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Image Credit: Modified from Quizilla.Teennick.com - Eden. ~Landing

Author's Note: There is no connection between the novel by Harlan Ellison and my story except perhaps that we both just chose something simple that describes the story. :)

This is a fan fiction, the Whateleyverse and all canon characters are the property of their respective writers. If you find your life being depicted in this story you it is purely accidental and you have a hell of a lot more to worry about than suing me. No canon characters have been hurt in the writing of this story...yet.

Many thanks to GinnCaster5 for the editing help, without Ginn this story would probably be unreadable. And to Pmanpman and Rozarius for their read through.

This is a Whateley Academy fan fiction story, you can find the Whateley stories at http://www.crystalhall.org/ I highly recommend them. ~Landing

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Chapter 1
 

Beep, beep, beep...

Good morning folks, this is KTIE in the morning with Larry Buffet reminding you to have a safe day and, as my old mother used to say, never change! Now let's start you off with some music, Fire on the Mountain by the Lampposts!

I rolled over and flailed with my hand at the Device of Ultimate Evil, trying to hit the snooze button. I ended up knocking it off the night stand and, probably thanks to some sin I committed in a previous life, the damn thing didn't turn off. "Argh!" I was going to have to get out of bed to make it stop, or would I?

I levered myself over the side of the bed, trying my best to keep my head on the pillow while doing so, and reached down. The very tip of my fingers found something, and I scrabbled at it. It was just out of reach. Damn this tall bed! I leaned over some more, almost able to touch the oh-so-important button, when I felt myself starting to slide over the side. I desperately tried to hold on to the bed to stop myself falling, but since what I ended up getting hold of was the cotton sheets, I still ended up on the floor slumped in a heap with the sheet covering my head. But on the up side I did end up touching the magic button and blessed silence filled my room.

I started to doze off again there on the floor, but I was not to journey to the realm of Morpheus. Instead there came a knocking on my bedroom door and my mother's happy sing song voice telling me to get up.

"Rise and shine, Adam William Oakson, it's time to get up."

I groaned, morning people are the spawn of the devil. Wait, if my mother was the spawn of the devil, what does that make me? Grand-spawn of the devil? I wondered if I could borrow my gramp's pitchfork some time; I could use it on the Device of Ultimate Evil.

The knock came again. "Adam I can hear you in there!" she said with a musical note in her voice. "Don't make me open this door!"

"I'm up, I'm up," I said flopping over onto my back and gazing up at the black ceiling fan twirling at the top of my room.

Okay now, what was the next thing I needed to do? Oh right stand up; it's that thing you do with your feet. I lurched up, the sheet falling to pool at my feet, and looked around my room blearily.

My room was a mess, drawers were hanging out, items of apparel were strewn about and it appeared that something was moving under a pile of clothes that might or might not be clean; I couldn't tell which until I studied them more carefully.

So the room cleaning fairies hadn't come by to tidy up this time either. And I had even left out a saucer of milk. Well maybe not milk, but shouldn't some Coke I spilled on a plate last night count for the same thing? What decent brownie wouldn't want some nice, sugary soft drink over boring milk? I was starting to really distrust that book of fairy tales my parents had read to me when I was small.

I did the hopping from one spot where carpet showed to another routine until I made it to the bathroom door. I opened it to the usual shriek of "Adam get out!" from my little blonde haired, blue eyed sister who was standing there doing something arcane to her face.

"Putting on our clown makeup are we?" I teased, knowing it would get her goat up. She had just started middle and thanks too much wheedling and whines of "But all the other girls are!" our mother had let her start using makeup. I made it a point to torture my little sister as much as I could in accordance with the maior natu frater consilium. And, in accordance with the minor natu germane consilium, she made it a point to complain to our parents and get me in trouble as much as possible. So I guess you could say we loved each other and got along pretty well.

I scooted behind her and passed through the door that led from the sink and mirror half of the bathroom to the part that had the shower in it. I turned on the shower and did the usual routine. Water on body, soap on body, scrub. Water on head, some kind of knockoff men's shampoo on head, scrub, rinse all and done.

I was starting to feel more like a human being as I got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist. I opened the door to the half bath and bumped my sister out of the way so I could brush my teeth. She yelled something about me being an asshole but I ignored her. From experience, I knew if I tried to wait for her to finish, I would be there all day. Sheesh, girls take a long time.

Back in my room the pile of clothes that had been moving earlier sprouted a tail and let out a long yawn before standing up. My big, brown, pure pedigree mixed breed mutt walked over to me and sniffed at the towel. I have no idea why; he sniffs everything then usually tries to eat it.

"Bring me my clothes Harvard, go on, fetch." He stared up at me with penetrating brown eyes before letting out another yawn and lying down on my feet. I get no respect. He passed some gas. Yep, no respect at all.

I eventually found some clean clothes, or at least some clothes that didn't smell too bad and weren't wrinkled, and got dressed. I looked presentable enough for a sixteen year old. About average height with blue eyes like my sister's (we get them from our mother) and short cut brown hair. I wasn't exactly muscular, but I was in good shape and did plenty of running to stay that way.

