A Loaded God Complex.

It was the first and of course, the worst day of school. The first day was always the worst, because I found out if I had Niocle or Pete are in my classes and everyone seemed to remember I existed. During summer I spent most of my time by the river and around my house, people don't really see me much in summer. So the first day I there's always sighs when I walk into classrooms from fellow students dreading having a freak in their class. I was going three for three of my eight class day, until gym. Nicole said she didn't have and it by a lack of Pete in the locker room I knew he didn't have it either.

I changed, keeping to my staked out corner in the locker room. Once spraying on deodorant I headed out to the gym, my sneakers squeaking on the freshly polished floors. Taking my spot I stood at the start of the U section for attendance. Again sighs and some whispers followed, I grabbed my elbow and stared straight ahead. They didn't die down at all… When I did break my stance I leaned forward to look up and down the line to see what everyone was fidgeting about.

And there he was. My spirits lifted a little and I suddenly went back to my old stance. How did I know he wasn't just being nice to me? He probably wouldn't want to be seen with me now that we were in school. Attendance was taken and then we were divided into two teams for dodge ball, I started walking over to the other half of the gym when Ryan started walking next to me.

"Hey." Ryan said calmly and coolly.

"Hi," I managed to get out. The thud of balls echoed behinds us. "I haven't seen you around the river lately."

"I had to unpack and then I had to get ready for school."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Ryan tilted his head so he could look me in the eyes as I stared at my feet.

"How's your first day going?" It felt natural, but nerve racking to continue the conversation.

"Pretty good, I guess." He shrugged and then the whistle was blown signaling the game starting: dodge ball.

We stopped walking and took our positions, mine was standing stiffly in the back. Ryan on the other hand picked up a ball and then threw it. The throw was high in the air and slow, a girl on the other team caught it promptly.

"Oops, looks like I'm out." He chuckled and shrugged. A few other guys laughed too, giving him a pat on the back as he walked to the other side of the gymnasium. I felt myself grin.

It didn't last long as a ball came at my face, it caught on a prong and deflated hissing at me. Snickers arose throughout the class, along with a high-five distributed throughout the other team to the person who threw it. I was left mortified. I pulled the rubber shell off and unknowing what to do with it, carried it with me to the other side, . Taking an open spot on the bleachers I tried to look invisible, for I realized how stupid I must have appeared. I'm nerdy already: I wear glasses, am a metal mouth, my socks are just a little too high and I have horns. I concentrated on the sheen of my athletic shorts, but it didn't work, they were red like the ball and my cheeks. I moved to staring at my shoes, when my teacher came over to talk to me.

"Now, Urie," She said lowly with her overly sprayed perfume wafting towards me, "I won't charge you to replace it, but I think it best if you sit by the kids who forgot their clothes." I nodded silently and relocated higher up on the bleachers. The two girls that didn't have a change of clothes ignored me, which I knew to be just another tactic of making sure I didn't go any closer.

I sat there twiddling my thumbs and watching the flaking, painted, ceiling for most of the period until my teacher let me change. When I went back to the gym everyone else was filing out to the locker rooms. I was put in charge of picking up the balls. Angrily, I kicked the last remaining ball towards the storage room. With one last distressed sigh I wheeled the wire basket; much to my surprise Ryan was already holding the heavy metal door to the storage room open for me.

He took one end of the caddy once we were inside the concrete bricked room and helped me position it against the wall. Ryan opened his mouth to talk with a friendly grin and then it fell. It fell quickly.

"Brendon you're bleeding." He stated startled.

"What?" I surely didn't feel anything. Ryan grazed a prong on my antler, holding a red stained finger front of my face. "Oh je-- !"

I felt sick at the sight, I stumbled only my feet didn't go anywhere. My insides made a run for it and landed all over the front of Ryan. He stood dripping in vile, leftover breakfast, a small creaking and speechless sound escaped his mouth. I don't know how much time passed as he stood there, but it was making my stomach churn, again. As I relieved my chest of a stifled breath and was about to say something, he bolted for the door.

Time had started again, minutes passed when I decided I needed to man up and just go out there. It would be expected from a freak like me to throw up on the coolest guy in school. Light flooded in as the door opened again, I figured it'd be Mrs. Ramsey the gym teacher, I was surprised to see his vans glide against the concrete floor.

"Brendon?" Ryan cautiously tip-toed over, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," I answered my voice small, turning away I wiped my mouth with my sleeve. Ryan sat down on the floor next to me facing towards the wall.

"Are you sure you don't want me to get Mrs. Ramsey?" Ryan offered.

"No, I'm fine."

"Well, here. I figured you'd need it." He handed me a paper towel and water from the vending machine in the lunchroom. "To clean off your--" He stopped at the word and then just started to dab, my throat burned and now it was dry.

Still, the water remained limply in my hand and my fingers didn't itch to open it. My whole body became warm despite the fact I hadn't done any physical activity.

"Thanks… again." I slowly stood up, just in case I was still light headed, chuckling he led us out of the storage room. Once approaching a garbage can he crumpled the paper towel and threw it with perfect aim in the trashcan five feet away. I cocked an eyebrow, Ryan simply started heading out the door to the bustling cafeteria.

"Coming?" Ryan popped his head back through the door. Nodding I caught up to him, "Or do you think you're not up to lunch?" This time I shook my head feeling my nausea wave over my stomach at seeing the food on a passer-by's tray. "Neither am I. Sorry about leaving you, I had to change."

"I didn't think you'd come back anyways." I admitted, taking no offence.

I spotted Pete and Nicole sitting at a nearly empty table, naturally I joined them. Ryan was still following, I figured he'd peel off to a different table with another group. Another group, other than the freaks. Pete and Nicole sat up straighter like meercats on watch, they glanced sideways at each other and then back at me.

"Um… this is Ryan. This is Nicole and this is Pete."

Nicole shyly adjusted her glasses and Pete's mouth hung a little slack realizing that the guy I was talking about was real. Once the reverberation of shock left the small group they went back to their previous activities. Pete went back to reading his video music magazine and eating chips, Nicole continued to pick at her food.

"So…" He dragged out the 'o', all attention was back on him, "What's fun to do around here on weekends?"

Pete shrugged nonchalantly, although his tone held some bitterness that went undetected, "We wouldn't be the people to ask."

"Shut up Pete!" Nicole scolded, and elbowed his side; he let out a small whine. She went on, "There's bowling." Pete groaned and normally I would have agreed with him.

"Yeah, maybe it won't be so bad." Pete's face contorted to doubt as I jubilantly agreed.

"All right, cool. How about this Friday night?"

"Really?" Nicole's voice was rushed and excited, he mouthed 'yeah' and then turned to smile at me.

Our lunch break ended and we all departed to our next class. Even after that night and seeing the injured horn, the outlook for my class schedule was seemingly good, the rest of my week carried on just as well.