Matt stood still for a moment, trying to remember why he wanted to leave the classroom in the first place.
“Hey dude, are you baked already? Why the hell are you standing there, cunt?” Asked a voice he knew.
“Shit, man, I don’t even know anymore” Matt answered and then turned to where the voice came. There he saw Neil. However he didn’t look like the same Neil Matt expected. The boy no longer wore glasses and looked more relaxed than his usual quiet and serious attitude. Matt was fascinated by the boy’s look but didn’t say anything else and just sat beside his friend.
“I feel like something’s going on, dude” Matt said.
“What are you talking about? Hey Bruno, come here a sec!”
“Sup dudes?” Bruno asked. Looking at him Matt felt even weirder. Did his friend really look like that? The Bruno Matt had in mind never had such long dreadlocks with beads that he had now.
“Since when do you have dreadlocks?” Matt asked in his confusion.
Both Bruno and Neil looked at each other and shared a mocking laugh.
“Fuck dude, you sure are slow today” Mocked Neil.
Matt noticed that Neil’s chin now had a goatee. “That shouldn’t be possible! He didn’t have one a minute ago!” he thought.
Despite all his confusion he started to give in to the tempting thoughts of “letting go” and “be free” that Dennis had shared with them. Each second that passed he accepted Neil and Bruno as they were now. Soon he couldn’t even remember the old Neil and Bruno. He was with his long-time pals and nothing more. Unknown to him his feet started to grow and his shoes had now become a pair of DC skater shoes. His body became leaner as he lost fat and develop a 6 pack below his plaid shirt. Some old bruises appeared on his now more athletic body. At the same time Matt was picturing things more clearly. He did no longer care much about school or classes. All he wanted was to hang out with his pals, skate and smoke. Yeah, he loved to be free, to be himself. As he thought this his sandy brown hair grew and became curly. Matt’s left ear was now pierced as well, barely noticeable due to his hair. Some tattoos appeared on his torso and arms but now Matt stared at one he had on his left wrist. It was a skull with crossed skateboards instead of bones. The three of them had that exact same tattoo, as a way to commemorate their adulthood and therefore independence. Matt grinned thinking about those moments: the skating, the smoking, the hanging out. They were all part of what made him feel free.
“You know what, screw this class man” Matt said. “I need a smoke. I’m bored as fuck with this crap.”
The others nodded and they each picked up their skateboards. As they were on the way out, they occasionally talked or high-fived a fellow classmate. Influenced by Dennis’s words (who had mysteriously vanished) the entire class was now changed. They were all laid-back boys and girls, each with a variety of tattoos, piercings and hair colours. They no longer cared much about school or studying and as such their grades were usually low. But no one cared. No one even remembered not being that way but that was fine by all of them.