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TITLE: In The Game - Chapter Four
SUMMARY: "I help a lot of people get good marks. They're usually grateful. In fact, I was hoping Teyla would choose to show her gratefulness by going to Homecoming with me - you know, sporty, good-looking girl goes out with intelligent, loveable geek - only to be pipped at the post by the jock captain of the football team!"
CATEGORY: high school AU, drama
RATING: PG-13
PAIRING: John/Teyla, background Liz/Ronon, Carson/Laura
NOTES: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vipersweb for the beta.
In The Game: Chapter Three - "Settling And Sorting"
Chapter Four - Pep Talks
"So," Rodney said in the middle of Trigonometry homework. "You and Teyla, eh?"
It was a typical Saturday afternoon, spent over at Rodney's house since his mom made choc-chip cookies that went part of the way towards explaining why Rodney wasn't a lean, mean, sporting machine, and doing homework in fits and starts while watching bits of whatever college football game was currently playing.
As homework subjects went, John was pretty good at Trig. Obviously not as good as Rodney, but then, Rodney was a genius. As he kept reminding everyone. Modesty was not one of Rodney McKay's faults. And it certainly wasn't one of his virtues.
Neither was tact.
John didn't look up from calculating double sines and cosines. "It's just Homecoming."
"Just Homecoming?"
"Just Homecoming. Look, I wasn't going to ask her in the first place. The fact that I did was...a surprise. Like temporary insanity."
Rodney made a noisy sound of disbelief. "Hm. And have you told Teyla this? Because she and everyone else - including me, I might add - seems to be under the impression that you're happy to be taking her to Homecoming."
"I am!"
"In that case, 'temporary insanity' is not a good defence for explaining your choice of date to anyone. Even I know that."
John crossed out an answer that was wrong and started from the beginning again. "I meant it was temporary insanity in that I'd never even thought of asking her until that moment. I was asking if she was okay after her break-up."
"You were worried about her break-up with Lorne?"
Great, now he had to explain the back-story, too. "I was worried about her game - Bates had mentioned she broke up with Lorne and I wanted to check that her game wasn't going to suffer."
"Uhuh." Rodney dismissed that topic and promptly plunged into another. "You know, she's been doing pretty well in Pre-Calc. I'd recommend Calculus next year if she wants to go into a scientific field."
John wrote out a set of answers and hoped they were right. "Who died and made you the guidance counsellor?"
Rodney's pen moved across the page, effortlessly keeping track of the numbers and letters as he spoke. "Well, if people are going to ask me for educational advice..."
"They ask, or you tell them anyway?"
"Well, maybe a bit of both." Rodney shrugged. "I'm impressed that her grades are holding steady. Although, I shouldn't be. If she's stubborn enough to get on the football team and stay on it, then she's not lazy."
"No-one on the varsity football team's lazy," said John. "We wouldn't have them if they were."
"Well, yes, I suppose that's true. But then, most of the jocks on the team aren't...intellectual."
"Rodney, I hate to break it to you, but I'm doing this so I get reasonable marks, not out of any love of Trig." John stuck his finger in the textbook and flipped back a few pages for the rule that he was pretty sure he had right but just wanted to check. "So is Teyla. And everyone else you're torturing...I mean, tutoring."
"Ha-ha. Don't give up your day job. And Zelenka's not."
John looked up, scornfully. "Rodney, you're a geek. You attract similarly geeky people - like Zelenka. It's like...magnets."
"Magnets?"
"Yup."
"So how does that explain you?"
"Pure self-interest," said John. "You help me get good marks."
"I help a lot of people get good marks. They're usually grateful. In fact, I was hoping Teyla would choose to show her gratefulness by going to Homecoming with me - you know, sporty, good-looking girl goes out with intelligent, loveable geek..."
"We're talking about Zelenka, aren't we?"
"...only to be pipped at the post by the jock captain of the football team."
"Pipped at the post?" John asked, letting the question of jock-ness pass for the moment.
"Uhh... Means to be overtaken at the last moment. Outmanoeuvred."
"Outclassed?"
Rodney scowled. "Did you want to pass Trig?"
John just grinned before he turned back to his work. For a few minutes, there was no sound but the noise of the game between USC and Arkansas, and John got through four more problems before Rodney got tired of keeping silent.
"Hm. So what's the deal with Michael Kenmore? First he turns up at the game, then makes an appearance at the Steak 'n Shake - isn't that a bit..." Rodney paused. "Ostentatious? I mean, if you want to scout how your opponents are playing, that's one thing, but turning up at a restaurant full of supporters afterwards? That's just insane."
John finished the equation before he lost his train of thought. These problems were harder than the ones he'd been doing earlier and if he had to do them then he was going to get them right first time.
"Then again, I suppose, nobody's ever said the Rait were sane," Rodney mused.
"I suppose nobody's ever said you have a really bad habit of thinking out loud." There wasn't any point in continuing, John decided. Rodney was going to have his say and John would just have to deal.
"Thinking out loud is better than not thinking at all!"
He didn't bother to stifle his grin as he tipped the chair back on two legs. "Ford thought Kenmore was trying to start a fight."
