Survival Of The Fittest

"... I mean, as far as cheerleaders go, she was pretty cute."

The admission echoed around the empty auditorium as the doors flew open and the two teenagers stepped in, still on their as-yet-hopeless quest. Morgan, whom had seemed to master the differences between a push door and a pull door, took three steps into the auditorium and surveyed the absence of anything, and anyone. Furrowing his brow, he turned back to Jonah behind him, his next comment echoing throughout the large room.

"Not that I'm saying we have an ugly cheerleading squad!"

((Morgan Dragosavich continued from Sisyphean Self-Maintenance))

The auditorium was large, and while there was a particular absence of movement within the hall, Morgan knew that at times students would come here, take a nap within the seats, study at the back of the hall, or even sneak into an alcove to fool around. It would be a potential disaster for anyone to overhear his snide remark, and spread the idea around that someone thought the cheerleaders were ugly. Popularity never ruled his motivations or his day - often he would act with little thought to who was around or how his actions might be perceived, but earning the ire of the cheerleading squad would inevitably earn the enmity of the football team as well.

Which meant that Wyatt Carter would probably eat him. Or at least use him as a tackling dummy, which - yeah, no thanks. He wanted to live to see his twenties, or at least wanted to live long enough to see graduation.

As he pondered the potential impacts that a beefy Carter fist could have upon his face, his eyes caught the red sweater that Jonah still held within his hand, and he gave his head a half-shake, running his hand through his unkempt hair.

"The gym's just not my scene, you know? Catch her in the library or the cafeteria, then sure, maybe." He let his shoulders sag. "Not sure we're going to have much luck here, either. I'm starting to think this is like, a ghost sweater or something. Maybe it's cursed!"

((Jonah Heartgrave continued from Sisyphean Self-Maintenance ))

Jonah nodded, sitting down. He tied the red sweater around his neck like he'd seen them wear in old movies from the 80's. He had his feet flat on the floor while sitting on a bench, giving his legs a 90 degree bent. His elbows were resting on top of his knees and his hands were clasped together, supporting his head as he looked thoughtfully at Morgan.

"She's cute, yeah," he said noncommittally. He didn't really know who most of the cheer girls were, let alone if they were cute. He didn't really go to the sporting events due to his responsibilities and on top of that, there was no such thing as cheerleaders for baseball. Jonah thought that it was pretty clear during baseball when the crowd was supposed to cheer, so they probably didn't have much of a purpose and the quiet in between big bursts of action was part of the game.

"I...." he started. He bit the top of his thumb and then tried again. "I don't know if you have any suggestions for a girl that might be a good fit for prom?" he said, completing the thought. "There was a girl I was thinking of asking, but I don't think that's going to work out," he said, looking a little embarrassed. "And normally I wouldn't sweat it, but, like, I think my parents really want me to go and have the pictures and the corsage and the whole 9 yard."

He tilted his head, still resting in his hands and looked at Morgan.

((Henry Sparks: Pregame Start))

Henry sat on the floor in an isolated corner of the auditorium, knitting a blanket. He came here because it was quiet, and it was rare anyone would walk into one of the alcoves to distract him. The blanket was a design of the solar system, and was entertainingly difficult. A physicist in England he had been corresponding with was due to have a child soon. Dr. Elizabeth Strachan, or Liz as he knew her. She was something of a mentor. He had already crocheted an adorable star plush, and a little hat for the yet-to-be-born Liam. The blanket was the last item of the set to make before he mailed it off. As it often did when he knitted, his mind wandered.

Nothing has to stay out of reach.

It took weeks acquiring the materials for what was supposed to be a relatively cheap engine, which it was definitely not. It was a bi-fuel hypergolic chemical rocket and a bit more complicated and dangerous than most amateur project. Some of the more enthusiastic members of the shop classes gave him a hand with the build. Dragosavitch, who was a bit more savvy when it came to chemistry, helped synthesize the RFNA fuel for the engine. RFNA set latex and nitrile gloves on fire, so it wasn't exactly easy to work with. Still, it was a viable alternative to hydrazine.

