Confounding Expectations--RP non-slash 1/3 complete
Title: Counfounding Expectations
Author: borgmama1of5
Summary: Jared was happily proceeding with his final year of high school-a star on the football team, a great girlfriend-until the new kid in class made him reevaluate what he was doing.
Wordcount: 17,000
Genre/pairing: HS AU; Jared/Sandy; Jensen
Warnings: violence, homophobia…um, not slash?
Rating: PG
Beta: sandymg
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction.
A/N1: This started as a birthday present for sandymg, using an idea she’d left in a comment fic thread. Only it took on a life of its own and ended up nothing like I was supposed to write. I put the prompt at the end of the story in case you’re curious.
A/N2: And I’m posting it as an experiment, to see if the people who said there are readers for well-written non-slash J2 were right.
Art: sandymg -she worked hard for her present
“Hey, Jare!”
“Nice job!”
High fives from a row of students along the lockers. “Hornets don’t stand a chance next week!”
Jared grinned as he accepted the adulation of the student body as his due. He’d long ago gotten over being embarrassed at being considered the most talented running back West Alamo High had ever produced. With the sure-footed ranginess that allowed him to weave past tackles on the field, he sauntered to his locker, when the new kid with the glasses backed into him.
“S-sorry!” the boy, blonde bangs in his face, stuttered, turning awkwardly out of Jared’s path.
It was such a momentary thing that Jared didn’t think to acknowledge the apology, just kept walking. He didn’t have to look at the kid to see his green eyes following him though, he could feel them like a tickle on his back.
“Watch it, fag!” There was the light thud of bodies bumping behind him. Jared wondered why that slur had been flung. From the brief glimpse he’d had the boy didn’t strike Jared as different than any other guy in school. Well, okay, actually a lot better-looking than most of them. In sort of a ‘pretty’ way …
Jared tried to remember where Jensen‘d said he’d moved from, six weeks ago when the teachers were introducing the half-dozen new kids in the senior class. Some place that started with a ‘C’ like Colorado. Or California.
Whatever. Kid wasn’t a football player, so he wasn’t in Jared’s circle even if they did have most of the same classes. Honors. Because Jared was planning on landing himself a football scholarship, but he knew that the chances of making it to the big league? Well, his mom had a better chance of winning the lottery. And she didn’t buy lottery tickets. Jared was good. But so were a lot of other guys. And Jared really wasn’t planning on a pro career. His mom was a teacher, and what she did was a heck of a lot more important than making touchdowns. Jared was going to make a difference like she did.
-----
Coach Playk, the Phys Ed teacher and assistant football coach, liked to keep his classes aware that football was not the only sport. So although everyone groaned when he tossed out basketballs in gym, he just smiled.
“Are you all smart enough to sort yourselves into four teams? How about we have Chris … Jared … Mike … and Steve as the captains, Jared and Mike, your teams use that basket, Chris and Steve, you play over here.” After five minutes of controlled chaos the captains had picked their teams, in the same sequence as always: respected athletes first, then the average guys, then the nerds and chunks. Jared was surprised, though, that Jensen was left with Ronald Resnick as the final two to be chosen - Ronald was three hundred pounds and a wreck. In gym shorts, Jensen was slight but definitely muscular, and even with glasses he didn’t project typical nerdy clumsiness.
Mike finally motioned Jensen to his team, leaving Linus for Jared.
Coach tossed up a basketball and Jared immediately got his hands on it by virtue of being five inches taller than everyone else. Though that didn’t stop the elbow in his ribs from Mike. Mike didn’t have a setting for less than all-out competitive, and Jared had experienced it enough in football scrimmages to not hesitate knocking his own elbow against Mike’s hard head
“Fuck you!” Mike muttered, but Jared had already seen who was open and passed the ball over.
Twenty minutes in, Jared was a little surprised at how good Jensen was at smacking the basketball away from Jared’s team. However, as soon as he unloaded it to a teammate Jensen seemed to take a hit every time, and not just from his opponents.
Jensen was in Jared’s face now, vainly jumping up to swat at the place where the ball had been before Jared heaved it over to Chad. Jensen was still off the ground when Mike crashed into him and Jensen didn’t have a chance of catching his balance as he went down like a felled tree. Jared winced at the crack of skull against hardwood floor, followed by the sharp sound of crunching as Mike stepped on the glasses that had flown off Jensen’s face.
