Rebound

1 - Meeting Him

Axel sat on the bus with his hand propped against his head, blasting My Chemical Romance into his earbuds. It was just as normal as any other day. The sky grey and cloudy. He sighed as the bus came to a stop. He wasn't looking forward to today at all. Not that he was any other day.

He stood up and waited for the hoard of people pushing past each other as if it was nothing to leave. He thought to himself,

they're all the same.

He stepped down off the short stairs of the bus into a puddle of mud. He frowned as he looked down at his shoes. Oh well, not like they weren't already dirty.

He made his way to his homeroom class with his head down, trying to avoid people. However, someone got in his way.

"Mind signing a petition to legalize abortions in Texas?"

Brant. The school Liberal. He was always doing stuff like this. He was persistent, too. Axel sighed and took the pen from him before signing his name on the paper.

"Thanks!" said Brant, before he made his way to find other petitioners.

Axel arrived at his classroom just as the bell rang. He pulled out his earbuds and shoved them in his pocket.

The teacher, Ms. Gravs, cleared her throat before speaking. "123, eyes on me!" That didnt work very well, so she resorted to loudly shushing the class. "So everybody, we have a new student. Everyone please welcome Andrew." It was then that she pointed to the very back of the class at the boy with his head down, wishing he could be invisible as everyone in the room looked at him

The students didn't pay much attention to him and started talking to each other about their own things. But Axel couldn't stop looking at him. He didn't look like all the NPCs he's used to. He looked at his hair which was styled in a mohawk and dyed red, Then at his pants with multiple patches on it. And vomit..?

He was enamored. He knew that was someone he'd want to be friends with. He sat through the rest of the boring class not really paying attention. Mostly sneaking glances at Andrew.

As the bell rang announcing the end of homeroom students poured in and out. He noticed Andrew stayed though. So they had the same first period. Cool. Axel grabbed his bag and went to sit next to Andrew. "Hi"

Andrew looked up, a bit surprised that someone was actually speaking to him. "Oh. Uh, hey."
Axel smiled at him. "So.. might be kinda forward.. but wanna be friends?"

Andrew smiled back at him
"Sure."