Break Free

"Some French verbs require à or de before nouns. For example, the verb 'venir' takes the preposition 'de' so that the actual meaning is 'to have just'. Now if we take a look at…"

It was not even past the first week of school and Dean was already daydreaming. It's not that he didn't like French. He really did. In fact, he loved to learn. However, the whole institution of school did not seem to mesh well with his personality. Dean was active, always had been and probably always will be. And the fact that school required him to sit still for about six hours every day with few breaks was pure torture for him.

"Mr. Ambrose!", yelled Ms. Jarnot, Dean's stern French teacher, startlingly him out of his reverie. "Is it going to be like this all year? If you want to have even a chance of passing the AP French exam you are going to have to pay attention."

"Excusez-moi, Ms. Jarnot, mais je suis attentif," replied Dean in a sweet voice attempting to charm his teacher. However, his efforts were always in vain. Ms. Jarnot had decided she did not like Dean the minute he walked into her French 4 class last year and no matter what Dean did, she just saw a smart-ass, punk kid who by some miracle kept getting good grades in her class.

But actually, Dean got great grades because although it didn't look like it he was always trying to pay attention. Even when his body fidgeted and prompted him to do all sorts of things like stare out the window, make paper airplanes or doodle all over his notebook, his mind was still focused on what his teacher was saying. And if he missed something in class, he would always go over it later when he read his textbook over and completed his homework.

Yet, he was labeled a punk and troubled kid by most, if not all of his teachers, so that's all he was seen as. His clothes probably didn't help matters either, thought Dean to himself, as his wardrobe of choice was his worn out jeans, a simple black, white or grey t-shirt and his trusty black leather jacket to go over his bad boy ensemble. But Dean wasn't about to change his clothes just so people would think better of him. It wasn't in his nature to do that.

"Really?", replied Ms. Jarnot in a skeptic voice, completely refusing to acknowledge the fact that Dean had answered her in perfect French something which not all of the students in the room were capable of doing. In fact, some of them were confused because they did not know what Dean had said to their teacher even though they were in AP French. Ms. Jarnot walked down the aisle standing right in front of Dean which made him squirm uncomfortably. He never liked it when people invaded his personal space. "Well then, Dean if you were paying attention answer me this. Ça vous dirait de regarder un film ce soir?" Ms. Jarnot asked in a superior tone, her mannerisms making it obvious that she didn't think that Dean had understood her.

"Non, ça me dit rien. C'est pas terrible, ce film." Replied Dean without missing a beat.

Ms. Jarnot blinked furiously in surprise. It wasn't the first time Dean had surprised her in the classroom and it probably wasn't going to be the last, because she seemed to have short term memory loss of his abilities when it came to him. Instead of saying 'good job' or 'perhaps I was wrong, I guess you were paying attention', all Ms. Jarnot said to Dean in a nasty voice was, "see me after class." And turning on her heel, she marched straight back to the front of the classroom and resumed her lesson.

Dean sighed and turned back to the window. He wasn't going to argue with her, it was futile. He would probably receive detention for this even though he did nothing wrong. It's going to be a long senior year, he thought as he watched a pair of squirrels chase each other around.

Seth rushed into the gym not wanting to be late especially during his first week of school. Also, Coach was teaching this period and if he was late to his class. Seth shuddered at what the consequences would be later in practice.

"Hey Seth," nodded Roman as Seth hunkered down beside him beginning to stretch.

"Hey," answered Seth breathless from rushing around like a crazy person, "got lost again. I swear this school is a maze."

Roman nodded in agreement, "I know what you mean, yesterday, I got chewed out by Mr. Konnyu for being 30 seconds late to his class. '30 seconds of my valuable time being wasted!'"

