Of Misdemeanors and ***

I clearly gave my three friends far too much credit for their creativity scales. My idea of a fun weekend? Something exciting and out of the ordinary, which is simultaneously entertaining. Hayden, Damion and Leon's idea of a fun weekend? Well, I guess you'll soon find out. Let me tell you now though, we have completely different ideas of what's considered fun.

Leon, Damion and Hayden proceeded to exchange high-fives and shout excited nonsense regarding how awesome the night was going to be. I, on the other hand stood slightly to the side of the three, watching their antics with an obviously irritated expression. Hayden was the first one to turn to me, offering a high five. His mood fell the moment he saw my expression, however. With a moment of consideration, Hayden turned away from me and nudged Leon before muttering something I couldn't hear. Leon motioned for Damion to lean in and a huddle of discussion had begun.

"Hey...what are you guys doing?" I asked suspiciously. When they didn't reply, I moved forward slightly, hoping to catch a fragment of what they were saying. As an entire entity, they shuffled further away from me, Damion flashing a conspiratorial grin at me. At least that wasn't suspicious.

"Okay. We have a compromise," Leon announced, finally breaking out of the circle. I glared at him and he winced. "Yikes, you look like the recent victim of an upper-decker," he commented thoughtfully.

I waited a moment while I tried to decipher his sentence. "I have no idea what that means," I finally informed him once a decidedly awkward amount of time had passed.

"It's when someone shits in the upper part of your toilet," Damion explained intrepidly.

I made a disgusted face at Leon. "That's gross," I observed with a shudder. There was a brief pause in which I pictured the act and a bark of laughter escaped me. "Funny though. Wait why would you even...? No never mind--what would be the point even...? Forget it, forget it," I said quickly, waving my hands, as if to chase the conversation away completely.

Leon stared at me with an amused look on his face, then waved his hand absently. "Anyway! You can just drink foofy drinks and shit," he said simply, looking like he had come up with the best compromise in the world. "I gotta say I make a mean Grasshopper," he assured me with a waggle of his eyebrow.

I scoffed, but barely kept myself from giggling at the sporadic movements of his eyebrow. "That's not the point! I don't want to get drunk," I complained, sobering as I worked once again on my defense.

Hayden glanced at me sidelong. "Come on Raven, don't be a wuss," was his brilliant way of convincing me to go along with their idiotic plans.

"No. I don't like me when I'm drunk. I say stupid stuff," I informed them with a pout. Not that I had wasted before, but I could only assume that booze brought out my inner idiot. That side of me was pretty close to the surface most of the time anyway.

Hayden raised an eyebrow at me. "And that's different from any other time, how...?" he taunted, grinning when I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Har, har," I deadpanned. "You guys go ahead, I'll just record your drunk asses so you can see it later. Who knows? Maybe I can finally get Leon and Damion to admit their feelings for each other," I said, pretending to look thoughtful about the possibility.

Leon's fist came flying at me so fast I didn't even have time to move away, so I flinched instead, not expecting the assault whatsoever. However, he stopped short of actually hitting me, and bumped the bottom of his fist harmlessly against the top of my head. He was grinning at me by the time I realized he had tricked me. "Whatever you say, Raven. Maybe you'll change your mind tonight," Leon offered with a shrug, though he sounded doubtful. He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed absently. Truth be told, I was starting to look forward to observing the three drunken boys. From what I heard, alcohol tended to make people more truthful. Then again, it also caused random violence. I would just have to hope they were all happy drunks. Though I had the worst suspicion that they were all going to be obnoxious prankster drunks that would band together to torment the one sober person in the room. "How are you guys going to get alcohol anyway? You're way underage," I said logically.

Damion was the one who scoffed at my logical way of thinking. "Don't you worry about that, I have my ways," he assured me with a wink.

"Uh-huh." I was still skeptical, but as long as they were happy thinking that they had everything under control, I really didn't give a shit what they decided. It was a three against one vote and I had decidedly lost, so they were getting drunk whether or not I wanted to join in. If they failed epically, then that was just an added bonus for me.

Hayden nudged me with his elbow and gestured at the screen on his phone. "Gotta get going if we want this thing to work out. You can just entertain yourself for awhile, right?" he asked, though he was already starting to walk away with Leon and Damion trailing behind him.

