Stepping Into the Light - 1. Chapter 1

Stepping Into the Light
Written By Myk
Edited by Gary and Jason

A ray of light stretched out across the room, first falling from the window seal to the floor below, and then creeping across the rich wood floor, before climbing up the side of the bed. Daryl felt the warmth of the early morning light caress his cheek and despite how nice it felt he groaned inwardly, as did thousands of school children that morning, knowing what was to come.

“Daryl, time to get up.”

Semi-consciously he rolled over, sinking deeply into the comforter in an attempt to hold onto every last second of freedom. Before long, he was again disturbed from his slumber by his door being opened.

“Come on, wake up” he heard as his blankets were unceremoniously ripped away.

Instinctively he mumbled, “Aw man! I don’t want to go to school,” as he curled up slightly to try and stay warm.

“That’s tough, today is the first day you’ve had to get up early in two months. Now get moving, you don’t want to be late,” came the reply. Realization setting in, he finally decided to open his eyes squinting at the light pouring in through his bedroom window.

“Don’t worry, I don’t mind being late” Daryl stated. He heard a soft chuckle from the foot of his bed.

“Fine then, I don’t want you to be late.” Still squinting, all Daryl could see was a figure step out into the hallway. “And don’t even try to play the sick card on me.” Giving in, he rolled out of bed and headed across the hallway for his morning shower.

Half an hour later Daryl found himself back in his room and after getting dressed he turned towards the mirror next to his bed. Staring back at him was a 16 year old whose features were somewhere between cute and handsome. Standing 5’8” tall, he wasn’t buff in any way, but his slim body belied his subtly toned muscles. His strong jaw and cheekbones gave him a somewhat rugged masculinity. He had light brown hair that gently fell across his forehead and covered the tips of his ears. Bright white tennis shoes poked out from his dark denim jeans which were held low on his hips by a thick brown leather belt. Bright green eyes were accentuated by the green Abercrombie shirt that fit snugly to his stomach and chest without being too tight. Satisfied with his appearance Daryl grabbed his backpack from the foot of his bed and headed towards the kitchen.

“Morning pops,” Daryl said upon entering the kitchen. On his way to the fridge, he dropped his bag onto one of the raised chairs around the wooden island in the middle of the room.

“You know I don’t like it when you call me pops,” the elder male stated while craning his head around from where he was cooking only to see a pair of legs sticking out from behind the fridge door.

“Sorry Jack, what would you prefer me to call you?” he responded in a slightly mocking tone after withdrawing from the depths of the fridge with a carton of orange juice.

“Well, anything but pops will do I suppose, but I think you’re still a little young to get away with calling adults by their first name,” Jack replied before he gave off an exasperated sigh and infusing a hint of annoyance while adding, “Quit that. Unless I’m mistaken we weren’t robbed last night and there should be plenty of glasses in the cupboard.” Daryl removed his lips from the spout on the carton and narrowed his eyes at the man before returning the juice to the fridge.

Walking around the island behind where Jack was cooking some eggs and bacon in his Bugs Bunny pyjamas, he reached for the fruit basket next to the sink. After deciding on a banana he spared a moment to look out the window. Despite what he felt was an unholy early hour there were several cars slowly moving up and down the street several stories below. He could even make out the doorman helping the stuck up Ms. Stalwort into the back of her car. Personally he swore she only lived in this middle class condo building so she could be the richest one in the whole place.

“Grab yourself a plate, breakfast is ready,” Jack said. Returning to reality, Daryl started to peel his banana as he moved back across the room to jump up on one of the raised chairs around the island.

“I’m not really that hungry thanks. So when the heck does Jamie get back anyways?” Daryl asked.

“Fine, starve, see if I care,” Jack tried to joke but it was evident that Daryl was a little hurt. After putting the unused eggs and bacon back in the fridge, he joined Daryl carrying a plateful of food. “The conference wraps up Friday morning, so Jamie should be back later that day.” They both sat quietly for a few moments, Daryl finishing his banana between several yawns and Jack eating his eggs when not scanning through the headlines in the morning paper. Daryl’s parents often made the news as they were both lawyers. The only reason they didn’t live in a mansion in the suburbs was that Jamie worked as a district attorney and Jack worked on half of his cases pro bono.

Finishing the local news section of the paper, Jack pushed the sheets aside and looking over at Daryl said, “Well if that’s all you're having, you might as well go get ready for school.”

Reaching out Daryl picked up his backpack from the seat next to him and simply replied, “Duh!”

“All right, just give me a few minutes to get dressed and I’ll give you a ride,” he stated.

“That’s alright, I’ll just grab the bus like most mornings. You in court this afternoon or are you picking me up?” he asked.

“Court,” he responded somewhat disgruntled, “but I managed to reschedule my cases for the rest of the week so I can pick you up, just not today as you’re only there for a few hours.”

Daryl got up, grabbed the banana peel off the table and dumped it into the garbage under the sink. Heading back around the table he picked up his pack and threw it over one shoulder before stepping into the hallway.

“I’m off, don’t let too many of your clients get put away” he teased with a raised voice as he proceeded down the hall towards the front door.

“Gee thanks,” Jack responded sarcastically, “aren’t you leaving a bit early?”

“Only a bit. Besides I wouldn’t want to be late,” Daryl stated in mock seriousness before saying, “bye dad” teasingly as he closed the door behind him, cutting off any reply. He felt a bit guilty for making fun of him all morning, but there was just no way he could take him seriously in those ridiculous pyjamas.

“Morning! First day back Daryl?” the doorman asked when Daryl emerged from the elevator.

“Yeah, ten months of boredom here I come. Don’t work too hard Charlie,” Daryl said in return to the tall man sporting a neat goatee and smart looking red blazer.

“Never do. Have a good day,” Charlie said as Daryl stepped through the door he was holding open for him and headed off down the street. Rounding the corner he saw the bus stop and conveniently his bus was coming up the road. As usual, his timing was impeccable.

He boarded the bus, paid the fare, and turned to head for a seat in the back. He only managed to take two steps before a smile crossed his face as he spotted Sarah Hughes sitting with a few guys he recognized from the football team. She lived a couple of stops back and was the solitary reason he would ever try to catch the early bus.

“Hey guys,” he said, nodding to a few of the guys who returned the gesture without stopping their conversation, before he turned to her. “Morning Sarah.”

“Oh, hey Daryl, how are you?” she asked turning away from the discussion and looking up at him revealing her beautiful features, and allowing her long auburn hair to fall gently from her shoulder to tickle her collar bone. She was his girl-next-door, and as usual her amazing smile was infectious and he was instantly under its spell.

“I’m good, what about you?” he returned the same question.

“I’m fine thanks,” Sarah answered. She was distracted by one of the guys asking her something and he took it as an end to their conversation. He saw several open seats towards the back and decided to go and grab one of them. Daryl stared out the large windows watching morning joggers, traffic, shop owners opening their street side stores, and office workers going in and out of buildings as they passed. Before he realized it they were crossing the Centennial Bridge, so named as it was built on the city’s hundredth birthday.

That meant they were only a few blocks away from school and just a few minutes later, he found himself stepping down from the bus in front of River Ridge High School. It was clear that the school had been expanded in the recent past because the different styles of architecture clashed. The original sections had been built with large sandstone blocks three stories high. It gave the impression of a grand structure with its tall narrow windows dispersed between the dull stone. In contrast, the newer wings were only two stories tall and consisted mainly of bright red brick typical of many schools in the area. Additionally, a new entryway had been added with large glass windows, creating a very bright hallway where students generally congregated when not in class. Despite the somewhat chaotic construction the building was surprisingly functional and very well maintained, even on a shoe-string budget.

