Love and Fandoms (2 page)

PART TWO - COMIC BOOK POP CULTURE

MANDY

Mandy held Alex's
hand while Luci walked next to them as they headed across campus during
nutrition break. She didn't think being a senior would seem like such a big
deal, but she really did feel different this morning. No doubt part of it was her
schedule; she, Alex, and Luci had just finished their first Home Economics
class, or, as everyone called it, the Easy-A Cooking and Eating class. Mrs.
Farrell, the teacher, confirmed this. Show up, do what's asked, and you'll get
an A. That was quite a difference from what she was used to in all her other
years of school. She still had tough classes to come, including Honors Language
Arts, which she heard consisted of a ton of reading, and Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry,
which she was dreading but knew it would look great on her transcripts for
college. Not that she needed it, as Alex's dad pulled plenty of strings to get
her into Michigan with a full scholarship. Being the girlfriend of the biggest
football recruit of the year definitely had its advantages.

They rounded the
corner of the science building on the way to the senior quad. That part was no
big deal. Seniors usually kept any non-seniors out, but Alex had been welcomed
since he led the football team to the CIF championship his sophomore year. That
meant she and Luci were allowed in, too.

After a few steps,
she saw Wyatt and his best friend, Kareem Reynolds, walking nearby. As always
happened when she saw Wyatt, her heart skipped a beat. And, again, as always,
she didn't know why. Yes, she had crushed on him since they were 8 years old,
but she had Alex, the perfect boyfriend. Besides, she and Wyatt had barely
talked since before junior high. The last time they'd even been alone together
was in eighth grade, right before Alex asked her out for the first time, and
that had only been for a few seconds.

So why could she
never get him out of her mind? He couldn't compete with Alex in the looks
department. Not to say he wasn't good looking, with his stylishly-messy brown
hair, cute face with very few blemishes (he had a face full of pimples their
freshman and sophomore years, but his mom had taken him to a dermatologist, who
cleared him up), and his tall, lanky frame. He didn't have much in the way of muscle
tone, but despite dating Alex, a bona fide hunk, she didn't care about that. Wyatt's
eyes were one of the main things that melted her — soft brown that she'd stare
into forever if she could. He dressed like a total geek, but she meant that as
a compliment, as she loved seeing what shirt he'd wear each day. Her favorites
were a tie between his Mister Incognito shirts, a sci-fi spy series which was
her absolute favorite TV show ever, and his shirt which read, "Total
Geek." That one made her see that if he embraced the word, she should,
too.

Of course, most
girls would call her crazy for lusting after Wyatt when she already had Alex, who
had the face and body of a model. He spent plenty of time in the gym lifting
weights, and it showed. He wasn't overly muscular, as that would hamper his
ability to play quarterback, but he had the right amount of muscle which made
his body look, well, perfect, as so many girls in school liked to tell her when
they exclaimed how lucky she was. Honestly, she didn't think of herself as
lucky; she merely thought of Alex as her boyfriend. Of course, she could see
why they said it. Not only was he smoking hot, but next year she got to go to
Michigan for college. Sure, it was too far away from her family, and, in the
winter, way too cold for her Southern Californian tastes, but a good school for
free was nothing to sneeze at. No doubt she could get scholarships to other
schools, but probably not the entire cost, including living expenses, like she
was now. Plus, this way she and Alex could stay together.

"Hey, Wyatt,
wait up," Alex said. Mandy gave a double take. She knew they'd shared a
couple of classes in the past, and Alex often nodded hello to Wyatt and Kareem
when he saw them, but he never stopped to talk.

"Hi,
Alex," Wyatt said.

Kareem said,
"What's up?" to Alex, and tipped an imaginary cap to her and Luci.
"Ladies."

"Always the
smooth one, Kareem," Luci said. "Haven't seen you since first period.
And hi, Wyatt. An actual long time no see."

"Yeah. Hi,
Luci." He then turned to her and gave a smile and a slight blush.
"Hi, Mandy."

She suppressed a
giggle and hoped she didn't blush, too. No one else but Luci would notice, but
she'd pick on her later. "Hi, Wyatt. Hi, Kareem."

"Did you read
all of the instructions for the author report in Language Arts?" Alex
asked Wyatt. "I stuffed mine into my folder."

