Survival Of The Fittest

Brad wasn't really sure what he should do. "Well, Troy, that's the bitch of the situation. If I just walk up and tell him off, that'll get me nowhere. BUT, if I just lay back and think things through, by the time I finally understand all of this shit fully, they'd probably be gone. In these types of situations, in jail, I'd just threaten them. I'm trying my damn best not to do it here, but now I have no idea what's the best course of action should be."

From the corner of his eye, Brad noticed Gabe, Evan and Steve walking back. The sight of them made Brad stop to think. Now, I can't go up and say anything to Gabe. That won't get me anywhere. No... I don't like Steve either. Won't get anything from talking to him... Maybe... maybe... Taking full advantage of the situation, Brad spoke up as loud as possible, trying to get their attention. "Hey... Evan? Do you think you could come over here for a second? I just need to ask you something real quick." I just hope this won't end up hurting me in the fucking end. God....

Steve heard Evan's name called and turned slightly.

"Go if you want to man. I'm going back to sit with the ladies. You need me, give me a shout." Steve said, as he took some of the load off Gabe, who seemed like he was going to stay back.

Steve made his way back down to the lane, and placed the food tray on the little table behind the scoring computer.

"Dig in." He said, as he took a bite of his hot dog, making sure not to slop the mustard and relish on his new shirt.

Evan was unsure of what to make of the situation. Evan never recalled even speaking to Brad before, and now he was being called over by name.

"Uhhh yeah?" he replied, rather wearily. He turned his head to see what Gabe or Steve would make of the situation, but Steve had already left, and Gabe followed close behind, obviously not wanting to hang around Brad and Troy.

Evan sized the guys up mentally. He wasn't sure of their intentions, but knew whatever it was it wouldn't be anything good. The pit of his stomach rumbled slightly. He was nervous. His friends had gone ahead without him, and Evan knew if anything were to happen they'd be out of earshot and sight to back him up.

"What's up?"

"Just be cool. You're a free man, and you gotta let them know that," Troy said softly to Brad, just loud enough for him to hear before Evan got into earshot. His cellphone had - with lucky-enough timing - started to ring with its trademark Boost Mobile beeps as Evan got up to them, allowing him to be conveniently "distracted" and still be paying some attention. Of course, the only downside to that was that his parents had just texted him asking how long he's gonna be.

He started to dial in a response as Evan approached, turning away a bit so Brad was in the corner of his eye in case shit hit the proverbial fan.

Brad shrugged slightly, watching as Even walked up to him. Jesus, I hope Evan doesn't get creeped out when I ask him this. He couldn't just go up to Gabe and ask him about Kara, or he would most likely figure out what happened. He couldn't go up to Kara, neither, because she hated Brad. Evan seemed like the only person Brad could ask, and even then the whole thing might not end on a good note. Brad really hoped that Evan was more trustworthy than what his stomach was telling him.

"Listen, Evan..." Brad hesitated, trying his best not to say anything that he would regret later. "The reason I called you over is.... well.... You're one of Gabe's best friends, so I figured I'd ask you. Have... you seen anything strange with either Kara or Gabe? Anything at all. Any problems between the two?" God... I hope I didn't just screw myself there.

There were only two reasons Brad would ask this question, Evan thought. Either Brad was Kara's long lost brother, and therefore would have a genuine reason to be concerned about the relationship between the two of them... or Brad wanted Gabe out of the picture so he could make a move on Kara. Evan had seen enough highscool drama to recognize that it was, in fact, the latter.

"What do you mean? They're a pretty normal couple... why do you ask?" he said, perplexed as to why he was even talking to Brad to begin with...

Brad hesitated on answering for a moment. If I tell him the whole, gods-honest truth, he'll tell Gabe and Kara everything, and that won't be good. Then again, if I say nothing... He'll tell them about it anyway... He continued to keep eye-contact with Evan, trying his best not to look to his left, over at Troy. At this point, Brad had to think of an answer himself. So, he told Evan both a lie and the truth.

"Because, well... I saw the two of them arguing in the Gym today. Kind of small, y'know? I don't know what they were yelling about, though." Brad, of course, wasn't there to even witness this fight. Troy wasn't the one to lie though, so what Brad was telling Evan was as truthful as it was deceitful.

