In truth, about 90% of the female student body in his class had some sort of infatuation with him.
And who could blame them?
He was handsomeness if handsomeness was handsomeness.
And of his responsibilities...
Luke was fully of the responsibility to respond to every single one of these texts...
Starting with the cheerleaders...
One after the other.
It wasn't as though he did not know that there were girls that liked him.
That would be beyond dumb.
However, he was never really sure which was which.
Some had straight up told him.
Some he was told of.
In fact, even Tiffany Chang at one point warned him...
Stating that since so many girls were infatuated with him, he should be a bit careful about what he says and does.
Yep.
That's how crazy it gets with him.
But...
Of who and how and what...
He had absolutely no idea?
Or rather, he was never truly sure.
Not that he was too dumb to notice things...
But rather...
... that he just never really was certain.
Luke Parks is something of a high school enigma.
Something some would fail to properly process...
8:19 am.
He was halfway done with the burrito.
Ah, the look on a good meal and the knowledge that its end is still far from sight.
Truly, one of the most dopamine rich experiences in society and in life.
Kenneth Stone himself had also chimed in...
At times making a joke about how many girls would do things for him...
To say nothing of the many, many, many times the other jocks had told him about girls that liked him.
That was a handful...
Now Luke had something of an understanding of where he stood in some girls' eyes...
But still...
8:20 am.
And so he answered.
His answers were simple...
Nothing too loud and nothing too soft.
Simply...
"Don't worry, I will."
"Sure."
"I won't be."
That was simply him.
It wasn't a big bother, really...
And of it, the cheerleaders were just the first part of the equation...
After all, he then had what was a litany of texts...
So many that answering them would take till the end of his own breakfast.
Some asking...
"Hey, bro, how about we hang after school."
Not a big deal, to be honest, no lessons and no missions meant...
Well, it was a thought until he suddenly remembered that he had yet to go for detention.
Yep.
Principal Richard.
There was no way he'd forgotten.
Even a life-threatening disaster...
What a man!
That text was from a jock, and that following, he would then look up all the texts from jocks.
It wasn't that big of a deal, really...
After all, ...
"Check out this new music video."
Or...
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"Hey bro, don't forget about today."
That was common place.
Surely and surely...
Nothing too special was there.
8:22 am.
He was now almost done with the first burrito.
And then it sunk in...
That horrid feeling of helplessness...
Just as you have officially reached the halfway point of a scrumptious meal.
Oh, the horror!
The eater shall now fail to feel that very exquisite pleasure of satisfaction...
Because now he can only enjoy it for less time or at most just as much time as all of the duration before.
Simply put, the moment he took that bite, it would be over...
Now the satisfaction from the meal left would have a shorter duration than the satisfaction he'd felt before.
Oh, what fleeting pleasure.
Oh!
Ooooooohhhh!
Luke Parks is something of a high school enigma.
8:23 am.
He was now officially done with the first burrito, and would now have to eat the second, all the while harboring the pain and terror of loss.
The terror!
Just the knowledge that what is before a man is less than what was...
Truly...
As a wise man once said...
'Tis enough to paralyse a man...
Anyway...
Luke Parks then had what was left.
The jocks had been sorted, and so had the cheerleaders...
And now, the rest of the student body.
It was a lot of texts...
Mostly from girls...
Some flirts, some gentle nods, some even asking him questions...
Others would even tell him to get ready for the day before him.
He knew that much.
But that was no big deal.
After all, nothing urgent...
And as he knew, trying to answer everyone, would probably leave him stumped...
And even more, late for school.
It was a long list of texts...
Luke Parks had learned from experience that it was often better to answer the texts bit by bit over the day and night...
Rather than to focus on all of them in one fell swoop.
And therein lay the enigma.
Well, that and everything else.
Luke Parks.
Handsome.
Attractive to most of his classmates.
A footballer...
Oft ranked as second-best...
And of all that, he could easily be the most popular kid in school.
Quite easily.
Luke Parks is...
By and by, an enigma.
8:24 am.
As the descent into horror continued, Luke thought about his way to school.
Getting to school would take a variable amount of time.
Hypercity was just like most cities...
The mornings were chock-full of cars driving left and right.
That was obvious.
And because of that, well...
Hypercity just so happened to have the kind of special environment that guaranteed that a morning drive was not always so certain.
For example, there were still repairs going on to the buildings destroyed by the spider bots...
Yeah, that was an issue...
Because of that, he could be absolutely certain... that any paths leading there would be pretty crowded.
So, he would take a different paths.
8:25 am.
