The White Horseman - 1. Chapter 1

The boy fled through the trees, his shoulder length hair streaming behind him, his bare feet treading fearfully over mossy, mist-covered ground. The shadows of the night that filled the forest grabbed at the boy’s legs and nipped at his heels. He jumped over a rotting log; his hand slipping suddenly brought the boy crashing down. Falling, he tumbled head over heels down the side of the ravine. A tree branch took hold of his boxers by the leg and tore them as he landed with a loud splash. Disoriented, he looked around at the muddy stream, and realized he was trapped in a narrow ravine.

Then he heard it, the thundering of hooves and splashing of water. He turned his head and saw it as it reared up and let out a shrill scream; the white fur and the red eyes as the hooves came crashing down at him…

Daniel woke up with a shout, clutching at his chest, his body was so soaked with sweat it his t-shirt was plastered to him. The blankets and sheets were all twisted around his limbs in a painful fashion, and even the bed sheet had pulled itself away from the mattress and was wrapped around the teenager.

He pushed and pulled until he managed to release himself from his blanket prison and glance at the clock, “God, 5:50.” He sighed, sat up and held his head, then he slide from the covers.

The teenager brushed the hair away from his eyes as he strode into the bathroom and flipped on the light. Daniel turned on the water and scrubbed his face a little before looking into his lime-hazel eyes, then frowned at his hair. It had turned black over the last several months. He had dyed it blond but it was supposed to be returning to his natural brown. He fingered his hair and continued to frown at the unnatural color.

There came a knock at the second door to the bathroom, and then his mother peeked in from the hallway. “You ok in there?” Daniel’s mother was a frail looking lady with ash-blond hair so white that the teenager couldn’t tell where the blond ended, and where the gray hair began. She suddenly gave a frown looking at the boy’s hair pointedly, “I told you dying your hair would ruin it.”

Daniel looked at her ageist, “Mom! Don’t rub it in, this is weird enough!”

Daniel’s mother shrugged, and smiled, “Anyway, you ok? I heard a shout a couple of minutes ago.”

The tall boy shrugged, “I’m fine, had a bad dream is all.”

Daniel’s mother frowned, “You’ve been having a lot of those since you got back from South America.”

Daniel frowned, “No, this was kind of different.”

The woman frowned in concern, as she arched an eyebrow, “You know you never told me what happened down there, and I can’t help you if you don’t share these things.”

Daniel looked at her and shook his head, “I can’t. You wouldn’t believe me if I did, Nissa.”

Nissa glared, “Don’t call me that.”

Daniel gave his mother a satisfied grin, “Why not? Rosanna let us call her by her first name all the time.”

His mother gave him a hurt look, which turned angry, “Don’t ever equate me to that harlot who took you away.” She suddenly went stiff as she realized his ploy and spoke quietly. “Don’t do that, don’t avoid the issue.” She sighed, “I want to know what happened; all I got was the official ‘Mister Knight was killed by a bunch of rebels, here have your kids…”

Daniel glowered, “I told you, you wouldn’t believe me. Stop asking!” With that he turned around and walked stiffly back to his bedroom, and shut the bathroom door. He wanted to tell her, but it wasn’t something a sane person would believe.

After all, who would believe that his dad caught a unicorn, that it was killed, and in retaliation Mister Knight was himself killed by those who believed the unicorn was a god. Daniel wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t touched the unicorn’s mind, felt its pain, its final breaths.

The teenager sat quietly contemplating that night, then walked over to his dresser, opened his underwear drawer and pulled out a wooden cigar case. He turned slowly and sat down on his bed holding it tenderly for several minutes until the sounds of pans downstairs faintly called him away from his reverie.

He frowned, suddenly noticing for the first time that he had been crying as the tears rolled down his cheeks “Well, whatever.” He stood up, quickly rubbing the tears from his cheeks; he placed the box back into the dresser. Then he strolled to the bathroom and stepped into the shower stall.

