Monty tapped his foot attentively, waiting for the teacher to enter his 5th period class. The first day of junior year was almost over, only 1 more class. He could do it. He just needed to take a breath and calm down. Monty opened his agenda and gold glitter pen and started doodling around his homework for the night. He added a small bee and small rays to the sun, detailing the garden he had creating through out the day.

"Sorry I'm late! I'm Mr Jaha and I will be your, let's see," he flipped through the stack of papers in his hands. "Oh! AP Phych! That's a fun one! But before we start that.." he dropped his binders and papers on his desk, snapping the classes attention to the front, "lets get to know each other!"

A 3x5 was tossed onto Monty's desk causing wave of excitement pass over him. He liked decorating name cards on the first day much better than the alternate: filling out worksheets with obscure questions for you to ask your classmates. His colored pencils were pulled out and lined up as he schemed up ideas for decorating the notecard.

"Okay class, for the next 3 minutes I want each of you to think of one icebreaker question to ask the person next to you and write it on your card."

Ugh. So much for coloring. Monty pulled out the worksheet from his 3rd period and copied down a random question. What does your closet look like? He snorted at the question. If had had a friend in the class, he probably would have made a joke some where along the lines of "my closet looks occupied", but seeing as it was the first day at a new school for Monty, that really wasn't an option. Instead he copied the question quietly and went back to adding butterflies to his flowers.

Monty jumped at the sound of the alarm. It was the default iPhone tone, but it made Monty need to bounce his leg. That alarm clock sound never failed to excite his anxiety.

"Times up! Everybody turn to your table partner. These will be your table mates until the end of the quarter, so let's learn something about them."

Monty turned to look at the boy that had sat next to him. He hadn't bothered looking up when the boy first sat down, but after attaching his eyes to the boy, Monty couldn't force himself to look away.

He had dark, soft hair, pushed back by a pair of safety googles. His eyes were a deep shade that stood out against his light skin. And his lips were so full and pink, and extremely distracting, so much so that it took Monty a moment to notice when the lips stopped moving, awaiting an answer to a question he had failed to hear.

"What?"

The boy laughed lightly. "Try two," he smiled kindly and continued, "I'm Jasper. And you are?"

"Oh, uh, Monty." His cheeks heated up and he averted his eyes to his drawings.

"So Monty, what's your favorite flower?" Jasper asked.

"Sunflowers." He replied without hesitation. A huge smile grew in Monty's face, which he hid by staring at his desk.

"Nice. Mines blue bells." He paused, waiting for a response. Monty continued staring at his papers.

"So, you gonna ask me a question now or..?"

"Oh yeah, uh.." he looked at the question he wrote down and crumbled up his notecard. He thought for a moment before confidently looking his table partner in the eye. "On which planet would you rather watch the sunset?"

A childlike grin spread across Jaspers face. "I love that game." He bit his lip and scrunched his nose in thought. "Okay so I think I'm gunna have to pick the one with 3 suns, HD 13 something Ab I think. I mean how cool would that be to see 3 suns setting all at once?! That's way better than Tatooine."

Monty laughed. "That was oddly specific."

"Yeah," Jasper rubbed the back of his neck. "I always loved the idea of going to outer space. Living on a space station. Floating around in zero gravity. I'm a huge NASA nerd." He stared into the empty space beside Monty with a wonderstruck look in his eyes.

Monty chuckled lightly at the weird boy beside him, snapping him from his thoughts of space.

"Sorry." Jasper drummed his fingers on the desk. "On which planet would you rather build a summer home?"

Monty felt his nerves kick up again. He hadn't meant for this to turn into an actual conversation. "I uh, um..." Just name a planet! "Saturn."

"Nice!" Jasper replied, nodding his head in agreement. "Hey, wanna hear a joke?" He paused only lasted big enough for Monty to raise his eyebrows questioningly, which Jasper took as a signal to continue. "Why does Saturn have rings? 'Cus God liked it, so she put a ring in it!"

Monty snorted.

"Hey wait I have another one! How does NASA organize their parties? They planet!"

This time Monty allowed himself to openly laugh. It felt good, not caring what people think for a moment. He stifled his last giggle and looked up at Jasper.

Jasper felt something in his chest as Monty laughed so freely. He looked so happy, so beautiful. And the fact that Jasper had made that happen made him feel incredible. His thoughts were interrupted by Monty.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Monty stared to wipe his mouth with the corner of his sleeve but Jasper spoke up to stop him.

"No, no, it's just," he hesitated, but quickly decided to just go with it. "You're have a beautiful laugh."

Monty wasn't used to getting such genuine compliments. "I, uh, thanks," he breathed out unevenly and cast his gaze away from the boy beside him.

"So what's with the, um," Monty gestured to the chemist goggles that sat atop Jaspers puffy hair.

"They're my googles! You never know when you're gunna need them ya know? Surprise science experiments or something," he trailed off. Jasper looked Monty over. His foot tapping had become both his legs bouncing and his face looked slightly off color. "Dude are you okay? You look like you're going to throw up."

Monty felt himself both blush and pale, somehow at the same time. "Yeah, uh, 'm just nervous."

"Oh. Okay." He didn't really buy the 'nervous' excuse but he also didn't want to push it too much. After all, he had known Monty for what, 15 minutes?

"So how come I haven't seen you around before?" Jasper asked. He knew the answer, Monty had transferred, because there was no way Jasper could have gone two years without noticing the boy beside him. His long black hair hung covering his forehead almost entirely, but still allowed his captivating brown eyes to peak out beneath the ends. And his cheekbones looked like they could qualify him for some sort of international beauty award. Not to mention his defined Cupid's bow that shaped his round lips perfectly. Jasper started to lose himself to the spiral of admiration when Monty spoke up.

"Oh, I uh, got a bit suspended and then later expelled from my old school for uh, smoking on campus. And getting caught. Twice."

Jasper showed surprise but not shock at the admission.

"So now I'm here."

Monty wasn't sure what prompted the admission but Jasper didn't seem thoughtless mind.

"Well, they don't care much if you come to school high here; bigger fish to fry and all. As long as you aren't selling on campus and can walk in a straight line, you're good."

Monty considered the new information he had been given. "Sounds like you have some experience."

"I have my hobbies," he joked.

Monty raised his eyebrow.

"Would you happen to have any of those hobbies on you?" This first day had worn Monty out; he'd've killed for something to calm his racing thoughts right about now.

"That depends," Jasper seized the opportunity being thrown his way by the universe. "I may have one or two, if you are able to fake being sick so we can ditch this scene."

Monty smiled cheekily. "Absolutely."

He stretched out his hand for Jasper to shake.

"Okay then," he clasped Monty's hand, "lets get out of this shithole.

Ahem. Excuse me, Mr Jaha? My table partner here doesn't seem to be feeling so well. Should I walk him to the nurses office?"