2

The following day, Nathan and Penny woke up earlier than before. They got dressed and were waiting at the bus stop like any other day when the elder of the two of them struck up a conversation. "Hey, have you made any friends yet?" Penny asked, looking down at her brother as he pulled out his phone to play some music. He looked up at her, shrugging with a blank expression as he put on his headphones. With a heavy sigh, the elder of the two siblings put her hands in her pocket and waited silently for the bus to arrive. The two got on, sitting in their usual spots near the front of the vehicle while time passed by.

"I've been thinking about it, you know." Nathan mumbled, catching his sister off guard as he pulled down his headphones. "There are a few people in my class that I want to talk to. But, I guess it's a bit too late for that." He continued, twirling his finger on the screen of his phone. "I think they already think of me as that one weird art kid anyway, so it's not like I can just walk up to them."

"Have you tried?" With three simple words, Penny silenced her brother, getting him to scratch his chin as he thought about the situation, imagining the scene in his head. "I'll take that as a 'no'. Come on, Nathan, you have to try. A simple wave would be enough." She added, a small smile forming on her face. The two of them said nothing for the rest of the ride, at least not to each other. "Alright, I'll see you later, I think. I and a few friends are planning to go out after school. I'll text you if something happens." Placing her hand on his shoulder, she looked him square in the face. "And make some friends." She said, walking off to get to her class.

Nathan got to the classroom early; finding it empty, save for the new class president who was intently reading one of their textbooks and making notes. He had half a mind to open his mouth and greet her, but decided that his time was better spent practicing on a new drawing. He sighed, setting down his things beside his seat and pulling out his notebook and a pencil. Quietly sketching in his little corner of the room, the young boy spent the next few minutes in a trance-like state until the lead of his pencil snapped off. "Oh. It snapped." His head hit the side of someone's body as he bent down to get a sharpener. "What are you drawing this time?" Nick asked, his eyes looking at the beginnings of a crude drawing of a person on a chair.

"Just practicing." Nathan replied; pulling out his sharpener and getting his pencil back to a usable state. He glanced around the room, noticing that the class had started filtering in as he was drawing. A few people looked at his notebook as they walked past his desk; some simply turned away while others took a few seconds to take a closer look. Nick, however, wasn't like the rest of the class; he kept looking and even sat on an empty chair that he moved over so that he could get comfortable as he watched Nathan draw.

"You're good." He commented, looking around the room while curves were added to the drawing to make it look more… human. "Hey, who are you drawing?" He asked, leaning a bit farther in as his words caught the attention of the students sitting nearby. Nathan stopped for a second, looking at the drawing again as if he didn't know himself. A feminine looking outline of a person taken as if they were seated in a row ahead of the point of view, back facing the onlooker as long strands of hair fell down and draped over the back of her seat. Her arm was raised, holding a pen between their fingers as the other arm was placed on top of her desk, a hair tie resting on her wrist.

"Nobody in particular, why are you asking?" Nathan answered innocently, getting out a blue pen to add some color to the page. As he was inking a few parts of the clothes that the character was wearing, Nick pointed over to Stacy. Her hair was draped over the back of her chair, but her hands were going through the motions of tying it up with a hair tie that was on her wrist. "Oh."

"Nathan, do you like her?" Nick asked bluntly, leaning in closer to speak in whispers. Nathan simply shook his head, thinking of sound explanation in his head as he took a deep breath.

"No. It's just because she was the only one here when I got here. I had nobody else to draw." He said, sighing as he continued to ink some more of the page.

"Really?" Not entirely convinced, Nick leaned in closer to look at the drawing again. "That really looks like her shirt, and her shoes."

"Whose shoes?" The girl in question walked up, hair now tied up into a crude bun. Stacy looked at the drawing, then at Nathan. "Is that me?" She smiled, pulling over an empty chair.

"I don't know. I was just drawing what came to mind." Again, Nathan denied the statement as he put the cap back on his pen and looked at the sketch again, frowning. "It's not even that good." He grumbled to himself, furrowing his brows as he took in a lot of air for a deep sigh.

"Not good? This is amazing." Nick protested, getting the attention of the other students. "I can't draw like that, but you made it look so easy." He added, getting more of the class curious.

"It's really not that good. I feel like the proportions are wrong." Nathan said, his finger going over to the neck of the drawing before his hand wrapped around his own throat.

"You're your worst critic. It's not that bad, and only you would notice that." Stacy smiled, turning over to the door as the teacher and the last of the students walked in, each carrying a box filled with decorations. "And, if it means anything, I think it looks good." With that, she walked over to the teacher's desk, having a conversation with him as the rest of the class returned to their normal seats.

