== BEGIN
Your name is JOHN EGBERT. You are excited and just a little bit terrified.
You are excited because today is your first day of high school. You are terrified because it's your first day of high school in a new town wherein you have no friends, save for your adopted sister Jade, who totally doesn't count because she's your sister and she lives with you.
You never worried much about your appearance before today, because you'd never moved before, so it wasn't such a big deal. The only time you remember fussing over your clothes and hair this much was your first day of kindergarten, because shit, you were five and it was your first day of "big kid school". After about twenty minutes of holding up shirts to your chest and comparing sweaters, you realize it's stupid and pull a plain blue sweater over a white button-up shirt, jeans, and black Converse over your tall, skinny frame. You stare at your hair for a minute, then give up on that entirely. It would look the same at the end of the day as it did now, you figure, so you push your rectangle glasses up your nose and admire your handiwork.
"John! Hurry up! We're going to be late!" calls Jade from somewhere on the lower level of the house. You scoop up your book bag on the way out, turn, and salute your ConAir poster. As soon as you're downstairs, a piece of toast is ungraciously shoved into your mouth.
"Eat, eat, eat, hurry up!" Jade says. She's clad in a long denim skirt, brown work boots, and a green shirt with various plants on it. She's jumpy and rather adorable, but you wont say that out loud because she's your sister and NO. Her brown hair is pulled back in some kind of fancy braid that she did herself because she's good at things like that.
"Jade, stop jumping! You're going to hurt yourself! Besides, we have plenty of time." You say, wiping toast crumbs off your face. You finish off a glass of milk and Jade thrusts a lunchbox into your hand and pulls you by the arm out the door. You barely get to say good bye to your father before you and your sister are running full tilt to the bus stop. You glance at your watch. 7:32. Class starts at 8:10. I roll your eyes in Jade's general direction.
"Oh! John! I almost forgot!" She drops her bright green bag on the ground and kneels in front of it, unclipping something from on of the zippers. She dangles the accessory in your face. It's a little yellow salamander with a bright blue tongue.
"What's that for?" you ask.
"Luck, I suppose. I don't really know what. I just felt like you ought to have it." She clips it onto your bag and gestures to a blue-colored string tied around her thumb. She pulls her backpack up onto her shoulders in time for the bus to pull up in front of you. Your bus driver is oldish and not completely unattractive.
"This is the bus to the high school, right?" You ask, stepping up into the vehicle gingerly. The bus driver nods and ushers you and Jade onto the bus. Not quite at ease yet, you find a seat and pull your bag onto your lap, and Jade follows suit. You look around, more and more nervous and excited and terrified as time rolls on. The first thing you notice is the boy across the aisle, slouching against the wall of the bus, taking an entire seat to himself. His hair is blonde- Really, really blonde. His skin is pale, like he never sees the sun, which he probably doesn't behind those large, dark, and pointed shades that hide his face. You can just barely make out a line of light freckles across his nose. He's got large headphones around his neck and you suppose he's looking at an iPod or similar device. He's clad in jeans and a red long-sleeved shirt, with a white shirt pulled over it. There's a design that looks like a broken record on it. A dull red bag is pushed half under the bus seat.
Your name is JOHN EGBERT, and you are suddenly debating your sexuality.
