All throughout high school, he felt as if he were waiting for something, something awesome (and that’s awesome in the old sense. As in, not just big but really big. ). At times it was almost as though he were an infant waiting to be born and catch his first glimpse of day, or a caterpillar mulling things over in the safety of the filmy gauze of his cocoon.

But sometimes, and more and more often as of late, sharp needles would puncture Avi’s haven before he could emerge as a butterfly.

This story is about those needles, and the first one involves a very unusual encounter in the hallway…