o1. New Beginning
A new town, a new home, a new school, and a new life, nothing a teenager would ever want.
My parents wanted a change of scenery. So we moved from our warm, sunny home in Florida, to dreary wet Tacoma, Washington.
Our new home, in this moist city, was in the northeastern part of it. And across the bay and the Tide flats, which was the Port of Tacoma, the largest port on the west coast, was my new school, Stadium High.
My dad and I drove by the school the Sunday before I was to start there. It was a huge building, with six stories, and it very well looked like a real castle. Its brown brick walls were topped brass steeples that were greened with age, and they towered overhead. The school's fine art's building was separated from this majestic main building, but was just a short walk across the courtyard from the main building. In addition, a large tiled "S" sat in the middle of the courtyard, adding that final touch.
"Fancy school, huh, Darby?" my dad asked.
I gave a stunned nod in response, as I looked the school up and down and back and forth.
There was a long staircase next to the left end of the school that led down to a turn-about. Walking down the staircase, I saw that there were a few doors on either side that went into the basements of the two buildings. Next to the separated building, across a little street that came down to the roundabout was a three story parking garage. I guessed that no one needed to worry about parking here.
I peered over a large black fence that stuck out from the school wall and connected to the parking garage. It was a large ravine that had been made into the school's football field. A long concrete staircase led to long concrete bleachers. And yet another "S" was on the field, bright yellow against the green turf. Past the field, I could see the bay. Though the day was cloudy and wet, it did look rather lovely, and the salty smell of the bay waffled through the air and clung to everything around us.
A new school and a new life. I was set and ready for it, knowing the place was half the battle right? I was ready, or at least that is what I thought.
The next morning, I was exhausted. The time change had taken a great toll on me, because part of the country was hours behind my beloved Florida. It was tiring to stay awake to their ten o'clock and then stay asleep until their six o'clock. My sleep pattern had been completely flipped around.
When I awoke, the first thing I did was look out my window, like I normally did back home. As I looked outside there was a horror standing there that I had never seen before in my life: FOG. I was shocked. A thick wall of deep grey fog hovered menacingly outside of my window. I thought the rumors of constant fog and rain in this part of the country were there just to keep tourists out. However, here I was staring the myth in the face.
Walking into my new bathroom, I turned on the bright yellow light. I caught my reflection in the small oval mirror that hung over the porcelain sink. My pale blue eyes stared back at me as I pushed my even more pale blond hair behind my ears. I turned on the cold water and splashed my face a few times. A nervous sigh leaving my lips as I looked back up to the mirror. The dark circles under my eyes seemed to just get bigger as I stared at the person in the glass.
"A new life Darby… oh joy," I mumbled to myself, sarcasm never meaning more than it did then.
My breakfast was small, I didn't want my nervousness to get my stomach upset to the point that I would puke. I grabbed my new raincoat and my book bag, and sat on the couch upstairs to wait for my father, who had promised me that he would drive me on my first day.
I was so glad and thanked my dad several times, as we walked out into the damp morning air. The school bus would have been horrible for me, since it was very unlikely that I would know anyone. Moreover, the car itself was a great relief from the moisture outside. As I slumped into the car seat, I sighed happily and turned up the heat even before the care itself was turned on..
My dad chuckled as he turned the key in the ignition. "To cold for you sweetie?"
"Way too cold," I replied, rubbing my arms and pretending to shiver.
"So you ready for your new school?" he asked, a touch of concern in his voice.
"Ready as I'll ever be." I tried to force a smile, but knew better than to try that around my dad.
My dad knew me well; he had always been there for me, even for the frightening woman "problems." He was more of a mother than my actual mother was. The old man was the closest male I had ever known, except a few cousins back home, but he was like my best friend.
As my dad's car pulled up next to the curb, it started to rain outside. I moaned as I stepped out of the car. Pulling up my hood, I turned and waved goodbye to my dad and shut the door. From there I walked across slightly flooded courtyard to the main door of the "castle." As I walked it, yet another tiled "S" was on the floor in front of me. The hallway made a "T" shape, as it turned both right and left. The office then stood in front of me at the head of the hall. The hallway held dozens of student who had come in out of the rain. So I'm not the only one who hates the cold wet.
