The Impossible is Possible (Ryden)

Chapter 1

Brendon sits outside of his new school, looking down at his converse. He doesn't want to meet the eye of any of his new classmates. They all seem so much taller than him, so much more confident, so much better than him. The school itself seems nice enough, and he knows he only has one year here before he's free, but it doesn't much ease his nerves.

He glances at his Donald Duck watch, and sighs. It's half past eight, and Spencer is due to meet him any minute now. Classes start at nine, but they've arranged to meet early so that Spencer can show him around. He sighs again, this time more heavily, and traces the ground with his trainer. He feels restless, as usual, but he doesn't want to do anything to draw attention to himself.

Diagnosed with ADHD at the age of nine, he's long since stopped taking his medication. When he took it, he turned into a moronic, tired teenager, and so he knows he's better off trying to control his condition himself. People often think he's rude and ignorant when he doesn't pay attention to what they're saying, or that he's particularly stupid when he rambles and gets excited, but he can't help any of it.

He checks his watch again. Twenty-five to nine. Spencer's five minutes late already, and that worries Brendon slightly. He knows he's probably just being overly paranoid, but what if Spencer doesn't actually want to hang around with him, after all? They met each other in the summer through their dads, and they struck up a friendship immediately. When Brendon mentioned starting a new school for 12th grade, Spencer had seemed delighted that he was joining his own school, and had promised to meet him. But now Brendon isn't so sure that that smile had been genuine.

"Brendon! Hey!" comes a call in front of him, and he looks up, unable to stop himself beaming. It's Spencer, rushing towards him, and immediately all of Brendon's paranoia fades. Spencer looks really happy to see him, after all. "Sorry I'm late. My mom's car had trouble starting so I had to walk."

"It's fine," Brendon shrugs, standing up and pulling his bag onto his shoulders. It sits there awkwardly, a little large with all of his books stuffed in, and he hopes that that's normal. "All that matters is you're here now. What should we do? Can you show me where the lockers are? Are we really, really early, or are most people here by now? Where do we go to --"

"Hey, hey, slow down," Spencer laughs, shaking his head bemusedly. "Uh, I'll show you around a couple of important places and I'll show you the lockers on the way. I guess we're a little early but nobody really minds because it's the first day and all."

"Oh! Oh, okay," Brendon nods, taking the information in, and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Cool. Should we go then? I really want to see everything. This place seems loads better than my old school, and it's a lot bigger, too, which is probably a good thing, because --"

"Yeah, lets go," Spencer says, beginning to walk to the building. Brendon takes a moment to inspect him as he walks alongside the boy. He's got light brown hair that seems to stick up at all angles, a baby face, and light, blue eyes. It's the kind of face you trust from first seeing it. "This is usually where people hang out in our free classes and breaks and stuff."

Brendon looks around at the cement-licked area as they pass through it, and head into the building. It looks pretty bleak and boring, but he guesses that will change when it's filled with more kids. For the next fifteen minutes, Spencer leads Brendon round the school, pointing out the most important parts. Brendon tries his hardest to commit a map to his memory, but his memory is shaky at the best of times, so he knows he's going to get lost at least a little.

Finally, at five to nine, they arrive at their first class - Math. They've examined each other's timetables on the way and they're sharing a lot of classes, for which Brendon is thankful. He hates being around strangers, especially his peers. The classroom is already half-full as they enter, and most people gaze at Brendon suspiciously. After all, he's the newcomer, and this is high school. It's to be expected.