"Again with the sanity question." Rodney reached out to pull the cookie jar over. "You know, I don't even know why I bother. You sporty types are all the same."
"Have too many of those and you won't enjoy dinner," John warned before swinging down to reach for the jar himself. He chose to ignore Rodney's natural bias against 'jocks' and 'sporty types'. If they got into that kind of argument, they'd never stop.
The other guy shrugged, brushing crumbs off his 'genius' t-shirt. "It's just pizza."
"Isn't there a saying about a dinner of herbs with friends?"
"Please. I'm a genius, not a little book of quotes." Rodney's cat wound its way under their chairs, snuffling for cookie crumbs. Felix would eat anything that fell off the table. He would also caterwaul when picked up by anyone but Rodney - then, he purred with enough force to provide the energy requirements for a third-world country. "You know, I'll never get why the Weirs allow us to take over their house on Saturday nights."
Sometimes John wondered that, too. "Because we're a wholesome and encouraging influence on Liz?"
Rodney snorted. "Try saying it with a straight face."
--
"He shoots, he scores!" The piece of pepperoni landed smack in the middle of Rodney's glass and a wave of soda swept up the sides of the glass like a miniature tsunami, sloshing across the coffee table and endangering various magazines that were piled there.
Rodney picked it out with an expression of disgust. "Sheppard!"
"Don't even think of throwing it back at him, Rodney," Liz said as Teyla quietly rescued the magazines and tucked them on the ledge beneath the bevelled glass top.
Ronon chuckled. "Too late."
"Teyla, leave it for John to clean up," Liz said, giving John's beanbag a nudge with her toe.
"Later," he said.
The beanbag moved again. "John…"
"I said I'll do it," he grumbled. "At least wait until the episode's over."
"If you had time to play basketball with your pepperoni and Rodney's drink, then you're not watching the episode."
For a moment, John considered the prospect of staying right where he was. Then he realised she wasn't going to let up. This was Liz. He huffed as he hauled himself up and went into the kitchen for the dishcloth, ignoring Rodney and Ronon's smirks and Teyla's smile.
Saturday nights had always been associated with the Weir household for John. He and Rodney had been semi-regular visitors on Saturday nights since the long-ago afternoon they'd rocked up to check out the new neighbours and found Liz bossing her dog around the yard as they watched the movers take things in.
The Weirs were good-natured about the friends their daughter had acquired, informally adopting John and Rodney and bearing with everything from boisterous arguments over every tiny detail, to all-night movie nights, and the occasional shrieking argument between their daughter and one of the other two when she got tired of one, the other, or both.
"Do you need the carpet cleaner?" Liz's mom's voice broke through from the connected breakfast room as John began running the dishcloth under the tap.
John poked his head around the corner. "Not yet."
"Good. See that you don't." Her words were severe, but when she glanced up from her notes, she was smiling.
He went out to the TV room smiling. Megan was good that way. High-powered lawyer; really cool mom. He envied Liz her mom.
"While you're at it, Sheppard, you can get me another drink," Rodney said, holding up his glass.
John was about to retort that Rodney could get his own, when Teyla rose to her feet with her plate in hand. She took the glass from Rodney. "I will do it," she said.
"I'll do it," Liz said, just as neatly taking both glass and plate out of Teyla's hand. "I should be hostessing."
"Suits me," Ronon said, stretching his legs out across sofa cushions where Liz had been seated.
Liz pointed Teyla's empty glass at him like a weapon. "You'll keep for later."
Ronon just smirked and folded his hands on his stomach. "Counting on it."
"Teyla, what drink?"
"Just water, please."
"Rodney?"
"Coke. I don't need to mention no lime? Ow!" Teyla had poked him in the ribs.
"Say please!"
Rodney muttered something beneath his breath. "Please."
John grinned as he followed Liz into the kitchen.
"Do you want me to go downstairs and get--?" He broke off as she pulled a 2L bottle of Coca-cola from the fridge and indicated the others sitting in the fridge door. "Okay. So the drinks aren't mostly kept downstairs anymore?"
"You wouldn't believe how fast Ronon goes through a bottle of soda," Liz explained as she poured Rodney's drink.
"I can imagine," John muttered.
He didn't mean to sound sulky, but maybe he did, because Liz closed the fridge with a rattling thump. "You haven't been around much lately."
John's eyes narrowed. "That's what Teyla said."
"Well, she's right." Liz crossed the kitchen to get some water from the purifier tap. "You started dating Chaya and then you vanished from radar." She had the 'I'm not going to get mad' voice out - it was nice Liz, but it had an edge.
"All right!" He snapped. "I got too involved with dating Chaya. It won't happen again."
"It better not," she retorted. "Because if you go back to a girl who dumped you for another guy then you need your head examined!"
"I meant--" John stopped. She knew what he meant - and she knew he knew she knew. "Well, you won't have to worry about it for a while anyway."
"True." Her expression shifted, growing shrewd. "You know, you once threatened never to ask Teyla out."
"I did? When?"
Liz rolled her eyes at him. "Back before the Founders' Dance."
"That was months ago!" Trust a girl to remember something like that! Although now that she mentioned it... Yeah, he remembered making a joke about asking Teyla to Founders' - mostly to piss off Liz - only to be turned down because Teyla claimed she wanted to play the field.
