Fic: A Novel Idea (April Fic Challenge)

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: A Novel Idea
Chapters: 1/1(?)
Author:csi_sanders1129
Ratings: K+
Word Count: 1031
Pairings/Characters: Tommy Dawkins, Merton Dingle
Synopsis: In which Merton takes to novelizing his and Tommy’s adventures.
Comments: Written for my April Fic Challenge 2021, Prompt: Cool. Could be Gen or Pre-Slash. Might add more to this later on, we’ll see. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

It turns out that college is nowhere near as difficult as every teacher he ever had has claimed it would be. To the extent that, even with an overloaded schedule, tutoring Tommy, never missing one of his best friend's games, and even the occasional monster of the week, he still has plenty of time on his hands. So, he takes to novelizing their Pleasantville adventures in the form of the thrilling and definitely fictional tales of Tony and Martin.

It starts almost as a joke.

They're settled in their dorm one Sunday night, with a marathon of old Hammer horror films playing on the small television in corner of the room while they both work on their homework due for classes tomorrow. Tommy's fighting an uphill battle with his chemistry homework while Merton struggles over what to do for a creative writing assignment. He hadn't necessarily wanted to take creative writing, but his options were somewhat limited with his abrupt transfer back to State from Heidelberg.

"Just write about some kid who gets bitten by a werewolf on a camping trip before school starts," Tommy offers, "and then come help me figure out how to balance these stupid chemical equations."

So Merton does. He writes up a short story about a boy, very creatively named Tony, who gets attacked by a werewolf, and then he helps Tommy with his chemistry homework and the two of them go about their evening as usual.

When Merton gets the assignment back at the end of the week, however, it's with a very high grade and a note that suggests he continue the story and maybe see about having it published in the school's magazine if that's something he'd be interested in.

The next weekend, he writes out the rest of the story. It covers all of that first adventure together – though, to be fair, it is not all that adventurous compared to what would follow. It begins with the bit he already wrote, about the camping trip, and goes on to explain the weird symptoms Tony experienced in the days after the attack as their senior year at the fictitious Fairview High commenced. He introduces his own character, here dubbed Martin, as the quirky, loner goth kid of the school and incorporates the awkward beginnings of their friendship. From there, it's mostly a haphazard mix of Martin getting bullied by the school's biggest jerks, Tom and Trevor, while Tony tries to get a date with the school's head cheerleader, Stella. Then it spirals into Martin trying to convince Tony he's maybe actually a werewolf and then Tony desperately trying to convince Martin that okay, maybe he is a werewolf, but if he is, he's not a dangerous one, so please help? It ends with a fragile new friendship and an agreement to try to get rid of the ominous lycanthropic curse.

He prints it out and gives it to Tommy, who reads it over and offers up helpful edits and differing perspectives and Merton takes notes and revises accordingly.

And then, instead of the school paper, he sends it off to an actual publisher he'd chatted with a few times on a gothic message board, just to see what happens. Not like a big publisher or anything, just a small one that mostly prints weird, obscure, sci-fi stuff. Still, he's fully expecting a rejection if he gets any response at all.

But, when the letter comes in the mail a few weeks later, that is not at all what he finds.

Tommy returns to their dorm room after football practice with a package – some new occult tome for research purposes that Merton got off eBay – and a letter, that he passes off to Merton. When Merton sees it's from the publishing company, he's already prepared for the inevitable rejection, even if the envelope if awfully thick for that. He tears it open, reads the words printed on the page, reads them again, and again, and then passes it to Tommy. "What does this say?"

"What? You can't read it?"

"Just… humor me."

Tommy takes the letter, skims it, and then reads it with a bit more focus. "They want the book?"

"They want the book."

Tommy grins at him, engulfs him in an enthusiastic hug that literally sweeps him off his feet, "Way to go, buddy! This is so cool!"

Merton is in utter disbelief. They want to publish his book – their book. Is that okay? Is this okay? Was this a good idea? Suddenly, Merton has doubts. Did he change enough information to keep Tommy safe from anyone who might believe the tale was real?

"We should celebrate!" Tommy continues, still oblivious to Merton's inner panic. "C'mon, how about we go rent that new horror movie?"

Merton's more than a little amused that Tommy's idea of celebrating on a Friday night has slowly morphed into Merton's idea of celebrating on a Friday night (and that even without something to celebrate, that would have been their plans tonight regardless), but before they get to the movies and the usual arguing over take out options, they need to seriously talk about this.

"You're okay with this?" He asks, because he doesn't know where else to start. "With the wolf's story being out there like this?"

Tommy shrugs, "Yeah, I mean, I'm the one who told you to write it in the first place. And I read it over. You changed the names, the places, the little details that could lead someone back to us." He already knows Merton sent the book in under a pen name, too. "Relax, Mert," Tommy assures him, "This is awesome."

---

Two months later and he's holding an actual physical copy of the book in his hands. His book. A book he wrote. It's been edited and then edited some more, some parts fleshed out, some trimmed, words changed here and there, but the story is still there. It's being marketed toward the young adult crowd, Merton knows, and the front cover features a fairly stereotypical wolf silhouetted against a bright full moon beneath the title, The Werewolf of Fairview High. It releases tomorrow.

He wants to write another one.