Tyler raised his eyebrows as he pulled into the parking lot. Looking up at his new school from the car window he could already tell the campus was old. He parked his car and got out, walking towards a smiling lady standing by a large gate he assumed was the entrance. As he approached the woman he noticed she was a beta but didn't think much about it. She heard his footsteps and looked up from her phone at him "You must be Mr. Dunwood?"

Tyler nodded, "Yah, um sorry I'm a little late the traffic was bad." This was in fact, a complete lie, Tyler had slept through his alarm and it was a miracle he was only 10 minutes late.

"No worries, Mr. Dunwood," said the woman, shaking his hand, "My name is Mrs. Maw I'm here to get you settled for your first day, now if you follow me we'll swing by the office and grab your schedule before you go to your first class."

Tyler followed Mrs. Maw through the gate and onto the campus, she seemed kind and he already liked her. Tyler gazed around, the school was nice, but it seemed to be built strangely. Mrs. Maw saw his confusion and began to explain,

"St. Marks has 3 courtyards, one each for lower, middle, and high school. Because you're a high schooler your classes will be here." She stopped as they entered a large courtyard. There was grass in the center and trees cast shadows on the ground, that combined with the high walls of the buildings made everything look calm and shady.

Along the walls of the courtyard, on the sidewalks, where lockers, and more corridors leading off to what Tyler assumed where more classrooms. Ms. Maw took Tyler to the office on the other side of the courtyard and they looked at his schedule.

"Okay, so it looks like you have Biology with Mr. Russell right now, that class is right down that hall," she said pointing to to one of the corridors. "Thank you ma'am," said Tyler with a sigh. As an alpha he was pretty much guaranteed to be at least passable at everything but it didn't mean he had to like every subject. Science was one of his least favorite subjects so he slouched his way slowly across the grass to the hall she had pointed to.

As Tyler approached the hallway his attention was drawn to the lockers, specifically the floor beside them. There was a person, or rather a small boy sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest. Tyler approached with caution, the boy had his head resting on his arms, which were folded on his knees. As he got closer Tyler noted the boy was an omega and wondered what he was doing out of class. He had messy brown hair and was wearing an oversized red sweatshirt and black skinny jeans. His shoulders were shaking and he was making soft noises Tyler couldn't quite hear.

At this moment it occurred to him that the boy was crying. Tyler had no idea what to do. He thought about just leaving quietly, after all the boy hadn't seen him, but he felt bad and decided to figure out what was wrong. Maybe this kid would be his first friend.

Tyler wondered what to say, he didn't want to scare the omega but he also wanted to know what was wrong, "Uh hi I'm Tyler um...why are you crying?"

'That's just great!' Thought Tyler, you've gone and messed it up already. He probably thinks you're being nosy and annoying, today is already going great.

The boy jumped a little at Tyler's words, clearly startled by the sudden presence. He looked up and Tyler saw his face more clearly. The omega had big blue eyes framed with long, thick, black lashes. His cheeks were dusted pink, blushing with embarrassment as tears continued to roll down his face. As soon as blue eyes met Tyler's hazel ones he looked down at his feet again.

"I uh... my name is um I-Ivory" The omega, Ivory, stuttered out in a small voice. Tyler's plans to go to biology had completely left his mind as he stared down at the top of Ivory's head. He squatted down next to the boy who blinked up at him. He was still a few feet away but Ivory scooted even further from him, returning his gaze to the pavement.

"So... you gonna tell me what's wrong?" Asked Tyler, watching him for any reaction. Ivory glanced up at him again before sniffing and using a pale sweater paw to wipe the tears off of his pink cheeks. He turned a little away from Tyler, as if embarrassed and pointed to the locker above him.

For the first time, Tyler actually looked carefully at the lockers, his eyes widened as he saw the one Ivory was pointing to. Someone had written things on it in black pen "whore" "slut" "trash" "faggot" and many other cruel words were written on the cold metal.

Ivory had turned again to see his reaction, "I-I didn't d-do anything I, I swear I'm not, I'm not a w-whore or, or any of t-those t-things" he stuttered out, tears flowing down his cheeks again.

Tyler knelt next to him again, unsure of what to do "hey hey hey, I know you're not, it's okay, don't cry we can get this off it's just dry erase marker. See it comes right off" he said, using his sleeve to erase the words on the locker.

Ivory wiped his tears away again before once again returning his eyes to the ground, "Th-thanks" he said in a small voice, barely above a whisper. "I um, I have to go b-bye" and with that he stood up quickly and headed off across the grass, not giving Tyler enough time to say anything before he was gone.

Tyler stood again, wiping off the last few words until the locker was clean. He looked off across the grass in the direction the omega had gone. He hoped the kid would be okay, and decided he would talk to him again later.

Tyler glanced at his watch and sighed, after all that it looked like he was going to make it to biology anyway.