Checking his watch he realized there were only 15 minutes left before he was supposed to be in homeroom, so he joined the steady stream of teens heading through the school’s front doors. The foyer was practically a circus. Deafening chatter from excited students talking in groups that conveniently blocked the flow of people wandering aimlessly in an attempt to find their friends or their way to their homeroom through unfamiliar halls.

On the far wall next to the gym doors a crowd of scared looking kids were staring at dozens of sheets, looking for their name and the name of their homeroom teacher. The principal and several of his vice-principals could be seen above the crowd attempting to give directions to the confused freshmen. Somehow they seemed so young, so small. It just didn’t seem right to have these little ‘squirts’ running around.

Since Daryl was a junior, he already knew where to go and decided he might as well head towards Mr. Taylor’s room. Weaving through the crowd he passed at least a hundred classmates, some of whom greeted him or waved as he made his way across the foyer. But almost everyone whose eye he caught at least nodded in his direction. Daryl could have been fairly popular if he tried, but popularity seemed a boring social ritual to him. He preferred to avoid trouble, to just coast through life and blend into the crowd.

It was a sign of respect. He knew it wasn’t more because for the most part he never talked to most of them. He was of near genius intelligence, something that the honours students had to admire and that he blamed for his laziness. Ironically this got him ‘cred’ with the bad boys and some of the jocks, mostly because it distracted the teachers from their own incomplete homework. The rest of the jocks had underestimated him at one time or another in physical education classes. Gym was his favourite class, the only one that wasn’t drenched in unending boredom, thus the only class he actually participated in.

He could see it in their faces before a wrestling match, a sprint, or any one of the dozen or so sports they had scrimmages in. They would look him over, taking in his lean body, thin limbs with only subtle bulges, and would ease up. With his speed and surprising strength they would be left in his dust, if not on their backs before they knew it. He would have fit in well on any of the teams after proving more than one team captain wrong in the past. Unfortunately for the coaches though, Daryl hated school so much he would do anything to not linger any longer than necessary.

Every school has its fair share of trouble makers, who sooner or later ended up in serious trouble. A good number of them, or their parents, had received help from Jack to get out of some legal binds. Jamie had also put away some rather notorious hardened criminals over the years. More than a few were grateful to him for cleaning up the streets.

While all this affected only a relatively small portion of the student body, they were very influential groups. To the larger majority of his classmates though, he had earned a reputation as the quiet but approachable, helpful and friendly student. Daryl was always willing to take a minute to explain virtually anything to anyone. But no one could ever remember him doing anything that even one person didn’t approve of. That is except for a few frustrated former teachers. Then again he had never stood up for anything either. He was a dreamer and basically just drifted through life avoiding drama. That was likely because he was never a target, life seemed good, and he had no idea that high school could be anything but boring.

Eventually Daryl made it to the stairs just off the main foyer and ascended to the second floor. Turning the corner into one of the two main hallways he noticed Sam talking to a couple of lost looking freshmen. Sam was probably his best friend in the whole school, not because they had a lot in common, but more because Sam decided they would be. In all honesty, Daryl was happy to have him around because he was anything but boring in an otherwise tedious school day. Plus, just because most of his schoolmates respected him didn’t mean that they necessarily wanted to hang out with him. He knew too much about some families dirty laundry, had left too many jocks red in the face laying in the middle of a wrestling mat, and there were far too many who envied his ability to ace exams without trying.

Sam was on the shorter side for a junior, standing only a few inches taller than the two freshmen he was talking to. Judging by the smug look on his face and how it looked like he was talking to a five year old, slowly with an overly enthusiastic voice, he was up to something. It didn’t take long to find out what that was.

“Yeah, I swear it's there. They had to close it down though after this student drowned in it a few years back,” he heard Sam telling them once he was close enough to hear him. It was a classic; the old swimming pool on the roof prank. The head janitor hated the older students spreading this rumour as it meant he would find students in places they shouldn’t be, like trapped on the roof after the door locked behind them, for weeks to come.

“Look, all I wanted to know was where is room A211, that’s it!” one of the students said in an exasperated voice.

“Wow, really?!” the other said excitedly.

“Yup, just ask anyone and they’ll tell you the same thing,” Sam said, his lip twisting into a smirk. Then he looked up to see who he heard walking towards them. “Hey Daryl, I was just telling these guys about the pool.”

“Oh really?” Daryl responded unenthusiastically.

“So is it true?” the more gullible of the two asked. Daryl couldn’t help but chuckle slightly.

He looked at the skeptic before saying “You are standing in Block A, otherwise known as the ancient building, and we are obviously on the second floor. Check out the sign back there.” He pointed to a sign hanging in the entryway to the hallway they were in and continued, “This is Hall 2, so all the rooms are in the 220s. The 210s are in the other hall on the other side of the stairwell.” The kid nodded slowly trying to take in all he had said. Then he grabbed his friend’s arm and pulled him away from them, as he was still waiting to hear more about the hidden pool. Daryl looked over at Sam and shook his head. “You know you’re not supposed to tell them about the pool, it’s off limits.”

Out of the corner of his eye he caught the change in expression on the faces of the two newbies. Yup that did it. He didn’t like teasing the fresh bodies but he couldn’t let traditions like that die. As soon as they rounded the corner Sam burst into uncontrolled laughter.

“Dude, that was awesome. It took me five minutes to get the one of them going but you convinced them both in less than thirty seconds!” he managed to get out around his barks of amusement. Daryl started walking down the hallway and Sam eventually turned to keep up with him.

“You could have at least told them where their homeroom was,” Daryl stated seriously. “Besides if I have to suffer, then they have to as well.” He finished with a slight chuckle. Reaching the right door they both entered and made their way to their usual desks near the back window.

“Morning Mr. Darro, Mr. Lang.”

“Morning Mr. Taylor.” They both replied to the rather fat man sitting behind his wooden desk in the front corner of the room. He was sporting a rather dusty looking brown suit that the buttons could barely keep closed, his round framed glasses and signature moustache that looked rather like a small bush growing out of his nose.

Daryl listened as Sam chatted away enthusiastically about one thing or another. Before long a bell rang out, signalling the beginning of the homeroom session. Mr. Taylor didn’t say anything but rather continued to shuffle through his papers for at least another ten minutes. Finally he took out the roster and called for attention.

“Quiet now, quiet! Well by now everyone who is going to show up should be here. There are many start of term announcements that I must, unfortunately, go through. After that, I’ll give out your locker assignments for this year and finally you all get to suffer through an extremely long line up to get your picture taken for your school IDs.” With that Mr. Taylor called out each student’s name and recorded those who were absent before launching into several pages of announcements. Everything from reminders of school rules and messages from various team coaches, to the upcoming student president race filled the next hour.

Daryl spent much of that time zoned out until it was time to pick out a locker. One by one they were called up and handed a lock with the combo written on a sticker on the back. At the same time Mr. Taylor also handed out the various schedules to his students. Since Daryl’s last name was Darro, he was called up fairly early and managed to get a locker at the end of the hallway. With nothing left to do but get a mug shot, he headed back towards the stairwell and the gym one floor down.

As he descended into the foyer it was a lot emptier than earlier, but there were still plenty of students talking in smaller groups. Daryl decided not to waste any time and went straight into the gymnasium to join the line up of students waiting to get their picture taken. Since he had made it to the gym fairly early the line wasn’t monstrously long. Yet it still took him an agonizing 15 minutes to slowly inch his way across the hardwood floor.

