"He is so polite, it's creepy."
"He keeps to himself all the time."
"Something must be wrong with him right?"
"Compensating for something maybe?"
"My mom saw his records in the office, they transferred him for aggressive behavior."
"He doesn't curse."
"Why doesn't he curse?"
Trying to be good is very difficult, especially with rumors and speculation thrust upon me because of the circumstances of my arrival.
They are correct to speculate. Curiosity is one of the things that keeps humans alive despite the saying of curiosity killing the cat. The more you know the more you can prepare.
Therefore I can justify my change in character, as me hiding my weaknesses. I don't want to get hurt. I don't want to hurt others. I don't want to be seen as a monster. I want to be normal. As I enter the classroom every day that is my goal.
It's always so quiet around me. I can see the small groups of students scattered around the classroom in the various corners, while I sit in the middle with cheery
eyes waiting for the class to be over and done with.
"Why do you wear a mask all the time?" a curious voice chimed in from behind me. It was a girl from my class but I couldn't recall her name for the life of me, because I was trying to find an answer to her question.
"I'm usually sick, so I don't want to risk spreading a bug around to the other students." lying straight through my teeth. It was the only thing I could think of at the moment. I hate showing my face, it's scary and most people shy away from me once they see it. So I wear the mask, it's closer to normal than showing my face.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. It must suck to be sick all the time." She spoke sympathetically.
"It's ok, I'm used to it." No, I'm not it's complete bullshit. I surprised myself with how I'm not struggling even more to talk to you, since this is the first time anyone other than the teacher has addressed me. I hope I don't sound stupid.
"That's good to hear! If that's the case you will be ok with hanging out with me after school today." She asked loudly, I jumped a bit. She was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
"Ermm." Nope, I'm a proud member of the going home club. "Absolutely!" I didn't want to be rude so I accepted her request.
"What do you want to d..." BOOM, suddenly the door shot open, and our teacher stumbled in, sweating and breathing heavily.
Through gasps of air, "I am sorry class *heavy inhale* another sinkhole opened up on the road here and I had to walk instead." He spoke grabbing the blackboard and dragging himself to the podium.
"These natural disasters are getting crazy common now." students in the back muttered to each other about how they keep appearing around popular spots in the city.
The mention of the disasters has the class rumbling with questions and comments about the situation.
I couldn't care less, I wanted to finish the conversation with the girl from earlier. I wanted to know at least what I had gotten myself into after school today.
"I saw something moving in one of them before." The girl from earlier. She moved back into her click and was actively involved with the speculation.
"You must be seeing things. The news says that some of the sinkholes are unbelievably deep and that they can't even measure it. Not possible for you to see anything in that abyss." Another girl said.
"I saw someone fall into one of them before." a boy chuckled.
"Not funny Alex. How about I shove you into one?" Another girl giggled.
The conversation trailed off and I lost interest. There was only one thing on my mind even while class was going on. What's her name? Does she know my name? I'd feel awful if she knows mine and I didn't know hers. Maybe I can find a way to get it without her figuring out that I don't know.
As the bell rings dismissing us the only thing I can think of was what her name could be. Going out to the front of the school to meet up with her another thought popped into my brain. Why did she want to hang out with me? She has he own clique? what reason would she want me to hang out? A crush? Yes, this could be a chance to have a normal relationship with someone. This could be my only chance!
With that, I resigned myself to finding out the answers. Especially... what her name is.