[friday night frights: season 1, episode 3]
‿︵‿︵୨˚̣̣̣͙୧ - - ୨˚̣̣̣͙୧‿︵‿︵
"Guys! Guys!" Wes panicked, sprinting up to Aaliyah and Serena who were currently leaning against their lockers, discussing the latest chemistry assignment that Wes probably didn't do.
Serena looked up at her distressed friend, "Yes, Wes, what's wrong?" she asked nicely.
"You aren't going to believe this," Wes started, pushing the hair out of his crazed eyes. "Coach is taking out the trophy in the trophy case."
"We had a trophy is there?" Aaliyah asked absentmindedly. "Are you sure you're not making that up? I've never seen us win a game, like ever."
"Well, Aaliyah, it looks like I've bested you just this once, as we did win one wrestling match," Wes declared. "Albeit, it was thirty years ago. But it was the one thing that I looked at every day as I passed it, and knew that if our school could win something, I could do anything!"
Serena raised her eyebrow as she had never heard Wes express something like this before. "This trophy must mean a lot to you then," she decided.
"Okay, before we get too far into this conversation, I have to ask. Where even is the trophy case?" Aaliyah asked.
"How do you not know?" Wes exclaimed, shocked by Aaliyah's lack of knowledge about where the trophy case was. To be fair, Serena really didn't know either.
"Well, maybe, I would know if the school had actually won anything," Aaliyah said as Wes began to drag her through the hallways.
Serena sighed and begrudgingly followed her two friends to wherever Wes was leading them. It was most likely the trophy case, but knowing Wes he could totally be messing with them and trying to trap them in some stupid prank that he spent all of the Chemistry period on. After the surprisingly short walk through the hallway, Wes stepped in the smallest intersection possible and turned toward a small glass case. "See, no trophy," he said to the two girls. "Look, even the nerds are upset about it," Wes said, gesturing to Ethan, Benny, and Rory who looked a little annoyed with each other.
"You mean Ethan and Benny?" Aaliyah asked.
"Yeah them," Wes said shrugging, "Wait, Ethan and Benny? I've never heard you call them by their actual names before. Are you guys friends or something?" He asked Aaliyah, his eyebrow raised suspiciously.
"I would classify us more as acquaintances," Aaliyah answered him. "I mean, we barely even talk to them a lot."
It was at that moment where Aaliyah regretted saying anything at all, "Serena! Aaliyah! Hey!" Benny called. "And, I don't really know who you are," he said pointing to Wes.
"Uh, Wes?" Wes responded a little overwhelmed by the whole situation.
"Hey, Wes, buddy," Benny said in the weirdest tone.
Serena's eyes widened, "Uh, why are you talking to us?" she asked quickly.
"I dunno, I mean Ethan's being a little weird, and I think that Rory just hit me in the head," Benny explained as quickly as he could.
"What does that have to do with us?" Aaliyah hissed.
"Well, I didn't fancy getting hit in the head again, so I'm here now," Benny responded.
"And you think I won't hit you in the head?" Serena asked him.
Benny looked very scared, not wanting to test the girl in front of him. "And, suddenly just like that, I'm magically gone, ooooooh," Benny said as he backed away from the group of three.
Aaliyah blinked as soon as he saw out of sight, "That was strange, like stranger than normal," she affirmed, shaking her head.
"I think we shouldn't bother ourselves with it," Serena decided. "I am not going to be mixed up with anything that they do today, and it's not going to get under my skin."
"Even Erica?" Aaliyah asked, making Serena's eye twitch. "I guess that's my answer," Aaliyah sang, flipping her perfectly curled hair over her shoulder.
Wes looked between the two of them, but he wasn't paying attention to their conversation. He looked more confused than ever. "Did either of you see the man standing behind nerd number one?" he asked the two of them, effectively interrupting their conversation.
"No?" Aaliyah said. "There was no one else there. Wes, are you feeling okay? Maybe you want to go to the nurse's office if you are seeing things."
"I'm- I'm not seeing things, Lia," Wes said sternly. "I swear there was a man there. I think nerd number one saw him too."
"I didn't see anything, sorry Wes," Serena said shrugging.
Wes huffed, "Whatever, maybe I was just hallucinating, you know. All the caffeine," he said shaking his head, walking away.
"Wait! Wes! How many cups of coffee did you have today?" Aaliyah asked him as walked away, but he just scratched the back of his head, not answering her question. "Wes! Wes! Answer me," she called, following Wes down the hallway, leaving Serena to think about what Wes said he saw.
---
The next day at school Sarah came rushing up to Serena before she had even walked two feet into the school. "Serena, Serena," Sarah whispered, grabbing her upper wrist. "I need your help with something."
