IT WAS CHAOTIC inside the classroom filled with nine years old kids cheering and jeering each other. There was an impromptu competition held for the best wind-magic magic wielder and it was done by a group of five kids in two groups. 

While the others who did not participate became a loud supporter that made the class as chaotic as it can be. The rivalry that started the day before in basic magic class because the two prominent kids in magic had the same level of control and to add that they had been in a rival for every other subject thus the competition began the next morning before the bell rang.

It was a neck and neck match. The colourful paper planes that they use as the subject of manipulation were gliding thru the class steadily yet at a slow pace as the magic itself was unruly and hard to dominate if the magic wielder affinity is not related to wind. To see that they were able to perform such a feat was commendable.

Then a kid who sat in the front row near the entrance door that they had appointed as a guard patrol for moments when they were having a moment like this, suddenly shouted in an alarming voice that their homeroom teacher was approaching their class and that was when all hell broke loose.

All the kids that were participating and supporting the match scurried to their desks. Their fights had to postpone, their colourful paper planes shoved under their desk, and instead, they pulled out their textbooks and workbook from their bags and started to study as they had never any intense magic fight before. 

The class had become a funeral sight and other from a hushed whisper and the tick of the clock, they finally heard the click and clack shoes of their homeroom teacher.

She was a cute plump female teacher with around eyes and a button nose. She never wore anything too bright or anything too dark. Despite her plain choice of wardrobe, she had a gentle voice and attentive to her students. 

Many other teachers were wondering how she managed to handle a class full of hypocrite-prankster, school bullies, and an anti-social freak in one class, which they could never guess even until they finished primary school.

Miss Ariel, in the middle of her twenties, walked into her classroom, a smile pasted on her face and a cheerful good morning she greeted her kids. Behind her a boy in tow.

"I heard that you had a delightful morning. How was the match?" she asked attentively while she put down her bag and record book on her desk. She laughed when she saw her sour-faced kids. The end of her eyes wrinkled and her gaze was soft and caring.

"Then, it wasn't that delightful, I guess? I should have come a bit later but you see we had a new friend today," she jested, and at the same time, she gave a little push on the boy's back. "Come now, introduce yourself."

It was uncommon to have a new student admitted in the late summer where the autumn rains started to grace the valley and the summer heat did not seem to be going away but again, it was not unheard of. To have a new student meant there was a new resident moved in into this faraway valley.

The boy had dark hair, dark eyes, and a small and fragile body yet his gaze did not waver. He did not look like he was intimidated by the new environment he was in and he held his gaze to every person inside the classroom, from one to the other until he saw a girl at the back of the class near the window. 

His stare was unnerving. The other kids kept on anxiously glancing back and forth, waiting for something to happen yet nothing happen when Miss Ariel broke the silence.

"You okay, Gitto?" she asked concerned with the possibilities that might brew from the tension before.

The look the boy gave her was stoic and unfazed. He returned his attention back to his classmate and introduced himself as curtly as his expression would allow. "I'm Gitto Lee."

And that was all he ever said and made the homeroom teacher laughed a nervous laugh. He even did not wait for further instruction and strutted his way to a vacant seat beside the girl that he set his eyes before.

She was the oddest in the class, with a raven hair so dark that it felt like it looked the night sky without stars and her face was void of any features when most of them were covered by her long fringe. She was staring at him, not knowing what kind of impression that she perceived nor was that he doing any better.

"Right class! Gitto just recently moved here and even though he is a year younger, he has shown his potential as better as any of you here so I hope that you treat him well and Stella," Miss Ariel called the girl who was analyzing her desk mate's attitude.

"Would you be a dear and be his buddy until he can properly adapt to this school?" the teacher asked and they can hear a snort or two coming from the other kids.

"Okay," she replied.

"Is it okay, Gitto?"

He shrugged.

However, the whole class thought differently as they peered at them one last time before Miss Ariel started her class for that morning. No one would ever believe if that stoic boy and that freak girl would be the best of a friend for each other, not until that day came.

IT WAS ALMOST a week the new boy sat beside her and be her desk mate. It was an upgrade in her life as she only sat alone all the time since she started school here three years ago but she did not take him as someone who behaved the same as her. 

In sense, he liked to be alone most of the time, and the conversation that they had never more than just, 'hey, you, and bye'.

Occasionally, they did share a few moments together without even having any conversation. 

They just sat at their desk, their heads slumped on the surface of the desk and they faced their face to the window. It was recess and most of the kids were out playing or eating at the cafeteria but they both unanimously decided that it was time to go cloud sighting.

It should be something fascinating, to see the clouds rolled in lazy afternoon motion, and once in a while, an adult magic wielder would pop behind the cotton-like clouds, jumping from one to the other. Yet all she could ever think of was a firm reminder that she could never cloud-jumping like that. 

