Rebirth - 6. Chapter 6: Dirty And Cheap

Aries walked up to the school from where Ian dropped him off about a block away, a plan agreed to by both of them, for the moment. He headed around the buses and then he suddenly felt someone's hands on his shoulders and he gasped, spinning around.

"You're jumpy!" Jay laughed. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, skipping a little too much, I guess." Aries sighed in relief.

"I can't blame you for that." He threw an arm across Aries shoulders, walking into the school. "I've been mega bored! Between you skipping and Sage..being all weird, shes like, she avoids everything."

"She's...having a rough time, what I heard." He looked at Jay and slowly nodded. "Yesterday had been a mix...but I thought it would end up being a really wonderful day, had a really high point, then ended in..well complete horror."

"Not good! Save the horror for Halloween." Jay laughed.

"It wouldn't even be good for Halloween." He looked around.

"So, what happened?" Jay asked.

"Well, this isn't the bad part." Aries stopped at his locker and looked at Jay. "I...met the love of my life."

Jay stared at him. "Are you serious? You? Love?" He softly laughed. "I just...never took you for doing the whole...relationship thing. You've always said you don't get deep. That's why we always kept it dirty and cheap!"

Aries laughed. "Won't that make a good song lyric? I'll have to pass it on to Gemini, remember it, write it down, whatever, I'll sing it for you." He shook his head. "I never thought I would either...but I have and...it's the best feeling." He looked at Jay and shrugged. "I can't believe I deprived myself of it, but I guess it's good I did, because I found the right person."

Jay nodded. "I guess that means no more..us, at least beyond, you know." He shrugged. "I'm happy for you, whatever makes you happy."

"I'm glad at least you feel that way." Aries closed his locker. "Sage...well, she kind of has feelings for me. She...kissed me the other day and...I figure she will be far less thrilled."

"What? Seriously?"

"Get this..." Aries looked at Jay. "Shes apparently crushed on me since 6th grade and was going to finally tell me the night I came out to her...she insisted I tell my news first...and that's how the chips fell." He leaned back. "So...shes probably going to avoid us...or at least me, if not drop us altogether."

"That's messed up." Jay reached out and snagged Aries hand. "This is still cool, right?"

"Yes!" Aries laughed and walked on down the hall with Jay. "At least, unless I hear otherwise, but he's mature, I think, and I'm sure very comfortable and confident of himself. I think the teaching gig is just a little..."

"Woah! You're talking about Mr. O'Ryan?"

"Cut my tongue out." He looked at Jay. "Yes, and keep it on the down low or his reputation will be on the line. Even though I'm totally legal consent, you know how those scandals get started, it's worse than co-workers hooking up."

"Dude, you got pull in that class." Jay grinned. "You can get our grades jacked, no detention..."

Aries sat on a half brick wall on an exterior hallway and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "I'm not taking total advantage of it, that's not what loves about." He smiled, thinking about Ian as he placed the cigarette in his mouth and lit it up. He handed over the pack and the lighter to Jay.

"What's going to suck is having to be all professional..." He lit up the cigarette. "..during class." He handed the pack and the lighter back.

Aries tossed the cigarettes and his lighter into his back pack. "I don't even know what that is going to feel like." He blew out smoke.

"Like shit, probably." Jay sat beside Aries.

"We'll see." Aries frowned and looked down, dreading the idea of being in the same room with Ian and being unable to truly be with him.

Jay leaned over and smudged out his cigarette half way down and then carefully put it in the side pocket on his backpack for later. "We should go."

Aries sat there, leaning back against a brick column and he took another drag of his cigarette. "I can't go, it'll be a wreck."

Jay tilted his head to the side and then reached over and snatched Aries' cigarette from him, took a drag and then threw it out in the grass. "You're going." He grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up and headed down the hall.

Jay walked into the class room and tugged Aries to the front row and let his arm go, sitting in his regular seat. Aries sighed and dropped his bag to the floor and sat down. His gaze drifted over to Ian in a troubled expression.

Ian looked right at Aries from behind his desk with a similar expression on his face. His eyes then shut, all the desks were full now, Sage had chosen to sit towards the back. With everyone here, it was time for him to come up with some other kind of sloppy idea. He was terrible at this job, a complete failure and as much as he needed Aries right now, as much as he needed to talk to him, he couldn't.

