Bet on it [Teu]

[Dominic Bryson West]

”I got a Benjamin down that you wont jump in that river.” Dominic flashed the freshman boy the one hundred dollar bill smacking him in the forehead with it. This little bet of his could go one of two ways. Either the kid would go through with it and Dominic would be out one hundred bucks and get the amusement of this dweeb actually risking hypothermia for a bit of cash and bragging rights- or Dominic would be a hundred dollars richer. It had seemed like a good idea to him at the time when a group of younger boys from school had encroached on his solitude by the river having the idea that they were badasses and the coolest thing since sliced bread or whatever that phrase was. The group exchanged glances with one another wondering which route to take. On the one hand being that ballsy had the possibility of getting in good with an older guy and that was always a good thing for one’s reputation and if the rumor got around that the ring leader of this merry little band was tough enough to brave the cold then that could do wonders as well.

The downside of it and what, consequentially was the hesitation amongst the boys, was that it was risky. The water wasn’t exactly calm- though Dom had calculated that it wasn’t rough enough of a current to sweep the kid away or have him rolling under- and it was awfully cold. That brought on the fear and that one kid; there was always one in every group it seemed that piped up being the voice of reason. Dominic played it off saying that if they wanted to chicken out that was on them, which quickly got the others to shush their Jimney Cricket and sort of push his opinions to the side and their eagerness grew before the group reached in their pockets turning out the amount that was up for grabs. Dominic grinned nodding, ”I mean fully submerged, head under for five seconds.” He clarified and after a moment’s pause received the agreement.

While the group was pumping up the leaders ego and telling him that he got this and all those other inspirational things that one might say Dom took a seat on the wooden fencing that lined the perimeter acting as a pathetic barrier between the roadway and the river. It was a good view for what he was about to witness. Spotting Margaret heading in their direction for whatever reason, he wasn’t sure if she noticed them or was off in her own little world. ”Yo, Teu!” He shouted over to her giving her a nod. ”You’re just in time for the show. Come on.” Waving her over he figured that this was too good to be the only one to see it happening.

[margaret]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width:350px;,bTable] Was there nothing that headphones, a long walk, and cats couldn't solve? Well, possibly the bosnian war for independence, but Teu figured she needn't worry about that until her european policies class had a test. For most other problems though, cats, music (specifically of the jazz variety, though a little singer-songwriter indie didn't hurt) solved everything. Today's problems were extensive advanced calculus homework, a botched attempt at working out off-season for soccer, and a truly horrid haiku. The day wasn't over yet, so Teu figured she'd need a lot more cat gifs on her blog and Ella Fitzgerald ska-ing to make her feel remotely better. The whole calculus thing was a bummer, especially since she barely understood the class now with the their teacher droning on about one sided limits like it was literally the scourge of the earth. Then to their small class, he assigned fifty problems of homework. Fifty. Half of one hundred. It's gonna take a century to do it all. The soccer workout was her fault though. Apparently over-squatting in the weight room made it extremely hard to walk normally. Oh, it might be because you pulled your crotch muscles, idiot. Teu wasn't going to forgive herself for that one any time soon, especially with all of the winter sports athletes thinking she was ridiculous anyway. Now they had a clear image of how much of an idiot she could be. Her inner thighs were screaming with pain from the workout earlier, but she hadn't been back to her dorm yet to grab medication, so she was just going to have to deal with the pain. Teu learned her lesson though. No deep squatting to dubstep while working out, ever again. Not even wanting to think about her haiku for the poetry club, Margaret started blasting more Jazz, this time Doc Severinsen with his ridiculous range on trumpet, through the one earbud she had shoved in her ear. It only took the head of the song before Teu was slightly uncomfortably walking to the pull of the song, then half-way skipping, and soon enough, her left hand was snapping to the hi-hat of the drum set and she was lost in the music. Unfortunately, she wasn't lost in the music for long, as a grating voice called out to her from down near the river. It was off of the sidewalk a bit, but looking up, Teu saw that the trip would probably have to be made. After all, it involved Dominic and some younger boys. Dominic and anybody was a bad combination, especially with the boy's uncouth manner and ridiculous way of behaving. He said something about a show and that she was just in time, and Teu shook her head. It was probably another stupid stunt by freshmen. She'd seen way too many in her four years at the school, and had no desire to watch another, especially with an enabler like Dom. Regardless of what her head said, her feet kept on walking towards Dominic's waving hand. Either she was going to sit and watch this, or she would leave angrier than she thought possible. "What show could possibly be entertaining at this point? I just see a whole bunch of ridiculous baboons trying to impress the stupidest one of all."

