A hand shook Lindsay's shoulder and a voice whispered, "Wake up!"

"What the hell?" Lindsay said. Or tried to say. It came out rather muffled due to the hand across her mouth. She flailed her arm in the direction of her assailant as her eyes shot open.

"Jesus," her assailant swore.

"Kim? What the fuck!" It was too dark in her room to make out any details, but she would know that voice anywhere.

"Keep your voice," Kim whispered again. "You'll wake your parents!"

Lindsay sat up, reached over and flicked on the lamp on her bedside table. She could confirm that it was definitely her friend standing beside her bed; the young woman was holding her hand against the side of her face where Lindsay must have hit her.

"Are you okay?" Lindsay asked in a quiet tone "I didn't realize it was you; I was just like, what the hell is going on, it's dark and someone is holding me down. Did I hurt you?"

"Nah," Kim shrugged. "You do have a hell of a swing on you though. If I hadn't pulled my head back when you started flailing out, I'd have a black eye right now."

"Oh god. I'm so sorry, Kim."

"It's okay; no harm done," Kim reassured her friend, taking her hand away so that Lindsay could see that her flailing hadn't done any actual damage to the woman's face.

"Well, I'm glad," Lindsay let out a sigh. "Though now I'm wondering what you are doing in my room at…' she looked over at the clock, "11:30 at night. And how the hell did you get in here anyway?"

Kim pointed over to Lindsay's bedroom window which was currently wide open. "Just climbed in your window. I thought about doing that whole throwing pebbles at the window thing, but you are a pretty sound sleeper and I didn't want to risk waking your parents up."

"Good call," Lindsay said. "My dad would be pissed if we woke him up in the middle of the night." The last thing Lindsay wanted was to give her parents yet another reason to rail against the "corrupting influence" of her best friend. She had enough fights with her dad about Kim; she didn't want to give him any reason to start another one.

"Something weird is going on with Daniel. Like really weird."

Lindsay raised an eyebrow in surprise. "When isn't he acting weird? I don't really see how that warrants a middle of the night visit."

"I'm serious," Kim said. "And I'm kind of freaking out here."

Realizing that Kim was indeed freaking out, and was gradually losing her ability to whisper in the process, Lindsay took stock of the situation.

As long as Lindsay had known Kim, she and Daniel had an on-again, off-again relationship. When they broke up the month before, Kim had said that this time it was for real, but Lindsay had heard that one before; she assumed it was only a matter of time before the two got back together again. Presumably whatever happened had something to do with that.

She reached out and placed an arm on Kim's shoulder. "Okay, okay. Let's talk about it; we can't talk here though. My dad's a light sleeper and if he finds you here in the middle of the night…"

"Good point," Kim said. "I still don't think he's forgiven me for forcing you to go on the Grateful

Dead tour."

The tour was still a bit of a sore point; well, not the tour itself. The tour was great and Lindsay and Kim had an amazing time. They were close before, but that trip really cemented their friendship. Lindsay had known that her parents would freak out when she came back; she was supposed to be spending two weeks at math camp, not following around a rock group. What Lindsay hadn't expected was that her parents, her dad especially, would foist all the blame on Kim. No matter how many times Lindsay explained that it was her idea and that she was the one that asked Kim to go, her dad was certain that somehow the whole thing was all Kim's fault.

"You know I don't care what my dad says, Kim. Going with you on that trip was like, the best thing I have ever done."

"Yeah?" Kim smiled, tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

"Yeah," Lindsay confirmed with a nod. "But that's not why you are here so let's go. We can talk at the picnic table in the backyard."

Throwing her jacket on over her nightgown and donning a pair of slippers, Lindsay followed Kim back out her bedroom window and the two women made their way to the table.

"Okay, so what's up?" Lindsay asked once the two were situated across from each other.

"Well, Daniel and his family went away on vacation for spring break. But we are back to class tomorrow so obviously they are back in town. Earlier this evening Daniel came over to see me. He said we should get back together and he invited me to go out to that new italian place with him on Tuesday night."

