ROBERT

The whole lobby was swept away in silence by the appearance of this new kid. Bloody hell, even a straight guy like me I had to admit that he’s a really good-lookin’ fella. He didn’t look too masculine, but not the puny pretty-boy type either. Judging by his facial features, one of his parents must be Asian. His wild hairstyle kinda reminded me of a hedgehog - not too insane to get you into trouble, but rebellious enough to get people’s attention. Well, I do admit that it looks pretty cool, but it wouldn’t work for me.

The new kid looked like a lost puppy, probably wondering why everyone in the lobby stared at him speechlessly. He looked around for a bit before he decided to approach a girl who happened to stand near him.

“Hi, excuse me, can you tell me where the headmaster’s office is?” he asked, surprising me with his very good American English. Asian-looking folks like him usually have some sort of thick accent when they speak in English, but he didn’t.

The girl stared at him blankly, her cheeks flushing so red I could imagine her head’s probably feeling like a boiling kettle pot right now. She tried to speak, but nothing seemed to came out of her mouth.

“Um, hello? Are you all right?” the kid asked again, waving his hand in front of the girl’s eyes who quickly snapped out of whatever trance she had fallen into and spat out the answer loudly.

“T-third floor!” she blurted. “Headmaster’s office is at the third floor!”

The new kid thanked the girl as he curved a charming smile, and then he walked away. I’m pretty sure he didn’t notice that the girl had collapsed by now; luckily, she was caught by some of her friends before her head hit the floor.

As he made his way to the elevator, everybody just stepped out of his way as if he was one of those popular kids in American teen movies. When he finally approached me, the elevator bell rang and the doors flung open - talk about perfect timing!

Immediately, we both stepped inside. He pushed the third floor button, and I pushed for the fourth, where all the homeroom classes were located. I didn’t realize that there were only two of us entering the elevator until the door was shutting. Even by just a glance, I could tell that everyone in the lobby was staring at us before the door completely shut.

And when the elevator started moving upward, I could swear that I heard hysterical screaming from the outside…

...Bollocks.

---

The elevator ride was short, but it was very awkward.

For some unknown reasons, I kept my eyes to the floor, hoping that he wouldn’t try to start a bloody conversation or anything. Meanwhile, the kid just folded his arms as he stood by the elevator buttons, leaning on the mirror walls.

Seemed that God heard my prayers – by the time we reached the third floor, he didn’t say a single word to me and just walked away. But after the door was shut and I was finally alone in that small four-sided square space, I just realized that what I did just now made no sense at all. The hell would I feel so nervous around a kid that I didn’t even know?

Wait – that didn’t seem right. Somewhere at the back of my mind, he did seemed familiar...

…Have we met somewhere before?

---

After I stepped out of the elevator, I was instantly drawn towards one particular classroom with disco music blasting out the door. When I peeked in, the room was quite a mess; some desks were pulled together towards the center of the class, a mountainpile of snacks and candies with colorful boxes and plastic wrappers written in different languages sat on top of it, and a pink boombox sat on top of the teacher’s desk. Meanwhile, the people inside just sat on top of the empty desks, laughing and cheering loudly. I just stood there until one of them, whom I recognized as a fellow Prodigium student named Julio, gazed towards me and raised his eyebrows upon realizing my presence.

“Oh, look who’s here!” he hollered, waving at me like a puppy wagging its tail, and everybody soon turned their heads towards the door where I stood.

“Robert ‘Bloody’ Brighton!” Martin exclaimed, “I was wondering why I haven’t seen you! Thought you didn’t make it to Prodigium this year, buddy!”

“Ha! If that ever happened, I’m sure we’ll be seeing pigs flying all over Anglova by now!” Cordelia remarked, followed by a round of laughter by everbody.

“Anyways, don’t just stand there, Robbie! You’re not a doorstopper, aren’t cha?” Sandra added, her shiny golden bangles jingled as she beckoned me to come in.

“As you wish, your majesty.” I said, and walked into the class to join everyone else.

Yep, this is my homeroom class, all right - Prodigium, where the craziest, smartass bastards of Sterling belong.

