DOZENS OF EYES WERE STARING at him. There was a room full of people, and all of them were turned towards him, who was standing at the front of it. Most of them had a bored look, some of them had their eyes half-closed, but there were a few who actually listened intently to the words Ms. Wilson said. He looked around to see if Dakota or any other familiar face was in this class, but she wasn't, and he knew that Liam wasn't either.

"This is Darren," she said to the group of students. "He's an exchange student and will be in your class this year." She turned to Darren. "Darren, do you want to say anything?"

That was the worst of all. His throat locked up because he was facing a group, and so many people didn't even want to hear what he had to say didn't make that feeling of nervousness any better.

Still, he opened his mouth to speak. He was very much aware this was his first impression, and he wanted to make a good one on this group that he would spend the rest of his year with. "I'm Darren," he said. It was not loud enough though, so he repeated himself again. "I'm Darren and I'm from Scotland. I'm excited to meet all of you."

The last bit might have been a lie.

"Thank you, Darren," said Ms. Wilson, who put a hand on his back. "Let's start class now. Darren, you can sit next to Nova."

The teacher's other hand pointed in a general direction, and when a student saw his confusion about who Nova was supposed to be, she raised her hand. "I'm Nova," she said. It was a friendly-looking girl with brown hair that she had tied in a ponytail. She had laid her books already open in front of her, ready to start class, contrary to the rest of the class, and she smiled at him. Darren returned the smile and took the empty seat next to her.

"We're starting the senior year off with logarithms," Ms. Wilson began.

The class groaned collectively.

The teacher frowned. "You don't even know what these are." Without awaiting another reaction, she continued, "It won't be as bad as you think it is. Actually, there are some very simple rules when it comes to logarithms, so this will be a breeze for each one of you if you know how to apply those rules."

Darren whispered to his neighbor, "I don't have my books yet."

He didn't have to say any more: she slid the book so it sat in the middle of their two tables.

"Thanks," he whispered.

"You're welcome," Nova said. "By the way, it's really cool that you decided to come here as an exchange student. Very brave."

There was that word again: brave. Dakota had used it too.

"Thanks," he said again.

She turned to him. "And you have a nice accent. Do all Scots talk like that?"

He blushed. "I guess." Back in Scotland, it was very normal to talk that way, but here, he was the odd one out.

"Nova?" Ms. Wilson asked. "I thought you knew better than to distract Darren."

Now it was Nova who blushed. "Sorry, Ms. Wilson."

Ms. Wilson moved on, but Nova glanced at Darren and chuckled. Darren laughed too while shaking his head, and he thought to himself that he'd never been corrected by a teacher before. What a way to start off the new year abroad.

✩

The rest of the morning had been quite uneventful. Darren wasn't called out by a teacher again, not in maths or one of the other classes he'd had before lunch, and instead, he'd gotten slightly used to the rhythm of the American high school. Before he knew it, the bell had rung to announce lunch.

Nova led him to the lunchroom. He'd shared many classes with her that morning, and they had spent the time together. In silent agreement, they also sat down at the same table during lunch.

"I like your drawings," she said to Darren.

Darren looked up from his plate. "Which drawings?" He wasn't drawing at the moment; the only thing on the table were their two plates of food.

"The one you made during maths," she said. "I saw you sketching in your notebook."

He didn't know she'd seen that. "It were just some doodles..." he said. Usually, he didn't draw in class because he wanted to focus, but during maths, Ms. Wilson was discussing the topic of logarithms which he'd already learned about in Scotland, and it had been hard to pay attention. He didn't want to seem uninterested, but needed something to entertain himself.

"Doodles, sketches, drawings... They were good."

He blushed. "Thanks."

She looked straight into his eyes with her brown ones. "Seriously, I wish I could draw like that."

Three girls suddenly sat down at their table. "Hello," echoed each one of them.

"Are we at your table?" Nova asked. She was already getting up to leave, picking up her plate.

"No, please, stay," one of the girls said. "We just wanted to get to know the exchange student. Darren was it, right?"

His eyes widened when he realized they had come for him, and he nodded.

"I'm Allison," the first girl said, throwing her hair over her shoulder and turning to her companions. "This is Amelia, and that's Anna."

Darren quickly glanced at Nova to see how she thought of these three girls whose names all started with A, and he saw that she rolled her eyes. That wasn't a good sign.

"Hi," was all Darren said.

"So, where are you from?" Allison asked in her sweet voice. If Darren hadn't just seen Nova's eye roll, he would think she was nice.

"Scotland," Darren replied.

"Scotland?" she echoed. "With the bagpipes, mountains, and bad weather?"

"That Scotland, yes." He didn't take the effort to say that he couldn't play the bagpipe – like many other Scottish people – and that the weather wasn't that bad – at least it wasn't as hot as it was in Florida. He would very much prefer to have the Scottish weather right now; he was sweating.

"I love Scotland," Allison said.

Amelia and Anna affirmed.

"I've always wanted to go there." Allison scooted over to get closer to Darren. "So, how did you end up here?"

"I want to study at Princeton next year," Darren said. "This experience will help me get used to the life here, and it will be good on my CV."

