The Unspoken Introduction of Hercules Mulligan

Chapter 1

Herc's POV:

      I could have said so many other things. I could have said, hey. I'm Hercules Mulligan. I like horses, and hats, and beatboxing. I have two younger sisters and my dad's a tailor. I work at his store every day. I could have said, my best friends are John Laurens and Lafayette. I could have said, I only met Angelica Schuyler a few months ago, but I am already utterly in love with her. But I didn't say any of that. Not even the things I could have gotten away with without humiliating myself on the first day of high school.

      And it's not one of those things where you don't know why you did something.

     I know exactly why.

     Alexander Hamilton.

     When the teacher called his name, then following with "Alexander, could you introduce yourself? Tell us a little something we don't know", he gave a cocky smile. He brushed away a piece of dark hair that had escaped from his short hipster ponytail and said: "I'm Alexander Hamilton. My name is Alexander Hamilton. And there's a million things I haven't done"--he glanced at Angelica, who was watching him, and winked. Angelica turned pink, and Eliza, her sister, looked jealous. All the females in the room and about a quarter of the males looked jealous-- "just you wait."

      The teacher, Mr. Franklin, cleared his throat. "Well. Alright, then. Thank you, Alexander."

      Laf caught my eye and rolled his. John looked positively lovestruck. I glanced at Angelica. She was watching Alexander from behind her bangs. He smiled at her. Annoyance bubbled up in me. When my crew started hanging with the Schuyler sisters (Angelica, and her sisters Peggy and Eliza) early this past summer, after meeting them at a high school orientation camp, they had become tight with John and Laf. 

     But three months of me crushing on Angelica pretty hard, and she still thought nothing more of me than Laf and John's friend. Goofy Herc, who supplied the beers when he could. And now, in the very first class of the very first day, here came Alexander Hamilton, whoever the hell he was, with his ponytail and his flirting, and his canned lines. It was obvious Angelica liked him already.

     So you see, I couldn't just introduce myself. Not now. I had to show Angelica I was just as good as Alexander.

     So when Mr. Franklin called "Hercules Mulligan? Would you like to introduce yourself?" I responded with the first thing that popped into my head.

      "Hercules Mulligan-- I need no introduction."

     Hell, it even rhymed.

      The class erupted into laughter. Angelica smiled and shook her head. John and Laf fist bumped me. Alexander Hamilton laughed the hardest of all.

       And that was that. The start of my high school identity. I was still generally identified as John's and Laf's (and later Alexander's) friend, but I was also Hercules Mulligan, who needed no introduction-- a big, slightly intimidating black guy, who people didn't bother to learn much about. Who swore to much. Who didn't say a lot unless he was drunk. Who crushed in vain on Angelica. (My introduction, or lack there of, did nothing to change that).

      Anyway. A lot of things happened after that first day of high school. But I guess that was really the start.