Chapter One - The Prodigal Son Returns

When I was in the eighth grade, I, like so many other fourteen-year-old boys, had a crush on a girl in my class. Also probably not unlike others of that age, her figure counted for more than her personality. Her name was Paige Duncan, and she told me that her parents were sending her to a private school for high school.

I was heartbroken, or at least as heartbroken as someone in the early stages of pubescence knows how to be. I remember it took me two days before I was out of the terrible mood the news had left me in. Mind you, Paige was barely even my friend at this point, and I never did wind up asking her out. It was easier to hope that something would happen than to face the possibility of rejection that any action would entail. So, at the end of the "graduation" ceremony my middle school put on at the end of the year (really a ludicrous tradition, considering that the middle and high school were separate wings of the same building, coupled with the fact that half of us were already taking classes in the high school that year), I swallowed my feelings and said goodbye, expecting to never see her again.

See sat next to me in History the next year. Apparently the private school idea had fallen through--and by fallen through I mean been idle speculation that would have taken five digits proceeded by a dollar sign to make happen--and she knew it. Back then I was too smitten to question that a girl would imply she was better off that she was--and now I like to think I understand. What I took away from the experience was that people tend to pop up again, no matter how much you have invested in their departure.

That said, it had been almost two years since I'd seen Byron Chandler face-to-face. He'd left Allegheny College at the end of our freshman year, and we hadn't exactly been close when he'd parted ways. Like so many fallings out between male friends, a girl was involved--one I'd parted ways with over the following summer. I was more than a little surprised; we still communicated on Instant Messenger from time to time, and he hadn't mentioned coming up.

"Surprised to see me?" he said, standing in my door. I'd just finished moving my stuff in.

"A bit. What're you doing here?" I asked.

"Going to school."

"Um, what? I thought you went to Oberlin."

"I did. But I decided I wanted to come back here." he said, glancing around the room. Same old Chandler. "For old times sake, you know? Besides, a degree with 'Allegheny' on it looks better than one from Oberlin."

"I'm just kind of surprised to see you here. I thought you'd burned your bridges here."

"Eh, it's been years. People change. And I had a better time here, anyway. So, does Brooks still suck?"

"Yeah."

"Eh, some things never change."