All Eyes on The Bruised-Eye Boy

Ten Minutes Earlier

"Why won't you let me take him? I can do it!" Whitney whined.

"You're the one who punched him," Peyton responded in a hiss.

The two older blondes argued while walking briskly as Peyton pushed her brother's wheelchair. Forming almost a circle around those three, the Babybees, plus Zoey and Ariel, directed Sean's sister toward the unofficial cheerleader table. The younger crew occasionally slipped into the argument, offering and pleading to let them take care of their injured charge.

"Hey, watch it!" Yolanda squealed as Peyton pushed Sean right up to her heels.

"Maybe we should take over," Harley politely offered again.

"You were supposed to keep Sean safe and out of trouble!" Whitney snapped for the fourth or fifth time.

"It's not our fault," Kizzy denied. "We didn't know that he could walk."

"You didn't know," Beatrice replied before her mentor began screaming again. "The rest of us didn't make that leap of logic."

"Well, excuse me. I don't recall getting handed a medical report," Kizzy replied in a huff. Reaching their table, she folded her arms with a pout.

"Oh, man. What happened?" Sean asked, feeling a little woozy and disoriented. He rubbed his face in an attempt to clear the cobwebs of confusion.

"You got punched in the face," Whitney stated. Failing to mention the elephant in the room, the cheerleader captain glared at her younger understudies as if daring them to sell her out.

"Punched again?! Dammit, why does my face keep doing that?" Sean half-groaned, half-grumbled. Whatever the noise, it caused several Babybees to giggle before they gasped at what came next. "Was it Austin again? I swear, nothing happened between Lacey and me!"

"Again? That little shit punched you?" Peyton questioned sharply with a rising voice.

"I wouldn't say that nothing happened," Whitney muttered.

"More like we had a fight," Sean revealed, looking up in confused fascination at the ballroom's lights. "He suckered punched me, but I got him back good. Might have been a draw before Owen broke it up."

"Oh. My. Gawd. Sean fought Austin Rusk?!" Kizzy squealed, shoving Harley in her excitement.

Already aware of this breaking news to everyone else, Whitney wandered off to check on her friends.

"And he survived it. That's impressive," Beatrice stated. Cocking her head to the side, the sophomore cheer captain studied Sean with new appreciation.

"That's kinda hot," Ariel, the lone Sugarbee amongst them, commented.

"Kinda?" YoYo repeated while fanning her face.

The one person to remain perfectly quiet also beamed with the most pride.

It was she that Peyton turned to for help.

"Zoey, we're going to need to put ice on his eye. Grab a couple of napkins and pour some ice into them. Carefully. We don't want to spill water all over the napkins."

The younger Gibble sister had just begun pulling a glass of ice water toward her when a new arrival ended her effort. A cute brunette, she held up two baggies filled with ice and a white towel.

"I thought you might need this, and the bartender agreed," Dove Flavin said.

"Why, thank you, Dove! That showed thoughtfulness and foresight," Peyton praised. I knew I liked this girl. Unlike most of Mom's friends' daughters, she's not consumed with stupid cheerleading. It's like I found a kindred spirit...Oh! Dove might be a year younger than Sean, but she lives in Arbor Corners. Hmm, I wonder if I could play matchmaker next year before I graduate.

"Sure, no problem," Dove said, enchanting Sean with a cute shrug and cuter smile. "It's way better than watching my mom and Aunt Shelly relive their glory days while punishing cheerleaders."

A round of gasps sounded from the Babybees. YoYo scanned the ballroom before dashing off. The rest of the younger girls moved toward the far end of the table to hold a discussion.

"Who's that?" one whispered.

"That's Cookie Keeble's daughter."

"The Cookie Keeble? Crap, that means that Aunt Shelly is Shelly Penfold."

"Yeah, she lives in Arbor Corners. Close friends with that Nikki Fitch."

"Violet's cousin," Ariel chimed in, knowing the former Sugarbee captain. "She's also Noah Fitch's brother."

"Who?"

"Half-brother. Noah is Jack Foscue's other kid. So his other sister is that Jade," Kizzy passed along the family gossip.

"Yeah, Jade is cool. She works at the yoga studio," Ariel added.

"And I hear she's a sex-fiend like her dad."

"Like your family isn't messy, Kizzy," Zara remarked.

"Hey! What did I do?" Kizzy questioned.

"Shit, Mrs. Wexler and Mrs. Flavin ARE punishing my sister and her old squad," YoYo revealed, returning from her scouting mission.

