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I admit it, I love writing fanfiction, especially for AIO. But whereas many people tend to discuss Connie's love life or Eugene and Katrina or anything to do with Jason—ever—my subjects of choice are usually Trent and Mandy. I've never understood why they stand out to me as my favorites, but they do, so here we are. I've got about a billion fics for them stashed in various places, but the one I'm probably most proud of is this one. If you like it, reviews fill my heart with joy and love; if you don't, critiques also fill my heart with joy and love, though of a more academic sort.

And as a forward—these titles aren't actually titles; they're one-word prompts. I'm just bad at coming up with original titles, so the prompt title will have to do.

Trent and Mandy are both sixteen here, though Trent's the one with his own car. It's always been a headcanon of mine that they grew even closer together because they were in a lot of theatre productions together, both at Odyssey High and at the Harlequin.

Ineloquent

"That was a pretty good final production, wasn't it?" Mandy asked as she walked with Trent to his car. They had eaten out with some of their theatre friends at Hal's Diner in celebration of the final performance of Anything Goes at the high school, and now that they were by themselves, they had more of a chance to be more freely critical.

Trent nodded in agreement. "There were some pretty unfortunate moments at the beginning, though—like when Marvin forgot the cue for the reporter and the photographer at the beginning?"

"Yeah, or when Hannah's voice cracked when she sang the reprise of 'Easy to Love'. I think we all kind of cringed there." Noticing Trent stopping to lean against his car, Mandy followed suit. "It wasn't half as bad as the matinee, though."

"Nothing is that bad," Trent snorted. "Between Tracy forgetting her lines and Alex screwing up the lighting by accident—"

"That wasn't his fault, though," Mandy reminded him. "All the tech crew who were up in the booth said the computer went haywire for a few seconds."

"Yeah, I know, but it's still fun to tease him about it."

Mandy smiled, shaking her head. Even being the sweetest guy in the world hadn't diminished the inner teenage boy in him. "At least we got some good pancakes out of the deal. I will never get over how delicious Hal's Diner's chocolate-chip pancakes are; I could live forever on those things."

Trent laughed. "Can you say 'sweet tooth'? I'm just glad your parents were willing to let me drive you out to Hal's at 9:00 on a Saturday night. Which reminds me, we probably should be heading back to your house," he added guiltily. "Your dad did tell me to have you home by 10:00, and it's 9:40 now."

"Wait a moment." Trent turned to look at her expectantly, and she was grateful for the low lighting so he couldn't see her blush. "Can I, um, ask you something?" The question had been worrying her for over two months, ever since that past Valentine's Day, and she cursed herself inwardly for not having asked him sooner. "Do you...um...well, what I—I mean, do you still, you know..." She trailed off.

"Do I still what?" Trent tipped his head to one side.

She steeled herself, then the question tumbled out of her mouth in a rush. "Dyoustilikeme?"

She wasn't looking at him, but she could practically feel his brow furrowing in confusion. "Sorry?"

Mandy took a deep breath. "Do you...still like me?" she repeated. "Like...like what happened in middle school."

"Well, I, uh," he stammered, "I—why do you ask?"

For such an intelligent guy, he can be really obtuse about this stuff. "Why do you think I'm asking?"

"Well, I—I don't know, you kind of sprang it on me—"

"You're avoiding the question." In point of fact, she wasn't sure if she wanted it answered, but she had asked it, and there was no taking it back.

"I—I don't—what, do you like me now or something?" he blustered.

"This isn't about me!" she protested, knowing full well that it was—though she couldn't help but notice the sardonic tone in his voice.

"Oh, really? Then why did you ask?" He sounded uncharacteristically agitated.

"I—I just wanted to know, that's all!" The words she wanted to say instead had been so simple, and were the actual truth—why couldn't she say something that didn't make her want to punt herself from there to Odenton?

"So you just arbitrarily asked me if I still had a crush on you the way I did in middle school and you have no ulterior reason for wanting to know? What, are you doing a scientific study on unrequited—unrequited affection, or something?"

The bitter tone in his voice caught her off-guard. "What do you mean, unrequited?" In my mind's eye, this was so much simpler...

He snorted derisively. "Well, it looks like you have your answer, then, doesn't it?" He sighed, and when he continued, he sounded like the words were being dragged out of him. "Yes, Mandy. I still like you. Are you happy now?" When she didn't answer, he sighed more heavily. "Look, why don't I just take you home and you can call Liz and tell her that my weird crush on you still exists and you can gossip the night away about how much of a creep you think I am?"