[/color] At this point it was her anger at the earlier parts of the day talking, but there was a slight curl of her lip that would make her seem less snarly and more joking. If that were only the case though. "You got me over here anyway, so what's all the hooplah about? Are they gonna dance or something? I could go for a laugh."[/color]
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Words: 616, Tags: DomDomDom/Jenny
Notes: You're in for it, poster-boy!

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[Dominic Bryson West]

Getting a good look at the girl Dominic shook his head at the look that had presented itself on her face wasn’t all that thrilled to see him, which didn’t bother him in the slightest. He wasn’t in the habit of being a people pleaser and that tended to have him landed on people’s bad side. Add on top of it that he and Teu tended to butt heads about most things the fact that she wasn’t grinning from ear to ear to see him didn’t come as any shock to Dominic. Still, there was something about the way that they were with one another that seemed to have them clicking and making it hard for them to stay away from one another. Perhaps it was something liken to being kindred souls. They had more than enough in common to understand the other on a level that most people couldn’t even begin to touch.

Dom assumed that she continued to venture over to him because that was the way that she saw things too. Even with the annoyance of him and how much he got under her skin her feet were leading her straight to him. There was a sense of satisfaction that washed over him in assuming this to be the case. Not too many people really were on his radar of those that he wanted to hang out with, more lingering on the side of indifference than anything else but Teu- he liked her. It was a connection that couldn’t be explained in any traditional sense of the word friendship but it worked for them. Dominic didn’t hold any of their tiffs against her and once they were finished with one he pushed it out of mind ready to move onto the next thing.

His brow rose slightly at her words catching the grin on her lips but not entirely convinced by it. But then Dominic didn’t really need to be for his plans to stay the same. He wasn’t out seeking her approval, just her company in whatever form she was in the mood to give it to him- even if that meant that an argument was due to happen. Dominic wasn’t all that offended by her calling him names. He could really care less what was said about him or by whom. He put his hand to his chest patting over his heart as his brows furrowed into chagrin and he puckered his lips to send her way. ”I love it when you sweet talk me, Baby.” He wasn’t really stupid but he wouldn’t dispute it. It wasn’t like Dominic put too much effort out there to prove that he was some whiz kid and half the time he talked like he was literate but that was just his Baltimore accent in play.

Licking his lips a deep chuckle sounded in the back of his throat at her question. ”I’m sure they’ll be some dancing soon enough.” Well, maybe not in the conventional way but once the kid felt how cold it was he would be hoping around like an idiot back on the shore. It would kind of be like dancing he supposed as long as you had the imagination for something like that. ”Get in already.” Dominic called down to the group giving them a stern look to hopefully encourage them to move it along now that there was more of an audience than just him. Seeing Teu only seemed to make them even more hesitant though. ”Get your feckin’ ass in the water. You’re wasting my time.” His fuse was fizzling out with these guys. One of the other boys shoved his fiend in which was met with a girlish squeal at the cusp of the boy hitting puberty making Dominic laugh as the boy flailed in the water screaming. ’I said under the water!”

[margaret]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width:350px;,bTable] Dominic was just frustrating to her. It was like she knew exactly what he was thinking one moment and the next she was lost again. Maybe flashes of anger from the many times they had butt heads over his two years at the school; he was probably the person to catch her in anger the most, which was unfortunate for him The two had a way of connecting though, and those were the moments she held that unbridled sort of clarity around the basketball player. He was the only person she couldn't push away with anger, because he never seemed to let any of it get to his head. What kind of person just had the ability to brush things like that off? It was alien to Teu, since everyone she blew up usually didn't want to be near her for a while, but Dom acted like it legitimately didn't happen the next day. Yep, definitely alien. Then, happening more now than ever between the two in those moments of clarity for her, they actually held civilized conversations in which they kind of vented to each other. It was weird, considering that she wasn't sure if they were even friends. They had no classes together, Teu being a senior and Dominic a sophomore, but they always ended up near each other. Usually because her feet thought it was a good idea to stop and probably end up pissed at him today, but hey, that was usual for them. Their whole relationship felt like it was one big confusing mess. There were extremes, but no middle ground. Either mad or venting, there's was no happy medium where they would go bowling or play a sport together like real friends. Honestly, Teu probably wouldn't know what to do if Dominic was suddenly a chatty cathy and wanted to go bowling. I can't even bowl! Of course, there was also the fact that it'd be completely out of place in their relationship, but hey Dominic was also full or surprises. Teu grimaced when he spoke about sweet talking, because that was definitely not her intent. Of course, Margaret knew he was just being his weirdly playful self, trying to get a rise out of her, and boy, did it work. Her anger from earlier would just keep shining through until hell broke loose. Which won't be long now. Although, Teu had a way of letting things stir and come to a boil on the inside before her top blew off. She pulled her headphones all the way off, starting to get invested in the conversation and the ridiculous thing those freshmen boys were going to do. Besides, listening to music while talking to someone, even Dominic, was rude. Not that she was not rude in other ways, but she didn't listen to music and talk at the same time. It was equally distracting. When Teu listened to music, it was either background to her homework or she wanted to get lost in it; neither of which was applicable to the situation at hand. "Dancing soon enough? Now you've got me interested. But still, what exactly are they going to do? No law breaking, right?"

