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Chapter Text

If Nancy Nakagawa knew one thing, it’s that she was one of the smartest people at Rydell High, well, of course she was. Anyone with an ounce of sense in them would know that, hell, an idiot that barely had two brain cells to rub together would know that. It was a fact of life, the sky is blue, water is wet and Nancy Nakagawa was incredibly and ridiculously smart.

She went into any situation confident, or at least she made sure to look it. She always had a plan for everything. In fact, Nancy would say plotting genius plans was one of her many talents.

She always knew what to do.

Despite this sentiment and what she and everyone else in this godforsaken high school knows, right now Nancy, unbelievably, was met with a seemingly impossible and unsolvable problem, something she couldn’t wrap her admittedly genius mind around.

Potato.

Potato was a total enigma, he confused Nancy in a way that she certainly didn’t like. Then again, Nancy wasn’t totally sure if she didn’t like it. Once upon a time, she had no interest in boys, and definitely not in the way her friends were interested in boys. The idea of getting married with a nice boy, and having two kids, a boy and a girl and living in domestic bliss until she croaks sounded horrific, terrifyingly mundane and in total, a complete nightmare.

Why would she need any of that, why should she want any of that, when she could go to fashion school. Fashion has been the most important thing in her life for years. Her bedroom walls were plastered with the designs of Edith Head, Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli, reminding her of what she was striving to do. She didn’t have time for boys, when she was aiming to break into the world of fashion.

While fashion is still her main goal, Potato has thrown her through a loop. The idiot was a distraction, a big, huge distraction. Maybe it was his smile, or maybe it was the way he looked at her with those big, brown eyes of his. Whatever it was, Nancy didn’t know how much longer she could stand this. It was maddening. She couldn’t stand near him, without butterflies forming in her stomach.

It was like an illness, but an illness no doctor could treat, unfortunately for Nancy.

To make her situation worse, now she was feeling something completely new towards Potato yet again, Nancy was worried. Nancy was overwhelmingly worried for this beautifully brown eyed fool.

After helping her find her “secret admirer”, they’ve been spending more and more time together. Potato even offered to help with the finishing touches to the costumes for the school play. Nancy hardly could say no, not just because of her new crush on Potato, but because of how busy she’s been recently, frustratingly she’s fallen behind on her work.

So for two hours, after school, her and Potato would work together. Ok, “work” might not be the right word, it was more like “Nancy handled most of everything and only let Potato do small errands in fear he’d mess something up”.

She knew Potato was smart, but at this point, these costumes were like her cloth babies she stitched together herself and Nancy wouldn’t let anyone else work on them. Dramatic, maybe, but her caution was necessary in this field of work. Anything Nancy makes should be nothing short of perfection.

The first week was fine, in fact, Nancy almost enjoyed it. It was relaxing in a sense, she would do what she needed to do and Potato would ramble about things she really didn’t care about, but she appreciated his contribution nonetheless.

But as they moved into the second week, something changed. Starting on Monday morning and continuing throughout the day, Nancy observed that Potato was different to his usual self. Regular Potato would be energetically causing havoc, antagonising teachers or the younger years.

And of course, Nancy would be greeted with a smile that lit up the room, secretly she likened it to the sun finally emerging from the clouds. She’d never express this sentiment out loud however, sappiness wasn’t her forte.

Instead ,he was quieter, less engaged with any of the boy's schemes, distracted and a nervous energy radiated off of him. Whenever they spoke, he was distant and his responses were brief, which hurt Nancy more than she’d like to admit. Frequently, Potato anxiously picked and chewed at his already short nails and ran a nervous hand through his hair.

In short, Potato seemed to be more than a little stressed.

All this alone, Nancy gathered from the brief interactions she had with him between classes and at lunch. Nancy thought he might even be avoiding her. If that was bad enough, what Nancy was met with on Monday evening was a bajillion times worse.

She was hemming the skirt of Lydia’s nurse's costume, when Potato joined her. Nancy looked up to greet him and faltered when she got a close look at him for the first time that day. Potato was so… un-Potato-like. His shoulders were taught with tension and he was unusually pale and dark circles were beginning to form under his eyes.

