Deviating from the Norm (A "Freaks and Geeks" Fanfic)

Chapter 14 - Headache and heartache

I was sitting on the bleachers with Ken, Nick and Daniel, just watching the marching band practice before the start of the school day. I could have sworn that I knew what song they were warming up with, but the name and the band simply wouldn't pop into my head. For a fleeting moment, I thought Ken was getting into the tune to, bopping his head from side to side as the band continued, but then he would blow a raspberry every now and then and remind me he took almost everything as a joke. Immature as it was, I couldn't help but grin and begin to laugh as I sat next to him, letting our legs dangle off the edge of the tier.

"Ughhh..." Nick groaned from behind us before actually speaking. "What are they doing to this song?" He sounded utterly appalled.

I turned to look at him, seeing that his expression matched his tone, ready to ask what the name of the song was, but Daniel beat me to it.

"It was Chicago's Twenty-Five or Six to Four, but now it's totally unrecognizable," he answered in complaint.

I grinned, arching back a little. "So unrecognizable that you recognized it right away, huh?"

Ken began to laugh. "Yeah. I mean, why do you even know this song, man?"

"It's a good song, man."

I didn't realize just how stoned Nick was until I heard him talk, but once he said something it was quite obvious. Regardless, he had a point. "He's right; it is a good song, Ken. You should listen to it sometime. It's better than this," I motioned towards the marching band with my chin, "and a bit faster, but they're not half bad at it."

Ken simply released a grunt of disapproval after my endorsement and continued watching our peers practice. Sometime during the short conversation, undoubtedly while I was turned to face Nick, Lindsay and Kim had joined us. Blondie, obviously needing an outlet from whatever horrible thing may have happened at her house that morning, began picking on one of the band members.

"Oh my God! You guys, you guys," she laughed, "check out that pizza-faced dork with the trombone."

The 'dork' in question was quite easy to spot- a brown-haired boy wearing a wool-lined denim jacket, the sliding portion of his instrument going back and forth as he played along.

"Why doesn't he just pop those things?"

Unlike Kim, who probably didn't realize just how lucky she was on the matter, some of us were prone to outbreaks of acne. I had my bout of it every now and then, but nothing like the poor kid on the field. It was almost like fate had just handed him his lot in life with no pity whatsoever. 'Here,' I imagined a shapeless divine will saying to him, 'have a face full of zits and hey, while you're at it, why don't you pick up that trombone over there and completely establish yourself as a full-on geek.' Her comment was cruel, but as soon as she glanced my way with a huge grin from the statement, I could not fight the smile that quickly grew on my face.

"I think if he did, he'd die of blood loss," Daniel chimed in to his girlfriend's rhetorical question and we all broke out in laughter.

"Oh, here we go, look- it's tuba-girl!" Ken pointed and smiled, not at all surprising me with his inability to stay out of the jeering. "Hey! Hey!" he began to yell at the girl, hands cupped around his mouth like a small megaphone. "Your tuba is so big and sexay!"

Nick began to giggle, followed quickly by Daniel, and then I just couldn't help myself, either. Ken may have been a childish ass most of the time, but he always knew how to make people laugh.

"It makes me hot listenin' to it, baby!" he continued shouting. "Play me some Billy Joel! Yeah!" Finished with his squawking, Ken dropped his hands and wore a smile of satisfaction on his face.