I didn’t think high school would be this overwhelming. Everyone knew where to go and who they belonged with.

Me?

I just stood there, looking around at everyone as though I was lost. Some eyes even returned the gaze and like an idiot I smiled awkwardly. They replied with a disgusted look, a group of girls giggling as they passed.

Great!

Now they probably think I’m the loser of the freshman class.

“Attention all students. Will all freshmen report to the counseling office to receive their schedule and locker number. Again, all freshmen report to the counseling office to receive their class schedule and locker number. Thank you.”

Finally, a direction.

I secured my backpack over my shoulder and began on my way. Surely I could find the counseling office. That was something I was capable of.

I was sure.

Perhaps I thought I was sure.

Maybe I wasn’t as sure of myself as I thought, but as I traversed the hallways there it was. I sighed

“That was easy. Dye one, High School zero!” I left the counseling office with my schedule and locker number, but now I had to find it. How were these even numbered?

Where was locker number 1?

My locker was number twelve fifty–seven. This would take forever and my first class would start in fifteen minutes. Was there a map or something? Something that pointed out You Are Here? That'd be great.

I wandered through the hallways, keeping my eyes out for my locker number when she appeared. There, walking towards me, was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I had to stop because she was just too beautiful to not take in. Her hourglass figure, her long flowing hair. Even her hazel eyes were enough to make my jaw drop.

She blew right past me, talking to two other girls, probably not even noticing me staring like a creep.

Someone bumped into me and it broke my gaze immediately. When I looked to see who it was all I saw was a letterman jacket walking away, but then, looking across the hallway, there it was. Locker number twelve fifty–seven. I made a beeline for it as the traffic of students criss-crossed my path. I saw the dial and unfold my schedule. I saw the combination just under the locker number. I turned the knob, inputting the combination and it popped open.

Not bad for my first try.

“Nice, Dye two, High School zero!” I whispered.

The locker next to mine slammed shut. “Who’s Dye?” I didn’t realize there was someone next to me.

“Oh…um…” this was the part where I introduced myself. Perhaps even make a friend. The boy waited for an answer.

“Um, hey, I’m Dye, I mean he’s me, my name is Dye,”

Damn it!

“Your name is Dye?”

“Um…nickname. My real name is Theodore…”

“Like the chipmunk?”

“Um…sure.”

“I think I like Dye better.”

“Everyone usually does.’

“First day?”

“How could you tell?”

“You have this lost puppy dog look on your face.”

“What? No I don’t?”

“I overheard some girls saying some green-eyed kid smiled at her like some creep, and you’re the only one I’ve met with green eyes so far.”

I face-palmed. So now it begins. The branding of the goofy-smiled-green-eyed-kid. I can hear it now.

“Don’t worry,” said the boy. “Today is my first day too.”

“Good, done anything stupid yet?”

“Not that I can think of,” said the boy, holding out his hand. “I’m Joss, by the way.”

I took his hand and like that I made my first friend. That wasn’t so hard. Dye three, High School zero.

“Did you get your schedule yet?”

“Oh,” I had it in my hands. “Yeah, it’s right here.”

“Let me see.”

I handed him my schedule and Joss’s eyes scanned it pretty much right away.

“Hey, you got first period English with me,” he said with a grin.

“I do?” I replied with excitement, taking back my schedule and looking at it. “Sweet!”

“Come on,” Joss said, “I'll show you where the classroom is. The bell should be ringing any moment now.”

I closed my locker, and the two of us merged with the flow of student traffic down the hall.

“Do you think it’s always going to be this crazy?” I ask.

“Probably, but I think maybe you just get used to it.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” I'm still feeling tense and a bit overwhelmed, but making a friend kind of helped me out. Especially since I hadn’t seen any of my brothers around.

“Fight! Fight!” Just at those two words a whole flock of students brushed past us.

“Oh no,” said Joss. “The first bell hasn’t even rung and already there’s a fight.”

“Sounds like you know who it is?”

“Getting the snot kicked out of them, or doing the snot kicking?”