[/color] Teu loved a good show, as long as the people involved weren't harmed and and no laws were being broken. She couldn't be sure that a law would be broken here, because freshmen had a knack for doing the most ridiculous things for approval, and knowing some stunts her own classmates pulled, they were probably all at risk. Her conscience wouldn't let her watch something like that.

Teu stood near Dom, her arms crossed as he shouted out orders like some modern day troublemaking Nazi. What the hell is going on? The boys were all clustered together, talking, patting one on the back... Teu assumed that he was the one doing the stunt. Classic male trying to be an alpha, only to get burned in the end. Dom knows this too, I bet. Something in the short ginger's mind knew that he was trying to get a kick out of this, watching freshmen scramble to prove themselves worthy. It was sick, but a necessary passage young males often took. Dominic pulled out his colorful language to boss them around, obviously less amused now that they were being skittish about what they were going to do. Teu, as smart as she was, still hadn't pieced together the little game Dom wanted them to play. Were they going to try and swim across the river? Or had a fist fight?

It was none of those.

A scream pierced the air as a freshman idiot was pushed into the river, which Teu could only guess was way too cold for comfort. Teu resisted the urge to run into the river right there and pull him out, only because she couldn't get her feet to move in the shock of it all. This was Dom's sick game? Getting freshmen to swim in a freezing cold river for kicks? Or was it for money, people are always hurting for cash... Teu's widened eyes were focused on the boy flailing in the water, making all sorts of ruckus. She didn't want to look at Dominic's face as he chuckled and urged the boy forward.

Just like many other encounters between Dom and Teu, something inside of the soccer player snapped. "Are you fucking kidding me right now? Is hypothermia your idea of a good fucking time?!"[/color] Teu flipped the sophomore basketball player the bird before walking sternly to the gaggle of freshmen who were standing awkwardly by the side, not sure if they should pull their friend out or egg him on for the five seconds of underwater fame. A slew of profanities left Margaret's mouth as she leaned over the river's edge to yell at the boy.


"Hey idiot! Get out of the river before the rest of your body freezes, and not just your ass and ego!"[/color] Teu was both shrugging her jacket off and reaching her free hand out for the jackass to take. It was all reflex, Teu wasn't good at restraining her urges, especially since impulse was what won soccer games. She could not have stopped her anger from coming out and her feet from stomping forward, it was just her way of getting through difficult situations.

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Words: 1057, Tags: DomDomDom/Jenny
Notes: You're in for it, poster-boy!

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[Dominic Bryson West]

She’s had a valid question. Dominic’s antics weren’t always kosher or innocent. In fact the majority of the things that he did had a tendency of painting him to be a hoodlum and that was perfectly fine with him. He couldn’t help it if people were uppity about him grinding his skateboard along a railing of stairs that other people were too stupid to move out of the way while he was coming down or if the properties with the best courses to indulge in his parkour were private and he had to jump fences and scale building bringing liability to the owners if injury were to occur- nor did he have any hesitation on his expressionism and placing graffiti on things that didn’t belong to him. Dominic was probably viewed as a bad kid in most people’s eyes and that never seemed to bother him. He wasn’t out to impress anyone or live by a set of social and behavioral standards that he had never been conferred on nor agreed to in any circumstance.

Even without looking over at Teu he could sense that she wasn’t all that pleased with whatever it was that was going on here. The vibe came off of her in waves practically. If Dominic had been the type of person that cared about that kind of stuff he might have taken a step back to reevaluate what was about to take place. Maybe he would consider feelings and other people’s well being in his quest for cheap amusement. However, that wasn’t who Dom was and he was well aware that what he was goading these boys into doing wasn’t nice or by any means a good thing to do. That didn’t bother him or persuade him to change his mind and let the freshman back out of the deal that had been made. When you struck a deal with Dominic he fully expected you to carry it out and if you didn’t well… nothing good came from it.