Nobody likes hydrazine.

Henry had invited everyone who had assisted him to the launch in a field a few miles out of town, with the supervision of a local amateur rocketry society. Naturally there was an overwrought countdown, which Henry couldn't help but join in on. It was exciting, after all - this had been his pet project for years, and everyone knew it. The rocket ignited successfully. It shot a couple hundred feet into the air, flying loud, bright, and most importantly - true. Then it exploded.

Some felt Henry's pain at having not seen it glide safely down on a parachute. Most of his peers thought it was "awesome." Outside of a few hobbyists, no one of much importance took any notice. There was a small column in a local newspaper, but that was about it. He'd drawn up plans for a liquid-fueled engine shortly after, but there was simply no way he'd find the time or energy to set about building it, at least not so close to the end of the school year. Henry filed his notes into a binder, and left it at that.

Now he occupied himself with less stressful projects. He'd started growing a small terrarium of bio-luminescent fungi. They sat in his bedroom, like living night-lights. He often wondered if there was anyone who would want to hear about his glowing mushrooms. They didn't explode, so probably not. As he had just about finished knitting Mars, he heard the auditorium doors swing open and a pair of voices cut through the silence.

Apparently the cheerleaders were not ugly, though he couldn't figure out why Morgan needed to tell anyone that. Putting his feet back in his sandals, he walked back into the auditorium. Mars was a logical stopping point, after all. He liked Morgan, as abrasive as he could often be, and could probably spare some time to say hello. On walking out, he noticed the other voice was Jonah Heartgrave. They'd had classes together but hadn't spoken much; he seemed a bit melancholic at times.

"What's this I hear about cheerleaders and curses?"

Morgan's eyes lit up. Girls and prom suggestions? Wayward sweater aside, this was a topic that he could at least serve as an advisor on, if nothing else. For a second, he was a little surprised at Jonah's seeming reticence at broaching the topic. With prom coming up faster than any of the student body - save the organizing committee cared to admit, a lot of the chatter around the hallways was starting to involve couplings and dates and the like. His initial reaction would be that a guy who looked like Jonah would have no shortage of females knocking his door down to try and go with him to prom.

But on first glance, it appeared not. Much like Morgan himself, Jonah had no one to go with.

"Well," Morgan opened his mouth, his energy and enthusiasm building. This was a subject that he would never turn down an invitation to discuss. "As far as eligible bachelorettes are conce-"

A new voice cut him off, and the words plunged a dagger down into the pit of his soul. Had someone heard his earlier words and was now primed to use them as a weapon, battering Morgan Dragosavich down into a thousand tiny pieces, ensuring that he'd never, ever get laid again by anyone at the George Hunter High School populace?

He twirled around, and his manic energy instantly died in its spot. This wasn't some football bro or gossip-hound that had risen from the shadows of the auditorium - thank God for small favours. Instead, it was one of Morgan's pals, and if he was being honest with himself - one of his favourite people to be around. Shaking off the momentary terror about his social life collapsing into a heap, he made two finger guns and shot them at Henry, then proceeding to fling his arms up in the air as a manner of greeting.

"Henry! What's going on, dude? Jonah and I here were just trying to fill our good deed quota for the day." He glanced back at Jonah and the wayward sweater that he'd tied around his neck. "Failing, of course. Nobody's perfect!"

Waving his hand at Henry to join them on the stage, Morgan turned back to Jonah with a grin. Henry wasn't the gregarious sort like Morgan, but their mutual enjoyment of sciences had made for a common partnership in classes, and there'd been that project with the rocket... now that had been a hell of a thing. Come to think of it, Morgan realized that a lot of his science projects tended to stray from ordinary. Trip to the caves, making a rocket in someone's backyard...? Go figure.

