Brick-City
Steve lay in bed, staring up at the dark ceiling of his bedroom. It was so dark in his house, quiet too. Steve had been sweating when Officer Powell drove him home so he turned the heater off and it cast the house in absolute silence in the day since.
There had been a few calls; Harry called him that morning, a kind of weird conversation that oddly made Steve feel a little better for a short time. Tommy had called after school, asking where Steve was and if he still wanted to have him and Carol come over. That was it though, after Steve hung up with Tommy - claiming he was sick and didn’t feel up to hanging out - he went back to bed to stare at the ceiling.
It was sick - Benny Hammond’s body. Steve could still see his eyes and the way they were hazy, lifeless… the blood that had poured from his forehead and dried a dark red on his face…
The worst part had been Sirianna, her screaming and crying. It made Steve choke up, made him want to cry too because she was so freaking sad.
Steve wasn’t a wuss, but he really didn’t expect to see a body stiff and dead when he offered to drive the twins home from school. Steve had been planning to flirt with Sirianna some, invite her to the party he was supposed to be having.
How long did it take Benny Hammond to die? Was it quick? As quick as a bullet in his brain? Why did he do it? Why would he sit in the middle of his diner and just blow his brains out?
That seemed pretty jacked up to Steve. Benny would have known that the twins were going to have to walk in, did he want them to see him?
God.
Steve rolled over in his bed and pulled his blanket around himself more securely.
Benny had been an alright guy, Steve met him a few times. Sure, the twins were kind of weird, but for Benny to do that to them? To kill himself right in the middle of the diner where they were sure to see him? It was messed up and sad and it made Steve feel cold on the inside when he closed his eyes and all he could hear were Sirianna’s screams.
Maybe he should have had that party, it might have been better if there were people around to make noise and laugh. Steve could have gotten drunk too, that definitely would have been better.
When Steve’s bladder couldn’t be ignored any longer, he made himself get out of his bed to move downstairs. He debated on skipping one more day of school, it was Friday anyway, then decided against it. If he missed two days then the school would call his parents and they would call Steve.
And Steve already called them, tried to tell them about what happened the day before. His mom had been busy and his dad didn’t answer. They would answer for the school, then call Steve and tell him he either had to call the family doctor or drive himself to school.
It would just be easier to show up, Steve was sure.
Steve walked around downstairs and started turning on every light, turning the heater up. He even turned the TV on, just for some noise. It was pretty pathetic, Steve could be having a party with his friends and instead he was watching a party on the TV to pretend like he wasn’t alone in a big house at night.
God. He was such a loser. It wasn’t even his uncle that died, it was the twins’s. They were the ones who should feel all weird inside from seeing his body.
Sirianna had definitely been totally devastated, Harry had been… off? He was off, like literally turned off. Steve thought maybe he would get even quieter, but then he called him.
Which had been weird and kind of nice. Steve didn’t tell Tommy about seeing Benny’s body, but he doubted it Tommy would have called to check on him either way. Tommy would have asked for details and Steve’s stomach felt sick when he imagined everyone at school gossiping about something so sad.
Harry called though and Steve sat on his couch in a bright house with fake noise filling it and thought about calling Harry back. Maybe the twins would want to hang out, do something to get their minds off their uncle’s dead body.
Steve could give them a ride to school in the morning, tell everyone else to lay off them. Really, they weren’t bad. Sirianna didn’t seem to like Steve much, she even called him a shit hole, but Harry was cool. He had Steve kind of cracking up during gym when he tried to dribble the basketball.
Basketball probably just wasn’t his thing. Steve thought maybe he could mention it if he called him? Offer to help him practice? It wasn’t like Harry was going to try out for the team, but it might help the guys lay off him if he didn’t look so awkward in gym.
Nobody ever bothered Byers for sucking at sports, but Harry sort of looked like an awkward baby deer with his skinny arms and legs, round eyes, and the sense that he wasn’t listening when most people were talking.
It could be worse, Harry could be a complete dick like Hargrove and he wasn’t, he called to check on Steve.
Steve made up his mind and muted the TV so he could push himself off the couch to go call the twins. They were staying with Chief Hopper, which was weird. Steve wasn’t sure where he’d be sent to live if his parents died, but he doubted it would be with the Chief of Police. It would probably be to his aunt? The one who lived in Nashville?
