Dreamer

Joey Simmons

Before I could even get another glance of her, that girl was gone. Just like that. She practically ran out of math.

I head to the locker rooms where the P.E. teacher's offices are supposed to be so I can buy P.E. clothes and get a locker. When I walk in, I'm hit with a cloud of cologne and B.O. heavy duty.

It's so awkward squeezing through all the half naked bodies to where the door is that leads to the male teacher's offices.

I knock on the metal door and I hear "come in" from the other side, so I open the door and poke my head in. A short dude with a huge beard shakes my hand.

"I'm Mr.Dover and you're Joey right? I'm going to be your P.E. teacher for the rest of the year. I was told you were coming. Come in, come in!" he beckons me into the office where four dudes are sitting at desks and clicking away at their computers.

He has me sit in a folding chair next to his desk. "So, I have your clothes; your mom told me what size you are. So I hear you play baseball and used to play football?"

"Yes," I find myself saying.

"Well good for you because we are in a baseball unit. Your mom says you're really good so I was wondering if you would mind being put on our not quite as good team, give them a couple pointers? Our other baseball team has too many people and it's all our most athletic students. So would you mind?"

He looks really hopeful, "I don't mind."

"Okay, now-" the bell rings and cuts him off. Mr.Dover rolls his eyes. "I hate those bells. As I was saying, your locker will be number 29A between Eric and..., Robert I believe. I have a combination lock here, just use one of the sharpies in my pen holder to write your name on it."

He handed me a combination lock in a box, I wrote my name on it, and then he showed me where my locker was.

"Joey this is Eric and Robert, Robert and Eric, this is Joey." he said, and then left us to get dressed.

I opened my locker and threw my binder in. I took off my shirt to put on my P. E. shirt and the guy Robert just started randomly talking to me.

"Dude, you have a six pack! That is so cool, you're, like, ripped!" he gaped.

I quickly pulled on my P. E. shirt. This was embarrassing.

"Okay, we don't usually do this man, but if you don't wanna be that weird unpopular kid, you wanna hang with us, we're the cool kids around here, we may just be ninth graders, but we are It, man, we are it!" the guy Robert puts his arm around Eric's shoulder. "If you want, we can introduce you to the rest of the gang, and you can get all the ladies!"

They both wiggle their eyebrows.

"Hey, man, just think about it, okay? Although, this is kind of your only chance of popularity, but whatever," Robert says. These guys were seriously weird.

They both go back to changing, and so do I. Well this is awkward. I throw my jeans in my locker, pull on my P. E. shorts, close and lock my locker.

I end up walking out to the baseball field with Robert and Eric, who are talking animatedly about Black Ops and some hot girl named Caroline.

"Who's Caroline?" I ask.

"Only the hottest girl in school! She's only a ninth grader, but all the eleventh and twelfth grade guys are totally drooling over her. I mean, she's to die for! But she's already got a boyfriend... it sucks," Eric says.

"What does she look like?" okay, maybe I'm a little curious now.

"Wavy light brown hair, white feathers-"

"I saw her today before math, who's her friend?" I was on a mission now, and Eric was looking at me funny.

"Um, you mean...," he leans over and whispers; " Lena McGuire? Rumor is she had a thing with her... foster brother."

"Oh," I say, disappointed.

"Why you dig her? Yeah, I understand the feeling man, she used to be quite the hotty until she got her lip pierced and..., the, the thing."

"It's not, like, a sin, man, you can calm yourself. And you don't have to keep whispering." I say.

"Yeah, but it's gross, man."

By then, we had gotten to the baseball field where the rest of the class was waiting for Mr. Dover. When we walked by this group of girls they erupted into whispers and giggles. I rolled my eyes while the other guys whistled.

I stopped and turned towards the girls. "Girls, girls, calm yourselves, I don't see Justin Bieber anywhere. What's the fuss?"

A couple girls giggled more, the rest of them just turned tomato red.

Eric and Robert slapped me high-fives and I knew I had found somewhere I belong. Friends.