Even If It Goes Unnoticed [David/Kelly] [PG]
[title] Even If It Goes Unnoticed
[author] Lire Casander
[beta] musicboxgirl. Any remaining mistakes are my own fault.
[pairing] David Cook/Kelly Clarkson
[rating] PG
[word count] 1994
[summary] He never used a pick because he wanted to feel the pain of his skin being abused by the strings; occasionally he had applied enough pressure to make his fingers bleed.
[disclaimer] I don't own nor have ever met David Cook nor David Archuleta. Everything about them is completely fiction, and any similarity with reality is a mere coincidence.
[warnings] High School!AU. Some angst. Some fluff. Creative use of lyrics. Foul language.
[author's notes] Written for micheleeeex for her prompt of Cookson (: au! high school where David likes Kelly and she is oblivious over at my prompts post. Also written for ficforhope and for prompt #88 ~ locked from my 100_prompts prompt table.
The backpack was on the ground, near the table where Kelly was sitting. It would be easy to stroll past it and drop the note inside, since David could see the zipper open and welcoming. Yet, he couldn't force himself to stand up from his own seat. It was as if he was frozen to the spot. He spent the rest of the lunch break stealing glances at Kelly's table, where she was sitting blissfully unaware of the rest of the world as she read her book while biting an apple distractedly. David felt his heart racing wildly every time she opened her mouth and a line of white teeth shone between her lips.
David knew that Kelly was beautiful. Everyone kept repeating that to him; but it was as if she was unaware of that fact, or as if she didn't care. Everything about her exclaimed so out of your league, Cook, from the gleam in her eyes to the perfection of her bitten nails. But Kelly didn't really pay attention to her looks - she didn't dress fashionably and she was part of the glee club. Even if her beauty was undeniable, all those little details together - along with the fact that she wasn't a stick, she had some curves in the right places - guaranteed that she wouldn't be part of the cool kids' group. It wasn't as if David cared, really, but it hurt him to see how everyone scorned her when she was funny, intelligent and interesting - all the characteristics to become the new high school it girl.
"Dude," Andy said, flopping down beside him minutes away from the time where the ring would announce the beginning of the new period of classes. "You've got it bad!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," David mumbled, rubbing his neck uncomfortably.
"You're sitting here, with that look in your eyes and the note in your hands," Neal piped in as he sat down beside Andy. "Really, Dave, grow some and go over there and fucking tell her already!"
David sighed. He had been scolding himself for so long for being a coward - he had liked Kelly for the longest time, but he had never found the courage to walk up to her and tell her as much. Instead, he had always remained in his seat and never said a thing, far too embarrassed to move. Even if she wasn't one of the most popular girls in the school - David would never even try to ask Carrie Underwood out - he knew she was far too good for him. David was part of the glee club as well, and part of the drama club, so that meant he was even lower in the school status pyramid. Kelly was some kind of goddess meanwhile David was invisible. A part of him was aware that she would never look at him twice.
"You two know it's not a good idea," he muttered, stuffing the note in his backpack again. "I have class now."
"You always skip Spanish," Neal pointed out. "And it's your only class for the afternoon. So you've got absolutely nothing to use as excuse. Don't try to fool us, Dave."
"I'm not fooling you," David sighed again. "I can't be here anymore," he continued, signaling with his thumb over his shoulder toward where Kelly was as he gathered his things and started to walk out of the cafeteria. Andy and Neal looked in that direction, only to see Michael Johns, the leader of the glee club and first string quarterback for the football team, chatting Kelly up.
"David. David, wait!" Andy called out. But David was already stalking out of the cafeteria and straight to the music room. He locked himself in the room a second before Andy reached him. "David, please, open the door," Andy knocked on the door. "Please, David."
"I'll see you tomorrow, Andy," David replied, his forehead against the same door. "I'll be fine."
"You've locked yourself in a music room, Dave," he could hear Neal saying in the background. "I'd daresay you're so not fine."