His glass of orange juice remained the same.
Untouched.
The thing was, and is, that Luke Parks simply preferred the undiluted taste of the meaty burrito...
... and the orange juice would change that.
He knew that.
So he would wait till he was done.
The teenage boy closed his phone and sighed...
Luke: (thinking: I'd better get ready. This day's gonna be something else.)
All things considered...
He had a lot to deal with.
After all, he was a jock.
And of his responsibilities, ...
Well, ...
8:26 am
Speaking of responsibilities...
Luke Parks had to get to school.
Being a student with a van came with some interesting privileges...
One being that if the teachers were late, well, ...
No one would blame him.
After all, who would blame a student for what one of the teachers failed to do?
That was just that.
He took what was one of the last bites of what remained of the goodness of Mondays...
Well, not all the goodness. Just of the burritos.
Before finally, after answering just a few of the texts made later...
Those from girls who weren't cheerleaders...
He finally turned his phone off so he could finish his burrito in proper peace.
8:27 am.
The boy by the name of Luke Parks...
The teenage boy who has all the power to be popular in high school...
And yet... does not take advantage of it...
It was then that the boy now had just one bite left of the burrito.
The horror!
The horror!
... which he ate simply and efficiently before, in a single straight chug, downing his orange juice.
There was a lot to do.
First off, Luke absolutely had to clean his plates...
8:28 am.
That was...
Something...
After all, he still had all those plates and that huge mess following Mrs. Julianne Hunter's own presents.
Well, to be more precise...
All their presents to him.
That was that.
And because of that, well...
It only took Luke a second to decide what was next.
And that was simple...
Place the dishes that looked the dirtiest in water to soak...
Add some soap to dilute the scent...
Toss some trash out, and then get ready for school.
Yep.
Say what one would about the boy by the name of Luke Parks...
But he knew priorities.
And of those priorities...
Well...
He got back to his room, as he had just remembered...
He had actually given this foresight.
His sports clothes and shoes.
All prepped and ready...
All in one bag wrapped nicely...
All clean.
Yep.
He remembered this well.
Friday night was when he did the deed.
He decided to prepare for the whole thing on Friday full knowing that there may not be a better time than then.
Say what one would about Luke Parks, but...
He learned.
And was learning...
8:33 am.
The drive to school took anything from ten to thirty minutes.
That was his drive.
And depending on what he would meet on the way, he had to be prepared.
Clothes ready?
Check!
Van ready?
Well, it still had enough gas...
... he was well sure of that much.
Breakfast done!
Double check!
Honestly, he was pretty much sorted.
He took some time to return to the kitchen to look around and make sure nothing was too amiss.
Surely, the ants would not arrive after a single day of negligence, would they?
After all, it was just one day...
And he would surely clean it all up should he return.
And thereof, remained one more thing...
His keys...
The ones he always left by the cupboard next to his bed.
He rushed over to pick them up, and thereafter...
8:35 am.
Luke Parks grabbed his backpack.
Books for school... and he calmly checked to make sure he had them all.
Maths, Biology, Chemistry.
That was what he needed.
And that was what he had.
The drive to school could be hectic...
The drive to school could be long and strange...
The drive to school could be interesting...
And of that, the drive to school could take anything between ten and thirty minutes.
And that was saying something...
After all...
8:37 am
He was already playing games with time.
As he walked out of his room, careful, of course, to lock his door, he walked to his van.
Ah, the van...
A present from Timo, sort of...
After all, it was his father's van in the first place.
However, it was Timo who taught him how to drive, sort of...
After all, he wasn't the one who gave him the license.
That was a good thought.
Uncle Timo.
8:38 am.
It was then that he was finally inside his van, and ready to experience what would likely be, and also, was...
A largely uneventful ride to school.
Not much happened...
And that was fine...
He was pretty ok with it.
After all, he could use this time to enjoy silence.
That was just him.
Sometimes some tunes on the radio...
Other times, well...
He would just chill.
Nothing big to worry about.
That was just him.
8:48 am.
A little jam here, a random yelling driver there...
8:58 am.
And there...
He did actually make it in time.
He drove into the school gates...
Greeted by Lars...
Lars: What's up, Luke?
Luke: Nothing, Mr. Lars. Good morning.
Lars: Good morning.
That was their morning conversation...
Their morning chats were something he'd grown used to...
And also, his van was pretty well known amongst all the teachers.
Yep.
That was that.
And of that morning, Luke knew he had just about a minute to get to class.
But that was no big deal.
After all, he'd make it.
He'd make it.