As I followed the Kinneys out of the room to go downstairs for dinner, Ilocked eyes with Meric. He slowed and then stopped in the hallway outsideof the hospital room and placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me as well.I saw Mr. Kinney glance over his shoulder at us, but he just slipped hisarm around his wife and continued on towards the elevators. I turned toface Meric, wondering what he was up to. It didn't take long to find out.

"Brandon...I want to be honest with you for a minute. My parents have afew reservations about allowing you to come stay with us. I don't. At therestaurant...it was like...like you were a completely different person fromthe one we had been with all day long." I stood there, trying very hard tocontrol all of the different, conflicting emotions running rampant throughmy body. Things seemed to be going well for me, I was getting to go livewith the Kinneys, who seemed really nice, and I was gaining what I was surewould be a best friend in Meric. But this same best friend to be justcouldn't leave well enough alone. He kept insisting on bringing up exactlywhat I was trying to put behind me.

"Meric, I..." I began. "I really can't talk about this...not yet. But Ipromise, if...when I'm ready, you'll be the person I come to." He seemedto be disappointed by this, but a smile almost instantly flashed back ontohis face.

"Okay, when you're ready. Let's go get some dinner." With that, he turnedand started walking down the hallway towards where his parents were waitingin the elevator. I glanced one last time at the hospital room where I hadslept for the past week, then turned and walked down the hallway towards mynew family.

Dinner in the cafeteria was...well...dinner in a cafeteria. Slightlybetter than airplane food and miles below home cooking. Mr. Kinney waseager to get going back home, so we were going to leave that night. I hadnever been on a long car ride before, and 7 hours seemed like an eternityto be cooped up in the back of a vehicle. I wasn't really looking forwardto it, but I'd have Meric to keep me company and hopefully I'd be able tosleep part of the time. Before we left, though, we had to stop by thehotel to pick up the Kinneys' stuff. As we pulled into the parking lot ofthe Holiday Inn, I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes,expecting to rest a little while the Kinneys carried down their bags andchecked out. It was not to be.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? You don't actually think you'regetting out of helping us, do you?" I opened my eyes to see Mr. Kinneylooking over me, grinning. I smiled back, sheepishly, and unbuckled myseatbelt. He patted me on the arm and turned to walk into the hotel.Inside, I saw Mrs. Kinney and Meric as they stopped at the door to theirroom on the first floor. Mr. Kinney was at the front desk, talking to theperson working there. I wandered down to the room and went inside to seeif I could help.

"Everything's already packed, Brandon...we just need some help carryingeverything out to the car," said Mrs. Kinney as I walked into the room.Meric walked past me, pushing a large duffel bag into my chest and thenpatting me on the back as he left the room.

"Hey, wait a minute," I called out to him, following him out into thehallway, realizing that he wasn't carrying anything himself. He wasalready standing at the desk with his father, and seemed to be ignoring meas I walked up behind them, carrying the bag over my shoulder now. When Igot up to him, I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and lookedat me questioningly. I gestured towards the bag.

"It goes out in the car...but be careful, don't break my MP3 player," hesaid, before turning to face the counter again. As he did, I caught thefaint glimmer of laughter dancing behind his eyes. He didn't really expectme to be his personal bellboy, did he? I was about to drop the bag rightthere at his feet, but I stopped myself. I realized that I didn't reallymind carrying the bag out for him, even if it wasn't mine. It had been along time since I had had a friend who joked with me. After everything theKinneys were planning and had already done for me, this was the absoluteleast I could do. I went out to the 4Runner and put the bag into the back,careful not to damage anything in it. As I was finishing, I saw the threeof them coming out of the hotel with two more bags.

"All set?" asked Mr. Kinney as he put the other two bags in the back.

"Sure am, Mr. K," I replied. We all piled back into the car and I settledin for the long ride. I realized that I was pretty tired, and I driftedoff quickly, the swaying of the car easing my transition into sleep.

