"John! Have you seen my whisk?" Dad calls from downstairs.

Why the hell would I have a whisk? I think to myself. "No, I haven't," I yell back.

"You sure? I can't find it anywhere. I can't make cake without a whisk."

"Thank god." I mutter as I pulled my favourite shirt on.

First day of high school, gotta look good. I look in the mirror and frown. My hair; shaggy and tousled, my two front teeth too long for my own good, and my ribs too prominent for my chest. Maybe that's why Dad's always making cake.

"John! You're going to be late for the bus!"

Reflexively, I rush to get my backpack and run down the stairs. "Bye Dad!"

"Try and make some buds!"

Oh god. Making friends has ever been one of my greatest skills. Hopefully today will be different.

Rushing out the door, I notice that the bus is already at the stop. I burst into a sprint and am panting by the time I got to the doors.

"Dude, you alright?" An unfamiliar voice asks.

I turn around and see a boy, but not just a boy; a beautiful, lean, boy with white-blonde hair and aviators shielding his eyes.

I guess he notices me staring and says "Did you hit your head, bro? You look like you got a concussion. You know, staring and shit."

"Um. Uh. Hi. Sorry, I um. It must be the heat."

"Yeah," he says, chuckling. "The heat."

I immediately blush and curse my incredibly pale skin, making every flush twice as obvious.

"Hm," says the boy with a smug grin. "So what's your name?"

"I uh… I'm John." I am such an idiot. "Yours?"

"Dave," he takes off his shades and winks. "Dave Strider." His eyes were the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Red, like a maraschino cherry. He puts his shades back on and shows off his dazzling teeth in beaming smile.

I feel my face shift into a goofy expression, completely unable to wipe it off.

"So," the blonde starts. "You charmed yet?"

"W-what?"

"Said, you charmed yet?"

"I think... we're almost at school." I mumble, trying not to sound like a complete dumbass.

"That we are," he says with a smirk.

As soon as the bus comes to a stop, I'm practically halfway through the door.

"Hey! Can you please watch where you're going? You nearly walked right through me," says a girl with big, round glasses. She was quite attractive, but not obnoxiously pretty. She seems nice, even though I almost stepped on her.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

She smiled at me, and I noticed that she had protruding front teeth like me. It was actually comforting to know I'm not the only one in the school with buck teeth. "So I suppose we should get going, then. We wouldn't want to be late on the first day, would we?"

"Oh right," I say with a slight smile.

"I'm Jade, by the way. What's your name?"

"John," I answer while we walk towards the school.

"Okay, John. Do you want to compare schedules to see if we have any classes together?"

"Sure," I reply. I've never met someone so welcoming and friendly. Is she like this with everyone?

When we get inside, we have a few minutes before classes start. Jade and I have almost every class together. Everything but, while she has Gardening 2 during period D, I have computer lab.

"So I guess we'll be spending quite a bit of time together," she says with a big grin of her face.

"I guess so, Jade." I smile back.