A/N THIS IS AN EDIT: I posted earlier and uploaded the wrong version. If you read already please re-read the end. Nothing changed more was added. Sorry. And a big thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I also finally got Word to work correctly and accept English spell/grammar check. Hope the previous chapters look better now without all the awful errors. :)

Today had been a long confusing day. It started out well enough, went down hill quickly and then sort of leveled off just barely scraping the bottom. Maybe because I am not as old as the other members of what I dubbed, "The Breakfast Club" I just don't get them. Well I can understand where Allison is coming from. She was humiliated today and after starting to come out of her shell on Saturday they scared her back in. I know she will be fine with a little time. How do I know? I don't she just seems very resilient to me. It's Andy, John, and Claire who I don't get.

Andy could be a little more sensitive to Allison. I know my mouth was probably hanging open when he walked out of the bathroom and just left us all there. Then there is John who acts like this big, tough guy but when it comes down to it he is actually just as vulnerable to what people think as the rest of us. He is just better at hiding it. Sometimes he fails though. I could tell those guys in shop were getting to him and playing on his doubts about Claire. Then there is Claire. Why doesn't she just come out and tell John how she feels? She obviously likes him. When I say "likes him" I mean REALLY likes him. After her behavior in gym her friends already know this. So what is the problem?

Her attraction to him in detention was pretty obvious. Maybe not at first but after the first couple hours she was intrigued. I can see that since I don't think any of us ever really had experience with someone like him first hand.

"Brian is that you?" My mom called to me from the kitchen as I came in the front door.

"Yeah I'm home. Just going to my room to study," I yelled back as I swung myself around the banister and was about to start up the stairs but my mom popped out from around the corner. "No you are not. You can do your homework in the kitchen. I need you to watch your sister and her friends while I run to the pharmacy to pick up your father's asthma inhaler. They are in there baking cookies. Make sure they don't set the house on fire," she said as she grabbed her scarf and purse.

As she opened the door I muttered, "Great." Too bad she heard me.

"Don't talk back to me young man. It's the least you can do since I had to drive you to detention on Saturday. "Keep and eye on them." Then she popped out the door. Kicking the banister in frustration I went into the kitchen where my sister Mary and three of her friends were singing along to Wham and adding eggs to a bowl.

"Hi," I said as I plopped down at the table.

My sister just grunted in acknowledgement. "Oh Steph, that's my brother I was telling you about Brian."

"Hi," she said to me.

"Don't talk to him."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because he is a dork." She replied simply and her friends laughed.

"I'm not a dork."

She rolled her eyes. "My sister is a dork too," said Steph.

"Really?"

"Yeah but she doesn't live here…yet. Dad and Sylvia will be here Friday."

I decided to ignore them but maybe I was a dork. My dad told me that people who called me things like "dork", "nerd", and "geek" did it because they were jealous that I was smarter than they were. Of course I believed my dad. He was just like me when growing up so he knew what he was talking about right? Apparently not. There had to be some modicum of truth to it if even my little eight year old sister could see it. The question then was what to do about it. To be honest I was tired of being a dork. There had to be away to be cool without being a C student but I had no clue what that was.

I walked over to the wall and picked up the receiver on the phone. Who was I going to call? I set it back on the hook and dug though my book bag. I knew it was in there somewhere. Finally I found it, the student directory crumpled at the bottom. Before now I never needed it since my friends like Larry Lester I've know since third grade. I pulled it out and flipped through the pages until I found what I was looking for, Clark, Andy. I went back to the phone and started to dial.

"Who are you calling," asked Mary.

"A friend."

"You don't have any friends."

"I do too." I replied listening as the phone rang waiting for someone to pick up on the other end, in my ear.

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do so. Why am I arguing with a fourth grader?" She should have been in third but skipped a grade. Just then someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi. Uh...May I speak to Andy?" I asked the woman who I presumed was Andy's mom.

"One second," she said then the line became muffled probably put her hand over the mouth piece but I still heard her yell, "Andrew! Phone call." Then I heard her remove her hand and a "Thanks mom," then "Hello?"

"Andy? It's Brian."

"Oh hey. What's up?"

"I need some help; do you think you could come over?" I hoped I didn't sound as desperate as I suddenly felt. His hesitation could be felt through the phone line.

"Yeah, I can come over for a bit. I've got to be back home by five thirty, six at the latest. Got to meet my old man to work out at the gym."

"Thanks I really appreciate it. I really mean that I really, really…"

He cut me off. "That's fine. What is your address?" I gave it to him, told him I'd see him later and hung up while doing a happy dance.

"See," said Mary to her friends, "told you he is a dork." Then to me, "So who is Andy?"

"Didn't anyone tell you that it's rude to listen in on other people's conversations?"

"I wasn't being rude. I was being precocious." The girl was the devil. I took my turn and rolled my eyes back at her and settled in at the table with my AP calculus book. Unable to concentrate on the numbers in front of me I wondered what Mary would be like in high school. She was smart. My parents liked bragging that she had a higher IQ than any of us but she was also popular among her friends and had to have what was in style. I could see her being like Claire in that aspect. She certainly had the bitchiness of the other princesses down.