I awoke from a rough poking on my left arm. I tried to brush it off, mymind still not fully aware, eager only to return to sleep. But the pokingwas insistent, and was now accompanied with a soft whispering of the nameBrandon. "That's me," my mind said, quickly rocketing back up to theconscious level. My eyes snapped open and I jerked upward in my seat onlyto be stopped short by the seatbelt, digging into my shoulder. I lookedaround frantically for a moment, feeling a little disoriented. The car wasno longer moving, and there was a hand resting on my shoulder.

"Brandon, it's ok...we're here." A voice came out at me from the dark ofnight. It was Mrs. Kinney. "I thought you'd rather sleep inside the houseinstead of in the car." I looked over at her and returned her smile.

"Thanks, Mrs. K. Did I really sleep the whole way?" I asked.

"Yeah, and you snore too," said Meric with a chuckle from behind me wherehe was unloading his bag. I turned to Mrs. Kinney for confirmation of whathe had said. I didn't snore. Only old people did that. She shook herhead slightly, still smiling.

"Come on, let's get inside. Not all of us got to sleep for over 7 hoursand we'd like to fix that," she said. I unbuckled the seatbelt and steppedout of the car into the driveway, my legs feeling a little wobbly afterbeing in the car for so long. I leaned against the car for a moment toallow my legs to become reacquainted with normal ground before stumblingafter Mrs. Kinney and Meric up the driveway to the front door. I stoppedjust in front of the car, rubbing the last of the sleep out of my eyes. Iturned on the spot slowly, taking in the neighborhood I was going to beliving in. The Kinneys lived in a 2-story rather large blue house with abright yellow door and a well-kept landscape. I looked down the street inboth directions to find many similar houses, yards, and driveways. Fairlystandard practice for American suburbs, I thought. But, I liked it. Ismiled to myself and walked the rest of the way to the door, where theKinneys were all standing.

"Welcome home," said Mr. Kinney, smiling broadly at me. I could feel thetears rolling down my face to crash onto the upturned lips of the largestgrin that had ever graced my face. I entered the house and was immediatelyaccosted by the most rambunctious dog I had ever laid eyes on. I kneltdown, realizing that it must still be a puppy, and gazed into its twodifferent colored eyes.

"And now you've met the last member of our family - Striker. He's ahuskie. We just got him a few weeks ago from some friends I know at work,"said Mr. Kinney from behind me.

"He's great!" I said, wrapping my arms around his neck in a hug. I stoodback up, stretching my back a little. Striker seemed to have given me hisstamp of approval as he quickly greeted everyone else before crashing outthe room in a blur of gray and white fur.

"Meric, will you show Brandon up to the room? Your dad and I are bothexhausted and want to get some sleep," said Mrs. Kinney, yawning. "We'vegot a lot to do tomorrow, so make sure you are both well rested." Withthat, the two of them headed down the hall and up the stairs. I turned toMeric who seemed to be the walking dead.

"Didn't sleep at all during the ride?" I asked.

"No, I can't stand trying to sleep in something that is constantly moving.It makes me ill." He looked a little queasy even as we were speaking.

"Well, show me up to the room and you can get some sleep," I said. Henodded and headed towards the stairs, leaving his bag in the pile at thedoor with the rest of them. I followed him up, dodging Striker as hedarted in and around my legs. I can't believe it - a dog! At the top ofthe stairs, Meric turned left and headed down to the end of the hall. Heopened a door on the right hand side and stepped into the room behind it.Following him in, I saw him stagger to the king size bed and flop onto it.I looked around the room, seeing the TV and stereo against one wall and hiscomputer resting on a desk against the other. Striker brushed against myleg as he rushed into the room and leapt onto the bed, running up andbeginning to lick Meric on the side of the face.

"Ugh, I can't sleep with you drooling all over me," he said, picking up thedog as he stood up from the bed and headed towards the door. After tossinghim outside, he closed the door to ensure that Striker wouldn't return.