He peeled off his t-shirt, revealing his lithe lightly muscled torso. His hand touched a tattoo on his right shoulder; every time he touched the inking; it made him feel a little rebellious and happy. It was a Celtic knot that was surrounded by four tendrils, one going down under his shoulder blade, another moving around his collar, and two running around his bicep. The whole thing was outlined in black, and inked in green, with small gold band running down the center of each tendril. But Daniel never showed it to anyone, and no one knew about it. He always wore a shirt to bed, just to make sure the family didn’t find out, because he knew his mother would go ballistic.

He let out a sigh and propped his head against the tiled wall of the shower stall and whispered to himself, “What’s the point if no one knows.”

He blew hair from his eyes and began to pull down his boxers but realized for the first time that something felt off about them. The boy quickly turned his eyes and examined them; his face went pale as his pulled them completely off looking at a large ragged gash that had torn the side of the underwear out.

The teenager began to feel a little dizzy and leaned against the side of the shower, “How…? That’s not possible.” His breath went shallow as he held the torn clothing.

He pulled himself up abruptly, and spun around tossing it across the room, gritting his teeth. “Not possible.”

He closed his eyes and his mind to that thought as he closed the glass partition. Daniel turned on the hot water and his hands traveled over the curves of his body, across the tattoo that decorated his shoulder, and down to his groin. The young man lost himself in the hot water, forgetting the nightmare, the past and even the time.

The next thing he felt were the water getting cool and his sister banging on the door; with a shuddering sigh he was brought roughly out of his reverie. He cursed under his breath, and yelled at the closed door, “Yeah, yeah. I am done.”

There was an annoyed shout in response, “You used up all the hot water again, didn’t you, horny!?”

The boy rolled his eyes, and yelled back. “Whatever!” then strode back to his bedroom, dressed himself in close fitting clothing. The boy moved quickly to the other side of the room and picked up a little metal dragon. Then he stuck its tail through a large hole in his earlobe and pushed its claws so that the rest clipped around his right ear.

Without further pomp, he took his school bag and made his way down the stairs through the living room and into the kitchen.

As he went he could dimly hear the sound of water running and distant curses of frustration.

His first sight was his mother in a robe and apron, but the first smell to hit him was the mouthwatering scent of waffles. Daniel moved quickly and sat down at the table, “Mom, you didn’t need to.”

Nissa gave him an appreciative smile, “Oh, but I had to; it’s your first day back at school.”

Daniel just smiled appreciatively and dug into the waffles, lathered in butter and syrup.

He was soon joined by his sister who ignored the meal his mother provided and took an onion flavored bagel from the fridge and began toasting it.

Nissa frowned, “You don’t want to have breakfast with us, honey?”

The girl spun around, and glared. “I told you not to call me that anymore! I am not your honey, your sweetie or anything else. In fact I would have preferred to have lived with dad; at least he had the sense to leave me alone.”

Daniel looked at his sister, his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Shut up, Cecca.”

Cecca spun toward him, “Fuck off, faggot!”

Daniel’s face went red.

However, faster than Cecca or Daniel would have thought possible, Nissa spun off her stool and snaked out her hand and slapped the teenager. The small woman’s voice was low as she pushed her daughter against the counter, “Don’t ever call your brother that again.”

Cecca brought her hand up to her cheek, her eyes wide with shock. “You hit me.”

Nissa continued glaring at her daughter, “Yes, I did, and I’ll do more if you use such language again in this house.” Then she spun around, sat back down, and stated. “Get ready for school.”

Cecca stalked off, and the rest of the meal was eaten in silence. Then the teenagers put on their shoes, and walked down the street to the bus station. The two didn’t have to wait long before the yellow bus pulled up to the side of the street.

Daniel moved through the already crowded bus, finding an empty seat and pushing himself roughly against the back settling in.

The bus sloshed down the streets then stopped at another station, picking up another group of kids.

