Chapter 1:
Gym class had just ended. Though Danny Fenton had missed most of the class, unsurprisingly. Half way through running the dreaded Pacer Test, the small, black-haired boy yelled something about going to the bathroom and then ran off, though no one noticed he had run faster than when he was running back and forth along the courts width. And he never returned.
Dash Baxter, star quarterback for his high school's football team, was the most popular, so when he slapped his forehead and mentioned he forgot his jacket in the locker room, everyone offered to grab it for him. But it was his jacket and no one touched that, so with a resigned sigh, he turned on his heel and marched away. He couldn't care less and the teachers couldn't care less if he showed up late. He smiled a little, popularity certainly had its advantages. As he walked as slowly as he could down the steps and around the corner, trying to avoid going to class for as long as possible, he heard the unmistakable sound of someone talking to themselves. He froze and walked even more quietly. Who was down here during classes? He peeked around the corner and saw… Fenturd? Except it wasn't the boy's tardiness for class that surprised the jock, though that surprised no one, it was the body that greeted his sight. Dash had always called Danny scrawny and weak, a little fly Dash could crush in his fist, except now that he saw Fenton's toned body, the way the muscles in his back flexed, the way his arms bulged, caused the bully to take a second look. But what caused the jock to audibly gasp were the scars that littered his skin. The worst was a line running from his hip almost to his shoulder blade. There were smaller ones scattered randomly and burn marks that looked painful even now that they had healed.
Danny Fenton whipped around and his icy blue eyes met Dash's and they both froze. Though Dash couldn't hold the small boy's intense gaze and instead looked at his punching bags abs! He had abs! And then Dash caught sight of what Danny had been doing before his was interrupted. There was a gash across his right side, bleeding red and there was a sewing needle dangling from a half-complete job. Both were speechless. What was there to say?
Dash spoke first. "What the hell, Fenton!" And like that the silence was broken. Right before Dash's eyes Danny went from slightly hunched, frightened dweeb to straight-backed and confident.
"What are you doing, Dash?" No wavering, just a powerful voice demanding respect. Dash wanted to flee the coldness of his glare, and the way the room dropped a couple degrees. But he was the one in power here, though he felt it's force useless against this different Danny.
Dash kept his voice level. "I came for my jacket, Fenton." He stressed the boys name but did not call him names, something told him he didn't want to meet the boy's angry side. Something akin to the Hulk sprang up in his mind. Dash looked away from the glare that was being directed at him and retrieved his jacked from within his locker. He glanced back once and found Danny sitting again and the needle halfway through his skin. Dash couldn't take it any longer, the tension had grown too strong, he bolted from the room. By the time he got to class, his feverish shivering has nearly stopped but he still looked like had seen a ghost. Something was going on and Dash wasn't going to let it happen under his nose. This was his school.