"Where am I sleeping?" I asked. I had only seen one other door in thehallway, which I assumed was where Mr. and Mrs. Kinney slept. Meric wasback beside the bed again and was stripping off his shirt. I stood there,staring at his back, unable to focus on anything other than the newlyrevealed skin. He had such a perfect figure. No, damnit...not this time.I tore my gaze from him just as he was flopping once again onto the bed.He pulled the covers up over him. I guess he hadn't heard me so I repeatedthe question. He patted the other side of the bed, meaning I was to sleepnext to him. I gulped and forced myself to take one step at a time towardsthe bed, fighting a plethora of strange feelings that threatened to engulfme. I managed to get myself under control just as I was slipping into thebed and I pulled the covers up as well, trying to stay as far away from himas I could.

It was becoming obvious to me that no matter what I told myself, I wasstill going to feel a certain way towards men until I was able to fixwhatever was wrong with me and be normal. Until then, I had to controlmyself at all times and avoid any situations that would cause me to feellike this. Surprised to realize that I was still tired, even aftersleeping so long in the car, I closed my eyes and drifted off to thesoothing sound of the shallow breaths coming from Meric's still form.

When I woke up, daylight was streaming through the half closed blinds onthe window. I rolled over onto my side and saw that Meric had alreadygotten up. I could hear a shower running and I realized that there was abathroom that connected directly to this bedroom. I sat up in the bed,rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and looked around the room once again.Yep, still the same. I swung my feet out of the bed and stood up,contorting my body into a stretch that would rival the greatest of cats.Realizing that I felt pretty dirty, wearing the same clothes through a dayand night, I figured I would wait for Meric to get out of the shower andthen take one myself. On cue, the water stopped and I could hear a showercurtain being drawn back. After a few minutes, the door to the bathroomopened and Meric stepped out fully dressed but still toweling his hair dry.

"Oh, good morning. I was wondering if you were going to sleep the wholeday away," he said. I looked around for a clock to see what time it was.11:36 AM.

"It's not even noon yet!" I protested, smiling back at him. "Umm...could Iborrow some more clothes so I can take a shower. I feel nasty."

"Yeah, you look nasty too," he said, a mocking smile on his face. "There'salready a towel, wash cloth and a fresh change of clothes waiting for youin there."

"You really do think of everything, don't you?"

"Except when I forget something," he said, tossing his towel onto a hookbehind the door and leaving the room. I quickly went into the bathroom andshowered, eager to get downstairs and see everyone again. I couldn't thinkof a previous day when I was eager for it to continue. I was only evereager for them to end.

Striker greeted me once more on the stairs as I headed down to the kitchenI had seen the previous night. As I entered, the Kinneys were all seatedat the table in various stages of eating breakfast. Meric looked up at mewhile slurping the milk out of the bottom of his bowl of cereal.Mrs. Kinney glowered at him before offering me the choice of a coupledifferent cereals. I chose the Golden Grahams and sat down to enjoy thecrunchy goodness.

"Well, we've got a lot to do today," said Mr. Kinney as I was seated. "Weneed to get you registered at the school, buy you some clothes and a coupleother things for your room, stuff like that."

"Mr. K...I...thanks. I'll repay you for all of this, I promise," I said,feeling a little uncomfortable that the Kinneys were giving so much andreceiving only me in return.

"Nonsense," he scoffed. "Look, Brandon...money isn't an issue for us. Idon't say that to sound arrogant or anything, it is just the way it is.And we are always thankful for it. If we can share some of our goodfortune with someone, especially a member of our family, all the better.And that is what you are...a member of our family." I broke down again andstarted crying. I was beginning to think something was wrong with my eyes.They seemed to be dripping water more often than not. I stood up from thetable, walked over to Mr. Kinney, and then Mrs. Kinney, and gave them bothbig hugs.

"Thanks," I said again, heading back around to my seat.

"Oh, no you didn't," said Meric, looking hurt. I felt terrible and quicklywalked over to hug him as well. "That's better, now eat your breakfast,bro. We got sh...err, stuff to do." This earned him another glower fromhis mom as I sat down and finished my breakfast, not hiding at all the grinthat was permanently on my face.

