The first few weeks are weird. He's been used to seeing a green boy for about six years, so waking up and seeing a white kid with his eyes and hair and no tail was more than a little jarring for a few days.

Going out with friends, he finds, is both easy and difficult. Easy because they've known him for years and are more than willing to make him feel "human" as possible. And difficult because he's been so acclimated to being a literal fly on the wall at times that he gets surprised when someone asks for his order at a restaurant. Or when two girls pass him by and he realizes that yes, they're calling him cute and he can act on it.

After a few weeks, he realizes that he can go to actual school now. He decides to spend a day at Central City High and Gotham Academy with Bart and Tim, respectively. Bart's school is longer (or at least feels that way), but the food is good and the people are nice.

Tim's is more preppy and he finds himself alone more because Tim is with some girl named Stephanie, but there's nothing bad about it. He decides to go to Bart's for two reasons. First off, the school makes him feel more at ease than GA. For some reason, being at the academy dressed in a suit constantly makes him feel like he did something wrong, and makes him feel a bit like Luthor.

For another thing, there's the girl in Bart's English class that he can't seem to stop thinking about. They're sitting in the middle of the class, and he asks for a pencil. She's reading—Poe, if he read the spine correctly—and not paying much attention to him, so he has to tap her three times to get her attention.

"Hi," he says weakly.

"Hi," she repeats. He can't help but look at her amethyst eyes and think they're so mesmerizing.

"C-can I borrow a pencil?"

Wordlessly, she hands him one before asking about him. He tells her he's "shadowing" school with Bart. He asks her name, and as replies with one word before class starts.

"Rachel."

Is it a bit cliché for him to go to a specific school just because of a girl? Maybe. But after years of shape shifting, fish people, aliens, and a freaking time traveler, he thinks he's earned the right for some human clichés.

He doesn't know what it is about her that he finds fascinating, all he knows is that he'll be looking forward to English class every day.