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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʜᴏᴍᴇᴛᴏᴡɴ ʜᴇʀᴏ ꒱


❝ HOW MUCH WORSE
CAN IT GET? ❞

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Jack was doodling on Juliet's notebook and the girl pushed his hand away multiple times in an attempt to thwart his efforts in messing up her notes. This only encouraged the boy and caused the redhead to giggle whenever he was successful. 

"Stop it, Jackie," she protested as he drew a straight-ish line. "Don't draw anything obscene."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Ocean Eyes," he answered with a smirk, curving his line into an oblong shape that resembled a certain. . . male body part.

"Jack!" the girl exclaimed as warmth rushed to her face. The blond ignored her and continued the parallel line to connect it to a strange sort of circle with two large, squiggly shapes attached on either side. 

"It's just an elephant," he reprimanded her gently. "Don't be so dirty-minded."

"Whatever," she huffed as the bell rang.

"Don't forget, lab reports by the end of the day. No extensions, no exception. Any sad stories, you can try. I'm always up for a laugh," their teacher reminded the class.

As Juliet put her books in her bag, Jack swung his over his shoulder and waited so he could wrap an arm around her. "You wanna know why chemistry's my favorite class?"

"Sure, why?"

He leaned over and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "'Cause we have it together."

The redhead beamed happily at him as they walked towards the door, only for their progress to be stopped by Dr. Sorrell. "Jack, I wanted to make sure you didn't need an extension? I know with your travelling writing a paper can be hard, so there's no need to worry about the deadline if you can't make it—"

"Not to worry, Dr. Sorrell," Jack stopped the man. He swung his bag down and rooted through it. "It's right here." He passed his folder to their teacher, who gave a nod of approval.

"I can return this to you right now with an A if you'd like," Dr. Sorrell offered.

"No, it's alright," the blond reassured him, "it's some of my best work."

"Then I'll be delighted to read it. Now, is your girlfriend all set with her own paper?"

"Yes, his girlfriend is," Juliet interrupted them, "I put it on your desk before class began."

"Excellent. I'll see you two next class then."

"Bye, Dr. Sorrell," they said in unison before the pair exited the classroom.

Across the room, Shawn and Cory watched the exchange and then the following one with the jock, Tommy.

"That's not fair," Shawn grumbled as he glared at the door where Jack had left. "Montacute gets in his good books 'cause he's rich and then Julie's there by association."

"Yeah, well, at least they did their work," Cory said, "he let that jock off the hook without proof."

"I didn't even know there was a paper. So, what do we tell Sorrell?"

"The truth."

"And what is it this time?" Shawn asked.

"That aliens abducted us," Cory answered.

"And ate our papers," the dark-haired boy added.

"Good. We've got our stories straight." The pair went up to talk to their teacher as the jock was finishing up.

"Hey, Dr. Sorrell—"

"No," the man cut them off flatly.

"You know what?" Cory said, "why don't I handle this because Dr. Sorrell and I have the kind of close-knit relationship that goes way beyond student-teacher. I mean, we are very tight."

🌎🌎🌎

Later that night, the two boys climbed through the window as Cory complained the whole time. "He didn't even know my name."

"What are you so upset about?" Shawn asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Could it be staying up all night to finish my paper?"

"Maybe if we actually took Julie's advice and did our papers on time—" Shawn started, but then he rolled his eyes. "Who am I kidding?"

"Could it be breaking into school so my paper's not late?" Cory continued as if the other boy hadn't spoken. "Or could it be losing half my pants on the barbed wire?"

"I don't know why you didn't just walk through the gates like I did," Shawn said.

"It was too easy. It looked like a trap."

"Come on, let's look over here," the dark-haired boy suggested.

"You know what bugs me the most?" Cory asked, "Tommy the football hero gets a free ride for throwing a stupid lucky touchdown, Jack the rich kids gets one for being, well, rich, and Juliet gets one beca—"

"Don't rag on Julie, Cory," Shawn warned him, "and let me tell you something about breaking and entering. You usually don't hang around and vent while you're doing it but while we're at it, I'll join you in throwing dirt on Montacute."

"You're only jealous because he's with Juliet," Cory pointed out. "You don't actually care that he got a free ride."

"Please, Cory, I'm not jealous," Shawn scoffed.

"Yes, and I'm an eight hundred pound gorilla," Cory said sarcastically. "Shawn, everybody knows that you like Juliet except for Juliet. Can I get back to what I was saying? Tommy's only fooling himself if he thinks this hero's stuff is gonna carry him through life."

