Chapter Text
Of course the red construction paper was in the shape of a heart, something cliché and seen millions of times. And of course it was written in black, illegible sharpie pen with handwriting that not even one of the most skilled decoders could decipher. It was one of the most cheesiest confessions known to mankind, but it would get the job done: to tell his crush something very personal on the specific day to come.
Valentine's Day.
A time for teeanagers to censor their hormonal urges and compensate that with romance. A time for an adventurous, whimsical, and overly difficult confession for a main character.
And that main character was Dash Baxter.
He stared at his Valentine's Day card which held a confession he concealed for about 2 years, building up the courage to walk right over to the person he needed to talk to, look at ‘em straight in the eye, say it like it is, and--
“Sup, Dash—?”
“NOT TO FENTON!” He shoved the note into his blue locker and slammed it shut, giving Kwan one of his most not-so-sincere smiles as his best friend stood there confused. He chuckled off his nerves and tried to relax and look like he wasn't hiding a cheesy Valentines Day card made for his gay crush on Danny. Confessions are for queers! he thought to himself. Who needs that when you got good ‘ol righty to clean your clarinet everyday?
Deciding to ignore how suspicious his friend was being, Kwan said, “Oookay. I just wanted to ask if you're still going to the Pri-Winter Evening's Valentines Ball at Casper High next week.”
Dash made sure to draw his body away from his locker as he continued. “Course I am! Why wouldn't I go? It's the thing and I'm the guy to go to the thing, I mean I have to go! It's, you know, the thing. And I'm, well, the guy. The guy going to the thing has to go.”
Kwan knew when he talked like a rambling idiot who emphasized specific words one too many times, Dash was hiding something. Maybe something in his locker that supposedly wasn't going to Fenton. At the thought, he raised an eyebrow. “Who you goanna ask?”
“To what?”
“To the ball...?”
“Oh yeah. That. The guy going to the thing he has to go to has to hav'a DATE, right?”
“Dash.”
“Of course, Paulina , I mean, who else ? She the perfect....female for the occasion that I...know exists. You know?”
“Yeah I know...” He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and took a not-so casual step towards Dash's locker, “Soooo,” he gave a creepy rapist grin at the door to forbidden truth, “What's in the locker, Dash?”
He's on to me. Dark circles developed around Dash's eyelids as Kwan stared into the other’s soul. “Books and supplies to help enhance my educational experience...”
“Is there something else in there...?”
“Not that I am aware of...”
Kwan also knew that when Dash spoke in proper English, he was freaking out. Whatever was in there must be that secretive if he hasn't told him by now. Probably something personally discriminating. As a jock, it is Kwan's priority to know this discriminating information to gossip to other people who may or may not ridicule him for it when Dash is not popular anymore, otherwise, it would be an insult to the practice of bullying and being a prep. So he pushed. “I think there is something else in your locker.”
“You thought wrong.”
“I feel like I thought right.”
“And I feel like that's a personal problem."
“The fuck's in there?”
“Your mom's number and G-string.”
Kwan rushed towards the handle and tried to tug it open, fighting against Dash's pulls and tugs. By the time Kwan got it open, Dash hooked two fingers into the other's mouth and yanked his jaw downward, causing them to plummet towards the hard floor. The locker was dark and filled with many books that collected cobwebs in their spare time. The red heart shaped card seemed to glow a bright red like an optional side quest. Outside it was a crowd of teenagers gathering to watch two jocks fight and do absolutely nothing to stop them. A passerby walked by the dark and cluttered locker, judging her peers for taking entertainment in violence while doing nothing about it (mostly because she didn't care for the people fighting each other). Noticing the open locker, she decided to peer into it. In awe, she also deciding to pick up the red card and read it. She gasped and chuckled, knowing she immediately had to let her best friend know about this. As she skipped out of the way of the boys, Kwan managed to wrestle out of Dash's objections and peer into the freaking locker like he was Sherlock-flucking-Holmes, feeling greatly disappointed at what he found. “Nani the fuck is this burr shittaru? There's just books in here,” he said spitting out a tooth.