I received my schedule from a little Asian-looking woman that stood behind the overly tall front desk, and left the empty office to walked briskly down a hallway to try and find room numbers. I figured out that the rooms were numbered in a certain pattern, odd classes to my right and evens to my left; so now classes shouldn't be that hard to find. I looked at my schedule; my band class was first period, which wasn't even in this building. I dreaded the thought of leaving this warm, dry place, to head across the courtyard, again, to get to the other building. At the end of the hall, his the towers of stairs, a set of double doors led out into the court yard.
With a deep breath, I opened a door and dashed out. A few students were standing in the rain. Apparently, they did not care about the clamminess. Stepping into the second building, I gasped in relief. This building was much more modern that the main building, and didn't have any basic class rooms. The gym was to my right, the small theater was to my left, and there was a staircase in front of me, and it led down to the basement where the music rooms were. The band, choir, and orchestra rooms were through a long passage that led into what seemed like the bowels of this building.
When I got into the band room I was happy in what I saw. The band room was fairly large, and I saw several students with their instruments cases, but here I was without any instrument. I should have brought my oboe, I knew I was going to have band here. I stood near the door and scanned the students in search of the teacher, though something caught my eye before I found him.
Well I should say two people caught my eye. In the back of the room, leaning against the instrument lockers, stood two very interesting looking women. One was about my height of about five and a half feet, while the other stood a bit taller. The shorter of the two had a dark complexion, as if she was of African descent. She was slightly athletic in build, and her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail with her bangs tucked behind her ears. The taller one had pale white skin and long curly dark red, almost purple, hair that reached past her lower back. They both looked like they were in their early twenties, so the fact that I noticed a tattoo on the red head's right arm didn't really bother me. Maybe they're student teachers, I thought.
As I continued to stare stupidly at them, I noticed something interesting: they were both absolutely gorgeous. Each facial feature was perfect; every curve of their body was perfect. Though, in the end, my stupid staring got me attention.
They both soon noticed that I was looking at them, and stared back at me. I tried to turn my face away, but their eyes caught my own and what were with those EYES?!
The darker girl's eyes, you would expect them to be dark brown, but they were not, her irises were white, with the darkest black of pupils. The redhead's eyes were almost as terrifying. A dark rich green, with a silver gloss enveloped huge black pupils.
I felt drawn to them, yet repelled at the same time. I couldn't lower my gaze and neither of them would either. They stood like statues, keeping me stuck on them, terrified yet quite the opposite as well.
Then there was light tap on my shoulder and I turned with a jerk. There next to me, stood the person who I assumed to be the teacher. He was young looking, and must have been in his early thirties, late twenties and had short cropped hair and a Go-tee.
"You the new kid?" he asked in a playful tone.
"Um, yeah." I replied sheepishly looking up at him.
"Good, what do you play then?" He moved his hands, as to represent clarinet or other instrument in them.
"Oboe," I stated simply.
He raised his eyebrows and nodded. "Oboe! Very cool!" He said happily. "Well I'm Mr. Mulkins, but just call me Mulkins or Mulk, I don't like the formal stuff." He shook my hand and told me to follow him.
He gave me a folder, in his office, with the music they had been working on, and told me to sit in the back of the class today since I didn't have my instrument. As class hadn't started yet, I went and stood awkwardly near the front of the class. Mulkins went about talking to his more well-known students, leaving me alone again. I briefly looked at the music in my hands, but my gaze was soon drawn back to the bizarre girls.
They weren't looking at me anymore, though I felt their gaze lock on me when I had spoke with the teacher. Instead, they seemed to have their concentration on somewhere else. I shrugged it off, until I saw what they were staring at. A tall dark toned boy had entered the room. He strode over to the girls with amazing grace and speed. His tall muscular figure loomed over the girls as he wrapped his arms around the red head's waist.
Like the girls, he was beautiful. He had dark skin, an almost olive color, but darker still, almost like the white eyed girl. He a small silver hoops hung in each ear and a tattoo of blue flames crawling up his right arm, but another astonishing thing about him, where his eyes. Like the girls', they were a strange color. His eyes were a bright blue, and they stood out so sharply from his dark face.
The girl he was holding, gripped at the back of his shirt, as she pulled herself up to kiss him. She then whispered something in his pierced ear. The boy then turned and stared directly at me, his icy blue eyes burning a hole through me, as if I had done a horrible crime. I sucked in a breath and pulled my eyes away finally, and looked at the harmless ground. After a few breathes the fist bell of the day rang, and I moaned lightly in bitter happiness.
