Ethan Yeager in Lawndale

Ch 10 Casino de la Rust Bucket

Ethan smirked and then nudged Josh's side and jerked his head in the direction of a couple of their fellow students who were eye humping the figure at the front of the science class as she lead them through a basic description of photosynthesis.

"Heh," Josh laughed, "I think they want to synthesize something, but I doubt it has anything to do with plants."

Ethan grinned at that one and looked back at the Ms. Cartwright, she was a gracefully aging older woman with an amazing figure in a dark red power suit, and a commanding presence that had the classes attention without expending much effort.

As Cartwright continued on, Ethan took out the notes from O'Neill's and a blank piece of paper and began to write down some brainstorms before sliding it over to Josh.

"Right," Josh intoned, "O'Neill's first big project for the year, the Multimedia thing."

"Well I figure since we have to do 'sound', 'music' and 'images' for it, you can do the music, I'll draw some stuff, then we can do voice overs together or something." Ethan replied quietly as Josh circled a couple of the brainstorms that he thought might be doable.

He then slid the paper back over, "Sounds good," Josh replied, "Maybe we could do it on how emotionally unstable teachers keep their jobs despite overwhelming evidence that they suck as teachers."

Ethan's chuckle at that was a bit too loud since it attracted the attention of others, and Ms. Cartwright.

"Mister Yeager," she said in quiet tones that never the less were quite attention grabbing, "Is there something funny you'd like to share with the rest of us?"

Even though he was now on the spot Ethan managed a little snark, "No, just something that happened in O'Neill's."

Ms. Cartwright gave a small smirk at that, "Yes… my esteemed colleague..." She said and put a liberal amount of contempt in the word 'esteemed'.

"Well whatever it is can be said outside of class, do you understand?" She said to him in a voice that would brook no disagreement.

"Of course Ms. Cartwright," Ethan replied much more respectfully than before.

Cartwright gave him a much kinder grin and finished with, "Now back to what we were discussing before, which are the plants that do not use photosynthesis to generate energy, chemoautotrophs."

As she resumed her lecture, Ethan couldn't help but think that while he was getting a lot out of it that a lot of his classmates were probably quite lost.

"She should be teaching at a college," Ethan realized to himself, "Not a high school."

In his office, Principal Jed Gibson was finding himself in a bit of a pickle, his old colleague DeMartino was pulling out all the stops to try and get an early renegotiation of the teacher's contracts for raises, and even with the money recovered from Li's 'slush fund' in the Cayman Islands and the work he and Helen had put into balancing the budget, things were going to be tight this year.

"Ok maybe I should have paid more attention when she was explaining all of this." Jed conceded to himself while he rubbed his forehead and was tempted to dip into his brewski stash in the small fridge he had put in his new office (Ms. Li's old one).

Gibson did recall that there was supposed to be another referendum on a property tax thing that would go to the schools, but Helen had already written it off as a lost cause.

"The voters didn't go for it last year, why on earth would things be any different?" She had said very dismissively, and at this point he had to agree with her.

"But we need more cushion than this!" Jed thought out loud to himself, "Otherwise we'll have to slash stuff and Helen's right, we can only take so much from those artsy fartsy and textbook things before we have to…"

He gulped and was unable to bring himself to even utter the ultimate blasphemy, cutting the sports budget.

Then a rare light bulb went off in his head and he snapped his fingers.

"Hey!" He said with hope overcoming his despair, "We'll just have to do some fundraisers this year, get the kids and their parents to contribute and…"

He knew there were some fancy words that would give him cover, but he couldn't remember them, usually he just had Helen say them to whomever needed to hear them.

He had more important things to do, like… like…

"My head hurts…" Jed complained before he remembered that out of all of Ms. Li's papers, there was one notebook full of ideas that he had found and had stashed away somewhere in his desk.

It took a few minutes to find it, but when he did, Gibson gave a war whoop of triumph and almost spiked it.

He flipped through it, and had to dig a bit since it was full of paranoid rants about terrorist assaults, the Freemasons, the Church of Scientology, and how a new security grid would protect her from all of it.

"Ok here we go," Jed muttered, "Fund raiser ideas… Hey this sounds cool, Casino night on a cruise ship…"

And that's how about a few hours later that Helen Morgendorffer found this dead bird on her proverbial doormat with a very proud looking Jed Gibson grinning like a loon, waiting to be patted on the head for it.

"And that's basically everything," Jodie concluded as she lead the new student through the halls of Lawndale, "Any questions?"

The new student in question just shrugged his shoulders and asked what came next, Jodie gave him a polite smile and said that he would have to meet with the school's new guidance counselor, Mr. Martinez.

"Just be glad you're not dealing with Ms. Manson or the threat of Self-Esteem class." Jodie thought to herself, glad that the VP had convinced Principal Gibson that they would save time and money by scrapping that torture and getting a real Guidance Counselor for the school.

The young man ran his fingers through his long, black dyed hair and replied, "I don't go for that psychology crap."

Jodie smirked and replied, "Just fake your way through it, that's what a lot of people do."

"True," the boy conceded, "But I was never good at coming off as normal."

They both laughed at that, since he was wearing a black shirt with a picture of a bloodstained skull, beaten up black jeans with a belt with metal studs, and black combat boots.

"Trust me," Jodie replied sweetly as she led him to Mr. Martinez's office, "This school is so full of freaks that you'll fit right in."

But just as they reached the door, and said, "Well this is where we part ways for now Joseph Appleton."

"Call me Joe," he replied with charm, "Everyone does."

Stacy felt what she hoped was the last of the vomit spray out of her mouth, she sobbed weakly once her lungs had captured some oxygen and used a hand to prop herself up lest she fall face first into the mess she had made.

"At least I made it to the bathroom," was her first rational thought on the matter, but wished she had gotten to the actual toilet rather than the linoleum floor.

She scooted away a bit from the expanding puddle, too weak at the moment to get up, her body shook.

"I thought I'd be over the flu by now." Stacy muttered to herself, "I've been sick like this for a week."

She felt that weird feeling in her head again that she was missing something obvious, like that time she had struggled for nearly an hour to open a jar of pickles before her Dad had snatched the jar and twisted it the other way and it popped right open.

She shoved the feeling aside and managed to reach the wall used her hand to steady herself as she got up off of the icky floor.

"Nurses office." Stacy muttered to herself as she left, leaving the puke pile for someone else to deal with.

As Ethan walked away to get to his next class, one of two that they didn't share together, Josh turned back to his locker to get his math book.

But as soon as he pulled it out a hand slapped his back and a familiar voice said, "Yo Josh, wasup?"

"Hey Jeffy," Josh replied as he turned around, math book in hand and felt a small wave of pleasure as he looked at the athletic figure in front of him, his reddish hair was a bit more messy than it used to be, and he had abandoned the preppy thing in favor of stuff from thrift stores and made it look good.

Damn good.

Jeffy for his part smiled a bit sheepishly at the alternate looking blond, with his sexy blue eyes, piercings, and that 'too cool for the room' demeanor that he gave off in waves.

"I just wanted to ask you about some ideas for the band." Jeffy said by way of introduction, even while his palms got oddly sweaty for some reason.

Josh felt a bit lightheaded but said a bit nervously, "Uh… Sure, well we need settle on a name, and we need a drummer and a singer since… well…"

"We suck at singing." Jeffy supplied for him and they both laughed.

"Yeah, we do." Josh said softly and for some reason smiled warmly at the boy in front of him.

"I wrote some name ideas down," Jeffy said suddenly after things had gotten weirdly quiet and slipped Josh the crumpled up paper from his pocket.

He smoothed it out and promised to look at it in class.

Things felt very awkward after that for a minute before Jeffy stammered out, "Well… gotta go, class and all that."

"Yeah," Josh replied as Jeffy turned around to walk away, "Class…"

For some reason he stood there for a minute, his gaze fell on Jeffy's retreating backside until he was lost in the crowd.

Then Josh shook himself out his stupor and went off to Math for an hour's worth of boredom.

"Uh… can you help?" a voice said from behind him, when Ethan turned around he found himself face to face with a kid he had never seen before.

"Who are you?" Ethan asked as he gave him the once over, he had to admit that the Goth kid looked good.

"I'm new here," he replied a bit nervously, "Oh my names Joe by the way."

"Ok Joe," Ethan replied and felt a small half-smile form for some reason, "Let me guess you're lost and looking for your class, right?"

"Pretty much," Joe replied and showed Ethan his schedule, "I have Gym apparently… hooray."

The hooray was uttered flatly and sarcastically.

Ethan's half-smile became a full-blown grin, "That's what I have next, follow me to what will amount to football practice."

"But I don't do sports." Joe replied with confusion as he followed Ethan down the halls, even while thinking that he liked Ethan's wavy brown hair.

"Neither do I," Ethan answered slyly, "But the new Coach is like our old ones, why waste time on anything else except the gridiron?"

"…This place sucks doesn't it?" Joe asked in a flat voice that dreaded the obvious answer.

"Dude," Ethan replied with snark, "This is High School."

"Gotcha." Joe answered in utter defeat.

Granted he hadn't had high hopes that this new school would be any better than his old one, but he had met a couple people who seemed to have working minds.

"A silver lining." Joe thought to himself, "Maybe I've found a friend in hell…"

Hope was ever the carrot that kept people going in this world, and Joe felt his right hand slip into the left sleeve of his long shirt and rub the scar on his wrist.

Maybe he had found something worth holding onto.

"Maybe." Joe thought to himself as they reached the locker rooms, otherwise known as purgatory before the hell of gym class.

But as Joe picked a locker that was near Ethan's, he noticed that there was a bit of a space between the two of them and the other guys who were filtering in.

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing about it, dismissing it as having something to do with him.

People tended to react that way around him, or they used to in his old town.

"Moving to a new place hasn't changed that much," Joe thought a bit bleakly as he changed into an old shirt and a ragged pair of black gym shorts.

When he glanced at Ethan, he noticed that the kid had an impressive collection of tattoos and found himself asking, "Who did all the ink?"

Ethan looked up as he slid his gym shorts on and grinned, "The local tattoo guy, Axl… Why you interested in getting some?"

"Maybe…" Joe began to say before they heard a whistle, which he guessed was a signal to get on out for the start of class.

And sure enough it was every bit as bad as he had imagined it, and it reaffirmed his hatred for sports and football in particular.

As Sick, Sad World cut to commercial, Daria pushed the mute button on her living room TV to cut out the propaganda of Corporate America.

"So what are you and Josh going to do for the multimedia project?" Daria asked as she glanced at Ethan who was sitting in between her and Jane on the couch.

"Not sure yet," Ethan admitted while stretching out a bit to get more comfortable, "We're gonna work on it tomorrow."

"Ah," Jane breathed, "Let me guess, you two are winging it, right?"

"Yup."

Daria and Jane snickered, "Well we have a concept in mind for ours, and we're having Trent do the music for us."

"Uh Daria…" Ethan replied with some caution, "No offense to you or Janie but Trent isn't exactly the most reliable person in the world for something like this."

"True," Daria answered with a shrug, "That's why I also told his new girl about our diabolical plan, and she's game to making sure that he actually does it."

"He's still seeing that Paris chick?" Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup." Jane replied, "Shocking I know but Trent has it in him to date a girl for longer than a couple days that isn't Monique."

Ethan wasn't sure how to reply to that, but thankfully the show came back on and gave them fair warning about how ghosts might be squatting, rent-free, in their attics.

"There's a Sick, Sad World marathon on for Friday night." Daria mentioned during the big interview with the 'ghost detective'.

"Yeah I know," Ethan replied but sighed, "But there's a big game between Lawndale and Oakwood that night so I'll probably miss most of it."

Daria and Jane gave him matching weird looks and Jane said, "Check his head for bumps."

"Since when do you care about football?" Daria asked incredulously.

"Since Rex started living with us." Ethan replied flatly and snickered when they went 'Oh' in unison.

They watched the rest of the show quietly until the next commercial break, as soon as Daria put the TV back on mute, Ethan got up and got them all refills on soda and snacks.

When he got back and distributed the bounty, the girls asked him what Josh was up too.

"He and Jeffy are at his place putting together material for this band they want to start." Ethan replied as he sat back down, "I figured why subject my eardrums to the agony so…"

"Understood Compadre." Jane replied before munching on chips.

"And what about your new companion?" Daria asked casually while opening a soda.

Ethan looked confused for a moment before going, "Oh… You mean Joe? Apparently he just got into the L-D and needed directions and I was the lucky victim, I mean helpful student."

"No you mean the first one." Daria snarked as the last segment of the show came back on.

Ethan smirked but said nothing, but the TV was drowned out by the sounds of Quinn Morgendorffer rushing down the stairs on the phone.

"I know!" She said in her high-pitched voice, "I mean if having your parent be the Vice Principal means that you still don't get warned about stuff like this and you have to spy on them then what's the point of having them be in the job in the first place?!"

"Just to make you miserable." Daria snarked, but Quinn didn't hear her and kept on talking even as Daria turned up the volume.

"Well since we're going to be on a cruise ship for the school and stuff then we'll have to hold an emergency Style Girls meeting to prepare, especially on such short notice, we only have a week to be in style for an event like this."

"Cruise ship?!" the trio said unison as Quinn rushed out the door with cellphone firmly planted to her ear.

"I think I'll be skipping that." Jane thought aloud and the others murmured their agreement.