"Oh, yeah, Troy Aikman and Bill Gates are really hurting."

"All I'm saying is, he's heading for a fall if he believes his own hype."

"C'mon," Shawn sighed, "let's just put our papers on the desk and get out of here" He took out his paper. "We are home free," then, his flashlight went out. "Uh-oh."

"Okay, okay. But I need a flashlight."

"We need matches now. Alright, we're in a chem lab, there's gotta be matches around here somewhere, right?" Cory asked as he looked around. Then he spotted them. "Ta-da, matches!"

"As some famous guy once said: let there be light," Shawn remarked.

Cory lit the match box by accident, causing a bigger flame than he intended. "Ow, ow, ow," he yelled as he ran to the trashcan and tossed them in there. The entire bin caught on fire.

"Backdraft!" Shawn yelled, and the two boys scrambled out the window.

Once they were safely on the ground, Cory turned to his best friend. "Was the fire out when you left?"

"It's a trashcan fire. It'll go out by itself or tomorrow when they take out the trash," he answered.

"Shawn, Shawn, it's a chemistry lab. Chemicals explode."

"Oh no, this is bad."

"This is really bad," Cory agreed.

"No, no, no. I ended my paper 'in conclusion, chemicals don't explode.'" He looked up to see the curly-haired boy climbing the ladder. "Hey, where are you going?"

"To save the school."

"Hey, while you're in there can you change the ending on my paper?"

🌎🌎🌎

"I'm still scared," Cory was saying as Juliet approached her two best friends.

"About what?" she asked, causing Cory to shriek and jump.

"Don't do that!"

"Sorry. Why are you scared?"

"No reason," Shawn said hurriedly, "hey, did you hear what Cory did?"

The redhead frowned at the boy's obvious lie. "Um, no?"

"I started—"

"He saved the school from a fire," Shawn interrupted him, "he's a hero."

Juliet turned her gaze on the curly-haired boy, wanting to believe Shawn's story but she knew him better than anyone and could tell he wasn't telling her the whole truth. "Is that true, Cor?"

The boy hesitated before he leaned over to hiss: "you know I can't lie, Shawn."

The dark-haired boy gave her a winning smile as he hissed back: "just do it, Cory."

But this was Juliet, their best friend. He already had one secret from her and he couldn't cope with two. "No," he admitted with a sigh, "Shawn and I forgot about the chemistry paper so we snuck into school last night to turn it in. It was dark and I'm bad with matches but I pulled the alarm to make sure no one was hurt."

Juliet's eyes widened. "Cory!"

"Hey," Shawn said sharply, "don't give him a hard time, Miss I-can-turn-in-my-paper-whenever-I-want."

"What if someone caught you?" she asked in a similar tone. "Don't you know—"

"No one caught us. We got away with it," Shawn cut her off, "we pulled the alarm, the school didn't burn down, we got our papers in. And the beauty? Nobody knows."

"Hey, you two," Janitor Bud's voice made them turn. "I know."

"What do you know?" Cory asked.

"I know what you did last night. You, Curly, come with me."

The boy gave his friends a nervous look. "Guys?"

"Quick, rub off your DNA," Shawn told him. Juliet sighed but chose to not to correct him. 

"Come on," she said instead, and they followed after the pair.

"This is the guy," Janitor Bud announced when they entered the classroom. "After the fire alarm rang, I saw him running down the hall."

"Mr. Matthews, is it true?" Mr. Feeny asked.

"Well, if he says he saw me then I guess he saw me."

"Alright, Matthews. Attaboy!" Mr. Turner congratulated him.

"Attaboy?"

"You betcha. I was asleep in my office. Well, closet. The alarm woke me up and saved my life. If it wasn't for your courageous action, today some other janitor would be sweeping me up."

The class applauded as Mr. Williams said, "sounds to me like the little fella's a hero."

"Yeah, it does sound that way, doesn't it, Cory?" Shawn asked as he walked over to him. He gave the red-haired girl a look that clearly said 'stay out of this.'

"Irony," Cory answered.

Mr. Feeny came over to them. "Well, how fortunate for us that you were passing by the school at that moment."

"Yeah, it was," the boy agreed.

"What exactly were you doing out there?"

"Oh, I don't know. Just one of those right places at the right time things."

"And am I glad he was. Anybody who saves my life is okay in my book," Janitor Bud told him.