After I dropped my bag on an empty table, I walked towards the crowd with a few boxes that I have pulled out of my bag, handing one of them to Sandra and putting the rest on top of the food pile, among a box of Valrhona chocolates from France, which was probably brought by Elle, and a bag of Philippine polvorons - probably from Julio, whom I heard was visiting his mother in Manila over the summer.

“Oh my gosh, my favorite Turkish delights!” Sandra gushed, “Thank you so much, Robbie!”

“Don’t mention it,” I said, grabbing a few sour candies and jawbreakers from the pile before choosing to sit between Martin and Kayla. “You helped me a lot with my final assignment before summer - I did promised you these Turkish delights, remember?”

This is what we do every year after summer - bring munchies from wherever we spent summers at and exchange stories until it’s time for our first homeroom session of the school year. And as the homeroom floor gets even more crowded, folks from other classes would come to our class as well - except for the Academicus zombies, who had no interest in making conversations where they had no chance to show off their intelligence. Sandra told me once that back when she was still an Academicus, everybody was only interested in talking about their summer classes and exclusive lectures with famous professors in the Ivy Leagues, trying to compare who had the most advanced courses and who scored the highest - even she wasn’t sure what “vacation” means to them anymore. Well, what do you expect from people who would willingly kill someone’s firstborn for an A+ anyway?

The bell rang just in time when our homeroom teacher, Ms. Ferino, entered the classroom. “Okay, everyone! Party’s over!” she announced loud and clear, clapping her hands as she walked into the classroom. “Visitors, return to your classes! Prodigium students, please start tidying up your desks because our first homeroom session is about to begin!”

Everybody got up from their seats immediately and began tidying up the classroom. While Sandra grabbed her boombox and stored it away, we stashed the leftover snacks below our desks, put the empty wrappers away to the trash bin, and adjusted the desks and tables back to its former position.

And after everyone was settled, Ms. Ferino began the homeroom session.

“Alright! Good morning, class!” she smiled, her beautiful green eyes beaming so beautifully behind her square-framed Gucci glasses.

“Good morning, Ms. Ferino!” we replied in unison.

“It’s nice to see you all again! I hope you all had a great summer, and this year I am very excited to be your homeroom teacher once more! I hope you’ve all have a great vacation...”

Well, it’s nice to see her again, too. Ms. Nancy Ferino is the coolest and nicest teacher in Sterling, and everybody likes her; girls think she’s awesome, and we guys think she’s smokin’ hot. She’s half-American, half-Italian, and she lived in California before she decided to become an English teacher in this school. Her black hair used to be tied in a bun before it was chopped into a pixie cut, and I could hear some kids around me gossiping whether the haircut decision was related to a breakup over the summer or not; although I couldn’t picture her as a sentimental woman who’d cut her hair over a broken heart, because she’s always the heart-stealer - one look at her and you can’t help but wonder why the hell would a beautiful lady like her choose to turn away from Hollywood to become an English teacher. With those curves and stunning looks, I’m pretty sure she won’t have a hard time paving her way to become a superstar.

Nevertheless, we were very lucky to have her as our homeroom teacher - I have a feeling that my first year in high school would be great-

“And I have exciting announcement - there will be a new student joining in our class!”

I blinked. What? Who?

Gasps and hushed statements of disbelief quickly filled the whole classroom. Well, a new kid joining your class in the beginning of a new school year wasn’t an unusual sight. But in Sterling, a new kid to enter a Prodigium class immediately? That’s something. And in tenth grade? That’s even more than something!

On normal circumstances, newly admitted students would either be placed in the other two classes - except if he or she was exceptionally smart or very talented. Last time we had someone who was admitted to Prodigium on arrival was funded on multiple scholarships, and he’s an extremely talented guitarist. Not even the world’s most big-hearted, benevolent philanthropists would send a poverty-stricken child to Sterling just for the sake of kindness; he or she must be extremely talented to get someone to pay a hefty annual sum enough to buy an oceanfront condo in Florida.

