All of Us | Jared/Jensen/Danneel [1/3]

[dugindeep]

master post

“Are you okay?”

Danneel feels her cheeks heat up, she’s certain her eyes are blown as wide as possible, and it’s suddenly a little difficult to swallow through the thickness of her throat. Jared, however, appears completely unfazed. He’s amused, actually, which only makes this all the more awkward.

“Come again?” she asks.

Jared moves closer, thin fingers wrapping around her elbow. The touch is gentle, safe, which goes along with how carefully he says, “I asked if you were okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replies with an insistent nod. “How about you?”

“Why’re you asking if I’m …”

“I mean, you’re the one who just asked me out.”

Jared’s smiles easily, with that one quick glance that always puts the other girls at ease, especially Jensen. Yeah, Jensen, the BFF who never seems to be out of earshot and is in fact leaning against the row of lockers that start the long walk of B Hall. “I did,” he says easily, as if he were merely concerned with today’s weather forecast.

Danneel’s own feelings are a bit overcast with a possibility for thunderstorms because she does not like any of the reasons that could be behind Jared’s proposal for an evening at Johnny’s Shake Shack. Danneel's new to this high school, but she isn’t deaf, dumb, or blind. She's heard all the inside jokes that a trip to the Shake Shack always leads to an evening at Parkers’ Point and after that, girls often lose their underwear. She is also aware that Jared Padalecki is a Regular Joe kind of guy who likes sports yet doesn’t commit to any past gym class, is always cordial to classmates, and while just short of being a know-it-all or class clown, he is certainly whip-smart and fun.

She also has the eyes to see the way Jared looks at Jensen Ackles, or how they are always trailing one another from class to class, whether they are in them together or not. Come to think of it, Jensen is now watching them with something akin to fondness-no, he is watching Jared, certainly. Jensen Ackles has never spoken a word to her, not even when they were stuck in that trio for biology prep two weeks ago.

No, there had to be some other odd reason that Jared bothered to even talk to her at this moment. “Is this some hazing ritual?”

His eyebrows crease and she swears he's beginning to frown, as if he were actually hurt by the thought.

“For what?”

“Basketball? You’re tall enough.”

“It’s also March. The season’s almost over.”

“Baseball?” Danneel knows spring means spring training. She’s learned a thing or two from all of Gino’s extracurricular activities or his ranting at the TV even while she was busy studying algebra or painting her nails, because Lord knows that’s better than caring about a little white ball and bat.

Jared pauses and then a strange smile forms. “No, I’m not on any of the teams.”

“Yearbook Club then. Either way, I’m not in the mood to play the role of New Girl in Town, so you know, just pick on someone else.”

Danneel is instantly embarrassed to have flown off like that. Judging by Jared’s lowered eyes, she’d cut right through him. Still, she’s not about to let his All-American eyes make her feel sorry for standing her own ground.

Poor baby, she muses as she steps around him, and barely spares Jensen a glance as she continues down the main hallway so she can go home. She’ll blame this one on Mr. Flannery’s inability to stay on topic, forcing her to stay behind after class to ask for clarification on the weekend assignment.

“I don’t know why you bothered,” she can hear Jensen say, followed by Jared’s pissy, “Dude, shut up.”

Danneel's next series of steps are more pointed, rough-heeled on the tile, and she marches out of the front door with her head held high for avoiding that bullet.



“Hey.”

Danneel doesn’t bother to lift her gaze away from the bottom of her locker where she’s digging around for her geography workbook. No one willingly talks to her yet; apparently, January to April isn’t long enough for a new girl to make friends. She’s still seen as a cold princess just because her dad’s job transfer moved them from the high-end suburbs of Baton Rouge to this low-key Texas town, and it meant they could afford that nice house up on the hill on the edge of town.

There’s a cleared throat, garbled mumble, then stuttered sigh. “I said hey.”

She kneels back and looks up, then freezes.

Jensen Ackles stops rubbing the back of his neck and offers a stilted wave before dropping both arms and shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.

“Hey, back,” Danneel says, tightly. She’s not sure what kind of mission these two are on, but she’s certain Jared’s not far away; maybe he was the mastermind of this whole garbage and that’s why Jensen seems so uncomfortable to be standing here.

“How’s it going?” His voice cracks, and along with the slanted, shy smile, Danneel feels her stomach flutter.

NO! she internally shouts. She’s seen how girls look at Jensen like he’s a college boy who they’ll bend over backwards for, just to share his letterman’s jacket and fraternity pin. He’s cute, sure, if you like the blond-hair and incredibly green-eyed sort of thing.