Or maybe Steve would be considered old enough to stay in Hawkins by himself. He practically lived alone anyway with his parents both working out of Chicago. They used to talk about buying a house and moving Steve out in Chicago with them. Steve had thrown a fit, said he didn’t want to move schools.
It had been at least a year since they mentioned anything about moving, so Steve assumed they were just waiting for him to graduate and go to college. Until then, Steve had a car, access to money, a lady showed up once a week with groceries and to clean.
It was fine, Steve liked having a nice place where he could have people over and never worried about his parents finding out. Yeah, it was kind of lonely sometimes, but there wasn’t usually a lack of people Steve could call to hang out if he wanted to.
Harry might want to, he was the one who agreed to let Steve give them a ride home.
Steve looked up Chief Hopper’s number in the phone book, only one Hopper in Hawkins, and carefully dialed it while he told himself it wasn’t stupid to call. Tommy would probably laugh his ass off about it, but even he admitted that Sirianna was pretty.
Steve would call, see if Harry wanted to come over and bring his sister, Steve would brush it off when Tommy found out. It wasn’t a big deal, it was just Steve being a nice guy.
The phone rang four times before the very irritated and unhappy voice of Chief Hopper answered.
“What?”
Steve blinked, kind of knocked off guard by that.
“Uh… hello, is Harry home?” Steve asked politely.
“No.”
Okay…
“Do you know when he’ll be home?”
“When he gets hungry I expect.”
Right… so the conversation wasn’t exactly going the way Steve imagined.
“Is Sirianna there?” he asked hopefully, assuming it would be a —
Chief Hopper snorted through the phone line.
“Wherever he’s at, she’s at,” Chief Hopper said. “If that’s all then.”
Steve was sure he looked like an idiot when Chief Hopper hung up on him. For one, rude. For two, where would the twins be? Tommy mentioned that Byers’s brother had ran away (or been murdered by Byers, Steve wasn’t sure what Tommy’s version of events had been exactly) so Steve doubted if they were hanging out with him.
Chrissy seemed to like Sirianna, maybe they were with her? Or maybe they were packing their stuff from Benny’s house and planning to move to their next relative’s house.
That thought made Steve feel kind of shitty. Like they just arrived in Hawkins and everyone had been crappy toward them and they might be leaving before they could see anything good about Hawkins.
It was quiet again, after Steve hung the phone on the receiver.
Steve decided against turning the TV back on and instead wandered in the kitchen to grab a beer. Steve pretty boldly kept them in the fridge, he was sure the cleaning lady would have told his parents, but they never mentioned it. As long as Steve moved them to the trunk of his car when they returned for a few days then it never came up.
Whatever. It didn’t matter, everyone thought it was cool how much freedom Steve had. It would probably suck if Steve’s parents were home all the time and got worked up over every little thing he did.
Or maybe the house wouldn’t be so cold, so quiet.
Steve walked around for a few minutes before he went out the back door. The swimming pool his parents had installed when Steve made the swim team was lit up and looked inviting. The water wouldn’t be bad, it was all heated.
It could be a decent stress reliever, Steve could just swim until his muscles were sore and his brain was too tired to think about dead guys and the twins.
Steve drank down about half of his beer before he put it on the ledge by the pool so he could strip. There was nothing but woods that surrounded his house, Steve swam in his briefs all the time.
He swam naked too, but there was something creepy about the woods that night that made him want to stay at least partially dressed.
Steve dove in the water and with the rush of it he could already feel himself relaxing in the familiar rhythm.
Stroke, kick, push.
Stroke, kick, push.
The water muffled the rest of the world and Steve wished he had thought to swim sooner. In the water there was only Steve and his breathing, his heartbeat. There wasn’t room for pictures of dead bodies or the screams of heartbroken girls.
Stroke, kick, push.
Stroke, kick, push.
Lap after lap, Steve swam. Every lap made his body ache a little more, his mind slow some. He had been stupid, it wasn’t as big of a deal as he had acted like it was. People died, they got depressed and they killed themselves and they died. Someone had to see the body, it didn’t matter that it was Steve.
After Steve swam himself to a nice state of bliss, he flipped over on his back and let himself float, taking in the peacefulness of the night. The wind rustled the trees, the moon shined, Steve finally felt —
Snap.