Dash stood up like Dracula out of his coffin before turning his head to the locker with wide eyes. He shoved his friends head to the side and looked into it desperately. “What do you mean there's just books?” Twisting towards the crowd, he gave them a glare. “WHICH ONE OF YOU NERDS STOLE FROM THIS LOCKER?!?”
They all pointed to their right.
He saw a blob of black in the distance and instantly knew he was fucked as the gothic freak skipped merrily over to the last person he wanted to see that card.
As Kwan loled where he stood, Dash rushed over to them using the highest potential of his quarterback skills.
Somewhere far beyond the area, in the science room, a kid pushed the button to his science project. It was a prototype to his 'slow motion machine'. Now things can go in slow motion at any moment he felt fit.
Dash could feel his heart trying to beat itself out of his chest as he ran. The gothic freak waved to her friends: the other freak nerd and Dash's new friend, Danny, whose company he cherished for the last 3 months, were grinning obliviously. When his shoes took another step, the soles made the floor squeak and it echoed throughout the halls. He felt the power of his footstep bang the bottom of his feet, but for a good cause. Another squeaky step later, he saw the goth freak talk to Danny while holding up a red card. It's scratchy texture and crimson tone was something Dash could recognize blind, and he felt that he was about to connect that specific color to the most terrible time in his life. Sam handed the card to Danny, who looked curious and excited like a giddy kid who found a fancy rock. Danny was about to open the door to forbidden truth and ruin everything Dash built up until now.
“ Nooooooooooo !”
The kid was finally able to reach the button and push it again. Time resumes.
“—but I don't know who it's from.” Sam said.
Dash's abrupt stop make his soles sound like tire tracks freezing on pavement. He was just about 2 feet away from the friendship circle he's come to dislike 2/3rdly.
As Danny read, he said. “You don't?”
“Not really. I don't really care either, but at least you get some interesting news.”
“Huh.” He closed the heart and looked upwards. “Well, her penmanship has a lot to be desired, but she sounds nice. So you just found this in some random locker?”
“Yeah.”
“Sam, that's not cool. This is a very personal matter! We gotta put it back.”
“I guess.”
“Come on.” The group started walking and walked past the sweating, heart thumping Dash like he was a brick wall. “Where'd you get it?”
“One of those lockers over there.”
Tucker commented, “Hey, doesn't one of those lockers belong to one of the cool guys—?”
Dash tackled Tucker to the ground before anyone could think about it and snatched off his cap to put it on his own head. “I'm taking your hat!”
“Why—?”
“I'm taking your hat, Tucker !”
“Dash?”
Dash peered up at Danny innocently. Then he quickly nuggied Tucker's head as a save. “Danny.” With Tucker's head still under his arm, he stood up on his feet. Tucker struggled under his grip. “Noogie, buddies! Yeah!” When he was done trying to impress Danny, he shoved Tucker away like a sack of garbage. “Whatever. Hey, what's up?” He nonchalantly looked at the other one. “Sam.”
“Your OTP is trash,” she said in a monotone voice.
“See you have a card there.” He said as Tucker attempted to get his hat back by jumping for it. “What's it for?”
“It's a girl asking me out to the Pri-Winter Evening's Valentines Ball at Casper High. She didn't put her name on it, though. Sam took it out of her locker, and I'm going to put it back.”
Tucker commented, “You know, I swear one of those lockers belongs to the popular kids, especially that open one Kwan's by—”
Dash snatched off Tucker's glasses.
“Hey—!”
“I will BURN ALL THE KITTENS YOU WILL EVER OWN!”
Tucker coward away and Dash puts on Tucker's glasses.
“You can go blind like that—”
“ALL of them!” He didn't notice Danny and Sam walk pass them, but he hurried to their level when he did. He wrapped a big arm around both of them and tucked his head between them.
“You should give Tucker his stuff back,” said Sam before she was interrupted.
“Yo, Fenton, why not find out who this girl is instead?”
“Find her out?” Danny considered this while looking at the school bell and stopping on his tracks. “I don't know. This is kind of personal—”
“But think about it. There's a shy little girl out there who wants nothing more than to confess her love to her long lived crush, but the burden that is her fear suppresses her desires and she hides in the shadows in silence, waiting for her prince charming to just say...'hello'.”
