Danny

5 days until college. I would have been more excited if I knew I wasn't going to be the awkwardly young one at the school. I was only 16, and barely able to drive. I would have been in college sooner, but I decided to take a year off and not skip kindergarten, 3rd grade, 6th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade, and 12th grade. I only stuck around for twelfth grade for prom and the graduation ceremony. I wanted to be as normal as possible to balance out being the freak kid genius.

I looked out the window of my apartment that I had just gotten. My apartment overlooked the main area of downtown Ann Arbor. I had gotten it mainly for the space. I needed a lot of room for my painting and sculpting materials, which I stored here. I actually lived in a sorority nearby, or least I would. I hadn't moved in my stuff yet, and barely anybody knew I was going to be there. When I toured I had stayed at the back of the crowd and was only let in because they had no bad vibes from me. In fact, I don't think I said a single word during the tour, so I gave them no impression.

My mom was the one who wanted me to move into the sorority because it's where you make "Life long friends" and have loads of "fun memories". In reality she had sent me there partially because of that and partially because she wanted me to be like her. She had been in a sorority at U Penn when she went to college. I actually purposely turned down the request to go there from the school because I wanted to avoid being a sorority legacy.

I turned around to look back at my room and let out a sigh. I was moving into the hell hole of hairspray in an hour, and I did not want to go. I was only going because they were having introductions with the twin frat house that evening. I was not going to pass up the chance to see some cute boys, even if I was too young to date any of them.

My paintbrush suddenly rolled off of my desk and across a canvas leaning against the leg. It left a blue streak running down the middle. Inspiration burst into my mind. I ran over to the canvas, picked it up, and started painting.

The half-finished product looked great. It portrayed water going upwards into a stem. I planned on painting a shining flower on top of the stem. Just as I was about to dip my brush in the white paint, I caught a glimpse of my watch. I only had ten minutes to load up my stuff and get to the house!

I gathered all of my important boxes and hurried down the stairs. Quickly I ran to the parking structure holding my car and sprinted to my faded orange Bronco and threw my boxes into the bed. Speeding out of the structure and down Main street, only stopping to pay the fee, I made it to the house with two minutes to spare. I parked at the back of the driveway near everyone's fancy cars and rushed up to the door. Luckily it was unlocked and I didn't have to worry about talking to people. I quickly found the head of the house because of her clipboard and leading demeanor. She directed me to my room without even looking at me. I was glad because she would have instantly noticed I looked too young to be in college. That would have led to a whole ton of questions which I preferred not to answer

Once I found my room I placed my boxes by the door and hurried back to the car to get two more of my boxes. When I turned to go back into the house I saw the frat boys coming down the sidewalk. I sprinted back inside and burst through my door, boxes in hand. This made a girl who was already in the room scream.

"Whoops, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you there. Oh, I'm your new roommate, Daniela, but I prefer Danny." The other girl just stared at me. I suddenly realized she was in pajamas. "You might want to get on some actual clothes, the boys are going to be her in 3, 2, 1-" A knock sounded on the door. She shrieked and ran to her closet. I hurried over to a mirror and fixed my hair and makeup. Just because I'm a nerd doesn't mean I don't like looking good. I looked my outfit up and down and made sure I had chosen something that looked good. My outfit consisted of black tights, really short velvet shorts, and a fuzzy over-sized sweater with a white collar.

When my roommate had finished picking out clothing we hurried out of our dorm. We each had taken only 1 minute to get ready, which was a new record for me.

"He, I didn't catch your name," I said as we entered the pack of girls waiting to catch a sight of the boys.

"I'm Lizzie." She reached over and shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you. Now, let's try and get to the front." We weren't small, so it wasn't easy for us to get to the front, but we still made it. Before us stood a fine sample of the male specimen. They all had six packs or four packs, and most of them had great style. One of them stood out to me. He looked a little younger than everyone else, but he was also the most gorgeous person of all. His hair was black ad messy to perfection. His blue eyes were electric. On top of that he had a six pack showing through his blue, v-neck, shirt.

"Welcome to Tridelt! I'm Brittany, but you can call me Brit!" Squealed the lead barbie.

"Well thanks for having us. I'm sure we're gonna have loads of fun," replied the lead 'Ken'. He had blue gray eyes and blonde hair that stood up because of excess hair gel. He looked like perfection, but he also looked like a man whore. He eye raped a few people as he stood there.