Mandy was taken aback. "What? Why would I think you're—Trent, I didn't mean it like that, it's just—" She was trying desperately to articulate her thoughts, but the warm, giddy feeling in her stomach was making that difficult. "Trent, I meant all that to say that, well...I like you now, too."

Far from looking happy at this news, Trent looked still more despondent. "Didn't we have this conversation two years ago? You like me as a friend, just friends, that's as far as you want—"

"No." She cut him off, finally regaining some control of her senses. "I mean, I like you, like-a-boyfriend like you." She pressed her lips together nervously.

She looked up into his face and saw his eyes bright with hope. "You're—you're serious?"

"Of course I am, I was trying to tell you, but I didn't want to tell you because I was nervous, so I guess I wanted to know if you liked me, so then I could tell you, but then I guess that wasn't really fair to you because you—"

Mandy's rambling was cut off when Trent, feeling elation like he hadn't in awhile, gathered her in his arms in a tight embrace and let out a joyful laugh. "Like I care now!"

He put her down, beaming at her. She grinned back, giggling nervously—giggling, was this what this guy had done to her?—before asking yet another question. "So...where does that leave us? Are we going out? Are we boyfriend and girlfriend? What?"

"Well, we'd, ah, have to have gone somewhere for it to qualify as 'going out'," he remarked, rubbing the back of his neck. "But, well, boyfriend and girlfriend...yeah, I think...I think we are now. I mean, if we like each other that way, then I guess—"

"Yeah," she agreed. She checked her watch in an effort to ignore the heat rising in her cheeks. "Actually, um, if you want me to be allowed to even see you again, you should probably take me home now, it's 9:50."

"Oh! Um, right, yeah, I should probably do that." He fumbled nervously with his keys as she walked around to the passenger side door, then finally managed to unlock the car. He slid into the driver's seat, started the car, and headed in the direction of the Straussbergs' house.

When they finally got there—which mercifully only took about five minutes, a fact that Trent only half-jokingly marked down to the grace of God—Trent reached out and took her left hand in his, feeling his heartrate quicken at the contact. "Hey, um, about that 'going out' thing, we should, ah, probably do that some time."

Mandy lifted an eyebrow. "Probably?"

He grinned, a little sheepishly. "Okay, definitely. So...maybe...this Friday night?"

"Hmm...well, I might have to move some really important appointments with our state representatives and Senators around, but I think I'm free." She grinned. "What did you have in mind?"

He gave her a shy smile. "I was thinking chocolate chip pancakes at Hal's?"

She gave his hand an affectionate squeeze. "And this is why you're my boyfriend." Trying to keep a cool head with that warm giddy feeling in her stomach coming back in full force at the word "boyfriend", she reluctantly turned to go. "See you at church tomorrow, I guess."

"Uh...yeah. See ya." Trent watched her as she walked up her driveway and into her house, trying to concentrate on the fact that she was inside safely rather than the rapid beating of his heart intrinsic to her squeezing his hand. Boyfriend...he was her boyfriend...

"Well, God, it's been some kind of interesting evening," he murmured with a smile as he put the car in gear, "and I thank You for it."

TigerShadow wrote: or anything to do with Jason—ever—

do you mean me?

Heh though they're not my OTP (as you know) they are cute together, the way you write them! I want to read what happens next. Their dialogue seems so natural and I could feel the tension between them.

Some lines I especially liked:

TigerShadow wrote:why couldn't she say something that didn't make her want to punt herself from there to Odenton?

"Hmm...well, I might have to move some really important appointments with our state representatives and Senators around, but I think I'm free."

I was wondering, though, what exactly triggered her to ask Trent if he liked her? She's been worried about it for months, and this night doesn't seem especially out of the ordinary for them--what makes her decide to ask it at that moment?

Also, have you considered posting any of your fics on fanfiction.net? I'm trying to recruit more people to post AIO fics in an easily locatable place so more people can find them. I searched for AIO fanfiction for years with little success, but Odyssey fanfic writers are out there, a lot hidden on message boards like this. (And no, they don't all have to be about Jason. -in fact, the more diverse the better. Especially well-written ones.)

Ameraka wrote:

TigerShadow wrote: or anything to do with Jason—ever—

do you mean me?

Nah, I was talking about another notable and talented fanfiction author who writes about anything and everything to do with Jason.

Ameraka wrote:I was wondering, though, what exactly triggered her to ask Trent if he liked her? She's been worried about it for months, and this night doesn't seem especially out of the ordinary for them--what makes her decide to ask it at that moment?

