Charles

If there was one thing I really hated it was the awkward class introduction when you moved to a new school.

The moment the principal called the professor into the hallway, everyone's eyes fell on me as I looked down at the white-marble floor from the intricate wooden threshold. It was quite pretty, actually. The warm cream marble swirls moved all over the tiles like when I stirred milk into my coffee that morning. My finger followed within the edges of the designs on the door while Principal Flores continued to whisper my situation to the lady in a wine-colored long-sleeve dress.

Coffee...

As I was realizing how much longer the day would be without the help of caffeine, the tall professor lady led me over to the front of the classroom as I thought about the stale cup of coffee in my room. I wondered if professors got off on torturing new kids with social awkwardness. I mean, they had to know how fucking uncomfortable that was, you know… Putting people on the spot like that. I turned to watch Principal Flores leave. It made me a little more nervous since I had already gotten used to her.

It wasn't like in elementary school when everyone got excited for the new kid.

"Children, I want you to meet a new student here at Ludington Academy." The tall woman motioned her hands at me from the front of the classroom with a certain grace that was hard to explain. The curly brown hair on her head was held back in a ponytail so tight that she looked permanently surprised.

She turned and observed me from behind her round golden glasses. Of course, even professors were silently judging me, but they were better at hiding it. "Mr. Paris, my name is Ms. Dalia Angelo and I will be your AP Italian professor for the fall term." She wrinkled her eyes kindly before turning back to look around the classroom. "Hm..." She looked young, maybe around her late 20's.

I continued to shuffle awkwardly as she finished searching the classroom of uninterested students. Her hands came together as she turned to smile at me once more.

Firmly, I gripped my shoulder strap and looked straight ahead towards the end of the classroom at the glossy wooden wall trying to avoid eye contact. Even though I wasn't looking directly at the bunch of kids, I knew that every single one was already forming internal opinions about me. Not good ones.

"This is Mr. Charles Paris. He comes to us here in Connecticut all the way from the west coast! Now, isn't that exciting?"

Whispers erupted immediately from the room of well-kept kids as soon as the lady finished with her introduction. The whispers did not come from a source of excitement at all. Compared to their perfectly ironed uniforms, fastened ties, and tucked-in shirts... I looked extremely out of place.

The lady motioned me to an empty seat next to the window in the middle row. "You can take a seat there, next to Mr. Pierce."

That was when I began to walk toward an angry looking guy with a very stiff posture. His eyes glazed over me before leaning forward and whispering something to a curly red-haired girl. She giggled slyly before giving me a disapproving brown-eyed side look while Pierce slid slowly back down in his chair.

Up front, the teacher continued giving her lecture in fluent Italian while I tuned out and looked out through the window. The whole school was a cluster of buildings and gardens in the middle of a forest. I'm sure that Charlee knew what the name of it was. She was always the good one at remembering useless details. Ludington was very different from the schools back in SoCal. I mean, it was pretty nice, but I still wished I was back there, even if I had to put up with Dave and his stupid family.

Something that Charlee never understood about me was how much I hated change. Everything in my life was always changing, moving from one place to another, from this parent to that parent, from being alive to being dead... All I wanted at that moment was some sort of consistency.

A group of girls sat out on the balcony in front of the three large gothic style windows of the building across from ours. Their plaid grey skirts fluttered in the wind lifting them up slightly revealing their shorts. One of them giggled, trying to act embarrassed, as she looked down below her at a group of guys walking by, even though she obviously wasn't. She giggled following with a flirty wave and I felt myself scowl. For some reason, girls who liked to draw attention to themselves like that were always annoying.

"Hey."

Pierce stared at me with his eyebrows furrowed. He seemed kind of scary, but in a comical way. Like a growling chihuahua.

Sighing, I rolled my eyes before turning my head lethargically in his direction, "What?"

The guy glared at me with what was possibly the purest look of annoyance I had ever seen. It was even worse than the way Charlee always looked at me. His eyes almost rolled to the back of his head at the fact that Angelo made me sit next to him. His hair was parted to the side and flattened out with gel. It looked very shiny... and hard.

The kid motioned around the classroom with his slender hands as I fought the urge to hit him on the top of the head. His eyes rolled once more from behind his glasses.

Sitting up slowly, I scanned the classroom for any activity. Angelo had stopped talking and everyone was in pairs reading out loud off of a piece of paper similar to the one Ashton had in front of him.

The girl in front of me was speaking to Red with a concentrated expression. "Come hai dormito ieri?"

Red looked up at her with concern before looking down at the page in her hands. "Um..." She flipped it over and read off the back of it. "Uh... door-my-toe mole-toe bean-e la note..."

I couldn't help but almost cringe at the way Red butchered all of the pronunciation in her reply.

Pierce tapped his foot loudly enough to grab my attention and raised one of his thick bushy eyebrows from behind his black-rimmed glasses. It was totally obvious that he had less patience toward me than before if that even seemed possible. He definitely reminded me of Charlee. Where that girl got the patience to not slap me every five seconds was a mystery.

"So, what are we supposed to be doing anyway?" I finally asked Pierce before crossing my arms and slouching further down into my chair.

The kid rolled his eyes for the millionth time when I looked up at him from deep in my chair and snatched the piece of paper from his desk somewhat aggressively. "I'm supposed to ask you these questions and you're supposed to answer." He sighed and followed it with a haughty smirk. "Or try..." The kid sat up straight and cleared his throat before speaking while I watched him expectantly, "Ciao, il mio nome è Ashton. Ciò che è tuo?" He looked at me with a snooty look.

"Charles," I answered while I looked up at the chalkboard ahead.

Italiano Avanzato.