"Everyone, this is Brad," typical name for his persona, "and he is the head of Phi Kappa Psi!" A few girls squeaked. Ugh, I hope we don't have to do intros. "Time for introductions!" She made this weird noise that I guessed made the guys either fall head over heels, or want to rip their ears off. "Get in a line Kappas." We all hurried into formation. The guys did the same. One by one she went down the line and introduced us. I last next to Lizzie. When she came to me she stopped. I hadn't done anything wrong, I said my name and that I was freshman.

"What skincare cream do you use that makes you look so young?"

"Oh, you know, this and that."

"Well, can I borrow some? Your skin is flawless!"

"Uh, sure..."

"Yay!" When Brittany walked away I noticed everyone was staring at me. I guessed it was because the queen bee was talking to a lowly freshman like me. They all shook it off after a few seconds.

When Brad began the Phis' introductions I spotted the gorgeous guy looking at me. He seemed to be analyzing me. When he saw that I noticed he suddenly snapped his head back forward.

"This is our kid genius, Daniel. He's one of the freshies this year." Brad playfully punched the guy who was staring at me in the arm. "He's seventeen, so he's off limits this year ladies." Not for me. Wait, did I seriously just think that. Ugh, college is already getting to me. "And this is our not-kid genius, Lucas. 19 and eligible." He winked at the crowd and I swear some people let out sighs. Well, the air in their heads has to go somewhere.

"Okay, be free, mingle, socialize, flirt!" Brittany shouted. With that everyone dispersed to do as she said. I stayed back to talk with Lizzie, who was one of the only down to earth people I had met so far.

"So, I have to know everything about my roommate. When's your birthday?"

"October 9th, 1997." I watched as she quickly did the math in her head.

"You're only-" I covered her mouth before she could blurt out my age. Apparently we would have to get to know each other later.

"Shhh!"

She whispered "16". "How are you in college already?" She said quieter.

"I would have come sooner, but I wanted to have a more normal life. I decided against skipping a few grades over the years. Some years they would beg me to skip grades because I was above other levels, but eventually they all got the hint that I would like to have a more normal life."

"So you could have been in college years ago? You must be a genius."

"I got a near perfect score on my SATs two years ago. After that I took a break from school to get into more creative things."

"So a genius."

"I guess so." Suddenly Lizzie made and 'eep' type noise.

"Don't look now, but the hottie freshman is looking at you. But wait, he is under 18. Dammit." I held up my fingers and counted down. A look of realization swept across her face. She squealed in excitement.

"Stop talking, please! I'd rather that everyone thinks I am actually 18 so I'm not viewed as a nerd or something. You're the only person here who knows, and I'd like to keep it that way. I'm not worried about Brittany finding out because I bet she doesn't even care about our information. She probably doesn't plan on reading through it all anyway."

"Fine, I'll do as you wish master," she said with a fake British accent. She stuck her nose into the air and held her arm in front of her like a butler.

"I think I'm going to like you butler Jeeves," I retorted with a fake snobbish British accent. We both burst into a fit of giggles and only stopped when we saw people looking. We couldn't contain it, and their "WTF?" looks added to the laugh factor, so we doubled over in laughter. Lizzie let out a snort, which caused me to laugh even more.

When we eventually calmed down our cheeks were wet with tears. I was glad that I had worn waterproof mascara. It took me a little bit to notice that Daniel was coming our way. I let a small squeak escape my lips before I calmed down.

"Hey," he said, "I'm Danny."

"No, you're not." I said.

"Yeah I am, it's my nickname."

"Too bad, I christen you Dan. The name Danny is mine, and it belongs to me only."

"Alright, so let's start over." He did a getting into character move with his hand while backing up and then started forward. "Hey, I'm Dan. What are your names?"

"I'm Lizzie."

"I'm Danny! It's nice to meet you Dan!"

"Ditto." Dan said. Note to self: never say ditto, it sounds weird and obnoxious.

"So, what brings you to our hysterical corner of the room?"

"Oh, not much. Every person I have met over there is an idiot. I am actually wondering how some of them got into college."

"Probably by sleeping with the admissions people," Lizzie added. I snorted at that.

"So, my fraternity is having a party this weekend, and I was thinking that you guys should come."

"Yeah, that would be awesome!" I said. My first college party, and I was invited by someone that isn't hideous. I consider that a non-nerdy achievement.

"I guess I'll see ya later then."

"Yeah, see ya."

As soon as he left I heard Lizzie let a little squeal. "You like him don't you?"

"Psh, what psh, pft, no... What makes you think that?"

Dan- his viewpoint at the same time as Danny's

I am surrounded by idiots. Really smart idiots.

