Danny put the period on his last sentence of the essay he was writing. He let out a relieved sigh and put his pencil in his pocket, stopping to read over what he had written. It was study hall, but he had chosen to go outside on the football field bleachers instead of go through another class of kids laughing at him. Out here, he was alone and at peace and could observe the world as he pleased, as much as he pleased, without kids picking on him about how he had tripped in the hallway yesterday and nearly gotten beaten up by the school’s most athletic jock, Justin Lern. It was ironic to Danny that the guy’s last name was Lern, because he couldn’t seem to learn a thing from whoever taught him. He was as dumb as a doorknob, but the football coach had pulled a few strings to keep him on the football field, seeing as he was the best quarterback Kensington had ever had. Though it was a small town, people were seeing more and more of Kensington in the newspaper, all because of Justin Lern.

Danny ran a hand through his permanently messy dark hair. No matter how much his mother brushed it, it would always stay that way, shaggy like a mop and the top of his head and then poofy near his ears. It wasn’t the most attractive look, which was one of the reasons Danny was so unpopular at his school, but it wasn’t like he could fix it. His father also had naturally messy hair, but he kept it in line with gel all day, and Danny wasn’t going to sink to the depths of the 1960’s hair gel his father used. Now in ninth grade, his mother didn’t do his hair for him anymore; instead, she bothered him about how unruly it looked all the time. “Oh please, run a comb through that mess!” she would say with concern.

Danny stood and looked around, wondering if anyone was there. He put his notepad down and decided to just sit in the sun. It was a good feeling, pretending as if he didn’t have a care in the world, though he cared more than anyone he knew. But, if he could find a few moments to relax, he would take them out of the day. It was important so that he didn’t have a heart attack when he was only sixteen. Stress had taken too much out of him; just last week he had come to school with an even worse hairdo and dark bags under his eyes: no sleep. Maybe he should do this every time he had a study hall. It certainly felt good.

As he closed his eyes and leaned back, his hands folded behind his head, he heard hoots and footsteps from near the entrance to the football field. Opening his eyes, he saw that the football players were coming towards him, the cheerleaders by their sides. He gulped; Danny got especially nervous around the cheerleaders. They were all so beautiful and perfect, and compared to him they were goddesses. He could never seem to talk around them, especially around on particular girl. As the football parade came closer to him, he saw that they were actually coming towards him, and that that one girl was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, we were going to practice here, buddy!” said Justin, holding up his arms in triumph. “I think you better move out of the way.” Nothing came out of Danny’s mouth, even when it was open. He just couldn’t find the words. A small breeze blew, ruffling his messy hair in his face. “Come on, get moving.” Danny was so nervous he couldn’t even bring himself to move his fingers, let alone his feet. They seemed to belong here, out on the football field. They were all wearing the jerseys, and the cheerleaders wearing their short-skirted midriff-baring outfits that all the guys seemed to enjoy so much. “Hey dude, did you hear me? I said get out of here! You don’t belong here!”

“Its—It’s a f—free country…” he said as bravely as he could, but the football players laughed at his quivering tone and stuttering words. They slapped each other on the backs as the cheerleaders giggled behind them; no one seemed to be on Danny’s side. That was only usual for him. One day he tries to have some peace, and someone ends up interrupting it. Maybe it wasn’t their fault; maybe it was his. Perhaps he was just such a dork that they couldn’t help ruining everything for him. Was that really the punishment for not being cool?

Suddenly, a call came from the entrance: “Justin! Justin! Justin!” The voice nearly made Danny faint, because he knew who it was. Her sweet, melodic voice seemed so beautiful that he would’ve liked her even if he couldn’t see her. “Justin!” came another shout. The football players let out hoots and slapped Justin Lern on the back and let out cat calls. One sophomore named Travis let out a whoop, “That’s your girl, Justin!”

“Shut up,” Justin said, embarrassed. Obviously all the guys wanted to go out with the girl he was talking about, because they were all pretty envious looking as she came rushing onto the field. Danny felt himself getting weaker as she got closer. It was none other than who he had expected: Evangeline Windchind. People called her Evie for short, and Danny thought that was the prettiest name he’d ever heard. She had long, flowing, curly blonde hair that framed her beautiful round face. And Danny longed to get close enough to look into those deep brown eyes, though he was sure he actually would faint. He watched as she got closer and saw those gorgeous rosy cheeks and that cute little button nose. He felt a burning deep inside as she looked at Justin.