I sat in the back of the class and watched students hurry in and out of the classroom, as well as grabbing instrument cases and getting them set up. The little group of three had split up, as the girl with white eyes pulled out a French horn from its case, the green-eyed girl grabbed a bass clarinet, but the most shocking was when the guy pulled out a flute and put it together. They sat in their sections, paying attention to neither each other nor me. I sighed, relieved.
I watched as the class went through their music, warming up and then playing their pieces. They played rather well, I had heard that this school had the best band on this side of the country, and they lived up to that name. When class was nearly over, Mulkins released the class to put their instruments away.
The trio had gotten back together next to the band lockers. The couple had their arms fully around each other's hips, and their hands were in the other's back pockets, and the two of them kissing. The bell rang shortly after instruments were put away, and I raced out of the room at a fast walk, not wanting to catch the eyes of the odd three again.
My next class was Health. When I walked into the room, I introduced myself to the teacher and she assigned me to a seat. As I sat down, other kids filed into the room, talking and taking their seats. Loud voices and noises came in from the hallway, and I realized how large this school actually was. I heard from my dad that there was a two-thousand plus students here. I was amazed at that number, but I had come from a large school, so I was used to it, but walking through the halls and court yard you could defiantly tell this school was over crowed
I bent over to pull my new binder out of my book bag, and as I started to lean back up, I froze. There, just walking into the class was the red-haired girl from band. She walked past me quickly, and as she sat down she slightly glanced at me. Her silvery green eyes seemed to cut through the air, and focus directly on me.
She soon, though, turned her gaze over to the door and smiled - her teeth perfect like the rest of her. She stood up and walked a few feet toward the door to greet what looked like another girl, the person's hair being so long. However, I soon saw the rather boob-less flat chest and realized it was a boy.
It was a very tall boy; he stood well over half a foot taller than the girl did. He had long dark brown hair that reached past his waist, and it had streaks of silver and grey within it. He had on a very long trench coat that covered his whole body. And as well as the girl – the main reason I thought he was a female – he was beautiful. Perfect features, with pale skin looked so smooth on his face, almost like glass.
He seemed to notice my staring and at that moment, I made the biggest mistake of that day. In the instant that he turned to me, I screamed. His eyes, just like the girl's and the others', were a very strange color, they were a wrong color. They were red! A bright red that glowed from the inside of his sockets, and pitch-black pupils that seemed to suck back in the very same red light the eyes created.
The moment that I had screamed, the whole class had looked at me, but I barely noticed them. My attention was completely focused on the boy's eyes. He kept his gaze with mine; never even blinking for what seemed like forever, but then the sudden ringing of the bell pulled me away from him.
As I quickly turned away from the boy's gaze, I secretly told myself to thank the person who rang the bells every day. I turned to a tap on my shoulder, a thin blond girl asked me if I was all right and needed help. I said I was fine and that everything was all right. I looked back to where the boy had been, but he was gone and the green-eyed girl was now back and sitting at her desk again.
The class went by quickly, as the teacher went over heart related issues; and I soon found myself walking to my third period in a fast fury. I kept my face turned down to keep from looking at anyone else's.
My next class was Japanese, and on the fourth floor too. My legs were completely worn out and stiff jointed as I stumbled into the classroom, right as the five minute warning bell rang. Why I was taking Japanese I didn't know, it looked interesting when I signed up for classes and might help since Japan was only just across the Pacific ocean. I went through the same process with my Japanese teacher as I did with Health teacher. I sat in my new seat as the class stirred with immature life. Letting yet another sigh of relief leave my mouth, I closed my eyes and waited for the last bell to ring.
However, my short vacation to the privacy of my mind was cut short as I felt the presence of someone next to me. I opened my eyes to meet a pair of huge bright yellow ones. My face flushed as the yellow eyes scrutinized me, I felt the need to run from these eyes; like the fight or flight instinct, and only I wanted flight.