Aries watched him, there was utter silence in the room, however as the minutes went by, whispers started to fill the room. "Uh...Mr. O'Ryan, could I talk to you outside? I've been out the past few days and...well, I have few questions." His eyebrows lifted, hoping it sounded innocent enough.

Ian's eyes opened and he sighed with relief and nodded and stood up and headed for the door, Aries following after him as they stepped out into the hall. Ian shut the door and walked across the hall, placing his hands on the window sill and he breathed heavily. "I should just make this easy for both of us and just quit."

"What do you mean? What's wrong?" Aries leaned against the wall beside the window.

"I'm terrible, I'm a complete failure." He turned around and leaned back against the window. "I don't know what I'm doing, I just...come up with these half thought out ideas in my head just to pacify the students, give them something to do and...that's it."

"Are you saying...you don't know how to do the job?" He stared at Ian.

"I'm saying there is a big difference in learning something and teaching something." Ian shook his head. "I don't even know why I did this. Amber was doing it, so I just did what she did, and...then I end up being the one to work because she got pregnant and decided after all, she wanted to be a stay at home mom."

"No wonder you were a nervous wreck, you might as well have been on a stage and have forgotten all of your lines." Aries stepped closer and lifted up a hand, then painfully pulled it back, wanting to comfort him.

"I can't do it, I'll have to quit, getting fired...for the reason I would get fired for, it would just look awful." Ian closed his eyes and rubbed his face in his hands. "And right in the middle of a divorce, she could take the house...the savings...we could end up in that trailer park."

Tears started running down Aries' face. "You don't know that."

"I know Amber." Ian said. "I've ruined my life...and I'm going to take you down with me, what have I done?"

"I'll tell you what we do." Aries grabbed Ian's chin between his fingers and brings him to look up. "Shane became famous, we just have to find the man that made it happen."

"Aries, that's a long shot. Forty something years ago? Who knows if he's even connected anymore?" Ian shook his head. "Thanks for trying..."

"I haven't tried yet." He looked around and then leaned up and quickly kissed Ian. "Now, go tell the office that you're sick and need to go home for the day. Don't resign yet, we need to put a good story together." He ran his hands down Ian's chest. "I'll be out waiting by your car."

Ian let out a nervous breath and shut his eyes tight. "I should be the one taking care of you, I'm so ashamed of myself."

"Don't be...you just...made a mistake. You should of been doing what you wanted to do, not what she wanted or what she was doing." Aries slowly took his hand. "Everything will work, now get yourself together and go."

Ian nodded and let go of Aries hand and turned around, heading for the office. Aries watched him head off and then took a deep breath and headed for the front parking lot, knowing he would have to put in some phone time in order to search for this guy.

Aries pulled the phone to his ear after calling The Breakfast Hut. "Hi...I was calling...uh, no, I'm not calling in an order. I'm actually calling about the history of the building. You do know what it formerly was, right?" Aries looked up, seeing Ian emerge from the front doors.

"You do? Awesome. Did you use to work there?" He paused. "Happen to work there the night of the murder? I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out who hired Shane Lyndon that night. You do remember him, don't you?" He grinned, then his smile faded. "So you don't remember? Well...thanks, maybe I'll drop by for sausage sometime." He pulled his phone away and hung up.

"Who was that?" Ian asked.

"Sandra...ex employee of The Lounge and current employee of The Breakfast Hut, same building, you'd think she would have better memory." He turned to get into the car after Ian unlocked it.

"So...what is your next idea?" Ian asked, starting the car and he backed out of the space, driving out of the parking lot.

"The net, what else?" Aries started searching on his phone, his index finger working that screen, thumbs typing on the touch screen keypad when needed.

"Well, first..we're going by the house." Ian said. "I want to see if Amber is there."

Aries looked up. "Oh, I sure hope she is."

Ian frowned. "You won't go in."

"The hell I won't." He looked at Ian. "Okay, first...this is an equal opportunity relationship, as in you don't get to treat me like a kid."

"Doesn't equal opportunity usually mean open game?" Ian asked.

Aries' eyes shifted to the side. "Well, you know what the hell I mean. And secondly, I live there, and she needs to hear what she did, and I want her to hear it from me." He looked at his phone. "Besides, she was the one acting childish on the phone when she found out about me."

"True." Ian said, defeatedly. "I kind of just want to climb in bed, get under the covers and never come out."

"You can do that, I'm going to find this..." Aries grinned. "Aha! There he is..." He pulled up a page. "Hasn't been updated in...forever, it's more of a memorial page. He's not dead, but it's a dedication to his career. Has contact details."

