Preface

School

"Excited for your first day of school, sweetie?" Mom asked with a wide smile on her face as she adjusted the straps on my backpack for me.

I glanced around the school parking lot, seeing other kids running around and playing with one another. I also saw Blurryface standing off in the corner of the parking lot, watching me. I averted my eyes quickly and focused on mom again. "Not even a little. Do I have to go?"

She laughed, gently rubbing my arms up and down. "Yes, unfortunately, you do."

"But I wanna stay home and play with Zack!"

"I know, honey, but he'll still be there when you get home, I promise!"

I glared at her. "He'd better be.." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Hey, watch the sass, young man." She scolded. "I'm sure you'll make some new friends here, and when you get home, you can tell me all about it." She smiled, standing up and grabbing a hold of my hand to lead me into the school. I tried to resist and pull away, but she wasn't having it. Soon enough, we were in a classroom with a few long tables, a large desk for the teacher, a few bookshelves, and a large carpeted area with a bunch of other kids sitting on it.

I clung onto mom's leg and hid my face. "I don't wanna be here!" I whined, but it was muffled as my face was pressed into her leg.

She laughed. "C'mon sweetie, you have to. Look! Here comes your teacher now. Do you wanna meet her?"

I shook my head.

"Yes you do. Here she is!"

I peeked out from my hiding place, seeing a young, redhead standing there with a large smile on her face.

"Hi! I'm Ms. Fein, your teacher. And who're you?" She asked in a friendly tone.

I immediately hid in mom's leg again.

Mom laughed. "This is Tyler. He's not usually this shy, I don't know what's gotten into him."

"It's fine, lots of the kids have this reaction on their first day. I'm sure he'll loosen up once he meets the other kids."

"I really hope so," Mom laughed.

"Tyler," Ms. Fein began. "Would you like to meet some of the other kids?"

I shook my head.

"Do you want to play with some cars? Or read a book?" She tried again.

I shook my head again. "I wanna go home and play with Zack!"

"Zack is his brother," Mom chuckled.

"Alright, well, do you want to know something interesting Tyler?"

I peeked out from mom's leg again. "What?"

"Time goes by a lot faster when you're having fun! The sooner you start playing or reading, or doing something you find fun, you'll get to go home and play with Zack a lot sooner!"

I looked up at mom and she nodded.

"It's true," Mom shrugged.

"Fine." I muttered, letting go of mom and walking towards the carpet after leaving my backpack in the cubby hole Ms. Fein said had my name on it.

I sat beside a kid with curly hair who was sitting alone, playing with a dinosaur toy.

"I'm Tyler," I say, picking up one of the other dinosaurs that were in front of him.

"I'm Josh," He replied, moving the toy across the floor. He didn't look up from the toy, which was weird. Mom always told me to look at people in the eye when I'm talking to them.

I turned the dinosaur over in my hand, trying to figure out which one it was. Josh seemed to notice this and mumbled something under his breath.

"What?" I asked, looking over to him.

"I said it's a stegosaurus," He said again, still quiet.

"You talk really quietly," I commented, putting the toy on the ground and moving it around a little.

Josh shrugged. "I don't like talking to new people,"

"I don't either," I replied.

"You seem to be pretty good at it,"

"Yeah, that's what mom says too. She says I'm outgoing or something,"

He nodded. "My mom says I'm just shy,"

I wasn't sure what to say to that. I couldn't just say he didn't come across as shy, because he really did. So, I just moved the dinosaur around the carpet until Ms. Fein called everyone to the carpet.

"Okay everyone, since this is the first day of school ever for a lot of you, why don't we go around the room and introduce ourselves!" Ms. Fein explained. She received a mix of groans and excited noises from the class. "I'll start; I'm Ms. Fein, I'm twenty three, and this is my second year teaching. I'm very excited to spend the year with all of you!"

She then made us sit in a circle so it would be easier to go around and introduce ourselves. I sat beside Josh cause he was the only one I kinda knew.

Once it finally got to me, I just stared at Ms. Fein. I didn't know what to say. She only gave me an encouraging smile and waited for me to talk. I glanced around the room, my eyes landing on Rick and Aidan in the corner of the room. They spoke over each other, so I couldn't understand them. They were really loud though, so I couldn't really focus on anything else. I tried to look around the room again, but my attention was caught by Blurryface who was just watching from the doorway.

"Tyler?" I heard Ms. Fein call out, and I could tell it wasn't the first time she'd said it.

I looked to her with wide eyes. "Hmm?"

Her eyebrows furrowed and she looked concerned. "Are you alright?"

I nodded.

She didn't look convinced, but got the rest of the kids to continue around the circle. I was still having a hard time focusing, but I could tell when Josh was supposed to introduce himself, he was super nervous. He spoke quietly and quickly and fidgeted with his fingers the whole time, never looking up from them. Ms. Fein still told him he did a good job though, which is weird, cause it didn't seem like he did to me.