"Okay class, now that the attendance is done, let's play a game." Ms. Happi happily proclaimed. "Why don't you all try to get to learn each other a bit better? It'll be fun. I promise!"

A brown-haired boy raised his hand.

"Yes, um... Jack?" Ms. Happi glanced down at her board. "Oh, Charles."

"Do you do this every year?" Charles asked before wrinkling his brows. "And did you just..."

"Not every year," She nervously laughed, "but it's not every year you get to be a homeroom teacher. That's how you create the best bonds with your students. And I fully expect by the end of the year, all of us will be great friends." Her eyes shined with a million stars and dreams.

"Wait, but..." Charles interjected.

"No buts, Charles. I just gave you all cookies. Anyway, I want you all to try to learn more about each other. Treat this as a free period. Perhaps, you guys will even make some friends." Ms. Happi squealed. "I'll be on the sidelines in case anyone wants to talk to me. Please... talk to me. I get so lonely..." She wept, pulled out a handkerchief, and started blowing her nose.

Steven raised his hand.

"Since this is a free period, can we sleep?" Steven asked, before realizing his mistake.

(He should have just slept without asking the teacher.)

"Well, I mean you could sleep if you want to." Ms. Happi mused with her hand on her chin.

"Really?" he asked brightly.

"Of course!" She answered. "You can, but there's this thing called..." She pulled her hands up to signify quotes. "...friends."

"Mmm..." Steven mulled. "Debatable."

"Friends help you get through rough times..." She rationalized. "Plus, you need social skills to succeed in life."

"There's this thing called a hermit," Steven explained.

"Oh, I'll count this activity as part of your participation grade." Ms. Happi smiled.

"Er..." Steven protested.

"Ooh, I just so happened to pack some dorayaki today!" Ms. Happi brightly reminded herself.

Steven really loved making friends. Friends. He had them. Friends. He ate them.

"Yada, yada, yada. And on your mark... get set... go!" Ms. Happi shouted. "Come on, stand up! Vamonos! Cha-cha!"

With reluctance, Everyone stood up and stoke up a conversation.

"Uh..." Steven stood up, looking around the room. 'I guess I'll just stand here. That's how people socialize...'

He scratched his head.

'...right?'

A few minutes later... epiphany struck.

'Oh! you have to talk to people to... socialize' He noted, and looked at his neighbors.

Two boys nearby were talking loudly about the school walls. One of them said: "No, you shouldn't do that" and the other said: "But it'll be fun though". The first one then proceeded to throw his hands up, exasperated, and grumbled: "Last time you did that, I had to help you wash the walls even though I didn't do anything."

This was when Steven decided to interject.

"H-Hey," he called out.

"Hey. You're Steven, right?" One of the guys asked.

"Uh..." Steven replied. "You're that guy that kept flicking his friend.

The blonde hair boy laughed heartily.

"It was fun though!" He pointed to himself and to his friend. "I'm Lucius and this is Snakey Boy."

"Dude. Stop. My name is not-" he emphasized this 'not' part, "-Snakey Boy. It's S-Sinclair," and antagonized by his own stutter, he yelped: "damn it!"

Sinclair groaned, now with one hand covering his eyes. "I told you not to introduce me to new people like that."

"Why not? Snakey's a cool name." Lucius retorted.

"Blonde people." scoffed Sinclair.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Lucius sulked.

"Nothing, Lucy." He innocently replied. "-is." With a little half-smile, he raised his shoulders and his hands to the side.

"Awwww man..." Lucius raised an eyebrow. "Why you hafta call me that?"

"Why you hafta call me 'that'?" The green-haired boy parroted back.

Lucius thought long and hard and finally explained. "You can turn into a giant green snake."

"And you have sheeny nightlight, glowy sunshine magic," Sinclair responded.

"Ok... that's so not lit, that's not how you should describe my powers."

"Bright flashlight, sparkle-bug shimmy shimmer magic?" Sinclair suggested.

