When Things Change

"What the hell are we doing?" I hissed at Danny as he brought his finger to his lips.

"Be quiet for a second," he told me.

We were both crouched beside in a corner the next morning, at 7 am. Firstly, how he convinced me to come this early was a miracle. I was dead tired when he called me at 9 last night, telling me he had important things to discuss very early in the morning. All he had to do was beg for a few minutes before I agreed. I'm such a push over.

"Who the hell are we waiting for?" The hallways were completely empty, mind the few early birds hanging around. Even the teachers waited until 7:15 to arrive to school. "And what are we going to discuss?"

"One second, please," he repeated despite the fact that a second had already passed.

"I'm tired." The death glare Danny gave me told me that I had to put a cork in it and I did, rubbing my stomach to calm its grumbling.

"Danny?"

Damn. Haley Stanton stood above us, in a mini-skirt and killer top. She had a smirk on her face as she offered her hand to Danny. Score.

Haley was, by-far, the hottest girl in the entire school. When they say pretty people grow up ugly is a complete lie. Ever since I laid eyes on her, I knew there would be nobody able to compare with her at least not at my school.

Her dark brown hair was pinned up in a very messy bun on her head, gorgeous blue eyes covered by mascara-ed eyelashes. Perfect skin with a kind of natural glow to it. She had dainty pink lips that only curved a bit more as she looked down at me, offering me a hand.

God, her skin was so soft.

"Jesus Martin, will you close your damn mouth?" Danny asked me, nudging me to follow Haley down the hall. We stopped in front of a janitor's closet. What?

"Ladies first," Danny offered, holding the door for Haley first and then myself.

Even the janitors lived the life. This particular closet had a light switch by the door, revealing a broom, a mop and bucket, and a ton of cleaning supplies pushed in the corner. That left enough room for a five-by-five table, four chairs on each edge.

Haley sat down first. I followed suit but Danny opted for standing in the corner by the door.

"Glad to see you hear, Hales." He nodded at her and she only smiled a little more.

"You know I'm only here for one reason." She eyed me and I felt myself start to sweat.

It would be an understatement to say that not every guy that has ever seen Haley hasn't wanted to know what it's like to kiss those lips.

"We'll discuss plans later, with Victor, of course." I deflated. That lucky bastard. How did he get Haley to like him? He was such a dog though, said the one talking about how hot this girl was. Man, I'm messed up.

"That'll be great." What was the point of even asking Danny? All she had to do is go up to him and he'll fall to his feet in praise.

"Now, plans. You kind of know what I want you to do, right?"

Haley sighed, leaning her elbows on the table and placing her head into her hands. "You want me to seduce him, am I right?"

Danny nodded. "Secrets. No matter how big or small, I want it all. It'd be better if you got his house address as well. Just to see what else I can scrap up, no need to look like I'll run him out of it or anything Martin, so close your mouth.

"We'll bring him to the steakhouse on Davenport and Main. Or you'll bring him. Convince him any way you can. Free food will probably work as good as any. I'll be there too so try to get him to talk up and if anything goes wrong, just shoot me a text. Tomorrow night, alright? Don't forget."

Haley moved. She nodded her head and stood up, saluting Danny. "Got it boss. You already told me yesterday so I don't know why you had to make me wake up so early."

"Just clarifying. Any questions?" Haley was silent. "Good. So be in this closet at lunch and I'll send him there. By the way, his name's Richie."

"Wait, he knows what's going on?" I knew what Danny was planning all along. Something that involved humiliating Richie but I didn't expect him to make it so easy.

"Of course he doesn't. Why would he?" Haley asked, with an underlying tone of 'are you stupid?'.

"I mean does he know that he has to come here," I replied hotly, sending some sarcasm right back. Nope, it didn't work the same way.

"Why do you think you're here?"

"What? Who's going to ask him? Wait, you're expecting me to?" I was frantic now, searching in Danny's face for the answer. His downcast eyes answered it all.

"Wait, so you're going to be a brain surgeon one day? Note to self, never get sent to your emergency room."

The door opened and shut behind me and all that was left in the room was Danny and myself.

"What the fuck was that?" I demanded when I was sure Haley had gone down the hallway.

"That, my friend, was the sound of victory," Danny said, no trace of remorse whatsoever.

"Why? What are you going to do? Humiliate him to the point where he leaves?"

Danny pretended to ponder this for a moment before nodding. "I know you don't approve but just help me out, okay? Come on Martin, you're my best friend, my partner-in-crime. All you've got to do is convince the kid to go to the janitor's closet at lunch today."

"The kid? So he isn't special enough to have a name anymore?"

Danny sighed. "Fine. Richie, whatever. Just ask him please. I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll even bring you to the steakhouse. Let you order that big plate of potatoes, your favorite."

"I don't think so. You can carry out your plan yourself, just don't get me involved."

I stood up and turned, with full intent to leave Danny here to get someone else to invite Richie. For God's sake, I didn't even know what the 'kid' looked like!

"Martin, please. I know this isn't what you like to see me do but I need to prove something to Neil. He thinks he can walk around acting like he owns the place. He doesn't, alright? You and I both know that. I have to get to him before Neil does." Damn, he frustrated me so much.

"And what are you doing? Do you own it anymore than he does? Well why do you have to even compete with Neil? Why are you letting him control how much effort you're putting into the poor kid?" I whirled around and froze in my place.

