FSE

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Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been on in a long time, or updated, more importantly. My story "Their Spark" seems to have some serious writer's block going for it. This is a new story that's rather boring for the first chapter, but bare with it. It'll get more exciting, trust me.

Chapter 1: Welcome To Hell

Sean walked slowly down the sidewalk, looking at the menacing building that lay sprawling before him. Just four more years of this, he thought, then I can move on. A welcomed thing it'll be, too. He sighed, rolled his eyes, and stopped to observe the countless freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors rushing past him, the chilly Autumn air rushing throughout their ranks. The way that people were nudging and pushing him aside showed the social status that he expected to gain from the place. Not that he'd ever been used to much better. Sean wore something that he thought looked good that day: a white shirt with a button-up shirt with thin, blue, vertical stripes going down it on top, with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows, paired with long, dark blue jeans that coexisted with his mostly white, but prone to stripes of blue, Victory brand shoes. Along with his combed, curly, blonde hair and blue, bar-linked necklace, Sean thought that he looked excusable that day. In middle school, he had received a complement or two on the outfit. It seemed like the best choice for the day. Then, along she came.

"Hey, what's on your mind? It's not going to be so bad. I'm sure!" Mai said, a smile on her face that was poised to make a clever comment at any moment. Her long, black hair which was slightly longer in the front than in the back, because of the way it was cut, hung straight down in its usual fashion of always being an inch or two above her shoulders. "We can make friends. That‘s not going to be a problem. You can fit in if you want to."

"I know, I know. It's not that that I'm worried about. I'm worried about the fact that we're liable to cause something worthy of scripting for a drama series. You know, like how Marry-Anne received that threatening text message last year? I'm worried that something like that might happen, only they'll actually go through with it this time," replied Sean, still looking forwards towards the large, brick building's entrance. "And, you know, I'm still a bit worried that..."

"You'll be strung from a tree because you're gay?" Mai jumped in while Sean trailed off. Sean laughed and agreed. He knew that everyone around him wouldn't notice. They were far too busy and caught up with themselves to eavesdrop, even unintentionally.

"Come on, you'll be strung from a tree, too, if we're late." And with that, Sean and Mai proceeded into the high school, seeing the white, linoleum floors, black lockers that lined the walls of three hallways that greeted one when entering the building, one going straight ahead, one leading to the left, and another that brought one to the right and curved upwards in a leftward direction. Sean couldn't see the details of the place; it was crowded by students of every possible shape and size, all scurrying to get to the classroom of their desire. Sean sighed and said goodbye to Mai, who made her way down the foremost hall, Sean himself hanging a left and departing towards his English 1 class, navigating his way through the virtual horde of students that were flooding the halls. He could have sworn that someone had tried to trip him more often than naught. As he entered the room, Sean saw exactly what he had expected to see--all of the freshmen students struggling and hurrying to find the students that fit into their respective social niches. Or cowering in the corner or in their seats. The ones who retreated towards the corners and in seats, as Sean gathered, would be the ones that, out of social necessity, would be meshed together for not really fitting in anywhere else.

Sean sat down in the back row, in between a girl in all black with messy hair and a boy in a light blue polo shirt that looked smart, skinny, and weak, with a cropped haircut. Not too welcoming a vantage point. He concluded that the girl in black would find her place amongst the other angsty teens, while the skinny, weak, smart boy would be lumped in with others who didn‘t really fit in anywhere else, and more out of necessity than his own free will. Other than that, the room itself wasn't too charming. It had white walls, with a whiteboard in the front of the room with a large situated in front of it, having all sorts of commodities on its surface, and a shelf on the right wall, cabinets and a large island-like outcropping from the wall to its right. Sean had entered the room from the left side, which was almost baron, save a blackboard and spare desks.

He had always liked English. Not the grammar, spelling, or technical aspects of it, but the creative potential of it. There were stories that he had saved on his computer, ideas that he had in the notebook he kept with him, and dreams that he had every night, that just couldn't be kept dreams. No one else knew that Sean even had a passion for writing.

