Francine & Earl

Join: Part II

One month.

Earl couldn't fathom how everything changed in one month. It had been little over thirty days since he had first met Francine, but it seemed as if years had passed. Phase one of their little plan had went off without a hitch, the change of their usual attire getting an overwhelmingly better response. He didn't know whether to be grateful or disappointed in the fact that the people surrounding him mostly judged by appearance. Now, when he actually tried to initiate a conversation with a girl, it took a longer time for them to utterly reject him.

See, progress.

Earl also couldn't believe how he had friends, true friends. People he could call at midnight just to say hi. People who would listen to his problems and divulge their own. People who would sit to hear his long-winded, philosophical speeches as if they were actually important, and could put a smile on his face when they got too heavy.

He had people to rely on other than Mae, someone who bared the brunt of his problems and her own because she hated to burden others, and she had other people too. Their small fishbowl had been flooded and he was glad that it did. Even Jonathon, who was still warming up to him, didn't mind his presence as much anymore. The two of them were able to have full blown conversations now, not needing mediation from a wary Francine. They went to the gym to bulk him up, and went to a diner nearby afterword to shovel greasy food down their throats while joking around about the school's latest gossip.

His father didn't call him by his favorite term of endearment, which was "disappointment", and considered him almost in the same league as his other two sons. He was finally living up to his name, being the true individual society expected him to be. Earl was beginning to fit into the mold, shoving himself into his own little cookie-cutter box filled with Playboy, sports, and testosterone. He was a man; a beer guzzling (though he hated the bitter taste), football watching (even though the sport was kind of boring) man. He thought he knew his own limits of how far he was changing himself, and even then, it was only for the better, right?

Of course it was.

Walking into the lunchroom, he immediately moved toward the table his small group of friends had claimed. The cluster of four sat near the corner of the crowded room, huddled near each other around a table engraved with the initials of past students. Francine and Mae were already there, the fluorescent green lettering of the Dempsey Dance Team stitched into their black jackets.

Earl smiled at that.

He reached their table a few moments after, unceremoniously dropping his bag to the ground beside him. Mae was gesturing with her hands while she talked, and he realized that she was discussing the choreography for one of their performances. The team came out during half-time frequently and were considered to be just as good as the pom-pom wielding cheer squad. Earl watched the two of them, mumbling a quiet hello, and stole an orange from his best-friend's tray. If she wasn't otherwise preoccupied, he was sure the brunette would use her slight height advantage to get it back.

Peeling the fruit, Earl studied the new addition to him and Mae's duo. Francine was distractedly listening, occasionally running a hand through her newly cropped hair, a tight smile curving her lips. She fidgeted in her seat as well, like she was uncomfortable and didn't know how to express it. 

He frowned at this, but the negative thoughts as to why she was like this was dispelled by the sudden appearance of Jonathon.

"Hello, everyone!" he boomed, plopping into the seat right next to him, earning a couple of wayward looks from the surrounding tables. Earl jumped as well, almost dropping the stolen orange onto the table, but caught it at the last moment. He shifted his eyes to glare at the teenager beside him, ignoring the wide smile that was beginning to tug at the corner of his mouth.

"Hey, Jonathon," Mae said with a flick of her hair, still refusing to call him by his nickname, " Why so cheerful?" 

Jonathon winked in her direction before taking a bite from the apple gripped in his hand, setting the rest of his lunch on Francine's forgotten homework.

"Because I get to sit in the vicinity of two beautiful women everyday, of course."

Mae just rolled her eyes while Francine said nothing, staring down at her fingers as they traced the grooves of the table. 

* * *

Earl was walking alone down the school hall later that day. His shoulders were squared and chin held high, eyes trained blankly in front of him. He was seeing, but not processing, his surroundings. When he began this phase of the plan, he realized that he needed to tweak his persona a bit. No one liked the original Earl: slender, long-haired, overly-dramatic, chick-flick watching, feminine-looking Earl. They liked Earl 2.0, the man that was replacing the scared little boy who just wouldn't fit in. They liked cold smirks more than smiles, profanity-littered statements more than clean cut discussions, and preferred to stare at a flashy cover instead of flipping through the pages inside.

Earl was just catering to his audience.

Feeling the new phone he got from going to the gym with his father buzzing in his pocket, he fished it out of the jeans that hung loosely around his hips. He muttered his new, monotone greeting rather than his usual excited chirp, waiting for the person on the other side of the line to speak.

"Hey, E!" Jonathon's voice yelled through the phone. Earl winced and pulled it away from his ear.

"Damn man, are you trying to make me go deaf?" he questioned, finally reaching his locker. He only heard Jonathon chuckle on his end.

"Nope," he began, "I'm just excited! Guess what?"

You finally told Francine that you're in love with her.

"What?" Earl decided to ask instead.

Jonathon sighed.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you didn't guess and just tell you anyway. The halfback got kicked off the team for starting a fight with the guy playing second string. Now the second string is on first. "

Earl frowned at that, tugging his jacket from under his math book. This would be the thing that broke their already struggling football team completely. Shifting his backpack on his shoulder, he noticed that the only sound in the hall was him talking on the phone, and wished that he hadn't have gotten a detention that day because this was freaking him out. 

"And?"

"They're looking for a replacement because there's no one to play that second string. Tryouts are Friday. Be ready."

And the call ended, leaving a very confused and slightly excited Earl to stare at his locker.

* * *

The following week, he got the results.

He was on the team.