His eyes… Those eyes were the only things that could make her melt, his infuriatingly beautiful eyes. Usually, Nancy was captivated by how expressive they were or how they gleaned in the sunlight, but now, she couldn’t help but notice the exhaustion present in his gaze. It was admittedly unnerving, this was the polar opposite to the Potato she knew.

Over the next two hours, Potato kept acting strange. He was almost dead silent, and absentmindedly chewed at his fingernails. Nancy caught him glancing at the clock obsessively and as time dragged on, his knee began to bob up and down nervously. And to tie this strange night up with a little bow, Potato practically ran out of the school, with a rushed “see ya”.

Yeah, something was definitely wrong.

As Nancy packed up, a pit of worry formed in her stomach. How dare he do this? She had a million and one things to do, and now, not only does she have to deal with this disgusting crush, now she has to figure out what the hell is wrong with Potato. How selfish could he be?! Now she has to waste her valuable time, to make sure she never sees Potato like that again, she can’t bear to see his sad puppy dog eyes. Her heart might give out.

That night, Nancy laid in bed and formulated her plan. It was tricky for a number of reasons. First of all, Nancy wasn’t good with these types of situations. She wasn’t gentle or soft and had trouble finding the right words. Nancy feared that if she made a misstep, she’d scare Potato away forever. She decided that her first course of action should be figuring out exactly what was wrong. Finding the source would make her quest to help her idiot so much easier.

Hopefully…

On her way to school that morning, Nancy tried to gather the courage to ask Potato what was the matter. Normally, she never had an issue with being direct but a small part of her doubted whether her usual attitude was appropriate for this kind of situation. She imagined it in her head, attempting to expel her nerves.

She’d walk up to him, making sure to avoid looking at his sad little face and go “Potato, what’s wrong”. She questioned if she should take his hand, but Nancy didn’t know if it would make it awkward.

Not too harsh, but it didn’t dance around the subject, that’ll work, won’t it? Now that she thinks about it, she should do it away from the others. Even she has enough tact not to embarrass him in front of the other T-Birds. Emotions made them… uncomfortable.

It was when she got to school when she was informed that a key part of her plan was missing, Potato himself. No one had heard from or seen him. None of the T-Birds could tell them where he was, but the blatant look of guilt told her that they were obviously lying. Even after an interrogation from her and Cynthia, their lips were sealed.

Resigning to the fact her plan had failed before it could even begin, Nancy went about her day like normal, hoping her worry wasn’t obvious to any of the other Pink Ladies.

Eventually, the bell rang, signalling that they were free at last. Nancy made her way to the design room, slightly disappointed she’d have a completely Potato-less evening. Oh god, what has he done to her? Not long ago, Nancy would revel in the peace and quiet, finding the isolation relaxing, meditative even. Now, the thought of working sans Potato felt like a kick in the teeth.

Opening the door, Nancy nearly yelped in surprise as she saw none other than Potato sat at their usual work desk. He looked equally as tired and stressed as he did yesterday, but this time, it was obvious to Nancy that he was desperately trying to hide it, and failing spectacularly.

“Potato? What are you doing here?” she asked, stunned, stood frozen in the doorway. On the desk, she saw he had laid out all of her equipment carefully, almost exactly the way she always laid out her work station, bar a few minor details.

“I promised to help, I couldn’t bail on you, could I?”, he answered, a false smile on his face. He said this as if he hadn’t been MIA, without any hint of where he had been.

If Nancy wasn’t so worried about the boy, she might’ve died with how sweet he was, like seriously, it’s unfair how sweet one person can be.

“Okay then… thank you”, Nancy said as she sat down next to him. Looking at her desk, she began fixing the few mistakes Potato made, still marvelling at the attention he must have paid to how she worked.

“Well, how did I do?”he asked, sounding a bit more like his usual self, but not by a lot, “7/10, solid attempt”.

They fell into a not so comfortable silence, Nancy aimlessly fiddling with her tools, not knowing where to start. She needed Potato to tell her what was wrong, so that she could fix it, she needed to help him.

“Get a grip Nancy Nakagawa” she scolded herself, “just say what you planned to say, no dancing around, be direct!”

Nancy turned and before she could speak, she made the mistake she’d sworn not to make, she looked at his face, directly into his eyes. Oh god, Potato looked… drained. In fact, he looked sick. Nancy could feel anxiety and sadness radiate off of him and she hated it. She hated Potato looking so lost.