Huh. He'd forgotten that.
"Only two," Liz was saying as she poured Teyla's water.
John shrugged. He was pretty sure he'd been joking at the time, and even if he hadn't, who cared? John had gone to Founder's Dance with Chaya, and Teyla had ended up dating Lorne.
He glanced back to the TV room, listening for the sound of the show playing and lowered his voice so the others couldn't hear this conversation. "Do you know what's the deal with Teyla's break-up with Lorne?"
Liz looked startled, then thoughtful. "Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm taking her to Homecoming?" John said. "And because she and Lorne seemed fine a couple of weeks ago and suddenly it's over."
"You think I'm going to tell you?"
"I'm hoping you will," he admitted. John told himself he wasn't prying - and he wasn't. He was just making sure he didn't get into trouble like he had last night.
Liz paused in the act of putting the water jug back in the fridge and frowned. "Teyla wouldn't go out with you on the rebound if that's what you're thinking."
"Like I care if she's on the rebound or not! We're not dating, we're just going to Homecoming together!"
Eyebrows lifted and John flushed at his outburst. At least he hadn't raised his voice loud enough for the others to hear.
It was a little annoying how all his friends assumed that John had some ulterior motive for asking Teyla to Homecoming. It was really just easier to go with Teyla than to navigate a date with a girl who did have a crush on him and might take things the wrong way.
John didn't need a girlfriend. He didn't want a girlfriend. And he didn't want someone claiming he'd broken her heart because he'd been giving off the wrong signals while being friendly.
Teyla was just a friend. She knew John flirted and teased and it didn't bother her. She knew the rules - she was safe.
John liked it that way.
"I know why they broke up." Liz said at last. "But I'm not going to tell you."
He scowled. He'd been counting on Liz to give him the low-down. "Is this girl stuff?"
"Yes."
Which basically screwed him. John neither wanted nor needed to know about the stuff that the girls confided in each other. But Teyla's reaction last night had been...excessive. And her eyes had been red from crying when John confronted her in the locker rooms.
She'd cared about the break-up. Which meant it hadn't been her doing the dumping.
"Was another girl involved?" Maybe he had more in common with Teyla than he'd thought.
"No," Liz said flatly. John had a feeling she wasn't telling the whole truth.
"Come on," he coaxed. "Just a hint."
"No."
"It might keep me out of trouble."
She snorted at that, picking up both glasses. "It would take more than a hint to keep you out of trouble, John."
He was going to retort that he stayed well out of trouble most of the time, thanks a heap, but Liz trumped all arguments by sailing out of the kitchen and back to the others.
John sighed and went back out.
It looked like he was on his own for this one.
--
Ronon stretched his legs out on the grass of the lawn where they were having morning break.
"She saw Kenmore on the weekend."
"Huh?" It took John a moment to pull his brain together. He blamed it on Mara Tower's cleavage, which was displayed for every guy with eyes to see - and any girls that swung that way.
Ronon followed John's gaze and his eyebrows rose. "Teyla saw Kenmore on the weekend," he said, tracking Mara as she bounced...er...walked across the schoolyard.
"She said she was going to."
That jerked Ronon's head around. "What?"
John squashed the instinctive cringe as Ronon's voice rose above the chatter. What Ronon took for granted - the easy distinction from the cliques and groups of Shermer's senior class - John was only just accustoming himself to.
The group of friends he used to sit with were presently over on the senior lawn, cosying up to Jeff Mann, Chaya's new squeeze. Being a new student at Shermer, and a spoiled brat of a rich kid, Jeff felt no loyalty or fairness towards the captain of the football team when it came to stealing his girlfriend.
What burned John more was that several of his friends from that group had guessed that Chaya was interested in someone else and never said anything to him. And only a handful of them still talked to him - most of them were too busy avoiding eye contact and being embarrassed since Jeff was the centre of attention among that crowd.
John had been dumped by more than just Chaya in the space of a couple of weeks.
Okay, so he'd never been 'popular' at Shermer.
His long-time friendship with Rodney - the one he refused to give up - meant he was looked at askance by the idiots who figured that if they could sail away on the back of a football scholarship, they didn't have to try. John had always figured he could sail away on the back of a football scholarship, but it wouldn't hurt to have a plan B. Just in case.
Liz had helped out with his 'cool' factor since she was pretty and admired and seemed to have a thing for him. John had never asked, mostly because he wasn't interested in Liz. At any rate, it had only been once Ronon started dating Liz and a couple of guys commented that it was a pity to lose his 'groupie' that John realised she'd been a status symbol to the other guys - the one he could have but didn't want.
Being the football captain...well, that was leadership and sporting ability. Maybe it was just his father in him - and wasn't that a frightening thought? - but John did his best. And the team were good players, but when Bates challenged John for the captaincy during tryouts, the team polarised - and Teyla's inclusion on the team only made it worse.
Oh, there'd been quite a bit of support for Teyla - especially once she slipped into the wide receiver position and started getting the ball down the field - but the guys who supported Teyla's inclusion were the type John mentally labelled 'quirky'.
