The quiet and the Sun
She was sunlight, confident, impossibly cool. The kind of girl who walked into a room and made it hers without even trying. Isolde was strong in every way: the kind of strong that wins volleyball games, tops test scores, and fills every silence with laughter. And him? He was the opposite. Noa lingered on the edges, quiet, unsure, always thinking too much and saying too little. He wasn’t particularly tall, or clever, or bold, just an ordinary guy trying to survive high school without drawing too much attention. She lived at the center of the universe; he lived just outside it. And yet, somehow, the universe had plans throwing them into the same orbit, into the same class, onto the same team. He stumbled. She soared. But in that mess of awkward moments and near-missed chances, something unexpected sparked. She noticed him. And that, for a quiet boy like Noa, was everything.