One stood out, a boy seemed to draw the gaze of everyone on the bus, or so it seemed to Daniel. The boy wore an open leather jacket over top of an ashy colored muscle shirt, but it wasn’t his clothes or the fact the boy had almost white blue eyes that pulled everyone’s eyes to him. It was an aura of anger, violence, and authority that draped itself on him like a mantle.

Most of the others took one look at him, and huddled against themselves, some like Daniel’s sister, swooned. Daniel knew she always liked the bad boys, or at least the trouble they could get her into. But something in the teenager told him not to cower.

And so Daniel looked into those pale eyes, unafraid, and the other boy seeming to feel those eyes on him in particular, turned and stopped in the aisle, staring right back.

The two stared back and forth at each other in silent challenge for several seconds. Then with a great lurch the bus pulled away from the curb, sending the blue-eyed boy tumbling forward a little and breaking their contact.

There was nervous laughter all around as the blue-eyed boy pulled himself awkwardly to a seat and plopped himself down in it.

In that moment Daniel knew he had not made a friend out of the mysterious stranger, and he sat staring out of the window as it began to rain outside and it had settled into a constant drizzle by the time the bus pulled into the school.

Daniel looked up at the building as he walked down the path. The school was a two story red-brick structure. The main entrance was of white marble with a large series of windows in the upper story that gathered up into a bell tower.

He frowned as he was pushed from behind and his sister walked past him and gave him a snide grin, “Watch where you’re going horn-boy.”

The green-eyed boy just grumbled and continued walking into the school, he found his locker and stuck his coat and other items inside; he held up the sheet of paper and followed it to his first class, an English class which would have been his third year of English if he hadn’t had to spend half a year in Brazil. Daniel sighed; he had a lot of catching up to do.

Suddenly Daniel felt eyes on him, like someone was boring into his soul; it was like a buzzing itch he had to scratch. He looked up only to find the boy from the bus watching him as the other teen made his way down an aisle. Again the two just stared at each other in challenge. Suddenly the other boy bumped into a desk and nearly fell to the floor.

The blond stood up, red in the face his eyes challenging anyone to laugh at him a second time.

However, there was a loud snap from the direction of the front desk, and an annoyed woman’s voice captured everyone’s attention. “Mister Dafydd, would you care to take a seat, or would you rather just challenge the class to a fist fight?”

The pale-eyed teen spun around and faced the teacher, his face twitched a little then he narrowed his eyes, but thinking better of this challenge, turned away. “No, Miss Baker.”

Miss Baker smiled a little, her face turning friendly. “Good Rhodri. Please take a seat.” The woman turned and began her class, “So, did everyone finish reading Tristan and Iseult?”

The class let out a collective groan, and the graying woman smiled, “I take that as a yes, now ladies and gentlemen, does anyone want to start the discussion on it?”

Blond-headed Rhodri raised his hand and rose to the teacher’s nod. “Well Miss Baker, I found the story to be just that, a story. The poets that wrote it seemed to make several assumptions that I found to be untrue.”

Baker raised an eyebrow, “Such as?”

“Well for one I am pretty sure Tristian was like a male slut and heir to the realm of Dumnonia or Cornwall. And I am sure he was never in Ireland. It is more like he met Isolde at Arthur’s court, and became infatuated with her. Then upon returning home, sailed across Bristol Channel to the Welsh kingdom of Dyfed and stole the king’s wife, then fled south and waited for a war. The part about sail colors was actually an attempt by the Cornish Lord to find out if his allies in the nearby Kingdom of Glywysing were coming to his aid. However, the High King wouldn’t allow an internal war within Britain when facing the threat of the Saxons. So invaded the Red Lady of Glywysing’s realm, and took her ships, then joining with the Black Sailed ships of Dyfed, sailed south. So the person, who watched, did indeed see white sailed ships, but also black ones joining against him. A third force rode down the peninsula and demanded his surrender, so in the end Tristian committed suicide. Sadly the victim in all of this, the Lady Isolde was killed for adultery, while she was entirely innocent.”

