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Room and Board	By : sillyneko345 Category: +G through L > Jak & Daxter Views: 25355 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 7
Disclaimer: I do not own the game this story is based on (Jak & Daxter) nor do I make any money from writing it.

Chapter List
- 1-Ch. 1
- 2-Ch. 2
- 3-Ch. 3
- 4-Ch. 4
- 5-Ch. 5
- 6-Ch. 6
- 7-Ch. 7
- 8-Ch. 8
- 9-Ch. 9
- 10-Ch. 10
- 11-Ch. 11
- 12-Ch. 12
- 13-Ch. 13
- 14-Ch. 14
- 15-Ch. 15
- 16-Ch. 16
- 17-Ch. 17
- 18-Ch. 18
- 19-Ch. 19
- 20-Ch. 20
- 21-Ch. 21
- 22-Ch. 22
- 23-Ch. 23
- 24-Ch. 24
- 25-Ch. 25
- 26-Ch. 26
- 27-Ch. 27
- 28-Ch. 28
- 29-Ch. 29
- 30-Ch. 30
- 31-Ch. 31
- 32-Ch. 32
- 33-Ch. 33
- 34-Ch. 34
- 35-Ch. 35
- 36-ch. 36
- 37-ch. 37
- 25
- 26
- 27
- - - - -
Angie: Glad you liked it!
DC: Torn will certainly not be pleased by the screaming when Jak returns the favor, but the Ferret Boss will be! And yes, Jak is a terrible influence on him. A wonderful terrible influence.
MariMeeko: It is indeed the Fake Jock’s move. We’ll see if he can deliver something that will impress even their ferret voyeur!
DonalGraeme: There shall be a touchdown soon, soon! But a few more field goals never hurt, right…?
Kuromei: Yep, Dax is getting good at stepping up, even if he doesn’t realize it!
CrabRangoonMonster: Awww, don’t beat yourself up! I miss a lot of references when I read things first time through. You got it in the end! No license revoking for you.
Kagekashu: I have thought of posting to AO3, and I may do it if I can figure out how to upload chapters in the right format. With 26 of them and counting it’ll be a big undertaking!
GiGi: Ha, Pecker! That’s an excellent idea. We’ll have to see if he can be arranged somewhere…
- - - - -
Characters: Belong to Naughty Dog, Inc. (Except for Neva, who I borrowed from Grimreaperchibi.)
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“And that’ll just about do it for today. Great job, everybody! Keep working on those websites, and don’t forget that next week is your first test.” The projection screen went blue as Professor Vin disconnected his laptop. “Ms. Saga, could you please hit the lights?”
As the lights came up over the lecture hall and conversations began to buzz once more, Jak gave a stretch in his small, hard chair. Unlike Daxter, the quarterback just wasn’t built for the space-conserving lecture hall seating. As interesting as Vin’s lectures were, he vastly preferred smaller classrooms with desks.
At the end of January, almost a month into the new semester, everyone seemed to have settled back into the routine. It was good to be back at Praxis Hall with their friends, even Torn and Jinx. Having three classes with Daxter and two with Phoenix as well made academics infinitely more enjoyable, and Razer… well, Razer was still Razer, which was somehow comforting in and of itself.
All in all, Jak was more than satisfied with life.
Leaning down to grab his backpack, he was elbowed by Phoenix.
“Hey, Jak, check your phone. Coach just sent us a group text.”
The green-blonde flicked it out of silent mode, a habit during class time. “Who, the whole team?”
“No, just you and I. He wants us to meet him at the rec center after class. Are you free?”
“I am, but I don’t know if Daxter—” Jak glanced up. The seat on his opposite side was empty. “Hey, where’d Dax go?” He scanned the groups of students filing out of the lecture room.
Phoenix chuckled as he shrugged into his coat. “Where else? Pulling the tiger’s tail.”
Jak huffed. Sure enough, there was the redhead, already wearing coat and backpack, trailing after the class’s graduate assistant as she gathered the wires and connectors of the projection system. Predictably, she looked less than pleased.
Sighing, the quarterback gathered his belongings. “Come on, let’s run interception before he drives her to hacking and crashing his tablet again.”