Finally it was his turn. He walked up, sat down on the little stool draped with a black cloth and turned towards the camera. The photographer jumped out from behind his equipment and spent a good minute fiddling with various things. He pulled down a retractable backdrop that was dark grey and matched his skin better than the blue one that was there previously. After brushing some wrinkles out of Daryl's shirt he rushed back to his camera.

“Ok, three,” something didn’t feel right.

“Two,” he felt someone watching him. Well of course there were people watching him but someone was burning two holes in the side of his head.

“One,” he turned towards the crowd and his pair of greens locked onto a pair of blues. They seemed vaguely familiar but he didn’t know why. Remembering where he was he tried to turn back to look at the camera. The bright flash meant he was likely too late. Well so much for a good ID picture this year. Daryl stood up and headed to where several other students were waiting. It seemed the school had bought one of those special card printers this year so the students didn’t have to wait several weeks for their ID cards.

After another few minutes someone handed him a card. Looking down at it he couldn’t believe his eyes, not only were they not looking at the camera but they were so far off that it would have looked more reasonable for his eyes to have been closed. Plus, there was the additional tragedy of his mouth being slightly open and not in the good show-a-little-teeth smile type way either. It looked more like he had forgotten he had a jaw that was used to keep his lips shut. How embarrassing.

“Hey”

Turning to see who had spoken he met a pair of bright blue eyes. Blinking a few times he finally broke away from the staring contest and took in the rest of the boy standing in front of him. He was fairly short, had spiky blond hair, a fair complexion and clothes that were obviously no name brands but were flattering on him none the less.

When Daryl didn’t say anything he decided to continue, “Thanks for the directions earlier, they really helped.”

“Oh, yeah, no problem,” he replied, realizing that this was the freshmen he had helped earlier. “Glad to help. I’m Daryl by the way.”

“Michael,” the boy replied. Daryl caught a glimpse of his ID card as it was handed to him and noticed that his eyes weren’t focused on the camera either. It was almost like he was distracted by someone while he was getting his picture taken.

“So, Michael, where is your friend?” Daryl asked as the two of them started walking towards the gym doors.

“Jeremy? Well we just met this morning while looking for our homeroom. Probably searching for a way onto the roof. He seems a bit obsessed with finding the pool,” Michael answered. Daryl couldn’t hold a straight face for long and ended up bursting into laughter trying.

“Sorry about that, the legends must live on though.”

Daryl couldn’t help but feel glad to be free of the place as he walked down the front steps. It seemed that Michael was relieved to be leaving school as well, but Daryl got the impression that he enjoyed learning. There were obvious signs, his shoulders relaxed, his eyes stopped scanning all around him, and he even lost some of the color in his cheeks as his heart stopped racing. They came to a stop on the grass near the busy road in front of the school.

“You heading across the bridge Mikey, or do you live around here?” Daryl asked in an attempt to fill the silence. Michael’s eyes narrowed in response to being called ‘Mikey’, which meant Daryl had the right nickname for the kid.

“No, I have to walk over a few blocks and catch an uptown bus. My parents couldn’t afford much so we are staying on the other side of downtown.” It really wasn’t that far from here but it was definitely a poorer area. Fortunately there wasn’t a lot of crime here so it wouldn’t be a dangerous area to live in. Daryl noticed a couple of buses heading towards them so he turned to see if either of them was the one he wanted.

“Well that’s my bus, I’ll see you around Mikey,” Daryl teased again, as he stepped out onto the sidewalk where some other students were waiting for their busses.

“Later Daryl, thanks again,” Michael said as he turned and started to walk down the street towards his own bus stop.

By the time Jack walked in the door with a couple pizzas it was well after seven. He took the boxes into the kitchen and put them down on the counter. Judging from the sounds resembling an all out war, Daryl was entrenched in a gang war, or an intergalactic battle, or who knows what else. Following the explosions into the next room Jack found Daryl sprawled out on the couch playing a first person shooter game on his playstation.

“Wow, I guess you haven’t seen gore until you’ve seen it on a 42 inch HD flat screen,” Jack said feigning awe, “this is just what I imagined when I bought that thing you know.”

“Oh ha-ha,” Daryl replied, “You’re just angry I slaughtered you last time you tried to take me on.”

“Yeah, cause that was a fair match. Anyway, give the couch a break and come eat,” Jack finished. He turned back into the kitchen and scrounged around in the cupboards for some disposable plates; anything to avoid doing dishes. By the time he grabbed a couple of pop cans out of the fridge and sat down Daryl came in and immediately dived into the pizza boxes.

“How was school?” Jack asked. He couldn’t help but ask the clichéd parental question; this was usually more Jamie’s territory than his.

Daryl knew the appropriate response, “It was fine,” and then he decided to turn it back on his dad. “How was work?”

“Fine.” Jack replied. This conversation was clearly going nowhere very fast. After that the only sounds were of Daryl scoffing down an inhuman amount of pizza.

“Thanks dad, I don’t know what it was but I really enjoyed your cooking tonight,” Daryl jived before winking and running out of the room. That left Jack to clean up then mess as the sounds of gunfire erupted from the next room. He gathered up the boxes and took them out into the hallway and put them in the oversized garbage chute. After listening to the boxes banging softly all the way down the chute he turned to go back towards his door but stopped at the sight of a little white toy poodle.

The dog lifted his leg and proceeded to urinate all over the potted plant in the far corner of the hallway. Jack made for the dog, either hoping to chase it off before soaking the plant or to catch him and introduce him to the garbage chute. He would never actually do that to the dog, but it was a tempting thought. The poodle managed to make a small puddle around the base of the pot before scurrying off down the hall and through a half opened door. Jack made it to the corner and looked down the next hallway.

“Dirty pervert!” he heard Ms. Stalwort say before she disappeared inside her room and slammed the door. It only figured that a dog with no manners belonged to that excuse of a lady. With a heavy sigh Jack returned to his unit.

After a few more hours of video game carnage Daryl found it difficult to stop himself from yawning constantly. He just wasn’t used to getting up so early in the morning yet. Deciding he might as well turn in for the night he shut the TV off and got up out of the perfectly moulded couch. Maybe he had been sitting there for a little too long.

“Night” he said to Jack as he passed Jack's study halfway down the hallway.

“Night Daryl, see you in the morning” Jack replied.

As soon as Daryl reached his room he stripped down to his boxer briefs and fell into bed. He spared a few seconds to set his alarm clock before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Daryl awoke with a start. By the time he realized it was just his alarm clock it was too late, he was fully awake. After an entire summer without using it he forgot how loud the damn thing was. With nothing better to do at this point he got up and stretched like he had been hibernating all summer. Parting his curtains revealed a rainy morning. It seemed the weather reflected his despair for the first full day of class. He knew he would need a long shower today so he turned away from the gloom and headed across the hall.

Almost an hour later Daryl entered the kitchen fully dressed. Today he had on a pair of old sneakers instead of his tennis shoes and a sliver of a blue T-shirt could be seen under a black zippered hoodie. Jack was already seated, dressed in one of his best suits reading the paper. Daryl saw the bowl of cereal in front of him and decided to grab himself a bowl out of the cupboard. Jack spared a glance in Daryl’s direction as he sat down with a spoon in his hand and pushed the box of Honey Bunches of Oats towards him before returning to the paper.

“Sleep well?” Jack asked after Daryl had finished pouring milk into his cereal.

“Till the bloody alarm clock went off, yeah. What about you?” Daryl said.

“I was up late preparing for court this morning but I enjoyed the little sleep I did get,” Jack replied. “Running a little late this morning?”