The rest of the day can only be described as spectacular. We spent alittle over 4 hours at the mall, rummaging through Abercrombie, Structureand several other stores. It's amazing how many bags it takes to hold afull wardrobe! I still couldn't fully believe everything that washappening. I kept looking around for hidden cameras and obnoxious hosts tojump out and confirm my fear that it was all an elaborate joke. But, itnever happened. After stowing all the clothing bags in the back of the4Runner, we started driving again.

"Wow, I can't believe all of this. Thank you all so much!" I said, feelingextremely happy.

"You're very welcome, Brandon," said Mrs. Kinney, turning in her seat upfront to grin at me.

"It ain't over yet," said Mr. Kinney from the driver's seat. I wonderedwhat he meant by that as we pulled into the parking lot of a Best Buy. Weall piled out of the SUV and headed inside.

"Go pick out a computer and TV, Brandon. And try not to take too long, westill have to go to the school and get you registered. Classes for both ofyou tomorrow." I barely heard anything he said beyond my name. I juststood there, my mouth hanging open and a look of utter disbelief stamped onmy face.

"You're liable to have some bug or something fly right in there if youstand there like that. Now, hurry up," he said, grinning at me. "Anddon't worry about the price, like I told you earlier." This was all toomuch. Meric grabbed me by the arm and pulled me further into the store.We spent about an hour looking at all the different models they had, beforeI picked out a nice Hewlett Packard system with 17" monitor and a 27" SonyTV. Mr. Kinney didn't even flinch at the price of everything even though Ifelt a little guilty, as I had picked things that were pretty expensive.Mr. Kinney had said that he was a lawyer and Mrs. Kinney owned a smallrestaurant downtown, but I never imagined that they would be this wealthy.I know my dad had had a lot of money, but he never spent it beyond what hehad to, hoarding it all to himself. This was a huge change.

"Well, I hope you like everything, Brandon," said Mr. Kinney when we wereonce again in the car and on our way to the school.

"Like it? I love it, all of it!" I couldn't think of anything else to sayand even that seemed inadequate to express how I felt about everything thatwas happening.

"Well, good...because we won't be able to eat for about 2 weeks because ofall of it," he said. I froze. "Kidding, kidding! Don't believeeverything I say, it will definitely get you in trouble." I nodded, stilla little shaken, but smiling all the same.

We drove up to the school at about 1:30 in the afternoon. It looked like apretty normal high school...a couple large buildings with a full parkinglot in front and stadium lights rising in the background. The words"Thomas Jefferson High School" were visible on the building behind thewhipping American and Arkansas state flags. We pulled up in front of thebuilding on the left and parked the 4Runner. I was a little nervous aboutthis. Entering a new school is always hard, but entering in the 11th gradeseveral weeks into the school year was even worse. I swallowed my fear asbest I could and followed the Kinneys into the building and through a doormarked "Office."

"Hi...we're here to see Mrs. Jackson about Brandon here...we calledearlier," said Mr. Kinney to the person at the front desk. She smiled andnodded before picking up a phone and saying a few words to someone on theother end.

"She'll be right with you, Mr. Kinney. If you like, you can have a seatwhile you wait," she said, gesturing to the chairs arranged around theroom. Students and official looking people were pouring in and out of theoffice on different errands. Not one of them even looked at usuntil...Wow. Standing at about 5'11" with shockingly black hair and darkeyes that portrayed an anger at everything around him, this student seemedvery out of place when compared with everyone else I had seen thus far. Hemust have caught me staring at him, because he stopped what he was doingand stared at me, anger flashing behind his eyes. I couldn't tell if hewas angry because I was staring at him or if he was just angry all the timeand I was unfortunate enough to be currently caught in that gaze of hatred.

"You got a problem or something?" he asked, his voice brimming with a powerthat belied his frame. I shook myself out of the daze, surprised he saidsomething to me and then shook my head slightly. He rolled his eyes andwalked away, muttering to himself.