Largely because she's Mandy Straussberg and she has zero tact when it comes to romantic affairs that are her own (see the graceful way in which she handled herself in dealing with Seth—heck, we're talking about the girl who comforted a friend getting her first zit by telling her it was symmetrical).

This is something I should have written into the story itself, but basically she was an awkward turtle-duck about it and couldn't quite bring herself to talk to him, and they eventually became so busy with the musical preparations—which at some high schools can last for months; I speak from bitter experience—and keeping up with schoolwork that she didn't have a quiet moment to sit down and talk about it. The post-musical/post-friend-get-together remnants of adrenaline added to the solitude of the atmosphere gave her the impetus she needed to talk about feelings.

And it was also a kind of "now or never/carpe diem" thing going on—I remember dealing with talking about my feelings with guys I liked, and even on ordinary nights, sometimes you just think you should just do it, you know? There's no life-altering event, necessarily, and the conversation didn't even head down that road; it's just that your mouth is suddenly no longer waiting for your reticence to supply it with words to avert the situation and you figure you might as well get it out there. Does that make sense?

Ameraka wrote:Also, have you considered posting any of your fics on fanfiction.net? I'm trying to recruit more people to post AIO fics in an easily locatable place so more people can find them.

Oh, yeah, definitely. I've wanted to, but life has gotten in the way. I actually have one up there already entitled "Valentine's Day", and it was basically a prototype of the odd little high school world for the second generation of Odyssey kids that I've slowly constructed over the years.

I want more that was great

Good work, Tigress. Your tags are somewhat artificial and cliche, but good tags/attributes are hard to do. Bryan Davis does a whole draft where he just focuses on coming up with good ones.

Ameraka, could you give me a linky to where this fanfiction group of yours is? I'd like to put my fan fic there when it's done, if I may. (Have you seen my two in installments? They're nice and brief.)

Here is the link of the Odyssey fanfiction community:

https://www.fanfiction.net/community/Ad ... ey/107300/

I have just read your newest, PF, at your suggestion.

Thank you, friends!

This next one is based on the idea that after the events of "Mum's the Word", Mandy did tell Trent about her parents' separation. It's interesting that before in "Out of Our Hands", no one really knew about it, and Mandy begins talking to Trent in "Mum's the Word" as if it's a huge secret, but Mandy mentions in "Life, in the Third Person, Part 1" how annoying it is when everyone is trying to comfort her. So here's my theory: everyone who heard the Candid Conversations With Connie segment that Max secretly broadcast would have heard that Mandy was going to tell Trent about her parents, and eventually, people probably would have put the pieces together, since I doubt Mandy would have announced it just because people asked. But I think that regardless, Mandy would have told Trent anyway. She makes it clear at the beginning of the episode that she trusts him and respects him, and from the way she spoke to him at the end of the episode, I don't think she considered her trust violated by the "Valentine Secret".

Sounding Board

Deciding to put off seeing anyone they knew for as long as possible, Trent and Mandy left the KYDS Radio station and made a beeline for the most secluded area of the Whit's End library possible. They knew they couldn't avoid their peers forever, but as Mandy suggested, they could at least give themselves distance from the situation. They sat at a corner table near a collection of books that they could tell hadn't been touched in ages—Trent ran his finger along the spine of one of them and an inch-thick layer of dust accumulated on his fingertip. With any luck, no one would suddenly feel compelled to read A Complete Compendium of Breakthroughs in Switchboard Operating Technology within the next hour or so.

The two sat in silence, suddenly awkward. This was the first time they had been alone together since Trent's unfortunately-timed confession, and they found themselves looking anywhere but at each other for a moment or two. Finally, Mandy broke the tension. "If, well...if it's okay with you, I'd...I'd like to tell you what I wanted to tell you yesterday." When he didn't respond, she continued tentatively, "You know...about my parents."

He turned to look at her at last, a worried look on his face. "Mandy, you are not obligated to tell me anything—"

"I want to, though," she replied quietly, cutting off his stammering. "Look, I want you to know that I still trust you just as much as I did when I tried to tell you yesterday."

Trent looked puzzled now. "You do?"

Mandy nodded, smiling slightly at Trent's confusion. "Yes, I do. I definitely understand why you didn't tell me about that valentine. And I—well, I'd like to get this off my chest anyway, to tell you the truth," she admitted.

"And we'd know a lot about telling the truth lately," Trent muttered. He looked up at her. "Okay, then; if you want to talk, I'm here to listen."

