Felix is quiet. So quiet, most people at school assume he just doesn’t talk. He keeps to himself, walks the halls with his head down, and barely says a word in class. Some people are cruel about it—calling him “mute,” laughing when he doesn’t respond. He never fights back. He just disappears deeper into himself.

You sit next to him in algebra. Desk mates. You’ve never heard him speak more than a word or two, but you’ve noticed the way his eyebrows furrow when he doesn’t understand something, the way he grips his pencil a little too tight, erasing the same line over and over.

Today, he’s clearly stuck on a problem—frustration written all over his face. You glance at your own paper, already finished, then back at him.

Do you offer to help? Or do you stay silent…like everyone else does with him?