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Outcast.
Syd was an outcast.
And not in a quirky way either. There was no “no one likes me because I’m different and misunderstood”. The students at Midtown High simply just did not like her. Maybe they were intimidated by her bold fashion style or weirded out by the fact that Syd never talks. Like, ever.
Syd considered herself a big giant mess of social anxiety, neurodivergence, and “Ow That Noise Hurt My Ears”. A catastrophic mix of Asperger’s and ADD.
Every morning was the same. If Syd didn’t have her routine, it would not be fun.
Syd grabbed her bag, putting on her noise-canceling headphones for the walk to school. One of her favorite playlists, “Swag Alert” was playing. It consisted of her favorite songs; mostly ones that made her feel like they’re in a movie.
She finally made it to school. Midtown High was the perfect school for nerds. Syd liked certain math subjects, some sciences, whatever. But, she enjoyed humanities the most. Both of her parents were engineers, so there was a constant pressure to become an engineer as well. So, that’s how she ended up at Midtown.
Being a senior in high school meant having cool classes. Well, in Syd’s opinion. Seniors had much more options for electives and classes to take. She enjoyed art the most, with history coming in second. But with college application deadlines approaching, the stress level was intense.
Syd already knew what she wanted to do when she grew up. Video game designer. The perfect mix between arts and sciences. She always carried around a sketchbook to work on her video game idea, but never let anyone see.
“What was I doing?” Syd has to ask herself, snapping back to reality. Syd realized she had imagined she was in a movie again, describing her life story to the viewer. It was a pretty common occurrence. Stopping for a second, she braced herself for the noise in the hallway.
“Ow.”
Too loud. Much too loud for comfort.
Syd did her best to ignore it. “Get to homeroom, get to homeroom, it’s fine just go to homeroom I’m fine” she tried to convince herself.
Homeroom was mostly empty, considering she was 20 minutes early. Syd liked being early; it gave her time to get adjusted and to prepare for the school day.
She always sat in the back corner near the window, farthest from the door.
“Ned come on, you know the original trilogy is the best.” Syd’s head perked up; she knew that voice anywhere. That voice belonged to her two-and-a-half year-long crush Peter Parker.
Yeah. Two and a half years.
Syd has been head over heels since the beginning of sophomore year, ever since they worked together on a chemistry project. She was convinced Peter forgot who she was.
She never talked to him after that. Even if she tried, it would end with her knees almost giving out on her and her heartbeat ringing in her ears.
Yeah. It was that bad.
“I know that YOU think that. Come on Peter, can’t we watch the sequels for once?” That was Ned.
Peter and Ned came walking into homeroom, sitting down towards the back, but still in front of Syd. They kept bickering back and forth about which Star Wars trilogy to watch.
“Well ask Syd. Syd do you like the Star Wars original trilogy or the sequels better?” Ned turned around to ask her. She froze. She was lucky Star Wars was one of her biggest hyperfixations.
“Prequels. The special effects may be shit, but I’m a sucker for Anakin Skywalker. And Padme too honestly. I guess Obi-Wan too but he’s old enough to be my dad so it’s kind of weird. I guess more of Padme, Anakin is just… he’s just stupid.”
They stared at her in awe. They had no idea she was such a huge fan of Star Wars!
“Aw shit, I rambled again. Sorry.” Syd’s face was burning up. Ugh, now was a good time to disappear.
“Since when were you such a huge fan of Star Wars?! You should join us for our Star Wars marathon. Can she join us, Peter!??” Ned seemed super excited.
“Would you want to? We could watch all of the trilogies in chronological order!” Now Peter was excited too.
Syd was freaking out now. She never got invited to do things, especially with her crush.
“Sure? If you want me there. I might talk too much during the movie; I have too much useless Star Wars knowledge.”
“ME TOO!” Peter looked very enthusiastic.
Peter and Ned gave Syd their numbers and made a group chat. “Oh my god. Is this actually happening?? This is a joke, right? Am I being punk’d??”
This will be fun.