Her voice faltered and all that escaped was a strangled “Potato…”

“Nancy?”

Was it always this warm, or was that just Nancy’s face turning red? The air was thick and heavy, and Nancy feared she’d suffocate before she could even say anything. Oh god, the room was getting smaller, wasn’t it? This wasn’t how the plan was meant to go.

“You’ve been quiet for too long, just say something, get a hold of yourself Nakagawa, SAY ANYTHING YOU ABSOLUTE-”

“Nancy, are you okay?”

“What’s wrong Potato?!”

He was taken aback by her tone, a confused grin spread across his face, “What do you mean, what's wrong with what?”

“With you Potato, what’s wrong with you? Because obviously, there’s something wrong and you must think I’m stupid if you thought I hadn’t noticed because I have noticed! You’re exhausted and nervous and it’s horrible seeing you like this becauseIcaretoomuchaboutyoutoletyougoonsopleasejust-”

The look at Potato’s face shut her right up. Any hint of a smile had vanished. His eyes had grown wide and begun to water and he was biting his lip to hide that it was quivering. He stared at Nancy like a deer in headlights, frozen and afraid. He was vulnerable, like Nancy had just torn open an emotional wound and now it was freely bleeding.

Tentatively, she reached for his hand, causing him to flinch away from her. Potato quickly stood up, grabbing his T-Birds jacket off of the chair.

“I have-I have to go, I’ll see you tomorrow”, his voice wobbled and he quickly turned to leave.

“Potato, please”, he faltered and looked over his shoulder.

For a moment, Nancy thought he’d stay and maybe so did he.

They stood there, staring at each other for what felt like an eternity.

“I- Night Nancy”, he left as quickly as he could and now Nancy was alone. She looked down at the table and then back to the door.

For once, Nancy Nakagawa had no idea what she should do.

Chapter Text

Nancy couldn’t sleep, she felt terrible. The events of the evening replayed in her head, like the world's worst film. Never had she seen Potato look so hurt before, so vulnerable. She might have cried a bit when she got home, not that Nancy would admit to it. Seeing him like that was heartbreaking.

She really scared him away for good, didn’t she? Poor, sweet, stupid Potato. Potato who helped her do anything without asking for something in return. Potato who made her heart skip a beat whenever he was near. Potato who took her breath away.

Now he’s gone. Nancy had hurt him and now he’s gone.

Nancy was so caught up in her self pitying thoughts, slowly spiralling, she almost missed the gentle knock on her bedroom door. She looked up to see her mother standing in the doorway, the warm light from the hall spilling into her dark bedroom.

“Nancy dear, is everything okay?” Her mother sat down on the bed, gently taking her daughter's hand, brushing her thumb across her knuckles.

Nancy wanted to say yes, everything was good, great even. She was fine, school was fine and everyone else was fine! Instead, Nancy took one look at her mother before dissolving into tears and letting herself be engulfed by her mother’s embrace.

She felt like a small, pathetic child, part of her thought she should be embarrassed but the other part just wanted someone to comfort her. For someone to tell her what to do. For someone to tell her everything would be alright.

She told her mother everything, about her crush on Potato, his strange behaviour, how worried she was, what she tried to do and how he’s been scared away for good and he’d never even want to look at Nancy ever again. They might have been there for minutes or they might have been there for hours, Nancy didn’t know nor did she care.

Once she was finished and had no more tears left to shed, her mother pulled back to look at her. If she had a mirror, Nancy thought she’d see a red eyed, blotchy ,snivelling mess staring back at her. Her mother handed her a hanky for Nancy to blow her nose with.

“Nancy, you didn’t scare him away”, her mum brushed away her few remaining tears, “Your heart was in the right place”.

“But Mom, you should’ve seen him, he- he-”, her mom shushed her, pulling Nancy into another hug.

“It’s obvious he cares about you and you care about him. This will all work out in the end but you need to let him tell you once he’s ready”.

“What do I do then, I can’t watch him go on like this”.

“Just be there dear, that’ll be enough”.

Just be there? Maybe she could do that?

The next day, Nancy decided to stick to her mother’s advice, just be there. She repeated them over and over again, like a mantra. Today, she had no plan of what she was going to do or what she would even say, her heart was beating in her throat. Would she even be able to look him in the eye?

