Smarten Up? Never! (Darryl)

[Samuel Rixon]

There are many things Samuel generally fails at. Being serious is one of them. Particularly when everyone around him has to be serious. Yes, he is the class clown. He cannot take anything seriously. Including one the last few rehearsals the drama class had before they actually performed their play.

He hadn’t behaved once. He’d botched his (one) line, he’d raced across the stage at inopportune moments, he’d put on silly accents, and once he’d finally got his line semi-right, he’d ruined the scene by making a spectacle of himself during his murder. Yelling and flailing and generally being a spaz.

Yeah, why was he allowed in the play again?

And the whole time, apart from his own amusement, he was doing it because one Darryl Bond seemed distracted. He’d kept pulling his phone out instead of paying attention to what his students were doing, and only seemed to catch on when everyone either went quiet, or started laughing due to something idiotic the pyro did.

So as the rehearsal drew to a close, and Sam’s boredom took over at the thought of being dead for the rest of the play, he did the only logical thing he could think of. He slunk down to where Darryl was supposed to be watching them, only he was on his phone. Again. With all the skills of an ADHD ninja, he ran over and snatched the phone, only to stare in wonder at the screen.

“DUDE! ALIEN!”

… Sam, you are a dead man.

[Darryl Bond]

They were days away from their opening performance, and most of the class had done their part and learned their stage directions and dialogue. One particular thorn, though, just wouldn't behave.

But Midori emailed him a photo of their baby in her tummy, and he couldn't stop looking at it! He knew he should be yelling Sam's ears off for his acting out and just...his performance in general, but he could hardly tear his eyes away from the thing. After a while, they'd made it through the first two acts, Darryl heaved a sigh and called the rehearsal to a close. Hopefully tomorrow they'd get it. He was still seated, looking lovingly at his phone when suddenly it was grabbed away and that thorn in his side yelled about an alien or something.

Darryl surged to his feet and went to grab for his phone. "Give that back, Samuel! This instant!" He was pretty sure his voice was convincingly scary and angry. "It's not an alien! That's my son, now return my phone to me!"

(sorry this post fails so much)

[Samuel Rixon]

Darryl’s thorn wasn’t anywhere close to being ready for opening night. He spent too much time screwing around, and not paying attention to actually be of any use.

Besides, it was fun to cause trouble when their teacher was so obviously distracted. He was grinning his idiot face off as he goofed around, knowing he’d done his job well when Darryl actually paid enough attention to yell at him. But obviously, that wasn’t enough for him. He had to take it that one step further.

He was such a dead man.

But at least he’d gotten a reaction out of Darryl. He grinned and jumped backwards, still looking at the screen, tilting it every which way. “Naw. ‘s totally an alien. DUDE! YOU DID IT WITH A HOTTIE ALIEN WOMAN?!” In Sam’s eyes, this was amazing news. “Fuck, dude. HIGH FIVE!” He held his hand up, just waiting for the slap that probably wouldn’t come. Sorry Darryl, he’s seen far too many science fiction movies. He started pressing buttons frantically, all the while trying to keep out of Darryl’s grip. “This is SO fuckin’ bitchin’.”

… I’m really, really sorry.