Then everything changed.

It was the start of a new academic year; Chloe having had to join a new school due to becoming a middle schooler.

The new school was somewhat further away from her apartment than the last was, however Chloe didn’t mind it so much.

As to why? Well, that was because the middle school she had gotten into was quite the prestigious public school.

Books, books, and more books.

Chloe was a very studious student, a by-product of how much she would read. She didn’t really care about the contents of what she read.

Rather she found that by occupying her brain with so much new information, she’d gradually forget all about her crooked reality.

A bigger and better school meant a larger library and more books to read.

There weren’t any public libraries near Chloe’s apartment, her previous school having a medium sized pile of books that, if one squinted their eyes, could just nearly be classified as a library.

Furthermore, her old bullies hadn’t made it into such a school. This meant that Chloe would be safe from being bullied.

“Only for a short while. It’ll start again~~!”giggled the figure behind Chloe, their eyes disapprovingly piecing into the back of her head.

The figure seemed to become more literate as time went on. Within the first year of its existence, it finally was able to start speaking without stuttering.

Although Chloe found its new speaking pattern to be equally or even worse at times that it had been.

Its freezingly grating tone supplemented by a few hysterical laughs or shouts.

The more danger and pain, whether it be physical or mental, that Chloe was exposed to, the more the figure would talk and input it’s sharp words into Chloe’s mind.

At this point, she’d given up on the hope that one day it might go away, never to be seen again.

To Chloe, everyone looked the same.

They dressed the same, acted the same and hated her all the same.

Or at least they would, given enough time.

Perhaps it’s in their nature to pick on the weak. Those who have little peace for themselves take it away from those who need it the most.

Chloe wouldn’t spend any effort to remember any of the appearances or names of any students.

It wouldn’t matter whether she knew who they were or not when they took their stress out on her.

Reading a book whilst sitting in her desk, waiting for class to start, someone sat in the chair next to her.

A boy. One with dark black hair, green eyes and a plethora of freckles dotted across his plump cheeks, sat down on a chair and let a sigh of relief out as he comfortably slouched.

Then, looking around for people to talk to, he allocated the weight of his head onto his left palm and stared at the smaller of the two who was focusing on her book.

A befuddled expression was splayed across his countenance, as if he were trying to recall some ancient memory of an event that happened a long, long time ago.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

And then he recalled it, his brown coloured brows unfurrowing as he opened his mouth to speak.

“L…..Luu….Haa…C….. Caa….. Chhhh…..Chloe. That’s your name, right?” the boy questioned, his tone a confident one, as if he already knew what her answer would be, choosing to act as if he hadn’t just sounded out a few syllables to see if the expression on her face had changed so as to confirm his answer.

He waited a few seconds, time inching forward before continuing his conversation, a neutral look upon his visage.

“We met three years ago, at a funeral. Me and my father attended it and came over to greet you.” He continued, looking for any changes in the orange haired girl’s facial expression.

Lips pushed into a fine line, Aaron ruffled his black hair as he stared at the orange haired girl before him, chin supported by his left hand.

“You seem like quite the quiet type. Not talking and stuff.” He remarked, becoming a bit bored with the lack of response he achieved from the girl.

Leaning over towards her, he gently poked her shoulder a few times, causing the girl to involuntarily flinch, jolting away from his finger, before slowly becoming accustomed to his incessant prodding.

Moving her gaze over to the boy, as if questioning him as to why he’d done such a thing, her lips tightened in displeasure.

“Ah, got your attention now, haven’t I. The name’s Aaron. Aaron Smith.” he proudly exclaimed, reaching his hand out towards the girl for a handshake.

“Same~~Same~! Same! To trust and be betrayed, how befitting!" the figure quickly spitted out, the usual accompanying hysterical fit of giggles lasting for a few seconds before growing quiet once again, choosing rather to fiercely stare at the boy’s hand, eyes flickering back to the girl occasionally.

Chloe looked at Aaron’s hand, which by this point had been in the air for about fifteen seconds by now, before deciding to refocus on the book she was reading.

Aaron let out a little sigh as he saw the girl seemingly ignore his words and actions, choosing to look around the classroom for someone else to talk to.

“See! He doesn’t actually want to talk to you~~!”it giggled in delight, causing Chloe to wince at its unpleasant voice and try even harder to once again lose herself in the abyss that was the infinite knowledge that books contained.

“If only he’d just leave me alone… that’d leave me with more reading time…”she mentally grumbled.

----------------------------------------

Their interactions over the next few days were similar to what had come before them. Aaron would greet her in the morning, ask a few meaningless questions and then give up once he would get no reaction from her.

The fact that she was a mute spread quickly after she didn’t speak even when threatened with punishment by a teacher, which made him a bit more understanding as to why she wouldn’t talk to him.

Nevertheless, Aaron thought that the least she could do would be to at least acknowledge him with a simple nod or something along the lines of that.

When he’d finally managed to grasp her attention, sometimes he even felt that she looks right past him, at something else behind him.

But when he’d look for that thing, nothing but air was to be found.

Perhaps the only thing he’d managed to learn about the mute was that in order to get her attention, it was best to bring up the subject about which she was reading at the time.

Only that would maintain her attention for periods of time longer than ten or so seconds.

But then her reaction to him changed.

By the time, about two weeks had passed since the start of the school term and the bullying had started to ramp up into a noticeable habit.

A group of three girls had been leading the attacks, mainly consisting of name calling and slight shoving, nothing which the orange haired girl hadn’t experienced before.

However, what she hadn’t experienced before was someone standing up for her.

Aaron, lax as usual, wouldn’t stand for the three picking on Chloe.

He couldn’t understand what she’d done to warrant their negative attention but had decided that the mute would probably be unworthy of such horrible treatment and thus had elected to shield her whenever possible.

“It doesn’t matter what someone has done, you shouldn’t treat someone like this!” he would proclaim.

Standing in front of the girls when one of them was going in to push her, calling them out on their behaviour when they started to name call, Aaron’s actions single-handedly stopped the progression of the trio’s animosity.

Well, that wasn’t completely true.

Aaron wasn’t always with Chloe and unfortunately there were times where she’d have to put up with what cards life dealt her, as she’d done her whole life.

“That one is quite a fun book isn’t it! Thomas’s fight against the grievers was my favourite part. Yours?” Aaron asked, his nonchalant tone revealing that he had no expectation that he’d achieve an answer from his silent companion.

Chloe blankly looked towards the boy who was quite a bit taller than her before pausing to think for a few seconds.

“I like the escape sequence.” A shaky voice mumbled, attention immediately returning to the book they were reading.

“Yeah, that part was pretty goo…” Aaron replied, his speech cutting off in the middle of his sentence as his expression turned blank, slowly turning over to face the frail girl.

Analysing Chloe’s expression, which appeared as though it was a day no different from the rest, Aaron smiled and continued speaking.

He always knew that she’d open up to him eventually.