My Name is Ulysses - 3. Chapter 3

Outside the sky was a serene blue, cloudless, and sharp. A blank pallet begging to have something done with it, even if it was to mar it with streaks of white clouds or contrails left behind by unseen airliners. Ulysses had his chin propped on his knuckles, elbows straddling his open history book which he was actively ignoring. His eyes stared out into the expanse of blue that was framed by the window of the class room. He imagined his body going limp in his desk, then by some unseen force pulled gently upward and towards the glass. The clear material would not bar his imagination as he slipped through it and out into the sky where he would soar, free. The buildings below would shrink away as he slipped higher and higher until the land below morphed into a patchwork quilt of greens and tans...

BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG

The blue evaporated from around him, filled back in with the stark white of the class room walls and the serene landscape replaced with the chaos of teenagers scurrying to leave the classroom. Ulysses followed suit, tucking his books in his bag and slinging it over his shoulder as he stood to leave.

"Mr. Stanton, a moment."

Ulysses found Mr. Dobson gesturing towards him, the dreaded two finger "come hither". The silver haired teacher had a few specific gestures, but it was when he balled his hand into a fist and extended his middle and index finger and curled the two of them at you that you knew you were in trouble.

"I thought I mentioned yesterday I wanted to see less day dreaming in class," Mr. Dobson said, his face masked with disappointment but voice tinged with annoyance. "You're a good student, and you're grades among the top in the class but I'd still like you to pay attention and possibly engage in some of the discussions we have.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Dobson," Ulysses nodded politely. "I'll make a point to reign it in."

"I appreciate it," his teacher said, his tone gone from annoyed to just flat. "Out of curiosity where were you today?"

It took a moment for Ulysses to understand the question. He grinned sheepishly, "35,000 feet."

"Well tomorrow I want you out of the clouds and in your seat."

"Yes, Sir." Ulysses said as he turned and headed for the door. He found Tina standing at the door, her sketch book tucked under her arm, a worried look on her face. It disappeared when Ulysses flashed a smile at her.

"You got the Two Fingers," she whispered as they stepped out into the river of teens.

"No worries, he's caught me day dreaming the last two days."

"Well you need to be careful, the only thing that comes after the Two Fingers is detention," Tina said as she navigated a dense cluster of other students.

"Yeah, I just get lost sometimes. Next thing I know I'm off somewhere else. Nothing against Mr. Dobson, he's a good teacher, but I've got an A in the class and its not going anywhere."

He hadn't been paying attention to where they were going, just absently following Tina as she made her way and without realizing it they were outside the library.

"Has school always just been easy for you?"

Ulysses shrugged as he held the doors open for her, "I've never really thought about it. History is easy, just facts, like math and science. And they just pile up in my head and wait for me to call them up to answer test questions. Besides for the last few years I've not had much else to do but focus on school with my dad moving us around all the time."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about yesterday. We sort of ambushed you." She frowned as they slipped through the stacks towards the study rooms.

Ulysses smiled back at her. Truth is the little ambush had really put him in a good mood for the rest of the day. He had even made a point to look for their faces in the crowds through the rest of the afternoon, catching sight of and waving at Sarah and Liz as they rushed to their next classes. When he had seen Tina at the beginning of History earlier in the morning he had nodded toward her with a grin before Mr. Dobson started the class.

It had been a while since he could remember looking forward to seeing specific faces show up through out his waking hours. His mind scrounged up Jason's face, and memories of weekends filled with trips to the pool, movies, or times one of their dads setup a tent in the backyard. Shared comic books, Batman had been their favorite, even to this day Ulysses still collected them. Of course other memories began boiling up, ones that ware tangled in both fondness and guilt.

"What are you thinking," asked Tina as they reached the study room.

Her question snapped him back to reality. "Sorry, I went somewhere else. I appreciate that you guys bothered to say hello. Believe me when I say its been a while since I talked to anyone."

The lunch hour seemed to fly by as Ulysses found himself just being part of the little group that had adopted him. The hour was filled with less questions and more of people just talking about this and that. Jeff was still a no show, off working with the drama group. Tina promised to introduce them when she could. When Ryan didn't show up twenty minutes into the lunch break Ulysses asked where he was.

"He wanted me to tell you that tonight is still a go," Liz explained. "He just needed to speak to Mr. Akles about possible extra credit."

"Is he that bad off in class?" Ulysses asked, disappointed that Ryan wasn't going to join them for lunch. The young man had been stuck in Ulysses' head since the the day before.

"Not really," said Hector for the first time ever registering Ulysses was there. "He's just worried about his spot on the swim team and he tends to panic and when he panics he gets fixated." With that the young man reached up and did something to his right ear before going back to his book. For the first time Ulysses noticed something was hooked over Hector's ear.

"He has hearing problems," Liz frowned. "Don't take it personal, but he likes to "disconnect" when he's reading." As she said it she slid her arm around his and hugged her cheek to his shoulder. Hector continued reading, unhindered.

"Is he... completely deaf," Asked Ulysses shyly.

Tina chimed in, "Without the implant turned on he's pretty much cut off. If we shout he can hear it but he says its very muffled. I forget what it was called but they figured it out when he was still young and he's had the implant for years."

Ulysses felt, with a bit of guilt, curious about this new bit of information. He'd heard of the cochlear implants but never knew someone personally who had one. Thoughts of cyborgs and super hearing stirred in the back of his mind and he didn't even realize he was staring until Liz waved at him. "You can ask him about it if you're curious. He won't be offended." She reached over to get Hector's attention.

"No, don't worry about it," Ulysses said looking at this watch. "Lunch is almost over and I'm sure we'll end up talking soon or later. If you see Ryan tell him to call me if he needs help finding the house."

The rest of the afternoon was like a thick molasses. Made worse as Ulysses tried to focus on anything and everything but no matter what he did his thoughts always returned back to his new "friends". That of course led to thoughts about the tutoring later that night. Ulysses still wasn't sure how all that had come together. But oddly his mind teetered back and forth. The idea of getting to know Ryan wasn't all that bad but at the same time he couldn't ignore the other thoughts that kept presenting themselves. Like Ryan's eyes and his smile. Those thoughts stirred a different sensation in Ulysses, one he was well aware of but brought with it so many other feelings.