Jared stooped down to his groaning classmate.
“Hey, you all right?”
“N-nnn-gh.”
Coach Playk was blowing his whistle as he hurried over.
“What happened? Are you hurt?”
“ ‘M okay.” Jensen was struggling to sit up.
“Take it easy, man.” Jared knelt next to him.
“ No, ‘s all right, ‘m fine.” As Jensen continued to try to push himself up, Jared put an arm around his shoulders to help him.
Everyone in the gym had now formed a circle around Jensen, Jared, and the coach, but no one else helped them.
“ ‘M glasses?” Jensen patted the floor futilely with one hand.
“Um, I’m afraid they’re toast, dude.” Still supporting Jensen, Jared tried to reach the mangled frames. Jensen hissed as Jared shifted, but then another hand appeared and scooped the broken glasses into Jared’s hand. Steve met Jared’s surprised stare briefly before looking down at Jensen with an undecipherable look but then stepped back when someone muttered, “What are you doing, man?”
Jared could feel little shudders rolling down Jensen’s back, and glancing down at the shattered glasses Jensen hissed with pain.
“Can you stand?” was the coach’s pragmatic question.
Jensen didn’t answer, just started to get up. Jared secured a better grip around Jensen’s ribs and lifted in concert with Jensen’s push off the floor.
“Jared, can you take Ackles to the nurse?”
“Sure, Coach.”
They had just made it to the hallway when Jensen gasped, “Gonna puke!” and tried to pull away from Jared’s grip.
Jared literally hefted Jensen to the nearby trash can, and steadied him until Jensen finished upchucking.
“You think you can make it to the nurse now?” Jared asked when Jensen half-fell against him.
“Water … locker room? Need m’ clothes …” Jensen gestured with the hand that clutched his busted glasses.
“Okay …” Jared was dubious about delaying but could understand Jensen’s need to rinse his mouth, so he shrugged his arm back around Jensen’s ribs and supported him to a locker room bench. It was quickest just to pull his own water bottle from his locker and he handed it over.
“Drink, but not too much.” Jared knew the signs of a concussion from having one himself last year, and he went to grab a handful of paper towels and wet them in the sink. As he walked back, he noticed the spatters of red on the back of Jensen’s neck, and Jared pressed a clump of the damp paper towels to the back of Jensen’s head while handing the rest to Jensen with the order, “Wipe your face.” The wet towels in his hand came away pink with blood as Jensen hissed.
“Dude, you’re bleeding. Let’s go.”
“C-could you grab the stuff from my locker? Please? Don’t want to leave it here to get trashed …”
Not sure how to make sense of that, Jared simply said, “Sure,” and Jensen gave him the combination.
The trip to the nurse’s office took three times longer than it should have, with Jensen leaning more heavily on Jared with each corridor they passed and having to stop one more time to vomit. Jared was relieved to see Mrs. McKenna at her desk.
“What happened, Jared?”
“Jensen got, uh, knocked over in gym and hit his head pretty hard. He threw up on the way here and he’s bleeding, the back of his head.”
“Can you get him to a cot for me? I’ll take it from there.”
Jared put Jensen’s clothes and backpack on the floor by his feet, awkwardly patted Jensen’s shoulder, “You should be okay now, Mrs. McKenna knows what to do,” and then took off. It was a little weird, just leaving Jensen like that, but it wasn’t like someone getting hurt on the football squad where everyone hung around to see what happened.
He trotted back to the gym as the coach was sending everyone to the locker, but as he went to shower and change, Mr. Playk nodded at him.
“Thanks for getting Ackles to the nurse, Jared.”
“He threw up on the way. Prob’ly a concussion, he hit that floor hard.”
Coach nodded. “It was good that you helped him.”
He was going to have to shower superfast to make it to his next class, so Jared wasn’t paying attention to the general buzz around him until Mike called his name.
“So, did he try feeling you up while you carried him to the nurse, Jared?”
“Huh?” Jared wasn’t sure if the question didn’t make sense or if he’d misheard because he’d been focused on getting dressed.