Her question was nothing more than a pesky gnat that he could figuratively swat away. Dominic didn’t really understand why there was such a tone of surprise. This wasn’t anything new for him and he would have thought that by now she would be aware of how much of a jerk he could be for his own entertainment. Dom didn’t care about these kids. He wasn’t twisting their arms or even really doing anything wrong. All he’d done was make a suggestion and encourage with words. It couldn’t rest upon his shoulders to have these boys having a lick of common sense. Instead he was just capitalizing on stupidity that was already there. Hypothermia wasn’t his intent but Dominic was aware that actions had consequences and if that was what was to come from this shenanigan then so be it. He simply shrugged as she took off giving him the middle finger.

Teu was off, fuming compliments of his actions, which really Dominic didn’t get. Was it pricking at some sense of decency that she had had? Or was it just because she was already spoiling for a fight and he was the easiest person to get one from without any serious repercussions. They could go twelve rounds and still like each other enough to have the chance to go at it again with something completely new. There weren’t any scores tallied that would be brought up to try and gain favor in the next fight because Dominic shrugged it off like it hadn’t happened in the first place. Groaning he followed after Teu after a few beats just to see what she would do without interrupting her.

He would have been perfectly content watching her try to talk the kid down but when she reached for him and was a little too close to the edge Dominic reacted. When the freshman had pushed their buddy into the river it hadn’t been because he was caught off guard or that he was any weaker than the rest- it had been because the ground was slippery, iced over. Dom wasn’t really thinking about what he was doing just wrapped his arm around her middle and pulled Teu away from the edge and into his chest. ”What are you deficient?” His brow was knitted together irritated with her careless actions for what? Some random kid who had asked for what he was getting? Screw that.

[margaret]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, width:350px;,bTable] If Teu hadn't been so focused on Dom's sick idea of a good time and the freshmen boys who fell into his trap, she'd probably wonder how many times she could describe those people around her as 'fucking idiots' or 'illiterate trashbags'. Entirely too often, it seemed as of late. Everywhere Margaret went, there was someone she could coin a derogatory phrase for on the spot. Maybe it was the strange comfort in insulting someone else, like it meant she wasn't nearly as much of a mess as she thought she was. If she focused on someone else's shortcomings, even for a second, there was a breathe of stale air from her own caustic nature. That was the reasoning behind it all. What was Dom's reasoning then, to push these freshmen to the points of idiocy and hypothermia? Was it to get a laugh? Was it for a bet? Teu just didn't know. Sometimes he was so clear, and other times it was like trying to look through mud to understand him. Her first guess had been that Dom was simply bored, and that could have been the answer. Bored or not, threatening the lives of some underclassmen idiots was not a way of entertainment, it was a way to go to jail. She knew he wasn't as stupid as the rest of the people at Mayview, but how could you just risk hypothermia on impressionable freshmen for the fun of it? That just wasn't right! Even if it would have been funny, some sense of moral decency in her wouldn't let it go on. Call it good parenting by her charitable adoptive parents, or just a misconstrued sense of mother-hen syndrome, but something finally got Teu on the roll to save that freshman idiot. It wasn't something the red-head could ignore all way. The breeze slapped its cold tendrils in Teu's upper arms; she hadn't been expecting such a rush of cold air to get to her skin so quickly after her jacket had been shrugged off. You could already see the redness coming to her upper arms from the temperature, which served to boost her efforts of trying to get the freshman out of the river. If it was this cold outside without a jacket, being soaked in river water surely didn't help the situation. "Are you trying to di-"

[/color] Margaret yelled out to the boy again, reaching forward to try and grab his hand... and the ground lurched out from underneath her. It hadn't been slippery when she walked up, but boy was it now. Her balance, usually steady from years of sports, flew from her as her arms flailed out. A small eep flew out from her mouth, completely different from the commanding voice that spoke out only moments earlier. Teu thought she was about to join the freshman for an icy bath... but something stopped her.

Something grabbed a hold of her small midsection and yanked her back from the edge of the river, hard. Teu opened her eyes to a chest. At least, she thought it was a chest. It sure felt like a chest, and the thing snaked around her midsection felt like someone's toned arm. As soon as her mind recovered from the shock of both losing her balance and of finding herself very close to someone, she only took a moment to realize who's voice it was booming out above her head.

Dominic.

Sure enough, when she pulled her head up to see the same eyebrows knitted together that she'd gazed upon many times in anger looking down at her with furious eyes, she had to stop herself from stuttering an answer out because of shock. It had been Dominic who saved her, the same guy who forced the freshman inadvertently into the river had saved her from it. But why? Then the anger came back to her in a huge, red wave. She had been perfectly fine trying to fix his stupid-ass mistakes and now he had the gall to think he could just save her and everything would be fine and dandy?

Hell no.

