Danny was one of the cool kids in our year. You know how there are those "Top Five" kids that are on all the sports teams, popular, smart, funny? Yeah, Danny was one of those guys. Nice guy too, though, which was even more maddening. We got along okay, and might have been better friends if he hadn't been one of the Popular Kids while I was one of the Artistic Kids. We both had our circles of friends but didn't ever really intersect. He got a buzz-cut before it was cool, and made it cool. He was that kind of kid.

Danny died in a car accident in Grade Twelve, when he ran into the back of a truck late at night driving back from the closest major city near us, Oshawa. The big rumour at the time was that there was drinking involved, and that he was (gasp) decapitated. I strongly doubt the second and am iffy about the first.

Anyway, he was a good guy and the only Grade Nine Homeroom member on the team (or at all, to my knowledge) to be dead. So he gets to be the Big Guy. Hope you appreciate this, Danny, wherever you may be. Get out there and kick some ass.