NC-17 | Be Cool.Be Hard.Be Weird (It's Just Four Years) | 1/4
Jared didn’t have a plan. Didn’t see Jensen Ackles and decide that he was a social experiment. It was fact that halfway through the semester Jensen was the new kid in town. That he sat next to Jared during speech without saying word. And that he didn’t seem to know a soul in school. It wasn’t that Jared was the welcoming committee or anything, but he never turned down a good chance to make a great impression.
At the end of Jensen’s first week, Jared smiled at him, but Jensen only stared for a second before packing his book and notes into his messenger bag.
“So, you’re new,” Jared said with the smile firmly in place.
Jensen’s eyebrows rose but little else happened until he turned to leave.
*
Jared didn’t play sports, but he hung around enough and knew enough of the players that he would join them on occasion during warm-ups.
When Chad dribbled and spun, Jared was in his space to bat the ball away, grab it, and shoot at the basket. But, given that he didn’t seriously play, it bounced off the edge and Austin had to run across the court to get it.
“Damnit, Jared,” Chad complained.
Jared grinned and jogged across the court to intercept Austin’s long pass. “What?”
Chad watched Jared throw up another airball and shook his head. “This is why we don’t let you play.”
He still ran right into the mess of players, snatched the ball, and shot wide. Coach Grant blew a sharp whistle. “Padalecki! Get off my court!”
“I’m just warmin’ up!” Jared smiled, falling into a chuckle with the other players laughing, too.
“Padalecki!”
Jared laughed and waved. “Okay, okay.” As he jogged away and pushed through the gym doors to go into the hallway, he nearly ran into some cheerleaders. “Whoa! Ladies, watch out!”
“Get outta here, Jared,” Kristin laughed as she pushed him away.
When he tripped back to stable feet, he spun away and right into Jensen. “Oh, hey!”
Jensen all but shoved Jared out of his way and grumbled, “You ever watch yourself?”
“Dude, sorry.” Jared pointed at the cheerleaders, still walking through their routine in the hallway, clapping and chanting loudly. “You going to the game?”
He stared as he clutched a notebook to his chest and turned to walk away.
*
“Hey, new kid!” Jared called out as he sidled up to Jensen’s locker.
“Not my name.”
“You sure?” he asked with a smirk.
“Last time I checked.”
Coolly leaning on the locker, Jared asked, “When was that?”
Jensen shifted away from his locker door and stared at Jared.
“The last time you checked?” Jared prompted.
Jensen rolled his eyes, slammed his locker shut, and walked off. Jared stayed against the neighboring locker and watched Jensen’s exit.
With a thump, Chad landed against the next locker. “What’re you doin’?”
“Dunno,” Jared shrugged and they walked together to Chemistry.
*
“You miss your other school?” Jared asked just before class started on a particularly quiet day. Though Jensen was always quiet, so it wasn’t necessarily different. It was just that everything in general felt quiet that day.
Jensen looked over with a short glance then went back to his notebook.
“Guess not,” Jared said as he slid down against his desk.
Genevieve sat forward from her chair behind Jared and pushed a folded-up note onto his desk. When he opened it, he rolled his eyes at the question. Why are you talking to The Mute?
“He’s not,” Jared started with a whine before turning to look at her and lowering his voice when he caught Jensen looking at them. “He’s not mute.”
“My mama said he doesn’t even sing in church,” she whispered back.
Jared turned to Jensen and easily asked, “What church do you go to?”
Jensen stared for a few moments then went back to his work. His voice was low and bored, “Our Lady of Paternal Fire.”
“It’s Eternal Desire, you weirdo,” Genevieve shot back.
Jared caught Jensen’s barely-there smirk before the guy totally gave up on participating in any conversation. He liked the tiny curl of the lips and considered it progress.
*
Genevieve wasn’t really helpful in the matter, but she did let Jared join her and her family for church on Sunday. He pretty much just watched Jensen the whole time. Saw how he rose and bowed dutifully, was respectful to others around him in letting them by, and went for communion. All without a word.
Jared was more than intrigued, and tried to talk to Jensen outside, but the guy just stared.
“Good sermon.”
He turned away, obviously waiting on his family to stop talking to others. Jensen’s hands were in his pockets but tucking in and out with impatience and Jared smirked at the movement.
