„Hurry up, come on!" Warren told himself as he ran over the campus.
First day of the new school year and he was already late for class. Warren raced up the stone steps to Blackwell's entrance and opened the heavy door. He ran through the hall so fast, he almost crashed into the janitor Samuel.
"Sorry!" Warren called out.
He didn't want Samuel to think it was on purpose. The janitor was such a friendly pal, but he was bullied badly by a lot of other students. Sure, he was a bit weird. Weird, but still nice. Warren came to a halt in front of his classroom. At least the door was still open, so he didn't have to apologise to Ms. Grant. He hesitated for a moment.
"Ready for a new year of being bullied?" a mean voice said in the back of his head.
The usual insecurities again. Taking encouragement from the fact that this was his favourite subject, science class, and he knew nearly all the answers, Warren calmed down.
Sure, people like that rich bastard Nathan Prescott would bully him everywhere and at any time, calling him nerd or geek, but in science class Warren always felt a bit tougher.
"Don't worry, you still know how to blow up Nathan's room if he annoys you" Warren thought, smiling lightly, and took a deep breath before entering the classroom.
His usual classmates were all sitting at their desks, most of them staring at their precious phones. Glancing around the room, Warren saw his friends Alyssa and Kate sitting in the back, smiling at him. There was a free seat next to them, and he gladly started walking towards it, when he noticed another girl sitting in the back. She, too, was looking down at her phone, and Warren was sure he hadn't seen her before at school. It took him a moment before he realised how pretty she was. Her hair was short and brown, her skin rather pale, and even from the distance Warren could see the freckles on her face. Slowly moving, he tried to figure out what to do next.
"Should I sit down next to her? Damn, I bet she thinks I'm creepy if I do, we don't even know each other."
Warren mumbled a "Good morning" to Alyssa and Kate, both watching him as he strolled behind the unknown girl.
"Sure she thinks I'm weird if I sit down now… but Alyssa and Kate are here so it would kinda look like I just want to sit next to my friends…"
Indecisively, he stood there, when his gaze fell onto the girl's phone. Warren felt his stomach tingle. She was looking at 9gag, his favourite website. Suddenly, he knew exactly what to say.
"Hello, fellow 9gagger."
The girl looked up at him and smiled. Warren grinned too, blushing. She really was beautiful. Her clear blue eyes scanned his face before she answered.
"Hi."
After a short awkward pause, Warren's brain seemed to start working again.
"Uhm…is this seat already taken?" he asked, clearly feeling how hot his face was.
"Oh, no, please sit down." She answered, taking her bag from the chair next to her, and surprisingly, Warren saw her blush lightly too.
"Okay, dude, get your shit together now" he told himself while sitting down. Why did he have to be so nervous now?
"I'm Warren, by the way" he said casually, taking another look at her.
"Oh, hi Warren, I'm Max." Max. An unusual, but nice name. Warren got a grip on himself before he answered.
"So Max… I haven't seen you here before. Are you new at Blackwell?"
"Yes. Or, not really. My family moved to Seattle five years ago, but I grew up here in Arcadia Bay"
"Oh nice. What made you come back?" Warren studied her freckled face.
"Well, Blackwell is the best photography school and I always wanted to be a photographer. And I actually managed to get a scholarship and Mark Jefferson is teaching here so… so I thought it's time to come back." Max finished her sentence breathlessly.
Warren noticed she was twitching her bracelets between her fingers. Did she feel nervous, too? He didn't want to give her the impression that she was talking too much. Trying to think about what he could answer, he noticed the little Polaroid camera on her table. Damn, how speechless she made him.
"I see, you're an artist." Warren finally answered, pointing at the camera.
Max grinned at him.
"Yeah, I like to instantly capture a nice moment and kind of… keep it with me. So I always use the Polaroid instead of digital cameras. So I have the actual picture in my pocket. It's totally stone-age, I know"
"No, it's not, that's cool!" Warren assured her sincerely. He kinda wished she would take a picture of him now, stating it was a nice moment when she met him. Before he could drift off in his dreams, Max began to speak again.
"So what about you, Warren? Did you grow up here, too?"
They continued chatting about different themes and Warren not only found out that Max liked the same music as him, but also played World of Warcraft, one of his favourite games. It was amazing how easy it suddenly became to talk to her. Warren even asked her to play together sometime. And she actually said yes! Feeling like it could be a rather nice first day of school, it took Warren a great amount of self-control to stay quiet when Ms. Grant entered the room and started her lesson.