15: LOOK, TOBY, PEOPLE WHO ARE OVERWEIGHT CAN STILL DANCE! GO GET 'EM, TIGER!

« if we get any more white people in here, this is gonna be a suburb. »

"OKAY, THAT WAS mean, but she's kinda got a point for turning Tracy down," Allison says, shovelling some popcorn into her mouth.

"Allison!"

"What?" Allison defends. "I'm just saying. Like, you still get that today, right? People get turned down in the industry because of their size or weight or whatever. It doesn't make it okay, I just meant it's normal."

Toby purses his lips. "I guess," he concedes. They lapse back into a relative silence, broken only by the occasional rustling of popcorn being taken out of the bowl sitting between them on the couch. Toby speaks only around halfway through Queen Latifah's rendition of Big, Blonde and Beautiful.

"I – uh – I used to be overweight. In middle school."

Allison glances at Toby, who has his eyes fixed on the screen. She gives him a once-over, tries to imagine the lean, tall body being chubbier, but finds it difficult. "Oh?"

"Yeah. I, um, I actually got bullied a lot for it. Because I was always wanting to be in the musicals and dance and stuff and no one thought I could do it because I was so chubby."

"Oh," Allison says softly.

"Daniel showed me this," Toby laughs fondly. "He was like look, Tracy's just like you! You can still dance! I think it's the only musical he knew before I did."

"Sounds like Daniel," Allison smiles, shaking her head. Toby nods with a matching grin, and they both let their eyes move back to the screen. Only a little way through Without Love does Allison clear her throat and resume their conversation.

"So, what changed?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, you're obviously not overweight now," Allison makes an all-encompassing gesture towards him. "What changed?"

Toby shrugs. "The summer before high school I just...had a growth spurt that evened everything out, I guess," he says. "Pretty convenient, huh?"

"I'll say," Allison snorts as Zac Efron prances around in Tracy Turnblad's bedroom. "Any other convenient things happen before high school?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Toby smirks, and it catches Allison so off-guard that she feels a light flush begin to creep up her neck. She shifts and attempts to somehow will the blush into submission before it reaches her face, thankful for the dim lighting where they're sat.

"Anyway, my whole point is that I really like this musical. Like, really," Toby continues, clearly oblivious to Allison's discomfort. "So no trash talking," he turns and points an accusing finger at her.

"I don't trash talk!" Allison protests.

"You so do!"

"I'm honest," she sniffs. "There's a difference."

Toby snorts. "Oh, sure."

"Toby!"

✦

"Hey! Allison!"

Allison halts her journey out of school, turning on her heel to see Daniel jogging up to her.

"Oh," she says, part of her surprised but most of her not because she can still recognise Daniel's voice anywhere so she kind of already knew it was him. "Daniel. Hey."

"Hey," he says with a wide smile, a little breathless. "I was, uh, wondering..."

Allison cocks her head to the side, studying him. "Mhm?"

Daniel shifts, clearly nervous. Allison's curiosity peaks. "Thing is, Toby's always at rehearsals for Cinderella now," he begins in a rush. "And sometimes all the other guys are busy and stuff, so I was thinking, if you wanted to..." he trails off, not meeting her eyes. Allison feels her palms begin to grow sweaty and clears her throat.

"If I..."

"If you wanted to hang out," Daniel mumbles, still studying the linoleum of the hallway. "Because I kinda – actually, I really miss hanging out. With you. I mean."

"I miss hanging out with you too," Allison says softly, because now that she thinks about it, she does. A lot.

Daniel smiles, slowly, like sunlight reflecting in a room. "Wanna hit up the coffee shop?"

And just like that, they do.

 ✦

The thing is, with Daniel, the fact that they were friends was never really properly acknowledged.  From the moment they first had an actual full-on conversation at Lydia's seventeenth birthday party, it was always a will they won't they, we're friends because we haven't reached the relationship stage yet kind of thing. It wasn't that Allison didn't appreciate him as a friend; it was just that she always saw him as more.

And now, sitting on the squishy armchairs that they always used to sit on in their favourite Starbucks, and sipping at the coffee order that part of her is still pleased Daniel remembered (generally, she hates coffee, but the exception has always been made when she's out with Daniel, during which she puts about fifteen sachets of sugar in it to make it okay), she realises she's going to learn how to be his friend.