Ian took a deep breath, seeing his house up ahead. "I'm going to let you do what you do, I've learned that with you...well, you learn from experience."

Aries saved the page and climbed out of the car when Ian pulled into the drive way, seeing Amber's car. He pocketed his cell phone and headed around, following Ian to the door, just as Amber opened it and stepped out onto the porch.

"The hell is he doing here?" Amber asked.

Aries looked over, seeing his suit case thrown out in the yard, his eyes narrowed.

"This is still my house too." Ian said.

"Until the proceedings start." She said.

"Thanks for throwing my property outside." Aries looked at Amber. "If it had rained, my property would have been destroyed, and you had no right to throw it out, since I was invited to stay here." He crossed his arms. "And do you really want to take this house from him? Especially after what you did?"

"What I did?" Amber asked.

Aries looked around. "Want the whole neighborhood to know, or should we take this inside?"

Ian shook his head and walked out into the yard to get Aries' stuff.

Amber spun around angrily and went into the house, Aries following after her.

"So, what exactly did I do?!" Amber screamed as she turned around to look at Aries.

"First of all, you meet this man, this really good guy, who doesn't know what to do with himself, so he just latches onto your purpose, does whatever you do, probably just to be around you, right? Even though it's totally not what he's meant to do, then what do you do? Did you just forge all of his assignments for him? Make it different enough so it didn't look like you did it?"

"Excuse me?! That...that...I don't even..."

Ian walked inside and tossed the suit case onto the couch.

"Stutter stutter...Then you decide you want to throw away all the hard work you did and send him out to the dogs, knowing damn well, if you were smart enough, you would have known, he didn't know how to even do the job he had credentials for, because why? You did everything to get the credentials for him?!" Aries sighed. "Amber, he was a wreck today, he's been a wreck ever since he started that job, making up shit off the top of his head like a kindergarten teacher just to get by to do that job. What did you do?"

Amber sighed, closing her eyes. "I...I thought he could handle it." She looked between the two. "Yes, I did his work for him, but I told him to read it, I told him to look over it, I thought he was getting it." Her hand moved across her forehead and through her hair. "I didn't mean to hurt him." She looked at Ian. "You never said anything to me."

"I didn't want to be a fuck up! I didn't want to be a failure...all that time I spent with you, sitting through those lectures. Amber...learning is one thing, but when you are in the other seat, having all those people staring at you...expecting you to lead...it's like you might as well take all of that learning you got and throw it out the window, because you don't know what to do with it, I mean, it's just a huge messy salad!"

Ian frowned and looked down. "Look, I know we're divorcing, and if you take the house, you might as well, because I won't have a job to pay for it, so I'll need some savings." He looked up at her. "I know you're angry, but is it so hard to have some sympathy? If not for Aries, I know you will never like him, then for me?"

"I wish you had told me." Amber said. "I do have sympathy for your situation." Her eyes shifted towards Aries. "I just have one question for you, when you said I wouldn't joke about your parents if I knew what he did, what exactly did you mean?"

"It's why I was invited here." Aries stared at Amber. "My step dad, Keith...he started..." He looked down. "He started molesting me after my older brother moved out. He's a drunk, he beats my mom, shes a dope head, probably the reason my real dad abandoned me before I barely existed." He looked up at her. "The typical stories that comes with being trailer trash, ya know?"

"Don't call yourself that." Amber frowned and looked around the house. "I guess...we can make this work until something is settled." She crossed her arms. "There's a guest room, it has a full sized bed in it, not the biggest, but I'm sure you both can make it work. Of course I insist on keeping the master because in the heart of all of this, I feel really blind sided by it all."

Ian sat on the couch and laid his head back.

"So what are you going to do about your job?" Amber asked.

"He's not sure, but I'm going to go get famous." Aries grabbed Ian's keys off the side table.

"Hold up!" Ian pointed at Aries. "You don't have a license yet."

"I know how to drive careful...and you look stressed."

"I can deal." Ian started to get up.

"How is he getting famous?" Amber asked.

"He thinks the guy that made Shane a singer will do the same for him because he's Shane's reincarnation." Ian said, heading for the door.

"I know he will." Aries grinned and headed out the door, Ian following after him.

Aries checked the phone and then looked at the house number. "This is it!" He yanked his seat belt off and went to open the door.

