Baird turned on his side as his alarm clock rang him into reality. He hadn't slept all that well the night before and he sure as hell wasn't ready to go to school.

Finally he turned back over and pressed the snooze button as the clock went quiet and the sound of early morning birds tweeting was all that could be heard. He stretched out in bed as he pushed the covers off with his feet and sprang onto the floor, suddenly feeling the cold wood under him make his whole body tense up. He missed his warm bed already but if he didn't get ready now he was going to be late.

He walked over to his closet and pulled it opened and grabbed a shirt; it was just a plain gray one. He quickly pulled it over his head and down over his stomach.

He sprinted over to his chested drawers and opened the bottom drawer that housed his many pairs of pants and shorts. He grabbed a pair of old navy blue jeans and put them on with slight struggle, almost falling over in the process of hopping around for a moment.

When he had finished dressing he grabbed his backpack full of books for each of his classes and headed out the door and down the stairs until he reached the front door and made his way for the bus stop.

His parents weren't home, as usual. They never were, he barely even saw them during the day, but he didn't care. He had gotten use to being alone at home.

And it wasn't healthy.

Baird sat his bag down next to him as he stood next to the old school bus sign that had stood in front of his house for years. It had dents in the metal and graffiti could be seen on both sides. He couldn't make out any of the chicken scratch that had been painted onto it. He looked to his left, where the bus usually came from and saw it wasn't on its way yet. He looked back and saw a figure out of the corner of his eye.

It's that kid again; what's his name? Cole?

The figure came closer and when he was in full view Baird could see that it was he. He was always trying to talk to him, hell; there wasn't anyone Cole didn't talk to. Baird usually just acted like he was listening and it seemed to work.

When Baird looked back to his left again he saw the bus come into view and when he looked back he saw Cole start to run. He was on the high school thrashball team, and with those fast legs and muscles of his no one could stop him. Baird actually felt intimidated by him but he knew he wasn't anything more than a big teddy bear with a reputation to tear shit up on the thrashball field.

When the bus reached him its lights flashed and the stop sign reached out from its side. Cole had made it just in time as he panted and looked at Baird with a smile.

"Damn baby, I gotta work on getting up in time so I can make it to the bus. But I'm sure you would've told em to wait for me."

Cole was just doing what he did best and that was trying to make people laugh, Baird simply gave him a half smile and said "yeah" as he stepped onto the bus with his bag slung on his shoulder.

Cole followed behind him and the door closed as the bus driver eyeballed Cole.

"Good morning Mr. Moody, I thought I wasn't gonna make it." Cole smiled at him and the bus driver smiled back as Cole made his way down the aisle to find a seat.

Baird was a few steps ahead of him and he couldn't help but notice the kids staring Baird down; some of the boys sneered at him while a few girls looked away and out the bus windows. One boy yelled out just loud enough for everyone to hear. "Hey dickhead!" Cole ignored the rest of the statement and simply glared at the young man. That's all he had to do before the boy turned away and kept his mouth shut.

As the bus started to move Baird took a seat in the back next to the window and Cole took his seat next to him.

Cole could see the words "fuck my life" written all over his face as he lay his head against the metal windowpane.

"Don't you worry Damon, These assholes don't know who they're talking to; Mr. future engineer. Hell, the fate of the world might be in your hands one day considering you know how to build shit that would make most peoples head explode just thinking about it."

Cole had somehow picked up on the fact that Baird could build anything with just a few spare parts of scrap machines and other stuff if given the time.

"Yeah, maybe… but with the way my parents are, my ass will end up in the army no matter what my opinion is." Baird set his bag under the seat but before he pushed it all the way under he pulled out a small book full of graph paper; some pages were loose inside it

Baird pushed the bag under the seat all the way and sat back up and opened the book.

He came to a page and Cole saw what looked like the sketch of a machine of some type. When he looked closer he saw it was a outline of a future creation of his. There were small notes written on the paper along with the sketch. Cole looked back up at Baird who was scanning the paper thoroughly.

Before Baird could finish, the book was suddenly snatched away from his grip and he looked up to see it was another boy. James Tackett. This was Baird's main enemy in his school life; next to the one who had just called him a "dickhead."

"Give me that back fuck face." Baird didn't move because he knew he would just lessen his chances of getting the book back. The last thing he needed was the principle calling home about how he had gotten into a fight on the bus.

But no one would pick up the phone anyway...

James just looked at him as he stayed turned around in his seat looking down at him. "What's this blondie, an outline for your gaydar machine?"

Baird was always the kid that centered on the end of gay jokes. His naturally golden blonde hair seemed to make it funnier and almost even more cruel in his case.

"Haha, that was so funny I think I just pissed myself." Baird said as he lay back in the seat. When he did Cole sat up and managed to grab the book back from James and hand it to Baird. He took it and put it away.

"You know James, I'm not always nice, especially when you insult people I like. So you better knock off the Homo jokes before I shove my foot so far up your ass you'll be tasting the dirt and rubber on the bottom of it."

Cole never got mad it seemed; it was damn near impossible to piss him off. It almost flattered Baird to know he would shove a foot up someones ass for him.

Cole gave him a cold stare before James finally turned around and acted as if nothing had just happened. Baird turned to Cole.

"You sure know how to scare people when you want to Cole."

Baird fiddled with the hole in his pant leg for a moment before finally leaving it alone and crossing his arms.

"I don't let no one mess with my friends. No matter who they are, and you're one of the exceptions; Damon baby."

Baird suddenly felt bad that he hadn't talked to Cole before, knowing someone like him was like winning a million dollars; it was a once in a life time thing, if it happened at all.

The bus came to a halt in front of the old school building. The kids piled out and headed inside and roamed around the halls before class. When Baird stepped off and inside the school he made his way for class, completely ignoring the chance to go to his locker first.

Cole followed at his side carrying his gym bag decorated with the school colors and mascot. It was an old bag with tears in it but Cole didn't mind.

Baird stopped in front of his first period class. Science: Room 102, Mr. Long is what the door read. Cole stopped with him and waited for him to enter before he left Baird.

"I'll catch you later Baird, lunch Maybe? I think today is Taco Tuesday." Cole gawked as Baird just smirked at him, Cole laughed at anything. He was just so easygoing and hard to not like. Baird knew he was living up to that because he found himself caught in Cole's trap.

But he didn't want to escape.

He finally felt he had someone else to call a friend. Baird never thought anyone could like someone as cold as he seemed to be.

The only other person who he was ever kind to and who actually liked him was a girl named Carmen Ashton. Like him, other kids picked on her, but he didn't see why. She was a beautiful girl, but that's how jealously worked most of the time.

He had a crush on her since he had started high school, now a junior they were best friends. When Baird looked around the room he saw she wasn't sitting in her usual spot near the classroom window in the corner. His smile faded as he looked back at Cole whose laughter was slowly dying down.

"Sure Cole, I'll see you later then." Baird closed the door and made his way for his seat.

Maybe she's sick today...

Baird looked back at Cole. He waved back at him and then walked off to his first period class.

Baird took his seat and stared at the clock on the wall and waited for the lunch bell to ring.

Only 3 more hours before lunch, yipee...

He turned and looked out the window as he waited for the teacher to walk in and start class and also start the rest of his day.

He knew it would be one of his better ones in a long time.