“I like the ‘love thy neighbor’ part. ‘As you love yourself.’ Proof you have to like yourself,” Jared pointed out with an easy smile.
That time, Jensen’s eyebrows rose as he stared at Jared. A few moments kept him there, but then he moved back to his family and left soon after.
*
They didn’t have the same gym class, but they both had it last period. Jared considered it a free hour to watch Jensen and find out more.
He’d long ago figured out how to ditch his class, realizing that Coach Adams didn’t do double checks on students after first roll call. So he stood off to the side of the stadium and watched the other field.
Genevieve slid up next to him, and positioned herself just like him; leaning to the side, arms crossed, and head tilted to watch Jensen.
Jared looked over, back to Jensen, and then he realized what she was doing. He huffed and dropped his arms and turned away. She did the same and he huffed again. “Jesus, Genevieve.”
“It’s just Genevieve,” she said smug, then went on. “What are you doing, Jared? Stalking the new kid?”
“He’s interesting.”
“He’s mute.”
Rolling his eyes, Jared turned from her and conveniently (purposely) found Jensen’s class again. “Is not. I’ve heard him talk.”
“Well, he doesn’t talk at church. Barely mumbles his little prayers and thanks. Even at the soup kitchen, he looks awkward. It’s called help, and he’s not even trying to talk to people.”
Jared looked down on her and his lips twitched. “He helps in the soup kitchen?”
Genevieve rolled her eyes and crossed her arms again. “He’s like a saint around that place. A mute saint.”
He smirked as he kept watching Jensen jog across the field while his class played flag football. He ran well-pointed patterns but he still wasn’t gathering attention. Like he participated just enough to not get called out by Coach Flanders, but wasn’t involved enough for anyone to throw the ball to him; flying just under the radar.
As the classes filed back inside, he fell in step to Jensen. “You’re not so shabby. Too bad no one threw you the ball,” he said with a smirk.
“Not like I wanted to play.”
Jared nudged Jensen’s shoulder as they walked, “What do you like?” Jensen flinched and watched Jared’s face. He was open for a brief second before turning back in and away from Jared. “To play,” Jared added with a small smile. “What do you like to play?”
Jensen rolled his eyes and headed to the far end of the locker room.
That is when Jared issued himself the challenge.
*
Jared was all but beaming at dinner as he shoveled homemade chicken pot pie into his mouth, stopping only to smile through Jeff’s complaints about his second semester at the local community college or to gulp down milk.
His mom stopped listening to Jeff and started watching Jared, frowning at the rate at which he put the food away. She interrupted, “Jared, you okay, baby?”
He looked up with a mouth full of chicken but smiled and nodded. “’M fine,” he mumbled around his chewing.
“You got a race to get finish?”
After a long sip of milk, he nodded again. “I was gonna meet up with everyone at Brewsters’.”
“Gawd, you still go there,” Megan said with disdain.
“Yes, I still go there,” he returned with a mocking tone. “You jealous or something?”
She leaned across the table in all her little-sister glory. “All you do is make fun of everyone”
“I do not.”
“Your friends do.”
He made a face and their mom cut in with a sigh. “Alright, alright. Fine. Jared, you’re excused. But!” she added when he jumped up from his chair. “I need to you start coming home after school on Mondays and Tuesdays.”
“What? Why?” he complained, thinking of all the days he hung out after school with the basketball team, or in the yearbook office, or even just milling the halls and chatting people up.
“Mrs. Henderson’s schedule changed and she can’t watch Megan all week.” Jared and Megan both groaned while Jeff and their dad chuckled with a shared smile.
*
Jared was frowning when he walked up to Chad’s car and practically kicked the wheel before turning against the car. Austin smiled and threw his basketball at Jared’s chest. “What’s your problem?”
He caught it easily and popped it back even harder. “Mondays and Tuesdays, I have to watch Megan.”
“Man, sucks to be you,” Chad laughed.
He rolls his eyes. “Tell me about it.”
“Dude,” Austin started, punching at Jared’s shoulder. “You hear Jason got a blow job from Kristin?”
Jared laughed, “Oh, no way. She’s on lockdown.”
“Not no more.”
“She was with Tom for, like, two months and he never even got under her shirt.”
Chad snorted. “Think that’s more a reflection on Tom than anything else.”
