As he approaches she turns toward him, and her expression melts almost instantly. A smile grows on her face. "You don't know how happy I am to see you."

"Is that so?" He slides into the seat next to her.

"Oh yeah. When I woke up today I felt okay, but when I got to school I felt strange, like I was off-center..." She looks straight at him as she continues. "I wasn't sure what it was, so I started focusing on things, paying more attention to my surroundings. I started thinking about what I'd say to people if I weren't always holding myself back, I listened to what my brain thought of all the people I met this morning, and it was craziness." She looks away. "Just... craziness. If I didn't keep myself so reserved all the time, I'd just explode."

He smiles. "You keep yourself reserved? I certainly hadn't noticed."

"You don't know the half of it. The apathy and the evasion and the just plain idiocy of these people sometimes – how can so much be so continually compromised? So I had to retreat for awhile." She breathes in as she looks at him. "But then you came in and when I looked at you, I felt fine. A brain that I wouldn't have to be bored by, or dislike, or be so hopelessly above that no meaningful connection could be established." Her smile widens a little. "I'll never have to be your crutch."

"But I think you would, if I needed it..." He takes her hand and gently kisses it, then begins working his way slowly up her arm. She closes her eyes; his lips keep moving across her skin, until he reaches her shoulder and is stopped by the edge of her sleeveless shirt. "You know," he says, "there are some study cubicles upstairs. I could really use some help with my homework..."

She smirks and lays her head against his. "You should really learn to masturbate before you come to school in the morning."

He grins. "Is that your secret?"

She glances at him. "Foolproof so far..."

He looks briefly into her eyes, then lays his head back against her shoulder, smiling. They sit quietly together, their eyes closed.

"Look, I don't care how your teacher told you to do it last year, this is no way to present a report. I'll give you until tomorrow to fix it, and I expect it on my desk first thing. Alright?"

"Yeah, yeah..." the student grumbles as he shuffles away. Jennifer sighs. Save me from this dull-witted rabble...

Just then Liam and Elizabeth walk into her classroom, arm in arm, and stand beside her desk. Just the sight of them brings a smile to her face.

Liam nods to her. "What's the good word, teach?"

Jennifer wrinkles her face. "Ugh... classes haven't even started and already I'm deluged with idiocy." She catches herself and says, "Uh, I didn't mean you, Billy."

A voice from the back of the room says, "Whatever."

Elizabeth laughs, and Liam asks, "So, what's on the battle plan today? Any random class cancellations scheduled?"

"No, I've really got to stop doing that. Nobody's said anything yet, but it's already starting to make its way into faculty gossip."

"Just say that they're learning more by being outside the class," Elizabeth says. "That what I always tell people when I skip."

"Yeah, but you've got your mommy to back you up," Liam says. "I doubt Jen's mom is gonna go to bat 'cause her daughter doesn't want to go to work."

Jennifer looks at Elizabeth and furrows her brow slightly. "Your mom lets you skip school?"

"Sure." Elizabeth furrows her own brow in turn. "Why wouldn't she?"

Jennifer laughs and says, "Sure, why not?" She reaches for a bottle of water and brings it to her mouth – Elizabeth and Liam both find their eyes unconsciously drawn to the point where the plastic ring touches her lips.

She takes a drink and lowers the bottle, then looks at Liam. "If I do buckle and decide to cancel a class, I'll make sure to do it when you're here."

"Excellent. Say, can I have a drink of that?"

"Sure." She hands him the bottle, and he gives Elizabeth a quick grin before raising it into the air.

"To professionalism," he says, then brings the bottle to his lips.

"All right class, please split yourself into the groups I assigned last week. I'm going to give you some time to work on your projects, from now until the end of class. If there are any questions... you can bring them up tomorrow." With that, the teacher ducks out the door.

Jeff pulls up a chair, mumbling, "Yeah, he'll give us some time so he can go smoke." He and Steven sit on one side of the table, and Elizabeth on the other. Steven asks, "Where's Holly?"

"I don't know," Jeff answers. "That chick misses more school than Elizabeth. This project is due soon, and I don't think she's gonna pull her weight. One of us will probably have to do her part."

"I can do it," Steven volunteers. "I'll have some extra time, since I'm not baby-sitting this week."