"Aries!" Ian grabbed his shoulders. "Be careful...this man is old, you can't just be in his face, hell, I hope his memory is even intact."

"Of course his memory will be intact." He shoved the door open and climbed out of the car, running down the walk way and up the steps and pressed the door bell several times and then knocked on the door.

Ian sighed. "This is like chasing a hyperactive kid injected with ADHD..." He mumbled as he made his way to the porch and up the steps.

Mr. Simms opened the door, appearing aged and old, much different than how he looked back when he met Shane.

"You're Mr. Simms, right?!" Aries smiled. "Well, recognize me?!" He waved his arms out.

The aged man stepped out onto the porch and stared at Aries, not even seeming to recognize Ian or acknowledge him. His gaze was drawn in by the blonde teen that stood before him. "My God...he was right, but...I never expected..."

"You remember then!" Aries smiled. "Well, first...sorry to tell you, I'm not technically Shane, well part of me is, his feelings, some memories, very few exist inside of me, and of course, I have his body." He paused. "Well, not his actual body, I'm sure that's old bones in a casket somewhere, but...I was made to look like him, it's part of...whatever made this...what it is!"

Ian's eyebrows lifted and his eyes shifted over to the man, known as Mr. Simms.

Mr. Simms slowly nodded. "He...said that if someone came with some kind of proof that...that they were him...to let them have access to his things."

"Access to his things? That would be great, it's not entirely why I am here though. One of this things would be his fame, right? Do you think I could get that? You're still well connected, right?" Aries asked.

"You...want me...to give you a job?" The old man questioned. "I have to tell you, I've been retired for years."

Aries nodded. "Oh...I might of expected, but you got to have friends, maybe they have some kids, maybe some grandkids, maybe even you do?! Once you got connections, you're always...in the know, right?"

"Could...I hear you sing something?" Mr. Simms asked.

Aries' eyebrows lifted. "I have a few favorite songs...I guess."

"Something original." He said

"Oh..." Aries looked at Ian and then looked at Mr. Simms, and the first thing that came to mind was Jay's little rhyme from earlier in the day. "Sure."

He cleared his throat, this was entirely winging it. "You've always said you don't get deep. That's why we always kept it dirty and cheap. Love is a long shot, that's a big leap. Do you want to risk it? Well, I say forget it, turn the heat up high, lets get down. Man, don't be shy. Baby, it's a circus, we'll hook up with a clown. Why? Cause we're real freaks. Come on, man, I'm the bitch boy, throw me 'round like a toy, get me off, get you off, did I really get off? I can jerk you 'round and fake it, you're a clown, you're a bitch, you aint got rank, you can't take it."

Mr. Simms lifted his hand and shook it. "Enough...enough!"

Ian's eyebrows lifted.

"It was off the top of my head, my friend made the first line this morning, by accident." Aries looked between them and shrugged.

"Why don't I just show you the shed?" Mr. Simms suggested. "Shane didn't think of it, but I found that a home bought shed was a more sufficient solution. Also any funds that he had left over, I feel like they should go to you, I never touched it after I bought the shed and stopped paying for public storage. Can I get your name by the way?"

"It's Aries...like the zodiac..." He shrugged. "My moms idea, not sure why."

Mr. Simms motioned for them to follow and Aries and Ian followed him into the house and looked around, his house looked old, even had that old vintage smell, it was obvious that this man wasn't into upgrading. Aries stepped further into the living room as the man pulled a check book out of the top drawer of a stand that a television sat on, he then pulled out a thin writing surface compartment just out from beneath the top surface.

"I've kept up with the amounts." Mr. Simms wrote a check and handed it to Aries.

He took the check from Mr. Simms and looked at it. "A thousand dollars? That's it?"

"Be happy you're getting that much, I could of made him a lot more famous with a lot more time, and especially if he had listened to my direction." Mr. Simms waved them on. "Come on, the shed is out back."

Ian grinned. "Prices were very different back then, remember that." He walked around Aries and followed the older man, wanting to make sure he didn't hurt himself.

Aries rolled his eyes. "I would of made sure my future self at least got a damn good inheritance from me first." He followed Ian and headed through the kitchen and out onto the back porch. He stopped when Mr. Simms turned around and handed him a key.

"This is the key, that's the shed. Doesn't look like you came prepared to move any of it today, when you do bring a truck, just walk around the house and load it up, or you can drive a regular truck around here. Shouldn't need a big truck, it's not much at all. Just leave the key under my front mat when you're done." Mr. Simms said.