It was a hopeless dream to start with and at that time she wondered if Gitto could do any magic just like her classmates. He was a year younger than her and he skipped a grade, so he must be a genius in something to be able to be in this class but the moment she turned her head, her desk mate was no longer there.

"How is your buddy faring? Is he nice? Maybe a wee-bit friendly perhaps?" her homeroom teacher asked when she went to deliver the workbooks that she had collected as instructed before that teacher left the class.

"You're asking for something impossible but he's okay," Stella commented.

Miss Ariel nodded apprehensively. "You don't... try to talk to him?"

"I did."

Her eyes lighted up hearing it. It sparkled and twinkled like a pet dog Stella's neighbor once had. "Simple morning greeting."

"And?"

"You."

"You?"

"Bye."

Miss Ariel was stunned by the number of their exchanged conversation that she was left with no words to comment on. She heaved a sigh and gave Stella an encouraging smile. "Better than nothing right?" she said.

"Well, we did this activity once," Stella proposed.

"Really?"

The homeroom teacher's reaction always made Stella thought that she never makes a mistake or that she was not a freak, for the matter. Maybe this was the reason she could handle such a halloo-balloo class like hers. She was someone who sincere and unafraid of what she believes and her believes are in her students.

"What kind of activity you two did?"

"Staring out at the clouds."

Once again Miss Ariel was caught dumbfounded.

SHE EXUDES CALMNESS and the word 'rush' did not exist in her dictionary as her steps were calm and moderate even as the sun slowly slipping away and the sky had turned red. 

Looking at her silhouetted reminded him of that small girl, he had always taken care of before he ran away from that orphanage. The scars and bruised and even their character was astonishingly identical that it made him scared sometimes. He heaved out a heavy sigh.

Stella's white shoes caught his attention. The left side of her shoes was milky white while the right side of her shoes was in a traumatized state that was done with a dip into a mixture of ketchup, soy sauce, cooking oil, ink, and otherworldly ingredient that he could not register due to the onslaught odor. 

Almost every day he saw his deskmate got bullied with whatsoever possible method a child could concoct and not to mention the hideous words they had sent her way.

It was an unsightly situation that he really does not want to involve yet he felt heavy to just sit by and do nothing when she was clearly needed help. Deep down his pride self slowly withered and shame seems to be his loyal companion. Not to mention that—a couple of months ago—he had shrunk away from his responsibilities. Such selfish behavior is unforgivable.

"Stella!"

At that moment, when he lifted his face, he thought that he had seen the most beautiful girl in his entire eight-year of life that his heart literally stopped for a while. 

Her wild golden corn hair shone brighter even under the twilight light and that made her cheeks that dusted with few red speckles looked pinkish red. He did not expect to be attacked by such force when his heart was defenseless more so to come from Stella's little sister.

When he thought that he can regain his composure, he was once again had to stop his step midway as his eyes met the girl's blue-green eyes. His cheeks instantly flared red.

"Your friend, Stella?" she asked in her squeaky cute voice.

This time, it was Stella who turned to look at him. Although he cannot imagine how that face would scrutinize him, he could very much assume what she thinks. It was not that hard to guess and even before his deskmate could open her mouth, he intervened her.

"I'm Gitto, Stella's desk mate and I live here," he said so fast and also the longest sentence he ever spoke that week. His forefinger pointed to the window of the apartment situated across the girls' house. "That's my room, over there. Good night," he offered without even waiting for a reply and ran furiously towards the steps of the apartment, opened the door, and slammed shut it. 

Bang!

His mind was playing many wild accusations of the girls' reaction when he running up the stairs and he could not cover how trembled his hands were when he was searching for his room key. When he entered his room, he could hear Stella's little sister pearl of laughter that it made his heart skipped a beat like a fool even after what just happened. He inched closer to the window and took a peek at the girls, still lingering in front of their house.

"Why are you laughing?" he heard Stella asked her little sister. Although it was faint, he could make out the words.

"I didn't know you had... an interesting friend?"

Gitto grinned hearing it.

"Come." Stella's little sister reached for Stella's elbow then she halted. Her face changed from one to another so fast that he barely caught it. She smiled as if what he saw was a trick Gitto's eyes were playing with him but he knew what made that girl reacted so.

It was the shoes.

Gitto slumped his body against the wall, his hands on his face. His fascination with Stella's little sister was forgotten.

"Mother and father are waiting for us to eat dinner."

He saw her. She was shocked and angry at the same moment in that fast interchange that he thought that there was no way those two could be sister when one could show such emotions and Stella none. Nothing in her voice, nothing in her gait, and none in any made him realize that his deskmate was bullied for this weakness and he does nothing.

Such shame... was unforgivable.