- - dreaded meeting [jackson]

[felicity]

She had finally lost. The argument had perhaps lasted days and the girl had managed to hold complete freeze outs with both of her parents. It had been hard. Her father, in his anger, had dealt with it all by freezing her credit cards so that she could not use any of them. Not being able to shop had taken its toll on the poor girl. After her mother grounding her completely, she had finally given up. Now, thankfully, she had both her money and her freedom back. Of course, she had to do one little thing in return. This one thing would perhaps kill her. She did not want to go through with this at all but if she ever wanted to see her friends again or buy that beautiful dress she saw, she simply had to.

Sighing, the brunette pushed the chair away from her desk. After that full length conversation with her best friends, Felicity now felt like she was ready to address the situation, almost. She wandered over to the large walk in wardrobe and glanced around at all her clothes. Regardless of who this kid was, she had not seen him in years and she wanted to make an impression. This family friend of theirs was one that she certainly did not like. At all. Of course, he did not like her either from what she could tell. Tonight was just their parents trying to force them together again. It had not worked when they were five; it was not going to work now. Despite that, the girl at least wanted to turn heads, or, a head. She was determined to show Jackson that she had grown past her immature five-year-old self and was now a perfectly mature, beautiful young woman. A beautiful young woman that he could never get his hands on.

Grabbing out a pair of jeans and a nice billowing shirt with a low neckline, the girl thrust the clothes on. Then, for some flair she added a belt around her waist and finished with a light cardigan. Walking into her bathroom she touched up her make-up and then let a smile spread across her face. “Perfect,” she murmured to herself.

Then the doorbell rang and the smile was gone. The next thing the girl heard was barking. Secret hated strangers. The dog had never met the Frays before, which was why she did not recognise who they were, hence the barking. The noise signalled the start of what would perhaps be the most awkward, most dreaded nights of her life. Flick frowned and walked out of her bedroom, taking her time to make her way down the stairs. She heard her parents call up at her to hurry. Rolling her eyes she let out a frustrated moan. “I’m coming!” Felicity yelled back in an agitated voice. She wanted this night to be over already.

As soon as the brunette reached the bottom of the stairs she turned to the left. Standing there was the boy who she had been dreading to meet again. Looking him up and down she frowned again. He was a nerd. His glasses were…well she was not even going to comment on them. He was kind of lanky and had that geeky sort of look upon him. His hair was alright, if you liked that tossed kind of thing. His clothes were not too shabby, but they were definitely different to the clothes all the jocks wore at Capeside High. This boy was no jock, and by the looks of it, he was not the most popular kid on the block. I mean, they were in the same year at school, but of course he wasn’t popular. Felicity already knew that much. If he was popular she would have heard his name being spoken outside of her own house. If he was popular, she would like him. As it happened, she did not like him. Thus, Jackson Fray was not popular.

The parents were all talking about something but Felicity just stood there, sizing the other kid up. They were no longer children though. Now, all the fighting would simply be verbal. There was no more hitting each other with pillows, throwing water balloons. Now it was all insults and lame comments. This was territory which Felicity was ace in. Hopefully the geeky kid could put up a good fight, make it a little more interesting.

Finally, the talking stopped and the brunette watched as all parents turned and walked out the door. Flick gave a little wave to her parents and then she too turned and started to walk towards the kitchen. Their parents were going out for dinner; meanwhile the two children had to house sit and make dinner of their own. Hopefully her mother had been kind enough to leave Felicity something in the freezer. If not, the pair would be stuffed. Felicity did not cook. Ever.

The girl leaned on the kitchen counter, waiting for Jackson to follow her in. Soon they would begin their long night together. Hopefully it would not be quite as bad as she knew they both expected it to be.

[jack]

Jackson was never one to complain. However he wasn’t the sort that wouldn’t try to get out of an uncomfortable situation either. For the last few days he’d been trying to convince his parents that he and Felicity were never friends and likely never would be. Course his parents had the ever rampant disposition to ignore him to no end. Especially since his father became sick, apparently even a brief hospital stay wouldn’t keep this meeting from happening. His father kept saying “I just want to have one normal night before I start treatment” – treatment, that’s what everyone kept calling it. Neither of the C words had been spoken since he was diagnosed. No, it was all treatment and your fathers condition. They didn’t seem to understand that his, well he was essentially pleading with his parents by now not to make him go. They could have their normal night, but he would much rather stay at home. It was obvious what his parent goal was “get the boys mind off of it”.

Growing up he’d always been good at coping with things, but that was when he was allowed to talk about them. They should be talking, his parents should know by now their son wasn’t made of glass and talking about the possibility of his father dying wasn’t going to make him shatter. Instead they insisted on forcing him to engage in a faux friendship with someone he disliked immensely and who he was fairly certain felt the same. Yes, he’d tried to entertain the idea that maybe she’d changed, but his optimistic tendencies often led to his own disappointment.

As his mother walked into the room she made a whining noise that her teenage son finally deciphered as the words “you’re not even dressed yet” he looked from his mother to what he was wearing - striped tee shirt and jeans and then back to his mother with his brows furrowed slightly wondering what was wrong with what he was wearing. His expressions always conveyed the right message, it was actually a weakness in many ways, everyone always knew what he was thinking or feeling. She leaned in the door way crossing her arms before speaking again “could you please put something more… less… something that looks like you’re going out for the night” she finally finished without finding the words she was looking for. The tall lanky boy pulled himself to his feet as his mother began to walk away satisfied with herself, but threw a quick request for him not to wear a cardigan before she allowed her presence to leave her son.

