Seeing Double

Rebound - Part 9

Danny avoided the bus to school in the morning. Instead he asked Jazz to drive him.

She spent the car ride talking about their sibling bond and how she had been worried about the way he'd been "emotionally distant" since the accident.

He managed to apologize without rolling his eyes.

They beat the bus to school and he quickly grabbed what he needed from his locker and high tailed it to first period.

Danny got there before Tucker and Da- Sidney.

He chose a seat in the back corner and propped up his textbook, effectively hiding until class started.

When he put it down Tucker spotted him and they made eye contact. Tucker raised an eyebrow and Danny shrugged.

Dash- Sidney stood up just as the teacher was about to speak.

"There you are!" Sidney said, walking to the back of the classroom.

He smiled at the girl who was sitting next to Danny.

"Can you trade with me?" Sidney said.

The girl stood with a huff and stomped over to the seat Sidney had vacated, avoiding eye contact and glaring at her shoes.

"Wait-" Danny said.

Sidney sat. "I've always been lacking apple butter, but I'd try and write a ballad for you if you asked me too."

Danny opened his mouth. Then he closed it.

The teacher cleared her throat. "If you're quite finished Mr. Baxter."

"Sorry ma'am!" Sidney said. "I think your class is... uh... stimulating!"

"Then let me get on with it, would you?"

"Yes'm!"

oOo

When class ended Sidney grabbed Danny's backpack and his books.

"A boyfriend should carry these right?" He said with a grin.

"Uh, but we're both..." Danny started. Then he sighed. "Well, whatever."

He glanced at Tucker, who looked gobsmacked. "Boyfriend?!"

"Uh-"

"Yessir!" Sidney through an arm around Danny's shoulders. "We're boyfriends now!"

Everyone in the classroom was staring at them now. Students who were halfway out the door came back in to listen.

"Congratulations?" Tucker said.

He looked at Sidney. He looked at Danny.

Danny wished he could see his own face, in that moment. Whatever Tucker saw was apparently hilarious.

Tucker laughed so hard, he started crying. He doubled over and slapped a desk.

"C-congratulations bro!" Tucker said. "You've seduced Dash Baxter."

"Shut up!" Danny shrugged off Dash's arm- and it was still Dash's arm- and rushed out of the classroom.

Sidney and Tucker followed.

"You done goofed," Tucker said, still chuckling.

"I did?" Sidney said. "Wait, Danny-"

"I'll see you later!" Danny said.

He rushed to his next class.

Sidney followed with his backpack and books. "Wait! Your stuff!"

And Tucker laughed all the harder.