Derek and Danielle

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

As well, this work of fiction depicts sexual activities between teenagers, siblings and otherwise. As such it may be illegal to view this story where you live, and you should cease reading at this point if that is the case.

Additional Note: Please donate to Nifty! The Archive is to be thanked for hosting so many stories over the years and providing a venue for our works.

After the twins got dressed, Derek checked his phone for messages. He'd gotten a text message from his dad, asking if they'd made dinner. He replied back that they hadn't. After that, he and Danielle went downstairs and they began watching TV.

By that night, Derek was watching a talk show of some kind while Danielle, curled up against him on the couch, was lightly sleeping, her head resting on his shoulder. He heard the door open, and tensed up a little. He shifted to look back at the rear door, and saw his parents come inside. He waved, and then pointed to Danielle and made a 'shh' gesture. His parents quietly stepped over to kneel down as he muted the TV set.

Derek said, "Danielle fell asleep on me when we were watching TV and I didn't want to wake her up."

Rachel smiled. "That's fine. Could you wake Danielle up now, though? We need to talk."

His father held up a bag. "We got takeout, too."

Derek grinned. "Okay!" He looked at his sister and gently shook her. "Hey, wake up, Dani."

"Love you too," she murmured as she snuggled in closer to Derek.

Samuel and Rachel laughed and stood up. "C'mon, honey, supper's ready," urged Rachel as she gently brushed Danielle's hair out of her face.

Danielle lifted her head off Derek's shoulder and blinked. "Oh, Mom! Dad!" She blushed. "Sorry, I was kinda tired." She grabbed Derek's shoulder and pushed herself off the couch, after which Derek got up too. The foursome trooped into the dining area and got plates and cutlery, then began passing the food around.

As they began eating, Samuel said, "Well, the PTA head will sign a letter supporting a request to have Randy Bowman suspended from the track team for his behavior. They'll send a delegation to deliver it personally to your principal."

"Well, I hope it works," said Derek, punctuating it with a sign.

"Us, too, sweetie," said Rachel.

With that, conversation slowly moved to other topics, and the four family members spent the next hour rehashing Danielle's volleyball game.

The siblings ended up sleeping in their own bedrooms that night. Outside her bedroom door, Danielle had said, "Sorry, Derek. I'm still kind of worn out." She'd smiled. "Not that I'm blaming you. But it's school tomorrow." She ran her hand down his chest, resting it over his heart.

Derek had replied, "I get it. See you tomorrow." He'd leaned in for a quick kiss, then went to bed.

The next morning, Derek found himself standing uncertainly across the street from his school. The street was just beginning to fill up with slow-moving traffic with parents dropping off their children; the school wasn't on a major road, so it was usually empty of cars otherwise.

He moodily kicked the pavement, then sat down on the bench seat near the bus stop, letting his backpack fall beside his feet.

He put his face in his hands and asked, "Why don't I wanna go in there?!"

A hand on his shoulder startled him. "Rick!" He blurted, grinning as he grabbed the other boy in a hug before releasing him so he could look at Rick.

"Hey. You weren't at your place and your phone kept going to voicemail. Then I saw you when I went to the doors, so I ran across to say hey," Rick explained. His face turned somber as he put his arm around Derek's shoulders. "You all right?"

"I dunno. It's – well, the PTA probably can push the principal to kick Bowman off the team for this year, but is that really gonna solve anything? I mean, he just started in on me outta nowhere to begin with, you know? He doesn't seem like he wants to listen to reason."

A girl's voice broke in. "Hey, are you guys okay?"

Derek looked up at the girl standing over them. "Um, I'm sorry, you're..." He snapped his fingers.

"Tiffany," she replied, smiling. "Listen, I kinda overheard you guys and I just wanted to say your sister's been telling us what's going on. None of us'll have anything to do with that guy, trust me."

After a moment, she extended her hand. "C'mon. Stay with me and your boyfriend. We'll show that dickhead who owns this school!"

Derek broke out in a laugh. He stood up and took Tiffany's hand in his left, shrugged his backpack over his right shoulder, then linked fingers with Rick as he said, "All right, then. Lead the way, fearless Tiffany!"

Now that Derek got a close-up look at the girl who seemed to like Danielle, he could see why she might be a good match: she seemed to have a similar personality, and her body type was similar, too, although she had brown hair and green eyes.

At the front door, Tiffany let go of Derek's hand and tugged his arm. "C'mon, after you."

And Derek found that for now, he felt safe.

The mood lasted until lunch, when Derek, standing in line to get his food, Rick in front of him, noticed Randy Bowman walking up to Tiffany, who was walking to the table usually taken by the girls' volleyball team. He couldn't help the sudden gnawing feeling in his stomach. When Tiffany saw Randy, she plastered on an obviously fake smile as he began talking to her.

