This is always the worst, first day at the new school. The day where everyone else is friends, except for you. Well, it’s not like I go around trying to be friends with people, but even loners should have at least a few right? Right?! Ah, whatever, at least I’m used to it. I still remember when it first happened. I had gone around trying to find someone, anyone, that would talk to me, but no one did. It was like I didn’t exist, though to them I probably didn’t, with their noses always buried in their smartphones. What, do I sound bitter? That’s because I can’t use electronics. They always short out near me, and no one wants a friend that breaks their phone when they are close by. It’s not like I don’t understand why they use their phones. I mean, it’s basically all the worlds information at the tips of your fingers.

I’m awakened from my thoughts when someone runs into me, or maybe I ran into them. Luckily I have one of those zip up binders, so none of my stuff falls out. They aren’t so lucky, a lot of papers spill onto the ground. The other person scrambles to pick them up, so I hurry up and join them. It’s only fair since I’m the reason they fell in the first place, I think. When all the papers were picked up I hand them to the person I collided with. I finally see who the person is, and I’m surprised that they fell at all. Standing in front of me is a guy about six foot six, with a head of curly red hair.

“Sorry” The guy says to me. “I’m pretty clumsy” He seems genuinely sorry, so I don’t hold it against him.

“Don’t worry about it, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. Hey, do you know where room 127 is?” Might as well get directions while I’m at it.

“Oh, that’s where you’re going, I have that class too! Just follow me” Wait! That’s the way I just came from! Don’t tell me I was going the opposite way. “By the way, my name’s Tommy” My guide tells me.

“I’m Mark, I’m new here by the way” Now that introductions are out of the way, it’s only a matter of time before this guy finds out my secret and leaves. Might as well get this over with. “Sorry about your phone” And he leaves in 3, 2- “What phone?” -1? What do you mean what phone? Who doesn’t have a phone these days, well except for me.

“Do you not have a phone?” “Nope, why?” “It’s just that… I don’t get along well with electronics, they always break around me” God, I sound so self deprecating, I mean, it’s not really my fault I was born like this. Maybe my ‘parents’ are finally getting to me.

Why do I sound resentful when I say that? It’s simple, my parents hate me. Why. Well… I may have killed my grandfather… Don’t freak out, it’s just that my grandpa had a pacemaker and well, you can imagine what happened next. Of course, that didn’t stop dear old mom and dad from taking his considerable wealth and living like royalty. Oh wait, conversation, right.

“That’s” Here it comes… “awesome! It’s like you have a superpower!”...what? Is this kid alright in the head? I mean, I guess some people would think of it like that, but it really is a curse. Imagine being a murderer before you’re even an hour old, it’s not nice.

“Oh, here’s 127. Hey, there’s an empty seat next to me if you want so sit there!” Tommy gets really excited easily huh, but he seems nice enough. I accept his offer and walk into my first class of this school, English. Who would have thought I’d be greeted with a familiar face, unfortunately it’s not a friendly one.

“What are you doing here you freak!” With long black hair cascading down her back, and flawless skin with no blemishes to be seen, my ex-best friend and now enemy. Sara Withers, a fitting last name to go with her terrible personality. I thought she moved away years… oh. Just my luck I run into her again.

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“Hi Sara, great to see you here, how have you been. How’s the folks?” When in doubt, sarcasm, sarcasm hard.

“Don’t try and change the subject you demon! What is it you’re doing at this school?!” Believe it or not, we used to get along great. She was the first person who didn’t care about my curse. We'd go hang out at the park and just, talk. I will admit, I had a crush on her. But then it happened. Saras family isn’t rich like mine, and she had a part time job as a model. She saved up for a year to buy this really expensive game console, and in her excitement, forgot why I didn’t have many friends and showed it to me. She ended up blaming me for it breaking, and stopped talking to me altogether, except for when she and her friends tormented me at school. Let’s just say, I got over my crush really fast.

“Hey, are you even listening to me?!” She’s still talking? If I’m a demon then she must be a banshee. How do I respond, well, honesty is the best policy.

“Not even a bit, come on Tommy, let’s go sit down.” I bring my stunned guide to the desks and have him point out our seats. I get out a pencil and a clean spiral notebook and wait for class to start. Sara seems like she was going to start shouting again but luckily the bell rings just as the teacher walks in. The Banshee sits down immediately and acts like nothing happened.

The teacher himself seems to be pretty old, but not out of shape. He looks like an old army vet. He carries himself like someone who has seen combat would. Not like I know anybody like that but I assume this is what they would look like.

“Alright class, time to start roll, raise your hand when I call your name. Tommy Anderson”

“Here!” My former guide waves his hand energetically. No one seems phased so it looks like the’re used to him by now.

“Simon Mithel” “Here” “John Thomson” “Present” “Kyle Strong” “Yo”…

“Sara Withers” “Yes?” Wow, she’s even acting pretentious towards the teacher. I guess not much has changed.

“Now that that’s settled, on to the actual work” Wait, he didn’t call me, he did get the email that I would be here right? “Um, Sir?” I say respectfully, trying to get his attention.

“Yes, what is it kid?” He says to me without turning away from the board. “You forgot to mark me as present”

Still not looking at me he says in an authoritative tone “No I haven’t” What?! He never called my name, how would he know if I was here?

“Sir, you must have made a mistake, you never called my name” The teacher puts down his pencil, and I hear Sara chuckle evilly. Don’t tell me this is one of those teachers who won’t admit they’re wrong! Those are the worst.

“And what’s your name boy?” He looks like he’s trying to intimidate me. The whole class, even the banshee Sara, is dead quiet. To bad for him I’m not scared easily. I look him dead in the eye and respond.

“Sir, my name is Mark Tylers, not ‘boy’” My dad calls me that, and I only let him because I can’t stop him, I won’t let this old man do the same. No one else dares to even breath right now, the tension so thick even a knife couldn’t cut it.

The teacher stares at me for a while, and then… chuckles? “Okay Mark, have it your way, but stop calling me ‘Sir’, I haven’t gone by that title for a while. Call me Mr. Atlas like everyone else.” A fitting last name for such a man. When everything has calmed down Tommy leans in and whispers frantically.

“What was that?! How did you do that?” Tommy seems to be looking at me with awe, but I don’t get what such a big deal is. “What’s the problem”

“He called you by name! He doesn’t do that with anyone, not even the principle!” Wow, really. I must have gotten on his bad side then. Oh well. “He said he’ll only do that for people who earn his respect! And you got it on the first day!” Wait really?! Maybe he isn’t such a bad guy after all.

And that is how I found my favorite class of the school.