Looking back at it all in hindsight, John supposed he was probably 'quirky' too. He'd masked it with 'cool' for long enough to get in among the popular crowd, but Chaya's desertion had stripped the gloves off - and his 'friends' had followed.
Fine. Screw them.
John never thought he'd be thankful for Ronon Dex's arrival at Shermer, but he was.
"Friday night, at the restaurant." John answered Ronon's question. "Kenmore was flirting with her. She was flirting back."
Ronon sat up like someone had yanked his strings. "And you didn't do anything?"
"What should I have done?"
"Beat him up."
It was such a simple solution, John reflected to himself. He went for the explanation he'd given Ford on Friday. "If I'd laid a hand on him last Friday, I'd be benched for this Friday."
"So beat him up this Friday after the game." Ronon lowered himself back down on his elbows again.
There was definitely something to be said for simplicity. "I'll take it into consideration."
"Hey, if you don't, I will."
John frowned. "Since when is Teyla's love life so interesting to you?" Sure, there'd always been rumours about Teyla and Ronon since the day Ronon had pinned her in Fight Club, but John had never given them any validity.
Maybe he should have.
Ronon shrugged and bared his teeth. "Better you than Kenmore."
Okay. So only Ronon would look at it like that and say it out loud. Well, Rodney might, too. But Rodney was Rodney.
"You know," John said sourly, "you do wonders for my ego."
"What are friends for?" There was a decidedly wicked tilt to the other guy's grin as he looked at John. "So you're not interested?"
He gritted his teeth. "No." It wasn't a case of being interested or not. After Chaya, John didn't want to find himself blindly running after any girl - even Teyla. Especially Teyla. "It's just Homecoming." He wondered how many more times he'd have to say it before his friends got it.
Once seemed to be enough for Ronon.
"Okay."
They sat in comfortable silence for a while longer, while John debated whether or not he should ask Ronon about Kenmore.
John figured he knew Ronon Dex about as well as any guy in the school. After John dealt with the realisation that Liz Weir was dating someone other than Simon Wallis - who'd been about as stiff as a board and twice as starched as one of those old collars - he'd discovered that Ronon was a pretty cool guy to hang out with.
But the guy had his quirks and his past. He had a history with a local gang or two, although he refused to tell John anything about them and only insisted that he wasn't involved with them anymore.
It wasn't as though he'd had much choice to trust Ronon - not when both Liz and Teyla were on his side - but John had soon found he did.
But Ronon's hatred of Kenmore was...intense. Almost personal. It made John wonder if there was history there, and, if so, what?
He wasn't Rodney, though. He knew better than to ask.
"You'd better beat them."
"Huh?"
"St. Rait's. You'd better beat them this weekend."
That sounded like a threat. "Or else...?"
Ronon just bared his teeth in a feral grin. "Or else I might have to beat you up."
John snorted. "Teyla will beat you up if you do."
"And Elizabeth will beat her up."
They both considered that image for a moment. "Maybe not," Ronon conceded after a moment. He flopped back on the grass, dreadlocks akimbo.
"No," John agreed, leaning back on his arms. Liz was feisty, sure, but not a physical fighter. And Teyla had both athleticism and fighting skill working in her favour.
He should probably go over to where Mara was posturing and posing with her friends and do some chatting up. It never hurt to have his hand in, even if he didn't need a date. He just couldn't really be bothered right now, though. It was just a quiet morning break, no disturbances, all good.
A gaggle of girls tittered their way down the path beside the lawn, and Teyla trailed behind them, not really part of the group, just tracing the same path from room to room as she exchanged notes with a guy from one of her classes. The guy was talking and she was listening, even as her eyes rested on the notes he'd given her.
John frowned. There was something about the way the guy was angling himself as he spoke to Teyla. Something...ingratiating.
Teyla stopped and looked up, startled by whatever he'd said. Then she flushed, looked down and away, and shook her head. The guy said something else, and she looked up.
She looked straight at John.
It wasn't intentional, just a casual clash of eyes. And the warm pleasure in his stomach was just the satisfaction of knowing he'd be going to Homecoming with a partner that other guys wished they had. John cocked a smile at her and got a quick smile in return before the guy turned to see who she was looking at.
John lifted a hand to wave and watched the guy colour and Teyla sigh. She grabbed at her companion's arm and tugged him along without looking at John again.
Probably explaining that it was just a date for Homecoming, not really dating.
"Sheppard?"
"Hm?" He'd forgotten about Ronon, sprawled out on the grass like a cat, without an apparent care in the world. "What?"
"You'd better win against St. Rait's."
John settled back on the grass. "You already said that."
"No," Ronon said, and he jerked his head towards the school fence. "You have to win against St. Rait's."
There was a tow-haired figure standing in the street, watching the yard. Had he been keeping an eye out for Teyla all this time? One hand lifted, waved at John, and he could just pick out the narrow-eyed smirk on the pointed face.
Then Kenmore tucked his hands in his pockets and casually strolled off down the road.
"Bastard," Ronon muttered. "If you don't take care of him on Friday, then I will."
"Do you mean 'take care of him' or do you mean 'take care of him'?"
Again the toothy grin. "Whichever. Just win the game."
It was probably better not to question it. This was Ronon, after all.
"Believe me," John told Ronon, "We'll be trying."
