![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This is the first five stories in a series tentatively titled Stargate High School.
Stargate High School is a High School AU that combines characters from Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. Characters from Stargate SG1 appear as the teachers and staff of Stargate High School, and characters from Stargate Atlantis are the students (for characters that appear in both series I typically use the series that has their most substantial roles).
Each piece can be read as a stand along, although previous stories can make mention of things that have previously happened. If a piece relies heavily on an earlier one, I will provide a link to the piece in question. Stories are listed in order of occurrence.
Stepping Up - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Gen (John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Radek Zelenka) - Words: 1,384
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Class - P.E.
Summary: The first week at a new school seemed to set the tone for the rest of the year, and John Sheppard figured he was going to be in for a long year.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: Stepping Up
A shrill blast from the coach’s whistle sent groups of students scurrying in every direction, all eager to get to where they'd been assigned. John Sheppard had never seen, at any of the three high schools he'd attended before he wound up at Stargate High School, a group of kids move so quickly at a teachers command, but then again, he'd never had a teacher like Mr. Teal'c before either.
John's group had been assigned to run laps on the track that was situated above the main gym and he followed some kids up the stairs and took off at a slow jog, wanting to warm up his leg muscles. A third of the class had been sent into the weight training room, another third was in a side room, moving through some kind of martial arts stretches with Mr. Teal'c. Some kids from the girls PE class were down on the main gym floor, working through a series of stretches while the other gym teacher was setting up volleyball nets.
This was John's junior year in high school and he didn't know anyone. There had only been a couple of classes so far, it was only Thursday on the first week and he knew that getting to know even a single person could take a month or two. His father always told him that it was because John didn't talk to people, didn't put the effort out to get to know people, and that he wasn't setting a good example for his little brother, Dave. Dave was at the local middle school and John felt that he didn't really need to set a good example for Dave because Dave was already bringing kids home to hang out with and going out to the movies and stuff. Last year, when they'd been in Tampa, it had taken John until Thanksgiving break before another student addressed him by name.
John supposed it was his fault, that he'd given up trying to be friendly somewhere along the way and just stuck to math and dreaming of the sky. He was good at math in a way that John knew would help him become a pilot, even though he hadn't worked up the courage to tell his father that was what he wanted to be.
A brief yelp from in front of John pulled him out of his thoughts, his eyes flickering across the other students as he continued to jog, until he found the source. A tall kid with long hair hanging past his shoulders was bumping into two of the smaller kids in a way that was supposed to look accidental, but to John's well trained eye was definitely no accident. The two kids he was bumping into were moving slower than most of the rest, obviously in a conversation that kept getting interrupted each time the taller boy pushed them.
"Todd, cut it out," the heavier set boy said after he'd been knocked into the smaller, dark haired boy for the third time.
"Why don't you make me? Geek," the boy called Todd asked giving the same boy another push before dropping back out of range.
John increased the pace, moving from a steady jog into a full run. He was grateful that he'd kept up jogging during the summer; he often found that jogging through whatever city they happened to land in for a while was the best way to get around.
"We will tell Mr. Teal'c," the second boy said, running a hand anxiously through his wild hair.
"Sure you will," Todd responding, giving the same boy another shove, sending him to the ground.
The second boy bent down, trying to pull his friend to his feet. "You must stop this."
"Hey!" John said, his voice sharp in pitch but low enough in volume that he wouldn't catch the attention of anyone else. "Leave them alone." He came to a smooth stop directly in between Todd and the other two boys.
Todd looked John up and down, his gaze resting on John's wiry form without appearing at all impressed or deterred. John was clearly more of a threat than the other two were, but probably not by much. "What's it to you?" Todd finally settled on.
"You should leave them alone," John repeated. He had no connection to these kids and was probably signing his own death warrant if Todd had any other connections at all. But, then again, he was probably going to only be here for a few months before they moved. He could last that long and he wouldn't have been able to look at himself and feel right if he'd just jogged on by without a glance.
"You should mind your own business," Todd reached out and put one of his hands on John's shoulder, putting some force behind it.
John adjusted his stance so that he was leaning in a little bit to counter the weight and had his feet firmly under him so he wouldn't stumble. He hadn't been a new kid at school more times than he could count without learning how to fight and stand up for himself. "Back off."
Todd moved like he was getting ready to start something but stopped suddenly and moved away, jogging at a slow enough pace that he could look back and glare at John. John lifted up his chin and glared back; he wasn't afraid of some kid who had hair like he thought he was in some kind of metal band.
A whistle sounded with a short tweet and John turned to find the girls gym coach looking up at them and motioning for them to keep going. John sighed and took off again, glad that it wasn't Mr. Teal'c, but the lady looked plenty scary all by herself. Why was it always that teachers were paying attention when they were supposed to be doing something and not when someone like Todd was pushing people around?
"Hey, wait up," one of the boys called as they followed after John at a slower speed.
John slowed down enough to allow them to catch up.
"You didn't have to do that, we could have managed perfectly well by ourselves," the boy who had been shoved to the ground spoke.
"Rodney, he did us a favor," the second boy gave the first a small nudge with his elbow as they jogged along slowly. "Thank you," he said to John.
John felt his face heat slightly. Usually people didn't thank him when he interfered; typically they seemed to think he was as scary as the person who'd been picking on them. "No problem."
"Yeah, thanks," Rodney chimed in. "Not that we couldn't have handled it, because we could have, but thanks for stopping him."
John nodded a bit jerkily. He didn't see how they could have handled Todd by themselves when Todd had at least a foot on the pair of them and probably a group of friends lurking somewhere in the school.
"I haven't seen you before. You're new," Rodney continued, obviously not asking. "Radek was new last year, he's from the Czech Republic."
"Yeah, I'm new," John didn't elaborate.
"You are not going to tell us your name?" Radek asked, speeding up a little so that he was on one side of John.
When John looked to his other side he found Rodney there, puffing a little as he jogged. "I'm John."
"Great, that's great. Rodney and Radek," Rodney moved his hand as he introduced them. "Anyway, we were planning on booby trapping Todd's gym locker. We could do it ourselves just fine, but an extra look out wouldn't go amiss either. You in?"
John took another look at the two guys he was jogging with, a little surprised. Maybe he hadn't picked the wrong side after all; he could stand up to the bullies and the muscles without too much trouble, but staying ahead of pissed off geeks was a whole different matter. "I'm in."
Rodney clapped his hands together. "So here's the plan."
John smiled a little as they jogged, listening to Rodney explain about the variety of things he and Radek had pilfered from the science labs. It was Thursday and two people already knew his name. It was going to be a good year.
A Matter of Biology - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Evan Lorne/David Parrish, Alison Porter/Dusty Merha - Words: 1,829
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Project/Lab Partner
Summary: When Evan Lorne transfers to a different science class he is caught off guard by his assigned lab partner.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: A Matter of Biology
Evan Lorne settled into the seat that the teacher, Doctor Lee had directed him to, a little nervous. He'd spent the first three weeks of the year enrolled in Doctor Carter's physics class before he'd given up in despair and begged Mr. MacKenzie in the counselors office to let him trade science classes. They'd finally switched his art class to the landscape studio that he'd wanted to be in anyway, but that left him enrolled in the underclassmen biology class if he wanted to finish all of his science credits to graduate on time.
It shouldn't be so nerve wracking to suddenly be in a class filled with mostly freshman and a few sophomores, they were younger than him and shouldn't be anything for him to worry about, but he still didn't like going into a classroom where he didn't know anyone.
The bell rang and the stool next to him slide out and a lanky boy slide into it just as Doctor Lee called the class to attention.
Evan only paid half attention to the teacher as he glanced over to the kid sitting next to him, intrigued in ways that he couldn't quite put a name to. The boy was obviously younger than him, even though his limbs were longer and he was probably a bit taller than Evan when he was standing. Evan hadn't quite hit his final growth spurt yet, and was starting to wonder if he was going to at all if the freshmen were now taller than him.
The boy noticed Evan looking and the barest hint of a blush colored his fair skin as he ran a hand through his short, light brown hair.
Evan smiled in a way that he hoped indicated that he was friendly and glanced down up at the front of the classroom. Doctor Lee had finished drawing something on the white board and was giving instructions for them to collect slides that were in boxes on one side of the classroom and microscopes that were on the other.
Doctor Lee clapped his hands and the rest of the students got up and began moving around the classroom and talking. Before Evan could turn to the kid sitting next to him, Doctor Lee approached them with an enthusiastic smile.
"David, this is Evan Lorne. Evan's new to our class so I'm hoping you be willing to show him the ropes until he gets settled. I'm going to put you down as lab partners for the term, unless you have any objections," Doctor Lee said, marking down something on his clipboard while his lab coat swung freely.
"That's fine, Doctor Lee," David said, looking over to Evan. "I think we'll get along alright."
Doctor Lee beamed as he turned to Evan. "Excellent. David is one of the top students in the class, he attended the summer horticulture workshop, so if you have any questions I'm sure he'll be able to help."
"Thanks, Doctor Lee," Evan said as the teacher moved away, feeling the sides of his face warm at the look that David had given him just a moment earlier. This couldn't possibly be what he was thinking, or what he was feeling. He couldn't have a crush on someone he'd just met, on someone who was a freshman.
But, there was something about the way that David looked back at him that made Evan wonder if it wasn't just one-sided.
"We got a microscope for you," one of the girls who'd been sitting in front of them said, pushing it across the counter over to David with a huge grin.
"And a set of slides," a second girl said with a similar grin as she appraised Evan and David.
David smiled back and Evan blinked, wondering if flirt was just David's permanent default setting.
"Thanks, Doctor Lee was just introducing me and Evan," David turned to Evan and smiled even wider. "This is Alison Porter and Dusty Mehra."
"Hi," Evan said, running his fingers across the slides and feeling more than a little uncomfortable.
Alison and Dusty just grinned and turned back to their own counter, Dusty setting up the microscope while Alison sorted through the slides.
When Evan looked back over to David he found him looking back with a thoughtful expression.
"Check through the slides, make sure they're in order. Do you want to draw the cells or label the parts?" David asked as he started to adjust the microscope.
"I'll draw," Evan said quickly as he went through the slides. He could probably do the identification, but figured that he should stick with his strengths.
David reached over and leaned his head closer to Evan than was strictly necessary. "You don't have to worry about them, you know. They're so invested in each other that they don't even realize there is a hot new guy in the class," David whispered with a sly smile before moving back over to the microscope.
Evan was certain that he was bright red and ducked his head down as he riffled through his backpack for his drawing sketchbook and pencils. He wasn't sure what he was more surprised about; that David had noticed him react the possible threat that Alison and Dusty represented, that he was so blithe about Alison and Dusty’s apparent relationship, or that he'd just called Evan hot.
Well, it definitely wasn't one-sided then, if David had called him hot, but Evan wasn't so sure that he should be interested in a freshman even so. Evan took a peek at the girls sitting in front of them and discovered them side by side as they took turns at the microscope, their ankles intertwined as they worked. Dusty's longer hair fell forward and Alison casually reached up and tucked it behind Dusty's ear, both of them leaning in for a moment before turning back to their work.
