[center][b]Mario Max Theo[/b][/center]
[center][i]Dedonus-DotCom-Captain Jordan Collab.[/i][/center]
The older boy leaned over to his frizzy-haired companion after accusing the freshman boy of eavesdropping, giving Theo a moment to look him over. He stood much taller than Theo, towering at least half a head above the short-statured freshman. To be fair, the Latino boy hadn't had a proper growth spurt since the summer before seventh grade, so he was sure that the difference in height was only a matter of time. The older boy looked tan, as if he had a job as a lifeguard or somewhere with a decent amount of time in the sun, and two blue eyes glowed from beneath a mop of jet-black hair. With his skin color and the toned appearance of his body, Theo pegged the black-haired teen as the typical, high school jock.

Theo didn't really cavort with jocks.

Jocks were pretty much the polar opposite of his type. All that time under the sun tended to bleach out the brain cells, leaving an empty skull filled with the tendency to laugh raucously at the silliest thing. Theo could hear such laughter during lunchtime at Bradbury High, while his comrades at the nerd table were busy with their game of Magic the Gathering. Cards weren’t his pastime, but Theo was hardly welcome anywhere else, even the other kids at his table barely tolerated him.

“Did anyone ever tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth?” Theo retorted with an exasperated expression. The lunchroom might belong to the jocks and preps, but the mall outside of GameStop? That was nerd territory, and jock boy was standing right in the middle of it. “Besides,” the freshman boy went on, “it was just some free advice. Take it or leave it, I don’t care.” He emphasized the sentiment with the shrug of his shoulders.

"I fear the Danaans, even when they bring gifts. I should know because I'm Italian." Mario replied.

Theo bit his tongue to keep from laughing at the Italian teen's remark. He honestly couldn't decide what was funnier, the fact that the older boy was Italian or that he'd mistaken Theo for being Greek. He had a retort on the tip of his tongue, but a quick glance at Max stifled him. Jock boy had won this round.

Turning to the energetic girl, Theo gave another shrug, a careful eye glancing at the taller boy warily. “Sure, I'll tag along,” he replied casually, “why not?”

It wasn't until Max turned around to glare at Mario that she realized she'd moved between them, much like she ended up doing when her four-year-old twin brothers started fighting over things like who got the see-through Wiimote, or who sat next to her at dinner time. She was kind of beginning to wonder whether she was the one who caused tension everywhere she want.

...

Nah.

Having brushed off the somewhat somber thought, she turned back to Theo and beamed. "Exactly! Theo, Mario, Mario, Theo, now can we go? We've been standing here forever."

"Sure, as long as it's alright with Don Mario here," the freshman boy jerked a thumb in Mario's direction. He couldn't help himself, Italian and his name was Mario? The joke was too good to pass up. He grinned to himself, even if no one else found it particularly funny.

Mario just shrugged off Theo's 'joke' off, knowing that Theo could have said something far worse, especially since he hung out with the 'geek' crowd. In fact, Mario was a bit surprised that Theo did not make a backhanded statement that was a reference to the red-clad plumber. Heck, even Max had already threw in a 'Nintendo-Mario' joke when she mentioned pipes (whether or not she did it on purpose, Mario was not totally sure).

"Fine." Mario replied.

The trio headed out of the mall by way of its south exit, heading towards the residential side of town. It would have been a longer walk had they not decided to cut through the abandoned construction site. Bordered by the town's local hospital on one side and city hall on the other, the desolate construction site stood gloomy in its ruined state. It stood in stark contrast between the pristine condition of the flanking buildings, and the unfinished innards of the failed shopping center was a constant eyesore for the citizens of Bradbury. The question of whose responsibility it was to clean up still remained undecided, leaving the site in perpetual limbo.

