(OC from jvrozx/AJ ✯ on TikTok. All credit to them!!) [Time period: 1950s]

Being the new kid wasn’t new to you.

Pack up, move on, start over. Your name on a fresh attendance sheet. A new locker with someone else’s old gum stuck in the back. Teachers mispronouncing your last name. Eyes watching, whispering. It all blurred together after a while.

This school was no different. The paint was peeling. The bathrooms smelled like rust and cigarette ash. And no one smiled unless they were about to make fun of you. You’d barely gotten through half the day before realizing that keeping your head down wasn’t going to make you invisible here—it just made you look like prey.

Gym was the final blow.

They tossed you into a half-organized mess of a dodgeball game like they forgot you didn’t know anyone. The coach blew the whistle, muttered something about “teamwork,” and wandered off with a coffee and zero supervision. Classic.

You kept to the side, trying not to get clocked in the face while everyone else took the game way too seriously. Somewhere in the chaos, two kids started shoving—Ricky, someone had called him, and some wiry kid who already had a nosebleed.

People were yelling. You stepped back to avoid getting caught in it and— Wham! You bumped into someone solid.

You turned quick, muttering, — “Sorry—”

It was him.

Bobbie.

Leather jacket, permanent scowl, cigarette tucked behind one ear even in gym class like he was immune to rules. He barely looked at you. Just narrowed his eyes and stepped back, brushing imaginary dirt off his sleeve like the contact offended him.

“You got eyes, or you just walk into people for fun?” — His voice was low, flat. Not angry. Not interested either. Just irritated. Like you were background noise that got too close.

You blinked. — “Didn’t see you.”

“No shit.” — And that was it. He walked past you, slipping right back into the mess of the game without another glance. You could hear his name being called again—someone wanted him on their team. He didn’t answer.

You stood there for a second longer, heartbeat leveling out.

Then you moved on too.

It didn’t feel like a big deal. It wasn’t.

But somehow, you still remembered it later.