Evan opened his sketchbook to a fresh page and sat back down on his stool, trying to ignore David's knowing gaze as Evan reached forward for the microscope. Their fingers brushed briefly and Evan thought that he was going to be spending the entire class with a permanent blush if he was going to be lab partners with David. Closing one eye, Evan leaned forward and peered in the microscope, pleased to find that he only had to make the tiniest of adjustments for the slide of come into sharp focus.
With a pencil in one hand, he began to sketch what he saw, looking up intermittently to check that he was still to scale. When he looked up for the final time, erasing an edge that had gone a little astray, he found David watching him again. Evan finished with the first slide and passed the sketchbook over to David to label.
"That's," David paused and cleared his throat. "That's amazing. You're really good."
"Thanks," Evan said, wiping his hands on his jeans before he picked up the next slide. He got it situated and looked up again to find David still staring at the drawing. "It's just a plant cell."
David looked up, both thoughtful and hesitant. "I almost don't want to write on this," he admitted.
"If you like it that much, I can draw you something else," Evan offered. "Whatever you want."
"Do you mean that?" David asked.
Evan nodded. It wasn't often anyone other than his mom and his teachers took any real interest in his art.
"Would you come out to the school greenhouse with me? It isn't much, but a lot of schools don't even have one. There's a plant I've been trying to get a good sketch of to do a cross-section, but I'm not very skilled at drawing," David asked, looking away.
"I'd be happy to," Evan said. He wasn't sure whether he was agreeing for the chance to get to practice drawing something new or just for the chance to spend some time with David.
"Get to work, boys," Doctor Lee said as he passed by their table, half glancing at their progress before hurrying off to help two kids at the front of the classroom who had crushed one of their slides.
Evan nudged David's knee with his own to catch David's attention. "You going to label that or do I need to get a frame?"
David smiled and pressed his knee back before reaching for his pencil and the sketchbook. "I'll label it. Why don't you start on the next one, we've only got twenty minutes until the bell rings."
Evan took a blank piece of paper from the sketchbook and began to work on the next slide, drawing as quickly and accurately as possible. They went through the rest of the slides without any trouble, Evan pushing each sketch to David and David adding in labels with his tidy script. David left his knee resting against Evan's and Evan decided that he was something he could easily get used to. They finished the slides with a few minutes to spare and started to tidy up their work station.
"Hey, I can take back your slides if you want," Alison offered, turning around to peer at their assignment. "Wow." She began flipping through the drawings.
"Those are really good," Dusty said, peering over Alison's shoulder
Evan smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Thanks."
David grabbed the microscope and took off before Evan had a chance to volunteer, Alison at his side with the boxes of slides.
"So, David told you we wouldn't bite?" Dusty asked, her eyes dancing with amusement.
Evan ducked his head and shrugged. "I never thought you'd bite, exactly."
Dusty laughed, settling back on her stool. "David's a good guy. Hurt him and me and my friends will make your life unimaginably hellish. Understand?" she asked, in the same friendly tone.
Evan stared, finding Dusty's entirely serious gaze looked onto his. "Yes, I understand," he said, a little disturbed, but glad that David had someone looking out for him.
"Good," Dusty grinned again as Alison and David came back, both of them laughing at some private joke.
The bell rang and David gathered up their papers to turn in. "I'll see you tomorrow? Maybe we can work out a time to go to the greenhouse next week?"
Evan nodded. "Sounds great." He gathered up his backpack and followed the rest of the class out into the hallway, feeling more than a little strange.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Alison and Dusty meet up with two other girls, who spoke for a minute before all turning to look at him in unison before returning to their conversation. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to find that Dusty's girl group all looked like they could probably kick his ass if they wanted.
Resolving to never give David a reason to complain about him, Evan walked down the hallway towards the lunch room. Switching from physics to biology had been the best decision he'd made all year.
Sung from the Heart - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Gen (Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran) - Words: 2,209
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Clubs and Extracurricular
Summary: Picking the play, Daniel Jackson discovered, wasn't even half of the battle.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: Sung from the Heart
Daniel Jackson, teacher of all three of the foreign languages that were taught at Stargate High School, was less than enthused to be sacrificing his time after school to help run the school musical. But with the premature death of his ‘Language is Fun’ club to which no one had shown up despite offers of extra credit and Richard Woolsey, the choir director, out with two broken legs after a car accident, Daniel didn’t feel he had a much of a choice when George Hammond handed him a stack of papers and told him to meet his co-director in the auditorium on Thursday after classes let out.
When he opened the doors and walked down the aisle he found himself face to face with Vala Mal Doran, the art teacher and director of the drama club. “You’re my co-director?” he asked.
Vala grinned, her eyes bright and wide. “No.”
“No?” Daniel frowned, his brow wrinkling.
“No,” Vala agreed, sitting back down at the folding table that had been set up behind the first section of chairs. “You are my co-director.”
Daniel sighed with as much aggravation as he could put into it and placed his briefcase on the table. “I suppose you have some idea of what play you want to do?”
Vala grinned again as Daniel sat down. “As a matter of fact, I have several ideas.”
“Let’s hear them and get this over with,” Daniel took off his glasses and closed his eyes, wondering if the pounding in his temples was a sign that he was going to have a stroke or an aneurysm.
“I’ve compiled a list, so I’ll read it off to you and you can tell me what you think,” Vala paused but when it became clear that Daniel wasn’t going to respond she dug her crumpled list out of her oversized bag and smoothed it out on the table. “Rent.”
Daniel sighed. “We’re not putting on Rent. Hammond would have a coronary.”
“La Cage aux Folles,” Vala suggested.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” Daniel said without hesitation.
Vala just continued to the next item on her list. “Chicago!”
“We’re not putting on a show about people killing their lovers and getting away with it,” Daniel tipped his head back before opening his eyes. “Look, none of your suggestions are going to work, so why don’t you just get rid of your list and we’ll come up with something a little more suitable. What about Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”
“What about it?” Vala asked.
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Why don’t we put it on for the school play? There are a lot of parts and the rolls are fairly evenly balanced.”
Vala sighed. “But that’s so rural and boring.”
“Alright, Singing in the Rain, that’s not rural,” Daniel frowned, trying to remember what plays they had done in his high school, not that he’d paid them any attention at the time.
“It’s still boring and the kids can’t relate to that. And the lyrics are rather uninspired,” Vala commented, resting one of her fingers on her lips while she pulled her feet up onto her chair.
Daniel grimaced. “Fine. How about The Scarlet Pimpernel?”
Vala stared. “You seriously think the kids could pull off The Scarlet Pimpernel?”
“Probably about as well as they could “Chicago,” Daniel pointed out.
“Saturday Night Fever,” Vala said with a nod.
Daniel started to protest but paused as an idea slowly formed. “I’ve got it. It’s poppy, it’s flashy, and it’s not too flamboyant for high school kids.”
“I’m listening.” Vala’s raised eyebrows conveyed her disbelief.
“Grease.” Daniel waited for the inevitable objections.
Vala started to nod. “I like it. It’s not too drab, the kids will like it, and the music is fun.”
Daniel grabbed the papers from his briefcase and started writing down what they would need as far as a production and ordering scripts. “When do we want to hold auditions?” he asked absently as he wrote.
“Two weeks?” Vala suggested. “That will be enough time for us to receive play packets and for the kids to put together audition pieces?”
Daniel nodded. “I’ll reserve the auditorium.” For the first time since Hammond had sprung this one him he felt that it might not turn out so bad.
*****
Daniel sat in his chair, rubbing firmly where his head was throbbing. Whoever had decided that high school students should put on a musical production had obviously not been thinking clearly and deserved whatever torture that he could devise. Personally, he was thinking having a recording of auditions that they were forced to listen to on loop for twenty four hours a day for at least a week, maybe longer, would be a suitable punishment.
Vala was also slumped in her seat, her pigtails drooping as she looked at the signup sheet that was still four pages long.
“Next!” Daniel shouted, half-hoping the next student would hurry up so that it would be over with faster and half-hoping they would take their time just so he could have a moments reprieve.
Rodney McKay, a student that Daniel recognized from his junior French class, strode out onto the stage, his head held high.
“Alright, Rodney. What will you be singing for us?” Daniel asked, making a note on his clipboard that at least McKay didn’t have stage fright like Miko Kusanagi, who had ran off the stage crying before she could even start her song.
Rodney cleared his throat. “First of all, I would like to make a formal protest over the selection of this years school musical. Grease is a childish production with no substance whatsoever and the music is pure pop without any depth or meaning. If we’re going to pursue a worthwhile production-“
“Either sing your song, Rodney, or get off the stage,” Daniel called, already at the limits of his endurance.
Rodney sighed. “I am Rodney McKay and I will be singing the titular song from Were The World Mine.”
Vala nodded her approval while Daniel jotted down notes. Surprisingly, Rodney was not a bad singer and Daniel grudgingly wrote Rodney down on the very short list of people that would probably make the cast list.
“Thank you, Rodney. That was lovely,” Vala said after Rodney had finished.
Rodney gave a short bow and left the stage.
“See, that wasn’t so bad.” Vala looked a little perkier.
Daniel just nodded mutely as the next student got up on stage.
Three earsplitting auditions later, two girls tumbled up onto the stage, whispering in each others ears and giggling the entire while.
“Can we help you?” Vala asked, sounding a little bemused.
“We’re here to audition and we’re singing a duet. I’m Anne Teldy,” one of the girls said. “And this is Alicia Vega. We signed up together.”
Daniel scanned through the list and sure enough found their names squeezed into a box. “What are you singing?”
“For Good, from Wicked,” Alicia said, grinning at Anne.
Vala smiled enthusiastically and the girls started to sing.
Daniel was once again surprised at the fairly descent rendition of the song, although they couldn’t quite manage the range that Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel had. He jotted their names down on the supporting cast list, grateful that there were some students in the school who could manage to carry a tune.
“Thank you,” Daniel called as the girls dashed away, still giggling.
A few auditions later, a young freshmen stumbled up on stage, nervously clutching his audition sheet. Daniel braced himself for another song that he could barely hear because the student was so quiet.
“Name, please?” Vala called after exchanging a meaningful glance with Daniel. Sitting through the process of auditions had seemed to prove a bonding experience for the pair of them, now united in suffering.
“Chuck Notchet,” the boy said softly.
“And what will you be singing?” Daniel asked, hoping that it wasn’t If I Were A Rich Man, yet again.
“Mister Cellophane,” Chuck said, just as softly.
Finding the song oddly fitting, and one he hadn’t heard yet that day, Daniel nodded in approval and Chuck began to sing.
“I told you that Chicago would have been okay,” Vala leaned in and whispered.
Daniel rolled his eyes. “This is the most non-objectional song in the entire show,” he whispered back.
Chuck finished singing and dashed off the stage before Daniel had a chance to say anything. Even though Chuck had started quiet and more than a little tremulous, the performance had improved over the course of the song and he had a good voice. Daniel thought he could probably manage a minor role, after a lot of preparation.
