It was the first day of seventh grade and I was scared to death about leaving the security of the elementary school I’d attended for the past several years. At the same time, I was thrilled about the possibility of meeting new people from the other elementary schools that had now all merged into the same Junior High that I’d be attending. It wasn’t that elementary school had been so great for me, since I didn’t have a lot of friends when I was there, but I knew what to expect and whom to expect it from. Now, I was uncertain about what the future had in store for me.
As I was getting ready to catch the bus, I looked into the mirror and studied the boy that was staring back at me. He had dirty blond hair, a round face, and an average body – someone who could blend into a crowd and not be noticed – or missed. I hurried up and finished getting dressed and then headed outside to wait for the bus. The bus was fairly crowded and extremely noisy, and there was still a dozen more stops the bus would have to make before it arrived at school.
During the ride, I looked at the class schedule I’d received in the mail and noted that it listed my homeroom number, 127, so as soon as we reached our destination, I went directly there. I quickly found a seat in the back corner of the room where I could observe what was going on, while still remaining somewhat anonymous. I figured it would allow me to become more or less invisible behind the other students as they filtered into the room and took their seats, and yet I’d be able to check everyone out and see how many I recognized. It would also provide me with an opportunity to assess whom I might have to avoid, or if I was very lucky, whom I might want to get to know better. As I was studying the other students, the teacher, a slightly built man with unruly gray hair, entered the room and began to speak.
“Good morning, class!” he began. “I’m Mr. Carruthers and I’ll be your homeroom teacher. If those of you who haven’t taken a seat will do so now, I’ll call the roll.”
After everyone was seated and quiet, Mr. Carruthers began calling names.
“MacDonald, Judy.”
“Here.”
“Mack, Adam.”
“Present.”
“Major, Jason.”
“Yo.”
At that response, Mr. Carruthers looked up and flashed a disgusted look at Jason. After a couple of seconds, he went back to calling the remainder of the names from the list and droned on, until I heard my name.
“Maynard, William.”
“Here,” I responded meekly.
Now that my name had been called, I tuned out the reading of the remainder of the attendance list and slowly began a timid perusal of the other students in the room. I recognized a couple of boys and one girl that had attended the same elementary school that I’d gone to, but so far no one I feared or wished to avoid stood out to me. I also didn’t notice anyone who looked like a good prospect for making a friend either, but then it happened! The door to the classroom slowly opened and into the room stepped the cutest boy I’d ever seen.
He stood about 5 feet 4 inches [163 cm] tall, had a swimmer’s build and black hair that was parted on the left side and combed across his forehead. He also had dark brown eyes that you could just fall into, a big, heart-melting grin, and a wonderful tan. He stopped briefly and glanced around the room first, before he strode over to the teacher’s desk and spoke to Mr. Carruthers. The teacher then must have written his name down in the attendance book, but the boy remained there until Mr. Carruthers signaled him to take a seat. There were a handful of desks still available, but he strode directly to the back of the room and took the seat next to mine. I nearly fainted.
I kept looking down at my desk, since I was too shy to gaze directly at him, but I kept taking quick glances in his direction out of the corner of my eye. I was in the middle of doing that when he turned toward me and introduced himself.
“Hi. I’m David Michaels,” he stated in a hushed tone, while flashing me that same huge grin.
I still didn’t dare to look directly at him, so I merely turned slightly in his direction and replied.
“Hi, my name’s Billy… ummm, Billy Maynard,” I basically whispered back.
“Glad to meet you, Billy,” he responded, while still grinning. “I just moved here and I’m hoping that maybe you can help me find my way around. My first class is language arts in room 215 and I’m not exactly sure where that is. Would you help point me in the right direction?”
My heart leapt into my throat, because I had language arts next in the same room. We were going to be in the same class together.
“Hello, Billy, are you still with me?” David teased when I didn’t immediately reply to his question.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I apologized meekly. “I was just thinking about my schedule and what class I had next. I think we’re in the same language arts class.”
“Great! Then I’ll just follow you,” David agreed. “What do you have after that?”
I looked at my schedule really quick before I answered.
“Math, in room 230,” I offered.
“Same here,” he confirmed. “Hey, let me see your schedule.”
Hesitantly, I handed it to him and he examined it next to his.
“Hey, dude, we have exactly the same schedule, so I can just hang with you all day,” he announced. “That isn’t a problem, is it?”
“Uh, problem? Uh, no, not for me,” I stammered, while my heart was doing cartwheels in my chest.
