The school's halls were long and uncomfortable, it felt like the waiting room at the doctor's office. Other students lined the hallway, talking amoungst eachother and exchanging books from their lockers. Troy was glad that he had been the first to attend the new school. Because he was a man, he was able to appear strong and stoic in front of the other students, it gave a good offence towards the bullies who were scanning the crowds of students, looking for new targets. Despite his height, Troy could look quite confronting.
He finally found his locker and dialed the combination for the lock. It was a decent sized locker with shelves to better manage books. He unzipped his bag and put away the books that he didn't need for the first period. Art was first. Troy wasn't very good at art, it was Abi's decision to choose it. He slammed the locker closed and looked down the hall in both directions, he had no clue which direction the art room was. He stood in the hall in a lost confusion. As the crowd of students began to diminish, he felt a sense of panic setting in.
"Hi."
Troy turned around to see a boy a bit smaller than himself looking at him with wide eyes.
"Err, hi."
"Where's your next class?"
"I have no clue."
"Show me your timetable."
The boy held out his hand with a smile, his puppy dog eyes still locked onto Troy. He handed his timetable over and the boy began examining it. He looked up at Troy with an open mouth, curled up at the sides.
"We're in the same art class!"
"Great, so you know where it is." Troy said, hopefully.
The boy overexageratingly shoook his head.
"But we can find it together! I'm Dale,by the way."
"Troy."
Dale tilted his head slightly to the side with a confused look.
"But it says Taylor on your timetable."
"That's my middle name, the school got it wrong."
"Oh. Okay."
Dale seemed convinced by Troy's answer and started skipping down the hall with Troy casually walking behind him.
After wandering for a while, they found a student help office. Dale rushed inside and before the door fell shut, he came out again with a look of determination. Troy followed his 'fearless leader' back through most of the halls they had walked through earlier. They finally found the art room. Dale stood squarely in front of the door, he took a deep breath and burst through into the classroom.
"We are very late!" Dale shouted at the startled class. He seemed proud of his tardiness, as the teacher and students abandoned their concentration to stare at this strange boy. Troy meekly poked his head around the corner as the teacher walked over to them.
"Why are you both so late?"
Dale opened his mouth as if to speak, but was interrupted by Troy.
"We got lost, sir."
"Well, it is the first day, so I'll let you off lightly. You can do the theory work that the rest of the class completed in your absence."
Troy was silently relieved by this, now he didn't have to show his complete lack of artistic skill.
They both sat down at a desk and got handed a large booklet. Troy noticed some girls in the corner quietly laughing and whispering while looking in his general direction. He crossed his arms on the desk and burried his face. Dale flipped the booklet over, pulled out a pencil from his pocket and started to sketch.
YOU ARE READING