The woman frowned, “I see you still have that unique way of mixing history with your own imagination to counter any old story I give you to read, then bring it into debate with myself. You make this one sound like the Trojan War.” The woman shrugged, “But since the Arthurian Tales are pretty much fiction in general, does it matter?”

Again the teenager countered, “Well Miss Baker, many old stories, including the Arthurian legends, are based on historic facts, after all, it is thought that King Arthur was really the son of a historic king known as Uther Pendragon by historians.”

Miss Baker frowned, “I see you’ve been talking to Mister Jackson about these things again. However, I am still ready for you. Being as it was between the fall of the Roman Empire, and the rise of Anglo-Saxon kings, there is very little documentation, so who knows what happened in the fourth century.”

Rhodri frowned, and mumbled, “Well I know…”

Miss Baker glowered, “While I enjoy our debates, and will certainly enjoy your interpretations of the rest of the assigned Arthurian Tales, it is time to move on. Now please sit down Mister Dafydd.” She looked to the girl after him. “Now Jessica…”

The whole byplay between the teacher and the strange guy amazed Daniel, especially the way he seemed to believe what he was saying.

The teacher went on through the class asking for their interpretations of the prose and style; very few considered debating with the teacher on the truth of the tale.

Then the woman came to Daniel’s desk and peered at him, “Who are you?” But before he could speak the thin woman, answered her own question. “Oh yes, you’re the new student, Daniel Knight.” She looked over her glasses, “Well, you’ll have to read the previous story. Then you need to read the rest of the Arthurian Legends I assigned the students. There is a report you will need to do when you’re done. The class and I will be interested in what you think about “The Lady of Shallot.”” The woman’s voice belayed no argument from him or anyone.

The rest of the hour was left to doing English lessons of one sort or another, including a short assignment on creative writing. Daniel was given his books to read, and shortly thereafter the bell rang the announcement of class change.

As the students made their way to their next classes, Daniel was relieved to see the other boy moving the opposing direction from him. He let out a sigh and made his way to his Spanish class, he had taken a Spanish class when he was a freshman, but then he went to Brazil, and had to learn Portuguese, but when he came back, they only offered French or Spanish, so he took Spanish. The class was just starting and the teenager had begun to realize that the class wasn’t going to be as easy as he had hoped. He kept getting confused between the two languages.

He spent most of the class figuring Spanish out, especially the similarities and differences between that and Portuguese, and if you could look at the notebook, you would have seen that he was doing quite well. But in Daniel’s mind he was not, he kept holding his head slowly shaking it throughout the period. So intent he was that he physically jumped as the bell rang the period end.

The teenager hurried to his next class, metalsmithing. The room was spartanly framed. There were five large tables made of hard marble around which were six benches. Around the room were implements of both modern and more historic smith work.

The teacher was a great bear of a man, who was both surprisingly jolly and gentle in nature. The man was quick to take the new student under his wing and informed Daniel of various things that he needed to do, including the big project for the semester.

Daniel spent part of the period thinking about his large semester project. As part of a smaller project, in the last half-hour he chose to create a ring, and began drawing designs the ring.

This allowed him to pass the time quickly. The class seemed to fly by, and by the time the ringing bell brought him from his contemplation he had the designs all finished for it.

Daniel gathered his things, and left the classroom, walking down the hall. He was nearly to the next class when he saw Rhodri walking down the hall in the opposing direction. As the hazel-eyed teen started to turn his head away, the other boy stopped the conversation he was having, and looked straight at him.

The pleasant look on Rhodri’s face slackened into anger as his eyes bored into Daniel’s.

Daniel was pulled into that gaze until it was just the two of them in the world, and then suddenly Rhodri got this look of utter shock and went toppling forward, pulling the world back into focus, alongside him.

The other teenager had walked right over top of someone in a large purple Hippo suit. Laughter rippled down the hallway.

A high pitched wheezing voice shouted from within the suit, “Get… get off of me!”