"You're new here aren't you?" I heard a voice from off to my side. I turned to see where the voice was coming from, and looking around I found its owner, an extremely tall girl. She had to be around six and a half to seven feet tall; and was very thin, almost boneythin, but she still had a good amount of muscle on her. She had long silvery brown hair that fell to her back, but like before, what caught my attention the most were her eyes. They were a bright livid green and seemed to glow with sunlight from the inside. She gave me a questioning look, and I snapped back from the mossy greenness of her eyes.
"Um… yes, I just moved here," I replied feeling a bit dazed.
She smiled lightly at me and turned to her friend, whose large yellow eyes were still looking me over thoroughly.
Now I took notice of the yellow eyes' owner. She was a thin girl, built almost like a runway model. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a loose braid at the nape of her neck and fell slightly over her shoulder.
"Stop staring!" The green-eyed girl snapped, as she smacked the yellow-eyed girl's arm. "What would Chase think if he caught you being so rude?!"
"Ah, but you forget, I don't care what he thinks," the yellow-eyed one responded, with a smirk.
The green-eyed girl rolled her mossy eyes then looked back down at me. "I'm sorry for her rudeness, she really can't help it." She said the last part while glaring at her friend.
I gave a faint nod back to her.
"Well I'm Kaitlyn but call me Katy, and my charming friend here is Natalia," she continued.
"Tally!" the yellow-eyed girl yelped.
"Tally, yes that's her 'nick-name'."
I nodded, made enough sense I guess.
"What's yours then?" Kaitlyn asked looking down at me from her high altitude.
"Darby, I'm Darby," I muttered.
"Darby eh? You don't look like a Darby to me."
I smirked, "Everyone says that." And they did.
The girls looked at one another and smiled briefly as the late bell began to ring.
"Well, we should sit down now before the teacher gets on our case," Kaitlyn stated.
They left me and went to sit back down at their own desks. Class passed quickly again, and I was invited to eat lunch by the two strange eyed girls. I walked behind them in the hallway, but unlike other times in these halls when the over population would cause me to be squished and pushed along in the current of bodies; now, following these two odd girls, people parted around them, and I could actually move by myself.
I came to a crowded table, as Kaitlyn and Tally led me into the lunchroom. The trio from my band class were there and sat with one another near to what would seem to be the head of this long oval shaped table. The red haired girl was sitting on Mr. Scary Blue Eyes' lap, and her friend, with the darker skin and white eyes, sat across from them.
There were several other people at the table, and all of them had bizarre eyes. A long haired blond girl, whose hair reached the id of her back, had eyes that couldn't to decide what color they wanted to be, they seemed to shift through all the colors of the rainbow as she moved about. There was a rather muscular guy with pale golden eyes, that looked very old and very wise all at once. Another blond who had her hair in a long braid down her back had eyes that were a dark blood red, that sent chills up my spine. And the last member of the large group was the black haired boy with a full go-tee growing in, his eyes were black shined in the light of the room.
I looked over the large group as the ones I came with greeted their friends. I stood off to the side near Kaitlyn as I watched the table fill with excitement. Though there was something odd that I noticed. none of them had any food in front of them, even though it was the beginning of lunch, and most others students were downing their meals.
At the far end of the table, I saw him. The red-eyed boy from before. He sat there calmly, softly nodding whenever someone spoke to him. However, I noticed that his trench coat was gone, and that the clothing he had was wearing was really, elegant looking. He had on a red velvet shirt and black dress pants; the shirt had several buttons undone that showed a bit too much of his chest, and that was a slight embarrassment, especially for my since I grew up in a modest Christen family.
Now that I actually looked at everyone, and wasn't distracted by their eyes, they all dressed in a similar fashion. An elegant look, really too elegant for high school wear, dress pants, shirts and blouses, it confused me a little.
My curious eyes soon caught the red-eyed boy's attention. As his friends noisily chattered in front of him, he stared up at me with bewildered eyes. The sight of him was astounding; his long hair framed his curved face perfectly. However the eye contact with him soon broke.
"CHASE!!!" I jumped as I heard a loud yell over the chatter of the vast lunchroom. I looked up to the balcony overhead to see where the scream had come from.
There, bent over the railing was a small girl with raven black shoulder length hair and bright orange eyes. She came running down the stairs and plopped herself in the red-eyed boy's lap. The sight of her great affection for him shocked me as she hugged and cuddled against him. Then the boy frowned, not seeming to like the attention at all. He picked her up, as if she weighted nothing at all, and dropped her on the ground next to him. She hit the ground with a soft thud, and began to cry. Looking at her, the boy rolled his eyes and gently stroked her head. She sniffled and stopped her wailing. I blinked several times and looked away from the odd scene.