"All right, class, please settle down," the teacher in the front of the room said. It was an old woman who didn't look a day over 85. The rest of the class went virtually without a hitch, and Sean didn't pay attention for over half of it. Once class was dismissed, he heard it: gossip. Starting already.

"I heard that Peter slept with Tiffany over the break," the voice of a girl said, spitting out the names of the two people.

"No way! I always knew that Tiff was a slut!" another girl said in a very "matter of fact" kind of way. Gossip was of no use to Sean; he never paid attention to the latest social news. It never concerned him, because no one ever noticed him, or even cared for him, for that matter. Next, he went on to his second block, which was algebra 1.

As he stepped into the classroom, Sean noticed that he was the last one to enter the room, resulting in stares from ever other student in the class. The stares themselves weren't exactly terrible or chilling, it was just that they drew so much uncomfortable attention from the other teens in the room. The only empty seat in the room was in the very back, so Sean did what he did with the class before this one and ended up sitting between the exact same two people: the nerd and the basket case. At least, that was what he had labeled them as, based upon how the both of them looked. The girl in black didn't seem too depressed; she just seemed blank, devoid of emotion, while the small, smart-looking boy didn't seem like he wanted to be in the room in the first place. He was nervous, glancing in every direction and twiddling his thumbs on his desk. Sean chose not to try and comfort him; that could possibly draw negative attention. Not that he was used to social attention in the first place. Sean had always been extremely introverted. Most of the people that he took classes with, or even sat next to, couldn't even recognize him outside of school, and that was the way that he had liked it.

"Not used to getting attention, huh?" the girl in black teased slightly, showing the smallest dimple in her brown skin as she smirked a small smirk. Sean couldn't blame her; the spectacle was rather funny, in an awkward sort of manner.

"You could say that," Sean replied. Before either of them had the opportunity to talk back to one another, the teacher stood up and announced that her name was Mrs. Bryant, and that she would be teaching them algebra. Next, she called for a student to pass out a work sheet that had basic algebraic equations on it, such as solving for a variable. She assured them that it wouldn't be taken for a grade and was merely to see if all of them were on the same page. The teacher herself was a woman in her forties, Sean gathered, with long, black hair that contained stripes of grey throughout. She wore a blue blouse and black pants, along with a mundane sort of locket that hung from her neck. The room was rather bland as well, in Sean's opinion, with light blue walls with cabinets and shelves all around them. The desk was in the far end of the room, and was rather small with a black computer and neat stacks of paper on its surface.

Sean worked through the equations rather easily, and thought it had numerous problems on it, turning the worksheet in after about ten minutes or so, right behind a girl in a purple sweater that seemed annoyed about something, mumbling to herself, "Some stupid boy almost did it as fast as me". The students around Sean slowly did the same, putting the papers on the desk one after another. Sean sighed and thought of the work from thereon, dreading the thought of more difficult assignments. He never had an affinity for mathematics. While the students around him were talking, Sean grabbed his binder, opened it, and took out his favorite novel and began reading. Once he was knee-deep in the fifth chapter for the billionth time since reading it, the bell rang and triggered a flood of students, which poured through the entrance to the classroom and towards their class for block 2b, which was accelerated biology for Sean. He hated that blocks could be split up. That just meant more classes and work for him.

Inside the classroom, Sean was relieved to find that he was not the last one to find his way to the room. The awkwardness was non-existent as the rest of the class entered. Everyone selected seats, talking and gossiping with the students beside them, speaking of things and deprecating others behind their backs. Sean could tell by the figure of one pretty blond girl that she would be very popular. Not that he cared for the girls of the class. Remembering the joke that Mai had made that morning about being strung from a tree, Sean snickered to himself.