🌎🌎🌎

"I can't believe Matthews is a hero," Jack said at lunch that day. "I mean, he was always a decent guy but he saved the school."

Juliet bit her lip as she remembered Shawn's look from earlier. "Yeah, yeah he is."

Jack gave her a concerned look. "You okay, Ocean Eyes?"

The girl sighed as she broke open her Oreos, the chocolate cookie reminding her of simpler times. "Have you ever felt like the person you're closest to is shutting you off? That no matter what you do, you've done something wrong but you don't know what it is and can't fix it?"

"Um, no," the blond admitted, "sorry. You can talk about it more if you want, though."

The redhead shrugged as she scraped off the white icing. "It's just that I feel like I'm losing my best friends. They tried to keep a secret from me earlier but Cory broke. I mean, he really can't keep a secret unless you threaten him, but still. We used to tell each other everything."

"Hunter wanted to keep it from you?"

Juliet looked up from her food to stare at the boy with wide eyes. "How'd you know?"

"I know his type," Jack explained. "He— he didn't want to tell you because he cares about you."

"That makes no sense," the girl stated with a frown.

"It does," the boy reassured her, "I— I can't explain it without giving away things he probably doesn't want you to know, but I get where he's coming from I think." 

Juliet gave him a dubious look. "If you say so," she answered, unconvinced. She returned to her Oreos without another word and stacked the cookies one on top of the other to toss them in the trash.

The blond gave his girlfriend a worried look as she concentrated on her meal. A part of him wanted to smack Hunter for making her feel this way when she was clearly missing her best friend but he knew where the boy was coming from. It was how he, Jack, had felt when he'd watched Juliet have a crush on Hunter.

It was easier to push those that you cared about away to avoid the hurt than to feel it yourself when you were around them.

🌎🌎🌎

Juliet joined Topanga and Shawn in the cafeteria as the school celebrated Cory's heroism. One of the jocks that Mr. Sorrel liked, Tommy, was speaking into the mic: "a lot of people think I'm a big deal around here because I throw touchdown passes, and I am. But I wouldn't have a field to do it on if it wasn't for this guy," he motioned to Cory. "So this Saturday, we're dedicating our big game to our inspiration, Cory Matthews. So here to introduce the man of the hour is his brother, Eric," he trailed off and leaned over to whisper, "what's your last name?"

"It's Matthews."

"Wow, same as your brother's."

"It's weird, huh?" Eric laughed as he replaced Tommy. "Okay, I'd like to start off with a mega-big Patriots hello to all of my fellow students— especially you, Christine Wingate. I see you looking at me. Cory Matthews. Cory Matthews. Cory Matthews. Now, what can I say except, well, last week Stephanie and I broke up so I am currently single and available. Call me. Cory Matthews, a hero."

As the audience applauded, Cory stepped up to the mic. "Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Tommy. My fellow heroes. I've been asked to tell my story, to give the football team a little shot in the arm," Cory coughed fakely, causing Juliet to roll her eyes. "Excuse me, I still have some smoke in my lungs. Now, you guys are playing this weekend and you're scared, because the other guys are bigger than you. Well, last night my friends, those flames were a lot bigger than me," he waited for the applause to die down again, "but did I run away?"

"No!" the crowd answered.

"That's right, my friends. Because if you're gonna succeed in business, or on the gridiron, you have got to believe you can do it. Remember, there's a little Cory Matthews inside each and every one of you." Dead silence met his words causing the boy to add, "it's a metaphor."

As the audience applauded a final time, Topanga leaned over to Shawn and Juliet. "Isn't it great what's happening to Cory? Everybody loves him."

The football team chanted Cory's name as they picked him up.

"And somebody wanted me to keep quiet," the redhead remarked pointedly as she eyed Shawn's annoyed look.

🌎🌎🌎

"This was the greatest day of my life," Cory bragged as Juliet and Shawn followed him home. "Do you think the student council can really do it?"

"What?"

"Get the school named after me. Cory Adams High," he grinned proudly.

"It would be Cory Matthews High, idiot," Juliet corrected him.

"Look, Cory, I'm glad you're having a free ride and all, but—" Shawn began.

"What, Shawn, what?"

"Well, I just want to make sure you still have your feet on the ground."

"I'll be surprised if you can even fit your head through the door," the redhead commented dryly, earning a slightly hurt look from the curly-haired boy.

"You know, it sounds like you guys are trying to rain on my parade— which I believe is on Tuesday."

"I'm just saying what you said. You know, don't buy into your own hype," Shawn explained.