"Am I deficient? Shouldn't you be asking yourself the same thing, Dominic?!"[/color] Teu growled back up at him before pulling herself away from his admittedly warm chest and back into the chilly air. Her jacket was somewhere on the ground, with her pride. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the freshman boys trying to keep their eye on their friend and the two upperclassmen stuck half-way between hugging and going at it.

"I was just fine! Who do you think you are? That kid is going to freeze to death because of your little game, Dom! Get that through your thick skull, okay?"[/color] Teu shook a fist at the much taller sophomore before casting a glance at the waterlogged freshman. He seemed to be making his way slowly to the shore near his friends. Now it was her eyebrows that were knit together while the eyes underneath sharpened for the fight. He had really done it this time.
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Words: 847, Tags: DomDomDom/Jenny
Notes: look out, Red-haired troll on the loose.

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[Dominic Bryson West]

This hadn’t been any concern of hers. Maybe, slightly, in that whole notion of human decency it was something that Teu should have been acknowledging. But there was still the simple fact that no one was holding a gun to the kid’s head and making him do it. It had been his choice and it wasn’t like if anything too bad happened right then and there Dominic would have just sat back and watched it happen. Five seconds had been a calculated risk and once the deed was done he was going to give the freshman instructions on how to keep himself from going into shock or getting too sick so he wasn’t completely thoughtless. Boys would be boys as they said and Dominic was playing into that as he usually did.

He was aware that to her this bet that had been made didn’t make sense but it wasn’t much different than any other rite of passage that boys might have gone through. They had their milestones to pass and though Dominic wasn’t exactly one of those people that they needed to be pleasing for social acceptance that hadn’t seemed to cross their minds and Dominic hadn’t been inclined to let them in on that little nugget of wisdom. It was probably better this way actually that way if they failed in the things that his devious mind cooked up there wouldn’t be as much school wide ridicule as if one of the popular kids had been in this position right now. It could have always been worse. Hazing was meant to file a person’s will down to the stubs. Most of it usually involved drinking obscene amounts of alcohol making them impaired while they were doing stupid, gross, obnoxious, dangerous, and humiliating things so really…these kids were lucky.

She seemed to cozy up to his chest quite nicely as that shock to her system of almost being in free fall for a fraction of a second seemed to overcome her before his heroic gesture. The difference between him saving her and condemning the freshman had been that Teu wasn’t a part of the culture ritual and she hadn’t taken the bet so she had no reason to be in that river. Was it sexist? Probably, but Dom could care less about that. He’d done what he thought to be best and she could get as upset as she wanted with him. Even with her pulling away from being pressed into his chest his arm still remained around her waist and until he was sure that she wasn’t going to go back to the edge of the river that was exactly where it was going to stay. The kid didn’t need to be saved by a girl, he was perfectly capable of walking right back out of the river all on his own and after the five seconds submerged, that seemed to be exactly what he did.

”No,” The quick interjection wasn’t really up for debate in his mind. He hadn’t been the one to risk getting dunked in the river on either side of the issue, be it to save someone or to prove something to someone else so that struck the claim of being deficient off the table. There were a slew of other things that Dominic could have been called and would have agreed to without a problem. Call him a delinquent, dastardly, or even a dick but deficient he most certainly wasn’t. All eyes were on him waiting to see how the situation would be handled. For a split second he thought that maybe if she had such a desire to be in the river on someone else’s behalf he might just swoop her up in his arms and dump her in there himself but it was merely a passing thought, nothing that he would bring to action.

Who did he think he was? That was pretty simple. Dominic was the person that had just kept her from doing something stupid. She was welcome. Giving her an incredulous look over everything that she had said to him Dom shook his head. She was over reacting and making a scene and for what? Some freshman kid that had volunteered for what had just happened. Gripping onto her waist a little bit tighter and making Teu come closer again he lowered his voice, the irritation with her clearly seeping through. ”You should be a little more grateful to people.” He advised reaching into his pocket with his free hand and plucking out the bill that the kid had earned. As he handed it over to him there was a satisfied, even smug, grin on the kid’s face which Dominic, given the circumstances, had an urge to knock off.

”Beat it, get into some dry clothes and warm up slowly, drink something hot and allow your body heat to come back gradually.” It looked like there was something else that the kid wanted to say but the look on Dom’s face, he supposed, scared him off. As the group scurried off his fierce gaze turned back to the girl he had in his embrace. ”What’s your problem? Why the feck you want to stick your neck out for someone that asked to be in that situation? You know very little about guys. Do you have any idea how pissed off he would have been if you mothered him out of that water? Use your head, Teu!” He wasn’t shouting at her, but his tone was stern.