According to Vin’s introduction on the first day of class, his GA’s official name was Neva Saga. Since then, Jak had heard more than one upperclassman address her as Nevermore; undoubtedly poetic, if a bit strange for a given name. But nickname or not, just as belladonna was poetic deadly nightshade, both football players had quickly concluded that Nevermore Saga wasn’t someone to cross lightly.
Vin’s right hand researcher, she was always composed, in class and out. Jak, however, privately figured that anyone who wore that much leather and mesh on a daily basis warranted a warier approach, and anyone with ears so drastically cropped wasn’t someone he planned to provoke if he could avoid it. If she’d survived an accident or an attack, she was a fighter. And if she’d chopped the delicate points of her own free will just to make a statement, then no one on the gridiron could come close to that level of badassery.
Daxter, however, hadn’t seemed to get the same memo.
“So, how was yer date last night?” Jak heard him ask as they neared the bottom of the steps.
Neva, obviously maxing out on her daily dose of Daxter, glared flatly and smoothed down the longer shock of hair that hung down over the right side of her face. “You do have two functioning ears attached to your head, yeah? So how many times do I have to tell you before it sinks in that two people sharing a pizza is two people sharing a pizza? Correlation doesn’t always indicate causation.”
The redhead crossed his arms stubbornly. “Look, all I’m sayin’ is I’ve worked in the place long enough to know when somebody’s just really enjoyin’ that slice of pepperoni and when they’re starin’ at their crush over the breadstick basket, okay? Besides, you two make a pretty cute couple, if I do say so myself.”
Jak clapped a firm hand on his roommate’s shoulder before the GA, who wore a look that warred between murder and mortification, could move to strangle him with the cables she still held. “Dax, if she says it wasn’t a date, it wasn’t a date.”
Phoenix nodded in agreement. “Besides,” he added, lowering his voice pointedly, “if it had been a date, then Professor Vin and Ms. Saga could get in a bit of trouble, because faculty aren’t allowed to be romantically involved with students, even masters’ level ones. You wouldn’t want to say anything that could cause them problems, right Daxter?”
“At least someone on this campus has a working brain,” she muttered.
“Forbidden love, huh?” Daxter rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “That’s tough. Okay, don’t worry about it—come in any time ya want and I’ll totally lie to all the people who think you’re on a date.”
She bared her teeth. “I will never set foot in that establishment again.”
“Ooh, ooh, I know!” The redhead seemed not to have heard her. “You should come in on Valentines Day! It’s only a couple weeks off. I’ll make you lovebirds a heart-shaped pizza, no extra charge!”
Neva bristled. The cord she was winding snapped taunt in a white knuckled grip.
Heeding the warning signs, Jak grabbed his roommate by the backpack strap and began to walk. “Come on, matchmaker. Sig wants to see me and Phoenix. Want to go to the rec center with us?”
Thankfully, he came without a struggle. “Yeah, sure. Why not? I got the afternoon free.”
As the trio filed out the door, Vin waved cheerfully. “Have a nice day, boys. And say hello to your coach for me, if you would. Tell him he’s in charge of snacks on Top Gear night this week.”
“Can do, professor.” Phoenix gave a two-fingered salute as they trooped into the hall.
Jak’s last glimpse was of Vin plucking at one of the cords his ruffled grad assistant had dumped on his desk. “Darn. Another one? These connectors fray so easily…”
- // - // - // - // -
The rec center, Daxter realized somewhat dazedly, was absolutely massive. He trailed Jak and Phoenix as they made their way through the structure, seeming to know exactly where they were going in the melee of athletic activity.
A large, glass-walled room full of treadmills, weights, and other exercise paraphernalia bordered the entrance they had come in and looked out over the sidewalk outside. Up a set of stairs a suspended jogging track circled over a conglomeration of recreational basketball courts. The next hall they took sported large plate-glass windows along one side that looked down on an indoor soccer field and rock climbing wall.
“Sheesh, is there anything they don’t have in here?” Dax asked, only half joking, as they passed through a set of double doors and down a hallway that ran through open air. From below the chest-high walls the sound of volleyball matches and racquetball battles echoed up.
Jak pondered. “Well… The stadium, of course. And the tennis courts are outside.”
“And there’s no hockey rink,” Phoenix put in. “The blokes from up north gripe about it all the time.”
Left. Right. Right. Left. More hallways. They passed dance and yoga studios and the entrance that marked the beginning of the Health and Wellness building where the classrooms and labs that catered exercise science majors were housed.
