The shriek of the school bell rang out at an early 7:30 in the morning. As students ran across the sun drenched pavements, a wave of dread filled nostalgia rolled through Madeline's body. As boring as her summer had been, she was definitely not looking forward to walking through the loud halls, filled with judgmental wannabe homecoming princesses, their arrogant-yet genetically perfect-boyfriends, and incoming freshman, who had more terror on their faces than a mouse when it saw a cat. Yet she powered through it, grabbing her books off of the table she had been taking shade in, and walking forward with a deep sigh. As she entered the building, the stench of multiple perfumes and colognes hit her nostrils in an instant, making her cough excessively, until she felt a hand become placed on her back. Warily, she turned around, only to make eye contact with a pair of gorgeous green eyes. They were filled with concern, much more concern than the idiots bumping into her left and right had, that was for sure. They looked warm-welcoming, almost-and it would've been pretty damn sweet of this stranger to be helping her, if he weren't, well, a stranger.
"Well?" The stranger asked, shaking a water bottle in his one hand while removing his other hand away from her back. "Will you be needing this?" He shook the water bottle back and forth once again, the look of concern in his eyes now replaced with somewhat annoyance and confusion.
"Uh, thanks," She answered quietly, a lump suddenly in her throat, preventing her from projecting her voice. Clearing her throat quickly, she opened the bottle and quickly took a few sips, curious and eager to find out who this guy was. "Sorry I hadn't heard you before, these halls are pretty lou-" She tried explaining herself as she turned around, but the stranger was suddenly gone, replaced by rushing students, slamming their locker doors closed with looks of panic on their faces.
Three classes had gone by before Madeline was starting to wish she had taken her mother up on the offer to go to school online. "No mom, I at least have a few friends, I'll be fine." She had reasoned with her mother this morning during breakfast. She snorted to herself at the thought, naive enough to think that seeing her sparse amount of friends 2 out of the 7 hours of the day would be good enough to soften the blow of having to deal with being alone during 80% of her classes. What a stupid decision she had made. Tapping her pencil quietly, she glanced around the room. Nobody actually appeared to be paying attention to the teacher, whom seemed to think that trigonometry was the answer to every problem in the world. Most were just texting behind their books or under their desks, glancing up occasionally as if to appear like they actually cared. Near the front of the room, sat a boy with semi curly hair, worn in a mess. He seemed a bit familiar, but Madeline couldn't quite place it. She assessed him inconspicuously, from his worn-out band t-shirt, past his dark skinny jeans, all the way down to his dark shoes. Although some might think he was dressed only the way a basketcase would be, she found it intriguing. A person at this school who was more interested in expressing their personality than their taste for labels. Fascinating. She watched as he turned his head, and caught a slight glimpse of his facial features before her eyes widened. It was the stranger from this morning. He was chewing on the tip of his pen cap, seeming as anxious as everyone else to get out of class. In almost an instant, his eyes flicked quickly over to her, and for a few seconds, their eyes met. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably before turning completely and hunching over his notebook, writing down god knows what. Madeline could feel her face flush in embarrassment over being caught. How could she have been stupid enough to stare? She looked at the clock, relieved to see that there were only 5 minutes of class remaining. Only 5 minutes left to wallow in her own embarrassment before going to lunch and telling her friends how much of an idiot she truly was.