My Name is Ulysses - 1. Chapter 1

The two wrestled, muscles straining in a desperate match. The hollow "thwap" of the muzzled 9mm, two rounds rip into the rooftop. A knee comes up as the other's arm is swung down at full force. A grunt of pain, he's a professional. There is no crying out. Instead the gun clatters to the roof top. A fist to the gut. Disarmed, the other stumbles back trying to refocus as his breath retreats from the blow.

The knife leapt silently from its sheath, hissed as it cut a large arch through the air catching the other across the upper arm. Another grunt. He responds with a low sweep, but its slow, he's still trying to catch his breath. The knife comes round again but glances off a bit of the rigging on the other's harness. He retreats back, aware the knife is a not something to stay in front of. Still he's not ready for the charge. It's followed by a kick, all the weight of his attacker behind it. A rib, or two, gives to the force and the other is sent reeling backward. Feet fail to find footing. Some bit of roof, catches the back of the other's boot heel. The other's arms flailed, finding nothing, slamming against the skylight. The glass exploded under the weight, weakened earlier by the small drill used to prep the skylight as a point of entrance. The other cries out, professionalism only goes so far. The alarm screamed louder,

"BBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!"

The roof disappeared, and the night receded to the bright fluorescents as the bell echoed through the building. It was replaced with the shuffling of two dozen students all racing to shove note books and history texts into their bags as they made a bee line for the door. Quickly forgetting the exploits of the rooftop adventure Ulysses swept his textbook into his bag and trailed after the crowd flooding out into the hallway.

"Mr. Stanton?"

Ulysses turned to find his silver haired history teacher giving him a smirk. "Yes, sir?"

"Maybe a little less day dreaming tomorrow," the older man said as he collected a set of worksheets before tucking them away in the drawer of his desk.

"Sorry Mr. Dobson," Ulysses offered, feeling slightly guilty for having been caught not paying attention. His teacher waved him off and Ulysses ducked out the door and into a sea of students coming and going through the hallways of Lakeshore High School.

It had only been a month and some of the faces were familiar, yet to Ulysses they were all nameless, much like the combatants of his daylight musings. This wasn't new to Ulysses though, in fact it had become second hand. This was his third school in the last six years and just being another face in the crowd had become the way of life. The last time he had managed to be in the same school for more than a year was back in Boston, where he had been born.

He had just turned twelve when his father had gotten assigned to a new position with his company in upstate New York. The news did not go over well in the Stranton household, although Ulysses was the primary voice of discontent. His parents tried their best to explain but at the time Ulysses' world was nothing more than weekends with his friends, video games, and swimming at the local club. Things only got worse when his best friend Jason found out about the move. The two were inseparable, if not rivals. The two met at the local swimming club. The first time they ever saw one another was when they squared off in 25 meter sprints. But the competitiveness quickly turned to friendship. From the age of five the two became tangled in the other's life. Bugs, bicycles, tree climbing, trips to the pool, even the occasional spat that always ended with soft spoken apologies and hugs before the two of them ran off to start the cycle all over again. An extra plate was often set out at either of the boy's homes because one was bound to be at the others when dinner rolled around. Spare pillows and sheets stashed away in their closets incase an unplanned sleepover came about. When the day came and the final box was tucked away in the moving van, the two clung to each other crying their eyes out.

The move wasn't that bad it turned out, and more than a few weekend and holiday trips were planned even if it rekindled those first pains of separation when it was time to return home. Ulysses found it daunting to start a new school at seventh grade but it was inevitable that new friends would be made. Though he never established the same kind of connection he had with Jason. He never had the time. Just as he was about to wrap up seventh grade his father was reassigned again, this time to California.

The argument started before his father had even finished telling Ulysses. There was a huge difference between moving a few hours south as compared to two time zones over. Yet for all his bluster there was no winning and Ulysses spent the rest of the week ignoring his father and staying holed up in his room to the dismay of his mother. Of course the entire time was spent on the phone or the computer talking to Jason, who was just as upset about the news.

While Ulysses was often the one who masterminded all their doings it was Jason who managed to talk his parents into letting Ulysses stay with them for the summer before the move out west. It was only two months, but it was two of the most important months of Ulysses life.

Without realizing it his eyes had begun to tear up. The simplest thought of Jason left an undeniable ache in Ulysses' belly which quickly made him shuffle the memory of his friend back into the depths of his brain.

The chill of late September met him at the door of the B building as he slipped out to the main quad. Ulysses threw the hood of his windbreaker up over his head, flattening a bit of the purposeful wreck he made of his sandy brown mess of hair, and made his way to the locker annex sitting in the middle of quad. When he reached his locker he bumped into the one person he made any formal connection with.

"Morning," Ulysses offered as the two of them did their dance. The summer he spent with Jason had Ulysses , seemingly overnight, sprout into a giant, of which Jason had teased him about relentlessly.

"Hey Jolly Green," Jason would say.