- TBC -
SUMMARY: "I help a lot of people get good marks. They're usually grateful. In fact, I was hoping Teyla would choose to show her gratefulness by going to Homecoming with me - you know, sporty, good-looking girl goes out with intelligent, loveable geek - only to be pipped at the post by the jock captain of the football team!"
CATEGORY: high school AU, drama
RATING: PG-13
PAIRING: John/Teyla, background Liz/Ronon, Carson/Laura
NOTES: Thanks to
vipersweb for the beta.In The Game: Chapter Three - "Settling And Sorting"
Chapter Four - Pep Talks
"So," Rodney said in the middle of Trigonometry homework. "You and Teyla, eh?"
It was a typical Saturday afternoon, spent over at Rodney's house since his mom made choc-chip cookies that went part of the way towards explaining why Rodney wasn't a lean, mean, sporting machine, and doing homework in fits and starts while watching bits of whatever college football game was currently playing.
As homework subjects went, John was pretty good at Trig. Obviously not as good as Rodney, but then, Rodney was a genius. As he kept reminding everyone. Modesty was not one of Rodney McKay's faults. And it certainly wasn't one of his virtues.
Neither was tact.
John didn't look up from calculating double sines and cosines. "It's just Homecoming."
"Just Homecoming?"
"Just Homecoming. Look, I wasn't going to ask her in the first place. The fact that I did was...a surprise. Like temporary insanity."
Rodney made a noisy sound of disbelief. "Hm. And have you told Teyla this? Because she and everyone else - including me, I might add - seems to be under the impression that you're happy to be taking her to Homecoming."
"I am!"
"In that case, 'temporary insanity' is not a good defence for explaining your choice of date to anyone. Even I know that."
John crossed out an answer that was wrong and started from the beginning again. "I meant it was temporary insanity in that I'd never even thought of asking her until that moment. I was asking if she was okay after her break-up."
"You were worried about her break-up with Lorne?"
Great, now he had to explain the back-story, too. "I was worried about her game - Bates had mentioned she broke up with Lorne and I wanted to check that her game wasn't going to suffer."
"Uhuh." Rodney dismissed that topic and promptly plunged into another. "You know, she's been doing pretty well in Pre-Calc. I'd recommend Calculus next year if she wants to go into a scientific field."
John wrote out a set of answers and hoped they were right. "Who died and made you the guidance counsellor?"
Rodney's pen moved across the page, effortlessly keeping track of the numbers and letters as he spoke. "Well, if people are going to ask me for educational advice..."
"They ask, or you tell them anyway?"
"Well, maybe a bit of both." Rodney shrugged. "I'm impressed that her grades are holding steady. Although, I shouldn't be. If she's stubborn enough to get on the football team and stay on it, then she's not lazy."
"No-one on the varsity football team's lazy," said John. "We wouldn't have them if they were."
"Well, yes, I suppose that's true. But then, most of the jocks on the team aren't...intellectual."
"Rodney, I hate to break it to you, but I'm doing this so I get reasonable marks, not out of any love of Trig." John stuck his finger in the textbook and flipped back a few pages for the rule that he was pretty sure he had right but just wanted to check. "So is Teyla. And everyone else you're torturing...I mean, tutoring."
"Ha-ha. Don't give up your day job. And Zelenka's not."
John looked up, scornfully. "Rodney, you're a geek. You attract similarly geeky people - like Zelenka. It's like...magnets."
"Magnets?"
"Yup."
"So how does that explain you?"
"Pure self-interest," said John. "You help me get good marks."
"I help a lot of people get good marks. They're usually grateful. In fact, I was hoping Teyla would choose to show her gratefulness by going to Homecoming with me - you know, sporty, good-looking girl goes out with intelligent, loveable geek..."
"We're talking about Zelenka, aren't we?"
"...only to be pipped at the post by the jock captain of the football team."
"Pipped at the post?" John asked, letting the question of jock-ness pass for the moment.
"Uhh... Means to be overtaken at the last moment. Outmanoeuvred."
"Outclassed?"
Rodney scowled. "Did you want to pass Trig?"
John just grinned before he turned back to his work. For a few minutes, there was no sound but the noise of the game between USC and Arkansas, and John got through four more problems before Rodney got tired of keeping silent.
"Hm. So what's the deal with Michael Kenmore? First he turns up at the game, then makes an appearance at the Steak 'n Shake - isn't that a bit..." Rodney paused. "Ostentatious? I mean, if you want to scout how your opponents are playing, that's one thing, but turning up at a restaurant full of supporters afterwards? That's just insane."
John finished the equation before he lost his train of thought. These problems were harder than the ones he'd been doing earlier and if he had to do them then he was going to get them right first time.
"Then again, I suppose, nobody's ever said the Rait were sane," Rodney mused.
"I suppose nobody's ever said you have a really bad habit of thinking out loud." There wasn't any point in continuing, John decided. Rodney was going to have his say and John would just have to deal.
"Thinking out loud is better than not thinking at all!"
He didn't bother to stifle his grin as he tipped the chair back on two legs. "Ford thought Kenmore was trying to start a fight."
"Again with the sanity question." Rodney reached out to pull the cookie jar over. "You know, I don't even know why I bother. You sporty types are all the same."
