Due to Chloe’s excellent academical prowess, the headmaster had recommended her into a somewhat prestigious secondary school, which he had hoped would allow her to excel further. The school was about a 15 minute walk there and back, a distance which would leave Chloe with enough energy to focus on her classes, but not much more than that.

Never the less, Chloe had been a tiny bit happy that she would be challenged further, since she spend so much time studying that it might as well have been her hobby, her previous school did not provide a good environment for academia. (noisy libraries + classes etc)

The school had a modern vibe to it, having been built ten or so years ago, the facilities were all in good condition and the library had quite a few books . Furthermore, the teacher’s all had lots of experience in their teaching careers as thus would be able to impart knowledge onto the kids with great efficiency.

Chloe wore the standard blue and white uniform which consisted of a white t-shirt, a grey vest, a dark blue blazer and a blue skirt. The men’s uniforms swapped out the blue skirt for blue trousers, which female students could also wear instead.

The older woman had been reluctant to buy the uniform, but conceded after Chloe pleaded with her drunken state multiple times, although Chloe hadn’t received it for free, having to tolerate the intoxicated shouts and slaps of a woman who lacked empathy.

Walking to school, Chloe saw the neighbourhood shift from working class to middle class, no more apartment blocks to be seen, rather suburban houses with mostly 3 stories. The other children she saw along the way which wore the same uniform as her all had at least one other person accompanying them.

You see, the secondary school she was going to attend had a sister lower school which nearly all the students, which passed the grade requirements for the secondary school, joined. Thus most students had already formed cliques. Finding any friends would be a tough challenge, not that the young girl would try to make any, as she thought it would be a futile act.

She had received her time table in the mail a week prior to the first day of the year. Chloe did not discriminate between the subjects, she liked them all and had no particular favourite. The school separated each years students into 4 groups, labelled 7-A, 7-B, 7-C and 7-D respectively.

Chloe had been allocated to class 7-B and thus followed the signs on the walls of the building to reach the classroom that had been given to 7-B for roll call. Opening the door, multiple pairs of eyes greeted her before looking back out of disinterest. The young girl did not mind, rather choosing to survey the available seats.

The classroom was split into five rows of seats, each with six desks each for a total of thirty students in a class and one hundred and twenty students accepted every year. Chloe ruled out the three rows closest to the back, before deciding on a seat in the second row, closest to the door which she just walked through.

There were two entrances to the classroom, the one Chloe had just walked through revealed a large whiteboard to her right and a projector above it. The young girl maneuverer over to her chosen seat, putting down her bag, and sat down.

She pulled a book out of her bag and flicked through it before stopping on a bookmark. Starting to read, she tuned the other student’s conversations out, focusing on the book. It must have been ten or fifteen minutes before she someone tapped on her shoulder, pulling her out of the book.

The young girl cast her eyes over to the owner of the hand. A head of scruffy dark black hair covered the boy’s eyes. He wore the same uniform that Chloe had been wearing, confirming to her that he was indeed a fellow student.

The index finger which he used to to tap the young girl’s shoulder was now pointing towards the whiteboard at the front. Chloe looked towards the front of the classroom to see that the homeroom teacher was introducing herself.

“Hello class, my name is Mrs. Smith. This homeroom you guys will be introducing yourselves to myself and your fellow classmates. We’ll go from left to right, starting from the front row.” explained the teacher.

A few disgruntled sighs erupted from within the classroom before the first student stood up introducing themselves. Chloe was not particularly bothered by the obligatory introduction, on the contrary actually. This would save her having to individually introduce herself to every student that came up to her, although she doubted that many would.

When her turn came to pass she stood up and spoke, “My name is Chloe. Chloe barker. I went to ST Anthony’s lower school.” said the young girl with a quiet voice before sitting down. The boy next to her seemed to have some sort of reaction when Chloe had introduced herself, it seemed as thought he knew her.

The boy’s turn was next, “My name is Y/n. Y/n Johnson. I hope we can work well with each other.” he stated. Whilst sitting down he side eyed Chloe, as if trying to see if she had any reaction to his name. No dice.

The young girl had already gone back to reading her book, the only reason she hadn’t been reading was to ensure that she would introduce herself in a timely fashion. Y/n seemed to be somewhat disgruntled from her reaction, or rather lack of.

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Never the less, Y/n decided that he would attempt to start a conversation with her whenever she was alone. He wasn’t that good at talking to people, especially so when there were more than one person in the vicinity.

The bell rung, signifying that the students should get to their first class. Chloe put her book in her bag and went to her first class, English. Each class lasted an hour, with there being 5 classes in one day for a total of 5 hours of learning.

After English, science followed and then 15 minutes of break time which Chloe spent searching for the library. She had already decided that she would study during lunch in the library, as it was the place most devoid of distractions. Walking down the corridor, she read the sign next to a set of mahogany double doors before opening the door.

Unfortunately they wouldn’t budge. It seemed as though Chloe lacked the physical force to push the heavy set of doors open. A cough sounded from behind her, prompting the girl to look over her shoulder. Y/n was there, “I’ll open it for you.” the boy said before walking next to Chloe and pushing the door open, exerting some effort.

