DOMINION by Bentley Little (interesting books to read .TXT) 📗

He was not good at meeting people. He hadn’t known that many students at his high school in Mesa, and he had been there since freshman year. Coming to a new school, starting from scratch… it was going to be tough.

At least it wasn’t the middle of the semester. He was thankful for that.

It would have been much worse to walk in on classes already in progress, where all the relationships would have been established and cemented for the year. Now, at least, he would be in on the courses from the beginning. He might be new, but he would be able to start off on somewhat equal footing with his classmates. He would have a chance.

There would probably be other new kids here as well, students who’d transferred to the school over the summer, students who, like him, would be looking for someone to meet.

He walked across the street and up the steps into the schoolhouse.

Coming to a new school was frightening, but in a way it was also exciting. He knew no one in Napa, so no one would have any preconceived ideas about him. He carried no baggage. He was, as far as the students here were concerned, a blank slate, and he could create of himself anything he wanted. A few well-placed lies, the proper clothes, and he could be a jock or a party animal or… anything.

Theoretically.

Dion smiled wryly. He knew himself well enough to know his place in the school hierarchy. He was neither athletic nor spectacularly handsome, neither a class clown nor a bravura talker. He was smart but not in the subjects guaranteed to bring him social acceptability. As much as he might try to alter his personality, his true nature would undoubtedly win out over any self-imposed public image.

He was not going to be Joe Popular here either.

But that was okay. He was used to it.

He stood outside the classroom and looked down at his schedule as if checking to make sure the room number was correct. He knew perfectly well that he was in front of the right room, but this conspicuous display of his newness somehow made him feel more secure, less afraid.

Students pushed rudely past him, around him, entering the class. He had half hoped that Napa High would be like those sitcom schools on TV where friendly students would notice his discomfort and immediately try to make him feel at home. No such luck. He was ignored; no one even noticed him.

He walked into class, aware that he was sweating heavily, and glanced quickly around, taking in the lay of the land. The desks in the middle of the room were taken, he saw, but there were a few open spaces in the back row, and the front row was entirely free.

He opted for the back.

He could hide better there.

Seating himself in the middle desk of an empty trio, directly behind a sullen-looking boy in a dirty T-shirt and a heavily made-up Hispanic girl, he looked around the room. He had expected the kids here to be cooler than those in Mesa. After all, this was California. But the students surrounding him all looked faintly anachronistic, the boys’ hair a little too long, the girls’ appearance a little too casual.

Obviously the latest wave of fashion which had crashed over Phoenix had come directly from southern California, its edges lapping only faintly at the northern part of the golden state.

He looked down again at his schedule of classes: American Government, Algebra II, Classical Mythology, World Economics, Rock History, and AP English. He was enrolled in what, for this school, was the standard college prep lineup. His sole elective, and the only class which looked like it would be any fun at all, was Rock History. The others were strict by-the-book academic courses, although in the case of the mythology class he had chosen the lesser of two evils; the alternative would have been a foreign language.

At least PE was not a required course at this school. That was one thing for which he was grateful. He was not good in sports, and he always felt a little embarrassed undressing in front of other guys.

An average-looking kid with blond mid-length hair dropped his books on the next desk over and sat down. His eyes flicked dismissively over Dion, who smiled bravely, determined to at least try to meet new people this first day.

“Hi,” he said.

The kid looked at him, snorted. “What’s your name? Dick?”

Dion thought for only a second before deciding to take the plunge.

“That’s what your mama called me last night.”

The kid stared at him for a moment, then laughed, and suddenly it was like one of those sitcom schools.

He had made his first friend in Napa.

As simple as that.

“What’s your real name?” the kid asked.

“Dion,” he said.

“I’m Kevin.” He gestured magnanimously around the room. “And this is hell.”

It wasn’t as bad as all that. The subject was boring, but the teacher seemed nice, and since it was the first day he let everyone out early so they would have time to find their next class. “Where you off to now?”

Kevin asked in the hallway.

“Algebra II.”

“Whoa.”

“What do you have?”

“English. Then Classical Mythology, then PE, then Rock History, then Economics.”

“Looks like we have two more classes together,” Dion said. “Mythology and Rock History.”

Kevin frowned. “Together? What do you think we are? Butt buddies?”

“I didn’t mean—” Dion began, flustered.

“I thought I saw some pixie dust on your shoulder.” Kevin backed up, shaking his head. “I’m out of here.” And he headed down the hall, disappearing into the crowd which began streaming out of the line of doorways as the bell rang.

Dion stood there stupidly. Apparently he had crossed over some behavioral line peculiar to the subculture of this school, said the wrong word in the wrong way, and had offended his new friend. He worried about it all through math. But when he took an empty seat near the window of his Mythology class an hour later, Kevin sat