“Are we almost there yet?” Vala asked five auditions later, from where she was laying face down on the table, her thick hair spread out messily.
Daniel checked the list. “One more today, then we have a full docket tomorrow.”
“Yay,” Vala mumbled.
Daniel recognized the student who cheerfully bounded up the steps to the stage, her hair swinging behind her. It was Katie Brown, from his sophomore Latin class.
“What’s your song, Katie?” Daniel asked, at least a little hopeful that this could turn out somewhat well.
Katie smiled pleasantly. “I’ll be singing Somewhere That’s Green from Little Shop of Horrors.”
Daniel nodded, not really surprised. He knew that Katie spent a lot of her time out in the school greenhouse and was often approaching him with plant names to ask about their root words in Greek and Latin.
When Katie had finished, her name on Daniel’s cast list, Daniel flipped shut his briefcase and glanced over to where Vala was sprawled in her chair. “Go get some sleep. Just one more day of auditions and then we can post the cast list and start rehearsal. All uphill from there,” he pointed out.
Vala nodded weakly. “I need some coffee.”
Daniel nodded in fervent agreement.
*****
The first audition of the day set the tone, and Daniel smiled a little as Laura Cadman danced and sung her way through Good Morning Baltimore. The dancing was more impressive than her vocals but it was more than enough to earn her a spot on the cast sheet.
A few auditions later, a sophomore got up on stage with a big, goofy grin on his face.
“What will you be singing, Carson?” Vala asked, recognizing the boy from her sculpting class.
“Any Dream Will Do,” Carson said with a nervous smile.
He sung the song well enough, though not quite with the right feeling behind it, that Daniel marked him in the cast column without a second thought.
The following six auditions left Daniel tugging at his hair, wondering what exactly he could do to pay Hammond back for giving him this pointless assignment. Next year he was going to teach separate sections of Greek and Latin, even if he only had four students in each class, he decided. After sitting through this, he deserved to be able to teach whatever he wanted.
“My name is Teyla and I will be singing the title song from Whistle Down the Wind,” the small girl said, standing at ease in the center of the stage.
“Go ahead, Teyla,” Daniel said.
Daniel was more than a little taken aback by the power of the voice coming from such a small frame, impressed at the amount of vocal control Teyla had for someone still in high school.
“Very nice,” Vala said when Teyla had finished.
Teyla inclined her head with a serene smile. “Thank you for your time.”
Daniel and Vala exchanged glances as Teyla left the room.
“I think we have our Sandy,” Vala said as Daniel nodded in agreement.
The rest of the afternoon crawled by slowly, Vala entertaining herself with spinning her pen on the table as student after student sung with varying degrees of success.
Daniel was just taking more headache management medication when a lanky junior strolled in and walked up onto the stage.
“Peter Grodin. I’ll be singing Being Alive from Company,” he said, smiling brightly.
Daniel checked his list and was incredibly grateful when he saw that Peter’s name was the last one on the list. He was just leaning back in his chair when Peter started, but froze, minutely aware of Vala sitting up suddenly.
Being Alive was a song that you had to mean in order for it to work at all, it was a strong melody, but it was Sondheim, which came with the prerequisite of some level of maturity both vocally and emotionally. For the first time since the audition process started, Daniel allowed himself to just listen to the music and let it overwhelm him; the beauty and the pain and the joy of it all.
Peter finished and Daniel started clapping, somehow not surprised to find Vala clapping along side him.
“That was beautiful,” Daniel said, meaning it.
Peter ducked his head a little bit. “Thank you.” He scampered off the stage, leaving Daniel and Vala alone.
“I think this is going to turn out okay,” Daniel said, looking down at the cast list that he’d cobbled together, his mind still preoccupied in song.
Vala nodded. “It will be lovely.”
And Daniel found that he couldn’t disagree.
To the Rescue - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Gen (John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Jack O'Neill) - Words: 2,045
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Suspension/Expulsion
Summary: When John gets in trouble it's for the same reason almost every time.
Content Notes: minor violence. PG-13.
On AO3: To the Rescue
It was the start of the sixth week of school and John was pretty well settled in, Stargate High somehow more comfortable and fitting than any of the other schools he'd been in before. He still didn't really have friends, but he had some acquaintances, and that was better start than usual.
Rodney and Radek from his morning gym class had latched onto him, all united against Todd. John had been right; interfering with the situation between Todd and Rodney had put them all on the acceptable target list, particularly for members of Todd's gang. But, they were all pretty manageable and it was worth it to be able to spend the morning chatting with Rodney and Radek. Rodney was also in his math class and was continually surprised when John said something that proved just how much advanced math he understood.
As good as Stargate High was, with all the classes being tolerable, and the teachers nice if more than a little eccentric, a problem was slowly rising to the surface.
No, scratch that, John thought as he slumped on the bench next to the vice principal's office, holding an ice pack to his eye and trying to ignore the throbbing in his side and his wrist. The problem had risen to the surface, and like an iceberg, was much bigger than he'd originally imagined.
Acastus Kolya was also in John and Rodney's math class and their friendship seemed to bother Kolya more than John could explain. At first, John had assumed that Kolya was a member of Todd's buddies, who had taken to lurking by corners when they saw him coming so they could shove John or try to trip him. Rodney and Radek had showed him some of the less frequented paths in the school and they'd continued to place booby traps in lockers and other petty stuff that at least made the playing field a little more even.
But when John saw Todd having a go at Kolya, holding him against the wall while speaking softly enough that John couldn't figure out what he was saying, John interfered. He pulled Todd off with enough force that Todd stumbled, nearly dropping to the ground before he managed to regain his balance. Todd took one look at John and Kolya and started laughing before disappearing off into the mass of students that were pouring through the hallway. John sighed a bit, at least one thing was the same as all the other schools he'd been to; teachers were never around when they were needed.
"You alright," John had asked Kolya.
Kolya had been rubbing where Todd had been gripping him, but stopped when he realized John was watching him. "You shouldn't have done that."
John had a weird flashback to rescuing Rodney in gym class and just wondered if this was the way that he made friends. "I couldn't just let him," he tried to explain.
Kolya glared. "You shouldn't have done that," he repeated with more feeling, giving John a hard shove against the wall before taking off.
And now two weeks later, John had come out on the wrong side of a fight with Kolya and was probably going to be suspended for his trouble.
"Hey," Rodney whispered, sneaking up to John. "Are you okay?"
John adjusted his ice pack and blinked at Rodney. "You're cutting class and you come near the vice principal's office?"
Rodney shrugged uncomfortably and sat down next to John. "I needed to see if you were okay. I stole one of the bathroom passes from the computer lab." He held up the pass hopefully.
John started to roll his eyes but stopped abruptly when he realized exactly how much that hurt. "I don't think having a bathroom pass is going to work if the vice principal finds you here."
"I don't care," Rodney said, glancing nervously at the door to the office. "I had to know. Are you going to be expelled?"
"No," John said, feeling a little more ill than he had just moments earlier. He didn't think he was going to be expelled, usually a few days suspension was pretty standard for being in a fight, but with all the no-tolerance policies that were being bandied about, it was a horrifying possibility. He didn't want to imagine leaving Stargate High and starting over somewhere else, not when he had people who he knew and who knew him.
"Good," Rodney said. "Look, you don't have to keep putting yourself in between me and Kolya, I can handle him just fine."
John tried to raise his eyebrow to indicate what he thought of that, but gave that up pretty quickly. "Rodney, he could have seriously hurt you. Are you okay?" He set down his ice pack so that he could get a better look at Rodney, squinting though his already swollen eye.
Rodney rolled up his sleeve to show where Kolya had been gripping him, digging into the skin with his fingernails. The marks weren't bloody but Rodney would have one hell of a bruise. "Not bad, there's been worse."
"What is this thing with Kolya, anyway?" John finally asked.
When he'd seen Kolya walking towards the out of the way bathrooms instead of to their math class, John had followed on instinct. The bathrooms in the back of the school were popular with Rodney, Radek and the rest of the people who were on the run from Todd and his groupies. But by virtue of being mostly safe because they were out of the way, there was also less likely to be someone around to help should someone else wander back there.
Less than a minute later he found Kolya gripping onto Rodney's arm and forcing him down to the ground. Kolya had looked up and watched John as Rodney whimpered, helplessly caught in Kolya's grasp. Without thinking about it, John had leapt at Kolya, pinning him to the ground and getting at least one good punch in before Kolya had rolled him and started fighting back. John was a little ashamed that Kolya had probably came out of this with fewer injuries, after Mr. Teal'c and Mr. Felger, their math teacher, had come and pulled them apart.
"Kolya and I used to be, not friends. But we were both getting bothered by Todd and we teamed up a little. I guess, when he saw us hanging out together he thought that," Rodney shrugged. "I don't know what he thought. But he doesn't seem like he's thinking all that clearly right now. He's always been a little bit unstable, but he's never attacked me like that before."
John nodded shortly. "That's because you were just bait, he was trying to get to me." The pieces were slowly falling together for him and Kolya's reaction when John had stepped in suddenly made sense. Not a lot of sense, because Kolya should have just joined up with them against Todd, but still a little bit of sense. If someone had moved in and took away John's friend, John would've reacted badly too.
"I hope you don't get expelled," Rodney said again, looking anxious.
"I won't. Go back to class before they find you out here and you get in trouble too," John said.
Rodney looked torn, obviously wanting to be out of the range of fire but wanting to stay with John too. "Are you sure I shouldn't stay and tell them that Kolya attacked me first?"
John shook his head. "It will only make things worse and get you involved. I'll be back in a few days. You and Radek try to stay low and out of sight, but don't go off anywhere alone either." He thought for a moment before adding, "if you run into serious trouble, talk to Ronon and Teyla, they'd be willing to help."
Ronon and Teyla were both in the martial arts training club that Mr. Teal'c held after school twice a week that John had started attending. Ordinarily he wouldn't suggest that Rodney go to anyone else for protection, not wanting to get another person involved that didn't have to be, but Ronon and Teyla were already involved and they could both kick John's ass without breaking a sweat.
Rodney nodded, looking a lot like a puppy that was being left at home while everyone else was leaving. "See you soon," he said before hurrying off, clutching the bathroom pass in what looked like a death grip.
John sighed and held the icepack back to his eye, trying not to feel terribly sorry for himself and trying not to think about anything in particular.
*****
"Care to tell me what happened, John?" the vice principal asked, leaning back in his chair as John sat down across from him.
"I got in a fight, sir," John said. He fought to keep his tone as not belligerent as possible, but it was hard to do that knowing he was about to get in serious trouble for protecting a friend.
The vice principal leaned forward and picked up a pen from the desk, but instead of writing anything down he just started spinning it between his fingers. "Let's skip the sir, and you can call me Jack."
John looked down at the ugly patterned carpet and tried to keep his mind blank. It was another one of those 'I want to be your friend' administrators who acted all nice and casual on the outside but were really no better than the hard nosed ones. At least those ones told it to you straight.
