Short Stories [English]

Changes

With a rumble the bus drove through one of the many potholes in the road. Rayan didn't mind. He was more worried because today was his first day at the new school. After his parents separated, he moved with his mother back to her home country of Germany. His father remained in California. And now he had to find his way in another country. Of course he had been to Germany before, but only on vacation and he always spent time with his family and did typical tourism stuff. That was different than suddenly living here.

With a sigh, Rayan leaned further back in his seat, trying to forget all his worries and concentrate on the song his headphones were playing. Since the song came out three months ago, he'd heard it pretty much every day. He knew it inside out and always lost himself in the brilliant guitar riff.

He almost missed the stop. He only noticed it because everyone suddenly stood up.

As he got off the bus he turned to the building on the right. It had five floors, all decorated in gray tones and looking like boxes stacked on top of each other.

Rayan followed the other students inside.

In the foyer two stairs led to the next floor. Rayan orientated himself on the signs that showed him the way to the secretariat.

When he got there he knocked on the door. A friendly voice rang out: "Come in!"

Rayan opened the door and walked in: "Hello, I should report to the secretariat. I am the new student Rayan Wilford."

"Oh, nice to meet you Rayan. Wait a minute, I'm just looking for your timetable."

The secretary opened a folder and reached into a transparent cover. She pulled out a printed piece of paper and handed it to him.

"You are in class 9d. First you are in room 307 today. Your class teacher is Mr. Schal. You'll get to know him today."

Rayan nodded and thanked her. He went to room 307, but wasn't sure if he should enter it. He nervously pushed his brown hair out of his face and took a deep breath.
Then someone tapped him on the shoulder. Startled, he turned around. A boy stood in front of him. He was about a head shorter than Rayan and wore large horn-rimmed glasses.

"Are you new here?" the boy asked him curiously.

Rayan cleared his throat, "Uh, yeah. I've been here since today."

The boy grinned, "And you're going to class 9d?"
Rayan nodded.

"Cool me too. By the way, I'm Darian. You can sit next to me."

A little surprised by Darian's openness, he nodded: "Okay, I'm Rayan."

He followed Darian into the classroom. The conversations immediately stopped and everyone stared at him.

"Hi, I'm Rayan." There was silence. Oh god, how embarrassing. He felt himself blush. There was a loud "Hi!" and everyone went back to their conversations.

Darian grabbed his arm and pulled him to a row of four at the back. Two girls were already sitting there. One was wearing a bright blue wool sweater with the turtleneck pulled halfway over her face. The other was leafing through a book somewhat listlessly.

As Darian and Rayan sat down she looked up.

"So you're the new one.", it wasn't a question, but Rayan nodded anyway.
"I'm Chiara and Chilblain there," she pointed to the girl in the blue sweater: "is Yumi."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Rayan!"

Chiara turned to him: "You can ask me anything about anyone here. I know everything." She winked at him conspiratorially.

The first two hours flew by and when the bell rang, Rayan went to the schoolyard with Darian, Yumi and Chiara.

Outside, the air was filled with conversation and a group of fifth graders were loudly playing tag.

Then Rayan noticed a boy. He stood a little apart from the others and stared into the distance, lost in thought.

Rayan nudged Chiara with his elbow and when she turned around he subtly pointed at the boy: "Who is that?"

"Oh, that one..." Chiara was silent for a moment and seemed to sort through all the information in her brain. Then she spoke again: "That's Kian. He's in eleventh grade. He skipped the seventh. He's very smart but also kind of weird."

"Okay..."

Rayan looked at the boy - Kian -  again. He had shoulder-length dark brown hair and the top of it was tied in a small braid. Suddenly he looked at Rayan. Rayan quickly looked away. Something about this guy unsettled him, it was a very strange feeling.

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Hi again! I kinda wasn't sure about this story, since I was originally planning on making it much longer but I ran out of ideas... Anyways...I hope you enjoyed this story:)
~Loo