How many eyes do you have?

'Cause I can't see

My lips are sewn shut but

I can hear my own screams in my head

Will you cradle me with your blood-soaked hands?

Don't worry about your talons, I'm fine

Are you my ventriloquist? 

I seem to have lost my voice

Are you my light in the dark?

This cellar goes on forever

I can no longer feel you

Hanging from this noose

My nose is filled with blood, sorry

I can no longer smelling the rotting things 

My teeth are gone, may I borrow yours?

Sharp and pointed so I can tear the flesh

I am sorry for this nightmare

I am in Hell, will you help me?

Sorry, I lost my way and I can't seem to find it back

Sorry, I can't seem to find it in me to care about it anymore

Can you?

--the song Out Of My Head, lyrics by Orion Bauwens

I raise my hand.

"Yes, Jake?"

"Can't I transfer to another class?"

A sigh. "There is no other class, Jake."

"But I know all this already!"

"I know all this already," Orion mocks quietly besides me. He's picking at his guitar strings, fringe falling into his face. I glare.

"Well I'm sorry, you're going to have to just humor us with your presence while the rest of the class picks up what you know."

My hand shoots into the air again. Our music teacher, Mr. DeVry, sighs again. "Yes Jake?"

"If I can play something really complicated and prove I don't need to be here, can I not show up to class?"

Mr. DeVry chuckles. "No."

I frown.

"But..."

I sit up straight.

"Maybe we could work something out."

Orion's hand immediately shoots into the air, his ass partially coming off his seat in his excitement. "Mr. DeVry!"

He looks startled at Orion. Music class is, I think, probably one of the only classes Orion participates like a normal student in. Besides talking to me I don't think I've heard Orion say one word in this class. He's always sitting at rapt attention. It's a stark contrast with biology where we can't get him to shut up.

"Uh, yes, Orion?"

"Can I too?! Please? Please?"

Mr. DeVry looks surprised. "Uh... Well, I guess, if you can prove yourself."

"Can we do it now?" he asks excitedly.

"Uhhhh..." Our teacher looks at the class. "Does anyone mind?"

Mr. DeVry is very relaxed. I like him a lot. He knows most kids here are just taking the class to fill a credit, so he's not too strict. The first half of class is always spent learning something new, and then we practice what we've learned. During this second half is when Mr. DeVry wanders around, helping students. Mr. DeVry never has to help Orion or I.

We're also the only ones who have our own instruments. Since it's just a generic music class, the prerequisites stated if you had an instrument to bring it. Everyone else is provided the usual simple instruments.

A murmur of people saying they don't mind ripples through the class. So Mr. DeVry gives us the go ahead. Orion grins at me, tapping me on the knee repeatedly.

"We should do this together," Orion says quietly, ecstatically.

"Huh?"

"We'll play something we both know. Something that'll really knock his socks off."

"Stairway to Heaven?"

Orion rolls his eyes.

"Dust in the Wind, Kansas?"

"Warmer."

"Uh...Ooo! Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd."

"Damn that's a good song."

Mr. DeVry clears his throat. Orion looks sheepish.

"S-sorry..." He looks back to me. "No."

"More Than Words! Extreme! Please tell me you know that song, Orion..."

Orion grins and claps once. "Let's do it!"

We plunge into the song. Much to my surprise, especially after the garage incident last weekend, Orion sings. Once again, he hits the higher parts like it's nothing.

When we're done everyone applauds and a couple people cheer. I grin at Orion, who is blushing like mad. But that's okay--my face feels red, too. He grins back.

After class Mr. DeVry holds Orion back. I wait for him, my next period be damned. When he comes out of the room I accidentally startle him.

"Sorry," I reply after his jump.

He looks at me almost suspiciously. "What're you still doing here?"

We begin to hurry down the hall.

"What did Mr. DeVry want?"

Orion stops walking, taking me by the wrist. "Jake, there's something I have to tell you."

My stomach drops. "Okay."

"I didn't go to Treegrove. I lied."

I look at him confused.

"I went to St. John's--the all boys school. Mr. DeVry wanted to know where I learned to sing like that. I was in choir from kindergarten until eighth grade."

"That's--that's something really stupid to lie about, Orion."

The warning bell rings. Orion drops his head and sniffs. God damnit, is he crying? "I--I know..."