However, like the day before, Potato was nowhere to be seen. Two days in a row was unusual for him, but there was little she could do. Instead of searching, Nancy tried her best to focus on other things and to hide how she was feeling inside. Really, Nancy believed she was doing rather well, until Cynthia pulled her aside during lunch.

“Okay, what’s up with you”, Cynthia whispered, looking simultaneously fed up and concerned.

“Wha- nothing, nothing at all, I’m fantastic. I should be asking what’s up with you… dude”, Nancy fought the urge to face palm. Dude? When has she ever used dude?!

Cynthia raised an eyebrow and gave her an unimpressed look.

“Nancy, you’ve been acting weird since yesterday. You can tell me if somethings wrong, you know that, right?”Nancy almost caved, she really did, instead she brushed it off. No point in burdening her friends with this.

“I’m fine, just stressed with the costumes for the play”, Nancy turned and nearly ran over to their lunch table, not wanting to think about this situation anymore. She caught Cynthia giving her a few questioning glances but she ignored them each time. Instead, she stayed concentrated on her peanut butter and jam sandwich.

The day continued like normal, and Nancy nearly forgot about yesterday, nearly. Repeating her mantra in her head helped dull her worry enough that she could function somewhat like a human. At least, she thought so. Maybe her mom was right, everything might work itself out.

She secretly worried she wouldn’t be so lucky.

As the day came to an end, it was Nancy’s turn to pull Cynthia over. At the lockers, Nancy pulled Cynthia around the corner, out of the view from the others.

“Do you want to help me with the costumes, it’ll only be for two hours”, she asked, knowing it was unlikely Potato would be making an appearance today.

“Yeah, sure, but I thought Potato was helping you?”Cynthia once again looked concerned and the guilt resting in Nancy’s stomach grew tenfold.

“I’ll explain on the way, but Potato isn’t showing up tonight”, Cynthia opened her mouth before being interrupted, “You’re right, something is wrong”.

She told Cynthia everything. Okay, well not everything, just about her worries for Potato. Nancy might’ve forgotten to add her big fat massive crush to the story, by mistake of course.

The evening was fun, she was glad Cynthia was here, after working with Potato for so long, doing this alone felt strange. Despite the excellent company, it still felt like something was missing. The room was emptier, and maybe even colder, without… him.

He really has made Nancy go soft, hasn’t he. Damn him.

Once their two hours were up, Nancy was in tears, laughing at Cynthia who was obviously trying to comfort her and frankly, it was working.

Thursday was almost exactly the same, except this time Nancy could tell Cynthia told the other Pink Ladies about the Potato Problem™ . All day long, the girls tried to cheer Nancy up in any way they could. Each had a different approach.

Jane pulled her aside, and gave her a little pep talk, reassuring her she was always there to be a shoulder to cry on. Olivia also spoke to her but was more along the lines of “She’d kill someone if it would help Nancy at all”. Cynthia stuck to using humour in order to comfort Nancy and really, she couldn’t appreciate her friends more.

Despite the support, there was a small voice, niggling in the back of Nancy’s brain, reminding her that something was wrong. That Potato was struggling and she was of no help because she really had no idea where he was. The boys said he was sick at home, but they knew it was complete and utter bullshit. Even if he was home sick, Nancy had no idea where he lived. It was like a grey cloud was constantly looming over Nancy, consistently raining on her parade.

Sensing this, the Pink Ladies could only think of one other course of action, a Friday sleepover. Nancy would be finished with the costumes Thursday evening and had a day off from the Frosty Palace. Surprisingly her parents were more than okay to let her go, thinking it would allow her to relax after such a stressful week.

The plan was that they would stay at Jane’s, her parents were away visiting family and Francesa was having a sleepover with Gil’s sister, Betty. Their parents didn’t need to know they were completely unsupervised. Nancy could spend the night with her best friends in the world, not having to worry about school, or the play or boys, specifically Potato.

Maybe that last thing would be harder to ignore.

Nancy swore to herself that she would have fun, she’d forget about all of her problems and so would the others. In fact, she’d just forget about Potato entirely, at least for one night. Potato? Potato who? Nancy has surely never met a person named Potato in her life.

