Thank you so much to Andromeda Writes for helping me to fix this one ^^

The bus was a dragon.

The bus was a dragon, and this particular beast appeared to be asleep. Exhaust trailed from pipes like smoke out of nostrils; the only sound it made as it leaned from right to left were creakes. Snores. Once Carswell had the image in his mind, it was hard to push away.
It was empty but for the driver, who ignored Carswell when he stepped on. There wasn't any indication of assigned seats (and, in a big school, he was sure there wouldn't be) so Carswell sat down in the middlemost one, the first he could find without trash littering the ground or leather.

The seat was green and lined like a palm. A stretch of duck tape barely covered a gash in the middle. Yellow fuzz, candy wrappers, and mold all lined the inside.

The bus bumbled along for a few blocks and pulled up in front of an (surprise, surprise) abandoned pizza place. A few people walked on, laughing and pushing each other as the sank into their seats.

One of them, a tall Asian boy, stood over Carswell. "Can I sit here?" He asked, motioning toward the seat.

Carswell nodded and pulled his bag onto his lap. The boy smiled easily and joined him on the seat. It was so small that their elbows touched whenever either of them shifted. When the bus started moving again, the boy leaned against him and held onto the top of the seat to keep from falling in the aisle.

Carswell stayed as still as he could.

The boy talked animatedly to a pretty African girl in the seat next to him for a few minutes, occasionally having to move his legs so that people could walk through the aisle. He turned to Carswell after a moment, holding out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Kai , by the way," he nodded his head at the girl across from them, "and this is Winter. Are you new?"

He nodded.

"Cool. What's your name, stranger?"

"Carswell Thorne."

The boy, Kai, chuckled. "Not into long answers? That's fine. Well, Carswell Thorne, if you want to sit with us at lunch then you can. Second table away from the window; furthest from the trash. The cans tend to get smelly on fishstick days. Do you have your schedule?"

Carswell did. He pulled it out and the three of them compared classes. Kai had AP Math with Carswell and he and Winter shared a free period, but that was it. At least he wouldn't be alone in all his classes.

The bus pulled up to a red brick school building. It was far bigger than his old one-two stories, three soccer fields, two different buildings for arts and regular classes-but a great deal less intimidating than he had thought it would be.

The school had a stone walkway lined with browning trees and dark green grass. A large overhang was filled with friends hugging and laughing, glad to be back from the summer if only for the people. Next to this mosh pit of sorts was an electronic sign lighting up with back to school messages such as, "Go tigers!" and "Make this a purrfect year!"

Carswell's old school had been monumentally different. For starters, the only place to go if there was rain was under the scar tree (named so for a single lightning scar down the middle), and everyone knew that was where the stoners gathered. The one soccer field they had was poorly maintained and constantly letting balls into either the mess of burrs and thorne plants, the rejects of nature, and the goals were barely standing. No one was ever happy to be back, point proven by the number of times someone had changed the (non-electric) sign to say "suc me" rather than "welcome back students". The letters were always bought and sold as twisted trophies.

Carswell forced his way through the crowd. The hallways were just as full. Already people were opening and closing (slamming, more like) their lockers. A few were even sitting in classrooms.

He had to meet with a counselor before anything. Not because he was knew, well, not completely, but because that was one of the reasons why his parents had chosen the school in the first place. The guy, Mr. Torin, was apparently the best. At the very least, this school had the lowest suicide rate in the country.

Torin was talking to a group of girls when Carswell walked in. His eyes were crinkled at the corners, but so was his mouth. He was a small Chinese man with glasses, but didn't seem to be too old. Just stressed. Friendly enough, but worried. The best people always had to struggle. Carswell immediately trusted him.

Torin shooed the two girls out of the office. They walked away smiling, obviously just having been there for a chat. "So," he said, pulling a peppermint candy from his desk. "Do you want one?"

Carswell nodded, putting the candy into his mouth. It helped to calm his stomach, possibly from the mint, but also maybe from the gesture itself.

"How've you been, Carswell? You visit the school any before coming? Meet anyone on the bus? How about classes, have you checked out any of those?"

Seemed like a lot of expectations for the first day of school.

Carswell shrugged, not sure whether or not to sit down. He opted instead to lean against the wall, which felt natural if awkward. "I'm good. We didn't visit or anything because we moved kinda suddenly, but I talked to some people on the bus. Winter and...Kai, I think it was." As if he could ever forget.

"Kai?" Torin seemed a little surprised, "Tall kid? Asian?"

"Yeah."

He nodded, pulling another mint from the drawer and popping it into his mouth without even seeming to think about it. "Good. My son is a nice kid; I'm glad you met him. There's a lot worse ways to be introduced to this school."

"I could imagine," Carswell muttered.

The bell rang and people started swarming through the halls in waves. First the younger kids, moving towards the back of the school, then the sophomores and juniors, whose classes seemed to be spread out everywhere. The seniors were near the very back, so Carswell had to push through to get there.

His first classes were English and science. Since it was the first day, the teachers were more focused on making sure that the students liked them than actually teaching anything. Which was fine since neither of them cared when Carswell took a nap or doodled on his notebooks.

Finally, after three hours of doing nothing, it was time for lunch. Kai was sitting right where he said he would be, surrounded by three or four others. A tan boy with his arm around a pretty redhead, Winter, and a girl with long caramel hair that swished around her waist.

He sat next to Kai, who introduced him to everyone. The boy was Ze'ev, the redhead was Scarlet, and, finally, there was Émilie. Carswell had never been very good with names, but they didn't seem like the type of people to be mad if he slipped up.

They asked him a few questions, basic things. His favorite food (buffalo wings), where he was from (across Rhode Island, not too far really), and if he had ever had a girlfriend (Carswell skidded around that one). Before he knew it, the lunch period was over and it was time to go to the library with Winter. The whole walk over, Carswell never stopped laughing.