"I'll go ask Mom what this is about." Daria said as she got up off of the couch, "Cus this sounds like one of Ms. Li's old schemes."

"Please don't speak that name out loud Daria you'll frighten the children." Ethan joked with a dramatic cringe.

"There aren't any children here." Daria replied as she kept walking.

"Then you're frightening me." Ethan said just before she was out of earshot.

Jane patted him on the back and went, "There, there."

Stacy stared at the unopened box on the edge of the bathroom sink like it was a coiled viper, she was sitting on the lid of the toilet, trying to work up the nerve to open it.

"Oh come on!" She said to herself in her bathroom, "The nurse is crazy, there's no way that I'm… I'm…" She couldn't' finished that sentence.

"It's probably something else." Stacy said to convince herself, and stomped on the errant thought that tried to do the math between when her menstrual cycle normally happened and it's… lateness.

"It's been late before." Stacy reminded herself firmly, "It's nothing."

But she couldn't bring herself to open the box.

Instead she grabbed it and shoved it into her pants pocket, wishing that it didn't make such a noticeable bulge.

She went downstairs to the phone and dialed the familiar number and felt relief when Joey answered it instead of his kid brother.

"Hi Stacy!" Joey said happily on the other end of the line.

"Hey Joey." Stacy said nowhere near as happily.

"Stacy, what's wrong?" Joey asked with his own joy slipping away, not sure why his number one girl would suddenly be like this.

"I… I need you to come over." Stacy said very flatly while her free hand fondled the box in her pocket, "There's something that I…"

She had trailed off and fell silence, which forced Joey to go, "Uh… you still there?"

"Just come over, ok?" Stacy snapped with a wheeze, the stress causing her to slip into some of her old habits.

"Okay, ok geez." Joey replied defensively, "I'll be there in half-an hour tops."

"…Thanks Joey," Stacy answered much more sadly, "I love you."

"I love you too Stacy." He barely got out in time as she hung up the phone.

"Wow Bob," Jeffy said as he and Josh lounged on beanbag chairs in his garage, "I didn't know you could sing."

Bob grinned sheepishly, "I'm no opera singer but I can carry a tune."

"Dude did I tell you or did I tell you?" Josh said to Jeffy with a big shit eating grin.

"Yeah, you did tell me." Jeffy replied suitably chastened.

Bob joined them on a spare beanbag chair and asked Josh how he had figured it out.

"I heard you singing to yourself at lunch when you thought no one would notice." He replied with slyness.

"Oh." Bob breathed, "I guess I shouldn't have brought my music in but I was in the mood for some Ramones."

He had been listening to tunes on his cd player, and hadn't realized he had been singing softly to himself at the time.

"So…" Jeffy said carefully, "You wanna join our band?"

"Sure I guess." Bob replied and then he asked, "What band by the way?"

"The one we are putting together." Josh answered with a grin, "We don't have a name for it yet."

"Or a drummer." Jeffy piled on.

"But you have to start somewhere, right?"

"True that." Bob answered and then laughed as Jeffy and Josh began bantering about possible names.

As he relaxed a mite, watching the two of them go at it with the increasing rhyming nature of the names, he picked up on how… cozy they seemed.

For a wild moment he wondered if they were getting a little too cozy.

"Nah," Bob thought to himself dismissively, "They're dating other people and neither of them seem the types to do that."

"You're getting really good at this Andrea." Evan complimented her as they both took a break from running laps around the local park, a convenient water fountain nearby for hydration.

"Thanks." She answered sincerely as she rubbed a sore calf muscle, the pounds were melting away and were being replaced with a good muscle tone.

Evan took a moment to polish his glasses since they had started to fog up again, he still wasn't digging how they framed his face but he had gotten used enough to wearing them that he tended to forget to take them off when he wasn't reading.

He slipped them back on and justified it to himself since he did have the case on him and said to Andrea, "I've started reading some of those books you recommended."

"Cool," Andrea replied and then asked, "Which one are you on?"

"The Bell Jar."

Andrea gave him a rare smile, "It's really good but I will warn you that it is depressing."

Evan nodded in acknowledgement and asked if she was ready to run some more.

"Sure." Andrea replied and then took off without him.

"Wait for me!" Evan yelled and hot footed it to catch up, but found himself admiring the view from behind.

"She's really getting in shape," he thought to himself as he got his rhythm back, "Not to mention how interesting she is to talk to."

He stayed a step behind her for a bit longer than needed, wanting the mental image to stay with himself for a while before getting in to her side.

Andrea glanced at Evan's profile and didn't notice that she smiled faintly as his body moved like a well-oiled machine.

"If he keeps working on his intellect he could be quite a catch." Andrea thought to herself, and then wondered why she would think something like that.

So she put more energy into her feet and sped up in order to stop thinking for a while.

Joe Appleton made an amused sound in his throat as he entered the living room and saw that his father had fallen asleep on the couch watching a football game.

He grabbed a blanket and threw it over his dad's slumbering figure and whispered, "Get some rest Dad."

He then slipped into the kitchen and grabbed a snack before going to his room and shutting the door, he played some music on a soft volume and grabbed his camera and set it up to prepare for his nightly video diary.

"To my loyal viewers," Joe said with exaggerated enthusiasm, "Today was my first foray into the battlefield that is my new local high school, I saw a lot of interesting people, some of whom I have some hope for, I didn't talk to a whole lot of them just yet… No nerve and all that."

He fake laughed.

"Well that Jodie who did the tour seemed really nice, and while some of the teachers were interesting, others clearly belong in a nut house."

He then shifted the angle a bit.

"I chatted with a couple girls but they weren't very interesting, and I saw this weird clique of them and for some reason they said I was a 'Crime Against Style', whatever that means."

He then holds his 'Style Citation' up to the camera.

"There were a couple other people but the one that stood out for me was this one guy who helped me find my gym class… Ethan Yeager."

Joe smiles at the camera.

"I… I hope I found a new friend, I could certainly use one considering the hell that Mother put me through."

Joe falls silent for a long minute.

"Well… Dad is getting used to his new job at Grace, Sloane, and Page, the tireless work of the accountant strikes again!"

He adjusts the camera angle again.

"I hope he meets someone new soon, someone that isn't like… her."

Joe then goes quiet and clicks his tongue a couple times.

"Well I guess this is all for now, this is Joe Appleton, signing off, until next time kids!"

The screen goes black.

"Well this could just be nothing." Stacy said as Joey stared at the little white device in her hands, his jaw dropped and his eyes as large as saucers.

"I mean it says on the box that there are false positives and… and… and…" Stacy began to hyperventilate at that, which caused Joey to snap out of his stupor and he went over to shake her out of it.

Once he had her calmed down a bit, he found himself stuck asking the only question he could think of.

"What do we do?"

Neither of them could meet the other's eyes.

"I… I don't know." Stacy replied with tears starting to well up again.

"But… Maybe this test is wrong." She added, latching onto hope, "I mean it is a cheapo that the school nurse gave me, I'll do another tomorrow to be sure."

"And… if it is sure?" Joey asked as his hands shook with fear.

"I… I don't know." Stacy replied with confusion and fear in abundance.

At that point she started to cry.

"Stacy…" Joey moaned before he did the right thing and held her tight and began telling her over and over that no matter what happened next, he'd be right there with her.

Jed Gibson finished reading off the day's announcements and looked up from his seat at the towering figure of Helen Morgendorffer, giving him the evil eye.

"Don't worry about it Helen," he said with more bravado than he felt under that unrelenting gaze, "It'll all work out."

Helen sighed and her face softened a bit, always a good sign in Jed's eyes.

"I hope your right." She said with finality, "Because we don't have much of a choice."

Internally she was planning on getting into Gibson's office when he wasn't around and rotor-rooting for that damn notebook before he got anymore harebrained ideas out of it.

Daria had been hoping to avoid this, but alas she and the usual suspects were being approached by Jodie herself in the halls after first period.

"I know I'm wasting my time but I'm going to make the gesture," Ms. Landon said as she approached the infamous foursome, "But do you guys want to buy tickets to Casino Night?"

"We'd like to help but our schedules are packed." Jane answered for the group.

"There's a Sick Sad World marathon on Friday and we'll be way too tired." Daria said for herself and Jane.

"Yeah and we've got our own plans." Josh said with a grin at Ethan.

Jodie just laughed and said they were all hopeless.

"If you don't mind me asking Jodie," Daria said before she could walk away, "How's the workload this year?"

Jodie sighed at that, "Nowhere near the old levels, but I am in Student Government and a couple other things."

"How many other things?" Ethan asked out of morbid curiosity and then she listed quite a few activities, and while it wasn't at her previous critical mass, it certainly was eye-popping.

"I thought you got your parents to back off on all that." Jane said with confusion and a slight headache once Jodie finished the list.

"They have," Jodie replied quickly, "But well… When summer ended I had a lot of free time on my hands and, well…"

Daria snickered, "Jodie Landon, poster child for workaholism."

"I'm not that bad!" Jodie protested, but it was in vain since it resulted in Daria, Jane, Ethan, Josh, and several other passersby to stare at her with a gaze of 'who are you kidding Ms. Landon?!'

"Okay maybe I am that bad." Jodie conceded sadly, "But I did have fun this summer, a lot more than I have in ages but, well…"

She sighed again, "I just didn't find anything fulfilling like everyone else apparently."

"Jodie…" Daria began and then trailed off, not sure what to say.

"Well anyway I've gotta go!" Jodie said before scurrying off.

Ethan sighed, "Poor Jodie…"

Everyone else felt more morose than usual before Jane lit up with a wicked grin, "I have an idea…"

Daria recognized that look, having seen it every single time Jane had tried to get her and Trent to connect.

"Ms. Lane," Daria said trying to cut this off on the past, "Don't go Yenta on us."

"Too late!" Jane crowed, her brain hard at work for someone to hook Ms. Landon up with.

"Ok so what were those 'big plans' you mentioned to Jodie?" Ethan asked of his boyfriend as they sat together in O'Neill's, in theory working on the Multimedia project.

"I made that up so we wouldn't look like bastards by just saying that we didn't want to go." Josh answered while looking at what they had come up with.

"Ah," Ethan breathed, "But could we have big plans of some sort?"

"Like what?"

"I could hear what you and Jeffy have come up with for the band." Ethan answered as he wrote down a few things and crossed one of them out.

"Sure," Josh replied with a strange touch of nerves that he couldn't explain, "Well technically it's me, Jeffy and Bob now since he's our singer."

"Really?!" Ethan exclaimed.

"Yes sire." Ethan Yeager heard from behind him and he glanced and saw Bob waving at him from his own partner in the project, Andrea.

Ethan turned back to Josh and smiled at the sight of his man's beautiful blue eyes, "Ok so all you need is a drummer right?"

"Yup," Josh replied, "But Bob said he knew a kid in Oakwood that has a kit and is getting decent at it."

"Cool," Ethan drawled and then switched topics with, "And I think I have a title for our project, how's 'A Sick, Sad World Approach to Life' sound?"

"It sounds like awesome!" Josh said with a big grin and then added quickly, "As long as we can back that up."

"Josh think about who we are for a sec," Ethan answered with a mix of warmth and snark, "I think we can handle it."

"Cool…"

"And a party on a cruise ship will be sooo glamorous!" one of the new popular freshman girls said happily as they walked past those two weird girls that hung around those two fairies.

"I know Irene!" one of the girl's sycophants, "And we get to gamble like the beautiful girls in the movies and stuff!"

"It's like perfect!" Irene said while twirling a finger through her curly perfect black locks, "And I'm going with Dmitri Bykov, you know Dmitri…"

Daria and Jane listened with morbid curiosity as the girls cooed in awe at this before they were out of earshot.

"Who's Dmitri?" Daria asked with confusion and Jane just shrugged her shoulders, but then spotted a pair who might have the answer.

"Hey Mack, Rex!" Jane said while waving wildly like she just didn't care, "Got a question for ya!"

Mack and Rex were approaching side by side and they both looked at each other with bemusement before going over and Mack spoke up for them both by saying, "Wazup Jane?"

"Who's Dmitri Bykov?" Jane asked and enjoyed seeing twin looks of surprise on the boy's faces.

"Wow!" Rex breathed, "You don't know?!"

Daria and Jane both gave him a look.

"…Nevermind." Rex murmured while looking down at his shoes for being that stupid.

Mack patted him on the back and whispered audibly, "I got this."

He cleared his throat and said, "Dmitri moved to the L-D from DC, he's the new wide-receiver on the team, why you ask?"

Jane answered by telling them what they had overheard.

Rex and Mack both chuckled and it was Rex who said, "Yeah, I could see a little airhead like Irene being proud of landing a date like that, he does look good in a uniform…"

Mack then dug an elbow into his side gave him a look, "Sorry! Sorry…" Rex replied apologetically, "I was just sayin that he looked good, not that I wanted… you know…"

"I know," Mack replied while putting an arm around his boy and pulling him in close, "But keep it to yourself comprende?!"

"I got it." Rex answered before giving Mack a minor PDA on the cheek.

Daria and Jane made very fake "Dwaaaaa!" noises, and just in time for Kevin to show up.

"Hey guys," he said happily, "Hey… Mack Brother sound ok?" he asked, trying out his latest nickname for Mack.

Mack thought it over and shook his head, "Nah… It doesn't sound right."

"I'll come up with something don't you worry!" Kevin replied with a big goofy grin.

"Gee I can't wait." Mack said with sarcasm.