"Class, settle down. I'll be your teacher for accelerated biology, Mr. Clark, and--you know, it would really help introductions move more smoothly if you would all be quiet," Mr. Clark, a young man in his thirties said. Sean let out a small laugh at this, looking around for students who also heard the teacher, finding that most of them probably only registered the "be quiet" part of Mr. Clark's introduction. Seeing that the girl in black from the two classes prior was sitting all the way across the room, along with the ‘nerd' boy. Sean quickly found that he was surrounded by the pretty, prepubescent, chatty blonds that would probably use him as a courier for their notes. Sean groaned silently to himself, hitting his head lightly on the desk. This task had been given to him once in middle school, and more often than naught, Sean was caught with the notes and had gotten himself into trouble, once having to read one of them, which was about extremely girlish fashion in particular, out loud to the class. It was hilarity for everyone else, at the particular expense of his pride.

With white walls covered in animal posters, half of them featuring the animals' insides, along with cabinets filled with scientific utensils and a blackboard at the foremost point of the room, it really did look like a biology room. Mr. Clark slowly advanced from the front of the room to the middle, among all of the students, causing for some craned necks and groans.

"I'll try not to make this class too awfully boring, I promise. We'll have live animals in here, sometimes. We'll get to experiment with rats and other rodents. It'll be worth every single boring note you have to take," he explained, making the class giggle in their seats. "I'm even nice enough to give you some study guides for extra hard tests, like a nice guy. Now, let's all try and be friends. Your new textbooks are still set to arrive a little while from now, so instead of going over the general plans for lessons today, we'll be doing an introduction of ourselves. For added kicks, I'll make all of you stand up and say them out loud. Give me your name, one dislike, one like, your hobby, and what you hope to accomplish for the year. Sound fun? You, in the black. You can go first." Mr. Clark pointed at the ‘basket case' girl and invited her to stand up and give the information for her introduction. She sighed and stood up, beginning to speak as if she were bored of the world.

"My name is Chrysanthemum, I dislike competitive sports, I like animals, my hobby is whatever I feel like doing at the time, and I hope to pass and be done with school for the year," she said. "But call me Chris, please." Chris sat down and her black hair fluttered, slightly moving in on her face, where she promptly brushed it away. Sean found the last two parts of Chris' introduction rather humorous and was giving a slight, silent laugh at his seat. Next up was the ‘nerd' boy. Sean perked up for this one, too. He wanted to know a bit about them.

"I'm Tim, and I dislike cats, I like music, my hobby is, um, programming, and I want to be able to make good grades," Tim stated, sitting back down in his chair immediately after he heard Chris let out a little snigger from behind him. Tim blushed and buried his head in his arms. Mr. Clark continued with the routine, pointing out students and making them give their introductions. Sean was the last one to be called upon. Not that he minded it.

"I'm Sean, I dislike gambling, I like comics, my hobby generally tends to be whatever, and I want to pass," Sean said, sitting down afterwards. The introductions had taken up half of the class original time span, which left them with a bit of free time. Mr. Clark gave permission for the students to talk among themselves, so long as they didn't become too loud. Sean immediately took advantage of the situation and moved away from the dumb blonds surrounding him and into the left corner of the front row of desks. While Sean was trying to get back to rereading his favorite novel for the umpteenth time, he noticed a shadow appear over his desk. Sean looked up to see Chris standing over him, with Tim trailing behind her, keeping his distance and slightly blushing.

"Hey. Mind if I sit here?" Chris asked as if she didn't care either way. Sean told her that it was fine and asked why. "Because, the dumb jocks are invading," she curtly replied with a motion of her head, gesturing towards the right side of the room, where large and loud male students were congregating and laughing, probably at the next stupid joke.

"Sure, you guys can sit there," Sean told them, making Chris turn around and spot Tim, who began to blush more intensely. She sighed and moved past Sean to the seat to his left, Tim finding a desk behind him.

"So, you followed me again, brain boy?" Chris inquired in Tim's direction behind Sean. "You've been doing it for the whole time, so far. Just wanna know why." Tim's blush grew as red and vibrant as it could ever have, and he was simply shocked, embarrassed, and thankful that no one else in the room other than Sean could have heard Chris' remark.