"Shawn, this is different, alright? I'm just letting people think what they want to think. It's not like I'm gonna walk in this door— which I can fit through, thank you very much— and lie to my parents," Cory answered.

When they opened the door, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews yelled "surprise!" as they stood under a large banner that read 'Cory is our hero.'

"Why is he always wrong?" Juliet murmured as Cory took in the sight.

"For me?"

"Yes, there's the man that saved the school!" Mr. Matthews cheered.

"Eric told you?"

"I didn't have to."

"Hey, everybody told us. That phone hasn't stopped ringing all day."

"Well, then why didn't you just answer it?" Shawn asked.

Juliet sighed and buried her face in her hands as Mrs. Matthews said, "so Cory, tell us everything."

"Well, Mom, dad, I don't know what you guys have exactly heard, but here's what really happened. . ." he paused to look between his best friends— Juliet, looking exasperated and Shawn, who was watching him carefully— before he continued: "I was walking back from Chubbie's when I saw the flames. I didn't have time to think. The next thing I know, I'm running into the building. . ."

🌎🌎🌎

"Hey, you guys didn't stay for dinner last night," Cory said as he joined Juliet and Shawn.

"I couldn't stomach it over your blatant lies," the redhead said bluntly.

"I wasn't hungry," Shawn agreed more tactfully.

"Look, I know you guys are mad at me and I didn't want to lie to my parents but I figured that if I'd told them the truth it would have made things a lot worse, y'know?" Cory asked.

"Sure you're not getting off on this whole thing?" Shawn asked.

"Shawn, I'm just giving the people what they want. I mean, I don't want to disappoint them."

"Disappoint them?" Juliet asked disbelievingly.

"Listen to my morning, listen to this," the boy pulled out a piece of paper. "Photo shoot with the homecoming queen. Sushi with Dr. Sorrel. Then I gotta fight traffic to greet the new exchange students at the airport. I don't know how to make it stop."

"You could just tell them no," Shawn suggested.

"Well, I'm afraid to do that."

"Why?" the redhead asked.

"'Cause I don't want to go back to being the same old Cory Matthews."

"And what was wrong with him?" Juliet wondered.

"Jules, I've been at this school for two years and people still call me Eric's brother, Juliet's friend, Shawn's Mercutio or my favorite, 'hey kid, move.'"

"Cory, aren't you afraid this whole hero thing's getting out of control?"

"Look, I lied to my school, I lied to my folks, how much worse can it get, right?"

"Famous last words," Juliet observed as she watched Mr. Williams and Mr. Turner walk up to them.

"Matthews, how would you like to tell the rest of Philadelphia what a hero you are?"

"There you are," Shawn agreed with the redhead.

"Eli called some of his buddies and arranged for an appearance on Philadelphia Tonight," Mr. Turner announced.

"They want me on TV?"

"Not just you. They want your whole family. They'll be at your house tonight," Mr. Williams said.

"Huh? How great is that?"

"Excuse me," Cory told the two teachers before he used his clicker to repeatedly open and close his locker as he banged it against his head.

"Famous people, they're all weird," Mr. Williams sighed.

"Come on, Eli. He's just nervous. I mean, he can save a guy from a burning building but he's scared of a little TV camera. It's almost cute."

As the two men walked away, Juliet gave them a weirded-out look. "Their definition of 'cute' is very different than mine."

"Only 'cause you know the truth, Julie," Shawn said.

"Probably," the redhead agreed, thinking that cute was better defined as Shawn Hunter before she shook her head. "Look, Cor, you don't have to do it even if you did bring this on yourself."

"I've reached my limit," he said, "I can't do it."

"You can't do what, Mr. Matthews?" Mr. Feeny asked as he joined the group.

"Cory's gonna be on TV," Shawn answered.

"What on earth for?"

"They just want him to tell the whole story about the fire," Shawn said.

"Oh, wonderful. I've also been waiting for him to tell the whole story."

Cory shifted nervously. "Well Mr. Feeny, I think you pretty much know everything."

"Perhaps you're right," he replied as he continued to his office.

"What did he mean by that?" the boy asked anxiously.

"Oh, it's Feeny. Three years and I still don't understand a word he says."

"You don't understand a word anyone says over age twenty," Juliet told him.

Shawn gave her a slightly offended look. "I do too!"

"Do not."

"Do too!"