It must have been at least a half hour later when the doorbell rang. I looked at my paper and realized I only had one equation completed. Sighing I stood and went to go get it only to be shoved aside by four little girls all wanting to see who would be friends with a nerd like me.

"Hi, is Brian Johnson here?" Andy asked my sister who was standing there looking up at him with hero-worship. How he could get that reaction from even a kid who probably had no idea who he was amazed me. She nodded and moved out of the way.

"Hey," I said coming into the foyer. "Come on in and ignore my sister and her friends."

Mary turned and glared at me as he followed me into the kitchen. "Sorry we can't go up to my room just yet. I've got to keep and eye on the girls while my mom is out. I thought she would be back by now."

"That's okay. I like little kids," he said glancing at the kitchen door around which the girls were peaking at him and giggling. I could hear one of them whisper, "He is like so cuuuute." Eventually they made their way back in the kitchen and slid a baking sheet of cookie dough into the oven.

"So what do you need help with?" He asked eying my calc book.

I looked around to make sure my sister and her friends weren't listening. "My image."

He seemed puzzled. "What is wrong with your image?"

I'm sure he was asking to be nice but I played along anyway. "What isn't wrong with it?"

"Bri, I though we determined Saturday that we are all pretty much the same."

"We are but we also all know the line about what is inside being what counts is bullshit."

"Ohhhh I'm telling mommy you cussed," howled Mary. At times I hated her. She would be so mature one moment then revert to being a whiny little kid the next. I know she was eight but she was also Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"Who was cussing?" asked my mom as she entered from the back door placing her purse on the counter and removing the bag.

"Brian!" Cried the girls in chorus.

"Brian, what I have told you about that kind of language." Then she noticed Andy. "Oh, hello. Brian didn't tell us he was expecting friends over. Are you done with your homework young man?"

"You must be Mrs. Johnson," said Andy before I could answer the homework question. "I'm Andy Clark; I hope it's not a problem that I came over." I motioned what I hoped was subtly to my calc book and that he would notice. He didn't seem to but my mom did.

"Oh Brian is helping you with your homework?"

"No..." he began and then, "yes he is."

"So which is it?"

"Yes. I'm not doing so well in …uh Calculus and he was going to try to explain today's lesson to me."

She looked at him skeptically. Guess she was a bit surprised. I didn't have kids over and if I did they were popular and wearing letterman jackets. "He is a wrestler." I said and she smiled and nodded in understanding. "Can we study in my room?"

"Go ahead. I'll try to keep the girls down here."

Grabbing my books I led Andy upstairs to my room. "Sorry about that." I said as we both laughed. "That is okay, but you think you are the one with an image problem? Your mom obviously thinks athletes are idiots." He called that one correctly. She didn't believe in sports as a part of the path to academic achievement.

Andy walked around and looked at my room, picking up my academic trophies and looking at them. Then he sat on my bed. "Guess you like Star Wars?"

How embarrassing. I didn't even think about my Darth Vader bedspread. "Yeah."

"Pretty cool movie. So what about you image do you want to change?"

"Everything:"

"That's a lot."

"Gee thanks." I knew I needed work but "a lot"?

"That isn't what I meant. You should probably have asked Claire about this. I mean image is more her department than mine."

"Are you and Claire close?"

He looked surprised at the question and then answered, "No, not really. I know her because we have the same kind of friends but we never dated or anything. Actually I don't think I ever said more than hello to her before Saturday. Why?"

"I was just wondering."

Looking me over carefully he said, "No, it was more than wondering. Something is bothering you."

"I told John that…"

"What? Did Bender do something?"

"No. No, nothing like that. It's just that in shop some guys said some things and I think Bender believed them. That's all."

"What sort of things?" He sounded a bit upset but I guess I couldn't blame them.

"Like that you and Claire were going to prom together. That seemed to upset John but I told him that it couldn't be true.

"No, it's not true. I haven't asked Allison yet but I haven't asked Claire either."

"Those guys were pretty certain that you two were going."

"Who?"

"Todd St. James and Troy Patterson," I answered. I watched him trying to figure out what he was thinking. Then I asked the other question which had been on my mind. "So what is with you and Allison?"

"I'm not sure."

"But you want to ask her to prom?"

He looked at me like I was an idiot. "Of course who else would I go with? Oh that's right according to my teammates I am going with Claire. Claire would love to go with John Bender, for some unknown reason, if he would just ask her."

"You don't like John?"

"I guess he is okay but still a jerk, but if Claire likes him I'll try to be nice to him. Anyway I just hope that Allison hasn't heard that rumor or she will probably never speak to either Claire or me again. But I guess back to why you called me here in the first place."

I sat on the edge of my chair waiting to hear what he would say. "You don't need an image change. Changing what you look like isn't going to help make you popular. Look at what happened to Allison today. What you need to do is have more faith in yourself. Once you have that you can try to change your clothes but do it because you really want to and not for anyone else." He checked his watch and stood up. "I need to get going."

"Okay."

"Just remember what I said. Think on it a little more. If you still really want to do it ask Claire." He clapped me on the shoulder then left. I did feel a little better if not about myself about the fact that Andy and Claire weren't going to prom together. Now just to convince Bender of that.