“Awesome. This isn’t as bad as I feared,” he confessed. “First day at a new school and I’ve already made a new friend. Not only that, but he happens to have the same schedule as me. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
‘New friend? Did he mean me?’ I wondered. ‘I mean we hardly knew each other, so he couldn’t be calling me his new friend. Could he? Maybe he met someone else before he got to this room and he’s talking about him, but then he also said he had the same schedule as that person, so he must mean me. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle it though, because I certainly can’t let him know I like boys. If that happens, then he might not want to be my friend any longer, so I’ll have to play it cool. Damn, my heart is pounding so hard that I’m sure he must be able to hear it and it’s going to give me away. Oh, God! What am I going to do? He’s so cute that I won’t even dare look at him or else I’m going to pop a stiff one. Be cool, Billy, you can do it. Keep your mind focused and don’t blow it now.’
Suddenly, the bell rang to end homeroom and signaled us to go to our first period class.
“Hey, Bud, let’s get moving,” David urged. “We don’t want to be late on the first day.”
I stood up and hoped he didn’t notice the erection straining against my jeans as I moved toward the classroom door.
The morning classes went by quickly and David took the desk next to mine in every one. During the lulls, he would start asking questions about what types of things I enjoyed, what the school was like and any information I knew about various kids that were in the class with us, along with almost anything else he could think of. Before I knew it, it was already lunchtime.
“Hey, what do you do around here for lunch, Billy?” he asked.
I wasn’t sure how to answer his question, because I didn’t want to tell him that I’d brought a sandwich and a banana in a paper bag that was stuffed into my backpack. That was kind of lame. I also didn’t want to admit that I was just going to buy a container of milk from the cafeteria and then go outside to eat.
“Well, you could, um, eat in the, uh, cafeteria or you could, uh, go off campus to someplace nearby, I guess,” I stammered, while sounding like a fool.
“What were you planning to do?” David followed, while staring at me intently.
“I guess I was just going to go and sit outside, because I don’t usually eat lunch,” I fibbed, since I couldn’t think of anything else to tell him.
‘Oh, God,’ I thought after saying that. ‘I immediately knew it was a really stupid lie, because I’m starving and if I don’t eat lunch, then my stomach will be growling throughout my afternoon classes.’
“Why don’t you come with me and we’ll go off campus?” David offered. “I want to see what else there is to choose from, because I hate school food.”
“Yeah, ok,” I mumbled. “Going for a walk would be cool.”
I then strolled beside him to the main lobby and along the way David resumed his probing into my life.
“Where do you live, Billy?” he asked next.
“Out in the country, on my grandpa’s small farm,” I answered simply.
I didn’t dare say too much, because some of the kids in my elementary school used to make fun of me about this. They called me ‘hick,’ ‘manure boy’ or other degrading names just because I lived on a farm.
“Sounds nice,” he replied. “I live on Camelot Lane. Do you know where that is?”
“Uh, yeah. I do,” I confirmed.
How could I not know where that was? It’s one of the nicest streets in the whole rotten town. A lot of the doctors, lawyers and even the principal of my elementary school lived on Camelot Lane, but my grandpa never even drove to that part of town. Now, I felt that I really had to be careful about what I told him, because his dad must have some kind of really important job.
“What’s your dad do, Billy?” David pressed, as we continued to walk.
‘Oh, no! Now what am I going to say?’ I wondered. I didn’t really want to get into this with him just yet, since it was a major source of irritation for me, but I had to tell him something.
“Ummm, my dad left when I was two or three, and uh, I haven’t seen him since,” I reluctantly admitted. “That’s when my mom had to move back with her parents, so my grandma could watch me when my mom was working.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” David commiserated. “Where does your mom work then?”
“Uh, she just does a lot of different things and works at several places,” I offered, because I felt uneasy telling him she was a waitress at the Waffle House. “How ‘bout your parents?”
“My dad is the new plant manager at the factory, but my mom died a year ago,” David confessed, with a pained expression etched on his face. “She was killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, and it’s why Dad took this new job, so we could move away from where we used to live. He said there were just too many memories there and he couldn’t cope with Mom’s death as long as we stayed there. He said our old house, the neighborhood, and just about everything else reminded him of the good times they’d once shared, so he had to get away from there. We moved here a few weeks ago and Dad started his new job last week.”
‘Oh, shit. Now I’ve gone and stepped in it by bringing up painful memories for him,’ I thought. ‘How do I gracefully get out of this one?’
“I’m really sorry about your mom,” I offered, while trying to apologize for blundering into this. “I, uh, just didn’t know.”
“That’s ok,” he replied. “I guess I just got over her death a little better than my dad. I still miss her and the past year was really tough, but it doesn’t hurt as much right now, as it did when it first happened.”