In her own mother code that was her way of politely saying, try not to look like a total dork. It was clear to Jackson that neither of his parent were very pleased with the way he turned out, they loved him that was obvious, but he could see that his father wished he could watch his son in football games and that his mother wished he could be more graceful and smooth. He wasn’t though, and he couldn’t change that and he wouldn’t want to. He liked who he was and never felt the need to change himself. Look sharp and dapper, that’s what his mother wanted, though, Jackson wasn’t sure he could look sharp or dapper, so he’d just do him without a cardigan to appease his mother. He slipped on combat style boots and a black military style button up and crouched down to tie his boots. Walking to the mirror in the hallway he rolled up his sleeves to his elbow and glared at himself slightly as he tried to tame his hair somewhat.

His mother yelled for him “come on baby we’ve got to go” he looked in her direction before returning his eyes to the mirror in front of him. No, people didn’t change, he was the same pasty white, lanky, dweeb he always was. His mother popped her head around the corner “oh honey I didn’t mean to make self-conscious” he looked at her and shook his head“you didn’t. I’m just-” A smile spread across her face as she cut him off “it’s okay I know” she giggled and grabbed his wrist giving him a gentle tug and he responded to her knowing voice with furrowed confused brows, positive his mother didn’t know what she thought she did.

Next thing he knew he was standing behind his parents at the Saunders front door. They rang the doorbell and smiled back at their son who’d found far too much interest in the Saunders front porch to notice. The door opened to reveal Mrs. And Mr. Saunders, age had changed them slightly though all their original attributes were still intact. Mrs. Saunders was still very beautiful and Mr. Saunders still had a simple coolness about him that the teenage boy often envied. Mrs. Saunders seemed to herd them into the house and then there she was coming down the stairs, she still looked like the snobby princess sort, she was obviously pretty – you know if you liked that kind of thing. Jackson did not, but he wouldn’t deny that she was pretty if he was directly asked, but looks just simply weren’t all that important to the boy and he could tell from the frown she worn on her face that her personality would not be very favorable either.

Feeling uncomfortable he avoid eye contact with everyone in the room, toed the floor and then finally stuck his hands in his dark denim pockets and put the toe of one boot on top of the other. The parents chatting began to quiet down as they began to prep themselves to leave. Jackson’s mother pulled on him slight to reach his cheek and gave him a peck goodbye, his father gave him a hearty slap on the back that caused him to lose his balance and stumble forward slightly. “have fun”

[/i] his parents called to the two teenager, it almost sounded taunting in Jackson’s head.

Jackson watched the brunette walk into the kitchen as he fumbled with his fingers wondering if he should keep his distance. What a silly idea their parents had, it was obvious neither set worried about Jackson’s seduction skills if they were willing to leave them alone in a house together, course he couldn’t blames them for it. After standing there for a couple seconds longer he shook his head and started for the kitchen and stood leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed and his gaze still avoids Felicity. Was there something already cooking or was he supposed to eat before he left? He wondered as he rubbed the back of his neck.
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[felicity]

They were standing there together in the kitchen. Felicity looked over to where he was standing in the doorway. He was such a geek. He honestly had not changed a bit. Sure, he had grown but he was just lanky now and it made him look slightly awkward. His glasses simply accentuated his nerd-like exterior. Whether he was still that same geeky kid on the interior was a completely different matter. Of course, it was a matter that Felicity cared little for. She did not want to be here. She desperately wanted to just run up into her bedroom and lock the door, leaving the boy down here. But then her parents would kill her. And besides, she didn’t want to be too mean to him. She was not a complete bitch after all, just a partial one. She had been mean enough to him when they were children anyway. Of course, it was simply in her nature to make fun of people like him. She passed people like that in the corridor all the time and her friends and her would all make comments about them. It was just a normal reflex. The snarky comments and stifled laughter were just her reaction to people like Jackson Fray.

Felicity wondered if Jackson was hungry at all. Her parents had not left them with any food and the teenager was not really in the mood to make anything. Looks like it was going to be pizza for dinner. Straightening up, the brunette turned towards the boy. “You hungry? I was thinking of ordering pizza, unless you feel like cooking, because I certainly don’t.” Flick laughed a little, to try and lighten the mood, but there was still a sharp tone to her voice. It was the tone that she often used when speaking to Jackson, a tone that she had not used in quite a long time. She would have been able to use it if she had ever seen him in school. Though they were in the same year, she felt like she hardly saw the boy. Or maybe she was just unconsciously avoiding him at school as well. It seemed as though the two repelled each other like two north poles.

The brunette walked over to the fridge and pulled of the number of the pizza place. Walking back to the counter she grabbed the phone of the base. Something made her stop then. Sighing, she turned around and looked at Jackson straight in the eye. “Alright listen. I don’t want to be here any more than you do but I say we simply grin and bear it for the sake of our parents. They seem to all get along quite well and I can bet you anything that as long as we are all in Capeside we will be forced to see a lot more of each other. Now I certainly do not like this arrangement but we had both better start getting used to it.” Felicity stopped to get her breath and shoot a glare at the boy. She just needed to get her point across. “Now whatever happens, tonight is going to be awkward and painful but I say we get pizza, watch a movie and act as though the other person is not there as best as we can. Now, I’d say we should crack open some booze but I’m guessing all you drink is lemonade.” The wicked grin and glare that followed would truly make anyone shiver. This was Felicity, Queen Bitch of the school. She was not messing around.

