- Freak Like Me, Adina Howard -

(A/N: I am aware that Sugababes has a much sleeker cover of this song. I just love the Sly and the Family Stone sample in the original and find the cover version a bit too overproduced and slick.)

https://open.spotify.com/track/6Vas6h9lB5mmeVDXdFqlQA

- November 3rd -

We were sat in the cafeteria. I was sat next to Oddball, who was throwing chips at Simon across from us. Simon made an honest effort to catch them with his mouth.
Yeah... boys...
Ellen and Simon had calmed down from their first week...
Thankfully...
And had reached the point where holding a conversation with them again had become an option.

Simon leaned over and stole a chip from my plate. They had been attached at the lip since Simon's surprise kiss-attack. Sitting at lunch watching them share the stolen chip - Lady and the Tramp style - was actually cute.
Yeah... they were cute... but the following chip-induced display of affection was definately not.
When Oddball stuck the end of a chip between his own lips, challenging me to take the other end, I realised that he too was rooting for them to work out. I chomped off half of Odd's chip without landing in a food-kiss. He gave me a playful pout.
I figured if my best guy friend and my best girl-friend were so preoccupied, I might as well try building what friendship I could with Oddball and Ethan. Having fun with Oddball's physical attention made me feel included.
Oddball nudged me with another chip hanging from his own mouth and a cheeky wiggle going on with his eyebrows. I laughed and picked the chip from him with my fingers.

"Awww... and I thought you liked me," Odd pouted, so I picked the chip back up and hand-fed him to keep him happy.

Once the resident turtledoves finished their food sharing, I noticed several tables of short skirted girls surrounding us. I saw several faces turned away, while others met my gaze in what looked like challenges.

"Odd... I think we're being stared at!" I muttered to the boy next to me.

He grinned.

"We're not. He is," Oddball whispered back nodding at Ethan who was going through an idea for the band with Simon.

He was animated. His hands air-guitaring and he was smiling enthusiastically.
I looked around and realised Odd was right. Ethan was drawing looks. Girls were flicking hair and pushing up boobs left right and center.
Ellen smirked and followed my line of sight between him and the crowd.
She leaned in to me and Odd.

"Happens in lectures too. I get frowns for sitting next to him, he gets looks and winks," she whispered.

I studied him for a moment as he was describing a bassline before he turned to the rest of us with a smile and a happy twinkle in his eyes.

"What do you think guys?" He asked, unaware of our conversation.

"Yeah... It would sound good," Oddball said and shot me a grin and a shrug to signal that he had no idea what the conversation had been about.

I nodded as a long legged, blonde something came up to the table. She tapped Ethan's shoulder and he turned with a questioning look.

"Erm... did you understand the assignment?" She asked twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

"What assignment?" He asked looking confused.

"The one in lecture today," she said.

Oddball sat back with a smirk and arms crossed next to me.

"Oh... yeah... Ellen figured it out. It was right there in the text," Ethan said with a nod.

Ellen swallowed a snicker next to me.

"Oh," the girl said and gave Ellen a hard stare before wandering off.

Ethan gave the girl a confused and mildly annoyed look.
Next to me, Oddball chuckled and shook his head.

"Completely oblivious!" Odd smirked.

"What? Not my fault if people can't read!" Ethan shrugged.

I studied him for a moment and felt a wide smile spread across my face.
I just couldn't help it.

He caught me looking and smiled back with a slight tilt of the head.

"What?" He asked.

"Are you really that bad at noticing when someone wants your attention?" I asked.

He shook his head as if clearing it and looked around, eyes landing on the girl who had spoken to him. She waved.
He looked back at me with a frown.

"Meh..." he shrugged with that really cute wrinkle of his nose.

I heard Odd chuckle next to me.

"It would take someone really special for him to look twice," Oddball laughed.

Just then a cloud of blond hair and floral perfume entered and plonked her bum on the seat between Ellen and Simon.

"So... I have been thinking. And while it's important that you maintain your tough rock image, you should also play some more modern stuff," Veronica announced as she rummaged through her bag.

We stared at her sudden intrusion.

