Ethan balanced his chair in a precarious position, not even noticing how unstable it felt as his mind zoned out. Class was boring, but when was history ever interesting? Ethan found tapping his pencil and leaning back on his chair far more amusing than learning what type of beast of burdens they used in Europe. 

It was barely a week into school, yet Ethan was already dying to get to their next extended break. Every single class seemed to drag on and it was rare to get him stimulated by anything anymore.

Ethan lazily looked over to see one of his classmates, a short girl with cute purple glasses, blushing as she failed to correctly recite the 5 pillars of Islam. Ethan felt a bit of pity for the girl before he quickly realized that that could be him in a few seconds if he didn’t start paying attention.

Ethan, more out of fear than anything else, zoned back into the lesson, taking the pencil out of his mouth and down onto his notebook in front of him. He decided not to put his chair back on solid ground —a boy was able to rebel right?— but did begin to read along and take notes again.

Class was getting closer to the end, Ethan could tell by his amazing senses and by the handy watch he kept on his wrist, and Ethan was impressed. He had actually been paying way more attention to history than any other day before. Usually, he just zoned out and then watched some videos after school to catch up. This was an unusual win for him.

Ethan was grinning widely with a smug puffing of his chest when the door was suddenly swung open. The most shocking thing about it wasn’t the sudden swing that had his teacher’s head snapping up to it in surprise. It was actually the loud bang the door had made when it hit the wall behind it. Despite seeing the door swing open, Ethan’s body jerked at the noise. Due to the sudden movement, the chair and Ethan went sailing to the floor.

Loud laughs erupted all around Ethan as his classmates stared at his fallen form. They were probably encouraged by the odd positioning of Ethan’s legs pointed straight up in the air, or the stunned expression on his face. Either way, they laughed and Ethan went red. 

There was a clearing of a throat —probably their teacher’s from its nasally quality— and Ethan took it as an opportunity to get up and quickly sit back in his seat. When Ethan’s butt was on his chair, stably this time, he noticed a new kid standing at the front. 

He was black, his skin smooth with a deep brown tone. His face was strong, flat at the sides, and at his jaw where it narrowed towards a flat-ended chin. His large nose, full lips, and deep-set eyes attracted one’s gaze and were distinctive about his face. Overall, there was a very comfortable air about this guy, and Ethan felt himself relaxing just being in his presence.

The chatter in the room died down and Ethan began to hear the rushed words coming from the new boy’s mouth.

“I’m so sorry, Ms.” He said, his eyebrows slopping down with his apologetic expression. “My mom forgot to tell me I would be starting school today so I came as soon as I woke up.”

Ms. Jade was nodding, seemingly waving off the new kid’s apology, which had him releasing a deep breath of relief. From his position in the back, Ethan didn’t hear what Ms. Jade said after that, but soon the new kid was standing up straight while facing the entire class.

“Hi, my name’s Chris Davis.” The confidence that Chris presented himself with immediately caught Ethan’s attention, and Ethan found himself leaning forward to hear more. “I’m 15, in the 10th Grade, and I just moved here from Quebec City.”

A chorus of “oohs” went up around the room when the students heard the perfect French pronunciation of “Quebec”. It was quickly explained when they realized that he came from Quebec. Ethan slightly winced. Chris would be getting bombarded with questions about Quebec and French the moment he sat down. 

It was really fifty-fifty with kids in Toronto. They could either know a lot about Quebec or the French language because they learned it or visited Quebec a lot. Or, they were stuck in Ontario and other English-speaking provinces and still found French to be the most exotic thing ever. Ethan hated to admit that he was a bit the latter and really curious to hear more detail about what it was like to live in Quebec. 

Unfortunately, Chris was asked to sit in a seat near the front, far from where Ethan was. When Ms. Jade placed her hand on Chris’ shoulder to ask him to take a seat, Ethan finally noticed how much muscle was packed onto it. In fact, Chris was actually pretty built.

I wonder if he plays any sports? Ethan thought with a curious hum. It was a dumb question since just about any boy in high school had to do some sport, if not dance. Now Ethan just had to figure out what that sport was while also getting this new kid to tell him about Quebecois life.

Any of Ethan's plans would have to wait for another day since in the next second the bell rang.

Ethan quickly went about stuffing his thing into his bag while eyeing how the new kid was being swarmed by a group of students already. But Ethan shouldn’t have been surprised. Handsome, built, and French-speaking to boot? There was no chance Chris would leave the building without one number in his pocket. 

Ethan’s thoughts went to what he would be having for lunch in the next hour the new kid fell from his mind.

—————

“It was so embarrassing! Everyone was just watching me when I had my back on the floor and my legs in the air!” Ethan complained loudly, ranting while furiously chewing his sandwich.

Aiden winced, being burdened with the sight of the mushy sandwich mixing around in Ethan’s mouth. Ethan was oblivious to his friend’s discomfort and went on boldly. “If it wasn’t for that new kid, I would have been the only thing people talked about in the class for days.”