I didn’t know how to answer that.

“Come on!”

I followed behind him as he followed the flowing crowd of gathering students. At the front of the horde of interested, and unnecessarily excited, students, I could see something, but it wasn’t enough to make out. So, I tore my way through the crowd, trying to get to the front. Unfortunately, I lost Joss in the mass, but I was sure he would catch up. When I finally tore my way through, I saw the back of a tall, heavily built, muscular guy. There was no way this dude was a teenager. He was a freaking grown ass man. He had another student pinned up by their shirt against the lockers. It must’ve been a freshman who decided to mess with the wrong person. Anybody with two eyes and a brain could see this was not the guy to bump into. The bully raised his fist and struck the student.

“Oh, how my fist missed you this summer,” he spoke with a deep voice, “and this is only the first day.” The rest of us watched as the kid got his face pounded in. The student fell to the ground, and his glasses slid over to me.

When the man turned around, I saw his black spiky hair and a dab of facial hair under his lip. Her eyes were dark brown, almost black. I could sense the entire crowd of students jump back in intimidation, except for me.

I picked up the glasses and looked at them. Then I looked at who they belonged to. Looking past all the bruises and the black eye I recognized Sam laying on the floor, grasping his bruised cheek and bleeding from his lip.

The man, crouching down over Sam, grabbed his shirt and raised his fist. No way was I about to let this go on.

“Hey man! Back off!” my adrenaline made me blurt out.

I saw his eyes shoot up at me. He looked stunned but also excited. Like I was a fresh piece of meat, and he was ready to gobble me up. After my adrenaline abandoned me, I had finally realized what I had done.

“And who are you?” he growled.

There was no turning back now. I had to play the part. So I toughened myself up and walked over towards this much bigger, much more intimidating student, if that is what he was.

“The only one who’s allowed to pound my brother’s face in is me. You got that?”

“He’s your brother?” and he said that with a sort of groundbreaking, revealing tone. Like it was some big secret.

“Yeah, now back off!”

I stared into the eyes of this dude. One the outside I wore a tough face and stood tall. On the inside I was dead frozen. I was hoping I’d scared him enough for him to just walk away and for a moment, it looked like he was about to do just that. Then I saw it happening. He turned around so abruptly, and I saw his fist coming straight for me.

I had no time to move.

No time to react.

But in an instant, he missed.

I found I had swiveled to the left. His fist just blew past me. I’m not really sure how or when it happened. All I knew was that I still had my teeth.

He looked at me confusedly.

I looked at him confusedly.

The entire horde of students looked at us confusedly

He went to throw another punch and like before I dodged. I wasn’t sure what was happening. It was like my body was reacting on its own.

I should know.

I’ve never trained a single day in my life for a fight or learned a martial art of any kind. Yet my body was reacting as though I had years of training.

He tried to tackle me, but my body decided to leap over him, my hand pushing off from his back. I landed just in front of Sam, and he was just as stunned as I was. When the bully turned around, he came charging straight for me and that’s when my body reacted again for a fourth time.

My leg came up.

My body pivoted.

My hips came around.

And just as I was realizing what was happening, my leg extended and slapped this dude across his face. He was thrown against the lockers and fell to the ground.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” pretty much everyone in the crowd said.

Shit! What did I just do?

“That’s right!” yelled Joss, finally reaching the front of the crowd. “Kick him again, Dye!”

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The bully got up, wiping the blood from his lip. He smirked at me, as though he was invigorated by our little squirmish.

He didn’t say a word, which made me feel very uneasy.

The first bell rang and I hadn’t been more ready to get my butt inside a classroom before now. The crowd of students began to disperse.

“You got lucky this time, kid. You better watch your back!” he shoved me as he passed.

As he left, from the other end of the hallway, there she was. The girl who didn’t even know I existed. She held her books against her chest and smiled at me. She waved as she walked away. I was too late to wave back and out of context it looked like I was waving at no one.

“Dye…” said Sam, who had managed to get up from the floor despite being beaten and battered.

