Chapter 6: Protagonist Treatment
The Duncan House
"Adam Duncan!"
The newcomer was a Black kid, fifteen or sixteen, on the leaner side, standing with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "So this is what you call quitting PJ and the Dynamic Band to study hard?"
"I changed my name," Adam said, resigned. "Emmett, there's no more PJ, no more Dynamic Band. And I really am studying. Do you only see Juno? The books are right here. Try to be a little less obvious."
"Hey, Emmett."
Juno grinned at him. They were classmates and knew each other well enough — just two people who'd never had much reason to hang out before.
"Hey, Juno."
Emmett nodded, visibly pulling himself together, none of the sarcasm from a second ago anywhere on his face.
Juno's freckles were something Adam had gotten used to, but by any conventional standard she was genuinely pretty. Emmett was not immune to this fact.
The real reason Emmett had come in swinging wasn't just the band breaking up. It was that Adam had cycled through one girlfriend after another, and now here was Juno — smart, pretty, voluntarily sitting in Adam's basement — and Emmett found that deeply unfair.
"You're actually studying?"
Emmett looked back and forth between them skeptically.
"Obviously," Juno said, amused. "What else would we be doing?"
Emmett opened his mouth, thought better of it — Juno was right there — and closed it again. He laughed awkwardly instead. "Can I join?"
"You want to join?"
Adam looked at him with open amusement.
"What?" Emmett bristled. "Something wrong with that?"
He didn't love studying. But that was mostly a circumstances problem. Bad study partners, no motivation. With the right setup — and maybe a little encouragement — he could see himself getting serious about it. Ivy League, even, if he really pushed.
"Nothing at all. Come on in."
Adam genuinely meant it.
Emmett was his best friend in this life, and honestly a good person underneath all the posturing. After Adam had shut down the band, they'd drifted a little — Emmett wasn't much of a student and their overlap had shrunk — but Adam still liked him. Seeing him show up wanting to try something different was actually nice.
There was also the secondary benefit of having a third person in the room, which made the whole situation feel a lot less like something Adam needed to be cautious about.
"So are we starting?"
Adam moved over and patted the cushion between himself and Juno.
"Yeah!"
Emmett's face lit up, showing a wide grin. He did a little shuffle-step — couldn't help it — and sat down with exaggerated politeness, turning to Juno first. "That okay with you?"
"Totally fine," Juno said.
Emmett settled in happily, glanced left at Adam, glanced right at Juno, made an enthusiastic declaration about how he was going to study hard and turn everything around starting today, and then —
Went completely blank.
Three minutes later he was sinking into the cushions with the expression of a man listening to a foreign language, watching Adam and Juno work through a problem together with genuine focus.
His Ivy League fantasy quietly crumbled.
It's fine, he told himself. School isn't the only path. There's music. Dance. Sports.
Then he remembered that his street dancing, while legitimately impressive, was not going to get him an athletic scholarship anywhere, and he felt worse.
Teddy's laugh drifted down from upstairs, bright and unguarded, and Emmett sat up straight.
"I cannot believe this. Teddy's up there with some guy?"
"Teddy's not cheating on you," Adam said without looking up. "Because you two have no relationship and she barely knows you exist."
"That is not true." Emmett looked genuinely offended. "We just move slow. My mom knows about her."
Adam looked up.
Juno looked up.
They looked at each other.
"Okay," Juno said.
"Sure," Adam agreed.
Emmett sat back, smug for about four seconds, then glared at the ceiling. "Who is that guy?"
"Spencer. Teddy's been into him for a while."
Adam thought about it and smiled. "If it bothers you that much, go up there."
"Yeah," Juno added, tilting her head at Emmett with a playful look. "Unless you're into listening?"
"Obviously not." Emmett was on his feet immediately. "I'm going up there right now."
He headed for the stairs.
"This should be good," Juno said quietly.
"He'll be back in thirty seconds." Adam leaned back, laced his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes. "Ten. Nine. Eight—"
Emmett reappeared before Adam got to five.
"How'd it go?" Juno asked.
"He knows he was wrong," Emmett said, with the particular dignity of someone who had no dignity left.
Teddy and Spencer both burst out laughing upstairs at something, and Emmett went still.
"Spencer's really tall," Adam offered, breaking the silence. "What do you think he eats?"
"He's a whole head taller than me," Emmett muttered bitterly.
He'd gone up there fully planning to drag Spencer outside and sort things out man to man. Then Spencer had stood up. And Emmett had very quickly decided that what the situation actually called for was a calm, mature conversation, followed by showing Spencer politely to the door. Spencer had declined, and Emmett had come back downstairs.
None of this needed to be said.
"Teddy's not right for you anyway," Adam said. "What about Ivy? You two had something going."
Teddy's best friend Ivy — funny how both of them had ended up in similar orbits.
Emmett didn't answer right away, and Adam looked at him more carefully.
Wait a minute.
He thought about it. Really thought about it.
Emmett and Ivy had history. Emmett was currently hung up on Teddy. Emmett, who presented himself as the loyal, good-natured best friend, was apparently running two separate situations at the same time.
Adam stared at him.
You sneaky—
End of Chapter 6
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