Holly’s final class of the day was Visual Arts. By the time she found her way to the classroom, she felt exhausted. It was hard enough that it was the last class of the first day filled with so much after the nothingness of the days of summer, but she had been trying not to get completely lost all day as well.

I feel like a ninth grader all over again. She sighed to herself, slumping into a seat at a table near the back of the classroom.

“Hey.” Someone suddenly said, making Holly jump. She hadn’t even realized that she wasn’t the only person at the table. There was a girl sitting right across from her.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Holly scrambled, clutching at the strap of her messenger bag as she tried to get to her feet. “I – I’ll find somewhere else to sit.” She could feel her cheeks growing hot from embarrassment.

“Why?” The girl asked, smiling at her. She nodded at the seat that Holly had just left. “Nobody’s sitting there, and the back table is the best place in an art class.” She pulled a 14X20CM sketchpad from her bag and flipped to a blank page. “What’s your name?”

“Holly.” Holly answered, sliding back into the seat.

She watched as the girl scrawled her name on the sketchpad sheet. She ripped it out, folded it in half, and placed it on the table in front of Holly like a place card. Then she made one for herself with another sheet. Her name was Jodi.

“What grade are you in?” Jodi asked, doodling something on her card.

“Uh, twelve.” Holly replied. She picked up her card and stared at it. Jodi had used large bubble letters, the kind that could be coloured in. After glancing at what Jodi was doing, she quickly pulled out her own pencil case and started to personalize the card.

“I’m in eleventh.” Jodi told her. Holly glanced up to see her write the number in one corner of her card.

The two of them fell into a pleasant silence as they worked. Holly decided to make the card reflect exactly how she was feeling at that very moment, so she drew flowers and ribbons on it. Using a range of pinks and pastels, she added colour to the card. In the end, she decided that it looked very much like a five-year-old girl’s bedroom design. It was perfect.

“Hey, Jodi.” A group of three girls came over to the table just as Holly was zipping up her pencil case. Each of them wore a skirt and tight t-shirt, while necklaces with letters hung from their necks. They were all smiling as they sat down.

“Hi.” Jodi greeted them. “Guys, this is Holly.” Holly waved as Jodi motioned to her. “And Holly, this is Amelia, Bianca, and Caitlin.”

“Hi.” Caitlin said, flashing Holly a perfectly bleached smile.

Amelia gave Holly a curious look. “Are you new this year?” She asked after a long pause.

“Yeah.” Holly said, smiling at her.

“Oh!” Bianca gasped, making everyone look at her. “Speaking of new kids; Jodi, you have to see this one guy. Apparently, he just moved here. He stands out so much, I’m sure you’ve already seen him.”

Holly found herself leaning in a little closer. She wondered how handsome the boy in question was. Jodi’s friends looking like the type to only gossip about the best of the best.

“Really?” Jodi said, packing up the mess of coloured pencils around her pencil case.

“Yeah.” Bianca nodded, giggling a little. “His hair is so outrageous! I think it’s, like, four or five different colours! And he’s wearing a shirt that just declares to the whole world that he’s a homo!”

Holly gulped when she realized that they were talking about Fletcher. They didn’t think he was handsome. They thought he was a freak, a source of entertainment. She felt her throat close up a little, and her hands formed fists.

No! She mentally screamed at herself. You can’t do anything wild. She made herself unclench her fists and take a deep breath.

“OhMiGod!” Caitlin gasped. She pointed at the classroom door. “It’s him!”

Along with everyone else, Holly turned to look at the door. A grin spread across her face when she recognized Fletcher standing there. She had forgotten that they had this class together. This was going to be a fun semester.

“Doesn’t he look like a--” Amelia started.

Holly wasn’t listening to her. She raised her hand and waved it around wildly. “Fletcher!” She shouted across the room. “Over here!”

Everyone was staring at her as Fletcher saw her and started toward them. “Are you nuts?” Amelia hissed. “I don’t want to sit with a fag.”

Holly didn’t respond to her. Instead, she grinned as Fletcher stopped beside the table. “Guys, this is my twin brother, Fletcher.” Now she looked at Amelia, narrowing her eyes as a look of surprise came to the other girl’s face.

“I sense I’m not welcome here.” Fletcher said calmly. Then he also looked at Amelia. “By the way, I don’t see why you’d be sitting with a piece of kindling or a cigarette. Unless you were talking about me, in which case I guess it would be best to warn you that you just threatened my life. Don’t use that word to refer to a person again.”

Holly got to her feet during Fletcher’s little lesson and then the two of them crossed the room and sat alone at another table. As the rest of the class filed in, everyone avoided their table.