Seth chuckled as Roman did a pretty good impression of the formidable Biology teacher. He was so glad that he wasn't the only new kid in school. He and Roman had met during training camp for football in August. Roman was a linebacker and he was a wide receiver. They both were used to moving as Roman was an army brat and Seth's dad was a big time consultant. However, they both had been bummed when they realized that they were moving again and in their senior year. But they had made the most of it and even though they had obviously missed spring training because they were both star athletes they had made the cut and Coach had both put them in as starters on the varsity team. In addition, their team members had made them feel welcome and part of the team and Roman and Seth had moved enough to know that that wasn't always the case. Usually fellow team members would feel miffed that the new guys had gotten a starting position. But Hunter, captain of the defense, and Randy, quarterback of the team, had taken them both under their wings and had proclaimed that they were going to show them the ropes so that their senior year would be the best one they ever had. Speak of the devil.

"Hey guys!" greeted Randy as he plopped down next to them. "So…party at my house. This Saturday, you guys in?"

"Is that even a question of course their coming?" interrupted Hunter as he joined their group. He turned to Roman and Seth, "Randy's parties are legend and we are going to make sure that this year they are more epic than ever! Of course that means that only the coolest people can come which includes you two!" finished Hunter with a smile and nudged Roman with his shoulder.

"So are you coming?" Randy asked again with a glare to Hunter for interrupting him.

"Yeah, sure, I see no conflicts," answered Seth kind of excited for this weekend. Roman, who Seth was beginning to know as a little bit more subdued than his fellow football players, just nodded a 'yes'.

"Great," exclaimed Hunter gleefully rubbing his hands together and proceeded to talk about possible plans for the party.

Seth glanced over at two girls who he knew were cheerleaders, Brittany and Cassidy, he was intending to also invite them to the party but instead he couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

"No! I don't believe it! Are you sure?" asked Brittany in a dramatic voice.

"Well I'm not sure of what exactly he said but I'm sure it was something bad like a curse or something crude. You know?" said Cassidy

"Yeah, Ambrose is so weird. I mean look at him, he's talking to himself again," said Brittany. Seth followed the two girls' line of view and saw the guy 'Ambrose' he guessed they were talking about. He seemed to be a loner and was stretching in the far corner all by himself. Seth, however, wanted to correct them he wasn't talking to himself, he was singing, he recognized the song that Dean was mouthing "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. Good song, thought Seth amused as he watched Dean get himself pumped up as he sang the chorus under his breath.

"It's a shame though," said Cassidy, "he really is really cute. If he wasn't so weird I would date him." Cassidy and Brittany broke out into giggles.

Seth never got the chance to invite the girls to the party though because Coach had blown his whistle and demanded that everybody line up for exercises. After a brisk warm up, Coach declared that their first fitness test was today. All the girls groaned while most of the guys high-fived each other. "Both guys and girls will be tested on their sit-ups and push-ups today and guys will also be tested on pull-ups, girls you do not have to do them unless you feel the need to", barked Coach. "So let's get to it, sit-ups first, find a partner to hold your feet and count for you. I will be timing you to see how many each of you can do it a minute. And boys!" By 'boys' Coach meant his football players. "One of you better win each of these challenges otherwise the whole team will be doing suicides until nightfall!" As everyone scrambled to find a partner, Seth realized that here was his chance to make some new friends outside of football. So, instead of teaming with Roman, he walked over to Dean who was lounging on the gym floor making no effort to team up with anyone and introduced himself.

"Hey, I'm Seth. I'm new here this year. Do you want to be partners?"

Dean looked up at him curiously and shrugged, "Yeah, fine. You want to go first?"

"Sure!" Exclaimed Seth. He always loved these fitness challenges. He was competitive and he was interested to see if he could beat Hunter, Randy and Roman. That would give him ultimate bragging rights for the year. He got into position as Dean held his feet steady and both waited for coach to blow the whistle. As soon as Seth heard the whistle he took off trying as hard as he could to do as many sit-ups as possible in a minute. He thought he had done well when the minute was up. "How many was that?", he asked Dean.

"56", replied Dean.

"Nice! Beat that!", said Seth proud of his performance. "Hey, Coach, 56 for me," yelled Seth across the gym. Coach nodded in acknowledgement and wrote it down on his notepad. "Roman! How many for you?", asked Seth eager to see if he had beaten his friend.