"I've scanned through your file, and I see you've been expelled before. Is there anything you want to say about that?" Jack asked.
John closed his eyes for a minute, the word 'expelled' making his heart leap. "I was helping a friend," he said. It was the truth, just like here he'd been trying to stop someone from getting hurt. Even though he hadn't succeeded that time and the whole fiasco had turned out worse that he could have possibly predicted, he still would do the exact same thing all over again. Only, now if he got expelled he would be leaving Rodney and Radek to fend for themselves after making the entire situation worse.
Jack stopped playing with his pen and leaned forward. "I understand that."
John met Jack's eyes for a brief moment and was surprised to find genuine compassion and understanding.
"So why don't you tell me what happened today?" Jack asked again.
John sighed. Telling the truth about these things so rarely did any good, but there wasn't much to say in any case. "Kolya jumped one of my friends in the bathroom. I grabbed him and punched him. Kolya punched me back."
"Who was your friend that Kolya attacked?" Jack asked.
John shook his head. He'd told Rodney that he wasn't going to drag him into this, and he wouldn't.
Jack sighed but started filling out a form. "Yeah, I wouldn't either. I'm suspending you for three days, I suggest you use that time to concentrate on keeping up on your classwork."
"Thank you, sir," John said. Relief flooded through him, as much as he'd rather not be suspended, it was a billion times better than getting expelled.
Jack looked at John for a long moment before pushing the phone on his desk over to John. "Go ahead and call your parents and let them know they need to come and check you out of school. We'll let them know that you should probably get checked out with your family doc as well. I know Fraiser looked you over, but a school nurse can only do so much."
John picked up the phone and started dialing his father's cell phone, imagining that gratitude that John hadn't been expelled wasn't going to be high on the list of things that his father was going to be feeling.
When John hung up the phone, his father's terse "I'll be there in twenty minutes", still ringing in John's ears, John found Jack looking at him with an almost fond expression.
"I know things don't look too good right now," Jack said. "But you'll figure it out."
John nodded mutely; Jack was right, things didn't look so good right now.
The Right Thing to Do - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Rodney McKay/Katie Brown, Ronon Dex/Jennifer Keller - Words: 1,897
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Break Up
Summary: The 'thing' Rodney had with Katie Brown had gone on for a long time, but it was past time for it to end.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: The Right Thing to Do
Rodney sighed as he slipped into the Home Ec class room, relieved to be out of danger for at least the next forty-five minutes. None of Todd’s cronies were in this class, probably couldn’t stand to be caught taking something as ‘girly’ as Home Ec. The only reason Rodney was in the class at all was because he needed to fulfill a ‘Life Skills’ graduation requirement. Well, and because when they were signing up for classes last spring Katie Brown, his kinda-girlfriend, had asked him to take the class with her. And because it would probably be much less painful than sitting through an accounting, basic mechanics and repair, or a child rearing class. He refused to take accounting or basic mechanics because it would be such a waste of his time that it was painful to even think about; child rearing was painful to think about for entirely different reasons.
"Rodney, are you alright?" Katie asked, standing next to him and looking a little worried.
Blinking, Rodney realized that he'd been standing still and staring at the doorway, waiting for something bad to happen. He'd walked Radek to his next class after gym, an English class that was only a hallway away, and then dashed down to his own class. Rodney hadn't realized how much they'd come to rely on John over the past month, and now that John was still suspended for another day Rodney found that he couldn't stop thinking about him.
"I'm fine," Rodney mumbled and let Katie guide him over to a table, where Jennifer Keller and her boyfriend Ronon were already sitting. Since John had left, Ronon Dex, a sophomore who had transferred in at the beginning of the year, had started hanging out near Rodney and Radek and following them around. When Rodney had turned and confronted him, Ronon had just said that Sheppard had told him to look out for them while he was gone.
Of course, it had taken Rodney a minute to connect 'Sheppard' to John, but after that Rodney and Radek were grateful for the escort. Todd's little gang had taken the opportunity in John's absence to step up their little terror campaign, and Rodney was starting to notice that Todd's group wasn't so little anymore. But, since John had been gone, Rodney and Radek had rarely walked through the halls by himself, Teyla or Ronon almost always at their sides like bodyguards. It was kind of nice, but Rodney still wanted John back in school.
"Heads up," Cam called.
All the students that had been milling around the classroom dropped down into chairs or leaned up against the walls so that Cam had the floor. On the first day, Cam had come into the classroom, wrote 'Mr. Mitchell' in big letters on the board, crossed it out and said: "Mr. Mitchell is my father. You can all call me Cam." Rodney found that the Home Ec teacher being the track coach and a math teacher as well did a lot for making the class more tolerable.
"You have two more class periods to finish your hot pads. By now you should have finished up on the sewing machines and be working on closing the edges by hand. Remember to try and keep the stitches even in size and in spacing. If it helps, pretend that you are sewing someone together," Cam said, looking over his students.
"That totally doesn't help," Amelia said from the counter where she was perched.
Several students laughed and Cam just smiled. "Let's get to it," he said, flipping the radio on.
Another reason that Home Ec was more popular than the other Life Skills classes was because Cam was a pretty laid back teacher. As long as everyone did their work and the noise level was kept to a dull roar, he didn't care where they sat or who they worked with.
"I'll go get our projects," Katie said, getting up from her seat. Jennifer followed her, leaving Ronon and Rodney behind at the table.
Rodney smiled at Ronon a little uncertainly. He hadn't even realized Ronon was in Home Ec with him until he had followed him in the classroom the day after John had been suspended and sat down across from Rodney, Jennifer joining them without any indication that she thought the situation was at all bizarre.
Jennifer and Katie showed back up with all of their oven mitts and they sat down and got to work without too much distraction.
Rodney had found that he was actually pretty good with the sewing machines, which were just like operating almost any other piece of particularly finicky equipment. Sewing by hand though, he was discovering, was another matter. He was good, really good, at working with tiny bits of wire and soldering and fixing just about anything electronic, but controlling a needle and thread as he wove it in and out of a simple piece of fabric seemed to be a different skill set. His stitches varied in size and he'd had to go back in a few places where he hadn't closed a seam properly. His hot pad looked more like a creation of Dr. Frankenstein than anything that he'd seen in the kitchen at his house.
Both Katie's and Jennifer's hot pads were quite impressive, as far as hot pads go; Katie's in a simple floral pattern, her stitches mostly tidy, and Jennifer's in a tasteful aqua, her stitches meticulously neat. Ronon's hot pad, to Rodney's unending surprise, was actually a whole lot better than Rodney's own. The stitching wasn't as clean as the girls, but it had a functionally rugged look to it. He had no idea how Ronon managed to work his huge hands with such dexterity.
Rodney forced his attention back to his hot pad, working on closing up the third side. He'd been avoiding Katie for a while now, only talking to her in Home Ec, and they hadn't seen each other more than two or three times over the summer. The double date fiasco with Carson and Laura that had started his relationship with Katie seemed to be a good indicator of how the entire relationship had gone. Rodney never really knew what to say, or how to act, and he was sure that he wasn't doing things that Katie wanted him to. And, the real kicker of the situation was that Rodney liked Katie, he really did.
Katie looked up from her hot pad and smiled at Rodney when she saw him watching her.
He smiled back, panicking a little on the inside. A little over an hour after Kolya had attacked him and lured John to getting hurt and in trouble, basically as soon as Rodney knew that John was just suspended and not expelled, Rodney had realized that he had to do something, something he probably should have done a long time ago. Even though he liked Katie, really really liked her, he had been doing her a disservice by staying in this pseudo relationship with her. He didn't think they would ever be able to move past the awkwardness, and now that Kolya had proved that he was willing to use friendships and relationships to his own ends, it just wasn't safe for him to keep seeing her.
Being concerned about Katie's safety from Kolya and Todd felt like a lame excuse, and if Rodney was being honest with himself, it was. But, what it came down to was that Rodney hadn't felt that their tentative relationship was working and it was past time to end it. He deserved that honesty, and so did Katie.
Having John suddenly in the picture was also a bit of a catalyst for finally ending things with Katie. Rodney admitted to being bisexual, although usually only to himself, and couldn't quite tell whether he found John attractive or if it was just a small touch of hero worship. Which wasn't entirely true; John was attractive, there was no denying it. But Rodney hadn't seen any indication that John was interested in him, other than John leaping in and getting his ass kicked in Rodney's place. Rodney gingerly touched where his arm now had a livid bruise, thanks to Kolya. But, Rodney knew that John would step in for just about anyone, that it was nothing personal. It's just how John was.
When Rodney looked up again, finding that having his mind occupied had led to a side of his hot pad with even messier stitching than before, he discovered that class was about over and everyone was starting to clean up. He slipped his needle back in the edge of the fabric and reached over for Katie's hot pad. She smiled again and Rodney felt even more guilty. It had to be today, he couldn't put it off another weekend.
Rodney put their hot pads in the storage area where they kept works in progress and walked back over to the table as the bell rang.
"Katie, wait. Can I talk to you, outside class? Just for a moment?" Rodney asked, rubbing his sweating hands against his pants.
Katie smiled again and nodded.
Feeling like a complete jerk, Rodney shouldered his backpack and walked out of the classroom with Katie at his side. When they reached a little alcove of lockers, away from the main traffic, Rodney sighed and mentally rehearsed one more time what he was going to say. When he looked up, he found that Ronon had followed them and was watching from the corner. Rodney gave him a look that was supposed to mean 'go away', but Ronon merely leaned against the wall and turned so that he wasn't watching them.
"Katie," Rodney started, taking a deep breath.
Katie looked a little worried and leaned in. "What's wrong, Rodney?"
Rodney swallowed, discovering that all the rational explanations that he'd been forming in his mind were suddenly gone, leaving him without the words that had just been there a moment ago. "It's not that I don't like you, because I do," he began helplessly.
Katie waited for a full minute before responding. "What are you trying to say?"
From the tone of her voice, it was pretty clear that she knew where he was heading, so Rodney just blurted it out. "We need to break up."
Her eyes watered a little but she didn't say anything.
Rodney sighed again and he shifted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry."
She nodded quickly. "I should go."
"Me too," Rodney agreed, suddenly very anxious to get out of there as soon as possible.
Katie turned around and hurried away, bringing one hand up to wipe at her eyes as she rounded the corner.
Rodney swallowed hard again, feeling terrible but not knowing what else he could have done. He started walking down the hall towards his locker where he was supposed to meet Radek and wasn't surprised to find Ronon at his side.
"You did the right thing," Ronon said without preamble.
Rodney didn't reply. He knew it was the right thing to have done, but that didn't mean that he felt any better about it.
On Monday morning when he walked into Home Ec, still relieved and happy that John was finally back at school with them, he was shocked at how much it hurt to discover that Katie had transferred out of the class.
Stargate High School is a High School AU that combines characters from Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. Characters from Stargate SG1 appear as the teachers and staff of Stargate High School, and characters from Stargate Atlantis are the students (for characters that appear in both series I typically use the series that has their most substantial roles).