“We’re close,” Jak promised. “The basketball arena’s up ahead, and the coaches’ and athletic directors’ offices are down the hall that connects this building to the arena concourse.”
“Great. I was starting to think we were gonna go in circles in here fer days an’ die of starvation.”
Phoenix scoffed. “We would never. There’s a Subway.”
Daxter threw his hands up, entirely done. “Okay, why did no one ever see fit ta tell me there’s an entire jockly ecosystem growin’ on this end of campus?! Once there’s a food source they get totally self-sufficient! Why enable these poor creatures to spend their lives trapped in this labyrinth of fitness, Jak? Why?”
“So you could freak out about where everybody’s tuition fees actually go when you finally saw the rec center, of course.”
The redhead rolled his eyes at the football players’ sniggers. “Yeah, you laugh. One’a these days the denizens of this place are gonna figure out what huge fake jocks you guys really are an’ sacrifice you ta their dodge ball gods. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Just as Daxter caught a glimpse of the massive arena concourse “Gate 1” sign through the archway at the far end of a long, long hall of office doors, they came to one with Sig’s nameplate.
The room’s occupant was treating himself to a meatball marinara.
Catching sight of the football players, the coach beckoned them inside with half the sandwich. “Hey there, chili peppers! Come on in.” He seemed even happier to see their tagalong. “Well, if it isn’t Daxter! Long time no see, cherry.”
“Hey. I’m not gonna be in the way or anything, am I?” Daxter asked, suddenly self-conscious.
“Of course not.” What was left of the sandwich waved imperiously before disappearing with a satisfied chomp. “Mmm, that’s delicious. Get in here, pull up a chair.” Sig quickly wiped his mouth and cleared his desk of the remains of his lunch. “I’m glad to see you’re still keeping Jak in line. Love it when my players make good friends outside the team. Keeps ‘em grounded in reality.”
Reassured, the redhead snickered evilly. “I keep him in line, alright. You can count on me.”
Jak rolled his eyes, but smiled.
“So what did you want to talk to us about, Coach?” Phoenix asked as they pushed chairs in a semicircle around his desk.
“Yer not kickin’ ‘em off the team, are ya?” Daxter asked. “Cause I gotta say, Jak might be able ta squeak by without that football scholarship, but Phoenix’s roommate is gonna be real unhappy if his best pal loses his student visa and gets shipped away back ta Aussie Land.” He prudently ducked the swat sent his way by the running back and grinned.
Sig laughed loudly. “Not hardly. If I lose these two before they graduate I might as well turn in my resignation.” He steepled his fingers and managed to look a little more serious. “What I wanted to ask you was: Do either of you two currently have a job?”
Jak’s ears perked in interest as Phoenix silently shook his head. “No, but I’ve been thinking about looking for one. Did you have something in mind?”
“I was hoping you’d say that. And as a matter of fact, I do.” With a flourish, Sig pulled two uniform polos out of a desk drawer and plopped them onto his players’ laps. STAFF was emblazoned across them. “Just so happens a lot of our rec center student assistants graduated this past December. We’ve been able to replace a few, but what we really need are some kids who know the complex, how it works, where everything is, and have enough athletic knowledge to recognize when somebody’s about to kill themselves hamming it up on equipment they don’t know how to use. Of course,” he continued as the boys shook out the shirts, “this would be on a trial basis for the first month or so to make sure it doesn’t interfere with your grades, and we’d have to reevaluate next fall during the season, but if you’re interested in giving it a shot I can make sure you get on.”
Phoenix looked up, a calculating glint in his eye. “Would we get walkie-talkies?”
Very solemnly, the coach nodded. “Damn straight you’d get walkie-talkies.”
Daxter moaned into his hands as the football players whooped with excitement and high-fived. “Sig, dude—yer High Coachlyness— respectfully, where the hell were you when I was lookin’ fer a cool job?!”
- // - // - // - // -
“Seriously, what’s so great about walkie-talkies, anyway?” the redhead huffed around his straw. “That’s what texting is for. We have the technology, guys.”
“If we have to explain it, you’ll never understand,” Phoenix intoned somberly.
Jak chuckled, crumpled his sandwich wrapper, and landed it perfectly in the nearest trashcan.
