When The Maple Leaves Freeze (Danmarch)

🍁🌸 Chapter Two🍁🌸

Dan Heng woke up Monday morning, a powerful feeling of dread sitting deep in his chest, as heavy as a rock.

He hadn't forgotten about his encounter at the OkayPath Friday night.

He really, really didn't want to go to school today.

He sighs and gets up, fully aware that he really can't just skip school.

Maybe he can just try his best to avoid the extroverted girl.

March?

That was her name, right?

He wasn't sure.

He never bothered to learn the names of any of his classmates.

There was no point anyways, as he had no reason to associate with any of them.

A knock sounds on his door just as he'd finished putting the shirt of his school uniform over his head.

"Dan Heng, if you're not up already then get up. You're going to be late if you stall any longer." The black haired woman says through his door.

"I am up. I'm getting ready. I'll be downstairs in a minute." He says, straightening the shirt correctly over his body.

Approximately a minute later, Dan Heng walks downstairs.

"Well I'll be, that was actually a minute. Still, you'd better get a move on." The black haired woman says.

Dan Heng nods and retrieves a frozen waffle from the freezer.

"It's a good thing I prepared myself last night." He says simply, sticking the frozen waffle in his mouth. "I'll buy myself lunch, so there's no need to pack one."

He walks over to the door and picks up his black backpack sitting, patiently waiting for him.

The black haired woman smiles and shakes her head at his lack of heating up the frozen waffle before eating it.

"Have a good day, Dan Heng. Be a blessing, not a curse." She says.

As he walks down the street, he rolls his eyes to himself.

Oh how he wished there was no law forcing him to go to school until he turned 18 or graduated.

Many people had suggested he take the G.E.D., a test you can take to get your high school diploma early, but he'd always turned it down.

After all, it wasn't the schoolwork that was the problem. That part was easy.

It was the socialization and other people that he hated.

He wanted to be alone, completely wrapped up in work to drown out the cries of the rest of his problems.

He wanted to be completely empty.

Finally, he reached the school.

Many kids were milling about outside, huddling in groups to catch up with their friends and gossip about anything under the sun, waiting for classes to start.

As always, he simply bent his head down, avoided eye contact, and entered the school building.

He walked up the stairs to his homeroom classroom and set his backpack down by his desk.

Usually he'd just sit at his desk and wait.

This time, however, he walked over to the bookshelf to see if he could find any books on dragons.

He scanned the rows of books, running his finger along the spines as he read the titles.

Finally, a book catches his eye.