Steve jerked upright and fell over on his side, splashing and sputtering at the sound of something behind the garage. Everything went silent and Steve could feel literal goosebumps on his arms.
“Hello?” he called out. He squinted through the darkness and swam to the edge closest to where the sound had come from. “Someone there? Tommy? It’s not funny, man.”
Steve practically held his breath while he waited for another sound. It felt like he wasn’t alone outside anymore, like there was someone - or something - outside with him.
It could be a ghost, maybe the ghost of Benny haunting Steve for a few crummy jokes made about the twins. Or - or —
“Hello.”
Steve spun around with his heart racing so fast he felt like he’d ran ten miles. Walking out of the woods on the far side of Steve’s yard was freaking Harry.
Steve whipped his head back and forth, sure he had heard the noise from behind the garage. There wasn’t anyone creeping out over there though so Steve splashed as much water as far toward Harry as he could manage.
“Why would you do that?” Steve cried, trying too late to pretend like he hadn’t been scared shitless. “Jesus, man. You can’t just sneak up on people.”
“I…” Harry stopped about ten feet from the pool and let his eyes wander around the yard while Steve quickly snatched his shirt by the pool and pulled it over his head. It was cold, Steve didn’t want to look like a loser in a pool with goosebumps.
“I thought I heard something,” Harry said, squinting at the garage then. “Then I saw you.”
Yeah, in his freaking underwear. Steve had seen plenty of the guys from school undressed and they had seen him, but that was for locker rooms or whatever, not when he was in a pair of plain gray briefs that he probably should have thrown away by then.
“Why are you even out here?” Steve asked, refusing to climb out of the pool until Harry was gone.
Harry shrugged and blinked at Steve, looking from him to his clothes and his half-empty beer.
“We’re looking for Will,” Harry said. “Have you seen him?”
Had Steve seen a missing kid and not bothered to report it? No, he wasn’t actually a shit hole like Sirianna had called him. It kind of sucked that Harry asked him that.
“No,” Steve said, annoyed that Harry would think he would ignore a missing kid. “Turn around, let me get my freaking pants on.”
Harry did it and Steve no sooner rolled out of the pool and started pulling up his sweats when two more people walked out of the woods to join the party. Steve should have expected to see Sirianna and Jonathan Byers, Harry did say ‘we’, but they acted like they didn’t expect to see Steve.
In his own yard.
“Steve? Harry?” Sirianna frowned at her brother and waved toward Steve. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
A really good question.
“I thought I heard something,” Harry repeated. He said it slower to Sirianna, stressing something Steve didn’t understand. “I was wrong.”
“You can’t just take off,” Sirianna lectured Harry while Steve finished dressing and Byers looked around the yard with his camera hanging from his neck. “You’ve got to wait for me, Har. Okay?”
Steve grinned a little, already over the initial jump scare. Sirianna was bossy, probably the older twin if he had to guess.
“Okay,” Harry said. “He doesn’t have Will.”
No shit? What would Steve want with some kid?
“Are you guys asking like everyone in town?” Steve asked. He grinned again when Harry still had his back to him. “You can turn around.”
Harry did and Steve thought he was purposefully not looking at him until his eyes flickered to him once and then relaxed. It was kind of funny, Harry acting shy about Steve in his briefs.
“Will plays in the woods sometimes,” Byers answered Steve. He held up his camera in a helpless move. “I thought - maybe if we found something…”
Like blood or clothes or some evidence for a missing kid… God, Hawkins was messed up lately.
“Yeah, yeah that makes sense,” Steve said. “You guys - uh… want a drink or something? It’s probably easier to look in the daylight?”
Just like at school, Harry said yes at the exact second that Sirianna said no.
“Harry… no,” Sirianna repeated tightly. “We’re looking for Will.”
“Steve’s right, it’s too dark. Even if we found something of his, we’d probably walk right past it,” Byers said. He glanced at Steve’s house then Steve himself. “Mind if I use your bathroom?”
“Yeah, sure.” Steve snatched his drink up and waved it toward the back door. “My casa is your casa.”
Steve swore that Sirianna rolled her eyes at Harry as he followed Byers toward the house. She followed Harry, which was good enough. It wasn’t like Steve was dangerous or whatever, he was just a guy with a quiet house.