Daryl looked up at the time on the microwave; he had just missed the early bus. “Shoot, um, only a little,” Daryl managed to say in between huge spoonfuls of honey roasted clusters. Within five minutes he was washing his leftover milk down the drain. He couldn’t stand milk on its own.

“See you later dad,” Daryl said as he hurried out of the kitchen.

“Have a good day, I’ll be there after school to pick you up” he said loudly enough so Daryl could hear him in the hallway. After a quick stop in his room to grab his pack and a water resistant wind breaker out of his closet, he was heading out the door.

He barely had time to exchange pleasantries with Charlie as he jogged out the door and down the street. Luckily enough there were several people boarding the bus at his stop this morning and it gave him just enough time to get there. Surprisingly not only was Sarah on the late bus but she was sitting at the back of the bus. There had to be a lot of people running late if she was forced to sit there. He spotted an empty seat across from her and made his way towards the back.

“Morning Daryl,” she said when she noticed him coming.

“Hey Sarah, having a rough morning?” he asked with a smirk.

“Just had some trouble finding my raincoat,” she chuckled, “did you have a good summer?”

“Yeah it was alright, nothing special but at least I got to sleep in everyday” he answered, smiling despite their destination.

“I know what you mean. Still I wish we went on a vacation somewhere. It would have been nice to go to the beach or something,” Sarah said. Since it had been raining all night the water looked rougher than usual as they crossed the Centennial Bridge. Daryl mused to himself about how unfair it was that time moved so quickly when you were late, and even faster when you were with someone you like.

Before he realised it, he was stepping off the bus right behind Sarah and watching her join some of her friends as they headed off towards the school. Almost no one wanted to linger for too long in the rain. Getting to homeroom early was preferable to being wet.

Much to Daryl’s dismay he found himself in math first class of the day. This year he had Ms. Chan, who much as you might expect was a rather petite Japanese woman. She was actually very nice, but her reputation came more from being one of the youngest and best looking teachers in the whole building. That was almost enough to keep Daryl interested; alas it was only 8:30 in the morning, making almost the key word. After going through the course syllabus she dived right into a math teacher’s favourite topic, trigonometry, also known as most students’ worst nightmare. The bell couldn’t have rang early enough for anyone in the room, and when it finally did they couldn’t make it to the door fast enough.

When Daryl made it to his homeroom he found Sam already waiting for him. At first Sam was annoyed that Daryl hadn’t waited for him the day before, but quickly got over it when he discovered they were in the same physical education class for last period. Mr. Taylor had very few things to announce after everything he went through yesterday but there were a few students who were present today that missed the first day. Consequently he spent most of his time getting them lockers and giving them a quick talk about what they missed.

After homeroom Daryl had Mr. Rutledge for English literature. A more boring class he couldn’t imagine. It wasn’t more than ten minutes before the teacher had distributed copies of Romeo and Juliet to everyone in the class and then assigned various students reading parts so they could go through it together instead of individually. Daryl lucked out and was given a part. It was less than five minutes later that he fell asleep on his desk. The lunch bell awoke him an hour later and when he raised his head he found himself face to face with Mr. Rutledge’s brown eyes. Apparently he let the class go a few minutes early.

“Mr. Darro I presume?” he asked but didn’t wait for his response, “I would appreciate it if you could stay conscious in my class from now on.”

“Yes sir, sorry,” Daryl said, embarrassed about being confronted about falling asleep so early in the school year.

“Very well, you may go,” Mr. Rutledge said standing and walking towards his desk. Daryl picked up his back pack and left as quickly as he could. The hallways here already crowded with students making for their favourite lunch spots. Like many kids, Daryl was far too lazy to make a lunch, so he headed for the cafeteria in the back of the school.

The cafeteria was naturally a social battle ground. The new juniors and seniors were marking their territory, as were the various school teams. All the younger or less popular students were trying to find where they fit in amongst the scraps. Daryl didn’t bother concerning himself with the pecking order and just joined the line weaving its way through the various displays and coolers filled with food. He settled on a pre-packaged turkey and Swiss sandwich. It seemed a safe choice compared to the kitty chow mien, the casserole surprise, or whatever other concoction the lunch ladies had prepared.

After paying, Daryl left the chaos of the cafeteria behind and headed for Mr. Taylor’s room. He was one of the few teachers that left his room open over the lunch period so students could eat in there.

In general Daryl preferred this as it was much quieter than anywhere else they were allowed to go. When he got there he noticed several small groups of students and Sam in his usual spot. There were always several groups that choose to eat here as they found it a safe refuge from their fellow students.

Daryl and Sam spent the remaining half hour of lunch filling each other in on their classes so far. Naturally Sam found it hilarious Daryl had already been scolded for sleeping in class but he let it drop when Daryl scowled at him. All too quickly the bell rang again, and it was time for Daryl to head down the hallway for his biology class. Since it was so close he got there before more than a few students had sat down.

“Daryl Darro,” a deep booming voice said, “it is an honour to have you in my class again but I daresay I expect you to do your homework this time.” Daryl had been looking for a seat in the back when he walked in but as he turned he noticed Mr. Jordan sitting behind the desk just inside the room. He had Mr. Jordan last year for his intro to biology class. Daryl couldn’t help but smile at the middle aged man with his large pot belly and mousey hair. He definitely wasn’t the best looking teacher in the school, but he was one of Daryl’s favourites.

“Mr. Jordan, when did they move you up here?” he asked the teacher.

“Well Mr. Darro, they converted my old room into an advanced biology lab for this class. I guess this was the only spare room they had for our lectures,” Mr. Jordan answered, “You better go grab yourself one of those seats in the back before they are all gone.” Daryl smiled and started moving towards the back.

“Yes sir, I should do that so I’m out of your earshot for when I start to snore,” he joked with his teacher, “but seriously, I wouldn’t get too hopeful on the homework.”

Mr. Jordan kept the first class fairly light, only introducing the course and telling them the various animals or organs they would be able to dissect over the year. That is before they had to give them to the lunch ladies of course. He was surprised at how many students seemed to believe that statement, although Mr. Jordan did have a pretty dry sense of humour that few students were used to here.

Finally it was last period, which meant that Daryl was on his way to his favourite class. When he arrived in the gym he realized there would be three grade groups sharing the gym. It looked like there was a class of seniors, one junior class and also a class of freshmen. He joined the group of juniors gathered around Ms. Potro and waited for her to start. Daryl had never had her before but he had seen her lead other class groups in the past. She was a tough woman, but she had also been on the Olympic team years ago so students generally listened and respected her, even if they cussed her out in the locker rooms.

She went through the class attendance before going over what she expected of them and how the class would run. With three groups using the facilities at the same time it would be a bit crowded. On the bright side though, they had the use of the football and soccer fields outside, the stage behind the gym, the workout room next door and the gym. There would also be occasional trips to local pools, tennis courts, skating rinks and a rare excursion to a bowling alley. She was half way through telling them that today they would just play some casual basketball when Sam walked in.

“Well, you finally decided to join us Mr. Lang.” Ms. Potro stated, putting him on the spot.

“I got held up by Mr. Hull in US History,” Sam said as if it wasn’t his fault. She just stared at him, and not knowing what to do he just stared back at her. Sam easily cracked first, “Sorry ma’am, it won’t happen again.”

“Good, now as I was saying, there is no need to change into your gym strip today but make sure you have it tomorrow. Split into groups and grab a ball. Also remember we are sharing the gym today with the other two classes so don’t cause any trouble.” She finished looking around at them all with a just-try-it look.