Of course his mother complained the most when he arrived in California as a new wardrobe had to be purchased for the still growing boy. At the start of the school year Ulysses stood just short of 6'3, and some times he felt his body betrayed him with his gangly arms and legs. Still Ulysses liked his height yet it did lead to a logistics problem when he was assigned his locker. The first day of classes when he arrived at his locker he met Adam, a quite guy, who didn't stand more than 4'5. Sadly Adam had been assigned the upper locker and Ulysses the bottom. For a week they did their best to make good of the situation in silence, simply nodding to one another but after catching the bottom of Adam's locker door with the top of his head Ulysses introduced himself with a flurry of curse words, which he quickly apologized for. Adam seemed quite embarrassed and nervous as Ulysses towered over him, wincing as he nursed the top of his head. They quickly came to the discussion to swap lockers. It was a quick discussion but in the end it was just an acquaintance and neither of them pushed to learn about the other.

"Hey," Adam offered as he dropped to his knee and quickly swapped out books before slamming it shut. Nodding to Ulysses as he went about his business then disappeared. Ulysses dropped his morning books and snagged his lunch before leaving the annex and heading toward the library building.

Even with the weather cooling down Ulysses preferred to eat outside and he had found a set of secluded benches and tables on the east side of the library building. Beyond the few people passing through he'd not seen another person sit down so he was always to himself and just enjoyed the sun and the fresh air. But today that wasn't to be the case. When he came around the corner of the building he spotted someone already sitting at one of the tables. It only made him hesitate for a moment but that was all the time it took. The person sitting at the table looked up and waved.

Ulysses turned and looked behind him thinking said gesture hadn't been for him but when he turned back they were now waving him over. Several things went through his head at once but none of them included walking down to the table yet that's what he found himself doing. The ramp doubled back on itself twice before it emptied out into the small enclosure.

"Hi there," she said as he shuffled up to the table. He reached out and shook her extended hand. It was oddly warm even in the face of the weather and Ulysses was embarrassed at how clammy his own hand was.

"Um.. hello," he offered back as the hand shake came to an end. He nervously shifted his bag on his shoulder as she smiled back at him and the silence grew awkward. She was cute, in that way any fresh faced high school girl is Her light brown, almost blond, hair was pulled back into a tail revealing her fair features. Her eyes were a warm brown and they twinkled with a friendly energy, but the grin that was partially hidden by her full lips spoke volumes about some hidden agenda.

"We've been watching you for the last two weeks." Ulysses stood there confused, unsure how to respond. She chuckled when the silence had reached its height. This did nothing to help Ulysses' level of comfort though. He reflexively started looking around for the others that would have made up the "We" she mentioned.

"What do you mean by "we"... and where... who the hell are you," blurted Ulysses, only realizing that it sounded a little more aggressive than he meant it to be.

"Calm down there Jolly Green," she said as she pointed up and behind him, "up there."

"Do not call me Jolly Green," said Ulysses flatly, the face of his good friend flashing up at him from inside his own mind. No one was allowed to call him that except Jason. The unnamed girl continued to point and he craned his head around and looked up. She had been pointing to a window on the third floor. There were just a set of vertical blinds but he noticed a few of them move slightly back and forth as if someone was gently pushing the blinds aside to peek out.

"Well, what should I call you," she asked as hopped off the table and straightened the light gray hoodie she was wearing. "Mr. Stanton?"

"Do we have a class together," he asked turning his attention back to her.

Her grin was now a full fledged smile, a beautiful one at that. She was having much more fun with this than he was. "We," she paused and he already hated that word, "... do not. But someone up there does. I'm Elizabeth, but please call me Liz. So what do I call you, Mr. U. Stanton? It is Ulysses isn't it?"

Ulysses frowned, the name was of his father's doing. It had always been point of discussion even when he was younger. But he was proud of it, because these days you didn't run into many with the name.

"Yes, it's Ulysses. Please call me Ulysses, I don't like being called Uly," he added, knowing that it was what people always shortened his name to.

"Let me guess, its your mom's pet name for you," She smirked. "Uly," she shouted as annoyingly and as loud as possible, "come clean your room!"

Ulysses' frown deepened until she started laughing, which was infectious. She wasn't far off. His mother did call him that around the house, and he remembered how Jason had quickly learned that it was a quickest way to rile up Ulysses. But watching Liz laugh... it wasn't mean, he could almost hear this sympathetic undertone to it as if she was simply relating having heard her own mother often yell "Elizabeth" around their own home. Only to annoy the young girl who preferred the shortened version.

"Yeah that sounds pretty much like her," he offered.

"Well I promise to tell them all how much you love the nick name," she said as she took his arm and started shepherding him back up the ramp to the door of the library.

It had been a while since he had every really spent more than a few minutes with anyone but his own parents. "Can I just say," he started, shocked that not only had she wrapped herself around his left arm but that she had gone and rested her head against the upper half, "you are easily the most brazen person I have ever met."

She actually snorted, "Shit, Sarah is going to eat you alive."

When the reached the door she untangled herself from him and pulled open the door, stepping aside, "Enter..." she bulged out her eyes and left her mouth hanging open, "at your own peril!"

"You're crazy."

"Nope," she quickly snapped, her face back to the pleasant smirking grin, "I'm Liz!"