I made it down to the kitchen just as my mother was placing a plate of eggs in the center of the table. I scooped half of them off onto my plate and sat down.

"Morning Kiddo," said my dad from his seat at the table where he was reading the morning newspaper. This had been his morning greeting to me since before I could remember.

I mumbled good morning back to him through a mouth full of eggs.

"Adam, don't talk with your mouth full!" my Mom snapped.

I rolled my eyes, but made it a point to slow down.

I was half way through the eggs when Harvard came galumphing down the stairs. He skittered some when he got to the tile floor at the foot of the stairs but quickly regained his footing. He settled in next to me and started giving me "The Look."

"You're not getting any; this is my breakfast," I said, giving him MY Look. He gave a low whine/groan in the back of his throat and wagged his tail.

"No, that won't work either; you will ruin your own breakfast."

Our battle of Looks continued until Harvard upped the ante. He gave the triple whine and lifted his paw placing it on my leg. I cracked and threw him a piece of egg which he caught in midair. He was gracious in victory and settled back onto his hind legs to wait for more of the spoils of war.

I kept on eating, occasionally throwing more of my food to him and watching him snap it out of the air. For the fun of it, I started throwing the pieces of food to the left or right of where he was sitting. He never missed a one. This was an old game for us.

I finished up, and, seeing no more food coming, Harvard went out of the room and a moment later returned with his leash in his mouth. He was sitting next to the counter, and his tail thumped against the cabinets beneath it.

"Take that dog out of here before he makes a hole with his tail!" my mother mock ordered.

"All right boy, come on, I'll take you for your walk, but no doing you know what in the McCfinlies yard again, you know how much that upsets them," I said. I swear that Harvard grinned at me. The McCfinlies had once found him in their flower beds one night after he had jumped the fence (or however he gets out, I still don't know how he does it) at night and chased him around their yard, and while he would have normally seen this as a fun game, the McCfinlies had been throwing things at him, which he considered cheating.

I took the leash from him and walked with him to the front door. Harvard really didn't need the leash, and most of the time I didn't even keep him on it. I just kept it around in case someone raised a fuss.

The sun was just starting to reach over the horizon and cast long shadows of the oak trees in the front yard. A mockingbird chirped sleepily, probably wondering if the worm was really worth it, or maybe I was just projecting. The air was a bit humid, but the temperature was still in the 60s, which was nice for Texas in early April. It would get hotter in no time as it was, which I was actually looking forward to this year. It had been a cold and wet winter, and, while there hadn't been any snow this year, it had been a close thing.

Snow in Texas, while unusual, isn't unheard of. It had snowed three years back, but there was some controversy about the whole thing. It wasn't just some snow; this was a full out blizzard. I know, a blizzard in south Texas sounds unlikely, doesn't it? It's even more unlikely sounding when you know that it dropped two and a half feet of snow in one night. People were noticeably distraught, and the whole place had come to a standstill for days.

It had the meteorologists baffled. The nightly news was full of experts arguing with each other. Some claimed that this was the effect of global warming and that it was only the beginning. Others blamed mutants and debated different heroes and villains who might have been capable of it. Those heroes and villains denied having had anything to do with it, well except for one Vinny the Villainous. Who claimed he did it but also claimed that that he flew around the world backwards to turn back time and found pirate treasure on the moon. No one took him too seriously. Besides, he still lived with his mother.

Some people even blamed secret government experiments. Myself, I think that the prayers of millions of kids wanting a day off had finally reached critical mass and spontaneously generated the blizzard. I had more than just days off from school to be grateful for; it was the night of the storm that I found Harvard. Just like every other Texas kid, I was out in the snow (shivering my ass off), when out of the storm walked a dog. He had ice frosted on his fur and gave me a long mournful stare before going to the front door and scratching, clearly wanting to be let in. I snuck him into my room and was able to hide him for two days before I was found out. Looking back on it now it was probably me saying I was saving my vegetables for later when I would take them to my room that tipped of my parents. I ended up grounded for a month, but Harvard just gave one of his soulful looks and was admitted as one of the family.

I walked down the sidewalk, headed towards the empty wooded lot that was at the end of our street. On the way there, we had to pass the McCfinlies, Harvard raced from my side and squatted in the middle of their yard, a look of concentration on his face.

"Oh come on! I said not to do that!" I said in a low voice, not wanting the McCfinlies to hear me arguing with my dog. He just gave me that doggie grin again and continued his business. I sighed and turned my back to him, giving him some privacy.

He was done soon enough and we continued back on our way. Most of the houses had lights on in the windows as their owners got ready for work or school. I waved as one of them pulled out of the driveway on their way to wherever. People were used to seeing me walk my dog in the morning, and Harvard knew better than to be on the road when a car was coming.

The empty lot was quiet when we got there. The night insects had stopped their noise, and the day ones hadn't started up yet.