"Whatever," David gave up, walking away from the door.
"Hey, guys, what's going on?" he heard. His heart stopped when he recognized the voice - it was Kelly. "Why are y'all crowding the door?"
"David's locked the door," Neal spilled. David wanted to kick him hard, in the shins. "Maybe you can convince him to open it?"
"David?" Kelly's voice sounded doubtful. "Dave, is it true?" He could see the knob turning, but the door didn't open. He sighed again but he didn't move. "David."
"The rehearsal doesn't start until three," he called out. "Can't I have a few moments of peace?"
"Okay," she said. "Guys, let him be. I'll talk to him when rehearsal time comes up."
He heard steps moving away. David took a seat and picked up a guitar; the touch wasn't exactly the same as his own guitar, engraved with his brothers' initials, but it was soft and the strings were tense enough. He tuned it a little before letting his fingertips caress the six strings. He never used a pick because he wanted to feel the pain of his skin being abused by the strings; occasionally he had applied enough pressure to make his fingers bleed.
"When writing your history," he sang softly, the music to his new song easy on his fingertips, "I will always be a footnote, a distant memory." His voice broke a little around the end of the last line, unable to keep on. He was feeling down for no reason at all, he told himself. There was no way he was jealous of Michael Johns, or afraid of losing what he never had. As much as he liked Kelly, he had never told her how he felt. He had been very obvious about it, or so he thought, so the only explanation to Kelly's lack of response to his attempts was that she wasn't interested. He let go of the guitar for a second; taking out the note from his backpack, he balled it up and threw it away. "Second place has never carried me home," he continued, off key and choosing not to sing half of his lines, his head low and his eyes closed.
"Interesting choice of lyrics," he heard. Startled, he opened his eyes again and looked up to find Kelly standing in the middle of the room, the note he had just thrown in her hand.
"How the fucking-"
"You always forget there's another door to this room, Dave," she said with a small smile.
"It's the teacher's entrance," he replied, still staring at her. "It's locked with a key."
"Mrs. Abdul gave me a copy some months ago," Kelly explained. "Remember when the main entrance got stuck and there was no way we could use it? Mrs. Abdul told me to make good use of my copy of the key then. I've decided to follow her advice now."
"You really don't understand the meaning of wanting to be left alone, do you?" David spoke before thinking it through. He would never understand why he was being so harsh with the only person who had taken any interest in finding him.
"Not when it's about you," she stepped closer to him. "You never want to be alone, Dave. You need people, you're a social animal. When you leave the cafeteria in a rush and lock yourself in the music room, I get worried."
"Sure," he snorted.
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do, David. You're my friend."
"If you say so," he muttered.
"What does that even mean?" she demanded. He gestured to the paper in her hand. "What? What does this have to do with anything?"
"Read it," he said, getting back to his humming and strumming. He couldn't bear the sight of Kelly stripping down his bare feelings, but she already had the note in her hand, so there was no real reason to tell her not to read it. After all, he'd written it for her.
The room was silent for a few moments, only filled with David's soft and erratic strumming. His heartbeat was racing out of his chest. When she cleared her throat, he looked up again, only to see tears in her perfect brown eyes.
"I had no idea, Dave," she whispered. "I had no idea. Who is she? And why doesn't she return your feelings?"
David gaped at her for a whole three seconds before launching into a hysteric fit of giggles. Maybe his friends had been right all along, and Kelly Clarkson was oblivious to his feelings.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Kelly," he said, sobering a little. "Kelly, it's you. It's always been you, no matter what I tried to get rid of this," he explained, a sudden rush of bravery raging through his veins. "I saw you flirting with Michael Johns, and I couldn't take it anymore. Now you can laugh at me if you want."
She remained silent for a long while, so long that David feared she would either bolt out of the room or faint, before she spoke again, very quietly. "Does this have any tune to it? It's evidently a song, so-"
"Do you-" he found his voice just a thread of sound, so he cleared his throat before trying to talk again. "Do you want me to sing it to you?"