"Justin Benton," said Meric from next to me. I turned to him, surprised tohear the tone of dislike in his voice. "The resident asshole. Stay awayfrom him, he's just trouble." I half-nodded, assimilating this newinformation. I wasn't sure what exactly about him had caused such areaction, but I was fairly sure there was more to Justin Benton than metthe eye. Just then, an elderly woman wearing a hideous gray dress walkedout and motioned to us to follow her to the back of the office and througha door marked "Guidance Counselor." After everyone was seated, she clickeda few times on the computer, pulling up some information that I couldn'tsee.

"Brandon Oswald, correct?" she asked. This woman was all business. Inodded. "All right, we've received your transcript from your previousschool. I've taken the liberty of doing some preliminary placing for youbased on what you've taken before and how you did in those classes. If youdon't like it, we can change it. Here at Jefferson, we try to encourageall of the students to do the best they are capable of. We are on a blockschedule, meaning you have 4 classes a semester for 90 minutes each, with a45-minute lunch in the middle of the day. I signed you up for HonorsPre-Calculus, AP English, Physics and French 3. Does that sound allright?" I was still processing what she had told me and it took me alittle bit to think about the classes she recommended. I realized thatthey sounded fine to me and I told her so. She nodded, appearing as ifthis would have been my schedule regardless of what I had decided. Shepulled a thin blue book out from a pile and handed it to me along with acomputer printout of my schedule, complete with classroom numbers andteacher names.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked. I turned toMr. Kinney, who shook his head. She shook all of our hands and then wavedus out of her office. What an unpleasant person. Counselor my ass.

On the ride back to the house, Meric turned in his seat and grinned at me.

"What's the matter with you?" I asked?

"We've got three classes together...all except French. I'm taking Japaneseinstead."

"Awesome! Wow, Japanese...isn't that hard?"

"As hell, but it's neat. I'll teach you some sometime if you'reinterested." I nodded eagerly, thinking it would be cool to speakJapanese. I had already taken 2 years of French, which I enjoyed a goodbit.

We got back to the house a little after 6:30 and I realized I was starving,not having eaten since lunchtime. Striker felt the same way, and let usknow as soon as we walked in. It took several trips to get everything in,but we managed. It turned out that there was a guest room downstairs,which hadn't been ready yesterday, that was going to be mine. Afterdumping everything in there, we sat down to eat some dinner. I thanked theKinneys again and again for everything, still not quite able to accepteverything that was happening. After dinner, Meric and I headed to my newroom to get everything set up. He seemed to know a good deal aboutcomputers and electronics, so I let him do most of that while I took allthe clothes out, removed their tags and placed them in the closet anddresser.

"Ahh...there we go," he said, sliding out from underneath the desk where hehad been assembling the computer. He reached down, pushed the on button,which lit up a light blue color. "Cool."

"Definitely. Thanks for your help." I walked over to watch it boot upwhile he sat down and got the stack of CDs ready that he would need toinstall the extra software we had gotten for it.

"Anytime. I actually enjoy doing this kind of thing, so it's no problem.We've got a wireless router for the cable modem, so you should be ready togo online with almost no problem." I patted him on the shoulder and walkedover to sit on my bed. It had been a pretty hectic day and despite all thesleep I'd had yesterday, I felt tired. Besides, tomorrow was going to bemy first day at this new school. On one hand, I was very much lookingforward to it. I was going to get a chance to start anew and this time Iwasn't going to screw it up. On the other hand, I was absolutely terrifiedof what the day would bring. It helped a lot that I knew Meric would bewith me for most of the day. I didn't want to only talk to him and no oneelse, but it was good to have someone I knew that I could lean on. I wasglad everything was going as well as it was. Beneath this façade ofhappiness that I had plastered up, I could feel the anger, self-loathingand despair swimming around, eager for a chance to resurface. I wasdetermined not to let them rule my life this time.