Much like Jonah, Henry was the kind of kid who was polite, affable, and had the kind of disposition that parents and teachers just loved. He was also a really smart kid, and Morgan figured him to be the type that was going places. No matter where Morgan himself ended up, he had always privately decided that he'd make an effort to keep in touch with the boy. He always knew that high school would come and go, as many of the people in his life would, but it never hurt to keep in touch with the good ones, the ones that he figured would go on to do great things - grow up to be a doctor, or a lawyer.

Or in Henry's case - an astronaut.

"Jonah - you know Henry, right? Made the rocket from scratch, got that write-up in the paper a couple months back?" He turned back to Henry, serving to further correct any misinterpretation. He left out the part about the fairly decent-sized explosion the rocket had caused, as he'd seen the crestfallen look on Henry's face and had taken that particular topic out of his ever present mental book of jokes.

"Long story short - the cheerleaders at George Hunter High", he raised his voice in the off-chance that anyone else was lurking about the auditorium, "are gorgeous, and we're comparing notes on figuring out just who the hell we're going to get shot-down by on our way to prom."

He grinned, his voice back down to a normal level - for Morgan.

"What about Ming Robinson? She's pretty cute. Or Meilin? She's pretty, and she's a nice person too. I hear that's a helpful personality quirk."

Jonah was about to listen to Morgan's dissertation on the girls of school, listening a little more intently than before with his head leaning back and towards Morgan. Suddenly another person walked up asking them about two conversations fragments they'd heard. Jonah's head snapped and turned in the direction of the new voice. It was Henry, who Jonah didn't know that well, but this wasn't a good impression to put in his mental file of the kid.

He thought it was pretty rude of this person to eavesdrop, even ruder to acknowledge he'd heard it and culminating in rudest by asking about some things that didn't make Morgan look great and which had obviously not been meant for public consumption. Was he looking for them to bad mouth the cheer squad?

"Um-" he stumbled, surprised at the new arrival and not sure how to respond to the question. Thankfully Morgan took over and seemed a lot more charitable about the response. Jonah quickly rubbed the back of his hand hard against the space between his eyebrows, trying to physically wipe the surprise off his face. By the time he was done and had a more or less pleasant expression again, Morgan was asking him if he knew Henry.

"Not really, I mean, I've seen him- you- around. I don't really read the newspaper," he said, sheepishly while shifting. "I'm sure it was great. Rockets are......really cool," he tried, giving a thumbs up. Morgan then declared the univocal, everlasting beauty of the cheerleaders, loudly, to the rest of the auditorium. Just so that they'd be thoroughly covered. Jonah simpered, looking down again to hide the expression. Having gotten that out of the way, he returned to the task at hand and recommended Ming and Meilin. He moved his two hands up and down noncommittally as if weighing miniatures of the girls.

"They are. I think Ming is a little......fragile. Melin is pretty," he responded, thinking that the pigtails didn't hurt. "What about Arizona? Do you think I have a chance?"

Henry listened to Morgan, looking away as he mentioned the rocket. In a way he was glad Jonah didn't know him from that, as he didn't pursue his interests for attention. At least, not the attention of his peers. It had a nasty habit of putting him at a distance from people, much as one might expect it would be a good conversation starter. When he started trying to explain his thought process behind his work, eyes tended to glaze over.

As he was wont to do, Morgan went on about the possible girls that he or Jonah could ask out. Though he was himself a teenage boy and definitely understood the source of Morgan's fixation, he found it difficult to have the same level of gusto for going after girls. It was too easy to turn it into a weird game where other guys would compare and contrast various traits of girls' appearances as if they weren't... well, people. It didn't seem nice, or the best mindset to have when trying to ask out a girl. It made him a bit uncomfortable, but he found ways to work around it socially. For a time he thought he might not have been really interested in women, given how other heterosexual guys acted; Henry's very brief experience with those on the "other team" told him that most guys were pretty much the same, whoever they were interested in.