"Have too many of those and you won't enjoy dinner," John warned before swinging down to reach for the jar himself. He chose to ignore Rodney's natural bias against 'jocks' and 'sporty types'. If they got into that kind of argument, they'd never stop.
The other guy shrugged, brushing crumbs off his 'genius' t-shirt. "It's just pizza."
"Isn't there a saying about a dinner of herbs with friends?"
"Please. I'm a genius, not a little book of quotes." Rodney's cat wound its way under their chairs, snuffling for cookie crumbs. Felix would eat anything that fell off the table. He would also caterwaul when picked up by anyone but Rodney - then, he purred with enough force to provide the energy requirements for a third-world country. "You know, I'll never get why the Weirs allow us to take over their house on Saturday nights."
Sometimes John wondered that, too. "Because we're a wholesome and encouraging influence on Liz?"
Rodney snorted. "Try saying it with a straight face."
--
"He shoots, he scores!" The piece of pepperoni landed smack in the middle of Rodney's glass and a wave of soda swept up the sides of the glass like a miniature tsunami, sloshing across the coffee table and endangering various magazines that were piled there.
Rodney picked it out with an expression of disgust. "Sheppard!"
"Don't even think of throwing it back at him, Rodney," Liz said as Teyla quietly rescued the magazines and tucked them on the ledge beneath the bevelled glass top.
Ronon chuckled. "Too late."
"Teyla, leave it for John to clean up," Liz said, giving John's beanbag a nudge with her toe.
"Later," he said.
The beanbag moved again. "John…"
"I said I'll do it," he grumbled. "At least wait until the episode's over."
"If you had time to play basketball with your pepperoni and Rodney's drink, then you're not watching the episode."
For a moment, John considered the prospect of staying right where he was. Then he realised she wasn't going to let up. This was Liz. He huffed as he hauled himself up and went into the kitchen for the dishcloth, ignoring Rodney and Ronon's smirks and Teyla's smile.
Saturday nights had always been associated with the Weir household for John. He and Rodney had been semi-regular visitors on Saturday nights since the long-ago afternoon they'd rocked up to check out the new neighbours and found Liz bossing her dog around the yard as they watched the movers take things in.
The Weirs were good-natured about the friends their daughter had acquired, informally adopting John and Rodney and bearing with everything from boisterous arguments over every tiny detail, to all-night movie nights, and the occasional shrieking argument between their daughter and one of the other two when she got tired of one, the other, or both.
"Do you need the carpet cleaner?" Liz's mom's voice broke through from the connected breakfast room as John began running the dishcloth under the tap.
John poked his head around the corner. "Not yet."
"Good. See that you don't." Her words were severe, but when she glanced up from her notes, she was smiling.
He went out to the TV room smiling. Megan was good that way. High-powered lawyer; really cool mom. He envied Liz her mom.
"While you're at it, Sheppard, you can get me another drink," Rodney said, holding up his glass.
John was about to retort that Rodney could get his own, when Teyla rose to her feet with her plate in hand. She took the glass from Rodney. "I will do it," she said.
"I'll do it," Liz said, just as neatly taking both glass and plate out of Teyla's hand. "I should be hostessing."
"Suits me," Ronon said, stretching his legs out across sofa cushions where Liz had been seated.
Liz pointed Teyla's empty glass at him like a weapon. "You'll keep for later."
Ronon just smirked and folded his hands on his stomach. "Counting on it."
"Teyla, what drink?"
"Just water, please."
"Rodney?"
"Coke. I don't need to mention no lime? Ow!" Teyla had poked him in the ribs.
"Say please!"
Rodney muttered something beneath his breath. "Please."
John grinned as he followed Liz into the kitchen.
"Do you want me to go downstairs and get--?" He broke off as she pulled a 2L bottle of Coca-cola from the fridge and indicated the others sitting in the fridge door. "Okay. So the drinks aren't mostly kept downstairs anymore?"
"You wouldn't believe how fast Ronon goes through a bottle of soda," Liz explained as she poured Rodney's drink.
"I can imagine," John muttered.
He didn't mean to sound sulky, but maybe he did, because Liz closed the fridge with a rattling thump. "You haven't been around much lately."
John's eyes narrowed. "That's what Teyla said."
"Well, she's right." Liz crossed the kitchen to get some water from the purifier tap. "You started dating Chaya and then you vanished from radar." She had the 'I'm not going to get mad' voice out - it was nice Liz, but it had an edge.
"All right!" He snapped. "I got too involved with dating Chaya. It won't happen again."
"It better not," she retorted. "Because if you go back to a girl who dumped you for another guy then you need your head examined!"
"I meant--" John stopped. She knew what he meant - and she knew he knew she knew. "Well, you won't have to worry about it for a while anyway."
"True." Her expression shifted, growing shrewd. "You know, you once threatened never to ask Teyla out."
"I did? When?"
Liz rolled her eyes at him. "Back before the Founders' Dance."
"That was months ago!" Trust a girl to remember something like that! Although now that she mentioned it... Yeah, he remembered making a joke about asking Teyla to Founders' - mostly to piss off Liz - only to be turned down because Teyla claimed she wanted to play the field.