She clears her throat because this is ridiculous. Jared and Jensen are always one step beside the other, and she’s not up for games right now.

“I’m fine.” Danneel gets back to where she’s hunting for that stupid workbook and imagines Jensen spinning away to make some other snide comment to Jared like he did a week ago when Jared tried to talk to her.

Jensen does neither of those things. Miraculously, he asks, “Got a good weekend lined up?”

She rolls her eyes because she does not. A bunch of geography homework, an English Lit paper to finally pull out of her ass, and family obligations. “Yeah, sure, I have to go watch my brother’s batting practice.”

“Younger or older?”

Danneel merely stares up at him.

“Your brother.”

“Yeah, I got that. What’s it matter?”

“Just curious.” Jensen wrenches one shoulder up in a self-conscious shrug. “Making conversation.”

“You’re kinda awful at it,” she says, hoping it’ll shoo him away.

He lets out a terse laugh - well, it’s actually a nice little rumble of a noise, but it actually makes Danneel feel awful to have it make her smile. “Don’t I know it.”

“Then why are you trying to converse with me?”

Jensen’s face becomes this strange mix of pale around his eyes and mouth, yet pink across his cheekbones. “Why does any guy converse with a girl?”

Danneel stands and clutches whatever books are in her hands to her chest, giving up on the geography workbook hunt. There’s something earnest in his words, in the way he keeps meeting her eyes then looking around her face, her hair, down to her chest-though not too low.

He motions at his own neck. “I like your necklace.”

She reaches up and closes one hand around the oval locket, thumbing at the intricate design at the back of it. “Thanks. It was my mom’s.”

“Was?”

“Yeah, she’s gone.” Danneel clears her throat because she hadn’t been prepared to say those words; she can’t remember ever saying them so easily, really.

“I’m sorry.”

Somehow, she believes him. It feels awkward, sharing a moment with a classmate. Four months in this building and no one’s said more than a sentence to her.

She hasn’t said much either, she realizes, and maybe that’s where all the bitter opinions of her come in.

“You know if you wanna talk about it, I mean, I still have my mom, so I don’t really get it, but I’m here, if you ever wanted to …”

Danneel closes her eyes and turns back to her locker. “Thanks, but I’m good,” she lies. A moment later she has her backpack all set - fuck geography and screw algebra. She doubts she’ll ever need to know how many miles and hours between Portland and Baltimore. She can just Google that when she needs it.

“I gotta go,” she insists and hurries away from him, only belatedly realizing she’s going the wrong way. Still, she continues on to the south exit and then jogs across the school grounds until she meets up with Gino by their mom’s old car in the parking lot.

“Hey, squirt,” he says as she whips around him to launch her backpack into the back seat and slide in as the front passenger. He sighs and walks around the car to the driver’s side. As he starts up the car, he gives her a long look. “Good day at school?”

She hates how he’s turned all macho once they got to this school. He’s tall, built, and sporty. He made friends in an instant when he showed off in gym class, or so the girls who sit in front of her during biology have gossiped about. He’s also made himself some lovely hangers-on, and she’s recently been forced to listen to the cheerleaders next to her in algebra whisper about who will ask him to Spring Fling.

Back home, he was low-key and she was the social butterfly. Everything’s changed in Texas. No one knows her and they instantly assume she’s trouble from the big city.

Once he’s in the driver’s seat, Gino flicks her ear. It’s not as sharp as it could be, but it’s annoying all the same.

“God, you’re immature,” she complains, swatting his arm.

The car’s still rumbling, yet Gino doesn’t take it out of park. He asseses her. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, except that you’re just sitting here,” she whines. “The sooner we get going, the sooner I’ll be home and away from your gross Axe Armor.”

He chuckles and finally gets the car moving. Danneel slides down in her seat and mouths the words to every song they hear on the twenty-minute ride home.



“You’re being all responsible now, right?” Dad asks as he smiles and leans down to kiss Danneel’s forehead.

Before, she would roll her eyes and slyly smirk, thinking of all the trouble she could get up to in his absence. Now, it’s different - she’s different - and she doesn’t want him to leave. She squeezes her fingers around the handles of his overnight bag and watches him tug on a blazer. It’s dark plaid with black corduroy elbow patches. She remembers a time when she would huff at him for owning such an atrocity, but she’s thankful that she’ll never forget how it fit his shoulders and hung well around his sides.

“Right?” he asks, trying to take the bag, but her grip won’t let up. “Danneel? You okay?”

“Yeah, just be safe,” she says in a rush, wrapping her arms around his waist and tucking herself in close to him.