“Justin!” she screamed, running over to him and giving him a hug. “Guess what?” Though only a freshman, Evie had clearly made it from bottom to top very quickly. She was already dating Justin, a junior, while everyone else just dated people their own age. Even the seniors thought she was fantastic, and longed to go out with her. She was co-captain of the cheerleading squad, and not to mention she looked absolutely great in her cheerleading uniform.

“Give her a kiss!” shouted a girl named Olivia. Everyone had seemed to forget that Danny was hear as soon as Evie came rushing out. He didn’t exactly mind that; because he could sit hear watching them until they realized he was there again. Justin did exactly as Olivia said to do; he picked Evie up in his arms and gave her a long kiss, the received more excited shouts from his football buddies. Eventually, Justin put her down, but continued kissing her. Danny nearly felt sick; he was beginning to think that maybe he should’ve stayed in study hall with the rest of the kids. He really didn’t want to watch Justin Lern and Eve Windchind kissing in front of the whole cheering football team.

“Justin, Justin! Stop!” Evie laughed, breaking away from him. “My aunt called!” Danny almost giggled at the way she pronounced “aunt”. Everyone was suddenly silent, wondering why this was such great news. Obviously, it didn’t matter what Evie said; no matter what, she was popular, and she would be for the rest of her high school career. Danny couldn’t help wishing he had been that successful with other people. But he couldn’t seem to talk to them. Whenever he was around guys, he was always thinking of the worst they could do to him, so his tongue was tied with fear. Whenever he was around girls, he was always thinking how stupid they might think he was, so he couldn’t speak because of anxiety. He just couldn’t form words the way other kids could.

“I haven’t seen her since I was a baby!” Evie continued, explaining to them all. “She said she was gonna take me to Hawaii!” Everyone let out cheers, and Justin pulled her into another long kiss, this time wrapping his arms around her. Danny just thought that he was probably fantasizing of kissing Evie while she was in a bikini. The thought gave him disgusted shivers.

“Oh, I’d like to come with you to Hawaii,” Justin said when he broke away from her. “I’ve never been there.” He gave her a puppy dog face before kissing her again, this time more forcefully. It was as if he thought the two were alone in a solitary room instead of in front of all their teammates. But none of them seemed to care about the couple’s public display of affection. They seemed to be distracted as they talked to each other instead of Justin and Evie and completely forgot that Danny was sitting right there.

He was about to stand up and leave anyway when his cell phone rang, taking him by surprise. He let out a yell and tripped over the bleacher, slipping through the fence and onto the kissing couple. Evie let out a scream and Justin swore loudly as they all tumbled to the ground in a confused jumble of limbs. Once the commotion was over, before opening his eyes, Danny felt around with his hands. At first he felt the course uniform of Justin, but then he felt soft, bare skin. Something wriggled directly beneath him and there was a shrieking giggle. He opened his eyes to find himself looking into beautiful brown eyes. For a moment, he was completely mesmerized; until he realized where his hands were laying. One was on her bare stomach, and the other was tangled in her curly blonde hair. Danny attempted to move his hand, but stopped when Evie let out another giggle. “Stop, I’m extremely ticklish!”

“You’re such a dork!” Justin shouted. Danny had completely forgotten all about Justin when he had looked into those deep brown eyes. Everything else seemed to disappear. There was a moment of silence. Danny couldn’t bring himself to get off of her, but he was sure that with their two hearts so close to each other, she could certainly hear his racing a hundred times a minute. Looking into that smiling face, his limbs suddenly froze and he became as limp as a dead body. “Get off of her!” Danny let out a choking noise as Justin lifted him by the neck of his shirt, pulling him off of his girlfriend. She sat up, straightening her topsy-turvy skirt and standing up to brush herself off. “You did that on purpose!”

“No, I swear!” Danny cried out, backing up against the fence. “My—My cell—cell phone rang, and…and it t—took me b—by surp—prise.”

“Cut it out, you stuttering freak!” Justin shouted. Looking into that stubbly face, Danny felt ultimate fear. He could also smell his rancid breath and couldn’t help wondering how Evie could’ve lived while kissing him.