"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess. See you guys tonight," I replied, trying not to sound as sullen as I felt. What sort of stupid preparations did they need that would take them all day? Evidently when they got drunk, they did it right and turned it into an all day event.

I turned in the opposite direction of my three friends and started to walk. I wasn't entirely sure where I was going or what I was going to do for the next several hours, but I was starting to think that I needed to invest in some more friends. Some that were more on the normal side of the personality spectrum.

"Hey," someone called at me, startling me into looking up from the ground.

I frowned when I caught sight of the speaker. "Oh, hi," I muttered by way of greeting. Derek Fairborn was leaning against the wall like he had no concerns whatsoever. He was watching me without moving, so I stopped and stared back at him. "Something you want?" I inquired in a sneer. I was already in a foul mood after being ditched for the day, I didn't need his attitude to stack onto my bad mood.

Derek smiled. "Not particularly. Where's your posse?" he asked, sounding like he had meant for the question to hit a nerve.

I shrugged. "Dunno, don't care." In fact, I did care where there were most of the time. But for the sake of projecting my bad mood into Derek's face, I maintained my nonchalance. "If that's all you wanted, then I'm gonna leave now," I announced as I started to walk again, finally making it past him in the hallway.

I heard him push off of the wall and start walking behind me. "So you're not doing anything now?" he asked as he fell in step beside me.

Every muscle in my body was wary of him, I didn't like standing next to him, let alone walking next to him. "I guess not," I mumbled distractedly. I tried to focus on how I was walking, it was a process that took more thought than it should have. I was stiff but I was trying to work on being more comfortable, whether or not I was succeeding was an entirely different story.

Seeming to notice my stiffness, Derek laughed in a disarming way that I hadn't known he was capable of. "Don't worry, I don't bite," he assured me, his hand twitching upward in a motion that I was sure was meant to be a friendly gesture. I flinched without meaning to. A moment passed while I cursed myself for shitty instincts and Derek seemed to fully grasp the tension between us. "Are you afraid of me?" he asked suddenly, sounding puzzled and amused at the same time. He almost sounded happy about the realization.

"Hardly," I spat quickly. A little too quickly, I realized and bit my lip in frustration.

"You are," Derek affirmed with another laugh, this one not as charming and a bit more annoyed than he probably intended. "Did the Three Muskequeers say something to you?" he asked snidely.

"Muskequeers," I laughed once, "clever. But no, they didn't tell me anything about you," I replied, composing myself finally. I was alone with Derek in a hallway that he had cornered me in several months before, but that was no reason for me to panic. I knew more than I had the first time around, and if he had any morals, I was infinitely safer around him when I was a girl. If he didn't care much about his moral standing, however, I was left with a whole new level of concerns.

"Mhm," Derek sounded unconvinced. "Then I'm guessing I did something to you in a past life?" he guessed, grinning in a mischievous way as he obviously tried to flirt with me. Which, had he been anyone else on the planet, might have worked on me.

"Something like that," I answered. I walked a little faster, but Derek kept up easily. Damn him and his significantly longer legs. I stopped suddenly and turned toward him. "Okay. So I'm guessing you want something? Since you keep following me." I let every ounce of irritation seep into my sentence.

Derek smiled like he had won something and I instantly regretted even pausing to talk to him. "We still have our bet to take care of," he said simply.

I met Derek's gaze with a frown. "Oh. Right. I forgot about that," I lied uneasily. It was at that point in time that I wished I had told him that I was busy for the rest of the day. If that was the day that he wanted to settle that bet, I wasn't looking forward to it. My day felt off already and I had the worst feeling that I wouldn't play pool as well as I usually did. After all, I hadn't been around a pool table in years.

"You want to do that today?" I asked, buying myself time as I racked my brain for an excuse.

"You did say you weren't doing anything," Derek replied, smiling darkly. So I had set myself up. Curse me and my traitorous mouth.

"Yeah. Well, I forgot that I have something else to do." Well, if that wasn't the shittiest cover up in the history of time, I dunno what was.

Derek laughed, which only made me angry. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to avoid me." I opened my mouth to reply, but Derek was faster, "Don't think you can win now?" he quipped.