"B-But they all graduated!" Kizzy stammered, shocked that former squad members could still get in trouble. "Can they do that?"

"They can for alumni events. My mom got a suspension after her...you know, thing," Harley recounted hesitantly. "The Sugarbees and cheerleaders tend to run their alumni groups about the same."

"And Coach Brass was scolding Coach Brass," YoYo added.

That caused another round of worried sounds as Tuesday was their coach.

"What are they going to do to us?" Zara questioned with concerned eyes. She locked them on Zoey, the non-cheerleader, who merely shrugged in ignorance.

"Nothing!" Beatrice replied, taking charge as captain. "We didn't fight. Only Cadence did."

"Yeah, that's right!" Kizzy cheered.

"But you disobeyed my orders and let Sean get hurt again," Whitney stated, reappearing with Ramsey at her side and scaring the shit out of the Babybees.

"Weren't you the one who hurt him?" Ramsey inquired, having missed most of the fight.

"Rammy, don't undermine my authority," Whitney hissed under her breath.

"Hey, what the fuck is this?" YoYo demanded to know.

Every one of the girls followed her glare to where Sean now had more company. More female company.

"Geez, Sean, maybe we'd better attend Zurbrugg next year. It looks like you could use the protection," the brunette in the navy blue sequin dress commented. "Here, I can take care of that."

Figuring that Rowan Rogers could be trusted more than most of these girls, Peyton handed over the icebag to her. The brainy brunette immediately resumed her earlier perch on the side of Sean's wheelchair. Her athletic, more flirty sister, Loren, timed it perfectly as she perched on the side of his wheelchair, balancing their weight.

"You poor, poor thing. You'd never survive at Thornapple Academy. Backstabbing is a way of life," Loren stated, straightening out her gold sequin dress.

"I think Sean has proven to be a survivor this week," Rowan defended their mom's friend's son. Holding the bag to his eye, she began to run her hand through his hair. "Haven't you, Seanie?"

"Um, I think so."

"Well, we do know that you turned into quite the accidental hero. And for that, we're proud of you," Loren informed him. Then, leaning down, she placed a lingering kiss on his cheek. "You know, Ro, I think Sean could be our project next year. I mean, if we go to Zurbrugg."

"Project? Oh! You mean what Lex wouldn't let us do?" Rowan recalled, referring to their brother and the final third of the triplets.

"Uh, I think I'm already the project for several people," Sean responded, struggling to recall everyone. "There's Lacey's one to find me a girlfriend. Then Mom and Whitney have one to sow my wild oats or whatever you want to call it."

"Ooh! That sounds like a fun one," Loren chuckled while her more romance-inclined sister frowned.

Standing nearby, Peyton shook her head at her mom's plan with Whitney. Where is Mom? She said that she'd be right over.

"Not for us," Rowan emphasized, shooting her sister a look.

"Oh, right. No offense, Seanie, but you aren't our type," Loren explained. "Nope, we had a plan to help get Lex girls, but he found it uncomfortable."

"I don't know what was so weird about it. We just wanted to have a few friends fake flirt or make out with him to make other girls notice and get jealous," Rowan said.

"Granted, we had our friend, Lolly Keesecker, start it out, and she can be aggressive."

"Our friend? Lolly's more your friend," Rowan clarified before leaning down close to Sean's ear. "She's known as the blowjob queen at our school."

"Yeah, I probably should've stressed the fake part more. She tried to unzip Lex's pants on the park bench," Loren admitted. "But, we learned from our mistakes to help you. So which cutie over by the table do you want to make jealous?"

"Our mistakes? It was your mistake," Rowan pointed out, ignoring her sister's question.

"I can't. They're all sophomores," Sean whispered, nodding his head in the direction of the Babybees.

"So?"

"Mom said that I needed to stay away from them. I should go after more experienced girls and avoid any possible charges."

"Aunt Bridget is right...about that last part, I mean," Rowan said.

"That's a buzzkill, but whatever. Then give us some names and point them out," Loren ordered.

Over at the far end of the table, the sophomores watched Sean and two-thirds of the Rogers triplets with various emotions. A few were jealous, others envious, another disinterested, and one next-door neighbor felt miffed.

"Look sharp! Hottie approaching," YoYo warned in a hiss.

All eyes turned, curious and hungry, as two young men approached. The one with brown hair looked similar enough to the two girls perched on Sean's wheelchair to scream family member. The blond carried himself with such confidence that several of the girls felt almost like swooning.

