Free Daniel's Dream by Andi Anderson

Chapter One

    Daniel watched the black second hand of the clock slowly move up another minute until three o'clock. Ever since spring break, the days at school seemed to be longer and longer. He decided he would rather eat yucky brussel sprouts than sit in a classroom when it was sunny outside.
    Fifteen more minutes.
    He grabbed his pencil and started doodling on his sheet of notebook paper. Even though he knew he should be doing math right now, he couldn't force himself to concentrate. He issued a small 'thank you' to God that there was only one more week of school left this year. He couldn't wait to be off for summer vacation. He was excited to go swimming this summer. Uncle Josh and Nick had promised him that they were going to buy him one of those fancy blow-up pools from Wal-Mart so they could swim all they wanted this summer. It was going to be awesome!
    "Daniel?"
    Daniel looked up and into Mr Thompson's kind eyes and his face flushed guiltily. Gosh, he hated it when he caught doing something he wasn't supposed to do.
    "Yes, sir?"
    "Will you and Andrew take the erasers outside and dust them off for me?" Mr Thompson asked as he glanced at the page that Daniel had been doodling on.
    His face burned with embarrassment, and his tongue itched to tell Mr Thompson that he didn't want to go anywhere with Andrew, but he found himself nodding reluctantly instead. He didn't like being around Andrew. He was mean.
    Daniel stood up and started gathering the erasers from the bottom of the chalkboard. He glanced over and noticed Andrew doing the same. He groaned inwardly as he walked to the door and waited for the other boy to join him.
    Everything about Andrew made him nervous. From his spiky black hair to his stocky build, Andrew was the strongest boy Daniel had ever seen. Plus, Andrew excelled in sports and by far was the smartest kid in class. He wanted to be Andrew's friend, but the popular boy hated him for some reason and when he wasn't making fun of Daniel, he ignored him.
    Andrew really was a butthead.
    He pushed past Daniel as he walked through the door. Of course, Andrew had to be first out the door. Andrew had to be first at everything.
    Daniel's heart beat faster as he followed Andrew out of the classroom and down the hall until they reached the front of the school. Once they were outside, Andrew stopped and turned around, and Daniel tripped over his feet to avoid running into him.
    A lump formed in Daniel's throat as the boy's icy blue eyes glared back at him. He had hoped that Andrew wouldn't say anything mean to him, but it looked like that hope was going to be in vain.
    "Hey Dan-yell… Mr Thompson caught you spacing out again, didn't he? You know the only reason he's lettin' you do this is because he feels sorry for you because you're such a freak. What were you thinking about anyway… your fag uncle and his boyfriend?" The boy sneered as he started banging two of the erasers together. Chalk dust rose from them making Daniel cough.
    Daniel's heart lodged in his throat as he looked down at his scuffed up white tennis shoes. He shrugged, wishing he had the nerve to tell Andrew to shut up and then bang one of the erasers over the top of his black spiky hair.
    The thought of Andrew covered with chalk brought a small smile to his face.
    "What are you laughin' at, fag? Thinking of having a boyfriend for yourself? I oughta slap those freckles off of your ugly face, you freak." Andrew threw the erasers down and took a threatening step toward him.
    Daniel hated being the shortest boy in his class and to make matters worse, Andrew was not only bigger, he stood a couple of inches taller than him. He heard himself whimper as he took a quick step back and away from Andrew's angry presence.
    "I'm n-not l-l-laughing at y-you," Daniel managed to stutter out as he reluctantly dragged his eyes up to meet Andrew's angry blue ones.
    Andrew's eyes widened and he bent over at the waist and started laughing cruelly. After a few moments of