[jack]

The boy wasn’t your average sex obsessed teenage boy and his parents knew that. In fact his parents teased him about being asexual almost every chance they got, though, at the same time they relished in the fact that Jackson wouldn’t likely be getting anyone knocked up anytime soon. The idea was absurd to them and that was why they left him alone with a girl that his mother described as the brunette Helen of Troy. He had to disagree – he wouldn’t launch a thousand ships for her. Course he always found it difficult to find someone attractive if they were a horridious bitch and until she proved otherwise he’d continue to believe she still was. Standing in the doorway he kept stealing glances at her trying to find some semblance of a cue to do something, or warmth about her; even iciness would help him decide how to conduct himself.

His head lifted, his eyes falling on the brunette as she spoke. It shocked his attention to her that she was actually going to speak to him. His brows knitted in confusion, was she trying to be nice? It seemed that she’d made some sort of joke, but he couldn’t decide whether it was intended as a nice thing since her voice still held a sharpness. Jackson could cook, very well actually, but he figured it was best not to tell her that little piece of info at the moment. Instead he shook his head “not really, pizza’s good” he couldn’t help but smirk slightly at the awkwardness of this whole situation, he shook his head suddenly becoming very interesting with the wall décor.

Jackson was not a boy of many words, but as his mother always said when he did start talking he usually had something good to say – and then he wouldn’t stop. What she didn’t realize was he only did that around her, well the not stopping part. Noticing her sudden lack of movement drew his attention to her, he whipped his head in her direction in curiosity. Then she began to speak, proving that any possibility of her being different was null and void. His eyebrows shot up and he blinked rapidly a couple times as if she’d thrown something in his face. She still had the glare down pat, if anything she was better at it, he could swear he felt a chill climb up his spine. He put his thumbs up as he clicked his tongue in a ‘gotcha’ sort of way.

She was still a horridious bitch and he thanked her in his mind for clarifying that for him. She began talking again and he nodded in agreement with her. As she ended her tirade with a dig at him “actually I prefer coke” he said in a serious sort of way and then raised his eyebrows and shrugged “or doctor pepper if you have” then he allowed a smirked to appear on his lips as he looked away and shook his head. This girl hadn’t lost a bit of wickedness, she had it tenfold he wouldn’t be surprised if the night ended with her kicking him in the shins and stomping on his glasses, that was how they often ended before. Course he used to hit her back and now he wouldn’t, so she’d probably hurt him a lot more now than she could before. He hoped she would stick to biting with words and not her mouth. Course she probably wouldn’t dream of biting him in fear of nerd cooties. A small smile spread across his face and a small scoff excaped his fortress of a jaw as that thought crossed his mind.

[felicity]

Felicity shot a wicked grin in the boy’s direction. That was new. He had shot her a retort and quite a nice one too. Well, at least he knew how to defend himself against her words. She wondered silently whether or not he would fight back if things got physical, which they usually did. Upon sizing him up when she had seen him earlier, she assumed that he would not. He looked too…well, nice, for that kind of behaviour. Flick on the other hand, was not. She would be willing to get her point across in any way she had to. If things needed to get physical, she would embrace that. Flick did not like Jackson. This was no secret and if she would try her best to remind him of that little fact every time she saw him. Whether it was yanking his hair, screaming hateful words or simply ignoring him in the halls, he would be reminded.

Walking to the fridge she yanked it open and grabbed to cans of Doctor Pepper. They were out of Coke. Walking back to the bench she slid one of the cans towards Jackson along the counter, hoping he would at least be able to catch it before it went over the edge. She thought she saw him grin or something and another glare was shot at the boy. “What?” Flick scowled. It was a wonder how one simply word could sound so horrid and mean. It seemed the brunette had a knack for that kind of thing. Regardless, she ignored whatever answer he would bother to give and grabbed the phone instead. Dialling the number she didn’t even think of consulting Jackson on pizza preferences. She ordered one barbeque meat lovers, one half Hawaiian half marguerites and a loaf of garlic bread. She assumed, however, that Jackson did not eat like a pig, considering his lanky appearance. Of course, Hot Lips had also revealed that he had a thing for large women. Good, that meant he would have no attraction to her whatsoever.

Turning back to the boy she frowned. “Alright. Pizza will be here eventually. Honestly these Capeside delivery people are just getting lazy now. It does not take half an hour to get from the pizza place to here. You can make it in less time on foot.” Giving a dramatic sigh and a flick of her hair, she grabbed the can and opened it, taking a sip. Then there was just one more problem. On their to-do list for the night was movie. What movie were they going to watch? He probably wanted to watch something dorky like Star Trek or something. Although the remake had some nice man candy in it, Flick was not interested in that kind of stuff. But she knew well enough that Jackson would not be in the mood for a chick flick. Would he? It occurred to her that she really had no idea what he liked. All she knew was that when they were five, he wore tutus and now he played chess and wore geeky glasses. That was hardly an informative profile of the guy.

“Listen,” she sighed, turning back to him. Her voice was slightly calmer now, missing its usual hint of cruelty. “You’ve caught me in a good mood. I’ll let you choose the movie. However, you had better choose something good or I will take action against you.” Cue the evil smirk. True, this was Flick in a good mood. Because she was hanging out with Rhino boy tonight, her mother had given her the ‘okay’ for a part on the first of April. It was perfect.

The teen walked through the kitchen and into the living area. Walking up to the television she opened the cabinet underneath it. A huge collection of all genres of movies were neatly lined up in the cabinet, thanks to her mother’s obsessive nature. Waving her hand towards it, like the hostesses to on those game shows, she smiled at Jackson. “Take your pick Rhino Boy.” This was going to be a long night. But hey, it was not going so badly just yet. Once pizza came and the movie started, they could actually start ignoring each other. Then, it would be perfect. All they had to do was keep from killing each other until their parents got bored of talking and came home. That, however, might take forever.

