The Light

~There was only darkness.~

"What will it be like? Will I make any friends? Will my classes be hard?" All these questions rushed through Daniel's head on his trip. He sighed and ran his fingers through his long, dark hair which never seemed to go the way he wanted.

"You nervous, honey?" Asked his mother.

"I guess," replied Daniel.

"I can understand," she said, "It's your first day of high school, and public school for that matter, being homeschooled all your life."

She threw him a quick smile.

Don't worry," she said, "You're a smart kid. You'll do just fine."

"That's not the only thing I'm worried about," he mumbled inaudibly.

The rest of the ride was silent.

Daniel got out of the car at Central High School and walked to the doors. He took a deep breath to calm himself, then pulled open the door. As soon as he walked through, the first thing to hit him was the noise. He recoiled at all the talking, yelling, and laughing from all the students already there. He was not used to this. He recovered himself and pushed his way to his locker. No sooner had he reached it when the first bell rang. He hurriedly threw his stuff inside and ran to his first class.

The entire morning seemed like a blur. It seemed to Daniel that there was hardly time to get anything done until the bell, the slave master, roused everyone and moved them to their next task.

"I'll get used to it," he kept telling himself.

It continued like this for him until he reached 7th period. He found his assigned seat and sat down, preparing himself for the barrage of information. He heard the seat next to him being pulled back, and he shot a glance at who it might be.

~The light sparked into existence.~

"Good golly," Daniel thought, "She's beautiful."

He tried not to stare at her long dark hair that surrounded her cute face. Her glasses framed her deep green eyes, enhancing them beyond belief. A strand of her beautiful hair had fallen over her forehead. He also noticed that she was rather short, but that didn't bother him.

"How adorable," he thought.

The girl brushed away the strand of hair from her face and sat down. Daniel tore his eyes away before he could look rude. He tried to pay attention to the teacher, but his mind kept wandering to the girl next to him. Finally, the teacher set them loose to set up the resources they needed for the year. Daniel pulled out his laptop and set to work setting up his textbook. He finished quickly, and taking advantage of the situation, stole another glance at the girl next to him. She had a flustered look on her face. Daniel looked at her screen and saw she was having difficulty getting her window to open. He worked up all his courage, reached over, and tapped her shoulder.

"Can I help you with that?" he asked.

"Uh... sure..." she replied.

Daniel couldn't help but smile.

"So your problem is, the textbook opens in a separate window from the website. For security reasons, all browsers have a feature called a pop-up blocker. To turn it off..." He reached over and guided her hand to the correct places. Her skin was soft and smooth, and he relished it. "... just go here, then to settings, then switch that off."

The girl did, and it worked.

"Thank you..." she said.

"Anytime," said Daniel.