Rhodri pulled himself up from the Hippo-suit guy snarling; his eyes went straight to Daniel and faster than he could blink the other boy had Daniel up against the locker and his fist was moving back to bloody him.

A hand reached out and gripped Rhodri’s wrist, “Mister Dafydd, do we need to have your mother deal with this?”

Rhodri cringed and turned his head, his face going a little pale, “No, Mister Jackson.”

“Good, if you’d be so kind as to let…. Mister… ah yes… Knight, go, no further actions need to be taken.”

Daniel got a good look at the face that moved into his view, long blond hair, and dull-brown eyes. The man had an ill-kept look to his face and in his posture, as if he wasn’t totally within the world.

Rhodri nodded. Those white-blue eyes gave Daniel a look that stated, “What has been started would be continued at my convenience.” Then the tall boy let go of Daniel and walked casually into the classroom.

The teacher gave Daniel a lazy smile, “Nice to meet you, young man. See you in class.” Then the blond-man made the short journey to the room, leaving the boys alone.

The person in the hippo suit was still struggling on the floor though, ignored by everyone.

Daniel sighed and walked over and pulled him up. “Th… thanks” came a wheezing acceptance as the person was pulled into a standing position. The Hippo pulled its head open, to reveal a slim boy wearing really big glasses. He blushed, a little, and smiled, “Sorry about Rhodri, he’s always been kind of a prick.” His mouth went agape looking into Daniel’s eyes, but managed to shake it off with a deep blush. “I remember you now, you were on the bus. My name is Dai, Dai Rhonda!” He pulled off a paw, and extended his hand to Daniel.

Daniel smiled, a bit uncomfortable with the other kid’s staring, but eagerly took the other boy’s hand, shaking it. “Daniel Knight.”

Dai smiled, “Nice to meet you.” then he let go and waddled into the classroom.

Daniel quickly followed after, and got inside just in time for the bell to ring his entrance.

Mr. Jackson looked over at Daniel, “I see you like to make an entrance… Timed it a bit close, didn’t you? It would have been horrible if I had to give you a warning just after putting a stop to your imminent pummeling. Please have a seat Daniel.”

The teacher pointed absently to an empty chair, then stood. “On the subject of pummeling, let’s begin class with the First Battle of Bull Run.” With that he pulled out a civil war era cap and placed it on his head. The man started talking about specifics of the battle. Then Mr. Jackson went on to cover that and other parts of the Civil War.

The teacher’s descriptions of the battles and tribulations of the American Civil War were both colorful and entertaining. It kept the students fixed to the edge of their seats throughout the rest of the period.

The bell rang the end of period and Mr. Jackson announced above the swarm. “I want everyone to read the next chapter on President Lincoln, and both of his most famous Civil War speeches. Tomorrow we will be discussing his impact on America today.”

Daniel scrambled from his seat and made his way out of the classroom, looking at his little sheet he realized with a smile and hunger filled eyes that it was lunch hour.

Mr. Jackson looked up, “Mister Knight, could you come here a moment? You too, Mister Rhonda.” The teacher, however, wasn’t looking at him; his eyes were following Rhodri down the hall, then he smiled, “Will you two escort an old man to the lunch room?”

Daniel laughed, “You’re not old Mr. Jackson, just well-rounded.”

The blond teacher laughed, “Well, I suppose I’ll take that as a compliment, although I am sure I could afford to lose a few pounds.” He led the two boys into the cafeteria and left them.

Daniel looked sideways at Dai, “Hey can I ask you a question?”

Dai shrugged as he stood in line, “Sure go ahead.”

Daniel smiled, “Um… ok, why are you wearing a purple Hippo suit?”

Dai spun around, and placed his hands on his hips, as he gave Daniel a serious look, “You’ve never heard of Herr Helga the Heroic Hippo!?”

Daniel tried to keep a straight face as he replied. “Err… No?”