When Tiffany shook her head, Randy's expression grew strained, then a frown crossed his face. Tiffany, in her turn, said loudly, "The answer's no, Randy. I don't go out with people who threaten my friend's brother!"

At that point, Derek spotted Danielle rising up from her seat, as the volume of voices dropped in the cafeteria. She glared daggers at Randy and said, "Back off. Now."

Randy sneered. "Whatever, you're all just dykes, anyway." Randy stomped off and left the cafeteria, but not before an uproar of laughter erupted from the volleyball team table.

Lunch felt better after that, and classes resumed as normal. A small surprise came at the end of the day when Julian swung by his desk in English class and said, "Quick track team thing in the locker room. Coach Hedrick asked me to put the word out."

He said, "Bowman gonna be there?"

Julian winced. "Yeah."

Derek muttered, "Shit!" To Julian, he said, "You tell Rick yet?"

Julian shook his head. Derek replied, "Okay, I'll get him at his locker. But Bowman better not start anything."

Julian nodded and clapped Derek on the shoulder as the teacher stood up to call attendance.

However, Derek just couldn't seem to focus on the class, and he kept nervously bouncing his leg, only realizing it when his ankle hit the floor a little harder, and with a jolt realizing he'd been zoning out while the class had been reviewing literary themes. He looked at his notebook and saw that he'd written notes, but for the life of him he couldn't remember actually having written anything.

The unsettled feeling in his body stayed with him as the bell rang and he went to go find Rick amid the throngs of students filling the hallways.

On the way to the gym, Julian caught up with Derek and Rick. He said, in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood, "You know that girl who talked to me after I yelled about the price of fame and my ass?"

Derek chuckled. "Yeah, I remember."

"Well, we're kinda dating now. So I got you guys to thank for giving me that phrase about my ass."

Rick grinned. "Gotta have some good news around here."

The boys made their way into the locker room, and immediately the babble dropped to silence as Rick and Derek left Julian near a group of his friends and purposely stood as far as they could get from Randy Bowman.

The tension started to thicken, but vaporized as soon as the door banged and the coach barged in and stood in the middle of the locker room.

"All right. I'm here to nip some things in the bud right here, right now.

"First of all, I'm not gonna put up with anyone on this team hassling anyone else on or off this team, for any reason. You guys understand me?"

A ragged chorus of yeses went around the room.

Coach Hedrick didn't look too pleased, but went on. "Second of all, I'm here to put you all on notice that if I hear of any ongoing harassment that doesn't stop immediately, whoever does it is gonna be having a talk with me and you'll be hearing about a suspension from this team. Am I clear, gentlemen?"

More firmly, "Yes!" in unison. Derek noticed that Randy's mouth barely moved.

"Good. Third of all, I wanna talk to three of you in my office. Collins, Harlan, and Bowman. With me, right now. The rest of you, clear out!"

Murmurs broke out among the teens as they slowly made their way out, several of them casting glances at Derek, Rick and Randy as they moved. Finally, once everyone else had left, the coach pointed the three remaining boys to his office and gestured them all into chairs.

The coach sat down at his desk across from them and heaved a sigh. He rubbed his forehead and said, "This is not how I like starting my week. PTA comes in and comes down heavy on the principal. I get called in, they both get heavy on me. Now I gotta make sure the crap rolls downhill."

"Randy Bowman, sit up and pay attention. You're on notice as of today. These boys' parents want you off the team permanently. The PTA wants you suspended for the rest of term. Your parents want to know what the hell is going on. The principal just wants the PTA and school board off his ass. I want to run teams without all this extra hassle. Now, I just barely got them to agree to give you one more, and I do mean one more chance. You get to stay on the team, if you behave like a model student."

In a hectoring tone, he said to Randy, "So, if you see these two gentlemen next time, what are you going to do?"

Randy cast his eyes down, then gripped the arms of his chair and looked at the coach. He sullenly said, "Nothing."

"Absolutely right. You will pass them by. You will not say or do anything in the future. You do, you're suspended for the rest of term and if that's not enough you may find your sports career finished before it ever got started, and trust me, son, that is not the way you want things to go if you have any thought of getting a full ride to college."

Coach Hedrick turned to Derek and Rick. "And you two stay away from Bowman. You start anything, I'll have you boys benched next meet at the least. I'm running a team here, not a group counselling session so I damn well hope this is the last time I ever have to bring anything like this up."

Derek nodded. "Absolutely". Rick followed suit, and Randy ground out something that grudgingly seemed like he agreed.

Randy stalked out of the office; Derek and Rick deliberately waited a few seconds before they had to leave, then quietly left the office as Coach Hedrick, muttering to himself, yanked down the football playbook and began studying it.

You can e-mail me at quantumchaos77 AT gmail DOT com - if you want to be notified when new chapters come out, please advise in the email. :)