It all started, like most big events, on an otherwise boring day. 

It was the third year of high school, a few months in. It was morning, the bell had just rung, and everyone was finding their seats, noisily pulling chairs in and out.

Amongst the students were two girls sitting particularly close to each other, whispering in each other's ears, talking about plans later that day, if they had done their homework, and other things on their mind.

One had short wavy and wild black hair, which was totally opposite to the other's reddish-brown braids, that neatly went from the top of the head, down to behind her back.

It was as if they were in their own little world, sitting in the middle of a rowdy class, but not being a part of it.

What wasn’t normal, however, was when the teacher arrived, with a slightly furrowed brow, clapped his hands twice, and told everyone to be quiet.

“We have a new transfer student today,” he said, looking towards the door and making a motion with his hand that indicated for someone to come in.

And in he came. The start of the story. The start of everything, really.

“I’m Ma-Mark…” the boy stumbled over his own name after the teacher had asked him to introduce himself. He sounded a bit unsure of himself, as if the name felt wrong in his mouth. Maybe he was nervous.

The boy, Mark, was handsome. Soft hair styled in a smoothed back hairstyle with a side part and some bangs to the side of hair that was either brown or blond depending on the lighting. He looked like he was into sports, as he was very fit, but his clothes were what really made him stand out.

He wore a blue button up dress shirt, a black tie, and pants so crisp they looked entirely new.

The school had no real regulations for clothes, so students wore whatever they wanted as long as they were decent. Most of the boys wore jeans and t-shirts, with most of the girls wearing skirts or dresses, but nothing too formal.

So, the boy stood out. His almost adult-like attire screamed he was new and shiny in more ways than just being a new student.

“Welcome Mark, could you tell us a bit more about yourself?” The teacher prompted, brows still furrowed. He looked like he was getting a headache and was resisting the urge to massage the spot between his eyes.

“...Oh… Uhm… Yea, “ Mark said, hesitant. His eyes flitted around a bit, before finally resting on his feet and continuing, “I’m, from uh… The city? I like playing sports. Soccer, basketball, tennis, those kinds of things. I’d like to make some friends here, so if anyone plays, let me know.”

When he finished, some boys stood up and started yelling all sorts of information at him, like what times they met, what their positions were, and questions about what position he usually played.

Mark looked wildly uncomfortable looking from one boy to another, opening his mouth to answer a few times, but giving up whenever someone new interrupted.

The teacher clapped twice, asked for silence, and while the students didn’t calm down entirely, the chatter was lowered.

“Take this chair. You can go sit… Eh, over there,” the teacher said, pointing towards the middle of the classroom and the two girls who had been a bit caught up in their own world. Mark looked at the girls, then back at the teacher, face contorting a bit.

“It’s just for now,” the teacher assured him, “we weren’t expecting a new student today, so we didn’t have time to make arrangements…”

Mark seemed to be satisfied with that explanation and slowly made his way down to the girls, dragging the chair with him. It made a scratching noise, as he did not carry it, but let the chairlegs drag along the floor, slowly but surely.

When he finally made it over, he looked at the two tables, and put down his chair at the side of one, closest to the black-haired girl. As he did this, the two girls stood up, lifted their chairs, still half sitting on them, and scooted a bit over to the opposite side to make space for him. Or to get away from him. Who knew.

“Good, good,” the teacher said after all three were sitting down again, “Mark, the one closest to you is Mary and the one beside her is Josie. They’re… Josie is… I’m sure you’ll be fine in their care. Girls, please help Mark throughout the day and show him where everything is. And please do share your books with him too. We won’t be able to get new supplies for him today.”

The girls nodded at the same time, and Mary pushed her book over to Mark, “you use that. I’m just gonna share with Josie,” she said, her tone of voice leaving no room for an answer, before she scooted even closer to Josie. The girls looked in the book together, shoulders touching, leaving Mark to do whatever he wanted with the book he had been given.

After a moment of hesitation, he took the book.

The teacher, still not looking quite that well, gave a curt nod and class was in session.

After class, Mary took the initiative to invite Mark on a walk around the school to show him everything, as they had promised the teacher. Even though Mark seemed a bit against it, still looking shy and wishy-washy, he finally agreed and followed behind them, head down, looking really creepy.

