The sky was completely dark and gloomy, perfectly reflecting Lukas' mood of choice at the moment. Overcast clouds tinted an uninteresting dull gray. Drizzling turned into rain, which turned into thunder, which turned into pelting hail. Lightning tore dangerously through the sky, its electric tendrils followed by an ear-splitting crack of thunder. You'd think that would cause a person to jump, or even twitch, but Lukas didn't even bother. Today was awful. Or rather, it was going to be. In some people's opinions, today was the most miserable day of the year.

The first day of school.

The Norwegian was going to be a senior, but that didn't matter much to him. The subjects were far too easy and uninteresting for his tastes. He just got bored. He felt he was ready to stop attending high school when he was a freshman. Life was getting terribly monotonous. A broken record that showed no sign of stopping. What was the point? When you didn't have a single friend to your name except for your brother, who was going to be a sophomore. And unfortunately, nobody thought hanging out with sophomores was 'cool'. Like Lukas really cared much at all.

"One more year.." he muttered to himself, letting his deep indigo eyes fall shut. The drone of clacking and skittering hail was almost a comfort.

The past few years of school consisted of him being mocked, scorned, and teased. He forced himself to be impassive. A blank stone slate. To show no reactions or weakness, after all, that's exactly what the idiotic teenagers wanted. They delighted in others pain but complained and whined dramatically if they were ever in the same situation. A load of vile hypocrites, fashion zombies, and cliques stormed the halls. What was the point of school if none of the other kids tried to learn?

You see.. Lukas wasn't exactly what you'd call 'popular'. He was slender – even too skinny in most of the girl's minds. He was pale and fair-skinned, something always frowned upon in high school. Despite the dangers of skin cancer and scalding sunburns, everyone longed to be 'gloriously' tan.

Bet they'll love it when they have crow's feet at the age of twenty-five. Lukas mused to himself.

He had a head of ashy blonde hair, nearing white, but not quite there. His brother, Emil, was even blonder than he was. Lukas' bangs had long since grown out, but he had never figured out how to cut them and make them look, well... good. Even if he wasn't the most popular guy around, he still wanted to look presentable. Instead, he pinned them to the side with a white cross clip his mother had owned. It was girly, and the students knew it. They teased him for it, as usual. But what else was he supposed to do? Emil had 'generously' offered to cut them once, but Lukas quickly turned him down without a second thought. He remembered when his brother had cut the dogs hair instead of taking it to the groomers'. He left an unrecognizable jagged hairy mess all over the carpet. The oddest thing about Lukas' hair was the curl that stuck out from his hair. No matter what he did – hairspray, gel, water.. it would always spring back up and defy gravity. And he hated it when people touched it.

The Norwegian didn't happen to have any muscle. He couldn't play any sports. He was fast – which mainly meant he was good at running away. But he completely lacked the stamina to ever compete in any events. PE was dull and pure torture. His favorite part of the class was when he got to sit out and read one of his thick, hard-backed novels.

Lukas supposed his best feature was probably his eyes, but he thought even they seemed too feminine. His irises were a deep, dark shade of brilliant indigo. His eyelashes were a bit thicker and darker than the average boys' and framed his eyes almost perfectly.

"Lukas?" a curious, concerned voice sounded beside him.

He had forgotten he was walking to school with Emil today. "What is it?" he asked, sounding impatient without meaning to.

"You just seemed out of it... are you alright?" Emil blinked his pale violet eyes once, frowning slightly.

".. Yeah." Lukas answered after a moment, with a small nod. "It's just the first day of school and everything. I'm fine."

The snowy-haired teen let out a small laugh. "This is your last year. I still have three more to go. You're lucky."

"Tell me about it.." the Norwegian muttered seriously under his breath, but Emil didn't seem to catch any of it over the pounding of hail.

The school loomed up ahead, having long since passed its glory days. The plaster on the outside of the building was crumbled and cracking, partly obscured in some areas by long, clingy tendrils of ivy.

It was a dump.

They tried to cover the mess up with landscaping, but it was done with shoddy workmanship. Whoever they hired had just been forced to plant the trees and flowers through community service or something of the sort. There was no exact pattern to the layout of things, just a jumbled and insane mess. The trees and other plants didn't go together – some were too tall, some were too wide, and some were too bare. But that's high school for you.

Emil let out a small sigh and crossed his arms. "Anyone I should watch out for?"

Lukas rolled his eyes, "Everyone."

"Thanks." he snorted softly in response before heading up the worn stone steps. "I was supposed to meet a teacher this morning to see if I could get into an AP class..." Emil trailed off, looking guiltily at Lukas. He hadn't wanted to leave his brother all alone, but there wasn't much of a choice.

"Whatever." the Norwegian waved him off with a deep sigh. "Go ahead, I'll be fine." Though, he wasn't exactly sure about that. Every year, there were new kids at their school. And new kids loved to make fun of the old ones.

"Okay, if you're sure.." Emil nodded slightly and gave his brother a quick hug before turning and jogging hurriedly into the building. Thank goodness! I'm already late...