"Ok, Sin." Lucius begrudgingly complied. "No 'Snakey snakey', got it."

"Sinclair." The green-haired boy greeted Steven. "This doofus here is my friend 'Lucius'." He muttered under his breath, "In quotes".

"Uh..." Steven answered.

"New school, new people. We've known each other for a long time because our parents were friends. And that's how we met. We're...." He paused. "colleagues."

Lucius shrugged. "Acquaintances, nice."

"Hey, I guess it's cool." Sinclair looked back at Steven, and explained, "At least I know someone here."

Lucius jutted in. "Hey, Steven, what you did this morning was awesome." His arms were flying everywhere as he continued. "You caught all of them with your mouth. How'd you learn that anyway?"

"That's how they used to feed me."

Lucius' arms paused.

"What?"

"Just a cool trick I picked up with practice." Steven corrected himself. "I'm gonna try talking to some other people. Nice meeting you guys."

"Nice meeting ya," Lucius waved.

"Bye," Sinclair said back.

In the corner of his eye, Steven saw his wonderful teacher giving him a smile and a thumbs up. He stared at his shameless teacher and she waved back.

'You're my first teacher of the day, but I already decided that you're not going to be my favorite teacher,' Steven mouthed. It was super effective. Ms. Happi fainted.

'Wait...' he frowned. 'You still owe me food.' When shove came to push, he had contributed words to the conversation. When he heard word for food, he knew he had food for thought.

He earned it. The dorayaki.

Steven looked around and saw someone approaching him. As he met the other boy's eyes, he felt it. He was looking at someone he couldn't understand...

Wearing a red shirt, the boy had white eyelashes that covered dark mahogany eyes. His left eyebrow had a nick, and the right side of his face was dotted by two moles. As he opened his mouth to speak, his lips slightly parted, showing two canine teeth right next to pearly incisors.

"Hey, you're Steven, right?" He asked, sheepishly, "Can I ask you something?"

"Uh," Steven answered. He turned around and walked into the wall.

Bang was the crisp sound of skull meeting enforced white wall.

"Ouch." Steven rubbed his forehead.

"Are you okay?" The white-haired guy asked, his eyes darted down as he looked at the red mark that was forming.

"No," Steven replied.

Ms. Happi rushed over. "OMG Steven, are you okay? I can't be liable for this! I mean, I'm sure you're okay, but just in case your head isn't all that strong-"

She coughed. "I mean, you must be super smart, but a brain injury is a big nono, you must go to the nurse and sit there while the super-competent nurse gives you an ice pack to heal all of your wounds." She fluttered her eyes.

"No really, it is quite magical how that ice pack heals everything. If not, there's always the heated pack..."

"I'm fine," Steven replied.

"Whew! Oh okay, then bye!" Ms. Happi went back to her desk and sat down.

"Sorry, what were you going to ask?" Steven turned and asked the guy.

"Nevermind." The guy replied back.

"Zero." He pointed at himself.

"Zero?" Steven wore a confused look. "Why even..."

"My parents... were drunk," Zero answered. "Oopsie, I guess. Not a big deal."

"But your last name..."

"Yeah, I know. Zero dreams. It's funny..." He paused. "You can laugh if you want."

"That sucks," Steven remarked fervently.

"Mm... my name sucks?"

"No... I mean." Steven's voice softened and he looked back. "It's sucks that your parents..."

"Ah," Zero looked away. "Yeah, they were drunk."

"Oh."

Zero nodded his head.

"Hey, what's your last name?" Zero asked.

"Sins." Steven took a deep breath. "S-I-N-S."

"Cool, so was that your father's last name?"

Steven looked back. "No, my mother's."

"It's a sweet last name," the white-haired boy smiled. He continued, "I get why... people care a lot about names, but I don't. We get called a lot of names but they don't constrain us. Only our actions define us."

Steven appeared to be deep in thought.

Zero patiently waited.

"Hey... " Steven looked at Ms. Happi. An urgent question formed at the base of his tongue.

"...where's my dorayaki?"