▸ Starman - David Bowie

T H E  P O L L Y W O G

"What the hell is that thing?" I peered down at the creature in Dustin's hand.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna keep it." Dustin cupped his other hand on top of it. "Can you get something for me to put it in?"

"Dustin," I sighed. I grabbed the box that trapped the ghosts from the Ghost Busters movie and opened it with the button. Dustin beamed at me and gently placed the slug looking creature inside the box.

"Thanks, Dawny." Dustin nodded and quickly grabbed his sack of candy,  heading towards the front door.

"Wait, Dustin!" I hissed. He had already opened the door. "We don't know what that thing is!"

"I think we just discovered a new species Dawn." Dustin whispered as he opened the door further. The only thing illuminating the house were the lamps. "Now shush, Mom and Dad might be asleep already."

I quietly closed the door behind me. Dustin silently walked through the house with me on his tail. My little brother barely  stepped into the living room when his name was called. I immediately stopped behind him.

"Dusty!" Mom got up from the couch. Dustin froze. A smile grew on her face as she walked towards him. "Dusty, how was it?"

"How was what?" Dustin stammered. I rolled my eyes and walked up next to Mom. I pecked her cheek and picked up Mews.

"'How was what?' The greatest night of the year, of course." Mom told him, placing her hand against the wall.

"Oh. Oh, yeah, it was...it was, uh, tubular." Dustin nodded awkwardly.

"Tubular?" I perked an eyebrow biting back a laugh.

"What's wrong with you?" Mom softly asked, placing her hands on her hips in concern.

"Nothing." Dustin replied.

"Did something happen?" Mom pressed.

"No. What? No." Dustin shook his head, his voice going an octave higher.

"Are you constipated again?" Mom questioned. I chocked back a laugh, quickly covering it with a cough.  

"No. Mom!" Dustin glared at me.

"Okay, you're acting weird." Mom told him.

"I am not acting weird!" Dustin quickly defended himself. A thud came from the box the weird creature was in. Mom let out a small scream as she jumped back. "Whoa!"

Dustin started to laugh nervously, staring at the box. Mews hissed in my arms, pawing to get out. I placed him on the ground, not wanting to be clawed or bitten.

"Awesome, right? Yeah...I rigged the trap with, uh, a motor to make it look like I caught a ghost." Dustin smiled at Mom and I. "Just like the movie."

"Oh, Dusty." Mom laughed nervously.

"Yeah." Dustin laughed back. I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck, chuckling along. "Funny. Look at that. Look at that. Dawn has been having boy problems again."

"Dustin!" I looked at him with wide eyes.

"Oh, honey." Mom stopped laughing m. She placed a hand on my shoulder and pouted. "Let's talk about it, yeah?"

"But Dustin said he was going to split his candy with Danny and I." I blurted our, not wanting to talking about boy problems. Dustin gave me a cheeky grin before walking towards his room.

"Oh, he will split it evenly, right Dusty?" Mom called out. She started to lead me towards the couch.

"Yeah Mom!" Dustin yelled back. I frowned as my helped me sit down on the couch.

"Now, tell me what happened." Mom patted my knee.

"Boys suck, simple as that." I leaned back into the couch and crossed my arms.

"Boys don't suck, you just haven't found the right one, baby." Mom sent me a small smile. I sighed and brought my feet onto the couch.

"Well it looks like I have bad luck with them or something." I mumbled, deciding to lay down. Placing my head on Mom's lap, she started to run her fingers through my hair. "Billy was doing great until he made rude comments about Nancy and Steve. Nancy had drunk too much punch and Steve tried to stop her. They ended up spilling the punch on her white shirt."

"Oh dear, that's never going to come out." Mom frowned.

"Yeah." I nodded. "Anyways, I went to go check on them but Steve just walked out of the house. Said something about it being bullshit or something."

"Dawn." Mom scolded.

"Sorry, his words not mine." I raised my hands up in defense. "Then I just went home."

"What about Nancy?" Mom asked.

"What about her?" I looked up at my mom.

"Was she okay when you went to go check on her?"

"Oh my God." I shot up, worry flooding through my veins. "I forgot to check on her."

I cupped my face in disappointment and anger. Mom rubbed my back soothingly.

"How could I forget to check on her? I'm horrible!" I cried out, tears welling up in my eyes. "I need to call her, see if she's home or-"

"Johnathon took her home." Danny closed the door to the house and locked it. "They left right after you did."

"I should call her." I muttered, getting off the couch.

"You can talk to her tomorrow. It's already late and her mom probably already told her to go to sleep." Mom told me. "Go ahead and have one candy. Put the rest up, okay?"

