NOTES: Written under the concept of the LJ community 'shermer high' - a high-school AU where the teachers are familiar characters from Stargate SG-1, and the students are familiar characters from Stargate Atlantis.

Wrong Kind Of Guy

Chapter One

It was all John's fault. It usually was.

Not that he could have had any inkling of what would happen that afternoon.

Not that she could have guessed the way things would change in a single afternoon.

The day finished more or less the same as always. The final bell rang and Elizabeth Weir headed to her locker to dump the textbooks she wouldn't need that night.

Teyla Emmagen was already at her locker when Elizabeth came up. "You survived to the end of the day."

"Barely just," Elizabeth sighed. "Thank God it was Ancient History last and not Trig. I couldn't have handled Mr. Felger at this hour."

"He is...enthusiastic," Teyla noted with dry understatement. "And sometimes difficult to follow."

Elizabeth arched a brow at her friend. "Sometimes?"

A smile quirked the other girl's mouth, but all she said was, "You have heard about the dance?"

"It's hard not to."

"There is a great deal of interest in it," Teyla noted to Elizabeth as she closed her locker door after the final bell had rung. Rather than leaving immediately, the other girl leaned against her locker, her expression slightly puzzled. "Several girls have been asking who I wish to go with."

Elizabeth regarded the other girl with some curiosity. Teyla had arrived at the school halfway through their sophomore year, a reserved, quiet student who'd mostly gone her own way and did her own thing. While Elizabeth had become friends with the distinctive girl, she wasn't sure she could say what was on Teyla's mind at any given moment. "What did you tell them?"

"I did not know what to say," admitted Teyla with a shrug of the shoulders that seemed to be her way of describing so many of the customs of Shermer High. "So I said I did not know. They told me that I should get my act together or all the nice boys would be gone."

There was a certain truth to the other girls' words, Elizabeth reflected as she shut her locker door. There were quite a few nice guys at Shermer High - although the definition of 'nice' varied depending on your tolerance for all the quirks and foibles of the student body - but it would take most of the guys the full four weeks to get the courage to ask a girl to the dance.

Most girls weren't willing to wait four weeks for an invitation.

"Well, you could always try asking one of the football team," Elizabeth began, teasingly.

"Like me," interrupted a new voice from the side. "Hey, girls." John Sheppard jogged up, his black hair unruly as ever as he put his hands on his hips and regarded the two girls. "What's happening? What's Teyla supposed to ask me?"

Elizabeth had known John Sheppard most of her life - since his family had moved in down the block from hers when she was eight and he was nine. Between pulled pigtails and kicked shins, popsicles sneaked from his freezer, and handlebar bike-rides on her bicycle, they'd been friends for a long time.

She could barely remember a time when he hadn't irritated the heck out of her.

Right now, he was doing it by so casually interrupting her conversation with Teyla without so much as an 'excuse me' or a 'by your leave'.

"We are discussing the Founder's Dance," Teyla said. "Interest was expressed in who I was taking and Elizabeth suggested I ask a member of the football team to go with me." The dark eyes glanced at Elizabeth.

John leaned against the wall opposite their lockers and smirked. "Yeah," he said, hazel eyes gleaming, "sure I'll go with you, Teyla."

Both girls stared at him.

Elizabeth wasn't sure what was going through Teyla's mind but she was fighting the urge to slap John one. Okay, so they weren't dating and never had, but they were good friends and if there was any guy whom she'd expected to ask her, it would have been John.

And he'd just glibly agreed to go to the dance with Teyla.

A glance at Teyla showed the other girl utterly astonished at the acceptance, and Elizabeth scrambled for a grip on her anger. Teyla was nice - really nice - not one of the 'lipstick and squee' crowd at the school. If John had to go with anyone else, Elizabeth was glad it was Teyla - although it did sting a little.

Of course, Teyla being Teyla, didn't remain astonished for very long.

And, being Teyla, she didn't let John sit smugly on his laurels either. "If you recall, John," she said pointedly, "I did not ask you come with me to the dance."

It was John's turn to look poleaxed, and Elizabeth bit back a laugh and wished desperately for a camera.

"I am sorry," Teyla continued, her voice sweet and gently mischievous, "if you are disappointed that I have not asked, but I wish to keep my options open. There are, as Mr. O'Neill reminds us, many good fish in the lake."

John was a very pleasing shade of salmon by this stage, and Elizabeth started giggling. She couldn't help herself. He just looked so horrified and embarrassed and furious and shocked... The next minute Teyla had joined her, and the two girls laughed themselves to tears while John sulked at them from the wall opposite their lockers.

"Okay, all right," he said at last. "Very funny, Teyla. Ha-ha." He rolled his eyes as the girls wiped theirs. "See if I ever ask you to anything again!"

Teyla was still giggling madly. "You have not asked me the first time, John," she managed. "So there is no 'again' to it."

Elizabeth was gasping for breath, holding onto her locker to keep herself upright. She pulled some tissues from the stash inside her locker and handed a bunch over to Teyla as John scowled.

"Fine. Whatever. What I came to tell you - both of you - before being so rudely made fun of, was that there's a team meet happening out on the bleachers in fifteen. Teyla, that includes you. Try to be there." His tone of voice was sardonic as he turned to Elizabeth. "Liz, I won't be heading home for another hour. Try not to miss me too much!"

Clearly pissed off with them, he stalked off down the corridor

"I won't," Elizabeth called after him.

He flipped the bird at her without looking back.

Teyla giggled again, dabbing at her eyes. Then sobered a little, although her smile stayed. "Oh, that was most satisfying! The look on his face--!"

Considering the corners of her mouth kept pulling up at the memory, Elizabeth had to agree. "You know he's just going to take it out of you during the next practice, though."

"Probably," the other girl admitted. "But that is nothing new," she said mildly. "They are guys. They like testing me. And I have not broken yet." With a slight smile, she picked up her satchel again. "I had better go or John will have his revenge for my comment. Be safe."

"You, too," Elizabeth said as she closed her locker.

The other girl walked away, and Elizabeth smiled all the way out to the school gate.

- TBC -