I woke up the next day to the horrendous siren of an alarm I had gotten.It was the most God-awful sound ever heard, but it was what I needed towake me up in the morning. Striker had been asleep at the foot of my bedwhen it went off, but he leaped up when it went off, barked once, andbounded out of the room. I yawned, rubbed my eyes a couple times beforeforcing myself to get up. I didn't want to be late, not on this day.Grabbing some of my new clothes and a towel, I trudged into the bathroom toprepare for the day.

Feeling much more alive after a nice hot shower, I headed over to thekitchen for breakfast. Mrs. Kinney had made French toast for us, which wasdelicious. I glanced over at the clock and realized that it was just abouttime to go.

"Ready for your big day, Brandon?" asked Mr. Kinney.

"I think I am. A little nervous, but I think I'll make it," I said,gulping down the last of my orange juice.

Mr. Kinney drove us to school, dropping us off about 10 minutes before thefirst bell for homeroom rang. I didn't have that with Meric, as it wasassigned based on last name, but he showed me to the room before hurryingoff to his own. We would be in pre-calculus together in just a littlewhile. I figured I could survive on my own until then. Committing thedirections to my first class that he had given me to memory, I took a deepbreath and walked into my homeroom.

The teacher, a Mrs. Smith, waved me over to her, checked my schedule,welcomed me to the school and then pointed to the only seat still open,which was in the front row. Great. I slid into the seat, dropping my bookbag onto the ground next to me and trying my best not to be seen or heard.It worked pretty well as no one in the room even looked at me that I couldtell. Perhaps when I felt a little more comfortable here I would beinterested in trying to make friends, but for the moment I was happy justto get through the day.

After the morning announcements and the pledge, the bell rang again. Theclassroom exploded as kids all around jumped up and headed off to theirvarious first classes. I was one of the last to leave the room and Ientered the hallway hesitantly. I recalled what I had been told about howto get to the next classroom, and I headed off that way. I rounded whatwas supposed to be the last corner right as someone else did coming theother way. We slammed into each other. He had been carrying a couplebooks that were now sprawled out on the ground next to both of us. I stoodup shakily and leaned down to help pick up the books. However, the otherperson grabbed them before I could and when I stood back up, I found myselfstaring right into the brooding face I had first encountered the day beforein the office.

"Oh, great...it's you," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Watch where you'regoing, asshole." With that, he pushed past me and continued on down thehallway before ducking into a classroom on the left hand side. I justshook my head, brushed my shirt flat against my chest and walked the last10 feet or so and entered my first class of the day. Meric was alreadythere, sitting in the second row, with his book bag reserving a seat nextto him. He waved to me a little and I grinned back before heading over toplop down next to him.

Mr. Fallon's math class proved to be fairly dull and probably fairly easy.I had always been pretty good with math and I had no worries aboutpre-calculus. This was the first time I had seen Meric in a group of hispeers, and I was amazed. He seemed to know everyone by first name, nomatter who they were or what they looked like and they all knew him aswell. It wasn't that he was Mr. Popular or anything...he just had anatural charisma about him that allowed him to talk to anyone aboutanything. I was very thankful that this was the person to be my newbrother.

The next class was more of the same, just a different subject. I knew thatI could do well in all my classes, like I always had, with just a bit ofwork. About halfway through the class, Mrs. Pierce announced that we wouldbe doing a research project on a famous author with a partner and that itwould be due in two weeks. I immediately turned to Meric, who was alsolooking at me and smiling. I reached down to get some paper out of my bag,but when I turned back to him he had scooted his desk closer to the personon the other side of him. I felt hurt and just sat there staring at mydesk drawing small figures in the top corners of the paper.

"All right, everyone find a partner?" asked Mrs. Pierce. I was about toraise my hand when I heard a voice from the back of the room.

"I didn't." I turned in my seat to see Justin sitting back there, lookingsullen as ever.

"Yes, well...anyone else?"

"Me," I said, both trepidation and excitement running through me. DidMeric intend this to happen, knowing that Justin wouldn't have a partner?

"Well, there you go...Justin and Brandon, you can be partners," saidMrs. Pierce before she sat down behind her desk and began grading somepapers.