"No problem!" Kevin answered obliviously, "So are you guys hyped up for the big game on Friday?!"

"Yes we are Kev!" Rex said with enthusiasm and pulled Mack into a knuckle sandwich.

During this Daria and Jane had turned around and begun to wander back off, but they did hear Mack's weak protests and the laughter.

Which for some reason even brought a smile to Daria's face, and unwittingly struck terror into the hearts of all those who saw it since most of them had never seen her face in any other repose than deadpan.

"I wanna go to Casino Night," Ed said to Evan as they sat in the library together, going over their class notes, "And I still have some cash left over from the summer but…"

Ed trailed off and turned beet red, but Evan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry dude, I'll hook a brother up!" he fist pumped loudly on the last part and a whole bunch of people hissed at him to be quiet.

"Sorry…" Evan whispered in embarrassment.

"Thank you!" Ed replied very gratefully and with the biggest smile that Evan had seen since they had talked Evan's parents into letting Ed stay over a whole bunch of nights.

"Don't sweat it kid," Evan replied and ruffled his hair, "It's what friends are for."

Even as he said it, Evan decided to chat with Andrea to try and find a girl that would be willing to go with Ed, was reasonable to look at, and wouldn't treat it as a pity date.

"He deserves better than that." Evan thought to himself and looked at the little guy protectively, daring the world to try and hurt him again.

"Cus this time he's got backup." Evan thought firmly and then glanced at the stuff from Cartwright's class and felt his head swim a bit, until he remembered to put on his glasses and felt much better.

Ed glanced up by instinct and smiled at Evan's now bespeckled face and thought, "He's getting used to them, good. He still looks like an Adonis, an Adonis with a budding intellectual side too."

He had never felt prouder of any of the people he had helped with homework than he did with Evan Larson.

It was nice to have a friend that had your back.

"Uh guys…" Joey said to his two friends as they stood in the empty boy's bathroom, "I have something to fess up too."

"What's that Joey?" Jamie asked and hoped he wasn't coming out of the closet, since that seemed to be happening a lot lately.

"Me and Stacy… well…" Joey then trailed off and whispered something they couldn't hear.

"Joey you're gonna have to speak up." Jeffy said after Joey repeated himself at that same low whisper.

"Stacy's pregnant!" Joey nearly yelled and then gasped and clasped his hands over his mouth and looked around but didn't see anyone else in eh bathroom.

"Whoa!" the other two J's breathed.

Joey turned very red and looked like he wanted to cry, "She did the pee stick test and it… it…" He couldn't finish that but he did latch onto the other thing, "But we're getting another one since hers was a cheapo and… we'll see… but I've just gotta feeling that its' for real."

"Holy fuck man!" Jamie said as he absorbed this.

"Dude!" Jeffy added, "You… You're going to be a Dad man!"

"…Yeah." Joey said weakly, "And… we're not sure what we're gonna do…"

"Dude…" both J's breathed.

Then Jamie came up with the brilliant question of, "Have you told your parents?"

"No freaking way man!" Joey answered with fear, "They'll kill us I just know it!"

"Maybe you should talk to someone about this… Not a parent!" Jeffy added hurriedly.

"We're going to the free clinic for, like, an exam if the test comes back positive…" Joey replied as he turned on the water and washed his face a bit, "I guess we can ask them questions and stuff…"

"Just don't tell anyone ok?!" Joey added after drying his face and his friends offered their assurances of total discretion.

As soon as they exited the bathroom, the black shaggy haired figure of Saul Maxwell came out of the stall in shock and thought to himself, "I've just gotta tell the guys about this later!"

"So this is the infamous Joe Appleton." Josh said as the dark haired kid sat down at their table across from him.

"In the flesh, more or less." The soft spoken boy replied, his dark eyes hopeful that this would work out.

They were quickly joined at the lunch table by Shaggy, then Sandi and Bob, and then Daria and Jane, and Andrea filled out the tail end.

It seemed strange to see Shaggy without Kelly, but their relationship had hit a rough patch and they weren't really talking to each other at the moment, Ethan glanced at a couple tables ahead and saw her sitting with Angel and Burnout, both of whom had acquired new boyfriends.

But the stoner was putting a brave face on it by very excitedly showing them his pics from his trip to Burning Man.

"And this is when they… burned it! And it was like… Whoa! And I was like… Whoa!" Shaggy said very lazily, his eyes blazing red.

Ethan grinned at him, "Dude, I'm glad you're a genius cus otherwise you'd never graduate High School."

"Me too." Shaggy answered in a drawl as he forgot what he had just done and tried to show them the pics again.

Josh sighed and snatched them and put them back in the envelope and distracted Shaggy with some of his jello.

"Hey Daria," Sandi said to the girl at her side, "You think you could talk your Mom into getting better cafeteria food?"

"Tried that," Daria answered while wiping some ketchup off of her blue shirt and secretly deciding to get some sort of coat, a better one than the green one, "But she said that it wasn't in the budget."

"Is that why they're doing Casino Night?" Joe asked in order to get into the conversation.

"Gibson is doing Casino Night because he found the idea in Ms. Li's old notebook of thoughts for fundraisers." Daria answered and everyone but Joe blanched in horror.

"This… This is one of Ms. Li's crackpot ideas?!" Sandi spoke with terror on behalf of everyone.

"Yup." Was Daria's answer.

"Yikes." Ethan drawled flatly.

"Who's Ms. Li?" Joe asked and then added "Ethan why is everyone staring at me like that?"

He grinned at the kid and said, "He doesn't know yet of the Saga of our old Principal, Angela 'the Insane to the Membrane' Li."

Everyone gave Joe very wicked grins and Daria cleared her throat and began to tell him the perfectly true and factual story of the reign of the previous Principal of the school.

For a long time Joe Appleton thought that they were pulling his leg, until his instincts got through to him and he went, "Whoa!"

"Yeah…" Jane replied with a wicked grin and a squeeze of Bob's thigh under the table, "That sums it up nicely."

She took pleasure in making Bob squirm as she said it, and she knew that he liked it too.

"I'm surprised that you didn't crack and tell Quinn," Joey said on the other end of his bathroom door while Stacy did her business on a much more expensive pee stick.

"She knew something was up since I was… You know… Down…" Stacy called out through the door, "She even canceled her hair appointment and is coming over to my house later, no doubt to interrogate me… Either way I think… I think I'll tell her."

"Uh Stacy," Joey said as he heard the door unlock and went inside, "That's like, getting on the PA."

"Yeah I know," She answered with unusual calmness for the situation, "But if it's true then everyone will find out sooner or later so…"

"Good point." Joey replied as glanced at the offending object that was on his sink's counter.

They stared at it for what felt like hours as the results came back.

It was a blue plus sign.

"Oh God… Oh God… Oh God!" Stacy wheezed and started hyperventilating, which forced Joey into action rather than a paralyzed stupor that he had been falling prey to.

He pulled her into a tight hug and was saying much more loudly than he realized, "It's ok, It's ok… It's ok… I mean… It's ok…"

Unnoticed to either of them, Joey's mother had heard the commotion and had come up to check, she saw her son hugging his girlfriend, in the families bathroom, and her gaze fell on a certain white stick on the counter.

This was all that she needed to see.

"OH MY GOD!" Mrs. Black screamed and startled the two kids, "YOU GOT HER PREGNANT?!"

Both kids had never felt so miserable in all their lives.

The kid with pink spikes, shredded jeans, a leather coat with no shirt, a few tattoos, and a cocky demeanor grinned at the two alternative kids in front of him, Bob had made the introductions.

"J.P., this is Jeffy and Josh," Bob said pointing each of them out, "This is John Paul Taylor, but he hates that so call him J.P."

J.P. for his part punched Bob in the shoulder, hard and said, "Yeah… Just J.P., thanks."

"Are you related to Brittany Taylor?" Jeffy asked and then wondered if that was a bad idea.

"Yeah…" J.P. replied with a grimace, "I'm related to the psycho branch of the family, and Britt's one of the worst ones."

The others tried to shrug that off, even though both Jeffy and Bob thought she had great tits, and Jeffy had slept with her a few times behind Kevin's back to boot.

"So do we got a name for this?" J.P. asked and waved a hand around the Decker's garage with the equipment partly set up.

"We've got a few ideas," Jeffy said and showed him the crumpled up and battered list.

J.P. glanced at it and smiled at the first name to jump out at him, "Helpful Corn…?"

Jeffy laughed, "Yeah, that was Jesse's idea."

"Who's Jesse?" Josh and J.P. asked, and Bob found it strange that Josh looked… kinda pissed.

"A friend of mine," Jeffy answered, and J.P. went back to the list and said, "What about Orbital Loungechair?"

"Nah." Bob answered, "I think I've heard it before…"

They indulged in banter over names for a while until Josh blurted out, "What about 'The Yobs'?"

"The Yobs?!" Everyone else said with confusion.

"Well what's the opposite of what we are?" Josh asked rhetorically, "Yobs of course, so… why not?"

"Hmm…" Bob mused, "It would work… until we come up with something better."

"Aw screw it I can't come up with anything better," J.P. answered while playing with a pocket knife, "What about you Jeff, the Yobs?"

Jeffy gave Josh a soft smile and said, "Yeah… The Yobs sounds good… Well actually it sounds terrible but that's what we're going for, right?"

J.P. and Josh snickered at that, and Bob raised an eyebrow at that smile.

"This can't be good." Bob thought to himself and hoped he could find a way to head off… whatever this was before it became a massive, epic train wreck that brought ruin upon them all.

Joey Black and Stacy Rowe sat on the Black's love seat, clinging to each other's hands for dear life and moral support as they had for about an hour while the barrage of parental shock from both the Black's and the Rowe's hit them at Hiroshima levels of power.

"I can't believe that you two were this irresponsible!"

"My God! My Baby is having a Baby!"

"What the hell were you two thinking?!"

"You little bastard! How dare you do this to my daughter?!" This came from Stacy's Dad and was directed at Joey, who was very much within wrath froth range.

This brought the ire of Mr. Black who said some very thinly veiled insinuations that hinted that Stacy was a slut.

Mr. Rowe began to ball up his fists and gave Joey's father a very ugly look, but before anything could happen on that front there was a loud "Thud!" as the front door was thrown wide open and Quinn Morgendorffer rushed in with a very loud clatter.

"Ohmigod! Ohmigod! Stacy!" She screeched as she located her prey and unwittingly cut a very nasty fight off right at the knees, she didn't seem to notice everyone staring at her as she rushed over to her friend, "I heard the rumors and I couldn't find you at your house so I canceled my hair appointment and rushed EVERYWHERE to find you!"

"What…What rumors?" Stacy managed to wheeze out, and that was when Quinn realized that there were four very tense adults in the room, along with Joey's kid brother Mickey who was wide mouth and wide eyed at the chaos being unleashed in front of him.

"OH MY GOD!" Quinn screamed dramatically and put two beautiful hands to her face, "THE RUMORS ARE TRUE, STACY YOU ARE PREGNANT!"

Dead silence consumed the room at those words, until Joey managed to squeak out like he had been kicked in the balls, "How'd you find out?"

Quinn then began a very long-winded explanation, "Well Tori called me and told me the word, because she heard it from Rene, who heard it from Heidi, who heard it from Serena, who heard it from her boyfriend on the football team who apparently was told by someone who heard, well… nevermind." She realized towards the end of the story that informing Stacy that her boyfriend had been overheard boasting about it to his friends under these circumstances might not be the best way to go about things.

It was enough however to defuse the madness and Quinn's long speech had forced the minds of the parents to focus and think about things a bit more calmly and rationally.

Mrs. Rowe turned to look at her daughter and her long-time beau and felt a stab of shame at her behavior and said a bit more contritely, "Well what's done is done… Stacy…" words then failed her, so she rushed over to her daughter and wrapped her up into her arms and they both began to break down into loud sobs and tears.

Joey's parents and Stacy's Dad watched the spectacle unfold in front of them, along with Quinn and Mickey who had stepped up next to the beautiful teen girl, not sure where else he could stand safely.

"I'm sorry for what I said." Mr. Black said suddenly to Stacy's father who turned to look at his previous foe who was now offering up his hand for a shake.

He stared at it for a long moment before taking it and giving it a single shake before pulling away and offered his own apologies.

Meanwhile Joey had been forced to get up off of the couch and took the only refuge he could find, which was next to his kid brother and Mickey, his eyes on the floor and his head a bit down.

Quinn for her part patted him on the back and tried to offer up words of comfort but even she felt that they were a tad hollow.

"It's like no matter what they decide to do it's going to be rough on them." Quinn thought to herself as she looked at Stacy and her Mom weeping in each other's arms and noted that she now knew where Stacy got her emotional… issues.

Quinn took a deep breath and continued to think, "Well at least her skin is going to look great with those prenatal vitamins she'll be on and…"

She struggled to find positives in the situation, but she did try.

"I'll get a baby name book for them and stuff and… But what if they get rid of it?"

Quinn decided to hold off on getting that book for now.

She had no idea what they were going to do.

Then she realized that they probably didn't either.

"This is going to be a very long Sophomore year." She thought while looking at her best friend and her boyfriend, unable to keep the pity off of her face.

Even Quinn knew that there was nothing worse than that, but it was all she could give at the moment.

"So Bob called and said that they settled on a name for their band, its, drum roll please." Jane said and then grinned and Daria very reluctantly drummed on the table at their favorite booth at Pizza Prince while Ethan, Tom and Joe grinned at her discomfort.