"Please."
And since David had never been able to deny Kelly Clarkson anything, he breathed in deeply and started playing the song he had written for her.
"Two steps removed from everything I thought I knew, there's no remedy, I see your face in every single thing I do," he hummed, a small smile playing on his lips. "You change me, your laugh intoxicating, one touch and I'm negating everything around, take me and I'm yours, I only want you anymore, I kiss the ground."
But before he could get into the chorus he had written for Kelly, she surprised him by joining in the song. Her powerful voice, the voice that had gotten him to daydream of singing a duet with her, blew his mind away. "If you want to know the truth, you make or break my day, if you want to know the truth, I wouldn't have it any other way."
His fingers faltered on the strings, clashing the sounds. He gaped at her again, at her beautiful face blushing and her hands trembling, at her voice that was telling him what he had been unable to read in her eyes.
"I-I didn't know how to tell you," she uttered. The note in her hands was trembling like a leaf in the wind. "I thought you weren't-interested, or something, you never said a word, and then Michael told me he'd help me and-"
"Wait," David interrupted her, a hand up in the air. "Michael told you he'd help? How so?"
"He said that if you were into me, he'd-" she blushed even deeper. "He said he'd make you so jealous you'd act, one way or another. He said that then I'd know."
David snickered, shaking his head. He put the guitar aside and stood up. "I guess you know, now," he stated as he walked slowly to her. Kelly just nodded. "Good," he continued, reaching her. "Good, because I'm about to kiss you, Kelly, and it'd be a great mishap if you didn't know by now."
David didn't wait for her response, he just leaned in toward her - Kelly who was so tiny and precious, so breakable and yet so strong - and cradled her face in his hands, unable to stop himself from touching her.
When they kissed, maybe the Earth didn't open up under their feet, and maybe there weren't fireworks - maybe it was too clumsy and too eager on both their parts - but David knew it was right.
And that was inspiring.
[author] Lire Casander
[beta] musicboxgirl. Any remaining mistakes are my own fault.
[pairing] David Cook/Kelly Clarkson
[rating] PG
[word count] 1994
[summary] He never used a pick because he wanted to feel the pain of his skin being abused by the strings; occasionally he had applied enough pressure to make his fingers bleed.
[disclaimer] I don't own nor have ever met David Cook nor David Archuleta. Everything about them is completely fiction, and any similarity with reality is a mere coincidence.
[warnings] High School!AU. Some angst. Some fluff. Creative use of lyrics. Foul language.
[author's notes] Written for micheleeeex for her prompt of Cookson (: au! high school where David likes Kelly and she is oblivious over at my prompts post. Also written for ficforhope and for prompt #88 ~ locked from my 100_prompts prompt table.
The backpack was on the ground, near the table where Kelly was sitting. It would be easy to stroll past it and drop the note inside, since David could see the zipper open and welcoming. Yet, he couldn't force himself to stand up from his own seat. It was as if he was frozen to the spot. He spent the rest of the lunch break stealing glances at Kelly's table, where she was sitting blissfully unaware of the rest of the world as she read her book while biting an apple distractedly. David felt his heart racing wildly every time she opened her mouth and a line of white teeth shone between her lips.
David knew that Kelly was beautiful. Everyone kept repeating that to him; but it was as if she was unaware of that fact, or as if she didn't care. Everything about her exclaimed so out of your league, Cook, from the gleam in her eyes to the perfection of her bitten nails. But Kelly didn't really pay attention to her looks - she didn't dress fashionably and she was part of the glee club. Even if her beauty was undeniable, all those little details together - along with the fact that she wasn't a stick, she had some curves in the right places - guaranteed that she wouldn't be part of the cool kids' group. It wasn't as if David cared, really, but it hurt him to see how everyone scorned her when she was funny, intelligent and interesting - all the characteristics to become the new high school it girl.
