1 Chapter One The Color Blue

He was just an ordinary high school guy. This would be his last year to make a name for himself. Everyone in his grade had a place. Either they were nerds with good grades, great at sports, in the drama club, something. As for himself? Well, he liked to dabble and that only ever got him, well nowhere really. He didn't really stick out anywhere and for some reason that didn't sit well with him this year. He wanted to be someone. Someone that his juniors could look up to.

He glanced up at the tree blossoms. They were beautiful during the spring. Their dead leaves coming back to life. Probably a bit sappy for a guy but he didn't care. He cherished all living things. He watched as one of the pink petals fell from the branch and floated to the ground. He blinked upon the blue contrast of the pink petal. Wow, such a vibrant beautiful color. However, it was stained red. Quickly moving over to it he reached out before pausing in mid motion. The poor creature was still alive. It lifted it's head to turn and hiss at him. It's white tongue with black tips flickered out at him as it's deep red eyes stared into his soul. Whoa, what a strange feeling. But at the same time he couldn't just leave it injured. If there was any fight left in it, it probably wouldn't be much. However, if he identified it correctly it was a pit viper snake. Those had venom that could really mess him up. Was it more merciful to try to kill rather than try and save it? Those red eyes narrowed and it bared its fangs as if it sensed his intent to kill it. No, he couldn't muster up the courage to kill it. Instead he would try and find a way to save it.

He slowly lowered his backpack. He would do better without that moving around on his back. The snake's eyes never left him. With a skill of fast lightning speed he moved and snatched his hand to grip around the snake's head and face those deadly fangs away from him. With his free hand he grabbed a hold of the snake's body. "Now what…" His eyes glanced down at his bag and then to the snake. It's third eye closed over its eye as it stared at him. "If you promise not to bite me I'll get you some help, okay?"

Well, now he was just crazy, he was talking to the snake as if it could actually understand him. No matter, he talked to all animals like this. It was just a matter of making sure no one else was around to see him do that.

It must have been fate as he heard his friend running up to catch up with him. "Xander! Hey! Wait up man!" The boy huffed as he stopped bending over to put his hands on his knees so he could catch his breath. "You… weren't kidding… when you said… you were practicing more…"

"Yeah, I can't have you out stage me this year." Russell or Rush as his friends call him was the star of the track team, but he mainly did the 100 and 200 meter dash. He was a good sprinter but when it came to long running he burned out quickly. It was probably how he got his nickname Rush. Always dashing around like a fool at times.

"I thought we could- hah hah Holy Shit Man! What the hell is that?!" Rush had been moving to stand up straight when he suddenly spotted the blue slithering snake that Xander was holding. His arms flung up in a poor attempt to defend himself as well as a leg lifted.

Xander raised a brow at him as if he was the crazy one. "What are you doing?" he said calmly before looking away from his friend to see if anyone else was around.

"Are you going to eat it?! It looks like it's still ali-IT MOVED!" Rush took two large steps away from Xander. More like he jumped away.

Sighing Xander glanced down at his bag. "Say you want to grab my bag for me. It's kind of hard to hold this and grab it at the same time. Thanks man."

Without waiting for Rush to respond he started to walk away, snake in hand. His friend probably was thinking he was completely nuts. That didn't matter. It was giving this poor thing a fighting chance to live another day. Something that wouldn't happen if he continued to stand in the middle of the pathway. It wasn't long before he could hear his friends footsteps rushing to keep up. When he spotted him out of the corner of his eye he could see he had grabbed his bag. Glancing over he smirked. "You can't seriously be afraid of snakes, can you?" He couldn't help but tease his friend.

"A-anything with that kind of coloring can't be good! Are you sure it's not poisonous?" Rush was clearly more afraid for his friend at this time. And he wasn't wrong to be as he was indeed carrying a deadly weapon. Well, that all really depended on the bite and where it was. But Xander knew what he was doing. He had held plenty of snakes before and knew holds to keep it from biting him.

"I'm going to need your help on this one though. It's got a bad injury and by the time we can get there the vet's office will be closed. So it's up to us to help it. Besides, I heard a certain someone was good with stitching." A small smirk rose on Xander's lip as he sideways looked over at Rush.

"Dude… you have a death wish…" It didn't matter how Rush sounded, Xander could tell when his reliable friend caved and he was doing so now.

"I'm glad you have my back." The two boys headed back to Xanders house. Luckily he was able to sneak the snake inside. His parents hadn't gotten home yet. Good, now was their chance before they did return.

Rush ran about grabbing what they would need while he held the snake in his room. "Don't worry little guy. We'll have you stitched up in no time at all. And you'll be on the road to recovery."

"You talking to the snake? And what if it's a girl? I don't think it would appreciate being called 'Little Guy'..." Rush walked in with a box and some things inside of it. All of which he threw on the floor next to Xander. Getting down on the floor next to him they began to perform their own little surgery. All the while Rush kept telling him not to let the snake go and that if he did there would be hell to pay. Of course Xander was smart enough not to let that happen. Once the bleeding stopped they wrapped some bandage cloth around the area so as to keep the area clean. Placing the snake into his old fish tank that had been cleaned out just weeks before he placed the lid over it so the snake wouldn't get out.

"Thank God that's over with…" Xander laughed at Rush's words. He could see the sweat still running off his face. That was probably the last time he would help Xander out with something that involved snakes. But like Xander, Rush couldn't see creatures in pain or suffering. However, unlike him Xander was sure that Rush would be able to kill it if push came to shove. Rush was a hunter unlike him.

"Thanks man. I appreciate it and I'm sure the little g-errr snake does too." Xander rubbed the back of his head then rested on his bed. "So… want to go play some video games before my parents get home?"

"Don't you have to study for that big exam tomorrow? That's what I was chasing you for. I was wondering if you wanted to study with me for it."

Oh right. There was that. Lame… "I guess we can do that… Then play a game afterwards." The two boys headed downstairs to get their books.

As the boys left the room the blue snake slithered up to the glass to peer out the door. It's red eyes glanced up at the lid for a moment before making its way up the glass.