Reputations

Chapter 1

Sam

This year had to be different. Things had to change. I was determined to make it the best year of high school. The previous years had not been the greatest to me and this was my last chance to change that for myself. It was my senior year and that meant I was supposed to be on top of the high school world. The top tier of the hierarchy. According to everything I have seen and heard from movies and teachers at least. These were supposed to be the best years of my life that I'll never get back. I wanted all of that to be true. So far, that was turning out to be a lie. Senior year had been no different. I was still sitting in study hall trying to focus on my work, but all I could think of was how miserable school already was for me. I had already fallen into the same old routines, and we were hardly into the school year. I found myself dragging through classes and doing homework on repeat. I felt like I had been doing the same things every day for the last three years of my life. I was already over the year that had barely begun. It felt like just another year to me. I was unsure of what I needed to do to change that, but I knew it needed to be soon if I was going to make it through this year.

I was struggling to make it through this class without losing my mind. I was trying to focus on my math homework, but I was lost trying to get it right. I put my pencil down and let out a deep breath getting frustrated with work that I could not fully understand. I looked up from my work to the first desk in my line of vision. The desk right beside my own. I looked up from the paper on the other desk and my eyes landed on the newest kid in this town. Niall. I was not surprised to see him diligently working on the same math work with which I was struggling. This was not the first time I had considered asking him for help. Over time I had noticed all the perfect grades he received as I sat next to him struggling to pass. I never asked because I had never heard him speak at all. I was intimidated by his quiet stoic demeaner. I did not know if he didn't want to speak or if people just ignored him. He gave off a cold and distant energy, so I kept to myself as well. I assumed he wanted to be left unbothered by me.

However, today I almost had the courage to talk to him. I had noticed that he had very quickly and easily finished our assignment and moved onto the next one. I was still stuck on the first question. The longer I thought about it the more I talked myself out of asking him for help. I would feel bad as if I were just using him. I wanted to get to know him and not just because off the math issues. He intrigued me. He always had. It was rare that we got transfer students in this school let alone one from a different country. It was even more odd that no one seemed to know much about him. I could think of a million things I wanted to ask him about moving here from Ireland. I never saw him last year and at this point it was too late to ask him questions. He was not exactly the shiny new kid anymore.

He had moved here towards the end of last year. We didn't have any classes together last year, but I saw him occasionally in the halls. I never had the chance to get to know him. I had overheard enough about him to know he was smart and from Ireland and kept to himself. That is all I ever knew of him. This year we had all but one class together and I wanted to finally speak to him. I didn't realize until now he had never been welcomed by anyone and didn't seem to have a lot of friends. He was just seen as the smart foreign kid that focused on his schoolwork. I had never really gone out of my way to try and get to know him. I never thought much about it until now when I was envious of him. That felt selfish of me, but I think he preferred his own company anyway. He took his eyes off his work and glanced up at me. The brief glance quickly derailed my train of thought, and I froze. He looked away without saying anything. He had more than likely felt my gaze on him while I was caught up in my own distractions. I couldn't even form a friendly smile to soften the awkwardness of being caught staring at him. My cheeks were bound to have a rosy tone to them after that. Playing it cool afterwards didn't seem to be an option for me either because I continued to look at him. He looked back at me a little longer this time.