“Dude, you okay?” I ask.

“Glasses.”

“Oh, right!” He takes his glasses and puts them on.

“Just who was that punk anyway?” I ask him.

“His name is TJ. He’s no one important though. Just some scumbag who’s been at my neck ever since I started here.”

I sneer. “His name is TJ? That grown ass man has the name of a ten year-old?”

“Yeah, well, don’t let his name fool you. That guy is dangerous.”

“Hmmm, I’ve noticed. Why didn’t you tell us you had a bully? I’m sure Mack would’ve been willing to knock his teeth out.”

“Never mind all that, where did you learn how to move like that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just sorta happened as it was happening.”

And there it was. Sam was calculating again.

“Dude, you’re doing the thing again. How is this in any way related to those lights we dreamt about?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m calculating!”

That’s when I noticed the bruise around Sam’s eye slowly disappearing.

“Sam, your face!”

“I know. How bad is it?”

“No I mean, your bruises. They’re going away!”

“Dye, don’t be ridiculous,” retorted Sam. “You and I both know that such rapid cellular regeneration is imposs–” Sam paused as he touched his face. He didn’t wince in pain. His facial response was exactly what you thought it would be.

Surprised.

Confused.

Worried.

Amazed.

Take your pick

Without any hesitation he made a break for the bathroom. I had to follow. Sam rushed in and looked into the mirror. It was there he saw that the bruises were no longer there.

“What the hell?” he asked with a baffling tone.

“See?” I said. “I told you.”

“This is weird,” he examined himself in the mirror, then paused. He turned away and started his little calculating trance thing.

“What’re you thinking?” I curiously ask.

“Nothing yet…” he continued on with his trance. “Promise me you’ll keep this

between you and me.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” I say to him. Not like I would even know what to say if somebody asked about it anyway.

“Like anyone would ever believe me. But loads of people just saw you get your face bashed in. You think they won’t notice?”

“They won’t,” replied Sam. “Everyone is always buried in their phones. Besides, I’ll be in homeroom for pretty much the rest of the day working on my science fair project. Then I have a science club meeting after school. I can sneak by today and quite possibly tomorrow. As for you, you head home after school. TJ is gunning for you now and that isn’t good.

“Pssh! You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“Good. We better get to class before the second bell rings.”

We both race out of the bathroom and down the hallway, going our separate ways to get to class on time. I made it just in time, reaching the opened door of the classroom for my first class of the day. I see Joss waving me down, pointing at the empty desk just behind him. The rest of the students were in their small huddles, locked in their own conversation. As I passed, they took a look at me, and then turned to say something to their friends.

I finally came to the desk and I threw my bag on the floor and fell into the chair.

“Ma man, how did you do all that crazy spiderman stuff?”

“Years of training.” I said nonchalantly, nodding my head to make myself believe what I was saying was true. “Yep! Trained all my life. I’m a black belt you know.”

“That was epic, ma man,”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“How’s your brother?”

“Oh, um, he’s fine. He’s been through much worse than that. Believe me.”

Actually, I wasn’t sure about that. Sam has never been in a fight but he did take a pretty nasty fall off a skateboard. Not sure if that was worse than getting pounded, but he did break his arm.

“So are you gonna show up after school?”

“What’s going on after school?”

“Ma man, TJ is gunning for you. He wants you out back at three o’ clock.”

Man, rumors spread around this place really fast. It’s barely been five minutes.

“Yeah, no. I think I’m gonna pass.”

“I don’t know man, you really don't have a choice.”

“Yeah, right. I always have a choice.”

Every now and then, other students would look at me. Whenever I looked back, they would quickly look away. I would’ve felt so much better if they just gave me a goofy smile; it was less friendly and more curious stares, which weirded me out. The second bell finally rang and a tall, lanky man entered the

classroom.

“Good morning class, I will be your English teacher. My name is Mr. Samson. Now that all of the introductions are done, let’s get started.”