Sam joined Daryl on the way over to the basket holding a few dozen basketballs. Daryl couldn’t help but return the favour and spent a good minute laughing about how Sam just got reamed out. The two of them were just about to start a game of twenty-one when a familiar face approached them.

“Mind if I join?” Michael asked. Sam was about to say something but Daryl decided to head him off.

“Sure, the game is twenty-one. Mikey, this is Sam. Sam you remember Mike here don’t you, I think you were giving him directions yesterday, right?” Daryl smiled at how evil he had just been to Sam. Surprisingly he just tossed the ball to Michael mumbling something about shortest going first.

The rest of the class passed without incident, and by the time Daryl was walking down out the school’s front doors Jack was there waiting for him in his Lexus. The dark blue sedan was one of the few indulgences that Jack had, and it had taken him a rather long time to afford it when half of his clients could only write up an IOU. Daryl got in the car and Jack pulled out onto the road and headed for home.

Just before the bridge Jack had to stop and wait for the lights to turn green. While they were waiting a small crowd on the other side of the street by the river bank caught Daryl’s attention. At first he thought they were just students walking towards the uptown bus stops a block away but they weren’t going anywhere. The light turned green and Jack started driving again. As they started crossing the bridge Daryl got a better view, it looked like most of the student’s were watching a couple of freshmen trying to climb up the embankment. He couldn’t imagine why they would be down there. For a second he thought he saw a large looking senior grab a much shorter kid that looked like Michael before pushing him. At that moment though the bridge obstructed his view of the group and he didn’t see what happened. It all seemed so strange to him, why would anyone push someone down the muddy banks of the river. It didn’t seem like much entertainment, or a good way to impress anyone.

Before he knew it though Jack was pulling into the parking garage of their building and they were walking towards the elevator. As soon as they got in the door Daryl ran off to reform his indent in the couch and continue his battle. Jack made pasta for the two of them that evening, which they both ate in relatively awkward silence. It seemed that both of them had a long day and were content to just relax in near silence.

After dinner Jack retreated to his study to work as usual, and Daryl returned to his Playstation. He spent the evening playing a racing game though as it was a much more laid back day that matched his dwindling energy level.

“Night Daryl,” Jack said from the doorway, “don’t stay up too late!”

“Night dad, I think I’ll go to sleep in a few minutes myself,” he replied. Only a few races later Daryl decided to hit the sack as well. He turned off the TV and after getting a drink of juice from the carton, naturally, he went and got into his bed.

This time the alarm was expected and didn’t rouse him immediately. He allowed himself to hit the snooze button twice before finally getting out from under the covers. Considering the time he went straight to the shower.

In just under half an hour his old sneakers carried him into the kitchen, where the first thing he did was pour himself a glass of OJ. Jack had his back to him waiting for something to finish cooking in the toaster oven.

“Hungry?” Jack asked, pulling a toasted bagel out of the machine and buttering it.

“Mmhmm,” was all Daryl could manage while swallowing his juice.

“Bagel?” Jack offered, turning to hold out the buttered halves to Daryl.

“Thanks dad,” he said gratefully, taking the plate and sitting down to eat. Jack turned back to the toaster oven with a smile as he reached for another bagel for himself. By the time Jack was sitting down with his own breakfast Daryl was up and moving.

“Later!” Daryl shouted from the door.

“Bye Daryl.” He heard from the kitchen before shutting the door and heading for the elevator. This morning he didn’t have to run out the door but again only said morning to Charlie before heading outside. The streets were still damp from the rain that had stopped sometime during the night. But it looked like it would be a fairly nice day. The bus arrived after only a couple minutes of waiting and he wasn’t surprised to see barely anyone on the bus. As it was he would be just barely in time for Ms. Chan’s class.

Much of the day passed in an unspectacular fashion. The only two differences were that the teachers didn’t waste any time getting up to full speed, and he somehow managed to stay conscious during English Literature. That may have had something to do with Mr. Rutledge making him read the part of Mercutio.

During lunch he tried to find Michael but he honestly had no clue where to look and eventually gave up and joined Sam in Mr. Taylor’s classroom. Biology was a typical Mr. Jordan class. He started off by lecturing on the endocrine system, and then gave the class a good twenty minutes to work through an assignment. Daryl used that time to bother Mr. Jordan since they both knew he wasn’t likely to do the homework anyway.

The last class of the day finally arrived and Daryl found himself really looking forward to seeing Michael. He was a little bit worried that it might have actually been Mike who was pushed down that embankment yesterday, and worried if he was actually OK.

Instead of going into the gym he went into the locker room and changed first. After pulling on his gym strip he put his bag and clothes into one of the lockers and closed it. When he entered the gym he checked in with Ms. Potro who pointed towards the basketballs again. On the far side of the room the freshmen class was getting instructions from their teacher. From where he was standing it looked like their teacher was holding a soccer ball. The students filed out towards the locker rooms to get change and he knew they wouldn’t be back today.

Daryl and Sam spent most of that class playing HORSE. About five minutes before the end of the day they left to go get changed. Daryl had just finished emptying his locker when he noticed a bunch of the freshmen class enter the locker room, among them he saw Michael. He looked like he didn’t have any injuries from yesterday so he relaxed a little as he watched him open one of the lockers in the corner of the room. Returning his attention to himself, he started to take off his sneakers so he could change into his regular clothes.

It was strange. He felt like he was being watched again. He had just taken off his shorts and was about to pull on his jeans when he noticed a pair of blue eyes staring at his body. Immediately Daryl blushed and fumbled as he tried to pull his jeans up quickly. Michael, having been noticed turned away and blushed a deep shade of red. Daryl finished getting changed, put his gym strip in his bag and turned to leave the locker room.

“What the hell are you looking at you faggot!” someone shouted. Daryl looked back to see what was going on and cringed when he realized that it was Bill Barber who was yelling, and even worse, he was looking right at Michael. Bill was the stereotypical school bully, big and mean plus he came with his very own sidekicks Adam and Carl. Daryl would consider any of them very bright but they definitely had muscles and a bad temper. They looked for any excuse to give a fellow student’s kidneys a workout and with there being three of them you really didn’t want to get on their bad side.

The three of them surrounded Michael as the crowd parted to form a circle around them. They started to push Michael back and forth yelling various names at him. It was almost fortunate that they were so loud as there were soon yelps from many of the students trying to cover themselves as Ms. Potro bore down on the students. The bullies scattered into the crowd leaving Michael leaning against the wall. They had all but disappeared by the time she made it to the back of the locker room.

“Bill Barber!” she yelled at the boy as he tried to slip into the shower room unnoticed. “If I find out you had anything to do with this, you will be in serious trouble!”

“Yes, ma’am.” He said timidly before continuing to move into the showers.

Ms. Potro helped Michael up, told him to come with her and left the room with Mike in tow. Daryl didn’t know what to say or do. It took him several minutes to recover. When he finally did he just left the locker room and went straight outside to where his dad was waiting for him.

Daryl sat in silence the whole way home and went straight into his bedroom as soon as they had gotten through the front door. Jack knew something was wrong but decided to let him be for awhile. After working in his study for a few hours, Jack decided to order in some Chinese food. When it arrived he took it into the kitchen and unpacked the various dishes onto the large island. After putting some plates and drinks out on the table he went down the hallway to knock on Daryl’s door.

“Hey, I ordered some Chinese food if you are hungry.” Jack said quietly through the door. After a few moments the door slowly opened and Daryl walked past Jack and down the hallway. Jack followed him into the kitchen where they both sat down and started digging through the boxes of food.

After about half an hour of silently eating dumplings and Kung Pow chicken Jack was absolutely stuffed. He had been watching Daryl the entire time as he quietly ate. For the past several minutes he had just been spinning a dumpling on his plate with a pair of chop sticks.

