Ethan walks into the classroom, he scans the room looking for a seat, then he hears “hey Ethan”, it's Kyle. Kyle gestures to the seat next to him, it's empty. Ethan slowly walks over to the seat and lowers himself onto it carefully. His heart thumps, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum. “Sup, Ethan”, Kyle says charismatically, “it's your third day here now, how are you finding the place?”. Ethan tries to respond calmly, “ya its a nice school, nice city”. "Yeah,” Kyle responds, “everyone here’s really nice, apart from you know who”

This bastard, I know exactly who ‘you know who’ is, I actually forgot how much of a dick he was for a second

The teacher enters the classroom. “Right class, hope you’ve got no plans for the weekend because you’ve got a project due for monday that I was meant to give to you ages ago but kinda forgot, anyways no use crying over spilled milk, get into pairs”. “Guess I'm with you”  Kyle says nonchalantly. The teacher says, “you must choose a historical figure and create a six thousand word slideshow about this person. Origins, historical significance, all that stuff about them”. “Van gogh” Kyle says, "we should do vincent van gogh, i already have some notes from a middle school project we can use, come to my house after school today, there's only about an hour or two of work to do”.”sounds good” Ethan responds. “Of course it sounds good”, he thinks to himself, “only about an hour then you’re free, free from this dickhead, dickhead? He's not a dickhead is he, he’s one of the nicest people you’ve ever met, way nicer than everyone at your old school, you are just obsessed with that bitch, the devil, ooh Trudy the outside world is so cruel, stay with me Trudy, I’m one of the good ones Trudy, I swear, ooh your name is so sweet Trudy, I’ll protect you from this cruel world, just me, now hush little baby dont you cry everything’s gonna be alright. What's this weird obsession you have with protecting her? you can't even protect yourself, let alone that hopeless broad, you’ve struck a nice deal haven't you, look at Ethan friends with everyone, that's not enough for you is it, you have to stand up for her. Have you ever stopped and thought maybe she is the devil? The whole school is against her, just because she gets a little anxious? Nah she's the devil, like actually the devil”. “AAHHHHHH!” Ethan presses his palms to his head, his breathing shallows, he screeches, he’s trembling, everybody’s looking at him now.

 “It's ok buddy”, Kyle says, putting an arm on his back and leading him out of the classroom. He leads him to the bathroom and guides him to sit on the windowsill. “In…out”, Kyle says, “it’s ok it's just a little panic attack, just keep breathing you’ll be fine, I’ll go back to class let everyone know you’re ok…oh and here”, Kyle hands him a piece of paper, “there’s my address, whenever you’re feeling better this weekend come over and we can do that project, you should probably go home or something, that was a pretty nasty panic attack”. Ethan watches Kyle stroll out of the bathroom and then leaves by himself shortly after, he makes his way straight to Miss Jackson. When he arrives he pulls the rushes to the side and sees Trudy sitting there, writing something in her notebook, she looks up and a look of pure sympathy takes over her face, she sees a face she's only ever seen in the mirror painted on Ethan's face, a look of panic. She pats the ground next to her, digging her fingers into her thighs. Ethan sits next to her, she wraps her arm around his shoulders, “it’ll be ok…I know the feeling”. Tears prick at Ethan's eyes, then he feels her shaking violently, her teeth are grinding loudly, he has a clear view of her thighs, her fingers are plunged into them deeper than usual. Ethan extracts himself from her hold but stays close, “it’s ok…thanks Trudy, I’ll be fine”.

Trudy‘s hands move from her thighs, she's still shaking but the grinding of her teeth has stopped, she sees the fresh tears on Ethan's face, “what happened anyway…who did this to you”. Ethan looks down, he coldly responds “nothing, don't worry about it”. Theres a smile on Trudy’s face, its faint but its definitely there, she speaks with more pep than Ethan's ever heard, in a very slightly giggly voice she says “of course I’m gonna worry about you idiot”, she palms her lunchbox on the floor and drags it towards her, “all I do is worry about you”. 

Ethans eyes widen, hers do too, “why the fuck did I say that”, she thinks to herself, her hands come up to grab two balls of her hair, shit, SHIT,  what has she done. Ethan blushes, he softly asks, “you worry about me?”. Her grip on her hair softens, but it doesn't falter, she blushes and shyly and softly says, “yeah…”, she chuckles, “how could I not, you’re constantly getting beat up and not eating”. They both laugh a bit, but then she speaks again, “so are you gonna tell me what really happened?”

“My thoughts just got the better of me I guess”, Ethan admits shamefully, Trudy smiles, a proper smile this time, teeth and all, “see, was that so hard?”.