Chapter Text
𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠
“There's a new kid, today.”
I slam my locker shut to look at Chloe on the other side of me, rummaging unenthusiastically through the contents of her messy one.
I'm still staring at the dozens of pink stickers she's covered the door with over the years, that I've seen thousands upon thousands of times, until she peeks out the side of the door to see that she's got my attention.
With a little huff, she sighs, “Well?”
Okay, let's cut to the chase. I'm not going to bother building it up, but I'm so absolutely hopeless at making friends.
I think I have some sort of social anxiety, actually, I know I do, which is incredibly unfortunate for me, being just a pretty boring person in general, as I'd say so myself. So when Chloe announces this to me, like every time a new kid joins our year, she expects me to be jumping for joy or something.
But when I don't start cheering in the corridor with floods of people coming in and out, she frowns.
“Come on? Oppurtunity to make another friend?” Chloe sighs, as if I hadn't caught on.
The way she worded it made it sound like I had dozens of other friends beside her. Turning away a little, I shrug, embarrassed by the topic. She always encourages me to make more friends but I can't help but only close myself to her and her only. She's insisted many times it's not true, but I feel like I'm holding her back from living her own social life so there's a reason to help me get more friends. However I do know we like spending time with one another, but I am fully aware, that deep down I know it can't always be like this forever. She's not always going to be here for me.
Sighing, I stick my hands in the pockets of my best jeans, gazing at Chloe’s pink converse as we walk. “Well, yeah. I mean, it's just the same all the time though, isn't it?”
She flicks her emerald eyes at me, her expression unchanging, but I can see through her tight-lipped smile as she rubs in her lip balm. We both know about Horace.
Horace was new, Horace was my friend. Which I hoped I could call him at the time. He's already left now, but I've had bad history with him either of us like to recall.
We fall into silence, as my mind whirrs with all the past, but that's until I find myself in front of my English classroom door in front of me.
Chloe pats my shoulder, lightly, bringing me out of my trance. “Okay, well. I'll see you after, in science.” I wish she was in my class too. I know she's secretly a little worried about me. But either way, I smile at her, as best as I can, giving her a small wave. I can't let her think I'm a baby anymore. I'm not some sad 11 year old, hanging their head in the corner. I'm 15 now, almost16 for God's sake.
When I get in there's a few people already there, whispering and laughing amongst themselves. My previous confidence withers almost immediately, the insides of me shrinking away. So as usual I walk down the aisle of seats, avoiding attention like I normally do. The Teacher is getting up the lesson on the board, fussing at the projector and twisting buttons this way and that.
The only reason I like English is because I sit at the back on my own. Everyone else sitting next to their friends can easily ignore me, and even the Teacher can. Well, I also don't really mind English. Only because I'm decent at it. Other days though, I feel absolutely shamed to sit on my own. Sitting on your own in the middle of the classroom is probably the worst.
People have their reasons to ignore me, I'm sort of invisible to their minds at this point. If I were gone from the class there would be little to zero difference in the energy, or anything for that matter.
Suddenly, our Teacher finally taps his pen on the desk and gets his lazy butt off his black swivel chair. Finally, I sigh in relief, eager to have an excuse of being quiet and boring, by listening to him. Heading towards the board, he has a smile on his face, as if we have a visitor coming, although he is pretty smiley in general, I'll grant to him. “I hope you've all got your smiles with you today. We really need to put our welcomes into place.”
Honestly, no one is hardly looking too interested, just lazily looking towards the door in the only interest of a new classmate becoming the next victim of their pranks.
I'm with them on this one, as uninterested as ever. I just take my pen out my blazer during the teacher's boring introduction, and lean back in my uncomfortable plastic chair, beginning to doodle random marks on my hand.
But now most people are smiling.
Sitting up straight.
Whispering very lightly.
As much as I try to ignore it, I can't. All these sudden movements I notice in the corner of my eye causes me to look up too.