[jack]

Jackson would much rather be ordering pizza at home by himself before curling up to watch a Firefly marathon, that sounded like a good night to him. Course he was generally a pretty laid back kind of guy, he didn’t need a lot to keep him entertained. He was the kind of kid that went to the zoo for his seventeenth birthday, which may have been strange for most boys his age, especially since he wanted his parents to come along too. Jack may have been strange by Felicity’s standards, but he was a sweet kid and liked making people happy and he was lucky enough to have pretty damn special parents that put up with his goofy antics, especially when he was a kid and running around in a tutu, his father didn’t say a word even though he was terrified his son would end up wanting to take ballet classes; only because his friends would never let the subject go.

He was a goofy kid that was obvious and now he’d become more of a refined goofy, but ocationally if he was comfortable enough he’d let it out full force like pretending to ride a plastic rhino at the zoo. A photo of which was apparently now circulating around the towns very own gossip site, which he may care about if he was (as Olive Penderghast put it so eloquently in Easy A) a “Gossip Girl in the Sweet Valley of the Traveling Pants”. Gossip was lost on Jackson, poking in other’s business just wasn’t his style. Jackson wasn’t the most coordinated boy in the world it was after all the reason he never did well in sports, so that fact that he over reacted to her sliding the can to him wasn’t very surprising, he caught it as if it were a baby being thrown across the room just before it slid off the counter. He looked up from the can in his hands when he heard Felicity snap at him “nothing” he answered back with a quizzical look on his face.

Felicity confused him a lot he could never understand what he’d done to automatically make her hate him. Yeah, he was a dork, but was that really it? Or had he done something else that he was unaware of? He’d retaliated over the years; he’d admit that he’d been less than gentlemanly on many occasions in the past. Her spoiled attitude had cause him to dislike her and tended to bring out a more snarky side of him – a side that was completely different from his usual polite and sweet personality. Most people experienced him as a total sweetheart that was almost annoyingly polite, he asked if he could before he did almost anything. Somehow though he didn’t care in Felicity like him or not, so he didn’t really try to change her mind about him. Honestly not knowing exactly what his offense was in the first place he wouldn’t really know where to start. He could change himself completely, start wearing contacts, were “cooler” clothes and maybe lift a couple weights, but he wasn’t going to change who he was so people would like him, least of all a shallow brat like Felicity.

As he cracked the tab of his soda can open she began to speak again, something about pizza people in Capeside getting lazy. He shrugged slightly “maybe they’re just really busy” Jackson’s silver lining was what people both loved and hated about him, he’d always try to find some simple explanation for someone’s annoyance, but sometimes people just wanted to be annoyed by something and didn’t want to believe that maybe there was a reason for it. Sipping from his can he looked at her through his eyelashes unsure of how she’d respond to his lack of commiseration.

She surprised him with a slightly more gentle tone, less venomous. He raised an eyebrow at her in slight confusion wondering if she was trying to trick him or something. Why would she want him to pick a movie, he was pretty sure they both had very different taste in movies, so did she just want him to pick the movie so she could tear it to shreds and ridicule his taste in movies? Most of the time Jack though he must demonize Flick more than she was and then other times she’d prove to him that he was content with his level of demonization of her. He followed her to the tv and smiled lightly as she made an attempt at tension breaking humor, though her revival of his newly coined nickname made his eyes roll, it sounded like a horriblely lame superhero sidekick. “I do have an actual name you know?” he said with a mock grin as he sat in front of the cabinet.

They had a surprisingly diverse collection, but a fair amount of so called “chick flicks” probably a product of two force fed romantic women living in the house. Running his finger against the title he looked for something that could potentially appeal to both of them, even if she had given them the opportunity to pick whatever he wanted he knew she likely wouldn’t enjoy a movie like Star Trek. He’d prefer something he hadn’t seen anyway, if they watched Star Trek he’d be tempted to nerd out and he didn’t really want to do that with a likely unresponsive Felicity. “how do you feel about The Last House on the Left?” he asked simply just throwing out a title, he hadn’t gotten around to watching it with the wave of super hero flicks coming out lately. Flick didn’t strike him as the horror type, but it was in the cabinet.

[felicity]

Felicity watched with eager eyes, waiting for Jackson to choose a movie that she could just shut down and mock. Unfortunately, the world was not turning in her direction that night. Jackson chose a horror movie. Flick quite liked being scared out of her wits, and she did have the most beautiful of scared faces. There was something about a good horror flick that she loved. It was so thrilling and suspenseful. She loved that. The fact that Jackson had managed to pick a horror movie nearly made her smile, but then she caught herself. What was she thinking? This was Jackson Fray. She was simply not allowed to show any hint of kindness towards him. Strangely enough though, his behaviour that evening was making it very difficult for her to continue hating him.

“Of course. I just find it much more fun calling you Rhino Boy.” Flick grinned over in his direction. The grin, in her usual style, was not a happy one. It was simply her being herself and it held all its usual attitude and distaste. She did not want to be there. She did not want to be with him. He was Jackson Fray. Rhino Boy. He was gross and geeky and… kind of nice too. But no, she could not think like that. If she did, she might actually start liking him. Sighing, she rocked back and forth on her heels, trying to decide what to do about the movie choice. She should either say yes or no. It was a simply choice. She had not yet seen that movie, so all in all it was a lucky pick. She had wanted to see it for a while but her parents were always getting in the way of such plans.