Pierce looked the complete opposite. I could tell he would've rather been partnered with anyone else as long as it wasn't with me, a peasant.

He sighed with clear exasperation before moving on to the next question. "Qual è il tuo colore preferito?"

Of course, my favorite color was ever-present in my mind. Even so, I still pretended to contemplate for a moment while folding my hands on top of the desk. "Hmm..." A smile formed on my face as I sat up and turned to him. "Falu Red," I added emphasis with my hands at the kid who just returned the expression of a cold fish.

Pierce furrowed his eyebrows and turned away from me without saying anything. Finished with me, he casually introduced himself to the two girls in front of him in Italian. "Posso parlare con te?"

"Sì." The girl in front of me nodded to him and they continued going down the questions on the sheet of paper.

That girl in front of me was a real sight. Her hair was pin-straight and fell over her left breast releasing a glimmer from the light reflecting from outside. I actually hated to admit that her copper eyes were pretty much breathtaking. They were that kind of light brown that almost looked orange, like looking at a shiny new penny glimmering in the sun.

She reached for her hair with perfect pink nails and flipped it over her shoulder causing it to move almost in slow motion. It was easy to tell that this girl knew she was beautiful, and she wasn't about being modest. I watched her intently as she lifted a subtle eyebrow and pursed her heart-shaped lips while struggling to understand the choppy Italian of the red-haired girl.

Now, even though this girl was extremely attractive, the red-haired girl was the thing that stood out to me the most in that scene. With curly strawberry blonde hair wrapped up in a neat bun on her head, she twirled a loose strand on her finger while leaning toward Pierce, excessively. She was flirting with the kid.

This girl was far less attractive than the other by a landslide, but still seemed too pretty for Pierce. She had an upturned nose surrounded by many tiny freckles that failed to be covered up by makeup. Even though she wasn't beautiful, the confidence in her body language made her seem much more attractive than she really was. Maybe confidence was key in this situation. It really made me wonder what she could possibly see in a guy with features like those of Pierce. I doubt it was his florid personality.

A familiar faded melody turned my attention away from the kids in front of me to the window and down at the gardens below. There was a girl sitting in between the trees with a violin under her chin. It was distant, but I could still make out the melody she was playing. Loose dark hair blew in her face and it made her playing come to a sudden stop. She seemed to groan while placing the bow down and then threw the hair out of her face.

These kids, some of them seemed to give me a weird vibe in some way. It was hard to describe, I mean, it probably wasn't, I just didn't have the vocabulary to.

The bell rang and interrupted my train of thought as Pierce spoke to his girlfriends after giving me another one of his snooty side looks. "I think the academy seemed to lower their standards quite a bit this semester even for scholarship students..." He was obviously saying it loud enough for me to hear. His tiny hands grabbed the page in front of him and stuffed it into a folder. "I swear, every year they let in more and more indigents..." He placed his things in his backpack as the red-haired girl giggled at his remark.

The ginger continued to laugh as I turned to stare at her directly in the eyes. Little did she know, their rude comments didn't phase me. The beautiful one only rolled her eyes and scoffed while the redhead continued to hold my gaze with a pair of dark brown eyes surrounded by long lashes before turning to exit the classroom. "I think so, too." She stuck up her freckle-y nose and pressed her red lips together before turning as she put her expensive looking bag over her shoulder.

They all poured out through the door along with the rest of the students. Meanwhile, I remained seated, contemplating on what I ever did to these kids, other than exist, maybe breathe a little, for them to hate me so much for no apparent reason.

I figured I would do the right thing and give them a reason. As soon as the last student exited, I quickly threw my backpack behind me and ran until I spotted them down the hall.

Forgive me, Charlee, but these people asked for it...

"Hey, Pierce!" I called down the hallway causing the kids standing nearby to turn and look between Pierce and me curiously, including Pierce's troops. Red rolled her eyes and Pierce turned to look at me with his same bland expression.

A loud Italian expression came out of my mouth with a smile before I met his gaze and awaited his reaction.

Pierce immediately went wide-eyed. Gaping, he started to fumble with the strap of his bag before turning bright red in anger.

The red-haired girl stood there next to him with a confused expression. "Hey, Ashy, what does cazzo mean?" She asked Pierce obliviously and at that moment, various students began to snicker amongst themselves.

The pretty girl shot her a warning look. "Francesca, shut up." She turned to me and glowered at me along with Pierce.

I laughed out loud and turned away with a huge smile across my face on the way to my next class and, for the first time, felt grateful that Dave had forced me to go to those Italian lessons with Charlee.

"Why in the hell would you do that?" Charlee sat across from me at lunch. "Are you still in middle school, Charles? Are you still twelve?" Her face looked more worried than infuriated. She had her hand pressed firmly to her forehead the way she always did when she was stressed. Her emerald green eyes quivered as they looked down at the table and she swallowed while pulling her hands over her hair before letting out one of her signature frustrated sighs.

The breeze came into the cafeteria from the opened glass doors surrounding us. The table we were sitting at was made of whitewashed wood with intricate stained glass designs on the top. I ran the tip of my finger slowly around the elaborate design of a butterfly as Charlee sat there with a concerned expression. Her dark hair, wrapped in a ponytail with a white ribbon, fluttered a little from the breeze coming in from the open walls. From looking at her, I could tell she wasn't doing so good on her first day either.

Even though she and I were physically similar, the differences between our personalities were pretty vast. One thing that Charlee was better at than me was self-control. I looked up at her as she began to unknowingly nibble on the edge of her unpainted nails. Well, sometimes she was better at self-control.

"The fucking kid was getting on my nerves," I explained as I unwrapped my sandwich from the napkin and bit into it. "He was being rude even after I told him what my favorite color was..." I trailed off as my eyes came across Charlee's.

