It was a bit of a rainy day today... Getting up out of bed was almost too much for me. My digital clock on my bedside table read '5:50am'. I got up and started to pull on my school uniform and tie. Going to the bathroom and getting ready for school.

It was almost mid fall, October 17th. The leaves were bright and colorful in Avon. I made sure to spray on a faint amount of cologne even though I didn't have any girls in school to compliment it. Just me, Ben, Noah, Luca, and Gabriel.

My dad was the only one up when I got downstairs. My grandparents didn't live with us, but my two sisters Delia and Morgan sure did. God they were havoc and chaos.

Delia was already arguing with Morgan over who got the last toaster waffle, even though neither of them had actually put one in yet. I sidestepped the battlefield and grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl, peeling it slowly while watching my dad sip his coffee like it was the only thing keeping him tethered to Earth.

He glanced up at me, gave a nod. “You got your math test today?”

“Yeah,” I said, chewing. “Mr. Hargrove said it’s mostly algebra. Should be fine.”

He grunted, which I took as a vote of confidence.

Outside, the rain had slowed to a mist, just enough to make the pavement shine under the streetlights. I slung my backpack over one shoulder and stepped out, hoodie up, earbuds in. The walk to school wasn’t long, but it gave me time to think. About the test. About how Ben always forgot his calculator. About how Luca would probably try to cheat off Gabriel again and get caught, like always.

The air smelled like wet leaves and cold metal. I liked it. It felt like something was about to happen, even if it was just another Tuesday.

At the corner of Maple and 3rd, I saw Noah waiting under the bus shelter, kicking at a puddle with his sneaker. He looked up and smirked.

“You look like you just walked out of a vampire movie,” he said.

“Better than looking like I crawled out of a swamp,” I shot back.

We fist-bumped and waited in silence, watching the mist swirl around the street while we waited for the Avon Old Farms bus to pick us up to bring us to school.

The bus pulled up with a hiss of brakes and a groan like it hated its job. Noah and I climbed aboard, nodding at Mr. Dempsey, the driver, who always wore the same faded Red Sox cap and smelled faintly of menthol. We slid into our usual seats near the back, where the windows fogged up just enough to draw shapes in.

Ben was already there, hunched over his phone, probably playing Clash Royale. Luca and Gabriel got on at the next stop, Luca talking way too loud about some YouTube video he’d watched at 2 a.m. Gabriel just rolled his eyes and pulled out his physics notes like he was trying to manifest a scholarship through sheer willpower.

The ride to Avon Old Farms was quiet except for the occasional cough, the hum of tires on wet pavement, and Luca trying to convince Ben that “technically” you didn’t need a calculator if you had “good instincts.” Ben looked unconvinced. So did Noah.

We rolled through the iron gates of campus just as the bell rang. The school looked like something out of a colonial postcard—brick buildings, ivy creeping up the sides, and a courtyard that always smelled like damp stone and pencil shavings.

First period was English with Mrs. Nelson. She was ancient. Like, genuinely ancient. Rumor was she’d taught our dads. She wore long wool skirts and orthopedic shoes and had a voice like creaking floorboards. But she knew her stuff. Quoted Shakespeare like she’d had lunch with him.

Her classroom was warm, a little too warm, like she was trying to fight off the October chill with sheer radiator power. The windows were fogged, and the smell of chalk dust and old books hung in the air like a memory.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” she said as we filed in. Her glasses were perched on her nose like they were afraid to fall.

I slid into my seat near the window, next to Noah...