Egnarts, a small town no one, but its residents, have ever heard of. located in the middle of Ohio. A population under 10,000, with uninteresting views, and not a single significant landmark.

Now here they are, walking to Marcus Outlook High School, "the place where you're guaranteed to succeed!" at least that's what the website says. 

Noah was extremely excited to be going to a new school. He happened to be a very open extrovert and loved meeting people, in contrast to Jayden, an introvert who'd rather drop dead than leave his room to engage in conversations with another human being.

"Jayden, are you excited? Because I am!" Noah said, with a little hum in his voice. He gave his younger brother a small nudge with his shoulder.

"Absolutely not. Not to sound like a low rate teen movie stereotype, but this school is lame. Really fucking lame." Jayden said, obviously dreading this new experience.

"Cheer up Jayden, You haven't even seen the school yet, how could you possibly know it's lame?"

"Have you seen the online reviews from the other students? Apparently, someone got hit by one of the teachers with a book. The bus drivers are constantly not paying attention and almost hitting the students in the bus loop, and two other students died due to some freak science fair incident. So yeah I'm sure, this year's gonna be real fucking peachy."

"Yeah okay you might be right, but try to have some optimism! Because the first rule of life is to go through it with open eyes! It'll do you some good."

"That's… ironic coming from you." Jayden awkwardly looked away.

"It is, isn't it." Noah smiled. "But I'm just happy to be in a new place. Plus there might be some hot guys and gals." That last part Noah was really excited for. 

"Only someone like you would ever be interested in something like that." Jayden looked back at him. "You really think you're ready to date someone already?"

"Why not?" Noah gave him a big smile and sped up enthusiastically towards the school.

They arrived at the front doors of the school. Noah rushed in excitedly while Jayden strayed behind, being more cautious of his surroundings. The halls were long and filled with other students. Lockers lined the walls, occasionally split by classroom doors.

Noah was already walking up to random people and complimenting them on their clothes, hair, or accessories. He might have made a couple of people uncomfortable due to the fact that he was a random person coming up to them, smiling like an idiot, and talking loudly to them, but there were definitely people who found it genuinely endearing. Jayden was watching him from a distance, probably wishing he wasn't related to Noah so he could himself some of the second-hand embarrassment. 

After he was done going up to people, Noah walked up to Jayden and lowered his head to whisper to him.

"Hey, you see that guy over there? Isn't he cute?" Noah said, with a huge smile. 

The guy he was referring to was a tall brunette with pretty amber eyes. He was dressed in a white polo shirt and blue jeans, he was talking to two other guys. Jayden looked over at him.

"How am I supposed to know if he's cute? I'm not gay like you." Jayden kept his eyes on the aforementioned friend group.

"Which one do you have your eye on? The blue haired one? He's cute."

"No! I told you I'm not gay." Jayden's face turned red.

"Well you're in high school now, you never know." 

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Jayden whipped his head at Noah in confusion. Noah on the other hand ignored him and had his full attention on the cute guy.

Noah stood there staring at the guy. He eventually noticed and looked up at Noah. Noah smiled and gave him a little wave. The guy looked confused and gave an unsure wave back, like the kind of wave you give when you see someone wave and you're not sure if they're waving at you or someone behind you, so you do the, I'm waving, but not waving in case you're not waving at me. Wave.

Noah gave him a sly smile and walked up to him and his friends.

"Hey, you looked interesting so I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm Noah." Noah looked straight into his eyes.

The guy was caught off guard, but he decided to introduce himself anyway.

"Oh uh, hey, I'm Jason." Jason. A perfect name. "That's Benjamin and that's Liam."

Benjamin was very tall and muscular. He had dyed blue hair and blue contacts, a contrast to his dark brown skin. He was probably a fan of anime, maybe a little too much, but Noah would consider him handsome nonetheless. Liam on the other hand was plain. He had blond hair with light blue eyes and a plain but friendly face.

"Sup." Benjamin said, giving a small nod.

"Hey." Liam smiled brightly at Noah.

Noah was happy. Finding new friends always makes him excited, especially now after moving away from all his other friends. 

"You guys seem cool. Y'all should show me around, I'd really appreciate it." Noah looked around at them and gave them a flirtatious look, the same eyes that usually enabled him to get whatever he wanted.

"Sure, we can do that." Liam said.

"Oh, are you new?" Jason asked. 

"Yeah, I'm originally from a different town, it's like north of here."

"Oh cool. yeah, we can show you around, maybe during lunch?" 

"Yeah, that'd be great."

Then the first bell rang. The crowd of students started moving through the halls and into different classrooms. 

"Well see you at lunch." Jason said.

Noah waved bye to them and started heading to class. He'd been at school for maybe about ten minutes and yet he's already secured a friend group. But it's not that surprising since he's never had difficulty talking to people so it was pretty easy for him.

Jayden walked up beside him without making any eye contact.

"Hey idiot, make sure to go to the right class." He said.

"Don't worry, I will." Noah reassured him.

"And..."

"Hm?"

