"Hikaru." Mr. Zeck finished, as he picked up a stack of papers and passed them out.
"Hikar-who?" Ty blurted out as he looked around the scrambling students. A small kid with glasses was walking his way. "Thank God..." Ty muttered to himself. Then the kid veered off and sat with someone else. Which then brought attention to the larger fellow behind the little nerd. This huge guy nodded and sat down next to Ty... Have you ever sat next to a very large tree? Well, that's what Ty felt like.
"You're all quiet. I should hear ideas being bounced around! Busy bees - Busy bees!" The teacher shouted, which then made the students work like they've never worked before. Hikaru turned to Ty and began speaking, but Ty couldn't hear Hikaru's Japanese-accented-voice or anything else for that matter. All he heard were his thoughts about all of this.
"I'm going to hate this. Hikaru. I HATE you." Ty thought as he slammed his head onto the desk.
* * *
School was finally over, though his project was not. Ty had to drop by the library and pick up books before hurrying home. Since Hikaru insisted that they work together on the project. Which was jock-code for "I'mma sit around and eat all yo food 'n use up yer elek-tis-it-tay 'till I fell like leavin'!"
"Why did Hikaru have to suggest the microscopic world? There was so much crap on that subject that an entire library could be dedicated to it. That big behemoth is going to screw me over, I just KNOW it... Hey..." Ty thought as a light bulb went off in his head. He could use Hikaru as another test subject. To see what else he could do and such. "Hehehe, I've been going about this shit the wrong way."
Ty cleaned up a bit and left the books up in his room. As soon as he did, he heard a knock on the door. "Huh? He's here... OH SHIT IT'S ALREADY FIVE O'CLOCK?!" Ty yelled as he stared at the clock. He must've spent more time at the library than he though. He walked downstairs to answer the door and for some reason, he was surprised what he saw on the other side.
It was Hikaru - Just as he expected. Hikaru was about six feet tall and weight in at around 180 pounds of nicely toned muscle. His skin was a shade darker from fair and virtually hairless, as was his face. His eyes were a hazel brown, accompanied with a killer smile. His black hair was slightly disheveled, with his bangs flayed out front so they draped to the sides of his prefect face. He was wearing jean shorts and a tight muscle shirt...
Ty expected all of this masculine beauty to be on the other side of the door. What he didn't expect? This Japanese Adonis was carrying notebooks and a few text books. He even had a pencil behind his ear like a common bookworm-nerd.
"Hey Ty." Hikaru greeted, with his not-too-deep-but-perfect voice. "Ready to work on this project. I stopped by the library, but it seems someone else got to all the books before I did... Sorry." He finished, adding a sigh.
"Er... Hi." Ty managed to say, surprised that Hikaru was actually being nice. Ty thought that Hikaru was just buttering him up or something. He didn't really pay attention to Hikaru earlier, so he didn't have any idea how Hikaru conducted himself. Hikaru's mannerisms were strange. He had perfect posture, and he basically spouted proper from those pretty-boy lips. Ty recollected his bearings and walked to the staircase. "The junk's up in my room, come on."
Hikaru followed Ty to his room. Well, it was his parent's room. But now it was his. And of course, Ty had done a little something extra to make it seem more... Glamorous. A large TV mounted on the wall, awesome stereo, every game console a kid could want. Oh and a computer that could make any other computer seem like a useless plastic shell.
"Whoa!" Hikaru said, his jaw dropping to the floor. "Your room is awesome Ty!"
"Eh? Thanks. It's nothing really." Ty nonchalantly said, gesturing for Hikaru to come in and set his books on the coffee table in front of the TV.
"It has a water bed, a couch and a gigantic TV... PS3, Wii AND an Xbox360 too!" Hikaru listed in amazement as he plopped down on the luxurious couch. "It's like my parent's bedroom, but with more gaming systems."
"So you're rich or something?" Ty asked, trying to strike up some small talk.
"Yeah, but they don't exactly spoil me. They have no problem throwing gobs of cash at my brother. It's the typical adopted-son story." Hikaru reluctantly said with a sigh. The spite in his voice was obvious.
They sat and worked on the project, talking for about an hour or two. Ty felt worse with every passing minute, and with good reason too. Hikaru wasn't some stupid jock. In fact, he was pretty much a one year older version of Ty... With the looks of a model. He was intelligent, kind, courteous and obviously oblivious to his stature. He was on the swim team and the wrestling team - The best member of both teams, as it were. And here he was chatting with Ty, like he was just another one of the guys.
* * *
"Ha ha, my brother Dustin is the same way. I'm weaker so I can't do much..." Ty meekly mentioned.
"I used to be in that situation. But then I had a freakish growth spurt and then he was the one begging me for things." Hikaru got up and began to mock his older brother "Can I please borrow the car today, even thought it's mine? Can I please use the computer - Even though it's in my room? Ha ha... It's good to see the tables turn every once and a while."
"It sure is, dude." Ty agreed, knowing exactly what Hikaru meant. Ty made the metaphoric-table do a somersault just two nights ago.
Then Hikaru asked a strange question, it was practically out of the blue. "Ty, are you gay?"
"What?" Ty said as his smile faded and his face grew stiff.
"I mean, some of the guys call you that. I was just wondering..." Hikaru meekly said, obviously feeling bad for accusing Ty of being gay.
"Nope." Ty said sternly, though he was lying just a bit. Ty was like a pendulum attached to a grandfather clock - He swung both ways.
"Oh. Alright." Hikaru said in a flat tone with underlying disappointment. Ty picked up on this, his eyebrow raising as if he were going to ask Hikaru the same question - He did not, however. Hikaru let out an awkward laugh to break the silence. "Well it's almost nine o'clock now... I should get going."
Hikaru gathered his things and made his way to the door. Ty made sure the door was locked and cleaned up a bit. After he was done, he flopped down on his bed. His ceiling seemed to be staring down at him. Ty could imagine it saying something like: Oh you lucky bastard, that's a nice buddy you got there! Let him in on the fun!
"Tomorrow should be interesting... I wonder if I should let Hikaru in. It's always more fun with people knowing about awesome stuff like this..." Ty paused, as if he were waiting for the ceiling to respond. "... Hm, well, we'll have to see tomorrow!"
Ty turned off the lights with the flick of a wrist (and his powers). He stared into the darkness and thought about Hikaru. They weren't all that different. In fact, they were quite similar. Ty imagined a giant compare and contrast chart with Ty and Hikaru labeled up at the top. The two larger circles were filled with small things, like appearances and social status. Yet the tiny intersecting 'alike' section was basically bursting with more points than the both sides together. If he had learned anything today - Sans the motion of single celled organisms - It would be "To never judge a book by it's cover." Which would come in handy when he chooses to use his powers on other people.