I watched in awe, as the group seemed just to keep to themselves. They never turned, or got up to walk to another table; and no one else came near them. I glanced around, I guess I looked like an odd duck standing here near these people, and this made me a little nervous.
I sat myself down at a table nearby, and watched the group with decaying interest. I received a few stares from the group, but they mostly kept to themselves, not even bothering to notice me. The couples from band class had their foreheads together and were whispering something back and forth. As they talked, I noticed his grip around her waist tighten; she then shook her head at him and forced herself out of his grip and off his lap.
To my surprise, she walked over to where I was and sat next to me. I saw her boyfriend pout a little, but he turned back to the group and ignored us.
"Hey," she said as she plopped down in the seat next to me.
"Um, hi?' was my confused reply.
"You're new here right?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Cool, name's Brianna, but please call me Bri." The girl held out her hand waiting for me to take it.
"Darby." Taking the girl's hand, I shook it lightly, noticing how warm it was.
"Cool, but you don't look like a Darby to me."
"Yeah I know, everyone tells me that."
"Oh? Funny." Bri gave a light laugh, her voice sounded like light little bells and her silvery green eyes glittered with amusement.
"Well now you've met me, and you've met Katy and Tally, so I'll point out the rest of our little clique." She pointed to the table she had come from and started from our left. "Ok Katy and Tally are there, Lindsey is the one wearing all black and has the very long blond hair, and next to her is Hattie, with the braid. Across from them is Nick with the ugly facial hair." She made a grimace and moved on. "Christen is sitting by him, and my friend you might have seen with me in band class this morning is next, she's Kristen, or rather Kcie. Across from her is the love of my life, David. And finally we come to the end of the table with the dude that's hair is too long for his own good, Chase and his little girlfriend Misty." Bri took a big breath and let it out slowly, recovering from the large amount of information she had just sputtered out.
I gave her a wide-eyed look; this name info was going to be hard to memorize, I was already confused. I looked back at the group and tried to repeat all the names in my head and match them with the faces.
"Wow, you have a lot of friends. And, well, I'm shocked you're talking to me at all, let alone giving me the names of all them." I admitted, kind of wondering why she was so friendly to the 'new kid'.
"Eh, well, there's something different about you from the other…people here." I found it odd that she had paused in her answer, but dismissed the thought. "Well, anyway, where are you from?"
"Florida." I answered dully.
"Florida?! Why the hell did you come to the opposite side of the country?"
"My parents wanted a severe change in scenery, I guess."
"Damn, that must have been hard for you," Bri stated shaking her head, from what may have been an old memory, from the look on her face.
"Yeah it was," I replied while I gave her a questioning look. It was odd that she was taking such and interest to me; she had seemed to not like me at all earlier, with her odd glaring. "I had a lot of friends there. Now everyone here must think I'm crazy."
Bri laughed, her bell-like laugher echoed though the noisy lunchroom. She shook her head, sending her dark red hair shimmering down her back. "You mean from you screaming in class today?" she asked, pure amusement glowing from her eyes.
I nodded, blushing from the embarrassment.
"Why did you scream anyway, though it was funny, it seemed rather odd." Her eyes narrowed into silver slits.
I turned back to her table of friends, glancing at the red-eyed boy she'd said was Chase.
"The boy at the far left, Chase right?" I asked, making sure I had it right.
"Yes?" Her eyes darkening, just like her tone.
I gulped, I was scared to answer, scared to say anything about the eyes that had frightened me and made me scream. "I thought he was a girl, till I noticed the fact that he had no boobs." I somewhat lied.
Bri raised an eyebrow, smiled, then burst into a bell like chorus of laughter. It stunned me, and I blinked, then there in front was of me Bri's boyfriend. His once pale blue eyes, now a dark grayish blue.
"Bri," He said in a rather stern voice. "We're heading to the library now, you coming?" There was a sort of pleading note in his voice, as though he was begging her to go with him and the others.
Bri made a sort of whining noise but then nodded in compliance. "All right," was all she said to him as she stood up.
The boy's face lit up, and his eyes brightened as well.