"What about making me famous?" Aries said.

Mr. Simms turned around. "First of all, the only reason I kept Shane's stuff, the only reason I am doing this...is because I keep my word, and I promised this before I found out he was gay." The man said in disgust. "And secondly, I would never contribute to such a trashy song being produced, music today is trash, pure trash!" The man said, sounding bitter and angry. He then went back inside his house.

Aries eyebrows lifted and his eyes went wide. "First...glad he's not my grandpa...and so much for my plan." He walked down the steps and headed across the yard, towards the shed.

"I told you it was a long shot." Ian said, following Aries. "And that song..."

"Don't even start...Jay was talking and he just rhymed, so I took it, and I had to keep up the theme, so I went with it." He reached the shed and stuck the key in and unlocked it.

Ian grinned, a soft laugh escaping. "Well, for a song, I thought it was...fun."

Aries looked at Ian and grinned, then he opened the door. "Ugh, I hate these things, there always dusty and hot...and they usually have spider webs." He stepped up and then found the light switch, there was at least a single window in the back. "Not many things." He said, seeing several boxes laying around.

"I could go to the U-Haul and rent a truck, a regular sized truck." Ian said.

"Is any of it worth taking? You don't have any of Adam's things." Aries said.

"If not for you, then for Shane's family, we can get Amber to drop it off, I kinda get a sense that maybe...she's cooling off, she might do it for us, so long as we do the work." Ian shrugged. "Of course, we can't show up at Shane's parent's home, especially you."

"Go get the U-Haul truck." Aries looked at Ian. "I'm not leaving his things here with that grumpy homophobic old man." He said, angrily.

Ian nodded and headed off and away from the shed.

Aries sat in the shed as Ian pulled up and backed the truck carefully towards the opening of the shed. He looked up when the truck engine was killed and Ian got out and let the tail gate down so that he could climb into the shed.

"I found his diary...look at this entry." Aries grinned. "I created the best new system in the world, the cover letter. My best friend, Lily, will write Adam a note and I will tape my note to the back and she can deliver it to him and none of his friends will suspect anything. This will come in handy, especially because I have to meet him to tell him the great news." He looked up at Ian. "It's dated the night before...well, you know."

Ian grinned and lowered to his knees and he looked at Aries. "Sounds like something you would do...back then, if you couldn't come up with a more advanced way to do it."

Aries laughed. "Maybe." He flipped through the pages. "I hate Johnny, and I hate the others, I don't know how I am going to deal with them. The most incredible thing happened tonight, yet I'm crying my eyes out. Adam came over, we have an assignment together, I never expected it, the last thing that I ever could of imagined, happened, he kissed me. It was wonderful, now my heart is breaking as I think about tomorrow. I know he won't stand up to them, he would be outnumbered, his reputation would be ruined. I don't blame him, I would be scared, I couldn't imagine the fear and the pressure. How can I be so happy and so sad?"

Ian listened as Aries read through the diary.

"Adam talked about reincarnation, I never thought of it before. If I were to be someone in the future, I would want to be strong, and popular, and just out there, impulsive, even if it's bad. I would want to be the trouble maker that everyone couldn't help but to love, I would want to be loved for it. I would want to be the excitement, the life of the party, without any cares, free from anything and everything." Aries looked up.

"I think he got a lot of his wishes." Ian grinned.

"Maybe." He looked down and flipped through several more pages. "Finally home from that nightmare of a field trip, I hate gym field trips. Camping, what does that teach us? Like someone like me would care to learn about camping or survival. Yeah, I'm really going to survive when jerks like Johnny and his gang drag me out to the lake and shove me under the water and toss me around."

"For a minute, I wished I had drowned, I wonder if they would have gotten scared, or if they would have felt guilty, or if the sons of a bitches would of just went to prison. The thing that plagues me the most is why Adam never gets involved, he just stood on the shore, in fact, he broke it up when he thought they were going too far. They always call him the reasonable one." Aries closed the diary and put it back in one of the boxes.

"Could learn a lot from that." Ian looked around. "Are you sure you want to give it all away?"

Aries looked up. "I..." He looked around. "The curiousity is there...but then I don't know if I want to know how miserable Shane really was."

"That's just high school stuff." Ian looked around. "I bet some of these boxes have later stuff in it."

"After Adam died and he was more miserable, so much so...that Shane's career sucked and his inheritance to me...is a thousand lousy dollars?" Aries' eyebrows lifted.