Danny had his head in his hand and his voice was muffled as he talked. "Never mind all this. I'll get Victor to do it or something."

He waved his opposite arm that he wasn't snuggling with as dismissal.

With my hand on the doorknob, I felt like I couldn't do it. Danny was my friend. Why should I care what his motives were? This was his regular behavior so I should just accept it. It didn't work with the first three year of kids so why should it work with this one? All he managed to do was scare them a bit, made them stay out his way, that sort of thing. It would be no different with Richie.

I sighed. My good heart, depending on the perspective of the person. "First, you've got to tell me what you have against Neil."

Danny lifted his head up. He had the seams of the blazer imprinted on his cheek but he didn't even notice. "Later, okay?"

I contemplated this. It wasn't like he was going to run. "Alright, what do I have to do?"

Call me a jackass...

=|=

It turned out Richie was in my Trigonometry class. I had that second period, Thursdays.

I arrived from Physics in a haste since it was on opposite sides of the school building. The class was still getting itself together, everyone finding their seats.

My eyes searched through the crowd but didn't have to find too hard. The mop of orange hair gave it away almost immediately. He was sitting near the back. Introductions were done yesterday, which I so happened to miss during my power nap.

The seat beside him was currently unoccupied and with a few quick steps, I was able to claim that seat.

Richie jumped a little in surprise but then offered a small smile. He had the collar of his shirt turned up, the tie hung loosely on.

I don't know, I found it sort of weird.

I didn't dwell on it, realizing he was waiting for me to talk.

"Hey. I'm Martin. We haven't really met yet." I flung my hand at him, for lack of better things to do. Wow, why didn't I just bow my head down as well, praising him for his arrival or something?

Richie gripped it and gave me a firm shake.

"Tell me about it. This school's massive. I saw you sleeping yesterday. Are we allowed to do that?" Richie was amazed, as I was sure everyone was when they saw the school for the first time. What's worse was all the clique switches generally happened during the first month of school and now he had no place to fit in.

"No. Not really. I was just kind of sick yesterday. I'm not anymore, don't be afraid."

Richie laughed. "It's fine, I had my flu shot the other day." He nodded like he was proud of himself.

"Oh. Me too, actually."

"Ah, you're one of the suckers who get sick afterwards. A sign of a bad immune system." He grinned.

"And what would you know about that?" I asked. Who thought he was a future Science student now?

"Common sense, no?"

"Mr Westfall, good to see you alive and awake. Now if you please direct your attention up here that would be much appreciated." Mr Fabian said, his hand poised over the smart board, ready to draw diagrams and everyone turned around to stare at me.

Who I noticed most was Victor's whose stare was more of a glare. I guess Danny didn't let him in on the plan.

After we copied down notes (I didn't really, just wrote down different ways I could ask Richie), Mr Fabian gave us questions from the textbook to work on. Since Richie didn't have a textbook yet, lo and behold, he had to share with me.

Which sort of, kind of, gave us a legitimate reason to talk to him.

"I don't know how to say this," I started out, the frown in my face deepening as he looked at me with wide eyes. How could I lie to that face? "So I'm just going to come out and say it."

"Oh, you don't want to share the textbook with me? Man, I knew it was too soon. I'm sorry, maybe someday when we get to know each other a little better." He pretended to sniff and then grabbed hold of his notebook and stood up. What the fuck?

"Gosh, just pulling your leg." He started to laugh and I was glad that no one in my class really followed the 'focus on your work and shut the hell up' rule. "Spit it out. Words. You know them so use them."

I was confused to the max but I decided to swallow it. He was strange, sure. Just get it out and let it all fall into place.

"There's this person... well she's a girl. Yeah, her name's Haley Stanton, if you know. Then again, the school is quite big so you might now. Well anyways, she wanted to meet you at lunch. A question she wanted to ask. I'm not sure what it is, just needed me to... uh, deliver the message."

"Haley, girl, got it. Wait, do I have to play some sort of guessing game? Like do I go up to every girl at the school, ask for a Haley Stanton and then get some sort of prize or something if I win?" Richie's smile never faltered which was a good thing but it could be because he was laughing at my stupidity.

"Huh?" Nice one Martin. Ten points.

"I don't really know what this Haley looks like. Or where she wants to meet me. But if we are playing a guessing game, that could be fun. Don't spoil it for me or give me any hints."

"Oh, oh yeah." Cue face palm. "She's meeting you at a janitor's closet. Don't worry, it's clean. I suspect they play cards in there. But it's downstairs, east locker area, I think. Reddish door. There's fingerprints on the N or the R. I forgot which letter."

That was concise and completely unnecessary. I was not a talker at all.

"Thanks. I'll make sure to meet her. But it better not be a practical joke. I don't want to walk into my afternoon classes covered from head to feet in blue paint, alright? It doesn't go well with ginger."

He pointed at his hair, a smirk sitting on his face. "Fair enough," I laughed. "It's not a practical joke, don't worry."

The moment those words left my mouth, I was taken over by guilt. Why was I feeling guilty? Oh yeah, I was setting this thing up.

"But I wouldn't let my guard down either way. There are some people here that would do anything to get rid of you..."

I swear his eyes twinkled (or at least, glinted) as he smiled. "Trust me, I've met some already. But I hope they don't think I'd back down that easily."