I sat down on a tree stump and watched as Harvard did his usual investigation of the area. He was sniffing at a bush, when my view of him suddenly changed. Well, it wasn't actually him that changed, it was everything around him. Everything seemed to be filled with glowing energy that almost looked like patterns. Just as suddenly as the strange image had appeared, it was gone again, and I was just seeing my dog. He walked back from where he had been sniffing the pile of ground cover under a bush to me and laid his head on my leg, giving me a soulful look.

"Well, that was weird, boy. Maybe I should see about an eye exam." I said shaking my head. He huffed at me and just pressed his head more firmly against my body. I obligingly gave his ears a rub.

"I guess it's time we were heading back; don't want to be late for the bus." I levered myself off of the stump and headed back to my house, Harvard trotting companionably at my side.

The house was in the late stages of what I called 'oh shit, what did I forget this time' that happened right before everyone was ready to leave. My sister was looking for her shoes, complaining that it must have been Harvard that moved them, Mom was busy gathering up her papers from the dining room table that she used as her [i]de facto[/i] office, and Dad was looking for his keys.

"Adam what did that stupid dog of yours do with my shoes?" Kelly said bearing down on me. Both Harvard and I put on the same injured look (except I couldn't lay my ears back no matter how many times I tried.)

"I have no idea what you are talking about; you probably just left them lying about somewhere like you always do."

I gave Harvard a little nudge unnoticed by Kelly, and he got up and walked out of the room.

"Remember the last time you blamed my dog for moving your stuff and it turned out it had been in your room the whole time? You know, now that I come to think of it..." I watched as Harvard snuck back into the living room and, behind Kelly's back, dropped the pair of sandals she wanted to wear today off under the sofa, then hurried back out. "...I think I remember you taking off your shoes in the living room when you got home the other day. You were over by the couch. Have you checked there?"

"Of course I have checked there!" she said stalking over to the sofa and bending over. "And they weren't...oh! I could have sworn they..." she stood up holding her little white sandals with straps that went around her ankles and a confused, then contrite, expression on her face.

"Sorry Adam, I guess I must have missed them." There was a bark from Harvard where he was sitting in the kitchen. "And I'm sorry, Harvard." Kelly said going over and petting him.

He had a satisfied expression on his face as she continued making much of him for several minutes with a lot of cooing and baby talk. I went and got my backpack from my room while this was going on and made my way back down to the living room. "You ready, sis? The bus should be here pretty soon."

She gave up on the petting, went over to the couch, and sat down to put her sandals on. Mom had finally gotten all of her papers stacked together and back into her bag. She grabbed it, her car keys, and a thermos of coffee as she made her way past me.

"Have a nice day at school, kids; try to stay out of trouble. Adam, I want to see how you did on that test when you get back home today. I expect at least a B if not an A." she said, leaning over to give me a kiss goodbye.

"All right Mom, I'll see this afternoon as well, have a good day at school." My mom worked at the local high school, luckily not the one I was going to. I don't know how I would have dealt with her teaching in the same building I was going to. My classmates would never have let me live something like that down.

I hurried my sister out the door, and we made it to the end of the drive way just in time to meet the bus. Once we got on the bus, my sister and I immediately began acting as if we were just two unrelated people that happened to get on the bus at the same time. This is, of course, standard operating procedure for all siblings in such circumstances; I think it's down in the rules somewhere. Kelly stayed up near the front of the bus, which in this social order was reserved for the youngest passengers. I headed towards the back. I was a sophomore in Walker High School, so I didn't sit in the very back of the bus where the upperclassmen that didn't have rides would sit.

This suited me just fine, since I was certain I had the best seat on the bus. Why you might ask? It's not because of any special position with respect to the front or back of the bus, nor did it have any special perks in the cooling or air flow departments (anyone that has been in a Texas school bus knows that such things are none existent.) No, what was so great about this seat was that I got to sit next to her, Brook, arguably the most beautiful girl in the whole Sophomore class (well, at least I would argue that she was) and my best friend. I had received plenty of jives and pointed comments like "how come you're always hanging around with her, you're nothing, this just doesn't make sense."

I guess some guys just can't understand why someone as hot as her would hang out with me. Sometimes I didn't understand it either. But we had been friends since second grade when I had tried to beat up a boy that pushed her into a pond. I say try because I wasn't having much luck at the time; luckily for me Brook got out of the pond and proceeded to whoop his ass, saving mine in the bargain. I guess she felt it was the thought that counted since we were fast friends from then on.

"Hey Adam!" she said smiling at me as I sat down.

"Hey Brook. How's it going?"

"You know, about the same. Did you watch the game last night?" she asked

Brook was obsessed with sports; she couldn't get enough of watching It. She would have probably tried out for the football team at the beginning of the school year if her mom hadn't put her foot down. I, on the other hand, just didn't get it. She must have somehow gotten my share of the male sports loving genes, probably from when we were younger and would wrestle. She got me in enough choke holds and arm locks for something to have popped out of me and into her.

Wrestling, that's something I wouldn't mind doing with her again now that we were older. I had a brief vision of Brook and I locked together bodies rubbing against each other all hot and...

