"Hey Ivan, long time no see," Vera chuckled as she sat down across from me towards the end of the lunch table.

"Hi Vera. How do you like your classes so far?" I asked, unwrapping my sandwich.

"Oh, you know. Just the same old stuff every year, nothing too exciting," she mumbled, digging through her packed lunch.

I shrugged, "better than having an especially shitty class."

"You've got a point there."

As we talked for a little more, I tried not to make too much of a scene scoping out Ethan. I haven't seen him at all since this morning, and he hasn't been in any of my classes so far. I've gotta say, I'm a bit bitter about that.

"Who the hell are you looking for?" Vera splutters suddenly, looking behind her then back at me. I must've been caught in the act a fair amount of times for her to be fed up with my searching gazes.

"No one, sorry. I didn't mean to be rude while you were talking," I said sheepishly.

"Ivan that's a crock of shit and you know it," she scoffed, shaking her head as she bit into an apple.

I stayed silent, picking at my sandwich shamefully and fighting myself on my next move. Do I tell Vera and never hear the end of it? Or do I not tell Vera, she beats me up, and then I never hear the end of it?

Luckily, I never needed to give her an answer, because the answer sat down right next to me with a dumb smile on his face.

"Hey, Ivan. It was hard finding you shoved away in this corner," Ethan shrugged dismissively, and cracked open his soda. Once looking up again, his eyebrows rose as if he finally realized another person was sitting across from me, her mouth slightly open in shock and her eyes wide. "Oh hello! I'm Ethan. I like your shirt, The Doors huh? You've got good taste."

Vera blinked a few times in an attempt to overcome her shock, as she nodded in Ethan's direction. "Oh, uh- thank you. I'm Vera. Ivan's friend."

I could feel the heat radiating from my cheeks as Vera bored holes into me with her piercing stare, and Ethan drawled on smoothly about his classes. It felt like I was at some family dinner gone wrong.

"So, how have your classes been Ivan?" He chirped.

Some students had begun to take notice of the fact that Ethan, the hot, charismatic new kid had chosen his seat during lunch next to me, the irrelevant, mildly neurotic guy. This was sudden, newfound attention that I didn't have the skills to cope with.

"Oh, um, just fine," I mumbled quickly.

"Well that's good. It's a shame we haven't had a class together yet. Wait, hand me your schedule."

Students stared at us as I stared back, Vera stared at Ethan as Ethan stared at me. It was quite the catastrophic lull in the midst of the conversation that made the awkwardness increase tenfold.

"Ivan," Vera suddenly spoke to me sternly, putting her face in my line of vision as much as she could to get my attention. My eyes left the prying gazes of the other students and focused on her, just as she continued to speak slowly and clearly.

"Give Ethan your schedule," she said slowly and meticulously, raising her eyebrows in emphasis.

I blinked at her and glanced at Ethan, who was still staring at me with a strange expression on his face, patiently waiting for my response. Without another word, I dug through my backpack to pull out my crumpled schedule and gave it to Ethan. He took it from me gently, like if he pulled too hard my fingers would snap off or something equally as gruesome would happen.

"We actually have gym together in fifth period. Won't that be fun?" He chuckled lightly, sliding my schedule back over to me. I gave him a small smile and nod of acknowledgment, before stuffing the crumpled paper back into my mess of a backpack.

"So. . . Ethan. How'd you meet Ivan?" Vera smiled warmly, attempting to make small talk to patch up the awkwardness I had created. It always seemed to end up like this.

"Oh, uh, his sister actually is friends with my little sister. I swear those two can play all day and not tire each other out," he chuckled lightly.

I gave a small smile at that. Mary really was a great girl, and I was just as proud of her as Mrs. Clarissa was.

"Well, I've actually never met any of Ivan's siblings," Vera looked pointedly at me, an eyebrow arched in question. I kept my eyes downcast at the table.

"You have other siblings besides Mary?" Ethan asked curiously, his eyebrows knitted together as he took a sip of water.

"Um, yeah. I have a younger brother. Benji."

Ethan nodded. "That's cool."