"You need to
ask?" Luci said. "There's a reason he gets better grades than
you."

"Hey, I bet
our grades are pretty similar." He gave Wyatt a friendly punch to the
shoulder. "His classes are just harder than mine."

Wyatt shrugged.
"Yeah, I read it. Looks like it's going to be a fun project."

"It does, but
is it only classic authors, or can we choose anyone? My uncle is a Stephen King
junkie, and he has all of his books. He'd even walk me through some of them. It
would make my semester easier."

"Your
semester doesn't need to be any easier," Mandy said, giving him a nudge.

"Whatever."

"You might
want to ask Mrs. Anderson," Wyatt said, "but as far as I could tell,
it could be anyone."

"If I was in
that class, I'd do the Harry Potter lady," Luci said. "Those movies
were awesome, and Harry Potter is such a hottie."

"Ugh, those
damn movies," Kareem said. "Maybe I'll choose Rowling just so I can
call B.S. on how different the movies were from the books. No doubt Mrs. Anderson
will give me extra credit. She eats that kind of stuff up."

"I hate that
magic crap," Alex said. "But Emma Watson made those things worth it,
at least in the last few. Smokin' hot."

Mandy groaned and
smacked his shoulder, Luci rolled her eyes, and Kareem laughed and said,
"Too true, too true." Wyatt only looked at her, and they shared
another smile.

"Speaking of
magic and other speculative arts, Miss Incognito," Kareem said, looking at
her, "are you taking the Comic Book Pop Culture class?"

"Yeah. I'd
hoped you guys were, too. These two wouldn't join." She pointed at Alex
and Luci.

"Boring,"
Luci said in a sing-song voice, while Alex said, "No way."

"Their
loss," Kareem said. "We'll take care of you."

"I know some
stuff, Harry Potter, for instance, and Mister Incognito, of course, but not
much else. I thought it would be a blast, though. Kind of like a college course."

"That's how
Mr. Yong plans to teach it," Wyatt said. She had to suppress another
giggle at how much effort he had to put into speaking up. She heard it in the
strain of his voice.
Too cute!

"Anyway,"
Alex said, "have fun in nerd class."

"Geek class,
dude," Kareem said, getting everyone to laugh, and earning a fist-bump
from Alex.

They all said bye,
and she and Wyatt shared another look. Or she did, anyway. He might have been
being polite or looking over at her at that exact moment or whatever. As they
finished their trek to the senior quad, she couldn't help but wonder, for the
umpteenth time in her life, what was it about Wyatt Faulk?

WYATT

As he and Kareem
headed off towards the math building and third period Calculus, Wyatt did
everything he could to get his breathing back under control without Kareem noticing.
He hadn't been that close to Mandy for that long since elementary school. He
was such an idiot! Not only was she so far out of his league that he probably
shouldn't even be allowed to so much as glance her way, but she was dating the
coolest guy in school. Practically married to him, as far as he could tell. To
top it off, they were going to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor together
next year. He wasn't bitter about it, though. Good for her. Alex was an awesome
guy. He could have chosen to be a mega-jerk, a real super villain, but he
didn't. Because of that, Wyatt really was happy for Mandy.

"What did you
hear about the comic book class?" Kareem asked, knocking him out of his
thoughts.

"Nothing
new," Wyatt said. "Like I said, Mr. Yong plans to teach it a lot like
a college course. But he said as much last year when he announced it."

"Yeah, he's
never tried to hide his dream of becoming a professor at a university. I wonder
if he's going to use this in his portfolio or something."

"Dunno.
Maybe." Wyatt looked over towards the senior quad and caught sight of
Mandy again, once more losing his breath. Damn it, he was being stupid. She was
just a girl, a person, and she shouldn't affect him like this every time he so
much as thought about her. But she did, and had since junior high, when he
effectively lost her. Her shoulder-length wavy blonde hair framed her gorgeous
face in that perfect way that meant she could be a model if she wanted to, at
least in his eyes. He'd certainly buy whatever she was selling. Her skin had a
nice tan from playing soccer all summer. As far as he could tell, from the
close-up view a few minutes ago, she didn't have a blemish on her. He tended to
see that on people since he had such a battle with acne when he was younger. He
didn't judge anyone based on their good, bad, or neutral skin, but he noticed. That
wasn't all he noticed about her. He saw her whenever he shut his eyes — her
piercing blue eyes, her heart-shaped face (he looked online to see what that
meant, and it was a dead-on description), her muscular legs and athletic body,
crafted by so many years of soccer, her cute button nose, and her lips, thin on
top and full on the bottom. It all added up to his perfect girl, enhanced
ten-fold by her wonderful personality. He held back a chuckle. Thinking like
that made him feel like a stalker.