“Did Ackles try to cop a feel? ‘S why I busted him.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Someone hooted. “Hey, maybe Padalecki was grabbing his butt.” When several more derogative suggestions were hollered, Jared suddenly realized what the other guys meant and he shook his head in disgust. Mike could be a real asshole.
Jared hoped Jensen would be all right.
Jensen didn’t show up in school for the rest of the week, and on Friday Jared stopped by the nurse’s office again.
“Hello, Jared, not feeling well today?”
“Oh, no, ‘s not me. I was just wondering if, uh, Jensen is okay? He’s been out since Tuesday and I wondered how bad he was hurt …”
“He did have a concussion, and I’m sure he’s just stayed home at the doctor’s orders to take it easy.”
Jared tried to remember how long he’d been on restricted activity from his injury last year but part of that time had been around the Christmas break, so he really wasn’t sure how long he’d needed to recover.
“ ‘Kay. Thanks.” He flashed Mrs. McKenna a dimpled smile and headed off to physics.
Halfway through class, in the middle of a lesson on waves versus particles, Jared had a thought, and he went up to Mr. Morgan’s desk afterward.
“What can I do for you, Jared?” Mr. Morgan’s friendly smile split his salt-and-pepper beard.
“Jensen - the kid that got hurt in gym this week - has anybody been picking up his homework for him?”
“Not for this class. Why? Do you feel like taking the work he’s missed to him?”
“I, uh, well, with the weekend and all, it’d probably make it easier to catch up …” Jared trailed off. He didn’t know why he was doing this. It occurred to him that he didn’t even know where Jensen lived, and he blurted that out without thinking.
“Let me check with the office. If you’re willing, I’ll get permission to give you Jensen’s address, and see if his other teachers have any assignments to send as well. Come back after your last period, okay?”
When Jared returned at three o’clock, Mr. Morgan had a collection of work from all of Jensen’s teachers, and handed Jared an address and phone number. Jared managed to stuff most of the papers into his own backpack and figured he might as well deliver Jensen’s work now.
He settled into the comfortably worn seat of his 1999 green Neon, and decided he should call first. As he waited for someone to answer the ringing phone, he shuffled through his music and stuck Green Day in the CD player he’d installed.
“Hello?” Jared was sure the softly hesitant voice was Jensen’s.
“Hey, it’s Jared … Jared Padalecki … from school? I’ve got your homework assignments and wondered if I could drop them off now?”
“Uh, just you?”
Weird question, but, “Yeah, Mr. Morgan gave me your address. I’m at school now, probably be there in fifteen minutes.”
Okay. Sure … Um, thanks, I guess.”
Twenty minutes later Jared zipped into a parking space in front of an unremarkable brick duplex. Jensen’s wide-eyed stare was unnerving as he opened the door, until Jared realized what was wrong.
“You didn’t get your glasses fixed yet?”
Jensen blinked, and Jared noticed how abnormally long his lashes were for a guy.
“Uh, no. They won’t be ready till Monday, and I can’t go to school without them. I’m so near-sighted I’m practically blind without them.”
“Oh, well, that’s good. I mean, not good that you’re blind, I meant it’s good that you’re not in school because of your head. Because of your head hurting. From the concussion. It does, doesn’t it? I had a concussion last winter and I had a headache for about three days, but I got dizzy if I moved my head too fast for about two weeks after. Are you okay?”
Jared thought the first smile he’d ever seen on Jensen Ackles face could have given the sun a run for its money.
“Yeah, the headache part’s mostly gone.” Jensen stepped back and gestured for Jared to come in as he continued. “Can’t put my head down on a pillow, yet, though. The bump still hurts. And they had to shave part of my hair to put in stitches.” He grimaced at that and turned his head so Jared could see.
“That sucks.” Sure enough, there was a clean divot smack in the middle of Jensen’s long hair where there was a row of neat black stitches. “It’s not a real big patch. I bet you could comb some hair over it and gel it in place.”
“Maybe … Anyway, thanks for bringing my work over.” Jensen held out his hand to take the papers Jared was holding.
“There’s more in my backpack,” Jared grinned. “I think the teachers wanted to be sure you had something to do over the weekend.”
Jensen gave that dazzling smile again. “You want to have a Coke or something? I should probably look at this to make sure there’s nothing you need to explain.”
“Sure.”
It was comical as Jensen held the homework pages six inches from his face to read them.
