Dance With The Devil

II

The streets were pretty empty, save for the odd cat that tended to pop up here and there and the scatter of recycling bins littering the pavements as it was trash day. I wanted to walk quickly, but I really couldn't be fudged... I was unusually tired today, and the fact that I had that test today did not help.

Though the fact I was up until three in the morning playing Doomed and "studying" the previous night... That had left me really poofed out. I honestly wished I could go back home and sleep, but it wasn't like something unusual or tragic would just randomly fall out of the sky and just happen to occur to me today. Ugh, if only.

But for some reason, I was looking forward to and freaking out about this test... I mean, I did want to prove I wasn't a complete idiot... Or at least better in terms of grades than Dash Baxter.

Oh yeah, I went to Casper High School, a deadbeat community secondary school for deadbeat kids. Dash Baxter was the school bully, Quarterback of the school football team, the Casper High Ravens. For some reason, his primary target was... Yeah, you guessed it, me. I had no idea why, maybe he just hates me because I'm a geek, or maybe he picks on me because I'm a geek with only two friends who's worth picking on, shows he's in pain, never grasses him up and is never able to retaliate.

That's exactly what bullies look for. Weakness.

And I have a lot of that... And some to spare.

I rounded a corner and checked my watch. Oh crud... 7:10am... I only had 15 minutes until the school bell rang, then another five until the late bell. I preferred to try to not be late, but that wasn't something I could help. I was always late for some odd reason... Maybe I just dawdled and didn't walk quick enough.

I picked up the pace somewhat and broke into a jog until I could see the familiar teal front door signifying Tucker's house. I soon gave up jogging because to be perfectly honest, I wasn't very fit. I was soon panting like there was no tomorrow.

I eventually reached Tucker's front door two minutes later, still panting, and banged the door knocker against the painted wood. I waited... And waited... Until... There we go!

The door swung open to reveal a skinny dark skinned boy about my age, with a mustard yellow long sleeved t-shirt, green baggy khaki pants, brown boots, his purple backpack, joyful teal eyes and dark buzzed hair hidden under his signature red beret.

This was Tucker Foley. My best friend since forever. He knew pretty much everything about me, and likewise. He was a meat conasseur, hated vegetables, had never eaten one in his life as far as I knew and was, straight up, a techno-geek. He could hack pretty much anything, though in all fairness, I had never seen him not able to hack into anything, so meh... I just assumed.

"Hey there, birthday boy! What took you so long?"

I scoffed, "Says you." I raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You look like you only just got dressed... Have you even had breakfast yet? WAIT, trick question."

Tucker laughed. "Yep, you know that I'd rather go to school half naked than miss breakfast. I always eat before I get ready. You should know this by now."

"I do." I said, nodding my head and giving him an amused grin. "Oh, and nice to see you too."

He grinned at me, then used the stylus to play on his PDA for a few seconds before shoving it in his pocket and jumping off his doorstep onto the pavement. He was now in a land of no turning back... Man, he was brave.

"Bye, Mom! See you later!"

I heard a muffled "Have a good day, sweetie!" before Tuck closed the door behind him.

He turned to me, "Come on! You were late here anyways!" and with that, he skipped down the street.

I put my palms up as if to say "What the fuck, dude?" before rolling my eyes and following him.

I never really got mad at Tucker. It was mostly his antics that kept me on my feet and made me laugh. I don't think I could ever get mad at him. He's been my best friend for so long... And because of that he probably knew that I was staying behind right now merely to scream "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?" in my mind. He was most likely round the corner laughing at me right now. However, he knew that if I were to reprimand him for saying what he did just now, I would never mean it horribly. We'd both come to laugh our heads off about it eventually.

I turned the corner and-

"SHIT YOURSELF!"

"GAAAH!"

"HAHAHAHA! OH MY GOD... Your face!"

"TUCKER, WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?!" I yelled, rage echoing in my voice. Ok, when I said I never really got mad at Tucker, now was sort of an exception, in the sense that yeah, I was mad, but it wasn't to last long.

Just as suddenly as he had jumped me, I felt a burning sensation in my eyes, as if I had gotten shampoo in them. Surprisingly, managing to keep them open was sort of easy. I wasn't entirely sure why, I was sort of freaking out about it on the inside. What on earth was going on?

"You were taking forever to walk! Come on... You've gotta admit, that was fu-"

My panic slowly turned to concern. I narrowed my eyes. "Tuck?" And just as suddenly again, the stinging in my eyes subsided, and I blinked furiously, fighting the urge to grab my face and rub my eyes.

He remained silent, gaping at me like a fish.

"What?! Tucker, seriously, what?! Have I suddenly grown another head or something?"

Tucker slowly shook his head and continued to gawk at me. I rolled my eyes and did the best thing I could think of to do:

SMACK!

"AAAAAOOWWW! What the hell was that for?"

I shrugged. "You spaced out. You were being too slow." I felt rather proud of that, and I was sure my mischievous grin showed on my face, but I didn't care. In fact, I embraced the satisfied smirk.

"Aw, yeah, very funny, Einstein..." He began walking in the other direction.

"Well, it is my birthday... Today, if anything, I am Einstein." I ran up to him, my legs forgetting about my lack of fitness for a second. "So... Why exactly was it you were staring at me?"

He stopped and turned his head slightly so that I knew he had acknowledged what I said, but he didn't turn around to face me. "Uh... I... I don't know... I guess I thought I saw your..."

I moved my hands in a circular never-ending loop motion and cocked my head forward in my impatience. "My... What, exactly?"

He suddenly turned back and began walking quickly, quicker than I honestly thought his all meat-consuming stature would be able to handle. He had the energy thanks to that high protein diet of his, just not the stamina to perform such a feat. "Come on, we're gonna be late." he had spoken rather quickly and panicked, and his voice cracked halfway through the sentence.

Wow... I thought. That was something he wanted to drop quickly... I wonder what it was he thought he saw... You know what? Never mind, I'm overthinking this...

I mean, Tucker's my best friend... He would never keep any thing from me...

Right?

A/N: IT'S 05:49 IN THE MORNING AND SOMEHOW I FELT OBLIGED TO UPDATE SOMETHING... SO HERE YA GOOOOOO. (You probably don't care, you were probably hoping for an update on another of my stories, but it's easy to update this story because I know where I'm going with it and I'm only doing around 1000 words per chapter, 'cause I'm lazy. XD)

I WILL LEAVE NOW AND LEAVE YOU TO WALLOW IN FEELS AND REPRIMAND ME ON WHY DANNY IS SWEARING SO MUCH AND HOW MUCH THAT'S NOT IN HIS CHARACTER. Well, that's because this is an angsty FANFIC, so yeah... Plus, I sooo wanted to do a story where Danny swears a lot. IT'S MY VERSION OF VENTING SHIZ. X3

I'm being surprisingly dark right now, I'm sorry... Here, have a cookie. x3 ~Icy

(P.S. I actually bothered to proofread this twice, you're welcome. XD)