"Why would you lie about something like that?"

"Because some stuff happened over the summer, and I just wanna forget it. And I don't know very many people here, so I wanna just pretend I don't live in a trailer in the shitty part of town, and I wanna pretend that everything about St. John's never happened."

He sniffs again. I bite the inside of my cheek. I want to hug him but that'd be weird.

"I just want to be someone else. Freshman--fresh start, right?"

"Hey." When Orion doesn't move, I speak again. "Hey."

Orion lifts his head. He's not crying, but his eyes are all watery and I can tell he very badly wants to cry. I frown. The tip of his nose is even turning red.

"Dude... it's okay. Just please stop lying, alright?"

He nods, quickly wiping his eyes.

"Don't lie to me, don't lie to my mom. Okay?"

Orion nods as the bell rings. I grin, giving him a playful punch in the shoulder.

"Now we're both late. Thanks, dick."

He laughs. I don't know what comes over me, but I ruffle his hair.

"See you after school, yeah?"

Orion ducks out of reach from my hand me and grins. "Yup!"

We both run in opposite directions then, trying to make it to our classes ASAP.

~

"Dude, what happened to your eye?"

Orion shrugs. "Got into a fight with a door."

I'm a little surprised that he's wearing a pair of thin-rimmed gold glasses. It does nothing to cover up his black eye.

I frown at him. "Did I or did I not just tell you last week not to lie to me?"

"I'm not," he says, narrowing his eyes slightly. "There was a door involved."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever...Er, are you okay?"

"Ha. You're funny. You act like this is my first black eye."

I sigh heavily. "Why are you the worst?"

That makes him grin.

"What's with the glasses?" I ask, pointing to my own eyes.

He self-consciously adjusts them. "I wear contacts. Didn't feel like touching my eye seeing as it had a huge bruise."

"Man, your eyes are really screwed up, aren't they?"

He laughs. "Yup." He then looks around himself, leans forward, and speaks quietly. "So have you found out anything about Stacy?"

"Yup."

"And?!"

"I still think you should ask her yourself."

Orion growls at me, and I laugh. The bell rings then.

"Mr. Bauwens," Ms. Ketter snaps immediately, "go to your seat, class has started."

Orion rolls his eyes, makes a face, and then does as he's told. I'm surprised though when he's largely silent, except for when Ms. Ketter calls on him. Which is a lot. I feel bad for Orion--it's only four weeks into school and this already has turned into a pissing contest between them, who can get under each other's nerves more.

"Hey."

I look to my left. The pretty girl I sit next to grins at me. I hate to say it, but I have no clue what her name is.

"Hey," I whisper back, smiling.

She leans in, blonde hair falling over her shoulder. "You're the guy who plays guitar, right?"

I blink. Huh? "Uh...well, I play guitar..."

"I hear you're really good." She winks. "You should play for me some time."

Huh?! "Uh...yeah, sure."

She giggles.

"Jacob and Natalie!" Ms. Ketter snaps, causing us both to bolt upright. Orion looks over his shoulder at us--he sits up front while I'm stuck back in the corner.

"Pay attention. Jake, you're getting as bad as Orion, I swear."

I can feel myself turn red. Orion smirks at me, gives the thumbs up, and then turns back around, presumably before he gets in trouble himself.

"Sorry Ms. Ketter," Natalie says.

"You guys are going to be the death of me..." Ms. Ketter mutters before continuing the lesson.

A few minutes later I'm surprised when Orion chucks a crumpled up paper at me over his shoulder. I snatch it off the ground quickly before it's noticed. As quietly as possible I un-crumple it. It says:

"'You guys are going to be the death of me'.

We can only hope!!!"

He's drawn a stick figure of the teacher with a noose and exed out eyes, the tongue sticking out, and at the bottom a laughing smiley face sticking its tongue out with spit. I laugh.

"Jacob! Care to share why hydrogen is so funny suddenly?"

My head snaps up. "N-no Ms. Ketter. Sorry."

She rolls her eyes and continues on. As soon as she's not looking, I cram the paper deep into my backpack. I'll have to remember to shred it ASAP. I could get in serious trouble for the violence on it, stick figure or not.

I can't help but shake my head. Ms. Ketter isn't the only one that Orion's going to be responsible for the death of...