“All right, what is bothering you?” Jack asked. After sitting in silence for so long Daryl was startled by his dad’s voice and looked up into his face. He stared at Jack for a few minutes. It was strange, after not saying anything for over four hours it seemed nearly impossible to get the first words out.

“Did you enjoy high school?” Daryl asked slowly.

“Well it had its moments, but I definitely had my hard times.” Jack responded. This worried him; he had never seen Daryl like this.

“But, most people don’t have any problems, do they?” Jack couldn’t help but let a bark of laughter escape his lips, but he quickly realized Daryl was serious. It was like he had hurt himself falling down for the first time and wondered if anyone else had ever felt that pain before. Could he really be this naive?

“Well, high school is a tough time for a lot of people. Very few come out saying they loved it. For many it is hell, but most fall somewhere in-between. Daryl,” Jack stopped until Daryl’s eyes met his, “what happened?”

“Nothing happened, I was just curious,” Daryl lied. Jack knew it would do him no good to push him now. He may not be a great father but he could definitely read people and right now Daryl needed some reassurance that the world wasn’t such a dark place.

“I see. Well, maybe I should tell you a story about a guy I once knew.” Jack started. He could see Daryl rolling his eyes a little but he believed he was listening closely, listening for anything to brighten his dark view of the world right now. Jack continued on with the story.

“This guy, I’ll call him Ben, had a deep, dark secret. A secret that in the little town he lived in was so taboo no one dared to even mention it. Despite this secret though Ben had a great life, he was captain of the varsity football team, he was at the top of all his classes and he was in love with a beautiful woman. As far as anyone knew he had it all.

Halfway through his senior year a new family moved into town and their son joined the sophomore class at Ben’s high school. He was a bit of a weird kid, kind of on the scrawny side, really into geeky things like rockets and this new thing called a computer. He had glasses that were practically binoculars and wore strange clothes that looked as though he had made them at home.

Needless to say he didn’t fit in very well and was constantly teased. Even Ben would enjoy laughing at the jokes his friends would make about this weird kid. One day though this boy was caught doing something that was absolutely unthinkable. After one of the regular football practices a couple of the guys were finishing up their showers in the locker room when one of them found him spying on them. He was hiding in one of the stalls and watching the guys on the team showering.

In this small religious community they lived in, it only took a few days before everyone knew he was a disgusting pervert, a homosexual, a deviant, a sinner. His parents were ridiculed for raising a heathen and they would receive unending advice on how to straighten him out. They took out their frustration on their son. They loved him and in reality didn’t care who he liked, but the stress of dealing with their neighbours made them lose sight of that.

Ethan, the homosexual as he was more widely known, went from being an outcast to public enemy number one. Most of the adults just stared at him, preferring to take their complaints to his parents. His fellow students were the ones that really made his life a living hell. Whereas before they would just make jokes or bump him a bit as they passed, now they would trip him, shove him just as he was about to take a step down the stairwell, and would destroy anything of his they could get their hands on. Things kept on getting worse until one day someone finally stepped in.

It was a couple months after they caught him in the locker room and a bunch of the football team had cornered him in the parking lot. A couple of them pinned him against the dumpster while others took shots at him. He was bleeding all over his clothes by the time Ben exited the school on his way to his car. The commotion caught his attention and he decided to check it out. As he got close enough he could see they had Ethan pinned and he looked like he was in a pretty bad way. Several of the boys were picking him up and about to try and stuff him into the dumpster.

“Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?” Ben asked. They all stopped and turned to see who had interrupted them. At first they were surprised it was him and not one of the teachers coming to stop them but seeing him they relaxed.

“Hey Ben, come help us dump this loser in the trash.” One of them said with excitement.

“I think he has had enough, why don’t you just let him be.” He told the group. They all got confused looks except for Ethan who for once looked almost hopeful.

“What the hell man, we’re just trying to teach this fag a lesson,” the same boy told Ben.

“Yeah well if you really want to teach him a lesson, you’ll have to teach it to me as well, because I’m a fag too.” When Ben told them this they all gasped at his revelation.

“What are you talking about Ben? We were just trying to teach this sinner here a thing or two. You aren’t a fag man, come on,” the boy said.

“Oh, you want to teach this sinner something do you? Well maybe we should start with your sins John, I’m sure your parents would like to know about you and your girlfriend having sex in their bed while they were at a Christmas party. Come to think of it maybe your girlfriend would have something to say about you sleeping with Becky last week.” Ben finished in a rush as he turned red with anger. Ben turned to look at the other guy pinning Ethan, Zach.

“Of course, there is your collection of porn Zach. Also, what about you Brad, I think your sister might like to know about you masturbating while watching her in the shower. Then there is Jeff, the only person to have stolen from the church’s food for the poor fund. What about Jason’s infamous vandalism of the mayor’s home last year. Perhaps the best one of all is you, George.” Ben had stared each of them down in turn and now shifted his focus the large linebacker who had been pummelling Ethan. “Sure you aren’t to blame, but your secret could destroy the whole town. The story of the poor little choir boy and the big bad priest."

As all the boys looked around at one another seeing each other’s secrets, looking at each other in earnest for the first time, they realized that none of them were perfect. That day they all seemed to silently agree that they would protect each other’s secrets and although Ethan’s secret was already out they could at least protect him from the rest of the town. In the months that followed life was better than ever for Ethan. With much of the football team protecting him not a single student laid a hand on him, and over time he received fewer glares from the adults in the town. His parents also started treating him better as they realized what they were doing, and as the town slowly accepted Ethan as the sinner he was. Don’t get me wrong, he never really fit in, but those were the happiest days he had ever had in high school.”

“So perhaps you can see now that not everyone has a good high school experience and almost everyone has trouble fitting in for one reason or another. For some it is the way they dress or how they look, for others it is the interests they pursue, or maybe their orientation. The most important thing though is that most will feel like outsiders unless someone helps them to fit in, or be teased unless someone steps in and stands up for them.” Jack finished the story and let silence fall between him and Daryl, so that he could think over what he had said. Daryl got up, walked around the table and wrapped his arms around Jack.

“Thanks” he said softly before he let go and quietly walked out of the kitchen. Jack felt it best to let him be. He put away the leftovers, and decided to turn in early.

When Daryl’s alarm went off Thursday morning he was already sitting on the edge of his bed. He had spent a lot of time thinking last night about what his dad had told him and found himself fully awake earlier than he would usually like to be. Daryl was both disturbed by how people could make someone else’s life so difficult and excited by the prospect of making things better.

Jack walked into the kitchen as he usually did every morning but stopped abruptly at what he saw. Daryl was standing in front of the toaster oven fully dressed and making breakfast. He couldn’t help but smile at this first.

“Morning Daryl,” Jack said casually as he stood next to him in front of the toaster oven.

“Morning,” Daryl replied, “bagel?” he asked holding the bag for his dad.

“Thanks,” he replied taking one out of the bag. The two of them stood there side by side quietly preparing their breakfast. They sat quietly at the table together eating, Daryl reading through the comics while Jack read the local news.

“I’m off,” Daryl stated after he put his dishes in the sink.

“I’ll see you after school, take care of yourself,” Jack said looking up at him. Daryl nodded before heading down the hallway. He grabbed his pack out of his room and left for school.

