Kaine leant over Noah’s desk, talking and laughing as he usually did. Noah sat lazily, kicking his feet against the legs of the desk, not worried about whether it would annoy anyone else in the room. It was an early morning a few months into the semester. Noah had settled into his routine by now—walking to school with Kaine, chatting until the bell rang, then wasting the day away until he could go home.

Of course, there was more to it than that. Studying, tutoring, pressure from his parents…but all in all, nothing ever shook Noah up. He was comfortable, but bored.

Kaine: “Hey, I heard something interesting.”

Noah: “What now?”

Kaine: “Apparently someone’s moving into our class.”

Noah: “What? At this time of the year? No way, they’d never catch up with the workload.”

Kaine: “No, for real. My dad said so and-“

Noah: “And your dad’s on the board of directors. Yeah, yeah, you say it every time.”

Kaine: “Do you think it’ll be a cute girl?”

Noah: “Hopefully it’s a guy so I can make a new best friend. I think something’s wrong with mine.”

Kaine: “You can try. Who else would be able to put up with you?”

Step, step, step. The door opened as someone walked carefully to the front of the room and behind the desk. Their teacher, Mr.Floyd, stood in front of the classroom before clapping his hands.

Mr.Floyd: “Alright, take your seats. I have some exciting news today.”

The class chattered endlessly as the students did as they were told. An excited buzz spread through the room.

Mr.Floyd: “As some of you may have heard, we have a new student today. He’s just moved here from interstate, so be sure to help him if he gets lost with anything.*

”So, a boy. Guess Kaine was wrong about that one.” Noah thought. For some reason, he didn’t find himself all that interested.

Mr.Floyd: “Anyway, I’ll let him introduce himself. You can come in now.”

A pause. No one opened the door. For a few moments, anyway. Slowly, the door opened wide, and someone stepped in. Noah sat up in his seat, eyes on the boy that entered.