THE NEW KID
It was an ordinary, early-morning scene. Underneath a cloudless California sky, a chaotic mob of brightly-clad students were straggling into their town's only high school. Clumps of students walked together as bursts of conversation and laughter filled the air. Kids on bicycles and skateboards zipped through the crowd. Inexperienced young drivers awkwardly parked their cars. And parents leaned out of their car windows to give final instructions and say their goodbyes to their children - who usually weren't really listening.
In the midst of the chaos, a rental car slowly pulled up in front of the school, carefully threading its way around SUVs, sedans, and sports cars. Inside of the car were a man and a boy. The man's short-cropped hair was streaked with enough gray to suggest that he was well into middle-age. The boy was clearly in his teens. A casual observer would have assumed the pair to be father and son. Certainly, there was a strong resemblance between the two.
The car ground to a halt. From inside, both passengers examined the school warily.
The man glanced at the boy.
"You sure about this?" he asked for at least the tenth time.
The boy half-nodded and then hesitantly fumbled for an explanation, "I've thought about this a lot. And... you know... you... me... we never really did embrace high school."
The man said nothing, but he had an obviously skeptical "so what?" expression on his face.
The boy again tried to explain. "I don't know... Haven't you ever just wanted to go back and do it all over again? Especially with all you now know?"
The man tried to give the boy's question some honest thought.
"No," he finally replied with a shake of his head.
A determined look entered the boy's eyes, "Well, from here on in, you and me are different."
The man nodded slowly, accepting the boy's statement - and feeling more than a little grateful for the sentiment behind it.
"Which is why I'm going to do this!" continued the boy as he opened the door and jumped out of the car, pulling a well-stuffed backpack along with him.
The man pursed his lips as he watched the boy get out of the car and take the first step away from the vehicle. Suddenly coming to a lastsecond decision, the man called out, "Hey!"
The boy paused and looked back into the car.
Struggling with an important message that he wasn't quite sure how to express, the man said, "Do me a favor, huh?"
The boy misunderstood. "Don't worry, I wasn't going to keep in touch," he said.
"Yeah," replied the man dismissively. That wasn't what he was trying to say. "Look, just try to be a little..."
The man hesitated. Still not sure how to get across what he was trying to say.
"Weird," finished the boy with a slight smile.
"Weird. Yeah," said the man softly. Then his voice became more certain, "But, look, if you need anything..."
"The Air Force has set me up. I'll be fine," answered the boy quickly.
The man seemed to stare into the boy's face for a long second. Obviously not sure if he believed any of this.
"Are you sure about this?!" the man tried again in an exasperated tone. "I mean, it's... high school!"
The boy looked over his shoulder at the school. Just a few yards away, a pair of giggling girls - one a blonde and the other a redhead - were whispering to each other as they stole glances at him.
The boy began focusing on the girls, but then he blinked as he momentarily lost track of them. A tall, athletic-looking girl with long dark hair and flawless features had walked between the boy and the two girls. Unable to help himself, the boy turned his head to watch the tall girl as she walked towards the school. In addition to being just plain gorgeous, she was expensively dressed and coiffed. Her attitude suggested that she knew that the admiring gaze of every male within eyeshot was her rightful due.
"Wow," thought the boy to himself. Then he looked back into the car. The man was also watching the tall, dark girl as she regally swept through the front doors of the school.
The man and the boy looked at one another. Their eyes - identical in every detail - met.
"Yes," said the man as he tried to keep a straight face. "Go forth, young man."
The boy pulled a pair of narrow sunglasses out of his shirt pocket and put them on his face. The two giggling girls were still watching him.
"Why this place?" asked the man suddenly. "I figured you'd stay in Colorado Springs."
Slinging his pack over his shoulder, the boy answered, "I want to get some distance between me and the Springs. There are too many memories about... stuff... back there. So I picked this place out at random from a road atlas."
The man nodded one last time. Neither of them seemed inclined to actually say goodbye. So the boy turned and began walking towards the school, adjusting his course slightly to intersect the girls who had been eyeing him. Both girls were now demurely ignoring his presence.
"Hi," said the boy.
"Oh, hello," said one of the girls, as if noticing him for the first time. She was a short, very attractive, blonde. She was trying hard to sound cool and disinterested, but the amused sparkle in her eyes suggested otherwise.
"My name's Jack. Jack O'Neill," said the boy awkwardly.
The girl smiled slightly as she seemed to carefully examine Jack. "My name's Buffy," she said. "This is my friend, Willow."
Willow nodded and tried to say something, but a slight squeak and a blush was all that she managed. She was evidently the shy one of the pair. Jack also couldn't help but notice that Willow also had a rather eccentric fashion sense.
Jack eyed the two girls, something nagging at the back of his mind. At first, the girls looked like just another pair of pretty teenagers. But there was something about them... Something in their eyes...
Despite the warmth of the day, a chill went through Jack. Why did these two girls remind him of the kids he had seen in the worst parts of Africa and the Middle-East? Children who had seen too much while they were too young?
"I'm new here," continued Jack carefully.
Buffy suddenly grinned cheerfully at Jack and the awkward moment passed.
"Don't worry, Jack," Buffy replied confidently. "We'll ben happy to show you the ropes around here."
Jack suddenly felt himself smile as a relieved feeling came over him. Hey, things were already working out. Maybe he'd be able to fit in after all.
A dark-haired boy on a skateboard raced past them. The skateboarder waved at them and yelled something that was lost in the din. The girls waved back energetically. Apparently they knew the guy on the skateboard.
Then the trio started walking, chatting amiably amongst themselves as they mounted the steps that led into the school.
Back on the street, Colonel Jack O'Neill shook his head, put the car in gear, and pulled away from from the curb. It was over an hour's drive back to the airbase where a U. S. Air Force C-130 was waiting on the runway. He didn't want to keep the aircrew waiting too long.
As he drove away, the man glanced one more time back at the school. But he couldn't see the boy anywhere. He had been swallowed up by the crowd of students.
Looking back to the road, the man tried to ignore the nagging feeling that there was something more that he should have said to his...
Son?
That didn't seem right. Admittedly, there really wasn't a word for, "a version of yourself trapped in an adolescent clone body." But the word "son" meant a lot to Jack. He wasn't sure if he wanted to use it in this context.
Jack turned onto the northbound highway. As he left the town, a sign badly in need of a paint job proclaimed in faded letters, "You Are Leaving Beautiful Sunnydale! Hurry Back!"
"Stupid name for a town," muttered Jack to himself.
Aside from the silly name, Sunnydale looked just like any other west- coast backwater. Oh, it had a veneer of self-satisfied California sophistication, but ultimately it was just a hick town that otherwise might as well be in the middle of Nebraska.
A 'one Starbucks town', as Daniel might say. Jack smiled at the thought.
Jack looked into his rear-view mirror at the steadily receding town. He hoped that the other version of himself wouldn't get too bored in Sunnydale.