Just his friend.

(Allison isn't sure if she likes it. But she doesn't hate it, and she thinks that's a start.)

"So," she begins. "How's it going?"

Daniel nods slowly. "It's, uh, it's going pretty good."

"Well, that's good."

"How 'bout you?"

"Oh, it's, um, it's going pretty good for me too."

She catches the corners of Daniel's mouth begin to perk up slightly, and can feel her own do the same. "That's good," he manages to say, voice wavering with amusement, and suddenly Allison can't stop the laughter that bubbles up from inside her, spilling out of her lips and mixing with Daniel's. And just like that, she thinks maybe this is going to be a lot easier than she initially thought.

"How's soccer?" she manages to ask between their chuckles.

"It's good," Daniel nods, sobering slightly but still grinning widely. "I'm pretty much banking on a soccer scholarship to get me through college, and I've already got a few offers here and there, so..."

"Oh my God, that's awesome," Allison exclaims, and she means it. "From where?"

"Y'know, a lot more stuff out of state than I expected," Daniel says, rubbing the back of his neck in the sheepish way she knows he has when he feels like he's talking too much about himself. "I mean, I have been getting stuff from places like Syracuse, and Hunter, and Queens, which I'm obviously thinking about, but I got a letter from UC Davis – "

"Davis?" Allison cries. "Oh my God, Daniel! Why didn't you tell me this?" she asks, forgetting momentarily that Daniel hasn't been telling her much of anything because up until about a week ago they were practically acting as if the other didn't exist. "This is huge!"

Daniel lets out another laugh at her deeply offended tone, even when she leans over to slap his arm. "Yeah, well, I've not been the only one keeping secrets," he teases, poking her in the cheek in return. "What's all this Stanford talk I've been hearing?"

Allison absolutely does not blush. Absolutely not. Not even a bit.  "Who told you?"

"Toby," Daniel says, as though it's obvious, which it kind of is. Allison can't recall ever mentioning it to Toby, but Lydia probably would have, so she isn't really surprised, and ends up rolling her eyes instead.

"Of course," she mutters.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Daniel laughs again, and Allison gets a warm feeling in her stomach that probably isn't to do with the coffee.

"That boy is the biggest gossip I have ever met," she asserts, sipping her black coffee, "including India Miles."

"Worse than India Miles?" Daniel gasps, and Allison kind of snorts into her coffee in a way that she's pretty sure isn't very attractive but that doesn't matter anyway because her and Daniel are friends and she's not trying to attract him.

"Don't tell him I said that," she says, and Daniel smirks.

"Of course I won't," he promises in a way that implies the exact opposite. Allison rolls her eyes. She doubts there's a thing on earth that the two don't share with each other. Then she thinks to herself that that sounds very, very wrong, but luckily Daniel's already changed the subject.

"So, did you and Toby watch another musical today?" he asks, sipping at his juice.

Allison blinks in surprise. "You know about it?"

"Emmett mentioned it, and then I was confused, and then I think I kinda worked it out," Daniel explains. "You guys are studying them for your English project, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Allison says, thinking about how he's actually smarter than most people might give him credit for, just smart in the I-understand-things way rather than the I-get-good-grades way.

She thinks that maybe the two of them are almost opposites in that respect. Daniel's always been about kinetic energy, moving everywhere and anywhere, never being able to see and understand things until he can do them. She's practically the opposite. She wonders if that's why they started dating in the first place, or if it was just some weird coincidence, their luck shrugging and going why not.

"Allison?"

"Hm? Sorry," she shakes her head. "Yeah, it's for our English. We watched Hairspray today, actually." She pauses, then adds with a wry smile: "Toby told me how he was introduced to that one."

To her surprise, Daniel flushes slightly, ducking his head out of her view. "Yeah. That was probably pretty insensitive of me, huh? Look, Toby, people who are overweight can still dance! Go get 'em, tiger!"

Allison can't help but laugh, even though she shakes her head. "I think it was a pretty good idea, actually," she informs him with a smile. "Kudos to middle-school you."

"Middle-school me thanks you for the kudos," Daniel nods seriously, draining the last remnants of his drink. "You done?"

"Mhm," Allison nods, glancing down at the mug which she finished several minutes earlier.

"Cool."

He stands up, and she follows him out into the chilly December air, shivering and pulling her coat tighter around herself.