Evan was caught a bit off his guard by the question, unsure of what importance it may have to Brad, as well as what all this would lead to. But if there was one thing Evan loved, it was being the centre of attention. And sometimes that meant gossiping.

"Yeah, they had a bit of a fight. From what I saw I think it was just one of their usual 'fight about nothing' fights. You know how girls get in relationships. Anyways, they're good now...I think... I'm pretty sure... uh, it's hard to tell with Kara sometimes". Evan was losing his cool. His story was running out of steam. "I think it had to do with that big bonfire party. I know they fought there. Kara was making eyes at some guy, I think". He didn't know why he was ragging on Kara. Something about peaking interest in the story, and the fact that Kara seemed to monopolize Gabe's time had been pissing him off lately.

"Anyways, what do you care huh? I gotta get down there, my frame's about to start"

And so he trodded down the stairs to the alley and his awaiting friends, unsure of whether or not he should have said what he'd said to Brad.

"Who's turn is it? Is it mine yet?" he said with an excited expression, masking his confusion towards Brad.

Steve checked the scoreboard, it was indeed Evan's turn.

"Yeah dude, roll." He said as he took a last drink of his Dr. Pepper. Steve turned to speak to Gabe and Kara, but they seemed pre-occupied, so he turned to speak to Courtney again.

"So, when are you heading back? Hopefully not anytime soon." He said with a smile.

((Continued from Friday Night by Candlelight))

To say that Bryan's Bowl-a-Rama was crowded might have been the understatement of the year. As Viki Valentine walked through the doors of the bowling alley, she was a little bit overwhelmed by the crowds of people -- familiar people, at that -- that seemed to line the hallways of the alley. The arcade was practically filled to the brim, and a lot of the lanes were taken. The raven-haired girl frowned slightly as her eyes skimmed over the sea of people. She had just gotten off work not too long ago, in fact, she'd had to change in the car, which had proven both interesting and awkward on her part, and she and her fair-haired companion were supposed to have met some of their friends at the bowling alley to blow off some steam. Only... she couldn't seem to find any of said friends.

"Nobody's here," she stated flatly.

"Aww," Chelsey Langley whined, "Where the heck are they? I thought we were gonna be the late ones."

"Guess not," Viki mused, still skimming the room and getting a bit frustrated at the fact that all of their friends seemed to either be late or have flaked out completely.

A loud gasp emitted from Chelsey's mouth, but Viki didn't bother to turn around and see what the blonde-headed girl had spotted. It wasn't as if loud things didn't often come out of Chelsey's mouth. In fact, if she'd whispered something, or been quiet, Viki would have spun around instantly and thought that perhaps her friend was sick. She didn't have to turn around and look anyway, Chelsey immediately grabbed her shoulders and spun her in the direction she was looking, a devilish smile forming across her features.

"Look who's heeeeere," Chelsey grinned, causing Viki to look around in confusion.

"Who?" Viki inquired curiously, though as soon as her trail of vision met Chelsey's, her face flushed red, "Ooh..."

Chelsey's eyes had fixated on a group of Southridge students situated on a nearby lane, in particular, the group of Steve Digaetano, Evan Angler, and Gabe McCallum. She turned to her raven-haired companion and a mischevious grin formulated across her features. Viki simply looked at Chelsey, a look of mild confusion forming across her own features.

"We should go talk to them," Chelsey mused, nodding her own head as if confirming the idea.

"That's probably not a good idea," Viki deadpanned.

"Not a good idea?" Chelsey parroted, "How is it not a good idea?"

"I can think of a very blonde, bitchy reason," Viki responded, nodding in the general direction of the individual she was talking about.

"So she's here. Who cares?" Chelsey muttered, shoving Viki in the general direction of the other Southridge students.

"I care," Viki responded defensively, "I'm not gonna go up there and... and... that'd just be messed up."

"I think you're scared," Chelsey countered.

"It's just pointless," Viki shot back, "He doesn't even know who I am."

"Sure he does!" Chelsey argued.

"Why? Because I ran into him once in the hallway and dropped all my stuff? Like he'd remember that."

