Fenner flopped down in his seat, utterly exhausted. Dropping his head into the rickety old desk, he ignored the world and rested his eyes for a moment, fatigue tugging at his eyelids.
Another shitty day of school. Can't wait, he thought sarcastically.
A girl sitting at the desk to Fenner's left poked his arm before pulling her hand back, resting her cheek on her palm with a slight smile on her lips.
"Hey Fenner, you look tired. As always," she commented the obvious; Fenner was perpetually exhausted.
"Insomnia is a bitch, what can I say," he sighed, pulling his head up off the desk to survey the room. The girl laughed, shifting around in her seat as the teacher entered the classroom, a folder under his arm and a disgruntled look on his face.
Clearing his throat, the man fiddled with his glasses before addressing the class. "We have a new student with us today; please make him feel welcome."
Everyone glanced over to the door, where a boy with whiskey golden hair stood awkwardly.
"Come in and introduce yourself," the teacher encouraged, turning to the boy. He shuffled in, gripping his hands together tightly and smiling shyly.
"Um, hi. I'm Albion. I just moved here for my mum's work," he said as he made eye contact with the floor, his hands tightening around each other as he gripped anxiously. "Nice to meet you," he squeaked out eventually.
The teacher nodded, placing his folder down on the desk. "Have a seat over there," he said as he pointed to the seat next to Fenner's, "and ask your desk mate if you're confused on anything."
Fenner glanced over at the boy as he sat down whilst Fenner thought that he would come across as an ass if he didn't say anything. He eventually let out a monotonous "hi" before resting his head on his arms again.
But Fenner couldn't stop himself from occasionally glancing over at the boy, thinking who the fuck has lashes that long??!!
"Hi," Albion replied quietly, a brief smile flitting across his lips with the delicacy of a butterfly's wings. Fenner blinked a few times before looking away, but then found himself having to continue blinking in an effort to stay awake.
He was shattered from yet another night of shitty sleep.
The bell blared offensively and Fenner sat up in a hurry, blinking in confusion. He'd fallen asleep in class. Again.
He did that a lot.
Long-lashes next to him giggled gently before sliding a sheet of paper over in Fenner's direction.
"You were out cold and I'm a fast writer, so I made some extra notes for you too." Albion bit his lip nervously, squeezing his hands together again. "They're not super detailed or anything, I just thought...something is better than nothing, right?"
Fenner took the paper whilst nodding slowly. "Thanks. I sleep through a lot of lessons though, so don't worry about it in the future."
Albion's face turned slightly pink as he covered his face with his hands, "sorry, I won't do it again," he squeaked softly.
Ah shit, I didn't mean to make him embarrassed, Fenner thought a little guiltily. "I just meant that like, you'll be writing them constantly if you did it every time," he rushed to explain.
Albion floated his fingers, peering at Fenner through the slits between his digits. "Oh, right," he said slowly before a bright smile graced his lips. "I'm Albion, by the way. Although, I guess you probably already knew that, from the whole introduction thingie earlier," he said with a small laugh.
"Please call me Albie though. And I don't know your name yet?" He asked cautiously, as if not sure whether such a simple question would anger Fenner or not.
Albion was quite a timid boy.
"Fen," the other boy replied simply, not about to elaborate with any more information about himself. Smiling slightly, Albion stood to go before stopping and turning back to Fenner.
"Don't suppose you mind taking me to my next class? I have no clue where French is."
Fenner glanced down at the notes in his hand, feeling like the least he could do was show the other boy where to go.
"Was planning on skipping but I guess I can take you there," he said after a moment.
Whilst Albion thanked him and smiled gratefully, Fenner remembered that he had skipped french for the past two weeks.
It had also been two weeks since he became visible again.
This meant that everyone had forgotten him, only knowing Fenner for the past two weeks, even though he remembered them.
At random times, generally once a month, Fenner turned invisible. It was uncontrollable and always accompanied by the people around him forgetting Fenner. Everyone except for his mother, as she had had the same condition until she gave birth to her son and he inherited it instead.
Luckily, the invisibility never lasted long, only a few days at most. And at some point he would wake up and it would just be gone again, but everyone would have already forgotten him.
Even his father.
"Fuck," Fenner breathed out as he sat down with Albion in the french classroom. The teacher walked over to them, looking slightly confused.
"Excuse me, are you new here? I was only informed of one new student and I don't recognise you."
Fenner slipped lower in his seat, fed up with having to go through this again. "I've been going to this school since I was like 12. That's 5 years; not that new."
The teacher frowned, but moved on. "I see. Have you just changed class then?"
"Nope," Fenner breathed out, doodling in the margin of his paper; this no longer scared him, after all it was a regular occurrence at this point.
Albion glanced at him quizzicality, nudging Fenner with his elbow gently. "Not a memorable one, are you?" he joked, but Fenner just slumped over on the desk.
"Yeah, people forget me all the time."
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