Talk she did. Trent wasn't sure what concerned him more—the fact that she was going through this, or the hollow, deadened voice in which she explained the situation. At the outset, he had been worried that he'd have to deal with tears, but he'd rather have had Mandy crying all over him than seen the hopeless-looking girl in front of him. There was one thing for sure—no one deserved to be going through this, especially not a family like the Straussbergs. Not Mandy.

"Wow," he murmured when she had finished. "That's...that's a lot. I can't imagine." He felt very uncomfortable. What was he supposed to say? He didn't have a clue when it came to matters like this.

Mandy shook her head, staring down at the table. "I just don't know what to do. Now the whole town knows something's up, and they'll probably be spreading stuff around everywhere. That's exactly the kind of thing I wanted to avoid—I don't want everyone knowing about it. It's our problem, not Odyssey's."

Trent nodded. "I get it. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

She looked up and gave him a half-smile. "I know."

"And..." He didn't know how to say this without sounding hackneyed, but he decided to give it a go anyway. "I'm, well...I'm going to be praying for you—all of you. And I'll definitely be here if you need anything."

He dared to look at her, and saw her eyes growing overbright. "I—thank you," she whispered.

Silence fell again—but it was a more comfortable silence this time. Mandy finally let out a slightly shaky breath and spoke. "We might as well go down and face the music."

Trent grunted in agreement. He was not looking forward to hearing the unending jibes from his classmates, but he supposed that they might as well get it over with. The sooner they did, the sooner they could leave and try to put it behind them.

They both stood up and Trent made to walk out, but Mandy put out a hand to stop him. He looked down at her quizzically, but she answered his unspoken question by flinging her arms around him, hugging him tightly around the neck. He returned the embrace, wrapping his arms around her back, though he was no less bewildered.

"What was that for?" he asked when she released him.

Mandy smiled, a genuine and—he couldn't help but notice—very pretty smile, and it lifted his spirits to see at least some appearance of her old self. "For being there," she replied simply.

I haven't heard those episodes in a while; I wish I had so I knew the context a little better.

I like how you wrote Trent's POV, with his concern for her feelings and hints of what he feels about her.

I also like the line "Trent ran his finger along the spine of one of them and an inch-thick layer of dust accumulated on his fingertip."- sets the scene nicely, good bit of description.

Please write more!

Ask and ye shall receive! These are from a larger prompt collection I want to publish on FanFiction.Net called "Bits and Pieces", which will contain stories about the five kid characters I adore most—Trent, Mandy, Liz, Alex, and Marvin.

I really love the idea of Liz and Marvin working through personality differences and being BFFs. I think Marvin, who's pretty laid-back and expects things to go his way sometimes, would be kind of put off by Liz's Type A, gung-ho personality, but he'd soon realize that there's more to her than meets the eye. Liz, on the other hand, would take note of Marvin's more fiery side and see that no matter how lazy he might look, he's always got his friends' backs when they need him.

The last one was a joy to write. There's a scene in "A Class Reenactment" where Cryin' Bryan Dern makes some snarky remarks to Trent and Mandy about their couple-dom and mentions sending a song out to them on the radio. So I like to envision two missing scenes from that episode—one in which Mandy apologizes to Trent, another involving the circumstances surrounding the song Dern uses. Bonus points if you can guess which real-world song it is.

Strawberries

Marvin trekked sullenly down the sidewalk to the Hortons' house, not particularly looking forward to working on his biology project with Liz. Sure, they were friends, and they could talk to each other just fine, but working together was another issue entirely. Liz was bossy, sharp, take-charge, and more than a little bit intimidating, and Marvin couldn't help but wonder how he was supposed to get credit for anything if he was only saying "Yes" to whatever Liz told him to do.

He trudged up the front steps and rang the doorbell, greeted Mr. Horton politely when he answered the door, and walked up the stairs to the kitchen at Mr. Horton's direction. Might as well get it over with, he thought dully, preparing himself for the immediate barrage of instructions. Maybe I can make stuff up on the rubric or something.

'Surprised' was not descriptive enough of his reaction to walking in and seeing Liz sitting on the countertop—on the countertop—in a pair of Nike shorts and a t-shirt, eating what looked like an entire field's worth of strawberries out of the enormous metal bowl next to her.

When she looked up, still chewing on the fruit that she'd just popped into her mouth, Marvin half predicted that she would immediately jump down, pretend that the episode had never happened, and go into Hillary Clinton Mode.

He did not, therefore, expect her to pluck a berry out from the bowl, hand it out to him, and ask through a mouthful of strawberry, "Want some?"