Jeff raises an eyebrow. "You're a baby-sitter?"

Steven looks down. "Yeah, I've been doing it since I was a kid..."

"Well, you're still working on your part, so I think Elizabeth should do it. She doesn't seem to be doing anything else."

Elizabeth looks up from the book she'd been reading and asks, "What? Why should I do it? I already did my part."

Jeff almost sneers. "Yeah, just barely. It's a terrible report that you obviously spent no time on and it's gonna bring the group's mark down, so the least you can do is pick up the slack."

"Wait; my part sucked, so you want me to do more? That makes no sense."

Jeff rolls his eyes. "Look, I really don't care how shitty it is, I just want it done. I don't see any reason why you can't do it. You're the weak link here."

"What? That other girl isn't even here! And the only reason we even are linked is because Mr. Stupidhead assigned us this way. I'm having a hard time feeling any group loyalty here."

"Look," Jeff says, pressing his fingers to his forehead, "Just do it, okay? We don't have time for this."

"When I was a little kid this always used to happen to me, and I always used to do it; I'd just assume responsibility that wasn't mine. But I'm not doing it anymore. If you want me to fix up my part I will, but I'm not doing somebody else's. Not to mention that I don't care about this class, I don't care about my grades, and I certainly don't care about your grades. No offense, Steven."

"None taken," Steven says, without looking up from his work.

Jeff looks down at the report in front of him, trying to think of what to say. "Just... fuck. Why do you even come to school? Why aren't you off skipping with Holly? Why show up if you're just gonna cause problems?"

"Hey, if that's all you want, I'll be more than happy to leave. Hell, I think you should, too." She shoots Jeff a glance, and adds, "You're living in denial and suppressing rage, motherfucker."

"Just get out. We'll do all the work and you'll get all the marks. I hope you're happy."

"I'm more than happy; I'm gonna go outside and lay down in a field somewhere, while you schmucks are in here working. Have fun."

Jeff just stares at her as she picks up her things and leaves.

"Christ," he mutters, "I don't know what Liam sees in that bitch."

"I dunno," Steven says, still working. "She's kinda cute sometimes."

"Everybody turn to chapter 12 in your textbooks. Now, would anybody like to read?" Silence. Jennifer waits a moment before saying, "I know how much everybody likes the sound of my voice, but I'd really prefer it if somebody else would read." Some laughter, but no volunteers. If Liam were in this class, he'd volunteer. These gutless... "I'm not going to force anybody. Okay then, I'll just read it myself." She skims the page quickly, then begins: "Basically, Alexander the Macedonian, otherwise known as Alexander the Great, decided he wanted to take over Asia. So he and his army showed up, kicked the ass off of the Persian army, then went up to Gordion and..." she trails off. Must fight the urge to cancel class... could get fired... "Actually, I don't feel like going over this. Let's make it a homework assignment. For tomorrow, I want everybody to read chapter 12. But if you don't get a chance don't sweat it too much, we'll do a recap. I've got some papers to grade, so I'll give you some time to get started now. But if you want to talk quietly instead, that's fine."

She goes to sit behind her desk and grabs a large stack of essays as a murmur of conversation swells in the room. She smiles to herself. This isn't exactly what she had in mind, but one way or another, these kids are going to remember her as a great teacher.

Elizabeth lays in the grass, looking up at the sky. The blades are long enough that she can't see anything to her sides, and she shifts a little. She can't get comfortable; it seems a little strange to be out here all by herself. She had stopped by Liam's class but couldn't think of any way to get him out, and even swung by Ms. Cantrell's, but she seemed to actually be teaching, sort of. Christ... I'm gonna go lay in a field somewhere... those guys probably think I'm some kind of freaked-out hippy chick...

She rolls over onto her side and lays an arm across her eyes. Her mind wanders, and she thinks vaguely that it would be bad if someone decided to run a lawnmower across this field today. But if they did the sound would probably wake her up. She's got nothing to worry about...

A few minutes later, she falls asleep.

She slips back into consciousness so slowly that at first she doesn't realize she's awake. She lays on her back, staring up at the now slightly overcast sky. She seems frozen, as though even the possibility of movement is not open to her. Staying still, staring upward, not consciously thinking of anything...