I snapped my mouth shut and glared at him. "Fine. Let's do it now. The sooner you're trouncing around in a dress, the better," I said in a rush of irritation. It was only when Derek was smirking at me that I realized I had reacted exactly like he wanted me to. "I hate you," I said blatantly, feeling a rush of brutal honesty. But Derek only chuckled, not even slightly aware of how truthful I was being.

"You know, I actually get that a lot," he said with a shrug.

"Really? I can't see why, you're just such a delight," I said sarcastically, my mouth turning up in a sharp, condescending smile. "Let's get this over with," I added, adjusting my course so that I was heading toward the stairwell. Derek followed closely behind.

"By the way, who says 'trouncing' anymore? Where did you get your vocabulary from? The 1900s?" Derek said while he walked. I chose to ignore him.



(Hayden)

Dame and Lee were pretty adamant about getting the alcohol for the night. So excited that they sent me back early to wait with Raven while they took care of everything and left me nothing to do. It was bullshit, honestly. I understood why Raven had to stay at the school, she would have ruined everything with some crazy overreaction of some sort. But me? I could keep a cool head when I needed to, and I lied on my feet faster than the other two could take a breath. On the other hand, Raven was pretty likely to keep me entertained while they were gone. If pissing her off was an Olympic sport, I would have the gold medal sitting pretty on a shelf in my room.

I nudged the dorm room door open with my foot, curious to find out why it had been left open a crack. Sitting in the center of the room, glaring down at the floor like it had threatened to devour her foot, was Raven. Her hair was escaping from over her shoulder and falling into her face. I wondered absently, what she might say if I had the balls to actually approach her and tuck it behind her ear. She pushed her hair back impatiently, and finally noticed me standing in the doorway. I hesitated, not quite sure how to explain why exactly it was that I was staring at her.

"What the hell are you doing standing in empty doorways all quiet-like? You're such a fucking creeper," she proclaimed sharply, though her eyes were shining mischievously. Well, at least she had made that simple enough. I didn't even have to explain myself.

I shrugged. "What the hell are you doing sitting in here, staring at the floor? I swear you have brain-damage," I countered, striding into the room and kicking the door shut.

Raven made a face at me. "I was obviously pondering the great secrets of the universe."

"Oh. Well don't let me interrupt, by all means continue pondering," I urged her mockingly.

"No, no. That ship has sailed," she assured me quickly.

"So, this is what you had planned for the day?" I asked condescendingly. "I mean, I knew you were pretty lame, but I didn't think your imagination was completely dead," I scoffed.

Raven sighed, stared at the floor a moment longer and then finally looked up at me. "Well, sadly, I haven't made any other friends to hang out with while I've been here. So it was either this, or do something really stupid," she stated with a small smile. There was a weird uneasiness in her expression that startled me.

I frowned. "Why do I get the feeling that you already did something 'really stupid'?" I asked sarcastically, quirking an eyebrow in her direction. Whatever she had done couldn't have been nearly as stupid as she thought, otherwise I probably would have heard about it. But that troubled look she gave me kept bugging me.

Raven winced like my sentence had been a physical attack. "Funny that you say that..." She stood up and paced toward the TV and then paused, as if not quite sure where she was trying to go.

"Raven..." I began carefully, wondering if she was considering diving out the window. "What'd you do?" I asked with a bit more authority. I just hoped that it was something that I could help her out with if I needed to.

I could almost see the instant the walls went up in her head. She almost bristled physically. "It's not like it's that bad. And anyway, I don't need your permission to do shit," Raven defended instantly.

Okay. That told me a bit more than she probably intended. It wasn't that she had done anything particularly wrong, like, blow up a portion of the school or steal something from the Headmaster; it was just something that I personally, wasn't going to want to hear. Immediately, Derek leapt into my head, his cocky expression alone was enough to set me off. But I stayed calm. Maybe it had nothing to do with Derek and the stupid bet that Raven had made with him. Maybe it was something else that would piss me off. Like, maybe she took all of my sheets and decided to go sledding down the nearest hill, even if it was a shitty idea. I wouldn't have put it past her. Raven being alone with her thoughts was something I would never be able to comprehend. "Just tell me what you did then, if it wasn't that bad," I said, trying to keep the bite out of my tone, and only sort of succeeding.