"Uh yeah, okay," Serena said bewildered as the girl led her back outside near the parking lot by the south entrance. Serena had never been back here because she characterized this place as where all the truckers hung out. Serena was even surprised that there were truckers in Canada, she had also thought of that as a United States thing. But she was proven wrong by the line of trucks and other scrap cars that some older guys were working on. "Why did you drag me back here?" Serena asked Sarah but she shushed her.
"Shhhh, they could be listening," Sarah said quietly. "Anyone could be listening. We have to be sneaky and stealthy, can you do that?" Sarah asked.
Serena opened her mouth to ask a question but decided against it, noticing the determined look on Sarah's face. "Yeah, I can do that," she answered quietly.
But it was too late, someone had already spotted them. A blonde 'someone' named Erica, "What do you think you're doing?" she asked the two of them.
"Uh.. I.. just," Sarah started.
"I know, you were spying on him," Erica interrupted. "And you brought shrieky here along with you, great."
Serena scoffed, "I don't like that nickname you gave me," she chimed in, but Erica ignored her, as per usual.
"You think I turned him, don't you?" Erica asked Sarah. "Trust issue much? Some friend!"
"I was just!" Sarah explained, but Erica already started walking away and towards one of the men working on the cars.
Erica walked over to him, giggling as the man unbuttoned his shirt. "Ew," Serena said quietly, rolling her eyes at the scene in front of her. Erica sent the other two girls a wink before walking away from that one man. "God, I hate her," Serena said to herself quietly.
Serena looked up to see Sarah had left her side and started walking over to the guy as well. "Sarah?! What are you doing?" Serena asked loudly.
Sarah turned around to look at Serena, "Investigating," she hissed. "I got this," she reassured Serena, who had an unbelieving look on her face. "Just make sure the nerds don't poke around, okay? Ethan thinks he's being haunted by a ghost coach or whatever."
Serena sighed, she didn't like being tasked with watching Ethan and Benny, but she would much rather do that than pretend to flirt with some random guy who was the opposite of her type. Even the idea of that made her want to throw up in her mouth. She strolled away to go find Aaliyah who would be able to help her watch the two other guys.
Serena heard a rustle in the bushes next to her and she peered down at the bush. "God, Benny do you have anything better to do than spy on Sarah?" she asked looking at him. "It's just embarrassing, get out of the bush and go help your friend with the ghost or whatever."
Benny shot up out of the bush, "How did you know about that?" he questioned following Serena back into the school hallway.
"I'm not an idiot," Serena responded lazily, "Also Sarah told me. But just find him, I'll check in with you guys later."
---
Serena was growing increasingly bored watching, well not really watching it was more spying, on Ethan. She ended up learning a few things about him. First and foremost, he was terrible at sports. He couldn't make a single basket out of the seven that Serena watched him throw. Secondly, he wasn't very strong, which would make sense based on his physique, or lack thereof. But Serena thought that somehow that his seer powers might have made him a little bit stronger, but she was wrong about that. The last thing she learned is that he was completely obsessed with Sarah.
Well, Serena wouldn't really describe it as obsessed, more like he had a massive crush on her. Serena was frankly stunned that she hadn't noticed this earlier. She liked to call herself a connoisseur of figuring out who likes who. For example, she could tell that Wes has had the biggest crush on Aaliyah since the beginning of the school year. It was a little funny but Serena thought it was cute. Ethan's crush on Sarah however, eh it was okay. Honestly, Serena thought it was a little stereotypical, the school nerd falling for a popular good. Very coming of age Disney film, her in opinion. But, maybe it could work out, Serena really had no idea.
"Serena, Serena, Se-ren-uh," Wes said as he stumbled up to the bench she was sitting on.
Serena turned her head towards the boy next to her. "Yes, Wes?" she asked.
He slid onto the bench next to her, "So I've been doing some reading," he started.
"You? You've been doing some reading?" Serena asked, this wasn't like Wes at all. Not that she was poking fun at his intelligence, she wasn't because Wes was very smart. She had just never seen him admit to doing reading outside of school stuff.
"Yes, I was reading and doing research," he said, waving off her comment. "And I think I know how that man was the other day, behind that nerd kid you and Lia are friends with."
"Again, I'm not really friends with Ethan, and there was no man," Serena explained. "Unless you were seeing some sort of ghost, but that would be crazy because they don't exist," she lied.
"Okay, Serena you say that but look at this," Wes then proceeded to pull out his laptop and place it in front of the girl. "Look at the headline and then look at the date.
Serena sighed, squinting at the laptop. "Wrestling coach wins a trophy for the Whitechapel Devils for the first time, dated during 1989," Serena felt her breath stop. Wes was definitely catching on, but she had to lie through her teeth once again. "I mean this proves nothing," she said, closing the laptop.
"Wha-what-what," Wes stumbled, looking at the girl with wide eyes. "Serena, are your eyes working properly? The date is 1989, the man looks the exact same right now. The only logical explanation is that he's a ghost!" Wes exclaimed.