“What’s that mean?” Jared asked with a high eyebrow.
“I’m pretty sure Tom’s gay,” Chad said while picking at his nails, like it was the most simple of statements.
“No way,” Austin practically shouted.
“Yeah, way,” Chad argued in return. “You ever see the way he looks at Mike?”
“Oh, man, shut up,” Austin complained, bouncing the basketball right onto Chad’s feet. “My gym locker’s right next to him.”
Chad laughed. “Just think about that next time you shower after gym.”
Jared laughed along with Chad, but was distracted when Genevieve and Danneel joined them with hushed whispers. He bumped his hip into Genevieve. “What’re you girls gossiping on now?”
They shared a look before Danneel spoke. “New Kid’s inside. Ordering a mess of onion rings, mozzarella sticks, cheese fries, you name it.”
“He’s gonna burn his stomach out,” Genevieve said with a shiver.
Chad chuckled, “Maybe he’s a former fattie? Going on a binge?”
Jared rolled his eyes and slipped away to go inside. He casually leaned against the counter, right next to Jensen. “Should try the strawberry banana shakes. They’re scrumptious.”
Jensen looked at him, to the workers gathering up his food, then back to Jared with a skeptical look. “Scrumptious?”
“They use real strawberries. Trust me.” Jensen rolled his eyes and grabbed the bags, turning away. Jared stepped along with him. “Did you get the chili cheese fries or just cheese?”
Jensen spun with his back pushing the door open and he pursed his lips. “You gonna tell me which I should’ve gotten?”
Jared shrugged with an easy smile. “I go cheese sauce with some shredded on top. The chili’s too greasy.”
“There’s such a thing as too greasy?”
Jared grinned with Jensen giving more than a crappy response, but then Jensen turned and walked away.
“Oh my God, what’d he say?” Genevieve asked on a hush.
“Nothing,” he nearly frowned.
“You were talking to him for a while.”
“It was, like, two minutes.”
“I didn’t know he talked,” Danneel said awkwardly as they all watched Jensen walking along the sidewalk, leading off to the far side of town.
Jared shook his head. “Why does everyone think he doesn’t talk?”
Genevieve tsked. “He never says a thing in speech. Speech, of all classes.”
He shrugged and waited for the topic to change, which it did soon enough.
*
It took a few days to take note of Jensen’s schedule and figure out a game plan. But come Friday, when he didn’t have to meet Megan at the middle school and walk her home, Jared planted himself outside the locker room and waited for the last soul to exit.
Jensen was spinning around the corner before he even acknowledged Jared. He gave a low, “What?” as he kept walking while he riffled through his messenger bag.
“Hey, what’re you doing tonight?”
He shrugged in response but little else said he cared to have this conversation.
Jared took quick steps to keep up with Jensen as he left the building and headed through the parking lot. “You wanna hang out?”
Jensen tightened the straps on his bag as he met the corner of the parking lot, closed off by a ten-foot fence, and Jared looked around to figure out why they were even there when the exit was clear across the other end. “You wanna hang out?”
He nodded with friendly eyes. “Yeah, why not?”
“Because.”
“Because why?” Jared returned with a smirk.
Jensen looked over Jared’s shoulder for a second then back with a bothered face. “Because we don’t know each other. “
“Right. So we hang out and that’s not an excuse anymore.”
His hands hung onto the straps of his bag and tightened nervously. “You don’t wanna hang with me.”
Jared smiled in earnest and nodded. “Yeah, I do. You seem like a nice guy. Figured I’d show you the ropes. Get to know more about you.”
Jensen snorted. “Show me the ropes, huh?” He looked away again and spoke before Jared could respond. “What do you even know about me?”
“That you go to church and volunteer. You’re quiet and shy. And you can actually run a good Z-pattern, yet you still don’t wanna play football.”
He snorted again with a shake of his head. “You don’t want to know me.”
“Of course … I do,” Jared trailed off as Jensen hopped up the fence, fingers and toes digging into the criss-cross metal, and effectively hauling himself up and over.
Jensen landed on the other side and stood with a cocky smile and shake of his head. “You think you do, but you don’t.”
Jared looked up the fence. “How did you … ” and when his eyes came back down Jensen was already halfway across the next lot.
*
“I don’t think you know what you’re getting into,” Genevieve said as she and Chad plopped down next to Jared at lunch on Monday.
