Boy in Pink

Chapter 1

As soon as I walked into my new school, I felt all eyes on me. It was uncomfortable, really. Being the new kid sucks, but being the new kid who’s gay, supports LGBTQ+, wears pink and got expelled from his last school is worse.

I walked to my locker, seeing my name on a piece of paper taped to the locker door. ‘Rory Pines’, it read. I snatched it off and crumpled it. I didn't need a repeat of last year to happen this year, with the whole 'let's make stupid nicknames for the gay freak!’ thing.

“Some people...” I grumbled and opened my locker, sliding my backpack off my shoulder and into my locker. I opened my backpack and was about to take my books out, before I was shoved into my locker, my head hitting the back. 

“Freak,” someone spat, who I assumed was the same person who shoved me into my locker. I then felt a kick in the back of my knee, making me fall to the bottom of the locker. The same person then slammed the locker door on me, and I winced. 

“Great...” I mumbled and opened the locker door again, getting up and dusting myself off. “A great way to start this school year...” I sighed and grabbed my ELA and Math books from my backpack, as well as my schedule, even though I had it memorized. I had Homeroom first, then ELA, Math, Art (my favorite of course), Study Hall, Lunch, Science, Social Studies and finally, Encore. I didn’t know what Encore was, but I would probably learn before I had it. I closed my locker and started walking to class. 
I heard whispers and felt stares, but I ignored them all.

New school, new me. I wasn’t about to let a bunch of bullies and mean kids bring me down. When I walked into my homeroom class, all eyes were on me. Again. This was kind of getting old.

I sighed and was about to walk to an empty seat in the back of the class, before my new teacher said, “Oh, look everyone! It's the new student! Care to introduce yourself, new student?” I heard a few snickers and some mean comments, some including homophobic slurs. They probably saw my shirt, which read ‘I support LGBTQ+ and I'm proud of it!’ But the teacher didn’t seem to notice as she smiled her wide, toothy smile. Or maybe she did notice but didn’t bother to care or do anything about it.
I then whispered, “Can I not introduce myself?” Her smile fell and more snickers were heard, though that was only supposed to be for the teacher to hear.

“Pathetic,” one kid snarked, and others laughed.

“Ryan!” The teacher said firmly, and the laughs quickly stopped.  Her smile came back as she said, “Class, be nice to the new student.” She then turned back to me. “Honey, you can take a seat by Aria in the back. Aria, please raise your hand.” I saw a hand raise behind the rude kid, Ryan, though I couldn't see who the hand belonged to, though I assumed it was Aria.

As I was walking to the back of the room (thankfully) to take my seat, someone stuck out their leg (I assume it was Ryan), and I tripped, my books and schedule falling out of my arms and scattering on the floor. I heard kids laughing, and I felt embarrassed. How could I let something like this happen? 

“Ryan!” A soft voice yelled, and a girl smacked Ryan in the back of the head. 

“Ow, Aria!” He yelped.
“Apologize to the newbie, now.” The girl demanded as I grabbed my books and schedule. 

“Sorry, newbie...” He mumbled as the girl helped me off the floor and into my seat.