AN: "Awesome" platonic Prucan chapter request! Sorry if it's not good enough...

Paper Airplane on Your Head

Matthew – Gilbert

Matthew Williams would rather be at home crying in his pillow at this time. He had missed the first three days of school, which were very important. And now he has to tackle everything head on in one try. But, again, he would rather be at home crying. He was in no place to complain. There were worse case scenarios. This seemed to be very bad, however. Not only has he missed his first three days of the school year, this was his freshman year in high school. If he had a choice to be homeschooled, he would have definitely picked it instead.

He whined in his head and frowned. Today wasn't going so well. His friends in middle school were in only one of his classes, and his brother was nowhere all the time. And due to his quiet and reserved nature, it proved difficult to find new friends fast. Everybody was already in their small circles of friends and talking and laughing. Then there was Matthew, out of place in the busy hallway. It was the inevitable truth that sank deep into his heart and anchored it into an abyss of fear. Matthew was a bystander, and he was alone.

His grip on the textbooks tightened and he gritted his teeth in frustration. But he didn't dare let anyone else witness him in his weakest moment. Especially the teachers, upperclassmen, and freshman jerks. Okay, so pretty much everybody. He just couldn't bear the thought of someone looking at him weirdly, or trying to coax the truth out of him. Teachers were probably only paid to care, and the kids weren't even paid to go to school. So why should they bother with him?

"Think fast!" A boy from all the way across the hall threw a small rubber ball to the other side. With a fast gust of sound, the ball landed in a raised hand of a tall boy ten lockers away from him. Matthew didn't have to look at his face to know that the boy was grinning and his eyes shining.

"Lame!" the boy accused. "I could've thrown in better!" He stuck out his tongue and threw the rubber ball back. Simultaneously, lockers shut with a bang and students filed into classrooms. It was almost time for the bell and none of them wanted to be late. Except for the boy who was ten lockers down from Matthew.

Matthew sniffed and gathered up enough courage to walk into the last classroom of the day. He found it the most calm of his classes. The teacher would always teach them, and thanks to Matthew's limited knowledge of French, it was slightly difficult to keep up. But he enjoyed listening to stories of French fairy tales and famous people. It was nice to have the teacher talking about fairy tales as Matthew worked on his assignment. He figured he should try his best in this class, at least, since he was good at learning new languages.

"Hey! Hey!" boy-ten-lockers-down said. Matthew looked up from the floor (It was to keep from tripping over nothing, he didn't want to look stupid in front of everyone else.) and at the boy's face. He had strange red eyes hiding behind tufts of platinum blond hair. His mouth pinched into a pleading grin. "Do you know where room one-forty-two is?" He looked at Matthew expectantly.

It took five seconds for Matthew to realize what was going on. "Uh... head to the hallway on the right."

Panic rushed throughout his throat. He pulled on the door he just came out of. It was locked. Back to the door he was supposed to walk through. It was locked like the last time he checked.

He was supposed to be on his way to the second class of the day until he realized he forgot one of his books. As quickly as he could, he power-walked ("No running in the hallway!") back to his locker and tried to unlock his lock. With the luck he had, the lock didn't open. He groaned and went back to the lock. After the second try, it opened and he grabbed the book fast and he shut and locked the locker. Then he power-walked once more to get to the other building that held his next classroom. He exited with ease and tried to pull the door open...

Matthew felt a prickle at the corners of his eyes. No. He couldn't. He would not cry. If help didn't get here, then he would just-

The door to the main building opened. Matthew felt a wave of relief jump up. "Do you know how to open that door?!" he blurted. Matthew immediately regretted his outburst. The boy-which Matthew realized was the boy-ten-lockers-down-raised a brow.

"I have a key," he answered calmly. But he couldn't resist a grin. Freshmen. He walked to the building and opened the door. He entered and let Matthew inside before closing the door.

Matthew swallowed the urge to cry and entered the classroom late to class. He knew that this would be the worst second day of school in his entire life.

The phone's clock blinked 6:00. Matthew placed the phone on his pillow with its screen down. He pulled up the covers and curled into a ball. No way. No way was he getting out of here. After that dreadful first two days, who knows how bad the third day would be. His rebellion was cut short when his brother happily jumped on him to get Matthew up. It worked too well.

Today Matthew's face was plastered with a sniveling and vexed look. He was also tired-if that affected anything. He walked off the bus and into the school. He whined through his throat. This would be the absolute worst day. Matthew continued down the hallway to his locker.

For the second time that day, his actions were cut short. But this time it was a bit different. And it led to something strange. A paper plane landed perfectly atop his head. He glanced up and groaned. Matthew was thinking of crushing it into a ball and throwing the paper at someone's head. Though, the boy-ten-lockers-down came running up to him.

"Sorry. I need that." He took the plane off of Matthew's head. As he did so, a small look of suspicion covered his face. The boy must have noticed Matthew's pained expression. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Matthew lied.

"That's always a lie," the boy said, rolling his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I've been having trouble..." Matthew hesitated, "with school."

"Then just make it fun!" The boy made his way to walk back to his locker, but Matthew's quiet statement cut him short.

"What if I can't?"

The boy-ten-lockers-down didn't want to look back. He did anyways. With a small wave good-bye, the boy grinned and said: "You'll be okay, kid."

Matthew looked down at his hands. He didn't know what to do next.

Until a familiar looking piece of paper flew into his palms.

Disclaimer: This is based off of real situations I have experienced, give or take a few details. I still don't have any friends after day 3. They're all gone, and I feel like I am as well.