“I haven’t seen it either though I have wanted to for a while. For once, I don’t think I’m going to fight you on this one.” She paused and for the first time ever, Felicity Saunders flashed Jackson Fray a genuine smile. “You might not know but, I’m quite the horror movie fan.” Walking towards him she grabbed the movie out of his hands. She did not know if he had noticed the genuine touch to her smile and she was not going to point it out any time soon. Opening the case she turned on the DVD player and put the disc in. Grabbing three of the six remotes beside the television, she moved back and chose a seat on one of the soft, black couches.

The television was switched on and then the surround sound. The thing with the Saunders family is that when they did something, they did it right. There were speakers all around the little circle of the living room, making for a great movie experience. Whenever they watched any movies with hard-core bass lines, it could be heard streets away. Turning to Jackson once more, Flick paused. “Ready?” She murmured as she took another sip from her drink.

[jack]

Felicity had taken to staring at Jackson with various different inflections, which he found somewhat unnerving and he now understood why his mother always told him not to stare. And he didn’t, he was a good boy. Granted he’d give the occasional quick glance, but he didn’t often stare for numerous reasons. One being that he felt far too uncomfortable staring at people now. Things were so different when he was little, he didn’t worry so much about… well everything. The moment after he said it he began to wish he could recant his suggestion. If she did say yes he had to worry that she was one of those types that whimpered through the whole thing or screamed at every abrupt change in volume or sudden appearance of the “bad guy”. Though, if she was that type he figured she wouldn’t allow him to see her in such a “vulnerable” state. Even more so if she was the type that needed to desperately cleave to another person.

All and all if she was the type to become easily scared by a movie he was likely not the type who would set her fears at ease by her cleaving his lanky arm. He rolled his eyes at her reply to his reminding her he had a name and then said slightly snottier than he had intended “well I think it’s more fun to call you what everyone else calls you, but it’s not so nice” he glared at her for a moment before doubting his ability to give a truly disdainful glare and looked back to the cabinet of movies feeling slightly bad. As much as he disliked Flick he still wasn’t the type who would take any real pleasure in hurting her feelings. She did tend to bring out the vicious side he didn’t know he had, Flick probably knew what people called her behind her back, but in all honesty he didn’t find it any more fun to call her a bitch or slut or any of the more uncouth terms. He was no saint, but he still was a generally nice guy.

Plucking the DVD from the cabinet and she shockingly decided not to fight him on it he nodded definitively. A decision had been made far easier than he thought it would be, he assumed she turn down whatever he picked until he finally gave up and told her to pick instead. Maybe there was some minuscule growth within Flick’s personality. Which seemed to be supported by her expression – an expression that caused his eyebrows to rise in surprise and a small involuntarily smirk to appear on his lips. He quickly realized what he was doing and wiped it off his face pushing his glasses up his nose with his index finger, it was something that came to him instinctually now after years of wearing glasses, it was really the most practical way to adjust glasses without getting finger prints all over the lenses. Though, most people avoided it due to the numerous geeks in movies who would tense up and obviously do it while heavily mouth breathing.

“himh, I did not” he said standing up and shifting his weight from foot to foot. The Saunders sure did have a thing for decadence, Jackson didn’t know many families that had surround sound in their living room. Not that he was complaining he always wanted to know if it made it more of a cinema experience or if it was generally a large waste of money. Both their families were well off that was for sure, the Fray’s tended to go away on lavish vacations and come back with their son burnt to a crisp and his mother loved the show True Blood, so they paid for the premium channels up the wazoo. Somehow though surround sound had never come up in their monthly budgeting discussions. Wow, maybe there was a reason Jackson grew up to be a nerd. As she sat down he followed her to the couch and sat a comfortable distance away from her, far enough to avoid her saying he was trying to cop a feel or something, but not so far that it looked like he was afraid of her.

Watching a movie with someone who disliked him was a surprizingly a delicate balance. He nodded as she asked if he was ready as he leaned back into the comfortable couch.