Each of the girls brought something to do. Nancy brought a bunch of magazines, fashion mags for her, a couple of tabloids for Olivia, Jane enjoyed doing the cross words (weird I know) and she brought some comics for Cynthia. Speaking of which, Cynthia brought the Game of Life, as well as snakes and ladders. Finally, Olivia had brought a bottle of vodka, hair rollers, hairspray and make up.

When they got to Jane’s, she had the ingredients and tools needed to make cookies laid out on the worktop. Okay, maybe Nancy will be able to have some fun, she can totally, 100% do this. Maybe all she needed was her Pink Ladies to make her feel a little bit better.

The time flew by, so fast that Nancy couldn’t believe it was already 11. All them were a little tipsy and all of the cookies they had made were completely gone. They had their hair in rollers and were wearing face masks, bar Cynthia, who attempted to copy Olivia’s usual makeup look but had ended up with red lipstick on her eyelids. Now they were sprawled across Jane’s living room. Jane and her shared the couch, while the other two lounged with a couple of cushions on the ground.

It was the part of the evening that shifted from contagious laughter to a very sappy and sentimental conversation. There were tears and hugging, all of them took it as an excuse to vent about everything that was weighing on their shoulders. Eventually, it was Nancy’s turn and maybe it was the cheap vodka, but all her worries and anxieties were spilling out of her mouth before she even realised.

She kept rambling on, hardly stopping to take a breath and only did so once Olivia placed a gentle arm on her shoulder. Before they knew it, the gang had embraced Nancy in a group hug and finally, for the first time that week, Nancy felt she could breathe again.

They went to bed a couple minutes past midnight, happy, full and each one feeling loved and appreciated. Nancy really was having an emotional week, wasn’t she? She wasn’t sure how she felt about this new, outwardly emotional Nancy. It was strange and mildly uncomfortable, but that can be a future her problem, once she sobers up.

Nancy dreamt of many things that night. At one point, she’d won the Oscar for Costume Design and was gleefully shaking Gregory Peck’s hand as he gave her the award. The next she was dressing Grace Kelly for her next film, who stood before her like a goddess wrapped in baby blue chiffon. She even dreamt of her and her girls rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, decked out in gossamer gowns, as well as a dapper suit for Cynthia she designed herself. And of course, they were all absolute perfection.

Soon her dreams shifted to one thing, one face, one person, Potato. They were alone in a dimly lit ballroom, just the two of them. She was dressed like Rita Hayworth in Gilda, with long silky opera gloves and a floor length gown. And Potato was… he was… Nancy was speechless. This is how she knew it was a dream, Potato could never put an outfit this dapper together by himself. He looked like a movie star similar to Sinatra or Cary Grant.

Suddenly he began making his way over to her, Nancy’s heart was beating out of her chest. She could practically smell the obnoxious after shave he regularly wore. It was all happening so fast, one minute she’s getting lost in his eyes, the next she’s in his arms. He’s leaning down and their lips are getting closer, and closer and then-

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Nancy sprung awake, looking around the living room in confusion. Olivia and Cynthia were equally confused, blinking blearily at her while Jane was already answering the door. She looked at the clock, it was 5 in the morning, who on earth would call at this time?

Jane opened the door, just for Richie, Gil and Shy Guy to burst into the house. They were all too stunned to even give out to them. The trio looked worried sick and frazzled, it was obvious they had woken up not long ago as well. She was pretty sure Shy Guy was still in his pyjamas, hidden beneath his T-Birds jacket. Gil still looked half asleep. As he entered the room, Richie’s eyes locked onto Nancy.

“Alright, where is he Nance?” he asked, getting up close to her, only for Olivia to wedge herself in between the two.

“Calm down Richie, it’s too early in the morning for whatever you guys have got yourselves into”.

“It’s not like that, we just need to know where he is?”Richie was starting to get irritated. Gil and Shy Guy stood awkwardly behind him.

“You need to know where who is?” Nancy asked, but the pit growing in her stomach told her she didn’t need to.

Realisation spread across the gang’s faces, “So you don’t know where he is?”, Gil piped up.

“Who?”It was Cynthia’s turn to get annoyed.