Sam said, “Careful, Dash. You don’t want to fill up your vocabulary quota so soon.”
While walking up to them, Tucker asked, “Can I at least have my glasses back—?” as he accidentally slammed his face to a column “—I can't see very well—” then to a door abruptly opening “—without them—” then into a nearby trash bin being pushed to the dumpster out back.
Sam sighed and went to go get him.
“So what do you say?”
Danny looked at the card, thinking about how awful it must be to be a shy girl scared out of her wits just to tell her true love how she feels. How long did she feel this way? It must have been such a weight on her shoulders. Maybe letting her know that it was alright to have these feelings would make this confusing journey we all ride together just a little bit easier. “I'd say that sounds like a good idea!.”
Phase one complete. Dash's plan was to keep Danny away from his locker at all cost. Then once he completely averts his sense of direction, at the moment it seems most hopeless, Dash will swipe the card away from Danny and be all 'shucks, guys, I don't think we can find'er. Aw well, guess I'll jus' put dis back wer' ya found et for ya! Imma cowboy! Yeehaw yeehaw!'. As Dash evilly 'hehehe'd to himself, Danny pondered over the steps and obstacles to solving the mystery.
“But how are we going to find her?"
"Her handwriting! It'll be like a Cinderella story, but with pens!"
"But how? There aren't a lot of things she can write on I can look into legally.”
“Except there is!” He wrapped an arm around Danny. “There's pledges all around school! Signatures from the Library to note you're present! Sign up sheets on the bill board! There's a whole lot of things we could check penmanship for!”
“I guess that's interesting,” said a confused, black haired teenaged boy in a white shirt that was not Danny. Danny clapped his hands twice to get Dash's attention back to the right person.
“It’s a good place to start at least.” Danny smiled at that idea, and looked at the sky inspiring while Dash crouched into the shade and snickered. Luckily for Dash, he didn't participate in any of these activities besides marking that he's present for football practice. He snickered to himself as his wonderful plan was coming in order. Then Danny continued, “We should check the cheerleader sign up sheets first, you know the one next to the football team's.” Danny skipped merrily to the gym.
Dash snapped back into focus and shouts, “Danny wait—!” as he accidentally slammed his face to a collum.
“Wow these glasses sure make it—” Then to an abruptly opening door.
“—rough seeing two feet ahead a'ya—” Then into a near by trash bin being sent to the dumpster out back.
Danny sighed and went to go get him.
The sign up sheet was on a billboard right besides to door to the gym. It was as long as approximate 15 inches was, and already had over dozens of names scribbled on there. Right next to it was a football sign up sheet that was twice as long and had twice the amount of names. Dash's John Hancock of a signature took up about three lines and was more obvious than a floating head in a business office. One could tell right away just from that horrible excuse for an A on both his names, that the hand wiring matched the card. But only one who would pay attention to that section, unlike Danny and Friends, would notice.
“Why a cheerleader?” asked Sam while they were in front on the signup sheet.
“Dash's poetic monologue got me thinking; what if she's so nervous because this is a forbidden love?”
You don't know how on point you are, thought Dash as he plucked a banana peel out of his hair and let the situational irony cut into his soul. “How?”
“A lovestruck cheerleader having to choose between her reputation and her undying love for the geek next door, Daniel Fenton, would be the perfect set up of a forbidden love story!”
“Who do you think you are,” Sam asked sarcastically, “Peter Parker?”
“Well Dash is Flash Thompson knock off, so the possibility is up for debate.”
This might not have been the first place Dash was considering, and could arguably be the last, but it wasn’t a big deal. As long as Danny has no reason to check the signatures for the football team—
“How forbidden can you go?” Asked an ambiguous voice.
The team turned to the Asian figure coolly leaning by the billboard. I think he's Asian. I don't know actually. Did he ever say so?
“Kwan?” Danny said
He's been standing there for almost 20 minutes waiting for them to come down. Then he waited longer for the right time to say something. He’s surprised no one noticed him until now. He stood there as clear as day. “That's the name, don't wear it out.”
“What do you mean?”