Dai rolled his eyes and held out his arms. “She is the school mascot, and it happens to be my turn to wear her.”

Daniel arched an eyebrow, “Oh really?”

Dai shrugged his shoulders. “All the school sports groups take a half-month turn.” He took up his tray and filled it with three corn dogs, corn, salad, and a carton of milk. He turned and waited for Daniel to get what he wanted.

Daniel grabbed himself a roll to go with the other items on the menu, and followed Dai outwards. He passed by Rhodri’s table, and saw that his sister, Cecca, had plopped down next to the blond boy.

Daniel shivered, sensing trouble in that arrangement. He immediately scrambled to sit at a table close enough to hear and see the two of them.

Dai in turn imposed himself to sit next to Daniel, and placed the hippo head down next to the table. “I hope you don’t mind?” He held his fork pointedly at his corn.

Daniel looked over to Dai, “No friends you’d rather hang out with?”

Dai shrugged, digging into his meal, “Eh, you seem more fun.”

Daniel shrugged in return, then looked over at the other table,

His sister leaning against Rhodri, fawning over him her eyes filled with lust.

However Rhodri was looking over at Daniel with a hate filled glare. Then the tall boy asked the girl a question, pointing his fork towards Daniel. “So that boy over there, you two look a lot alike, and both new here, are you related?”

Cecca frowned, giving her brother a glare, “Oh Horn-Boy, yeah he’s my brother. I’d watch out though, he’s a queer slut.”

Daniel felt his face turn red to the point where he could feel tingling from his neck to his ears as he continued listening to his sister’s words.

Rhodri’s face darkened all the more, “Oh really?”

The girl smiled slowly facing sideways to Rhodri, her hand moving down to his leg and groin, “Oh, yes. He was waving his ass and converting boys all over in our old town.” Her hand started to reach into Rhodri’s clothing.

Daniel jumped up then, unable to listen to any more bile coming from his sister’s mouth, not even taking his tray as he made his way to the closest bathroom. He just wanted to crawl someplace and hide from the nightmare he felt was surely going to be the rest of the school year.

Behind him Dai was left agape at Daniel’s sudden flushed departure. He then turned his head back to across the aisle, and suddenly noticed Rhodri and Cecca sitting there; he turned a shade of red himself listening to the girl badmouthing her brother.

Then Rhodri, unexpectedly, took hold of the girl’s invading fingers, turned his white-blue eyes towards her, pulling them back painfully, “No more of that…”

Cecca gasped, “Ah… ah! You’re hurting me!”

Rhodri narrowed his eyes, “Good, then we understand each other.” He released her fingers.

Cecca smirked lustily, returning to flirting. “I like a man who knows what he wants.”

Rhodri frowned as he stood up with his tray, not even turning towards her. “Good, so long as you understand that you’ll get it only when I wish to give it.” With little else he dumped his tray and followed after Daniel.

Dai frowned, and adjusted his glasses, “There’s trouble.” Before he could stand up though, someone sat down in front of him. “What is my annoying twin brother up to?”

Dai blanched going a little pale, looking up at his raven haired sister, “No…thing… It’s Rhodri.”

The girl smiled evilly, “That excuse didn’t work when we were six, why should it now?”

Dai frowned, “Honest, Adria, he’s going after the new boy.”

Adria nodded, her black hair flowing over her eyes. “Uh huh, I saw that little contest he had with him in English.” She rolled her eyes, “I suppose you’ve already taken a liking to the newbie?” Before he could answer she shrugged, “We might as well get this over with. If I miss lunch, it’s your fault.” She rose from the table, “Well, show me where they’ve gone.”

…

In the bathroom Daniel leaned against the wall over the sink thinking he was going to throw up, the feeling passed after a moment, so he went over to a urinal and started doing the ritual.

Then he heard the door open behind him, he didn’t turn so he could be quick to finish his business and be out of the little boy’s room. He zipped up his jeans and was about to turn around, when a hand roughly grabbed him from behind and shoved him against the wall.