A raindrop hits her cheek. She remains still. A few minutes later the raindrops increase to a steady rainfall, and she still doesn't move. Time continues to pass and eventually dark clouds begin filling the sky as the rain intensifies into a hard downpour that almost hurts her skin. She closes her eyes and turns her palms toward the rain, her lips moving slowly into a smile.

She feels trapped and encased, but safe and secure. Nothing can touch her. The rain keeps everything away.

After a few minutes the storm subsides back into a steady rainfall. Once again she turns onto her side, her legs pulled up against her chest, and rests.

The lunch bell rings suddenly; she had lost track of time. Still, her class is well trained enough that no one makes a move to leave. Jennifer says, "Okay, that's it for today. I'll see you all tomorrow."

A few kids wish her a good day on their way out, and soon the classroom is empty. She sits at her desk and begins grading her backlog of assignments. She gets about halfway through the first one before putting down her pen and leaning back, stretching. The light sweater she wears pulls securely against her body, and she runs her hands absently down her sides.

Her eyes narrow as she glances back at the stack of paper work, so she stands up and walks to the window. There's no one outside, just an empty parking lot, but she sits on the window pane and looks silently outside for several minutes.

The sound of someone entering the room makes her turn with a slight start. She smiles when she sees that it's Liam. He smiles back, walking to the other window where he also looks out at the parking lot. For a few moments neither of them say anything.

She glances over, watching him silently, then asks, "Where's Elizabeth?"

"I don't know. I looked all around the school, but I don't think she's here."

She turns back to the window. "I hope she didn't get caught in the rain."

He smiles. "If something else didn't pull her outside first, this is all it would take. I've never seen her sit inside while it's raining."

Jennifer finds her attention drawn suddenly to the stillness of the room, which is lightly invaded only by the sound of the falling rain outside. "Really?" she asks, almost too quietly, not wanting to disturb the peacefulness of their surroundings.

He smiles and continues staring out the window. "She loves it. As soon as it rains, she's outside. I'm surprised she hasn't been hit by lightning yet."

Her brow very slightly furrowed, she looks out into the rain and says, "Maybe we should try it."

He glances at her. "Try what?"

"Going outside. I haven't been outside in the rain in years, except by accident."

He looks a little surprised, then grins. "Okay, let's go."

They stand at one of the smaller, seldom used pairs of doors leading out of the school. After glancing briefly at one another, Jennifer pushes one of the doors open and they both step out into the rain.

Their initial reaction is to cringe, but after a few moments Liam straightens out. Jennifer, however, never quite gets comfortable with the rain, and remains slightly hunched. They don't move anywhere, standing close to each other and staying very still as the rain assaults them. She peers at him through the rain and past a few strands of her own wet hair, giving him a sort of weird half-smile, then moves toward the door.

She pulls it open and steps back inside, and he follows. They stand in the hallway, drenched, and he begins drying his hair on his shirt. She pulls off her sweater, glad that the shirt underneath is still relatively dry. Just then a couple of male students walk past them down an adjoining corridor, hesitating for a moment when they spot Jennifer and Liam together. Once they've moved on she sighs. "Great. Some more stunning visual imagery to add to the rumor mill."

"You know," he says, still drying his hair, "we may as well just have sex and get it over with."

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, it must be just awful for you. I'm sure your reputation has completely gone to hell. Keep me up to date – according to popular student knowledge, are there any rooms left in this school we haven't had sex in?"

A couple more kids walk by, and she shuts her mouth tightly. Once they've passed she stamps her foot. "This is getting ridiculous."

He smiles and says, "Hey." She looks at him, and in complete earnestness he says, "If you wanted me to, I'd do whatever I could to make them stop."

They stare at each other for a moment before she cracks into a smile and says, "Shut up..."

He grins and glances back outside. "The rain's slowing down already – I'm gonna head back out and look for Elizabeth. I think I know where she is."

She shrugs a little. "Okay. I'll see you for class, then."

He stares out the window a moment longer. "I think I'll be staying outside today."

"You're not coming back?"

"Nah." He glances at her. "But you can come along, if you want."

"No, I've got to go get dried off before class starts. Remind me that I shouldn't go on any more impulsive rain walks."

