"I've been pretty depressed lately."

She turns to him. "What?"

"Well, for the last little while I've been sorta... down." He looks up at her, then back at his paper. "Not for too long." He thinks for a moment. "A couple of years, probably..."

"What the fuck?" The loudness of her voice causes him to glance around, making sure the teacher isn't present. "What do you expect me to do about it? Why are you telling me?"

A little shocked, he says, "I don't know, I was just looking for something to talk about. Sorry."

She sighs. "No, that's okay, I've just been a little on edge." She smiles at him. "...these last couple of years."

He smiles back at her, surprised at her sudden change in demeanor.

"It's just all these needy people," she continues. "All these needy, needy people, all over the place... I just can't seem to get away from them. People looking for someone to inject some life into them, and somehow they always pick me right out of the crowd. You know what I mean?" Looking back at him she sees that his brow is slightly furrowed, and says, "No, I guess you wouldn't."

"So what do you do? Just reject them on the spot?"

"Why shouldn't I? I tried giving everybody a chance, and it led to one hellish childhood. So now I say fuck 'em. I'm sure most of them don't even know they're leeches. They attach themselves and merrily live their lives, not even realizing that they're sucking somebody else dry. So there's no other choice, really. And no offense," she says, "but telling somebody you hardly know that you've been depressed for the last two years is a horrible way to get to know someone."

"Well, I can't be one of those people. My friends accept me just fine."

She rolls her eyes a little. "Yeah, and I bet they're all depressed too. With me, you've got to give a little, some value for value. If you just wanna follow somebody around, go join the army."

Somewhat indignant, he says, "Well, I can definitely see why you don't have many friends."

"And why's that? 'Cause I'm a bitch? You might as well just come right out and say it. It's not like this friendship is going anywhere."

"Christ, are you always like this?" He almost huffs as he turns back to his paper. "You really are a bitch."

She laughs, and leans against her elbow. "So why have you been so depressed, then?"

He looks over at her through the corner of his eye, but remains quiet.

"You must want me to listen, so go ahead," she says. "We've gotta pass the time somehow, so what the fuck. Fire away."

He turns slowly toward her, looking as though he's prepared to defend against a physical assault at any moment. "Well, you know. It's just... life."

"What about it?"

"Well, it's no wonder everybody's so depressed. Look at this; this is where we have to live."

She tries to look confused, but ends up smiling a little at the complete seriousness of his face. "What do you mean? I don't follow."

"How can you not follow? Do you mean you're happy with this, with the way things are? This place is horrible."

"What, the school? I'll definitely give you that. You must have noticed how I've been absent more often than present, while you did all those labs by yourself."

"I don't mean the school, I mean everything – including the school. The world, the people..."

"I thought you liked the people. Trying to make the connection, make some friends, all that jazz. Were you lying to me, or what?"

"Could you take this a little more seriously, please? This is my life I'm talking about here."

"No, because this isn't your life. This is just fucking bullshit. You can't be upset about everything, it's the same as being upset over nothing. So you've been a little run down by the world; what are you doing about it? Just going with the flow? Just letting it beat you down a little further? What are you doing next year, going to college?"

He looks at her blankly. "Yeah."

"Well, how come? What do you want to be, Raymond K. Hessel?"

"What? I don't know. Probably an engineer, if my grades are high enough."

"But is that what you want to be, more than anything? Is that the career that's going to be fun and exciting and keep you interested until the day you die? 'Cause you're dead, you're a dead man walking, and you can't afford to waste your life just... fucking around with nothing."

He chuckles grimly. "Maybe you haven't looked through the course selection booklets lately, but there's no such thing as an exciting, fulfilling career."

"No, I haven't looked through the course selection booklet. Why would I? Should I get some employment opportunity pamphlets, or go see my guidance counsellor for some career planning, or maybe scope out a job fair or two? Jesus, this is your life. You're the one not taking things seriously here. You can't just live inside this little box that somebody else made for you. There's a whole world out there, and it's not half as small as people think – there are places you can fit in all over the place. But you've gotta have some kinda drive, some ambition." She motions around the room. "You have to reject all these people, because they aren't going anywhere. They're gonna be sitting at these stupid tables doing these dumb reports for the rest of their lives. You've gotta snap out of it."

His eyes had been narrowing steadily while she spoke, and by now he's almost sneering at her. "Yeah, well we'll see how well this little "plan" works out for you."

She looks at him incredulously. "Man, you are one sad fuck." She turns away from him and crosses her arms, frowning slightly.

A moment later she darts a glance at him, and sees that he's smiling. "Oh, now what's this? You're happy that the girl got mad at you? A minute ago you were telling me that you hate the entire planet. You've got nothing to be happy about. Hey!" she says, loudly enough for the entire class to hear. "Does anybody want to trade me lab partners? 'Cause this guy is a dumb fuck!"

Most of the heads in the class turn toward her, and a few people laugh. She looks over at Steven and sees that his face has gone a bright red, and he's staring down at his books. She smiles, but it feels forced, so she stops. These damn people... She considers leaving, but sees that the class is almost over and decides to wait. The second hand goes round and round... tick, tick, tick.

When the bell rings she makes her way to the cafeteria, making no eye contact with Steven. She walks quickly down the halls, and when she arrives she finds Liam already seated at a table.

"How do you always get here so fast? Did you even go to your last class?"

He smiles at her. "Of course not. I can skip school at least as well as you. And I don't even have parental sanction."

