In Over My Head; Revisited

5:34am.

David jerked awake, gasping, slick with sweat, his hands clawing at the covers. For a moment, in the dark, he was lost, but then things focused, and he saw it was only his bedroom. His breath still coming in short, ragged gasps, he laid back, putting his hands over his face. The dream was still in his mind, but already fogging; something about standing at the top of a staircase, a certain girl lying at the bottom, her voice so far away, so accusing. He sighed and looked up at the shadowed ceiling.

“Fuck.” he whispered into the room, and glanced at the clock. He reached over and flicked on the lamp, then dug around in the clutter on the bedside table until he found his cigarettes. His heart slowed down and his breathing evened out with the first wonderful lungful, and he sat up, pushing the covers down to his waist.

It was Monday, he knew, and it was supposed to be his first day back after a fifteen day suspension for fighting. He thought about not going. He wanted to simply pull the covers back over his head and ignore the whole idea of high school. Still, now that he was awake, he was hungry.

He got out of bed and wandered out into the kitchen. As he walked past the window he saw his foster father’s truck was gone. He either hadn’t come home at all, or had left early for work. Either way, David was glad; he liked the guy well enough, but neither of them were morning people.

When he went to open the refrigerator, he saw the note.

If I find out you skipped again today, I’m slashing your tires.

David smirked. He knew his foster father. He’d do it. He supposed that meant he was going to school.

He ate cold cereal and made coffee, and then went to take a shower. As he stood watching the swirl of green run off from his hair, he tried to remember the dream again. Anything specific about it, but he just couldn’t hold onto the details. He turned the water off and reminded himself to be thankful for that.

He dressed; blue jeans and a Death From Above 1979 tee shirt, his engineer boots. Then he went downstairs. His foster father’s late wife had been an avid photographer, and he’d built her a dark room. When David moved in, it took him almost six months to convince his foster father into letting him use it. He hadn’t known a thing about photography, but he’d always wanted to learn.

He wasn’t great at the whole photographing things part, but he loved the developing part. For his birthday, his foster father had supplied him with a wonderful camera, and he’d been trying to put it to good use. He spent the time he lad left before school inspecting the photos he’d developed the night before, and making sure everything was set up properly for him to develop the film he’d be using today.

He left the house fifteen minutes before first class. He didn’t think he would be late, but he had to stop for gas. So when he parked in the back of the lot and hurried up to the doors, he wasn’t really all that surprised to find Principal Meyers waiting for him.

The man was smirking a little when David walked up, and was holding a manila file that David just knew was his records. “Good morning, Mr. Johnson.” Meyers greeted. “Better late than never, hmm?”

“Something like that.” David muttered.

Meyers shook his head. “My office, if you please.”

“Already?” David sighed and followed the principal into the main office, then into the closet he called is office. “I don’t really think being a minute and a half late is that big of a deal, all things considered.” he informed Meyers as he sat down.

“You’re now about half a minute from truancy, Mr. Johnson, so yes, I think it’s a big deal.” Meyers informed him, sitting down on his side of the desk and dropping the rather thick file onto his blotter. “Nine suspensions.”

David sighed. “Thirty four detentions.” he added.

“Twenty one of which you failed to show up for.” Meyers countered.

“The third highest GPA in the school.” David threw in.

“Completely wasted intelligence, with the exception of your rather poor marks in history. Which I know you‘ve only passed because you cheat… a lot. You‘re just good at hiding it.” Meyers shook his head. “David, you and I have a common goal in all of this, you know.”

“We do, sir?” David asked, folding his arms across his chest. “I was under the impression that you and I had nothing in common at all.”

“Quite the contrary.” Meyers assured him, leaning back and crossing his legs. “We both want you to finish high school.”

David sighed. “Listen-”

“No, you listen.” Meyers cut in, and David shut his mouth reluctantly. “Honestly I couldn’t care if you ended up in prison for the rest of your life; I think that’s where people like you deserve to be.”

“That’s a very refreshing point of view, sir, but I hardly think-”

“I’m going to expel you.”

David stopped. He stared at Principal Meyers, completely unable to speak at all.