"Okay...how about this." Ian grabbed a shoe box out of one of the boxes. "Old shoe box, certainly not what you would find at Shoe Show." He opened it and saw it was letters, some in envelopes, some were simply folded up. "I bet...letters from Adam."

Aries grinned and crossed his arms on his knees. "Go for one."

Ian grabbed one of the envelopes and took the letter out of it and unfolded it. "Shane, I know it's hard that we can't be together as often as we would like. I know it hurts that most of our time is spent in your room, half the time pretending to do that assignment, and that you're worried about what we're going to do because time is running out, Monday is the due date. I want you to know that I love you and that you are always on my mind and that I will figure something out. We will find a way, I promise you that, Love always, Adam."

Tears streamed down Aries' face and he shook his head. "Sounds like something you could of wrote...or would of."

Ian looked at Aries and put the letter back in the envelope and laid it back in the shoe box and reached forward and wiped his tears away with his thumbs. "Guess we're more alike than we thought."

He took a deep breath and slowly nodded. "Guess so." He looked around. "Lets uh...start loading it up." Aries stood up and grabbed the shoe box and put the lid on it and then put it back into one of the boxes.

Ian stood up and turned around and started grabbing some of the boxes and moved to load them into the bed of the truck, there were few of them, so this job shouldn't take them to long.

Amber took the frying pan off the burner and sat it down on a cool burner. "Hope you like eggs and cheese, got that, sausage...and ham."

"That's just fine." Aries said. "Better than two month old milk in the fridge."

Amber looked at Aries.

"I don't know if it was a prank. You would think I would of noticed it long before. It was just there one morning and...I didn't think to remember if it had been there the whole time." He sighed and looked at the news paper that was scattered all over the table. "Oh my god."

Ian walked into the kitchen and looked at Aries. "What is it?"

Aries picked up the obituaries. "It's that man, Mr. Simms...he died last night." He looked up. "They didn't waste any time getting it into the paper."

"Maybe they knew it was coming and they had all the arrangements prepared, so when it happened, they gave the paper the go ahead." Amber said.

Ian looked at Aries. "He fulfilled his purpose." He walked over to the table. "I'm getting in tune with this...fate and destiny stuff. He...did what he was supposed to do."

Aries looked up.

"That's sad..." Amber turned around and looked at Ian. "Another question, what do you plan on doing? Though it's entirely my fault."

"Yeah, you are getting in tune with it, as well as I am." Aries said, he then looked at Amber. "Well, just as easy as you did his assignments for him, maybe you could...uh...plan his classes? Tell him what to do."

"That's not exactly the point, Aries. I nearly have panic attacks, she could write me a script and...I still don't know if I could do it. I mean, you have to be good at the whole public speaking thing, you have to be good with people period, no stage fright, no...fear of leadership roles." Ian shook his head.

Amber stood there thoughtfully. "What exactly have you been doing?"

"Well, for example, the first day...I told them that the next day I would assign a person to them and to write an essay on how they are alike or not alike that person, write about their similarities and differences, gave them a free period until then. The next day, I laid a paper on each desk with a name on it, told them they could have a free period or start on the essay." Ian shrugged.

Amber slowly nodded. "Passive...but for a first day, not...bad." She turned and started fixing plates of food for everyone. "And I'm not ignoring you guys, I'm thinking." She said, setting up the table, gathering the news paper and putting it back together to get it out of the way.

"One idea...and while I'm contemplating, I'm just going to toss this out there, you could change jobs and do study hall instead, how hard can that job be?" Amber sat a plate down for Aries and then one down for Ian as both of them sat at the table. "Still thinking, just in case you don't want to do that." She said while she prepared a bowl of cereal for their daughter, Anna.

"Thanks." Aries said to Amber and then he looked at Ian. "That ones easy, it's literally a free period." He paused. "Not that you party, it's just a time for you to get done...whatever you want to get done, you're basically just a behavior monitor, really, most of the time. I lie and ask to go to the library, show up, just for looks, then disappear through the aisle's and sneak out and hang out somewhere."

Ian looked over at Aries. "Problem, they already have one."

He grinned at Ian. "I could get them out for you."

Ian's eyebrows lifted. "And just...how would you do that? I kinda want to hear your plans before you consider executing them."

Amber laughed as she sat Anna's cereal down on the high chair tray. "Would probably be a good idea."