Raven scowled and looked away from me, her eyes darting around the room for some sort of lie to reach for. "I got grass stains on your jacket," she supplied as an answer, gesturing quickly across the room.

Feeling investigative, I crossed the room and picked up my jacket, examining the sleeves absently. It wasn't a lie. There were grass stains streaking across various parts of the sleeves, and also on the back. "Bitch..." I muttered to myself, but discarded the jacket again. It wasn't like I hadn't expected her to get it dirty anyway, she had been sleeping on the damn ground. "Whatever, that wasn't what you were talking about. Just tell me," I insisted, already irritated that she was just avoiding saying anything to me.

Raven stared at me for a long moment and then her shoulders sagged in defeat. "You know that pool thing I had going on with Derek...?" she inquired hesitantly.

I bit my lip to keep from snapping something at her that I would most likely regret. Instead, I just said, "Yeah?"

More staring from Raven's end. She seemed surprised at how well I was handling her news thus far. "Well..." she dragged the explanation out longer, her eyes darting to the door; as if measuring the distance between herself and the only exit. How long would it really take for her to get there? She wasn't much of a sprinter, or a walker for that matter. Whatever she had planned, I could out run her any day. "I, uh, sort of..." she trailed off and muttered something under her breath. "Well I'm glad I got that off my chest. And I think we're both better off getting that out in the open," she announced dramatically, side stepping toward the door.

"Wait, wait, wait. I don't think so," I stopped her instantly. "What was that last part? You mumbled a little," I informed her, unable to keep the condescension out of my tone. I had a pretty good idea of how that sentence ended.

She looked flustered. Took a deep breath and stared at me for another long moment. Her eyes practically said: Really? You're going to make me say it? Damn right I was going to make her say it. "I said," she snapped, "that I sort of...kinda...lost." Raven shrank back against a nearby wall, looking like it had taken all of her energy just to get the sentence out.

"Uh-huh," was my reply. I was preparing myself for those words for the past few days, honestly. Raven never thought about what would happen if things actually went wrong for her. I, on the other hand, had done that for her. I had thought long and hard about just what might go wrong for her in her idiotic plan to play with fire. However, I wasn't going to tell her that. For a number of reasons. One being that I didn't want her to think that I was thinking about her all the time, that would just be weird. The other reason, being that I was pretty sure she didn't want me to yell at her and tell her how stupid she was. Chances were, she already knew that at that point.

"That's it?" Raven asked suddenly, yanking me out of my thought process. "No 'I told you so'? Nothing at all?" She sounded surprised, but, if I wasn't mistaken, a little disappointed too.

I rubbed my forehead with my palm. I already felt a headache coming on. "It doesn't matter. You can do whatever you want. Sucks that you lost though," I admitted absently.

"Tell me about it," she grumbled at her feet.

"So. When are you supposed to go out with him?" I asked instead. Even the words "go out with him" felt like shit in my mouth. Just knowing that they applied to Derek was edging away at my inner calm. Details weren't necessarily what I wanted to hear, but it was better than the awkward silence stretching between us. Besides, they might be helpful to know later.

Raven shrugged. "He wouldn't tell me. Which, seems like a pretty shitty basis for a date, for the record," she stated mordantly.

I gave her a hard stare. That was what she had gotten out of this whole shit hole of a deal that she had gotten herself into? That she didn't know where she was going or what they were going to be doing or when it was going to happen? That was the worst part? Not that she was stupidly going on a date with one of the biggest ass holes on the planet just because she lost a retarded game of pool?



(Raven)

I saw trouble brewing behind his eyes. He was giving me a death glare, and I was almost certain that he didn't know he was doing it. That was my queue to lunge for the nearest door and put it between us, just so he wouldn't grab me and shake me until my brain fell out of my head. I didn't do that, of course, I stayed completely still and pretended like his sight was motion-based. I was honestly shocked that he had kept calm as long as he had. Of course, I didn't even realize I had said anything particularly stupid until the moment he gave me that look. I had whipped out the sarcasm prematurely, I now realized. And here I had thought that Hayden didn't really give a shit if I went on a date with Derek. Knowing that I was wrong, was somehow comforting.