"Adam, earth to Adam! Can you hear me?" Brook said snapping her fingers in front of my face.

"Wha, yeah!" I tried desperately to remember what had happened in the game when I saw my dad watching it in the living room last night. "The Texans were doing good right?"

She rolled he eyes at me. "Football season ended months ago, honestly you lose more man points every time there is a game."

"That's because they are getting swallowed up by the great and terrible Brookanator! But it's okay; no one has tried to take my man card away from me yet," I teased back.

She laughed, throwing her head back so the sun made golden highlights in her hair. Did I mention yet that I was in love with her? Totally and completely head over heels in love with her. Of course she was oblivious, and I knew a guy like me had no chance with a girl like her. Friends were one thing, but boyfriend? Not a chance. And I wasn't going to make our friendship awkward by saying anything.

"Of course they haven't; they would have to find out where you hide it first." she said, patting my arm lightly. I felt a tingle in my arm when she touched it that translated instantly to a swelling in the trouser department. I tried to laugh it off.

"No one will ever find where it is hidden; that is my secret and mine alone. Muahahaha!" I said giving the evil laugh that extra little touch of villainy that only some of the best super villains could achieve.

We went on with our joking around until we got to the exchange point where the kids in junior high and middle school would get off our bus and get on to ones headed their way. It was in front of an old antique store that had a large parking lot and didn't mind having the buses taking all the space for a few minutes in the morning. I guess they didn't really have a high demand for antiques at seven in the morning. But then again, what do I know; maybe there are roving bands of little old ladies that like to get out before all the good old stuff is gone. The world of antique acquisition is a closed first edition 19th century book to me.

I watched carefully as Kelly got off our bus and made her way over to the one that would take her to school. I did it casually, since it wouldn't do to have my sister think I was concerned about her getting on her bus safely. Sibling code and all that.

Some of the high schoolers that had ridden in on the other buses had made their way over to ours and were taking their seats. I felt a punch in the back of my seat as Ken Lancaster sat down behind us.

"Sorry about that dweeb, just settling myself in." he said in a falsely apologetic voice. There came a few more punches as he 'settled in' and I gave a sigh of exasperation.

"Come on Ken we are in high school, don't you think you could drop the junior high games?"

"Don't know what you're talking about dweeb." He said giving a few more punches. The rest of the ride to the school went like that, with punches being thrown against the back of my seat every now and then, and half heard laughing remarks between Ken and his friends. I did my best to ignore it, and Brook and I talked some about what had happened over the weekend.

She had gone to visit her uncle the next town over for a get together of her family. I always liked hearing about her family, since they always sounded like a lot of fun people. She had a large family with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins out the wazoo. Nothing like my family which was just my mom, dad, sister and Mema and Papaw, my dad's mother and father, and we didn't get to see them much since they lived up in Kansas.

We were almost to the school and had started talking about the new Physics project that we were going to start today. We were of course going to team up to do it. When Ken stood up behind us and leaned over the back of our seat.

"What are you doing working on a project with this loser for? You should come be partners with me." He said with a leering grin at Brook.

"You're not even in our AP Physics class Ken, so there's not much chance that I will do anything with you." Brook said with obvious scorn.

"Come on now babe, don't be like that. I am sure I can think of some other things we could do together." He said reaching down and squeezing her breast.

Brook immediately knocked his hand away and yelled "Get your fucking hand off of me!"

Fury was snapping in her eyes, and she was standing up probably to give him a damn hard slap to the face, but I had already moved before she got the chance. I was up, and my fist was flying into Ken's blocky face. I had never been this mad before. I was going to pound Ken till my hands turned blue, then I was going to start using my feet.

Ken was rocked back in his seat, and his nose had erupted in a crimson fountain, splattering his friend and the wall behind them. But that didn't keep Ken down for long. He was on the football team and must have been used to taking a hit, or maybe he just had too much muscle in his head for a blow to really do anything.

He was out of his seat in an instant and grabbing for me. There were yells of "Fight!" from the people around us, and other kids were standing up in their seats to get a better look. I ducked as best I could away from the bear-like paw that Ken was swinging and scrambled into the aisle, trying to get more room. I tried to get another punch in at him but only managed a glancing blow to his shoulder that had as much chance of stopping him as gnat. I was really starting to wish that I had followed up on the martial arts class I had thought about taking last summer instead of playing fighting games on the old game console instead. I didn't see any way that mashing buttons would help me in this fight.

That last punch turned out to have been a bad idea, since Ken was able to rush me with my arm extended and get me in a head lock. I had time for a quick thought of 'Oh fuck' before my face exploded in pain. Then it did it again and again. I wasn't really sure what was going on at that time, since I was stuck in that bit of reality where only you and the pain go together, but the next thing I knew, I was on the floor of the bus and there were the yells of adult voices. Teachers, my mind categorized them. Great, I am going to be in sooo much trouble.