Huh. He'd forgotten that.
"Only two," Liz was saying as she poured Teyla's water.
John shrugged. He was pretty sure he'd been joking at the time, and even if he hadn't, who cared? John had gone to Founder's Dance with Chaya, and Teyla had ended up dating Lorne.
He glanced back to the TV room, listening for the sound of the show playing and lowered his voice so the others couldn't hear this conversation. "Do you know what's the deal with Teyla's break-up with Lorne?"
Liz looked startled, then thoughtful. "Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm taking her to Homecoming?" John said. "And because she and Lorne seemed fine a couple of weeks ago and suddenly it's over."
"You think I'm going to tell you?"
"I'm hoping you will," he admitted. John told himself he wasn't prying - and he wasn't. He was just making sure he didn't get into trouble like he had last night.
Liz paused in the act of putting the water jug back in the fridge and frowned. "Teyla wouldn't go out with you on the rebound if that's what you're thinking."
"Like I care if she's on the rebound or not! We're not dating, we're just going to Homecoming together!"
Eyebrows lifted and John flushed at his outburst. At least he hadn't raised his voice loud enough for the others to hear.
It was a little annoying how all his friends assumed that John had some ulterior motive for asking Teyla to Homecoming. It was really just easier to go with Teyla than to navigate a date with a girl who did have a crush on him and might take things the wrong way.
John didn't need a girlfriend. He didn't want a girlfriend. And he didn't want someone claiming he'd broken her heart because he'd been giving off the wrong signals while being friendly.
Teyla was just a friend. She knew John flirted and teased and it didn't bother her. She knew the rules - she was safe.
John liked it that way.
"I know why they broke up." Liz said at last. "But I'm not going to tell you."
He scowled. He'd been counting on Liz to give him the low-down. "Is this girl stuff?"
"Yes."
Which basically screwed him. John neither wanted nor needed to know about the stuff that the girls confided in each other. But Teyla's reaction last night had been...excessive. And her eyes had been red from crying when John confronted her in the locker rooms.
She'd cared about the break-up. Which meant it hadn't been her doing the dumping.
"Was another girl involved?" Maybe he had more in common with Teyla than he'd thought.
"No," Liz said flatly. John had a feeling she wasn't telling the whole truth.
"Come on," he coaxed. "Just a hint."
"No."
"It might keep me out of trouble."
She snorted at that, picking up both glasses. "It would take more than a hint to keep you out of trouble, John."
He was going to retort that he stayed well out of trouble most of the time, thanks a heap, but Liz trumped all arguments by sailing out of the kitchen and back to the others.
John sighed and went back out.
It looked like he was on his own for this one.
--
Ronon stretched his legs out on the grass of the lawn where they were having morning break.
"She saw Kenmore on the weekend."
"Huh?" It took John a moment to pull his brain together. He blamed it on Mara Tower's cleavage, which was displayed for every guy with eyes to see - and any girls that swung that way.
Ronon followed John's gaze and his eyebrows rose. "Teyla saw Kenmore on the weekend," he said, tracking Mara as she bounced...er...walked across the schoolyard.
"She said she was going to."
That jerked Ronon's head around. "What?"
John squashed the instinctive cringe as Ronon's voice rose above the chatter. What Ronon took for granted - the easy distinction from the cliques and groups of Shermer's senior class - John was only just accustoming himself to.
The group of friends he used to sit with were presently over on the senior lawn, cosying up to Jeff Mann, Chaya's new squeeze. Being a new student at Shermer, and a spoiled brat of a rich kid, Jeff felt no loyalty or fairness towards the captain of the football team when it came to stealing his girlfriend.
What burned John more was that several of his friends from that group had guessed that Chaya was interested in someone else and never said anything to him. And only a handful of them still talked to him - most of them were too busy avoiding eye contact and being embarrassed since Jeff was the centre of attention among that crowd.
John had been dumped by more than just Chaya in the space of a couple of weeks.
Okay, so he'd never been 'popular' at Shermer.
His long-time friendship with Rodney - the one he refused to give up - meant he was looked at askance by the idiots who figured that if they could sail away on the back of a football scholarship, they didn't have to try. John had always figured he could sail away on the back of a football scholarship, but it wouldn't hurt to have a plan B. Just in case.
Liz had helped out with his 'cool' factor since she was pretty and admired and seemed to have a thing for him. John had never asked, mostly because he wasn't interested in Liz. At any rate, it had only been once Ronon started dating Liz and a couple of guys commented that it was a pity to lose his 'groupie' that John realised she'd been a status symbol to the other guys - the one he could have but didn't want.
Being the football captain...well, that was leadership and sporting ability. Maybe it was just his father in him - and wasn't that a frightening thought? - but John did his best. And the team were good players, but when Bates challenged John for the captaincy during tryouts, the team polarised - and Teyla's inclusion on the team only made it worse.
Oh, there'd been quite a bit of support for Teyla - especially once she slipped into the wide receiver position and started getting the ball down the field - but the guys who supported Teyla's inclusion were the type John mentally labelled 'quirky'.
Looking back at it all in hindsight, John supposed he was probably 'quirky' too. He'd masked it with 'cool' for long enough to get in among the popular crowd, but Chaya's desertion had stripped the gloves off - and his 'friends' had followed.