He kept his eyes across the way, at Jensen, sitting by himself off to the side and not taking his concentration off the slight bop of his head, going with whatever was playing on his headphones while he scribbled in a notebook.
“He’s like the saintiest saint of all. His dad is the new reverend, and his mom hosted Bingo on Saturday.”
Jared turned with a skeptical look. “You seem to know a lot about church. And you think he’s the goody goody?”
“Do I even wanna know?” Chad asked while digging into whatever mystery meat the caf was serving that day.
“No,” Jared and Genevieve said together. Chad shrugged and stuffed his mouth while turning to Danneel and Austin.
Genevieve leaned across the table to Jared. “My sister is, like, in love with him. She tells all.”
“I don’t know. I just … he seems interesting.”
“What do you want with a mute, anyway?”
He huffed like he always did with her, suddenly tired. “He’s not mute. He talks. I’ve heard him talk.”
“Mutters of ‘Dear Lord’ and ‘Amen’ do not count, ya know?”
Jared leveled her with a serious gaze. “He, like, ran up the fence. In the south lot? Just Spider-manned that thing.”
Chad tsked with a mouthful of food and looked at Jensen, too. “No way.
“Yeah, way.”
Genevieve started picking at her nails. “Probably learned in Boy Scouts or something. He is too good to be interesting.”
Jared kept on watching Jensen, and he even smiled a little when Jensen looked around and caught his eye. They stared for a few seconds and Jared sat a little taller and kept his smile. Jensen looked right back, not smiling but not scowling either, until he rolled against the wall to tuck himself around the way and not look at anyone.
“God, what a weirdo,” Genevieve mumbled in Jared’s ear. “Don’t know why you wanna deal with that.”
“Just corrupt him and be over with it. Save us all from your whining,” Chad said without looking at either of them.
“I don’t wanna … don’t want to corrupt. Just, like, open him up a little. See new things.”
Genevieve rolled her eyes. “What. Ever.”
*
The next few days went pretty much the same way. Genevieve taunting Jared with stories of Jensen at church, calling him a mute, and Jensen turning away the second he caught Jared watching him. In class, it was worse. Jensen didn’t even turn his head and only looked at his notebook or the teacher.
Jared left the lunch table and marched over, dropping down across from Jensen, who looked up with wide eyes. “What’re you doing?”
Jared instantly handed over half of his candy. “You like Twix?”
Jensen looked back at the table Jared always sat at, but Genevieve was consumed by conversations going on around her and trying to follow Sophia, Chad, Austin, and Danneel as they all leaned over each other to talk.
Jared pushed the candy further towards Jensen and gave a small smile.
He looked at the hand then up to Jared. “Peanut butter or caramel?”
“PB.”
His mouth twitched for a second but he snatched it up quickly, silently, and ate it much the same way.
Jared crossed his legs and tucked his feet beneath him. “You don’t eat much, do you?”
“I eat.”
“Really?” Jared asked with a smile.
“I do,” he pushed back, with a tiny smile, but then he sobered and continued, “Just not a lot of candy.”
“Why not?”
“Not a lot at the house.”
Jared hmmed and leaned back on his palms. “I never see you eating at lunch.”
“I eat, alright?” Jensen shot back defensively.
Jared raised his hands in the air. “Okay, sorry … just never see it at school.”
It was quiet for a bit, and when Jared tried to look down to Jensen’s notebook, Jensen snatched it up and put it in his messenger bag.
“What’s that?” Jared asked with a smile.
“Stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“My stuff.”
Jensen looked up to students lining up at the cafeteria doors to leave and Jared followed the sight, but when he turned back, Jensen was gone. Just like in the parking lot, without a word, and Jared sighed.
*
“On the plus side, he ate my candy and actually answered some questions.”
“Like what his favorite Bible verse is?”
“No,” Jared complained to Genevieve. “Like, that he likes peanut butter over caramel. And he writes.”
“Prayers?” she asked, strolling along the outdoor track at a turtle’s pace.
“No,” he complained again, feeling like he was crawling to stay in step with her. “I think it’s stories or something? The whole notebook was full.”
“Maybe it was a sermon.” When Jared sighed she turned to him. “I’m serious Jared. That kid is one hundred percent church saint. My sister said he was in charge of the collection plate, and then he was serving at the pancake breakfast. He’s never not there.”