"The Yobs." Jane finished with relish, and then relished on another slice of pizza.

"The Yobs?!" Daria and Joe both said with raised eyebrows and looks of 'What?!'

Tom laughed at that while Ethan simply grinned with his soda in his hand.

"Yeah and since you and Tom aren't doing anything big on Saturday besides sleeping, you can join me and Ethan at their first practice session at Josh's garage." Jane added before taking a gulp of her soda.

"How'd you know that?" Daria asked teasingly.

Everyone including Tom just gave her a look, and Daria laughed it off.

"Ok you've all got me pegged," Daria said with a big smile, "So Sick Sad World on Friday night, except for Ethan who will be stuck at a football game for a good chunk of it. Then we all hit Josh's Saturday night for what will amount to torture."

"It's better than torture on the Princess Fairy," Ethan replied defensively, "I looked it up, the so-called luxury liner is a converted rusted out fishing boat."

Everyone let that take a moment to sink in, "Wow," Jane supplied, "Gibson sure knows how to pick'em!"

"Heh," Ethan laughed, "I'll bet that was the boat Ms. Li would have hired for this at any rate, cheapest one and all that."

Everyone got a good laugh out of that, even Tom and Joe who hadn't had the full Ms. Li experience, but she had already become a legend among the High School set in the area.

The next topic to come up was the subject of Jane's desire to play matchmaker for Jodie Landon.

Jane just gave an evil chuckle at that and said that she and Bob were on the case, "Don't worry about Ms. Landon," She told the others, "We will find a great guy for her to go out with on the fish boat, and hopefully scare the crap out of her parents."

Joe bravely asked, "Does Jodie know what you're up too?"

Jane's grin grew in size and wickedness, "Not yet… But I'll tell her tomorrow."

Ethan patted Joe on the back and said, "Good call."

Joe smiled at the attention even as his face burned bright red, and the smile lingered for a long time, the memory of Ethan's touch upon his back even longer.

"Thanks for letting me crash here," Jeffy said to Jesse as the pair relaxed on Jesse's beat-up couch in his small apartment, a couple brewski's ice cold in their hands as they watched the news, "It would have felt weird being alone at Monique's."

"No prob," Jesse replied in his sexy drawl before downing his first beer of the night, "I understand not wanting to be alone."

A couple beers in as they watched the highlights from the latest courtroom antics of one Janet Barch, Jesse asked, "So you're not playing football this year?"

"Nope," Jeffy answered with a slightly drunken grin, "I'm doing Baseball in the spring with the other J's but this year… Things changed."

Jesse smiled at that but asked about the football scholarships, to which Jeffy had an answer.

"I wasn't good enough to get one," Jeffy answered honesty, "I'm a much better baseball player but my parents wouldn't hear a word of it, plus my friends all did so, why not play?"

"Ah," Jesse breathed while opening another beer, "So the band changed that?'

"Kind of," Jeffy admitted, "But it was a bit earlier than that, I mean after meeting Monique and hanging out with such a… a new cool crowd it really opened my eyes."

Jeffy seemed to get a bit maudlin as he said, "I mean the whole world is so… Big. It's like, bigger than, well… This crapville that's for damn sure."

"Yeah," Jesse added even as he got a bit closer to Jeffy on the couch.

Jeffy looked at the beefcake and tears welled up in his eyes, "And I… I think I'm fucking up."

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked with confusion, worried that it was about it.

Jeffy was quiet for a little while, only the trembling of his lip and the water in his eyes gave away that he was fighting back tears.

"I mean… Monique is cool with me exploring… well you know."

Jesse just nodded in acknowledgment, having had firsthand experience in the kid's 'exploring'.

"But there's this guy I've kinda become… Attracted too and, well… He's dating someone else and…"

"You're pretty sure that it's not an open relationship like you and Monique." Jesse concluded and Jeffy nodded at that.

"Is he into you?" Jesse asked and Jeffy shrugged.

"I have no idea man." Jeffy stated flatly, clearly worried and torn up.

"Have you… Done anything? Said anything?" Jesse asked and Jeffy shook his head no on both counts.

"Ok so you haven't actually fucked up at all man." Jesse said and kept the silent 'yet' to himself.

Jeffy wasn't quite sure when exactly Jesse had gotten too close to him, but he didn't really mind it, in fact he put an arm around him and pulled the big lug closer, his bare flesh underneath the leather vest gleamed in the light of the flickering television.

Jesse smiled after having glanced down at Jeffy's waist and said very carefully, "Maybe you just needed to vent, and Monique is ok with you and me messing around right?"

"Yeah." Jeffy said with heavy bated breath and felt himself lean in and kiss Jesse briefly, tasting the cheap beer and pot on his tongue.

Then he let the brief kiss turn into something more, and vented away.

"Wow…" was all that Elsie could come up with over her Beef Noodle Soup at the Good Time Chinese Restaurant.

"I know," Jamie replied having had the same reaction to Joey and Stacy's predicament when he found out earlier, "They're gonna be someone's parents!"

"What do you think happened to cause this?" Elsie asked with morbid curiosity.

Jamie just shrugged, "Dunno, he didn't say, but they had to have forgotten to use protection for some reason at some point and… well… They've got a bun in the oven."

Elsie made a noise, "My parents would kill me if they even thought that had happened."

Jamie looked a bit downcast at that and said quietly, "Is it wrong of me to be glad that it isn't us dealing with this?"

Elsie was silent at that for a while, taking a sip of soup as an excuse until she said, "No it's not, we've been smart about it and I'm on the Pill so we've got our bases covered."

Jamie tried to cover up his guilty feelings with a question, "How'd you talk your parents into getting you the Pill anyway?"

Elsie laughed at that, "Well it helps with other… female stuff, and I'll leave it at that."

"Oh." Jamie said flatly, which made Elsie laugh again, but he didn't really mind that.

"She's happy, so that makes me happy." Jamie thought to himself over his eggroll.

Since a happy Elsie had ways of making Jamie very happy indeed.

Evan dialed the now familiar number and felt a touch of nerves for reasons he couldn't fully identify, and after dealing with Damien he got through to Andrea.

"Hey Andrea!" Evan said in a chipper greeting.

"Hi Evan, what's up? Are you wanting to go on another run?"

"Nah not tonight Andy." He replied using the nickname that he had come up for her.

"Then why'd ya call?"

"I kinda need to ask you a small favor." Evan replied politely, hoping that he wasn't treading into unknown depths.

"Ok, spill."

"Ed and I are going to Casino Night and I was hoping to set him up on a date…" Evan began to explain until Andrea cut him off.

"You want me to go out with him?" she asked suddenly.

"Actually I was wanting your advice on finding him a girl." Evan admitted sheepishly.

"Oh… Okay… But why me?" Andrea asked with no small amount of confusion.

"Well, all the girls I know are the popular ones," Evan replied, "And even if I could get one of them to go with him, they'd just treat it like a pity date and the kid deserves better, you know?"

"…Yeah I do know." Andrea replied much more kindly than before, "Give me a night to think about it and make a couple calls."

"Alright!" Evan said with a fist-pump in the air that Andrea could feel through the lines.

"Evan can I ask you something?" Andrea said once he was done cheering.

"Sure Andy, what you wanna know?"

"Who are you going with?" Andrea asked and her throat had a catch in it.

"Well… I umm… I kinda…" Evan stammered and felt like an idiot, "I wanted to ask…. You… Yes I wanted to ask you out to Casino Night."

Then he mentally cursed himself for having the communication skills of a horny fourteen year old.

"I'm not in the mood for a pity date." Andrea said very flatly.

"This isn't a pity date!" Evan said quickly.

"…You sure?" Andrea replied with trepidation and hope.

"Yes I'm sure! I, Evan Larson am asking you, Andrea Hebuca out on a date on a cruise ship."

"…Yes!"

Evan's smile could have been used to light up a dark night in Hell, "Awesome!"

Then the power went out all across Lawndale, cutting off their phone call.

The next day at Lawndale High came by and it was punctuated with the sounds of gossip, and none more gossipy or bitchy than a certain popular Freshman girl named Irene.

"Like Ohmigod!" she said very loudly within earshot of some older popular girls, "That Stacy is such a slut! I mean who gets knocked up like that other than a slut?"

"I know…" one of her sycophants replied, she had four of them and for some reason it was impossible to remember their names.

"I agree! And she's gonna get all fat!" another one teased while remembering that she needed to throw up her breakfast.

"Ewww!" the others squealed at the thought of ugly, ugly fat, fat that could ruin their social status.

Then Irene made a serious tactical error, she continued her line of very loud and very cruel bitching within earshot of Tori Jericho and Rene Glass.

The hot new brunette girl didn't see Tori's fist coming, but she certainly felt it when it connected with her jaw.

Then she didn't really remember much until she woke up in the nurse's office an hour later with her friends, all of whom were still out cold.

There were twenty three witnesses to this and they all agreed that the poor girls had tripped and fallen all over each other.

And for some funny reason the cameras in that area of the hall that remained from Li's regime had mysteriously been disconnected and the tapes vanished without a trace.

Much later that day Jane Lane was handed a small bag full of VHS tapes by Tori Jericho outside of the building and was asked, very nicely, to use them in an art project as soon as possible.

"And be sure that they are completely destroyed in the process ok?" Tori asked sweetly while Jane looked at the bag and recalled the rumors and then nodded firmly and the deal was struck.

But that was much later.

In the present, Stacy was surrounded by the other members of the Style Girls Club who weren't dishing out a beatdown, all of them being as supportive and sympathetic as they could.

Which meant that a lot of the conversation involved maternity wear, makeup, and how great her skin was going to look.

"I mean there's no avoiding the pounds so you might as well just pig out and enjoy it." Quinn said with all the knowledge of the situation that any teenage girl would have that hasn't had any experience with the situation at all.

"Buuuutttt…." Tiffany began to drawl, but everyone else just tuned her out.

"Thanks guys," Stacy said sweetly with Brooke letting her lean supportively on her shoulder, "I mean this whole thing is just…" Stacy started to sniffle and without thinking about it Brooke pulled out a small packet of disposable tissues from her small purse and handed them over.

"I should get more of those." Brooke noted to herself as Stacy started to cry again.

She started to scan for Joey, hoping that he would show up soon.

Joey was having the very strange experience of being partly congratulated by his teammates for 'gettin' some' but also a lot of shocked "Whoa's!" when they all realized that he was going to be, well…

"A Dad." Joey thought to himself again, still quite floored by the thought and scared out of his damn mind.

Jeffy and Jamie were right at his side as usual, and they were now being joined by that new Russian guy on the team, Dmitri.

Who for his part brushed some of his long, dirty blond hair out of his pale green eyes and told him in a thickly accented voice, "You're not alone in dis situation, my own parents conceived me when they were about your own age."

The big bulky son of the largest nation on Earth put a meaty hand on his shoulder and patted him, "It's going to be tough, no lies about that, but from what mine papa and mama say, dis worth it in da end."

Joey managed a faint smile at that and was glad that he was at least trying, "I hope so… I mean we haven't even decided if we're going to raise it or like… adopt out… But I… A big part of me wants to keep it."

Joey then fell into himself and muttered, "I just don't know what Stacy wants, she won't tell me."

They rounded the corner and walked a few feet and Dmitri spotted the Style Girl's first and pointed them out.

"Why don't you ask her?" he said with a nudge and a wink.

Joey took a deep breath and girded his loins and said softly, "After school, but she needs me right now in any case."

As Joey strode on towards his girl, the other two J's took a couple hesitant steps to head after him, but both of them were seized suddenly by two very powerful arms.

"Don't." Dmitri said quietly, "You can't help him now, dis between him and her."

Dmitri then let them go and walked away, Jamie and Jeffy looked at each other and were forced to concede that Dmitri was correct.

"God this sucks." Jeffy said as he and Jamie walked in another direction.

"I know man," Jamie replied, "I just want to help him."

"We will man," Jeffy assured him, "But right now we, like, can't."

Jamie sighed in defeat and followed his friend to their closely positioned lockers to get their books for the next class.

Ed beamed when he caught sight of Evan and his new running partner and other odd-ball friend Andrea and waved at them as he came up as quickly as he could.

"Hey Ed!" Evan said in greeting, "Just the man we wanted to see."

"Huh?" Ed replied with a raised eyebrow.

Andrea gave him a smug satisfied look as Evan explained, "I'm taking Andrea to Casino Night and she's agreed to hook you up man!"

"Cool!" Ed replied with a big smile and then had to ask, "Who?"

Andrea gave him a mysterious smile, "That's my secret for now."

"What no spoilers?" Ed managed to tease, having become comfortable enough around Evan to do it without fear of reprisal.

"No spoilers for now," Andrea replied but assured him with, "I'll introduce you two later, kay?"

Ed agreed, conceding defeat before the battle was joined, since he had a feeling he'd lose and lose badly.

"Hey guys wait up!" Kevin yelled out as he ran up to Mack and Rex who both sighed with their backs turned to the QB but turned around, fully expecting to be talked at about the big game with Oakwood that Friday.

Again.

"Uh is Kevin holding a textbook?" Rex managed to ask before the man in question got within normal speaking distance.

"I was wondering if you guys would study with me in, you know study hall? Since we have it together and stuff." Kevin said to them, and Mack found himself completely and utterly unable to respond.

Rex bounced back first and said, "Sure man, is Britt going to be with?"

