“Alright, folks,” Mr. Pendleton announced after all the pairs of students were facing each other. “Take a good look at your partner. This will be your partner for the semester for all the exercises in this class.” Mike beamed on the inside at this prospect while Rocco visibly smiled. “These exercises are going to demonstrate the topic of diplomacy which is an important concept to understand in government. Today, you are going to get to know each other. Some of you have never met, some of you know each other. That is just the luck of the draw. In diplomatic matters, some countries are already allies, others do not know much about each other. The first thing I want each of you to do is to get out a piece of paper. I am going to give you some questions that I want the two of you to discuss for the next 20 minutes.”
Mike already had his notebook out, so he tore out two pages and handed one to Rocco. Rocco thanked him as he took the paper.
“Here’s your questions. You may find it handy to write them down. Find out the name of your partner, get a little history of the person like where they were born, if they lived here their entire life, that kind of a thing. I’m going to leave it up to you. Then find one thing that the two you have in common. That’s it.”
“Mr. Pendleton,” one kid from the back of the room said. The teacher nodded and said “Yes?”
“Do you have specific examples of what we should talk about with each other?”
“Nope. That’s the whole point of this exercise,” Mr. Pendleton replied. “Diplomacy is not a checklist you can go down point by point. It’s intentionally vague.”
The class started to come alive with chatter as they were working on their exercises. Mike and Rocco were silent, intentionally avoiding looking at each other. After a few moments of awkward silence, Rocco spoke up.
“Okay, I’ll start asking you questions if that’s okay,” Mike was fine with it if he could stare into Rocco’s eyes. “What’s your name and where were you born?” Mike looked deep in Rocco’s eyes almost as if in a trance. He noticed his eyes were not as dark as he thought. They were brown but there was a lot of green and blue flecks.
“Dude! Are you okay?” Mike suddenly snapped out of his trance and turned bright red. “Are you with me?” Rocco said.
“Er—um—yeah, I’m sorry,” Mike chuckled. “What was the question?”
“Your name and place of birth” Rocco stated flatly.
“I’m Mike Barber and I was born and raised here in Miners Creek.”
“And you?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, I guess we can do the exercise that way. My name is Marcus Antonius Rocio, and I was born in Washington, DC.”
“Really? That’s where you are from?” Mike asked hanging on his every word.
“Kinda. I was a Navy brat, so we moved around a lot when my parents were together,” Rocco said nonchalantly.
“Where all have you lived?” Mike asked
“DC, Norfolk, Virginia, San Diego, then my parents split, and I moved to Philadelphia with my mom when she remarried,” Rocco said without any inflection.
Mike was stunned that Rocco had lived in so many places and was so open about his family. “Wow! I’ve only ever lived here with both of my parents.”
“Yeah, moving around is not that great. I was the new kid in school every other year it seemed until we moved back to Miners Creek after my mom divorced my stepdad,” Rocco replied.
“When was that?” Mike asked.
“It was in 4th grade. I’ve been here ever since,” Rocco said as he tapped his fingers on his desk.
“Welcome to Miners Creek,” Mike responded. They both chuckled at the joke.
“So, are you Joe’s brother?” Rocco wanted to confirm this once and for all.
“Yeah, don’t hold it against me,” Mike said and looked down at his blank paper. He had not written one word down. He was too fascinated with what Rocco was telling him.
“No, it’s cool. Joe’s pretty cool. I don’t really like some of his friends but he’s alright,” Rocco said.
“Yeah, that crowd can be jerks,” Mike tensed up slightly. “Were they ever mean to you?”
Rocco looked off in the distance and remembered the times some of them called him “queer” or “faggot”. Rocco looked back at Mike and responded, “A few times.”
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“Jocks can be assholes,” Mike replied empathetically.
“Aren’t you a jock?” Rocco asked in a matter-of-fact manner.
Mike chuckled. “Me? No. I played soccer and baseball in junior high, but, looking back, it wasn’t my thing. I tried out for football but didn’t make the team.”
“So, you are a jock,” Rocco crossed his arms.
“Now that I’m telling you all this, it does sound like it. I’m a jock without a team sport,” Mike replied and laughed nervously.
Rocco uncrossed his arms and slouched in his chair a little as he laughed. “A man with no country.”
Mike laughed and ran his fingers through his red hair. “Yeah.” After an awkward pause, Mike asked, “Why were Joe’s friends mean to you?”
Rocco tensed up. He was not really expecting to relive the years of bullying. He forcefully exhaled and smiled to lighten the mood, “No comment. Next question.”
Mike blushed and didn’t really know what to say. “Oh…okay. I don’t have a next question.”
They looked around avoiding each other’s gaze for a few seconds. Mike interrupted the silence. “Hey, I’m sorry about that those guys were mean to you. It’s not right for them to make fun of you for being yourself.”
Rocco’s heart skipped a beat. No one had ever told him that before. It was such a mature thing to come from the mouth of what Rocco guessed was a 15- or 16-year-old. Mike gave him a kind, closed mouth smile. Rocco could tell Mike really meant what he said. Rocco’s vision darkened so that he was only seeing fireworks and Mike’s face.
