A room of bright faces, a rainbow of flashing colors, most of them bright and lively, a few darker shades but nothing out of the ordinary. After adjusting her skirt, the teacher called out, “Good morning, class,”

“Good morning, Ms. Harrison,” the children sang out in unison. Ms.Harrison looked out at the bright-eyed children, the numbers displayed on her headpiece were all within regulation. No one was out of the ordinary. She wondered how quickly it would change as she made her announcement.

“The first thing we will be starting with today is introducing your new classmates,” Immediately numbers started fluctuating. Heart rates went up. Before they could start to gossip, she held her hand up and had the children return to focus on her.

A tiny arm shot up, “Who is the new student? Is it a boy? Or a girl?” Elise, ever the inquisitive one, Ms. Harrison thought to herself before answering.

“You’ll see in a moment,” She pressed the button on her collar and whispered, “You can come in now.”

Just then, three adults and a small boy stepped in. Numbers again started changing and several beeps could be heard coming from the earpieces of Ms.Harrison and the other sharply dressed adult. “Settle down, children,” Ms. Harrison didn’t have time to refocus their attention as the administrator stepped forward, “We would like to introduce Galen,” They turned their steely gaze towards the boy standing between his parents.

He took a deep breath and stepped forward. Again numbers and beepings flared, the first thing the students noticed was Galen’s appearance, notably, the lack of a bracelet around his wrist. He was dressed like his parents. Dark jeans, a button-down flannel shirt, and boots.

Whispers course throughout the class as the administrator only had to snap their fingers once, to gather their focus. “Now, I hope that Galen will be at home with all of you,” The administrator raised a thin finger to their lips, “Do not let your new classmate take you away from your studies,” And with that, they took their leave. Heels softly clicking on the marble floor as they stepped out into the hallway.

Galen looked at his parents. Concern was written on his mother’s face while his father gave him an encouraging smile and directed Galen to look at his classmates with a movement of his eyebrows. He nodded, and introduced himself, “My name is Galen Moore, nice to meet everyone.”

Ms.Harrison looked out at the class, numbers were higher than normal. She turned to his parents, “Have his uniforms come in?”

His mother nodded before his father replied, “We wanted him to be comfortable on his first day. Wearing’ a little suit was only going’ to make him antsy.”

Ms. Harrison closed her eyes for a second, eased her thoughts before responding, “That is understandable, sir. Given time, Galen will get used to it. Even if he is not used to how things work here, he will in time.”

His father narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, he knew what she thinking, but not wanting to cause issues, he simply nodded before stepping over to his son. He stood easily at around 6ft 3in, so he knelt and hugged Galen. He whispered in his ear, “Now if anyone gives you trouble and you can’t solve it with words, you know what to do.” Galen nodded and hugged his father back before his mother came by.

“Don’t be afraid to make friends. Make a good impression.” she kissed him on the forehead before looking out to the classroom of twenty-or-so children looking at them with these odd expressions.

Galen nodded again before hugging his mother. Then he glanced at the students who gazed at him with either wonder, curiosity, or fear. Their eyes fell on him especially hard due to his surface differences from them. They wore clean pressed uniforms, almost like businessmen and women. And each student wore a silvery bracelet on one wrist. With one last reassuring look from his parents, he walked up to the teacher as she guided him to his assigned seat.

Numbers settled once more but were still higher than necessary. They were going to be on edge all day. Little did this single teacher understand how much will change as the years went by. As many adults are inclined to do, they were focused on the now and the preservation of the system.

And the seeds were sown. While the first part of the day went smoothly, Ms. Harrison had noted Galen would need help with math but excelled in reading, recess was a whole different animal. And it turned feral.

Within moments of releasing the first two batches of students in the 5th grade. Alarms and numbers flared. Several names began popping up for all teachers assigned on duty but before teachers could step in there was a blare of an alarm throughout the administration and a flash of red.

As administration rushed out, teachers were trying to part the group of children, as dust was being kicked up at the center of the fight. Girls were screaming as were some boys. There was the sound of something heavy crashing against flesh. There was a cry of pain and more thunderous thuds.

A sharp whistle seemed to stop the chaos, like a pack leader calling the attention of his dogs. The administrator appeared once again, walking closer to the center of the chaos. She looked at the names being displayed to her. Then called them out in a stern, cold tone. The students parted so she could see, the three boys she called out, limped over to her and standing there in the center of the crowd, was Galen, his fists red and his lip busted, blood pouring over his shirt. Tears streamed down his face as his eyes were shut tight. His cries were silent. The administrator focused on him and being unable to read him was, for the first time, off guard. She softened her tone and held a hand out to the new boy. He looked up with red eyes and approached her. She put her hand around his shoulder and carefully escorted him and the other boys to the nurse, and once they were patched up, they were taken to her office.

The first three boys couldn’t say anything aside from that Galen had started it. She probed them, questioning their accounts separately, and could tell immediately they weren’t telling the truth. Their stories were inconsistent and they began to get defensive of their actions when questioned.

Galen sat waiting for his turn with the administrator but it never came. The parents of the three boys charged in, demanding answers from someone, and even when they were told what happened, they only shrieked and howled that their precious bundle of joy couldn’t have done such a thing. The administrator gave each parent a chance to see what their children said and did.

The shrieking continued until the administrator dismissed the parents, who left in an outrage. They glared at Galen who sat there silently until his parents arrived. When they finally did, their conversation was one more of concern rather than trying to pass the blame.

“Apologies for not giving a fair warning about Galen. He’s strong for his age, and well, I’ve taught him how to handle situations...peacefully at first mind you, but I also taught him to only defend himself should someone hit him first.” Galen’s mother explained as the nurse came in to check on Galen after the other three had

“That lines up with what I gathered from the other boys. They instigated the situation, and Galen defended himself.” The administrator pulled out a thick manual, “Now it has been a while since we’ve dealt like an incident such as this, and after reviewing everything, Galen will not be punished for what happened, but I do recommend…”

“I’ll have to stop you right there, ma’am. We won’t be putting one of those things on our son.” Galen’s mother spoke out.

“But what if something happens?”

“To be fair, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Children make mistakes and things like this happen, but we want Galen to learn,” His father retorted.

The administrator only nodded and typed their response into the report. “Well, that leaves that. I will make sure those boys receive the proper punishment tomorrow, should their parents continue their enrollment here.”

“Thank you, ma’am. Have a good day.” Galen and his parents left for the day, stopping by Galen’s classroom to gather his things before returning to the model home that they now called home.

“Hmmm…yeah I’m going to miss being out in the wide-open,” His mother said as she scooped Galen into her arms, who had fallen asleep during the car ride.

“I know, we can only hope this will be temporary,” Galen’s father sighed as he locked the car and the family stepped inside.