Kevin scratched his head in an attempt to remember if they were fighting or not that week, "Uh… Yea she will be."

Rex swallowed a sigh and still agreed to it anyway.

"Awright!" Kevin cheered and patted Rex on the back before running off.

Only then was Mack able to shake himself out of his stupor, "Kevin… Studying?!"

Rex snarked, "Yeah I'm surprised too… and then I remember that we don't get byes anymore, so even our resident idiot-in-QB has to study with the rest of us."

"I know that!" Mack snapped back but his smile took the sting off, "It's just… Bizarre seeing or hearing Kevin having any connection to actual learning whatsoever!"

Rex laughed, "I know but get used to it sugar."

"Sugar?!" Mack exclaimed in surprise, which made Rex laugh again.

"I knew that'd get you!"

Mack grunted, "As long as Kevin doesn't call me that, I'm cool."

"If he does call you that then there are a few questions that Brittany needs to be asking her boyfriend." Rex said as a comeback.

"Snap and Count it!" Mack replied as they started walking to their next hour class and rounded a corner, just in time to see the prone bodies of Irene and her posse, and a swish of blond hair ducking into another classroom.

"Uh…" they said in unison for a minute until Mack had the bright idea of walking the hell away and getting a teacher before anyone tried to pin it on them.

In DeMartino's class, Ethan was stunned and amazed along with everyone when after the teacher asked Kevin a question, and he almost got it right!

"Hey Josh," Ethan said into the silence and looked at his boyfriend, "Is the world coming to an end?"

"Give it a minute." Josh replied and looked around but when the world held itself together he sighed.

"Damn postponed apocalypses!" Jane said dramatically with a shaken fist in the air, which broke the tension and even had Kevin laughing.

"Very GOod KevINI!" DeMartino managed to say after composing himself, "At least you READ the CHAPter."

Mr. D then corrected Kevin's mistakes in his answer, but his gaze lingered on the QB for a while, but it wasn't his usual resentful hateful glare but one filed with curiosity and a touch of hope.

"So on to less dramatic topics," Josh said to Ethan once the class got back on track, "After the jam session I recorded some background music, we can knock out the project tonight, right?"

"Yup." Ethan replied as Brooke passed him a note and after glancing at it jotted down a reply and passed it back.

She read it and smiled and got some fresh paper and wrote a quick reply and folded it and wrote 'Daria' on the front and slipped it to Ethan who slipped it to Josh, who tossed it to Jane, who did a dramatic fake stretching yawn and let the note fall in front of the Queen of Snark.

Daria unfolded it and read it and sighed and wrote a reply that she didn't know much about pregnancy but could locate a few books for Stacy at Books by the Ton, then added a question of if they needed a Baby Name book.

After some more note passing back and forth, it was confirmed that Quinn had made an emergency trip to the bookstore that morning and had gotten the first book of names she could find.

"Now that's dedication coming from her." Daria quipped even while feeling glad that her sister hadn't bailed on Stacy during this like she would have expected her too.

"Quinn in a bookstore?" Andrea snarked from the distance, "I want a picture, otherwise I won't' believe it."

That earned a hearty chuckle from everyone, but attracted the ire of Mr. DeMartino, at least until he saw that it was his good students.

So he turned a blind popping eye.

The conversation shifted to Jane and her declaration of 'Yenta' on Jodie Landon, which no one else was even sure if Jodie was aware of just yet.

"I'll tell her next period." Jane replied with a shrug, "Bob says he's got the perfect guy for her."

"Who?" Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow, trying to think of a non-rich, non-preppy, non-normal type at Lawndale that Bob would think of as perfect for Ms. Landon."

"It's a kid from Oakwood," Jane replied and for some reason Josh got a sinking feeling in his stomach that he already knew who it was.

"I don't really know him," Jane admitted, "But Bob likes him, a JP Taylor, or something."

Ethan got one look on Josh's face and asked him in a whisper, "You know him?"

"He's the new drummer for the Yobs." Was Josh's whispered answer.

"…I'm guessing that this might be a bad idea?" Ethan asked and Josh snickered and gave his man a physical description of JP Taylor.

"Oh and he's Brittany's cousin too." Josh added as if that wasn't important.

"Eeep!" Ethan squeaked and caused everyone to stare at him and he played it off with a, "What?!"

The awkwardness took a while to go away.

There were stares, some accusing, some curious, some mocking, some just looking, but there had been stares all day.

In his heart Joey suspected that it would level off, at least until she started showing.

"But I'm going to have to get used to it," he thought and then amended, "We're going to have to get used to it."

He gripped Stacy's hand a little tighter as they walked down the halls, and gave her a glance and a warm smile.

She smiled back and leaned her head on his shoulder for comfort and support.

Even while wearing his brave face, his insides were pure mush at the import of what they had decided a few minutes before, having snuck into an empty supply closet and had talked about what to do about the situation.

With their decision in place, Joey felt happy and scared at the same time, something he had believed to impossible.

"I guess a lot is going to change," he thought, "Now that we're going to be parents."

His heart registered another stab of fear because, "I have no freaking idea what I'm doing!" Joey thought to himself, "Shit!"

He'd be saying that a lot in the coming years.

"You're serious?" Jodie asked out of reflex after being approached by Jane and asked about having a date arranged for fun.

Jane nodded and said, "I'm not one to pull pranks using people's love lives, besides you look could use a date… And I hear that the Princess Fairy isn't all that it's cracked up to be, so why not skip the suck and have some fun?"

Jodie suddenly felt like the kid being offered candy by a stranger at a playground.

"Uh… Who's the guy?" she asked with a tone that said no evasions would be tolerated.

"Do you know JP Taylor?" Jane asked as a reply and when Jodie shook her head no, Ms. Lane smirked and replied, "Good, then you'll be delightfully surprised."

The evil little laugh that came from Jane at those words before departing gave Jodie paused.

"I'd better ask around." She said to herself, noting that JP's last name was Taylor and hoped that Brittany knew something about him.

Which was a bit of a stretch, but desperate times and all that.

"JP?!" Brittany yelled in a loud squeak while raising her hands to her face in horror, "Oh no! What was Jane thinking?!"

"Uh…" Jodie intoned as she got that sinking feeling her in stomach.

"Jodie, JP is like totally crazy! His side of the family is completely nuts! My Dad and like, Uncle Mark hate each other, every Thanksgiving ends in a fight with them and then everyone starts yelling and it hurts my head and then me and JP always get in our own fight and the cops always wind up showing up and tasering us! Tasers HURT!"

As Brittany rambled all this, Jodie was overwhelmed with the flood of information, and decided to put a big smile on her face and began to walk away backwards, hoping she wouldn't be noticed.

Then the chilling voice of doom rendered her plans moot when Kevin came up from behind them and since he didn't see Brittany's face, he didn't know that this was a bad time.

"Hey Jodie, Hey Brit! I just got the tickets for Casino Night, it's gonna rock!"

Brittany for her part wasn't mentally there, instead she was half-way at a Taylor Thanksgiving and seeing JP and seeing reddddddd.

"Ow!" Kevin screamed as Brittany socked him in the gut, hard.

"Oooooh!" Brittany roared, "Did you think I forgot about the last school thing we went too and I caught you making out with ZOE?!"

Even with the wind knocked out of him, Kevin stuck to his story, "For the 50th time, babe, I was fixing her nose ring!"

"Ha!" Brittany laughed with her emotional state slipping back into the danger zone, "What do you think? That I'm that stupid and stuff?"

At this moment, Ethan and Daria's presence became known to Jodie, it was clear that they had been listening in for a while.

"Should we test the stupidity theory?" Ethan snarked to Daria who smirked at that.

Kevin the meanwhile tried to babble his way out of this, "Hey, I've already told you, smart doesn't matter with a body like mine..." He then picked up on her verbal cues and added, "I mean yours!"

Brittany stomped her foot and pouted, "Hmph! For your information, there are plenty of guys who think I'm pretty and smart!"

"You can visit them in the Head Injury ward at Cedars." Daria snarked to Ethan who had to fight back a laugh, even Jodie smirked at that one.

Brittany whined, "Ooh, I'm sick of this! Maybe it's time I find someone who really appreciates me!"

To his credit Kevin managed a comeback of, "Maybe I should find someone who really appreciates me!"

Ethan muttered to his female companions, "Hello, Mom?"

Kevin and Brittany then broke up for the millionth time, "And this time I mean it!" Brittany added with a roar and another punch to Kevin's stomach so he couldn't respond, letting her have the last word.

As Kevin fell to his knees and wheezed for air, Jodie asked out loud, "You guys don't really think…?"

"Nah," Ethan and Daria sang together.

"That species mates for life." Daria commented.

It didn't take long for Kevin to find a new date, or rather she found him.

Poor Irene had found herself dumped by Dmitri due to the whole making fun of Stacy thing, and had seen a golden opportunity to move up in the social hierarchy by dating the QB!

Brittany heard about that and in a few seconds had made a beeline for Dmitri Bykov who suddenly found himself hooked up with Brittany, who wouldn't take no for an answer.

And who could say no to those breasts? Or those kung-fu fists of death?

After that, for a lot of people the rest of the week seemed to fly by, Ethan and Josh worked on their project for O'Neill's and hung out together, Ethan even watched the Yobs try to come up with original material to play during their 'official' first session.

"Considering the fact that Josh's mom wont' be in town that weekend, and the amount of food and beer we bought… Yeah this practice session is going to become party in an hour." Ethan had thought at one point and then shrugged, it would be fun to have a party that didn't involve a rusted out boat.

Andrea found a nice dress in her style and hoped that Evan would be impressed with it, and how it would show off her developing body.

Evan for his part helped Ed rent his first Tux, and showed him the way to pin a corsage on a lady, and just smirked when asked who the lady in question would be.

Tori had landed a dream date with Marco the talcum powder model, and was kind enough to write down all the information for him.

Joe Appleton in the meanwhile did his best to get to know his new potential friends, even though he found opening up quite difficult.

It was hard to trust people, he had been betrayed too many times before.

And of course countless other students did other stuff too.

Then Friday came…

In O'Neill's class, everyone got to 'enjoy' Kevin and Brittany's presentation on the 'benefits' of sports teams.

Which thankfully had been completed before their breakup because otherwise it would have been as hot a mess as the two of them next to each other in front of an audience.

Since Kevin said something stupid and Brittany kicked him in the balls and then "Hmph-ed!" and went back to her desk.

O'Neill sobbed for five minutes longer than Kevin did, and Kevin had the excuse of scrotal agony.

In that meanwhile, Ethan and Josh just went to the front of the class and played their little presentation on "A Sick, Sad World Approach to Life"

The sounds of Josh playing spacy guitar riffs emerge while Ethan narrates over seemingly innocuous images, "Behold an ordinary day in a suburban High School… Or is it an ordinary day?"

The images shift, the normal looking visuals of kids in a High School that looked like Lawndale took on more surreal and darker tones, the hallway turned into an assembly line, the boys turned into lock step soldiers, the girls into heavily painted wind-up dolls

"This is the true purpose of High School," Ethan's voice said over the visuals, "To convert all of us into drones for conventional society."

Pixilated copies of Ethan and Josh suddenly jump off the assembly line and flee the teachers who turn into soldiers.

"Not everyone wants that life though, and those that try to step outside of the box are always persecuted for it."

Ethan and Josh out run the soldiers and bust through the doors into white light.

"In the end," Ethan said over the whiteness, "If you're willing to stick it out and fight for what you truly want, you will be free of the assembly line, then you can be what you truly want to be."

"The only limits after that are merely the ones imposed by physics… Nothing more." Ethan concluded before the film ended.

O'Neill had since stopped crying and praised them for their presentation, though he only saw half of it.

Then it was Daria and Jane's turn, and while Ethan and Josh paid attention to it, and liked Trent's music, they put their heads into their hands when it was Upchuck's turn and all his was, was his face on the screen with Also Sprach Zarathustra playing in the background.

They were both out like lights after that.

That night under the big bright overhead lights, the Lawndale Lions were going strong against the Oakwood Taproots, led by their new QB Theodore Wozniak.

Granted as Ethan sat in the stands with his parents, his attention tended to drift to idle thoughts and random bursts of imagination, he knew more about the sport than he cared to, but it just didn't interest him.

"Sports are boring." Ethan thought to himself for the millionth time and noticed that his Mother was glancing at her watch every five seconds while Dad was trying to seem like he was bored but failing miserably at it.

Ethan snickered and whispered to his father, "Mr. Morgendorffer has corrupted you well."

Coyote did a double take and then asked back, "Was it that obvious?"

"Well when you jumped up and down when Rex made that touch down… Yeah it was obvious." Ethan snarked and enjoyed his Dad's embarrassment.

Then there was a roar and Ethan glanced just in time to see Robert and another player knock the enemy QB down, which gave Kevin the opening he needed to…

"TOUCHDOWN!" Upchuck's voice boomed over the sound system and after Ethan checked the score and the time and sighed with relief.

There was no way that the Taproots could win now.

And by the time the game was over and won, the Lions were at 20 to the Taproots 16, and while the Lions and their supporters cheered, the Taproots supporters were dejected.

Ethan used the celebratory air as an excuse to give Ted, who was sitting in front of him a big hug and ruffled his hair and laughed at his shock.

And then Ted hugged him right back and ruffled his hair right back.