“It’s really nice of you to help Byers,” Steve told Sirianna on their way inside. “I’m sure you probably have a lot going on.”
“His brother is missing, why wouldn’t I help him?” Sirianna asked. She probably didn’t want an answer, since Steve wasn’t sure how to say anything without sounding like a dick.
Instead, Steve pointed out where the bathroom was for Byers and took the twins to the kitchen. They were both looking around the house curiously and Steve wondered if they thought it was all too clean, too untouched. There weren’t any family photos displayed anywhere, no embarrassing photos of Steve that his friends would laugh at when they visited.
“Your house is lovely,” Sirianna said. She shook her head when Steve offered a beer. “It’s pretty.”
“It’s cold,” Harry said, also shaking his head at the offer of a drink.
“Cold? It’s like eighty in here,” Steve said. He checked the thermostat and was right, seventy-eight, probably too hot really.
Harry only shrugged and Steve felt kinda self-conscious to have both of the twins standing in his kitchen all quiet and judgy. Maybe not judgy, but they were definitely looking around and standing kind of awkwardly.
“So… are you guys going to school tomorrow?” Steve asked. “It’s Friday, so there’s usually a pep rally for the football team. They - uh… they might cancel it, actually… I don’t know. Ignore me.”
The school did cancel it once, when Brooke Hartley’s dad died. With Benny’s death and Will Byers missing, they would probably cancel it again. So Steve was just rambling about a pep rally while two sets of nearly identical eyes stared at him.
“I don’t know what a pep rally is,” Harry said, heroically saving Steve from drowning in inner embarrassment. “Is it fun?”
“Fun? Yeah, sometimes.” Steve brightened at the chance to explain it. “Basically everyone gets out of class early, we’d get to skip gym, and the cheer team gets everyone hyped up in the stands and then they talk about the football game and how we’re going to crush the other school. It’s like a whole school-wide bonding thing.”
“So everyone just screams?” Sirianna asked. “And they do it every Friday?”
“I… I mean it sounds lame when you say it like that,” Steve said. Harry was staring at him and Steve ran a hand through his hair, hating how it fell when it was wet. “Some of us go out together afterwards. Oh! You guys could come! And By - uh, Jonathan,” he added when Byers walked in the kitchen.
“I think we’ll be busy, looking for Will,” Sirianna said - the most unimpressed a girl had ever been with Steve before. Which, fair. It wasn’t exactly a thoughtful offer.
“You could help,” Harry said, shocking his sister by the look of it. “Unless you don’t want to.”
“What? No, I will,” Steve agreed quickly, hardly needing to think about it. Obviously he should help find Will Byers, it was way more important than hanging out with Tommy, Carol, and the others and hearing the same dumb jokes and stupid stories.
“Are you guys meeting up after school?” Steve asked, looking to Byers. They’d never been friends, but his brother was missing and Steve should help. It was the right thing to do probably.
Steve wasn’t exactly sure how he’d help find the kid, but Harry nearly smiled when Steve said he’d meet up with them all after school to join the search party.
Byers had to leave after that, said he needed to check in with his mom. Steve tried to play it cool, see if the twins wanted to stay, but Sirianna refused and Harry probably would never stay without her.
They were kind of like a package deal, like if one of them decided they really hated Steve then the other one would too.
“Hey.” Steve stopped Sirianna for a second before she left. “I - I’m sorry, about Benny,” he said quietly. “That really sucks.”
“Oh. It - thank you,” she said slowly, kind of unfairly seeming surprised that Steve was a human-being. “It does suck, quite a bit.”
“If you guys need anything…” Steve trailed off as he looked past Sirianna to where Harry had paused just beyond the front steps with his head tilted, obviously waiting for his sister.
It was something about the lamp or something that hung above him, it made Harry look softer, more relaxed. Kind of… like in the light he was kind of….
Pretty or something.
That was a weird thing to think and Steve quickly moved his own thoughts past that, wishing that he hadn’t ever thought it. It was the twin thing, Steve didn’t really know any twins. And Harry looked like Sirianna and she was pretty; all big eyes and long dark lashes…
Twins were weird, that was all.