"What's so odd about that? I think we both know anytime you guys break up it's only a matter of time till one of you caves."

"What's different is Daniel. He was all dressed up; he cut his hair; he even brought me these weird looking flowers. Flowers! Daniel and I have dated for nearly three years and he's never brought me flowers before."

"I admit that is a bit… out of character for him. But maybe he thought that was the only way you would take him back," Lindsay offered.

"Maybe," Kim said, but she didn't look convinced. "But he had this weird vibe; he didn't feel like Daniel."

Kim wasn't one to worry over nothing. If she felt something was off, maybe something really was off with him. "Okay, I believe you. Do you want me to try to talk to him at school tomorrow? See if I can figure out what his deal is?"

Kim breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Linds. I was worried you would think I was just being silly."

"Come on, Kim. I'm your best friend; if you can't trust me to go all Charlie's Angels on your suddenly stranger-than-normal ex-boyfriend, who can you trust?"

Lindsay looked at her watch and saw that it was now after midnight. "We should probably get to bed so we aren't falling asleep in class tomorrow. Besides, I'll need to be in top form if I'm going to be interrogating Daniel."

As the two women got it from the picnic table Lindsay was surprised to herself enveloped by a hug from her best friend. While Kim had softened a bit in the years they had been friends, she was never really the hugging type. Usually the closest to a hug Lindsay expected to receive from her friend was a playful punch in the shoulder.

"This is really freaking you out, huh?" Lindsay asked, as she returned her friend's embrace. Feeling Kim nod against her shoulder, she whispered in Kim's ear, "Don't worry. I'll handle it."

7 AM came all too soon for Lindsay. After Kim had left, she had gone straight back to bed. Fortunately her parents appeared none the wiser of her late night visitor and backyard excursion, however seeing Kim freaked out had her worried.

Lindsay had no idea what might have happened to Daniel that would have caused Kim to react the way she did. Lindsay knew she wouldn't be able to figure anything out lying in bed in the middle of the night, but also knew that she wouldn't get a chance to figure things out until morning. She was impatient to solve this mystery right away and the combination of worry and impatience did not make it easy to fall back asleep.

Tired as she was when her alarm went off, she quickly readied herself for school. Her parents were surprised to see her dressed and ready to go 20 minutes earlier than usual but Lindsay knew that the sooner she got to school, the sooner she could crack this mystery.

Arriving at the gang's usual hangout spot, she quickly realized a flaw in her plan. Just because she was 20 minutes earlier than usual didn't make anyone else early. She took a seat against the wall and waited for her friends to arrive.

About 10 minutes later Ken and Nick were the first to arrive. Lindsay asked if either of them had seen Daniel since he got back from his trip but neither of them had; it seems like Kim was the only one he had visited since his return.

A few minutes later, Kim arrived. Lindsay and Kim exchanged a quick look which confirmed neither of them had seen Daniel yet and then Kim took a seat next to Lindsay. As tired as Lindsay felt, she could tell Kim had it worse; it looked like she might not have gotten any sleep at all. Lindsay put an arm around Kim in greeting and was somewhat surprised when Kim rested her head on Lindsay's shoulder.

As time passed it soon became clear that Daniel wasn't going to show up. Kim and Lindsay thought that he may have not come to school at all, but when Lindsay went to her 3rd period biology class that she shared with Daniel, he was there.

At first, Lindsay thought he was missing from the class; Lindsay, Ken and Daniel usually sat together near the back of the classroom. Ken was in his normal spot but Daniel's spot was empty. It wasn't until a few minutes into the class that she realized that Daniel was sitting at one of the seats in the front row. And she only noticed that when he raised his hand to answer a question the teacher asked the class.