"Dude," Andy said, flopping down beside him minutes away from the time where the ring would announce the beginning of the new period of classes. "You've got it bad!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," David mumbled, rubbing his neck uncomfortably.
"You're sitting here, with that look in your eyes and the note in your hands," Neal piped in as he sat down beside Andy. "Really, Dave, grow some and go over there and fucking tell her already!"
David sighed. He had been scolding himself for so long for being a coward - he had liked Kelly for the longest time, but he had never found the courage to walk up to her and tell her as much. Instead, he had always remained in his seat and never said a thing, far too embarrassed to move. Even if she wasn't one of the most popular girls in the school - David would never even try to ask Carrie Underwood out - he knew she was far too good for him. David was part of the glee club as well, and part of the drama club, so that meant he was even lower in the school status pyramid. Kelly was some kind of goddess meanwhile David was invisible. A part of him was aware that she would never look at him twice.
"You two know it's not a good idea," he muttered, stuffing the note in his backpack again. "I have class now."
"You always skip Spanish," Neal pointed out. "And it's your only class for the afternoon. So you've got absolutely nothing to use as excuse. Don't try to fool us, Dave."
"I'm not fooling you," David sighed again. "I can't be here anymore," he continued, signaling with his thumb over his shoulder toward where Kelly was as he gathered his things and started to walk out of the cafeteria. Andy and Neal looked in that direction, only to see Michael Johns, the leader of the glee club and first string quarterback for the football team, chatting Kelly up.
"David. David, wait!" Andy called out. But David was already stalking out of the cafeteria and straight to the music room. He locked himself in the room a second before Andy reached him. "David, please, open the door," Andy knocked on the door. "Please, David."
"I'll see you tomorrow, Andy," David replied, his forehead against the same door. "I'll be fine."
"You've locked yourself in a music room, Dave," he could hear Neal saying in the background. "I'd daresay you're so not fine."
"Whatever," David gave up, walking away from the door.
"Hey, guys, what's going on?" he heard. His heart stopped when he recognized the voice - it was Kelly. "Why are y'all crowding the door?"
"David's locked the door," Neal spilled. David wanted to kick him hard, in the shins. "Maybe you can convince him to open it?"
"David?" Kelly's voice sounded doubtful. "Dave, is it true?" He could see the knob turning, but the door didn't open. He sighed again but he didn't move. "David."
"The rehearsal doesn't start until three," he called out. "Can't I have a few moments of peace?"
"Okay," she said. "Guys, let him be. I'll talk to him when rehearsal time comes up."
He heard steps moving away. David took a seat and picked up a guitar; the touch wasn't exactly the same as his own guitar, engraved with his brothers' initials, but it was soft and the strings were tense enough. He tuned it a little before letting his fingertips caress the six strings. He never used a pick because he wanted to feel the pain of his skin being abused by the strings; occasionally he had applied enough pressure to make his fingers bleed.
"When writing your history," he sang softly, the music to his new song easy on his fingertips, "I will always be a footnote, a distant memory." His voice broke a little around the end of the last line, unable to keep on. He was feeling down for no reason at all, he told himself. There was no way he was jealous of Michael Johns, or afraid of losing what he never had. As much as he liked Kelly, he had never told her how he felt. He had been very obvious about it, or so he thought, so the only explanation to Kelly's lack of response to his attempts was that she wasn't interested. He let go of the guitar for a second; taking out the note from his backpack, he balled it up and threw it away. "Second place has never carried me home," he continued, off key and choosing not to sing half of his lines, his head low and his eyes closed.
"Interesting choice of lyrics," he heard. Startled, he opened his eyes again and looked up to find Kelly standing in the middle of the room, the note he had just thrown in her hand.
"How the fucking-"
"You always forget there's another door to this room, Dave," she said with a small smile.
"It's the teacher's entrance," he replied, still staring at her. "It's locked with a key."