"Fantastic," muttered Justin as he got up from the back of the room andcame and sat down beside me in an empty desk. "We're doing Kafka." I hadnever heard of this particular author, but I was eager to make this work soI nodded in agreement.

"Do you want to get together some-" I started to say.

"No."

"Oh...well...how do you want to do this then?"

"I'll tell you what to do for research, you do it, and I'll write thepaper."

"Oh...ok...I guess that works." It was actually depressing to talk to him.He exhibited nothing that would hint at anything positive about hisattitude, and after having said what little he did, he didn't speak for theremaining half hour of the class. He pulled out a book, "Ender's Game" byOrson Scott Card, and started reading. It happened to be one of myfavorites, and I filed that piece of information in the back of my mind asa possible future topic to talk about with him. Maybe he would lighten upwhen talking about something he enjoyed.

After what seemed an eternity, the bell finally rang, releasing us forlunch. I had brought some money, hoping to buy something small to eat. Iwasn't a big fan of lunch as I was generally still full from breakfast andtended to eat a large dinner. Usually, a small bag of crackers and a drinkwas enough for me, which I picked up from the cafeteria. I headed outsidewith Meric, as it was a nice day. Some students were throwing a footballaround on the front lawn area and I sat down at a bench where I was able towatch them.

"I used to play football," I said to Meric in between bites.

"Really? When?"

"When I was younger. My da...well, let's just say I played quite a bit. Iguess I was all right, but it's been a little while." I had to catchmyself. My father had basically forced me to sign up for football, and Iplayed for a few years. Eventually, I came to love it even though it hadoriginally come from him. Probably the only thing I enjoyed that involvedhim. I didn't really want to bring him up, probably never again. Mericeither didn't catch what I was doing, or pretended not to.

"Awesome...our team sucks, though. I don't think I've even gone to one oftheir games since I've been here."

"I miss it, I guess...it was a large part of my life back then. Maybesomeday I'll get back into it." As I finished talking, the football thatthe other kids had been throwing around bounced and stopped right at myfeet. I looked up to see someone jogging towards us, probably to get theball back. I put down my can of Coke and reached down to pick up thefootball. I looked back up to see that the guy had stopped about 10 feetaway from me and had his hands out ready to catch the ball. I looked pasthim to where everyone else was standing about 35 yards away. What thehell.

I planted my feet, raised my arm and gunned a pass over the head of thenearest kid towards the group of the rest of them. The tight spiral of thepass cut through the air, landing right in the arms of one of the kids, whoquickly pulled it against his chest. I grinned a bit to myself, happy thatI still had the arm I remembered. I looked back at the boy who had come toretrieve the ball. He was just standing there staring at me, his mouthagape. He stood there for a few moments longer, before turning andsprinting through the door that led to the cafeteria of the school. Ishrugged, and sat back down to finish my drink.

"Damn dude, you've got a fucking cannon," said Meric from beside me. Ishrugged, brushing it off.

"It's no big deal, lots of people can throw a football."

"Not like that, and not around here." I shrugged again, a littleembarrassed by the attention. I looked up and saw that the group who hadbeen playing were now standing around and talking to each other and everyonce and awhile one of them would point in my direction. I got scared,thinking they were going to come try to beat me up for showing them up. Istood up, ready to run into the school.

"Where are you going? We've got a good 20 minutes left," said Meric, alsostanding, but looking like he didn't really want to leave. I didn't sayanything, but began gazing around, assessing the situation. I saw the boywho had come to get the football coming out of the school again, but thistime he was followed by an older man who was wearing a ball cap.

"Hey...Hey!" I turned to face them completely as he called out to me. Iwondered if I was going to get into some trouble or something. Why elsewould he have gone to get a teacher?

"Tom here tells me you know how to throw a football...that right?" askedthe man who had come out with the boy. I turned to see the other group ofkids had started moving towards us.

"Yes, a little," I said, turning back to the man.

"Little my ass," said the kid who I assumed was the Tom that the man wasreferring to.