Aries stared up at the ceiling thoughtfully, the clocks turning in his head. "Well...lets see.." He looked at Ian. "I do a strip tease on StreamUp...and during lunch period, while he's in the lounge talking to you, I go by the class room, hoping to catch him. I needed to...print something off that he showed me, hoped it would be in his internet history. Then low and behold, I stumble upon one of my videos. I click play to see which one it is...and bam! His dirty little deed, better report it."

Amber started laughing and almost spilled the spoon full of cereal she was trying to feed Anna.

Ian's eyebrows lifted. "First of all, I don't want you doing a strip tease, secondly, I'd think they would wonder why a minor would be doing that period, and last, but not least, that is one of the oldest scams in the book, I doubt it would get him fired." Ian leaned forward. "If you wanted to pull something like that, you would need hard evidence, email to email, something full proof. Either way, you aren't doing it...because I don't want you to do the one thing that creates the foundation of a plan like that."

Aries sighed and sat back, taking a drink of his coke. "Fine, bossy. Got any better ideas?"

"Not really." Ian said, looking down at his breakfast as he started eating it.

"Maybe I can mail him a box with a clock inside, he'll think it's a bomb and smash the window and I can have Jay waiting outside to snatch the box and run off with it, get everyone to agree with me that he had an angry, psychotic, outburst, that he busted the window and said he was coming after us with a piece of glass, that he was going to stab our eyes out and slash our throats." Aries looked up after a long stint of silence.

Amber laughed and looked up. "How's that for a plan, Ian?"

Ian cracked a grin, as much as he didn't want to. "You'd be banking really heavily on that clock ticking and him disposing of it via busting a window, and of course, the other students going along with you." He looked up at Aries and frowned. "It's just not going to happen, there is no realistic plan to get a guy fired."

"I know one thing we can try." Aries looked between Ian and Amber. "How much are you willing to pay my mother?"

Amber looked up, noticing Aries' seriousness. "How much would she go for...to do something?"

"To make a bitchy phone call? An easy job like that for three hundred, I am sure she would gladly take the money." He crossed his arms. "Of course..to do this, I would have to get a tattoo, a permanent mark for an uncertain plan."

Ian then shook his head, throwing his arms up. "No, sorry...but no. You aren't marking your body. Not going to happen."

"You know, Ian...you're getting a little parental over me." Aries looked at him.

"I know, I really know that, and I'm sorry, I don't mean to be." He sighed and reached over and took Aries' hand. "It's just that...you're too beautiful...to mark up your body, especially for a plan that you don't know will work." He looked over at Amber.

"It's okay." Amber said, shaking her head. "You guys are together...things are said." She looked at Ian, noticing that he was checking to see how she reacted to his comment.

Aries sighed and looked down. "I guess...I should...take that as a compliment. I just don't know what else to do."

"You go...it's a normal day, I'll take off sick again, there is no reason to be rash about what we're going to do. Amber, you can drive him, if...that's not asking to much?"

Amber looked at Ian. "You're really taking advantage of the slowly dying grudge that I hold." Her eyes narrowed playfully. "I guess I can, not that difficult to drive and drop someone off, just don't be testy with me." She pointed the spoon at Aries. "Finish feeding Anna?" She looked at Ian.

Aries grinned and Ian stood up. "Yeah, I got it." He sat down after Amber got up and took the spoon from her.

"So, hanging out in the grass?" Jay walked up and looked down at Aries. "Guess who I brought!"

"Stranger, what are you doing?" Sage smiled as she walked up, another guy with her, holding her hand. "Someone I want you to meet. Ivan, this is Aries and...well, vice versa."

"Jay...hi." Aries said, laying on the grass in the shade of a tree, he then looked up and smiled at Sage. "Hey, just scheming...or trying to." His eyes shifted to the other guy, who he hadn't seen before. "Ivan, nice to meet you."

Ivan, nothing really special about him that one could see from first glance, a guy with a medium build and a boyish face, more clean cut than Ian or Jay, dark brown hair, kind of long but short at the same time, he kept it brushed back in a neatly styled fashion but it didn't hang or anything, just made him look like one of those models with the big brushed back hair. He wore a black leather jacket, shirt, jeans, nothing characteristically special on the outside.

"Nice to meet you, I've heard a lot of nice things." He said, and there was a British accent, more to find out from Ivan it seemed.

"So!" Sage sat down, as did the other two guys. "What are you scheming about?"