They had decided to stop at the Subway for lunch before leaving the complex. The rest of the afternoon would be a scramble. The three still had a math class together before going their separate ways, Daxter to work and the football players to the student employment office to apply for the rec center positions.
Jak fingered the yellow sheet of paper that Sig had given him. He and Phoenix were supposed to turn the papers in, fill out a bunch of forms, and that would supposedly be that. They would both still have to do a small interview with the coach and another one of the head honcho supervisors, but Sig had assured them that step was mostly a formality; they’d been hand picking rec center staff off the various athletic organizations for years.
He was still a bit surprised and flattered that Sig had recommended him for what was essentially a mid-level supervisory job. It couldn’t have come at a better time, either. Not that he necessarily needed employment—his football scholarship paid room and board with more than enough left over for books and student fees—but it would be nice to have spending money without relying on Uncle to send a little cash once a month for gas and entertainment.
Breaking into his musings, Daxter finished his drink with a loud slurp. “I guess we better get goin’,” the redhead sighed reluctantly. “Class starts in twenty minutes.” He slipped off his stool and stretched, arms over his head, limber back arched in a completely innocent fashion that immediately made the quarterback think dirty thoughts.
Jak cleared his throat and prudently looked elsewhere. “Yeah, probably.”
“Then follow me,” Phoenix said with a flourish, “to the exit closest to the maths building. I know how eager you are to get there and start dividing by zero, Daxter.”
“Bite me, football boy.”
The route Phoenix led them by wound through more endless hallways that abruptly ended in a steep slope downward. At the bottom of the ramp, the hallway veered a sharp left and began to curve, bowing out into large floor-to-ceiling windows on one side and locker room doors on the other.
Daxter sniffed the humid air suspiciously. “Do I smell chlorine?”
“Got it in one.” Phoenix stopped, clapping a hand against the concave, painted concrete of the wall. “We’re right on top of the pool. The swim lockers are on the other side of this wall.”
“There’s a pool?” The redhead’s ears went up. “Can we see it?”
Jak smiled despite himself. He hadn’t expected his roommate to be interested in the pool; Dax hadn’t asked to get a closer look at any of the other sports areas they’d passed. “Sure, we can look real quick.”
The locker rooms used by the collegiate swim teams were, unsurprisingly, off limits. The lockers used by all the other members of the student body, however, were deserted but unlocked. The three filed in, Phoenix in the lead.
“Razer likes to swim laps for exercise sometimes while it’s icy and he has trouble jogging,” the running back explained as they passed rows of lockers, benches, and curtained shower stalls. “The pool opens every day for lap swimming, and then on the weekends when there’re no swim meets, it’s open for free swim. Have a look.” As they passed through the small rinse-off chamber full of shower heads and drains, he nudged Daxter to the front.
There were no doors separating the locker rooms from the cavernous expanse of the swimming pool—only a roll top security door of metal bars pulled down over the doorway while the pool was closed. Daxter latched onto the bars with both hands, gawking in wonder at the sheer size of the room. “Wow…”
“Bigger than the high school pool, huh?” Jak laughed.
“I think the bleachers in there are bigger than our high school pool!”
The quarterback had to admit the view was impressive. Weak winter sunlight from the high windows glinted on the still, mirror-like surface of the water. The roped buoys that marked the lanes floated peacefully. He glanced down at Daxter. “Do you like to swim?”
Daxter nodded, eyes not leaving the glimmering water. “Yeah, I love it.”
“Brilliant! We should all go to open swim sometime,” Phoenix said brightly. “I’m excellent at water volleyball.”
The redhead’s ears fell immediately. “Uh, yeah. Sure. Maybe.” When he looked back to the pool, he was frowning.
Jak had an idea, from the sudden defensive hunch of his friend’s shoulders, what the problem was. He opened his mouth for a reassurance… then remembered Phoenix and thought better of it. “Come on you guys,” he said instead, effectively changing the subject. “We better go. Class starts in ten minutes.”
Daxter gave a barely-audible but somehow regretful huff and let his hands slip from the bars. “Lead on, o fakest of the fake jocks. The sooner we get this math over with the sooner I can go get hit in the face with garlic bread.”
As they left the locker room behind and traded warm, humid air for dry, cuttingly cold January wind, Jak made a mental note to revisit the last few minutes in conversation. Preferably when his redhead was in an un-mathematical environment.