Then… maybe I get why. I think I was hoping for someone meek and mild like me to join in with my library reading sessions at lunch, and be there in lesson to always give me a spare pen. Or maybe to finally sit next to me in all my classes. Equally as eager to leave this dump, get good grades and clear off to a more exciting life.
But when you look at him, that's not the first impression you get. At this point I would have gone back to picking up my black ink pen to continue my doodling session. However if I was being truly honest then I didn't even reach out for my pen again. Yet.
Everyone's staring, really. There's just something about him, that makes you, well, look at him. At least for a second time, before looking away. It could almost be virtually impossible to resist a second glance, probably because it is.
Under a black and red cap, he has a tuft of messy black hair, sticking up in all sorts of equally as messy, angles. He keeps tossing his head a little to keep the slight hovering fringe away from his eyes, and his eyes. They're seriously deep brown like a lot of people's, but dabbed with a touch of hazel in the light. The colours combine comfortingly so, almost like he's smiling at you already without actually using his lips. However, he's already beaming quite confidently and pulls down the sleeves of his Black Nike jumper, dusting down creases on his blue jeans while he's at it.
The girls are all practically drooling. I roll my eyes and look down to my hand again, but now I'm doodling pretty much mindlessly, wanting to allow a pattern to grow all across my hand. The Teacher keeps talking. "This is our new student. I expect you to all treat him comfortably on his first day.” He seemingly pointed to the new guy to allow him to carry on.
He quite helpfully begun, almost immediately. “My name’s Ash Ketchum. I'm originally from Pallet town in Kanto, but I moved here from Hoenn.” It's pretty awkward when we are greeted by silence but he- I mean, Ash seems impossibly chilled. The only thing that I'm astounded by is his absolute lack of awkwardness. I'm looking up now, my pen hovering in mid-doodle. He has…quite a nice voice. Nicer than I expected. He sounds nice.
I shake my head free of my thoughts, frowning, and our Teacher steps in, thankfully. “Alright, thank you, Ash. I hope you will feel at home here.” He looks over and across the classroom, squinting.
“Well, we've got a few seats free, go ahead and choose your fancy.”
I didn't realise at first that this would be a problem for me. Suddenly I think it's the best time to keep my eyes glued to my doodling and avoid any eye-contact whatsoever. But deep down, I do know what's coming. Ash is easily seen as popular. It's been about 4 seconds of meeting him and you can just instantly tell, his confidence, his looks, his easy-going nature, it's all popular-kid potential. So it's no surprise I see him head towards a seat near Marcus, that's near infront of me.
However it is a surprise when he walks past it.
Hm. I think. Strange.
And in the next blink of an eye, literally, he's at the back. Like when did he even get there? But at the back there's only one spare seat and tha-
“Can I?”
I'm about 88.9% certain that he said that to someone else at first, but my brain tells me there's no other seats available so I look up.
And he is looking down at me, smiling. My mouth opens and I'm not sure if I'm grateful for no words coming out, until I hastily stutter a reply of, “Of course.”
Everyone is staring. And I mean. Everyone.
It's like everyone forgot I was even here, in their classroom. I am as confused and embarrassed as everyone else is, wondering why someone like him would have chosen someone like me to sit next to. The people sitting next to their empty rejected seats seem to be scowling to themselves. Ash however, still, looks as chilled as chilled could get. He sits down decently in his seat and I shuffle my chair to the right to make more room for him.
Was that rude? I hope not. I suddenly have a moment where I freeze and think about that after, but Ash seems pretty unbothered. In fact, he literally stares down anyone who seems to be staring at him, until they turn around, embarrassed.
I'm still in silent awe as the Teacher begins to talk again. That is some damn confidence I wish I could have.
As the lesson goes through, everyone seems to forget about how the new kid Ash Ketchum sat next to the silent and friendless Goh at the back corner of the class. They're just chatting to their friends around them whenever it's partner work, however me and Ash stay silent. It's incredibly awkward.