Kwan wiped his hair back and walked over to Danny to put an arm over his shoulder. “I'm saying can you go as deep as assuming that this person might be...another boy ?” he grinned at his sweating friend for effect.
Danny considered this and felt guilty and insensitive. “I never thought of that.”
“I'd bet! I mean, hell, I'd surely stay quiet about it if the boy I liked found out about me.” He smiled harder at his friend as the other glared at him with a passionate intent to burn a hole into Kwan's head. "I'd use hetero-normality to my advantage too if I wanted to stay be ambiguous. It's the perfect camouflage."
Feeling terrible about the idea that this might be a boy, Danny held the heart to his. He must be stressed out of his mind! He thought. And here he was about to search two and fro for a woman when a man still stands. If be a boy, Danny needed to let him know that he's thoughts and feelings were perfectly okay and Danny doesn't mind at all! "Thanks for bringing the idea up."
“You know me, Imma sucker for romance, or at least I was given that trait since I don’t have any—” He was interrupted by Dash pulling Kwan into a near by bathroom and slamming him into one of the urinals by the collar.
Dash, with red eyes, glared at his friend. “What are doing?!?” Dash hissed.
“I loss my tooth for this card. It will fulfill it's purpose.”
“Why are you ruining this for me!?!”
“I'm not ruining anything. Danny just said he's cool with it. So with that out of the way, the worst that can happen is that he says no. Ask him to the ball!”
“NO! I can't ask Danny to the ball!"
"Why not?"
He loosened his grip on his friend and looked at the floor, embarrassed. "We're...he's finally talking to me, we hang out after school, I can say hi him down the hallways! We're friends now. I don't want to mess this up—!”
“Then why'd you make the card if you weren't going to bother?”
Silence.
“Give me your right shoe.”
“Why?”
“I want your right shoe, Kwan!”
“Why the right one? What's your beef with the left one—?”
Instead of answering he wrested his friend to the floor.
Danny’s friend’s huddled around the cheerleading and football sign in sheet. Sam and Danny were only seeing beautifully crafted hand writing on their side while Tucker stared at blurry lines wondering how he ended up in this situation. A subconscious gender expectation to penmanship was developing more than an answer to the mysterious person, so Sam gave up. “It doesn't look like any of these girls match this handwriting.”
Danny agreed. “What's your status on the football team, Tucker?”
“I don't know why you put me here when I still don't have my glasses.” He scratched his naked head and rubbed his naked eyes.
“Oh yeah. I guess I'll check myself—”
“WAIT, DANNY!” As fast as lightning, Dash ran over to him and held his shoulders in his hands tightly. Looking at him with a glare of concern, he said, “I don't think it's a good idea to check the football team attendance sheet.”
“I wasn't planning to.” Said a black haired teen in a duller white shirt than Danny's that wasn't Danny. Behind Dash, Danny clapped his hands twice to get his attention back.
“Why do you have a shoe in your pocket?”
“That's not important right now.” He stuffed the shoe deeper into his pocket to make sure it didn’t fall out. “You're not approaching this logically. Why would he join a sport?”
“I don't know. He might be interested in one I guess.”
“But think about it. Almost everyday, he has to take a shower with a bunch of other dudes. Some funky things are going to happen to his body sometimes. And he knows that if those funky things are happening on a day to day basis, someone somewhere gonna be asking some questions he don't want to answer. I’m not living his life, but if I were him, I wouldn’t surround myself with dicks if I were trying to hide my sexuality. You see what I'm sayin?”
Sam and Tucker refrained from saying how bull shitted that sounded and decided to let Danny school this fool.
“You know what, that make sense.”
Sam and Tucker slapped their foreheads.
“BURR SHITTARU!” Said a beaten up Kwan crawling out of the bathroom.
“On to the next sheet then!” He pushed Danny away from the attention of the sign in sheet leaving dust behind from Danny’s soles scratching the floor.
Tucker and Sam walked over to Kwan who was catching his breath after an extreme fight over a shoe.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” Sam asked.
Kwan confirmed it with the "OK" sign on his hand.
“Do you think we should tell Danny or study the potential power of Dash’s dumbassery?”
“The latter sounds more fun.” Tucker hooked his shoulder onto Sam’s and marched on towards the party.