"This was great," Daniel tells her, and she can just make out his smile in the growing dimness of the evening. "Like, really. It was great. I'm glad we did this, since we kinda never got a chance when we were..."

"Yeah," Allison nods. "I'm glad too."

"We should, uh, we should do it again sometime," he says, shifting a little nervously from foot to foot, and Allison feels all the ease from inside the coffee shop evaporate, leaving only a cool mist of awkwardness in its place. She wonders if it's always going to be like this with her and Daniel, or if maybe one day they'll reach a point where conversation always flows easily, instead of in stops and starts.

"We should," she agrees softly.

"Okay," Daniel exhales. "Well. I'll, uh, I'll text you?"

"Sounds good," Allison nods, and she tries not to think about how she was so upset two days after their breakup that she deleted every single text he'd ever sent her. She tries not to think about how she read the texts first. She tries not to think about how even when something is right that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt to do it. She tries not to think about how much it hurt when her and Daniel broke up. She tries not to think about how if things go her way and other things go his, they'll probably end up going to colleges only an hour away from each other.

So instead, she waves goodbye to him, tucks her hands into her coat pockets and walks quickly away in the wrong direction to the nearest subway, and it's definitely not because Daniel's walking in the right one. And she tries not to think about much to do with their breakup. Instead, Good Morning, Baltimore gets stuck in her head and she lets it stay there, because it's a good distraction.

✦

"You?" Lydia is incredulous. "You went for coffee? With Daniel?"

"Yeah," Allison sighs, digging into her lunch. "I sure did."

"You just –?"

"Yep."

"And he –?"

"Mhm."

"You both –?"

"That's right."

Lydia opens her mouth as though planning to elaborate, but is cut off by the entrance of Emmett, who sits gingerly at their table. Lydia raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. Allison feels a surge of pride for her best friend.

"Hey, guys," Emmett says, fiddling with the packaging on the sandwich placed on his tray and not looking at either of them.

Allison brings a hand to his wrist to stop him. "Hey," she says with a smile when he looks up in slight surprise.

Emmett offers her a relieved smile in return, opening his sandwich. "You two seen, uh, Daniel?"

Lydia looks at Allison in a way that clearly says "Well, you're more qualified to answer this question, since you and Daniel are suddenly best friends". Allison rolls her eyes at her, before turning to Emmett. Lydia, in turn, joins the conversation taking place between some other people in her Physics class further down the table.

"I haven't seen him," Allison says apologetically. "Do you guys have a tutor session or something?"

Emmett nods, biting into his sandwich.

"Daniel isn't the type to miss something like that," she informs him. "I'm sure he just forgot."

He nods again, but doesn't look convinced. Then again, Allison isn't convinced either. She thinks back to Emmett and the way he voiced his fears only a week before, wonders if they have any real grounding. Would Daniel ditch Emmett just because he wasn't cool enough?

She and Emmett fall into a silence that feels a little too uneasy for her liking. She ends up watching Lydia debate quantum mechanics with a boy that looks about as confused as Allison feels by the whole ordeal.

Lydia's just mentioning the Planck constant when Allison catches sight of Laura Bell sitting by herself on a table in the corner of the room, stabbing angrily into her meatloaf and looking on the verge of tears. Frowning, she watches as Toby follows her in and sits opposite her immediately, leaning forward and murmuring a few words to her. Almost immediately, a tiny smile begins to seep onto her face. Allison has always found it ridiculous how Toby knows just how to cheer people up with about five words.

"Allison?"

"Hm?"

"Nothing, you just looked a bit out of it," Emmett shakes his head. Lydia is still talking about quantum mechanics, now featuring phrases such as bra-ket notation and Schrödinger equation. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she mumbles. "Sorry." She shakes her head, then turns to focus fully on Emmett. "Want me to text Daniel, see where he is?"

"Yeah, okay," Emmett agrees.

✦

As it turns out, Allison was, as always, wrong to assume anything bad about Daniel Smith, because he just got a little bit confused about where he was meant to be meeting Emmett.

She leaves them debating where to meet next and whether the location that they pick will be one that Daniel will actually remember. She thinks that if she didn't know for a fact that the two of them are both firmly heterosexual (so she may have asked Emmett once in sophomore year, and her and Daniel may have occasionally had deep meaningful conversations about their sexuality in the dead of night sometimes) they would probably pass for one of the most sickeningly adorable couples she's ever seen. Maybe.