Each piece can be read as a stand along, although previous stories can make mention of things that have previously happened. If a piece relies heavily on an earlier one, I will provide a link to the piece in question. Stories are listed in order of occurrence.
Stepping Up - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Gen (John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Radek Zelenka) - Words: 1,384
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Class - P.E.
Summary: The first week at a new school seemed to set the tone for the rest of the year, and John Sheppard figured he was going to be in for a long year.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: Stepping Up
A shrill blast from the coach’s whistle sent groups of students scurrying in every direction, all eager to get to where they'd been assigned. John Sheppard had never seen, at any of the three high schools he'd attended before he wound up at Stargate High School, a group of kids move so quickly at a teachers command, but then again, he'd never had a teacher like Mr. Teal'c before either.
John's group had been assigned to run laps on the track that was situated above the main gym and he followed some kids up the stairs and took off at a slow jog, wanting to warm up his leg muscles. A third of the class had been sent into the weight training room, another third was in a side room, moving through some kind of martial arts stretches with Mr. Teal'c. Some kids from the girls PE class were down on the main gym floor, working through a series of stretches while the other gym teacher was setting up volleyball nets.
This was John's junior year in high school and he didn't know anyone. There had only been a couple of classes so far, it was only Thursday on the first week and he knew that getting to know even a single person could take a month or two. His father always told him that it was because John didn't talk to people, didn't put the effort out to get to know people, and that he wasn't setting a good example for his little brother, Dave. Dave was at the local middle school and John felt that he didn't really need to set a good example for Dave because Dave was already bringing kids home to hang out with and going out to the movies and stuff. Last year, when they'd been in Tampa, it had taken John until Thanksgiving break before another student addressed him by name.
John supposed it was his fault, that he'd given up trying to be friendly somewhere along the way and just stuck to math and dreaming of the sky. He was good at math in a way that John knew would help him become a pilot, even though he hadn't worked up the courage to tell his father that was what he wanted to be.
A brief yelp from in front of John pulled him out of his thoughts, his eyes flickering across the other students as he continued to jog, until he found the source. A tall kid with long hair hanging past his shoulders was bumping into two of the smaller kids in a way that was supposed to look accidental, but to John's well trained eye was definitely no accident. The two kids he was bumping into were moving slower than most of the rest, obviously in a conversation that kept getting interrupted each time the taller boy pushed them.
"Todd, cut it out," the heavier set boy said after he'd been knocked into the smaller, dark haired boy for the third time.
"Why don't you make me? Geek," the boy called Todd asked giving the same boy another push before dropping back out of range.
John increased the pace, moving from a steady jog into a full run. He was grateful that he'd kept up jogging during the summer; he often found that jogging through whatever city they happened to land in for a while was the best way to get around.
"We will tell Mr. Teal'c," the second boy said, running a hand anxiously through his wild hair.
"Sure you will," Todd responding, giving the same boy another shove, sending him to the ground.
The second boy bent down, trying to pull his friend to his feet. "You must stop this."
"Hey!" John said, his voice sharp in pitch but low enough in volume that he wouldn't catch the attention of anyone else. "Leave them alone." He came to a smooth stop directly in between Todd and the other two boys.
Todd looked John up and down, his gaze resting on John's wiry form without appearing at all impressed or deterred. John was clearly more of a threat than the other two were, but probably not by much. "What's it to you?" Todd finally settled on.
"You should leave them alone," John repeated. He had no connection to these kids and was probably signing his own death warrant if Todd had any other connections at all. But, then again, he was probably going to only be here for a few months before they moved. He could last that long and he wouldn't have been able to look at himself and feel right if he'd just jogged on by without a glance.
"You should mind your own business," Todd reached out and put one of his hands on John's shoulder, putting some force behind it.
John adjusted his stance so that he was leaning in a little bit to counter the weight and had his feet firmly under him so he wouldn't stumble. He hadn't been a new kid at school more times than he could count without learning how to fight and stand up for himself. "Back off."
Todd moved like he was getting ready to start something but stopped suddenly and moved away, jogging at a slow enough pace that he could look back and glare at John. John lifted up his chin and glared back; he wasn't afraid of some kid who had hair like he thought he was in some kind of metal band.
A whistle sounded with a short tweet and John turned to find the girls gym coach looking up at them and motioning for them to keep going. John sighed and took off again, glad that it wasn't Mr. Teal'c, but the lady looked plenty scary all by herself. Why was it always that teachers were paying attention when they were supposed to be doing something and not when someone like Todd was pushing people around?
"Hey, wait up," one of the boys called as they followed after John at a slower speed.
John slowed down enough to allow them to catch up.
"You didn't have to do that, we could have managed perfectly well by ourselves," the boy who had been shoved to the ground spoke.
"Rodney, he did us a favor," the second boy gave the first a small nudge with his elbow as they jogged along slowly. "Thank you," he said to John.
John felt his face heat slightly. Usually people didn't thank him when he interfered; typically they seemed to think he was as scary as the person who'd been picking on them. "No problem."
"Yeah, thanks," Rodney chimed in. "Not that we couldn't have handled it, because we could have, but thanks for stopping him."
John nodded a bit jerkily. He didn't see how they could have handled Todd by themselves when Todd had at least a foot on the pair of them and probably a group of friends lurking somewhere in the school.
"I haven't seen you before. You're new," Rodney continued, obviously not asking. "Radek was new last year, he's from the Czech Republic."
"Yeah, I'm new," John didn't elaborate.
"You are not going to tell us your name?" Radek asked, speeding up a little so that he was on one side of John.
When John looked to his other side he found Rodney there, puffing a little as he jogged. "I'm John."
"Great, that's great. Rodney and Radek," Rodney moved his hand as he introduced them. "Anyway, we were planning on booby trapping Todd's gym locker. We could do it ourselves just fine, but an extra look out wouldn't go amiss either. You in?"
John took another look at the two guys he was jogging with, a little surprised. Maybe he hadn't picked the wrong side after all; he could stand up to the bullies and the muscles without too much trouble, but staying ahead of pissed off geeks was a whole different matter. "I'm in."
Rodney clapped his hands together. "So here's the plan."
John smiled a little as they jogged, listening to Rodney explain about the variety of things he and Radek had pilfered from the science labs. It was Thursday and two people already knew his name. It was going to be a good year.
A Matter of Biology - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Evan Lorne/David Parrish, Alison Porter/Dusty Merha - Words: 1,829
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Project/Lab Partner
Summary: When Evan Lorne transfers to a different science class he is caught off guard by his assigned lab partner.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: A Matter of Biology
Evan Lorne settled into the seat that the teacher, Doctor Lee had directed him to, a little nervous. He'd spent the first three weeks of the year enrolled in Doctor Carter's physics class before he'd given up in despair and begged Mr. MacKenzie in the counselors office to let him trade science classes. They'd finally switched his art class to the landscape studio that he'd wanted to be in anyway, but that left him enrolled in the underclassmen biology class if he wanted to finish all of his science credits to graduate on time.
It shouldn't be so nerve wracking to suddenly be in a class filled with mostly freshman and a few sophomores, they were younger than him and shouldn't be anything for him to worry about, but he still didn't like going into a classroom where he didn't know anyone.
The bell rang and the stool next to him slide out and a lanky boy slide into it just as Doctor Lee called the class to attention.
Evan only paid half attention to the teacher as he glanced over to the kid sitting next to him, intrigued in ways that he couldn't quite put a name to. The boy was obviously younger than him, even though his limbs were longer and he was probably a bit taller than Evan when he was standing. Evan hadn't quite hit his final growth spurt yet, and was starting to wonder if he was going to at all if the freshmen were now taller than him.
The boy noticed Evan looking and the barest hint of a blush colored his fair skin as he ran a hand through his short, light brown hair.
Evan smiled in a way that he hoped indicated that he was friendly and glanced down up at the front of the classroom. Doctor Lee had finished drawing something on the white board and was giving instructions for them to collect slides that were in boxes on one side of the classroom and microscopes that were on the other.
Doctor Lee clapped his hands and the rest of the students got up and began moving around the classroom and talking. Before Evan could turn to the kid sitting next to him, Doctor Lee approached them with an enthusiastic smile.
"David, this is Evan Lorne. Evan's new to our class so I'm hoping you be willing to show him the ropes until he gets settled. I'm going to put you down as lab partners for the term, unless you have any objections," Doctor Lee said, marking down something on his clipboard while his lab coat swung freely.
"That's fine, Doctor Lee," David said, looking over to Evan. "I think we'll get along alright."
Doctor Lee beamed as he turned to Evan. "Excellent. David is one of the top students in the class, he attended the summer horticulture workshop, so if you have any questions I'm sure he'll be able to help."
"Thanks, Doctor Lee," Evan said as the teacher moved away, feeling the sides of his face warm at the look that David had given him just a moment earlier. This couldn't possibly be what he was thinking, or what he was feeling. He couldn't have a crush on someone he'd just met, on someone who was a freshman.
But, there was something about the way that David looked back at him that made Evan wonder if it wasn't just one-sided.
"We got a microscope for you," one of the girls who'd been sitting in front of them said, pushing it across the counter over to David with a huge grin.
"And a set of slides," a second girl said with a similar grin as she appraised Evan and David.
David smiled back and Evan blinked, wondering if flirt was just David's permanent default setting.
"Thanks, Doctor Lee was just introducing me and Evan," David turned to Evan and smiled even wider. "This is Alison Porter and Dusty Mehra."
"Hi," Evan said, running his fingers across the slides and feeling more than a little uncomfortable.
Alison and Dusty just grinned and turned back to their own counter, Dusty setting up the microscope while Alison sorted through the slides.
When Evan looked back over to David he found him looking back with a thoughtful expression.
"Check through the slides, make sure they're in order. Do you want to draw the cells or label the parts?" David asked as he started to adjust the microscope.
"I'll draw," Evan said quickly as he went through the slides. He could probably do the identification, but figured that he should stick with his strengths.
David reached over and leaned his head closer to Evan than was strictly necessary. "You don't have to worry about them, you know. They're so invested in each other that they don't even realize there is a hot new guy in the class," David whispered with a sly smile before moving back over to the microscope.
Evan was certain that he was bright red and ducked his head down as he riffled through his backpack for his drawing sketchbook and pencils. He wasn't sure what he was more surprised about; that David had noticed him react the possible threat that Alison and Dusty represented, that he was so blithe about Alison and Dusty’s apparent relationship, or that he'd just called Evan hot.
Well, it definitely wasn't one-sided then, if David had called him hot, but Evan wasn't so sure that he should be interested in a freshman even so. Evan took a peek at the girls sitting in front of them and discovered them side by side as they took turns at the microscope, their ankles intertwined as they worked. Dusty's longer hair fell forward and Alison casually reached up and tucked it behind Dusty's ear, both of them leaning in for a moment before turning back to their work.
Evan opened his sketchbook to a fresh page and sat back down on his stool, trying to ignore David's knowing gaze as Evan reached forward for the microscope. Their fingers brushed briefly and Evan thought that he was going to be spending the entire class with a permanent blush if he was going to be lab partners with David. Closing one eye, Evan leaned forward and peered in the microscope, pleased to find that he only had to make the tiniest of adjustments for the slide of come into sharp focus.
