~ Lance ~

"Lance! Lance, for the last time, get up!"

My eyelids twitched but I ignored my mom's wake up calls. I felt so tired and my body felt so heavy. I didn't want to drag myself out of bed and go to school. I was too sleepy.

At least I was until I saw what the time was.

I shrieked as I flung myself out of bed and dashed into the bathroom. "Mom, why didn't you wake me?!"

She didn't reply. I don't know if she didn't hear me or if she was ignoring me.

I hastily scrubbed my face mask off and threw on my blue and white t-shirt and jeans. I fumbled to pull my phone out of it's charger, trying to remember where I'd left my backpack lying around. "Come on, come on, gotta hurry, gotta hurry..." I muttered to myself as I kicked on my clunky grey high tops and hurtled myself down the stairs.

I kicked the kitchen door open and Mom looked up to smile at me. "Well, look who's finally up. Good morning."

"Why didn't you wake me?!"

"I tried five times and you said you'd get up after a minute."

"Why did you believe me?!"

"It's fine, don't worry, you'll still make it to school on time if you hurry. Also, Luis was wondering if you're free to take care of the kids for a bit after school? Is that alright?"

"Yeah, I'm free," I said, taking a bite of some toast and grabbing my gym bag. I swallowed and threw on my olive jacket before slinging my backpack onto my shoulders and running for the door. "Bye, everyone!"

"Wait, you didn't brush your teeth!"

"I've got a pack of mints!"

"They don't work!"

I shut the door behind me, pretending not to hear, and ran off. It was the first day back after the Christmas holidays and I was going to be late if I didn't hurry. And if I was late, I'd have to sit through a long, long lecture about how I was starting off the new year and about how "a good start is half the battle" and yada yada yada.

First days back are always so bleh. There are some nice teachers who relax and take it slow and I like those ones. But there are some teachers who pounce on you the second you walk into their classroom, screaming and ranting about how we clearly didn't study enough even though we'd been on holidays. Which are supposed to be a break. Do you really expect me to spend all my time studying? No thank you.

When I was almost at the school, I saw my tiny little friend Pidge heading towards the gates. She was completely engrossed with something on her phone, not even watching where she was going. I grinned and ran over to her, giving her a friendly thump on the back. "Good morning!"

"Gah!" Her phone slipped out of her hand and she frantically caught it. "Don't do that!"

"How was your Christmas?"

"It was fine." She still sounded kinda irritated.

"What're you working on?"

She began rambling on about a bunch of tech stuff and I pretended to know what she was saying. I had absolutely no idea but I felt a little bad for almost breaking her phone so I didn't say that. She only finished up when we were taking our books out of our lockers.

"So what do you think?"

"Huh?" I blinked. "O-Oh, y-yeah, that sounds really cool."

She gave me a look. "You weren't listening, were you?"

"No, not really."

She sighed and closed her locker. "Come on, class is about to start." Her face suddenly lit up. "Hey, you hear about the new student?"

"A new student?"

She nodded and adjusted her glasses as we walked. "Yeah. Apparently he got expelled from his last school because of behaviour issues or something."

My eyes widened. "Woah. He got expelled?"

"That's what I heard at least."

"Do you know what his name is?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't. But he's supposed to be coming today so I guess we'll find out."

A new student, huh? And one who'd gotten expelled. Hmm. This could be interesting. Hopefully that'd spice things up a bit and make this first day back a bit more bearable.

"Anyway, did you do the homework?"

"Pfft, no."

"Honestly..." she grumbled. "When do you plan on getting your act together?"

I grinned as we stepped inside the classroom. "Whenever I..." my voice trailed off.

This was the first time I ever saw him.

The new boy was sitting at the back seat by the window, leaning on his hand and staring out the window.

His dark and soft looking hair was styled into a mullet with unevenly cut bangs. His eyes were a dark blue-grey, hovering near violet. He was wearing a red jacket cropped to his rib cage over a dark blue grey shirt and black pants. He had these weird white boots with bits of black and red and was also wearing black fingerless gloves on his hands.

Okay, edgy much? You got some dark issues, we get it, no need to be so extra. I mean, fingerless gloves is pushing it but them and a mullet? Like, a mullet? Seriously? Of all things?