Daniel would occasionally offer an answer in class, but it was always rarely a serious answer. So when Daniel answered the teacher's question with correctly, and with more detail than she herself could have provided, Lindsay knew that Kim was right. Daniel was definitely not acting like himself. She shared a look with Ken but it was clear that he was just as surprised as she at Daniel's sudden academic prowess.

From her vantage point in the back of the class, she couldn't see Daniel very well, but it was clear that he was now sporting a crew cut and had discarded his normal jean jacket for more of a preppy look. Lindsay wasn't sure what to make of it.

When the bell rang signaling the end of class, Lindsay made sure she was one of the first ones out the door. It was now lunch time so she figured she could catch Daniel as he was leaving to see if she could figure out the reason behind his sudden change.

As she stood in the hallway, she kept an eye on both doors out of the classroom as the other students filed past. After a couple of minutes, Lindsay thought she must of missed him somehow. All the other students had left and yet there was still no sign of Daniel.

She decided to take a look through the open door just in case he was still in the classroom. When did peer inside the classroom she saw Daniel in conversation with Mrs. DeLong. Lindsay could only make out a few words from her place in the hallway but it sounded like Daniel was asking questions about their end-of-term project. That wasn't due for another month and a half and even from a distance Lindsay could tell that Mrs. DeLong was just as surprised as Lindsay that Daniel, of all people, was looking to get started on his project this early.

Lindsay ducked back into the hallway before either noticed her and resumed waiting for Daniel. After several minutes, Daniel was still in the classroom and Lindsay debated whether to give up and head to lunch. She hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Daniel yet, but she felt she had enough to at least confirm Kim's suspicion that he was acting differently. She had told Kim that she would talk to him to find out why that is though, so Lindsay maintained her vigil.

Her patience paid off when just a few seconds later, Daniel emerged from the classroom. Not wasting any more time, Lindsay walked up to him.

"Daniel, hey," Lindsay said, awkwardly waving to him as she approached.

"Oh, hello, Lindsay," Daniel replied, turning to face her.

"I, uh, like the new look…" Lindsay said, gesturing to Daniel's attire and new haircut.

"Thank you. I thought it was time to start taking things seriously. I wasted so much time not doing anything; my new look is just one small way to show that I am through wasting time."

"Um, wow. That's great." Lindsay stammered. "What brought this on?"

"My family and I went to visit our relatives in Maine for spring break. While I was there, I got to thinking about things. I realized that I wasn't happy with the way my life was going so I decided to make a change.

"Do you realize how much time we spend just hanging out? Imagine what we could accomplish if we used that time for school work, or doing volunteer work, or getting a part-time job. Anything would be better than just wasting our time doing nothing."

"So you don't want to spend time with us?"

"Of course, I want to spend time with you," Daniel said. "But I want it be productive. We can study together or join a club or something. I just don't want to spend time doing nothing."

"Yeah, but what about having fun?"

Daniel sighed. "I've spent the last eighteen years 'having fun.' It's time I made something of myself."

Lindsay wasn't sure what to make of this new Daniel. She knew all too well that sometimes people just had to reinvent themselves; she had done it herself when she first befriended Daniel, Nick, Ken and Kim. There was an earlier version of Lindsay that embodied many of the same attitudes that Daniel was no espousing. Who was she to say what he could or couldn't be?

It was off-putting, but ultimately, Daniel was his own person and it really wasn't Lindsay's place to get in the way if he really wanted a new life for himself.

"I hope that works out for you," Lindsay told Daniel, figuring she at least owed it to him to be polite.

"Thank you, Lindsay," Daniel responded. "I am going to the library to study. I have an economics test later this week. You are welcome to join me, if you would like."

There was no way Lindsay was going to give up her own lunch period just to study. Besides, she really needed to meet up with Kim to let her know what she had learned. "I am actually supposed to be meeting up with Kim for lunch, but thanks for the offer."

As Lindsay made her way to the gang's usual hangout, she realized she still didn't really have any clue as to why Daniel was acting so differently. He was definitely different, and while she had some idea of exactly how he was different but she still had no real idea on the why.