With a pencil in one hand, he began to sketch what he saw, looking up intermittently to check that he was still to scale. When he looked up for the final time, erasing an edge that had gone a little astray, he found David watching him again. Evan finished with the first slide and passed the sketchbook over to David to label.
"That's," David paused and cleared his throat. "That's amazing. You're really good."
"Thanks," Evan said, wiping his hands on his jeans before he picked up the next slide. He got it situated and looked up again to find David still staring at the drawing. "It's just a plant cell."
David looked up, both thoughtful and hesitant. "I almost don't want to write on this," he admitted.
"If you like it that much, I can draw you something else," Evan offered. "Whatever you want."
"Do you mean that?" David asked.
Evan nodded. It wasn't often anyone other than his mom and his teachers took any real interest in his art.
"Would you come out to the school greenhouse with me? It isn't much, but a lot of schools don't even have one. There's a plant I've been trying to get a good sketch of to do a cross-section, but I'm not very skilled at drawing," David asked, looking away.
"I'd be happy to," Evan said. He wasn't sure whether he was agreeing for the chance to get to practice drawing something new or just for the chance to spend some time with David.
"Get to work, boys," Doctor Lee said as he passed by their table, half glancing at their progress before hurrying off to help two kids at the front of the classroom who had crushed one of their slides.
Evan nudged David's knee with his own to catch David's attention. "You going to label that or do I need to get a frame?"
David smiled and pressed his knee back before reaching for his pencil and the sketchbook. "I'll label it. Why don't you start on the next one, we've only got twenty minutes until the bell rings."
Evan took a blank piece of paper from the sketchbook and began to work on the next slide, drawing as quickly and accurately as possible. They went through the rest of the slides without any trouble, Evan pushing each sketch to David and David adding in labels with his tidy script. David left his knee resting against Evan's and Evan decided that he was something he could easily get used to. They finished the slides with a few minutes to spare and started to tidy up their work station.
"Hey, I can take back your slides if you want," Alison offered, turning around to peer at their assignment. "Wow." She began flipping through the drawings.
"Those are really good," Dusty said, peering over Alison's shoulder
Evan smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Thanks."
David grabbed the microscope and took off before Evan had a chance to volunteer, Alison at his side with the boxes of slides.
"So, David told you we wouldn't bite?" Dusty asked, her eyes dancing with amusement.
Evan ducked his head and shrugged. "I never thought you'd bite, exactly."
Dusty laughed, settling back on her stool. "David's a good guy. Hurt him and me and my friends will make your life unimaginably hellish. Understand?" she asked, in the same friendly tone.
Evan stared, finding Dusty's entirely serious gaze looked onto his. "Yes, I understand," he said, a little disturbed, but glad that David had someone looking out for him.
"Good," Dusty grinned again as Alison and David came back, both of them laughing at some private joke.
The bell rang and David gathered up their papers to turn in. "I'll see you tomorrow? Maybe we can work out a time to go to the greenhouse next week?"
Evan nodded. "Sounds great." He gathered up his backpack and followed the rest of the class out into the hallway, feeling more than a little strange.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Alison and Dusty meet up with two other girls, who spoke for a minute before all turning to look at him in unison before returning to their conversation. Somehow, he wasn't surprised to find that Dusty's girl group all looked like they could probably kick his ass if they wanted.
Resolving to never give David a reason to complain about him, Evan walked down the hallway towards the lunch room. Switching from physics to biology had been the best decision he'd made all year.
Sung from the Heart - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Gen (Daniel Jackson, Vala Mal Doran) - Words: 2,209
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Clubs and Extracurricular
Summary: Picking the play, Daniel Jackson discovered, wasn't even half of the battle.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: Sung from the Heart
Daniel Jackson, teacher of all three of the foreign languages that were taught at Stargate High School, was less than enthused to be sacrificing his time after school to help run the school musical. But with the premature death of his ‘Language is Fun’ club to which no one had shown up despite offers of extra credit and Richard Woolsey, the choir director, out with two broken legs after a car accident, Daniel didn’t feel he had a much of a choice when George Hammond handed him a stack of papers and told him to meet his co-director in the auditorium on Thursday after classes let out.
When he opened the doors and walked down the aisle he found himself face to face with Vala Mal Doran, the art teacher and director of the drama club. “You’re my co-director?” he asked.
Vala grinned, her eyes bright and wide. “No.”
“No?” Daniel frowned, his brow wrinkling.
“No,” Vala agreed, sitting back down at the folding table that had been set up behind the first section of chairs. “You are my co-director.”
Daniel sighed with as much aggravation as he could put into it and placed his briefcase on the table. “I suppose you have some idea of what play you want to do?”
Vala grinned again as Daniel sat down. “As a matter of fact, I have several ideas.”
“Let’s hear them and get this over with,” Daniel took off his glasses and closed his eyes, wondering if the pounding in his temples was a sign that he was going to have a stroke or an aneurysm.
“I’ve compiled a list, so I’ll read it off to you and you can tell me what you think,” Vala paused but when it became clear that Daniel wasn’t going to respond she dug her crumpled list out of her oversized bag and smoothed it out on the table. “Rent.”
Daniel sighed. “We’re not putting on Rent. Hammond would have a coronary.”
“La Cage aux Folles,” Vala suggested.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” Daniel said without hesitation.
Vala just continued to the next item on her list. “Chicago!”
“We’re not putting on a show about people killing their lovers and getting away with it,” Daniel tipped his head back before opening his eyes. “Look, none of your suggestions are going to work, so why don’t you just get rid of your list and we’ll come up with something a little more suitable. What about Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”
“What about it?” Vala asked.
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Why don’t we put it on for the school play? There are a lot of parts and the rolls are fairly evenly balanced.”
Vala sighed. “But that’s so rural and boring.”
“Alright, Singing in the Rain, that’s not rural,” Daniel frowned, trying to remember what plays they had done in his high school, not that he’d paid them any attention at the time.
“It’s still boring and the kids can’t relate to that. And the lyrics are rather uninspired,” Vala commented, resting one of her fingers on her lips while she pulled her feet up onto her chair.
Daniel grimaced. “Fine. How about The Scarlet Pimpernel?”
Vala stared. “You seriously think the kids could pull off The Scarlet Pimpernel?”
“Probably about as well as they could “Chicago,” Daniel pointed out.
“Saturday Night Fever,” Vala said with a nod.
Daniel started to protest but paused as an idea slowly formed. “I’ve got it. It’s poppy, it’s flashy, and it’s not too flamboyant for high school kids.”
“I’m listening.” Vala’s raised eyebrows conveyed her disbelief.
“Grease.” Daniel waited for the inevitable objections.
Vala started to nod. “I like it. It’s not too drab, the kids will like it, and the music is fun.”
Daniel grabbed the papers from his briefcase and started writing down what they would need as far as a production and ordering scripts. “When do we want to hold auditions?” he asked absently as he wrote.
“Two weeks?” Vala suggested. “That will be enough time for us to receive play packets and for the kids to put together audition pieces?”
Daniel nodded. “I’ll reserve the auditorium.” For the first time since Hammond had sprung this one him he felt that it might not turn out so bad.
*****
Daniel sat in his chair, rubbing firmly where his head was throbbing. Whoever had decided that high school students should put on a musical production had obviously not been thinking clearly and deserved whatever torture that he could devise. Personally, he was thinking having a recording of auditions that they were forced to listen to on loop for twenty four hours a day for at least a week, maybe longer, would be a suitable punishment.
Vala was also slumped in her seat, her pigtails drooping as she looked at the signup sheet that was still four pages long.
“Next!” Daniel shouted, half-hoping the next student would hurry up so that it would be over with faster and half-hoping they would take their time just so he could have a moments reprieve.
Rodney McKay, a student that Daniel recognized from his junior French class, strode out onto the stage, his head held high.
“Alright, Rodney. What will you be singing for us?” Daniel asked, making a note on his clipboard that at least McKay didn’t have stage fright like Miko Kusanagi, who had ran off the stage crying before she could even start her song.
Rodney cleared his throat. “First of all, I would like to make a formal protest over the selection of this years school musical. Grease is a childish production with no substance whatsoever and the music is pure pop without any depth or meaning. If we’re going to pursue a worthwhile production-“
“Either sing your song, Rodney, or get off the stage,” Daniel called, already at the limits of his endurance.
Rodney sighed. “I am Rodney McKay and I will be singing the titular song from Were The World Mine.”
Vala nodded her approval while Daniel jotted down notes. Surprisingly, Rodney was not a bad singer and Daniel grudgingly wrote Rodney down on the very short list of people that would probably make the cast list.
“Thank you, Rodney. That was lovely,” Vala said after Rodney had finished.
Rodney gave a short bow and left the stage.
“See, that wasn’t so bad.” Vala looked a little perkier.
Daniel just nodded mutely as the next student got up on stage.
Three earsplitting auditions later, two girls tumbled up onto the stage, whispering in each others ears and giggling the entire while.
“Can we help you?” Vala asked, sounding a little bemused.
“We’re here to audition and we’re singing a duet. I’m Anne Teldy,” one of the girls said. “And this is Alicia Vega. We signed up together.”
Daniel scanned through the list and sure enough found their names squeezed into a box. “What are you singing?”
“For Good, from Wicked,” Alicia said, grinning at Anne.
Vala smiled enthusiastically and the girls started to sing.
Daniel was once again surprised at the fairly descent rendition of the song, although they couldn’t quite manage the range that Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel had. He jotted their names down on the supporting cast list, grateful that there were some students in the school who could manage to carry a tune.
“Thank you,” Daniel called as the girls dashed away, still giggling.
A few auditions later, a young freshmen stumbled up on stage, nervously clutching his audition sheet. Daniel braced himself for another song that he could barely hear because the student was so quiet.
“Name, please?” Vala called after exchanging a meaningful glance with Daniel. Sitting through the process of auditions had seemed to prove a bonding experience for the pair of them, now united in suffering.
“Chuck Notchet,” the boy said softly.
“And what will you be singing?” Daniel asked, hoping that it wasn’t If I Were A Rich Man, yet again.
“Mister Cellophane,” Chuck said, just as softly.
Finding the song oddly fitting, and one he hadn’t heard yet that day, Daniel nodded in approval and Chuck began to sing.
“I told you that Chicago would have been okay,” Vala leaned in and whispered.
Daniel rolled his eyes. “This is the most non-objectional song in the entire show,” he whispered back.
Chuck finished singing and dashed off the stage before Daniel had a chance to say anything. Even though Chuck had started quiet and more than a little tremulous, the performance had improved over the course of the song and he had a good voice. Daniel thought he could probably manage a minor role, after a lot of preparation.
“Are we almost there yet?” Vala asked five auditions later, from where she was laying face down on the table, her thick hair spread out messily.
Daniel checked the list. “One more today, then we have a full docket tomorrow.”
“Yay,” Vala mumbled.