"Which one?" Beatrice remarked, running her eyes down Penn Wexler's athletic physique.

Kizzy nodded vigorously to her captain's question as she watched Lex Rogers with piqued interest.

All the girls noticed Penn throw up his hand as if asking why, while Lex rolled his eyes. Turning back toward Sean, the girls saw that a newcomer had arrived, joining the two brunettes. Only this one, a slinky, dark-haired young woman, had slid up to sit on Sean's lap.

"Poor, poor thing," Ariana Lago commented, patting Sean's cheek. "Whatever am I going to do with you, Sean? Well, now I know that I'd better take your mom up on her offer and stay in your garage apartment this summer. You're going to need me around to keep an eye on you. Would you like that?"

"Su-Sure!"

"Ah, you're such a sweetie. We can--oh!" Ariana's face lit up as her eyes narrowed with a new realization. "And you're growing up." Spinning around, she sat facing away from him but peeked over her shoulder at the eighteen-year-old while wiggling her toned ass. "Very grown-up."

"Okay, that's enough. Get up and stop teasing my brother," Peyton ordered.

"Who said anything about teasing? Your little brother isn't so little anymore," Ariana remarked, sliding off Sean's lap. "Or haven't you noticed?"

Sean didn't say a word as his eyes watched Ariana's slinky body arch as she stood up. After that, his gaze attempted to burn a hole through the section of the dress that encased her fabulous ass.

"I like her style," YoYo complimented.

"Hey, remember that Sean is ours," Kizzy responded, slapping her squadmate's shoulder.

Where the hell is Mom? I am not staying here to watch all these girls treat Sean like a piece of meat. It's weird and annoying and--what the crap, Sean?!

Peyton hurriedly grabbed the towel that Dove had brought off the table. Then she tossed it onto her brother's lap.

"Here. Why don't you keep that there so that you can rest the ice bag on it? That way, you won't get your pants wet while cooling down," Peyton suggested.

However, his sister's eyes said far more, leading Sean to glance down and notice the monster erection tenting his pants. That realization snapped the teen out of the remaining fog that the punch had left him in. Reacting after several seconds, Sean tried to slyly move the towel to help hide his leaning tower of horniness.

Looking up, Sean noticed that Ariana had obviously felt it by the new way she studied him. Gone was the older-family-friend vibe. In its place was a sense of equality between the two of them.

"Smooth move, Seanie," Loren whispered. "Show that stick off, and you'll make my job way easier.

Rowan appeared confused by the unspoken undercurrent of conversation. Nearby, the Babybees sensed something too, but their angle hid Sean's telltale hard-on.

"You know, I used to be envious of Finn. He got a solid crop of my mom's friend's daughters to grow up with," Penn interrupted the awkward mood. "But now, I think you're the one that I should be jealous of, Sean. The sheer number of cheerleaders' daughters hanging around you seems unfair."

"You get plenty of feminine attention at college. And I know you dated most of the cheerleading squads at TWO schools down in Blackbridge, Wexler," Peyton pointed out.

"True. Unfortunately, Finn gets you and Lana."

"Finn does not get me," Peyton replied in annoyance.

"What about you, Lex? Getting jealous of Sean's cheer angels?" Penn asked the younger teen at his side.

"Thornapple's got a whole wing of hot girls," Lex defended before admitting the truth. "Still, I'd say that ninety percent of them are spoiled, stuck-up brats."

"Oh, we got our share of bitches around here, too," Whitney chimed in. She'd kept quiet until now as she wanted to observe the dynamic between Sean and the out-of-towners. "And here comes one now that we can introduce you to."

"Oh, we know her," Lex replied, surprising Whitney. "We know Honey Hollow's ice queen."

And a queen she looked, although not an ice queen at the moment. Sienna Thirlby appeared to flow into the ballroom, heading in their direction. Her dress helped create the flowing effect. A sleeveless, floor-length emerald green gown, it fit her body like a glove. The matching floor-length, transparent emerald cape caused Whitney to roll her eyes.

Along with most men around him, Sean couldn't care about the over-the-top cape. No, his gaze focused on the blonde's gorgeous face and nearly perfect body. Blessed with blue eyes, large breasts, and a toned ass, Sienna rivaled any girl at Honey Hollow High in terms of beauty. Only her uptight arrogance kept her off the list of top five crushes, and that condescending attitude barely caused her to miss the cut. However, Sienna came in third on Sean's list, behind Lana and Ramsey, just above his old babysitter, Keira. Sienna's beauty had also led Sean to twice ask her to prom, with very public rejections.