I hummed lowly in agreement, risking a glance back up at Vera. She still looked at me with a strange expression on her face, almost like she was a bit hurt; but she had to understand we only recently became good friends- right? I tried to give Vera a pleading expression, because the look she wore on her face made my skin crawl. It didn't look like Vera, it just looked at me with so much hate, I decided to just head back to class early. Maybe she was in a foul mood.

"I-I'm heading back. I'll see you guys later," I hurriedly spoke, while Vera now looked shocked all of the sudden and started to say something. Ethan looked at me weirdly, but stood nonetheless and slung my backpack over his shoulder.

"I need that. . ." I spoke pitifully, making a reach for my backpack, but Ethan just shook his head and smiled.

"I can carry it Ivy. Don't worry about it."

Instantly feeling remorseful that we were just ditching Vera, I risked another look at her, fearing for that sinister expression, but she just looked caught off guard and confused. I shook my head slightly, and now that Vera was back, gave her a soft smile.

"Um, aren't you coming along, Vera?"

She seemed to snap out of her stupor then, still unsure of what was going on, but grateful she wasn't being ditched. She probably thought it was all a misunderstanding, which, I suppose it technically was. Eventually, she rose from her seat and hauled her backpack up onto her shoulder, walking next to me as Ethan tagged along shortly behind us.

"Hey, Vera?" I spoke up timidly. She was preoccupied rustling around in her purse for a bit before looking up at me, a high pitched noise of acknowledgement came from her throat. "I'm sorry for what happened in the cafeteria. I-I was being weird," I looked at her with the most sincere eyes I could, and it seemed to have worked. Vera just smiled and shook her head, patting me on the shoulder.

"No worries Ivan. We all have those moments," she glanced behind her shoulder at Ethan, who was looking around casually at all of the passing students. "Especially when a guy like Ethan has the hots for you."

I choked at that. Like, seriously starting choking on thin air. Vera just laughed as I felt a large hand grip my shoulder, heat blossoming across my cheeks. I knew whose hand it was. I glared at Vera, but she only gave me a knowing look, averting her eyes to the hand on my shoulder. I felt the pressure ease up from my right shoulder, and I knew Ethan had removed his hand.

This is thin ice, Ivan.

I couldn't help but still feel disappointed when Ethan's contact with me had vanished, maybe I really was touch starved.

"Alright fine," Vera groaned dramatically when we stopped at her classroom, "I'll see you two later. Better keep your eye on Ivan, Ethan. He can be completely oblivious. I'm surprised he hasn't been decapitated by a ball yet." I scoffed and rolled my eyes, but Ethan agreed to Vera's advice a little too. . . seriously?

"Gross, Vera. We'll see you later," I snorted and rolled my eyes. Ethan and I then made our way down the crowded hallway to the boys locker room. "I'm not oblivious. I like looking at the trees," I commented, finding it easier to talk to Ethan with Vera gone- as much as I hate to say that.

Ethan just chuckled, bumping into me playfully. "Hey! Watch it! I'll clock you for that," I threatened.

This really made him laugh, and it was hard to hear what he said next, but I managed to make it out in between his gasps for air.

"Oh yeah? Want me to kneel so you can do that?" He continued to laugh, mocking my shorter stature. Who the hell does he think he is? Ethan's merely a couple inches taller than I am.

I feigned hurt, gasping dramatically and rushing down the hallway. He caught up to me and we continued to laugh as we entered the locker room.

Gym class was very uneventful, due to it being only the first day of school. We were assigned lockers, and I was let down to see Ethan at the end of the locker block clear across the room. There were plenty of macho dudes surrounding me, save for the lanky track guys that thought they were hot shit, although the beefy football players also thought they were hot shit. I can't believe someone as accepting and kind as Ethan used to be one of them.

I didn't see Ethan for the remainder of the day, although I did have one more class with Vera, and I didn't hear the end of it. She was convinced Ethan liked me, and although I was nervous about accepting that kind of thing, it was a nice thing to think about. Something I wasn't completely opposed to. However, that came back to the initial problem: there's no way Ethan has a crush on me. No way. Why would he? I was quiet, my personality was drier than the Mojave desert, and I acted really strange at times. It just didn't make any sense.

I humored her for the meantime, and when the end of the day rolled around, Ethan was waiting for me outside of my classroom to drive me home. For one of the most stressful and nauseating days of the year, the first day of school wasn't half bad.

~

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