[felicity]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,320,true] WORDS 802 | TAGGED JACKSON It was strange. Usually, at this point of the night, Felicity would already have torn Jackson’s head off. Or at least, she would be having the urge to. But right now? Nothing. It was incredibly odd. She had never managed to get through even ten minutes without wanting to kill the guy. So what the hell was going on with her? Why did she not have evil urges to murder him? The strange, yet peaceful sensation that caused her to lack the sadistic tendencies she normally felt when around him was weirdly nice. It was not something she was used to and for now it was not something that she wanted to get used to. What would Blair say if she knew that her best friend was losing her touch? Probably something that cannot be repeated by any young mouths. Not that any of that mattered. Flick was getting distracted with worried thoughts now. She needed to concentrate on her next retort or mocking words. Noting the distance from herself that boy was sitting, Flick let herself relax just a little. Jackson was learning it seemed. He was not sitting too close, nor was he sitting too far. Perhaps he was smarter than she had given him credit for. But of course he was, anyone could tell that from his nerd-like exterior. As he nodded, she gave a small smile and then turned her gaze back to the television. With one click, she had selected the ‘play’ option and the movie was starting. It was strange to be watching a movie with him. It was even stranger to be watching a movie that he had picked. Most of the time it was Flick’s choice, because she was fierce enough to stand up for herself and Jackson was not. Now though, the tables had turned. It was not like Jackson had suddenly started standing up for himself; it was that Flick had stopped. From the first scene the movie became suddenly intriguing. Only, for some reason, the girl could not quite concentrate. She kept finding her eyes wanting to stray over to the figure next to her. But she would not let them. If Jackson caught her looking at him… She could not even bear to think of the thought. He was the creepy one of the pair, not the other way around. She was calm and collected and yet her heart was racing. What was going on with her? She was evidently going crazy. Maybe it was the heat. But it was not even hot. Sighing, she bored her eyes into the television, willing herself to focus on it. Flick literally jumped when the doorbell rang. “Oh, I don’t usually get that jumpy,” she mumbled to herself, blushing slightly. Something was wrong with her. She did not have to apologize for that. In fact, the way she had said the words simply weren’t her. Usually she would have spoken to Jackson with a cruel edge in her tone but, not this time. Things were changing fast and Felicity was desperately trying to make them stop. And yet, the more she tried to stop the change, the faster it happened. She was spiralling down into a pit of ugly, terrible, weird, oddness where Jackson Fray was actually pretty cool. Basically, she was heading to hell. Walking to the door she grabbed the money her mum had left and swung the door open. “Hey,” she grinned at the pizza boy. He stated the price and she handed over the money, grabbing the pizzas. Turning around, she shut the door with her foot and walked back into the kitchen. “We can’t eat on the sofas, my father will murder me. So we can eat in here and then go back and finish the movie,” Felicity explained to Jack. Reaching into the cabinet she grabbed out two plates and then went and got napkins out too. Opening each of the pizza boxes she grabbed herself a slice of each and walked over to the table. The brunette sat in her usual place at the head of the table, not bothering to tell Jackson where he could and could not sit. It did not really matter much to her. Taking a bit of the pizza she started to chew and tried her best not to let herself get distracted by the boy. Her feelings towards him were rapidly changing and making her incredibly confused. At that moment, as she was eating the pizza, she decided that she now no longer hated him, but she did not yet like him. He was stuck somewhere in limbo for now. That night would decide whether he would stay there, or whether he would cross over into the light. But the night was young, and anything could happen. Anything at all.

[jack]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,320,true] WORDS 827 | TAGGED FLICK Strangely they weren’t fighting, usually by now they would have been tangled in limbs with a hardy clump of each other’s hair. Though, maybe time and maturity had changed them a bit, maybe they could be in each other’s company without losing copious amounts of hair, there was a while when Jack’s parents were he would go bald. He didn’t mind it so much; Jack was a generally serene boy and didn’t generally do well in conflict – if forced he could hold him own mind you, but he typically didn’t enjoy fighting or spewing biting words. One reason for that could be that he always felt bad once he did. He wasn’t quite sure where he got it, but since he was a kid he was always trying to make people happier and add a little brightness to their lives and being malicious just went against his natural instincts and over all life philosophy. Jack wasn’t a saint though, he could be horrible to people sometimes without even trying, but he actively tried not to hurt people. That was something that he and Flick seemed to differ on, she seemed to love making people sad and he hated it. Flick was the typical spoilt mean girl as far as Jack was concerned, but if she was going to be decent to him he’d take it. After all he’d be a lot happier if he could get through the night without having to guard his loins from her eager knees. A crazy thought began to fill his head as she started the movie – could they actually in some small semblance of a way be getting along? And in an even crazier thought, would that be so bad? In all honesty what was so bad about Felicity when she was being nice? Though, Jackson had never experienced Flick being friendly either. Basically he didn’t know how to feel about her at this point, it was as if her personality was in limbo, it wasn’t hellish, but it wasn’t angelic either. He almost felt that she was awkward with him, like she didn’t quite know how to treat him. He felt awkward, but he was always that way. Granted he tended to be more awkward around people that he knew disliked him, but that’s fairly normal isn’t it? He wished he could concentrate on the movie, but he was just too distracted fighting the urge to look over at her, if he looked over she might think that he likes her and is just trying to check out her beauty. He was thinking of her as her old self though, maybe she wasn’t the same. It seemed at the beginning of the night she was trying to keep up with her reputation and yet now she’d let it plummet into this weird lukewarm attitude towards him. The doorbell rang and his head jerked toward the door as the sudden foreign noise rang through the air. Feeling Flick jump at the other end of the couch made him smile a little, but he couldn’t help but stand up with her as she walked toward the door, almost in some kind of protective instinct. Though, the thought of him being any help against a psychopathic pizza boy was laughable even to himself. Flick could probably handle herself fine on her own, she had very hard knees. Jack fumbled for the remote pressing the pause button and then stumbled forward after her and leaned in the doorway and then suddenly he got the horrifying thought the pizza guy might think they’re on a date if he saw him. Retreating into the living room again the thought crossed his mind that a stranger would likely assume they were siblings before they thought a girl like Felicity was giving a guy like him the time of day. He shifted his weight from foot to foot waiting for Flick to finish her transaction, he popped his head back in to the door way “thank you” he said to the pizza boy before Flick closed the door. He nodded with his arms crossed and followed her into the kitchen and grabbed a slice of both pizza and some garlic bread, people were always surprised that Jack was so thin when they saw how much he could put back. He was being sparing with his portion, he didn’t want to eat too much especially considering that it was the Saunders money and he didn’t feel comfortable not paying for his own dinner. Perching himself at the other end of the table another delicate seating situation. He couldn’t decide whether or not he should start some kind of conversation. Something told him he shouldn’t try his luck on this particular evening. If Felicity was going to call a truce for the night he didn’t want to unintentionally convince her to end said truce because he said something just too quintessentially nerdy. Instead he took a bite of pizza.

