NEW JOCK, OLD JERK NERD - DAN AND THAD ONESHOT
Dan Wilson remembered in vague detail the exact moment everything began to change. It's odd, truly. Every story has a start, but this start wasn't big, it wasn't a loud fight... No.
It had started quietly, almost invisibly.
A single conversation, tucked away in a forgotten corner of the library where dust gathered thick in each little spot and the world seemed to forget you existed for as long as you were inside those doors.
At the time, it had meant nothing.
At the time, he wasn't Dan, he had still just been… Daniel.
Smaller, greasy ginger hair glued to his forehead that only made his ears stick out even more, pimply, scrawny... The kind of person people's eyes slid past unless they were looking for someone to shove against lockers.
He had been hunched over a book about orbital mechanics, shoulders curled inward like he was trying to take up even less space. The fluorescent lights above flickered faintly, casting an uneven glow across the pages of his book.
His pencil smacked in a restless rhythm against the margin of his paper.
He scratched something out, muttering under his breath, numbers rearranging in his head faster than his hand could keep up. But which was the mistake he was failing to see?
"Your calculation is off by a decimal."
The voice cut through the silence like a blade.
The pencil stopped mid-tap. Slowly and almost reluctantly, he lifted his head to the direction of the correction he just received.
A brunette boy stood across from him.
He was thin, pale and slightly hunched, as though unsure what to do with his own limbs. His uniform looked too big on him, like he hadn't grown into it just yet. Behind his glasses, though...
There was something sharp.
New, Daniel thought immediately. Definitely new.
There aren't many sharp people in this academy. Mean? For sure, but sharp? Nah, not really.
Daniel frowned. "Excuse me?"
"The equation" the boy said, stepping closer, not confidently, but with a kind of careful determination. He pointed to the page, fingertip hovering just above the paper. "You've misplaced the exponent. It should be... Well, like this."
He reached over, hesitating only for a fraction of a second before taking a pen from Dan's side to write in the margin.
Neat, controlled and certain.
Dan stared at the correction, then at the equation and then back again.
His eyes widened, the realization hitting all at once.
The boy straightened slightly. "Yes" he said, almost reflexively. "I usually am."
And then, unexpectedly, he smiled. Not wide nor confident.
The boy hesitated, like he wasn't used to being asked something so normal so nicely.
"…Earnest. Earnest Jones."
Dan extended a hand, a little too quickly and a little too eagerly. "Daniel Wilson."
Earnest looked at it for a moment, uncertain.
It didn't become friendship overnight. At Bullworth, nothing involving feelings ever happen quickly, but shared interests had a way of shortening distances.
Physics speeches turned into friendly arguments.
Arguments turned into debates.
Debates turned into long, meandering conversations that stretched through lunch, and sometimes even beyond that.
However, maybe even more than anything else...
What made them close was this:
The shove came hard and sudden.
Dan's shoulder slammed into the locker with a hollow clang that echoed down the hallway. Metal rattled, and of course, laughter followed from the now laughing agresors.
Earnest flinched beside him, shrinking instinctively as shadows passed next to them.
"Watch where you're going" one of them sneered.
The footsteps faded, the laughter lingered.
Later, they sat on the floor, backs against the lockers, the hallway mostly empty now.
Dan rubbed his shoulder, wincing slightly as under his shirt a bruise was forming. "They don't even know how to spell "freak"."
Earnest adjusted his glasses, pushing them back into place with precise annoyance. "Most likely, they don't even know how to spell at all."
Dan let out a short laugh, the hit suddenly hurting a bit less.
Despite the bruises, despite the humiliation...
Because now, there were two of them.
Dan had already carved out a place among the nerd clique: not through dominance, but through persistence, like he always did. He understood how it worked, the unspoken rules, the fragile balance...
So when he brought Earnest in, he did it with ceremony.
"At ease, gentlemen" Dan announced one afternoon, standing at the center of their usual gathering spot with a confidence he didn't quite feel inside. "This is Earnest. He's… qualified."
There were a few skeptical looks, a couple of raised brows. There always were when a new member arrived, but Earnest didn't need long.
He proved himself quickly.
Dan showed him everything there was to show: how they organized notes, how they shared answers without getting caught, how to anticipate problems before they happened, the hierarchy, the shortcuts, the quiet strategies built from years of trial and error...
Earnest absorbed it all without hesitation.
"Well, while your approach definetly works" Earnest said one day, rearranging a stack of notes with methodical precision. "It is rather inefficient. If we reorganize responsibilities, we could reduce overlap by approximately..."
Dan laughed softly, leaning back in his chair. "You've been here, what, two weeks?"
"Three, actually" Earnest corrected him immediately.
"Right. Three weeks, and you're already rewriting the system?"
At first, it was small. Suggestions offered calmly, corrections delivered without hesitation...
Dan noticed it in the quiet moments.
The way conversations shifted, the way people started looking at Earnest when something needed solving instead of at him.
Didn't soften his words like he did.
Didn't second guess himself like he did.
Dan had always been… Kinder.
Earnest was something else entirely.
And people followed guys like him.