He chuckles awkwardly, but rubs her back in soothing patterns. “It’s just one night. I’ll be back before you know it.”

She’s embarrassed for reacting like this and pulls away as soon as she can without alarming him. He smiles and tucks hair behind her ear, then leans away to yell up the front staircase. “Gino! You be sure to eat something normal while I’m gone.”

“’Kay, Dad,” comes the distracted reply, and Dad seems satisfied enough that he just smiles at Danneel once more and leaves.

Danneel stands in the foyer, stares at the door as if she can see him through it, and listens to Dad’s car rumble to life just before it moves further down the drive and out of earshot. She doesn’t have time to turn around before Gino is pounding down the stairs and jumping off the last few with a whoop.

“We are on!” he shouts, fist pumps, and runs back through the house to kitchen.

Slowly, Danneel follows and hears him open the back door and apparently let in a whole parade of people with the noise everyone is making. When she reaches the kitchen, it’s just a few guys from baseball, all looking like they’re ready to party with the cases of beer tucked under each arm and the class of shirts each are wearing - tight v-necks, fanciful collared shirts, one guy even has a skin-tight striped button-up with a skinny tie.

When Gino looks up to her, she narrows her eyes and he frowns in return. Not much has to be said; he’s likely judging her since she was the one always sneaking people in and out when their parents vacationed, and he would just go off to a friend’s house for a weekend full of games. Roles reversed, and she’s not certain how much she can reprimand him. She knows what it’s like to well-liked in school and to do anything to maintain that status. And while she now unfortunately knows the other side of that coin and hates it, she’s not about to take it out on him.

His friends are unpacking and passing bottles of liquor, and Gino gets his hands on a bottle of crystal clear vodka before it gets past him. They elbow him for it back, but he shrugs them each off and slides it across the counter to her.

She breathes deep and feels immediate disappointment that she has nowhere else to go and that she has to get liquor from her brother, but she supposes it’s better than nothing at all. With a small smile she waves the bottle in thanks and heads up to her room.

As the party picks up downstairs, loud bass notes of the top radio hits and voices getting louder to be heard over it, Danneel wastes most of the night watching whatever cheesy movie she can stomach until commercials hit and she switches to another one. She slowly sips the vodka straight, barely getting over the sharp flavor, yet unwilling to go downstairs for anything else.

An hour or so later, she’s feeling loose enough that she may just have the courage to do it. Except she can hear the feminine giggles up and down the hall just outside her closed bedroom door. She’s certain someone’s using Gino’s room to get laid, and the door to Dad’s office just shut tight with another giggle. Danneel wants nothing less than to run into any one like that.

She stretches out on her bed and flips through the channels when her bedroom door quickly opens. She jumps in shock and spills vodka on her and the comforter, and quickly picks up the ends of her shirt to keep the liquor from dripping onto her jeans as well.

“Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” comes on a hurried apology.

Danneel winces with the wetness seeping through her jeans and she’s embarrassed to realize that she definitely can’t leave her room now or else people will think she had an accident.

“Are you an idiot?” asks another voice, and Danneel is now absolutely ashamed to be caught with soaked pants.

She barely looks up with a sigh then double-takes to see Jared pushing past Jensen to grab a towel still folded in the laundry basket in the corner. Jared comes over to the bed, sits beside Danneel, and dabs at some of the wet denim then lifts her shirt from her skin to dry it a bit. She’s frozen as he helps, surprised that they’re both here in her room, let alone helping. “I’m not an idiot,” she mumbles, glancing at them both.

“I know you’re not,” Jared murmurs back. “I was talking to Numbnuts still standing in the doorway.”

Danneel looks to Jensen and he’s biting his lower lip, not moving or even making himself known other than awkwardly hanging out next to her dresser. From the corner of her eye, she sees a few of those cheerleaders from algebra stalk past with a pointed laugh, and Danneel realizes that it looks like Jared’s going up her shirt with Jensen just watching them. Plus the door is wide open, and she can immediately see her bad reputation at school getting even dirtier.

She jumps off the bed, rushes to the doorway, and slams the door in the girls’ faces with a terse, “Rude!”

“Well, that’s not gonna help,” Jared says. He’s wide-eyed and still holding the towel in his hands. He motions it at the door. “Now they’ll think the main even is starting with the door closed.”

“Well it’s not,” she declares. She marches back to the bed, grabs the vodka, and goes to the window-side bench that overlooks the backyard. “No events of any kind will be happening in this room. Especially with you two.”

“Why especially us two?” Jensen asks, coming to life as he walks further into the room. When she glares at him, he shrugs and tries on a smile. “Not like I’m trying to convince you, I’m just wondering why you hate us so much. We’re just trying to talk to you.”

