Special

I Bet

Daniel was standing in front of a mirror in an unusually empty school's bathroom and watched almost fascinated how the blonde curls of his fringe stuck to his wet forehead. It was ten minutes before the beginning of classes this morning and he felt not ready yet to face the other students. He splashed some more water into his face, watched how the little drops were chasing each other down the smooth and rather pale skin of his cheeks and then wiped them off his chin. Should he have shaved this morning? Probably. He took a closer look, the reflection of his grey eyes staring back at him in concentration,and rubbed the few short soft stubbles that were poking out of his chin. They were barely noticeable and he rarely got more than a quick glance from his classmates anyway, who for the most part liked to just ignore him except of course for those who found a sense of amusement and self esteem in bullying him.

The bell announcing five minutes left until the start of classes was giving off a high pitched screech which was followed by the sound of many footsteps echoing through the hallways.

Daniel sighed. The relaxing safety of the weekend was truly over now. He took a paper towel to dry off his face, straightened his back and grabbed the strap of his backpack more tightly which he had slung over one shoulder.

"You got this," he said to his reflection in the mirror in the most convincing tone of voice that he could produce before turning away and trying to confidently walk out into the hallway.

Immediately as he stepped out of the bathroom someone bumped into him, his following flailing evoked laughter from some students while most ignored him.

"Hey, loser," someone said loudly behind him. Daniel recognized the voice and braced himself for a typical Monday morning experience.

A strong arm wrapped itself around his thin shoulders as his classmate caught up with him. He was a bit taller than Daniel with dark brown hair, tan skin and the continuous football practice had given him a muscular physique that was rather untypical for a sixteen year old.

"Listen," Matt said and waved a bunch of papers in front of Daniel's face, "I don't understand physics and I have not done the homework for today. Didn't want to ruin my weekend with it. You will do it for me, right?"

Daniel nodded. The tone of Matt's voice made clear that this hadn't been him asking for a favour and Daniel was very aware of the unspoken threat behind it.

"Great," Matt exclaimed and Daniel gasped for air when the taller boy roughly shoved the physics papers against his stomach.

At least it was physics, he thought to himself as he took his place in the first row of the classroom right in front of the teacher's desk. He liked going to school. Despite getting bullied and not really having any friends he still liked going to school because it meant that he could learn new things. Especially physics was something that he was passionate about. It provided an understanding of how things worked and while people were irrational and hard to understand physics was a set of rules and logic which explained the world. If only it explained people, too.

"Morning, Daniel," a girl said as she sat down next to him. She was the person he considered his best friend. Her name was Emily and out of the twenty eight kids in the class she was the only one who was nice to him and at least tried to watch out for him when she could. She was very tall, her straightened dark hair was flowing over her shoulders like a river of black satin and her dark brown eyes were radiating joy and friendliness.

"Good morning, Emily," Daniel replied while sorting the papers on his desk, neatly hiding the physics homework between the work sheets for English Literature. "Did you have a nice weekend?"