Rowan looked at the time; the bell was about to ring. Lunch was almost over. He wondered if he’d be able to hang out with the girl again. Maybe under this tree. Maybe even tomorrow. The thought made him excited. Would she be his first friend?

    “I’m Maya, by the way. What’s your name?” The girl smiled.

    I’m Rowan. He wrote.

    “Nice to meet you, Rowan, wanna be friends?” She held her hand out to shake.

    Rowan’s eyes lit up, and he grinned. He quickly reached in for the handshake. 

    “See you later! I’m heading in early for class. Let’s eat lunch together tomorrow!” She skipped off with a big smile, waving with both hands.

    The next day, as he was walking towards the entrance of the school, an arm came around his shoulder. He jumped and looked to see who it was. It was Maya! He smiled and shut his eyes with relief. She scared him, but was happy it was her. They continued walking together with Maya’s arm around his shoulder. He already felt so comfortable with her, but it felt so sudden. Was this what a friendship felt like?

    “What’s up!” Maya laughed.

    Rowan shrugged, a grin on his face.

    “Oh! Right, I forgot to ask. You have a phone, right? Can I get your contact info? I usually text, but any form of communication is fine with me!”

    Rowan nodded and dug through his pocket to find his phone. It wasn’t there. His heart dropped, and he panicked a little. He walked over to a corner and set his backpack down. 

    “Everything okay?” Maya asked.

    Rowan nodded, searching through his backpack.

    “Can’t find your phone?” She knelt next to him.

    He nodded.

    Rowan finally decided to open his front backpack pocket, and there it was, right next to his camera. Rowan pulled out his phone, then the camera, and stared at it again.

    “Ooo, nice camera!” Maya exclaimed.

    Rowan put the camera back in his backpack, then turned to show Maya his phone number.

    “Cool, thanks! Let’s hang out after school sometime. I also want to introduce you to some of my friends, I think you’d like them!”

    Rowan nodded, a smile slowly finding its way onto his lips. He was making more friends! He was so thrilled to meet the others. He hoped they’d like him.

    At lunch, Rowan followed Maya through the cafeteria as she beelined over to a lunch table with 3 other students. He was nervous, fidgeting with his lunch bag and sweating buckets. He needed to make a good first impression.

    Once they got to the table, Maya started introducing everyone: “So the blonde one is Kai, he’s the funny one.” Kai gave Rowan an upward nod. Rowan hesitated before returning a small nod of his own. “He’s also a really good surfer, but let’s just say he doesn’t ace math tests.” 

    “Hey!” Kai exclaimed, furrowing his brows. All the others laughed. 

    “The red-haired girl is Sophie; she acts like she’s a lot older than us, though she’s only a year ahead. She already has her driver’s license, so she usually drives us everywhere.”

    Sophie grinned and gave a little wave.

    “The black-haired boy over there, his name is Asher, but we call him ashy or ashy boy.” Asher groaned and smacked his palm to his face. The others burst into laughter. “He hates it, though,” Maya whispered into Rowan’s ear.

    Sophie interrupted and said, “Maya’s the one who got this friend group together; she always knows how to make awkward situations fun. Before we all became friends, those two didn’t get along,” Sophie pointed to Asher and Kai, who both smiled as Asher scratched the back of his head.