James sat in the back of the bus, staring outside with a blank expression on his face. He couldn’t wait to go back home, and he hadn’t even been gone for more than a minute. At the next bus stop, James’ friend Steve walked into the bus, and sat next to him.

Steve let out a sigh. “Today is going to suck,” he said. “I was up all night studying, and I still don’t understand anything that Mr. Melville explained to us.”

“What are you talking about?” James replied, confused.

“The biology test. You didn’t forget about it, did you?”

“Shit!” James started banging his head on the back of the seat in front of him. He couldn’t afford to fail another science test, not this quarter.

“Don’t worry… I’m sure you’ll do… ok.”

James rolled his eyes. “Yeah… sure I will.”

What was even worse was that the two guys had biology first period, so there was no time for James to skim through the pages of his book. Even the smartest kids in the class were nervous about this test. How could he have forgotten?

James sat down in his desk, anxious. The whole class was silent. Just then, a man walked into the room.

“Good morning class,” he said with a smile. “My names Mr. Smith, but you can just call me Dave.”

Dave looked about 25 years old. He had blonde hair and light blue eyes. He stood at about 6’3”.

“I heard that you guys are supposed to be having a test today,” he said.

The whole class replied by groaning rolling their eyes.

“Well, I for one don’t believe I tests, and as long as I’m your substitute teacher, you guys won’t be taking one.” He immediately took the test papers off of Mr. Melville’s desk and ripped them in half.

The class was elated. James hadn’t remembered being so happy in a long time. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“What happened to Mr. Melville?” asked one of the students.

“Oh,” Dave replied. “I think Mr. M has the flu. Anyways, seeing as I don’t really have a lesson planned, and I know that you guys probably have a lot of work to do in your other classes today, I’m not going to assign you anything.”

“Dude,” Steve said quietly to James, “this rocks!”

For the rest of the period, Dave let the class do anything they wanted to. James spent most of it sleeping.

The bell finally rang, and the class proceeded out the door. Before James could leave the room, Dave stopped him for a second.

“Hey James, what’s up?” asked Dave.

“Uh… not much. How did you know my name?”

“You’d be surprised at what I know,” Dave smiled. “Here,” he said, holding out a piece of chewing gum. “Have a piece.”

“I thought we weren’t supposed to chew-”

“If you get in trouble for it, just blame it on me. It’s no big deal anyway, it’s just a piece of gum!”

James took the piece hesitantly and walked out of the classroom, then popped the gum into his mouth. Sure, maybe Dave was a little strange, but he was nice enough- it’s not like he’d poisoned it or anything.

The gum tasted a little weird. It wasn’t bad; it’s just that James didn’t really recognize the flavor. But he kept on chewing.

Later that day, after an exhausting gym class, James headed for the showers. By now he was used to taking showers with the other boys around him, but this time it felt different. He noticed all of the guys naked, and felt a little strange.

“Hey James, is something wrong?” It was Steve.

James looked at Steve’s face for a second, and then looked down for a second. “Wow,” he thought to himself. “I never noticed that Steve was uncut. It’s kinda cool…. What the hell am I thinking about!?” James appeared disgusted by the thoughts that had just raced through is head. They almost sounded… gay!

“Um, James? Is everything ok?”

“Oh- uh, sure Steve! Sure, everything’s fine.”

James wrapped a towel around his waist and took his clothes out of his locker to change.

“I think I need to take a nap when I get home.” •