Meyers smiled. “I see I’ve finally found a way to still that tongue of yours.” he said. He leaned forward, removed a stack of papers from the records, and tossed them across his desk. “Those are your walking papers.” he said. “Fully filled out, signed by all necessary parties… except for me.”

“I don’t understand, sir.” David said cautiously. He didn’t like this game.

“I’m going to give you one final chance, David. I’m going to give you the opportunity to graduate.”

“How?”

“By passing history.” Meyers paused for a moment. “I have an offer for you.”

“I’m listening.”

“Good.” Meyers stood up and grabbed the expulsion papers. “I’m giving you until midterms.” he said. “If you pass them, without any suspicion that you’ve cheated, I’ll have the board overlook your disciplinary problems and allow you to graduate this year. If you don’t pass, or if I have the slightest inkling that you’ve cheated, I will sign these papers and that will be the end of my problems with you.”

David thought about this. Finally, he asked, “What am I supposed to do?”

Meyers laughed. “What any normal high school kid having issues with a subject does, David. Find a tutor.” he found another sheet of paper and handed it to David. “These are a list of students that have had successful tutoring jobs in the past. I suggest you try to bribe one of them into putting up with you long enough to help you pass.”

David took the paper, but he didn’t look at it. “May I ask why, sir?” he said. “Why the last chance?”

“Because if I expel you, it looks bad.” Meyers said with a shrug. “For my school, I mean.”

David nodded. “Is that all, sir?”

Meyers studied him for a moment. “I’ll tell you what.” he said. “You have until next Monday morning to find a tutor… or I sign the papers than and there. Is that clear?”

David wanted to argue. He also knew better; if he got expelled, getting into another school would be a pain in the ass, and his foster father would probably make his life hell. This was his best bet, despite how much it bothered him. He stood up. “Thank you, sir. Will that be all?”

Meyers scribbled a pass and sent him on his way. He went to his locker, got his trigonometry book, then thought about leaving, and finally talked himself into going to class. He stopped in the downstairs bathroom by the cafeteria for a cigarette first.

As he was smoking, his back against the wall near the mirrors, he looked through the list of tutors. He recognized a few of the names as people that had made his personal shit list. He mentally crossed those off. A few others he didn’t know. He flipped the first page over and looked at the second. There were only four names. He snorted. Short tutoring list, and he wondered if it was because people sucked at tutoring or people didn’t care. The second to last name on the list made him stop.

Lucas Chase. He knew that name. He closed his eyes trying to put a face to it. The first thing that came to mind wasn’t looks, it was the height. The kid was really tall, wasn’t he? Dark haired. David couldn’t remember anymore than that.

He made a note to keep an eye out for a couple of the kids, pitched his cigarette out the window, and got a move on to his class.

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As David was walking out to his car for lunch that day, he nearly got stampeded by a flock of giggling blond girls. They all chimed goodbyes and see-you-laters as one broke off and went the other way, and had David not paused to let someone go out the door before him, he would not have heard the lone blonde girl say, “Lucas, you gigantic fool, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

He turned his head, curious if the Lucas she was speaking of was the Lucas on his list. The blond girl’s head was nearly tilted all the way back in an attempt to look at the boy she was addressing. David followed her gaze up and nearly had a heart attack right then ang there.

“Holy shit.” he muttered, unaware that he had spoken, or that he was just standing in front of the double doors that lead to the parking lot. People looked at him curiously as they went by, but no one said anything to him. He didn’t notice at all; he was too busy gaping.

Lucas was beautiful. David could find no other word to describe him. He normally didn’t go for the nerdy type, but something about Lucas… a quiet, just under the surface desperation, maybe, or the way his eyes flickered from nervous to hostile as the blond girl berated him for something he had not done. He saw almost immediately in Lucas something he knew was in himself; rage. Where he knew his was always at the surface, ready to lash out at the slightest provocation, he doubted Lucas had ever truly flipped out about anything. But it was more than a gut feeling, it was just how beautiful the kid was.

David watched as Lucas allowed the blond girl to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose for him. She said something that made him smile, a nervous twitch of his lips and a slight tilt of his head that made the long black ponytail at the base of his neck slip over one shoulder. The girl said something and he nodded, then allowed her to steer him towards the cafeteria.