"Well, that is, I, um," Tim fumbled with the words, awkwardly testing them to see if they seemed useable. "You see, ah," he kept struggling. It was growing more awkward for him with each random syllable he let escape his mouth.

"Fine then, don't give me a proper answer. I don't mind it, you following me. Just don't become a stalker," Chris told Tim, making him sulk in shame. Listening to all of this Sean couldn't help but think, "Poor Tim".

"And what about you, Mr. Antisocial? You haven't made any effort to connect with anyone," Chris said, turning her attention towards Sean.

"Not antisocial. It's not that I don't like people. I Just don't want to be caught up with the drama. If I can avoid the awkward social latter, then I'm home free," Sean responded, not once looking up from his book.

"That's cool. But like it or not, you're gonna get mashed in with some sort of group eventually, whether it's by yourself, by other people, or just over time. You don't have to lift a finger. It'll be done for you," Chris said, her words growing slightly more biting as they ended the sentence. Sean sighed. He knew that her words were true, whether he wanted them to be or not. Sean had always been in the same social phylum with the mismatches, who were basically kids who didn't find a place in the social network and were brought together through necessity and circumstance. The group itself usually tended to be a statement that people in the school weren't all too different from one another, the message of which people conveniently ignored. Some of the kids in that group were profusely made fun of, while others tended to fade out of the social scene entirely.

"Yeah, and? So what?" Sean asked, at this point rereading the same sentence for the twentieth time.

"I'm just saying that you might not be so lucky. Everyone has to be part of it," Chris told Sean in a calm voice. "Whether they like it or not. And usually, they end up hating the ever-loving shit out of it," she continued bluntly. Again, Sean thought that this was true. Tim just continued to sit silently behind Sean, stealing a glance or two at Chris every few minutes or so, which, from the points when Sean looked up, he could tell that she had probably noticed. She was unusually aware, perceptive, and exceedingly unafraid of showing it. "So, now that we have an understanding of the social hierarchy worked out, why don't we just sit and be awkward, like Tim here?" she inquired, glancing at Tim, who was in mid-glance at her himself. He blushed a bit more. If Sean didn't know any better, he would've assumed that blush was merely Tim's natural complexion. Tim didn't say anything; he seemed like the kind of guy who only spoke when spoken to.

Sean wondered why Chris had chosen to latch onto him. Was it just a whim? An impulse? It didn't matter much to him. Sean just vowed to himself that he wouldn't shun her. That would've been rather cruel and hurtful towards her, and he knew it. Sean had experienced and seen people being shunned by the people they wanted to befriend and people who they were already friends with, and it really was mean, even sadistic in his eyes. He understood that emotional stigma were forever.

After a few more minutes of sitting in his desk and reading, Sean heard the bell ring, got out of his seat, and marched out of the classroom and further down the hallway full of students, weaving this way and that way to avoid them. Next up was Technology Discovery, a class that filled up an entire block's worth of time. While thinking of the class, Sean instantly flashed back to when Tim said he was into programming. Wasn't programming hard? Was Tim really into something like that? If so, then this class would be extremely easy for him. As Sean was navigating his way through the hallway, he bumped into Mai, who laughed and asked how things were going so far.

"Oh, it's fine. How about your end?" Sean asked.

"Oh, that's fine, too," Mai replied as she was forcefully swept away with the crowd, spiriting away to her next class, as did Sean, rather simultaneously. Technology Discovery was easy enough; the students did introductions again and sat in their desks until it was time for lunch, when all of the students rushed to the cafeteria, one after another, or more accurately, horde after horde. Whilst waiting and navigating through the lunch line, Sean heard more stories and pointless talk, most of it of the small variety. Once he collected his food, (which wasn't much; a ham and cheese sandwich with milk and an apple) Sean sat down at a mostly empty table, slowly followed by some of the more nerd-ish crowd filling up the opposite end, Mai herself eventually finding a spot and sitting down next to him.