“Stop it, Justin. It was an accident, that’s all,” Evie said calmly, grabbing Justin’s fist in the air and giving him a kiss on the cheek. Her kiss immediately softened him. She turned and went over to her cheerleader friends and they started discussing what tricks they were going to do at tonight’s game.

“I’ll let you go for now, because my girl’s right there,” Justin growled under his breath, just loud enough so that Danny could hear it. “But if you ever even think about touching my girlfriend again, you’ll have it in for you.”

“But that wasn’t what I—” Danny began.

“Just shut up and get out of here,” Justin grumbled, turning to his teammates and continuing his conversation with them. Danny felt sick, watching the two kiss like that, but it was better than getting beat up by Justin Un-Lern-Able. He just needed to get out of there; Evie probably hated him now, and he couldn’t live with her looking at him like he was some kind of monster like the rest of the kids did. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and scrambled for the exit. There was a voice mail on it from his mother, and she would be wondering why he didn’t pick up his phone during his study hall. She was very overprotective of him, and knew all of his class periods and things like that so that he would never get into any sort of trouble. He wouldn’t be able to explain to her that he’d made a complete fool of himself in front of the girl of his dreams and the most popular kids in school. His mother didn’t even know he liked girls yet, and he didn’t have any friends, so there was no one to talk to about this.

He dialed the home number and put the phone to his ear. He was only given this phone for emergencies and communication with his Mom. His mother believed that talking on cell phones ruined the environment, killing the bees, which in turn killed the flowers, which in turn killed the rest of the food chain. So why, Danny was wondering, did she call him now? She picked up and said, “Hello?”

“Hey Mom,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant and as if he hadn’t been terrified just a few seconds ago by a huge eleventh grader.

“Danny, I’ve got some bad news,” she said slowly, her mood souring once she knew it was him. Danny had seen this act before. Once, she had been screaming her brains out at him because he left a dirty sock on the kitchen counter, and when the phone rang, she picked it up and spoke with the sweetest voice he had ever heard. She didn’t want to seem impolite to strangers, but it seemed that as long as it was her son, it didn’t matter. “Your Uncle Dock has stopped in for a visit,” she said, clearly reluctant and unsatisfied.

“Uncle Dock?” Danny exclaimed. “That’s great! I haven’t seen him since I was nine!” Even though he hadn’t seen his uncle in six years, the memory of him still shined bright in his mind, his uncle with a mustache and always a sloppy grin. He liked him, mostly because he let no one bother him, and Danny wanted desperately to be like that. Uncle Dock always wore some sort of hat, whether it was a cowboy hat or a baseball cap or even a winter hat, he would wear one. Danny thought it was because he wasn’t very proud of his bald head, though he himself had never seen the top of his head because of the hats his uncle wore. Uncle Dock said that he used to look exactly like Danny did now, handsome and street smart, just what the girls liked. Danny secretly doubted this, but he tried not to let it show. Of course, his mother had always disapproved of Uncle Dock and his wild ways, and they frequently became engaged in heated arguments, most of them about Danny, though he could never listen long enough to pick anything up. Uncle Dock was his father’s brother, and Danny sometimes thought that that was why his mother didn’t like him so much, but he didn’t say anything to either of them.

“No, it’s not great. We’ve got something to tell you, but I think you should get home before I say anything. Uncle Dock wants to tell you,” his mother said, sighing deeply into the phone. Danny just laughed into the phone, thinking that it couldn’t be as bad as his mother made it seem.

“I’ll be there,” Danny reassured her. Without even saying goodbye, he hung up and stuffed the phone into his pocket, rushing through the school hallways and making it to his locker. He quickly piled a bunch of books into his backpack and slung it over his back, ready to go. Being careful not to run, he walked as quickly as he could through the school until he reached the front entrance. He hopped onto his bike and pedaled as quickly as he could home. Last period was almost over anyway, and if there was a chance of seeing his Uncle Dock, he didn’t care anyway. The sun was high in the ultimately light blue sky, not a cloud in sight, brightening Danny’s mood. What did he need with Justin and the rest of his football cronies? It was a beautiful day and he might as well enjoy it with his Uncle Dock instead of worry about whether his peers liked him or not. It wasn’t worth fretting over because he already knew the answer: No, they didn’t like him.