He's a full 5 minutes early for his first AP Biology class the next day. As he sits waiting at a lab bench in the empty dim classroom, he randomly thumbs through his textbook. Danny is a good student and he enjoys school, but Biology has always been his favorite subject. He likes the order and organization of biological systems, likes their regularity and relative predictability. His Dad might ditch town, Christina might break his heart, but he could always trust that that broken heart would still beat at an average of 80 beats per minute. Maybe it's this constancy that makes him want to be a doctor.
Though he was just a little kid at the time, Danny can still remember the day his brother Richie was born. The obstetrician came out to see him in the waiting room and had appeared nothing short of God-like. Ever since, Danny's wanted to be a ob/gyn. Not to 'look at cans all day' like Stevie joked, but rather to be the person who got to bring a new human being into the world.
As the minutes pass the room begins to fill up with his classmates all falling into a well-established pattern of sitting amongst their friends, leaving the seat beside Danny free. Just as the bell rings, Danny recognizes Jeremy and Peter, 2 of the boys from the lunchroom, rushing into class. They give a quick up nod of acknowledgement before sitting a few seats in front of him. Danny is just about to congratulate himself on avoiding being partnered with anyone, when a flustered Mindy Lahiri comes peeling into the classroom with a breathless apology to the teacher. She looks around for an open seat, eyes finally settling on the one beside him. Moving towards it, she hesitates only slightly when she recognizes him in the neighboring spot.
He manages to mostly ignore her for the first 15 minutes of class, despite the overly flower smell of her shampoo and her excruciatingly loud outfit. Inevitably though comes the moment when their teacher finishes the lecture and the students around them begin busying themselves with their lab. Though he moves in his chair to face her, she takes a moment staring blankly up at the blackboard muttering something to herself about Beyonce and Thai food before pivoting in her seat and looking back at him.
"Hello Danny," she begins coldly. "What are you doing in this class? Shouldn't you be in 'How to be a D-bag 101'?"
"See now that implies I'd need lessons to be an effective D-bag" He grins back at her, "When I think what you trying to say is that I already am a D-bag."
"God! Yes Danny you are. You're doing a great job at it," she says in annoyance.
"I think the real question is what are you doing here," he counters. "Doesn't Shulman have, like a Fashion course or something?" He asks gesturing to her very trendy clothing.
"Okay, first of all. I know you're trying to be funny," she overemphasizes the 'trying', "but a fashion course is a fabulous idea. Do you know, just this morning I saw Brendan Deslaurier wearing a pair of Birkenstocks with Chinos?" She finishes with a shudder.
"I don't know those words," Danny begins to reply in agitation.
"And secondly," she says forcefully interrupting him, "I'll have you know this is my favorite class. I am going to be a hot young gynecologist one day," she finishes proudly.
This makes Danny laugh a bit cruelly, "You do know gynecologists' help women with their reproductive systems, not their shoe collections, right?"
"Rude much?" She asks in indignation. "If you must know, my Mom is an ob/gyn and she's always been my personal idol. I can't wait to follow in her footsteps," Mindy finishes more quietly.
He stares openly at her at this, trying to wrap his head around how he and this strange girl could have such similar aspirations. "What are you staring at?" She asks after a moment when the silence between them starts to feel uncomfortable.
"Nothing," Danny answers looking away guiltily. "It's just that my Mom is my idol too." He chances a look back at her and finds she is giving him a tentative smile. He sends her a lopsided grin. And as they hold each other's gaze once more Danny wonders if he perhaps has misjudged Mindy.
"Of course, my hair idol is Maria Menounos." she says brightly breaking the moment between them. Or maybe his first impression was right after all, he thinks with a heavy sigh.
"Alright. Let's get started," he says taking in the set of test tubes in front of them and the teacher's notes on the board. They are studying enzymatic reactions and Danny has the advantage of having gone through a similar lab at his old school not too long ago.
"Well it says here to first add solute A to solvent B," Mindy begins putting on a pair of glasses and reading from the lab manual. "Are those the instructions?" Danny asks. Mindy nods and hands him the papers.
"Great." He answers and rips the stack in 2, "Don't need 'em," he grins cockily at her. Mindy may have been reluctant to partner up with him at first, but he's pretty confident she'll be pleased with his results. Danny's always been at the top of his class in the past and he has no intention of letting anything be different here at Shulman.
Half an hour later when they're the first group to finish, she beams excitedly between him and the test tubes filled with solutions of varying colors indicating they'd performed the lab correctly. He's feeling pretty proud of himself too until one of the solutions begins to froth, bubbling over and staining the cream colored sleeve of Mindy's sweater a deep and very permanent-looking purple.
Later that day as he's walking past some lockers he hears the unmistakably squeak of Mindy's voice as she converses with the blonde girl, Gwen, he'd met his first day.
"What happened?" Gwen asks in horror taking Mindy's sleeve between her fingers.
"Danny Castellano happened." Mindy states angrily. "Stupid handsome jerk was too proud to use directions."
Danny smiles to himself as he heads off to his next class. Frankly, he's been called worse. And hearing Mindy call him handsome is surprisingly flattering. 'I work with what I got,' he thinks to himself as he struts along the hallway and off to class.