RED MASK | raphael hamato

TWO.

Summer ends quietly, slipping away from your fingertips like sand. School slides in to take its place. Despite this major change in your routine, much of your life remains the same.

Your uncle is still gone all the time. You still haven't seen Red Mask since that night.

The first day of school is bland. A little nerve-wracking. Not many kids start their senior year at a new school. Everyone knows each other already, greeting each other in the hallway, and amidst a sea of high-fives and Good to see you! How was your break? you're alone.

Oh well. At least you're used to it.

The first few periods pass by without anything noteworthy happening. The teachers introduce their syllabi, while students try not to fall asleep. It isn't until the period just before lunch where you end up having an even remotely interesting class.

You'd signed up for Journalism as one of your English electives on a whim. The teacher seems nice, just a little more intense than you'd expected for an elective. Still, it's nice when a teacher is passionate about their subject. 

"Journalism is the act of bringing news to the world," she begins, pacing around the room. "As a journalist, you have a duty to share the truth with people."

Already you can see some kids rolling their eyes. And you get it, but also—it's kind of cool. 

She passes out her syllabus, goes through it briefly, and then jumps right into it. 

"Everyone look to the person sitting next to you," the teacher calls out. "If you don't already know each other, introduce yourselves. For your first assignment, you'll write a feature on them."

For a moment, you wonder if that thing is going to happen where everyone else in the class turns to partner up with each other and you're left alone, but luckily, the redheaded girl on your right turns toward you and smiles. 

"Hey, you're new here, right?" she asks. When you say yes, she sticks out her hand and says, "I'm April."

* * *

April invites you to sit with her and her friend Casey at lunch. While in the lunch line, Casey warns you about the school fish ("Do not trust it, under any circumstances"), so despite his dumb-jock appearance, he seems okay enough, you guess. 

Anyways, it's your first day and they're the only ones who have made any effort to be your friends. So they can't be all that bad. 

"Why did you transfer here?" April asks. 

"I moved in with my uncle after some...family incidents," you say. Probably not a good idea to start trauma-dumping to strangers on your first day. You force a smile. "Maybe save some of the questions for our assignment though, huh?" 

April laughs. Casey asks, "What assignment?"

"[Y/n] and I are going to write an article about each other for our journalism class," April explains. "So the first part of the assignment will be us interviewing each other." 

"Sounds lame," Casey snorts.

"What'd you pick for your English elective, Casey?"

He grins. "True Crime Narratives."

"No way, I've got that for next semester!"

"Oh, me too," you add hastily. 

For the rest of lunch, the three of you continue chatting. As April and Casey laugh with you and nudge you, you feel a cautious bud of hope sprouting that maybe this year isn't going to be so bad after all.