"Oh.. and Oddball. You need a haircut before your date on Friday. My friend Bella has been DYING to go out with you," She said pointing a manicured nail at him.

"Wait? What?" He asked.

"Bella... You know. Red hair, short skirts," Vero dismissed with a flick of the wrist towards the doorway and a girl in recently dyed hair, looking uncomfortable in a black skirt and black top.

Oddball looked panicked. I felt a finger nudge my leg under the table in a desperate hint for rescue.

"Friday is no good. We're doing extra rehersals," I said in an attempt to save the panicking drummer.

"Yeah... err... we need to..." Simon continued.

"... Adjust some songs to fit my voice before the next gig," I added quickly gaining a grateful smile from Odd.

"How exeptonally boring," Vero announced before throwing a CD on the table.

"Look. I have done some research and it turns out this is the kind of stuff you should be playing!" she said pointing to the CD.

It was a home burned CD. No list of contents and no hint as to what was on it.

"Can I ask..." I said waving the damned thing in front of her.

"Just listen to it. I'll type out the lyrics if you need them," She said before standing up again and sauntering off to re-join her friends.

Halfway across the cafeteria she turned and looked at us.

"And. I need to know your clothes sizes. Black t-shirts and plain jeans really isn't a style... at all," she said before leaving us to it.

I looked around. The only person who looked like she had made an effort beyond rolling out of bed in the morning was Ellen.
We all had black shirts and blue jeans.
I couldn't help laughing.

I put the CD into my messenger bag and stood, nodding my head at Simon to get him moving. Time for lecture.

"Thank god she's going into fashion next year!" Simon muttered before leaning over to plant a not so demure kiss on Ellen.

- November 4th -

"Okay. This is going to sound bat shit crazy, but I have listened to Vero's CD and she's not totally off the mark," I said the next day in the band room.

The boys looked sceptical.

"I wanna add this to our playlist!" I announced.

I put the cd into the small radio in the corner and hit play. Adina Howard's "Freak like me" played into the room. Taking a few steps back I observed as the boys took in the funk-r&b beat and the expressively racy lyrics. Odd was already air-drumming it and Ethan was listening for chords. I started humming the tune while moving around the room imagining how this would look on stage.

Halfway through I realised all three boys were staring at me. Suddenly conscious of having shimmied, gyrated and in small ways moved suggestively I begun to blush. I hurriedly sat down, pretzeling my feet up under me to force myself to sit still.

"How do you expect to pull off this kinda dirty stuff when you're all innocent and embarassed?" Simon asked with a gesture to my jeans and jumper, obviously without thinking.

I shrugged.

"I mean... I've known you all my life but I've never seen you try any kind of freaky moves," Simon grinned.

"Simon!" I squealed.

"Sorry," he grinned

"Its not like you're a virgin, right?" Odd asked raising an eyebrow.

"She might as well be," Simon laughed.

If looks could kill, Simon would be on the floor in a million small pieces.

"I'm sorry... but... Simon. How would you even know that?" Ethan said trying not to laugh.

"I sit behind her and Veronica in class," Simon shrugged.

I facepalmed.
Literally.
Hard.
Repeatedly.

"And?" Odd asked.

"Well... Vero kinda wheedled out of Izzy that Izzy might be lacking in the experience department," Simon said with a mischievous smile.

"How do you wheedle something like that out of someone?" Odd asked with a badly hidden grin.

"I had to shut her up somehow!" I muttered.

"By saying you are a virgin?" Oddball laughed.

"Yeah... she wanted to know what I've done and who with," I shuddered.

Odd laughed.

"I don't expect you guys to understand. You've all probably all used your rock god statuses to get notches on your belts," I snapped.

"Rock god status?" Ethan asked with his eyebrows raised.

I shrugged trying not to laugh. The whole conversation was just getting way to weird.

"Besides.. I'm not a total noob," I said feeling an overwhelming urge to defend myself and my supposedly long since disappeared honor.

"So this song is a way to remedy the whole "Izzy is innocent"- situation?" Odd asked doing quitemarks in the air.

I shrugged.

"Ooohh.. You're on a mission to get laid!" Simon teased.

I felt a blush spread furiously up my face.