[felicity]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,320,true] WORDS 632 | TAGGED JACKSON It was strange. Simply being in the same room as the kid she had practically been ready to murder was an odd feeling for the girl. As she ate her pizza she tried her best to convince herself that the silence was in no way an awkward one. She continued to avoid eye contact with him, almost as though she was scared she would turn to stone if she looked him in the eyes. Usually she would be hurling insults at him like no tomorrow. She would be telling him how stupid he was and how ugly those glasses were and that he had no friends and that he had no taste in fashion at all. And yet, looking at him now, Flick realised that those glasses actually complimented him and his style was quite an attractive indie fashion. But what the hell was she thinking? He’s Jackson Fray, her arch nemesis. Or at least, he would be if she herself was some kind of super hero. Taking a sip of her drink, she tapped her fingers a little impatiently on the table. On one hand she really wanted this night to be over, but on the other hand… Once again she was confusing herself more than anything else. All of these thoughts and feelings that were moving through her head were not ones she ever thought possible. Until tonight the only feeling she ever thought she would feel for Jackson was dislike. But now she thought she was actually starting to like him, even if it was just a small like, nothing major and nowhere near love. Her friends would certainly kill her if she started dating someone like Jackson. Girls like her and Blair dated guys like Micah, guys who were popular and good looking. They did not date guys like Jackson, guys who actually cared about feelings and guys who were nerdy and liked comic books. “So…” Flick started to say in a way that only betrayed how awkward the silence really was. “The weather's been nice…” Great. Talk to him about the weather. That’s just a stupid move. Frowning she shook her head and couldn’t help but let out a little giggle. “Sorry. Honestly talking about the weather is just stupid. It’s just, I don’t really want to talk about comic books or those geeky glasses or whatever and I couldn’t really think about anything else that you would want to talk about. Not that I care what you want to talk about anyway.” Now she was just ranting about nothing in particular. She always ended up like that when she got nervous, although usually Blair was there to shut her up. Most guys simply knew her as a bitch and one that would insult you and then just walk away. And yet here she was raving on and not shutting up. And in all those words, she had only insulted him twice. This was the real Flick though, the one that no one ever saw. Blushing, she quickly picked up her plate and rushed it over to the sink, trying to avoid Jackson’s gaze. On one hand she wanted him to just forget what he had heard, on the other she kind of hoped he would bring it up. No one ever saw the insecure and sometimes nice Felicity, the one that hid behind all the name-calling and acting. Jackson was probably the last person she had thought she would reveal her true nature to. Despite that she was honestly starting to think that she could trust him. Maybe someone had spiked her drink or pizza or something but she could not push the feelings away. Why did she no longer hate the boy? Why was she starting to feel some kind of strange affection for him?

[jack]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,320,true] WORDS 735 | TAGGED FLICK Jackson knew he wasn’t a popular boy, he’d never thought he was or had he ever tried to be. Though, even without popularity he was fairly confident boy. Unfortunately that confidence seemed to be abandoning him and thoughts of normal teenage insecurity began to creep in as Felicity continued to stay quiet and insult free. It wasn’t as if he was sitting there wondering if she suddenly found him attractive because I that was just absurd. He was however continually stuffing his face with more food as to try and prevent some kind of horrible verbal diarrhea which would force Flick to end her kind silence. At the same time he was wishing she’d say something cruel because as much as he hated it fighting was never as much fun as it was with Flick. As he pushed up his glasses with his finger his eyes were drawn to her impatient tapping. Instead of finding himself irritated by the girls obvious annoyance that their parents still weren’t home he found himself admiring her hands. Some guys liked butts Jack liked hands. Sipping his own drink he began to tap his own fingers as if he were following her beat. She may find it irritating, but he was already trying to keeping himself from saying anything annoying he couldn’t think about not doing something annoying too. Jack liked to let himself just be and right now he was holding himself back and critiquing everything he did, is this too dorky to say or do? Will this make her go off? The most disturbing part was he was beginning to have a thought – could the two of them be friends? It was a thought that’d been popping in and out of his head since their bickering had ceased, but right now sitting at a table across from her while the two of them ate, it seemed to be his only really thought. The weather? She was talking about the weather? Surprisingly though her comment had made his eyes light up a bit as he nodded “yeah, it’s beautiful, I’ve been doing a lot outside recently” doing things outside was a bit odd for Jack, he burned far too easily and was easily over heated, but the weather had been perfect recently “It’s been-” he cut himself off as Flick explained she didn’t want to talk weather with him, his face continued to drop as she went on. Clenching his jaw briefly he nodded as if suddenly something had become very clear to him – because it had. He’d been stupid to think the two of them could get along. Shrugging he said dryly “well , we could just talk about shoes and boys if that’s more your speed” he topped if off by feigning a helpful smile. As she tinkered by the sink he almost instantly felt bad “no… I’m sorry okay” he began to speak as he picked up his own plate and walked it over to the sink next to her, he leaned up against the sink “I don’t want to be mean, can we just pretend for an hour or two that we like each other?” He was attempting to call a truce, one that both of them were aware of and had agreed to. Smiling encouragingly he put his hand out for them to shake on it if she agreed. Suddenly the lack of distance between them was becoming very clear to Jack, but he was trying not to focus of the gap between them on more on whether her hand was going to seal some sort of agreement between them. He was also hoping that she’d accept his apology for implying she was some vapid bimbo. Even if he did imagine she engaged in musing about shoes and boys he was sure she possessed the ability to be very intelligent too, some of her insults couldn’t be conjured by a dummy after all. The boy felt terrible, he’d seen a chip in her perfectly impenetrable shield and exploited it, which just wasn’t who he was and never wanted to be. It was unlike him, but he’d said it with very little permission from himself, which made him worry that maybe he was that type of person. Though, the fact that he was now beating himself up for it seemed to beg to differ. He shouldn’t have said it and he knew that.