- // - // - // - // -
When Daxter came home from work that night he had a song in his heart and a plastic shopping bag swinging happily from one hand.
“Hey, Jakkie-boy! Check out this sweet loot!”
The quarterback looked up from his homework as Daxter kicked off his shoes, dropped his coat over the back of his desk chair, and dove into the bottom bunk. “Should I be afraid?”
“Only if ya don’t want a share of this delicious sugary goodness.” He upended the bag, letting a glorious conglomeration of wrapped chocolates, suckers, and candies pour across Jak’s blankets.
Green brows rose. “Whoa. Where’d you get the diabetic coma in the making?”
“Taryn gave it to me.” He preened, tugging the wrapper off a heart-shaped sucker. “There’s a bowl on the counter by the register until V-Day and she gave me the overflow. I think she’s hopin’ the sugar rush’ll make me sweep the floors faster.”
Jak laughed and caught the chocolate Daxter tossed him. “I’d believe an ulterior motive before I’d believe she gave you all that as a gift.” The sweet was unwrapped thoughtfully. “How’s she doing, anyway?”
“Oh, y’know. Same ol’ same ol’.” He rolled his eyes and rolled the sucker around the inside of his mouth. Mmm. Cherry. “Her cast’s still on, but she can do almost everything again. Another month an’ she’ll be out of it, slinging dough all over the place.”
“I bet she really appreciates how much help you’ve been the past few weeks. Not a lot of part time employees with full college course loads would volunteer to take the manager’s place.”
Daxter snorted dismissively. “Yeah, sure. She appreciates me so much she gave me the evening shift on Valentine’s Day. The most smooshy-gooshy romantic day of the year, they day everybody with a date goes out ta eat on, and a Saturday night this year on top’a that? I won’t get home ‘til midnight, you watch.”
Not that he’d had any concrete plans for the night, per se, but he’d been hoping to bribe Jak out of a back rub and an orgasm or two. As long as the quarterback didn’t think it was too weird to ask for on a day that was explicitly set aside for romantic couples. They weren’t dating, after all—they were just friends.
Just friends, he sighed, shuffling a scoop of candy back into the bag. Oh well. Bein’ boyfriends couldn’t be that much better than what we got now… could it?
“Yeah? That sucks.” Jak sat down backwards in his chair, arms folded across its back. “I was hoping we could do something that night.”
The redhead glanced up suspiciously. “Like what? We ain’t exactly a couple. But if you want matching sweaters and a dozen roses you gotta give me a heads up so I can prepare.”
“I would never ask for roses. They’re much too expensive. I expect lilies.” Jak snickered. “But seriously, best friends can totally do stuff together on Valentine’s Day. Keira and I did every year.”
“Yeah, well, you two looked like a couple. A hot couple. Nobody looked at you funny,” he whined.
“I’m not saying we need to go out for a candlelight dinner and share a tiramisu. I just thought it’d be nice if we hung out and did something together. Something fun we don’t usually do. Because Valentine’s Day is about showing people who are special to you that you care about them, right? And I… you’re my best friend and you’re special and I care about you sort of a lot…” The green-blonde hunched up in his chair, rubbing at his upper arm and looking beseechingly anywhere but at his roommate as his face and ears turned red.
Only the effort it took not to bust out laughing at Jak’s blunder smack into an obviously unplanned and thoroughly embarrassing admission kept Daxter from gawking and stammering horribly. He made it through with a nervous giggle, his own cheeks glowing, and ran a hand through his after-work hat hair self-consciously. “Well. Uh. Yeah. Sure. M-me too. I mean, uh, you too. So—what were you thinkin’?”
Looking glad to move on, Jak cleared his throat. “You said the fourteenth is on a Saturday, right? Saturdays are open swim at the pool. I was going to say we should go swimming.”
Daxter’s ears instantly sank. “Swimming? Why swimming? How about bowling? Or floor hockey!”
Jak, chin propped on his arms, looked at him with those blue, blue eyes. “I thought you said today you love to swim.”
“Well, yeah. I do. I mean, I did.” The redhead shrugged uncomfortably. “You know how it is.”
“Tell me?”