I'm not surprised at all if he is going to ask the teacher next lesson to move, because I wouldn't blame him. In fact if I were him I would probably dread every lesson because of the silence we are greeted with if this happens every time.
But oh well, I think to myself. His funeral. He decided to sit here himself. He can move if he likes.
I calm down slightly after that thought and get on with my work. My social battery has already been drained by him sitting there and doing absolutely nothing like an obedient choir boy. I do mean absolutely nothing though. He does seem to have not much interest in doing his work, leaving the majority of his page blank, except a date and title. In fact, his mind seems to be contemplating something instead. Oh well, he's keeping himself busy from chatter which is fine by me.
But it's when it all happens at the end of the lesson. He stretches and lifts his arms right above me so they almost whack me in the head. Almost. Not quite. I just dodge them awkwardly and say nothing. Popular-boy stereotypes coming in for sure.
Then here comes the next one. He scans my sheet. Maybe me as well. I didn't bother to try and look out for these things. “Hey, do you mind if I copy your work real quick?”
I instantly don't like these kinds of people. But I'm not going to mess around with saying no to him, so I nod slightly and smile a little, even though inside I'm doing anything but. He smiles quickly back, and takes my sheet to slide over to his, as he scribbles furiously.
I'm hardly interested now, even if I was before. He seems entitled and unloyal, someone who only comes to you when they need it. I wouldn't want a friend like that. But I still find myself giving him occasional glances, watching him sticking his tongue out in concentration. It's kind of hard to look away. Attempting to distract myself, I sigh and take out my pen, to mindlessly doodle again. My flurry of patterns grows across my hand and slides into my palm while I wait.
Unaware Ash was watching since the moment I took my pen out. When I finally and idiotically notice the side glance I'm receiving, I freeze up a little. Then he speaks.
“That looks nice.”
His voice makes me look up, thinking there's no way he was talking to me, right? But yes, he's blinking and smiling at me, his eyes fixed on my hand too.
So I blink down at my hands as well, and suddenly feel the urge to tuck them in my lap after the compliment. I don't really know what to do with them after that but it puts me off picking up my pen again.
“Oh. Thanks.” I say, pulling an awkward smile. I can't seem to do anything that's not awkward.
I turn my eyes towards the clock now. Not long. Just 5 minutes. Who knows what I've been doing all this time, but I'll happily take it. I've done my work too, so I would have normally taken the rest of the lesson to lean my head on the desk and just recharge. Except it's kind of hard to do that now.
I pick up my pen again, fiddling with it idily. It's hard because…well.
Especially hard…because…
Whenever I look anywhere but Ash, he's always there in the corner of my eye.
And.. he's looking at me.
I'm noticing that now. Even if I wanted to deny it, which I do, he is looking at me. It's starting to get a little uncomfortable. I'm too scared to open my mouth though, so I stay silent, my cheeks burning at his gaze. He's not bothering to make it less obvious, and I wonder if he knows how unsubtle he's being...
He's leant his pen down in his hand, mid-scribble, and…he is looking at me.
Then he opens his mouth.
“Hey, had anyone told you that you're kinda pretty?”
My fiddling stops with my pen, and I let it rest, frozen in my fingers. It takes all my willpower not to shriek at him because. What. I can't even hold an incredulous stare in his direction. I just sit there. Like some idiot. There is no possible chance he said that in no other way but to wind me up. Absolutely no damn chance. But he's looking at me, genuine, or at least, doing a good act of it, and totally nonchalant. For some reason that infuriates me further. I don't even know why I'm mad.
He's pretending. He's winding you up. My brain is telling me.
The sheer innocence of his voice he's trying to put on is itching at me, and I hate it. When I say nothing to that, he opens his mouth again.
“Your eyelashes are really long too. Makes you even prettier.”
I don't even hesitate this time. The bell goes at the very second it escapes his mouth. I don't wait for him to finish with my sheet. Instead I whip it from the table, stuff it in my bag, haul it on my shoulder, and escape the classroom without another word, only a furious blush on my cheeks.
I was right. New kids are the worst.