A lump had began to form in the back of Artie's throat as he rolled down the middle school halls. Everything smelled so fresh, like a new beginning, and though this year could be viewed as such, to him, every school year is a new opportunity to be tipped, pranked, and harassed. Luckily, he knew his way around this school, but that really didn't make a difference with over a hundred kids of varying ages crowding the halls and clogging the air with their chatter and gossip. Slowly yet surely, carefully maneuvering the ever changing maze of school children, he found his way to his locker, and then, to his classroom. A paper reading 'ROOM 6A- MRS BARNES' was plastered on the door with some packing tape as he entered the room who's door was left open. There were very few kids in the room considering most of them wished to catch up with the friendships that layer dormant over the summer. However, there were about 3 or 4 kids occupying the homeroom. His eyes scanned the room, all of the kids were new, or at least were so insignificant that they were never noticed by him before. There was a boy who sat in the front row who's appearance was a carbon copy of about 85% of the boys at the school, the next kid was nearly the same, except his skin tone was a different shade and his eyes a different color. Then, in the very back row, sat a girl who had stunning bobbed black hair, and a nail polish color to match. As a matter of fact, almost every article of clothing she wore was black, excluding the pops of dark purple that graced her Converse, headband, and shirt lining. Her face was buried in the crook of her elbow as she doodled something in her notebook. Artie couldn't help but stare at the girl, for she was so interesting His gaze upon the girl was broken by his homeroom teacher saying with enthusiasm, "Good morning! You must be Artie, Ms. Golden told me so much about you, she said you had the highest test score in her 5th grade class!" . The woman was quite tall, with amazingly long, dirty blonde hair. Her face seemed to have an almost permanent grin,which was rather eery in a sense. He smiled timidly pushing up the glasses as they inched farther and father off the bridge of his nose and nodded to the teacher. Soon after, breaking the brief moment of silence he said with a faked smile, "Oh, thank you. And good morning to you as well…Mrs. Barnes!" "Make yourselves at home! We have pencils over here and the sharpener is right over there!" the woman added as he began rolling to the back of the classroom, the teacher gesturing as she showed the children who were in general just ignoring her where to get writing utensils. He reached the back of the room where and chose the seat next to the black haired girl. An instant look of distress was brought to her face as he rolled beside her. It was if she was a feral dog, raised in a way where humans are something to be feared and avoided. In a way, that philosophy was not wrong, since in general the things the human race does to harm outweighs the amount of good we put in. Artie gave her a shy, toothy smile and said, "Hi, I'm Artie, what's your name?" The girl's fear that lingered in her eyes was still there, but her body language showed that she knew this boy was not a threat. "I-I-I'm T-Tina…" she said with the faintest smile on her face. "Are you new? I mean I dont think I've seen you around here before." he replied with a shrug. The girl he now knew as Tina nodded, not looking up from her paper where it appeared she was drawing a sketch of a dress. "I-I T-t-transfered from G-Gray M-M-Mountain…". Understandable, the young boy thought to himself. Of course, Gray Mountain is a hell hole, it's even worse then this place, and this place was horrible as it was. Artie nodded as his eyes that were shielded by large square glasses glanced at her sketchbook. A dark blue gown with one sleeve that draped over the shoulder with purple embellishments on the bodice. Each detail was drawn exquisitely, lots of time obviously put into ever little line. "Those are really, really good, Tina." Artie said with an impressed look. Tina's head jolted back to him, their eyes locking. "U-Uh T-T-Thank you…" she said, with a surprised, yet glad look in her brown eyes. He knew what she must have been feeling. Every day since the accident for they first year, he felt that way. It was as if he had to let the wheelchair do the talking, and as much as it almost unnecessarily frightened some people, it certainly did save him a lot of explaining, even though he still had to explain it on a weekly basis, and in the beginning, daily basis. Compliments were rare, but they were like treasured gems. When you get a compliment, not just for your "bravery", because that was just a gimmick to make kids with disabilities feel good, but a real, genuine compliment. It showed that someone was noticing you, and not the most prevalent thing about you, and to know that someone was able to look past that, felt more refreshing then anything in the world. The two made small talk, the students piling in the homeroom one by one, two by two, and so had taken a seat next to Tina and Brady Davenport, a short stubby boy who's face was COVERED in freckles. Mrs. Barnes started us off by having them say a little something interesting about themselves. "My name is Courtney Oliver and I like to go ice skating!" one girl exclaimed "My name is Henry Natts and I got a dog named Snooks over the summer.", a boy said with glee. Though Artie never really did have a fear of public speaking, when he was one of the only kids left, he was slightly intimidated. He cleared his throat before saying in a puberty-cracked voice, "My name's Artie, and over the summer I learned how to play the guitar." he said with a shrug. His life hasn't been all that extravagant, even before the accident happened. His family never did anything adventurous. Every day they went the same places, when they came home, they ate the same meal, and the cycle repeated daily. However, the young boy had started to blossom, even if it was only prevalent to himself. A year ago, he would've died thinking about learning an instrument and performing, and singing? Forget that. But now, every day after school, he would go in his bedroom, and sing for hours, strumming the guitar in time. A few more kids stated their interesting facts, and soon enough, "Tina Cohen Chang!" was announced, and her face turned flush white, she looked as if she was going to vomit, or cry, or both simultaneously. "I-I-I'm T-T-Tina C-Cohen C-C-Chang and I….." You could hear a chuckle coming from somewhere in the classroom as the girl stumbled over her words. Mrs. Barnes glared at the unnamed student, making the muffled laughter end abruptly. Before getting any farther, a tear began to fall down her cheek. It was as if everyone's eyes were lazers, and each one gave her a third degree burn. The teacher walked over to her and wrapped one of her long arms around her shoulder and uttered to her, "Good job, sweetie.", before proclaiming, "Can we all give our friend Tina a hand?". Many kids clapped, not really caring and finding the whole thing rather comical. Artie, however, he locked eyes with her yet again and this time, instead of being the only one who made her paranoid, he was the only one who made her feel welcome, and safe.