“It’s Potato, he’s been missing since yesterday”

Chapter Text

Missing? Potato was missing? Potato? Missing? How on earth-

“Can he be missing, what do you mean Potato is missing?!” Nancy shook a frightened Richie by his shoulders.

“His ma came banging on our door this morning”, Shy Guy replied, “Dad was fuming but when he saw Potato’s mom, you should’ve seen his face. A complete mess. He had me bring Rich and Gil to the house, thinking we’d done something”.

“Apparently, he disappeared in the evening, no one realised until his mom woke up to go to work,” Gil gently tried to remove Nancy’s claws from Richie’s shoulders but that only received a near growl from her.

“She was freaking out but they can’t afford to let her skip work. We all promised to search for him, while she headed off. We said after we found him, we’ll call and bring him in when she’s finished work, she’s definitely gonna ground him. I think one of the neighbours is staying to help with the younger ones”.

Potato had mentioned his siblings to her before, Sofia and Gabriel, who he obviously loved more than life itself. However, Nancy realised that was the only thing he knew about his family, she didn’t know anything about his parents, what they did or even what they looked like.

“What do you mean no one noticed, how can you not notice your son is missing”, Olivia chimed in, looking as confused as Nancy felt.

“She works from 6 to 9. She told my dad she had put the kids to bed and the two of them cleaned up and then-”, Shy Guy faltered.

“And then?” Nancy prompted him to continue.

The three boys looked at each other, having a silent conversation only they could understand. Richie cleared his throat.

“Has Potato ever mentioned his dad?” he asked cautiously. The girls shook their heads, why would Potato’s dad be such an issue?

“Right well, to be honest, we don’t know a lot either. What we do know is that he isn’t… well”, Richie continued, “Potato mentioned it had gotten worse, whatever that means, and that his ma didn’t want him to be by himself. So-”

“He stayed home with him”, Nancy finished, suddenly everything was making sense. Richie nodded.

“But you told Nance he was at home sick”, Cynthia interjected, pointing an accusatory finger at the group.

“He told us to say that, he didn’t want to worry you” Gil admitted, unable to look Nancy in the eye.

“Okay, so how is this related to last night?” Jane asked, attempting to get back on track. “That’s the thing, his ma was really vague. She kept saying his old man had a bad episode or whatever. Afterwards, she thought Potato went to bed”.

Shy Guy piped up, “He never talks about his dad, all we know is that he’s sick”.

Everyone fell into a heavy silence. Nancy’s head was spinning like a top. It was as if the jigsaw was slowly coming together but there were still enough pieces out of place that she couldn’t see the final picture. She sat on the couch, and took a deep breath. Right now, she needs to focus on finding Potato.

“Where have you looked so far”, she asked, turning to the boys.

“His road, our roads, the school and here. We decided you might have a clue but I guess not”, Richie sat next to her, placing his feet on the coffee table only for Olivia to smack them off.

The fact the T-Birds thought she’d know where Potato was made her feel weird, but not a bad weird, in fact, it was a good weird. But, she didn’t think this would be the appropriate squeal over the fact, she can do that later once she finds her idiot safe and sound.

But now, where else could Potato be? Nancy could hardly understand why Potato would choose to run away in the middle of the night, let alone where he would be now. Everything was closed this early, including the Frosty Palace. While that certainly narrowed down their search, it also meant they were running out of places to look.

After a while of silent thinking, or almost silent as Shy Guy nervously drummed his fingers against the arm of the couch. The fact of the matter was that Potato wasn’t the type of guy to do something like this. Maybe Richie or Gil, but never Potato. He’d tell at least one person where he would be. The fact that this was so un-Potato like, made Nancy feel ill.

Thankfully Jane, and Nancy’s official hero, broke the silence, “Okay, maybe we should drive by those places again. It’s possible you missed him in your panic”.

“Ok cool, but we actually don’t have the car, it’s in the shop. Who doesn’t love an early morning stroll anyway”, Gil tried to joke, but it fell flat.

Begrudgingly, the girls agreed to run around town like headless chickens and headed off to get dressed. It was when she was putting her shoes on that Nancy had a record scratch moment. Running down stairs, it was now Gil’s turn to be shaken by the shoulders.

“How long has the car been in the shop?”, “Since Wednesday, why?”Nancy couldn’t believe how dense this man was.