While Ethan fell back into his seat with a fit of giggles, he lazily surveyed everything in front of him a brief glimpse at a distance figure gave him a sudden jolting shock that caused the laughter to end.

He grabbed the binoculars from his inattentive father and zeroed in and exhaled a big breath as he took in what he was seeing.

On the Oakwood's side of the field, one of the assistant coaches was glaring at a clip board and Ethan drank in the familiar face, having seen it up close countless times, having tasted the man's deeply tanned skin, felt every inch of his muscles, and had once relished his dark brown hair…

"Something wrong Ethan?" his father asked him from nowhere, startling the crap out of him.

"Uh… No nothing's wrong Dad." Ethan lied and handed him back the binoculars, not looking at his parents lest the lie give itself away.

Of the people in Lawndale, only his parents, Josh, Daria, and Jane knew the story of what had resulted in him being outed in his old hometown in Illinois.

"Well…" Ethan thought to himself as he got up with his parents to go and greet his adopted brother Rex, "He didn't see me and he couldn't possibly know that I live in Lawndale… It's just a coincidence… Let it lie."

He pushed it as far aside as he could and put on a big show of happiness for Rex when he was finally ready to go, having showered and changed.

"Come on man!" Ethan told him with a big fake laugh, "We can still catch some Sick, Sad World at Jane's."

Rex laughed and told him that he'd be taking a raincheck on that since he and Mack had plans of their own.

"Oh ok man," Ethan replied with a smile, "You two have fun then… I'll see you whenever."

But even when he got into his Camaro and began the drive to the Lane's, Ethan found his thoughts turning back to the first man he had loved.

"Ned Flanagan…" Ethan whispered to himself with a mixture of confusing feelings, "Why did you have to come back into my life?"

At the Casa Lane, Ethan heard some interesting noises coming from Trent's room and was glad that the door was closed, for once.

"I guess he and Paris are having a 'study' session." Ethan thought with a smarmy snark before reaching Jane's room and the safety of her TV.

She was half asleep with Daria, Tom, and Joe, each of them trying to stay awake with sarcastic commentary on the repeated episodes that they all knew by heart and loved.

Ethan sat down next to Joe and got a vague greeting from everyone and within five minutes found himself drifting off a bit.

"Klutzy…" Ethan muttered in reply to… Jane maybe? "I think there's a pill for that…"

Joe then passed out completely and slumped on Ethan's shoulder, for a second Ethan began to shift a bit but found the sensation pleasant enough that he stopped and let the kid snooze.

After a while he joined him in dreamland, using Joe's body as a pillow just as much as it was the other way around.

Each member of the Yob's was on an individual level at least competent at playing their instrument, Josh in fact was pretty damn good.

However the trick that any band had to learn if they wanted to get anywhere was to learn to play together, a much harder task than it seemed.

Since there were four people, each with their own style and vibe, trying to synch it all up, and create new songs and material so they wouldn't turn into a cover band with nothing original to offer.

"At least we don't sound like total suck." Josh thought to himself in desperate positivity as they took another break, Bob went into the house for a soda while JP slipped in behind him for the bathroom.

Jeffy was gulping down the last dregs from his water bottle and Josh found himself staring at his neck as it pulsed up and down and soaked in sweat.

"I needed that!" Jeffy sighed with relief once he was done and sat down on a nearby bench in Josh's garage.

"Heh," Josh laughed as he found himself sitting next to him, "We all needed a minute."

"Yeah," Jeffy replied a bit more… throaty than before, "Who'd have thought that music was so labor intensive?"

Josh gave him a look of surprise and Jeffy added with a grin, "Kidding."

They both laughed and Josh replied, "You think we'll be a smash hit out of the gate?"

"Ha!" Jeffy laughed bitterly, "My crap playing will prevent that from happening."

"Jeffy," Josh replied with a strange softness to his voice as he inched a bit closer and put a comforting arm around him, "Your still learning to play, it's only been a few months since you started, I've been doing it for over a year, and JP picked up drums maybe a month before you first touched a guitar… Give it time man."

"Yeah…" Jeffy spoke oh so softly, "Time…"

Josh started to really notice Jeffy, how strong and developed his muscles were from years of sports, and Jeffy could feel the hidden strength in Josh's arm and grip, nothing overt to the eye but there once you looked past appearances.

Jeffy wetted his suddenly dry lips while feeling even hotter in the stuffy garage, he felt his breath grow heavier and heavier.

Josh was positively panting next to him, his shirtless body bare and gleaming with slick sweat, sweat that for a wild crazy moment tempted Jeffy sorely to taste.

"Josh…" Jeffy said so quietly that it was a whisper.

"Yeah…" Josh replied very heavily, his blue eyes sinking into Jeffy's sepia orbs.

As he sat next to him, Jeffy felt a sickening knot in his heart, telling him that he was in dangerous territory, but something about that made it all the more… thrilling.

"Jeffy, I…" Josh began to say as everything in the universe seemed focused upon the two of them on the cheap wooden bench in his garage.

Then a loud thud brought it all crashing down, they separated with lightning speed just as Bob came in with a six pack of Ultra Cola.

"Hey whatsup?" Jeffy asked with a nervous twitch and a squeak.

Bob took in what he was seeing and his eyes narrowed a bit but he said, "Sodas man, want one? Cool you down and all that…"

"Sure!" Josh said very quickly and snatched on right up and began to chug it.

Bob opened the garage door a bit to let cooler air in and kept his thoughts to himself, but did decide to have a talk with them both later.

"If someone doesn't inject some sense into this the train wreck will be massive." Bob thought to himself as he grabbed his own soda while JP came back in and told them that the Deckers were out of toilet paper.

"Well I hope it got the job done!" Jeffy razzed him and JP smirked.

"No it didn't," JP replied nonchalantly while sitting down at his drum kit, "It's why your Mom will have to get a new box of Kleenexes too."

Once this sank in, JP led the snickering at that, feeling like he was ten years old all over again.

Andrew Landon, the middle-aged black conservative social-climbing inventor of the folding coffee cup was paralyzed with terror at the apparition that stood on his door step.

"Hey," the figure spoke in a gruff voice, "I'm here to pick up Jodie."

Andrew was at a total loss, but thankfully Jodie came up from behind her father and moved around him, wearing a nice white shirt, tight jeans, the latest Nikes, and a grin of bemusement at the situation.

"Well Brittany did say that you were… unconventional," Jodie said smoothly and then introduced her date to her father, "Dad this is JP Taylor, Brittany's cousin, JP this is my Dad, Andrew Landon."

"Sup?" JP asked.

Andrew managed a very tiny squeak, but otherwise unable to react.

"And we're off." Jodie added as she moved out of the doorframe and JP offered her an arm.

It was only when JP's car moved out of the drive that Andrew Landon managed to moan, "Oh good Lord, no!"

"I'm sorry for bringing you on this rust bucket." Jamie said to Elsie for the millionth time as they slipped onto the casino floor, and finding the inside just as dilapidated as the exterior.

Elsie sniffed, "Whoever owns this thing is either blind or an idiot, luxury liner my ass!"

Jamie managed a weak laugh and replied, "I was expecting better from it was hyped up, guess the cheapness of the tickets should have been a warning sign."

Elsie gave him a brave smile and said back, "Aw, buck up. Sure the boat sucks at least we have each other."

Jamie beamed at that and laughed as she did a mocking spin in her custom made designer gown, the price tag something that he didn't even want to think about.

Even less so the suit she had bought and had tailored for him for the cruise.

On the casino floor itself were Jamie's classmates, or most of them at any rate, either oblivious or trying to ignore the less than promised glamour and focusing on the free buffet, the gambling, or the social posing games of the popular kids trying to outdo each other.

The last made Elsie adopt a contemptuous look, "Amateurs." She breathed at the whole lot of them and pulled her boyfriend closer to her and grabbed their free gambling chips from a strange looking older gent with long blond hair and a carefree attitude.

"That's our new guidance counselor," Jamie explained as they went over to the roulette table, "I forget his name."

"Don't fret," Elsie said as she put a few down on for any red, "You'll remember eventually."

"Okay!" Jamie replied happily as he watched the wheel spin and spin before landing on 30 Red and cheered as Elsie won 50 bucks on her first bet.

She kissed Jamie's chips and whispered that he should bet big on black and kissed him on the cheek and added, "For luck."

"Tori is in her element." Evan commented to Andrea as they stood on the sidelines, having just eaten their fill, not giving a damn about healthy living for one night at least.

Andrea thought that he cut a good figure in his suit, he thought she was amazing in that long black gown with the fancy lacy gloves, and had told her as much all through the night.

"Or so she wants people to think." Andrea replied as they watched the spectacle unfolding in front of them.

The popular girls boasting about their dates to each other and making catty remarks about each other in between sweet words and false smiles.

When Evan asked her why she thought that, Andrea explained, "You see out of all of them, Tori is the second-best actress next to Quinn, I've learned to read people over the years. Now yes Tori is proud that she landed that model guy, but reading her body language it's obvious that she finds him boring."

Evan then watched them for a minute while she pointed out the clues and he turned his head a bit and then slapped his forehead.

"Oh my god your right!" he said in less of a sotto voce than intended and a titter moved through the people nearby them.

Andrea chuckled, "Quinn is a bit envious but isn't showing it, flaunting that her date, Brent is the flavor of the week, and more in the group than she would normally be allowed is that Irene girl with Kevin."

Andrea smirked at Evan and added, "And I have a feeling that they are already regretting going out together."

Evan would have replied but he spotted Ed in an old smart suit coming up to them from the buffet with his date.

The track star beamed and greeted his oddball friend warmly and then added, "And a special hello to you Cindy."

The girl in the trapezoid glasses and a nice mauve evening gown smiled back, "Hi guys, how did your trip to the craps table go?"

The mutual wince from the other pair of their double date was enough of an answer.

"I feel your pain man," Ed replied with a regretful thought about his own trip to the blackjack table, "Card counting is harder than I thought it would be."

"When'd you lose count?" Andrea asked.

"About seven cards in." Ed admitted and accepted the laughter at his expense as deserved.

But it didn't make him feel all that rotten, there was no cruelty to it, just friends taking the mickey out on one of their own for the moment.

Then it would all be forgotten.

"Is that Gibson flirting?!" Stacy breathed to Joey as they sat at the bar, nursing on virgin margaritas and seeing their Principal in action with an older gal dolled up in trampy garish clothes.

"I think it is." Joey replied feeling as nauseous as Stacy now did in the mornings due to her… condition.

Joey scanned the room, hoping that Mrs. M would, or could, reign him in, but alas she was at the poker table, glaring at a defiant DeMartino, the other two players were O'Neill and Defoe.

"Heh," Joey thought at the tableau before him, "O'Neill already has that crying face, DeMartino and Mrs. M are in a death struggle and Defoe is so cool that I'd say her blood is ice… Yeah I think Defoe has this in the bag."

Stacy got a glimpse of what Joey was looking at and said to him, "Penny for your thoughts."

"My thoughts are always free for you." He replied without missing a beat and told her exactly what he thought about the game.

Stacy laughed, "That's so accurate it's gotta be true! But… How do you know so much about poker and stuff?"

Joey grinned, "I watch a lot of late night poker tournaments, once you know the rules half the game is just reading people and psyching them out."

As the laughed and chatted, the very real fears and worries about the coming months and years faded away.

Since for one night at least, they could put all to the side and be carefree.

Then a very excited Brittany walked past them with Dmitri on her arm, looking a bit wore out by the bouncy thing now attached to him.

"Looks like Brit's running him ragged." Joey joked to Stacy.

They both laughed and she commented, "How long until she and Kevin get back together, after he and Dmitri fight?"

"I give it half an hour." Joey said while digging out his wallet.

"I'll be the romantic and say a whole hour." Stacy replied while pulling out a twenty.

"Wanna add a side bet to see if Kevin and Dmitri will fight?" Joey asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"No sucker bets." Stacy retorted with a flounce.

Meanwhile a couple barstools away, the Captain of the Ship was doing Yeager Bombs with an exasperated bartender ready to cut him off.

To get in the groove, Bob had the band do some cover songs, a couple Nirvana songs, a Rancid hit, and then he grinned and lead them into doing what he viewed as the most awesome song of all time.

"GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!" he boomed with pride and his audience smirked, knowing that it had to come this.

A punk, singing God Save the Queen, while putting together a band.

It had to happen.

As the Yobs gave a passable performance, the beer began to flow and the scent of weed began to enter the air.

"Music is always better with illicit substances," Ethan assured no one in particular while lighting up a joint.

He smiled with pride while watching Josh work his guitar like a boss.

"Well they're better than Mystik Spiral." Daria offered up to Tom as they slipped out of the garage to get something not in the alcohol family to consume.

"Now that's setting the bar high." Tom snarked as they walked past a depressed looking Shaggy who was staring at his unlit joint dejectedly.

"Forget your lighter?" Daria teased her school's resident stoner who simply pulled one out before putting it back in his pocket again.

"I didn't feel like it," he muttered, "Kelly… she…"

He couldn't finish what he wanted to say, so he huffed and shrugged his shoulders and walked away without another word.

"What was that?" Tom asked confused and Daria shrugged.

Jane then rushed up to them from the kitchen with some sodas and noticed who was walking away, "Oh I head that Kelly and him broke up, I guess Shaggy's taking it pretty hard."

She then handed out two of her sodas, but did try to play the, "Well you can get it but it is above you…" Until Tom jumped up at the right time and snagged the prize.

