To Tame the Brown Bucking Spider

By OrangeFlips

Chapter Five

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Detention was lame. Being so early in the year and in such a prestigious school, there weren't many stranded off in detention-land, one of the unfortunate few being Phillip Brownwell, of course. He might have deserved it, but he really felt as though he was going slightly crazy. And it was all because of stupid, annoying Nathaniel Snyder.

Oh, yes, he'd made up his mind now. He was giving up on Nathaniel Snyder! And why had he told his friend Kayla about all the evil things Nathaniel did as soon as he saw her? Because he was protecting her, of course! Nathaniel was the epitome of evil, like that pearl in John Steinbeck's book The Pearl. Anyone could see that an evil inanimate object was as dumb as dumb as... well, an evil inanimate object! And Nathaniel Snyder was as dumb as that evil pearl, making himself dumb as well! He smiled at his logic.

Wait what? He paused for a moment, confused, before continuing to scrape the gum from the bottom of the desk. It was gross, really, how much gum there was under the table.

"You know, the Pearl wasn't really dumb," a soft voice chuckled behind him.

"And who are you?" Phillip graveled, annoyed. He turned to glare at the commenter – blond hair and ice-blue eyes – and felt his eyes linger slightly on the other.

Did Phillip just find another Adonis? No, there was only one Adonis! Adonis was a name of a sex god, not something to be pluralized! Yet Phillip couldn't help but wonder...

The Adonis (or was that Adonis 2?) was speaking. "Stan. Stan Buckley." he smiled warmly. "But from what I heard, your connection with this Nathaniel Snyder and the Pearl seems... faulty. See, the Pearl was an enchantress of sorts, luring the simple-minded humans into her beauty and her grace. The greedy humans all wanted her. It was not the Pearl's fault that she was so desired, rather, it was the human's fault for holding beauty up so high as far as wanting to steal and murder to obtain it. As with Nathaniel Snyder, he seems to be a desired person, and lures others in, playing with them before casting them off and subconsciously hurting them. Girls fight over him, even when he's no good, because he's just that way. A Pearl is beautiful, but nothing more. It cannot learn, do housework, or help anything. All it does is be beautiful. The Pearl was something to be desired – a harmless trophy – yet humans caused her to be portrayed as... evil."

"But... they're evil! They said in the book that the Pearl was evil! And I think luring people in and playing around with them is evil too!"

"Haven't you ever considered..." Stan replied softly, staring intensely into Phillip's eyes, "That that's all he can do? It may look like he's just fooling around, but really... he's testing you to see if you're worthy of his love. Worthy of her beauty."

Phillip fidgeted a bit, scraping the dried gum idly off the floor this time.

Stan cleared his throat after their twenty minutes had past, standing up and walking towards the door. Phillip soon followed suit, and as they opened their door to the outside and freedom, he blurted out. "Phillip. I'm Phillip."

Stan nodded. "I know. Next time, don't go leaving poor cross-dressers without transportation on the street, okay? It's a little... evil, as you might say."

Wait, what? How did he know? Confused again, Phillip blushed, before rushing away.

Nathaniel saw Phillip as he rounded the corner to the parking lot in the back. Most of the cars were gone by now, but there were still a fair amount of cars parked to prevent Phillip from seeing him from far away. He could see a blond getting in his old Sudan a few parking spots away.

And then he was here. There seemed to be a slight... pink blush on Phillip's cheeks, and Nathaniel laughed at the idea that Phillip blushed whenever he saw him. And then, he saw that Phillip hadn't even noticed him yet, and got a wee bit jealous. Who else could make Phillip blush?

Well, okay, maybe Phillip was an easy guy to make blush, but he couldn't help but feel a wee bit green...

"Hello." he nodded, looking at Phillip. Phillip looked up, startled, but did not say anything. Silence. And then Nathaniel realized Phillip was waiting for him to make the next move.

"Would you like to take me for a ride?" he asked, leaning on the side of the car.

"Excuse me?" Phillip looked confused.

"To the lake. It'll be nice." Nathaniel prodded, smiling gently.

And to his surprise and delight, Phillip nodded, moving to unlock the car door.

"You know." Phillip said thoughtfully as the radio rapped to its heart's content, "You remind me of the Pearl."

"Hm." Nathaniel replied, staring out the window. Phillip was certainly weird, first stalking him, and then calling him Paullard, and now, comparing him to a sissy thing that a clam and a grain of sand made and girls obsessed over?

Oh well.

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Tyler had been hanging around at Stan's house a lot now lately, even when Stan himself wasn't there. Stan had said that he was welcome any time, and Tyler took that quite literally. Too literally, others would argue, but Stan didn't mind. He liked having the brown-haired boy around, even if Tyler refused to hold a conversation with him most of the time. It was comforting seeing Tyler there when he returned from the arcade, from visits to his old friends, from dates with girls...

