I woke to the static humming of my TV. My Hero Academia was paused somewhere in the middle of season two, the faded screen asking if I was still there. I wasn’t sure what time I had passed out the night before.

Glancing at my tiny digital alarm clock, the flash of harsh, neon blue numbers notify me that it's a quarter to seven. Time to get up and start my day.

I groaned as I lifted myself from the bed. The heaviness of my exhaustion slowed my movements as I began to drag my feet to the bathroom. My body ached, the bruise on my chest throbbing in pain from the previous day's events.

Right... I have to go back to school. I sighed. Today was going to be a better day, it just needed to be...

Grabbing the basic essentials from my boring wardrobe, I put on a gray hoodie and denim jeans. I finished the look with my favorite pair of shoes from the closet, the faded Vans I wouldn't let Beth replace. I circled back to the bathroom, checking my hair again, quickly restyling my tight curls in the mirror.

I took my morning medications and shuffled downstairs, dreading the start of this day. Beth was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, but there was no sign of Tina.

“Hey, where’s mom?” I inquired, taking my place at the table.

“She got called out of town for a work assignment. She’ll be back this weekend,” Beth explained, placing my breakfast in front of me.

She proceeded to sit down across the table with her plate of country-style breakfast. We were a thousand miles away from anywhere in the Deep South, and yet Beth always found the time to make a good southern meal.

“Sorry I missed you after school yesterday, dear,” she stammered between bites of fried egg. “Got caught up at the office with a new project of my own.” After putting down her fork and taking a cautious sip of her lava-hot coffee, she arched her brows and cracked a slight but affectionate grin. “How was your first day of school?”

I didn’t want to answer her but I knew I had to respond with something.

“It was okay. I made a friend,” I said, trying my best to scarf down breakfast as quickly as possible.

“Oh really?! How exciting! What’s their name? Is it a boy or a girl? What are they like? Are they nice?” Beth bombarded me with a load of questions. Her sudden attention made me feel overwhelmed.

“It’s a boy. His name is Kash and yeah, he’s super nice.”

I got up, plate half-finished, and dumped the remaining southern comfort in the trash. I felt bad not finishing the things Beth cooked for me, but I was too wracked with nerves over the day ahead of me. If yesterday was any sort of benchmark for how this town would be treating me, then I didn’t want to make a scene throwing up toast and OJ all over Mr. Stevens’ tattered and yellowing Signet Hamlets.

“Sorry,” I mumbled sheepishly, putting my dishes in the sink. Beth was too perfect, though. She never pretended to know what I was swirling around in my head, but she was always warm—always reassuring; her closed-mouth smile a calming reminder that no matter what happened out in the world, I would still have somewhere I could escape to and call home.

“I’m actually meeting up with him at school so I need to leave now or I’ll be late,” I said, fetching my backpack from the living room.

“Okay, no problem! Have a nice day!” Beth smiled, waving at me as I grabbed my stuff and headed out the back screen door.

The route to school was a bit easier to navigate, and I arrived just at 7:45 am, with no time to spare.

As I approached the metal gates, I could see Kash standing there in a vibrant, orange polo shirt with jeans and some white high-top sneakers that tied the outfit together nicely.

“Hey man what’s up?” He smiled his cheesy grin. There was a rather large paper in his hands. It made me curious about what it could be.

“Nothing much. Sorry, I was late getting out of the house today. Did I make you wait long?” I explained.

“Dude of course not. I just got here about five minutes ago. I was working on our strategy to navigate the school,” he said, with a gregarious smile plastered ear to ear.

“Our what?” I replied, confused by his words.

“See,” elatedly moving to stand beside me so we could both view his meticulous creation. The paper showed a blueprint of the school and highlighted paths in red, blue, and purple. I couldn’t quite tell what I was looking at; the jumbled mess of lines and colors seeming more like abstract art than any kind of map.

“Awesome, right?” He giddily shook the map a bit as if to emphasize his excitement. “This is how we’re going to get through school without running into those Alphas.” Kash continued gazing cheerfully at his homemade map, running his finger along a route from our current location to Mr. Stevens’ classroom.

Alphas? What the hell is he talking about?

I had my suspicions before, but now I was fully convinced that Kash was crazy.

“I guess. So which color is me?” I asked, relenting to, well… whatever this was. I felt stupid, but I nevertheless appreciated the effort he was making on my behalf.