"The only real problem was that we weren't naked." He looks down the hallway, half expecting someone to walk past, but no one does. "Hey look, our luck's picking up."

She nods, almost to herself. "You know what's one of the weirdest things? Going through the motions of checking you for attendance. The class isn't allowed to know that I don't mind when you skip, so I've got to pretend to mark it down. It's just a little thing, but it always seems strange."

He nods and they're silent for a moment until, looking mildly concerned, she adds, "Are you sure you don't want me to track you down an umbrella or something?"

"I'll be okay." He pushes the door open and smiles at her. "See you tomorrow."

"See you." He steps outside and the door closes behind him. A moment later she begins walking to the teacher's lounge – before classes start she'll have to make sure that nobody can see through this shirt.

The sun has come back out, and Liam is almost dry by the time he reaches the field. He squints a little, surveying his surroundings, until he finally finds her. Elizabeth is sitting in the grass, which reaches almost to the top of her shoulders, her back to him. He parts the grass and walks toward her.

She doesn't turn around even with the noise he's making. When he reaches her she finally looks up at him, and smiles. He notices that the grass around her is flattened, as though she'd been laying down. "Did you stay out here through the entire storm?"

Still smiling, she nods. He sits down beside her. "It took me awhile to find you; I was silly enough to check all the places that were sheltered first." He feels the wetness of the grass start to seep through his clothes and asks, "Are you dry yet?"

"No." She looks across the field, focusing on the trees beyond. "That's the only problem with rain – you feel a little uncomfortable afterward. That's why you're supposed to be naked."

"That's what I told Jennifer!" he beams. She looks over at him, and he says, "We had a mini rain adventure. I don't think she liked it."

Elizabeth smirks a little. "But you only wanted to see her in wet clothes, right?"

He laughs, playing idly with a blade of grass. "You know, I get no respect."

She keeps her focus on him and says, "Did I ever tell you about the time I went out naked?"

He looks back at her, surprised. "No, I think I'd remember."

"It was only last year. It was really late, pitch black outside, and it started to rain. Right away I opened my window, and I was just standing in front of it, watching the rain fall, when I decided to take off what I was wearing. Then I climbed out onto the side roof and jumped down to the backyard, and started walking. I had to stay away from the streets because all the streetlights were on, but I walked through a few backyards and into the woods, then to the park by the baseball field, with the rain falling on me the entire time. It was such a great feeling. But it's not an easy thing to pull off when you're in a city."

He's silent for a moment, still somewhat shocked. Finally he says, "I can't decide what I like better about that story; the mindstate of it, or the nakedness."

"The nakedness is all part of the mindstate." She touches his forehead. "You need to learn not to separate your sexuality from your brain."

He says, "Believe me, my sexuality and my brain are constant companions," and she smiles. He breathes in slowly, looking around, savoring their surroundings. "It's great, just being out here – I can't believe anyone would condemn us for skipping school for this."

She's looking out at the trees again and almost seems not to have heard him. After a while she says, "When you're laying in bed, do you ever feel strong and confident, that life is easy and natural and that you really belong on the earth? Like everything's basically the way it should be and that nothing's wrong that you can't ultimately make right?"

He leans back and looks up at the sky. "Sometimes."

"I don't think most people do. Or if they do, it's not very often. It must make it impossible for them to support anyone who does feel that way, because they can't understand it. They can't empathize, and so indirectly they just end up bringing us down. It's all they can do, because they don't know how to keep their lives in balance. Usually it's easy enough to ignore them, but when it's everybody, when it's a whole planet that's ashamed of their bodies, ashamed of their minds, ashamed of their ideas, ashamed of their actions... how are we supposed to live side by side with that?" She takes a deep breath. "But we seem to be doing it. And we'll keep doing it, I guess. Until things eventually change." She's quiet for a moment, then says, "I wonder sometimes if it's healthy, these little bursts of intolerance that slip out of me. It must be better than keeping it balled up, but there's really no time to waste on it. There's no time for me to even deal with people who make me feel that way. But it's tough to get away." She looks around. "People are all over this planet. You can only get away from them for so long."

"Well, we'll be out of school soon, at least. Less than a year left."

"...if even that."

He raises an eyebrow. "Thinking of jumping ship?"