Daniel recognized the student who cheerfully bounded up the steps to the stage, her hair swinging behind her. It was Katie Brown, from his sophomore Latin class.
“What’s your song, Katie?” Daniel asked, at least a little hopeful that this could turn out somewhat well.
Katie smiled pleasantly. “I’ll be singing Somewhere That’s Green from Little Shop of Horrors.”
Daniel nodded, not really surprised. He knew that Katie spent a lot of her time out in the school greenhouse and was often approaching him with plant names to ask about their root words in Greek and Latin.
When Katie had finished, her name on Daniel’s cast list, Daniel flipped shut his briefcase and glanced over to where Vala was sprawled in her chair. “Go get some sleep. Just one more day of auditions and then we can post the cast list and start rehearsal. All uphill from there,” he pointed out.
Vala nodded weakly. “I need some coffee.”
Daniel nodded in fervent agreement.
*****
The first audition of the day set the tone, and Daniel smiled a little as Laura Cadman danced and sung her way through Good Morning Baltimore. The dancing was more impressive than her vocals but it was more than enough to earn her a spot on the cast sheet.
A few auditions later, a sophomore got up on stage with a big, goofy grin on his face.
“What will you be singing, Carson?” Vala asked, recognizing the boy from her sculpting class.
“Any Dream Will Do,” Carson said with a nervous smile.
He sung the song well enough, though not quite with the right feeling behind it, that Daniel marked him in the cast column without a second thought.
The following six auditions left Daniel tugging at his hair, wondering what exactly he could do to pay Hammond back for giving him this pointless assignment. Next year he was going to teach separate sections of Greek and Latin, even if he only had four students in each class, he decided. After sitting through this, he deserved to be able to teach whatever he wanted.
“My name is Teyla and I will be singing the title song from Whistle Down the Wind,” the small girl said, standing at ease in the center of the stage.
“Go ahead, Teyla,” Daniel said.
Daniel was more than a little taken aback by the power of the voice coming from such a small frame, impressed at the amount of vocal control Teyla had for someone still in high school.
“Very nice,” Vala said when Teyla had finished.
Teyla inclined her head with a serene smile. “Thank you for your time.”
Daniel and Vala exchanged glances as Teyla left the room.
“I think we have our Sandy,” Vala said as Daniel nodded in agreement.
The rest of the afternoon crawled by slowly, Vala entertaining herself with spinning her pen on the table as student after student sung with varying degrees of success.
Daniel was just taking more headache management medication when a lanky junior strolled in and walked up onto the stage.
“Peter Grodin. I’ll be singing Being Alive from Company,” he said, smiling brightly.
Daniel checked his list and was incredibly grateful when he saw that Peter’s name was the last one on the list. He was just leaning back in his chair when Peter started, but froze, minutely aware of Vala sitting up suddenly.
Being Alive was a song that you had to mean in order for it to work at all, it was a strong melody, but it was Sondheim, which came with the prerequisite of some level of maturity both vocally and emotionally. For the first time since the audition process started, Daniel allowed himself to just listen to the music and let it overwhelm him; the beauty and the pain and the joy of it all.
Peter finished and Daniel started clapping, somehow not surprised to find Vala clapping along side him.
“That was beautiful,” Daniel said, meaning it.
Peter ducked his head a little bit. “Thank you.” He scampered off the stage, leaving Daniel and Vala alone.
“I think this is going to turn out okay,” Daniel said, looking down at the cast list that he’d cobbled together, his mind still preoccupied in song.
Vala nodded. “It will be lovely.”
And Daniel found that he couldn’t disagree.
To the Rescue - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Gen (John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Jack O'Neill) - Words: 2,045
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Suspension/Expulsion
Summary: When John gets in trouble it's for the same reason almost every time.
Content Notes: minor violence. PG-13.
On AO3: To the Rescue
It was the start of the sixth week of school and John was pretty well settled in, Stargate High somehow more comfortable and fitting than any of the other schools he'd been in before. He still didn't really have friends, but he had some acquaintances, and that was better start than usual.
Rodney and Radek from his morning gym class had latched onto him, all united against Todd. John had been right; interfering with the situation between Todd and Rodney had put them all on the acceptable target list, particularly for members of Todd's gang. But, they were all pretty manageable and it was worth it to be able to spend the morning chatting with Rodney and Radek. Rodney was also in his math class and was continually surprised when John said something that proved just how much advanced math he understood.
As good as Stargate High was, with all the classes being tolerable, and the teachers nice if more than a little eccentric, a problem was slowly rising to the surface.
No, scratch that, John thought as he slumped on the bench next to the vice principal's office, holding an ice pack to his eye and trying to ignore the throbbing in his side and his wrist. The problem had risen to the surface, and like an iceberg, was much bigger than he'd originally imagined.
Acastus Kolya was also in John and Rodney's math class and their friendship seemed to bother Kolya more than John could explain. At first, John had assumed that Kolya was a member of Todd's buddies, who had taken to lurking by corners when they saw him coming so they could shove John or try to trip him. Rodney and Radek had showed him some of the less frequented paths in the school and they'd continued to place booby traps in lockers and other petty stuff that at least made the playing field a little more even.
But when John saw Todd having a go at Kolya, holding him against the wall while speaking softly enough that John couldn't figure out what he was saying, John interfered. He pulled Todd off with enough force that Todd stumbled, nearly dropping to the ground before he managed to regain his balance. Todd took one look at John and Kolya and started laughing before disappearing off into the mass of students that were pouring through the hallway. John sighed a bit, at least one thing was the same as all the other schools he'd been to; teachers were never around when they were needed.
"You alright," John had asked Kolya.
Kolya had been rubbing where Todd had been gripping him, but stopped when he realized John was watching him. "You shouldn't have done that."
John had a weird flashback to rescuing Rodney in gym class and just wondered if this was the way that he made friends. "I couldn't just let him," he tried to explain.
Kolya glared. "You shouldn't have done that," he repeated with more feeling, giving John a hard shove against the wall before taking off.
And now two weeks later, John had come out on the wrong side of a fight with Kolya and was probably going to be suspended for his trouble.
"Hey," Rodney whispered, sneaking up to John. "Are you okay?"
John adjusted his ice pack and blinked at Rodney. "You're cutting class and you come near the vice principal's office?"
Rodney shrugged uncomfortably and sat down next to John. "I needed to see if you were okay. I stole one of the bathroom passes from the computer lab." He held up the pass hopefully.
John started to roll his eyes but stopped abruptly when he realized exactly how much that hurt. "I don't think having a bathroom pass is going to work if the vice principal finds you here."
"I don't care," Rodney said, glancing nervously at the door to the office. "I had to know. Are you going to be expelled?"
"No," John said, feeling a little more ill than he had just moments earlier. He didn't think he was going to be expelled, usually a few days suspension was pretty standard for being in a fight, but with all the no-tolerance policies that were being bandied about, it was a horrifying possibility. He didn't want to imagine leaving Stargate High and starting over somewhere else, not when he had people who he knew and who knew him.
"Good," Rodney said. "Look, you don't have to keep putting yourself in between me and Kolya, I can handle him just fine."
John tried to raise his eyebrow to indicate what he thought of that, but gave that up pretty quickly. "Rodney, he could have seriously hurt you. Are you okay?" He set down his ice pack so that he could get a better look at Rodney, squinting though his already swollen eye.
Rodney rolled up his sleeve to show where Kolya had been gripping him, digging into the skin with his fingernails. The marks weren't bloody but Rodney would have one hell of a bruise. "Not bad, there's been worse."
"What is this thing with Kolya, anyway?" John finally asked.
When he'd seen Kolya walking towards the out of the way bathrooms instead of to their math class, John had followed on instinct. The bathrooms in the back of the school were popular with Rodney, Radek and the rest of the people who were on the run from Todd and his groupies. But by virtue of being mostly safe because they were out of the way, there was also less likely to be someone around to help should someone else wander back there.
Less than a minute later he found Kolya gripping onto Rodney's arm and forcing him down to the ground. Kolya had looked up and watched John as Rodney whimpered, helplessly caught in Kolya's grasp. Without thinking about it, John had leapt at Kolya, pinning him to the ground and getting at least one good punch in before Kolya had rolled him and started fighting back. John was a little ashamed that Kolya had probably came out of this with fewer injuries, after Mr. Teal'c and Mr. Felger, their math teacher, had come and pulled them apart.
"Kolya and I used to be, not friends. But we were both getting bothered by Todd and we teamed up a little. I guess, when he saw us hanging out together he thought that," Rodney shrugged. "I don't know what he thought. But he doesn't seem like he's thinking all that clearly right now. He's always been a little bit unstable, but he's never attacked me like that before."
John nodded shortly. "That's because you were just bait, he was trying to get to me." The pieces were slowly falling together for him and Kolya's reaction when John had stepped in suddenly made sense. Not a lot of sense, because Kolya should have just joined up with them against Todd, but still a little bit of sense. If someone had moved in and took away John's friend, John would've reacted badly too.
"I hope you don't get expelled," Rodney said again, looking anxious.
"I won't. Go back to class before they find you out here and you get in trouble too," John said.
Rodney looked torn, obviously wanting to be out of the range of fire but wanting to stay with John too. "Are you sure I shouldn't stay and tell them that Kolya attacked me first?"
John shook his head. "It will only make things worse and get you involved. I'll be back in a few days. You and Radek try to stay low and out of sight, but don't go off anywhere alone either." He thought for a moment before adding, "if you run into serious trouble, talk to Ronon and Teyla, they'd be willing to help."
Ronon and Teyla were both in the martial arts training club that Mr. Teal'c held after school twice a week that John had started attending. Ordinarily he wouldn't suggest that Rodney go to anyone else for protection, not wanting to get another person involved that didn't have to be, but Ronon and Teyla were already involved and they could both kick John's ass without breaking a sweat.
Rodney nodded, looking a lot like a puppy that was being left at home while everyone else was leaving. "See you soon," he said before hurrying off, clutching the bathroom pass in what looked like a death grip.
John sighed and held the icepack back to his eye, trying not to feel terribly sorry for himself and trying not to think about anything in particular.
*****
"Care to tell me what happened, John?" the vice principal asked, leaning back in his chair as John sat down across from him.
"I got in a fight, sir," John said. He fought to keep his tone as not belligerent as possible, but it was hard to do that knowing he was about to get in serious trouble for protecting a friend.
The vice principal leaned forward and picked up a pen from the desk, but instead of writing anything down he just started spinning it between his fingers. "Let's skip the sir, and you can call me Jack."
John looked down at the ugly patterned carpet and tried to keep his mind blank. It was another one of those 'I want to be your friend' administrators who acted all nice and casual on the outside but were really no better than the hard nosed ones. At least those ones told it to you straight.
"I've scanned through your file, and I see you've been expelled before. Is there anything you want to say about that?" Jack asked.
John closed his eyes for a minute, the word 'expelled' making his heart leap. "I was helping a friend," he said. It was the truth, just like here he'd been trying to stop someone from getting hurt. Even though he hadn't succeeded that time and the whole fiasco had turned out worse that he could have possibly predicted, he still would do the exact same thing all over again. Only, now if he got expelled he would be leaving Rodney and Radek to fend for themselves after making the entire situation worse.