Charlee immediately stopped biting her nails and restrained them by putting her hands under the table. She resumed glaring at me with those large jade things she had for eyes. "No one knows what Falu Red is except for you." She sighed and looked down at her untouched sandwich as she picked at a piece of lettuce sticking out of the edge.

"Wendy did," I commented quietly while going for another bite. The following moment of silence was a little awkward.

Charlee looked up at me in silence before placing her hands flat on top of the stain glass flower in front of her. One on each side of her sandwich. She cleared her throat before speaking once more. "You better not do what you did in California, again." Her eyelashes fluttered as she blinked nervously and reached for her ponytail. "This is why Dad doesn't want us." Her voice came out a little quieter as she said this and pulled her ponytail over her shoulder. A slender finger ran through it as her eyes looked away, but not before I noticed the tinge of sadness.

I stared at the untouched food in front of her. Her body was leaning back as if the sandwich repelled it.

"Dave doesn't want us because he prefers Amber and Kyle over us, not because I was suspended." I rolled my eyes and took another bite of my sandwich as she began to speak.

The truth was that Dave had never wanted us; Charlotte was too naive to get that through her giant head. The only thing that went in there was the math Issac shoved in there.

"...You were expelled."

"Same thing." I shrugged before pointing at the sandwich in front of her. "Eat that, I got up extra early to make it for you."

Charlee shook her head and let out an exasperated sigh. "It's literally bread with lettuce." She crossed her arms and frowned at me.

I shrugged. "Hey, you were the one that said you wanted to be vegan." I chuckled as her eyes rolled, "I'm just being a supporting older brother." I pressed my hand toward my chest in a dramatic gesture.

"I'm older than you by twenty minutes." She shook her head with a scoff.

"Come on, you really aren't going to eat your lunch?" I pointed at her sandwich with a much more serious tone. "You need to eat before taking your medicine..." My voice trailed off while reaching over to my backpack to pull out an orange prescription pill bottle. "Which, you forgot at home by the way." I placed it in the middle of the table. "Mom said she called the nurse and..."

Charlee snapped her head in my direction instantly with an offended look. She snatched the bottle off the table almost immediately and stuffed it into her sweater before interrupting me. "Charles! Stop trying to change the subject!"

Her green eyes pleaded at me as she leaned forward on the table. Her hair brushed the sandwich on the tray. "I'm serious, this is very important to me..." She pressed her hands on her chest as if her heart was going to burst out or something.

All of the frustration that had been piling up from that day came out at that moment. I slammed my sandwich down on the table and it caused a couple of students nearby to turn. The loose lettuce flew around the table as I began to look back at her with the most piercing stare I could manage.

"I didn't even want to come here, Charlotte." I continued looking fixedly into her unfazed eyes as she glared back at me. "I don't even know why they let me in here..." I shook my head at her. "Everyone is an ass and the kids smell like they bathe with cologne..." My head shook and Charlee clicked her tongue at me. "I hate this place... Why couldn't you just leave me back home..."

Charlee let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, sure. And where exactly were you planning to stay, huh?" Her eyes bore into mine. "With Dad?"

If there was one person out there that was able to get to me, it was Charlee.

I sat there in silence and continued taking slow bites of my sandwich fighting to avoid her harsh gaze.

Charlee finally looked away and let her hair go pressing her lips together with an unsure expression. She glanced out the open doors emptily for a few seconds before nodding slowly.

Obviously, I had stirred her emotions up again, but that wasn't new. I'd just have to face the consequences later.

She got up slowly and straightened her plaid grey uniform skirt before walking over to the trashcan and throwing her lettuce sandwich in it.

"I'm going to tell Mom," I said warningly without looking up at her. "There are children starving in Africa, you know."

She slowly turned her head towards me the way she did when she was done dealing with me, "I didn't even want it." She mimicked my earlier tone of voice, turning her back towards me and walking toward the exit.

I watched her small frame go further away. She had lost weight since last week. The sweater she was wearing looked baggy and the socks looked like they were beginning to ride down her calves.

Mom will definitely notice.

I resumed eating the sandwich in my hands halfheartedly at this point and looked around the cafeteria at all the pleated plaid skirts, grey pants, and wine-red blazers bustling about. Everyone looked the same, except for a girl sitting in the far back of the cafeteria by herself. Her black hair was tied up messily in a knot and the dark red lipstick on her mouth was a tiny bit smeared. Her eyes seemed smudged with something black and she wore a choker around her neck. She looked at everyone, with the same grimace I imagined I had.

It suddenly came to me that she looked very familiar. But it wasn't until she got up and left the cafeteria with a black violin case that I remembered who it was.

Charlee

Breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe and don't bite your nails...

"Um..." I looked around the hallway nervously as everyone seemed to know exactly where they were going, except for me. They all rushed around like traffic in a busy intersection, meanwhile, I was caught in the middle looking at the crumpled paper in my hands.

G/T Group One Room 205

You can ask someone...

I looked over to a girl who passed swiftly by me.

No, you can find it yourself... It's not that bad.

Of course, I was extremely nervous. The tachycardia I was beginning to experience made it feel like it was getting more and more difficult to breathe. I reached for my ponytail and began to twist it around my fingers as I continued walking down the hall with the paper crumpled in my grip.

Stop fidgeting, Charlotte...

I immediately let go of my ponytail and continued to make my way forward through the dissipating crowd of students. Out of nowhere, or because I was too busy trying not to hyperventilate to pay attention, my shoulder slammed painfully into the edge of a book that belonged to a girl walking down the hallway. Notebooks scattered all over the glossy wooden floor and I felt the blood flush to my face almost instantly.