Aiden bit his lip, refraining from mentioning that if it wasn’t for that new kid, Ethan wouldn’t have fallen on the ground. He was slowly chewing his own lunch and noticed the gears turning in Ethan’s brain.

Ethan’s mind went back to that new kid who he hadn’t thought of since class had ended. His mouth went closed and he leaned his head on his free head, loosely holding his sandwich in the other.

“You know, he actually was pretty built. He had a lot of muscle.” Ethan commented, whispering the last words to himself. But Aiden still caught it and raised a single brow at his friend’s odd comment. “I wonder what sports he plays.”

Aiden was now staring at Ethan weirdly, trying to figure out where the comment had come from. He wondered if he should tack it down to Ethan’s general weirdness or figure out if there was something else. 

At this point in his life, Ethan had a lot of energy and a lot of things to say, at least when he was interested. Despite being quite social and outgoing, many of his classmates found Ethan to be a lot to handle. Sure, he had a talking buddy in classes here and there.

But, when Ethan started heating up and making joke after joke, he saw the way their eyes always dimmed and how they would sink back in their seats, waiting for a chance to get away from the conversation. Ethan was just too much for people to handle. 

Everyone got tired of him. 

Except for Aiden.

Aiden had to be the first guy who hadn’t tried to lose Ethan after a week, and Ethan was the only person to get past Aiden’s shy energy to find the crazy person underneath. They fit together perfectly and were happy to be little weirdos together.

After thinking about it for a few moments longer, Aiden’s mouth popped open before falling into a smirk.

“What is this Ethan?” He asked, leaning forward to his friend with an evil glint in his eye. “Are catching feelings for a person other than yourself?”

Ethan jumped up from his comfortable position, his face going beat red as he scrambled to save the situation. He cleared his throat and fixed his hair in a rush to feel more confident.

“Of course not!” He scoffed, puffing out his chest proudly. “The only boy I could ever wanna fuck is me.”

Aiden gave Ethan a disgusted look and Ethan cleared his throat again.

“That came out wrong.”

“Yeah, I got that.”

They both went quiet for a moment, Aiden trying to decipher from his friend’s extremely odd comments. Ethan bit his lip in thought before he perked up.

“So, have you been getting any progress with Scarlett this year?” Ethan asked excitedly, remembering a topic that always got Aiden fired up. “You were telling me that you were thinking about going after her again, right?”

Aiden’s shoulders slumped and Ethan became very confused.

Aiden has had a crush on another girl in their grade, Scarlett Hale, for as long as Ethan has known him. Aiden always told him it was because of something nice Scarlett had done for him on his first day and it had been the reason for Aiden’s slight obsession.

He saw Scarlett as the most beautiful and magnificent person in the world and says he will pin after her for the rest of his life. Since Ethan could never convince Aiden to find another girl to like that wasn’t crazy popular and wanted by every other guy in the school, Ethan just encouraged him to shoot his shot and try to get her. He was an optimist after all.

Usually, when Ethan brought up Scarlett, Aiden became a grinning blushing mess. Today, he was a frowning pouting mess who only blushed a little bit. This made him upset, even though the blushing was Ethan’s favorite part.

“What’s wrong?’ He asked, confused by Aiden’s sudden mood. Aiden’s eyes narrowed and he brought his eyes up to meet Ethan’s.

“You haven’t heard?” Aiden asked cautiously, more serious than Ethan had ever heard him before. Ethan, albeit fearfully, slowly shook his head. Aiden sighed. “Scarlett is dating her friend Aaron. They announced that they were official on Monday.”

Ethan gasped loudly, genuinely in shock. 

“But it’s Wednesday!” He stated, receiving a slow and sad nod from Aiden. “I can’t believe I only found this out today! How did you keep this to yourself for two days? I would have thought that you would have been sobbing to me the second you heard.”

Aiden glared at Ethan, seemingly embarrassed, and made a motion of his hand as if to quiet Ethan.

“Hush!” He whisper-yelled, looking around the two of them in concern. No one was really listening to anything they said, too focused on their own basic conversations, so Ethan just rolled his eyes as he waited. Aiden’s fierce look almost immediately switched to a sad one, the specific flavor being “defeated”. Aiden was staring at the cafeteria table thoughtfully, collecting his words.

“I kind of always knew that one day a guy way cooler and hotter than me would come and sweep Scarlett off of her feet,” Aiden explained, chuckling sadly at the thought. The slight smile fell off of his face and his face went serious again. He sighed. “It was just a matter of time.”

Ethan reached over to pat Aiden on the back, not knowing of any other comfort to give him. It was a long pat though, with plenty of rubbing and mini pats in between, but eventually, he pulled his hand back and went back to eating his sandwich.

The issue with it all was Aiden wasn’t wrong. Scarlett was really popular and hot and it was pretty surprising that she hadn’t already been with someone. It still pained Ethan too much to think of Aiden being sad over this girl forever. Ethan just hoped that everything would work out for Aiden soon.

“So, about this crazy World History Unit!”