"Or, you're are seeing things," Serena reasoned. "You did have a lot of caffeine that day."
"Okay, four iced coffees is not a lot of caffeine!" Wes retorted, throwing his hands up in the air. "Serena, how can I prove this to you because I know I am right about this?" he asked seriously.
Serena sighed, "I don't know, there's probably no way because ghosts aren't real Wes," she said in a singsong voice.
Wes's face lit up, "Wait, wait, wait," he said quickly as if he had just remembered something. "There is a wrestling match tonight, after school. Ghosts usually haunt the place where they have unfinished business. So wresting coach, wresting match, his unfinished businesses. He's gonna be there, and so are we," Wes decided.
"Wes, I don't think this is a good idea," Serena started but Wes shook his head.
"Too bad we're going together," Wes said definitively.
---
"In the spirit of non-competition. I pledge to be a non-partisan referee for tonight's match," the wrestling coach said, his voice booming throughout the gym. "So, uh, well, may every man win, or, uh-" he paused for a second. "At least, survive."
The coach cleared his throat and continued his introduction, "Representing, Conway Collegiate, we have Kurt 'The Hurt' Lochner." The gym erupted into cheers of applause. "Alright, okay, and representing White Chapel High, we have-" the coach started but Benny ran out onto the gym floor, taking the microphone from.
Serena huffed, "Oh no," she whispered, knowing that nothing good could come of this.
"From a land of fear and nightmares comes a warrior born to destroy. He speaks only violence. He knows only hatred. His headlock is a crime against humanity. Behold... the Ethanorrrrrrr," Benny said gesturing towards Ethan who began to run onto the gym floor, led by Rory who was carrying two sparklers in his hand.
"Oh my god, he is going to get pummeled," Wes said, a gleeful look on his face. "See, Serena this is going to be fun."
The crowd was definitely not as keen on Ethan as they were about Kurt. The crowds booed him as he made his way next to the coach. "Okay guys, If I could just get you to shake hands that'll be nice," the coach said warmly to the two boys.
The two walked forward and grasped hands, and Serena heard a huge crack as Kurt bent Ethan's hand backward. "That'll bruise," Serena said slowly, turning her head away from the scene.
Wes tapped her on the shoulder, "Serena look," he said pointing to Ethan. "Look, behind him, behind the nerd, it's the ghost."
Serena squinted her eyes, trying to observe what Wes was seeing, but there was nothing there. "Wes, I don't see anything."
"No, but, look Ethan's talking to him," Wes pointed out. "He's got curly black hair and bulging eyes, and a gray tank top, with red gym shorts."
"I'm sorry, Wes but I can't see him," Serena said slowly.
"But I know he's there- I just," Wes started, but he stop talking. "Whatever let's just watch the match," he said, dejected after Serena's response.
As Serena expected, Ethan was not good at Wrestling. In fact, he was terrible. Kurt had thrown him to the ground more times than Serena could count. Even when Ethan tried to do something to catch Kurt off his guard, it failed and he ended up hurting himself more. There was no way that Ethan was going to beat this guy. He had little to no experience and Kurt had been wrestling for a lot longer than Ethan.
After five more minutes of Ethan getting absolutely destroyed by Kurt, round one had officially ended. Wes hadn't talked the entire round, which was not like him at all. Serena could tell that something was wrong. "I'll be back," Wes said, moving to stand up from the bleachers.
"I'll come with you," Serena said instantly.
"Serena, you don't need to," Wes said instantly.
"Wes, what's wrong?" Serena asked as she followed him down the steps of the bleachers.
"Is there something wrong with me, Serena?" he asked as soon as they got out of earshot from the other students in the gym.
Serena shook her head, "Wes, why are you asking that?" she said instantly.
"I just, I'm seeing dead people, Serena," he expressed. "And I don't know why, but I know it's real because why would I be making this up!"
"Wes, I believe you," Serena said suddenly.
"You do?" Wes questioned. "But you didn't see that coach?"
"Yes, I believe you," Serena started. "Look I don't know what you are seeing, and why, but I'll promise that I will help you through this."
Wes smiled, "Promise?"
"Yes, I promise," Serena answered. "I just might need a little help."
"Who, Aaliyah?" he asked.
"Not exactly."
And we were in screaming colors,
and I remember thinking ♕
Grace talks ig: yay new screaming colors update with Wes, my beloved. I literally love him and he is one of the ocs that I have the most fun writing for because he's just pure comedy. Anyways next chapter we get EVEN MORE WES, since it is focused a lot on him. So all you Wes stans better be happy (aka me, I am the biggest Wes stan to exist). Don't forget to vote and comment if you feel so inclined too and ILY. See y'all in the next update <3