“You really are blind without your glasses, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I want to get contacts someday.”
“You seen the ones that come out for Halloween, where they look like cats’ eyes, or completely black?”
“Oh, yeah, I saw a picture of a guy wearing some that were little spirals - he looked like in the cartoons when someone gets hit in the head, all he needed were the little birdies flying around him.”
Jared laughed. “Now that would make a great Halloween costume! You know, make a headpiece with thin wire to have the birds suspended in a circle around your head!”
For Halloween one year I was the floor from a movie theater - I covered myself with a black trash bag that had pieces of popcorn, and candy wrappers, and sticky paper cups glued on it.”
“That sounds awesome! I’d love to see a picture of that!”
“My mom has a picture of it in one of the photo albums. If you really want to see it.”
“Sure!”
An hour later, having laughed their way through photographs, and hashed out the merits of “Star Wars” episodes four through six versus one to three after mutually confessing to owning Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, they were finding out that each had well-read copies of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” when Jared was startled by the sound of a key in the front door lock.
A soft-faced woman walked in, unbuttoning her coat. “I thought I’d never get out of the office today, so supper’s going to be a little late … oh, hello.”
“Hi, Mom. This is Jared … Padalecki … from school. He brought my homework over.”
Jared stood up. “Hello, Mrs. Ackles.”
“Donna, please.” As she smiled Jared could see where Jensen got his eyelashes from. “Yes. The school called saying you’d volunteered. That was nice of you. You’re welcome to stay for supper, if you don’t mind it being a little while.”
“Thanks, but I’ve gotta get home and then to football practice. Let me give you my number, Jensen, if you have any more questions about the homework you can just call me.”
-----
Jensen was finally back in school on Tuesday. Jared saw him in the hall near their lockers, looking serious, but at Jared’s wave he gave a hesitant smile.
“Lemme know if you need any help catching up,” Jared offered as he walked past, then he was tackled by a five-foot giggling tornado.
“Hey!” he laughed as he steadied Sandy by grabbing her shoulders. “I thought you were trying out for the cheerleading squad, not the football team!”
“I made it to the callbacks!” Sandy’s excitement was irresistible, so Jared simply swooped her up and spun in a circle. As their faces leveled when he started to put her down she leaned in and kissed him, and Jared kept her suspended mid-air a moment longer.
“Knew you’d do it!” he grinned at her.
“It’s too bad you can’t come watch the auditions and tell me what it looks like from the audience, how I compare to the other girls.”
Jared bent and nuzzled her ear. “I wouldn’t be watching any of the other girls, so I wouldn’t be any help.”
He kissed her vanilla-glossed lips again, keeping it low-key for being in the school hallway, after all.
“Katie was there, though, and she gave me a big smile when I finished. It’s got to be hard, watching your replacement get picked ‘cause you broke your ankle.”
“Yeah, that would suck.”
“I gotta go.” Sandy gave another flavored kiss. “See you tonight.”
He watched Sandy dart away. As he turned back to pull his textbooks from his locker, Jared noticed the odd expression on Jensen’s face, but then the bell rang and he didn’t give it a second thought.
-----
The West Alamo Mad Dogs kicked the Hornets’ collective asses into next week, which called for an unauthorized team celebration Saturday night in Mike Rosenbaum’s basement. Jared was curled up on one of the couches, leaving a serious hickey on Sandy’s collarbone, when Mike started yelling.
“I knocked that fucker down so hard his ears are still ringing! Ain’t no guy feels this here ass!” Mike then wiggled the named body part to emphasize his words. “Woo-hoo!” and “Tell ‘em Mike!” erupted from the circle Mike was entertaining. The disruption broke Jared’s concentration and he pulled away.
Sandy wiggled her fingers through the hair on the back of his head and murmured, “Have you ever noticed what a jerk Mike is?”
“Who hasn’t?” Jared answered. “But Coach Singer tolerates him, and his tackles help win games, so …”
“West Alamo is a fag-free zone, right guys?” More approving hoots sounded.
Jared rolled his eyes at Sandy. “Like what gay guy in his right mind would bother Mike?”
Sandy rolled her eyes right back. “This is Texas. Only heterosexuals live here.”
“Mmm. You got that right, baby.” Jared pulled Sandy in tighter, sliding his hand up the back of her shirt as he teased his tongue between her lips again.