"He's smart!" Allison nudged her friend next to her, but Darren had already forgotten whether it was Amelia or Anna. Amelia-Anna started giggling.

"You're going to Princeton?" Nova asked Darren. The mention of the Ivy League school awakened her. "I'm applying too!"

"Really?"

"I'm aiming for Yale, though," she added. "Princeton is my backup."

"Is this your friend, Darren?" Allison asked. "Is she from Scotland too?"

"I'm Nova," Nova answered. "And I've been going to this school as long as you have."

Darren snickered. Nova didn't even look Scottish – she was way too tan to be Scottish, he assumed she had a Hispanic background – so that Allison even thought she could be was funny to him. He also understood now why Nova didn't like Allison; she was ignorant, and didn't even know the classmate she'd gone to school with for years.

"I'm sorry." Allison gave Darren a sweet smile, while he thought that Nova was the one she should be apologizing to. "Although, now that you say that... You do have a familiar face."

Nova got up from her seat. "I just realized I forgot to take something to drink. I'll be back."

And before Darren could beg her not to, she'd left him behind with the three girls.

"So, why did you choose to go to Jacksonville?" Allison asked. "It's not exactly close to Princeton."

He was about to answer when his phone, which had been laying next to him all this time, lighted up. "Sorry," he said, again using his phone as an excuse. "This can't wait."

Allison waved at the excuse. "No worries," she said.

Dakota: Hey D, I wanted to thank you for your help with Marley Saturday.

The warm-heartedness the message gave him caused him to smile. He quickly typed a response.

Darren: You're welcome. Is she okay?

Dakota: She will be. She's taking the day off to rest, but the doctor said she'd be fine.

He let out a relieved sigh.

Darren: Good.

He'd just sent the text when another one appeared.

Dakota: By the way, you look like you need help.

Darren looked up. Was she close to him again and had he just not seen her?

Darren: Are you spying on me again?

Dakota: I wouldn't call it spying... ;)

An emoji of two eyes followed and it caused him to laugh.

Allison was immediately on top of it. "What's going on?" she asked.

Darren's cheeks flushed. "Nothing," he said.

Dakota: On your right.

He turned his head, and indeed, two tables down was a girl with long, light hair and blue eyes that he'd come to know as Dakota looking back at him.

Dakota: Tell the A3 you have to go or something.

He would much rather spend his time with Dakota than Allison, Amelia, and Anna, but Nova came to mind too. Where had she gone?

Still, he wanted to get out of here. He put his phone down and turned to Allison. "I'm sorry, I have to leave..."

Allison looked back at him with narrowed eyes. "You just said there was nothing."

"I know, but –"

She laid her hand on his upper arm and tilted her head sideways. "Please, don't go yet," she said. "There's still so much more I want to know about you."

He bit his lip.

Darren: They won't let me go.

A reply soon came.

Dakota: Try harder.

"Another time?" he proposed. "Really, I can't stay –"

"But why?" Allison asked.

"It's urgent," Darren tried.

"It's not Nova, is it? I'm sure she can save herself."

"Hey girls," a silvery voice said from behind them.

Darren froze up at the suddenness, but he recognized her.

"Dakota," Amelia-Anna said. Her jaw dropped ever so slightly.

"Can I borrow Darren for a second?" she asked. "It's Marley," she said in a lower volume to Darren, but loud enough for the three girls to hear.

"I heard what happened," Allison exclaimed. "I felt so sorry for her. Go, Darren, don't wait another second."

He didn't need to hear that twice. He picked up his phone, put it in his pocket, and got up from his seat to follow Dakota.

"I thought you said she was fine," Darren said.

Dakota glanced over her shoulder. "She is," she said. "Didn't I tell you to get away from them?"

He shrugged. "I tried."

She scoffed. "You just saw how easy I got you out of there, right?"

He had. She had made it look easy, and he'd become jealous of the magic she seemed to possess.

He didn't protest, and she guided him as they walked through the lunchroom, past the table she had been sitting at, and through the doors to go outside.

"You know," she began once they breathed in fresh air, "I would say that we should stop meeting up like this, but both times it had been me who started texting you."

He chuckled. "What's wrong with texting?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Nothing, really. It's just boring." She sat down in the soft, green grass. "I want to talk face to face, do something. Real-life is much more exciting, you know?"

He nodded. He'd never thought of it that way. Now that he'd moved to the States, texting was one of the few ways to stay connected with his family in Scotland.

"And those emojis creep me out."

He laughed.

"I'm serious!" she said, but she was laughing too. "Like, where are their eyebrows? And why are their faces yellow?"

Before he had time to answer – not that he knew how to; these were the type of questions philosophers could ponder about for ages – the school bell rang. Dakota sighed.

"That's our cue to go," she said, and she got up again. "Do you want me to walk you to class?"

He nodded. "I have no clue where I have to be."

"That's what I'm here for." She hooked her arm on his, and together, they headed inside. "I was thinking though, do you want to meet up sometime again?"

The question surprised him. "Yes, sure," he stuttered.

She smiled. "Cool. What about tonight?"