I was hustled up and away from the bus and after a brief stop in the nurse's office, I found myself in the assistant principal's office, waiting on his pleasure. I was later to learn that while I was busy getting my face introduced to Ken's fist Brook had pulled out her Physics text book and gave him a number of thumps upside the head. There is something amusing about using a physics book to get physical. I am sure there is a joke in there somewhere and I intended to hunt it down so I could use it on Brook. While Ken was trying to keep the power of science from contacting with his head, the bus had already pulled up to the school and a load of teachers had piled onto the bus to break it up.

Unluckily for Ken the teachers that had broken it up had also happened to be coaches. While it might be in some schools that this would have been special treatment for one of their players, at our school it just meant that Ken was in for some real punishment come practice time. The head coach at our school ran a tight ship and didn't stand for anything that made him look bad.

Not that that was much comfort to me as I waited for my turn in the AP's office. Brook was already in there, having been caught red handed physically assaulting Ken. Get it, physically assaulting him? I'm going to have to remember that one for later. And they had questioned some of the people on the bus. No telling what kind of a story they got. Ken's friends would have of course claimed he didn't do anything, but we might have got lucky if they didn't get a chance to get their story straight first. As for the other people on the bus, I wasn't holding out much hope. People in high school didn't really want to risk getting in the middle of anything so their most likely answer to what they saw would be 'nothing'. It's amazing how little some people can see when they are in a situation like that. The school should really call in the CDC for all the sudden outbreak of near total blindness.

I was fidgeting in my seat, worried about what was going to happen to Brook. If they wanted to, they could claim she was using a weapon and call in the cops for assault charges. Yeah, zero tolerance policies were great weren't they? My fidgeting started my eye hurting again so I held the ice pack back up to it where it was starting to swell shut. I was going to look great for the rest of the day. Not.

The office door opened and Brook came out. She looked pretty glum but not pissed off. If she was going to be booked on assault charges she would have been pissed and letting everyone know about it. I shot her an inquiring look and got a dejected half smile back and a mouthed 'detention' as answer. Well that was a relief, detention wasn't that bad all things considered, I would have thought suspension at the least.

"Mr. Oakson, it is your turn now, please come in." said the AP, Mr. Hernandez.

I stood up, the motion making my eye throb again and headed to his office. Brook gave me an encouraging little wave as I closed the door behind me.

Mr. Hernandez was a tall man with graying streaks in his black swept back hair and thin-framed glasses perched on his nose. He sat back in his desk and gave me an appraising look.

"Well, Mr. Oakson, this is a fine start to our morning. Please take a seat so we can get this started."

I sat down in one of the two chairs that were facing his desk and waited for how this was going to be handled.

"I would like you to tell me what happened on the bus this morning." He said leaning back in his chair.

"Don't you already know? Brook must have told you everything I would."

"Yes, but I would like to hear your account of this incident."

Ah, it looked like the AP was going to check our stories out and see if they matched up. Well, I didn't have anything to hide. My parents had always taught me to own up to whatever I did.

"Me and Brook were in our seat talking about our physics class," I started, "when Ken leaned over the seat and started butting into the conversation. He said something about how Brook should be partners with him and then he grabbed her. So I..."

"Where did he grab her Adam?" Mr. Hernandez interrupted.

"Uh, you know, her breast." I said blushing.

"Okay continue." He said, writing something down on a piece of paper.

"Well, I hit him then."

"You were the one to strike first?" he asked.

"Yes, I wasn't going to sit there and let that happen." I said, getting a little angry again just thinking about it.

Mr. Hernandez waved for me to continue.

"After that, I'm not really sure what happened. I think there might have been a few more punches thrown by both of us, then Ken got me in a head lock and started hitting me in the face. That's about the whole of it."

"All right Adam, this is how things are going to happen. You are going to get four days of after school detention for your part in the fight. I am going to call your parents and tell them about this. I am supposed to call your father I believe. He should be at work, yes?"

I nodded.

"Do you have any questions?"

"What about Brook, how many days did she get?" I asked.

"Miss Aldridge is also receiving four days of detention; she will be taking them with you." He said.

"But that's not right! Ken sexually assaulted her; she shouldn't be getting in trouble at all!"

"Brook also hit Mr. Lancaster with her book, we can't let that go. And I am sorry to say we only have your and Brook's word that the sexual assault took place. No other witness would come forward to attest to what you say happened." He said sounding a little disappointed.

"With both of you being party to this incident it's only a matter of he said she said. Mr. Lancaster's friends claim that nothing like that happened."

"Don't you have cameras on those buses? There is a big black box up front that has 'Camera' written on it, in big white letters." I tried.

"Unfortunately there was no camera on the bus at that time. Some of the school district administrators decided last year that it would be cheaper to just have boxes that said camera rather than actually having them." he said

I had figured as much. My mother was a teacher and I had heard enough about the jackassery of the administration to see them using that kind of logic.

"Will Ken be in detention with me and Brook?" I asked, I really didn't want to have to sit through an hour of work packets with him glaring at me.

"No, since this is Mr. Lancaster's third fight, he was suspended for three days. Is that all your questions Mr. Oakson?"