Chelsey shrugged her shoulders lightly, "You never know. We should at least go say hi. It doesn't even have to be to them. If Steve's here, Serenity's probably around here somewhere. You know her pretty well, you can just shoot the shit with her or something. Besides, I feel like a total loser standing around with nobody to bowl with."

Viki didn't have a say-so in the matter. Before she could put her own two-cents in, she was being drug, quite literally, over to where her classmates stood in a horde around the lane. She recognized a couple faces in the area. Gabe, Evan, and Steve, of course, and Kara. She spotted Melissa Diaz too, and another girl who she knew she knew the name of, but she couldn't quite put a name with the face. Brad Kavanaugh and Troy McCann weren't far off either. Overall, it was a very colorful crowd. Chelsey was definitely about to add a lot more color to the crowd. It seemed like the more people were in an area, the harder Chelsey tried to make herself the center of attention. Viki frowned slightly. She always got dragged into the most awkward things by the little blonde fiend that was yanking her arm.

"Hey guys!" Chelsey cooed as she approached the group, "What's goin' on?"

Courtney, who had been quietly watching the game was surprised that the boys actually brought food back for them. Steve was trying to hit on her again as Kara looked more and more uncomfortable with the situation.

"What was that all about?" She asked Evan as he came back to the group. Almost right after she said that Kara shot Courtney a look of rage and left to go to the washroom.

"I dont think I'm going anywhere soon." Courtney said to Steve as she excused herself and followed Kara to the washroom.

Kara closed and locked the door after Courtey and tried to talk as quietly as possible.

"What the hell Courtney?!"

"What?"

"Don't talk to Evan about what happend okay? That's no ones business!"

"I don't get it."

"Of course you wouldn't You're just a dumb french kid who clearly doesn't understand anything! Jesus. Sometimes I wonder what really goes through that head of yours. They're probably already discussing it. God... I don't want to be here!"

(Nutbrown continued from Good-For-Nothing!)

Bowling is a rather strange sport, if one could call it one. Nutbrown never really understood the game himself. Rolling a ball down a narrow path in an attempt to knock down pins for points just... wasn't his thing. Baseball made alot more sense than that, and that game that was about hitting a ball over a fence, while you run around in a circle(Yes, Nutbrown always told it like it was, even in his own thoughts). It wasn't that Nathaniel HATED bowling. Quite the opposite, actually. It had an appeal that made it unique, and it was fun. Whenever he stopped to look at it, however, Nutbrown never really got the appeal of it.

In all honesty, Nutbrown wouldn't be caught dead at a bowling alley at seven PM. He would usually be at home, doing better things with his time other than rolling heavy balls down an alleyway. At the very least, he'd be out with his friends, doing more interesting things with his time than knocking down white-colored pins. Today was completely different from normal days, however. He actually had a good reason to go the Bowling alley. If the traffic on the highway wasn't lagging as much as it was, Nutbrown would have arrived there earlier. Of course, he wasn't in a rush though, so Nutbrown really didn't care if he got there late. He's was late anyway, so being even later was perfectly okay with him

As he finally arrived into Bryan's Bowl-a-Rama's parking, Nutbrown pulled his car, a red 2000 Camaro V6(don't ask him why he remembered that, of all things), to a stop. He looked around nervously, trying to find a parking spot. Alright, Nathan... you can do this shit. You've done it so many times before. Don't screw this up... Nutbrown, slowly but surely, pulled his car into the closest parking spot he could possibly find. Don't. Screw. This. Up. He stopped his car again, letting out a deep sigh. Good. Perfect. Thank god nothing went wrong there.

He hadn't noticed, of course, of the large scratch he made a large, rather obvious scratch into the side of the minivan that was parked on his driver's side door, until he tried to open it. Fuck... Ehh... At least I didn't crash into it.And with that, Nutbrown slid down to the other side of his car, opening the passenger's side door as he made his way to the bowling alley. A hour late. Fuck yes. Fashionably Late. That is so cool. Nutbrown opened the door to the alley, peering inside. Shit... alot of kids here tonight. He threw the door open, slipping inside like he was walking on air. Alright, Nutbrown. You know the drill. Play it cool. ALWAYS play it cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brad watched as Evan stormed away suddenly. He stared, both confused and frustrated. What the fuck's up with him? I just asked him a simple question, and he gets all pissed off. He sighed, shaking his head. Ahh well... I guess I'll never understand what these bastards are thinking anyway. Too bipolar if you ask me.