"You're overcomplicating things."
Dan's voice cut through the room, sharper than usual.
Earnest didn't even look up, too busy scribbling on his sheet of paper. "I'm optimizing them."
"You're turning everything into a system" Dan shot back, frustration bleeding through words. "We're not machines, Earnest."
"Of course" Earnest replied, finally lifting his gaze. His expression was calm, a bit too calm for Dan's liking. "But we are functioning poorly. This improves efficiency."
Dan pushed himself upright, his hands lifting up as he spoke. "We're not a lab experiment either!"
"And yet" Earnest said evenly "you are treating leadership like a popularity contest."
It dropped heavy and immediate.
Dan felt something twist, tight and uncomfortable, deep in his chest. "Excuse me?"
Earnest stood now, straightening slightly, not imposing, but unyielding.
"You're liked, Dan. That's true" he said. "But being liked doesn't make you effective."
Murmurs rippled through the room.
Dan's hands curled into fists to his sides. "I've kept this group together!."
“You've kept this group stuck.”
"You think you're better than me?"
Voices rose, overlapping, sharp and defensive... Accusations snapped back and forth.
Dan turned, searching, expecting... Expecting his "friends" to back him up.
"Guys" he said, breath tight. "Come on."
Another voice followed, quieter but firmer.
His gaze snapped towards Thad, his own younger brother.
The other ginger one shifted awkwardly, avoiding eye contact. "I mean… It maketh senthe."
A silent followed, short... Heavy.
Because for everyone, this was just an argument, for Dan it was losing the little he had left.
Thad tried to explain his point of view, but it didn't matter. The moment had already passed, the damage was already done.
Something was already broken.
Dan looked back at Earnest.
The one he had brought in.
Earnest held his gaze, didn't flinch...
"Nothing personal, Daniel."
Final. For real this time.
Dan let out a hollow, unhumorous laugh, the sound scraping on the way out his throat.
Slowly, deliberately, he reached down, grabbing the hem of his green astronomy vest, he let it slip from his shoulders and watched it fall infront of his feet.
And then he walked out, ignoring the few voices that called after him.
Well, the only voice that called...
The academy's male bathroom door slammed shut behind him, the sound echoing off old wood and cheap porcelain.
Dan gripped the edge of the sink, knuckles whitening, breath coming unevenly.
For a moment, he just stood there.
REALLY saw himself, the harsh fluorescent light exposed everything and left little flaw to imagination.
Greasy ginger hair clinging awkwardly to his scalp...
Acne decorating his right cheek and forehead...
Ears that stuck out just like Thad's...
The word slipped out before he could stop it.
His reflection didn't argue.
And for the first time...
Dan didn't see someone misunderstood.
Someone that deserved to be erased.
Yeah, "pathetic" was the perfect word to define him. But "pathetic" is not unchangeable.
That summer, Dan disappeared. Not literally, of course.
But close enough that it felt like it.
The library forgot him, the study groups moved on...
Sharp. Constant. Intentional.
Running until his lungs burned raw, lifting until his muscles screamed and gave out beneath him, repeating plays over and over until they stopped being thoughts and became instinct...
How they stood, how they spoke, how they commanded attention without asking for it...
He changed his appearance too. Not only by getting bigger, but also better-looking.
He cut his hair in a way that it looked softer and covered his ears just enough, changed his clothes, cleared his skin from that acne that infestated his pores...
Dan rebuilt himself piece by piece, stripping away everything that had once defined him.
He was sadly still short, that never changed.
When Bullworth classes started again Daniel Wilson was gone. In his place stood Dan, someone new.
The number #1 of the Bullhorns.
The voice snapped him back to reality.
The hallway came rushing into focus: noise, movement, laughter blending together into something loud and constant...
"C'mon, man, get over here!"
Ted Thompson grinned, right hand pointing, left hand gripping the hair of someone who was very clearly struggling to get out of his strong hold.
Dan's gaze shifted to the one his captain was holding.
His brother, caught and clearly embarrassed.
"Dan" Thad said softly (almost not audible due to the sound of his clothes rattling due to his struggles), recognition flickering in his eyes, along with something else.
His older brother will save him, like he always used to do, right?
Ted barked a laugh. "Perfect timing, man. This loser needs a lesson, you in?"
Dan didn't answer right away, didn't move.
At the slumped posture, the uncertainty...
It wasn't Thad anymore, It was him.
Everything he had been, everything he had hated, everything he had burned away...
Something twisted in his chest.
For a moment, just a moment...
He hesitated. He remembered he nights playing dumb games with their old friends, the movie sessions that turned into long naps in the sofa, the little pijama parties they did in Thad's room at 2 am when they should be sleeping talking about the people they liked/disliked when they first started Bullworth... Sure, they weren't the "best bros ever!", but they were family, they treated eachother like friends... And Dan always took the punches that were meant for Thad, because back then, Thad wasn't the aggressive nerd we know now, he didn't need to be.
He was Dan's little brother, and little brothers get protected.
He stepped forward, pulled back his fist...
And drove it into Thad's stomach.