Then he heard the voice, it was silky smooth, and pleasant to his ears even though it was filled with anger. “I finally got you alone faggot.”

Daniel knew then it was Rhodri, and spun himself around running his fist out to hit the other guy.

But Rhodri easily caught his arm and punched Daniel in the stomach, while he dug his thumb into Daniel’s wrist.

Daniel toppled down and back, the wind knocked out of him.

Rhodri took hold of the other boy’s hair, and Daniel clamped both hands on Rhodri’s arm as he was yanked upwards. “I’m gonna teach you to never lay those pretty eyes on me again.” He slapped Daniel’s head hard, causing his ears to ring.

Daniel growled, “Fuck you!”

Rhodri yanked Daniel’s head down and kneed him in the nose. “Shut the fuck up!”

Then Daniel, by now dizzy, heard a zipping sound, and felt a warm liquid slashing on his pants and shirt.

The boy saw red, he pushed one foot off the wall below the urinal, his hand letting go as he used it to jab Rhodri in the ribs, as hard as he could. “Mother Fucker!”

As the other boy backed away Daniel flipped to his feet and spun sideways lightly, using a foot to kick Rhodri in the side.

In his head, there was a pounding like the sound of hooves of a galloping horse.

Rhodri braced himself about to return the fight when he caught Daniel’s eyes and his face went slack. He got this worried look on his face, then turned and ran from the room, pants still unzipped.

Daniel frowned, “What was that…” the pounding intensified for a second then seemed to fade away. He became conscious of something trickling down his lips and frowned, wiping it away, he looked into his hand.

The teenager stumbled against a wall at the sight of his own blood. Then turning to the mirrors, he looked at himself, he let out a low groan cursing aloud. “Ah Shit, they’re all ruined...” He tenderly touched his soiled clothing in disgust, before he ran his hands under the water and brought it over his head.

Just then Dai burst into the room, “Hey! Are you ok?” He said before taking in Daniel’s blood nose and wet cloths. “What happened?”

Daniel shrugged, “Nothing.”

Dai frowned, “I don’t know. The way Rhodri and you look, I’d say something happened.”

Daniel shrugged again, looking sideways to Dai “And so, and so.”

He smiled. “And so I need to change clothes.” He turned, looking over to Dai, “Don’t you think?”

Dai shuddered awkwardly, “Um yeah….” He blushed, “Well I’d give you mine, but I kind of need them.”

Daniel blushed in returned, “Oh you would?” He shrugged, “Well, you could always get my gym-clothes from my locker.”

Dai looked at him, “Oh? You’d let me into your locker?”

Daniel gave him a grin, “Do I have much choice? No.” He gave the other boy his locker code then took some paper towels wetting them and retreated to a cubicle. He shimmied out of his clothing and used the wet towels to wipe at his body while he waited.

It was several minutes later when Dai came back and dropped the shorts and shirt over the partition, “Here.”

Daniel quickly slipped into his gym clothes and made his way out of the bathroom. He presented himself for examination before Dai who nodded in approval. They the bell rang ending the lunch period, as they left the bathroom.

The next class was a math class; it was one that he shared with Dai. The other boy was so delighted with that turn of events he immediately moved to the seat right next to Daniel.

The teacher only arched an eyebrow as she proceeded to hand back graded assignments.

Turning, she marched to the front of the class and began drawing diagrams upon the marker board. As the woman spoke of their current subject, her voice had a flair about mathematics that left everyone invested in her class, and thusly time went quickly for everyone.

The bell rang, and the two boys made their way from the room. Dai, who was thrilled to learn they shared another class together, chattered in a high pitched excitement.

The boy’s friendly voice and excited conversation filled all of Daniel’s senses, but even then he could feel unfriendly eyes upon him.

Daniel turned his eyes sideways, a little, and saw Rhodri standing there; he turned his head back quickly.

Rhodri gave the boy a dark self-satisfied grin as he smugly followed the taller boy into the room.