“This is the boys room. I have never been in there, but I’ve heard they’re almost always out of toilet paper, so be sure to bring some paper with you,” Josie explained while pointing.

“I was in there once. It was disgusting,” Mary added, shuddering.

“Ew, why?” Josie said in disgust, taking a step away from Mary, who immediately smiled.

“I had heard someone wrote something on the wall, so I went to check it out,” Mary answered innocently.

“So?”

“So what?”

“Was there something written on the wall?” Josie asked, her voice sounding a bit judging now.

“Yea. It’s not there anymore, though,” Mary said. Josie opened her mouth, clearly about to say something, but Mary was faster, “So, Mark, what city did you come from?”

No response. Both girls turned to look at him, but he didn’t notice and instead almost walked into Mary.

“Hey, Mark!” Mary yelled, clapping her hands right in front of his face to get his attention. This worked. First he jumped from the shock, then he lay down on the floor, covering his head with his hands, shaking.

Mary and Josie looked at him, then each other, and then back at Mark.

“Uhm… What are you doing, Mark?” Josie asked, looking at the trembling boy on the floor.

“Mark?” Mary asked, sitting down next to him, “are you okay?”

Finally, Mark slowly stopped shaking, looked up at the two of them, shook his head, mumbled a “sorry” and then started to stand back up, even holding a hand out for Mary to take. 

She looked at it, considering something, before she took it and let him help her up.

“Are you okay, Mark?” Mary repeated, her voice now soft and full of worry. She sometimes came off as a strong personality, able to say things harshly, but even she didn’t like seeing someone who was clearly afraid of… something. She wanted to help if she could.

“Yea, I’m okay. It’s just. I, uh. The clap. I don’t know. Sorry,” Mark rambled on, voice getting smaller and smaller, until it at some point became nothing more than a mumble that the girls weren’t able to hear.

Then, as if he had turned on a switch, he suddenly jerked up, standing at his full height, back straight, the horror in his face having completely disappeared and instead molding itself into something stern… fearless. Confident.

He cleared his throat once, before he said, in a voice that was self-assured and not at all what it had sounded like before, “Sorry. I’m fine. Thank you for the concern. Let’s move on.” 

He then walked in front of them, as if he knew exactly where to go, even though they were the ones supposed to show him around.

Mary and Josie exchanged a look before shrugging and following him. 

Before long, they all were walking at around the same speed, in a line, Josie next to Mary and Mary next to Mark.

“That’s the cafeteria,” Mary pointed out, “I suggest you bring lunch from home unless you’re really desperate, though.”

Josie nodded empathetically, adding, “and if you absolutely have to buy something from there, go for the sandwiches. It’s the only somewhat safe choice.”

Mark nodded in understanding, “lunch from home or sandwiches. Got it.”

“And there we have the playing ground. It’s leftover from when this was an elementary school, and not many people use it, but we are technically allowed to. Most just… Don’t. They find it ‘too childish’,” Josie said, putting airquotes around ‘too childish’ and saying it in a mocking tone.

“As if caring what others think isn’t childish,” Mary scoffed, “we like to hang out there. The monkey bars are fun.”

“Well, Mary finds them fun. I like to watch her swing around like a monkey,” Josie laughed. Mary just smiled at this, like it was a term of endearment rather than anything else.

Mark nodded, once again, giving no indication of what he thought of the matter, and then they moved on.

“And next up, something we think you will like,” Mary said dramatically, like a ringmaster at the circus announcing the next big number. She looked at Josie, who immediately picked up on what she was supposed to do.

“Gentleman and gentleman,” Josie then continued in the same dramatic tone, as they walked closer.

“Let us present to you, at our amazing high school,” Mary took over once more, putting even more drama into her voice.

“THE SOCCER FIELD!” Mary and Josie said in unison as they went out a door, leading into the sports section of the school.

And while there indeed was a soccer field, it was nowhere near worthy of that kind of introduction. 

That didn’t seem to matter much to Mark, who looked at the completely ordinary grass field with gleaming eyes.

“Awesome! I can’t wait to play!” He said. He opened his mouth, as if he was about to say more, but then closed it and shook his head.

“Wanna play now?” Josie asked, producing a football from… the air? Only Josie knew.

“You girls can play?” Mark asked skeptically before he thought better of it, significantly helped by the death stare Mary sent his way, “I mean, sure, let’s play.”