The impact was solid, enough to burn.
Air left Thad's lungs in a sharp, broken gasp as his eyes watered behind his glasses.
Laughter exploded around them from a certain quarterback.
Ted clapped him on the shoulder, as if he was congratulating him. "That's what I'm talking about!"
But Dan wasn't listening.
Thad was now slightly curled inward, struggling to breathe normally.
He hated how similar they still looked.
And in that moment, Dan understood something with perfect, brutal clarity. He hadn't just changed to survive, he hadn't just adapted...
Burned away every trace of who he used to be.
Now he couldn't stand to see it in anyone else.
Especially not in his own brother.
Because Thad wasn't just weak, wasn't just pathetic, wasn't just another loser.
He was a reminder, a painful one. And Dan does the hurting now, he no longer receives it.
Thad didn’t even have time to recover.
The first punch to his cheek folded him in half, a broken sound tearing out of his throat as he staggered forward, but Ted didn't let him fall.
"Whoa, not done yet" Ted laughed, yanking him upright by the collar. "C'mon, stay with us, loser."
Thad coughed softly, choking on air that wouldn't come fast enough. His hands trembled as they weakly tried to push Ted away, failing, of course.
"Dan" His voice cracked. "C'mon..."
Dan felt it hit somewhere deep, somewhere buried under months of effort, of rebuilding, of erasing.
For a second, just a second, his hand twitched.
Then Ted drove a fist into Thad's ribs.
A sharp, sickening thud. That kind of sound that, echoes when you drop meat, from high enough.
Thad cried out, really cried out this time, the sound raw and helpless as his knees buckled again. Yes, being a nerd included getting beat up, it was a package, but... Nobody was here to take it for him. No, the one who was supposed to was helping.
"Man, he's softer than I thought" Ted snorted. "You weren't kidding, Wilson."
Dan said nothing, what would he say to that?.
But he couldn't look away either.
Thad's glasses had slipped crooked on his face, his eyes were wet, unfocused... Searching. Not for a way out...
Another punch. Not Dan this time, Ted again. Harder.
Thad gasped, a broken sob following it, his body curling instinctively, trying to make itself smaller, like that would help.
Like that had ever helped.
Dan remembers it a little too well.
Lockers slamming against your skin, laughter echoing loud enough to ache, hands grabbing on your collar...
That same instinct: curl in, shrink...
Don’t fight back. It'll only make it worse.
Ted shoved Thad towards him with a quick motion. "Your turn again."
Thad stumbled, nearly collapsing into Dan. For a split second, their bodies brushed, and Dan felt it.
The shaking, the fear, the desperate, pathetic hope.
"Pleaseth" Thad whispered, almost not audible now.
Dan's stomach twisted violently.
Because it wasn't just Thad speaking.
Everything he had clawed his way out of.
Everything he refused to ever be again.
"Stand straight" Dan muttered, voice cold.
Thad tried, he really did, but his thin legs barely held him up.
Ted laughed behind them. "Dude, he's done. Finish it."
Dan's hand clenched into a fist.
For a moment, it hovered, shaking. Not from weakness, of course, but from something worse. Something nostalgic.
They did have fun during those sleepovers in eachother's room, the films were fun (well, the parts they saw until falling asleep), their plans to convince their mom to get junk food as her cooking isn't the best...
Yeah, it had been fun while it lasted.
Thad crumpled instantly this time, no resistance left, a choked sob breaking as he hit the ground. He didn't try to get back up, it's not like he could move much.
Thad didn't even look at him anymore.
He just… Curled in on himself, arms over his head, shoulders shaking as quiet, broken cries slipped out between uneven breaths.
"Okay, okay, that's enough" Ted said, almost bored now despite the soft chuckles here and there. "Guy's gonna start bleeding all over the place." He patted Dan's shoulder again and turned around.
Dan stood there, breathing heavily and staring down.
Thad didn't move, except to flinch slightly at nothing, like he was still expecting more.
"…Dan…" he whimpered, voice hoarse, barely there.
Not accusing, not even angry.
Dan felt something crack, just for a second.
A thin, fragile fracture running through everything he'd built.
He could reach down and say something.
Like putting distance between himself and something contagious. Like a disease you are trying to avoid coming to close for contact to.
"You need to toughen up" Dan said flatly.
The words tasted wrong and empty, but he said them anyway.
Because they were easier.
Because if Thad stayed like this: small, weak...
Then everything Dan had done meant nothing.
Just curled tighter, a quiet sob slipping through his bloody lips. He wasn't even thinking about how much everything ached, his heart ached way more.
Dan turned as soon as he heard that, walking away, each step feeling heavier than the last but, never stopping.
He wasn't sure which version of himself he'd see lying on that floor.
And that terrified him more than anything.
⏩ @gojossotoru here it is the oneshot of Thad and Dan that I promised, I am so sorry for taking so many days to finish it, homework is killing me x( still, I really hope you and everyone who reads it likes it💖 I tried to make it with lots of angst as you wanted! And I'll post the other oneshot (Frankie and Johnny) after I finish some homework I have sjskdj
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