Well anyways, whatever this new kid would be, be it on scholarship or not, there must be something that makes him out of the ordinary. After all, that’s the reason why someone ended up in a Prodigium class.

“Miss, is it a boy or a girl?” I asked.

“A very handsome boy!”

Bloody hell - did I just saw our super hot homeroom teacher gushing like a high-schooler?

Within seconds, the girls reacted to the announcement with screeches. The guys quickly shut their ears, but Ms. Ferino didn’t even bother to silence them – judging by her look, I guess she’s already flying on cloud nine by now.

And, I don’t think I’d need to guess who’d be the new member of our class…

KAYLA

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! It’s him! It must be him!”

“He’s really coming to our class!”

“I can’t believe it! Eeeeeekkk!”

The whole class went wild after Ms. Ferino’s announcement. I was shocked and yet bewildered at the same time, not knowing what the commotion’s all about! Luckily, I wasn’t alone; Elle and Sandra also didn’t seem to have an idea about who’s this person that everyone’s raving about.

“Uh, guys? Can someone fill me in? What’s this all about? Who’s coming?” I asked.

The other girls looked at me in disbelief. “Oh no, Kayla! Don’t tell me that you didn’t see him?” Trish asked.

“Didn’t see who?” Sandra added, looking even more dumbfounded than me.

“That hot new kid at the lobby!” Elena cried.

Elle, Sandra, and I looked at each other, twitching our eyebrows as we shared our confused looks shook our heads. "Well, I guess we didn’t see him because we went early to class..." Elle mumbled.

“WHAAAAAAT?” the girls screamed in unison.

“Oh my GOD!” Cordelia yelled, “You guys are totally missing out! This new guy, he’s… Oh god, I don’t know how to describe him! You have to see him for yourself!”

“He’s super hot!” Elena hollered.

“And sexy!” Courtney exclaimed flirtatiously.

Meanwhile, Trish just sighed helplessly on her desk as she mumbled “I still can’t believe he’s real...”

Soon enough, everyone were sighing like hopeless romantics, their gazes hung towards the ceiling, probably imagining god-knows-what with this super hot newcomer. And soon enough, I realized that it’s not only girls; even the guys were raving about him! Okay, now I’m interested - just how good-looking was he?

ROBERT

The whole class were buzzing endlessly until we a few knocks on the door coming from outside. Like a wizard’s spell, it turned the whole room into complete silence. Meanwhile, Ms. Ferino quickly stood up from her desk and trotted towards the door.

“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! He’s coming!” hushed the girls, squealing in panic as they hurriedly reached into their bags to grab mirrors and their makeup pouches, smothering extra makeup on their still fresh-looking faces and perfecting their hairdo (but ended up making it more messy than it was).

Everybody was so eager to see the new kid that they almost jumped off their seats when they saw Mr. Harrell and Mr. Smith, the headmasters of the school, walked into the classroom. Guys quickly straightened up on their seats, while the girls made last glances on their mirrors before hastily stuffing their makeup kit back into their bags.

And towing right behind the two headmasters, the new kid walked in.

Yeah, it’s him all right; the bloody handsome stranger who shared that awkward elevator ride with me.

KAYLA

Oh. My. GOD.

Everyone was right. He’s really, really, HANDSOME!

The sexy half-Asian face; the wild-looking jet-black hair that contrasts beautifully with his enchanting bright-colored eyes; the model-like posture… Trish was right! I can’t believe that he’s a living, breathing human being! Did he fell off a calendar or something?

The headmasters then heartily greeted us good morning, and we replied in the mandatory flat-toned unison. And then, Mr. Harrell went on with a few obligatory greetings and opening speeches that nobody cared about before he proceeded to what we’ve been waiting for: introducing the new kid to the whole class.

“Well, as you can see here, we have a very special new student who will be joining your class starting today. Alright, lad; why don’t you introduce yourself to your new classmates?”

Mr. Harrell then grabbed the new kid by the shoulder and gently pushed him forward. The kid glanced slightly at Mr. Harrell, before he turned his eyes towards the whole class.

“Hello, everyone. My name is Keishiro Bellrose.”