Dwayne loved his father's house. It was quite large, and had both a cook and a maid who lived in the house. He liked his bedroom even more. His father had taken the liberty of putting up all of the posters and decorations from his old room up, as well as stacking all of his books alphabetically by author on the book case, with an entire shelf devoted to Nietzsche.
"So, what do you think?" asked Steve.
"It's incredible," answered Dwayne truthfully.
"Well, most of your things have been unpacked already, but you can unpack your suitcases now, and then come downstairs for a few minutes before you go to bed, ok?" Dwayne nodded, then walked upstairs and got to work.
"Hey, thanks for letting me come to stay," Dwayne said as he entered the kitchen, where his father was sitting drinking coffee, an hour later.
"It's no problem, I think it'll be really nice to have someone living here for a change, especially you." Steve smiled. "You all settled in?"
"Yeah, pretty much, it's a great room. I know I've stayed there before, but now it has a better sense of, well, me in it."
"Good, good, well, you should probably get some sleep, I'm sure it's been a long day." Dwayne did as Steve suggested.
The next week passed by easily, with Dwayne registering for school, then being showed parts of the town that he and his father hadn't visited in the past, and meeting neighbors. However, school was just around the corner.
On the first day, Dwayne walked the five blocks from his house to the nearest public high school, where he would begin his year as a sophomore. He battled his way through English, Biology, Pre-calculus, and German, and eased through weight training, before lunch. No one had said a single word to him other then his teacher's all day, or even acknowledged him in a positive matter. Once in the cafeteria, he sat down at a table all alone, and watched as the rest of the school pointed and talked about him, laughing on occasion. He shrugged it off, this was no different for him then his old school had been.
"Hey." Dwayne looked up, startled, as a girl with blond wavy hair plunked her tray down at his table. He just stared at her for a moment, then his gaze focused on the other three people standing behind her. "I'm Julia Allegretto, and this is my boyfriend, Carson Thomas." She gestured towards the boy with brown hair standing directly behind her. "This is Roxanne Dunn," she pointed at the girl with dark brown hair, "and her girlfriend Crystal Somers," she pointed lastly to a tall girl with red hair.
"You see, we are the resident outcasts at this school, and since no one else would, we felt it our duty to welcome you." Carson squeezed in between Julia and Dwayne. Roxanne and Crystal sat down on the other side of Dwayne. Dwayne was utterly confused. No one had ever been nice to him at school, and he had never given anyone a reason to either.
"What is this, some kind of prank to initiate the new freak with black hair?" Dwayne's first instinct was not to trust them.
"No, not at all," Crystal looked slightly hurt.
"We plan on being your friends, whether you like it or not," added Roxanne.
"Exactly," said Julia. "We just want to be your friends. So, what's your name? now that you know all of us, it's only fair if you introduce yourself."
"Dwayne, Dwayne Caulbury." He was still a little taken aback by this whole thing.
"So where did you transfer from? Roosevelt High?" asked Carson.
"No, Albuquerque, New Mexico."
"Wow, that's quite a move!" said Roxanne, the other three nodded in agreement.
"So Dwayne, what were your friends like at your old school?" asked Carson.
"Except for my half sister, nonexistent."
"What? No friends?" Julia was in shock.
"Nope."
"Why not?" asked Crystal.
"I didn't really talk much, or actually at all last year." The four teens just stared in awe at him. "Um, sorry?" Dwayne didn't know what else to say.
"Oh, you don't need to apologize for not talking, we just can't believe that you actually didn't talk at all," put in Roxanne.
"Why didn't you talk?" asked Crystal.
"I took a vow of silence until I got in to the air force academy," Dwayne explained.
"You're going to be in the air force? AWESOME!" exclaimed Carson.
"No, I'm not," Dwayne said, "I'm fucking colorblind."
"Oh god, I'm so sorry!" Roxanne, who was on the other side of him, gave him a hug. Dwayne wasn't used to being hugged by anyone other then Olive and Sheryl, so he just sat there, confused.
"So that's why you started talking again?" asked Julia, sympathetically.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"God, that must have been hard! Giving up speaking until you achieved a dream, and then learning that your dream was impossible to achieve anyway," said Roxanne contemplatively, letting go of Dwayne.
"Yeah, well, I'll just have to find an alternate way to fly," Dwayne said. Carson looked to Julia, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. She nodded, and then they both looked to Roxanne and Crystal, who also nodded. Dwayne was confused again.
"Meet us in the front hall after school," said Crystal.
"Uh, why?" Dwayne asked.
"We have something we want to show you, don't worry, you'll be home by five, Carson has a car," said Julia.
"O…k…, but I'll have to call my dad and let him know."
"Ok, you can use my phone," offered Julia. "Just come to the front hall after the last bell, but for now, lunch is about to end."
"Oh, ok, thanks." Dwayne gulped down the last of his juice just as the bell rang.
"Ok, see you after school." Julia called after him, this was followed by a chorus of three goodbyes.
"Bye," Dwayne echoed. His last two classes went by much easier. Crystal was in his US History class, and she sat next to him, making him feel much more comfortable. Both Carson and Julia were in his health class, and they sat on either side of him.
"I was supposed to take this last year, but…I didn't," Carson explained.
"Carson's a junior, the rest of us are sophomores. I've known him my whole life," clarified Julia.
"Ah," Dwayne said. Then class began and they had to pay attention. After class ended, Dwayne walked with Carson and Julia to the front hall, where they met up with Roxanne and Crystal. Julia handed him her phone and directed him outside to call his father. As he walked off to place his call, the four of them held a conference.
"I like him," said Carson.
"I do too, but he has something bugging him, other then the colorblind thing, and it's something big," added Julia.
"I think he's cute," offered Roxanne, smiling.
"Hey!" Crystal whacked her playfully.
"I'm sorry if I can't help it! I think lot's of people are cute, guys and girls, but you are beautiful," Roxanne giggled, and Crystal blushed.
"Yeah, the thing about him is I think we need to be more relaxed around him then we usually are. I don't know if he's ready to handle our full craziness yet," said Crystal.
"Ok, play down the insanity, check," said Roxanne comically, they all smiled.
"He's a nice kid, and he needs good friends, he deserves good friends," said Julia. They saw Dwayne walking back over towards them.
"Ok, I'm good until five," said Dwayne, handing Julia back her phone.
"Good. Lets go!" said Carson, taking out his car keys.
"Uh, one quick question, where are we going exactly?" asked Dwayne.
"It's a surprise," said Julia, Carson, Roxanne and Crystal simultaneously. They started off towards Carson's blue jeep.
"You're in the back with us," said Crystal, jerking her thumb back towards Roxanne. "Julia always rides up front with Carson."
"Right." They threw their backpacks into the trunk of the car, then piled in and drove off.
"Ok, here we are," said Carson as he parked in front of a huge brick building.
"The Museum of Science and Technology?" asked Dwayne, confused. "I don't understand."
"Come on," Roxanne didn't answer him, just tugged his arm. The five of them walked up to the museum's entrance.