I skipped down the halls towards my first period class, smiling at the other students that I passed by. It was weird being younger than everyone, but some kids were nice to me, while others weren’t, but Jason usually made them stop when I told him about it.

I get to Ms. Anderfield’s class quickly and take my seat in the front, smiling at her as I sit down. She smiles back, her bright brown eyes shining in the light before adjusting her plain, gray glasses.

"How’re you doing today, Jessica?" She asks politely.

"Good, thank you for asking Ms. Anderfield."

She looks down at some paperwork, moving some of her hair behind her ear, styled into its usual thin dreads.

I glance over to the door and see the most popular girl in my grade walking in, Lydia Dennison. Her mother, Amber Dennison, is a famous singer and owns a nightclub somewhere in Redwood. I can’t remember the name. She sits down a few seats to my left, typing away at her phone as she slumps back, shaking her head to get some of her long and flowing red hair out of her face before she looks at me.

"Why’re you staring at me?" Her pretty hazel eyes look me up and down.

"Oh, s-sorry!" I quickly turn away, blushing with embarrassment.

"Weirdo."

I sheepishly glance up at her to see her looking at her phone once again before fully turning away, my attention drifting to some of my other classmates.

Having entered just behind Lydia was her foster sister, Hazel, looking down to avoid eye contact as she went to her seat. Her long blonde hair helps to obscure most of her tanned face, but not fully. I see her green eyes glance my way, a scar visible over her left eye. I wonder how she got that.

I smiled at her as she began to glance away. She’s only been in Redwood for a few months and I don’t think she has many friends. Hopefully I can change that.

As I turned away from Hazel, I saw Phoebe walk in, smiling at me as she passed by, her short black hair a bit messy as usual. Her big brown eyes shine towards me before she settles into her seat, stretching to loosen up her athletic form momentarily before facing my way.

"Hey Jess, when do you think you’ll be able to come watch me practice Wing Chun at my uncle’s dojo?"

"Maybe next week. It’s on Fridays, right?"

She nods, flashing me another smile before turning to face Ms. Anderfield, ready for the lesson.

The last student to catch my attention while everyone is piling in is Alba, one of the mayor’s daughters. She wears her usual denim jacket and hat over her long and curly brown hair. She slumps into her seat and glances at the wall before her brown eyes meet mine, matching her tanned complexion pretty well.

I give her a wave before looking at Ms. Anderfield, the bell ringing a moment later.

"Hello, class. I’m glad you’re all here today for my first official day as your teacher. Mr. Maddox thinks I’ll do great, so I believe I will too, but before we can get onto our subject, there’s someone you all need to meet first." She smiles at us before turning to face the door. "Miles, you can come in now!"

There’s a moment of silence before a boy enters, looking to be a bit younger than our peers but not as young as me. His messy and layered black hair covers his eyes a bit, but I can still make out their brown color. His pale skin shines in the light as he avoids eye contact with everyone, sheepishly walking to stand beside Ms. Anderfield.

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"This is Miles Tozier. He just moved to Redwood after... an accident, so I’d appreciate it if you could all try to be kind towards him and make him feel welcomed.”

"Th-thank you ma’am." He glances at her before she tells him to take a seat beside me, the only empty seat in the class.

I smile at him as he sits down. I don’t think he noticed though, as he doesn’t take his eyes off his desk, still trying to avoid looking at anyone.

Ms. Anderfield began her lesson. I tried to get Miles’ attention first by whispering to him, but he didn’t seem to hear me, so I took one of my little eraser thingies you can put on the back of a pencil and threw it at him. He rubbed his head where I hit him and looked at me, immediately blushing and turning away.

"What’d you do that for?" He asks in a low voice.

"I wanted to talk to you. You’re new, so you need a friend. I can do that."

"I don’t want you to be my friend because you feel bad for me."

"No, I don’t feel bad for you. You look nice and I wanna be your friend anyway."

"Oh... well I dunno, maybe another day. I’m just not feeling like it."

"Okay, just lemme know if you ever wanna hang out at lunch or something."

I give him a big smile and he returns a faint one before looking away once more, taking a couple of glances at me before focusing on the lesson.

The rest of class went well. Ms. Anderfield taught some stuff I already knew, but it was a nice refresher. I waved goodbye to Miles as I exited the room and headed to my next class.

🜂🜂🜂

My next few classes were fun. I also had English with Miles for third period, so that was nice, but now it’s time for lunch. I made my way over to my usual table and began to unpack my lunch, waiting for the rest of the robotics club to show up so we could discuss the next project we wanna make.

It doesn’t take long for Taeyeon, or Tae for short, to show up. She settled into her seat and brushed some of her short and curly black hair out of her face before smiling at me, her brown eyes glimmering with excitement.

"Felicity said she had a really good idea for our next project, but she didn’t want to discuss it until we were all together."

And as if on cue, I saw Felicity wheeling herself over, taking a break for a moment to wave before continuing her approach. Her caramel-toned skin glistened a bit from some slight sweat due to the exertion from using her wheelchair, while her curly brown hair was tied up like usual. Once reaching the table, she slumped against it for a moment before sitting upright again and smiling, her brown eyes filled with the same excitement as Tae’s.

"Okay, so Tae probably told you I had something planned to make, and I do... a flamethrower!"

Tae and I both pause as we hear her say this, taking cautious glances at each other.

"Don’t you think that’s a bit too extreme, and that’s not exactly robotics?" Tae speaks

"Well yeah, but we’ll be safe about it, and we can put it on wheels so it can roll around."

"I’m still not comfortable with it, and I doubt the admins will allow us to even attempt that."

Felicity lets out a sigh of defeat, slumping onto the table again. "Fine, I've got nothing then."

"We’ll figure something out. Cheer up." I smile in Felicity’s direction, who smiles back, sitting up once more.

"We should probably try to find a new member for the club. They could help with ideas and stuff." Tae adds, smiling at us as she takes a bite of her sandwich.

"Yeah, but who..." Felicity speaks, taking a glance around the cafeteria but not really trying to suddenly spot a candidate.

"Maybe your sister?" Tae asks Felicity.

"Nah, she’s more into sports and stuff."

"Fair, and she’s kind of a bitch."

"Language!" I called out.

"Did... did she just ‘language’ me?"

"I think she did. Watch your mouth or else our little buddy will mess you up."

"Okay, well enough talk about robotics. Let’s just enjoy lunch, but try to keep an eye out for anyone who could be good as a new member." Tae comments.

I giggled at this and smiled at them, glad to have some good friends despite being younger than them.