Just One of the Boys

“Dude, wake up!” Someone was shaking me very roughly, and I had half the mind to kneel them in the balls and fall back asleep. Until, however, my attacker announced: “Henry, we have class in like, thirty minutes!”

“I’m up!” I shrieked, racing to the closet and wrenching clothes on over my head. Thank god I actually bought a good wig, or it’d’ve fallen off in seconds. Precious seconds later, I was out of the closet, my backpack in hand. “LET”S GO!” Laughing, Alex led me towards our first class, English.

“Okay, so the English teacher’s really cool, but he’s kind of crazy,” Alex informed me as we passed a group of guys tossing a Frisbee outside.

“Crazy?” I giggled, wrinkling my nose. Alex blinked at me before shaking his head in disbelief.

“Did you just-? You know what, never mind,” he muttered, grimacing. I blushed and looked down. My god, I giggled? Was I trying to get found out?

“Sorry,” I coughed in a deeper voice. “I don’t know what just came over me…”

“Yeah…” Alex rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, so Mr. Haufforn is just kind of…well, you’ll see. Hey Rian!” I turned to see Rian walked nonchalantly towards us.

“Hey Henry, s’up Alex,” he nodded his head. “Jack is currently trying to engage me in a game of hide and go seek before class, so if you see him, tell him I ran in the direction of town. It should keep him entertained.”

“Geez, did he forget to decaffeinate his coffee again?” Alex laughed, shaking his shaggy head. God, I loved his hair… And his personality…and basically Alex altogether…

“Henry? Henry, wake up dude!” Someone was waving their hand in my face. I jolted out of my daydream and turned to the nervous boys next to me. “Are you okay? You were just…staring at me.”

“What? Oh sorry, I’m just really tired,” I yawned overdramatically. “God, I didn’t get enough sleep last night…” Alex nodded, staring at me intently.

“Yeah, I heard you get up last night. What was that about?” he asked curiously.

“Uh…bathroom,” I coughed, rubbing the back of my neck, trying not to have my cheeks flush as bad as I knew they were.

“Someone’s not telling the truth!” Zack teased from behind me. I jumped about three feet, startled by his arrival.

“Tell the truth!” Rian commanded, grinning. I quickly thought up a giant lie, something that I could easily cover up later.

“Fine! I was calling my girlfriend,” I sighed, shoving my hands in my pockets and crossing my fingers.

“In the middle of the night?” Alex laughed. “Wow, is it just me, or are we sensing another lie?”

“She’s on vacation at some place--which I know she told me, but I can’t remember for the life of me--and the time difference is weird. In order for me to call at ten o’clock her time, it was like two o’clock here. Happy?” I sighed, promising that I’d call Claudia and explain the moment I had free time.

“Ooh! Girlfriend, huh? What’s her name?” Apparently Jack had given up and came to find the rest of us as we still attempted to get to English.

“Claudia,” I informed them, keeping my fingers tightly crossed.

“OOH!” they shouted, dancing around me. “HENRY AND CLAUDIA SITTING IN A TREE!” Jack tossed his arms around me, still singing as the others broke off laughing.

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” he spelled before I shoved him off me, my face beet red. I shoved him away and he lost his balance over Alex’s leg. They both tumbled to the ground, still laughing like hyenas.

“Oh my god, Jack, that was so original,” I muttered sarcastically, trying to stop my blush. "How did you ever make that up?

“I don’t know, I just thought of it,” Jack smirked, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Oh, so now you think,” Zack laughed. “Quick, call NBC, it’s a Christmas Miracle!”

“Silly, Christmas isn’t until December,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Duh.” We all stared at his know-it-all expression before bursting into more laughter, heading off to English.