In Another Universe

Wednesday 9:02 First Day of My Life

Charlie sat down in the English classroom, put his backpack on the table and rested his face on it. He didn't go to bed particularly late or anything, but the 8 am biology class killed him. Let's just say that he isn't exactly a morning person.
He looked over at the board where the teacher was writing about the lesson they were about to have. Charlie vaguely considered getting his notebook out early to note this down, he even straightened up a little. But he dropped the idea quite quickly. Instead, he started to look around at his classmates. None of them seemed to be awake enough to listen to talks about Hamlet or On the Road. To be fair, even though he kept his grades up, English wasn't really the place where he listened the most to what was happening. He read the books, or at least he read them as much as he could, but he would rather be studying science-fiction and not classics. To be or not to be? Don't be and let people go on, Shakespeare.
He sighed. Everyone was talking about their homework, and other school things and he had no interest in participating in those conversations. William finally arrived and sat down next to him.

"Earth to Charlie. Do you copy?"

Charlie jerked up his head as if he was pulled out of a dreamlike state.

"I don't know where you were, man, but that was bloody far," Will laughed.
"Probably. My brain is so fogged up. It's way too early."
"Understatement."

After yet another sigh, he put his head back on his backpack.

"Can you move? I need to talk to him."

William stood up reluctantly and left. Feeling someone next to him, Charlie looked up. A girl was sitting next to him, an annoyed look on her face. Immediately, he felt slightly worried. What did she want? He frowned.

"Don't give me this look," she said, but it just made Charlie look more confused. "Charlotte told me neither you or your friends signed up for the play."
"Yeah... We're b-"
"Busy? Really? I know you just don't want to go."
"So? It's not mandatory."

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. Charlie could've thought he was done with that. Hopefully? It's not that the idea of being in the school play was so bad, like his friends seemed to think. It's just that he had no interest in drama.

"True. But we need more guys. And a guitar player. You owe me for the last homework."
"What? This was just a small exercice!"
"And yet you know you're going to need my help later on. You suck in literature, man."
"Sophia..." he sighed.
"Look, I'm not super pumped about this either. But you know Charlotte., she's really into that."
"Okay, I will come to the first reunion. But I can't promise anything."
"Your friends too."

Charlie looked away at William, sitting further away in the class, next to another student. There was almost no way he could convince him, or the others to do the play, or even to just go to the first reunion. He was about to tell Sophia that he wasn't a magicien and couldn't just decide to bring his friends somewhere when his attention was caught elsewhere.
A guy just entered the room and went straight to the teacher's desk. His hand went through his brown curls while he talked to Ms. Clavier and Charlie couldn't seem to take his eyes off him. He had never seen him before today. To be honest, he hadn't really paid that much attention to people in other classes, and especially not in the other years, but he felt that if he had encountered him, he would have remembered. Maybe his falsely nonchalant attitude clearly hiding shyness, or his fine features. Something. But it was all new.
The boy gave the teacher a book before quickly leaving the classroom, still under Charlie's scrutiny. And, of course, he heard the "okay, see you Friday."

"Okay, I'll try", Charlie said.