Pat couldn't stop staring at him. With the recent wave of new students from the Northeast, he couldn't take his eyes off one in particular. It was the beginning of their last year in middle school, before all of them went off to different schools depending on what their specialties were.
16 new students showed up that day in October. It was breezy out, which was unseasonable for the southern states. To him, it must be a sign that the world really had changed, and that living in a beach town could not hide them from its effects.
Despite for the 8 boys and 8 girls keeping to themselves, it was clear to Pat and his friends that they were very well off, like many at their school. All the girls looked like models: tall, beautiful and sporting hundreds in clothing. The boys were similar: all of them had a lean figure, above average heights and varying brands.
Pat had not always been well known or well liked. It was only through years of staying with the same group that the scrawny boy had fully gained the respect of most of the people in his circle of friends. He was intelligent enough, like most of the others, but he always faded into the darkness when his more obnoxious friends started trouble with teachers.
He didn't think of himself as gay, homosexual or anything like that. He simply thought he had a respect for the human form. In his mind, he was simply curious. Girls were very pretty, but for some reason he did not have the physical attractions to them that his friends had. In order to continue fitting in with his upper middle class friends, he talked as if he loved every part of a girls body. No one really questioned this, because the group maintained a "straight unless proven otherwise" approach to homosexuality. Without his knowledge though, there were male-male and female-female relationships in the popular groups at his school. Yet it was so well hidden that he did not know he wasn't alone in looking at guys differently.
It all started with his friend Travis. During Advanced Science, he always looked over to him about 20 times each class period. While Travis was not that cute at the time, he still could not take his eyes away from the curious appearance his friend presented to others. He admired his neatly combed hair, his choice in clothes and his general attitude. He always admired intellectuals, especially when they had a nice smile. Even at the beginning of that year, he knew he could not help smiling inside whenever some of his male friends smiled at him during a joke.
In some respects, he was ignoring the females. They loved his cute, boyish nature and appearance. He played along of course so no one suspected, but inside, he knew he felt nothing more than friendship towards them. He didn't consider anything potentially gay until this new wave of students arrived.
Just as Travis had acted as one of the leaders of his group, one of the new boys really seemed to take charge amongst them. This was only about 10 minutes before first bell rang on their first day at school. At this point, everyone in the county had been in school since the first week of August. With a new group arriving on the first day of October, with clearly more money than all of them, and clearly better lives, no one could help but wonder about them. Not necessarily in a bad way, but they all wondered about them.
The last one to leave the front office was a somewhat shorter boy. At the time, Pat was 5'7", 110 pounds, with a 28 inch waist. The light brown hair and hazel eyes would never change, much like his medium tan. The boys in this group were between 5'7" and 5'9", and they all looked very sporty.
Despite their similar lifestyles and close ties, the leader drew all his attention. Even as Travis and Greg kept directing his attention back to their conversation, one boy eluded him. He was the same height, maybe 10 pounds heavier because of his athletic appearance. He probably had the same size waist, and maybe a stronger build. It was his face though that was the most unique.
Clearly this new boy was of French or Italian ethnicities; he had short dark brown/black hair that was well kept, but was clearly not fussed over. His nose was nothing special, but it was clear the boy was also a strong German.
What Pat focused on next was the eyes and smile. The new group had walked over to the sunken area where many people were sitting and sat at an extra long table where the previous group had just left to go see another group.
From about 10 feet away, he could clearly see the boy's clear eyes. He had never seen gray eyes before - they were so open yet projected a feeling of darkness. Still, with his smile, he could not take his eyes off him.
The smile was definitely the cutest part. Pat was clearly a `smile' person; he felt it was definitely the symbol of a boy's heart. This boy's teeth were pretty white and very well taken care of. Still, it seemed to reflect a feeling of comfort and confidence, even in a new school.
He heard Travis talk about the new students, who all stayed together. As they discussed going over, Pat joined back in and added "Yeah, they definitely look good enough." Most of them laughed at how dazed he was.
"Okay Pat," Travis said, "we'll all check out the new people. Come on everyone."
As they all got up, it was clear the new group was not completely secretive. They all were receptive enough to them. After members of the group introduced themselves, when it came to Pat, he was almost shaky, trying to avert his eyes away from this boy. He managed to utter his name without anyone noticing his uneasiness.