"Okay." Danny nodded, walking over to me. He wrapped an arm around me and lead me to Dustin's room. Danny turned the knob of Dustin's door only for it to jiggle. "Dustin let us in."

"Is it just you and Dawn?" Dustin called from the other side of the door.

"Yes." I rolled my eyes. The door opened and Yertle walked up to my feet. I quickly picked up the tortoise and went to his terrarium. Where Yertle was supposed be, was the creature from outside. "Dustin..."

"Can one of you keep Yertle in your room?" Dustin begged.

"Why? And what the hell is that?" Danny pointed to the creature who was happily eating some sort of chocolate candy, which appeared to be 3 Musketeers.

"D'Artagan." Dustin smiled at us. "He's a new species I think. He loves nougat though."

"You sure he's a new species?" Danny crouched in front of the terrarium, eyeing the creature.

"He's got to be." Dustin bit into his candy bar. "Reptile for sure. He has two front legs and then a tail. D'Artagan must be a baby. Just don't know what type."

"Well, research it." I shrugged, lightly tapping the glass. D'Artagan let out a series of mewling noises as he did a little hop. A small smile spread across my lips. "Well...Dart is cute."

"Dart?" Dustin gave me a confused look.

"D'Artagan is a mouth full." I shrugged. Dart let out a chirp of sorts before chopping on the nougat. "See, he likes it."

"Fine, his nickname will be Dart."

▷

Earlier today at school, I had checked up on Nancy. She came late to school, missing first period. Nancy told me that she was fine and that she shirt was old anyways.

Nancy said that her and Steve were fine, besides him not picking her up this morning. It seemed to me that she didn't remember much of her drunken night and her argument with Steve.

It was now seventh period, which meant P.E. This was the only period I shared with Steve since it was the juniors and seniors in the class period. Most of the people in this period were athletes so the coach allowed those athletes to practice and the rest of us to do whatever.

Today, the boys decided to play basketball. Danny and Chad were playing on Steve's team, which were shirts. Billy was on the opposing team which were skins, that seemed to be both a blessing and a curse.

A blessing because I had full access to gawk at his abs.

A curse because I was currently mad at him.

"I know you may be mad at him, but damn, look at him." Rebecca nudged me. Amanda, Rebecca, and I were sitting in the stands. We were too lazy to do anything today.

"You're not helping, Becca." I glared at her.

"But she's right." Amanda nodded, starring at Billy's abs. "Oh so right."

"Don't you two have boyfriends?" I perked an eyebrow. The both of them hummed and nodded. "Whom, might I add, both have abs?"

"Sh." Amanda smacked my shoulder lazily. "It never hurts too look."

"I think you're drooling." I chuckled with an eye roll.

"What? Really?" Amanda looked at me with wide eyes and wiped the back of her hand against her mouth. Rebecca and I laughed. Huffing, Amanda looked at Chad. "You guys suck."

Shaking my head in amusement, I turned my focus back to the game. Steve had the ball. Billy had marked him, pressing his body against Steve's to try and get the ball. They seemed to be talking before Billy got the ball. Steve, who seemed to have either trip or be pushed, ended up falling to the ground.

Chad ran down the court to catch up to Billy. Steve had quickly gotten to his feet to try and catch up to Billy, but he was too late. Billy did a lay up, letting the ball go through the net.

"Whoo! That's what I'm talking about! Whoo!" Someone cheered.

Billy and Steve looked at each other. Hargrove licked his lips with a smirk before his gaze drifted up to meet mine. He gave me a wink. I bit my lip to keep myself from smiling.

"Steve!" Nancy called out.

I averted my gaze towards Steve to see he was looking between Billy and I with a clenched jaw. When his girlfriend called him, he turned to face her. Nancy waved him over. Rolling his neck, Steve jogged towards Nancy and the both of them left the gym.

"Wonder what that was about." I muttered.

"Wait, which thing? The Nancy and Steve thing?" Rebecca smirked. "Or Steve looking jealous about you and Billy?"

"Steve was not jealous." I rolled my eyes. "He was, and probably still is, shocked that I'm talking to someone like Billy."

"He's jealous." Amanda sang out.

"And he and Nancy are probably going through something." I continued.

"Now you're making excuses." Rebecca laughed. "You know deep deep down that Steve is jealous and that he has feelings for you."

"No, he doesn't." I ran a hand through my hair. "Can we just watch the game?"

Billy dribbled passed Chad, who spun around and tried to catch up to him. Danny cut in front of him, waving his arms to try and block Billy. Hargrove, twirled around him and made a three pointer. The cocky smirk never leaving his face.