David didn’t say anything more for a while, so I just walked silently next to him. At the same time, I was thinking about his dad being the new plant manager at the factory. I’d already figured that his father had an important job and I’d heard my grandpa say something last week about the plant getting a new manager, but I guess I hadn’t put the two things together. You see, my mom and I live with my grandparents and Gramps works at the factory, in the shipping department, besides taking care of the farm.
“Hey, Billy, what do you think about getting some pizza?” David wondered, breaking my thoughts. “It looks like a good place over there.”
“Uh, I told you that I don’t usually eat lunch,” I responded, since I didn’t want to tell him I only had a quarter for milk.
“Look, I’m not going to eat in front of you,” David responded. “Come in with me and I’ll get us both something. I’m sure you’ll be able to eat a little.”
Reluctantly, I followed him inside and he bought us each a slice of pizza and a Coke. I thanked him and downed it in no time at all. I really needed that and felt much better now.
“Well, for someone who doesn’t usually eat lunch, you sure devoured that in no time,” he joked, while flashing me another one of his fabulous grins.
I looked down at the ground embarrassed, while I attempted to think of something to say.
“Yeah, once I, uh, took a bite, I kinda realized that, um, it tasted really good, and I, uh, was really enjoying it,” I admitted sheepishly.
“Great! I’m glad you liked it,” David stated, seemingly pleased that I’d enjoyed what he’d done for me. “Come on. We’d better start heading back.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” I agreed.
During the return trip, we talked about our afternoon schedule and arrived in plenty of time before the lunch period ended. Our first class was P.E. and our instructor was the J.V. football coach. He started out by telling us that we’d have to come prepared for class each time we had it, which meant we had to have the appropriate gym suit. He then told us where we could buy the items we needed and explained that we should also have a jock strap as well, since our bodies were starting to mature and develop. He then added that we also needed to bring a towel as well, since we were required to shower before we went to our next class.
I don’t remember much about the rest of the afternoon, because I kept thinking about having to take showers with a bunch of other boys. I knew it was going to happen in a large group shower, which meant I’d be in there naked with every other boy in my P.E. class. Oh, God, what if I get an erection in the locker room or while I’m taking a shower? Then everyone will know that I’m gay, especially since David’s in my class, because he absolutely turns me on. He’d also selected the locker right next to mine, and one look at his naked body and my cock will probably get hard enough to cut diamonds. God, I’ll have to figure out something to keep that from happening, but at least I’ll have two days before our next P.E. class.
“Hey, Billy. Do you want to come over to my house when this class is over?” David asked, just before our last period class ended.
“I’d like to, but I’ve got chores to do at home,” I answered. “I’ll also have to get my mom to take me shopping for some school supplies, a gym suit, and a jock strap.”
“Yeah, right. How about tomorrow after school then?” David pressed, without giving up.
“I don’t know,” I balked. “You see, uh, I have chores every day and, um, I live pretty far out it the country and, uh, I can’t always get a ride home, except on the bus.”
“Don’t you have a bike, man?” David followed, while looking at me hopefully.
“Uh, no,” I reluctantly admitted. “I had other things I needed to spend my money on instead, so I never got one.”
“No problem. You can have my old bike then,” David offered. “Dad bought me a new one for my last birthday, but I kept the old one too. I don’t really have any use for it now, so you can have it. It’s only a five-speed and not as good as my new ten-speed, but I guess it’s better than not having one at all. So, when you come over, I’ll give it to you and you can ride it home. Ok?”
“Uh, I don’t know,” I replied, since I wasn’t sure how I’d explain a bike suddenly appearing at home. “I’ll have to, ummm, talk it over with my mom first and I’m not sure what she’s going to say, but it was sure nice of you to offer. I’ll let you know what we decide tomorrow.”
I was really kind of shocked and a little honored that he would even think about giving me his old bike. I mean, it may not be much to him, but it would sure make a big difference in my life. Damn, we’d basically just met and already he’d offered or done so many wonderful things for me. I know it’s silly, but I’m already starting to have a crush on David. No, it wasn’t just due to the fact that he’d bought me lunch or wanted to give me his old bike, it’s because he’s so sweet, so thoughtful, and so easy to talk to.
I was rudely yanked away from my thoughts when the last bell rang, announcing the end of the school day. Hurriedly, I gathered up my things, said a quick goodbye to David and sprang for the door. I felt I had to get out of there before I got all mushy and said something that might divulge my true feelings for him. I figured the best thing for me to do was to head straight for the bus, but the last thing I remembered as I walked out the door was a voice calling to me from behind.
“See you tomorrow, Billy,” I heard David’s melodic voice ring out.