"Hey, guys!"
The group of friends turned to see the leader of their little team coming over the cluster of desks. They all greeted him warmly and one of them pulled out the chair next to them. He plopped down and, after dropping his bag on the ground, he leaned forward with an excited grin on his face.
"Did you hear? A new kid is coming to this school!"
"Yeah, I did," his closest friend answered. "Supposedly he's a big genius."
"Oh! I heard that, too!" one of the only girls chirped with a smile of awe. "It's rumored that he skipped two or three grades. I mean, that's super smart!"
The leader looked a bit surprised. "Really? That's pretty sweet."
"Dude, I heard that the kid's dad is, you know, the General."
They all stared at their quieter friend in shock. "No way," the leader breathed. "The one that fought alongside my dad?"
"Yes. But it makes me curious about what his personality would be like. From what I've learned, the army was not kind to the General when he was forced to retire."
A few desks away, a student listened to their conversation. He was completely silent, staring forward and chewing on the toothpick in his mouth as if uninterested, but his ears were twitched back so he could hear what they were saying.
"So, what do you think this kid will be like?" one of the other girls asked, looking specifically at their leader.
The boy's eyes were excited. "I think he's going to be a super cool, super-talented guy. Possibly the strong and silent type because his dad is, you know, the General. I'm not sure he'd be crazy athletic, but he's got to be a little."
"You really are excited about this, aren't you?" his closest friend chuckled.
He nodded fervently. "Yeah. It's been a while since we've had a new kid. He may even become one of us." Then he pointed himself. "The office gave me the job of showing him around next Monday. I'll introduce him to you guys."
The quieter one looked down at the table. He seemed clearly troubled about something. One of the girls sitting next to him looked at him with concern. "You okay?"
"I don't think he's going to be like that at all."
His excited friend then looked at him curiously. "You don't? Why not?"
He tapped on the desk for a few seconds, contemplating. "He is extremely intelligent, but he will be very quiet and soft-spoken. Something tells me he has been bullied his entire life, so he will be very nervous around others when he moves here. He's probably extremely poor because the General had a permanent injury and was not given any retirement money or anything like that. The kid is extremely withdrawn and keeps his feelings out of sight from others. It's extremely difficult for him to make friends, or even take a compliment for that matter. I also feel that he works extremely hard but is not doing what he wants to. But, overall, I feel that he is an extremely optimistic person in bad situations, even though he himself is extremely depressed and wants everything to just end."
There was a small silence of surprise. The eavesdropper's eyebrows even raised in shock. "Wow," the leader kid breathed. "That's intense. How do you know all that?"
"It's just a hunch."
He didn't know just how right he was.
You're going to have to guess who's who because I'm not telling. ^^ This one's a bit short too, but I promise the next one will be longer.