"I guess so" I said.

"Then you are free to go back to class. My secretary will give you a pass." He said standing up and shaking my hand. "And Mr. Oakson, don't let this happen again."

The secretary was nice, recommending that I keep the ice on it as long as I could to keep the swelling down as she wrote out the pass. It was 8:25 when I got back to my first period class, which was athletics. I was on the school track team as a long distance runner.

When I got there the locker room was empty and none of the coaches were in their office, all of them being out on the track with the rest of the team. It was kind of eerie being in the building by myself, mostly I think it was because I knew I was late and was going to be in for it. I quickly changed into my running clothes and made my way onto the track.

Our track was 400 meters and wrapped around the football field. I was hoping to just jog out there without anyone noticing me, but that wasn't happening. I swear, Mr. Burnson, the coach in charge of track and field, had eyes like an eagle. He always sees when anyone is slacking off, and as for being late, well, let's just say he noticed me and let it go at that.

"Adam, glad you could join us today, felt like sleeping in did you?" He said in a friendly enough tone. You couldn't help but like him; he treated everyone like he was their favorite uncle. The one that always remembered your birthday and said you could talk to them about anything and actually meant it. His round face was open and honest. And his shortness made him less intimidating. His body was compact and well-honed from all the running he did. He was a long distance runner like I was. He was currently training up for a 20k marathon in a couple of weeks.

I gulped, it looked like he hadn't heard yet about what happened on the bus yet, he was probably already on the field warming up for this practice. I handed him the note, hoping that he would just let it go. No such luck.

He took the note from my hand and read it over quickly. The ends of his mouth turned down in a frown. "Adam what were you doing in the AP's office and please don't tell me it has something to do with the state of your face?"

Great, no way around this one, best to get it over with fast, like pulling off a band-aid. "I got in a fight this morning on the bus, that's where the eye came from, sir." I added a "Sir" just for good measure, it couldn't hurt anyway.

"Adam" he said with a sad shake of his head. "What were you doing son? You know fighting is not the way to handle things."

I had to get it all out before his disappointment in me turned into a boulder in my mind and crushed my ego. "Ken grabbed Brook and I wasn't going to let him get away with that, so I punched him in the nose, then things got out of hand."

"When you say grabbed her you mean...?"

"If you want to know more about that I think you should ask Brook or Mr. Hernandez, I don't think it's my place to talk about it." I said blushing.

"I see," he said an angry gleam in his eye. Damn, he must have guessed something from my stupid face turning red. "This Ken that would be Ken Lancaster who is on the football team?"

"Yeah, that's him."

"I will just have a word with the head coach on this matter. As for you, well you know my feelings about fighting..."

I did, Coach was a die in the bone pacifist, he wouldn't hurt a fly. I have even seen him carrying a spider he found in the men's bathroom in a cup to let it go outside.

"...But under these circumstances I'll let it go."

Win one for the well-deserved smack side against pacifism! Next thing you know Coach Burnson would be dressing in spandex and fighting crime!

"Thank you sir." I said, then ummed for a moment. "There is one other thing."

"Yes?"

"I sort of have detention after school for four days, so I won't be about to be at practice." I said.

He gave me a resigned look. "Of course you do. Our star runner out of practice for a week right before our big meet, how did I not see that coming?"

"I'll run after detention, I promise. I won't get out of shape, you'll see." I promised.

He gave me a smile. "I'm sure you will, you're always good about putting in your own work above and beyond what we do in practice." He sighed. "We will just have to hope that is enough. I really want to beat Tensville High; they have been whipping our hindquarters for the last few years." He shook his head. "Enough about that, you need to get going, do your stretches and warm up laps, then I want to see some running!"

I gave a good natured groan and made my way over to the field to do my warm-ups. After that, I spent the rest of the class period doing laps to build up my endurance. The class wasn't long enough to really stretch out my muscles and make me train like I did in the afternoon practice, but it was still a good toner for the beginning of the day.

When we hit the locker room to shower and change, I told the rest of the team about what had happened. I wanted to get my story out there before rumors got hold of it and made it worse than it already was. There was a lot of good natured ribbing when I told them about me getting saved by Brook and a physics book, but they mostly agreed that I did alright by bloodying Ken's nose considering he was a junior and huge compared to me. I didn't tell them what had sparked the fight. It was Brook's business if she wanted anyone to know about him grabbing her like that. So I just told everyone I had had enough of Ken's big mouth.

The next class went by at its normal snail's crawl; it was math and while I generally got everything that was being taught, it came in fits and starts. Some things I would get right away, others I would have to have explained to me half a dozen times before it started making sense.

I got several curious glances for my black eye, and I heard muffled comments exchanged by people telling each other what they knew. I could tell the rumor mills were already working overtime. I was sure the whole school would know by the end of lunch.

Third period was English, and I had Brook in that class with me. I had gotten to it early, hoping to get a chance to talk to Brook before class and see she how she was doing. She had obviously had the same idea because she was already there when I showed up.