As the group went through their names, Pat turned his head back to the main boy, who was the last to introduce himself. Clearly, he was only focused on that boy and had ignored the 15 others. This boy though, he melted when he heard the sexy name: Dirk Heinz.
His group joined in with them for the 5 minutes remaining before the bell. It was all talk about why they had left a beach town in New Jersey called Point Pleasant. They mentioned the trauma from the attacks in NYC, and everyone really got a sense for their attitudes, which were not necessarily bad. The only thing was they had trouble with certain accents; mostly from Dirk and his girlfriend Lindsay.
Yes, Pat's knees almost buckled at that thought. Still, he thought there might be a chance for some definite fun with these new people. One of the boys, Justin, always seemed clingy to the other boys. Pat could tell his friends didn't notice, they were focused on each person as individuals.
When the bell rang, they all headed to their respective classes. Only Dirk, Lindsay, a boy named Michael, and two girls named Lauren and Amanda were part of their 1st period Advanced Science class with Mr. Hernandez. Pat was very pleased about this. He got to spend a class period every day with this one boy, who clearly looked like a charmer.
As the day went on, Pat found that he shared 3 other classes with his crush. Advanced English, Advanced History and Algebra I. Clearly, these were a smart bunch of people. As he paid most of his attention to his friend Laurel's conversations with Dirk. Laurel sat in front of Pat, and she was right next to Dirk, so Pat had an excuse for listening in.
Laurel asked "So, you are pretty good at math, I'm guessing. I suck at it - the only reason they put me in here was because of my standardized tests."
Dirk replied "Math is my friend. I placed high in standardized tests, and the people in the office put most of my friends and I in two extra periods of math. Algebra II and Geometry. The Algebra II one is after school though so we can have gym."
Laurel exclaimed "Holy shit. What do you want to do when you grow up? Something science related obviously."
Dirk thought for a split second and answered "Right now I'm very interested in the three major sciences: biology, physics and chemistry. I'm thinking maybe doctor but I really like physics too. Yeah, my parents are major geeks too."
Pat added "So, do you know what your IQ is? I mean to be involved in all of that and still be so cool and casual. Are you like 180 or something?"
Dirk responded "To be honest, they never have been able to assign a number. Those tests only go up to 260 and I go way past that. Don't look so shocked, I scare myself sometimes."
Laurel and Pat remained very shocked at this. This was definitely the smartest person they have ever met. Judging by how terrible his writing was, that he was a lefty and how studious he was with the algebraic equations, they didn't doubt for a second that he was being honest, and very modest.
Pat asked while he was writing "So why do you talk so strangely. It's like you saw `aww' with everything."
Dirk clearly was pissed at this point "Look you little faggot. You stop getting on my damn nerves before I take out my special friend (motions for a gun) and clock you upside your fudge packing head. I haven't liked you from the second I saw you because you look like the sports reporter that just goes in locker rooms to get a view at some packages. So, you piss me off again, I'll get everyone with me to string you up like a nigger in the 1840's."
Everyone was shocked, and Ms. Cruz was clearly not pleased. "With that amount of profanity, you need some serious therapy. I don't care if you are from Jersey, you don't threaten people like that and use that language in this room. This is a high level math class. I'll give you detention for a week because it is your first day and you don't know these rules, but do not to that in my class again. Are we clear, Dirk?"
"Yes. Even though I don't see the problem. My parents have been cussing each other out, as well as me, since I was 4 years old," Dirk said, which made the class laugh.
"Well your parents don't sound that wonderful. Sorry, but they don't," Ms Cruz added, trying not to provoke Dirk any further.
"My parents are the Heinzes, as in Heinz Motors, Heinz Computers and a lot of other stuff. Yes, the billionaires. Don't be surprised. So excuse me for not knowing you can't get pissed at someone," Dirk said in his thick accent.
"Just watch it now. Here we have a special form called a referral which will get you in trouble, especially for all of that. Leave Pat alone though, because you will learn to be scared of these. Referrals go on record and you could easily be suspended for that," Ms Cruz added as she picked a form up and put it back down.
"Okay then," Dirk replied, putting his head down and getting back to the long worksheet the class was working on. It was from this point forward until the last quarter that Dirk would be extremely mean to only a select few of their group. After that, things got a little better.
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