The Kippens

School and Basketball

A.N. For establishment purposes, Damian Jones is Parker Queenan's character. The "retconned" version of him is up top, played by Lucas Till. Also, basketball practice/tryouts song: Young, Wild, and Free by Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg (It's been stuck in my head all day!) which is up top too (let's pretend the clean version was on).

Also, in this version, TJ, DJ, and AJ are both 6 feet tall (Sterling Knight's 5'10 and Chad Michael Murray's 6 ft, so I just made them both 6 feet). 

TJ'S POV

I'm on my way to English with Andrew when I get the text from Dani saying D's here. I've been debating of this moment for a while. Part of the reason that we even fought was because he was flirting with Damian at the racetrack. But I'm excited to see him again.

Class is boring. Our teacher, this super young woman named Ms. Turner, has both Andy and I introduce ourselves to the class. I don't see anyone I recognize immediately, which I'm happy about. We give her a portfolio of our work from the equivalent class at our old school so she gets an idea of our writing, before doing assigned reading.

Jonah's in my APES class, along with Cyrus. They annoy me more than I really should be, but not as much as it did before. They ask me to sit with them and I can't really say no, so I join them.

"Hi," I say.

"Hey! How's the first day?"

"Exhausting," I say. Dancing and the early workout is just now settling in. But I need energy before basketball tryouts today.

"I get school can be boring, but exhausting?" Jonah asks.

"Oh, not really because of school. I've been up since 4 to help Danielle with her audition for the dance team. She got in, so I'm happy for her."

"Are you going to do anything?"

"I'm trying out for the basketball team. I played for my team in Pasadena and I like the sport," I say.

With that, I try to end the conversation, which I do successfully. I don't want to give away too much about my life.

During break, I run into Damian. He recognizes me immediately, and we duck into a corner to talk. 

"Hey Teej!"

"Hey D," I say, giving him a quick hug, "It's been too long."

"Why didn't you tell me the J's were finally back in Shadyside. I had to learn once I saw DJ in my first class!"

"We're trying to keep my real identity on the down low."

"Because of Cyrus," he nods.

"Did you two ever-?"

"No, we just flirted. He dated Jonah starting from a few weeks after you moved."

"Oh," I say, curious of this new revelation.

"Anyways, want to go dirt biking?"

"Let's go early tomorrow. I have basketball tryouts today, and I'm trying to keep it as low key as possible from Dani and Andy. They would never have let me help with the audition if they knew i had to tryout."

"Because of the injury you had?"

I nod, "Yup. They weren't fond of me speeding rehab so I could be ready for sophomore year season. I think part of the reason I was elected varsity captain was because I was so determined to recover and helped the team a lot. It worries me too, but I didn't have any problems once I got back into things."

"They don't want you to ruin your athletic career forever," he says.

"I know. I've been working to avoid it. It's not going to happen again."