"Wow, that is one nice eye!" she said, smiling at me.

I smiled and grimaced at the same time, probably making me look constipated. I had already seen that the eye had gotten worse in the time since I had last seen Brook. It had turned a deep purple with green around the edges.

"Actually, the eye is fine, I was just playing with your eye shadow when you weren't looking, didn't I do a great job?" I joked.

"Ha! I knew someone had been in my make-up case. Unlucky for you that I had switched my regular stuff out with permanent stuff. You are going to have to go around looking like that for the rest of the day, no washing it off for you!"

"Oh dear, looks like I am stuck this way I better come up with a good story for it." I said.

"I guess we will just have to tell everyone you got hurt defending my honor." Brook said, smiling at me.

That got me a little embarrassed, so I changed the subject. "What do you think your parents are going to say? You know, about detention and all that?"

She grimaced some at the question. "You know what my mom will be like; she hates it when I do anything 'unladylike', and I have gotten into too many fights over the years. She will be certain I did this just to show her how much of a tomboy I could be."

"Your dad should be okay though shouldn't he? I mean when you beat up Ray last year, he just laughed about it." I tried.

"I still got grounded for two weeks. Once mom gets upset about something, he generally lets her have her way. So I am bound to get in trouble for this time too." She said dejectedly.

"I don't expect my parents will be much better. They might understand, but they will still say I should have told a teacher or something instead of fighting. And even if I can convince them there was no teacher to have handled it and my actions were the best choice, they will still punish me somehow. You know what they say."

"There are always consequences for your actions even when your actions are right," we both said together. We smiled remembering how many times we had both been told that by my parents growing up.

The bell rang, and we hurried to our desks as Ms. Jordan started to call out roll. She paused as she got to my name giving me an inquiring look.

"What happened to you Adam? Your face looks a mess." She asked.

I sighed to myself, wondering how many times I was going to have to answer this question. "It's a birth mark, haven't you ever noticed it?" I tried.

Ms. Jordan just rolled her eyes. "My heavens, I must never have. You're just so quiet in this class I never noticed you."

She let it drop after that and went back to her attendance. Ms. Jordan and I got along great; it was my favorite class. She really brought English alive for me and had a great sense of humor. I was far from being so quiet I was unnoticeable in her class; I was actually a bit of a wiseass and talked too much, which was the meaning behind her sarcasm.

We were going over Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and I was asked to read part of it. The girl she had reading Juliet was good at it so, I really got into it.

Juliet:

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Romeo:

[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

Juliet:

Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

Romeo:

I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

"Thank you Adam. Now class, what do you think about what was read? This has one of the most famous lines in the play in it, 'a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' What do you think that means?"

There was some discussion that it meant that names weren't important, it was what something really was that mattered. For some reason, I didn't like this idea, Names should be important. They shouldn't just be changed to suit a whim. Without knowing something's name, could you really know what it was?

Before I got a chance to put my two cents worth in to the discussion, Ms. Jordan had already assigned someone else to read the next part, and I got back into the reading of the play. We kept on reading it and talking about it right up till the end of class, so Brook and I didn't have much of a chance to talk anymore. But that was okay, because after English was fourth period and that meant lunch.

The cafeteria was crowded with people and noisy with the sound of competing conversations. Brook and I made our way to the table we normally sat at and were greeted by Nick and Amy when we got there.

Nick and Amy were friends of ours. I hadn't known them as long as I had known Brook, what with me and Brook having been in the same classes since second grade. I had first meet them in Junior High, and at the time the two of them had not gotten along at all. Their yelling matches had become legendary by the time we were in eighth grade. Now though...

"Alright you two that's enough, stop sucking face unless you want to get written up for PDA...again." Said Brook sitting down across from them.

They broke it up but only after I had thrown a wadded up piece of paper at where their faces had become conjoined. They didn't even look embarrassed as they reluctantly loosened the grip they had on each other.

"One of these days we are going to find you two dead from lack of oxygen thanks to one of your make out sessions." I quipped sitting down next to Brook.

"And that is the way I want to go!" said Nick.

"Ah, doesn't he say the sweetest things?" cooed Amy, taking his hand in hers.

"Yes nauseatingly sweet," agreed Brook.

"I see the rumors going around are true; you did get the crap beat out of you by Ken this morning. Either that or you put on too much eye shadow," said Nick.
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad, I got in a few good hits as well, well, one at least." I tried.

"It gets worse. Rumor also says Brook saved you and beat the crap out of Ken; they had to take him to the hospital with two broken arms," added Amy.

I groaned and hid my face. Great, not only did everyone know I got beat up, they also think I got saved by a girl. I didn't know about that hospital bit. I looked over at Brook, the question in my eyes.

"He seemed fine when I last saw him! He was in the nurse's office getting his bloody nose checked out and cussing. And I know I didn't break his arms. I only hit him in the head, and that's too hard to do any real damage," said Brook.

"Well, we did hear about the hospital part from Steven Boxer, and you know how much he likes to make up stories, so that might not be true," put in Amy.