As Daniel entered the class he saw the room was arranged in the form of tables in seating pairs. A man with white hair and a long thin mustache stood at the front of the class, his heavy eyebrows arched as he looked at the students as they entered.

The teacher smiled to Daniel, “Ah, the new student.” His eyes pierced through Daniel’s flesh, as he looked at the boy. “You can partner with Rhodri, since…” The man gave Rhodri an innocent grin. “You seem to be the only one I have heard who hasn’t a problem being around him.” His grin turning to a sneer, “Indeed, I heard the opposite.”

The look on Rhodri’s face was one of understandable outrage at the teacher’s commentary, at the same time Daniel had turned red from ear to ear in embarrassment.

Dai patted the other boy’s back sympathetically and turned walking down the row and sat down next to a girl resembling him.

Daniel walked stiffly down the aisles and sat on a stool next to Rhodri, half-expecting to be hit. He could hear the other boy grinding his teeth, but nothing happened. And for the majority of the period the two individuals ignored each other.

The teacher was going through the differences in amphibians and how they were different from both lower and higher life forms. “Now ladies and gentlemen, we will be dissecting a frog next week so be prepared.” With that the bell rang announcing the next class. Daniel fled the classroom as quickly as he could.

He made his way to the gymnasium and into the locker room, setting his bag down, since he could not change he returned to the main room. Once he came into the main room he saw the teacher, and several mats.

A girl was standing there in a karate uniform talking to the teacher, but turned and looked back at Daniel when the teacher noticed his approach. “Ah, the new student.”

The girl grinned at him. She was achingly familiar; Daniel had seen that face recently on someone else. She was a female image of Dai.

The teacher spoke first. “Hello Mr. Knight, as you found out when you applied this is a martial arts class however since our students have actually gone through at least 3 different fields of martial arts training… one being Judo, another being a type of Welsh Martial arts our young lady friend here was taught, known as the Law of Rhyfel.

The girl rolled her eyes. “It’s Law o Rhyfel.”

The teacher gave her a flustered look, “Beside the point, which is to say I don’t actually teach martial arts here, unless you know some judo. What we actually do is pare people who know the same martial art school, and learn from each other. Do you actually know a martial art?”

Daniel smiled in personal pleasure, “Actually I study the Law o Rhyfel as well.”

The girl smirked, “Well show me what you got.”

The boy’s hands moved upwards, his fingers curving into points as he struck out at the girl.

She smirked bringing her hand up, easily blocking his move. “So pitiful…. Is this how you beat Rhodri?” Her leg swung upwards and struck out at the boy’s side.

The boy wrapped his arm around the girls, and attempted to pull her in close.

“Now, now children,” Responded a now nervous teacher.

The students were not listening at this point.

Daniel frowned, “Are you saying he’s that good?” He watched as she spun over his head and attempted to land a kick on his head.

The girl’s hand moved out as if to grip the handle of something invisible, even as Daniel blocked her kick.

His hand closed around some invisible handle as well, and the two of them came at each other again.

But the battle was over very quickly, as the girl’s closed hand ran into the boy’s chest. She gave a victorious grin, “gotcha.”

Daniel gave her a smile of his own, “gutted… still, just as dead.” His curled hand was against her free hand which was pressed hard against her lower groin.

The girl sighed, “Dang, No children for me.” She flipped her hair, going out of stance, “Name’s Adria Rhonda, I believe you’ve met my annoying twin,” She gave a little grin then leaned in closely, lowering her voice. “And I don’t know of anyone who can take on Rhodri…. including me.”

She gave a merciless smile, “See you around, since you’re hanging out with my loser brother…. maybe even at the house.” She left him alone, alongside the stupefied teacher who glowered, and looked at Daniel. “Please, don’t do that again.”

For the rest of the period Daniel practiced his moves by himself. Then the bell rang announcing the end of all classes for the day. Daniel gathered his things and fled to the bus and home, it had been a long day and he was glad it was over.