"I am not looking to escape my darkness, I am looking to love myself there."

The school was much larger than he had expected it to be.

It was much more spacious and packed with many people who roamed about and minded their own business. Half of him was feeling beyond uncomfortable, while the other half was mildly curious. He followed after Emma and Norman almost like a cat, pursing his lips and wondering who exactly they were planning on introducing him to.

Norman kept taking small glances to make sure Ray was behind while Emma skipped forward, eager to have a new friend. Tch, how irritating. It was like they assumed he'd straight up leave them.

They came to a stop at the lunchroom soon enough, and Ray stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Why are we in the lunchroom?"

"This is where we normally hang out before class starts!" Emma answered him with the excitement of a puppy. "Look, Don, Anna, and Gilda are over there!"

"Oh," Ray grunted as he assumed that they were his friends as he saw Emma wave towards them and watched as they waved back

One of them had shorter hair along with a pair of glasses. Something about her just reminded him of an otter. She immediately stood up and skipped over to them, the other two following behind her.

"Gilda!" The carrot head chirped as she tackled the other girl into a hug. Ray watched the exchange with slight annoyance. Ew, affection.

"So who is he?" Asked the boy with darker skin and brown eyes. He was standing next to the girl with twin braids who almost seemed more sheepish than anything else. She didn't exactly say anything, but she still gave a nod of acknowledgement in his direction.

"Oh, he is new to the school! His name is Ray!" Emma explained. "Ray, these are our friends." She continued on, referring to her and Norman "Gilda, Anna, and Don." As she talked, she pointed to each of the three people as she said their names.

He already found Don the slightest bit annoying. He gave off too energetic vibes just like Emma did. The other girl, Gilda, seemed fine enough as long as she kept her distance. He didn't quite exactly know how to feel about Anna, however. She still hadn't said a word throughout the entire conversation.

"Tch, whatever. . ." Ray grunted after Emma stopped speaking, barely even listening to the others. Maybe he really should have taken mom's advice and brought airpods with him. That way he could blast music over other people's voices.

"Don't mind him. Apparently this is normal behavior from what I've observed," Norman commented from behind him and Ray shot him a slight glare.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The raven haired boy growled, taking it more as an insult.

The albino boy smiled in reply. "Just means you need coaxing out of your shell."

"Oh," Don murmured irrelevantly in a voice that was tightly leashed. Ray could tell he was trying not to get angry as his fists clenched and unclenched. Great. The hot-headed type.

Ray glanced away from them to instead look at the clock on the wall. "Whatever. Do you know where the principal office is? I would like to get my schedule and get on with the day."

"I can lead you there. I need to get my schedule anyway too." Norman volunteered before turning to the others."We'll catch you later then."

"Okay!" Emma chirped. "Wait, Ray, do you want to exchange numbers with us right now or just later?"

"Why do I need to do that?" Ray snapped impatiently in a tone that was obviously annoyed.

"To keep in contact of course." Gilda huffed with her hands on her hips. "You know, like how normal people get to know their friends?"

"I don't need to." Ray said stubbornly.

"So later it is." Norman concluded as he proceeded to drag Ray outside to the office. The latter grumbled something under his breath, low enough that the albino didn't hear as he stomped after him. He grabbed his schedule off the counter after asking for it and then turned to the door. If he made a run for it, maybe he could—

"Hey, wait—" Norman caught up with him with his own schedule in hand and Ray hissed at him. With a questionable stare and a raised eyebrow, Norman just waved it off and started talking again. "You want to head up to the library?"

That caught Ray's attention. "Why didn't you say so earlier?" He grumbled low under his breath, but Norman heard it anyway. "Whatever. Let's go."

Norman smiled discreetly as he followed the darker haired boy, his hands relaxed at his side. "So. Do you want to tell me more about yourself now that we have the time? Perhaps we can view each other's schedules."

Ray was getting annoyed even more now. Why do people in general talk this much? Ignoring him, he simply took out his phone, clicked a photo of his schedule, and then shoved the paper into the albino kid's face. "There."

Norman takes the paper away from where it was pressing against his face, tsking once as he reads over it. "Hmm I see. Well, look at that, our schedules are literally exactly the same."

"I—What? What do you mean our classes are exactly the same?" Ray demanded. What in the world—

"See for yourself," The Albino chuckled as he passed his own schedule over.

"No, why?" Ray groaned mentally in his head while taking the schedule from him. He was right. It did sort of creep him out in a way. Normally, schedules weren't always this similar. It was almost as if the boy requested all the same career classes he did.

"I swear to god. They literally just copied and pasted while rewriting the names." Ray insisted with irritation.

"So, we are going to be together. You're going to have to deal with me for the entire year," Norman joked before getting cut off by the other boy.

"Whatever. Let's just go to the library."

Norman visibly smirked as he followed the raven haired male up the stairs, not a hint of regret on his face as he gave a low single stretch of his limbs. At the moments of silence that passed between them, Ray elected to ignore him completely.

"You are going the wrong way," Norman called out from behind them. "Let me give you a tour first."

"Fine," Ray halted with narrowed eyes, allowing the white haired boy to lead him around.

After the tour was over, Ray was going to head to the library to browse around like he originally planned, but alas the bell rang and their classes were going to start soon. That only made his mood worse.

"We have English," Norman stated, dragging Ray to the opposite direction from the library.

"Gee, how fun," Ray deadpanned with little emotion as the other boy dragged him along. "Just love English, don't we?"

"It's actually my favorite subject," Norman commented.

"Whatever." Ray huffed. "Now let me go."

The other boy was keeping a hard grip on his hands, so he began to push against him with narrowed eyes. Unfortunately, his attempts didn't work as the latter continued to drag him along like a puppy on a leash.

"I am starting to think that whatever is your favorite word," Norman hummed.

"Whatever." Ray snapped before he hesitated and came to the realization he just proved the boy's point. "Tch, just let me go."

Norman grunted as he let go of the boy's hands after a long while of protests. Ray glared at him, hissing curses like a cat. The sight amused the albino. "You remind me of a cat you know. A really small, angry cat."

"Are you making fun of my height?"

"I didn't mean it that way, I meant by the hissing you were making, you sounded just like an angry cat." Norman explained.

"Well, you remind me of a scaredy-cat who is soon to be intimidated by me," Ray belated, walking away at a somewhat quicker pace that forced Norman to jog after him.

"Hey, look I meant it as a joke, I didn't mean to offend you," Norman apologized in which the boy sneered at him.

"You think that offended me?"

When the other boy didn't respond, Ray pinned him against the empty hall wall and said, "Try harder even then the result is that only you are offended. Pffft look at how weak and pathetic you look right now. Better be careful frosty, this angry small cat is dangerous."

And then, he walked away leaving him a blushing mess in the hallway as Norman mutters to himself ,"Look, he doesn't even take jokes, what a serious man with some issues."