Storm

"Ah, great," Mr. Casper groaned from the front of the eighth grade English classroom. "I forgot to get those essay rubrics off the copier." He turned to the rest of the class. "I'll be in the teacher workroom for a minute; Liz, can you hold down the fort while I'm gone?" Without waiting for any reply, he sped out the door.

As soon as his trenchcoat whipped out of sight—no one was really sure why he wore a trenchcoat; it was just one of those things—chatter began to break out in the classroom, and to her dismay, Liz heard one voice in particular above the rest. "Hey, Liz!" Biff Dorgan hollered from the other side of the room. "I hear there's a thunderstorm coming in tonight! You might want to check under your bed for dust bunnies!"

Liz kept her gaze set resolutely forward, head held high. Ignore him, she heard a little voice hiss in her head, although it was her dearest wish to turn around and let the little creep have it.

She didn't expect anything less, of course. People had been teasing her, Trent, Mandy, and Max ever since the radio program fiasco the previous day, and Biff had made a particular point to try to rattle her ever since school started a month ago. She'd mostly just been hoping against hope that Biff would suddenly come down with a very nasty stomach flu within twelve hours.

To her surprise, she heard a voice to her right fire back. "Shut up, Dorgan!" Marvin Washington snapped. "You'd know about dust bunnies, since you tasted plenty when you got the floor wiped with you in gym yesterday!"

Liz angled her head slightly to see Biff's reaction out of the corner of her eye; he opened his mouth to reply, angry red patches spreading on his cheeks, but Mr. Casper's footsteps came into earshot, and their teacher walked into the the classroom a few moments later, cutting the argument short.

Liz turned to see Marvin grinning at her and winking. She looked at him for a moment, then smiled back. A warm feeling of gratitude was spreading through her, making her feel oddly as though the teasing that had been weighing on her mind that day was suddenly unimportant. She'd never have expected Marvin to do something like that for her...but she was glad to know that he would.

Melody

"And now"—Trent and Mandy exchanged horrified glances at the unmistakable voice coming from the radio David was listening to in his room—"a special song for a blossoming young romance that I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot of over the next few weeks! To Mandy 'Bo Peep' Straussberg and her latest beau Trent DeWhite!"

"Oh, baby, baby.../How was I supposed to know/That something wasn't right here..."

Trent buried his face in his hands as shouts of laughter erupted from David's bedroom, and Mandy noticed that her mom, who was preparing dinner, and her dad, who was reading in an armchair by the couch, were both trying desperately not to crack smiles. She could see the brilliantly red flush creeping up the back of Trent's neck, and had to fight to control her own irritation. A rant about people not minding their own stupid business was on her tongue, but she caught herself and took a deep, calming breath. She knew the truth, Trent knew the truth, and that was all that mattered.

But that didn't make it any less embarrassing. She turned to Trent, who was as close to the fetal position as a person sitting in a chair could get, and nudged him. "I have some earbuds with good music if you want some," she muttered.

"Please," he squeaked.

These are so cute! <3 It's amazing how you can make a good story in just a few words.

Hm, the song sounds familiar, but I'm not sure what it is...

I've left out Alex too much, it seems.

Superstition

"Hey, Mandy, when did you say was the opening night of Macb—mmmph!"

"Shhh!" Mandy clamped a hand over Alex's mouth, looking panicky. "You're not supposed to say the name of that play before it opens!"

Alex pushed her arm away and looked down at her skeptically. "Come on, Mandy, you don't believe in that stuff, do you?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't," she replied, "but I'd rather you not get mauled by the psychos in the theatre department who do."

Jealous

"—It wasn't that bad of a mistake, and I still got an A, but I really didn't think I should have—" Trent stopped mid-sentence, noting that Alex clearly wasn't listening to a word he was saying.

He followed Alex's gaze, which was rather dark for someone who was usually so easygoing, over to Liz. She was standing by her locker, having a fairly animated conversation with Jordan Anderson. Trent had to wonder what was so out of the ordinary—it wasn't unlike the Junior Class President to talk with everyone she knew.

Before Trent could ask him what was up, Alex, eyes narrowed, suddenly blurted out, "What does she see in him?"

Trent lifted a brow in confusion. "Who? Jordan?" He watched Liz carefully, but she didn't seem to be exhibiting any unusual behavior; why did it matter who she was talking with? He shrugged. "Probably nothing. They're just talking." He frowned at Alex. "Why do you care?"

Alex watched as Liz and Jordan walked away together down the hallway before turning to stalk toward the stairs. "I don't," he muttered. "I don't care."