"Oh. My. God." The girl shrieked and a boy walking nearby, and I began to pick up her books for her.

"Why can't you watch where you're going? I'm already late and now more because of you." The girl groaned as she reached down to pick up a music theory textbook at her dainty polished shoes. For some reason, I could not look at this girl in the eyes for more than a millisecond. The sole act of looking at her made my self-esteem hit rock bottom in an instant. Even looking up at her from what should have been an unflattering angle, she was magnificent. Never had I ever seen someone so stunning except in movies, of course. Her slender body radiated elegance. She looked extremely angry and frustrated, but she was lovely all the same.

"I-I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to..." Beginning to stutter while reaching for a loose paper and, slightly shaking, handed it to her as I got up from the floor.

She snatched her things from the kid and took the paper out of my hands and placed it between her books while taking a deep breath.

I dusted the dirt off of my skirt.

As she pressed her books against her perfectly tailored uniform shirt, she said, "whatever." Then she flipped her hair behind her shoulder and began walking rapidly away after sighing with utter annoyance.

The boy and I stood there in awkwardness for a second before he spoke. "You look extremely lost. Are you a freshman?"

I laughed nervously before shaking my head. "Uh, no, I'm looking for the G/T room..."

The guy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms with a mocking expression. "No, duh, Dimwit. This is the G/T building. Every room is the G/T room."

My legs began to shake and I felt a wave of nausea mixed with embarrassment come up to my throat.

"Uh, sorry, I didn't... Uh..." I looked down at the sheet of paper in my hand just as the rude guy snatched it from me.

"You're on the fine arts floor. 205 is all the way on the other side of the building on the second floor." He pointed to a long hallway across from us. "Stairs are right by the lockers." He put the paper back in my hands and walked away without a second glance.

What's his problem?

"Okay..." I raised my eyebrows to myself before taking a deep breath and then continuing to walk down the now desolate hall. That girl from earlier seemed to be having a really bad day that I doubt happened because of me. And the guy seemed to be lacking basic manners.

The second bell rang and I panicked. I ran precariously down the stairs and slowed while quickly rounding a corner to finally arrive at a promising classroom next to wine-red colored lockers. I checked the gold plaque that said Room 205 a few times just to make sure. First all at once and then each number separately, three times just to make sure. I took the deepest breath I could manage before reaching my trembling fist for the door and knocking softly.

Some shuffling and chattering came from behind the door before it opened revealing a long slender guy with dirty blond hair. He raised his right eyebrow as he looked down at me. "Yes?" He asked with a glint of braces and an analytical expression.

"Um, I'm Charlotte Paris?"

"You don't sound so sure." The guy raised his eyebrows higher.

"Uh, I am... um... new..." I was mortified with embarrassment. If there was one thing I was always good at was at being the most awkward human being on the planet.

The boy at the door chuckled a little. "Calm down, I'm just kidding, come in." He opened the door a little wider and motioned me in.

I exhaled a little too loudly before stepping in. It caused the guy at the door to chuckle once more.

A great feeling of awkwardness loomed over me as I stepped inside. The scene before me was of seven boys sitting around the room each doing their own activities. One of them was leaning back in a chair all the way at the end of the room with his eyes closed and earbuds in. His head nodded slowly to what I assumed to be music.

Another, sitting behind a computer giving 'constructive criticism' to a guy sitting in front of him with a keyboard piano who looked kind of offended. "I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying the tones sound a little too harsh for what you're trying to get out there."

Two more were sitting behind a computer arguing about something in Japanese that I obviously couldn't make out.

The last one was sitting down in front of what I think was the same calculus book that I had.

An older man sat at the far end of the classroom. He looked unbothered as he scrolled through his tablet.

"Mr. Peters, this is Charlotte, the new student." The tall guy called out to the man in the back to which he only nodded and let out an acknowledging grunt.

"He's just Mr. Peters, our supervisor, almost never bothers us." The tall boy whispered as he leaned down towards my face causing the faint smell of his cologne to reach my nostrils. It reminded me of the way a bathroom smelled after someone took a shower.

Clean. Shampoo. Head n' Shoulders to be exact.

"We mostly manage ourselves." He chuckled and crossed his arms. "Mr. Peters high-key hates his job." He whispered once more with a quick glance back at the professor who continued to stare at his tablet with an extremely bored expression.

I fidgeted nervously before opening my mouth with a whisper. "So, this is G/T?"

"Yes." He held out his hand to me. "My name is Wilfred Nelson, president of the Physics Club and of the junior class." He announced proudly and ended with a smile that revealed his argent braces. "And if I recall correctly, you were in my AP Physics class this morning." He placed his hands on his hips while looking down at me with recognition.

I felt like a child. "Oh, yeah..." I looked up at him shyly while shaking his hand awkwardly. A nervous giggle erupted from my chest and then I suddenly realized who he was. I gulped with excitement. "Oh geez, you're Professor Roland Nelson's son!"

Wilfred chuckled again and crossed his arms. "You're familiar with my dad's work?"

I nodded enthusiastically, taking a step forward. "Of course, he's a genius!" And of course, I had about a million and a half questions. "My stepdad took me to that lecture he gave at Rockwell about the unsolved math prob..."

Wilfred opened his mouth to comment but was interrupted by the boy reading the calculus book. He looked up at me from behind his thick-rimmed glasses as if he had just tuned in and glared. "This is the new guy?" He raised an unimpressed thick eyebrow as he swept me up and down.

I stood there a bit dumbfounded at this person's somewhat rude expression toward me. My smile faded slowly and the shyness that had started to disappear was beginning to come back.