"Hey? Earth to Lance?"

I snapped back to reality and saw Pidge waving her hand in front of my face. "O-Oh, yeah!"

"Whatcha staring at?"

"Oh, nothing, just..."

She turned her head and saw him too. "Hey, is that him? The new student?"

"Well, who else would it be?"

She simply rolled her eyes at me.

We sat down in our seats and I could hear all the girls already gossiping and giggling.

"Did you see the new boy?"

"Oh, he's so cute!"

"Should we ask to show him around?"

"So mysterious!"

"Do you know why he transferred here?"

"Maybe he's like super rich or something and his family got some kinda business deal."

"Oh, that'd be so amazing! Rich and good looking!"

"I'd so love that!"

I let out a huff and kicked Pidge's leg. "How come Sir Edgelord is stealing all the attention?"

"Alright, everybody, settle down," Miss Allura said walking in. "It's time for class."

Everyone sat down at their desks, saying goodbyes to their friends and getting their stuff for the lesson out. I tried to do that thing where you balance your pencil on your thumb and spin it. I'd never once gotten it and I'd always wanted to.

"So, we have a new student." Our teacher smiled to the boy at the back of the class. "Do you want to introduce yourself?"

He gave the teacher a deadpan look and sighed. "I'm Keith Kogane. I just moved here because of family stuff. My place is only temporary."

And with that, he went back to staring out the window and looking bored. Miss Allura seemed a bit surprised by the briefness but she then smiled again. "Thank you, Keith. Now, we'll need someone to help you find your feet around the school...let's see...Lance."

I jumped and my pencil fell off my thumb. Darn it. I'd almost gotten it.

Miss Allura smiled grimly at me. "You're definitely one for talking. How about you show Keith around and tell him everything he needs to know?"

I blinked at her. "Oh, um, sure."

"No, I don't-"

"Excellent! Now, how did everyone find the homework?"

She began to drone on about homework and tests and stuff but my mind wasn't really in it.

Keith, huh?

Keith Kogane...

***

"All the classes on the bottom floor are the A classrooms," I explained as we walked down the corridor. "All the ones on the second floor are the B classrooms. So, if your timetable says room B3 for example, you go to the second floor and look for the room with the number 3 on it. I know that's kinda a weird way to work things but you'll get it."

"Great," Keith said flatly.

"You sure you understand what I'm talking about?"

"Yeah."

"Any questions?"

"No."

It was lunch then and I was showing him around and my god, was he uncooperative. Every time I tried to ease away the silence with a little conversation, he'd either ignore me or keep his answers short.

"So...what was the name of your last school?"

He shrugged.

"Did you move house or move schools or both?"

"Both."

"Do you like it here?"

He shrugged.

I smiled awkwardly and struggled to think of a new topic. "As for teachers, even though Miss Allura is pretty, she's also pretty strict. Our maths teacher, Mr. Coran is easily the weirdest teacher but he's chill. The teacher you need to worry about the most would be Coach Kelly. He's obsessed with this whistle he's got and he'll be screaming your name until you graduate. You get what I'm saying?"

He shrugged.

"Okay...maths or English?"

Shrug.

"Are you creative or better with numbers?"

Another shrug. He sure liked to lift those shoulders of his.

I opened the door of the next classroom and we stepped inside. "So, this is the science lab. We...we do science here."

"Oh, yes, I didn't know that," he muttered under his breath.

I narrowed my eyes. "What was that?"

He shrugged and he then turned around and started walking off. "It's fine. I don't need to know any of this anyway. I'll be gone in a few weeks." He glanced back at me before he opened the door to leave. "I think we're done here."

I stood there, my mouth hanging open.

What the...

What the heck?! What was his problem? Didn't he know there's a thing called conversation I'd be attempting?!

Man, so silent and judgey.

And that's about when I started to bear a grudge to Keith Kogane.

(A/N)

I'm going to be honest, this only really gets interesting around chapter four or five but please stay with until then I love youuuuuuu

HAPPY BIRTHDAY An1m3Fr3ak25 HAHAHA LOVE YAAAAAA

Hope y'all enjoyyyyyyyed 💖💖💖😂