"I'm Coach Thomas. What's your name, son?"

"Brandon...Brandon Oswald," I replied, wondering where this was going.

"Well, Brandon...have you ever played any ball?"

"Yes, sir...when I was younger for a few years." The coach turned to theapproaching group of kids and looked them over for a minute.

"Bryce! Get over here. The rest of you, move out of the way," yelled thecoach. One of the boys broke out of the pack and jogged over. He was talland looked fast. The coach turned to me. "Do you know what a post patternis?" I nodded, finally beginning to see what was going on. What Meric hadsaid and the way these boys all reacted to me was all fitting into place.I grinned a little. Bryce handed me the football, which I gripped firmly,my fingers sliding familiarly in between the laces. The coach and Tomstepped back away from me, and I looked downfield to see that a long striphad been cleared of students. In fact, quite a few of the people who hadbeen eating lunch outside were now looking at us, trying to see what wasgoing on.

"Go!" I said, taking a 5-step drop, the football held up in my right arm.I watched Jackson sprint about 15 yards down the field before cuttingdiagonally inward. I launched the ball and watched it sail toward him. Hecaught it mid stride about 25 yards down the field and continued running.

"Holy shit," said the coach. I turned to him. "Hot damn, you've got anarm boy. Look, we haven't been able to field a team because we haven't hada quarterback worth a damn for about 3 years now. Why don't you come playball for me, son?" I stood there for a minute, making it seem like I wasseriously considering his offer. I had already figured out what was goingon and had already decided, but I didn't want to seem overly eager.Finally I nodded and smiled a little. The gathered people gave a bit of acheer and the coach smiled for the first time.

"Great, come to the locker room tomorrow afternoon about 3:30 and we'll getstarted," said Coach. He turned and walked back inside the building,leaving me surrounded by half of the Jefferson football team. It was alittle intimidating. But, they seemed genuinely happy to meet me. Allexcept one, who glared at me from the back of the group. I shrugged tomyself. Can't win them all. The team wanted me to come throw with them,but I declined, wanting to just finish off my lunch and spend some moretime with Meric. They seemed a little down but I promised that I wouldplay some with them the next day.

"Fucking awesome!" said Meric after they had all left. "Your first dayhere and you're going to be quarterback for the football team. I'd sayyou're fitting in well." I grinned at him, feeling great.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I had two further classes,which went by pretty quickly and when 3:05 rolled around and the final bellrang, I hurried down to the parking lot to catch the bus with Meric. Theride home was quick as we were only the second stop. I passed the nextcouple hours checking out my computer and playing with Meric and Striker inthe backyard. It felt good.

Mr. and Mrs. Kinney came home a little after 6:00. She headed to thekitchen to start working on dinner while Mr. Kinney went upstairs tochange. Meric and I brought the dog back inside when we heard them in thehouse.

"Hi mom...dad!" yelled Meric as we came in.

"Hi honey. Have a good day?" Mrs. Kinney smiled at us from where she wascutting up some carrots next to the stove.

"Yeah, but Brandon's was better," he said, a huge grin on his face. Icould tell he was about to explode with the news.

"Nah, it's not that big a deal," I said, hiding the smile on my face.

"Not that...not that big a deal?!" sputtered Meric. "Tell her or I'm goingto."

"Oh, all right...if you insist. At lunch today, some other kids wereplaying football and the ball they were using bounced over to where we weresitting. I threw it back to them and apparently they thought I was goodand Coach Thomas offered me the quarterback spot on the team," I said,trying to act like things of this nature happened every day.

"No shit?" I turned to see Mr. Kinney standing in the doorway of thekitchen, his tie off and the top of his shirt unbuttoned. "Sounds likeyou're fitting in just fine here, Brandon."

I returned the smile he gave me. Mrs. Kinney walked over and gave me a bighug before returning to what she was doing at the stove. I helped to setthe table for dinner, all of the fears I had felt earlier in the day washedaway by the happiness that radiated from everyone in the room.

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