I really like your fanfics, Tiger. They're a lot of fun to read. I should try doing some fanfics, but I'm not really good at them.
This makes me want to listen to some Mandy and Trent episodes, I haven't listened to them in so long. I can't even hear Mandy or Trent's voice in my head.
I really like the shorter stories that sorta....snapshot little scenes of their day to day lives.
You've inspired me to try some fanfiction or something.

I would like another one like the first one. Please. I really liked that on. Your very gifted

I don't have anything quite like the first one, but this could count, I guess. Just characters bouncing off each other. This is based off of the numerous complaints from within my high school's theatre department about how many people will come in and audition for a musical by singing "Popular" in the style of Kristin Chenoweth. I figured that since Mandy and Trent are both into acting, they'd also probably be total musical nerds.

Aggravate

"Where's Marvin?" Mandy asked as she set down her lunch tray across the table from Trent.

Trent turned the leftover noodles from his dinner last night around in their container, mixing them thoroughly with the cream-cheese-and-mushroom sauce. "Dunno. I think he's probably in the band room."

Mandy shrugged. "Sounds fair. By the way, how did the theatre club auditions go? I really wish I could've been there, but I had to talk to Mr. Sturgeon about my APUSH essay."

"Oh, did he give you an extension?"

"Yeah," replied Mandy, lowering her voice. "But don't tell anybody about it, okay? He asked that I not broadcast it. You did tell Mrs. Taylor why I wasn't there, right?"

Trent nodded. "Don't worry; she understood." He let out a preparatory puff of breath, as though steeling himself to give a dramatic speech. "The auditions went...alright, I guess."

Mandy lifted a brow. "'Alright'? That sounds like it has a story behind it."

Trent let out an groan of irritation. "Let's just say that I will be very grateful for the time to come when Wicked is no longer popular."

Mandy's lip quirked as she raised her spoonful of cafeteria chili to her mouth. "No pun intended, though, right?"

Trent looked up at her as he chewed his noodles, a don't-even-joke expression on his face. He swallowed his food before continuing. "That's really the problem, though. You know how you can either choose a song to act out on stage or just recite a monologue?" When she nodded, he went on. "There were at least four girls—I kid you not—who came on stage and performed 'Popular'."

He rolled his eyes, flicked his hands sardonically in the air, and put on a high-pitched, nasally voice. "'Hi, my name is so-and-so, and I'm going to be singing 'Popular' from Wicked'."

Mandy barely concealed a snort of laughter, fortunately saving her sweater from having chili slopped down its front. "You're kidding," she said through an unladylike mouthful of food. "They actually sounded like that?"

"Pretty much." Trent shook his head in annoyance, then rested his cheek on his left fist and stabbed moodily at the noodles. "I shouldn't make fun or anything, but it got really annoying to see a bunch of people basically trying to copy Kristin Chenoweth and not doing that great a job of it."

Mandy dipped her spoon into her chili, frowning. "You know, they could at least try to make the song their own instead of copying someone else."

"Exactly." He raised another forkful of noodles to his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. "And the thing is, I actually really like Wicked."

"I know." Mandy grinned. "I remember taking you with Liz and my parents to see it in Chicago. You were raving about it the whole ride back."

"And I'm still grateful for that extra ticket," Trent added, shaking his fork at her. "David didn't know what he was missing. But I mean, as much as I like it, there are better musicals to pick songs from."

Mandy nodded. "You can do songs from Phantom, Les Mis, West Side Story, Fiddler—it's not like your options are limited." She swallowed another spoonful of chili before she was reminded inexplicably of their study date the night before. "Oh, by the way, did you get that English reading assignment done?"

"Oh, yeah, I did, thanks for helping me."

"No problem; connections to meaning can be pretty tough sometimes." She spoke from bitter experience; trying to find passages and meanings to connect them with had been tougher than usual recently, which in her opinion was down to the utter ridiculousness that was William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.

"That book is tough regardless," Trent replied dryly.

Mandy smirked, a rather cruel idea forming in her head. "I couldn't resist the urge to help you." And she began to sing, though softly enough that only Trent could really hear it. "Whe-enever I see someone less fortunate than I..."

Almost out of nowhere, Marvin appeared next to Mandy, setting his tray down with a loud clatter. "Hey, you guys! Sorry I'm late, I had to meet somebody at the band room." He looked across the table at Trent. "Um, Trent? Why's your eye twitching like that?"

I love this! So funny when she said the line from the song...

I'm enjoying them.

This is part of a mini-project, entitled "Decagon"—it's in the format of those stories that tell you ten things about a character, usually for the purposes of fleshing them out or giving insight into how they perceived events. I did Trent first, because he's my favorite and I love making up headcanons for him, but I'm willing to take requests next, if anyone wants to submit a character.

