Rocky Fronset

Rocky Fronset is a ficititious character in the Dreams to Reality continuity, having appeared in all three incarnations of the series. Originally intended to be a major character in the series, he played a smaller role than intended in the web series continuity, and is currently planned to only play a limited role in the novel series. Little is known about his family life or past prior to the events in the series, but is said to be one of Michael Bennett's best friends, despite their apparent differences throughout the web series and the two spending little time with one another.

In the web series (2000-2004)
One day in late spring at Eagle Creek Junior High School, Rocky Fronset returned a school notebook to his friend, Michael Bennett, but he returned it with a note that Rocky would claim was written by a secret admirer. Rocky refused to elaborate further on the identity of the secret admirer, even when Michael pointed out that whoever wrote the note was asking him to take her to the upcoming school dance, and if he doesn't tell him who it is, the person won't have a date to the dance. Josh Poncek would soon tell Michael and Rachel McCarey that while Josh was speaking to Rocky earlier about the current situation in his relationship with Nicole Halloway and the trouble Melinda Flint was causing in the relationship, Travis Sirlon overheard part of the conversation and had believed that Josh was planning to break up with Nicole, which would begin an argument between Josh and Travis. During his English class, Rocky would notice Michael staring at Rachel with a smile on his face, causing Michael to worry that Rocky may tell Rachel that Michael has a crush on her before he does himself. Later during a study hall period with Michael and David Richards, Rocky would watch Michael keep his eye on Rachel as she entered the room with Jamie Blonner, and confront him with the allegation that Michael has a crush on her. Michael would deny this claim quickly, and ask what made him say that. Rocky pointed out that Michael has been "staring at Rachel and drooling" all day. Michael claimed not to know what Rocky was talking about and says that he has a crush on someone else. David would ask him who it is, and Michael claimed that the two of them wouldn't know her. Rocky did not believe Michael, but Michael didn't care abot this and insisted that they would not know this girl. David asked Michael if this girl is an imaginary friend, but Michael responded that they wouldn't know her because she is new to the area. This would lead David to believe that Michael may actually have a crush on Danielle Grayson, but Rocky would continue to prod Michael about the identity of the girl he claims to have a crush on, but Michael refused to tell him out of fear that Rocky would tell her how he feels in order to irritate him. Michael would claim that he has a crush on a girl that recently moved to Eagle Creek, with brown hair and brown eyes, accurately describing Danielle Grayson, but Rocky did not appear to make this connection. When Rachel heard about Michael having a crush on someone, Michael would take her away from Rocky, David, and Jamie, to talk with her privately, while Rocky asked David what was wrong. David claimed that he just remembered he forgot to tell someone something, while Rocky would watch Michael and Rachel's conversation from across the room and wonder what they were talking about, noting that the two of them were looking "pretty chummy" right now. Jamie would claim not to know (even though Rachel just told her about her own crush on Michael), but figured that Rocky would try to find out. (DtRW #1)

