I was alone with Angel in the changing room. Most of the time, we would get dressed and undressed in the bathroom. Not because I was embarrassed in front of Angel, but because it was just more practical to take your clothes to the bathroom and get dressed there directly. That way, you would not be wetting the entire floor on your way to the room after taking a shower.

Angel probably was embarrassed, though, despite us both being guys.

As I took off my shirt, I could see him just standing behind me, deep in thought. He stared at me, so I teased, “Checking me out again?”

With a completely straight face, he answered, “No, I was looking at your bruises.” Ouch. It took him 10 full seconds to realize the flirty undertone of what I had said, and he lost his previous composure in the blink of an eye. He immediately turned around, almost becoming a tomato. I snickered and quickly dressed myself. However, when I wanted to exit the changing rooms, Angel was still wearing his school uniform.

“What are you doing? Get dressed and come. I don’t wanna go there alone,” I told him slightly irritated.

“R-right.” I saw him grabbing his clothes and dashing off to a corner of the changing room that I couldn’t see. So, he really is embarrassed.

As fast as he went, he came back again, now dressed appropriately. “Took you long enough. I don’t want to waste even more time here,” I commented, before going ahead in the direction that I assumed was the sports ground.

When we arrived, the other students were already warming up together. The teacher, whom I recognized as the gym teacher yesterday, had noticed us already. He made his way towards us. “Mr Livingstone called me. It’s good to see you here, boy,” he was now looking at me. “The others are currently in a partner warm-up, but” he looked at Angel's and my height and strength difference, “this won’t do. I will assign you different partners.” I was quite relieved to hear that. Since the ‘Angel-incident’ before, I was starting to feel overly conscious of my behaviour and words towards the boy.

“Ben, Winnie!” the teacher called out. Suddenly, someone absolutely crazy, a tall and well-built guy with a wide grin, was sprinting towards me. I was completely caught off guard, when he threw himself at me, attempting a hug but sending us both to the floor. “Krane! Oh my god, it really is you!” the mad one joyously shouted, still on top of me.

“What the hell? Get the fuck off me,” I shoved him, and he obeyed, standing up again. He stretched his hand out for me to take, but I ignored it and got up myself. All eyes were on us, the insane looking teddy bear and the delinquent that just got pushed over. Who is this guy? Did he break out of an asylum?

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to run you over bud,” he laughed out, irritating me even more, “I was just so happy to meet you again!”

He is insane, 100%. I attempted to pass by him, but he grabbed my upper arm, “Do you” his smile was faltering a little, “not remember me?” He stared into my eyes, searching for the answer.

“Should I?” I coldly responded. “I think you mistook me for someone, and you better not make that mistake again.”

Everyone was watching our exchange, completely forgetting about the warm-up. Even the teacher seemed to be entertained by us.

His eyes still hopeful, he tried again, “No, I’m sure, it’s you. Krane Carter, right? No one has such a name. Heckway Primary School? My name is Ben Landon.”

My eyes widened as the memories of years ago suddenly came back. Primary school. After that, it all went downwards. Ben had been my best friend back then hence we were inseparable until I moved. He was so much smaller than me. 

Annoyed at the former change in my life, I snapped at him, “I will let it go that you tackled me to the floor, since we were friends once. But, don’t think I want that friendship back. I don’t care about you or anyone here, so stop trying to get something back that is long lost. You don’t know me, so don’t act like you fucking do.”

He looked startled. He probably imagined our reunion to be different, but that simply showed how was am now. Angel was looking at us, an invisible question mark above his head.

“Okay,” Mr Teacher began to speak up again, “Warm-up is over. The ones that haven’t yet done it run 5 laps and stretch by themselves. The rest comes with me to grab the utensils for the match later.”

I didn’t even care about what match he was talking about and started running around the place instead. Now, even PE lessons were ruined. I was running and running, already having far more than 5 laps, but running certainly did relieve a bit of my stress.

“Krane! Come back here,” the teacher was shouting towards me. I had to comply, even though I didn’t want to.

The rest of the lesson went by fine. I tried avoiding both Ben and Angel, but they apparently disagreed with my decision. Ben was constantly trying to start a conversation, but I just went away as soon as his mouth opened. Angel however was basically everywhere. I almost stumbled over him 3 times, so the avoidance didn’t work that well.

The match, which was basketball as I learned later on, also did me no good because the people on my team seemed to have never played basketball before. One random guy almost threw the ball at my face, which got him the strongest glare I could muster. I could see Angel trying to catch the ball a few times, but he seemed to avoid touching it with his left arm for some reason. Someone should tell him how to catch a ball.