It was lunch time, and I found myself eating with Joss. I did my best to not attract any unwanted attention but even at a table in the far corner, people would walk by, taking a quick glance.

“Look at that, you’re already popular,” said Joss.

I dropped my head, wanting people to just go away. It was getting too embarrassing to even withstand anymore, but all of that was tossed aside when I saw her again. There she was, sitting just three tables away from me. I could almost hear her laughter as she took a sip of her drink.

“Hey,” said Joss

I didn’t respond. Whatever he had to say it couldn’t have been more interesting than what I was seeing.

“Hey,” go away Joss.

“Yoo Hoo!” Ugh! Fine

“What? What do you want?” I finally say, breaking my gaze.

“I know who you’re looking at,” he said, “and let me just say she's out of your league, ma man.”

“Oh yeah? And how would you know?”

“That, my friend, is Jennifer Rose,” Joss turned to face her.

“You know her name?” I was surprised, looking over at her as she laughed with her friends.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, “We graduated from Jr. High together and let me just say she’s not the easy type. Really picky on how she chooses her men.”

“Really? Well, I’m different.”

“That’s what they all said,” Joss replied.

“You said it yourself. I’m popular. Clearly someone like me,” as I said this some kids passed me with a quick glance, “Who people can’t seem to not stare at, could get a date with her.”

The bell rang. Lunch was over.

“You’re in for a world of pain.” Joss said matter of factly.

I got up with my tray and grabbed my bag. I took one last look at Jennifer as she got up and did the same. She headed for the trash and something inside me told me to go for it.

So I did.

I maneuvered my way around the student body scramble, everyone trying to get to the same place at the same time. I had her in my sights. She had stopped, giving me the perfect opportunity to catch up with her. I secured my bag over my shoulder and carried my tray, hastily approaching her.

It was so easy, yet it was the hardest thing in the world. I was pushed, and it felt deliberate. I fell on top of my uneaten food and it was now stuck to the front of my shirt. To make it worse, she saw me, laying on the floor, on top of my tray. Those who passed by just laughed making my level of embarrassment reach a new high. She looked at me and it was like she felt sorry for me. For a second, I thought she was fixing herself to come help me up, which would’ve been even more pathetic, but I noticed her friends had caught up with her and taking one last sorry look at me, she left the cafeteria.

“Great…” I said with exasperation. Getting up, there was ketchup from my uneaten fries all on the front of my shirt. The last bit of my juice seeped into it too. I was a mess, and I still had half of the day to get through. “Well High School, looks like you finally score.”

I looked up and saw TJ, the one who bumped into me. He smirked evilly at me as he walked out of the cafeteria. Looking at the clock, I had less than four minutes to get cleaned up and to my next class. I hastily rushed to the bathroom and got out as much food as I could. After I got the bulk of it out, I still had an orange splotch on the front of my shirt that I couldn’t get rid of.

Yay me.

I left the bathroom and headed straight for my next class. Just as I made it through the door, the bell rang. The teacher, a woman with blonde hair and heels looked at me, as she wrote her name on the board. Ms. Clover.

“You made it, now take your seat.”

I obeyed and now even more people gawked at me, and I can tell you, it wasn't because of my little performance this morning. I dropped into my seat and did my best to cover my ketchup stain.

It was a long second half of the day, but it was over. As the bell rang for final dismissal, the students practically jumped from their seats and left the classroom with haste. I did the same and headed straight for my locker. I saw Joss rummaging through his and got his attention as I approached.

“It’s almost three,” he said. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do?”

“Yeah man, I’m going home. I’ve had enough for one day.”

“Seriously?” he protested.

“Ya,” I said without a second thought. “Catch you tomorrow, dude.” I slammed my locker, carrying my history book in my hands.

I walked through the crowd and as I approached the double doors I was finally free from my first day of high school. I can’t believe I have to go through that for the next four years.

People say this is the greatest time of their lives?

I can list five other things that would be way better than the miserable day I just had, but it was over, and I had a few hours before I had to do it again, unfortunately.