Barbed wire leered menacingly from its height atop the site's fence, but Theo paid it no mind as he strode along the chainlink wall. In the darkness, it was much harder to see, but eventually the Latino teen found the entrance, a strip of fence that had been severed from its post, allowing entrance or egress to anyone with the werewithall to use it. Triumphant, Theo pushed in the metal material, leaving a triangular gap big enough for a child to walk through without ducking. "Here you are, ladies and gentlemen. Step lively, now, and watch out for the ax murderers."

"Are we sure this is such a good idea?" Mario asked, "Something bad could happen, although I will admit that 'ax murderers' are probably not one. What would happen if the police catches us? Or we somehow injure ourselves? It already pretty dark out. You don't know what we might step onto or into."

Max hardly even heard Mario, though he stood just behind her as she stared in wide-eyed awe at the tetanus-stricken playground stretched before her.

She was used to walking around town, but she only ever passed the construction site with the twins, and while she was positive the two boys would have loved a not so legal jaunt through cement tubing and rotting pallets, their well-being was one of a very few things Max took very, very seriously. And now? Well, now she had to get home quickly, lest she walk in to find her mother in a panic and her father...anywhere.

Still, every new place was owed a little exploring.

Grinning, she climbed through the gap in the metal fence and took off running without so much as a backward glance.

However, Mario knew that there was a reason why the construction site was fenced off. Specifically, it was probably dangerous for anyone without proper protective equipment to enter. If there was not any danger in this construction site, the city probably would not have walled it off. Therefore, his inner conscience told him that the amount of time that they would "save" by cutting through the construction site would not outweigh the danger.

Nevertheless, Mario could not sleep with himself if he just let Max and Theo prance into the site alone. If they were to be injured in some way, he would not be able to overcome the guilt because he might have been able to do something.

"I think we shouldn't go dashing through this place. I don't want anyone, especially myself, falling into some ditch that has been hidden because of it is nighttime now" Mario said in response to Max's burst of energy that was shown through her running recklessly through the construction site.

The Latino teen had only been joking about the ax murderers, after all, and he held back a giggle while Mario lectured Theo and Max about the dangers inside the construction site. Or at least the empty air where Max had been. The freshman boy watched as she clambered through the hole in the fence and disappeared running into the darkness.

With a wry chuckle, Theo ducked through the opening in the chainlink, letting it fall back to Mario's side. He stood for a moment, watching the older boy stand on the other side, the side of safety and comfort. It'd be easy, his brain rationalized, to just step back through and carry on home the long way, have the snack Mom no-doubt has laid out, and go to bed early. Theo could feel the fatigue behind his eyes, between the day of school, the hours of video gaming and his other evening activities, he certainly wouldn't mind falling into his nice, warm bed right about now.

No, Theo decided, there was nothing to be afraid of. He wasn't in New York City anymore, this wasn't an abandoned building full of hobos, criminals and junkies. It was just deserted, like most of town was at this time of the night. He laughed at his own paranoia, and then started off after Max at a casual pace.

After a moment, the boy glanced over his shoulder to see Mario still standing on the other side of the fence. Theo aimed himself away from any damaging obstacles and then turned around, walking backwards slowly to avoid tripping. He called back, "You coming, or are you scared?" Theo didn't even give Mario a chance to respond, calling again, this time with taunts like, "You know you're getting shown up by a girl, right?" and "Look! It's-a me! Coward-io!"

Mario bit his lip at the slight reference to 'Super Mario'. Nevertheless, he knew that someone who actually had planned such an insult could have come up with something worse, like Wimpio, since it fits the three syllables in Mario. Honestly, this was probably one of the most toned-down 'jokes' Mario had heard for a while.

"There is a difference between bravery and recklessness. A brave man considers the consequences of his actions; a reckless man does not. Anyways, you are being sexist when you insinuate that women are less brave than men. There are plenty of 'brave' women in the world, like Joan of Arc and Rosa Parks. Anyways, I guess it is the responsible thing to do is to follow you guys because I don't want you all to hurt yourselves or something."

Mario pulled back the opening to the fence and entered through it. "Can we please just use this for a short cut and not a playground? Our goal is to get home, not play around in abandoned construction equipment."