Trent DeWhite

1. He and Jared had never been particularly close growing up. Jared was about three years older than he was, so by the time Trent was old enough to play "properly", Jared was off at school. Besides, Jared was bossy and tried to tell him everything about how he was supposed to do what he liked to do or how to be creative, and Trent had never liked being bullied into doing things. He had never understood how people like Connie found Jared to be endearing, either; Trent had always found his conspiracy theories to be obnoxious rather than funny, and he knew that he wasn't exactly the most exciting partner in Jared's "investigations".

He learned later on that his parents had been a little worried that he and Jared weren't close, but Trent wasn't bothered. Jared never lost his paranoia—Trent suspected that working for the CIA had actually made it worse—but the subtle tension eased by the time they were adults, and they remained on good terms, even if he had always been more likely to try to catch up with Marvin than with his own brother.

Knowing what became of some siblings, he supposed that he and Jared had it better than most.

2. Marvin found him hiding under the jungle gym on the playground at Odyssey Elementary. It was the second day of kindergarten, and Max Hampton had made it a goal in life to make Trent miserable; Trent had therefore sought refuge under the slide on the jungle gym, figuring that Max wouldn't be smart enough to find him there if he snuck in really quietly.

When Marvin found him, he was initially annoyed, because Marvin was making a racket and was surely going to lead Max straight to them. But Marvin either didn't know or didn't care about the situation, because he asked Trent promptly to come and play Astronauts with him. When Trent, though allured by the word "astronaut", protested about Max, Marvin waved it off, either because he believed in strength in numbers or because he was crazy. (It was probably the latter.)

That day, Trent had found his best friend. (And come to find out, he had also found his best man.)

3. When Bingo died, he was utterly heartbroken—and a little angry, too, at himself. If only he had fixed the hole underneath their fence, if only he hadn't just left it behind to go play, he might not have lost a friend...

It was that day that spurred him on to be more responsible. Losing sight of what was important had led to the loss of a life, and meticulously monitoring his own behavior seemed like the best way to avoid it.

(He wouldn't get a pet of his own for many years afterward, but that was okay. By the time he was thirty-nine, Mandy had converted him to being a cat person anyway, which probably saved them a lot of marital strife in the long run.)

4. The Witness Protection Program was without a doubt the scariest experience of his life. One minute, he was sitting at a table trying to figure out his pre-algebra homework; the next, he was huddled in the back of a windowless van, staring around at his terrified family. The secrecy of it all, the looming threat of danger at the back of their minds, and the constant need to move—caused in no small part by Jared being an idiot.

It was one of the most important tests to his faith he'd ever deal with—trusting God for that year had been one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do.

It was also among the most rewarding.

5. Delivering that valentine was supposed to be so easy—get into the school early, go to the science lab, slip the valentine onto Mandy's desk, and walk out, with none but him and Max the wiser. No one besides administrative staff was even supposed to be there that early, and knowing his reputation among the faculty, the eternal study-nerd was not a surprising candidate for arriving at school at a ridiculous time.

So when Mandy called out his name as he walked down the hallway, he had to make an effort to formulate coherent sentences in his abject terror. No one was supposed to know about this at all, and now the very person he was trying to deliver the stupid heart to decided to show up in the stupid hallway? That figured. He'd never been one to consider himself a lucky person.

But as he thought about it, there was still some kind of relief in her discovery; even though he knew she would think he made the valentine and the point of this was to keep it a secret, at least Max would be kept out of it. And if there was one thing Trent ever made sure to do, it was to keep his word.

(And in spite of his worrying, he couldn't help but get a bit too caught up in her bright blue eyes and pretty smile, and however much he tried to get her out of his head over the course of the next few months, he would hear her gentle voice greeting him in the hallway or see her laughing as her long blonde hair caught a ray of sunlight, and he couldn't help falling, even then.)

6. All the same, he couldn't help being irritated when Mandy dropped out on helping him promote the blood drive. Just because she was involved in everything else didn't mean that she shouldn't keep her word when she told him she would help him, and he felt no small amount of resentment when he was making an idiot out of himself on the air while she was comfortable at home with "a lot on her mind".

When she told him exactly what it was that she had on her mind, he was eternally glad that he'd never told her how he'd felt.

7. It had hurt, when Mandy was pushing him away. It wasn't like it was his fault that people were giving her a hard time. He felt betrayed, like a knife was twisting in his stomach. He'd been there for her through so much, they had been so close as friends, and she had only just the other day told him how great of a friend and a person she thought he was. He couldn't fight the comparison in his head to an empty plastic water bottle—something to be discarded whenever the person decided that they had no use for it, something that had only so much meaning before the person had their fill.

