Leo sat idly in class waiting for the bell to ring. He opened the book he recently checked out of the library. The book was nothing overly special, but it was enough to distract him. . . only to be brought back to the real world by Niles violently shaking him. "What do you want?" Leo asked not bothering to disguise the annoyance in his voice.

"Lookie over there," Niles pointed to a girl in the front of the class. She had very long silver hair pulled into a high ponytail who was turned away from them talking to the teacher. Leo had never seen her before, odds were that she was more than likely a new student. "She's real cute. It's not often that we get fresh meat." Niles licked his lips.

Leo suppressed the urge to gag and questioned why he was even friends with such a pervert. "Keep it in your pants," Leo sighed.

"Hey Rapunzel!" Some guys from the other side of the class hollered and threw a paper ball at the new girl.

"What did you just call me?" The paper ball bounced off the back of the new girl's head and she, or rather he turned around. He, although looking like a she from behind due to his long hair, was quite obviously a boy.

Laughter came from the same group of guys who threw the paper. "Dude, he totally looks like a girl. That's so gay."
The teacher turned around and gave the boys a dirty look, "Do you want to go to the principle's office?" She snapped.
"No ma'am," the group of boys faked guilt.

Both Leo and the new boy rolled their eyes. The new boy took a seat at the empty desk behind Leo.
Leo learned the boy's name was Takumi. He didn't pay much mind to Takumi for two reasons. First of all, Takumi was behind him and the teacher would've nagged his ear off if he turned around to try to talk to Takumi. Secondly, Takumi didn't do much to try to strike up conversation. In fact, Leo could hear Takumi tapping away on his phone whenever there was a small break.

Leo's day went on as per usual. At lunch, Leo couldn't help but notice Takumi. After all, having unnaturally long hair, even for a girl, and sitting alone would draw at least some attention.

"Hey! Leo? Leeeeeeoooooo?" Odin was waving his hand frantically in front of Leo's face.

"What?!" Leo's focus snapped back to his friends.

"You seem so distracted," Niles said following Leo's gaze. Niles saw Leo was staring at Takumi. "Oh," Niles smirked. "You've been looking at the new boy all day. Do you have a crush on him."

"Shut up," Leo rolled his eyes drowning out the kissing noises Niles was making.

"Imagine it," Niles smirked. "Oh Takumi," he said in a voice badly mimicking Leo's, "Take me Takumi."

Leo punched Niles in the arm, "Shut up."

"Hey," Niles held up his hands grinning. "I call it like I see it."

At the end of the day the bell rung and people nearly flew out of the class. Leo took his time packing his things. He double checked making sure he had everything he needed. He walked out of the classroom to nearly empty halls. People really didn't waste any time leaving the school. As he took his leave, he noticed Takumi waiting on a bench outside of school. He considered saying something but then decided against it.

Leo got into Camilla's car and they drove home.

"How was school darling?" Camilla asked.

"I'm not a kid anymore Camilla, you can't keep calling me 'darling'," Leo replied.

"Sorry," Camilla said. Both of them knew she was going to call Leo darling no matter what his age. "How was your day?"
"It was fine," Leo stated.

"Fine good or fine bad?" Camilla inquired.

"It was just fine," Leo shrugged. "There's this new kid, Takumi." Leo thought about Takumi then wondered why he all day his thoughts always seemed to wander back to Takumi. Leo just assumed it had to have been the most interesting thing to happen during Leo's time in high school, second only to when a senior blew up one of the cafeteria microwaves during Leo's freshmen year.

They pulled up to the house and Leo got out. He walked in and went directly to his room. He tried to work on his homework as he drowned out the sounds of Elise describing her day in vivid detail to Camilla from downstairs. He wondered how it was humanly possible for one person to make so much noise. After he was done with his homework, Leo went downstairs for dinner. Camilla, as usual, had prepared dinner.

After dinner, Leo texted Niles and Odin for a while. He eventually called it a night and shut off the lights. He laid in his bed when he heard the garage door open. A door slammed and heavy footsteps made their way from the garage to the kitchen. At first Leo couldn't make anything out besides incoherent yelling.

"You ungrateful child!" Leo's father shouted followed by a loud smack. His speech was slurred and he was obviously drunk. "You have no right to talk to me like that in my own household!"

"But father-" Camilla cried out in protest. Her words were only followed by another smack and more shouting. After another ten or so minutes of shouting and everything soon grew quiet.

Leo closed his eyes and tried to sleep.