Still, Morgan was good-natured enough, and Henry wouldn't judge him too harshly for the odd off-colour comment. He could see that Jonah was squirming a bit, perhaps caught off guard by his sudden appearance. Jonah seemed like a nice enough guy, and had the kind of grounded interests that were probably a lot easier to talk to people about. In that he was quite envious, as Henry had been told he intimidated a lot of the girls enough that they didn't know how to even approach him. That stung a bit. It wasn't like he was eager to get into a relationship anytime soon, but he did find himself thinking about girls enough to consider it a distraction. It would be nice to actually do something about it, if he felt he could.

Jonah seemed to be asking himself the same thing, and so Henry felt like offering a few words of encouragement much as he didn't know Arizona too well. At the very least he was pretty attractive and athletic, which was probably what most of the girls were looking for in a prom date anyways - someone who looked good on their arm.

Now aren't we cynical?

"Yeah, no doubt you've got a chance. If you don't ask her then you'll never know, right? I'd say go for it."

He shrugged and looked down, admittedly at something of a loss as to what he was going to do for Prom. "Eesh, it's like one minute we were starting first semester, and then suddenly it's time to ask a girl to prom. Most of the girls I think are cute are taken, so I'm not sure where to even start at this point."

Morgan took a second to flip through his mental rolodex, but when he put a face to the name that Jonah had suggested, his eyes lit up. "Oh, dude, that's a great idea! You should definitely ask her!"

Echoing Henry's affirmation of Jonah's self-suggested prom date, he started to pace around the auditorium, the smile on his face growing with every step. As per the usual with Morgan, he tended to speak with his hands, and so with every sentence, every phrase, he punctuated his points with a flourish of his hands.

"I don't know if you could have picked a more photogenic person to want to go with, but man. Think of the pictures you'd have? The two of you..." Morgan trailed off, but picked back up conspiratorially. "I mean, dude. You're both pretty good-looking. Plus, you're a heck of a guy, so at least you wouldn't have to worry about her having a good time!"

Glancing at Henry, he noted the positions of Henry and Jonah in comparison to him. Both boys were relaxed, vaguely defensive in posture, which Morgan chalked up to what he assumed was the both of them being natural introverts. He was fully aware of how loud and abrasive he could be at times - hell, putting a foot in his mouth was a near-hourly occurrence, but the more he thought about it, the more that Jonah Heartgrave and Arizona Butler going to prom together sounded like a winning proposition. He wasn't entirely familiar with the basketball player, but his few dealings with her, he'd been impressed with her character (and even more impressed with her basketball skills).

"Henry's right, man. What do you have to lose?" He smiled, turning to face the both of them. "I've always thought of it like this - the worst that can happen is she says no, and then fuck it, you move on! Sometimes, they actually say yes!"

Morgan made a face, and then jokingly retracted his statement.

"Actually, the worst that can happen is you ask a girl out, and she happens to be Ivy Langley, and then you get chopped up into bits and fed to the Carters' dog." His tone was light and sarcastic, though as the joke came out he prayed no one was around to hear it but the two of them. "So yeah, there's a free tip, Henry. Don't ask Ivy. Otherwise, though..."

He allowed himself to stop kidding around for a moment, though, and his voice took a more neutral tone as he focused his attention on Henry. "Hey, sure, a lot of the top-end as far as looks are taken, but I bet there'd be a ton of people who would be really fun to go with as a date. That's not the worst thing in the world, either."

Morgan was being sincere now, being honest.

"I've got no date yet - I don't know if I will, but as long as you're going with your friends and having a good time... isn't that the point? Going with some girl would be great, but I think it's better to go to have one last big hurrah with your pals."

He grinned at Henry.

"Who would you ask, all things being equal and no meddling boyfriends being in the picture?"

Henry was encouraging and that was nice of him. He nodded in response.

"I think there are still a lot of nice girls left probably? I don't know, but I'd think so right? We have a lot of students," he offered a little lamely.

He was taken aback a little by Morgan's sudden burst of enthusiasm, but he probably shouldn't have been. That's how Morgan was, which was a good because that's what you needed sometimes. Sometimes like now.

His eyes widened as Morgan started talking Arizona up and bristled a little when he talked about Jonah being handsome and nice. Jonah didn't think about it much and it was a little embarrassing but also really cool of him to try and pump him up. Jonah stood and made a fist at Morgan.