*
Another Friday, Jared waited for Jensen after school, and Jensen rolled his eyes as Jared fell in beside him, but didn’t complain, and actually answered his questions as they walked the same route outside as before.
“Where did you live before?”
“Richardson.”
“Where’s that?”
“Near Dallas.”
“You guys moved for the church?”
Jensen snorted. “Something like that.”
“What’s that mean?” Jared asked as they slowed to the corner of the parking lot.
“Means a 16-year-old is gonna be a 16-year-old.” He tightened the strap on his bag, and expertly climbed up the fence, just like last time. But before he landed on the other side, Jared started his way up, and when his toes slipped and he hung a few feet off the ground, Jensen laughed. And Jared smiled, because it was actually higher than Jensen’s voice, and Jensen’s face lit up as his eyes crinkled at the edges.
Jared laughed at himself and still hung with his fingers clamped around metal fencing. “Okay, so. Think you could help?”
Jensen shrugged. “What do you want me to do from here?”
He tried to tuck his toes back into the fencing, but, his feet were pretty huge and they wouldn’t hold long enough to get any leverage. He laughed at himself again, along with Jensen, if he were being honest. “I don’t know. But I can’t hang here forever.”
“You could drop.”
“Yeah, but then you’re still there and I’m here.”
Jensen shook his head and walked off.
Jared dropped and rubbed his hands together with a bit of pain from hanging that long, and then he rubbed them on his jeans.
“Hey, Numbnuts!”
He turned to Jensen about twenty feet down, pushing some bent fencing up and peeking his head back into the parking lot. Jared smiled - well beamed, really - and jogged down the way to slip through. He chuckled with Jensen, both laughing at the situation and at Jared.
And even when they parted a few blocks down with just a low see ya from Jensen, Jared was pretty happy with the situation.
*
At lunch, he plopped down in front of Jensen, bypassing his normal table. Jensen looked up from his notebook then tucked it against his chest. Jared smiled, “Hey.”
Jensen didn’t scowl but he didn’t look exactly happy when he asked, “Something I can help you with?”
Jared shrugged and pulled out his bagged lunch. “You can help me eat my lunch.”
With flat eyes and lips, Jensen watched Jared. “What? Like I’m a charity case.”
“Nah,” he shrugged again. “Just not that hungry.”
Jensen shook his head and went back to writing. But he didn’t tell Jared to get lost. And he even accepted the Twix bar Jared put into the air between them.
*
A few days went on like that. And a few more after that. Until Jensen rolled his eyes and nearly smiled when he said, “You know, I do eat. Just not in front of you.”
“Why? You chew with your mouth open?”
Jensen snorted as he kept writing in his book. “No. I’d just rather do my own thing on my time than eat.”
Jared went on with his sandwich, talking while trying to chew. “When do you eat?”
“At lunch.”
Jared looked around. “It is lunch.”
His eyes stayed on his book, and his voice got low as he admitted. “Not my lunch. I have study hall now.”
“How’d you finagle that? Only seniors get study halls.”
With his head tucked down tighter, his mumble was barely audible. “I am a senior.”
“You said you were 16.” Jensen only nodded with his eyes on the page and his hand moved over the paper. “Oh.” Jared finished chewing the bit of food in his mouth then smiled. “Oh, so you’re like super smart.”
Jensen’s eyebrow flicked up and his mouth twisted. “Don’t know about super. But yeah, I guess. Skipped a year or two,” he trailed off with a shrug.
“Huh.”
His head picked up and he watched Jared carefully. “Huh, what?” Jared smirked and Jensen again asked, “What?”
There was a flicker of excitement in Jared’s veins that there was something Jensen was interested to have answered, instead of the so-many weeks that Jared spent trying to get answers from Jensen. He smirked and bit into his Twix bar. “Nothing.”
Jensen watched him, not saying more and not showing much on his face. But when the second Twix was put into the air, he had a tiny smile and reached for it. Only, Jared tugged it back and smirked again. “Wanna hang out?”
“Is the candy a reward for saying yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then no,” he said easily and started writing again in his book. Jared whimpered a little, and Jensen smiled a little, and then he reached forward to grab the bar. He bit into half of it before saying, “Fine. If it’ll get you off my back.”
.next.