"Why is it that California Boy seems to be dominating the court?" Amanda crossed her arms. "Why do our boyfriends suddenly suck at this game?"

"Maybe because Billy is showing off." Becca suggested, her gaze finding me. I scoffed and lightly shoved her. "What it's true! He's looking at you every time he scores."

"Which is like every two minutes." Manda grumbled.

"Someone go get Harrington!" Rick, the captain of the JV basketball team demanded. One of the boys ran off court to go get Steve.

A minute later, the boy came back with Steve. The Shirts all grumbled at Steve as he made it onto to court. Danny passed the ball to Steve who quickly dribbled it down the court. He was about to do a lay up when Billy smacked it out of his hand.

Billy grabbed the ball and dribbled it to the other side of the court. He passed it to a senior as he ran around Danny. The senior passed it back to Billy who ran up to the net and dunked it.

"That was for you, Babe!" Billy hollered. He gave me a cheeky grin and a wave. Danny, Chad, and Steve gathered near the center of the court. Their chests were heaving as they tried to catch their breaths. The three of them all glared at Billy.

I sent Billy a small smile before biting my lip. Steve glanced up at me with an unreadable expression. Clenching his jaw, he turned around and shook his head.

"Alright, start getting dressed! You got fifteen minutes before the bell rings!" Coach yelled. People started to flood toward the locker rooms. The girls and I grabbed our things and made our way down the bleachers.

"Babe!" Billy jogged up towards me. "Hey."

"Hi." I bluntly replied.

"Come on. Don't tell me you're still pissed at me because of last night." Billy scoffed.

"Yeah, I am." I stopped and faced him. "And what the hell was that out there? It was like you were trying to rub it in Steve's face or something."

"I was. I have everything that he had. You got a problem with that?" Billy crossed his arms.

"Of fucking course I have a problem with that! I'm not some girl you can flaunt in people's faces whenever you want to." I jabbed my finger at his sweaty chest.  Billy blinked in surprise and took a step back. "I said we can be friends for now and see what happens from there. It's like you've been showing me off as your girl when we're just friends. I can handle the nickname, but don't show me off as some conquered trophy just because you have beef with Steve."

"Fine, it's not like I actually wanted to be your friend anyways." Billy shook his head. I froze, my heart stopping.

"What?" I uttered, looking into his cold blue eyes.

"You're just some pretty girl who I wanted to sleep with." Billy shrugged coldly. My heart fell. "And you seem to be too demanding, you're not even worth it."

Billy shoved passed me, his shoulder bumping into mine. Tears welled up in my eyes as my throat felt like closing up. Taking a deep breath in, I pivoted on my feet.

"Fuck you, Billy. Go screw with someone else. I don't need an asshole like you in my life anyways." I shouted and walked away. People were murmuring. I shoved passed the parting crowd, clenching my hands into fists.

Rebecca and Amanda pushed through the crowd to follow me. They called out my name as I existed the gym. Tears started to stream down my face before I ran towards the gap between the front gym and the back gym.

I leaned against the brick wall and slid down. A choked sob broke through as I sat down on the grass. I brought up my knees and wrapped my arms around them.

"Dawn!" Someone screamed.

"Dawn!"

I continued to ignore them, placing my chin on top of my knees.

"There she is." Loud footsteps herded towards me. "Hey, you okay?"

"Can we just go?" I sniffed.

"Yeah, of course." Rebecca rubbed my shoulder. "Come on. We can pick up some shakes, yeah?"

"We don't need to do band practice today." Chad added.

"Even if we have a gig soon?" I muttered, wiping my eyes.

"Yeah, even then." Chad nodded. "We've been practicing enough. This is more important than a gig."

"Let's get you up." Amanda grabbed a hold of my arm while Rebecca grabbed the other. They helped me stand up.

"Where's Danny?" I asked, noticing that he wasn't with us.

"He, um, went at Billy. Steve managed to pull him away and it trying to calm him down." Chad responded.

"Oh." I blinked.

"Let's go meet him in the parking lot, okay?" Manda rubbed my back. I nodded as the girls looked their arms into mine. Chad grabbed a hold of my tosses backpack and slinger it onto his shoulder.

We walked towards the parking lot only to see Billy go into his car with Evelyn, a girl from our History class. They drove passed us, Billy giving me a frown when he noticed my tear stricken face.

Okay so I had time today to updated another chapter:)

If I keep going like this, hopefully I will be done with part two before schools out which gives me time for season 3

Who is ready for season 3 cuz I'm stoked!

Until next time
Much love,
Lux