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

Chapter 22 - Atonement

The final days of school were always crammed with finals. Well, finals and lame school-approved movies. I was looking forward to both of them though because they seemed to just make the time just fly by and I was pretty burned out of school for a while.

Watch a movie or two, take a final. Watch another movie or two, take another final. Before I knew it there were only three days left and I was smiling ear to ear because I kept my B+ average and was moving on to being a senior next year. I had also been spending more time with my teammates than my rebellious friends during that time. I needed to rebuild a bond and get acquainted with the newcomers I had missed during my absence. Brett and Alex, my two closest friends on the team, were beyond happy to have me back. Some were decidedly not happy to see me, namely Taylor Lux. He always thought I 'stole the spotlight' from him and he never passed an opportunity to upstage me. Taylor was your typical McKinley High pretty boy. Prissy, stuck up, annoying and definitely conceited. He was very image-conscious and would spend as much time looking in a mirror as he would communicating with others. Both means were just a way to satisfy his own vain end, though (in addition to his looks, the guy loved to hear himself talk). In a lot of ways, he was our Todd Schellinger, especially with how his hair was his world.

It didn't really matter who wanted me back and who didn't. At the end of the day, Brett, Alex and myself were all going to do our best to go out with a bang and give our successors something to live up to before we moved on to college (it was so easy to get sucked into an intoxicating, sports-induced hysteria with those two around).

"Did you have to drag your burnout friends along with you, Donovan?" Taylor called from behind me as we all laughed at a teammate's recollection of something funny that happened on the field earlier in the year.

"What?" I turned to look at him and found he was pointing to an approaching Daniel.

I detached myself from the group and went to meet him halfway, somewhat surprised he would walk into the lion's den, so to speak. This was definitely not freak-friendly territory. "Hey, man, what's up?"

"A shitty week, that's what," he groaned, looking truly pissed.

We walked over to one of the stone benches and sat side by side as he explained what was going on.

"I've failed, like, half of my finals, man. There is no way I'm advancing now. I'm gonna be nineteen next year and still a Junior. How pathetic is that? They say I have to go to summer school now to even have a chance next year. Fuck that and fuck them. I ain't wastin' my summer in school. I already waste enough time here every year."

I scratched my head, grimacing awkwardly and not knowing how to contribute to the conversation at all.

"I got caught tryin' to pull the fire alarm to get out of Kowchevski's stupid math final so I had to join the AV club for the last part of the year. I don't think I've ever been so humiliated in my life as when I had to show a movie in Nick, Lindsay and Kim's English class. I didn't know what I was doin' and everyone knew it. And, speakin' of Kim, I know you two are on the outs, but you gotta tell me what's going on with her, Donovan."

I tensed up and suddenly wanted to be back with my teammates. "I'm, uh... there's... nothing?"

"That's what it feels like!" He slapped his hands onto his legs in a frustrated fashion. "She's been acting weird ever since that night we got back together. It's like something's botherin' her but she won't tell me and neither will Lindsay. And now she dumped me again, man. You gotta be honest here, was she cheating on me? Is she cheating on me?"

I could feel my forehead growing hotter as I spun into a nervous tumble at the very idea of Daniel asking me such a thing. "What?!"

"I can count the amount of times we've kissed in the past coupla weeks on one hand and... and..." He sighed loudly before leaning in and whispering the next part to me. "We've only had sex once since we got back together."