I reached the office, having been called over the PA system to come here for whatever reason. Glancing around, I see one of the administrators motion me over, so I approach, seeing another student beside her. He’s pretty tall and fit, his red hair tied into a ponytail and his green eyes looking me up and down a bit.

"Am I in trouble?" I ask, glancing away from the boy to face the admin.

"No Ms. Scott, this is Janus Hawthrone. He’s a new student and I’d like you to give him a tour of the school."

"Won’t I miss first period?"

"Yes, but I already cleared it with your teacher."

"Fine..." I look over at Janus. "Let’s go."

He smiles and nods, following me out of the office before I begin to lead him down a random hallway.

"What’s the first stop on the tour?" He asks, and immediately I notice his accent. Irish, I think... no Scottish... something in between.

"Dunno, we’ll see what we find first."

"Oh, so the tour order will be a mystery. Sounds exciting." He chuckles after his slight joke.

"I suppose."

I led him down the halls, eventually coming to the library, gesturing for him to follow me inside.

"Well, here's... books." I turn around to face him and give a slight shrug, not really sure what I’m doing or how to even begin giving a tour.

He gives me a quick look up and down again before seeming to notice something.

"Ah, you seem a bit uneasy. Lemme try to do this to help show you what to do." He walks past me to get a bit deeper into the library before starting to point at things as he speaks about them. "Over in that corner are a few bean bag seats, I’m guessing for comfort when reading. And in the opposite corner are some computers. Didn’t know many schools still had those." He looks back at me with a smile, which I can’t help but return. Very slightly, though.

"Okay, you did good. On to the next place." I led him out of the library, making our way down the halls once again, this time with a destination in mind.

"You part of any clubs?" He asks, his obvious curiosity heard in his voice.

"Uh... not really. I don’t do much aside from school and work."

"Work? What do you do?"

"I’m a manager at a gas station."

"Honest work. It doesn’t seem exciting, but someone has to do it. Do you have any hobbies or sports you’re into?"

"Not really one for sports. My brother was on a few teams but he got kicked out for fighting. I guess for my hobbies, I like to draw and listen to podcasts."

"Drawing you say, I’m kind of crap at it, but I want to learn. I’ll be taking art here and might want a tutor."

"You’re taking art? Ms. Peach is very nice and a good teacher."

"Ms. Peach? You know her?"

"Yeah, art has been my elective three years in a row."

"Good to know. Maybe you could tutor me?"

"Oh, well, I don’t think I’m that good."

"Of course you are; three years is a long time, and I bet you were doing it even before taking the class."

"Yeah... I don’t even know if I’d have the time with work and school and stuff."

"We can do it on the weekends. Maybe I could teach you something too?"

"Like what, how to become Johnny Bravo?"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"That hurt, but you’re not too far off. I know a martial art or two. I could teach you self-defense." He pauses for a moment before continuing to speak. "Also Johnny Bravo was a big ol’ meathead. I like running and martial arts, plus I’ve got fiery hair."

"That’s true, but I’m not too sure about the martial arts stuff. Not really my thing. but I’ll think about it."

He gave a quick nod and yet another smile before we reached our next destination, the cafeteria. I guided him inside and turned to face him once more.

"I know I should try to explain more stuff like you showed me last time, but this is just tables and crappy food. Don’t know what else you’d want from me here."

"Do we get to leave campus to get lunch somewhere else?"

"Nah, don’t want kids using it as an excuse to skip fifth and sixth period."

"Makes sense, kinda stupid."

"A lot of rules are. Now onto another building."

I briskly walked past him and began to head for the nearest exit from the school’s main building.

"The gym is in its own building, dunno why." I say, really not knowing the answer, but it’s probably something that makes the showers easier to work or something.

"I think I saw it when walking up to school, and another one. What’s that?"

"The auditorium. We’ll head there next."

"Sounds good to me. What sports teams do you have here?"

"Uh... the usual ones; football, baseball, basketball. We’ve got a few others that do well though, archery, wrestling... Our swim team is good too."

"Good to know. I might join a team. We’ll see."

I gave a slight nod before we reached the exit we were heading towards and stepped outside, immediately getting a chill due to the cold climate. We only get a few steps from the door before I feel something plop onto my shoulders. I jump slightly as I realize it was Janus’ coat that he probably put on me.

"Oh, thanks."

"No problem, I’ve dealt with colder weather."

"I can imagine." I properly put the coat on as we reached the gym, walking in and seeing some students doing general exercises.

"Pretty basic here. We have bleachers for basketball games, hoops for those too, and dumb jocks."

"I can see, though there’s bound to be one who’s not so dumb, but I could be wrong."

"Well, that’s all for here, onto the auditorium."

I quickly made a 180 and walked out of the gym, moving towards the auditorium.

🜂🜂🜂

Hours later, I found myself back at the auditorium for lunch, silently eating the cardboard-like pizza from the cafeteria as I listened to my newest podcast.

"And so the other night, there was a confrontation between the Enclave and Dragonlings down at a pawn shop at the docks the other night. It appeared that nothing was able to be stolen due to the quick action taken by our heroes, but once again those nefarious villains managed to escape capture. Why is that I wonder?"

The voice of the woman who does the podcast, Charlotte Miller, details further Suit-related events that have happened in the last week.

As I go to take another bite of my pizza, I feel a tap on my shoulder. Jumping so hard, I fall out of the seat I was in and stare up at whoever touched me in horror. The girl looks at me apologetically, stepping back and covering her mouth. She says something I can’t hear before I take off my headphones.

"W-what was that?"

"I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just banged my elbow hard."

She extends a hand to help me up, which I take, getting a good look at her now that my heart isn’t beating out of my chest. She has caramel-colored skin, shining beautifully in the light of the auditorium. Her long, dark brown hair curls out, making it almost look like her head has a cape of twirling strands of hair. I avert my gaze from her big and pretty brown eyes, gulping nervously.

"I’m Estrella Simmons. Are you here to join the glee club? Well, show choir, but people more often call it glee due to the show."

"Uh... no, just having lunch here. I usually eat at the library, but the no food and drink rule is more enforced since someone spilled a can of soda on one of the computers before break. I thought I would be alone."

"Oh, well, you’re welcome to... keep eating..." She looked down at my pizza, which is now on the floor. "Or not."

"It’s fine, I should go anyway since you have a club." I turned to make my way out before I felt her gently grab my arm.

"No, I’m just here to get things set up early. Club is after school; I’m just the captain, so I’ve gotta be more responsible."

"Alright then, I’m Thea by the way, well Theodora Scott." I chuckle nervously, realizing that I’m talking to someone who is way more popular than me.

"What were you listening to, music?"

"No, a podcast about Suits."

"What’s it called?"

"The Suit Scoop..."

She laughed to herself at the name, smiling at me before beginning to make her way towards the stage of the auditorium.

"What’re you doing?"

"Getting things set up for glee; what else would I be doing?"

I silently went back to my seat and watched her as she moved things, lining up chairs on the stage. How could someone like her even tolerate hearing me talk, let alone have a conversation?