I was elated to get into Michigan; my dream had always been to go to my hometown school. I was even more excited when during rush all the fraternities wanted me with them. Unfortunately I decided to go with the most popular one. They're party hard, beer pong, prepsters from the west coast. Sure most of them had pretty good GPA's, but I soon figured out why they needed me from a fellow nerd. They needed people with good looks and smarts to raise their ranking among the other greek frats. I was being used. At least if I was in a frat house I would be having fun in the meantime, my inner frat boy thought.

My first day at Phi Kappa Psi was pretty lax. Everyone was moving in, so we were too preoccupied to do anything other than unpack. The house was pretty small which was cause for some complaints from the snobs. My room was one of the only nicer rooms. I had managed to get it because they wanted to do anything to keep me in their house. The other upside was that I was rooming with the other genius, Lucas. He was pretty cool, not stuck up or as hard-core as the other guys. I learned that he was also from Ann Arbor. He had gone to Huron High School, whereas I had gone to Pioneer. He was also at the top of his class. Star Wars episode VI was his favorite movie, his favorite band was Relient K, and he was obsessed with a frozen yogurt place downtown called Atmos'. We had a lot in common.

I had been in the house for nearly a week when I heard of our sister house.

"Are you ready for the introductions to the Tridelts tonight?" Lucas asked. I took my headphones out and turned towards him

"The what?" I said. I hadn't heard that we were meeting with the hottest sorority on campus tonight.

"The intro to our sister house at 6? You haven't heard? Everyone's been talking about it."

"I've kind of been avoiding contact with any form of human being."

"What about me? I'm human."

"That's exactly what an alien would say!" Lucas rolled his eyes at my remark.

"Back to the introductions subject, how air-headed do you think they will be? How snobbish? How much will they drool at the sight of us gorgeous males?" Lucas puffed out his chest trying to make himself more manly or something. It failed horribly when he suddenly went into a coughing fit.

"I think they will have less than a 3.0 GPA, they will be complete bitches, and they will have to mop the floor after we come over," I said completely seriously. He started into a coughing and laughing fit again, causing me to chuckle. "Do you need water?"

"Nope," cough, "I'm go-" cough, "-od."

"Okay, man. Just, don't die." I turned back to my computer screen and put my headphones in again. "Imagine" by John Lennon came on and I drifted into a daze while I checked my Facebook. I had an hour to prepare myself to be bombarded by the desperate, hot, girls that I couldn't date. Plenty of time to watch my favorite channels on youtube.

"Dude, we're going to be late if you don't hurry up!" Lucas shouted. I fell over in the pair of pants I was putting on.

"Shit, Lucas, don't shout! You're five feet away. I'd prefer not to get cochlear implants yet."

"Well, if you were faster I wouldn't have to yell." I stood up and pulled up my pants. I finished getting ready by putting on my belt.

"Okay, I'm ready. We can leave now."

"Finally!" We walked out the door to find ourselves at the front of the group. The crowd pushed us forward out the door and down to the side walk towards tri-delta. When we came closer I saw a girl in front of the huge brick house, rushing to the door with boxes. She had really red hair and fair skin. When she noticed us she sprinted into the house. She was a typical boy-crazy girl freaking out because of our mass. Great.

When we arrived at the door Brad, the head of our fraternity, stepped forward. He knocked on the door a few times until a blonde girl with too much makeup opened it.

"Oh, hey Brad. Hey Phi's, come on in," she said in an annoyingly girly voice. Again, we were pushed forward by the other guys. This time we were pushed into a room full of skimpily dressed girls who also had a bit too much makeup.

In other words, a third of them looked like clowns.

I smiled to try to seem nice, but I only succeeded in making some of the girls swoon. If all girls act like this, I am dying alone.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the red head again. I noticed that she had actual clothing on and that she hadn't painted on her face like everyone else had. Not only that, but she seemed to look younger too.

She seemed to be analyzing all of us, putting us into categories. Her eyes rested on me for the longest. I tried to not look at her while their sorority head was talking. Not like I was paying attention to the blonde leader. I manage to catch that her name was Brittany, but nothing else. When the other girls introduced themselves I feigned interest.

When Brittany came up to the last girl in line, which happened to be the red-head, whose name I learned was Daniela, she hesitated. Brittany seemed enthusiastic about something, and Daniela was giving back mock enthusiasm. Apparently she hadn't been taken over by the blonde yet. I saw some of the other boys looking at the scene with curiosity. Soon they lost interest and went back to scanning the girls.