Y/n was taller than Chloe by a few inches and certainly was stronger than his female counterpart. Even so, “Heavy” the boy mumbled under his breath before turning around to give a small smile directed towards Chloe.

“Thanks” said the little girl before she walked past Y/n. A nice smell invaded her senses, Chloe had always liked the smell of books and the library in front of her contained what seemed like an endless sea of shelves upon shelves of books.

There were a few rows of tables with adjacent chairs which a few students were using to read books. 'Perfect' Chloe thought before moving over to a vacant table, sitting down and reading her book.

Y/n had been observing Chloe’s actions before deciding to browse for an interesting book. 'Perhaps If I read with her, I’ll be able to start a conversation with Chloe.” he thought.

Chloe who was consumed in her endless journey for knowledge had not noticed Y/n as he shuffled around her table before gaining the courage to sit down in a seat somewhat far away from her.

The table was 2 metres by 2 metres, with 6 chairs, three on each side. Chloe and Y/n where sitting on opposite ends of the table, it would seen Y/n had yet to build the confidence to sit in front of her.

The past month had definitely been arduous for Y/n. Starting from two seats away from his goal, every lunch time he would follow his classmate into the library, opening the door for her and then sitting on the same table. A week ago he finally managed to move a seat closer to his goal but had yet to take the last step.

Chloe, on the other hand, had not yet noticed Y/n’s advances. She was thoroughly satisfied with her new school, the classes were sublime in comparison to the time she spent in her abode, and she could ask the teacher if she didn’t understand anything. Her previous school’s teachers weren’t exactly that bothered with extra questions.

Furthermore, the young girl had been able to spend her lunch breaks in a library which was actually quiet. The librarian was a nice old lady who had many great book recommendations thus, Chloe didn’t even mind the 15 minute walk to the school if it meant that she would get to spend more time in the library.

Unfortunately, her insomnia still make the weak girl constantly tired and not eating three meals a day made the situation even worse. On this particular day, she had been awake for about 2 days straight. The frequent walks to school had made her even more tired than usual, resulting in Chloe accidentally sleeping in her precious library time.

Coincidentally, this was the day that Y/n was planning on making his final move to the seat located in front of Chloe. As he sat down, Y/n had yet to notice that the young girl in front of him was asleep.

“Good morning Chloe! You probably know that my name is Y/n .... I attended your father’s funeral a few years ago and we played together for a bit.” Y/n mumbled whilst looked at his desk.

Silence. After around thirty seconds, Y/n finally looked upwards, only to find the girl he thought he was talking to fast asleep. He ruffled his hair in annoyance and sighed, “How did I not see that she was asleep...” he muttered quietly.

‘I’ll try again tomorrow... for now I’ll just read my book like usual...’he thought. The book he was reading about was a fiction book about a murder mystery case. He liked the genre as he tried to guess who was the killer before they were unveiled. Spoiler, he got it wrong most of the time.

Occasionally peaking at Chloe’s sleeping figure every once in while, the period of time that he spent looking at the girl increased. It took only fifteen or so minutes for Y/n to fully abandon the book in lieu of staring at the girl’s sleeping form.

Unfortunately, such moments of peace are usually short lived for the bell signifying that school was about to start had sounded out. Chloe, awakened by the curtly sounding noise, frowned as she realised that sleep had bested her resulting in a loss of reading time. Her eyes scanned the area before resting on Y/n’s orbs which lied in front of her.

Their eyes connected, Y/n flinching in surprise before hastily redirecting his gaze towards his bag. The young girl rubbed her eyes as she stood up, picking up her things before heading towards the door, tactfully waiting for someone else to exit before following them in order to not have to unfruitfully attempt to open the door.

‘What a failure...’ Y/n thought with a frown on his face. Never mind. He would try again tomorrow.

Like Chloe, Y/n had lost a family member, his mother, and thus lived alone with his father, Fredrick Olsen. Y/n often immersed himself in fiction books, such as the murder mystery book that he was reading in the library. His favourite fiction series was called “A Series Of Unfortunate Events” in which three siblings lose their family in a fire and are chased by the arsonists in order to inherit the children’s large fortune.

Y/n didn’t really have many other hobbies, thus his room was comprised of shelves full of books, a solitary single bed and a workspace for studying. Despite his hobbies, Y/n was quite the socialite and enjoyed hanging out with, and making new, friends.

Chloe was a bit different from all the other kids that he wanted to become friends with; he could spend what seemed like an eternity gazing upon her for and would get somewhat nervous being around her, even though he was an extroverted kid.

Days passed as usual for the young girl, apart for Y/n sparking one-sided conversations with her. Chloe was not much of a talker, especially after her little ‘incident’. Sometimes, whilst Y/n was talking, she would look down to her leg and feel shivers as she recalled the state it used to be in.

As the days passed with Y/n making occasional small talk, Chloe’s mother started to spent much less time at home, and for when she inevitably did come home it was because she was completely drunk and or had brought someone home.