*insert title here*

Chapter 2

The thought of Kelsie's confidence brought a smile to my face, I already looked up to her. It feels like I've known her forever, I thought to myself. I swear she's too good to be true, I left my thought at that as the bus stopped at the school. Kelsie and I got off the bus next to last, nobody wants to get trampled by inconsiderate people, and made our way to the lobby to compare schedules.

Turns out, just my luck, she had almost no classes with me, except English and Environmental, which were later on in the day. We walked together to our lockers, which ironically were on the same side of the hall, out of god knows how many lockers, I did hit a string of luck getting one close to her. I opened my locker almost instantly, I was so used to locker combinations at this point, I could probably do them with my eyes closed. She, however, took a few tries, pounding at the door in frustration when the code didn't work the first few tries. I chuckled a bit at her struggle and she glared at me, hopefully playfully, I couldn't tell. I shoved the books I didn't need in my locker and turned on my heel, muttering a goodbye to Kelsie and attempting to find my first class. This school is such a mess, the same subject classrooms aren't even together.

As a result of being anti-social and stubborn, when I finally found my 1st class I was almost six minutes late. I hurried to the first open desk, with my head down, and muttered an apology to the teacher as I sat down. Almost instantly I could feel everyone's stares, I straightened up attempting a confident look . After what seemed like hours, the students turned back around and continued to introduce themselves. I heard every generic name on the planet. Kyle, Mikayla, Benjamin, Kasey, Brittany, Cole.. I was dreading my turn, I hate talking in front of people.

The boy in front of me introduced himself as Gear. The one non-generic name I heard. I then realized it was my turn to introduce myself, I managed a deep breath and rambled off that my name was Dakota, I move around a lot, and this is my first day here. For the rest of class I sat with my head propped in my hands on my desk, and by the end of class I was the last one out of the room, save for Gear, who stopped me. "Hey, Dakota right?" He offered me a hand, I faintly shook it. He seemed to be evaluating me. Eventually he continued, "I'm Gear. I'd love to help if I can. Do you know where your going next?"

I shook my head. He extended a hand, prompting for the pink paper I had in mine. I handed it over, shaking slightly, but managed to get a grip before he noticed, I hope. I sighed a breath of relief as he handed me back my schedule. "Here. I'll take you to your next class, give a second to get my things." As he was getting his books I finally brought up enough courage to look at him, as he turned his back to open his locker. He was broad, built, and had fierce blue eyes with short, messy brown hair, well, actually his roots were brown but the tips were blonde with hints of blue. 'Well he looks kind enough' I thought to myself.

About the time I started internally questioning his motives for being nice to me he turned and made eye contact with me and I quickly looked down, feeling my face turn red 'Good going Dakota' I thought to myself as I followed him into an extremely crowded hallway. He seemed to notice my immediate anxious state and ushered me in front of him so that he could guide me through. People seemed to just move out of his way, I'm not sure if they're scared of him, or he's just that respected, but I appreciated the extra personal space I earned from being so close to him.  

Finally after what seemed like a labyrinth of a hallway, we arrived at a cluster of classrooms, Gear pointed at the door on the left and said "Here you are." I couldn't manage to look up at him so I thanked him quickly and turned to walk in to the class. "Hey Dakota," Turning,  I finally brought my eyes to his, his gaze was warm and welcoming, yet also cold and mysterious. "If you need anything else..." there's something incredibly off about him, not in a bad way, just.. I don't know. I got lost in thought and only heard half of his sentence, so I just nodded and thanked him again for bringing me to this class, before he turned away and hurried down the hall, presumably to his. I heard the bell ring that meant you were tardy and silently hoped he'd had a close class and wasn't late because of me. I felt really bad for losing focus while he was talking, but there was just something about him that I couldn't pinpoint.