"Don't become friends with anyone weird this time, okay?" Jayden didn't wait for Noah to answer, he was already walking away from him and heading to his first class.

It turned out Noah had some classes with his newfound friends. He had first and fifth periods with Liam and second with Benjamin. He chatted with them until he had to go to the next period.

But for some strange reason, every time it was a passing period, Noah had a strange feeling. It never felt like he was alone, almost like someone was watching him closely. Noah decided to ignore the feeling though.

Sixth period was lunchtime. Liam walked with him to the cafeteria, where Jason and Benjamin already had a table and were talking. Noah and Liam walked over to the table. Jason looked up at them.

"Alright, are you guys ready to go walk around?" Jason asked. Noah nodded, and Jason and Benjamin got up from the table. 

They walked around and occasionally stopped by a room or two. Useful rooms such as the home EC kitchen and a computer room. They ended up stopping by the library to hang around. 

Noah scanned his eyes across the books, they were dusty and looked untouched. The others asked him questions and chatted. 

"So why'd you decide to come to this school? It kinda sucks." Liam asked while leaning on a bookshelf and very slightly tipping it. "Like really sucks."

"Well, it was the closest to my new house, so y'know, not much of a choice. I don't mind though. But, I did hear that not many people like this school." Noah replied.

"Yeah. This school's reputation has gone to crap. Some kids drank bleach at the science fair to try to prove that immortality was real or something. And apparently, our principal might be pimping women. The student body is just a clown show as well."

"Oh wow! So that's what happened at the science fair! Yeah, all the bad things that happened here caused my younger brother to be nervous. He was reading all the reviews and stuff."

"You have a younger brother?" Benjamin chimed in. 

"Yeah, why? Are you interested?"

"Oh well I'm a little younger than Jason and Liam so I was thinking about making friends my age."

"I'll introduce you to him. He's a freshman and a bit shy. but he's also easy to like once you get to know him. I bet you two would get along. He's 14, but he'll be 15 soon by the way. How old are you?"

"I just turned 15. I'm a sophomore."

"Anyways," Liam started. "You got a girlfriend or anything?"

"No. I just broke up with my boyfriend not too long ago, so I haven't found anyone." Noah answered.

"Oh, you're gay?"

"Yeah, I'm bi."

"So... You think we're hot or something?"

"Liam!" Jason scorned.

"Don't be ridiculous! Of course not. Well, except for Jason. I think Jason's hot. You two are fine, I guess." Noah smiled mischievously.

Jason's eyes widened a bit.

"Huh?" Liam seemed to be caught off guard.

"Wow, really now?" Benjamin laughed.

Noah laughed at their reactions. He looked over to Jason who was still silent.

"Hey sorry about that, hope I didn't weird you out." Noah smirked. He kind of had a thing for messing with people just to get a reaction out of them.

"I'm not gay, sorry." Those were the same words that came out of every straight guy's mouth when Noah said anything remotely flirtatious, even if it was a joke.

"I never said you were." Noah smiled.

"R-right." That was the unexpected embarrassment that Jason was feeling right now.

"Damn, I think you got under Jason's skin!" Liam laughed.

"He didn't." Jason said defensively. His face was a bit redder than usual.

"Sure, sure. Jason's a real dork, so don't mind him."

"Oh my god." Was all Jason could say in return.

Noah smiled at Jason again, causing him to turn his head away awkwardly.

The bell rang. Lunchtime was over and everyone went back to class. Noah went on with his last two periods and happened to have eighth period physics with Jason.

Noah sat next to Jason. Jason was quiet for a few seconds.

"Ah, so my friends seem to really like you. They think you're cool." He finally said.

"Do you like me?" Noah said. He batted his eyes dramatically.

"You're a bit strange, but yes?"

"Strange?" Noah chuckled.

"Well, not strange! I mean like, usually guys don't hit on me."

"Oh, so only girls?"

"No. Truthfully, not that either."

"Really? Cause, I think you're really handsome. I'm sure girls would be all over you."

"I don't think I'm handsome, so y'know girls don't care about me."

"Not with that attitude." Noah started looking at his phone, a mental signal that he wasn't gonna let Jason have a fair argument.

"What? What does that even mean? Hello?" Jason tried to get Noah to look back at him, but he just kept looking at his phone and laughing at his attempts.

******

Once the school day ended Noah met Jayden outside the front of the school. Jayden had his hood on and looked really annoyed. "What's wrong?" Noah asked, putting his hands on his brother's shoulders in an attempt to comfort him.

Jayden didn't make eye contact. He pulled away and started walking towards the exit of the campus. Noah silently followed Jayden. He didn't want to pry because Noah already knew his brother was having a tough time since they moved, and he'd never had an easy time making friends, even at their old schools.

******

Once they got home Jayden went straight to his room and shut the door. Noah looked around for his dad, but he wasn't home. Noah already knew that he was probably out doing something stupid. 

Noah walked to his room and immediately flopped onto his bed. He didn't notice before how tired he was and how heavy his body seemed to be.

He drifted to sleep. Something super strange was about to happen.