She rolls her eyes, takes a quick swig of liquor, and watches the party spilling out into the backyard. She’s surprised no one’s started skinny dipping yet; the pool’s big enough. “No one ever just tries anything.”

Jared swings his legs around to hang off the foot of the bed, dangling his feet as he gives her an amused look. “So, you’re not just trying to hide tonight?”

“I wasn’t trying to. I actually was. Until you two boneheads came in to bug me.”

“We weren’t trying to bug you,” Jensen says, moving to lean on the desk that’s only a few feet away from Danneel. “We were just looking for someplace to hang out and all the other rooms are … otherwise occupied.”

Danneel rolls her eyes. “Yeah, that kind of thing does happen at parties.” She glances at each of them. “Why were you trying to find a place to hang out? Why aren’t you downstairs with everyone else?”

Jensen makes a face. “Watching my older brother make out with girls from my geometry class is weird.”

She’s laughing before she realizes it and a second later, Jensen is smiling at her. Jared smiles, too, and she doesn’t feel so bothered any more. “I guess you guys can hang out here then.”

Jared looks and sounds hopeful when he asks, “You guess?”

As Danneel had learned her first weekend in this house, her bedroom window easily slides up and lets her out onto the slanted roof that covers the kitchen. She carefully steps onto the rugged roof tiles and waves the guys out with the bottle in her hand.

They join her, Jared close at her side and Jensen right next to him, and they share the bottle as they watch the partygoers below act foolish and trip one another into the pool.

“You ever cannonball from up here?” Jared asks.

“I bet it’d splash all the way out to the grass,” Jensen says, pointing to where the patio ends and the lawn begins nearly ten feet from the edge of the pool.

Jared turns to her, looking all sorts of excited. “Please tell me you’ve done it.”

“No, I haven’t.” It seems like a foolish idea, really. Someone would break a leg or an arm, if they were lucky. Yet the way that Jared and Jensen are sharing pleasant smiles with her makes her think again on the matter. “Not yet,” she adds with a small smile. “Maybe when it’s warmer.”

Jensen passes the vodka bottle right to Danneel. “You’ll let us watch, right?”

Danneel chuckles through a sip, spilling vodka down her chin. She wipes it away and narrows her eyes at them. “What? Like I’m breaking the first bone?” When neither say anything, she elbows Jared. “You’re definitely going first.”

“Sweet!” Jared exclaims. He stands and rips off his shirt, tossing it back into Danneel’s room. She and Jensen yell at Jared to sit back down; she can only imagine that he’ll slip after drinking and end with a splat on the patio. Jensen, on the other hand sounds more annoyed than worried when he tugs on Jared’s shorts to get down. “You guys are no fun,” Jared declares when he finally sits back down with them.

As Jared runs hands through his hair, pushing it back into place from what the shirt had messed up, Danneel watches the lines of his neck and the stretch of lean muscles over his chest. Her eyes widen when Jensen catches her, and she turns away to quickly take a long gulp of vodka. As she coughs it up, Jared rubs her back and Jensen leans forward to take the bottle back.

“Girl can’t keep her cool around the guys,” Jensen lightly teases, and Danneel blushes more at Jensen’s lazy wink than at what he’s just said.

Danneel shakes her head and pushes hair away from her face to calm herself. It’s stupid; she doesn’t like these two, they’re just saving her from a boring night in. She shouldn’t have to worry about what they think of her. “I’m just stuck on the fact that Superman here thinks he can fly.”

“Superman can fly,” Jared corrects.

“No, he can’t. He just jumps really high so it seems like flying.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Jensen nudges Jared hard enough that he bumps into Danneel, and the two guys chuckle.

Danneel bumps back into Jared to jostle Jensen and chuckles with them. “Yeah, what I said.”

Jared grins broadly at her and she decides to take another drink just to ignore the effects his smile has on her. She can feel her skin prickle, but she’ll blame it on the crisp night air, and she’ll later claim that she sat out so late with Jared and Jensen because she had nothing better to do and they just never bothered to leave her alone.



Danneel is nervous to get to school that next Monday and she’s not quite certain why. There are a hundred worries swirling inside, but somehow she had bypassed the potential for a good ol’ fashioned catfight.

“I heard she had both Jensen and Jared in her room all night,” some girl says from only a few lockers away.

When Danneel looks up to find three girls staring at her while they whisper, she knows their end game - to rile her up - and she won’t give them that so she continues to switch books in and out of her book bag while the girls continue goading her.

