible writer' isn't an explanation. 'it didn't make sense to me why Freddy would like Alicia when she said this to Lawrence' is more along the lines of what I'm talking about. Thanks for reading. I appreciate all the support and positive reviews I've received. I know for a fact that a lot of people have read this story, regardless of the lack of reviews, and I want to thank anyone and everyone who at least clicked on this and read the first line. I'm currently working on a new SOR drama fic about Billy, but it's in very early progress so keep a lookout for it. Also, I MIGHT do a one-shot about Freddy's point of view at the dance about Alicia, but I'm not completely sure. and if you ask a question, I will respond in a review.
oh and just for random fun, here are the many names that Summer's date had in the story because no one really knew his name..."Jason, Justin, Jake, Josh, Jamie, Joe, Jeremy"... but in the end, his name was actually Bobby... until we meet again "-D )