"I need to get the Study Hall teacher fired." Aries said.

Jay started laughing and fell back.

"He might as well have a laugh button." Sage shook her head and waved her hand at Jay, looking at Ivan. "You see?" She looked at Aries. "So, how do you plan to do that?"

"I don't know, I went through like five ideas..." He shrugged. "Or maybe I'm exaggerating."

"Well, it's simple, you pick pocket backwards." Ivan said. "Get up and get in his face, slip a pocket knife into his pocket, then when staff gets called, tell them he threatened to stab you, when they check his pockets, they will find the weapon, that, along with your accusation of his threat, goes a long way."

"That's if you can get him to stand up." Sage looked at Ivan. "And who would call the staff? If he turned around and called them, his threat would be deemed a bluff."

"Won't matter by then, teacher brought a weapon onto school grounds, just as bad, if not worse, than a student doing it." Ivan grinned. "I can do it for you, if you want." He looked at Aries.

"Go for it, I welcome the help." Aries said, pushing himself to sit up. "You'd get a thousand brownie points from me." He grinned.

"You got it." Ivan grinned.

"So, you two..." Aries looked at Sage.

"Well, we have kinda been doing the long distance online thing, which sucks...and we agreed not to take it totally serious, but then he found out that his dad was expanding his company to the mid west and that they were just going to make the move out here and expand it across the country. So...now..." She grinned. "It's on."

Aries smiled. "Glad for you." He said, hoping that this would make Sage happy enough that things would be how they used to be, plus one new friend. Ivan seemed pretty cool so far.

"Everyone has love but me..." Jay said.

"Well, if you could stop laughing long enough." Sage put a piece of gum in her mouth and threw the balled up wrapper at him. "At least you can stop laughing long enough to have sex, I know that much, otherwise these two couldn't of done it."

Aries grinned. "Old times..." He shook his head.

"Good times." Jay said. "I'm still sad..."

"Oh stop, you will find someone." Aries grinned like a devil. "I got a conspiracy theory."

Jay suddenly sat up, his eyes going wide. "What is it?"

"You know every time Nash and his shit heads for friends mess with us? Well, if you pay specific close attention to..." Aries put on a fancy tone. "Mr. Wentworth Meyers..." He dropped the tone. "..you'd see the lingering gaze he gives me."

Aries goes on. "Either A. He's secretly gay and crushing on me, which is sad for him because I'm not up for the lotto prize, or B. he's secretly gay and wants to be friends with benefits, which is bad for him for the same reason, or C. he's secretly gay and wants to be a part of us, which is mad of him because it would require him to stir up a crap load of chaos...I'm talking the apocalypse with his jockey friends."

"What do we do?" Jay asked.

"Lets just say...I have been inspired...by an old idea." He pulled out a note book and a roll of tape that his mother insisted that he get and had never used, it had just laid in there forever. He then grabbed a pen and began writing a note, laughing. "Mr. Wentworth Meyers, this is Aries The Zodiac, you can find me tonight on StreamUp, if you don't have a user name, make one, don't be obvious either, and use the code word..." He paused. "Fancy...to identify yourself when you come into the chat, we'll talk." He then carefully tore the page out of his notebook.

"What are you doing?" Jay asked. "They'll murder him."

"Just watch." Aries grinned and handed the notebook and pen to Sage. "Write a cover note, just something to give you a reason to go to him and give him a note...from you."

Sage grabbed the notebook and the pen. "I have no idea what to write to him." She then pulled her knees up and started writing. "Wentworth, I love watching you play lacrosse. You may never see me there or notice me, but I sure notice you."

Jay fell back and rolled around laughing.

"R O F L" Ivan watched Jay and moved his arms around as if he were cheerleading.

"Shut up!" Sage laughed and continued writing. "I want you to meet me at Wendy's this Saturday for a burger, then we can go back to my place and you can show me some of those moves." Sage then tore the page out carefully and tossed it at Aries. "There!"

Jay kept laughing as Aries took the page and then started taking both of them and made rolls of tape and went to work taping his note to the back of Sage's note, with a blank sheet of paper in between, one roll of tape at each corner and a tape roll in the center. Once he was done, he went about pressing each spot to make sure it was secure.

"That...that is so sleazy! Sage!" Jay sat up, gasping for breath.

Aries folded the note into a square and handed it off to Sage. "Just go...and give it to him, tell him to read it and take off, don't give any of them any time to question you."