Brad began introductions when Brittany got back to the front of the room. I didn't really care because by now I knew everyone's names. All I was focusing on was Daniela. When she noticed me looking at her I turned my head quickly back forward.

Brad finally came around to me and introduced me by saying, "This is our kid genius, Daniel. He's one of the freshies this year." I felt him punch my arm. "He's seventeen, so he's off limits this year ladies." Some of the girls seemed sad, but they mostly stopped looking at me. Everyone but Daniela. If anything, she seemed more interested.

So, either she wanted to be arrested for relations with a minor, or she was under 18. I hoped it was the second one. Then maybe I would have a chance of dating someone who's not still in high-school.

The meat heads and beer pong were already getting to me. Their thoughts were entering my brain! I had to be strong. I would just have to talk to her first to see if she's actually likable.

It took me a second to register that people were walking out of the lines to go talk with other people.

I went and joined Lucas, who was talking with some girls who seemed fairly normal. By that I mean, they didn't look orange and they hadn't bleached their hair. They also seemed to have more normal personalities. They did occasionally twirl their hair around their fingers like ditz's, but overall they were pretty personable.

I soon left Lucas to go talk with Daniela and her friend, who were dying of laughter. Tears ran down their cheeks and once Daniela's friend snorted. They finally noticed me, and Daniela let out a small squeak. I think I shocked them.

"Hey," I said, "I'm Danny."

"No, you're not." she replied. This confused me. Hadn't she heard my name when we were being introduced? I also didn't think that she thought I would lie about my name.

"Yeah I am, it's my nickname."

"Too bad, I christen you Dan." This sounded like something out of Robin Hood. "The name Danny is mine, and it belongs to me only." Funny. At least I knew she wasn't a brat like almost everyone else here; she was actually humorous.

"Alright, so let's start over." I did a getting into character thing like people did before acting while backing up. I strutted forward again too meet greet her for the second time. "Hey, I'm Dan. What are your names?"

"I'm Lizzie," said her brunette friend. She seemed pretty quiet.

"I'm Danny! It's nice to meet you Dan!" said Danny with over the top excitement.

"Ditto." I said. Did I seriously just say ditto? I thought to myself.

"So, what brings you to our hysterical corner of the room?"

"Oh, not much. Every person I have met over there is an idiot. I am actually wondering how some of them got into college."

"Probably by sleeping with the admissions people," Lizzie added. Apparently Lizzie wasn't as reserved as I thought she was.

"So, my fraternity is having a party this weekend, and I was thinking that you guys should come."

"Yeah, that would be awesome!" she said.

"I guess I'll see ya later then." It took some effort to keep my enthusiasm out of my voice. I actually got two decent girls to go to a party with me! On top of that, they weren't flinging themselves at me like half of the other girls here.

"Yeah, see ya," Danny called out. I made my way back to the front of the room to where Lucas was standing. Next to him stood a few girls awaiting my arrival. He seemed to be enjoying the attention, even though they weren't there because of him.

Luckily, before any of the girls had time to flirt, Brad called us all back together. All of us said our goodbyes to the other house. When I was headed for the door I noticed that Danny was staring at me. She caught me looking back and I winked and smiled. Her cheek turned pink and she turned back to start talking to Lizzie. Maybe she was one of the girls who was insanely obsessed with boys. That bothered me a little, but at least she held it back when she was talking to me.

I felt Lucas tap me on the shoulder and realized that everyone was starting to walking out the door. I went along with everyone else and started heading back to the fraternity.

"Dude, what was all the staring about?" Lucas said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how you couldn't keep your eyes off of that red-head chick." Lucas looked at me knowingly. "You know girls aren't exactly into dating younger guys."

"Her name is Danny, and how do you know that girls older than me wouldn't like me?" I didn't ask that because I cared, I asked because I was curious. Sort of, kinda, maybe.

"You like her, you like her, you like her," Lucas chanted like a five year old. I threw a pillow at his face to shut him up. He fell out of the spinny-chair that he was sitting in.

"Whoops, sorry, I totally didn't mean for that to happen," I said with sarcasm dripping from my voice. Lucas squinted at me in an attempt at an evil glare. Instead, he ended up looking like an old person trying to read their book without glasses.

"Anyway, I wouldn't even go for her. Even I think it would be odd to date a girl that's older than you, even if it is stereotypical. I'd also like to date someone with a brain, which I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a very big one."

"Well, good. If you don't ask her out some time soon, I will."

Hey guys, thank ya for reading, I hope you like it so far. Feel free to review, and all that jazz.

I welcome your opinions and ideas!

Have a splendiforous day

-The Hoffling child