Brad turned to Troy, shaking his head back and forth. "Fuck, man..." the boy cursed under his breath, pressing his hand against his head. Jesus... I feel like I'm having the worst headache of my life.... fuck... "I guess you were right, Troy. It looked very small and petty, but I guess they were fighting with each other. I don't really want to say it, but their relationship might be on the rocks. Jesus." Brad looked over at the big group filled with Steve, Evan and Gabe. Hmm... where the hell did both Kara and that other girl go? Brad looked over at the doorway, noticing both Chelsey Langley and another black-haired girl whom Brad couldn't recall. He also noticed Nathaniel Nutbrown, who had just wandered into the alley with the swanker in his step that always seemed to piss Brad off more than anything else the kid did. Jesus, this place is filling up. Strange, that I know half of the people here... Strange.

Evan got up to bowl, rolled two gutter balls, then knocked down half the pins. "Damn" he said, "Bad frame". His mind wasn't on the game. He couldn't stop thinking about what Brad had said earlier. He watched as his companions were laughing and having fun with each other, though Courtney and Kara seemed to have gotten a bit somber.

Could this have to do with what Brad was going on about? He thought to himself. I gotta run this by Gabe

Gabe was busy rolling his frame, scoring 12 points, and so sat down un-enthused. Evan nudged over next to him and leaned in to whisper to Gabe nonchalantly. "Man, I don't know if this is a big deal, but Brad was asking about you and Kara fighting. He didn't say why he wanted to know. I'm a bit weirded out".

Gabe's focus shot over to Kara, who seemed to be in serious conversation with Courtney and she didn't notice it was her turn to roll. Then he looked back at Evan to see if he was joking, but was disappointed to notice his face showed no expression to indicate such was the case. "Are you serious?" he asked. "Yeah, weird huh?" Evan replied. "Very weird. I don't like this situation. What's Brad's deal?" Gabe wondered aloud.

Just then, two more familiar faces made themselves known. Viki and Chelsey, two girls from school Gabe was on good terms with, flagged them down from across the alley. His concentration was momentarily broken as he waved back at the girls. "Oh, looks like some more company. Kinda strange how everyone's showing up outta nowhere all of a sudden, eh Ev?" Gabe said. "Hey girls, over here. Come grab a seat!"

Steve watched the mediocre frame that Evan bowled, and noticed that Kara had frantically grabbed Courtney away to the bathroom.

"Why must women go to the bathroom together? Honestly dudes, whats with that shit?" Steve asked. "Hey, dudes..ah screw it." He said after noticing that Gabe and Evan were in a somewhat private conversation.

Relief of his boredom came in the form of Viki and Chelsey. Evan greeted them and beckoned them over.

"Yeah girls, grab a seat."

As Steve turned once again, he saw that Brad and Troy were still looking uneasy, and that Nutbrown kid that annoyed the hell out of Steve.

Strange night in paradise I guess.

Before exiting the bathroom, Kara made sure to fix herself up and practice her 'no, I'm not upset' face. When she finally did leave, practically closing the door in Courtneys face, Kara walked back to Gabe and noticing the new comers that came their way, she made sure to cuddle close to his arm. It was way to mark 'her man' just incase. She hoped deep down that no one was talking about Brad and Evan and what they said.. maybe nothing was said at all..

Courtney, after opening the door ever so nicely slammed on her face, walked back to the group. More people had shown up and though she didn't really know them she tried to act nice. Taking a seat back next to Steve trying her best to fake a smile. The way her cousin spoke to her really hurt deep down, Kara was always someone whom Courtney though she could look up to and seek advice from.

"Steve? Do you have a car here?" She whispered, trying not to make her voice crack from the tears that were beginning to gather in her eyes. "I'd like to go home."

Across from the group on the other gathering of chairs Kara tried to carry up conversation with the new joining girls.

"Hey guys, what's up."