I step into my new school, grinning as I walk through the hallway, clutching my schedule like it’s a treasure map. The place smells faintly of floor wax and paperbacks, lockers slamming and voices buzzing all around me, but instead of nerves, I feel that fizzy kind of excitement that always bubbles up when life feels like it’s about to start fresh.

That’s when I see her.

Leaning casually against a row of lockers, like she’s part of some movie scene, is a girl with messy dark hair. Blue eyes flick up at me, curious, then dart back to the notebook she’s sketching in. She looks… untouchable, almost too cool for this hallway.

Which, of course, only makes me grin wider.

Something in me just knows—I want to be the reason she looks up again.