🌎🌎🌎

Cory paced nervously in his room as the TV crew arrived. "Well, there's no going back now. The news van has pulled up," he glanced out of his window. "They're bringing in the cameras, cables, lights. Ooh."

"What?"

"Bagels," he added more happily, "you know what? I'm glad you guys are here with me for this."

"Where else would I be, Gomez?" Shawn asked as he glanced at the redhead. "Though some of us might have had other plans."

Juliet shot him an irritated look. "No matter how stupid you guys are, you know I'll always be there for moral support."

The dark-haired boy rolled his eyes at her response before he continued, "I mean, I'm partly to blame. I'm the one who told you to ride this whole thing."

"So you're gonna go on TV with me?"

"And lie to the entire city? What kind of idiot would do something like that?" Shawn asked.

Eric joined them. "Half hour to our debut, boys and girl."

"Our debut? Eric, what are you talking about?" Cory asked.

"I'll tell you what I'm talking about. Rich Herrera."

"What?"

"Rich Herrera. He's the weather guy on Philly Tonight. He is such a lame-o, but when the TV audience gets a load of me Herrera's out, Matthews is in. Bet you that's not in his five-day forecast, huh?"

"But everybody loves Rich Herrera," Shawn told him.

"Hey, he is nothing but a head of hair and a winning smile," he pushed his hair back. "So. How do I look?"

"Head of hair, winning smile."

"Yes! I am so the new weatherman," Eric cheered.

"Eric, what if this TV thing didn't happen tonight?" Cory asked his brother.

"What are you saying?"

"Well, what if I told you that I'm not really a hero? That I'm the one who started the fire and this whole thing kind of snowballed?"

"You're protecting Herrera, aren't you?" Eric demanded.

🌎🌎🌎

"Guys, this is the low point of my life. I mean, after this I am going straight to hell," Cory complained dramatically as they waited downstairs. "And you know what the worst part is?"

"What?"

"They'll expect me to put out the fire."

"Well, we're here for you, Cor—" Juliet started before Shawn grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the food table. Juliet reached for a bagel as Shawn began to load food into his bag. "Shawn!"

"What? It's not like they're gonna eat all of this!"

"Uh, excuse me, are you two part of this?" one of the crew asked.

"Yeah, I helped start the fire," Shawn told him and the man shrugged before he walked off.

Juliet reached out and grabbed the boy's arm. "You can't take all of this."

"Sure I can. I don't have a rich boyfriend to give me things for free."

The redhead sighed. "We're not doing this now, are we?"

"I'm not doing anything," Shawn said, "I'm sure Jackie boy takes great care of you."

"I really don't get why you dislike him so much. He's a good person."

"He's rich, Julie. How good can he be?" the boy scoffed, "he's had it easy his whole life and now he gets it even better. I obviously can't compare to him."

"Oh, Shawn—" the redhead began.

"Don't 'oh, Shawn' me, Julie," he said irritably, "I'm fine."

🌎🌎🌎

Shawn's bitterness towards Jack was still present at school the next day and Juliet made sure to stand several feet away from him as Janitor Bud took down Cory's fancy locker.

"Janitor Bud, how can you take away his locker genie?" Shawn asked, "he still saved your life."

"Okay, I owe you my life, but Feeny signs the checks. Clicker," he held his hand out for the remote. "Mrs. Fraud?" he asked Topanga, who gave it to him.

Cory closed his locker as the older man walked away. "Well, so much for the perks."

"Come on, Cory. Would you rather go back to being a hero again?" Topanga asked.

"Nah, I'm just happy being plain old Cory," the boy said as he wrapped his arms around Topanga and Shawn. "I mean, look. I got my best friends, I got my girlfriend—"

"Hey, kid, move," Tommy said, cutting him off.

"I even got my old name back."

"Even if people keep thinking you're gonna die a terrible death?" Juliet asked as she walked next to Topanga.

"Well, how much worse could my life get?" he wondered.

"Hey, Dr. Sorrel," Tommy stopped their chemistry teacher. "I got practice tomorrow, do you think—"

"Oh, sure, Tommy. Miss the lab, take all the time you need," as the boy walked away, his eyes caught sight of the group. "Jack's girlfriend," he greeted the redhead with a nod. Juliet rolled her eyes as Cory walked up to him. 

"Oh, Dr. Sorrel, hey. Um, listen. I'm glad I ran into you. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and here's a note from my mom."

"Tell someone who cares," their teacher answered as he walked away.

"It's good to be me," Cory said happily. 

[written dec. 2020]
[edited may 2022]