Reading off of my schedule, I try to find my classroom. I can't ask for help, obviously, so it's kind of just me and my horrible sense of direction tackling this on our own.

I thought was doing pretty okay by myself, actually, until I found out I was looking around the eleventh grade hallways.

I was going to have to get help. Seriously, how the bright red fuck did I end up here?

It was time to man up. I took a deep breath, marched up to someone, tapped their shoulder...

And ran as soon as they looked at me. Like a freaking whimp. I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this. My brain was spinning with those words.

I was nervous as all heck when it came to social interaction, which sucks when I want to be social. Sure, most of the time I don't want to be nice or talk to people of fake smile for them, but I want to be able to have a proper conversation with my Mom and sister's friends without being awkward.

"Excuse me," somebody said as I walked into their chest. That's what I get for looking at schedule and not my path. I tried to give him an apologetic smile. I couldn't tell if he got the message.

"Uh, do you know where room one-oh-six is?" The boy asked. I shook my head 'no' and pointed to my schedule.

"Well, looks like we get to find out together!" The boy started to friend-shove me down the hall until I was able to match his pace.

"My name is Connor Stoll," the boy said, turning to me and holding out a hand. "I have a sibling that goes to this school and we're probably gonna be the cause of most fire alarm rings."

I smiled as I showed him my schedule and pointed to my name, di Angelo, Nico. No, I did not intentionally ignore his hand shake offer. Really, my brain panics and never registers handshakes a lot of times.

We walked around a bit more. We passed a library, three staircases, a billion classrooms, and a room that looked like an empty detention classroom. The bell had long past rang, but neither of us bothered to ask for directions. I guess Connor didn't like talking to teachers or random peers either. He probably only talked to me because I literally smashed my head into his chest.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Connor asked after a good twenty-five minutes of rambling, some silence was also thrown in from time to time.

Oh, great observation, Connor Stoll.

I shook my head 'no'.

"Well, lucky for you, I can do enough talking for both of us!" He said cheerfully. I let out a small, wheezy laugh. No sound except wind.

I hated my laugh.

It sounded like wind. Like dry, bland wind. Nobody likes the sound of wind.

Connor smiled at me. "Anyhow, there was this one day - Travis and I were too young to know much, remember that - and there was this huge house..."

The rambling continued.

The sad part was that we, ahem, 'never found any of our classes.' Of course, we were desperately trying like the perfect, angelic students we were...

Yeah, we found them eventually. But we decided to talk, meaning listening to Connor ramble about random stuff. He was pretty cool, he was good at a couple of sports, though he only played with his brother. He was currently being raised by his mom alone because his dad left her for a over seas job oppertunity. Since his dad left, his brother and him had formed a very strong bond. He's scared it's gonna break because Travis is going off and making new friends. I gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder from time to time.

It was just us for the whole day, except this blond dude who threw a glance at us from time to time. He probably skipped class too, which seemed weird. He looked like the nerdy type, round nose, freckles, messy blond hair and blue eyes. I didn't pay him much attention, though.

The funny thing is, Connor still doesn't know I'm mute. Maybe I'll tell him. It won't change his opinion on me much, right?

It's a risk to take. Connor's my first friend at this school, he deserves to know. Especially after telling me so much about himself,