“Thank you,” Sirianna said. She didn’t sound irritated like usual on the few occasions she had talked to Steve so he considered it a win. “I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Steve raised a hand toward Harry and nodded absently at Sirianna. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”
It was quiet again, when the twins and Byers left and Steve was home alone. It wasn’t as bad though - the whole thing had been weird and Steve probably wouldn’t go swimming in his briefs again anytime soon - but it was alright.
Even Byers seemed decent, it sucked his brother was missing.
Steve slept better that night, any sleep was better than the nothing he had on Wednesday night. He got up a little earlier than usual, spend some time with his hair in the mirror.
Carol gave him shit one time, said Steve fussed over his hair more than she did hers. But Steve liked his hair. It didn’t make him a loser because he took care of his hair and didn’t go to school with it laying all limp like he had never even heard of Aquanet.
And Steve had plans for after school, he didn’t want to be driving - or walking? Steve wasn’t sure which - around town looking like a - a wet dog.
Steve was still on time to school, pulling up just after Hargrove did in his flashy Camaro.
Tommy was distracted with a wrestling match he had going on with Jason, so Steve wandered over by the lamppost in the middle of the lot and frowned at the missing poster that had been nailed to it. Steve couldn’t remember so many weird things happening in Hawkins before in his entire life.
Three new students in a year, one suicide, and a missing kid? Those were the kind of things that happened in big cities, not small towns like Hawkins.
“Don’t worry, Stevie Wonder, nobody would hang up posters if you decide to run away.”
Steve’s spine stiffened and he turned, already knowing who the mocking drawl came from. It was Hargrove, standing a few steps behind Steve with a cigarette dangling from his lips.
Why did the guy have such a boner for making Steve miserable? Like what exactly did Steve do to him?
“Nice eye,” Steve commented, wondering who had the balls to black Hargrove’s eye. “Who did it? I might ask ‘em to prom.”
It was the wrong thing to say, or the right thing, it was hard telling with Hargrove. The guy was a loose cannon, he always looked ready to blow up over the littlest things.
“Yeah?” Hargrove took a step closer to Steve and he had been calm, but clearly Steve pissed him off. “You probably would, faggot.”
“What is your problem?” Steve wasn’t afraid of Hargrove so when he stepped closer, Steve didn’t care to step right up to him. “I never did shit to you.”
“Maybe…” Hargrove pushed Steve in the chest, knocking him back half a step. “I just don’t like you.”
Yeah, maybe. Some people probably didn't like Steve. Except Hargrove showed up on the first day of junior year acting like they were freaking lifelong enemies.
“Yeah? Maybe you should get over it,” Steve snapped. He didn’t want to fight with him, it wasn’t like it would stop him from being a prick. It would probably just make it worse, since Hargrove seemed to always want a fight.
“Maybe someone should knock you down a peg,” Hargrove said. He reached out quick and had Steve by the shirt collar. Steve was pretty sure he was about to get his clock cleaned and he wasn’t going to be a pussy about it.
“Billy? Steve?”
Steve didn’t look away from Hargrove’s fist, he kept a close eye on the slowly lowering fist while a familiar pair broke through the crowd that had gathered around Steve and Hargrove.
“Hey, kitten.” Hargrove suddenly shoved Steve away, letting go of his shirt collar as he did and sending Steve to land on his ass in front of what seemed like half the school.
Steve huffed and started to push himself up, his ego more bruised than anything. Sirianna had walked right up to Hargrove like they were old friends while Harry went to Steve and offered him a hand up.
Steve should have turned it down, not made himself look any more pathetic than he did. But… Harry was being nice and Steve wasn’t actually a giant prick.
“Thanks,” Steve muttered, freaking humiliated. He should just hit Hargrove, save his pride.
Harry pulled him up with a little more strength that Steve expected and didn’t make a deal about it, only nodded distractedly while he glared daggers at Hargrove.
“Why were you fighting with Steve?” Sirianna asked Hargrove, demanding it really. Steve sort of expected Hargrove to go off on her, call her a meddling bitch or something, but Hargrove leaned back so he could look down at Sirianna and smirk.
“Can’t stand his face,” Hargrove said casually. “Yours looks good though.”
Was he - was… was Billy Hargrove seriously flirting with Sirianna? And was Sirianna freaking blushing when she had called Steve a shit hole when he tried to flirt with her??
If anyone at Hawkins was a ‘shit hole’ it was Hargrove!