She leaves the two of them in the library, wandering around the school in an attempt to find Lydia. They both have a free period after their lunch break, and she plans to actually make the most of it.

Of course, this intent means she eventually gets waylaid by something else and doesn't find Lydia at all; that something else being the ongoing Cinderella rehearsals that she had heard going on from outside the auditorium and tempted into watching. Perhaps the idea of seeing Toby in a Prince Charming costume was a little too good for her to pass up.

Toby, as a matter of fact, doesn't look nearly as ridiculous as Allison had hoped or imagined in his costume, mostly because it's pretty understated, comprising mainly of a normal dress shirt with a waistcoat and weirdly tight-fitting white trousers, with the only completely out of the ordinary addition being the simple crown on his head. He looks more like he's about to go to prom than a royal ball. She sneaks in whilst Toby is having an in-depth conversation with the director, looking in the throes of concentration, and hopes he doesn't see her.

"Okay, guys, let's run Ten Minutes Ago from the top!"

There's a general flurry of movement as people – all dressed in formal ball gowns and suits that are of varying shades of ridiculous – get into position. Allison watches Laura, who, of course, looks pretty perfect in her clean white dress, climbs to the top of the stairs positioned in the centre of the set. She looks a lot better than she had earlier, less I'm very extremely upset and more business-like.

Toby himself hovers near the foot of the stairs. In a casual sweep of the empty seats of the auditorium, he catches sight of her, and his eyes widen in excitement as he gives her a quick wave. Allison rolls her eyes and waves back, unable to keep the slight smile from her face.

Music begins playing and Toby starts singing about how in love he suddenly is with Cinderella slash Laura Bell, and Allison will admit that she's pretty impressed. She's seen Toby perform before, but it was a long time ago, she thinks – the last time she can remember seeing him is (ironically) when he played Link in the winter production of Hairspray in their sophomore year. Laura, of course, didn't play Tracy – the almost tradition of the two playing each other's love interests only began the summer of that year when they were cast as Danny and Sandy in Grease, which Allison didn't see, but Lydia did – apparently it was very good, and a blonde Danny (i.e. Toby) was one of the best things she'd seen in at least five years.

At any rate, yeah, Allison is impressed, although she would never tell Toby that if that was the last thing she did; it's not Toby singing and dancing with Laura Bell, it's a smooth, suave Prince Charming that she doesn't think the real Toby Martin could ever actually be. The two of them are perfect in a way that makes Allison snort in amusement, especially when Laura starts singing in response to Toby, voice gentle and lilting and fitting with his like the missing piece of a puzzle.

The number ends, and they carry on, Cinderella and the Prince continuing with their dialogue as others hustle and bustle, some dancing and some having pretend conversations. Allison glances at her phone and realises her free period is almost up; she knows if she's late to History, her teacher will have a lot to say about it. She leaves as Toby is telling Laura how enchanted he is by her, and practically walks straight into Lydia on her way out.

"Watch where you're – oh, Allison," Lydia moves her hands up to grip her best friend's shoulders. "There you are. What's up?"

"What?"

"I was asking you if you're okay?" Lydia quirks a brow.

"I'm fine," Allison shakes her head. "Why?"

"Well, firstly, you don't look it," she replies. "Secondly, you just walked out of the auditorium, which I'm pretty sure you haven't been inside in at least a year and a half."

"I'm fine," she repeats. "I was just watching the Cinderella rehearsals."

"I see," Lydia says, smirking in a way that makes Allison roll her eyes and start to make her way to her next class. Lydia follows her, undeterred. "And did you like what you saw?"

"Laura's really good," Allison says lightly.

"I'm sure she is," Lydia equals her tone. Allison doesn't bother elaborating, and Lydia, for a change, doesn't push her to, either.

They reach her class first, and Lydia gives Allison's arm a squeeze as way of a goodbye. Allison turns to give her a half smile before continuing to her own class. Her teacher chastises her for arriving exactly on the bell, and Allison mumbles an apology before plonking herself down at the nearest empty desk, which happens to be the one right next to Jacob White, captain of the school's basketball team which hasn't won a match in three and a half years.