She’s startled when there’s a clear “Hey, what’s up?” said with a bang on the locker next to her. It’s Jensen and he’s now leaning against the locker door and giving her an easy smile. He’s also blocking the view of the catty girls now behind him. “How was the rest of your weekend?”

“It was okay,” she replies as she shrugs her backpack on. “Yours?”

“Good. Jared and I shot some hoops yesterday then his mama made mac ‘n cheese for dinner. Homemade. It was amazing.”

It’s said so clearly, casually, like Jensen is happy to talk to her for as long as she pleases. And she is quite pleased at how it instantly calms her from the gossip of just a moment ago. “That sounds really delicious.” Then she frowns because it feels lame, but last night Dad was tired from travelling and she wound up making turkey sandwiches for them both.

“They’re just so obvious, my God,” is whispered behind Jensen and he makes a face before moving forward and tugging on Danneel’s hand to follow.

“Don’t even bother listening to them. All that hair dye fries their brain cells.”

Danneel chuckles then stretches her fingers out when she realizes Jensen is still holding her hand as they continue down the hallway.



A day later, Jared pops up next to her at the entrance to the cafeteria with a goofy grin. “I didn’t know you had fifth-period lunch,” he says, as if she’s been hiding that fact from him, as if he should already know this.

She’s not sure what he’s really aiming for, but she does appreciate finally having someone to talk to. Initially, she’d thought that the hours she spent with Jared and Jensen outside her window were a fluke, time passed with free alcohol. Between Jensen tagging along with her throughout Monday, giving random commentary on teachers, students, and even old stories about the school, and this here now, she’s beginning to think she could finally feel settled here.

“I didn’t know you did either,” she replies with a crooked smile.

“I don’t. But I often frequent all lunch hours.” He pats his belly as they approach the food lines. “A growin’ boy’s gotta eat.”

Danneel chuckles and lets him guide her through the line, pointing out which lunch lady always presses her thumb into the hamburger buns and that the cream of celery soup looks more like body fluids. She’s still laughing, even as her stomach begins to turn with the grossness of it all. “You’re not helping,” she complains with a light smack to his gut, which he dopily flinches from. “Now how’m I gonna pick out food?”

“Easy, I’ll do it for you.” He doesn’t leave room for complaints, just packs one tray with two of everything he chooses - kettle-cooked chips, capped tins of mashed potatoes, plastic-wrapped oatmeal cookies, fries, and chocolate and white milk cartons.

Once they’re seated and he’s divvied up the food, she inspects the potatoes then stares at him. “You realize half of these are the same food?”

“Yes, but all with variety.” Jared dips a fry into the mashed potatoes and happily eats it.

“That’s gross,” she says with an odd laugh. She opens the cookies and breaks off small pieces to eat, figuring this is about all that will get her through the day.

“Gross is all the other food.”

“The brisket didn’t look too bad.”

“Miss Betty makes a mean brisket, but Miss Betty also has mean B.O., and I don’t trust that she’s not dripping on the meat.”

Now the cookies taste off, simply from Jared’s imagery. “Now you’re gross!” she cries, throwing pieces of cookie at him.

Jared simply laughs and there’s something open and easy about it that makes her smile anyway. This lunch is the best one she’s had in months.



Danneel enters Dad’s office to let him know dinner’s almost ready, though she stops in the doorway and watches him stare at a framed photo on the desk. She knows which one, had seen it nearly every day of her life on the mantel in their old home. It’s a black-and-white portrait of her mother in bed, pregnant with Danneel.

She can draw the picture in her mind: the soft shadows made by the sheets hanging off her mom’s round belly, the messy waves of bedhead, and the quiet smile to the camera-to Dad.

It makes Danneel’s chest tight to see Dad staring at it like he’s reliving that very moment.

She clears her throat, as much to get Dad’s attention as to focus herself. When he looks up, he has a fond smile still in place as he murmurs Mom’s name. Then he blinks, shakes his head, and puts a more flat smile in place. “Hey, honey. Everything okay?”

For most of her life, people have told Danneel she’s a spitting image her mother. Sometimes Gino or even Dad would mistake her if she passed through rooms too quickly. She’d always considered it a beautiful compliment, but now it stings to be called by that name.

She wants to ask him if he’s okay, but knows the response will be a quick sure, and she doesn’t want to acknowledge this anyway. She clears her throat again and tries to smile, but it feels shaky. “Dinner’s in five minutes.”

“What’re we having?”

“Pasta?”

Dad gives her a knowing look. “And bread?”

“Garlic,” she says, playful.