"I don't know. I mean, I'm thinking about it, but I don't know if I will. I can't see how it could hurt anyone if I stopped, but nobody seems to care too much that I'm hardly going now, so I guess it's alright. What pisses me off the most is when I think of how school could be. It's such a waste. I could like school; in fact, it's crazy that I don't. I'm smart, I want to learn, but nobody's teaching me. If I want to know anything more important than the periodic table, I have to learn it myself. Some days it just seems like luck that I even managed to learn the things I know at all." She gestures at the sky. "These ideas, this view of life – I've hardly met anybody else who has it. So in a way, I guess I can't blame them for not being able to teach it to me." She rocks gently back and forth, not appearing to pay much attention to Liam. "Imagine what it would be like to live in a different world, if humans had popped up somewhere else, on some other planet, and they made a better go of it than we have. How much easier might it have been for me to learn these things, to come to these conclusions, if I'd been brought up differently? If I just lived in a society where I could trust people not to purposely wreck themselves, not to let themselves stagnate..."

The look on his face carries a little concern, but mostly curiosity. "I don't think things are really that bad. I mean, we've accomplished some amazing things. If you looked at our race when we were still walking the grasslands with spears and animal skins, nobody could have guessed that we'd ever have all the things we have now."

She looks at him and smiles slightly. "Yeah, I know." She pauses to scrutinize him. "Y'know, somehow I think it must have been easier for you. I think you came through your transition easier than I did. I know you have it, that positive view of life, I can see it, but you don't seem to be carrying much bitterness." She puts her hands on the sides of his head and runs her fingers gently behind his ears. "I had to fight almost everything I ever knew to come through intact on the other side, and you..." Her smile widens. "You don't have any battle stories."

He puts his hands over hers and pulls them down, sliding his fingers between hers, smiling at her. They sit silently, watching one another, until she moves toward him and turns around, unhooking her hands so she can lay her head in his lap. She settles down and closes her eyes, smiling as he runs a hand lightly across her cheek. She asks, "You don't mind this, do you?"

"You know I've got no problem with you getting closer to my pants."

"I think I'm starting to understand your secret – you seem to have partitioned your brain. What I meant was you don't mind letting me monopolize the conversation, do you?"

He smiles. "Nah."

"Good." She opens her eyes and looks up at him. "Because I don't think I'm done yet."

He puts a hand against her hair and looks out across the field. "So what else is on your mind?"

She sighs a little. "Well, it's always sorta the same things. But right now I'm turning over the idea of selective human identity. I really can't understand how so many people can think so lowly of us. Not you and me us, but us as a species. They always choose to associate with the bad instead of the good. The guy who invented the atomic bomb wasn't the guy who decided to drop it on people. The guy who invented the oven wasn't the one who got the idea to throw people into it. There are creators and destroyers, and the creators are the ones who got us as far as we are today. The creators are the human race, and the destroyers are just aberrations, abnormalities that can't exist without riding on our backs. But whenever someone speaks ill of us, of humans, talking about our "fundamental deficiencies", they're giving the credit to the destroyers. They're saying that destruction is the one most deserving of recognition.

"And the more I think about it," she continues, "The more I don't see how that kind of negative mindset can be an accident. Take people's ideas about god; they dream up this supreme being, this infallible creature, but for some reason when it made them in its image, they turned out flawed. They were made in its perfect image, but they were made wrong. It doesn't even make sense. People are just stretching for a reason to believe that they're no good. Why doesn't anyone think that god made them flawless, fully complete, that they cannot be fundamentally improved, that their potential is limitless. That's the actual truth, so why make up all of this bullshit?"

"Assuming that they choose to believe in a god at all."

"Of course. If no one created god and god came from nowhere, then I don't see why I can't also come from nowhere." She looks up at him. "You can come from nowhere too, if you want," she says, and he grins. "But regardless of how we got here, what's important is just how different people really are from anything else on earth. You've got this planet full of animals who have awareness and a limited consciousness, but then you turn the key and give one group the ability to understand and to decide things for themselves and Bam! Every door can now be opened. I don't think most people realize the magnitude of the leap that was made in us. We can alter ourselves so much that our very instincts become wrong. That's crazy. But it's amazing."

