He made it a point to eat lunch with his friends, but that was worse, because while everybody else was normal—Xena flirting with him had to be regarded as the new normal—Pat was also playing the I-don’t-see-you-you-don’t-exist game.

The difference was that he and Pat were friends, and the kiss last night had been his idea probably more than hers.

Or had it? Girls were all manmages, when you thought about it. They wrapped guys around their fingers and dragged them any way they wanted.

First time I’ve ever envied the gay, thought Danny. But then he had to admit to himself, being honest, that he felt nothing of the kind. This was all kind of exciting. Complicated, yes. A little dangerous. But what had he come to high school for, if not for the fact that this was where they kept the high school girls?

Just before P.E. in the afternoon, a freshman doing office time for some freshman sin brought him a note from the principal. “Come see me right now,” it said.

“What did you do without asking us along?” asked Wheeler.

“Nothing,” said Danny. “I’m on Lieder’s team, why is he bothering me?”

“Want company?” asked Hal.

“Looking for an excuse to ditch P.E.?” asked Danny.

“Always.”

“Don’t worry. Lieder’s in a better mood. His daughter’s all better and she’s even back in school.”

“I didn’t know he had a daughter,” said Hal.

“Or that she was sick,” said Wheeler.

“Somebody mated with Lieder?” asked Hal.

“He has a job,” said Danny. “There’s always some woman who wants a man with a job.”

“Really?” asked Wheeler. “That’s the first time anybody ever gave me a reason why I should graduate from high school. So I can get the kind of job that will make a woman want to mate with me.”

“Naw,” said Hal. “No way. You’re going to have to swim upstream and spawn.”

With that Danny left them and jogged to the office.

Mama and Baba were sitting on chairs across from the principal’s desk. Baba at once rose to his feet. “Danny,” he said, “we’re your Uncle Alf and Auntie Gerd. I know you haven’t seen us in a long time, but when we heard you were living here with your Aunt Veevee gone half the time, well, we had to look in on you.”

“We had no idea his guardian was absentee.”

“She’s not,” said Danny. “We see each other nearly every day. It’s these people that I don’t know. Did you ask them for I.D.?”

Baba chuckled. “We just want a chance to talk to you, Danny.”

“We didn’t know how else to do it,” said Mama. “You don’t answer your phone.”

“I don’t have a phone,” said Danny.