Daryl arrived at school earlier than usual and decided to sit on the steps at the far end of the foyer. It was strange, almost like he was seeing everything and everyone for the first time. Like being a freshman all over again. Students slowly filtered into the school and congregated in various groups. The most surprising thing of all was how different groups would interact with each other. Some would stop and say hi to each other, some would nod at each other, certain people would spare the time to make looks of disgust at each other, but these weren’t all that surprising. Every once in awhile a student would pass a group and then they would all whisper to one another before laughing. There was also the occasional trip, or a punch or push from a larger or older student. The most surprising thing of all though he would never have guessed at, was how many students knew each other and simply acted as though the others didn’t exist. It was almost as if the others were completely invisible.

Throughout the day he noticed more and more things about how people interacted with each other, and he soon began to spot people that seemed completely miserable. He didn’t know how he could have missed them before because they were everywhere. Despite his new revelations the day passed rather uneventfully until the last ten minutes of school. They were again playing basketball except today Sam and Daryl were taking on two other students. As he was checking the ball to the other team he noticed several people excusing themselves a few minutes early to go and change, among them was Bill and his cronies. At the time he didn’t think much of it.

Most of the class had gone to change but they were still finishing up their game so they stayed a little longer. By the time they had finished the bell had rang and the halls were filling with students. As they were putting the ball away a large commotion broke out in the foyer just outside the gym. The two of them went over to the doors and opened them to see what was going on. It seemed that Bill, Adam and Carl had decided to wait for Michael to get a little revenge. A large crowd had gathered to watch the show going on.

“Hey faggot, did you get another good look today?” Bill said loud enough for everyone to hear him as he shoved Michael.

“Yeah, you homo!” Adam said pushing him as well.

“You like staring at other guys, don’t you perv,” Carl said shoving Michael to the floor. Daryl could hear other students in the crowd shouting things as well. You didn’t have to look hard around here to find a homophobe, or a self-righteous bible-toting, right-winged religious fanatic. Daryl decided to make a move and end all this. As he took a step forward he found himself being pulled back. Sam had grabbed his arm and was pulling him back into the gym.

“Daryl what are you doing, you can’t get involved in this,” Sam said, practically pleading with Daryl.

“Let go Sam, I have to put an end to this,” Daryl replied.

“End this?” Sam said shocked. “Why would you want to end this? He's a homo, why would you stop them?” It seemed he didn’t care about Michael, he just didn’t want Daryl to get involved and get them both in trouble.

“Let go Sam!” Daryl shouted, even though no one could hear him as the gym doors had closed behind them as Sam pulled him back.

“No! He is just a faggot, let them take care of him,” Sam said still struggling to keep Daryl in the gym.

“You bastard!” Daryl yelled as he swung his free arm, hand balled up into a fist. He connected with Sam’s eye and he felt him let go of his arm. Daryl immediately turned to rush out into the hallway when he noticed that everything had broken up. The principal was standing in the center of the room with several other teachers. Michael looked OK and the crowd was dispersing; it was over.

“Freeze!” Ms. Potro shrieked jogging across the gym towards them. Daryl looked around in surprise and found Sam’s knuckles just inches away from him. Apparently, he was going to hit him from behind. “Mr. Lang, go wait for me in my office!” she screamed at him.

After watching him disappear through the door leading to her office she turned to Daryl and said, “Mr. Darro, whereas I do approve of you standing up for students, especially students in Michael’s position, I cannot approve of you fighting. I did see what Mr. Lang was doing but that does not justify what you did. I suggest you get changed and head home, I don’t think this would be a good time to get sent to the office for fighting.”

Daryl watched her stomp away and decided it would be best if he followed her advice and left quickly.

“What took so long?” Jack asked when he finally got into the car.

“I kind of got into a fight” Daryl replied

“What?” Jack said an octave higher than his usual tone. Daryl spent the ride home explaining what had happened. By the time they got through the front door all Jack could say is, “You better go to your room. I’m sure I’ll get at least one phone call over this and at least that way I can say that you’re being punished.” Daryl did as he was told. After all he had punched out his best friend. He just couldn’t believe what Sam had said. Sam really believed that Mike deserved to get beat up.

“You shouldn’t have hit him.” Jack said as he opened Daryl’s door several hours later. “I’m glad you stood up for what you thought was right but I don’t remember telling you to get into a fight. Anyway come on, even prisoners get to eat around here."

They ate the leftover Chinese food quietly in the kitchen. Within twenty minutes they ended up grabbing bits from each other’s day old boxes of Ming’s and couldn’t help but laugh at each others antics. After finishing they both threw out the boxes, had a quick hug, and decided to call it an early night.

Friday morning Daryl felt like he had just woken up from a very long and bizarre dream. Had all of that actually happened? Turning off his alarm he got out of bed and went over to the window. Opening the curtains revealed a normal day. The street was buzzing like it usually would at that time. All signs indicated this would be a bright day, despite the dark events of yesterday. It was funny how he knew it was the same old world yet today it looked so different, sharper, and more raw. He left the view of the world from his window for his morning shower.

When Daryl walked into the kitchen that morning he found Jack at the stove frying up some eggs and bacon in his ridiculous Bugs pyjamas. He smiled. Walking over to the counter next to where Jack was cooking, Daryl grabbed the loaf of bread and took out a few slices of bread. He opened the toaster oven and placed them on the rack before turning it on. After buttering them he put the toast on a plate and put it on the table. Next he grabbed a couple glasses and the orange juice. Opening the container he went to take a sip out of the spout.

“Hey….glass,” Jack said. Daryl stopped smiling at the man and then took the sip anyway. After that he poured them both a glass and sat down just as Jack started scooping the eggs and bacon out of the pan. The two of them sat there eating while Daryl read through the comics and Jack looked through the local news as he always did.

After they both finished they cleaned up and Daryl left to grab his back pack from his room. When he came back out of his room Jack was standing at the door waiting for him.

“Have a good day” Jack said as they hugged each other, “and please, don’t get into any fights today.”

“I won’t,” Daryl said breaking the hug. “See you later.”

Upon arriving at school it seemed that no one knew anything about what had happened between him and Sam. The incident between Michael and Bill’s gang though seemed to be the hot topic. Bill had been suspended for his part and the school seemed divided down the center. Everyone had their own opinion on the matter, but it was obvious that there were just as many people who hated Michael as hated what Bill, Adam and Carl did to him.

When the bell rang for homeroom after first period was over Daryl hesitantly made his way to Mr. Taylor’s room. He saw Sam sporting a black eye, sitting in the back corner opposite where the two of them usually sat together. Daryl decided to grab a desk near the front of the room.

Lunch was an interesting affair. When he walked through the cafeteria to get his lunch the tension in the room was palpable. It was almost like half of the room was staring down the other half. The lines seemed to be mostly drawn between social groups but in several instances normal cliques were separated, clearly unable to settle their differences over a homosexual student. As soon as he'd gotten his lunch he decided to return to Mr. Taylor’s room. He breathed a sigh of relief when only his homeroom teacher was sitting in the room. Strangely enough it seemed everyone was on the front lines of this issue today, and not hiding up here with Mr. Taylor. Daryl sat down and started to eat his lunch in silence.

“I see you and Mr. Lang had a bit of a fight yesterday,” Mr. Taylor more stated than asked. “I must admit that I am glad you finally came out of your day dreams and joined the rest of us here on Earth,” he said laughing slightly.

“Yes sir,” Daryl replied.

“Well don’t take it too hard, you’re a good guy and almost everyone looks up to you in one way or another. Just take it easy on the fighting, OK?” Mr. Taylor said, returning to the papers in front of him.

Daryl knew that Mr. Taylor had said all he was going to say, but Daryl decided to say “Yes sir, thank you sir.” He finished eating and then waited quietly until the bell rang signalling the end of lunch.