He crunched loudly through his sucker at the soft prompt. “Ain’t nothin’ ta tell. I loved goin’ swimming when I was a kid—what kid doesn’t? Then I got older, the kids around me got older. Everybody started noticing. Lookin’ at me, starin’ at my back, askin’ me what happened and what was wrong with me. It got not worth it real quick.”
“But you swam in high school gym?” Jak pressed.
“I swam in high school gym because if I didn’t swim, I didn’t pass the class. Didn’t have much of a choice. It was definitely not fun.”
“That’s what I figured. Just had to ask.” Jak stood and flipped his chair the right way around.
“Sorry, big guy.” Candy repacked, he surged up from the bunk and rested one more foil-wrapped chocolate on the edge of his friend’s desk; a small, insignificant peace offering. “If it was just you an’ me… maybe Phoenix, he’s not a bad dude… then I’d go swimming with ya.”
The quarterback chucked him gently on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I had a feeling that’s what the matter was earlier when Phoenix brought it up. You don’t have to be sorry.” Jak smiled and popped the chocolate into his mouth. “Someday we’ll just have to make sure we all get to swim someplace private.”
It was hard to stay blue when the fake jock smiled, so Daxter answered it with a crooked one of his own. “Okay. Cool. And since renting a private pool for the evenin’ probably ain’t an option, just surprise me with somethin’ on V-Day, okay?”
Jak’s only response was a stare.
“Uh, it that okay? Jak?”
Slowly, the quarterback nodded, but the intensity of his gaze didn’t lessen. “Surprise you. Okay. Got it.”
“Great.” Giving his friend a last confused glance, the redhead tucked his bag of candy in a desk drawer. It had to last until the red and pink candy aisles went on sale February fifteenth. “I’m gonna go get a shower. Think you’d be up ta lookin’ over my math assignment after while?”
“Sure.” Seeming to shake himself out of whatever zone he had temporarily been caught in, Jak smirked. “If you give me more candy.”
“Seriously? How old are you?” With a snort, Daxter reached for the drawer with the sugar. “Mooch. Why didn’t you say somethin’ before I put it away—?” But when he turned back, peanut butter cup in hand, lips ambushed his own.
The kiss was quick and light, almost a chaste peck; definitely not the stuff to begin sloppy makeouts, it barely mingled the chocolate and cherry of their mouths. Then Jak pulled away with a contented hum and a mischievous smile.
“Not ta sound ungrateful for spontaneous smooches, but what was that for?” Dax asked, slightly embarrassed.
“No reason. You’re tiny and you smell like pizza.”
“Gee, ya think?” With a roll of his eyes, the redhead pushed away and began to gather his shower gear. “Alright, I’m out’a here before you start gettin’ ideas and chewin’ on me. Sheesh, somebody should send a memo ta the fragrance company: make pizza-scented perfume, attract perpetually hungry football players like bees to a trashcan!”
As he shrugged out of his uniform and into his robe, though, he couldn’t help but think the night had been a success. Free candy, Jak wasn’t upset with him, and against all odds he still had a shot at goodies on Valentine’s. What could be better than that?
- // - // - // - // -
The moment Daxter left for the showers, Jak counted to twenty and followed him out. He didn’t head to the bathroom, however, but to the room next door.
“Phoenix!” he yelled, knocking firmly. “I need to talk to you.” He only had ten minutes, max, before Daxter finished washing up and wanted in on whatever they were talking about. “Uh, right now? Please?”
“Alright, alright!” The door swung open. Phoenix stood, bemused, hair hanging loose and bedecked in a pair of holey sleep pants. “What’s the rush, mate?”
Through the doorway, Jak could see Razer working at his desk. The older transfer student had on a pair of expensive looking headphones and seemed to be deeply immersed in his studies, to the point that he hadn’t even noticed Jak was there, but there was no sense taking chances they’d be overheard. Not with what he was about to propose.
The quarterback cleared his throat. “I need to ask you something.” He looked meaningfully at Razer’s oblivious back. “But not here.”
Phoenix stared, arm resting solidly against the door frame. “Good lord. Who have you killed?”
“Just come on. This is kind of important.”
With a sigh, Phoenix doubled back into the room and tapped Razer on the shoulder. “I’m stepping out for a tick. Be right back,” he assured at his roommate’s quizzical look.
