discovering truths

“Another day, another day of high school.” I sighed to myself walking over to my locker.  I was already on my way to my next class with my books in hand when I spotted someone I had never seen before struggling to open his locker, which wasn’t surprising considering almost everyone has trouble opening them at one point. I sighed once more before making my way to him.

“Hey,” I said from behind him, he looked over his shoulder confused. I cleared my throat.

“Do you need help?” He continued to stare at me like he was in a trance until the late bell rang breaking him out of it.

“Oh yes, if you wouldn’t mind.” He smiled at me, brightly. He moved over to the side, giving me just enough room.

“What’s your locker code?” I asked making him pull out a piece of paper out of his back pocket.

“Tweleve— seven— zero.” I plugged in the code and opened it. He stared at me with what I could only describe as awe.

“It takes a few tries but you’ll get the hang of it.” I pause “Eventually. What’s your next class by the way?”

“Oh um, Physical science with Mr. Evans in room 316.” My class. I thought.

“Do you want to walk together? I also have that class.” He smiled brightly at me again before grabbing his books.

“Sure.”

“Great, follow me,” I said. Once the two of us made it to Mr. Evans’s class I realized that we were at least ten minutes late.

“Ah, mister Brooks finally decided to join us have you?” He paused, looking past me, noticing the new kid. “And whose is this?” He asked.

“Byrce Anderson, your new student sir.” Mr. Evans smiled at him.

“Well Mister Anderson, thank you for joining my class and you can sit next to Mister Brooks.” I walked over to my seat with the new kid Bryce behind me sitting in the seat next to me. “Now class as I was saying.” He continued with the lecture. Sometime after his instruction, he said that we would have to do a project. A project? In science class? Who would’ve thought? The project itself would be about Boiling points of polar and non-polar substances, whatever that means. We were supposed to do it with our seatmates for a month. After class ended, I felt the urge to sleep.

“Hey um, could I have your number by chance? You know for the project?” Bryce asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Oh sure, let me see your phone.” I put my number in, under Aiden, handing him back his phone, and let out a yawn before walking past him to my next and final class.
The next day I ran into Emma, my best friend who had a huge smile on her face.  It’s way too early for your enthusiasm Ems.

“Guess who I just ran into.”

“Who?”

“The new kid, Byrce who’s walking up to us right now.” She said, her voice trailing off as she stared at him.

“Hey um Aiden, can you help me with my locker again?” He asked, embarrassed.

“Sure, give me a second.” I looked back over to Emma who looked completely baffled.

“See you later Emma.” I waved her goodbye before following Byrce to his locker.

“Sorry to bother you, it’s just that I did try and open it but it wouldn’t budge, and when I tried to ask someone they would just wave me off.”

“It’s alright,” I replied, handing him his books as we made our way to class.

“Alright students, we’ll continue the project with our seatmates, and if you need anything come up and ask.” Mr. Evans said as the bell rang which was our cue to begin. During our free period, I met up with Emma who imminently started asking me questions about Byrce.