"57!" answered Roman with a grin. "And Hunter got 59, sorry Seth you lost this one."

"Damn it!" muttered Seth under his breath he had really wanted to win. He glanced over at Dean who was quiet and looking up at the ceiling. Seth felt guilty, he had been showing off. He should be trying to make new friends not trying to one up his football buddies. It looked like Dean was in pretty good shape but Seth hoped that he hadn't intimidated the other guy by his performance. "So, I didn't catch your name dude?" asked Seth trying to make conversation.

Dean looked over at Seth and raised one eyebrow, "That's because I didn't give it. But if you must know, it's Dean", he said in a raspy voice.

Seth raised both hands. "Just trying to be friendly."

"Well no one asked you to," shot back Dean. "Let's just get these stupid tests over with."

Well isn't he a breath of fresh air, thought Seth, sarcastically to himself as he grabbed Dean's feet and started to count as Coach blew the whistle for the second round. Immediately, Dean shot up and began, Seth was impressed by his form and quickness but thought that he couldn't last the whole minute with his pace. But he was wrong. Dean kept going like an energizer bunny and Seth kept counting, eyes growing wide with each passing second. By the time the whistle sounded, Dean had done 70 sit-ups in 1 minute.

"Wow! Dude that was amazing!" shouted Seth raising up his hand for a high five.

Again Dean looked at him quizzically but he grudgingly returned it.

Perhaps I will make a friend out of him yet, thought Seth to himself. What Seth did not notice was the burning glare that Hunter and Randy were giving Dean as they learned that he had showed up all of the football players.

"I guess we will be doing suicides boys!" declared Coach with a grin. "All right time for push-ups."

"I'm gonna beat you on this Dean, push-ups are my thing," boasted Seth as he got into position and Dean put his fist down on the ground to make sure that Seth went all the way down.

"Yeah, we will see about that," returned Dean playfully warming up to Seth.

The whistle sounded and again Seth thought he did pretty well after the minute was up.

"54, good job," said Dean as they switched positions. Seth was happy to learn that none of the other guys had come close to his score. Perhaps I will win this round, thought Seth happily to himself as Dean started with his push-ups. However, he was sorely mistaken. Again, Dean's quickness and strength was surprising to Seth and after only one minute, he had completed 73 push-ups.

Seth was really impressed with Dean and couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't on the football team. He was obviously powerful and at 6'4" he was as tall as Roman. He would be a great linebacker too, thought Seth, perhaps he would ask when he got to know Dean a little bit better.

"Boys, this is embarrassing! Ambrose is beating all of you soundly. Perhaps we will do suicides all of this week until nightfall since it seems that none of you are conditioned well enough!" barked Coach as all of the boys in class headed to the pull-up bar for the third test. Seth grinned, he wasn't bothered by Coach's yelling, he was just blowing air and Dean was proving himself to be a great athlete. He would just have to work harder to get better it would seem. He looked over at Roman who also looked impressed by Dean's showing, however he again missed most of the dirty looks thrown Dean's way by most of the other guys on the football team.

As they headed over, Hunter roughly bumped into Dean's shoulder and growled, "Freak!" under his breath but only so loudly that only Dean and Seth caught what was said. Dean just ignored it, while Seth frowned disapprovingly at Hunter. He hoped that Hunter was just frustrated rather than being a bully. He didn't know if he could be friends with someone who bullied other people.

The third test started with varying degrees of success until it was only Dean left and the highest score so far was 50 which was Hunter's score.

"All right Dean let's see what you can do," said coach gruffly while Hunter scoffed.

Dean unassumingly walked up to the bar and started as Coach blew the whistle and just like the first two tests his form was impressive and his speed in which he performed the exercise was unstoppable. In fact, Dean looked barely winded after a minute and he had blown away Hunter's score with his own of 68. The gym was so quiet after Dean was done and walked away towards the locker room. Everyone seemed to be in shock for several seconds until the bell broke the spell and moved everyone towards their lockers as well in order to get to their next class on time.