“That’s my girl!” Danneel chuckles then he nods and pats the arms of his desk chair before rising and walking to her. With a smile that grows sad the longer he looks at Danneel, he combs hair away from her face and rests his hands on her shoulders. “You’re wonderful, you know that?”

It should make her happy; instead she frowns for how suddenly the moment feels sad. “Dad ...”

He kisses her forehead and goes to the bathroom to wash up.

Danneel knows she should get back downstairs to finish dinner, but she has to take a second to look at the photo herself. Once she’s full on memories with tears building in her eyes, she shifts the frame back a few inches and brings one of her and Gino in junior high into its place.



At lunch, Danneel bypasses spaghetti, her stomach turning over the quiet and awkward dinner from the night before. There isn’t much left that seems appetizing after Jared opened her eyes to the lunch ladies’ wandering thumbs and hygiene issues, so she sticks to an apple, bag of chips, and bottled water. She also sticks to the corner of the lunch room where there are only a few other students eating at one end of a long table.

She sits on the empty side, crossing her legs up on the bench, and takes small bites from the apple while she reads for her afternoon American Lit class.

“Are you hiding?”

Danneel’s startled to look up as Jared sits down across from her. “Oh, hey.”

“It seems like you’re hiding. Are you?”

“No, I’m just eating,” she says, motioning with her apple. “And reading.”

After Jared steals a few chips, he taps on her book. “What’re you reading?”

Danneel flaps the book cover for him to see. “Poe. I have an open discussion in seventh period.”

Jared nods, interested. “Cool, you like Poe?”

“Yeah, I guess,” she shrugs. “I mean, I find him interesting. His stuff’s kinda creepy, but pretty good.”

“You like creepy?” he asks, with a laugh.

“Well, I like you,” she smarts back, intending to joke, yet it feels more real than that. Jared seems happy to hear it, so she rolls her eyes and goes back to reading. “Don’t be so smug. I’m sure lots of people like you.”

“Not really. I don’t know. Maybe. Not many are liked back, though.”

Danneel glances at him and he gives a quick, awkward smile then steals more chips and taps her book. “You know The Raven was originally published in a newspaper.” Danneel nods because that was covered in class just a few days ago. “And did you know he was only paid nine bucks for it?”

She makes an impressed face and skims the text some more. “That’s not too bad for back then.”

“Dude, I can’t eat at McDonald’s for less than ten now.”

“That’s because you’re a monster.” Again, it’s meant to poke fun, but even she hears how terse it was. She catches his gaze for a moment then gets back to the words on the page. “I’m sorry. Maybe I really am hiding.”

“From what?” he asks carefully, still sounding like he actually does care.

Danneel finds herself reaching for the locket around her neck and thumbing at the back of it before she realizes it. Maybe she should stop wearing it. Maybe she should lose it accidentally on purpose.

“Oh, your mom. I’m sorry.”

He sounds more like he thinks he’s intruding than actually sorry for the whole issue. It somehow makes her more comfortable. “How did you know?”

Jared points at the locket. “Jensen told me about the … he said you told him it was hers … and now, I just figured … We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Danneel shrugs and glances at her book again. She’s sure that she won’t have a problem in class, still seems like she’s giving up if she puts it away. “I don’t know. It’s just weird. Picking up and moving here kind of put it to the back of our minds, but it keeps popping up every so often.”

“What happened? If I can ask, if you don’t mind?”

She realizes she hasn’t talked to anyone about it since it happened. Everything has felt quiet and tense since Mom died, and there is plenty of noise surrounding her and Jared in this lunch room that it’s as though she can say whatever she wants and it’ll get lost in the melee of life happening around them. “She was sick, had been for a while. So, when she finally passed, it felt like a good thing, a weight being lifted or something. She wasn’t herself a lot near the end, just really out of it. I was kind of happy it was finally over.” After a moment, she frowns. “That sounds awful.”

“It makes sense,” Jared says kindly.

Danneel nods because she knows it does. No matter how many times she’s told herself that, she’s carried guilt for a while on that matter. She grows serious when she admits, “And then it sucks to have to pick up and move away from everyone I knew, and I have no one here.”

“What about your brother?”

She gestures to the other side of the cafeteria where Gino sits with half the baseball team and a dozen cheerleaders.

Jared frowns and nods. “Hmm, I see your point. But the one thing you forgot is you already said you like me. So that means, you have me, and once that happens, there’s no losing me.”

Danneel bites her lower lip to avoid smirking. “That doesn’t sound like good news.”

“It probably isn’t,” he admits, faking the seriousness. “But it’s very, very true.”

“I guess it could be worse.”

“It really could. Plus, there’s Jensen. He always makes me look better.”