“You’re the blue line and I’m the red line. The purple line shows our morning classes together. From there, your color shows how you can get around the school without me. Brilliant, isn’t it?” he chuckled.

“Yeah, it’s something,” I whispered.

The first bell rang and students started their migration inside for their first classes.

“Follow me,” Kash instructed, rolling up the map and pointing it firmly at a side entrance I hadn’t noticed the day before.

“Lead the way.” I nodded, playing into his craziness.

Kash took me down obscure, hidden hallways to a back stairwell. As odd as our short journey had started, I was beginning to feel grateful when I realized we were indeed avoiding the crowds by staying off the beaten path. Sure, the stairwell smelled like asbestos and sweaty gym mats (probably because it was adjacent to the wrestling gym and locker room); but we made it to class just in time before the tardy bell, not a single growling bully in sight.

---

As the morning wore on, we continued taking strange paths all around the school just to get to our regular classes, and though I knew he meant well, this sure was a lot of walking just to avoid two people. We weaved our way down yet another back hallway to our next class, World History.

The seats we had yesterday were now occupied by a group of girls. Their stank perfume left the surrounding seats as no pleasant option, so we decided to take the seats near the second to the last row.

The second bell rang as I sat down at my desk. After taking my notebook out, I reached for one of the few remaining textbooks under the seat. A stout, middle-aged woman stood at the board, writing today’s assignments in neat Expo marker calligraphy. It said: “Group project.”

“Mrs. Patterson, how many people can be in a group?” one of the girls from upfront asked, her voice as piercing and shrill as her smell.

Mrs. Patterson turned, broadcasting to the class. “I would like everyone to get into groups of four and choose one religion to do the assignment on.”

I looked around and saw that everyone had grouped up evenly, leaving Kash and I by ourselves.

“Cool. Let's do this,” Kash said as he slid his desk closer to me. I continued writing in my notebook, copying the instructions for the assignment, when the door to the classroom swung open.

In walked Theo and another athletic-built student.

Fuck.. So much for our plan.

“Mr. Davidson and Mr. Miller,” Mrs. Patterson griped, capping her whiteboard marker before crossing her arms, “Glad you guys decided to join us, and late at that. My class started ten minutes ago.”

“Sorry, it won’t happen again,” the kid next to Theo spoke up.

“Good. Now, if you're done being tardy delinquents, you can join that group at the back and start working on today’s assignment.” She pointed to Kash and me.

Theo’s forest-green eyes instantly locked onto mine like a sniper aiming downrange, sending sharp shivers down my spine.

I watched him saunter to the back of the class; the other tall male trailing behind him, tossing a playful wink to the squealing, gawking girls in the front row. The two pulled some desks from behind us to make an uneven square.

I glanced over at Kash who was visibly shaking, gripping his homemade map in his hands. The amount of effort he put into his plans were now gone, abruptly shattered into a million pieces the minute Theo walked through that door. Poor guy. Today just wasn't our day.

Sitting silently in a group, we all continued to wait, hoping someone would break the strange, tense silence. Kash was making all four desks vibrate, desperately avoiding eye contact with the two males, as he bounced his leg. Theo was perched on his chair next to me, his muscular body too big for the desk. He leaned back, tapping his fingers on the laminate wood tabletop, staring me down, not saying a word. The other kid soon spoke up, breaking the silence.

“Hi, I’m Derrick and this is Theo,” he said introducing himself. I remembered Derrick was Theo’s best friend, according to Kash.

Derrick was dressed in jeans and a white graphic t-shirt that made his bronzed skin stand out. His face was a collection of chiseled, strong lines framed by prominent brows and long, neatly braided cornrows.

“I’m Remy, and this is Kash,” I politely responded, gesturing my hand towards Kash, who still hasn't come out of his shock. I understood that these fellas weren’t to be messed with, but I still couldn’t understand why Kash was such a nervous wreck.

“Oh, we know Kash. But it’s nice to meet you Remy,” Derrick clarified, cheerfully.

A tense awkward silence fell back upon our four tables; Kash managed to stop rattling the desks, but Theo continued his deadpan stare straight at the back of my skull. He tucked his hands in his jean jacket, the motion barely exposing a slightly torn grey T-shirt underneath. At this point, I didn't care about the unsolicited glaring, but I wished for the awkwardness to go away.