"You're right, man," he said forcefully, sticking his thumb up out of the fist. His face fell a little when conversation switched to the worst case scenario. Jonah didn't know Ivy very well so he couldn't really judge what sort of person she was, but being chopped up and fed to the Carters' giant dog sounded like a less than ideal prom situation.

The conversation switched and Jonah thought he should probably be getting home soon. He would drop the sweater off but before that-

"Oh, could you text me about the thing you mentioned? The alternative to the assignment?"

Henry grinned and listened to Morgan go on. When he got past the occasional awkward pause between the three of them, it was actually kind of entertaining. Especially endearing was Morgan's comments about a few of the more popular kids in school. He barely knew who they were aside from what they looked like; he could only assume they were unsavory based on how in spite of being the center of attention, there were many people who avoided them like the plague. In spite of what seemed like visible discomfort, it seemed that Henry and Morgan's words were encouraging to Jonah.

Well, it's good to see that he feels more confident. There's nothing enviable about trying to find the right combination of words to use ask someone to prom.

It wasn't like he was especially bad or uncomfortable with social situations - much the opposite. Henry liked people, but he often suffered from what he would characterize as a chronic lack of experience. Even if you felt particularly interested in socializing, not doing it regularly because of an insane personal schedule meant that from time to time, he had to re-learn certain social cues. It was like riding a bike, only a bit awkward at first. Momentum was key.

"Who would you ask, all things being equal and no meddling boyfriends being in the picture?"

Oh. That was going to be difficult. He definitely knew who it was he had caught himself staring at on the warmer days of the year when skirting the dress code seemed like something of a sport for the girls at the school. Maybe even those he'd feigned a common interest with or felt otherwise compelled to interact with. It was often only after he had left the conversation that he realized what had driven him to the interaction was more instinctual than intellectual. It made him feel strangely ashamed, even though in his mind it was obvious that people are going to have attractions, and they shouldn't deny them or feel compelled to comply to outdated social mores. No, there was a clear answer to this question:

Of course! I was going to ask [REDACTED] to prom! She's a super nice girl!

Actually Morgan, I've realized that deep down I'm aggressively polyamorous, so I'm hoping to ask out a group of like minded individuals to prom so we can circle dance and perhaps copulate with each other in a wild bacchanal orgy.

Morgan! You're a funny and smart girl, do you want to go to prom with me?

I've got a tiny little suit for my cat, and I'm going to take him to prom with me. It'll be adorable, trust me.

I'm not going to regular prom, I'm going to SPACE PROM! Alone! All by myself!

Henry's eyes widened, and he could only stare at Morgan and stammer out "Uh... I don't know about the taken ones. Them being taken makes me a bit loath to think about it. Mercy maybe, if she's single?"

It was both his answer, and a plea. Before he could continue, Jonah pressed on with the conversation. Henry didn't feel like he could very well interrupt him, and so he offered a polite shrug as his eyes darted between the two of them. Abruptly changing the subject to their shared assignment, he suddenly felt left out of the conversation. Without much to say, he found himself frozen in place.

This isn't speaking well to my ability to get a prom date. Oh, Gods.

Morgan grinned at his friends. Friends. Yeah, he was okay calling both of them his friends. People were very specific about who they called friends these days, which was something that he never understood. If you got along with someone, and enjoyed their company, then why wouldn't they be your friend? It was a lot like the common philosophy towards dating, too.

He just didn't get why it had to be so complicated. There were all these stages - you were going steady, or dating, which was less serious than being in a relationship apparently? Which meant you were their girlfriend... boyfriend... not putting labels on it, but you wanted something real, or something casual... ?

Fuck, who knew.

"I think that the best thing," he maneuvered himself so that he stood between both Henry and Jonah, "the best thing to do is to just go for it. A lot of the time, we put way too much on the sole act of asking someone out, or asking them to prom."

He looked towards Henry.