She chuckles and shakes her head. “There are definitely worse things than that.”



“On the count of three!” Jensen yells from the water below.

Danneel feels her toes press over the curve of the rock a few stories above him and the wind comes through her hair, whipping it in her face. She pulls it back, twists it, and tugs the length over her opposite shoulder to keep it out of her eyes. Another few deep breaths and she puts one foot back, ready to jump. Or at least she thinks she is, but her body won’t move.

“One, two, three!” Jensen wades in the water and bites his lower lip before smiling. “C’mon! You can do it.”

“Damnit!” she yells back. The wind comes faster this time, chilling the bare skin not covered by her tank top and underwear. She can’t believe they’ve talked her into this.

“Danny Fanny, let’s go!” Jared taunts from behind her. He’s down to boxer briefs and looking incredibly tan and tempting. She’s certain that back in Louisiana, she’d have flirted her way into a wandering walk with him by now, but things are different here. With Jensen and Jared, everything is different, she feels different. Good, but definitely changed.

“I’ll catch you!” Jensen shouts, and she laughs because that is not likely from this height.

“You’re crazy!” She’s re-imagining the nose dive he took off the cliff, a perfect arc of his slim body falling into the water with barely any waves and she’s sure she’ll knock her head on something if she tries it herself. “I can’t do this!”

“We’ll go together,” Jared insists as he nears her. He tucks his large hand around hers, squeezes tight, and takes a few steps back, even when she doesn’t budge from her spot. “On the count of three.”

Danneel gears herself up, but also plans to stand her ground and let his hand slip from hers the second he passes.

“One, two-” and then he’s running forward, clenching her hand tight in his, and pulling them both forward with a great leap off the rock.

Her stomach bottoms out and the air turns frigid with the speed of their fall before she’s suddenly engulfed by ice cold water. Danneel feels herself being pulled down into the water by the gravity of her fall and when she opens her eyes, she sees Jared’s bright smile as he pushes himself back up to the surface. She’s floating for just a few moments, staring at Jared and Jensen’s legs treading water above her, and she swears time slows down to remind her that she just jumped off one of the highest cliffs in the area when for years upon years of her life, a dream about falling off a bridge made her afraid of deep waters.

It’s calm and quiet, the water in her ears muffling everything but her steady heartbeat, and suddenly she smiles and swims to the top. She breaks through the surface of the lake with that same smile in place, though she grimaces when she starts to drop in the water again, not doing a great job of keeping herself afloat.

“Whoa, you okay?” Jensen asks as he wraps his arms around her waist and helps keep her above water.

Danneel sets an arm around his neck and uses the other to push through the water and help keep them both floating. “It’s okay.”

“You sure?”

She easily smiles right at him, loving how his face softens with it, and there are tiny lines around his eyes as he smiles back at her. “Yeah, I’m great.”

“Girl, you are a rock star!” Jared cheers as he paddles closer.

Danneel laughs deliriously because it’s finally hitting her how high up those rocks are that she had been standing on. “Oh my God! I’ve never done that before!”

“You’re a total expert at it now.”

“Seriously, I hate swimming.”

“Well, not any more.” Jared points out that Jensen has moved a little away and is only barely helping her to stay above water.

“Why do you hate swimming?” Jensen asks, holding her forearm as she turns her hand to hold his back and keep steady.

Danneel watches Jared dip back into the water to wet his hair, stroking it back with his hands. She thinks about how it must be to move so easily through water without a care, and then she realizes that Jensen is only barely holding her fingers as she keeps herself up. She smiles at him when he squeezes her fingers and lets go. She figures she should let go a little bit herself.

“I had a dream once, a long time ago, that we had a car accident. The car went over the guardrail of a bridge and just smashed into the water.” She shoves her hand through the water to mimic the movement and waits for them to react.

Neither seems surprised; Jared even just shrugs it off. “Well, that was a long time ago.”

She knows that, feels stupider for hanging onto it for all these years.

Jared shrugs again. “That was then and this is now.”

“And you’re a championship cliff diver now,” Jensen says with a light laugh.

Danneel laughs deliriously, still unable to match up her fears with what she’s just done.

“Wanna go again?” Jared asks as he flicks water at her.

She glances up at the rocks and they seem even higher now, looming up above them and shadowing them in the water.

“We’re going again,” he declares as he tugs her arm so she follows.

At the top of the cliff, Jared kisses her forehead, takes a step back, then grabs her in a hug as he runs them off the edge. They’re both yelling on the way down and her screams become more excited the further they fall until the water drowns out their voices.