After a week, Tyler already seemed like a constant in Stan's life, often sitting in the corner, eyes staring at the glowing screen of his laptop as he typed away like a madman, and subconsciously stroking his external hard drive rather comfortingly, like a cat. He had even gone as far as to affectionately name his external hard drive 'Stan', when the older boy had teased him about his 'pet'.

Tyler had once admitted rather bashfully to Stan that this hard drive was his life, and that he could not live without it. It held his purpose to life – all his files, pictures... everything. Stan was both slightly disturbed and pleased at this admission. He did not believe that an electronic device should be one's life, but was pleased nonetheless, because if the transitive property applied in this situation, he would be Tyler's life.

"Nathaniel spoke to me a few days ago," Tyler spoke from his corner.

There was silence for a moment, as Stan finished his train of thought on his English essay, before replying, "Is that so?"

"He was asking about Phillip."

Phillip. Although there were many Phillips at the school, there was only one that Tyler would speak of so... bitterly. He was just as Tyler said he was: arrogant, naïve, and a little bit... well, slow. He thought for a moment, before writing down a few more words.

Tyler looked at Stan. "How did your conversation with him at detention go?"

Stan froze slightly, pen hovering over the paper. "It... went fine." Tyler wasn't lying when he said he knew everything.

"Explain. Please."

"We talked about the Pearl, you know, the book by John Steinbeck, and how it's evil and how it related to Nathaniel Snyder. That boy is obsessed, it's almost scary. He was talking about how the Pearl was evil and so therefore Nathaniel was evil too. Eccentric kid, he is." He chuckled slightly.

Tyler did not laugh. "I heard you talked to him about a certain cross-dressing person."

Stan frowned, hearing the steel in Tyler's voice. He was in 'defense mode'. After taking so long to coax Tyler out of defense mode, the walls were suddenly back up. What did he do wrong? All he did was mention something to Phillip that Phillip already knew.

"Why, yes I did. Is there anything wrong with that?" he asked tentatively.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't." Tyler replied, an edge in his voice.

"What harm did I do anyways?" Stan frowned. Tyler was being difficult.

"... just... I don't know. Maybe I should go."

"Wait, no... I'm sorry?" Stan asked, looking helplessly at Tyler as he walked away from him. And then suddenly, as Tyler was passing Stan to get to the window, he clasped onto Stan and squinted his eyes painfully. His eyes had glazed over, and Stan stared at him in slight horror.

And then suddenly, it was over. Tyler was muttering an apology, and... gone. Walked right out the door when Stan was in a daze.

Stan felt oddly empty. But it wasn't as though he could do anything, he reasoned with himself. Tyler was his own person, and could do whatever he wished.

Still, he wanted him back.

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Phillip was rather confused, but that wasn't much of a surprise. What was surprising was that Nathaniel was sitting leisurely with him in his shockingly colored pick-up truck, eyes gazing absentmindedly at the lake that lay a few yards away from them.

Perhaps... perhaps... perhaps Phillip should stop stressing out right now. Perhaps he should stop trying to say something, and just relax. Perhaps Phillip should enjoy this shocking, but rather enjoyable moment instead of trying to find something to say in his very, very confused mind.

"Kayla Henderson... you are her best friend, yes?"

Perhaps Nathaniel could answer the question for him, hah, Phillip scolded himself. He should have known it was going to be about Kayla, the first girl Nathaniel ever seemed to be interested in. And it had to be his best friend too! Gosh! So annoying!

"Phillip?"

Oh right, Nathaniel had asked him a question.

"Yes, we've known each other for a long time."

"How do you see her as?"

Annoying, pain-in-the-ass, boy-stealer, you know, a typical best friend. "A nice friend. Someone I can rely on."

"Anything else?"

"Incredibly pretty. She could have been the perfect blue-eyed-blond-haired girl. But not necessarily stuck-up." It was an accurate assessment of Kayla, or at least before all this Nathaniel-ness, but then, Kayla didn't know what horrible atrocities she had committed anyways, so it was all Phillip's fault, really.

No, wait... it could have been Nathaniel's fault! If Nathaniel hadn't existed, he would be best friends with Kayla Henderson, the end. Yes! The Pearl! Wait... that Stan had said something about Nathaniel testing if something's worthy... maybe this was testing if Kayla was worthy?

"What are your views on her?"

Nathaniel seemed to pause for a minute, before replying, "She's a nice girl."

"That's..." he paused, searching for a word. "She's getting braces next week," he blurted out.

"Is that so?"

"I don't know why I said that." Phillip said rather blankly. Nathaniel chuckled, eyes wandering off towards the lake again.

"Yeah."