"Well, Sean Tarver, I see that saving Diamond has caused two of Thornapple Academy's finest to turn into fawning fans. Hello, Loren. Hello, Rowan," Sienna greeted, about as friendly as she could muster. Then, her eyes flickered off to the side with mild interest. "Hello, Lexington."

"Hiya, Sienna," Lex responded with a goofy grin.

Penn nudged an elbow into his side and commented, "Look sharp."

Suddenly, a tiny bundle appeared from behind the flowing emerald gown. A petite golden blonde with naturally tanned skin, big amber eyes, small-to-medium breasts, and a tiny, tight ass gasped as she saw Sean. Wearing a short, spaghetti-strap A-line dress with floral embroidery and an extra outer, transparent layer at the bottom, the lemon color complemented Rylee Kittle's shy personality.

"I must say that I'm not surprised that Diamond nearly killed herself, but I am pleased to see that you--Rylee!"

Sienna shouted her best friend's name as the other girl dashed forward with a squeak. Throwing her arms around Sean, the kind, caring girl did what Sienna should've done by giving the town's hero a strong, firm hug.

"Hey, it's okay, Rylee. I'm going to be fine. I swear, I am. Probably be in a cast for six weeks or so, but I'm going to be fine," Sean insisted after Rylee broke the hug off to stare at him in concern with a quivering lip.

"I told you that," Sienna reminded the one person that she seemed to care about. "Don't you dare. Wait!"

"Whoa, I don't need a---Yeah, yeah, I'm going to be fine too," Whitney reassured the petite blonde after attempting to wave off the hug that she saw coming from a mile away. "Um, thanks for caring."

Rylee nodded while sniffling. Then, breaking off her hug, she turned to face her best friend.

"What? I'm not hugging her."

Rylee stared.

"No way."

Rylee frowned.

"I'm getting to it. Geez, give me a second, okay?"

Rylee sighed.

"Fine! I'll say it," Sienna responded, sounding exasperated. "Look, I know we don't like each other, but--"

"You don't like me? Oh, no! I thought we were friends," Whitney gasped in mock horror.

"Do you see the shit that I have to deal with?" Sienna shot at Rylee. Still, the petite blonde narrowed her eyes at the curvier blonde. "Alright! Look, I'm not disappointed that you didn't die, Whitney. And I wish the best for your health."

"Well, I'm thrilled that you're not disappointed. Although I'd love to continue this conversation back near Whistle Cove. I know just the perfect spot for the ice queen to stand--"

"Whitney," Sean growled.

The blonde cheerleader captain didn't break eye contact with the other blonde at Sean's use of her name, but she did drop her suggestion about Wasp Lake. Still perched on the sides of the wheelchair, Loren and Rowan looked at each other and nodded. Now, this was more like their daily lives back at Thornapple Academy.

"Fine. Thank you for your concern, Sienna."

Rylee nodded before moving over to stand next to her friend. Then, tugging on the cape, she gestured with her head toward Sean.

"You know, I was getting to that before you launched yourself at him," Sienna pointed out before defending herself from another voiceless comment. "Would you show some patience tonight?" Then, taking a second to compose her thoughts, the ice queen began again. "As I was saying, I'm pleased to see that your heroic act succeeded and has earned you some well-deserved attention."

"Oh, Sean's been getting plenty of attention, Sienna," Loren remarked.

"And I'm impressed that your dogged determination has proven fruitful," Sienna continued. "Although I must say that I was caught off guard that you seemed to give up in one area already. I expected to be asked to the Snowflake Ball."

"A-Ask you? You-You already turned me down twice for prom," Sean sputtered in disbelief.

"You weren't ready for the role. But, having a purpose can prove beneficial to a boy such as yourself," Sienna commented. "And sometimes the third time is a charm."

"Oh, Sean won't need to ask you to the prom. I already have a list created for his date. Perhaps a proper hero deserves multiple dates," Whitney remarked, flashing a fake smile.

"I think quality is always better than quantity. Don't you agree, Tarver?" Sienna responded.

Sean never had the chance to reply.

"Are you fucking serious?! We missed Lana AND Teresa's tits?! Dammit, Your Worshipfulness, you cost me a fantasy moment," a young man bitched as he approached. "Sometimes, I wonder if you're the worst cousin that I have."