Fine. Screw them.
John never thought he'd be thankful for Ronon Dex's arrival at Shermer, but he was.
"Friday night, at the restaurant." John answered Ronon's question. "Kenmore was flirting with her. She was flirting back."
Ronon sat up like someone had yanked his strings. "And you didn't do anything?"
"What should I have done?"
"Beat him up."
It was such a simple solution, John reflected to himself. He went for the explanation he'd given Ford on Friday. "If I'd laid a hand on him last Friday, I'd be benched for this Friday."
"So beat him up this Friday after the game." Ronon lowered himself back down on his elbows again.
There was definitely something to be said for simplicity. "I'll take it into consideration."
"Hey, if you don't, I will."
John frowned. "Since when is Teyla's love life so interesting to you?" Sure, there'd always been rumours about Teyla and Ronon since the day Ronon had pinned her in Fight Club, but John had never given them any validity.
Maybe he should have.
Ronon shrugged and bared his teeth. "Better you than Kenmore."
Okay. So only Ronon would look at it like that and say it out loud. Well, Rodney might, too. But Rodney was Rodney.
"You know," John said sourly, "you do wonders for my ego."
"What are friends for?" There was a decidedly wicked tilt to the other guy's grin as he looked at John. "So you're not interested?"
He gritted his teeth. "No." It wasn't a case of being interested or not. After Chaya, John didn't want to find himself blindly running after any girl - even Teyla. Especially Teyla. "It's just Homecoming." He wondered how many more times he'd have to say it before his friends got it.
Once seemed to be enough for Ronon.
"Okay."
They sat in comfortable silence for a while longer, while John debated whether or not he should ask Ronon about Kenmore.
John figured he knew Ronon Dex about as well as any guy in the school. After John dealt with the realisation that Liz Weir was dating someone other than Simon Wallis - who'd been about as stiff as a board and twice as starched as one of those old collars - he'd discovered that Ronon was a pretty cool guy to hang out with.
But the guy had his quirks and his past. He had a history with a local gang or two, although he refused to tell John anything about them and only insisted that he wasn't involved with them anymore.
It wasn't as though he'd had much choice to trust Ronon - not when both Liz and Teyla were on his side - but John had soon found he did.
But Ronon's hatred of Kenmore was...intense. Almost personal. It made John wonder if there was history there, and, if so, what?
He wasn't Rodney, though. He knew better than to ask.
"You'd better beat them."
"Huh?"
"St. Rait's. You'd better beat them this weekend."
That sounded like a threat. "Or else...?"
Ronon just bared his teeth in a feral grin. "Or else I might have to beat you up."
John snorted. "Teyla will beat you up if you do."
"And Elizabeth will beat her up."
They both considered that image for a moment. "Maybe not," Ronon conceded after a moment. He flopped back on the grass, dreadlocks akimbo.
"No," John agreed, leaning back on his arms. Liz was feisty, sure, but not a physical fighter. And Teyla had both athleticism and fighting skill working in her favour.
He should probably go over to where Mara was posturing and posing with her friends and do some chatting up. It never hurt to have his hand in, even if he didn't need a date. He just couldn't really be bothered right now, though. It was just a quiet morning break, no disturbances, all good.
A gaggle of girls tittered their way down the path beside the lawn, and Teyla trailed behind them, not really part of the group, just tracing the same path from room to room as she exchanged notes with a guy from one of her classes. The guy was talking and she was listening, even as her eyes rested on the notes he'd given her.
John frowned. There was something about the way the guy was angling himself as he spoke to Teyla. Something...ingratiating.
Teyla stopped and looked up, startled by whatever he'd said. Then she flushed, looked down and away, and shook her head. The guy said something else, and she looked up.
She looked straight at John.
It wasn't intentional, just a casual clash of eyes. And the warm pleasure in his stomach was just the satisfaction of knowing he'd be going to Homecoming with a partner that other guys wished they had. John cocked a smile at her and got a quick smile in return before the guy turned to see who she was looking at.
John lifted a hand to wave and watched the guy colour and Teyla sigh. She grabbed at her companion's arm and tugged him along without looking at John again.
Probably explaining that it was just a date for Homecoming, not really dating.
"Sheppard?"
"Hm?" He'd forgotten about Ronon, sprawled out on the grass like a cat, without an apparent care in the world. "What?"
"You'd better win against St. Rait's."
John settled back on the grass. "You already said that."
"No," Ronon said, and he jerked his head towards the school fence. "You have to win against St. Rait's."
There was a tow-haired figure standing in the street, watching the yard. Had he been keeping an eye out for Teyla all this time? One hand lifted, waved at John, and he could just pick out the narrow-eyed smirk on the pointed face.
Then Kenmore tucked his hands in his pockets and casually strolled off down the road.
"Bastard," Ronon muttered. "If you don't take care of him on Friday, then I will."
"Do you mean 'take care of him' or do you mean 'take care of him'?"
Again the toothy grin. "Whichever. Just win the game."
It was probably better not to question it. This was Ronon, after all.
"Believe me," John told Ronon, "We'll be trying."
- TBC -
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