When the last period and physical education class had finally arrived the tension in the school had pretty much reached a boiling point. Half the students didn’t even bother reporting to their last class, and the principal was running around like a mad man trying to figure out how to get things back in control. In the locker room students nervously glanced around at each other as they changed. The absence of Bill as Adam and Carl changed in the back was obvious, and when Michael finally entered the locker room he was given a very wide birth.

Again the freshmen class was taken out onto the soccer field, and the junior and senior classes had the gym for basketball. Daryl and Sam stayed far away from each other, taking part in different games that were going on. About half way through the class Daryl noticed Adam and Carl leave through the back doors and he couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong. He slowly made his way over to the back doors and when Ms. Potro wasn’t looking stepped out.

Following the two bullies out towards the soccer field Daryl noticed dozens of students in the adjacent parking lot, dozens more on the hill leading up to the field, and when he reached the top of that hill and the soccer field came into view there were perhaps a hundred students sitting in the bleachers.

Adam and Carl disappeared into the crowd on the bleachers and Daryl decided to stay at the edge of the tree line at the top of the hill. Over the next half hour more and more students started showing up at the field. Eventually the freshmen gym teacher decided that things were getting way out of hand and decided to end his class a bit early. He told his students to go back to the gym and he went off in search of the principal. What he didn’t see though was Adam and Carl grabbing Michael as he was grabbing his water bottle that he left near the stands.

Jack heard Daryl and Jamie come through the door. They were late. He left the study and followed their voices into the kitchen where Jamie was standing with a can of pop in hand staring across the table at their son Daryl who seemed a little out of it but was happily drinking his own can of pop.

“What the heck took you two so long?” Jack asked looking back and forth between the two of them.

“Well now, that is a really good story,” Daryl said. He was about to launch into it when he was cut off.

“Well it seems that our young man here has had himself a rather eventful week,” Jamie stated with a knowing smile. “You remember I called you from the airport and said I would pick Daryl up on the way home, right?”

“I do,” Jack answered.

“I guess I got there a little bit early and as I was waiting I noticed a lot of kids running up the hill to where the soccer and football fields are. I wasn’t really sure if it was a school rally or a fire evacuation or what but I decided to check it out. When I reached the top of the hill I was somewhat shocked to see several hundred students standing in a circle around four people. Two of them were holding a younger student by the arms…”

“Adam and Carl were holding Michael” Daryl supplied.

“…while a third, apparently suspended kid was getting ready to hit him. I think you might know him, his name was Bill Barber.” Jamie continued.

“Oh, yes I know him, so what happened?” Jack asked.

“Well I think they might have hit him a few times. It was hard to tell as all the students were shouting different things. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole place erupted into a giant brawl. Then all of a sudden someone emerged from the crowd and shouted ‘STOP’.” Jamie whispered the word with hands in the air and mouth wide open as if that communicated how the word was yelled out.

“Who was it?” Jack asked, his eyes wide open as he heard the amazing events being told.

“Well at first I couldn’t make out who it was. The new boy and Bill started talking but I was too far away to hear. Things seemed to be getting more intense though as the boy who came out of the crowed started walking towards them. Bill was about to strike the Michael again but stopped to defend himself from the boy coming at him. He didn’t attack him though but instead moved to stand between Bill and Michael which is when I finally saw who it was.” Jamie said letting the excitement in his voice build to towards this very moment.

“Who?” Jack practically pleaded.

Jamie’s head turned from Jack, so he could look into Daryl’s eyes, “him,” Jamie stated simply.

Jack’s head slowly turned to look at Daryl, eyes wide in surprise.

Daryl didn’t wait for Jack to recover but picked up on the story instead, “After I yelled for him to stop he started shouting about how he had gotten suspended because of a pervert and how he was going to get him back for it. I told him not to touch him and when he asked why, and get this, I said, 'because I said so’.” Daryl let out a single barking laugh before continuing, “Then he looked at me as if to see if I was serious. I guess he didn’t think so cause he started to take another swing. The only thing I could think of was to get between the two of them, I’m just glad that he hesitated when he saw me running at him.”

Jack finally recovering slightly asked, “So did he hit you?”

Daryl, dropped his gaze and shook his head slightly, “No, he just stared at me for awhile. Eventually he said fine, Daryl Darro, this one is your responsibility, you just keep him out of my way.” He said imitating Bill’s voice before continuing with his own. “It was like we were agreeing to a treaty or something. Then Adam and Carl dropped Mike and the three of them just walked away. At that point almost everyone started murmuring like Daryl had just won an argument and they began dispersing. People who avoided each other all day because of this just seemed to walk away together talking as if nothing had happened.” Daryl stopped to take a breath after finishing the highlight of his story.

Jamie took a seat so that both Jack and Daryl were visible and spoke up again, “Well at that point the principal was heading up the hill with an army of teachers, only to be greeted by hundreds of students heading down the hill to go home for the weekend. As everyone was breaking up I could see Daryl pick Michael up off the ground and they started walking towards the stands which is where I was standing. I decided to go back down the hill and wait for Daryl to finish up but I overheard what Michael was saying and had to stop. He was thanking Daryl and saying he didn’t know he cared that much. Daryl was trying to play it down and as they reached the stands he went to pick up Michaels water bottle.”

“What? You saw that?” Daryl exclaimed nervously.

Jamie didn’t miss a beat, “Yes I did. So he started to bend down for the bottle and Michael leaned in and kissed him!” At that moment Daryl rolled his eyes before hiding his head in his hands. Ignoring him, Jamie started up again, “So needless to say Daryl was shocked and pulled back from the kiss after a few seconds.”

“What did you say?” Jack asked Daryl.

“I told him I was flattered but that I wasn’t gay,” Daryl answered. Jack and Jamie looked at each other and smiled, their son had grown a lot in the last week.

“Ouch, that must have hurt,” Jack stated.

“Well I thought you told me to stand up for what I believed in. If I had lied that would have just hurt him more. Wasn’t that the whole point of the story you told me? Isn’t that why you told me about how you stood up for Ethan?” Daryl asked indignantly.

“Oh no, you didn’t tell him that story, did you?” Jamie stated placing his hand over his forehead.

“Yes I did,” Jack said to Jamie, before turning to Daryl and telling him, “that wasn’t me actually, it was your father, Jamie Benjamin Darro.”

Daryl looked over at Jamie, his biological dad with some shock. He could have sworn that Jack was telling him a story about his own past, but the look on his birth dad’s face told him Jack was telling him the truth. He would have claimed that Jack was actually Ethan then but he knew his dads had met each other in law school. They had become friends while his mother was pregnant with him. Jamie really did love her, even though he knew he couldn’t ever love another woman. After his mother died in child birth Jack and Jamie slowly grew closer than friends. Daryl had always grown up loving them both as his parents, as his dads.

After the scene at River Ridge High School that day, the gay issue never really came up again. Somehow a majority of the student body elected Daryl as class president even though he never entered. The position was supposed to be open only to a senior student, but the principal didn’t dare try and give the title to anyone else. The events of Daryl’s first week as a junior changed him. He was no longer hiding in the shadows. No longer blinded by its darkness, but rather learned to stand up for what he believed in and stand out in the crowd as a true leader.
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© 2008 Myk

Special thanks to Gary and Jason for editing, I couldn’t have done this without their help. Any remaining errors are solely my responsibility.

I’d also like to thank C James, Graeme and TL The Writing Tiger for their contributions to making this anthology possible.

As this is my first story I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback. If you read this story, your thoughts and opinions are invaluable to me. All comments and criticisms are very welcome.

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