[felicity]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,320,true] WORDS 580 | TAGGED JACKSON Felicity continued to deal with the dishes, barely looking over at Jackson. At his comment regarding shoes she rolled her eyes, clearly not willing to take any crap from the boy. Of course, it was like it always had been. The snarky comments here and there, annoying each other to no end. He knew how to push her buttons and she knew how to push his. That’s just the way it was and life would probably continue like that for a long while. But Flick always won. Every single argument she would win. It was probably just because she was a little more cut throat than poor Jackson. He was simply too nice. Despite his kind nature, Flick had to admit that she was rather shocked when he apologized. A puzzled look crossed her face as she turned to face him, stopping her work by the sink. “Did you just apologize to me Jack Fray?” Flick grinned, trying hard not to look as amused as she was really feeling. “Well if we are having an honesty session I suppose I’ll contribute. Unlike you, being mean is quite a nice past time. However, I’m willing to give your suggestion a go. Of course, I’m not used to being friends with you so you’ll have to be patient with me.” The brunette gave a little wink and flick of the hair before turning back to the dishes. She could not help, however, but be a little perplexed by the way she herself had acted. Why was she even being nice to him? Usually, after what he had said she would be ready to throw it all back in his face. And yet here she was being perfectly civil. Her voice had even lost much of its bite. Why was she so nice all of a sudden? If Blair saw this she would certainly vomit. The last dish was placed in the dishwasher and Flick turned back to Jackson, closing the dish washer with her leg behind her. “So, do you want to go finish watching the movie?” The sentence was strange to her. Flick’s voice was almost nice, holding a sweet tone to it. Usually she was being sarcastic or just a downright bitch. Right now, she was being nice to Jackson, something she was not used to. Even around her three best friends she was insulting and rude and mean. She barely used her nice – and somewhat normal – voice around anyone. Even her parents were used to sarcastic comments. No one at all would believe Jackson if he ever told anyone that Felicity Saunders was nice to him. Flick turned on her heels and walked back to the lounge. She sat down on the leather and grabbed the remotes, propping her feet up on the table. “When we last left our heroine,” she began in the mock voice of one of those television show narrators. “She had managed to escaped her captors and run to the lake. However, she was shot. What will happen next?” After finishing her little spiel Flick gasped. What the hell had she just done? Frowning she turned and glared at Jackson. “If you so much as breathe a word of this,” but she could not help herself. Flick broke character and started to laugh. She knew that Jack would be a little confused about that but it was her inner actress coming out. This was the Felicity that no one knew, not even her closest friends.

[jack]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=width,320,true] WORDS 684| TAGGED FLICK Did she really have to make him regret everything he said to her? She brought out a snippier side of Jack and he’d always regret his words the moment he said them, but now she was making him regret the words he often wanted to say, but never did. His eyes rolled at her question, he no longer had control of what they did and even if it didn’t look the slightest bit menacing behind his thick rimmed glasses, he glared at her. Something about her made him lose control of his eyes, he couldn’t mask anything least of all hurt feelings which was probably why she always won their little arguments – she knew she was hurting him. He never quite knew if his words were stinging her as much as hers were him, but he often hoped they weren’t. Even if he did dislike her immensely with a passion close to what he identified as hate. Her next words caused his eyes to expose his surprise as his eyebrows shot up, she’d agreed… and winked at him. Suddenly he realized he still had his hand out like a dolt, she hadn’t taken it. He figured she was likely afraid of catching nerd if she touched him and with that thought he hurt himself a bit. Though, he really shouldn’t be all that cheesed about it since he didn’t really want to touch her either… much. Not that he wanted to touch her of course. Jack felt like the embodiment of an oxymoron tonight – one feeling constantly contradicting the coinciding one. He allowed his fingers to creep into his palm before shoving his fist into his pocket. “okay… same” he finally answered, it took him a bit for the simple reason that he did not think in a million years she would knowingly acknowledge a cease fire, especially without dropping the word pansy or something of a similar meaning. Instead she’d been snide, but at the same time asking him to be patient with her. Though, he was sure she’d do something to prove him wrong, but maybe he’d grown on her a bit, maybe she didn’t find him quite as vile as before – no, impossible. As she turned to him she let him know she was going to let him think it a little longer as she spoke with a bit of jarring kindness. She was never nice to him, as far as he knew she was never nice to anyone. He was about to call her on it, but thought better of it as he simply nodded in response to her question. Sometimes he wondered if his tendency to be quite irked Flick, but then he remembered he didn’t care… so maybe that should be rephrased with quotations, but he didn’t want to care so much if the people around him were comfortable and in good spirits. He knew he wasn’t perfect, he knew he wasn’t the kindest he could be, because there was always room for improvement, but sometimes he wished he could just be a complete dick all day for one day, but he just wasn’t that person. He cared if he hurt people, he apologized for his insults even when he’d just spouted them to someone most would call an arch nemesis. As she turned to leave him he sighed shaking his head as he followed her. It seemed as the night went on he was becoming more and more concerned with whether he smelled nice or not. Of course he couldn’t figure out why because he was being a daft. He smiled as she started her commentary “well in the original…” he began teasingly, but allowed it to trail off as to not spoil anything if she hadn’t seen it. Though, often Hollywood used the creative license excuse a lot, so maybe it wouldn’t take the same twists and turns. Plopping down on the couch he thought Flick was breaking their agreement already by threatening him, until she began laughing, he shook his head “just play the movie you weirdo” he said with a smirk and little authority.