"See you later then Darby." Bri said waving to me as she followed her boyfriend and the others up the staircase.
I watched them go, a little disappointed. Guess I am still not one of the group yet. Why would I be yet?I shrugged, and pulled the small lunch I had grabbed this morning out of my bag. I ate alone, quietly, watching other students pass by. I yawned, and the bell rang. As I rose from my seat, I noticed that the students avoided the table where the group had been. I wondered if they saw their eyes too, or if there was somethingI didn't know about this group.
The rest of the day passed by slowly-and uncomfortably. Many people stared, pointed, and laughed at me, it was very embarrassing. By the time my sixth period began, my face was burning from all the blushing.
Walking into the chemistry class, I noticed a flicker of red. I froze in mid step, as I saw him, Chase. His red eyes held my gaze, keeping me from moving. He then suddenly looked away from me, down at a book he held, and I exhaled, realizing I had been holding my breath the whole time. I shook my head slightly, feeling dizzy and light headed, and I walked over to the teacher.
To my dismay and horror, the teacher placed me in the empty seat next toChase. I stiffly walked to my new seat, and sat down with a hard 'thud'. Looking over my shoulder, I just briefly took gaze at him, and his gaze was on me to. His bright red eyes, open wide, seemed to be focused on only me. Then a smile crossed his thin lips. I tried to breathe, but all I could get in was short gasps, then he frowned.
"You alright?" his voice was deep, and seemed to be rich with age.
I shook my head from side to side, sending my long hair about my face. He laughed at me, making my face burn more. His laugh was similar to Bri's, bell like but much smoother and deeper.
"I'm sorry," He apologized. "It's my eyes isn't it?" His joyful eyes turned to glaring orbs of fire.
I froze, terrified. His eyes grew darker until they were completely black. "YES!" I found myself shouting. At this point the teacher had been starting his lecture and now he and the rest of the class were staring at me and Chase. I hid my face in my hands, feeling them burn with the blush from my face. However, Chase laughed, and I looked up to him, curious to why he was laughing now.
"It's alright teach, she'll be fine," he chuckled lightly.
The teacher looked at me to see if this was true, I nodded and covered my face again. The students began to slowly turn around and mumble to themselves. I felt slightly relived at that, until I felt a sharp pain in my knee. I looked down and in shock looked up at Chase. He was gripping my knee and his eyes were fire once again.
"So it was my eyes then?" he whispered, anger growing in every word.
I couldn't help but nod, and he squeezed my knee harder. I covered my mouth to keep from screaming again. So maybe I wasn't crazy, but how did he first guess that it was his eyes that were doing this to me?
"What are you? To be able to see my eyes?"
I shook my head, what was he talking about? His hand then gripped harder on my knee, I gasped into my hands.
"Are you some sort of special hunter? Or one of us?" he hissed, his question ringing in my mind, as if he was not only just verbally speaking to me.
I couldn't pull my eyes from burning ones of his.
"If you will not answer willingly, I have no choice."
My mind went blank and I couldn't feel the pain in my knee, I couldn't feel anything. Suddenly memories flooded my mind, playing like a movie, but in reverse, like a film with the rewind button hit. I couldn't think right, couldn't feel, smell, there was nothing, nothing but my memories, my life on rewind. Finally, I could see again, and there were his eyes again, but they were much softer and gentler looking.
"I'm sorry," he whispered in a soft warm tone, "I shouldn't have done that, but…." He sighed. "Well you're fine, I have no need to fear you. You must just be very special then." He turned his head away and faced the front of the class.
I was confused, special? What had he meant by that? And what had he just done to me? I couldn't ask these burning questions, I was too terrified to. Instead, I just sat there, pulling together the remains of my sanity.
The class ended shortly after the crazy incident, though I had no realization of what had happened during the normal class part - if there was one. I grabbed my bag and watched as Chase dashed quickly out of the room, his quick movements so very graceful and dance like. I stood there amazed and baffled, until I was pushed and shoved as students tried to leave the classroom.
I slumped into my dad's car when he'd driven up to the curb.
"So how was your first day sweetie?" He asked casually.
"Odd…but I think I… befriended someone…" My mind was still in a bit of a fog.
"You think?" he asked looking over at me, his face confused. "You all right honey? You look really flushed."
"I'm… fine dad." Or at least I thought I was, but I didn't tell him that.