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After Tyler had left, Stan had left as well, unable to stand the seemingly emptiness of his room. And so that is why he was here, standing outside the movie theater, back scraping the stucco wall roughly through his shirt. It was here where he first met Tyler, sweet, yet menacing, cross-dressing Tyler Tamer. It was before he realized this sophomore was the Information Kid. It was before he even cared about the lives of private school kids.

Before private school, there was Stan Buckley, hottest guy and unofficial leader of the coolest, very exclusive clique at school. There were only three people permitted besides him, and they happened to be the only people Stan loved with all his heart. Yumi. Emeroy. And... Bull. He had lost contact with them after his first day of private school.

After he met Tyler Tamer.

No, no, that wasn't right. He quickly shook the idea from his mind.

He needed to get away, go back. He decided to call Yumi

Yumi picked up after three long rings of course, and of course Emeroy and Bull were with her. Of course they were at the arcade just down the street. And of course he could come and hang out. Of course... of course! How could he have forgotten? It was three-thirty. Three-thirty!

A truck barely missed him as he crossed the road, dazedly. It was an odd truck, with a rather messy orange streak on the side. Or maybe he was seeing things. He really needed help.

"Did you jay-walk again?" It was Yumi, smirking her mischievous grin that often turned guys into puddy. Stan never mentioned it to her, because... she was Yumi. She was his beloved friend that could flirt with guys without even knowing it.

"Of course." There it was again. Routine.

"I saw you."

"Of course."

"Jesus, Stan, did private school limit your vocabulary to 'of course'?" It wasn't Yumi, but rather Bull who replied. Stan cringed, noticing the "I'm annoyed with you" tone in Bull's voice. He wondered if he still had the ability of controlling Bull's temper. Probably not.

He chose to grin instead, and Yumi laughed.

"What have you been up to?" Bull asked a few moments later, hands gripping the plastic gun tightly. Bam! And some pixilated blood few in the air. And another shot, and another...

"Nothing much."

"Met anyone new?" Stan thought for a moment, not sure of he should mention Tyler. He decided to.

"Yeah." Bull's hand froze slightly, and missed the target. Or maybe Stan was seeing things again, because Bull had quickly resumed his game.

He decided to go on. "Name's Tyler Tamer. Has quite a reputation as the Information Kid – knows just about everything about everyone."

"Is he cute?" Yumi laughed from the pinball machine she was sitting on, her feet resting on the side of Bull's chair.

"If you like small, mousy kids, yeah," Stan smiled back, winking at her. "But yeah, pretty good on the eyes." Stan smiled, thinking of Tyler. Yes, he was definitely good on the eyes, if not "America's Top Model – Male Edition" material. In fact, he was incredibly cute. The girls would be all over him... did he have a girlfriend? No, Stan didn't think so...

"Where is he now?"

"Huh?" Stan sounded. Oh right, Yumi and Bull and Emeroy. The old crew. Oh. He remembered why he was here now – because Tyler had left. Because of his stupid, stupid mouth again, who couldn't resist that little snide comment at Phillip. If only he could just shut up sometimes, life would be so much better. "He's... not here. We got in an argument."

"Crawling back to your old crew, eh?" Bull sneered, his eyes never wandering from the screen.

"Don't say that, Bull! Be quite, callous fool!" Yumi slapped Bull's arm lightly, before turning to Stan. "You know you can always count on us, okay Stan?"

Stan nodded, a smile tugging at his lips. But maybe he really didn't belong anymore. Bull... Bull was known for his temper, but... never at Stan...

"Stan. Listen to me," Yumi commanded sternly, and Stan turned to listen. "You need to get back to normal. This isn't you, Stan. Seriously, only one friend? How long has it been? Get with it, Stan. Don't think it's private school, and that there are a bunch of stuck up people there. Think of it as school. Just regular school, with kids there. Go make new friends. Go enjoy yourself, dammit! We're always going to be here for you, but we aren't your life anymore. Move on, Jesus!

Stan tensed, but nodded. "I understand."

"I'm glad you do. Now go rule the school, Stan Buckley."

Rule the school... yes, Stan could do it. He grinned. But that didn't stop him from worrying about Tyler... and Bull.

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A/N: Yeah. Finally finished it. It is completely unbetaed, so... watch out for grammar errors and potholes. I don't know when the next update will be. I might post it on mediaminer instead of though.

Esquirella: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it… slooooowww update, I'm afraid though.

Naomi Shemer: Aha, Nathaniel's just gotten used to it, but yes, go Tyler and Stan! I'm glad you like the two.

Pundit: Yesss, I wish I were him sometimes. He's like the gossip GOD. Aha, Tyler is pretty cool.

Limited Edition: My beta does grammar only, ah. Nathaniel, that evil person, pokes Phillip with the pen. Eer. Yes. Nathaniel is weirddd. I'm glad you like the plot though.