He drove through light afternoon traffic, singing along to the radio as he approached the school zone and found a place to park at the curb. The man knew the words to the familiar song but he had no hope of replicating the melody Justin Timberlake sang so effortlessly.

"Every little thing I do never seems enough for you."

The man's thin, reedy, broken voice croaked out the lyrics in a hushed monotone. He turned off the music and watched.

He hated that schools had become fortresses protected by security systems and security guards. He hated every one of those assholes who carried guns into schools and murdered their own classmates and teachers. Assholes. This was all their fault. The locked doors, the metal detectors. It was all their fault. They ruined it for everybody. So stupid. Stupid, stupid selfish assholes. Every one of them should burn in hell.

Back in the day, students wandered about the campus freely in groups or in pairs. Boys shoved each other and played catch with any object they could confiscate, like someone's shoe or lunchbox. He remembered Andrew Peliconis practically in tears when his Tupperware pack was kicked like a soccer ball, the cookies he was saving for an after-school snack came flying out and exploded on the pavement. How they laughed at him. Embarrassed him. Humiliated him. But Andrew Peliconis didn't dare cry because of the girls.

The girls. Girls with ponytails and tight jeans. Girls who smelled like ginger snaps and sweet magnolia. Girls with graceful, long necks and broad smiles. Girls who giggled and watched the loud, good-looking jocks bully kids like Andrew Peliconis. Girls who wanted to be kissed. Girls who wanted rough hands on their breasts and on their asses. Girls who wanted to know what sex was like. Girls who already knew and wanted more. Bad girls. He could never love a girl like that. But the sweet girls. The pretty girls who were nice to people. Pretty girls with shapely legs, and tiny waists with voices like angels. He could give them what they wanted. He could love them and treat them the way they deserved to be treated. If they'd only give him a chance.