-----
When Mr. Morgan dropped a Star Wars reference in his lecture during his next class, Jared and Jensen spontaneously glanced at each other and cracked up. When a team project to rewrite Macbeth as a modern tragedy was assigned in English a few days later, they exchanged fast looks and then volunteered together. Jensen had a wicked sense of humor and an eye for skewering clichés. Especially small-town Texas ones.
“We could make a Texan soap opera, with Macbeth as an oil baron.”
“Naw, the king has to own the football team, and Macbeth wants to be the head coach. I mean, no offense, Jared, but the seriousness of football in Texas? It’s a damned religion. It’s easy to imagine murder in the name of football. There’s some scary guys on your team, you know?”
“Where do the cheerleaders fit in?”
“That’s easy-they’re the witches. Come on, ‘Double, double, toil and trouble’ - can’t you see the cheerleaders doing that as a cheer?”
“Not sure how long you’ll last if you make the cheerleaders witches, Jensen.”
“Oh, come on, you have to admit it works!”
“Um, you’re calling my girlfriend a witch … I may have to hurt you to defend her honor.” Jared tackled Jensen from where he was sitting on Jensen’s living room floor, and discovered that Jensen was surprisingly hard to pin down, despite the fact that Jared had the definite size advantage. Just when Jared thought he had Jensen pinned face to the floor and about to surrender, Jensen managed to flip over and knocked Jared backwards into the couch.
“Al’right, dude, let’s call it a draw!” Jared laughed while trying to catch his breath.
Jensen, face flushed, was also breathing hard and laughing. “Naw, I say I won if you’re asking for a draw!”
Jared debated tackling Jensen again, decided it would most likely still end the same way, and surrendered. “I better hope the rest of the team never hears you took me down.”
A twisted look flashed over Jensen’s face, then he said, “They’ll never hear it from me.” A pause. “So who gets the role of Lady Macbeth?”
Coach Playk had moved from basketball to calisthenics and running, and Jensen’s stamina was on par with the football players. When the coach announced that the next several weeks would be spent on wrestling, Jared looked forward to seeing Jensen take a couple guys down a peg or two.
-----
“Padalecki.”
Jared was surprised at the deadly serious tone of Mike’s voice when Mike approached him after practice. He waited, knowing that Mike would keep talking once he had Jared’s attention.
“You’re a good player. The team needs you.”
“Yeah?” Jared was puzzled.
“So you need to stop hanging around with that fag. Doesn’t look good.”
“What the hell --?”
“Ackles.” Mike fairly spit the name. “He’s a queer. He’s not normal and he doesn’t belong here. And you shouldn’t be hanging out with him, it makes people think …” Mike trailed off meaningfully.
“How the fuck do you know he’s gay? He confide in you? Like why does it even matter?” Jared’s voice dropped low and tight with anger.
“It’s sick, it’s wrong, and if you keep associating with him it looks like you’re a fag, too, and there aren’t any fags on this team, understand?”
Jared put both his hands against Mike’s chest and pushed him away. “It’s none of your business who I’m friends with, so fuck off!”
“I warned you!” Mike shouted to Jared’s back.
Jared threw his gear into the car more forcefully than necessary. He didn’t know if he was madder over Mike telling him to stop being Jensen’s friend, or the accusation that Jensen was gay. It made no sense, Jensen didn’t have any effeminate mannerisms, he was athletic … How did Mike come up with this ‘fag’ crap? True, he hadn’t heard Jensen talk about going out with anyone, but if Mike was spreading lies, it would make it harder for Jensen to get a date.
By the time he reached home, Jared had decided that he needed to help Jensen put the rumor to rest. He had to admit he was worried about what Mike might do, and he didn’t want Jensen to get hurt. And he didn’t like thinking that his classmates were getting the wrong impression about the two of them.
Sandy could help. He called her after supper.
“I need you to do some of that girl-to-girl stuff, Sandy.”
“What you have in mind, Jare?”
“Can you find someone who would go on a double date with you and me and Jensen?”
“Jensen Ackles?”
“Yeah. For this weekend. I think he’s too shy to ask anybody, and I think it’d be nice …”
“Are you sure Jensen wants to go on a date with a girl?”
“What, have you heard those stupid rumors, too?”
