He’s late for class. He puts on his black jeans and a white t-shirt. Hates the cheap-waiter-trying-to-be-classy look he seems to have nailed. Trades the black for a blue one. He’s fine with the settled look he seems to be carrying off. Platform boots and a light grey hoodie in hand he runs out. He hears his half-sister’s stereo playing Justin Timberlake’s "Cry Me A River"on the other side of the door and heads out. He spills into Rachel’s car. She looks at him and smiles all too knowingly. She smiles back, hesitant but smiles as he puts on his shoes and his hoodie.

He adjusts the rear-view mirror to look at himself. He sees her again and hates the way her lips look. He borrows from Racheal her lipstick. She looks much better. He is happy!

He gets ready for gym. He grabs his bag, he almost forgets his coach’s warning, "you need to cut that thing, flouncing around in my gym, I won't have it!"He uses one of the black scrunchies Racheal had given him to tie his wavy black hair into a bun. He then puts on his cap to make sure it stays put. He walks to practice, strands of his thick black hair keep falling out. He doesn’t notice.

He likes his hair long and wavy, even using extra bounce, volume shampoo to ensure it feels right. He’s not too sure about whether it looks good on him. Racheal thinks it’s nice, so he does not know what to make of it and his mom and sister didn’t even notice. The only person it seems to have an impact is on her and he knows she’s happy. It keeps him close to her and he loves that.

Strawberry-very berry lip balm on his dresser. He’s lying on his bed doing homework playing Timberlake’s old hits thanks to his sister. He puts "What Goes Around" on repeat with a sudden urge to watch the video. JT looks fly with the mic in front of him and a girl behind him. He notices Scarlett Johansson. Her expressions, the way she moves.

She reminds him of someone. He runs to the mirror and tries to copy her facial expressions. There she is. He is ecstatic. He does it over and over again for the duration of the whole song. He sashes and swishes to the soulful croon of Timberlake. She’s there, he can’t contain his joy. A smear of the lip balm, she is swishing and swashing.

Racheal is honking her car loud. It’s the college "Jesus Christ Superstar" play rehearsals and she does not want to be late. He is frantically searching for his eye-liner he knows was on his dresser last night. He runs out annoyed, notices his half-sister’s door ajar. He knows better than to go to her room especially when she’s not there. He sees the eye-liner he knows all too well on her dresser. In a swift cat-like fluid motion he enters and leaves with it feeling guilty but less annoyed. He jumps into Racheal’s car who’s screaming along with the honking as they screech off to school.

He has somehow persuaded his gym teacher/director that his character of Judas needs to wear eye-liner so that when he sheds that tear towards the end, his emotion is raw and visible. The gym teacher is too disinterested to care. He’s let all the other characters chose and bring their own wardrobe. He could do the same for Judas.

As he applies the eyeliner for the dress rehearsal, he does not see her. He consoles himself that maybe it’s because he’s playing Judas and not Mary Magdalene like Racheal. As he applies it carefully, Jesus appears from behind: too tall, too handsome, too high to notice the careful application of the eye-liner.

Fourth years should not be allowed in third years’ play, even if it is for the exception of Jesus, he thinks to himself, relieved that Todd was too high to notice the careful application of eye-liner.

He steps on stage. He doesn’t feel like himself. He doesn’t feel like her. He performs in wonder.

He sees Racheal in the hallway. She catches his eye, she makes a funny face of disgust as she goes to her Bio class. She makes him laugh. I have to become a doctor. I don’t have to like it, but I have to. I made a promise to dad and I’m going to keep it. I go to Bio only to make him smile down on me. I can’t go back on that promise. He shrugs and smiles to himself as he goes to Basketball practice.

He and Racheal had become close over the last two years. The death of her father, the disappearance of his, they had common ground. He was just glad that he hadn’t promised his dad anything at this point.