Richard again drove Sarah and Dwayne to school. They both sat in the back seat because Richard had boxes in the front seat. Sarah sat at the window seat on the right side of the car, while Dwayne was parked on the left. On the seat between them, they had tossed their back packs. Richard obsessively turning around to make sure that they were staying on their respective sides of the car. He couldn't see however, that behind their back packs, Dwayne had placed his hand on top of Sarah's a subtle way to remind her that he cared. She relished the gesture, and smiled at Dwayne for a moment, before turning to pretend to stare catatonically out of the window.

"Oh my god! I thought that you're dad was going to have whiplash, he turned around to check on us so much!" said Sarah after Richard had pulled away from the school.

"He is not my father," Dwayne said briskly.

"Right, I know, I'm sorry," Sarah apologized.

"It's ok, I'm just a little, well, picky about it, for lack of a better word I guess," justified Dwayne.

"Try anal?"

"Oh, good world, yes, anal, but still."

"Whatever, I'll try and remember, I'm sorry again," Sarah smiled at him.

"Ah, don't be, everyone fucks up from time to time." They walked in to the large, red brick building. Dwayne walked Sarah to her first class, which was English. "See you at lunch," he whispered in her ear, just before disappearing in the sea of people and heading to biology.

"Dwayne, right?" said a voice behind him. He turned around to find himself staring at the captain of the football team, Jake Gray.

"Yeah, why?" Dwayne replied sharply.

"Here, be my dissection partner," said the boy. Dwayne was used to working alone, and he had expected that to be the case today as well.

"Uh, why?"

"Cause I want to talk to you."

"O…K…" said Dwayne, wondering what Jake Gray could possibly want with him. Once they were part of the way into their frog, Jake turned to Dwayne.

"God, don't you think its sick how Miss. Daniels gave all of the frogs names before she handed them to us to cut up?" asked Jake, laughing a little.

"Listen, if you have something to say, just say it, if not, let' get back to work, ok?" Dwayne spoke harshly and irritably.

"Ok, calm down, god. So, what do you know about that new girl, Sarah Burke?" Dwayne almost dropped the frog leg that he was holding.

"Plenty, why?"

"Well, you ate lunch with her yesterday, and she's totally hot!" said Jake.

"Does this conversation have a point to it?"

"Yeah, yeah. So like, what's her deal? Is she single?" Dwayne didn't know how to answer this question right away,

"I guess I don't know, she never said."

"Oh, ok. Hey, do you want to find out for me?"

"Yeah, if you leave me alone."

"Done." Jake stuck out his hand for Dwayne to shake, but Dwayne ignored it. They finished maiming their frog in almost complete silence.

"Hey." Sarah sat down next to Dwayne at his usual table in the cafeteria.

"Do you consider yourself single?" Dwayne asked right away, mentally cursing his bluntness.

"Uh, do you want me to?"

"Some guy, Jake Gray wants to know, he says you're hot."

"Well what do you think? Am I hot?" she asked him, smiling.

"No, you're beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, but not hot. Hot sounds to vulgar to me." He took a sip of his Dr. Pepper and looked at her. "So, single or not?" he asked her again. She didn't speak, but opted to kiss him passionately instead. Automatically, me moved towards her, placing one hand on her knee and the other on her shoulder. She put one hand over his hand on her knee, touched her other hand gently to his cheek. They kept their kiss shorter then the first time so that they didn't attract too much attention, especially that of the faculty supervising lunch, but they attracted attention from their peers anyway. Those who bore witness were in shock, and those who had missed it refused to believe that Dwayne had been kissing a girl.

"You tell him whatever you want, just let me know what you choose, ok?" she smiled. "Now tell me about yourself, just sum everything up."

"Uh, I love Nietzsche, I like to pain, my favorite movie is The Breakfast Club, I don't watch any TV shows religiously, and other then Nietzsche's stuff, my favorite book is The Picture of Dorian Gray. My real father lives in Florida, but I only see him once a year, I took a nine month vow of silence earlier this year, I work out every day, I wanted to be a test pilot in the air force until I found that I was colorblind, and can't see the difference between red and green. I hate biology, onions, Richard, and playboys. I like English, pasta, Olive, and I find sleazy politicians amusing. My favorite color is yellow, not black." Dwayne took a deep breath and smiled.

"You forgot music."

"Right, I listen to classic rock, like Led Zeppelin, and stuff like that."

"So that's Dwayne in a nut shell?"

"Pretty much, nothing special here. Now it's your turn."

"Ok, my favorite movie is A Fish Called Wanda, I love to draw Manga, but not too many people know that about me, my favorite TV show is Scrubs. My favorite book is East of Eden. Both of my parents died when I was six, and I've been living with my aunt ever since. I have never taken a vow of silence, and I want to be a therapist when I get older. I like chemistry, chocolate, you, and romantic comedies. I hate physics, avocados, mimes, and Brian Greene. Music wise I like pop and hip hop, but I'm open to trying new things." She finished, and looked at Dwayne.

"Who's Brian Greene?"

"He's a physics guy, he made a video that we watched in class, and he drives me crazy!" She laughed a little, and he smiled.

"So the physicist creeps you out huh? That's not something that I've heard before." He took a bite of his turkey sandwich, which he had made for himself because his mom never remembered to exclude the onions.

"So I didn't really take you for a Breakfast Club kind of guy," she said.

"Well that's exactly it. No one's what they seem in that movie, it's great."

"That's very true. Have you ever seen A Fish Called Wanda?"

"No, is it good? Well obviously it's your favorite movie, but you know what I meant." Dwayne laughed because he was all tongue tied.

"It's hilarious, we should watch it sometime."

"Sounds good to me." They spent the rest of lunch discussing their likes, dislikes, and other things about themselves. Dwayne hadn't spoken so much so animatedly in a long time, and while it usually felt foreign to him, not it felt good. After lunch, they walked together to math, their second to last class before the day ended.

"Hey, did you talk to her?" asked Jake as Dwayne walked to English.

"I'm sorry Jake, but she's taken," said Dwayne, feigning an apologetic tone.

"Damn! By who?" he asked, seeming only slightly frustrated.

"She didn't say." Dwayne wasn't lying, she hadn't said, but he knew anyway.

"Oh well, I can probably get her to dump him." Jake smiled as though it were only a small set back.

"Well, good luck with that then," said Dwayne, sitting down and taking his essay rough draft out.

"Thanks." Jake went back to his seat, wondering if whoever Sarah was with went to their school or not, and id they did, how did they get together so quickly. Dwayne concentrated on editing Tracey Adams' essay, which he hated to admit was better then his own. When she passed him back his essay, it had a few well placed corrections on it, he was still not done with hers, but he looked at his anyway. There was a note at the bottom in red pen that said Well, you look like you really know how to treat a girl, call me. After the note it gave her number. Dwayne sighed, he had no intention of ever dialing the number on the paper in front of him. Tracey caught Dwayne's eye and winked at him. He rolled his eyes in response, causing her to glare at him. He still had her essay, so he wrote Sorry, but I'm taken at the bottom of it. He wasn't sorry, but he figured that it would be best to at least say that he was. Tracy just tossed her hair and turned away. Dwayne wondered why you suddenly became appealing only after you were infamous for publicly making out with someone, and once people saw you, they wanted you. He dismissed this as unimportant, however, as he had never had a crush on any of the girls who were now checking him out. All that mattered was that in 25 minutes when the bell rang, he would be with Sarah, and his times spent with Sarah were quickly becoming the best times of the day.