Don't Play Cupid if You Can't Handle Being Shot in the Butt

One

The next day, Donut practically skipped into his first class and threw himself down into the chair next to Doc with a happy sigh. Doc raised an eyebrow.

"You seem in a better today," he said, trying not to smile.

"I most certainly am!" Donut trilled, emptying his bag out onto the desk and appearing content that the confused pile of pens, straggly bits of paper, assorted ribbons and glitter would be sufficient to get him through their history class.

He reached into a pocket and from it withdrew a shocking pink, glitter-smeared and, Doc suspected, scented envelope. With a grin so wide it looked as if it would split his face in two, he thrust the letter at Doc, inadvertently sprinkling some of the glitter onto the other boy's lap.

"Party?" Doc said, half-apprehensive, half-amused. Donut nodded, widening his eyes and looking almost deranged.

"Party." He whispered, watching Doc open the envelope intensely, practically vibrating in his seat.

The envelope, predictably, contained an overly ornate invitation to the aforementioned party. It proclaimed, in cursive golden letters, that he was cordially invited to "The Blood Gulch High Summer Bash!!!" to be held at Donut's house that Saturday. Outwardly, Doc wouldn't let his excitement show. After all, he was quite against excessive drinking, a stance he held even more since Donut's birthday party (which no-one would ever let him forget). But he knew a party thrown by Donut was guaranteed to be a success, and a lot of fun no matter how much you drank.

"Okay, well consider this my RSVP," he said, slipping the invite into his bag.

"Yessssss!" Donut was clearly beside himself with anticipation for the event. Doc allowed himself to be momentarily proud of cheering up his best friend, feeling the warm bubble he got when Donut was happy rise in his chest. The teacher walked through the door, apologizing for his lateness even though he hadn't been to a class on time all year. Doc smiled to himself, seeing Donut still fidgeting next to him, eager to get the class over with and continue announcing his "Summer Bash" to their friends.

Donut took off at a sprint when class ended, grabbing Doc by the wrist so that he could catch Church, Tucker and Caboose outside their Algebra class. Predictably, the teacher had let them out a few minutes late, so when they reached them they were just leaving, Tucker bitching at Church about how pointless math was anyway. I mean, when you have a face like this, who needs to be smart? Amirite? Church looked as if he had just woken up from a nap, which he probably had. Caboose was still hopelessly confused and would be for at least the next five minutes, after which he would entirely forget whatever it was they had been supposed to learn.

All in all, Doc didn't think that this was the best moment to ambush the Blues with Donut's legendary enthusiasm but obviously Donut had other ideas.

"Hey guyyys!" Donut waved cheerfully at the miserable looking Blues.

"Yeah, it's not like we don't all know why you're in a bad mood anyway, dumbass-oh, hey Donut." Church said with a yawn.

"Hey Donut, and what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Tucker replied, not turning away from Church to greet the other student.

"Leave it, Tucker," said Church who, although sounding bored, managed to glare Tucker into submission, "So what's up?" he asked, turning to Donut.

There was half a second of hesitation that caused Doc to look to his friend. To his horror, Donut's eyes were bright and Doc could almost see the cogs in his brain churning up the snippet of conversation they had just heard and fixing the information into such a way as it became invaluable gossip, and the next project for investigation. He felt himself go cold at the realization.