Cadet Hutchinson felt alone. Out of place. Rejected by his fellow trainees. No matter how badly he wanted to mingle with the others, to share their lessons, jokes and fun times, he just didn’t know how to do it.

At times he even wondered if he had made the wrong decision by joining the Academy.  Had it been a mistake? Did he really belong in this place? Or had his decision to become a police officer been an error? Another one of the many mistakes he’d already made in his young life?

Then the day came. One minute he was alone, and in the next he was looking up from the book he was reading into a pair of indigo blue eyes.  They stared back at him with a twinkle of mischief.

“I’m Starsky; Dave Starsky.” A smiling cadet said, holding out his hand. Hutch, a bit surprised that someone actually wanted to talk to him, took Starsky’s hand and introduced himself.

The brunet’s handshake was firm. It was also confident. But above all, it conveyed a sense of comradeship.

And at that very moment; deep inside, Hutch knew it.

He belonged here.

And this man would be his friend.