It wasn't long before the three of them were making rude, sarcastic comments to each other as other guests filtered in and around the Decker's house and Tom said, "Wow, how did band practice turn into 'party'?"

Daria and Jane both smirked, "Do you know nothing young Thomas?" Jane said mockingly.

"Consider the dangerous lower-class types you've been hanging around," Daria added in snarky sync, "Apparently all we do is drink, take drugs, and have sex all night long."

Then she realized that she had actually said that last bit and blushed furiously while Jane and Tom both struggled not to laugh.

They failed miserably.

Jake was pretty sure that the conversation was going ok, even though he was fairly certain that the woman who had left with Gibson groping her breasts was the wife of the owner of the ship.

"…And as a cost cutting measure I found these Mexican's who can cut grass and swab decks!" The sleazy figure in front of him boasted, proud of his exploitation of the suffering of the illegal and semi-legal immigrants to the United States.

Jake faked a laugh with him and managed to recall that the man's name was 'Lee', "So Lee I was wondering if you were looking for a good consultant to work on…"

He got no further when the bartender's voice cut through the crowd, "Look buddy you've had enough, now get back the pilothouse and pilot the damn boat!"

It seemed like everyone near the open bar was now looking at the drunken older man in his disheveled uniform, his Capitan's hat lopsided on his head, hunched over the bar, clinging to it as if it was the only thing holding him in place.

"Excuse me." Lee said flatly and abruptly got up and headed over to the drunk and yanked him up and began to lead him out.

Until…

"Aye…Aye…Captain…" The Captain of the Ship groaned while now clinging to Lee's shoulders.

"You're the captain, you big idiot!" Lee grumbled as he led the man off of the main banquet room.

Jake laughed very nervously and then told the bartender to get him whatever the captain had just been drinking.

He had a feeling he'd need it.

Feeling brave, Bob lead the band into trying out some of their new material, so far they didn't have complete songs yet but did have snippets and half-formed concepts that seemed to go over ok.

Then Bob called for five and only then did he hear a boom box in the other room and laughed.

"Well we expected this to happen." He said to the others before heading for the cooler to get a beer then find Jane.

JP went straight for Jodie who had sat through the entire session in a lawn chair, nursing on a mimosa.

"What'd ya think?" he asked her while taking a seat next to her and putting an arm around her shoulders.

"For a first time thing pretty good." she conceded as she got more comfortable with the alcohol in her system, and good tunes in the distance.

"Cool." JP replied warmly.

Jodie then asked if he could tell her a little bit about himself.

JP obliged her, "Well my whole name is John Paul, but I prefer JP, I'm about to turn seventeen and I'm a junior at Oakwood. I love all kinds of Rock music but Punk is my favorite… Oh and my favorite food is fishsticks."

Jodie laughed at the last part, "Didn't see that one coming."

"No one does," JP replied before asking, "So what about you Jodie?"

Jodie snorted, "Where do I start?"

"I've got all night love." JP replied with a cheesy grin to break the ice.

There was something about that grin that made her relax enough to open up to him.

After hanging out with Josh for a while, Ethan reluctantly parted ways with his boyfriend, "I've gotta piss."

He wove his way through the Decker's house and was surprised at the number of people that had come, and then concluded that they were ones that hadn't bothered to go on that boat trip.

"Old Li would have made it mandatory," Ethan thought with a chuckle as he found the bathroom mercifully empty and did his business quickly and got out before his miracle quota ran dry.

As he wandered back through the house, he began to recognize faces, there was Angel with her new boyfriend Dave, Burnout was nearby with Spike shot gunning pot smoke.

He checked the garage but found it bereft of Josh and with a huff walked back out, as he stepped past the small utility room he heard a voice call out, "Looking for someone?"

Ethan turned and found Joe Appleton stepping out of the room and suspected that the wallflower had been looking for a quiet place.

"Yeah, have you seen Josh?" Ethan asked, and smiled when Joe shook his head in the affirmative.

"I think he went to the bathroom," Joe replied while indicating that Ethan should follow him.

The Decker's utility room was a bit cramped since it doubled as the laundry room, Ethan shut the door behind him and found the eerie quiet a blessed relief.

They made a little idle chit chat for a few minutes before Ethan was confident enough to ask the kid about his life before moving to Lawndale.

"Oh that," Joe replied sadly, "It's not a pretty story."

"It's ok man," Ethan answered back, "If you don't want to talk about it…"

"No it's not that," Joe stated quickly, "It's just…"

He struggled to explain how he felt but words failed him and he gave up and sighed.

"I'll give you the abridged version," the dark haired boy said after a moment's pause, "I had an ordinary life in a bland ordinary town in Oregon, nothing fancy or complicated until I turned thirteen and figured out that I was attracted to other men."

Ethan just gave him an encouraging smile, glad that he was comfortable enough to open up like this, "The kids the quiet type," Ethan thought to himself, "Nothing wrong with that but it's good to build friendships with at least a few people."

Meanwhile Joe began to play with the cuffs of his long sleeve shirt, "I came out to my parents after a few months of getting used to it, my father was shocked but trying to understand it but my mother…"

Joe then sniffled, "She had been getting into Evangelical Christianity behind our backs and she went ballistic."

"Joe," Ethan began to say but he held up a hand.

"I don't need pity." Joe stated flatly, then continued.

"She managed to get Dad to sign off on sending me to one of those Ex-Gay camps… It wasn't pretty." Joe said very quietly while pulling up he sleeves and revealed two matching sets of scars on his wrists and forearm.

Red slashes across his wrists and one going up his forearms each.

"I did this in the second week," Joe said softly and in a tone that showed that he was now partly in the past.

"If one of the counselors hadn't come in to check on why I was in the bathroom so long I would have died, as it was, it was a very near thing."

He managed a very dark laugh, "Not that my mother cared, even in the hospital she was calling me a faggot and saying that I would have to try harder at the next camp." Joe's countenance then grew a bit sterner.

"That's when my father told her that enough was enough, that he didn't care if I was into girls, guys, or anything in between." He then smiled a bit at that before concluding with.

"I was his boy and that he wouldn't stop loving me for anything."

Joe's face then fell and he added, "My mother wouldn't have any of it, she filed for divorce the next day saying that the Good Lord wouldn't want her to be married to a hell-bound sinner. By the time I got out of the hospital, Dad had been forced to move out with our stuff to a tiny apartment in Portland."

Ethan had in the meanwhile moved closer to the kid and had pulled him into a tight embrace.

But Joe kept talking, "We lived in Portland until recently, my Dad got transferred to the Lawndale area to work for HQ of Grace, Sloane, and Page and… that's it I guess."

The dark haired and pale skinny boy smiled softly in Ethan's arms and enjoyed the physical contact and looked up at the beautiful guy with his wavy long brown hair and green eyes.

He was sorely tempted to try and kiss him, but uncertainty and knowing that Ethan already had a boyfriend held him back.

So instead he asked Ethan about his own life, and Ethan Yeager told him about it, only holding back his affair with his gym coach in Illinois.

When Ethan was finished speaking Joe simply replied, "Whoa, wow man this town's been good to you."

Ethan chuckled at that, "Yeah, now that you spell it all out I guess it has been… Just don't tell anyone that I said that."

"My lips are sealed." Joe swore firmly while teasing him with the boy scouts salute.

Kevin growled in frustration once more, "I'm the QB! Why didn't she want to do what dates are supposed to do?!"

Granted he had gotten the feeling that Irene wasn't really all that into him, but still he was the QB!

And since it was a date, he had taken her to a quiet place he had found in the coat room and had begun to make out with her, but when he had tried to cop a feel she had squealed in protest and slapped him.

Slapped him!

Then said, "I don't go that far on the first date!"

She had stormed out in a huff and had ignored all his (faked) apologies and entreats for another make out session, where he might have a second shot.

"Her loss." Kevin assured himself as he stepped out on the deck, looking for Brit, since he had no doubt that she would be dumping that scary Russian guy and they could hook up again.

Just like it should be.

"I haven't had this much fun on a date in a loooong time!" Brittany cooed to her blond Russian bear as they leaned on the railings looking up at the big full moon and the stars on the starboard side of the ship.

For his part, Dmitri looked a bit henpecked and his hair and shirt were disheveled due to the hot making out a few minutes before, but he wasn't complaining one bit.

"She's a bit dumb," Dmitri conceded to himself, "But she's got great tits, and she's like a big bowl of ice cream… I can get used to this."

Then a happily oblivious voice cut through their relaxing, "Hey-hey Brit!"

Dmitri and Brittany turned to see Kevin heading up to them, and Dmitri noticed that behind Kevin that the coastline was much closer than it should be.

Much, much closer.

Without saying a word, he put a hand around Brittany's waist and pulled her away from the railing, which made her smile since she thought he was putting the moves on.

And caused Kevin to see red…

DeeDee was snoring like a buzzsaw in the luxury suite of the Princess Fairy, a bed sheet hiding her shame but not the sins to which she and Jed Gibson had been indulging in.

Gibson for his part had finished lacing up his tennis shoes and was stepping out and thinking, "She was shit in bed… But better than nuthin' I suppose."

He didn't notice that his hand was scratching away at his crouch.

But as soon as he opened the door he found a smarmy gent right in front of him, having been reaching for the door handle himself.

A brief second of shock flew past and just as Gibson recognized him as the ship's owner, Lee began to scream, "DeeDee goddammit!"

But they got no further since the boat felt like it hit something and shook violently and knocked them both flat on their butts.

DeeDee meanwhile kept right on snoring away, but she did mutter, "Oh… back for seconds…"

Jeffy Grey was three sheets to the wind and wasn't a hundred percent sure where he was in Josh Decker's house but he was fairly sure that the door in front of him was the bathroom…

"Oh crap!" he said once it registered that this wasn't the bathroom, it was Josh's room, and Josh was in it, and changing his shirt.

"I'm sorry!" Jeffy said quickly and shut the door and leaned on it, breathing in and out shallowly until he felt the door open and pushed himself off.

"You can come in." Josh said nicely and Jeffy didn't hesitate, his feet took him in and kicked the door shut behind them.

"I spilt beer on my favorite shirt," Josh explained as he pointed at the now stained garment in the hamper, "I hope I can save it, there's a lot of good luck connected with it."

Jeffy smiled at that, "Is that why practice went over so well?"

They both laughed at the little joke.

Josh sat down on his bed and Jeffy took a seat next to him and looked around and said, "Nice digs, comfy bed."

"It's nothing crazy," Josh replied bashfully, "But it's my little corner to dwell in."

"We all need that," Jeffy replied sweetly, "Our own spaces and stuff."

Josh smiled and Jeffy broke out in a sudden sweat and this heart skipped a beat.

He struggled to think of something to say and blurted out, "So lyric wise we're going to need some help or something…"

Jeffy instantly felt like the nerdy kid that didn't know how to talk to girls.

Josh stared into Jeffy's handsome fact and wasn't aware of how he was adjusting his pants, "We could pay Daria to write some for us… She's shown me some of her stuff."

"Hey that's a good idea!" Jeffy replied excitedly, "Her Melody Powers story rocked! I never did get to hear the sequel."

Josh laughed and fidgeted, "Well the coffee shop did turn into a riot, she's keeping those stories under lock and key until she's sure that it won't cause property damage."

Jeffy floated on cloud nine as he replied, "I'm sure we could arrange something… to make sure… that bad things… don't…. happen."

As he struggled to keep speaking, his body moved closer and closer to Josh Decker, who for his part looked a bit disconnected, his eyes half-shut as if he was slipping into a dream…

A static charge flooded Jeffy's senses as his lips made contact with Josh's own unresisting mouth, very quickly their tongues were tasting the alcohol and weed that coated their insides.

Josh melted completely into it until with a jarring shock his inner voice screamed, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

He jerked back, his eyes having flown wide open, Jeffy seemed stunned for a minute before he started to shake.

They stared at each other for a long moment before Josh managed to stammer, "Oh fuck! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

"Holy shit…" Jeffy breathed with growing realization of what they had started to do, "Josh… I…."

Josh began backing up further on the bed as white as a ghost, his finger pointed at the door and he said, "This didn't happen… Just… Just get out."

When Jeffy continued to sit dumbfounded and struggling to articulate something, anything, Josh added an emphatic, "Now!"

Jeffy scrambled to get off the bed and out of the room as quickly as he could.

As soon as the door slammed shut, Josh buried his head into his pillow and began to cry into it, his emotions on a derailed rollercoaster that was about to hit the ground hard.

Jeffy stumbled while rushing down the hallway, looking for an exit of any sort, craving fresh air and ignoring the concerned looks of the others around him found a patio door and stepped out in the night onto a backyard deck.

He ignored the bench and went over to the wall next to the door and slid down to the ground, breathing in an out like he had run a marathon.

Time slipped away and he felt a bit feverish but a pair of combat boots came into view and he looked up and found Bob looking at him with concern, his girlfriend Jane just behind him.

"Jeffy what happened?" Bob asked with concern and growing worry, the thing he had been dreading for some reason came to mind but he shoved it aside.

"I… I fucked up." Was all that Jeffy said.

Bob didn't say anything in reply, he just pulled Jeffy up and gave him a hug and quietly asked him what happened.

"I… I shouldn't talk about it." Jeffy answered in return before feeling red hot tears starting to stream down his face.

Bob brought him over to a bench and Jane stared at the scene trying to figure out what could have caused this and hoped it wasn't drug related.

