Ethan eventually found himself in the coffee shop later that evening with his backpack and the thick packet Mrs. McKenzie had given him earlier as his only company. He stared at the words, trying to understand what they meant. He furrowed his eyebrows and rubbed his forehead but his thinking was interrupted by a soft voice, "I'm guessing this seat isn't taken?"

Ethan looked up and saw the girl of whom he had previously shared silent exchanges with. He wanted to yell at her and tell her that he didn't want her to sit with him, but he couldn't find it in him, so he just shook his head and gestured for her to sit down. She smiled at him and stuck out her hand, "I'm Jasmine."

Ethan just looked at it and quietly replied, "I'm Ethan."

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I'm- my name is- Ethan- I'm Ethan." He stuttered, as his cheeks flushed a bright shade of pink.

Jasmine smiled at him, "Ethan. Hm. I like that. I don't know a lot of people named Ethan."

They sat in silence for a while before Jasmine got curious and asked what Ethan was holding in his hands— referring to the large stack of papers he received at school. The truth was that he was embarrassed and didn't want Jasmine knowing how incompetent he was in journalism, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to her and ended up just telling her the truth. "I'm failing journalism. And they gave me this."

Ethan expected Jasmine to make fun of him and leave, but she didn't. In fact- her mouth turned upwards into a smile. She sat up and folded her hands in front of her, "You know, I'm pretty amazing at journalism." She trailed, "I can help you if you want."

Ethan was skeptical. But before he could realize what he was doing, he had already agreed to meet her in the town library tomorrow after school.

_________

Ethan watched Jasmine's eyes light up as she explained to him what he had been doing wrong all this time-- which was basically everything.

"You need to change your perspective," Jasmine began, "you're not looking at things with an open mind."

"Do I need to?" Ethan questioned, now getting defensive, "How can I look at things with an open mind if all I've ever experienced is the malevolence of others, hateful words that act as knives when they're throw at me, and the carelessness of my family when I need them most,"

"See, that's the problem," Jasmine told him, "you're seeing it all wrong. You already know how to express your feelings, you just need to imagine things from the perspective of others."

Ethan scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, "How?"

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A/n:

hey everyone! thank you so much for reading this chapter and voting! Also, I'd like to thank all of you for getting this book to 1,000 reads! it really means a ton to me.

much love,

k ☆彡