Attempting to redirect things, I opened the textbook centered amongst our desks and began thumbing through the chapters on Eastern religions.

“Kash, what do you think about—”

Theo loudly clears his throat, cutting me off in the process. He said nothing, though, so I did my best to continue.

“I mean everyone! Uhh,” I quickly scanned the open pages and settled on the first thing I saw, “How do we feel about... Buddhism?”

Kash came out of his trance and stared at the textbook page.

“Ok.” He utters quietly.

Theo stopped his one-sided staring contest with me, turning his attention to Kash.

Kash shuddered from the sudden attention, his trembles returning, the desks vibrating again. He drew his head low, avoiding the unwelcome staring contest with Theo.

That’s it, I’m stopping this shit right now.

“Hey, what’s your deal?” I challenged Theo. “Can’t you tell by just looking at him that he is scared of you?!”

Theo didn't answer, instead, centering his icy stare on me, as if beckoning for some sort of meek obedience. But I wasn't going to back down.

“Either you help us work on this assignment or you can leave!” I declared, visibly irritated.

Theo leaned forward, the desk squeaking in distress from the shift of weight, he slowly closed the distance between us. My eyes nervously follow his movements, at this point I didn't know what he was going to do next. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to really challenge a guy who could end my life with the simple lift of his finger, but it just bothered me to see Kash a shaking mess. His discomfort visible to any untrained eye, a clear deviation from his normal goofy self.

“Ok.” Theo strangely agreed with my command.

Derrick, Kash, and I send equally shocked glances at each other, surprised by Theo’s sudden obedience.

“What page are we on?” Theo indicated to the textbook in front of him.

“We’re on page 347.” I pointed to the bottom of the page.

Theo pulls out his own copy textbook from his backpack, turning to the correct page. Derrick chuckled, soon following Theo’s lead.

Throughout the rest of the class, we all work on the project, dividing the work evenly. Kash even spoke up and addressed Theo and Derrick about the project. We soon finish with the assignment with ten minutes to spare in class.

Kash soon became himself again, talking to me about the show I watched last night.

“Isn’t it great, I love the main character!” He chirped with a cheesy grin.

“I agree but I really like that Bakugou character for some reason,” I added.

“What!? But the main character has an awesome backstory!” He retorted.

“What are you guys talking about?” Derrick asked, intrigued by our conversation.

“Oh, It’s one of my favorite anime shows,” Kash replied reluctantly.

Even if Kash seemed hesitant, this was still progress from our previous exchanges.

“Cool. You have to send it to me so we can check it out, right Theo?” Derrick said, nudging Theo with his arms.

Theo barely nodded his head, giving a lackluster response, “Sure, sounds interesting.”

“Wow, really? Awesome!” Kash said, making no effort to contain his enthusiasm.

I chuckled. Theo didn't seem like the person Kash described, he had a soft side to him after all.

The bell rang and dismissed us from class for lunch. We all got up, following the crowd of students out of the classroom. Kash chatted a million miles an hour to Derrick about the show. The tension eased from our group.

As we strolled down the hallway towards the cafeteria, a group of guys stood in front of the cafeteria doors. They crowded the doorway, blocking our main path inside.

“Excuse me." They all turned their attention away from their conversation towards me. One guy let out a chuckle and then continued to ignore me, returning to their conversation.

So rude.

I decided to walk around them, but one of the guys pushed me away from the door.

“What's your problem?” I asked, clueless as to why people wanted to start anything with me.

The group of guys all laugh and ignore me. I decided to cut my losses and leave, but someone else had other plans. I turn to find Theo standing behind me with Derrick and Kash hiding behind Derrick.

“He said for you to move.” Theo voiced boomed behind me. I forgot for a second that we were walking to the cafeteria together.

“And what if we don't?” A tall, lanky guy from the group spoke up and crossed his arms. All five guys soon followed his lead and crowded around Theo and me.

“Is that a challenge?!” Theo growled. At this point, it had to be some weird country thing because everyone at school seemed to be able to growl at each other.

“Sorry, we don't want any trouble.” The tall boy said with his hands up, a smile escaping his lips, the sincerity of his voice was questionable. The group stepped out of our way, clearing a path towards the cafeteria.

As we all turned, heading into the noisy lunchroom, I felt a solid force hit the back of my head. I land on the cold concrete floor, a numbing sensation washes over my body.

I blacked out.