Lost and Found (ONC2024)✅

Chapter 3

Percy

2006

In the empty hallway, a faint smell of cleaning supplies lingered in the air as I stared at the clock above the lockers, dreading my next and final class of the day. My day always ended with physical education or wellness, which I absolutely hated. The class was a convenient excuse for kids to torture me worse than they already did any other time of day.

My dad insisted on sending me to this all-boys Catholic school because he went here. This school sucked. I had no friends and kids were mean. They measured their self-worth with money and quantity of friends and girlfriends.

With my short and scrawny frame, people often assumed I was younger than my actual age. I wasn't an athlete and hated sports. I was a nerd and played the trumpet in the school's jazz band. Because I was so short, I had to stand on a step stool in the back row. My size and introverted personality made me an easy target, and I didn't do much to defend myself. Overall, I was different from most kids in the school.

Just when I thought the hallway was empty, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed and an older boy, likely a senior, sprinted towards me. I thought I was hallucinating. The boy was completely naked! He'd get expelled if Principal Deppe caught him. He stopped in front of me, out of breath. "Help me." His whisper echoed in the hall.

As I looked at him, a sense of déjà vu washed over me, as if I'd seen him somewhere in the past. What kind of help did he need, anyway? Stunned, I found myself speechless. The boy gave up on me and resumed running. If anyone saw him, he was in deep trouble so I ran after him, shoving him into the nearby janitor's closet. I felt a need to protect him.

He panted, smiling. "I know you," he said.

"From where?"

"It's a weird story. Am I in a high school?"

"Yes."

"What year is it?"

"Have you escaped from a mental hospital?"

"Not lately," he said. "What's the date?"

"May 12, 2006."

The older boy folded his arms across his bare chest. I started to think he wasn't a senior, but a young man in his early twenties or older. His nudity didn't bother him. If that was me, I'd be hiding before the mop and bucket. "2006...so... I'd say you're fourteen or fifteen?"

I was turning fifteen on June 16th.

"Fourteen. Why are you naked?"

I was at the age when I was discovering myself, with no support from my family, torn between liking girls and boys. I blamed my dad for me having crushes on boys. He shouldn't have sent me to an all-boys school. I liked the young man standing in front of me and quickly developed a crush on him.

"I need clothes," he said. "Do you have some I could borrow?"

"Yeah, but I doubt they'll fit." The young man wasn't very big, approximately five foot seven and a hundred and fifty pounds, medium frame. I was barely five three, but I often wore baggy clothes. From my backpack, I dug out my gym clothes—a t-shirt and basketball shorts, even though I didn't play basketball. They were more comfortable.

"Thanks, Percy," he said, slipping on the shorts. Besides my body, I'd never seen a naked boy. He was more like a man. I hoped to have a body like his some day.

"How do you know my name?" I asked.

"Listen, Percy. It sounds crazy, but we've met before... years ago. You were riding your bike with some friends. You fell off your bike and landed on your face. Your friends were a bunch of scaredy cats and ran off. You were crying and your mouth was bleeding like crazy because you knocked your two front teeth out. I helped you up and walked you home. It's a good thing they were baby teeth, huh? You got a nice smile now."