His friend’s attention firmly secured, Jak led the way back to his own empty room. Pausing only to make sure Daxter hadn’t returned, he tugged Phoenix inside and shut the door behind them. “Okay, I’ll make this short and sweet.” He gave the running back his most serious stare. “I’m going to break into the pool and I need your help.”
Phoenix returned the stare. “The pool. The campus pool. The pool we looked at today.”
“Yes. That pool.”
“Right. Enlighten me, if you would. How do you propose to break into the pool, and why are you going to do it?”
“Okay. Hear me out.” Jak steepled his hands. “You saw the cabinet behind Sig’s desk today, right, the one that’s full of key rings? All the hooks are labeled—there’s one in there for the pool. All I need you to do is be my lookout. When Sig leaves his office, I’ll borrow the pool key and substitute one of the keys off our employee rings. Simple. I’ll have it back the next morning before he even notices.”
The Aussie looked skeptical. “So, let me get this straight. Despite the fact that there’s no actual breaking in involved, you want to gain access to the pool when you shouldn’t, do dubiously acceptable things therein, and in doing so jeopardize a job that, technically, you don’t even officially have yet. And you want me to help you do this.”
“No vandalism or murder involved,” Jak assured with his most winning smile.
“Why?!”
Of course his teammate was going to demand to know that. Jak sighed, weighed his options, and came to a decision. “I can’t tell you. Yet,” he amended hastily as Phoenix opened his mouth to protest. “But I promise I’ll tell you. After we do it.”
Phoenix looked at him, hard, as the silence stretched between them. “Alright,” the running back said finally. “Heaven help me, Mar, but I’ll help you. If you get busted, I had nothing to do with it. And you will tell me what’s got you up to this the moment you’ve achieved what you set out to.”
“Deal.” Jak thrust out his hand, and the agreement was sealed with a firm shake. “I owe you one.”
“So when are we doing this?” Phoenix asked.
“Hopefully, the fourteenth.”
Realization dawned. “Valentine’s?”
The green-blonde nodded firmly. “Not a word. Not to Razer, and especially not to Daxter.”
Phoenix’s grin was huge. “Oh wow, this must really be something if you don’t even want Daxter to know about it. Poor little blighter can’t keep his mouth shut very well, can he?”
“He has a little trouble with that, yeah.” Jak fought back a smile of his own; if only Phoenix knew.
Well, Phoenix would know, in just a few short weeks. But Jak had known the other long enough to consider him a close friend, and he was confident that he could trust his teammate to keep the secret of just who was warming the quarterback’s bunk on the down low when he did find out.
“I suppose I’d better get back to my essay. It won’t write itself, much as I wish it would. Text if you need anything, Jak, and we can reconvene on your Mission Impossible plans when it gets closer to time, yeah?”
“Sounds good. Thanks again, Phoenix.”
The other student took his leave. Left alone again, if only for the moment, Jak let Killer out for his nightly run and looked again at his own homework assignments, but his mind was a million miles away. If he could pull this stunt off, it would be truly spectacular. Now all he had to do was hope all the components fell correctly into place…
- // - // - // - // -
To be continued.
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Outtakes!
- - - - -
Sig: I want to offer you two a job.
Phoenix: That’s great! What will we have to do?
Sig: Mostly you’ll be handing out towels. You’ll need to not have shirts on while you do this. And if you could flex occasionally that would really be great. It’ll really keep up morale around here.
Jak: Now maybe I’m just missing something, but that kind of sounds like a huge waste of our potential, don’t you think?
Daxter: Now Jak, let’s not be too hasty, here. I think this job opportunity has loads of potential!
Jak: Whose side are you on, anyway?
- - - - -
Jak: So you’re saying you’d swim with me if we were alone?
Dax: Sure I would. Maybe even with Phoenix.
Jak: I may be able to arrange that.
Dax: What, bring him with us next time we’re at your uncle’s place? Hey, yeah, he could totally fit in that shower with us!
Jak: I’m going to pretend for the sake of my ego you’re not serious about this.
- - - - -
Jak: I need help breaking into the pool.
Phoenix: Why come to me with the illegal activities?
Jak: Come on. I helped you steal Razer’s clothes.
Phoenix: Yeah, but we didn’t get bodily fluids all over them. Have some decency, man, people swim in that water!
Jak: That’s totally what chlorine is for and you know it.
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