Lukas lingered on the steps for several moments, the chill of outside beginning to creep into his bones. It was freezing, a lot like his personality. The truth is, he was reluctant to go inside. Another year of this? He wasn't completely sure if he was capable of pushing through it again.

A minute passed.

Another.

Before he knew it, the bell rang shrilly – signaling it was time for students to be in class. He had completely zoned out, but was shocked forcibly back into reality by the annoying scream of the bell.

Late on my first day. What else is there to be expected? He gritted his teeth and forced his numb, cold body up the steps and through the glass doors. Lukas didn't care enough to remember his schedule, so he headed towards the office sluggishly to pick it up from one of the secretaries. At least they weren't total bitches.

Just as he was about to reach for the handle of the office door, the wooden door swung into him with a loud crack and sent him sprawling to the ground. Books spilled out of his backpack, reading being the only thing he did during class.

"Oh, shit!" someone swore and Lukas could see a figure crouching beside him out of his peripheral vision. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, man.." The teen sounded unsure about the 'man' part.

The Norwegian simply hissed in annoyance and attempted to shove whoever the hell it was away. They didn't really want to help him anyways. He narrowed his eyes and rested his gaze on quite possibly the most annoying and.. handsome thing he had ever seen.

The teen in front of him has dazzling cobalt eyes that seemed to almost shimmer. The corners of his eyes crinkled slightly as his face held a sheepish and guilty grin. His dirty blonde hair was mussed and gelled messily – but it was that perfect tousled look most of the dimwitted jocks tried to go for. Man, they were no match for whoever this was, as much as he hated to admit it. "Ouch.. you're kind of feisty, huh?" he held out his hand. "I really didn't mean to knock you over."

Lukas took it begrudgingly and hauled himself to his feet with the boy's help. However, he remained silent – looking utterly grumpy.

"What's your name?" the blonde in front of him asked, crouching and beginning to pick up Lukas' spilled books and things.

The Norwegian began to look puzzled. He wasn't sure what game this kid was playing, but the teasing was sure to come soon. Right? ".. Lukas. Why?"

"Maybe it was fate that I bumped into you, yeah?" he laughed and straightened up, holding out the books. "Heh, just kidding. My name's Mathias. I figured maybe I should know at least one person here that isn't a teacher before I get to class."

Lukas took the books cautiously and carefully from Mathias, surveying him more than he probably should have. He noticed the teen in front of him was lean, but well-muscled. Extremely well-muscled. "You're new?" he questioned dully, raising an eyebrow. Something about Mathias' laugh made his chest flutter slightly. Strangely. It almost made him happy.

"Yeah. I just transferred here – foreign exchange student. You know the deal." Mathias grinned cockily, revealing a set of bright, white teeth. "I'm from Denmark."

"Oh."

"Let me tell you.. English was a pain in the ass to learn..." the Dane paused. "Hey, you've been here for a few years, right?"

"Since freshman. Why?" Lukas sighed and tensed up slightly. He half-expected 'Mathias' to now ask him to do all his future homework. Or at least threaten to. It hadn't been the first time.

"I don't really know where any of the classes are..." he began, looking slightly embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Could you help me out?"

The Norwegian's eyes widened just a fraction but he found himself nodding timidly. "I just have to get my schedule.."

"Don't worry..! I'll get it for you." Mathias suddenly offered loudly, dashing back into the office. Lukas didn't even have time to say anything, let alone react. He returned seconds later with a piece of paper. "There's only one Lukas in the school – so I'm guessing that's you, right?" he smiled and held out the schedule.

Lukas nodded and began scanning his schedule. His first class was Photography. He didn't really have a great interest in the subject, it was just filling an empty slot in his schedule. He'd half-ass his way through it like usual and still get an A.

"Judging by how you look..." Mathias began, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "You must be a sophomore, right?"

"Senior."

The Dane laughed, "Oh, sorry. You're just so short.." he abruptly trailed off after spotting the look on the smaller teen's face. "That means you're in my grade, then!"

".. Great." he rolled his eyes.

"I know! What's your first class?" Mathias crouched and tried to peer at Lukas' schedule.

The Norwegian snatched it out of his view. "Photography." he replied, but added in a mutter, "Not like it's any of your business..."

"Hey! That's mine too!" the Dane exclaimed excitedly, holding his schedule about a centimeter from Lukas' eyes. "I want to be a photographer when I graduate."

"Lovely.. but I didn't really ask."

"I know. I just wanted to tell you, you know?" Mathias shrugged his shoulders, the grin dropping slightly.

No, Lukas didn't know. But he didn't want to get into some long-winded argument that would leave him even more pissed off to be here. Except.. strangely he was in a lot better mood than usual. Hm, maybe he'd actually enjoy photography. Even if he had an obnoxious Dane sitting beside him. "Oh."

"Lead the way?" the Dane blinked his blue eyes expectantly.

"... Alright." as Lukas headed down the hallway, he was completely unaware of what he'd be getting himself into.