"But don't you think people could go to a higher level than we are now?" he asks. "I'm sure we're gonna keep on evolving, or more likely scientifically engineer ourselves into something different."

"We'll keep changing, sure, but I don't think we can fundamentally add to the potential we already have. Even if we learned to read minds and move thing with our brains and remember huge strings of numbers, it might make things easier, but it wouldn't open any significant avenues we couldn't already have followed. We've got everything we need to turn reality inside out and back again. You can't have any more free will than we already have. We can do anything."

He smiles. "You know, when I talk to you long enough, I actually start expecting to see these perfect people walking around all over the place."

"It doesn't work like that; there aren't perfect people." She closes her eyes and rests her hands on her stomach. "The idea of a perfect human being is contradictory. Not making any mistakes would presuppose a single purpose to humankind, one that could be followed without fault. But we don't have one single goal – we grow in all directions. Some pursuits are more noble than others, but they're all open. The only place where I could see room for fundamental improvement is in our bodies." She takes one of his arms and holds it in her hands. "There are certain flaws to our bodies... fairly fragile, susceptible to disease, we get old, we die. But still, I like them." She looks up at him and runs her hand across his arm. "I like biology... next to other biology." He looks down, into her eyes, and she smiles.

"I've had these days of ridiculous happiness," she says a moment later, still keeping her eyes on him. "Or at least they seem ridiculous, put against the backdrop of this society. But they shouldn't. If people had even one day like that, it'd change the way they saw everything. But we're just not the same as them." She lifts her head and turns, sitting in front of him. "When I was a kid I'd repeat everything I'd say back to myself, in a whisper, just to make sure I'd said it right. To make sure that I wasn't misunderstood, that I hadn't miscommunicated. How many people would do that? They seem so far off the path that I don't even know what to do with them."

He laughs a little. "You make it sound like you lived during a war or something, and your every word was crucial."

She shrugs. "I'm just saying that I cared about what I was saying. I wouldn't say something if I didn't think it was important." She's silent for a moment, then says, "Hey, you remember that day you talked to me by the tree in the park, when you signed up for badminton?"

He nods.

"I talked to that teacher again the other day. I don't know why, it's like rolling around in a train wreck, but this time he accused me of being too simplistic. He said I wasn't looking at things in proper perspective, that there are variables I haven't considered, that my ideas aren't developed enough. But I think he was kinda right about the simplistic angle, because what I want out of life isn't complicated. I actually broke it down to three things." She raises an eyebrow questioningly. "You with me?"

Grinning, he says, "Yeah, lay it on me."

"Okay. The three things are pride, integrity and respect. To have pride in oneself, to live among people with strong senses of personal integrity, and then to earn the respect of those people. It really is a simple thing. I've got the pride in myself, when I meet people who have some sense of honor I always get along with them, but to live in a society of people I could respect and who I'd want to respect me back... I don't know if I'll ever get that one. In a weird way I feel like I'm going to live forever and eventually the world will just change naturally into whatever I want. But in the back of my mind I know that I'll die and that I'll probably never get to live on that planet."

"As long as it's just the two of us out here, that's close enough."

She smiles and looks up at the clouds. "And of course the fourth thing is somebody to listen to all my ideas. I really needed to say this stuff, just to hear it out loud and get it off my chest." She looks at him. "Thanks."

He looks a little embarrassed. "Hey, don't sweat it. Listening is easy. I'm just waiting for you to ask me to beat up some belligerent teachers or something. Hired goon style."

"Why would I need you for that? I'm stronger than you are."

His embarrassment dissolves instantly. "What?"

"Feel this." She gestures toward the calf of her right leg. He puts his hand around it. "Do you feel that?"

"What? The muscle?"

"Yeah!"

He shrugs. "Mine's bigger."

"Alright, c'mere." She stands up and starts making her way out of the grass. Once they're outside of it she says, "We're gonna have a race."

"Is that so?"

"Are you ready?

"Hold on," he says. "Where are we running to?"

"We're going to run until one of us can't run any more."

"What? Shouldn't we stretch a little first?"

"Are you in or not? One, two, three, go!"

She bolts and he follows a second later. He runs as fast as he can to catch up with her, confident that he'll win.