"So, gotten strung from a tree yet?" she asked with a smirk on her face. Sean smiled.

"No, not yet, but we can hope, can't we?" Sean retorted.

"Quite. So, who's the girl sitting next to you, an who's her stalker?" Mai asked, making Sean jump in his seat and turn to see Chris looking blankly at him with Tim behind her, trying to look away from Sean's look.

"Oh, do continue. Don't mind us. I'm Chris and this here is little Tim. He doesn't talk," Chris told Mai as she absent-mindedly lifted and took a bite out of a green apple. Sean sighed, shrugged, and picked up his sandwich and bit off a piece and chewed it. Tim continued to sit there, not saying anything, not so much as touching his lunch. Sean wondered why that was, but decided against asking about it, in case Tim was just nervous about Chris being there or if he was touchy about the topic.

"So, do you guys, like, date or something?" Chris suddenly asked. This question caught Sean off-guard and even made Tim turn his head. Mai simply laughed.

"No, no we don't. Sean doesn't want to, and neither do I," Mai calmly answered.

"Ah, platonic. That's cool, too," Chris added. Idle chit-chat commenced between Mai and Chris as the lunch period went by, with Sean occasionally interjecting. Tim, however, never said or did anything. When they got up to leave, Tim merely followed Chris back to third block, while Sean kept in suit close behind, wondering what the deal between Tim and Chris was. They had obviously all met at the same time. Why was Tim clinging to her so fervently? Sean guessed it didn't matter, but was still curious. The rest of third block dragged on as the rest of the classes before it did, and was over before Sean knew it. The next class on the agenda was Art 1. Sean had always been artistically gifted when it came to drawing, but never chose to pursue it. It baffled some, but Sean just didn't find interest in it. He would rather have painted a picture with his words than literally. Sean's sister, Martha, however, had gone on to pursue art to its fullest. She was currently in her second year of art school, and was extremely talented, more so than Sean knew he would ever be.

Art went rather slowly, with the teacher, Mr. Sandings, speaking and acting in a way that made Sean question whatever it was that Mr. Sandings smoked after school. Mr. Sandings was rather old, and acted as if he were a hippy (which he probably was, back in the day). He seemed to be able to play the role of "charming, dirty, old flirt" very well, given the opportunity. During the class, however, Sean couldn't help but notice something peculiar sitting at the window sill. It was a small animal that looked to be a rodent, and it had long ears, like a rabbit, but they didn't appear quite as floppy, and were pointed. It looked to have strong legs like a rabbit, but had grey fur and black paws. It had a mask-like pattern in its fur, but only had a short, cotton ball of a tail. The snout didn't seem too long or too short, and the eyes seemed to be rather brown. Sean found it extremely strange that no one else noticed such a strange animal, and even stranger still, it seemed to be looking at him. Staring, almost. With the way that the room was arranged, the windows were rather high up on the walls, but it still seemed as if someone else could have noticed the raccoon-rabbit hybrid-like creature sitting on the window sill, staring down at them. But, what was the strangest to Sean was that he felt like the thing wanted to tell him something, and even that only he could see it, after a while. Once class was let out, Sean left rather quickly, Chris and Tim following, as expected.

Their next and final class was P.E., which took place in the gym, a wide, spacious, wooden-floored room, which was accommodated to double as a basketball court. As a first day exercise, the coach, who also happened to be the football coach, an old, fat man made them run laps around the gym. Chris actually chuckled at the irony of this, as did Sean and Tim. After P.E., everyone headed home. As the week went by and ended, Sean couldn't help but notice that throughout the week, the mysterious creature kept following him. By then he was sure that only he could see it, but didn't dwell upon the topic. His relationships with Chris and Tim barely went through any change from the mediocre, platonic following that went on. He gathered by now that Tim had a crush on Chris, for some alien reason.