Nice
“Does anyone else need a date for Homecoming?”
Ethan stuck his hand up. He did, no one in their right mind was going to ask him to Homecoming.
“Right,” Warren nodded, and stood up. “Hippie, get yourself someone else to make Stronghold jealous with, cause I’m going to homecoming with this guy. Come on, popsicle.”
Ethan gaped at him. “What?”
“Are you deaf?” Warren sneered. “Come on, popsicle. We’re leaving.”
“Oh.” Ethan blinked. “Right. Okay.” Grabbing his things, he cradled his backpack to his chest, swallowing at all his friend’s gaping expressions, and hurried after the much taller boy as he headed out of the cafeteria. Finally catching up with the other’s longer strides, he asked, “Where... where are we going?”
“Outside,” Warren answered, not even looking at him.
“Right. Good.” Ethan nodded. They left the main doors, and Warren headed to a nice largish, very empty square of grass, and flopped down on it, legs crossed, leaning back on his elbows. Awkwardly, Ethan sat beside the other, indian-style. “So. Homecoming, huh?”
“Sure.” Warren nodded. “Sorry you got dragged into this, but that girl is an idiot. I try to help her out, you know, get Stronghold off my back, and she decides that I’m her date to Homecoming? Not bloody likely. So. Popsicle. You needed a date, that date is me. I’m not renting a tux, though.”
“Right,” Ethan nodded. “Um... you could just not go, right?”
Warren wrinkled his nose. Okay, Ethan decided, that was cute. “Naw. I want to see how badly she screw this up. Besides, Gwen is a bitch. I give it... until Homecoming night before Stronghold smacks her. I really want to be there to see that. Priceless moments, you know.”
“Oh.” Ethan frowned, hugging his backpack a little tighter. “That’s not very nice, is it?”
Warren snorted. “Who needs nice?”
“Nice is good,” Ethan insisted. “I mean, we all know you’re really talented, and hey, it’s a really big honour, that you decided to take me, instead of her, but...”
“Spit it out, popsicle,” Warren said, looking at him pointedly.
“Don’t you think people would like you better if you were nicer?” Ethan asked.
“Sure.” Warren shrugged. “And life is rainbows and puppy dogs.”
“Well, no, of course not,” Ethan shook his head. “Still. I think you could be nice.”
Layla confronted Warren that night, after school, as everyone was trying to get on the buses. “You jerk!” she yelled, deliberately loud enough that Will could hear her. “Dumping me right before the dance, how could you?”
Warren raised his own voice. “I can’t dump someone I’m not dating! I said I was going to Homecoming with the popsicle, do you find that so hard to believe, that someone wants to take him to Homecoming?! Seriously! World. Not revolving around you! Grow up!”
Spinning on his heel, he marched over to the bus, where Ethan stood in the doorway, jaw hanging. “Hey popsicle,” Warren muttered, brushing past him to head inside.
Ethan hurried after him, sitting down beside Warren, still hugging the backpack. “Warren?”
“What?” Warren grumbled.
Ethan smiled broadly. “Thanks. That was really nice.”
Warren pursed his lips, and glanced at Ethan out of the corner of his eye. “No big deal, popsicle. You didn’t deserve that attitude.”
Ethan beamed, and settled back in the seat, feeling very warm and fuzzy.
“You know, I didn’t figure it would end quite this way,” Warren mused, sitting on the bleachers and watching Layla and Will scream at each other. Gwen/Royal Pain was well, in detention, actually, along with that freak in tights and curly shoes, the stretchy kid, the fast one, and the annoying one that never stopped making copies of herself. And now Will and Layla were in the biggest fight on the planet, it seemed.
“Kind of sucks, doesn’t it?” Ethan asked, frowning. “I really had hoped they’d end up together, eventually.”
Warren snorted. “You so don’t get relationships, do you, popsicle? Layla and Will? It would be all passion, but no staying power. Like... a gasoline fire. Burns hot, fast... and never lasts at all. I would have been scared if they’d ended up together, to be honest.”
“Oh.” Ethan blinked. “So... who should they be with?”
Warren grinned, and pointed at the fighting pair. Zach grabbed Will’s arm, and despite the other’s sputtered protests, he dragged him out onto the dance floor, grinning. Frankly, it looked like Will was just glad to have some reason to get away from Layla at that moment. Magenta, meanwhile, was talking soothingly and low to Layla, who was looking less murderous every moment. “Good friends, see? They’ll end up sleeping together. Both pairs.”
“Oh.” Ethan blinked. Again. “Oh. Wow. Didn’t see that coming.”
Warren shrugged. “Strange things are happening every day. So. Popsicle. Gonna dance with me?”
Ethan brightened. “How nice, Warren!”
“I thought so,” he smirked.
Go back to Sky High.