Wilfred cleared his throat awkwardly as he had probably noticed my change in expression. "This is Ashton Pierce three." He motioned his hand toward the boy with glasses with an eye roll. He made a lot of emphasis on the 'three'.

Three? I mouthed at Wilfred.

"It's the third." Ashton corrected him with a very bothered expression.

"Yeah, Ashton Pierce Three sounds like a bad movie franchise." The guy with the keyboard spoke mockingly from his seat and snickered along with the guy in front of him. His hair was extremely curly, long and wrapped in a bun on the back of his neck. The other had short black hair and wore clear-rimmed glasses.

Everyone burst out laughing, even the ones speaking Japanese, except me and Mr. Peters who was still scrolling on his tablet with an inattentive expression. "Quiet." He said, just barely audible.

The class continued laughing as Ashton rolled his annoyed dark eyes and went back to his book.

"Don't pay attention to him, he's a bit of an asshole," Wilfred muttered to me after he had stopped laughing. His grey eyes sparkled a little as he squinted them.

I had already kind of deduced that information on my own.

"What did you say?" Ashton got up and walked as menacingly as he could toward Wilfred who still loomed about a foot and a half over him. Wilfred ignored him and looked back down at me leaving a neglected Ashton there with balled fists.

"Sorry about that." Wilfred looked at me apologetically. "We get kind of rowdy sometimes."

"We're just surprised that you're a girl." The guy with the earbuds explained from the back of the room. "You're the first one this particular group has had since, like, 7th grade." He had removed his earbuds which he was holding in his hands. His untamed curly red hair poked out in many directions. "I'm James, by the way." He grinned and went back to his music. His face was filled with freckles and under sandy eyebrows, were a pair of huge hazel eyes. I noticed him nod to himself and then jot a few notes down on a piece of paper next to him.

Wilfred coughed awkwardly and then led me to the table where Ashton had been sitting. He even seemed a little embarrassed. "James is a composer." Wilfred made air quotes while he attempted to change the subject. The ignored Ashton plopped down in his original seat giving me a glare before he resumed his work in defeat.

Wilfred leaned forward on the table while pointing back at James. "He says listening to music inspires his creative process, but I think it's really just an excuse to listen to music all day," Wilfred whispered the last part with an amused smile. I appreciated his effort to make me feel a little less uncomfortable.

"So, um... what is it that we do here, exactly?" I took a seat in the only empty chair in front of Ashton, besides the one next to him.

I fanned myself slowly with the paper in my hands. I was so nervous that the room felt like I was standing out in the sun on a hot summer day.

Wilfred leaned on his hand propped on the table and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. His hair was slicked back with gel and for some reason, I felt it was unflattering for him. "Well, the gist is that we have to turn in a unique project at the end of every semester. It can be about anything as long as it's approved by Mr. Peters." Wilfred motioned towards the man in the back with a nod. "Most people like to stick to their area of the gifted program, but you don't really have to. Other than that, you can do whatever you want if you have spare time." His smile revealed his silver braces once more. "Within the school rules, of course." He added with a wink.

I nodded and smiled awkwardly before hugging my backpack to my stomach.

The nervousness came more intensely. Everything seemed so busy the more I looked around, my heart sped up a little more.

Indecisiveness was one of my major faults. To most people, it'll sound like I'm exaggerating things, but it was actually a big problem. Especially at restaurants, Dad would get extremely frustrated with me not being able to choose from a menu. I ended up having to order the same thing every single time or depend on Charles to pick for me every time until Dad just stopped taking us with his family to dinner.

"So, have you looked at any colleges you want to apply to?" Wilfred looked at me curiously as he took the seat next to Ashton who scooted away in a somewhat comical manner.

Another nervous giggle escaped from my mouth which Wilfred noticed. He rolled his eyes and shook his head while flashing me a kind smile. "I mean, I know you're just a junior, but most people in the gifted program start applying as freshmen. Some of them get accepted before they even graduate."

This was not news to me. It is actually one of the reasons Ludington had caught my attention, the less amount of high school I had to endure the better. I pulled my books out as I began to speak, "Yeah, I actually applied to the Rockwell, Harvard, and Laguna Bay math programs for the spring semester." I fidgeted with my hands as I explained my plans to Wilfred. "But Dave, uh, I mean, my dad lives in California so I'm hoping to get accepted into Laguna Bay as a first choice."

Ashton scoffed to himself from his seat and continued writing. "Aiming a little high, aren't we?" He said mockingly from his calculus book.

I briefly looked at him through the corner of my eye, then back at Will.

Will stared back at me with a reassuring look. "Ignore him, he's just jealous because he probably wouldn't get accepted there." He rolled his eyes at Ashton then nodded back at me. "Well, we usually try to help each other with schoolwork, too. So, if you need anything feel free to ask any of us." He smiled, he seemed really nice, I liked Wilfred.

"Except Ashton, he won't help." He continued, giving Ashton a smirk, adjusted his tie and walked over to the boys arguing behind the computer and began saying things in Japanese, I think, that the others reacted to.

I sat there quietly for a few minutes until I decided to skim through the calculus book.

Ashton eyed me as I set out the same book as he had. I flipped through the pages only pausing at a few and his vision stayed on me for a few seconds before he continued to scribble neat numbers in his.

I had already read the whole calculus book with Isaac during summer.

Now it is going to be boring, good job Issac, you nerd...

I sighed, disheartened, and closed the calculus book.

I'll just go to the library and pick up another book after school...

My eyes couldn't help but scan the problem Ashton was working on. He stared at the numbers with a confused look and erased them. Shortly after, he wrote another combination of numbers just to erase them again.

I immediately noticed the mistake that was the source of his confusion. Even so, I couldn't bring myself to say anything, so I did what I always did and just stared awkwardly.