David pushed through the doors and jogged out to this car, smiling to himself. He was pretty sure he’d just found his tutor.

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He would’ve asked Lucas outright to tutor him; looking back, he should have. But as David kept an eye over him for the next few days, he noticed something that both bothered him and made him happy.

Lucas was lonely.

It bothered him because he didn’t understand why everyone treated him the way they did. He saw quickly that Lucas was used to getting bullied. This pissed him off more than he wanted to admit it did. Wednesday morning found him thinking of lots of things he didn’t want to admit.

It made him happy because he was lonely, too.

However, as he was walking out to his car after school, he caught a certain someone out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t know the kid’s name; it didn’t really matter anyway. What he did know was that this was one of the kids that he’d seen pick on Lucas a lot.

He wasn’t exactly sure how he got over to the kid. He wasn’t precisely aware of grabbing him by the back of the jacket, spinning him around, and slamming him into the side of his car. He wasn’t sure why he balled up his right hand and hit the kid in the mouth as hard as he could. The skin of the kid’s lips split under David’s knuckles and he made a loud, high pitched shrieking sound. David let him go, and the kid slid into a sitting position, cupping his bleeding mouth with both hands.

David glared down at the kid, then looked up at the loose semi circle of the kid’s friends. They were all staring at David, most of them looking terrified. The kid was slowly getting to his feet.

“Stupid fucker…” the kid mumbled through a mouthful of blood. “What the fuck-”

David turned on one heel and kicked him. The tip of his steel toed boot connected with the kid’s side, sending him sprawling. “Leave him alone.” he said. The kid wailed, unable to decide which hurt worse, kid kidney or his mouth. “Stay the fuck away from him.”

He turned and came face to face with Principal Meyers. “Shit.” he muttered.

“Office. Now.” Meyers snarled.

David sat in his office and waited. Meyers was busy with the kid David had smacked around for nearly half an hour. When he finally came into his office, he looked furious.

“I give you one chance, one last chance to-” Meyers stopped, his face flushed, and glared at David critically. “What reason could possibly have had to beat the hell out of that kid?”

David opened his mouth, and then closed it. He wasn’t sure what to say.

“Who exactly is he supposed to stay away from?” Meyers asked. “He told me you said to stay away from ‘him’. What did you mean?”

David glared down at his feet. “Lucas Chase.” he muttered. “The kid picks on him a lot.”

“So you thought making the kid piss blood for the next week was suitable punishment?” Meyers held up a hand. “Don’t answer that. What are you doing defending Lucas’s honor, anyway?”

“I don’t know.” David shrugged. “I want him to tutor me.”

“Have you even bothered to ask him yet?” Meyers demanded to know. “Or did you think you could win brownie points by tooling up on one of his tormentors?”

David snorted. Sometimes Meyers seemed to forget he was a principal, and used some pretty crude language, and also threw slang David usually only heard out of teenagers into his sentences. “No, I haven’t asked him.”

“Well get on with it.” Meyers snapped. “And so help me God, David, if you get into one more fight-”

“That wasn’t really a fight.”

“-on school property, I’m going to expel you, and press charges. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Get out.”

David went home. He ate a sandwich, and smoked a cigarette before heading into the dark room and developing his newest roll of film. As he was hanging the finished prints on the line above his head a while later, he studied the best shot he’d taken lately. It was of Lucas, from across the courtyard. He was smiling about something he was reading; it was a secret, tiny smile, and it made David’s chest hurt a little.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” he muttered.
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So. First chapter is just David. Like I said, Exer and I agree that David's character needs to be fleshed out more, and here I've explored his motives for his actions in the original story, and a little of his confusion over Lucas. There's also gonna be a lot more of Anna in the next chapter, exploring her motives a little more, as well as developing her character.

The next chapter is actually a rewrite of the original first chapter, with extra stuff thrown in.

Now, if you go and read the original chapter, you'll see that Exer actually mentioned David's camera, when he was going through his backpack. She had originally intended on the whole David's photos thing to be a huge part of the story, so in this rewrite we're going to explore that.

R/R is enjoyed.