"What's the worst that can happen? She says no. It sucks for a minute, and then you just keep rolling on. So many people are petrified of taking that chance. I dunno if she's single or not, but..." Morgan shrugged flippantly. "Why not ask and see! Life's too short to worry about stupid shit like that."

Now the smile moved towards Jonah.

"I'm glad you're gonna ask her. You make sure to let me know what she says too, right?" Remembering the whole purpose for his seeking Jonah out, his eyes widened and he nodded. "Oh, yeah, totally. I'll text you the details. I think it'll be a lot more interesting, and more importantly, a lot more fun than an essay."

Morgan stepped back and held his hands out, addressing both of the boys in front of him as though he were trying to inspire the troops. In a way, he supposed, he was.

"Prom's supposed to be the last big hurrah. Leave all of your inhibitions behind! I'm not going with anyone yet, but maybe I will. Maybe I won't. But I'll be there with my friends no matter what, so I think it'll be a really rad time either way. We should figure out a table, too. I know we've gotta do that up at some point."

Looking to Jonah, he gestured to the sweater tied around his neck.

"So what d'you think we should do about that thing? If it isn't Henry's, I think we might be striking out."

"Mmmm I'll go drop it off at the Lost and Found at the front office. If it's closed I'll hold on to it until tomorrow and then give it to them and maybe it'll find its home," he said, lightly tugging on a sleeve on the sweater.

Jonah looked at his watch and stood up.

"You'll have a good time no matter what, because your Morgan. If you want to have a good time, I think you probably will just out of determination to have one," he said, shrugging and grinning at the other boy. He turned to Henry knocked him lightly on the shoulder with his fist in a friendly fashion. He was probably too uncharitable in his thoughts towards Henry to start with and he felt a little badly.

"Mercy is a very cute girl and she's nice too. You'd be a great match. I think you should ask her out too. The worst thing that could happen is she says no, but you'll still get to have a nice conversation with someone you wouldn't otherwise have had even if she does say no. But maybe she won't?

Jonah quickly said goodbye and started at a quick pace towards the parking lot so he wouldn't be late going home.

((Jonah Heartgrave continued elsewhere...))

Henry looked down to his wrist, on which he somewhat idiosyncratically wore a rather complicated-looking watch. He had gotten into the habit of wearing one after finding his dependence on a cellphone to tell time altogether limiting. He had synchronized it with an atomic clock online, finding the precision and mechanical reliability refreshing. It told him that he had to leave, lest he upset his plans for the rest of the day.

He adjusted his bag on his shoulder and motioned towards the door. "I've gotta get outta here in about ten minutes. Walk with me?"

As they left the auditorium, Henry began to tell Morgan about his bio-luminescent fungi. With his enthusiasm for chemistry, he had little doubt that Morgan would understand his excitement that the mycelia had finally been able to develop mushrooms, and glow.

"...so they look a bit like edible chantrelles, but they're actually quite toxic. The only real use I have in cultivating them is the glow, which I've been told doesn't last all that long. They glow using the same compound as fireflies, luciferin, which only concentrates at the gills..."

((Henry Sparks continued elsewhere))

Morgan chuckled and couldn't help but nod in agreement at Jonah's assessment of his prom prospects. Jonah was a kind guy, but he'd managed to nail Morgan's personality pretty quickly throughout the few times they'd really spent a good degree of time with one another. If there was a good time to be had, Morgan was certainly the sort of person to find it, by hell or high water. As Jonah made his exit, he made a mental note to text him details of the little field trip once he got home.

Turning back to Henry, he nodded and followed his pal as he exited the auditorium. It was just about time to be heading home, and he knew that Henry was likely going the same way he was. Rad. As his scientifically-inclined friend started to explain his latest crop of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, Morgan's eyes went wide.

"Wait, you understand how topical that could be? You know prom's theme is glow-in-the-dark everything, right?"

Morgan could barely contain the excitement in his voice as the doors shut behind him.

((Morgan Dragosavich continued in You Spin Me Right Round Baby, Right Round))