And yet he had been forgiven first, and so, hard though it was, he forgave her. It wasn't simple or easy, but no one ever said he had to do it on his own. (Though he was no less relieved when she apologized, hugging him around the neck; their friendship was stronger than ever after that.)

8. Ever since middle school, he knew exactly what he wanted to be—he wanted to work for NASA. Taking Aaron's advice, given all those years ago, he poured himself into his studies, obtaining first a bachelor's and then a master's in engineering and taking internships wherever he could find them. He worked for a few years as a mechanical engineer, just to make ends meet.

He applied first as an astronaut, then as an aerospace engineer. As disappointing as it was not to be made an astronaut (though unsurprising, especially given his poor natural eyesight), only a few weeks later he received a letter accepting him as an engineer at the Johnson Space Center. Even though he had really wanted to be an actual astronaut, this was a huge honor, and even before telling Mandy he thanked God profusely for this chance to live his dream.

He tried to hide it, but Mandy saw right through him and told him impatiently to jump around the room like a maniac like he obviously wanted to. He did, but not before he kissed her enough to cut off whatever other snarky remarks she had planned.

9. Out of all the milestones in his relationship with Mandy, he was actually least worried about their wedding day. He was nervous that day, certainly—Marvin, Alex, and Jared had to sit him down just to get him to take a breath—but he was more excited than anything else. Their wedding day was the culmination of all of that setup in their relationship, and they were beginning this new part of their lives to last for many years to come.

No, the day he was most nervous about was the day his first daughter was born. Because even knowing the statistics, he knew all too well from those years he spent studying biology for the sheer fun of it that a lot could go wrong in childbirth, for both mother and child. Hearing her yelping and hissing in pain, knowing what she was going through but unable to do anything for her, was among the most terrifying experiences of his life, doctors with degrees from highly prestigious medical schools or not.

It was all worth the worry, though, when he saw his baby—mostly Mandy's, he was willing to say, but still a part of him had been involved in it—sleeping in Mandy's weary arms. Any conflict they'd had over the past nine months—over names, over colors to paint the room with, over whether it would be a boy or a girl—instantly became meaningless when he looked at the tiny infant sleeping in his wife's arms.

(He was a bit snarkier by the time Tanya was born, though, and his youngest never escaped the fact that she had resembled "a pink worm" at birth.)

10. He loves all three of his children, dearly and equally. Melanie is his first, his eldest daughter, and she reminds him of Mandy so much that it hurts and warms his heart all at the same time—quiet, mature for her age, and positively brilliant, with her mother's beautiful blue eyes and gentle face. Mark is his only son, the artist of the family and always the most troubled; though he would one day leave them, he would on a later day come back, and Trent never had a second thought about welcoming him home again. Tanya, his youngest, has her Uncle David's spitfire nature, fondness for pranks, and sly little smirk that tells everyone in the room that she's up to something; she can kick a football to make some teenage boys cry—but she's never too tough to come to her mom with a problem.

Watching and helping them grow up was one of the most amazing experiences of his life, and he thanks God for it. Their family wasn't always perfect, but that was okay. They're his family, and there's nothing he won't do for them.

He'd learned from the best, after all.

I'd forgotten about this one, but it's a personal favorite of mine. I really love the idea that Trent and Mandy were an Everyone Can See It kind of couple before they got together—and I do mean everyone.

(i will stop writing for this couple when they stop hurting me with their presence in my head but in the meantime i am so sorry)

Gamble

The news that Mandy Straussberg was dating Trent DeWhite came as a shock only in the considerable sums of money people were obtaining in consequence.

It wasn't so intolerable when it was Liz grudgingly handing a wad of bills to a smirking Marvin, or when Brenda Frazier could be sighted triumphantly flipping through an obscene amount of cash, or when Max was heard loudly complaining that he couldn't buy a smoothie because he had emptied his wallet to Cal Jordan. Even when Eugene could be heard muttering irritably over "Miss Kendall's smug expression" and the loss of one of his Bunsen burners, neither Trent nor Mandy begrudged him the bet.

But a couple can only put up with so many betting pools, and Mandy could be heard ranting furiously to anyone who would listen that Dr. Hawthorne snapping at her for the twenty dollars he owed Mrs. Nietchew was more than a bit overboard.

Haaaaaa very funny

Marvelous headcanons. I never thought about what Trent felt like when he was taken into Witness Protection. But then, he didn't exist yet.