"Simon. Shut the fuck up!" I said trying to sound strict but hearing my voice sounding really constricted.

"I'm right tho!" Simon giggled.

Looking around I realised the other two were desperately trying not to laugh.

"You dirty minx. I thought you got that kind of stuff out of your system with he-who-remains-nameless," Simon taunted.

I shot him a look.

"I think we agreed that never happened!" I hissed.

He wiggled his eyebrows. I huffed a breath out and ran my hand through my hair, gathering it into a ponytail.

"It would just be nice if just one person in the whole world saw me as something a bit more interesting than a dry stick," I admitted, wishing I was taller, curvier, prettier.

Oddball grinned from his position on the floor where he had been air drumming along with the song on the CD.

"Well. You make sure you tell us if you need some help sorting your predicament out," He laughed.

"Oddball... I am not going to sleep with you," I huffed, trying to push the mental image of Odd naked out of my head.

I shuddered.
Dramatically.
For emphasis.

"Not me... I just might know someone who would be willing to do the honours," He said looking as innocent as a dirty weekend.

I rubbed my hands across my face.

"Could we just... Not have this conversation?" I pleaded.

Ethan gave me a long stare that sent my insides plummeting into my toes.

I repaid him with a rather desperate smile. He nodded and went over to replay the song. The boys all tried to wipe the smiles off their faces. Simon sat with his bass trying to work out the beat and Odd sat nodding the rhythm. I loved how they just took this completely random idea and ran with it. There was an almost childish joy in them when they were faced with a new musical challenge. This song was as far out of their rock comfort zone as you could get without insisting on all out Hip-hop, but they still wanted to try.

"How do you imagine this on stage?" Odd asked once the basic rhythm and chords was in place.

I shrugged

"Coz you can't just stand straight upright singing this," he continued.

"I don't stand straight upright normally," I argued.

"Yeah... You jump and dance and whatever, but this demands some groovy moves," Odd said scratching his head with a drumstick.

"Yep. Like what you did earlier," Simon said with a crooked smile.

I did a little seated dance to the music to try to remember how I moved earlier.

"You know how you sometimes fix on one of us during rehearsals to focus on a particular element of the tune?" Simon asked after watching me for a minute.

"Do I?" I asked..

"Yeah... You kinda get up in our faces," Ethan grinned.

I poked my tongue out at him making him giggle.

"Sorry," I said with a self conscious pout.

"You did it at the gig too. Only it actually looked really cool," Odd said.

I tried to think back and realised they were talking about how I sometimes walked up to one of them during a song to get a better feel of the music.

"Well. If we work with what you do naturally," Simon shrugged.

He stood up, slipped his bass over his head and pulled me up into a standing position again.

"If you take up your rock stance there and I take up the bass-beat," Simon grinned and approached me until we were nearly touching noses without it getting in the way of his playing.

I recognised how I would normally act when we played, only this was almost uncomfortably close.

I felt very silly.

"That would only work if you are willing to act all flirty and confident on stage," Ethan said.

"Do you think you could degrade yourself to flirt with me on stage?" Simon asked with a very cheeky grin.

I put my hands on my hips and frowned deeply.

"Not sure about that Simon... It would take all my acting skills," I said looking deliberately sceptical.

"Aww... And I thought I was the handsome one?" he laughed.

"Besides.... I like my face too much to want Ellen clawing it off," I pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

I received a sad pout back that made me giggle.

"How 'bout Ethan? Could you flirt with him?" Odd asked.

I turned and saw Ethan looking terrified.

What the hell was so scary about me play flirting with him on stage? Odd laughed silently.

"Not sure. It might mess with the heads of his fangirls," I said, actually feeling a bit hurt by his obvious horror.

Surely I wasn't that bad?

Ethan looked embarrassed. I was torn between wanting to kick him and comfort him. I went for the third option.

"Could we just get the song practiced before getting me to grind up on some unwilling victim?" I asked.

"Sure. It's actually a good tune. We could amp up the funk elements even more. Make it ours," Simon replied.

I nodded gratefully and went to play the song on the CD again. But I didn't miss how Ethan shot Odd an evil look.