Those ten minutes in detention with Lacey had to have been the most grueling, excruciating minutes of Danny's life. I t pained him to be in a room, so close to her, yet the distance between so far. What Lacey said to him that stung was that she was happy. She was happy without him.

Danny made his way out of the doors of Green Grove High feeling defeated. He was quickly bombarded by a stampede of boys, some of which were very familiar to him.

"Socio!" One boy cried out.

"Stop it, dude his name is Danny." Danny recognized the voice of Cole. He identified the boys as the soccer team.

"Desai," Cole announced, "it's good to have you back." Danny searched the crowd for his old "friend" Archie, the. He remembered that the soccer captain had be suspended for poisoning Cole.

"It's good to be back." Danny was glad to see that Cole was so welcoming of him, but was still puzzled by the entire team gathering around him. He looked around awkwardly.

"Is there something you guys want from me?"

"We wanted to introduce you to your new captain." Danny looked around. His new captain? He hadn't even thought about rejoining the team.

"And who may that be?" He responded.

"Yours truly," Cole said with a smile.

"Wow, congratulations man, you deserve it. But I don't know if I'm going to play soccer this year, I should probably focus on-"

"Nonsense, we've already reserved your jersey." Cole enthused. Danny still wasn't sure if this was what he wanted but figured he owed it to Cole for turning in Archie. "Every good soccer team needs a Socio on defense." Danny fist bumped Cole.

"Oh and this is my co-captain, Cole motioned at a boy Danny recognized as the guy Lacey was with earlier.

"Co-captain?" Danny gritted his teeth.

"He's new here, from Jefferson High, one of our biggest rivals, and I would have never admitted to this before he joined our team, but he's pretty tough competition.

"Nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you." Justin offered his hand to Danny who looked down at it then directly at his face. Justin was tall, with broad shoulders and perfectly defined biceps. His pearly white teeth and creamy brown skin were flawlessly disgusting.

"It's uh, good to meet you too." Danny shook his hand reluctantly.

Cole noticed this uncomfortable exchange. "Alright, let's hit field. Bring it in, we are one!" He chanted as Danny along with the rest of the soccer team followed him to the field for practice.

…

"Hey man, you looked really good out there." Justin patted Danny on the back. He rolled his eyes. Yeah well I was just getting warmed up. I'm out of practice.

"Okay, confident, I like that. They were walking towards Justin's shiny red 2010 Ford Mustang. Great, even his car was perfect, Danny thought.

"You want a ride?"

Danny politely declined "I'm not too far down the road. I usually just walk."

"Come on," he insisted. "I want to run a few plays by you." Danny didn't want to display his jealousy so he humbly stepped towards the car. He hated this guy already, even more than he did Archie. At least he could pin Archie as the jerk that didn't deserve Lacey. As he was thinking of Lacey, Danny noticed a black blazer was lying on the passenger seat. It was the same one he Lacey had worn earlier.

"Oh, you can just throw that in the back. It belongs to this girl."

"This girl?" Danny inquired as if he didn't already know.

"Yeah, Lacey Porter. She is," he sighed, "a piece of work."

Danny was suddenly intrigued. "Yeah she is, he said below his breath."

"You know Lacey? Justin looked at Danny then back at the road.

"Yeah, well we used to be good friends." Danny looked down at his hands.

Justin sighed, "Sometimes she's just so hard to read. It's frustrating. I mean one minute she's all over me." Danny winced at the thought of Lacey throwing herself at Justin. "And then the next minute she won't even let me touch her." Danny cringed again. What made this guy think he would be remotely interested in hearing the details of his new relationship with his former girlfriend?

"I feel like she may have feelings for someone else. If that's the case I don't want to rush her into a relationship."

"A relationship?" Danny asked curiously.

"Yeah we've been hanging out. I asked her to homecoming. I know it's kind of corny but I was hoping to ask her to be my girlfriend at the dance. Is that lame?" The car stopped, they had arrived at Danny's house. Danny exited the vehicle then looked back at Justin who was contemplating what he'd just shared.

"No," Danny said finally. "It's not lame." Danny felt guilty about what crossed his mind next. He was suddenly inspired to attend homecoming.