“Is there any way to get in without a key”, it was Shy Guy’s turn to answer, “Yeah, there’s a window in the back that never closes properly, we sometimes squeeze through if it’s closed.”

Oh my god, Nancy couldn’t believe how much of a genius she was, “Cynthia! Please tell me you have keys to your dad’s garage”

“Yeah I do, why?”, without bothering to answer, Nancy simply began rushing everyone out the door. Once everyone was out, Nancy began racing down the footpath, the others close behind.

“Nance, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Olivia shouted to her.

“I know where he is! I know where Potato is!” With that declaration, the group sped up even more, charging to the garage.

They all stood around Cynthia as she unlocked the garage, their anticipation was nearly tangible. Nancy almost couldn’t breathe, but that might just be from the running. Once the door was opened, Nancy had to fight the urge to burst into the garage and knock down the others.

Nancy scanned the room until she found what she was looking for, Gil’s Thunderbird, which had its top down. This received confusion from Gil, who swore he didn’t leave it like this, but Nancy couldn’t care less about the car and more about who might be in it.

Carefully, Nancy made her way to the car, hardly noticing the others following. As she got closer, she began to hear a faint sound that she couldn’t quite place. Maybe her mind is playing tricks, but it sounded a lot like light snoring.

Finally, Nancy peaked into the car and a flood of relief washed over her and the rest of the group. Curled up awkwardly in the back seat was none other than Potato, who was fast asleep. He was huddled into his T-Bird jacket and was wearing his regular uniform of slacks and a button up. The outfit alone told Nancy that Potato had never gone to bed last night.

Potato looked worse than he had at the start of the week. He was pale, with heavy dark circles beneath his eyes. Even in slumber, his eyebrows were drawn and his mouth was pulled into a tight grimace.

Nancy could see that his habit of biting his nails had led to them looking frayed and were practically stubs. Potato looked sick, it was scary to see someone you care about like this.

They all stared at each other, unsure of what to do. Olivia spoke first, “Should we wake him?”

“I guess, we can’t have him sleeping in the car all day”, Gil moved his hand to touch Potato’s shoulder, but pulled away.

“He can’t go home like this, there’s no way he’d be able to watch Sofia and Gabriel”, they all murmured in agreement.

“I guess we should bring him to mine, mom and dad aren’t back until tomorrow”.

With a plan to drag Potato back to Jane’s, they all stood there, staring at their slumbering friend, waiting for someone, anyone to have the nerve to wake him. Nancy knew all of them had the same thought, it felt cruel to wake someone when they looked this worn out.

For some reason, Nancy decided that that person to finally rouse him would be her. She felt like she was possessed, the hand reaching for the sleeping boy's shoulder didn’t feel like her hand. Everyone held their breath, as Nancy gently jostled Potato. Really, she didn’t understand why it felt like such a big deal, but the anticipation was there nonetheless.

Thankfully, that was all it took for Potato to stir. His face scrunched up in a way that Nancy didn’t find adorable at all, not one bit. Blearily blinking up at Nancy, Potato then looked at the group surrounding him, looking a tad disorientated. Once he seemed to get his bearings, his expression shifted from confused to bashful.

Returning his gaze to Nancy, he tried to play off this admittedly odd situation, “Heyyyyy guys… what’s up?”

He was unbelievable, Nancy decided it was time to cut the crap, “I think we should be the ones asking that Potato”, he looked down at his lap.

“Dude, would you like to explain you’re sleeping in my car”, Gil asked.

“I- well um”, his eyes darted to Gil and it was obvious Potato had no clue what to say.

“We’ve been worried sick, you could’ve been dead or hurt! What has gotten into you!” The fear, anger and confusion Nancy originally felt on Monday had returned with a vengeance, but the way Potato flinched made her force herself to calm down, for now.

Similarly, the uncertainty and shame Potato expressed that night was clear as day on his pale and tired face. She noticed he began to pick at his nails again and without thought, she took hold of one of his hands. His fingers were cold.

“Potato-”, once again, she was lost in his eyes.

“Nancy”, never had she seen him look so small.

Gone was the lively, fun loving T-bird, replaced with a scared teenage boy. Nancy looked around, and back at Potato. He looked like a cornered animal and she couldn’t blame him for his wariness. She’d be uncomfortable too if she’d woken up in a car, surrounded by people, friends or not.