Ashton finally looked up at me with a scowl after a few moments of frowning at his notebook. "What are you looking at?"

"Um..." I gulped and slowly reached a trembling hand over to point to a spot on his paper. "You divided there, that's why you're getting bizarre answers."

Ashton scoffed and looked at his paper with incredulity at first. He frowned and quickly erased half of his work. "Unbelievable." He whispered to himself with an angry tone. Ashton did not look up at me the rest of the class. I sat there and watched him continue to scribble on his notebook until he covered his paper with his arm.

I smiled a bit to myself at this action. This boy seemed to amuse me for some reason I could not quite make out.

"So, what class do you have next, Paris? I'll walk you." Wilfred stood in front of me with his things already packed with a soft grin. "This school can be a little confusing at first." The bell rang and I nodded with relief as I began to put away my own things.

I definitely don't want to get lost again...

"I have AP Calculus next." I stood up and hung my bookbag on my shoulders. Wilfred was nothing like that rude guy I had encountered earlier in the hall.

"Cool, you'll have Mr. Peters." He pointed to the now empty seat behind the desk. "I know where that is." Wilfred playfully motioned me over to the door and I followed him out slowly.

As we stepped into the newly student-flooded hall, Wilfred greeted a group of kids that were walking past us as I continued to be a plant next to him.

We began walking down the wooden stairs and Wilfred turned to me. "So, what name do you like to go by?"

"Name?" I asked him, a little bit confused.

"Yeah!" He shrugged. "Like, do you like to be called Charlotte or, maybe a nickname?" He waited for a reply as I thought.

"Well, my brother calls me Charlee."

Wilfred smiled and it caused his cheeks to bunch up under his eyes. "Charlee, huh? We'll work on it."

We were silent the rest of the way out of the building until someone rushed straight past us hitting Wilfred on the arm with his shoulder.

"Move, you're taking up the whole door," Ashton said as he continued walking rapidly down a cemented trail.

"Is that some kind of fat joke?!" Wilfred yelled out mockingly to Ashton who did not acknowledge him in the slightest.

"That one used to get him all the time." Wilfred chuckled as we watched Ashton's indifferent figure disappear within the gardens. The Ludington Academy Gardens were actually famous and award-winning in Connecticut, or at least that's what the pamphlet said.

It made me wonder.

"So, what's the deal with Ashton?" I finally asked when the curiosity got the best of me. "Why is he so mean?"

Wilfred immediately chuckled, but in a somewhat sad fashion before shaking his head. "That kid is something else." He looked up ahead as we began to near the gardens. "He's not really mean, just... I don't know..." Wilfred shrugged and slid his hand in his pocket, "...troubled?"

We walked in silence as his words began to soak in. He seemed to be having a hard time describing the situation. Wilfred rubbed the back of his neck nervously while I looked up to his profile. "It's kind of a long story."

He sighed before beginning to speak again. "Ashton got into the G/T program for his photography..."

"Photography?" I repeated with even more curiosity. My mind began to imagine what kind of pictures someone like Ashton would be interested in taking.

Wilfred nodded. "Yeah. I mean, he's always been a top student, but what caught Ludington's eye was his photography. He won a ton of awards for some of his photos." We continued walking past the tall pine trees scattered all over campus and neared a building with large windows of stained glass.

"Once spring term came around during freshman year, he just all of a sudden started studying like crazy and being really cold toward everyone." Wilfred shrugged and looked down at me with a solemn expression. "It's all he ever does anymore."

All I could do was nod slowly while pressing my calculus book tight against my chest. I couldn't help but feel a little personally attacked at his remark. Studying was all I ever did.

"That's... sad."

Wilfred nodded as we arrived at the building with pretty windows. His demeanor had changed back into his perky one. "Well, here we are. Hudson Hall." He smiled at me as he stared up at the building's intricate glass windows. "It used to be a church, I think it makes it sort of interesting, don't you think, Lola?"

"Lola?" I asked in a confused tone.

"It's my new nickname for you." Will placed his hand on my head playfully. "Well, see you tomorrow." He turned his back to me and I stood there watching him trot back toward the gardens.

Lola?

Charles

So, that afternoon I found myself sitting on a random bench in the mall eyeing a half-eaten chocolate ice-cream cone. It tasted amazing, probably the only good thing about Ludington was that one chocolate ice-cream cone.

I pushed up my sleeves revealing a poorly drawn inky mark of a cactus on my wrist. Having to wear a sweater and vest all day was torture. It made me feel itchy all over.

The phone in my pocket vibrated. I reached my free hand down to silence it quickly. I already knew who it was and I was not interested in answering.

I continued to sit there nibbling on the cone while thinking about how Charlee would react to me ditching school on the very first day. I put the last bit of the ice-cream cone in my mouth and wiped my hands off on my grey uniform pants as I continued chewing. Looking at the store in front of me, I eyed myself in the reflection. My hair was a complete mess and my tie was lopsided.

Someone was staring back at me through the glass windows of the shop. A girl standing there, smiling with amusement, held a pair of earrings in her hands.

"Fuck," I said feeling my face go hot all over.

She laughed inaudibly behind the glass at the weird face I was probably making.

I swallowed the rest of the cone whole and immediately regretted it as it made its way painfully down my throat. I tried to straighten myself up before looking away. My face started burning up super hardcore. I realized my idea of pulling out my phone and pretending to do something failed when a pair of silver sandals came to a stop in front of me.

"Hi."

The smiling girl before me was holding a brown handbag around her arm that complemented her honey-colored eyes. Her hair was a slightly darker brown and her skin looked soft and golden like... a honeybun or something.