“Well, Jare …”
“Look, he’s my friend, and I don’t know what the problem is, but I don’t think he’s gay, and if he went out with a girl a couple times people would stop making a big deal about it and stop harassing him. So can you do it? It’s not like he’s ugly or something!”
“Um, yeah, I can think of a couple girls who’d love to go out with him, but Jare, are you sure he wants to do this?”
“It’s not just gonna be him, it’ll be the four of us and we’ll have fun, okay? So can you talk to your friends and let me know tomorrow and I’ll talk to Jensen?”
“Okay.” Sandy hesitated. “I don’t think this is a good idea, but … well, I can see you’re trying to help Jensen out, and it can’t hurt, if Jensen really wants to do it …”
“He will. Thanks, Sandy. See you tomorrow.”
Since they were going to work some more on their Shakespeare project at Jensen’s after school, Jared figured he’d bring it up then. Sandy had told him by his locker that morning that Danneel Harris would love a chance to make out with Jensen at a movie.
“So are you doing anything Saturday night?”
“No.” Jensen looked up expectantly.
“I was thinking we could … hang out …” Jared wasn’t prepared for the smile that flashed on Jensen’s face. “With, um, Sandy and her friend Danneel … we could go to a movie together, stop for pizza after?”
The smile vanished, replaced by puzzlement. “With Sandy and Danneel? Like on a date?”
“Oh, it doesn’t have to be formal like that, just the four of us doing something together. It’d be a way for you to make a new friend …”
Jared couldn’t guess what the look on Jensen’s face meant, and he thought for a moment Jensen was going to shoot his plan down, but then he shrugged and said, “All right. If that’s what you want to do.”
Jared didn’t think the ‘date’ was a disaster. He’d picked Avatar, figuring that it was worth seeing a second time by anyone’s standards, and he sprung for drinks and popcorn for all of them very matter-of-factly. They ended up with the boys sitting between the girls, and once their popcorn tub was finished, Jared and Sandy didn’t pay as much attention to the movie as they could have. They had seen it already, after all, and Jared took advantage of the ‘sex with their hair’ scene to do a little feeling of his own. Sandy giggled softly and trailed her fingers across the back of his neck, and Jared was about to lean his head down to catch her lips when Jensen jerked against his back and he heard a muffled “Sorry” from Danneel.
Jared didn’t pay any attention, he was focused on the taste of cherry lip balm, popcorn, and Coke in Sandy’s warm mouth.
He drove everyone home, Jensen and Danneel each firmly on their own side of the back seat, which was the opposite of how Danneel had practically been in Jensen’s lap on the way to the movie. Jensen didn’t get out of the car to walk Danneel to her door. Regrettably, logistics required Sandy to be dropped off next. While Jensen waited in the car, Sandy turned off the porch light before snuggling up to Jared for a good-bye hug.
“Mmm.” He slipped his fingers under the waistband of Sandy’s jeans, rubbed his thumb along the small of her back. Sandy slid her hand under the edge of his tee-shirt, her delicate touch almost tickling. When they broke the kiss, Jared was surprised at Sandy’s remark.
“You know, I wonder if Jensen is gay for real. Danneel told me in the restroom that when she tried to do something during the movie, Jensen wasn’t interested at all. Which, come on, he didn’t want to feel up Danneel? Something wrong there.”
“Don’t want to think about Jensen right now, babe.”
When Jared returned to the Neon Jensen was huddled - there was no other word for it - in the back seat.
“Dude, you can sit up here.”
“ ‘M fine.”
“Okay, whatever you want.”
That was the complete conversation for the entire ride except for “G’bye” as Jensen got out of the back seat.
An evening of making out with his hot girlfriend had left Jared with an urgent problem and he really wanted to get home to take care of it. Imagining her soft curves and sweet mouth … yeah, didn’t take that long. Though, as he wiped himself off afterward, he wondered for a moment how Jensen could have resisted the opportunity to fondle Danneel - because that girl’s curves were legendary.
Maybe Jensen had never kissed a girl? He was very shy? Maybe that’s all this was.
As he fell asleep, Jared decided he would have to make sure Jensen knew what was expected of him next time.
-----
Part 2: http://borgmama1of5.livejournal.com/57398.html
Part 3: http://borgmama1of5.livejournal.com/57836.html