"It probably isn't," I said. "I know he got suspended for three days since this was his third fight."

"I would hate to see what the coaches are going to do to Ken for getting into this kind of trouble. He can't play in the next game since he was suspended," said Nick.

"I would love to see it," said Brook vindictively. "I hope they make him run his guts out."

"I wouldn't mind seeing that either." I said reaching down to my backpack, where I had the lunch I had made last night.

Brook also rummaged in her bag and brought out her lunch. As was usual, we proceeded to spread out our meal and start to swap items. This might seem a little silly to be swapping pieces of lunch when you yourself made your own lunch, but it was half game and half habit for me and Brook to do this. We had been doing this since second grade, and it had gotten to the point where we would buy items that we know the other person would like for our lunches.

Brook pulled out an orange, and I immediately offered her an apple in exchange. She knew how much I liked oranges. We swapped a few more things before we were satisfied with what our meal would be, then dug in.

Nick and Amy had not been idle while this was going on. They had left the table to pick up the cafeteria food. It turned out that today's mystery meat had been used to make something resembling a hamburger patty. Only they had gotten the flat part wrong, so the so called meat was spherical. Don't get me started on what the 'Jello' looked like. And people wonder why I bring my own lunch?

We spent a couple minutes stuffing our faces before Rick brought out the cards. It was a tradition we had started near the beginning of the school year. We would play poker or some other card game while we ate our lunches and generally bullshited around.

Rick started us off with an easy game of Texas hold-em (we were in Texas after all so I guess it's only logical). We had to be careful, since the school had a no gambling policy, that we never showed any money being exchanged. We instead kept track of who owed who by writing it down on a piece of paper. Four pieces of paper actually, we each had to keep track of it and at the end of lunch we would compare and see if they agreed, and if they didn't, what were the consciences of the other three. We decided on this rather elaborate scoring system after we forgot who owed who in one of the early games and a bit of bad feeling was brought up. There was a twenty riding on the outcome between Brook and Amy and only some quick talking from Nick and me had got them to agree to just call off the whole day's bets.

This occupied us for the rest of lunch, and I left with the happy knowledge that Rick owed me ten, Brook owed me four and I only owed Amy five. Amy was a card shark; don't let her sunny smile and dimpled cheeks fool you. After the bell signaling the end of lunch had rung and I tossed the trash from my lunch, I headed with Rick to our next class, History. And this was the class I had been, well not dreading exactly, just kind of nervous I guess. This was the class I was getting back the big test my mother had been nagging me about that morning.

Me and Rick moved to our customary desks in the front of the classroom. It wasn't that we were really all that keen on learning early American History, but that we had gotten in trouble for talking too many times, and Mr. Glen wanted to keep an eye on us. I think it was us doing Mystery Science Theater on one of the colonial era history videos he was showing us that did it. Uh, I mean the video was over the colonial era, not from it; well it was a VHS so maybe it was after all.

He took roll like always and completely failed to comment on my black eye. I was hoping that this meant that everyone had already heard about my run in with old Kenny boy and I wouldn't have to answer any more questions, but it was probably just as likely that Mr. Glen didn't give a damn what I looked like. Okay, so I was the one who answered the question 'and who do you think it was they met first when they landed at Jamestown?' from the video with 'Mr. Glen,' but come on! The guy needs to lighten up.

He quickly got done and started handing out the tests. Rick got his and showed off a solid B+ too, for which I gave him a thumbs up. I was hoping I had done better than that, but I wouldn't have been too upset with a B+. Mr. Glen got all the way through handing out the papers, and I still hadn't gotten mine. Rick gave me a worried glance as we both noted my lack of paper. When Mr. Glen started reading off the first question from the test and explaining what the answer was, I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I raised my hand tentatively and when Mr. Glen asked with a nasty little smile what my question was, I informed him that I had not gotten my test back yet.

"I am well aware of that, Adam. We will talk about it after class. I will not waste time I could be teaching with your problem." Mr. Glen said.

Oh great, this must mean something really bad had happened with my test. Did I fail so badly he wanted to rub it in in private? I didn't think I had done that bad on it. I had actually felt like I was really in the zone when I was working on it last week. My parents were going to kill me if I had failed that test on top of getting in a fight! I slumped back in my chair hoping beyond hope that it was something simple like I had forgotten to put my name on it.

The rest of the class was spent going over the test, and each minute of this made me worry even more. They finally finished up just a couple minutes before the bell rang for the next class. I stood up and walked over to Mr. Glen's desk, where he ignored me for a few minutes typing something into his computer. Bastard. He finally turned to me and gave me a bland smile that hid the glee he was feeling behind his eyes.

"Adam, in the future when you are taking a test I advise you to at least try to answer some of the questions. You would have at least had a chance of getting the multiple choice question right if you just guessed. Just drawing meaningless patterns on the test will of course get you no credit." He said handing me back my test.

I glanced down at my test not expecting what I saw there. In the place of all my answers were some kinds of abstract drawings or patterns. What the hell?

---

 
 
To Be Continued...