I passed the flagpole in the courtyard and as I was about to leave the school grounds someone stopped me. They stood in my way, preventing me from passing.

“It’s three,” said a deep voice from behind me.

I sighed. “Are you kidding me?

TJ approached me with two of his goons flanking him, cracking his knuckles.

“Dude, this is the most cliche thing I’ve ever seen.” I said. ‘Meet me at three o'clock or you're dead’ Every bully in the history of bullies have said that.”

“You have a smart little mouth. How about I break your jaw so you can’t say another damn word.

“Here’s a thought, fellas. You don’t have to do that and we can all just go home and forget this ever happened.” I backed up, trying to keep the distance between TJ and I, until I bumped into the guy blocking my path. He grabbed me in a strong bear hug and there was no way I was getting out of it.

TJ approached me with a malicious grin on his face. This was going to hurt. He took a jab at my gut, and then caught me with a right hook.

Something cracked for sure.

He punched me in the face and swung another left hook to my jaw.

Blood flew from my mouth and trickled down my chin. He didn’t let up.

I heard a crowd starting to gather just as he was wailing on me. I guess it was fitting to top off the most embarrassing day of my life; the whole school watching me get my ass kicked.

Maybe the upside was that my face was so badly beaten that no one knew it was me. TJ swung one last time and I was released. I stumbled to the ground, my blood dripping to the cement.

He grabbed my hair and yanked my head up. “Let’s make one thing clear. I rule this school. If you ever interrupt my enforcing of my authority again, I will end you!” he slammed my head into the ground.

I couldn’t move. I was in so much pain. I just wanted to lay here and be buried alive. I could feel the pain in my swollen face and my blackened eyes. The taste of the iron in my blood. Thanks a lot for this Sam.

I didn’t know where this came from, but at the sudden thought of my brother something hit me excruciatingly hard, and it wasn’t my injuries. I was lying on the floor just like my brother was this morning. The look on his face, sad, helpless, made my adrenaline pump. Sure, Sam was an annoying know-it-all but he didn’t deserve what this jerk did to him.

No one did.

Not even me.

I was just protecting my brother because at the end of the day he was my brother, and though he was older, I had the means to defend him, and that was what I was going to do.

I pushed up from the ground. I got to my feet and as I struggled, the strangest sensation hit my body. The pain was slowly going away. I felt my swollen face starting to soften as all of my bruises suddenly lifted away.

‘Hey,” I cried out. TJ turned around and saw me standing there. I wasn’t sure if he noticed my face healing or not.

“You just don’t know when to stay down, do you?” He approached me and threw a punch.

I thought I would immediately feel the impact of his punch, but to my surprise, and his, I caught his fist. I instinctively twisted his wrist and he cried in pain. I twisted it some more as he forcefully fell to his knees. Through wincing eyes, he looked at me and the look on his face was terrified. Smoke started to emerge from the hand I had grasping his fist, and instantly he started to scream. His fist was burning within my grasp and I didn’t care at all if it melted off.

‘You idiots,” he cried. “Do something!” still screaming.

But his thugs remained at bay as I looked at each of them. Something was frightening them and it wasn’t the fact that my body temperature was way up. Nor the fact that I was burning TJ’s hand, oddly enough. No, it was something about my face that I couldn’t see but I could feel something was different. I felt it change, not through this mysterious healing, but through something more like a transformation.

“DYE!” I looked up at the sound of my name.

Standing there was Sam. He looked at me with disappointment. Never in my life did I ever care if Sam was disappointed in me, but this time, for some reason, it caused me to stop. I released TJ’s hand and he secured it immediately, cowering on the ground. I stared at Sam, and he stared back, and soon that look of disappointment turned into worry. I didn’t know what I had done, but even looking down at TJ, who could’ve been crying over his hand, made me feel remorseful.

I backed off.

Other kids looked at me like I was some freak. Joss was in the crowd. His eyes were unsure about me. I could probably say goodbye to that friendship. Probably a world record.

I hastily turned around and ran away. I just couldn’t anymore.