"That," he began sharply, "isn't the biggest part of your problems." I was glad that he hadn't decided to elaborate further. Hayden could be long-winded when he wanted to tell me how stupid I was. But that was his own opinion. What he considered stupid and what I considered stupid were two entirely different things. Although I was sure there was some middle ground somewhere in there. Unless, of course, he didn't think that sky diving with one of those giant rainbow parachutes used in gym class was considered stupid. If that were the case, maybe there was no middle ground.

"I know," I murmured, directing the two words at my feet. Looking at Hayden was becoming increasingly difficult. "It's not like I'm excited about this," I added ruefully. Whenever Hayden looked at me like that, it really made me feel like an idiot, and I hated it. It wasn't like I didn't know that I had screwed up.

"You know, you could just not go," Hayden offered abruptly, giving me a serious look.

I laughed once, bitterly. "I could. But that would be such a bitch move." I didn't want to tell him that I had a strict policy on keeping my word. I wasn't an idiot though, I knew that lying was part of being a thief, a part of surviving. But that was one part of my past life that I wanted to try and retain. Raymond had always told me that a man was only as good as his word. Even though I wasn't technically a man, I felt like that saying should have been applied to any human being, not just one half of the society.

Irritation bloomed on Hayden's face. "One of those people then," he grumbled. "Like self preservation is less important than keeping a promise," he added in a snap.

"It is to me," I replied easily, then bit my lip. How corny had that just sounded? Like some stupid after school special.

Before I could try and ease back on the moral high ground I had set myself up on, Hayden plowed on through the conversation, "Evidently." Hayden sighed. "Anyway. I guess you don't feel like thinking about that right now, right?" It was more of a statement than a question. If I wasn't mistaken, it almost sounded like Hayden was trying to reign in his initial outrage.

"Not particularly," I admitted. The sting of losing was still fresh on my ego. Talking about how I was being forced to go on a date with a colossal ass hole, really wasn't improving my mood. I plucked my pendant from its place resting against my shirt and fiddled with it for something to do. The back was smooth and cool to the touch.

Hayden watched my hand absently for a moment, then seemed to snap out of his self-initiated trance. "So, Dame and Lee are taking care of getting the stuff for tonight," he informed me awkwardly. As if I had just caught him watching me get dressed.

I nodded my head in acknowledgement. "Cool. I sort of figured as much." I thought about that momentarily. "Why'd they send you back? Were you being a buzz kill?" I joked.

Hayden scowled. "No. We figured you would do something stupid if we left you here by yourself," he explained loftily.

I smiled wryly. "Touché." When I thought about that, I wondered if Hayden had volunteered to come back and keep an eye on me, or if he had been ordered to do so. I liked to think that it was the first option, but I wasn't entirely sure and I wasn't about to ask him. "Well then, what's the plan until they get back?" I asked with raised eyebrows.

Hayden looked contemplative, opened his mouth to say something and then shook his head and closed it again. I watched him for a moment then prompted, "What were you going to suggest?"

His expression shifted into uneasiness. "Nothing. Why don't we just go to the Rec Room upstairs?" he suggested, turning to stare at the wall rather than at me.

I aimed an irritated stare at him. "The Rec Room?" I inquired incredulously. "The place where I just lost a pretty embarrassing bet? That's really gonna be your first suggestion?" I wasn't exactly angry at him for making the suggestion, I just wanted to point out the stupidity of his proposal. Which, making Hayden uncomfortable was, honestly, one of my favorite pass times anyway.

That got him to look at me again, a disgruntled look appearing on his face. "Oh. Right. Never mind then," he grumbled dolefully, turning his gaze back to the wall like it was the most interesting documentary he had ever laid his eyes on.

"What was the other thing?" I asked instead, dismissing his discomfort.

Hayden scowled at the wall as if it had betrayed him somehow, and then looked at me again. "Well. It's pretty stupid that you can't swim," he said, from out of nowhere.

I flinched like he had hit me. "Sorry?" I offered with an awkward laugh. What the hell was he bringing that up for? "That was a shitty transition there, what the hell were you going to suggest we do?" I asked again, feeling stupid for asking the same question over and over again.

Hayden's face turned the slightest shade of red and he turned his back to me completely. "I was thinking, maybe, since you won't figure it out yourself, I could..." he trailed off, took a deep breath like he was composing himself and I waited impatiently for him to spit it out.