Vivian got out of the dark blue sedan that he shared with Theodore, grabbing his black messenger bag on the way out. They had agreed that Vivian would have the car most days since Theodore would be at the library longer than Vivian attending classes. Vivian was really glad that they had both agreed to him getting a restricted license as soon as it was available. He couldn’t imagine being dropped off at a new school with Theodore’s overly caring personality in the driver’s seat. Luckily Theodore also understood himself and knew when Vivian needed his space.

So Vivian had dropped off Theodore at the library and headed down the street three blocks to where the school was located. Vivian wasn’t sure yet if he should be comforted or not by having his stepfather just down the road. Either way he was walking into the new cesspool of hormones as the new kid. To top it off, it was already a month into the school year.

Vivian clutched his bag strap tighter as he walked towards the doors. As he got closer he burrowed his head further into his hood, starting to feel like he was being stared at. He knew that it was probably in his head, but the voices were constantly at work. He sped up slightly, focusing on where he had to go, trying to force the voices to quiet down.

He quickly arrived at the school’s office, with fifteen minutes to spare before the first bell. There Vivian’s homeroom teacher was already waiting for him with his schedule.

“I’m assuming you are Vivian Thorpe?” The teacher adjusted his rectangular glasses as Vivian nodded. The teacher handed him the schedule as he continued speaking. “I see. Well, you arrived early so you might have a better character than you appear to have.” He looked at Vivian's torn and faded jeans and large beat up black and purple hoodie that still covered most of Vivian’s face. Vivian was also unconsciously glaring slightly at the teacher. First appearances would suggest a problem child to most people, but Vivian tried his best not to actually care what others thought and wore what made him most comfortable.

While he gave Vivian a look over, Vivian did the same to him. He was dressed up more than Vivian’s previous teachers typically were. Instead of just a button up shirt and dress pants, this teacher was decked out in a full three-piece suit, including the jacket, vest and a dark blue tie. Vivian couldn’t find a single part of the teacher that didn’t scream perfect or professional. After a moment Vivian opened his mouth to speak.

“You know my name, but I haven’t gotten yours yet…” Vivian muttered.

“Ah, yes, of course. I am your homeroom and history teacher, Mr. Aristotle Lawson. A fun fact about me is that my parents named me after the famous philosopher, so when the time came I decided to become a teacher.” Mr. Lawson somehow stood up even straighter and looked fondly at the mention of his parents. Vivian felt a twinge of jealousy of his teacher’s obvious good relationship with his own parents. What Vivian would do to have that again.

“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Lawson.” Vivian nodded towards his teacher, one hand clutching his bag strap again, while the other fiddled with the paper containing his weekly schedule for the year.

“The pleasure is mine Mr. Thorpe.” Mr. Lawson looked at his luxury watch. “We really must be going now. I was told you came with your father during the school tour. Is that correct?” Vivian made no effort to correct his teacher about his relationship to Theodore and only nodded. “Splendid. If you ever get lost, feel free to ask someone, most people here are very friendly. For now you can walk with me to your homeroom. I also suggest you take off your hood. We are lenient here, so you can wear it in the halls, but not during class. Understood?”

Vivian nodded. “Yeah.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vivian’s new homeroom was smaller than his last homeroom. The whole school in general was smaller than Eastedge High School. Oakhaven High was even small enough to accommodate the middle school as well. Meaning Vivian’s arrival was even more noticed than he initially thought. Everyone here grew up together and knew everyone in town. Everywhere he went he felt the whispers stating who he was as a transfer student. Vivian knew that it would probably die down soon, but the whispers didn’t help the paranoid whispers in his head.

The one class he was glad he got placed in was his art class. He quickly learned that the teacher there had a laissez-faire style teaching and wouldn’t put Vivian in the spotlight yet again to introduce himself.

Vivian had arrived early since he decided to carry everything with him instead of using his locker until he was used to the layout of the building. The art teacher had shown him where all the materials were, then explained that the students were allowed to do anything they wanted for their projects as long as it followed the few concept guidelines on the board.

The concepts would change to the next project every so often, so if the project they chose to do would take a little longer they should write down the concept guidelines. The deadline for their projects would be the end of each marking period, meaning it would be possible to work on multiple projects as long as they were all turned in by then.

The two current concepts that his classmates were working on already was a project based on expressing yourself and a project based on the concept of family. Both of which were complicated. Nevertheless Vivian pulled out his sketchbook and tried to brainstorm.

Looking around the room to get ideas Vivian saw many different styles of art being created. People were going the obvious route of sketching and painting, but some people were twisting and bending wires, or shaping various clay sculptures. The pottery wheels in a side room were even being used by two different classmates. Still nothing really stood out as Vivian’s style or struck a creative chord in him. Vivian ended up just doodling various ideas for the rest of the class, not finding one that fit.

Art class was his last class on Mondays, so as soon as the last bell rang he packed up his sketchbook then headed to his locker. He wanted to leave the books he wouldn’t need at school, and he wanted to make sure he got practice memorizing the combination.

Vivian idled at his locker, trying to decide what to do with his free time since Theodore wouldn’t be finished at the library for a few more hours, and Vivian really didn’t want to be home alone in the new house quite yet. He vaguely remembered Mr. Lawson mentioning that most students joined the various clubs the school had to offer. Mr. Lawson in particular oversaw the drama club and suggested Vivian join. Before the inner anxieties talked him out of it Vivian decided he might as well check it out. He wasn’t sure where they held their meetings, but figured he should try the auditorium first and go from there.

Grabbing his much lighter messenger bag and pulling up his hood Vivian headed off to where he thought he remembered the auditorium being. The other students were slowly leaving and the hallways were more and more empty the farther he went. When he got there the doors were unlocked.

Unfortunately when Vivian peeked in no one was there. Since he was already there, Vivian decided to look around. It was a surprisingly good sized auditorium with a large stage. Vivian ended up on the stage and looking at the backstage portion. Then to get a better view Vivian backed up to the edge of the stage. Looking up at the lighting to see how they had them laid out, Vivian’s foot slipped off the edge.

Suddenly Vivian was falling.