Daniel woke up with a start. What time was it? He reached into his pillow case where he kept his cell phone. His alarm clock broke when he accidentally knocked it down. Actually, he had thrown it across the room rather purposely, but his parents didn’t need to know that. Now he had to rely on his cell phone, which wasn’t very reliable. It was cracked and scuffed all over its face and back and refused to ring at times, this morning being one of them. The front screen had an alarm clock jumping up and down, but no sound was emitting. Daniel hit it against his hand and suddenly it sprang to life, playing some corny techno song loud enough to wake the neighbors. He turned it off. 8:10!? The alarm had been sounding for over an hour now. He had five minutes to get to government.

Class had been in session for 15 minutes when Daniel stumbled onto campus, panting from running from home. He turned a corner and ran into a man in a suit. It was his statistics teacher, Mr. Gonzales.

“Mr. Edge,” said Mr. Gonzales, not particularly angry, but rather amused, “Good morning?”

“Not quite,” said Daniel as he finished tying his shoe, a task he began but never completed at home. “Just a little late.”

“A little was ten minutes ago.”

“I know,” Daniel panted. “I better go.”

“Yes, you should. Have a nice day,”

Yeah, thought Daniel, nice day. Mr. Gonzales was his favorite teacher. He had known him for years since he used to live next door. He was reunited with him when he started high school and often when to him when he needed trivial things, like pencils or needed to type a paper that would be due the following period.

As Daniel approached his room, he stopped to regain his composure, then walked in trying to look composed, but keeping an air of disarray so that the teacher would know that he at least tried to be on time. Not that he cared what Bliss thought, if he even did think.

“Daniel,” said Mr. Bliss, “you’re a little late.”

The rest of the class was working in their partnered groups, but not hard enough to not notice him walk in and stare. This is why Daniel hated being late. He hated being the center of attention. The less attention, the better.

“Sorry, Mr. Bliss,” breathed Daniel, “no excuse.”

“That’s your first, Daniel,” said Mr. Bliss as he noted the tardy in his notebook. “Two more and you’ll be in detention.”

“That would be true,” started Daniel, “if it weren’t the first week of school. We get a week of immunity from tardies, so this one doesn’t count. I still have three left.”

Mr. Bliss looked at him over the rims of his glasses disapprovingly, but smiled anyways, “Yes, that’s right. Good catch.” He’d been corrected many times, but it’s usually a short, one-word correction. This was a nice, fat, elaborate correction that really made him look stupid in front of the class.

Daniel sat down next to…an empty desk. Where’s Mark, thought Daniel. As though it were an answer, Mark came walking through the door. He looked calm, yet Daniel could tell he was out of breath; it was the same show Daniel put on. Daniel couldn’t help but smile. There was something different. Ah, he was wearing a hat. In his breathless state, he looked sort of pleasing, almost…

“Sorry, Mr. Bliss,” said Mark, trying to control his breath to make it sound stable, “I don’t’ have an excuse.”

“Take your seat, Mark. This is a freebie, apparently,” Mr. Bliss cast a glance in Daniel’s direction, but smiled.

“So,” said Mark, not hiding his exhaustion as he sat down and got his things out, “did you sign us up?”

Daniel completely forgot about it, “Oh, no, I just got here myself.”

“Well,” said Mark impatiently, “go!”

Daniel was in a perfectly amiable mood until Mark got demanding, “Why should I have to? You were the one that was late!”

“So were you!”

“Not as late!”

“Oh, you’re ridiculous. Fine, I’ll go!” he said, throwing his hands in the air and standing up. “Guess I’m the mature one in this group.”

Daniel could take blows to his pride, but Mark was just too much, “Oh no you don’t! I’ll go.”

They both ended up walking together to Bliss’s desk.

“We need to sign up for our topic,” said Daniel. Mark tried to talk first, but Daniel beat him to it. Mark glared.

“Ok, which topic,” smiled Mr. Bliss as he got a chart out.

“Euthanasia,” said Mark proudly.

“Taken,” said Mr. Bliss flatly.

“Taken? What do you mean?” asked Daniel.

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot to mention yesterday,” chuckled Bliss, “Only one group can have a specific topic. First come, first serve. I mentioned it this morning, but…well, you weren’t present.”

Daniel and Mark looked at each other. Their eyes both said to each other, what an idiot! Now what?

“Ok,” started Daniel, “then prejudice in politics and society.”

“Taken.”

“Abstinence until marriage?” asked Mark, almost pleading.

“Taken.”

“War in Iraq,” chimed in Daniel.

“Taken.”

“What isn’t taken, Mr. Bliss?!” exclaimed Mark.

“Well,” said Mr. Bliss, looking over the chart, “I don’t see…no, that’s taken. All I can see is gay rights and how homosexuality is viewed by society.”

Daniel’s face dropped. Just the subject he’d been trying to avoid. Neither of the boys said anything.

“Listen, boys,” said Mr. Bliss, “this is the topic that’s usually avoided, particularly by males because they think that the class will see them as gay and whatever. Really, it just broadens your own understanding and really enlightens the class. Besides, the girls find the boys that do this topic very sensitive and understanding,” said Mr. Bliss.

