The Switch / Shourtney

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Classroom

May 18th, 2018

You could say that it was just a regular morning at the smoffice, but then the world must have been knocked slightly off its axes, because for some reason, Keith was on time and Courtney was running very, very, late.

We were already all heading down to set, costumed, and mostly makeuped. We were shooting a high school video today, 2008 VS 2018, and the set was decorated to look like a class room. Of course, Ian was playing the teacher and the squad were all students. I had shaved my face for the role, which was slightly ironic seeing as I hadn't shaved when I played a girl for a skit a week and a half earlier. I was already missing the feeling of having scruff on my face, I had been growing it out since we had wrapped this season of Goldbergs, but oh well.

We were just goofing around on set waiting for Courtney to arrive. She was really going to have to rush through makeup because we were set to start filming in 20 minutes. Ian and Ryan were talking over the stage direction for the scene as I sat in a desk next to Keith. I had Charlie Puth's new album playing on my phone and I was mouthing the falsetto vocals at the beginning of the song, moving my head back and forth according to the octave the song was hitting.

"Shayne, you're not funny!" Ian called from his position at the front of the classroom, as Keith exploded in giggles behind his phone

"That's so stupidddd," he snorted.

I continued my dance party, pumping my fist in the air to the beat until a small ping interrupted the song and I looked down at my phone to see that Courtney had texted that she was here on the group chat. I paused my music and replied that we were in the studio. A few moments later Courtney burst into the room.

"SO sorry guys, plans changed, I didn't have anyone to watch Jango so I had to bring him in!" She said, sounding slightly out of breath.

"Don't worry about it Court," Ian said lightly. "Just go to Rachel and get touched of quickly so we can start shooting on time."

Courtney nodded quickly and ducked out of the studio to get her make up done.

Ryan gave us a bit of stage direction for the scene as Courtney stumbled somewhat violently into the school desk beside me, jostling it and almost tipping it over.

"Jesus Courtney, what the hell?" I snorted reached out to steady her.

"You are a hot mess this morning," Keith added, grinning from behind us.

Courtney shot him a sardonic smile and blew a stray piece of hair out of her face and readjusted her position so that she was sitting more normally in the desk.

"You guys are mean," she said with a humph, crossing her arms, causing me and Keith start laughing again

"Ok kids, settle down," Ian joked from the front of the classroom. "Common, let's shoot this shit."

We got through the 2018 bits first with minimal breaking. At one point Ian kicked the desk in an improvised move of defiance and the five of us lost it. Courtney and I fell over our desks laughing, but other than that we made it through and shot the 2008 bits as well. Although we had a slightly late start, we still managed to finish shooting on time, and we all headed back up to the office to get some work done.

I got up there first and sat down on the couch and pulled out my laptop. Courtney came into the room a moment later holding Jango in her arms.

"Say hi to Shayne!" She said, stopping in front of me. Jango eyed me, tail wagging before turning his eyes back to Courtney and licking her face.

"Ugh, Jango," She laughed, pulling her face back from him. There was a wheelie table in the room and Courtney set Jango onto it. He surprisingly lay down calmingly on the table and Courtney's eyes lit up as, what I assumed was a sudden idea, entered her brain. "Let's go for a ride!"

Grabbing on the back of the table she pushed it across the room calling, "Weeooo, Weeooo" as if she was some sort of human ambulance.

I pulled out my phone to film her ridiculousness as she screamed, "We've gotta get to the operating room stat!" He's losing a lot of blood!"

"I hate everything here." I said with a deadpan voice to the camera.

Courtney bounced back into the room, Jango in tow, "No you don't! You love it." She grinned, and dropped down onto the couch next to me, still laughing at her own silliness. Jango padded over to us and curled up by my feet.

"So what happened this morning?" I asked leaning further back into the cushions and stretching to get comfortable.

Courtney's eyes shot towards me but she was quiet for a moment before answering. "Well, Jango was supposed to be with... Wahlid this morning, but something came up and he couldn't watch him."

"Oh." I felt a little uncomfortable talking about her boyfriend, and I could tell she felt slightly weird too because she ran a hand through her hair nervously before continuing.

"Yeah," She shrugged. "It's just frustrating because I had a plan for him today and then it didn't happen, and my Dad had a shift so I couldn't leave Jango with him, and then I was late for the shoot because I was trying to figure out what to do."

Sighing, Courtney continued, "I mean, you know what an anxious puppy Jango is, and it's so hard to always be switching his schedule around. On top on that, it's just tough, because I thought when I got jango that I would have more of a support system, but things just always seem to, um, come up."

My heart hurt for her. Courtney was sort of like a human golden retriever in that she always wanted to be everyone's friend, do the right thing, and make everyone happy. She really just wanted to give Jango the best life and with her busy schedule, she was always trying to figure out where to leave him during the day. It sucked that today was one of those times where things didn't work out, and it sucked because I knew she was beating herself up over it.

"Of course it is. That's stressful, I'm sorry you had a rough morning,"

"I'm sorry for complaining to you about... you know." She said, her face flushed.

"Hey, it's ok. I mean, well it's not, but you know I'm always here for you," I said quickly, with a small smile. "And I know all this Jango stuff is stressful and you just want to make sure he's doing ok. But selfishly, I like it when you bring him in to the office."

"Yeah?" She asked, peaking at me from behind a wave of hair.

"Of course. Keeps things interesting," I replied. "And how else would I continue my master plan to become his favorite human."

"Excuse you! That's not going to happen, I am definitely his favorite human of all time." She shot back, smirking.

"Guess me and Jango have something in common then," I grinned, as she blushed a deep shade of pink.

But I truly meant it.

A/N: Hey! This chapter is based on highschool 2008 vs 2018 and a lot of Instagram stories from that day! It's sort of playing the feels with the all the Jango stuff but I wanted to show the cracks in Courtney's relationship starting to show again. It's coming guys

Also! Question: So over the past few weeks I've been sort of working on the first couple chapters of a Defy shutdown based Shourtney fic. Should I post the first chapter soon, or wait till I officially finish the switch? (I would still be posting for the switch regularly, not abandoning it, the new fic would sort of be a side project).

Let me know! 

Love, kat