"Mrs. Abdul gave me a copy some months ago," Kelly explained. "Remember when the main entrance got stuck and there was no way we could use it? Mrs. Abdul told me to make good use of my copy of the key then. I've decided to follow her advice now."
"You really don't understand the meaning of wanting to be left alone, do you?" David spoke before thinking it through. He would never understand why he was being so harsh with the only person who had taken any interest in finding him.
"Not when it's about you," she stepped closer to him. "You never want to be alone, Dave. You need people, you're a social animal. When you leave the cafeteria in a rush and lock yourself in the music room, I get worried."
"Sure," he snorted.
"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do, David. You're my friend."
"If you say so," he muttered.
"What does that even mean?" she demanded. He gestured to the paper in her hand. "What? What does this have to do with anything?"
"Read it," he said, getting back to his humming and strumming. He couldn't bear the sight of Kelly stripping down his bare feelings, but she already had the note in her hand, so there was no real reason to tell her not to read it. After all, he'd written it for her.
The room was silent for a few moments, only filled with David's soft and erratic strumming. His heartbeat was racing out of his chest. When she cleared her throat, he looked up again, only to see tears in her perfect brown eyes.
"I had no idea, Dave," she whispered. "I had no idea. Who is she? And why doesn't she return your feelings?"
David gaped at her for a whole three seconds before launching into a hysteric fit of giggles. Maybe his friends had been right all along, and Kelly Clarkson was oblivious to his feelings.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Kelly," he said, sobering a little. "Kelly, it's you. It's always been you, no matter what I tried to get rid of this," he explained, a sudden rush of bravery raging through his veins. "I saw you flirting with Michael Johns, and I couldn't take it anymore. Now you can laugh at me if you want."
She remained silent for a long while, so long that David feared she would either bolt out of the room or faint, before she spoke again, very quietly. "Does this have any tune to it? It's evidently a song, so-"
"Do you-" he found his voice just a thread of sound, so he cleared his throat before trying to talk again. "Do you want me to sing it to you?"
"Please."
And since David had never been able to deny Kelly Clarkson anything, he breathed in deeply and started playing the song he had written for her.
"Two steps removed from everything I thought I knew, there's no remedy, I see your face in every single thing I do," he hummed, a small smile playing on his lips. "You change me, your laugh intoxicating, one touch and I'm negating everything around, take me and I'm yours, I only want you anymore, I kiss the ground."
But before he could get into the chorus he had written for Kelly, she surprised him by joining in the song. Her powerful voice, the voice that had gotten him to daydream of singing a duet with her, blew his mind away. "If you want to know the truth, you make or break my day, if you want to know the truth, I wouldn't have it any other way."
His fingers faltered on the strings, clashing the sounds. He gaped at her again, at her beautiful face blushing and her hands trembling, at her voice that was telling him what he had been unable to read in her eyes.
"I-I didn't know how to tell you," she uttered. The note in her hands was trembling like a leaf in the wind. "I thought you weren't-interested, or something, you never said a word, and then Michael told me he'd help me and-"
"Wait," David interrupted her, a hand up in the air. "Michael told you he'd help? How so?"
"He said that if you were into me, he'd-" she blushed even deeper. "He said he'd make you so jealous you'd act, one way or another. He said that then I'd know."
David snickered, shaking his head. He put the guitar aside and stood up. "I guess you know, now," he stated as he walked slowly to her. Kelly just nodded. "Good," he continued, reaching her. "Good, because I'm about to kiss you, Kelly, and it'd be a great mishap if you didn't know by now."
David didn't wait for her response, he just leaned in toward her - Kelly who was so tiny and precious, so breakable and yet so strong - and cradled her face in his hands, unable to stop himself from touching her.
When they kissed, maybe the Earth didn't open up under their feet, and maybe there weren't fireworks - maybe it was too clumsy and too eager on both their parts - but David knew it was right.
And that was inspiring.