Jacob's a nice guy, though, and he gives her a nod when she sits down and doesn't hesitate to lend her a pen when Allison realises with not a little chagrin that hers has run out. Miss Lewis continues to explain why Eleanor Roosevelt was important and talk about whether or not they could compare her to Hillary Clinton. Allison stifles a yawn and begins to write.

✦

"So is Laura okay?"

Her and Toby have been reviewing their project so far, trying to make sure they'll be able to finish it by the deadline they've been set. At the moment, Toby has figured that if they watch two musicals a week and make sure to review them immediately after watching (instead of slacking off the video log, like they've unfortunately started to do once or twice), they should be okay.

Allison had taken the lull in their conversation as an opportunity to investigate what she'd seen in the cafeteria yesterday, only, judging by Toby's slightly shocked expression, she probably could've chosen a better way to do it. Whatever. Subtlety's never been her thing, anyway.

"Uh, what?"

"Laura," Allison repeats patiently. "I saw her crying yesterday. Is she okay?"

Toby stares at her for a moment, strangely, as though she's some kind of problem he hasn't solved, or maybe a road that keeps surprising him with quick turns and occasional dead ends. Then he smiles, shaking his head and turning back to the list. "Jesus, does anything get past you?"

"Wait, what?"

"You," Toby returns, pointing his pen in her direction. "And Lydia. It's like the two of you see everything."

Allison gets that Lydia can come off that way. She makes it her business to see and know everything. Even without that, her best friend is naturally observant – like Toby, in that respect. But Allison has never pegged herself as someone who's also that perceptive.

"No, I don't," she shakes her head. "I'm not, like, that attentive or anything, I just...I just noticed she was upset."

Toby purses his lips, as though wishing to disagree, but seems to decide against it, instead saying, "her boyfriend broke up with her."

"That college guy?"

He mutters something that sounds vaguely like not attentive my ass, but nods in confirmation. "Yeah. Him."

"Well, she can do way better than him anyway," Allison says, and she means it. It's not just that Laura's pretty much the most aesthetically perfect girl in their year, bar Lydia; the girl's nice. She's smart, and funny, and just a generally happy person who deserves an equally happy, smart person – not the surly, sullen kid from the less than stellar community college three blocks away that she'd somehow ended up with.

"She can," Toby agrees softly.

There's a long pause, before Allison begins to feel a smirk creep onto her lips. Before she knows it, she's elbowing Toby and saying, "well, here's your chance, Martin," in a teasing tone of voice. "Ready to sweep in and be her knight in shining armour?"

Toby laughs, happy and bright, and she realises with a jolt that it's the first time she's heard him do so in at least a few weeks. The knowledge that she did make him laugh makes something warm bloom in the pit of her stomach, and the smirk becomes more content than mocking. "I don't know about that," he says, but something in the undertone of his voice suggests to her that maybe he does. "I don't think Laura needs that right now."

"Sure she does," she prods him with the blunt end of her pencil. "Every girl needs a Toby Martin in her life."

"You think?" Toby asks with a chuckle.

"Oh, I know," she nods seriously. "I mean, you sing, you dance, you make doughnuts..." just on time, Laura walks into the library, sitting alone at a table a little way away from them.  Allison's smirk grows.

"Go get 'em, tiger," she practically pushes him off the seat, and he steadies himself by bracing a hand against their own table, shooting her a panicked look.

"Allison," he hisses. "You can't just –"

"I can, and I will," Allison is already packing Toby's things into his bag, ready for him to move them over to Laura's table.

"But we were –"

"We can finish it later."

"Allison!"

"Toby."

"She's – I can't just – she's busy –"

"Jesus God," Allison rolls her eyes. "You're acting as if you haven't already made out with her, like, ten billion times."

"That was for acting purposes," whispers Toby furiously, clearly scandalised. Allison watches his cheeks begin to turn pink with amusement.

"You're acting like you're in middle school," she informs him. "You and Laura are friends, aren't you? She needs a friend right now. With her tough breakup and all. Just go sit with her."

Toby scowls. "I don't like you."

"I know," Allison sings, flipping open her Biology textbook. "Bye, Toby."

He practically stomps off in the direction of Laura's table, and Allison stifles a laugh behind her hand. "That's my boy," she murmurs. 

__________________________________________________________________

a/n: sent 2 u w/ luv from egypt land of the pharaohs xoxo