Luci was as pretty
as Mandy, but he never thought of her as anything other than an old friend he
never talked to anymore. She stood about the same height as Mandy, probably five-five
or five-six, and had a chiseled body from years of Taekwondo. She wore her dark
brown, almost black, hair in a ponytail. Even as far back as elementary school
he couldn't remember a time she didn't prefer that style. The thing he enjoyed
most about her appearance was her smile. When she let it loose, she lit up everything
around her. Even though she could kick mega-butt, her smile (and his past
friendship with her) meant he'd never be afraid of her.

"Hey, it's
Pizza Face and the Hindu Terrorist," someone shouted. Wyatt put his head
down and kept walking, and Kareem did the same. It was Duncan Thomas, one of
the Pigs. While all three of them — Holden Greenfield and Tyler Navarro rounded
out the trio — could certainly be called pigs because of their boorish behavior
and slovenly appearances, they earned the name on the football field and wore
it with pride. They got down and dirty in the mud blocking for Alex and the
running backs. Neither Wyatt nor Kareem meant it as a compliment when they said
the nickname, though.

The three yelled
more horribly racist things to Kareem and more unflattering words to Wyatt, but
both kept going, ignoring it all. Only when the words stopped and the laughter
faded did they relax, though they kept up their double-time pace all the way to
the math building. Once they reached their destination, both burst out
laughing.

"What a bunch
of idiots," Kareem said. "I don't think they actually know what Pizza
Face means. Your face has been clear for a long time. I wonder if they think
you actually got pizza on your face once."

"Probably,
but I didn't get the Hindu thing. That was new."

"I think they
meant Muslim." Kareem looked about ready to lose himself to a fresh batch
of laughter.

"That makes
sense. Sort of." Now Wyatt couldn't control himself, and more giggles
poured out, getting Kareem started again. What made it funnier was that Kareem
wasn't just a Christian, but one of the leaders of the teen group at his
church. Pretty much the whole school knew that — he'd been named after his
dad's favorite  old-time basketball star, Kareem Abdul Jabar, not for religious
reasons — but it was too much to hope for the Pigs to have picked up on it.

Other than his
religion — or what the Pigs perceived it to be — they also picked on Kareem
because of his appearance. Not because he was black (though their taunts and
insults more often than not went there), but because he was as skinny and
scrawny as Wyatt. Both shared an awful lot of qualities with pre-spider bite
Peter Parker. Kareem was the same height as Wyatt, both five feet, eleven
inches — they'd measured each other two weeks ago so they could put their precise
stats into character creations for a video game — and kept his hair short,
almost buzzed off. 

If the Pigs
weren't so big and mean, their stupidity might deserve some pity. He had no
idea how they kept their grades up enough to remain on the football team.
Though, now that he thought about it, all three had been held back twice, once
in junior high, and once as freshmen.

"We ought to
see if Alex, Mandy, and Luci will let us hang out with them," Kareem said.
"I doubt the Pigs would bother us then."

"Yeah,"
Wyatt said with a grin, but butterflies swarmed his stomach. There was no way
he'd survive that much time so close to Mandy. They'd never had a class
together, so he wasn't sure how he was going to handle Comic Book Pop Culture
with her in it. Maybe she wouldn't affect him this hard if he started talking
to her every day. Because, yeah, him starting conversations was such a strong
point. In a way, he was looking forward to her going to Michigan. The daily
chance of running into her would be gone, so he could move on. Not that he often
ran into her now, and she only lived a block or so away, but with most of the
country between them, the chance would be absolute nil. Of course, he'd
probably find another pretty girl to obsess over and start the cycle anew.
Maybe he should own up to the fact that he was hopeless.