Jack stopped playing with his pen and leaned forward. "I understand that."
John met Jack's eyes for a brief moment and was surprised to find genuine compassion and understanding.
"So why don't you tell me what happened today?" Jack asked again.
John sighed. Telling the truth about these things so rarely did any good, but there wasn't much to say in any case. "Kolya jumped one of my friends in the bathroom. I grabbed him and punched him. Kolya punched me back."
"Who was your friend that Kolya attacked?" Jack asked.
John shook his head. He'd told Rodney that he wasn't going to drag him into this, and he wouldn't.
Jack sighed but started filling out a form. "Yeah, I wouldn't either. I'm suspending you for three days, I suggest you use that time to concentrate on keeping up on your classwork."
"Thank you, sir," John said. Relief flooded through him, as much as he'd rather not be suspended, it was a billion times better than getting expelled.
Jack looked at John for a long moment before pushing the phone on his desk over to John. "Go ahead and call your parents and let them know they need to come and check you out of school. We'll let them know that you should probably get checked out with your family doc as well. I know Fraiser looked you over, but a school nurse can only do so much."
John picked up the phone and started dialing his father's cell phone, imagining that gratitude that John hadn't been expelled wasn't going to be high on the list of things that his father was going to be feeling.
When John hung up the phone, his father's terse "I'll be there in twenty minutes", still ringing in John's ears, John found Jack looking at him with an almost fond expression.
"I know things don't look too good right now," Jack said. "But you'll figure it out."
John nodded mutely; Jack was right, things didn't look so good right now.
The Right Thing to Do - Stargate: Atlantis & SG1 - Rodney McKay/Katie Brown, Ronon Dex/Jennifer Keller - Words: 1,897
Written for High School Bingo; Prompt: Break Up
Summary: The 'thing' Rodney had with Katie Brown had gone on for a long time, but it was past time for it to end.
Content Notes: None. G.
On AO3: The Right Thing to Do
Rodney sighed as he slipped into the Home Ec class room, relieved to be out of danger for at least the next forty-five minutes. None of Todd’s cronies were in this class, probably couldn’t stand to be caught taking something as ‘girly’ as Home Ec. The only reason Rodney was in the class at all was because he needed to fulfill a ‘Life Skills’ graduation requirement. Well, and because when they were signing up for classes last spring Katie Brown, his kinda-girlfriend, had asked him to take the class with her. And because it would probably be much less painful than sitting through an accounting, basic mechanics and repair, or a child rearing class. He refused to take accounting or basic mechanics because it would be such a waste of his time that it was painful to even think about; child rearing was painful to think about for entirely different reasons.
"Rodney, are you alright?" Katie asked, standing next to him and looking a little worried.
Blinking, Rodney realized that he'd been standing still and staring at the doorway, waiting for something bad to happen. He'd walked Radek to his next class after gym, an English class that was only a hallway away, and then dashed down to his own class. Rodney hadn't realized how much they'd come to rely on John over the past month, and now that John was still suspended for another day Rodney found that he couldn't stop thinking about him.
"I'm fine," Rodney mumbled and let Katie guide him over to a table, where Jennifer Keller and her boyfriend Ronon were already sitting. Since John had left, Ronon Dex, a sophomore who had transferred in at the beginning of the year, had started hanging out near Rodney and Radek and following them around. When Rodney had turned and confronted him, Ronon had just said that Sheppard had told him to look out for them while he was gone.
Of course, it had taken Rodney a minute to connect 'Sheppard' to John, but after that Rodney and Radek were grateful for the escort. Todd's little gang had taken the opportunity in John's absence to step up their little terror campaign, and Rodney was starting to notice that Todd's group wasn't so little anymore. But, since John had been gone, Rodney and Radek had rarely walked through the halls by himself, Teyla or Ronon almost always at their sides like bodyguards. It was kind of nice, but Rodney still wanted John back in school.
"Heads up," Cam called.
All the students that had been milling around the classroom dropped down into chairs or leaned up against the walls so that Cam had the floor. On the first day, Cam had come into the classroom, wrote 'Mr. Mitchell' in big letters on the board, crossed it out and said: "Mr. Mitchell is my father. You can all call me Cam." Rodney found that the Home Ec teacher being the track coach and a math teacher as well did a lot for making the class more tolerable.
"You have two more class periods to finish your hot pads. By now you should have finished up on the sewing machines and be working on closing the edges by hand. Remember to try and keep the stitches even in size and in spacing. If it helps, pretend that you are sewing someone together," Cam said, looking over his students.
"That totally doesn't help," Amelia said from the counter where she was perched.
Several students laughed and Cam just smiled. "Let's get to it," he said, flipping the radio on.
Another reason that Home Ec was more popular than the other Life Skills classes was because Cam was a pretty laid back teacher. As long as everyone did their work and the noise level was kept to a dull roar, he didn't care where they sat or who they worked with.
"I'll go get our projects," Katie said, getting up from her seat. Jennifer followed her, leaving Ronon and Rodney behind at the table.
Rodney smiled at Ronon a little uncertainly. He hadn't even realized Ronon was in Home Ec with him until he had followed him in the classroom the day after John had been suspended and sat down across from Rodney, Jennifer joining them without any indication that she thought the situation was at all bizarre.
Jennifer and Katie showed back up with all of their oven mitts and they sat down and got to work without too much distraction.
Rodney had found that he was actually pretty good with the sewing machines, which were just like operating almost any other piece of particularly finicky equipment. Sewing by hand though, he was discovering, was another matter. He was good, really good, at working with tiny bits of wire and soldering and fixing just about anything electronic, but controlling a needle and thread as he wove it in and out of a simple piece of fabric seemed to be a different skill set. His stitches varied in size and he'd had to go back in a few places where he hadn't closed a seam properly. His hot pad looked more like a creation of Dr. Frankenstein than anything that he'd seen in the kitchen at his house.
Both Katie's and Jennifer's hot pads were quite impressive, as far as hot pads go; Katie's in a simple floral pattern, her stitches mostly tidy, and Jennifer's in a tasteful aqua, her stitches meticulously neat. Ronon's hot pad, to Rodney's unending surprise, was actually a whole lot better than Rodney's own. The stitching wasn't as clean as the girls, but it had a functionally rugged look to it. He had no idea how Ronon managed to work his huge hands with such dexterity.
Rodney forced his attention back to his hot pad, working on closing up the third side. He'd been avoiding Katie for a while now, only talking to her in Home Ec, and they hadn't seen each other more than two or three times over the summer. The double date fiasco with Carson and Laura that had started his relationship with Katie seemed to be a good indicator of how the entire relationship had gone. Rodney never really knew what to say, or how to act, and he was sure that he wasn't doing things that Katie wanted him to. And, the real kicker of the situation was that Rodney liked Katie, he really did.
Katie looked up from her hot pad and smiled at Rodney when she saw him watching her.
He smiled back, panicking a little on the inside. A little over an hour after Kolya had attacked him and lured John to getting hurt and in trouble, basically as soon as Rodney knew that John was just suspended and not expelled, Rodney had realized that he had to do something, something he probably should have done a long time ago. Even though he liked Katie, really really liked her, he had been doing her a disservice by staying in this pseudo relationship with her. He didn't think they would ever be able to move past the awkwardness, and now that Kolya had proved that he was willing to use friendships and relationships to his own ends, it just wasn't safe for him to keep seeing her.
Being concerned about Katie's safety from Kolya and Todd felt like a lame excuse, and if Rodney was being honest with himself, it was. But, what it came down to was that Rodney hadn't felt that their tentative relationship was working and it was past time to end it. He deserved that honesty, and so did Katie.
Having John suddenly in the picture was also a bit of a catalyst for finally ending things with Katie. Rodney admitted to being bisexual, although usually only to himself, and couldn't quite tell whether he found John attractive or if it was just a small touch of hero worship. Which wasn't entirely true; John was attractive, there was no denying it. But Rodney hadn't seen any indication that John was interested in him, other than John leaping in and getting his ass kicked in Rodney's place. Rodney gingerly touched where his arm now had a livid bruise, thanks to Kolya. But, Rodney knew that John would step in for just about anyone, that it was nothing personal. It's just how John was.
When Rodney looked up again, finding that having his mind occupied had led to a side of his hot pad with even messier stitching than before, he discovered that class was about over and everyone was starting to clean up. He slipped his needle back in the edge of the fabric and reached over for Katie's hot pad. She smiled again and Rodney felt even more guilty. It had to be today, he couldn't put it off another weekend.
Rodney put their hot pads in the storage area where they kept works in progress and walked back over to the table as the bell rang.
"Katie, wait. Can I talk to you, outside class? Just for a moment?" Rodney asked, rubbing his sweating hands against his pants.
Katie smiled again and nodded.
Feeling like a complete jerk, Rodney shouldered his backpack and walked out of the classroom with Katie at his side. When they reached a little alcove of lockers, away from the main traffic, Rodney sighed and mentally rehearsed one more time what he was going to say. When he looked up, he found that Ronon had followed them and was watching from the corner. Rodney gave him a look that was supposed to mean 'go away', but Ronon merely leaned against the wall and turned so that he wasn't watching them.
"Katie," Rodney started, taking a deep breath.
Katie looked a little worried and leaned in. "What's wrong, Rodney?"
Rodney swallowed, discovering that all the rational explanations that he'd been forming in his mind were suddenly gone, leaving him without the words that had just been there a moment ago. "It's not that I don't like you, because I do," he began helplessly.
Katie waited for a full minute before responding. "What are you trying to say?"
From the tone of her voice, it was pretty clear that she knew where he was heading, so Rodney just blurted it out. "We need to break up."
Her eyes watered a little but she didn't say anything.
Rodney sighed again and he shifted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry."
She nodded quickly. "I should go."
"Me too," Rodney agreed, suddenly very anxious to get out of there as soon as possible.
Katie turned around and hurried away, bringing one hand up to wipe at her eyes as she rounded the corner.
Rodney swallowed hard again, feeling terrible but not knowing what else he could have done. He started walking down the hall towards his locker where he was supposed to meet Radek and wasn't surprised to find Ronon at his side.
"You did the right thing," Ronon said without preamble.
Rodney didn't reply. He knew it was the right thing to have done, but that didn't mean that he felt any better about it.
On Monday morning when he walked into Home Ec, still relieved and happy that John was finally back at school with them, he was shocked at how much it hurt to discover that Katie had transferred out of the class.
Tags:
no subject
I hope you write more in this 'verse, because I would definitely read it. Great job!
no subject
no subject
And yes, Ronon makes the most adorable guard dog ever.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I shall have to upgrade you from minion to acolyte for continuing to write Lorne/Parrish :-)
These are brilliant, can't wait for more.
no subject
Yay, I'm an acolyte!!! Soon, the pairing of Lorne/Parrish will take over the world! (or at least the fandom!)
no subject
no subject