"You what?!"

Jane went rigid with shock while Bob repeated what he had just exclaimed after having gotten Jeffy to talk.

"I made out with Josh." Jeffy repeated his confession, looking a bit pale and his eyes downcast, "I… I didn't mean to but…"

He trailed off for half a second before offering up lamely, "But it happened."

"Jeffy Grey," Bob said in a hollow voice, "You. Fucked. Up."

"Where's Josh?" Jane asked, speaking up for the first time, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

"Last I saw in his room." Jeffy said very faintly, his head so down all that they could see was the back of his head.

Bob just stared before saying, "Jeffy, You… You have to tell Ethan what you two did."

"I know." Jeffy muttered dejectedly.

After that Bob and Jane struggled to find something to say, but nothing came to mind.

"Cheap beer and pretzels," Joe said with a smirk at what he had pilfered from the small food table and cooler back in the garage, "The quintessential meal for any American teenager."

"One of them." Ethan said with a slight upward twist of his lips as they leaned on the wall, the door to the utility room next to them.

The various party-goers were either dancing to the music, talking to each other in clusters, and a few couples were making out in semi-private corners.

Joe forced a laugh at that, "Yeah, sounds about right."

Then Ethan noticed that his new buddy seemed a bit downcast when he said it, and he wondered just how much experience with social events that the kid had.

But a very familiar pair of people them came up to them, "Rex, Mack!" Ethan said happily, "When did you two get here?"

Mack answered, "Oh me and Rex went out on a date night for a while."

The way that Mack was grinning, and Rex's blushing was answer enough, and Ethan and Joe had to fight back snickers.

The four of them began to talk and eat, then Ethan glanced up and saw Josh coming towards him, and that one glance revealed that there was a lot wrong.

He was disheveled, his eyes red and puffy from crying, and he looked almost… Ashamed.

"Ethan," Josh said to him very weakly, "I have to talk to, in private."

"Okay." Ethan replied with a touch of confusion and worry at this out of the blue persona flip.

Josh led him away from the group by the hand and brought him to his room and shut the door behind him.

"So, Josh…" Ethan began to ask before Josh looked up at him with big sad eyes and cut him off.

"Ethan, I fucked up."

"…How?" Ethan asked after a moment and dread began to seize control of his body.

Josh sucked in a breath and said, "Jeffy and I kissed."

Ethan instantly felt like a rug had been yanked out from underneath him, the dread turned into horror and he looked at Josh with wide-eyed disbelief.

"What?!"

"We kissed… well made out…" Josh said in hollow, mournful tones, "I… I didn't mean to but it… happened."

He said the last very lamely and sighed, looking like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Ethan felt his body jerk him back into reality and he began to shake, struggling to find something to say, but all he could do was give a yell, but what it meant was impossible to tell.

Was it out of anger? Confusion? Mourning?

Not even he was certain.

But after that he bolted out of the room, ignoring Josh's pleading and repeated refrain of, "I'm so sorry."

"Where the fuck is Jeffy?!" Ethan yelled at the first person he saw in the hallway, and scared the living crap out of the kid and others in earshot in the process.

One of the bystanders told him that Jeffy was spotted heading out the back and everyone was surprised at the level of speed that Ethan attained by running at top speed, weaving through he crowded house and out the patio door.

He quickly spotted Jeffy with Jane and Bob in attendance and snarled, "You motherfucker!"

Jeffy began get up while saying "Let me explain…"

Ethan didn't give him the chance, he never could remember the sequence of events, but he did remember the feeling of his fist connecting with Jeffy Grey's face, kicking him in the chest with a sandaled foot, and then the feeling of powerful arms wrapped around him, pulling him away.

Someone was screaming the vilest things imaginable.

Later Ethan would discover that it had been him, cursing and screaming with his face red and contorted with rage.

He could hear voices, familiar voices, saying, "It's not worth it!"

Over and over.

Then his focus came back and landed on Tom and Daria, rushing up to him from god only knew where, their clothes a bit askew.

Without even asking what was wrong, Tom pulled Ethan away from whoever had grabbed him and hugged him.

"Come on Ethan," Daria said with Jane and Bob at her sides, bystanders watching all the while, "We're taking you home."

The massive wave of anger that had consumed him vanished like the tide, leaving him drained and exhausted, tears continued to fall down his face, staining his shirt.

He heard whispering between the others as Tom and Bob lead him away from Jeffy, who was still on the ground watching all of this play out with a dazed expression.

He hadn't bothered to fight back, he knew he had deserved it.

"God this sucks," Evan moaned as he and Andrea stood on the beach, having been forced to wear life vests even though the damn boat wasn't sinking at all, it had just run aground on the shore.

The semi-legal Mexican crew were getting people off using rope ladders, the drunken captain had been the first off, unceremoniously dumped on the beach out cold by a Spanish sailor more worthy of the name.

"How much does it suck?" Andrea asked sarcastically.

Evan laughed and began to think of an answer, when his buddy Ed Parker came up with Cindy in tow and the kid said on the spot, "It sucks worse than being forced to do PE without an inhaler."

Everyone managed a chuckle at that one, then things became more hysterical when the ship's owner came down from the rope ladder, yelling at a garnish looking woman who had been among the first off ship, she had been flirting with one of the first responders, and from what the guy was saying had been caught in the sack before the accident.

"Oh my god!" Andrea said as she made the mental connection, "If I have this right, he's saying that she slept with Principal Gibson."

They all processed this and went, "Ewwww!"

"I'm sorry about all this." Jamie said as he and Elsie were given medical clearance, even though the worst anyone had got was being knocked out.

Elsie replied lazily, "It's not your fault Jamie… It's whoever owns that deathtrap."
She then pointed at the boat in question, now marooned on the beach like something out of a movie.

Jamie laughed at this and at seeing Kevin being carried past them on a stretcher, his right eye swollen and quite black, "Yeah… You want me to give that jerk a piece of my mind?"

Elsie smirked, "…Maybe next time, when there aren't so many uniforms around."

She then indicated to the cops, the newly arrived firefighters, the medics, and the reporters who could smell the stories to be sold as copy.

Jamie nodded, "Next time… So, you want to get some food?"

Elsie's smirk stayed in place, "It's either that or we go home early… Not ready for that, you?"

"Nope." Jamie replied with his own smirk as he offered and arm and she took it gratefully and they did the responsible thing by ditching the scene and headed to the parking lot.

"You were sooooo brave!" Brittany Taylor said as she and Dmitri Bykov got into his car, Brittany put her shoes on the floorboards.

"Thanks Brittany." Dmitri replied, "Though I wish I hadn't knocked Kevin out… Too much power in da punch."

Brittany laughed, "Oh no, trust me! He deserved it."

Dmitri nodded, "It is as you say, Brit."

She then cooed, "That's the first time you called me that Dmitri!"

He began to start the car, but she put a hand on top of his and before Dmitri could react she planted her lips on his and he very quickly found himself being yanked into the backseat of his own car.

"She's nuts," he managed to think to himself during a pretty hot makeout session, "But screw it! I'm horny."

And with Kevin KOed… Maybe he, Dmitri could take the girl for his own.

Maybe.

Harold Pierson-Wells walked into the darkened television room in his families Lawndale estate and quickly realized that his little brother and that slut he had been dating for a while were passed out on the couch with the TV flicking on as their only source of light.

He just shook his head and walked out while thinking, "I hope Stephen dumps the little freak soon before our parents make him do it."

He shuddered at the memory of being forced to get rid of a couple 'unsuitable' matches of his own at that age.

"If you don't do it on your own, it hurts worse," Harold reminded himself, "But it's what has to be done… That girl doesn't belong in our world."

Ethan's departure had attracted quite the convoy, but in the end, Rex was driving Ethan home in his Camaro, Mack was taking Rex's truck home for him with Joe managing to join them, and Tom and Daria were following in Tom's Jag, and Bob and Jane tailed them in his new used clunker.

Ethan was completely silent, his eyes dead and vacant like the empty void between the stars in space.

Rex didn't bother trying to engage him in conversation, nor did his turn on the radio, the kid clearly needed the quiet.

Once they pulled up at the Yeager's home, and his own now, Rex got out and followed Ethan in, the other cars pulling up just as they entered the front door.

Coyote and Willow were stitching up a quilt together in the living room and were surprised at their early arrival.

They got one look at Ethan and his mother immediately threw down her needles and went straight for her boy and pulled him into a hug and asked him what was wrong.

That was what broke Ethan out of his silence.

"Josh cheated on me." He said in a voice devoid of inflection and emotion.

The tears then came again.

After making sure that Ethan was at least physically ok, the people that weren't family got the impression that it was time to leave, which meant that Rex, Tom and their significant others stayed, the others scrammed.

As Bob drove Jane and Joe back home he said, "This shit is heavy man, real heavy."

"Yeah I know," Jane replied sadly, "I don't know how I would react to something like this…"

She managed a weak laugh, "I'd probably have done worse to Jeffy than give him a couple punches that's for damn sure."

Bob replied, "I'd never cheat on you, or anyone."

"I know." Jane told him with a smile.

From the backseat, Joe couldn't help but feel a touch of envy at this, wishing that he could meet someone cool like Bob for friendship.

"Or something more…" Joe thought to himself.

Then Bob sighed, "I should have done something though…"

"What do you mean?" Jane asked him confused.

Bob sighed again, "I… I kind of saw Jeffy and Josh interacting and there was obvious chemistry, for a little bit I thought I'd have to say something but I thought they had a handle on it on their own."

"I… I guess I was wrong." Bob finished lamely.

That confession sank in like a brick to the face.

"Wait…" Jane replied a bit more coldly, "You saw them getting into each other and you didn't offer up so much as a hint of this to anyone?"

"What was I supposed to say?" Bob asked her defensively, "Hell what could I have said? I struggled with that for a while and I couldn't come up with crap!"

"Anything other than being quiet as a church mouse!" Jane retorted with her voice rising in decibels.

Joe was never more thankful to get home than he was that night when Bob pulled up on his street, the bickering starting to grow and grow between them.

With Ethan in his room, trying to catch some sleep if he could under the circumstances, Tom and Rex followed Willow back to the kitchen, Coyote was whipping up some coffee and cookies for his guests.

Mack and Daria were talking quietly and when they got into the room Daria said, "We just got a call from Quinn…"

She then told them about the boat accident, and that while there were no serious injuries, "…It hasn't stopped my Mom from calling her old firm, she's going on the warpath against the company that owned that rust bucket."

Everyone managed the first laugh in what felt like forever.

"I'm almost glad we went to the party," Tom thought to himself and then amended, "Almost."

Mack in the meanwhile put a comforting arm around his dejected boyfriend and said, "Ethan's strong, he'll get through this."

Rex nodded, "Yeah, but my brother is going to need us, more than ever."

Mack felt some surprise at Rex calling Ethan his brother but nodded, "He's got us, he's got all of us."

Daria and Tom both heard that and matching Mona Lisa smiles greeted Mack and Rex when they looked up at the two of them on the other side of the table.

Joey felt the biggest wave of relief in his life when Stacy's checkup at the ambulance was over and she was given a clean bill of health.

"And the baby's alright too." Joey thought with a glance at Stacy's still flat belly.

At this point if anything had gone wrong, it would have been the worst thing in the world.

And Joey Black crossed yet another Rubicon that night.

No matter what was thrown at him, he genuinely wanted this baby; he wanted to be its Dad, and Stacy to be its Mom.

Just another step along a very long path.

"Josh?" Deena Decker asked in surprise on the other end of the line.

"Mom?" Josh asked with a serious case of the sniffles, "Can you cut your business trip early?"

"Why, what's wrong?" Deena asked with growing worry.

"I… I screwed up bad." Josh admitted, "I need to talk to you, face to face."

"I… I'm on my way." His mother told him quickly, shoving her workaholic instincts to the side as best she could.

"…Thank you." Josh hissed with obvious relief.

Click!

Jesse Moreno dragged himself off his couch, having passed out hours before, but now awakened by a loud set of knocks.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'…" he muttered as he opened the door, then froze at the sight.

Jeffy Grey was standing there, a massive shiner on his face, looking quite ashen, and a couple suitcases in hand.

Jesse just looked at him and said, "You fucked up, right?"

Jeffy nodded and told him what happened at the party.

"Then I got home and I fessed up to Monique and she yelled at me and booted me out," Jeffy added, "My parents won't take me back… Can I crash with you for a couple days?"

Jesse just smiled at him and went, "Yeah."

Jeffy managed his first smile since before he kissed Josh and followed Jesse into his apartment and pulled the door shut behind them.

Meanwhile, in his black and white room, Ethan lay in his bed, flat on his back, eyes wide open staring at the ceiling, but not really seeing it at all.

The only things that gave indication to him being alive was his breathing and the tears that stained his face.

He didn't sleep at all that night.

THE END

Notes: Some lines taken from Jane's Addition, Just Add Water, Brittany and Kevin's fight was borrowed from Daria Dance Party (which I didn't use in Chapter Five). The new characters, Joseph "Joe" Appleton, John Paul "JP" Taylor, Irene Nixon, Ned Flanagan, and Dmitri Bykov are original characters of mine and are not based off of any backgrounders or other Canon Daria Characters. Saul Maxwell is a character that is based off of backgrounder "Black Mane Lion", a brief mention of Saul emerged in an earlier chapter and I've used him in a larger role in 'Curing Jealousy'.