At the end of the school day, Rocky would watch as Michael and Rachel talked to each other at her locker and be convinced that Michael had a crush on Rachel and must think that the secret admirer is just a way to embarrass him in front of the entire school. Rocky knew that unless he did something right now, something awful would happen. Jack Brock, Jarrid Harlen, and Dustin Finley would soon arrive at Rachel's locker and tell Michael, Rachel, and Rocky (who sidled up to the group at this point) about the near-simultaneous accidents that both Mark Shane and Nicole Halloway were in earlier in the day and details as they knew it at the time in either case. Nicole being pushed down the stairs by Melinda was especially surprising to Rocky, Michael, and Rachel, with Michael saying that he's got to see Nicole and asking where she was taken. Jack replied that she was probably taken to Portage General, and Michael would make arrangements to go to the hospital with Jarrid and his mother before excusing himself to ask for permission to go from his own father. Rachel wondered why Melinda would push Nicole down the stairs, and Jarrid figured that either Nicole pushed her too far or Melinda "just snapped." Rocky wanted to know what happened to Melinda, and Dustin informed him that Melinda had apparently been suspended for the remainder of the school year, which Jarrid believed Melinda deserved. Rachel asked if Josh was aware of what had happened, and Jack replied that while Danielle Grayson was the first one to find Nicole unconscious, Josh would soon arrive as well. Rachel figured that Josh would be very upset with Melinda. After Michael received permission from his father to go to the hospital to see Nicole, he along with Jarrid, Jack, Dustin, and Rachel would prepare to leave the school, but Rocky would stop Michael before he could leave and demand to know what is going on between him and Rachel. Michael sent Rachel to catch up with Jarrid and to tell him he'll be right down. Rachel would quickly leave Michael and Rocky to talk in private, with Michael asking what Rocky was talking about. Rocky pointed out that Michael and Rachel had been hanging all over each other since the previous period, adding, "I mean, you two have been so close, one would think that you're Siamese twins." Michael claimed not to know what Rocky was talking about, so Rocky said that it appeared to him that Michael and Rachel are "rather good friends," and Michael asked him what that had to do with anything. Rocky continued, stating that Michael and Rachel were such good friends that perhaps one or both of them could have grown a crush on the other, and believed that the person who had the crush was Michael. He demanded that Michael admit that he had a crush on Rachel and that he asked her to the dance. Michael finally admitted that that he did ask Rachel to the dance and told Rocky that if he had a problem with it, Rocky might find some comfort in knowing that it's all his fault that Michael asked her to the dance. He explained that yesterday, Michael decided to "be extremely nice and allow [Rocky] to take [his] notebook home so that [he] could stay caught up in Mr. Keller's class" after Rocky was absent on Monday. However, when Rocky returned the notebook earlier that day, it had a note from his secret admirer on it, but unfortunately for this secret admirer, Rocky wouldn't tell him who it was, and since Michael believed that Rocky likely had no secret admirer at all for him, he had decided to hurry up and make sure he had a date to the dance on Friday one way or another, and therefore, because of Rocky, Michael asked Rachel to the dance, and she accepted. Rocky began to protest, but Michael said that it was done and told Rocky to go tell his secret admirer that he already has a date before walking away from him. Rocky realized that this was not good and that Becky would not like this one bit, and said that this may only be the beginning. Rocky would eventually make his way to Portage General to get an update about Mark and Nicole, where Dustin would tell him that Nicole was conscious, but Rachel and Jarrid would tell him about the note shot into the side of Jarrid's mother's car with a note attached to it claiming that Nicole was already dead and that Jarrid would be next if he got in the way. Jack confirmed for Rocky that Nicole was still alive and conscious, and that they were thinking and hoping that it was just a sick joke, but none of them were sure about that. Jarrid would then call Melinda from a pay phone to accuse her of being the one who shot the note at his mother's car, but Melinda would instead play for him an ominous message from a person speaking in an electronically-altered voice claiming to be her father and that they would soon be rid of Nicole. Jarrid would quickly end the call to relay this news to his friends, including Rocky, adding fuel to the growing speculation that Jarrid and Nicole's lives may be in danger. (DtRW #2)

Background & Trivia

 * Rocky was initially meant to play a larger role than he ultimately did in the web series. He was intended to be seen as a "best friend" to Michael, and the storyline involving Michael's secret admirer was initially intended to be a much larger storyline than it ultimately ended up being. The storyline was later swept under the rug due to Michael becoming involved in most of the series' other storylines and simply not having enough time to deal with the secret admirer storyline. Due to this, Rocky became a much more minor character than he was originally intended, but planned storylines for future episodes after the final episode posted included a storyline brought over to the web series from the novellas in which Rocky, David, and Jack Brock would be kidnapped by Skullface and held captive in the abandoned train station in Eagle Creek for a time, and at the time, Rocky was planned to be killed off during the storyline, which would have played out while a good portion of the cast was in Long Beach, California, launching Past to Future. Such a storyline may or may not be incorporated into the future novel series.