"I shoulda skipped my last one... There was this guy who was just one of those... I can't even think of the word for him." She sits down next to him.

"Horndog? Pretty Boy? Catholic?"

"No, just... looking for attention for no reason. Nothing to offer, he just wants you to play with him. Like a dog, but less fun."

He grins. "I bet he wants you to play with him." Leaning back in his chair, he mumbles, "Poor guy, blood from a stone..."

"Oh, he got more than blood. I gave him a couple eyefulls of venomous acid."

He glances over at her. "Maybe you shouldn't be so hard on people. I'm going out with a few guys from the badminton team later – most of them suck, but there are a few guys in there who are alright. You've just gotta give them some slack."

"Oh no, don't you start with that tolerance shit. I'm in no mood for it."

"Harsh." He puts his hands behind his head and begins whistling lightly, his gaze aimed at the ceiling.

She puts her elbows on the table and watches him. "You seem to be in a pretty good mood."

"Yeah... ever since I was at your house the other day, I've just felt really great..."

"You mean that day you fell asleep in my bed?"

She says this too loudly, and glancing over he sees that she's no longer looking at him. "What was that for?"

"That guy I was telling you about just walked by. I wanted him to hear that."

"I think you're paying far too much attention to this guy, whoever he is. You want me to rough him up?"

She looks over at his arms and smirks. "So you're my hired goon now, huh badminton boy?"

"Hey, don't get too lippy. I wouldn't want to have to smack you around."

"Just try it. I think these people would get a kick out of seeing me bodyslam you through a table."

He laughs. "You know, I just realized that we're sitting in the cafeteria and we're not eating anything."

"Good point. But let's get out of here," she says, standing up. "It's way too nice to stay inside."

They leave the school and start making their way toward some nearby stores. They cross a park and he notices that nobody seems to be around. He touches her on the arm. "Wait."

"What?" She watches him as he looks around. Certain that the coast is clear, he kneels down in the grass and lays backwards, arms behind his head. He looks up at the sky for a moment, then over at her. She says, "What are you doing?"

"I'm laying in the grass. You should probably get comfortable, 'cause I don't think I'm getting back up for awhile."

"In that case I'll have to go get lunch by myself. I'll try to remember to swing by on my way back." She remains for a moment, looking down at him, but it's obvious that he isn't going to move. She grins a little as she bends down and lays beside him.

For a little while they both look up at the sky, without speaking. A cloud moves slowly above them. "So now all we need is some conversation appropriate to our situation."

"Alright..." She's quiet for a moment. "Have you ever caught a glimpse of yourself in a mirror and really realized just how attractive you are, understanding what other people see in you and why they want to have that around them? Seeing the perfection of a mind behind your eyes..."

He glances over at her through the corner of his eye. "I don't go out of my way to look in mirrors."

"Oh, you should. I love them. Some days I think I could just stare into a mirror for hours. Sometimes the mental abstraction of myself that I carry around starts to get a little blurry, but seeing my own face just brings it back into focus. Clarity... clarity is the key."

"For me, this is the mirror. Look at this." He raises his arms to the sky. "This is infinity, this goes on forever, in all directions. We've got theories about how big it is, but we don't know for sure. We're a speck in the universe, but someday, we'll understand all of it. The vastness and complexity of it is almost ridiculous, but we each have the capacity to grasp it, to understand it, to change it. I used to think that we were here just to destroy things, when I was younger, because that's all anyone had ever taught me – we're humankind and we're here to wreck the planet. But I saw through that, and then I thought we lived lopsidedly, like we were taking more than we were giving, and the universe was just putting up with us. But then I realized that that's not true at all. The real truth is that we're like the protectors of the universe, or at least we will be, someday. If a planet goes off course and is hurtling toward a sun, only we can save it. If a meteor and a planet are going to collide, only we can stop them. Only we can make the uninhabitable, habitable. The universe is chaos, chaos that follows a general pattern, but still ultimately unpredictable. But we can harness it, we can change it, we can alter it to our will. We can develop islands of security among disorder, we can learn the fundamental laws and use them to govern the solar system. We'll be mechanics, and then we'll be architects, and who knows what will come after that? We're limitless. If you want to find real strength, real assurance in the galaxy, you can only look in one place." He taps a finger against his forehead. "Only in the human mind."

"Wow." She smiles. "That was way better than mine." He laughs. She says, "I understand what you mean... A lot of it is about how achievement is limited to what we think we can accomplish. I was thinking the other day about how, if I could just live a little longer, I could change everything. As it stands, I'll be lucky to make a dent, maybe write some books that'll be time-bombs to set off some future generations, but that's it. But if I could live longer, say, 500 years, I could bend the way this whole planet works. I'd gain influence, spread ideas, build force, until all the bullshit of the world would just buckle under the power of my mind. I'm sure I could do it, 500 years... well, maybe a thousand. But I think it would be possible, while I'm sure most people don't. To them, it would just be a thousand years of following orders and duck and cover. I never took the idea any further than earth, but why not? With enough time, why couldn't I understand all of this? Why couldn't I shape this, alter it, improve it?" She looks over at him. "You and me, we could remake the universe."

He's looking back up at the sky, and is quiet for a moment. "But with the time we have," he says, "we'll just have to settle for imperfection."

"Hey," she says, and he looks over at her. "Perfection does exist, all over the place, every day. But it only lasts for a second." She smiles. "Because after that, it gets boring."

He also smiles, then sits up, resting his arms on his knees. "All these ideas are making me thirsty. Shall we continue our journey?"