[Age 9} Gideon: "Smile."

Harvey pissed me off.

I mean, he didn't do anything to me in particular, but all he had to do was just exist.

That was enough to make me start ranting.

Like now. I was rocking on the hind-legs of my chair when Harvey walked into our class earlier than usual.

All he had to do was just walk in and everyone started buzzing around him immediately. Well, today's buzzing might've had to do with the fact that he'd carefully removed a brand-new Transformers toy from his backpack moments after he'd reached his seat—which was adjacent from mine across the aisle—but usually, he just had to enter the room with that freaking smile of his.

I hadn't really understood the concept of popularity until I'd seen how everyone in our class just loved him.

Including Madeline Parker—but that was another story entirely.

I continued rocking back and forth as I took in the scene.

"Woah, that's so cool!" Axel exclaimed when Harvey showed him how to manually transform the robot into its car form, marveling over the car that now sat on top of his desk. A bunch of guys crowded around too, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the latest toy that not many people had bought yet.

In my opinion, it wasn't even that cool. The one I had could automatically transform itself and did these really cool sounds when you pushed the button under the car.

I rocked more, rolling my eyes silently.

Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

"Oh my God!" Madeline shrieked suddenly, and I looked up to see that the toy that'd been in the hands of Nathan Prescott a moment earlier was now on the floor, sans a tire.

Harvey looked utterly stunned, and the whole classroom fell into a hush as they waited for the fight to break out.

To my utter surprise, Harvey's face crumpled instead, and big, fat tears welled up and rolled down his pink cheeks. I was blown away completely because never once had I seen such a devastated expression in his face. He was just so freaking happy all the time, with a huge smile and shimmering eyes that resembled the clear blue sky.

Gasps rang out, and the kids around started pointing and looking at him in pity. Nathan looked like a deer caught in the headlights, while Axel looked like he had no idea what to do.

Me? I was so astounded that I actually lost my balance and toppled over.

Or I might've purposely let go when I swung back, and I might've done it so people would just freaking quit looking at Harvey like that already.

"Crap!" My chair hit the ground with a force I hadn't expected, and oh my god—the next time I have an idea like this, someone please hit me on the head with a hammer.

Everyone burst out laughing as if they'd just witnessed the comedy of the century. I huffed and grabbed the edge of my desk, jumping up. Thankfully, I hadn't hit my head. I straightened my shirt and grabbed my backpack, storming out of the classroom under the pretense of embarrassment.

"Lame!" Someone yelled. I rolled my eyes and walked out, but not before I caught a glimpse of Harvey's laughing face.

All was right in the world once again.

I'm writing these short flashbacks currently as they're relevant to the future chapters. I've updated 2 scenes today. One here and one after chapter 6.

EDIT: There's one more after chapter 16.

There are 4 more scenes and I'll update them tomorrow.

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