"Uh, I..." I stood up immediately knocking my backpack off of the bench spilling the contents. After babbling like an idiot, I knew my face was bright red. I could feel it. We both looked down at the backpack on the floor while I continued stuttering. "Um, I-I didn't mean to..." I stopped myself and sighed painfully.

She giggled.

Good job, she thinks you're a creep...

"Let me help." The girl crouched down over the scattered things and her small hands came across a broken case with a CD. She fidgeted with the cover until it popped right back into place before flipping it over to examine the title.

I laughed nervously while reaching for the backpack next to my feet. "Uh, sorry, I haven't cleaned this thing out in a while." Sheepishly, I reached for a couple of chocolate bar wrappers. It felt so embarrassing, I couldn't even look at her.

She shook her head with a reassuring smile while holding the CD with both hands. "Don't worry about it, you should see my room." She giggled once again as I shoved the last pencil into my bag and got off the ground. "But not, like, literally, that would be so embarrassing." She laughed awkwardly as she handed back the CD case.

"Thank you." I took the CD from her hand carefully.

"It's no problem." She looked up at me with a giant smile, almost intrigued. "So, you like the Souls of The X-Ray?"

My eyes went to the album in my hand and then back at her with an inquisitive expression. "You know them?" I asked with a slightly excited squeak in my voice.

She giggled excitedly. "Yeah!" She pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear before looking back up at me.

"Really? You're, like, the first person, other than my friend back in Cali!" A nervously excited laugh escaped from my throat. I was actually pretty stoked to find someone else who liked that band.

Souls of The X-Ray was a pretty obscure band from Connecticut, so it actually made sense that people in Ludington, Connecticut would be a lot more familiar with it.

"Are you kidding?" She threw her head back, "I loooved their album Mellow Souls at the Disco!" The little hop of excitement she did as she said this almost made my heart melt. "Bry will forever be my celebrity crush." Her eyes sparkled under the mall's ceiling lights.

"Dude, Mellow Souls was their best one yet, Bry is a poetic genius." I smiled enthusiastically. "It really sucks that they broke up after writing it, it was freaking amazing."

Her eyes softened a bit, but they were still smiling. "I know!" She smiled back at me. "Although, I still have hope that they'll get back together at least once so I can see them in concert." Her eyes crinkled slightly with a tinge of hope, her cheeks made them narrow. She held out her hand to me. "My name is Olivia, by the way."

After reaching my hand out to her slowly, I shook it gently. "Charles Paris, but my mom calls me Carlos." I couldn't get over how soft her hands felt, kind of like when you touch a really soft pillowcase if that made any sense.

Olivia giggled.

"That's a nice... Cactus?" Olivia pointed at the misshapen cactus scribbled on my wrist. "Please tell me that's a cactus."

"Uh..." I laughed with embarrassment as I pulled down my sleeve. "Got bored in English and the professor said 'cacophony' and I thought it sounded funny and then made me think of a cactus so..." I trailed off when I noticed Olivia was laughing at me.

"Cactus." She giggled and I felt my face get extremely hot.

Why couldn't I stop making an idiot of myself in front of her?

"So, you go to Ludington?" Olivia pointed at the crest on my shirt trying to steer the conversation away from poorly drawn penis-shaped desert flora.

She wouldn't have asked that so nonchalantly if she knew my background, I stuck my hands in my pockets as I sighed. "Unfortunately."

Olivia pouted slightly in surprise with her eyebrows furrowed. "Hey! You should be proud! That's a really hard school to get into." She looked at me with a playful frown. "I didn't." She smirked at me. "Even though my parents were willing to pay the semester up front." Her eyes seemed genuinely amused as she held up four fingers. "I kept trying to get into the music program for four years and nada."

For some strange reason, I kept trying not to step on the black tiles. I laughed and looked at the checkered floor. It probably seemed like I was insane or something, but I promise I wasn't, at least not completely. "Yeah, but I didn't get in because of personal merit." My voice came out with a more serious tone.

Actually, I really had no idea why they had let me in, considering my school records.

Olivia held her bag with both of her hands. Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Oh? How's that?" She immediately looked at me with a concerned expression. "I mean, only if you want to tell me..."

There was a moment of silence, then I smiled and shrugged, "It's no problem."

"I mean, I just met you, but you don't seem too happy about going to Ludington." She looked at me with a slightly worried expression. Her eyebrows came together. "I mean, I can tell you that I suck at playing the cello so that's why I got rejected..." She shrugged. "I doubt it's more embarrassing than that." Her eyes turned down at the floor I had been intently looking at before.

Something about her gave me goosebumps. It was something that not even that pretty girl from Ludington did to me. It was sort of... terrifying. I chuckled partly at Olivia's cuteness and partly at my thoughts. "I guess, I can give you the short version."

"Sounds good to me." Olivia smiled up at me and I continued with my sad tale.

"So... My sister is some kind of genius..." I made air quotes with my fingers. "Ludington was after her for a while when she won a national math contest thingy in middle school and they offered her a full scholarship if she accepted, but she refused unless I came with her and they accepted." My story ended with a shrug. Of course, I left out the part of me being expelled and that Dave had basically kicked us out.

"Well, I think that's sweet of her." Olivia looked at me with the big honey eyes. "You know, willing to give something like that up for her brother." A strand of hair fell over her left eye. She pushed it back behind her ear.

I shrugged again as I looked back down at the floor. "I mean, they were only interested in getting Charlotte to accept." Something about Olivia made me feel uncharacteristically vulnerable. "...And this story ends with me going to a school full of stuck up rich kids."

Olivia smiled and fidgeted with the strap on her bag. "I wanted to go to school. It sounds fun." Her eyes looked over to a clothing store when she said this.

