Darryl groaned inwardly as he saw Vincent leaving the room where the Music Appreciation Club met.  Yet another reason Darryl didn't talk to him much at school anymore.  Vincent had moved on, higher and farther up the social ladder that was their school than he ever would.  Why should he ruin it for his friend?  As Vincent passed him, Darryl shuffled his feet, adjusted his glasses, tried to do anything but ask him if he knew what Jacob had planned.

Jake hadn't told him anything about this trip, which was strange.  Jake usually told him just about everything.  They had been friends since second grade when Jake had rescued Darryl from Brad, his constant tormentor that year, by ushering him into an unused room just before Brad walked down the hall.  It was the first time anyone had really shown Darryl any sort of human decency at school.  Darryl had somehow ended up the favourite kid to pick on, destined to be the loser of their grade for all time.  Or at least until Rebecca showed up in the seventh grade with her braces and her glasses and her lisp, all good qualities in Darryl's eyes.  He may have been an easy target, but he wasn't nearly as easy as she was, and he loved her for it.

Darryl was used to being the third wheel by this point.  Jake and Vince had managed to pull off being nerdy but kinda cool at the same time, but he hadn't been so lucky.  Maybe it was the glasses.  Or perhaps it was the nine extra curricular science oriented clubs he had joined this year to not feel so alone.  Yeah, that was probably it.  Whatever it was, he always felt like he was on the outside looking in, no matter how close the three of them were.  They had something he didn't think he'd ever have.  But this weekend, it wouldn't matter.  The three of them would be together all weekend, with no one else around, and he could be one of the guys without worrying that someone would see him with them and make fun of him, or worse, assume that Vince and Jake only hung out with him out of pity.

He wondered that himself sometimes.  They definitely got along well, but it seemed odd to Darryl that they would choose to hang out with him when they could be with much cooler people.  And he was always so preoccupied with those thoughts that very often Jake or Vince would have to snap him out of the worried trance he had put himself in.  His scientific leanings came in handy then, he could always say he was trying to work something out for class in his head, and they believed him for the most part.  He shook his head, clearing those thoughts.  He was determined not to think anything like them this weekend.  This weekend, he would just be one of the guys, going on a road trip.  It'd be a nice, normal weekend.