“Hi, Dad!” Danneel exclaims when she comes through the kitchen. She kisses the side of his head as she passes him sitting at the table; she’s more focused on grabbing sodas from the fridge and getting back outside where Jared and Jensen are teaching her how to skateboard. “I didn’t know you were home.”

He turns in his seat and smiles oddly. “Got in a little while ago. Where you going with those?”

“Oh,” she mumbles, stopping at the doorway with her arms full of pop cans and two bags of chips. “Uh, outside?”

“How hungry are you?”

Danneel hasn’t told her dad about her new friends, how she now equates them to the Three Amigos who are never out of sight of one another and are constantly running off on their own after school. Now that it’s summer, they’ve got more than enough hours to burn through together. She’s always back for dinner and gets her homework done, and Dad has stopped asking what she does on her own. When she didn’t have much of an answer because she didn’t have anything to do, he stopped bothering her about trying to find something. She kind of figured he was grateful for having one less thing to worry about.

She stumbled upon a friendship with Jared and Jensen and she feels like she doesn’t want anyone to know. They’ve gone cliff driving dozens of times, hung out near Parker’s Point to mock the jocks and cheerleaders who go there to toy with their virginity, and, surprisingly, do a lot of summer reading and prep for fall classes under the shade of willows at Wilson Park.

Jared is a math genius and helps her with algebra while Jensen masters bio; alternatively Danneel’s writing skills have helped Jensen on his composition papers and college admission essays, as well as get and Jared through some lengthy World War II novels.

Strangely, it’s come together perfectly, and she’s not willing to share that just yet.

“Danneel?” Dad asks when she’s stayed silent too long. “Honey?”

“Danny Fanny! Where you at?” Jared calls just before the front screen door slams shut and he jogs into the kitchen. “Oh, hey,” he mumbles once he spots Danneel’s dad.

She can see her dad is taking in all of Jared from head to toe, then his eyes bug out when he looks at Danneel’s legs, likely spotting the few scrapes she got when she took a couple spectacular falls off Jared’s board.

“It barely hurts,” she says.

“Barely?” Dad asks. “What are you doing out there?”

“We’re skateboarding,” she says like it’s a question, unsure how he’ll respond. Back in Louisiana, she was more about hitting the mall and the movies, less about sports, not to mention playing any.

“Who’s we?”

It’s strange feeling Jared tense beside her; he’s the easy going, hospitable one of the group. “Um, Jared and me and Jensen.” Belatedly she says, “This is Jared. Jared, this is my dad.”

Her dad seems to recover with a short shake of his head. He steps forward for Jared’s hand and shakes with an even smile. “Nice to meet you, Jared.”

“You, too, sir,” Jared says firmly.

“Sir?” Dad says with a gruff laugh. “I know I’m getting a little old, but okay.” After they share a light smile and the room loses some of its awkwardness, he tries to look past Danneel and Jared. “And who’s Jensen?”

The only thing to do is bring Dad outside and introduce him to Jensen as well, but Jensen is busy skidding his board across the curb before taking a bad landing. He’s dumped onto the next lawn and rolls over with a groan. Danneel and Jared run over to check on him with Dad following behind.

When Jensen turns over, he’s laughing and accepting Jared’s hand up to his feet. “That was fuckin’ sick.” Then his eyes go wide at Danneel’s dad standing beside her. “I mean …”

Danneel decides to just get it out of the way and rambles on with, “Jensen, this is my dad. Dad, Jensen. Everyone’s met everyone. Okay, cool.”

It’s only more awkward now and Dad actually has to suggest they get back to whatever they were doing, with a whole “Don’t mind me, pretend you still think I’m not home.”

He settles on the front stoop to watch Jensen jog alongside her as she skates down the sidewalk. Jensen holds her hand firmly and tells her when to strike her foot down on the ground and when to lean left or right to account for the small squiggle the walkway takes in front of each house.

Jensen talks her into turning down a driveway, only to skid back up it, and she sticks the turns with a nervous smile that goes big when Jensen gives her more moral support to keep going. Soon enough, he directs her down her own walk towards the street and lets go just before she hits the curb. She remembers to take a short jump off the board, bends her knees, and lands back on the board as it hits the street then pushes on her back foot to brake and spins around like she’s been doing this for ages.

Joy overtakes her and she’s cheering for herself even when Jared and Jensen are doing an awesome job themselves. Jensen grabs her around the waist and playfully tugs just before Jared runs into them, tackling them all to the ground in a warm, breathless heap.

She’s still laughing when they all roll off of her and it feels so good to feel as bright as the hot, Texas sun. It feels even better when she finds her dad smiling at them all, too.

Part Two