The first thing I saw when I pulled into the parking lot nearly made me puke up my entire breakfast. A car pulled in just a few down from mine, and two people climbed out. One of them was Avery, Cherri’s best friend, and she was wearing a pink, silk, spaghetti-strap pajama top and a matching pair of shorts with lace around the base, and her hair sat right on top of her head in a curly bun. On her feet, she was wearing a pair of cliche bunny slippers. For the fact that things were already getting pretty chilly, she’d definitely sacrificed comfort for the look.
And then there was Cherri.
Cherri climbed out of the driver’s seat of the car, wearing a pair of lavender satin shorts with little chameleons all over them, her favorite animal. On the shirt, which was a short-sleeved shirt, a single, larger version of the chameleon that was on the pants sat right on top of her bust. On her legs, she wore white thigh-high socks and finished the look off with a pair of slippers with another of the little cartoon chameleons on the top of each shoe. The entire ensemble clung to her body in all the right ways, and whereas I was going to hop right out of the car, I now needed to wait because my body was already coming to attention at the way her chest and ass pushed at the fabric.
It was unreasonable for one person to be so good-looking.
Apart from that first time we spoke, Cherri and I had only talked on two other occasions during the two homeroom classes we’d had at the beginnings of the weeks since. We’d have homeroom together again today, and I wanted to try to engage her a little more. If it weren’t for Nathan and learning the unfortunate news that she was dating him, I’d already have made more of a move, but I had to handle things with more finesse than I was hoping.
When I’d calmed down enough, I finally got out of my car and entered the school. I bypassed my assigned locker, not at all trusting leaving any of my things off my person at any given time, and started off toward my homeroom. It was at this point that I started to realize, everyone was staring at me again. It was back to how it was when I first showed up, ignoring the fact that I had been starting to shift toward not being the dead center of attention in the past few weeks. I didn’t know what was wrong at all until Sicily turned the corner up ahead of me and waved to catch my attention. He shuffled up to me in a t-shirt with Zs all over it, a matching pair of loose-fitting pants, with a pair of slippers.
“Hey,” he greeted, looking me up and down. “You must be uncomfortable when you sleep.”
I continued to scan all the students as they passed me and slowly came to the realization that every single student was wearing some form of pajamas. “What, does everyone participate?”
“Yeah, man, even the teachers.” He motioned off to where the principal of the school was standing and talking with a couple of teachers, and I saw they were all dressed in similarly comfortable clothing. “Are you just a sourpuss or what?”
“I’m not a very spirit-week kind of guy.” I groaned as another group of students passed me by, whispering. “Shit. I wanted to blend in. This isn’t blending in.”
“I got another pair of pants in my car at least. I mean, I don’t know a whole lot of people who wear leather jackets to bed, but maybe you could just say you run cold?”
“No offense,” I responded, “but I don’t think any pants you have are going to fit me. Besides, I…I don’t want to wear pajamas. It’s school. Pajamas are for home.” I sighed. “I’m clearly going to be forced to participate more this week, though.”
Sicily nudged me with his arm. “Does that mean we’re twinning on Thursday?”
We turned and started heading back toward the senior wing. We didn’t have the same homeroom, but the classes were in the same direction. “What?”
“Twinning. Twin winning.” He scoffed. “Geez, come into this century, grandpa.”
“I don’t want to mess you up if you’ve already made plans with someone else,” I replied.
“Yeah, uh…” He let out an awkward chuckle. “I don’t really have that many friends. I mean, don’t get me wrong, people like me, but they mostly just like that I can get stuff for ‘em. No, you know, real friends.”
It was an oddly vulnerable moment. “You consider us friends?”
He looked up at me, shocked. “You don’t?”
“I do,” I replied, and the happy look on his face instantly roped me in. “Yeah, let’s do that twin thing on Thursday, I guess.”
He clapped. “All right! I mean, obviously, we don’t look anything alike, but I think your style is pretty cool. You just come as you, and I’ll come as you too. Bada-bing, bada-boom.”
That was an awesome compromise. “Cool, but maybe I’ll get a hat like yours.”
He snickered, overjoyed. “Hell yeah. That’s amazing.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Behind bars, I didn’t really have what anyone would call a friend, but more I had guys who looked out for me because it benefited them to do that. Back before I was locked up, I had lots of friends, though most friendships at that age were vapid and fleeting, to begin with. The only person I felt truly connected to back then was…
“Hey.” Sicily and I reached my homeroom class just as Cherri and Avery did, and Cherri greeted me with a
