Monday arrived.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm. I noticed Angel, who was already up, getting ready for school, wearily looking at the device that was causing the loud sound and creasing his brows. I turned the noise off and got out of bed. His face showed his confusion, but I didn’t care enough to explain anything, so I got dressed as well. I saw him opening the door, but before he could leave, I asked, “Where’s classroom E122?”

His head snapped towards me. I saw him contemplating for a few seconds before he decided to answer in a small voice, “D-do you mean the English class by Ms Mayer? I'm in the same class. I could wait for you...”

I grunted a positive response, and since I was already almost done with the clothes, I soon followed him out the door.

My outfit felt strange. I was wearing black trousers as well as a black blazer with a plain white shirt underneath. The blazer had small, blue details stitched on it which I hadn’t noticed before. The clothes presumably fitted quite well, but my style was rather over-sized, so they felt cramped to me.

I ignored the uncomfortable feeling and let my roommate lead me to the classroom. Every time, someone came across us, they stared wide-eyed at me, and the pale student beside me. Some started whispering, but my glare quickly shut them off. I absolutely despised people that bad-mouthed others but didn’t even dare to say it out loud.

The second we entered the classroom together, I could feel all their eyes on me and my instinct told me to immediately leave again, to not be the typical new student in this place, but I have already come so far, and I really wanted that stupid punching bag.

“You can sit anywhere you want,” Angel said so quietly that I almost didn’t catch it.

Because I already was feeling uncomfortable in every possible way, I decided to make everyone else uncomfortable as well. “Where do you sit?” I asked him and he only looked at me for a few seconds. He probably noticed that I wasn’t joking and indeed wanted an answer, so he pointed to the direction of a desk with two seats. “Let’s go then,” was the only thing I told him, before striding towards the desk and flopping down on the wooden chair. Those weren’t any more comfortable than in my previous schools. It was just wood after all.

A few seconds later, the blonde boy took the seat beside me. From the corner of my eyes, I saw him glancing at his friends, who I had already seen on my first day. I could easily assume their wordless conversation that went something like this:

Friend 1, “What is the scary roommate doing here?”

Angel, “I don’t know, he wanted to go to class today and sit here. I’m sorry, I couldn’t say no to him. *random stuttering*”

Friend 2, “It’s not your fault. Let’s talk after class then?”

Friend 1, “Be safe!”

Angel, “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

Narrator, “But deep inside, he knew, he wasn’t fine…”

I chuckled to myself, thinking that I was pretty funny, even though I had no one to acknowledge that. (Author’s note: He would be a great dad.)

The teacher entered shortly after, and the lesson started with a typical Roll Call. She seemingly wasn’t expecting me to be present, judging by her surprised face when she called my name, and I firmly answered with “Here.” She even stopped talking for a few seconds, simply staring at me and then went on with the other names. I caught glimpses of the other students looking at me, but mostly ignored them. If I wanted to get to the gym, I’d need to lay low for now, so that's exactly what I did.

Soon the teacher, whose name was Miss Mayer, as I had learned from Angel earlier, started with the lesson. I immediately regretted my decision of being here. I need to stay positive, I kept telling myself. English was never my strong point, but honestly, I didn’t have one to begin with.

Even in my previous schools, I had barely visited class since it was a complete waste of time. The only good thing about the English class was, that we are constantly speaking said language, so it’s not like I know nothing about it. That, however, was not enough for this teacher.

She started talking about literature, I have never heard the names of, epochs, and stuff I couldn’t even name. My motivation that was already low from the start began dropping to zero. I was fidgeting with my pen under the desk to keep the irritation away. I was utterly lost. I didn’t get anything she was saying.

It kept bugging me that I entirely fulfilled the stereotype of the stupid delinquent that has never visited a class before. Previously, that was nothing I ever thought to care about. None of my so-called friends ever came to class, it was typical for us, and I wanted it to stay that way. I thought that it would keep being like that for the rest of Highschool, but now I was thrown into this bright pit that kept blinding me. I was all by myself. I was standing out, and I didn’t like it one bit.