Her mother’s advice rang in her ears, “You need to let him tell you once he’s ready. Just be there, that’ll be enough”. If Potato was going to tell someone what’s been happening, it shouldn’t be like this. With him just awoken, surrounded and scared.

“Let’s head back to yours Jane”, opening the door, Nancy held out a hand and helped Potato out of the car. Once up, he swayed slightly but then steadied himself against Richie, “Sorry, my leg’s asleep”.

“Nancy, wha-”, Cynthia tried to question before Nancy placed a hand over her mouth, “You’re right Cynthia, we should get some breakfast”. Her gritted teeth and tense smile made her message clear, “shut it”.

The walk back to Jane’s felt longer than it had before, but that might be the result of the tense atmosphere. Cynthia tried to break the ice more than a couple of times, but each joke went down like a lead balloon, with only Shy Guy laughing awkwardly. Potato looked at his feet, ignoring the concerned looks coming from the group. He stayed at the back, next to Nancy.

As they reached Jane’s house, Nancy realised she had never let go of Potato’s hand and he never let go of hers. His fingers no longer felt like icicles.

Now it was around half past 6 in the morning and every single one of them was starving. Miraculously, Jane discovered two boxes of pancake mix in her press. Despite the lack of toppings other than butter, the pancakes were gone in a blink of an eye.

Nancy likened all of them to a plague of locusts. Potato ate the most, hoovering up his breakfast, as well as the other’s leftovers, like he hadn’t eaten properly in a while. A worried voice in Nancy’s head noted that it was likely that statement was very, very true.

Now that they were properly fed, the tension from earlier had seemingly lifted. Everyone was chatting and joking, planning what they should do today. Everyone apart from Potato, who was yet to return to his usual self.

Nancy had had enough, it had been a week. She wasn’t going to force the boy to say anything, but she needed to let him know she was there. Nancy can’t give anymore of her precious time to this problem, something needs to be done now.

Catching Jane’s eyes, Nancy subtly nodded her to the empty living room, before gesturing at Potato. Understanding Nancy was asking to speak to him alone, Jane began giving people chores to do in order to clean up the kitchen. As everyone got to work, Nancy gently took Potato’s hand and guided him into the next room.

Sitting on the couch, neither teen knew what to do. The space between them was only a couple of inches, but to Nancy, Potato could’ve been on the other side of the grand canyon. She almost got a sense of deja vu, as she was reminded about Monday evening.

Her anxious ramblings.

Potato’s frightened gaze.

And the dread she felt once he left.

She can’t let history repeat itself, not today. Nancy shifted close enough to Potato that their knees were touching. She felt his gaze on her and she had to work up the courage to return it. She felt sick and was sweating buckets. Why can’t she speak?

“Nance, I’m sorry”.

“For what”

“For treating you like this. For lying to you. For worrying you. I’m sorry, it was shitty and I- and I-”, Potato’s voice wavered, as tears built up in his eyes.

“Hey, Potato, it’s okay”, she wiped the single tear that rolled down his cheek, “You’ve had a rough week”.

“It’s not- it’s not an excuse. I should’ve- I’m”, slowly, more tears escaped, streaming down his face. Driven by concern, Nancy pulled Potato in, resting his head on her shoulder and wrapping an arm around him.

Shushing him, Nancy internally screamed at herself to talk to him. “Potato, I’m not going to force you to say anything, you don’t need to. The boys told us what they knew. I need you to know I’m here”.

“What did they tell you?”

“Just that your dad was sick”.

Potato fell silent and Nancy thought that they had finished, until he quietly spoke up, “Nance, you said you were here for me?”

“Of course I am.”

“It’s just that, I’ve never told anyone about this and I don’t- I don’t want this to change how you see me”, his voice was quiet, so quiet that Nancy would’ve missed it if she wasn’t listening so intently.

“Nothing you say can change my opinion on you. You’ll always be an unfashionable idiot”, this earned a teary chuckle from the boy tucked in between her neck and shoulder.

Not moving from his position and taking a shaky, deep breath, it appeared to Nancy that Potato was readying himself to say something.

After what felt like hours, he finally spoke.

“It began last Sunday…”