“Thanks for saying that,” Rocco said quietly.
“Let’s focus on this exercise. I’m enjoying talking with you,” Mike said. “How did you get the name Rocco?”
Rocco snapped away the fireworks and returned to Earth. “The name Rocco,” he chuckled. “Well, a kid mispronounced my last name the first day of school. Instead of Rocio, she said Rocco. When I corrected her, all the kids thought her calling me Rocco was hilarious so it just kinda stuck.”
“That’s it? A random kid mispronounced your name?” Mike had a quizzical look on his face.
“Yeah, that’s it I’m afraid” Rocco shrugged.
“I thought it would be something like your great grandfather was in the mafia and that was his nickname or something cool like that.”
“First of all, I’m not Italian—I’m half Mexican. Second, why would you assume I had come from a Mafia family if I were Italian,” Rocco said in an accusing manner.
“Stupid stereotypes I guess,” Mike rolled his eyes.
“Watch the Godfather much?” Rocco retorted and they both laughed.
“So that’s where the name and the dark features come from, Mexico?” Mike stated.
“Yes?” Rocco said but in a questioning manner. “That’s an odd thing to say.” Mike blushed embarrassed that he made such a statement. Rocco added, “You are your brother look nothing alike. He’s got dark features too. What gives?”
Mike smirked and said, “No, we have a little Cherokee blood in the family on my dad’s side, so I guess he got it there. But I got the white bread look from my mom.” Rocco belly rolled at that statement. Mr. Pendleton grimaced at him which quelled his laughter.
“We are getting a look from Mr. Pendleton, so we better get back to this,” Rocco said. “Okay, we have to find out something that we both like, right?”
“Right,” Mike said. The two paused in thought not really coming up with the next question.
“What about music? What are you listening to?” Rocco interrupted the thought.
“I like any kind of music. Boyz II Men, REM, Mariah Carey,” Mike replied.
“Hmm, well, we don’t have music in common,” Rocco disappointingly stated.
“What do you like?” Mike asked.
“Nirvana, STP, Alice in Chains, you know, the grunge standards. I like some older stuff like the Misfits and Bad Brains.”
“I don’t know any of that,” Mike said disappointingly.
Rocco looked around for a second, “Movies?”
“The last movie I saw over the summer was Doc Hollywood,” Mike replied.
“Hmm, I tend to like horror movies. Did you see the latest Nightmare on Elm Street installment?” Rocco asked.
“No, I don’t like horror,” Mike said.
“Damn it!” Rocco exclaimed. Mr. Pendleton looked up and said “Rocco…language” in a warning tone.
“TV, what’s your favorite TV show?” Mike asked.
“I watch MTV a lot, but I love Saturday Night Live,” Rocco said.
“I think we have a winner! I love that show too.” Mike’s eyes lit up. They finally have something in common.
“I can’t wait for the new season to start. It’s so hilarious because it’s so bad!” Rocco exclaimed.
“Yeah, I know!” Mike gushed. “Mike Myers is the funniest”
“Party on, Wayne,” Rocco said.
“Party on, Garth,” Mike beamed. They both laughed so hard that Mr. Pendleton looked up at them.
Mr. Pendleton looked at his watch and got up. “Alright, I think you all have had enough time to get to know each other. Let’s get these books assigned and get going with the material in Chapter 1. Keep your papers for the next exercise. Turn your desks around.”
“Oh shit, I didn’t write anything,” Rocco whispered to Mike.
Mike chuckled, “I didn’t either.” He showed Rocco his blank page. “I enjoyed talking with you too much to write anything down.” Rocco’s heart skipped again when Mike said this. He swallowed hard and whispered, “I feel the same.” Mike blushed and swallowed hard.
As Mike started to turn his desk around, Rocco said again in a whisper “Party on, Garth.” Mike snickered and finished turning his desk around. Rocco sighed as he was once again looking at the back of Mike’s head.
Rocco was not paying any attention to what Mr. Pendleton lectured about but he figured he could just read the chapter and get the highlights. His attention was focused on the back of Mike’s head. He wanted to run his hands through his thick ginger hair and plant his nose on Mike’s neck in the hopes of getting as much of his intoxicating scent to last him until tomorrow.
Before he knew it, the bell rang. Rocco had psychology next hour, which was in the same room, so he did not have to go anywhere. But he did have to pee so, as he got up to go to the bathroom, he tapped on Mike’s shoulder.
Mike lifted his big blue eyes which took Rocco’s breath away.
“What’s your next class?” Rocco said barely able to speak the words.
“Psychology,” Mike replied. Rocco wanted to jump up and down for glee. Two classes in a row with Mike!
“I guess I’ll see you in a few minutes then,” Rocco said and walked off to the bathroom.
Mike could hardly contain his excitement. He was thinking the exact same thing as Rocco was…two hours of Rocco. As Rocco walked off to the bathroom, Mike wanted to take a handful of Rocco’s blue-black hair and inhale its scent deeply. This was going to be a great year.