“And yours looks bruised,” Sirianna pointed out, sooo soft and caring as if Hargrove didn’t deserve fifty black eyes. “Are you alright?”
“It hurts like hell actually,” Hargrove said.
Hell must have frozen over, actually frozen over, because Hargrove just admitted to pain? He was human beneath the dick bag exterior? Someone needed to call the paper, the news channel, report —
“Might feel better if you kissed it.”
Oh, God. That was so cheesy that Steve wanted to cringe in embarrassment. Only Hargrove with his leather jacket, mullet, and general ‘don’t care’ attitude could say something so stupid and make a girl blush over it.
“Oi!” Harry spoke up suddenly and it wasn’t his soft voice, the nervous one he had sometimes. It was sharp, unhappy. His glare had deepened too and Steve was happy to see that they would definitely have a common enemy in Hargrove.
“Don’t talk to my sister like that,” Harry said.
Steve kind of stepped forward some, expecting Hargrove to have a go at Harry. Sirianna might get chick-privilege, but there wasn’t anything except Steve stopping Hargrove from grabbing Harry and trying to fight him.
Steve really didn’t want to get in trouble for fighting, his parents would definitely have something to say then. It wasn’t like he was going to stand by and let Hargrove wail on Harry either though, even if there were a bunch of stupid and excited whispers like that’s what everyone else was hoping for.
Jesus. Even Tommy was laughing and watching with bright eyes, like it was a crazy movie he couldn’t look away from.
Hargrove’s eyes narrowed at Harry while Steve tensed, ready to step in if Hargrove so much as breathed wrong. A quick flick of Hargrove’s eyes took in Steve’s position and Steve swore that his eyes lit up with some sort of delight that Steve was sure only a psycho like Hargrove would find thrilling.
“Down boy,” Hargrove said to Harry. He raised his hands mockingly. “I wasn’t damaging her delicate ears.”
“He’s not a dog,” Steve snapped, getting actually pissed off.
“You’d know, huh?”
What… what the fuck did that mean? Obviously Harry wasn’t a dog, Steve wasn’t sure why Hargrove’s snide comment made him burn inside with something close to embarrassment.
“Mind your own business,” Steve said, feeling like he was somehow coming off wrong in the argument. The bell rang for the start of school and nobody so much as moved an inch yet.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Harrington, just making conversation here.” Hargrove was the one who looked away from Steve then, taking his chance to wink at Sirianna. “You want a ride later, you know where to find me.”
The students parted like magic when Hargrove sauntered away, acting like the whole confrontation had been something he staged and planned every part of. It was infuriating, he was infuriating.
“I’ll catch up with you,” Sirianna told Harry quickly, her eyes trailing after Hargrove and - and his denim clad ass. The guy was just one big denim clad ass, Steve couldn’t imagine what had made Sirianna blush when Steve had been like ten times more polite when he had tried to ask her out.
“What was that?” Steve asked when Sirianna actually chased after Hargrove, who paused to let her catch up to him on his way inside the school. The other students must have decided that there wasn’t going to be some big fight and they scattered for first period, most of them throwing Steve looks that he didn’t want to think about just then.
“No idea.” Harry’s shoulders curled up, kind of shrinking him back down when he’d been ready to fight Hargrove over his sister. “He seems like a bit of a wanker.”
“A…?” Steve snorted and it helped ease the uncomfortable tightness in his chest and the burning feeling in his stomach. Steve’s snort turned into a chuckle and Harry ducked his head, so Steve was quick to explain.
“He’s a dick,” Steve said, grinning broadly. “Albany must be like another world, Harry. You know your sister called me a shit hole?”
“Were you being a shit hole?” Harry asked, peering at Steve like it was a real question.
Steve didn’t think so, definitely not as much of one as Hargrove had been.
“Maybe,” Steve shrugged, mostly unbothered by it. Sure, it was unfair that Sirianna never seemed to like Steve but she had no issue with Hargrove. But Harry didn’t have a problem with Steve, so who cared? He could win Sirianna over, when she got past whatever attraction to danger thing she had going for Hargrove.
“Come on, I’ll walk you to class,” Steve offered Harry.
They had to speed-walk or risk being late to first period, but that was fine by Steve. It felt like people were throwing him a lot of weird looks and he found that he wasn’t actually looking forward to a day of classes as much as he had been craving the distraction the day before.