Curious, I raised an eyebrow at her. "You didn't go to school?"

"I was homeschooled." She explained while still looking away. Her posture had become stiffer. "I had a health-related issue in elementary school." She looked away and stared at her reflection in the display glasses. "And that involved me being homeschooled ever since. The only other acceptable option for my parents was Ludington, but you know..." She shrugged dismissively. "Didn't get in..."

Immediately, I realized I must've seemed like an ass.

Did I offend her?

Here I was complaining about getting into Ludington and Olivia was feeling embarrassed for not being able to.

We reached the exit and she stopped in front of me. "Well," She smiled with her perfect teeth. "It was very nice meeting you, Mr. Carlos Paris." Her posture had become relaxed once more.

I ran my hand through my hair nervously as she continued to stand there expectantly. I didn't want to not ever see her again, but I didn't quite know how to ask for her number, especially with her looking up at me like that. "Um..."

She giggled and as if she knew exactly what I was thinking, reached for the phone in my hand. "Here." She typed something and handed it back. "Text me and we can meet up for coffee or something." Olivia smiled and waved as she turned around and walked out of the mall and into the parking lot. She turned to look at me over her shoulder for a second and my heart skipped a beat.

Once she was out of my sight, I looked down at the phone shaking in my hand and saw a contact saved as 'Olivia.' The disbelief was so great at that moment, that I was scared I might have imagined the whole thing.

Charlee

Mr. Peters scribbled on the board as the rest of the class hurried to copy down the equations written in his tiny handwriting. I squinted a bit in an attempt to decipher it as his voice rang out over the loud scratching of the chalk. "...So we suppose that 'y' is equal to a function of 'x.' The derivative of the function at point 'x' which we can denote as b, f prime or 'dy' over 'dx' is defined as..."

Mr. Peters trailed off as he turned around from his numbers on the board and looked over at us half expectantly. Most of the students around me avoided eye contact with Mr. Peters until he sighed and pointed to Ashton hesitantly. "What about you, Mr. Pierce?"

Every single time...

It was almost as if Mr. Peters was not fond of Ashton.

Ashton sat up a little straighter before he spoke in his regal manner. "It is defined as the limit of the function of 'x' plus the change in 'x' minus the function of 'x' all over the change in 'x' as the limit of the change in 'x' approaches zero."

Mr. Peters nodded as he wrote Ashton's response on the board. "That is correct, Mr. Pierce."

I could not help but look over towards where Ashton was sitting. He seemed so confident in Mr. Peters's class which was uncharacteristic of him compared to the way he acted in the G/T room.

Maybe it's because he feels superior in this class and not in G/T...

I shook my thoughts as he looked back down at his notebook paper proudly.

Mr. Peters continued to mumble at the board before turning back around. "Now, I want you to solve the example on the board." He motioned over to an equation he had written prior. "The first person to give me the correct answer will get the weekly extra credit."

Immediately, the hurried rustle of paper and pencils resonated within the classroom. I sat there and watched as everyone strained to solve the example. All of the students flipped through notes and muttered anxiously amongst themselves.

I turned back to Mr. Peters who was scrolling through his tablet once again. He seemed very apathetic towards teaching from the little I knew about him. It was almost like he found teaching annoying.

I could say that this reminded me of my school back in California, but it did not. The kids here actually tried, and the teachers actually taught. It was completely different, and it made me feel excited.

Ashton raising his hand caught everyone's attention. Everyone stopped followed by a loud groaning and Mr. Peters almost rolled his eyes as he nodded at Ashton. "Go ahead, Mr. Pierce."

Ashton cleared his throat and read aloud from his notebook. A curl of his hair escaped from the gel trap and fell over his right eye and for some reason, it made me smile. It felt as if I had just seen something no one else had. As if I had a secret no one else knew. Ashton was actually kind of...cute.

"The answer is six 'x' plus three times delta 'x' plus four."

I watched him intently from my seat, the way his lips moved for every word that came out of them was captivating. It was as if I had just seen him for the first time.

I might have been insane, but I saw a flash of mischief in Mr. Peters's eyes once Ashton finished dictating his answer. "Correct, Mr. Pierce, but if the equation were a curve, how would we find the slope of the tangent line at any point on it?"

Ashton stood there with an even more grim expression. "I don't... know." He pursed his lips as he leaned back in his chair, defeated once more. The confidence in his disposition from earlier began to slowly disappear.

Mr. Peters seemed almost amused to knock Ashton down a few pegs. He was not the only one who was different outside of the G/T room. In calculus, he was out for blood. Ashton's blood more or so.

Mr. Peters walked slowly around his desk to face Ashton's. "Mr. Pierce, the point of extra credit is to do the extra part." He turned away from the now somber looking Ashton to the rest of the class. "Anyone else?"

I shuffled in my seat a bit before raising my hand reluctantly. As I feared, everyone's stares went from Ashton over to me. My face began to flush, and I coughed quietly as my eyes fought to avoid all eye contact.

Mr. Peters looked over to me with a raised eyebrow. "Miss..."

"...Paris." I replied to which Mr. Peters nodded. He crossed his arms and took an intimidating step in my direction. Boy, was he scary...

I looked down at the blank piece of paper on my desk and began to speak. "Um, i-if the equation in question was a curve, the slope of um... any tangent line would be found by f-finding the limit of the derivative which is six times x plus 4." I began to lower my tone once I made the mistake of looking in Ashton's direction. His piercing stare bore into the side of my head.

"Well..." Mr. Peters uncrossed his arms as everyone continued to stare at me. He raised his eyebrows with slight amusement. "Looks like Miss Paris has won the extra credit."