What an idiot, thought Daniel, everyone will just think we’re gay. Girl’s won’t find us sensitive, they’ll find us gay and try to help us deal.

“Fine,” said Mark finally, “we’ll take it.”

“But,” began Daniel. Mark turned and glared at him, “We’ll take it.” There was no use arguing. It was all that was left.

“Alright,” smiled Mr. Bliss, “then here are your papers. You may go ahead and use today in class to work, but mind you, this is the only day in class you’ll get. The rest will be outside. The project is due one week from today.”

They retreated back to their desks. “Great,” said Daniel, “now we have to talk about why being gay is okay,”

“We don’t have to talk about that,” protested Mark, sitting, “we just need to see how the public views homosexuality. We could probably work in something about homosexuality being a key factor into eliminating possible politicians from competing.”

Daniel sighed heavily, turning to open his binder, “Why did you have to be late?”

“Why did you?” asked Mark defensively.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Daniel continued shuffling through papers, casting one sharp glance from the corner of his eye, “but I slept in.”

“Ah,” said Mark, “Well so did I.” Fearing he was being too friendly, he quickly added, “Not that it’s any of your business, either. Just a rough night.”

“Boo hoo,” said Mark sarcastically, “We all have those.”

“I wasn’t looking for sympathy,” said Mark indignantly.

“And I wasn’t ever planning on giving you any. Let’s just do this.”

So they got down to work. They argued little and mostly talked about what they needed to do, such as surveys around school and maybe around town. To their dislike, they planned a trip to the mall on Saturday to take surveys. Daniel just knew he wanted to spend as little time with Mark as possible. No arguments from Mark’s side.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“I’m so glad we have Halo tonight,” said Daniel exhaustedly as he sat down to lunch.

A day had passed and nothing exciting had happened. Mr. Bliss was gone and the students had another day of in-class time to work on the project. At this rate, Daniel would never have to deal with the insufferable Mark outside of class again. And now he had a whole two days away from his face.

“Yeah,” said Aiden, taking a huge bite from his large slice of pizza from the food carts. Over priced, yes, but so good! “It’ll be so much fun!”

“Just the three of us, Halo and lots of food!” smiled Daniel.

“Where is Roy?” said Aiden, looking around. “He never misses food.”

“I don’t know,” said Daniel, looking just as concerned. “I saw him heading to his locker after last period.”

“Me too. He was heading down the science wing on his way here.”

“You didn’t walk with him?” asked Daniel.

“Well I had to beat the lunch line, didn’t I? The pizza goes by fast.”

Just then, a boy in a hat came up to the table. It took a second for Daniel to realize it was Mark.

“Edge,” said Mark, “we need to meet after school.”

“Why?” he said impatiently.

“Because we have work to do before the weekend. I need to get this project done by the end of the weekend.”

“Why?”

“Because I do, okay!?” snapped Mark. “Now meet me in the library after school.”

“Fine,” said Daniel.

“Try not to be late this time.”

“I’ll do my damndest!” said Daniel in a faux-serious sort of way. Mark walked away.

“What a prick,” scoffed Aiden.

- - - - - - - - - -

After school, Daniel had to go ask Mr. Gonzales if he could borrow a pencil or something to write with for his meeting with Mark because he broke his in the last class. Mr. Gonzales’s class was way in the back of the school, whereas the library was way in the front. As it turned out, Daniel was 15 minutes late.

“You were supposed to meet me 15 minutes ago!” scolded Mark as Daniel came in, who expected the tirade but wasn’t in the mood for it.

“Funny, I had no intention of meeting you 15 minutes ago,” he said. “Oh, that’s right, you came and ruined my lunch with this delightful emergency meeting notice!”

“Oh, will you shut up,” said Mark impatiently, “now listen. Here’s what you need to do.”

Mark gave him a list of small things to do over the weekend regarding the project. Actually, they were all to be done by Saturday night.

“Just email them to me at this address and I’ll do the rest and have it ready by Monday. The presentation is on Tuesday or Wednesday. Since Bliss is pulling names out of a hat and there are too many groups to do in one day, we can’t be sure. Got that?”

Mark was already packing things up without waiting for a response. Daniel looked at the email address. It started with ‘Blondboy17.’ Mark frowned. “You’re not blonde.”

“Just email it,” spat Mark. And he left the library. Daniel just shook his head, “Lunatic child,” and he left too.

He had to drop by his locker which was near the back of the school. Somehow he, a senior, had gotten stuck with the lowerclassmen lockers. Great senior year.

As Daniel was unlocking his locker, Mark passed by as he left a classroom. Daniel rolled his eyes, “Doesn’t he ever leave school?” as a light breeze rattled leaves. Mark’s hat got caught in the wind. Daniel had to suppress his laughter as he watched Mark chase after it. Then it hit him. His hair.

It wasn’t a natural color. His brown was suddenly fading away, whereas just two days ago it had been a nice, shiny, light brown.

He was…blonde.