Mr. Reyes walked up to the front of the room, telling the students to quiet down as he picked up a piece of paper and started reading a message to the class. "Attention students. The school will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in a few weeks. We ask for your cooperation in order to make this event as memorable as possible. Classes will be asked to decorate their rooms and prepare something for the momentous occasion." He said, folding up the paper and placing it atop of his desk. Before he could even continue, Nick raised his hand.

"Decorating? Nathan's good at art, I'm sure he can make our room look nice." All eyes shifted toward Nathan as he pulled his hood over his head and rested it on his desk.

"Is that okay with you, Nathan?" Mr. Reyes asked, smiling as he got out a marker and started writing on the board. Nathan looked up, looking around the room at everyone who was looking at him. He felt a chill run down his spine as he thought about it for a moment, swallowing a knot that formed in his throat.

"I… I guess." He mumbled, nodding along just in case his words weren't heard. The teacher clapped his hands, writing his name down and assigning Nick to be one of the people that would help him. Nick smiled, looking over at Nathan who forced himself to smile back. "How did this happen?" He mumbled to himself, regaining some of his confidence as his classmates' eyes were taken off of him.

"We'll need someone else to help him. What about you, Susan?" The teacher said, noticing that a group of his students weren't paying him much attention. Susan stopped talking, turning around to look at him. After some back and forth, she reluctantly agreed to join in. "Alright. If you need something to decorate the room, talk to Stacy or me. The rest of the class, you have to think of something to do for the anniversary, does anybody have any ideas?"

Nathan drowned out the discussion, looking at his notebook again and pulling out a red pen. The class threw out ideas as he wrote something near the bottom of the page with the drawing. "Try." It read.

The classes for the day passed quickly, along with their first break of the day. Nathan was quietly drawing during the second and final break for the day when he noticed his message from earlier and stood up. He was alone in the room, the rest of his class either eating or doing something outside; that included the two people who were supposed to help him decorate. He sighed, walking over to one of the boxes that were brought in earlier.

There were streamers and a few large pieces of card stock. He took a look at the room, pulling out his notebook and making a rough diagram from his point of view. Using that, he thought of a way to use the materials around the place. At first, he thought of using the card stock as a makeshift banner, but he didn't know what to put on it. "I should probably study, but…" Susan's voice caught him off guard, getting him to drop his notebook as he jumped back a bit. "Oh, it's you. What are you doing here?"

"Thinking of a way to use these decorations. Maybe we should cut something out of this stuff. What do you think? I'm running out of ideas." Nathan said, holding up a piece of card stock. Susan glanced over at her bag, averting her gaze. "Is something wrong?" He asked, taking a few steps closer.

"Well, if you don't have any ideas, I don't have any either." She said as something in her bag started making noise. She quickly moved over and opened it up, taking care to make the opening as small as possible; she wasn't careful enough. Nathan got a glimpse at what made the noise for a split second. It was a small phone, and the noise was an alarm from some kind of gacha game. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be studying here. I hope you think of something soon." She said, pulling out her mathematics book and turning over to a random page.

"Are you sure, don't you want to see if you get lucky?" Nathan said offhandedly, walking back to the box to get some of the streamers as well as a roll of tape. He heard her fidgeting, even with some of the extra distance he put between them, but he paid it no mind. He got up on a chair, sticking one end of the streamer to the wall before he got down and moved the chair a bit to the side. He got through the streamers before lunch break ended, getting them to wrap around the room just above the doorway. With that, the rest of the classes for the day passed by in a flash. He made note of any assignments that were given out, walking toward the exit of the building as his phone vibrated.

"Go home without me." The text from his sister read, getting him to look up the flight of stairs she took earlier in the day. Sure enough, Penny was with her group of friends and they were heading down together. She waved to him, continuing a conversation she had with them as they got out of the school.

He shrugged, walking toward the exit as someone tugged on his bag. "Did you tell anyone?" Susan asked, pulling him toward the lockers nearby as sweat started dripping from Nathan's forehead. His eyes widened as she glared at him. Upon seeing his fearful expression, Susan's face softened. "Please don't tell anyone. Especially my friends."

"What? You're not making sense. Why are you making such a big deal out of th-"

"Hey Susan, we're going out again. Want to come with?" Another girl from their class walked up to the two of them, along with a few others from other classes.

"Ah, I can't today. I'm getting my allowance tomorrow, though." Susan said, hiding Nathan with her body. "I'll see if I can come along next time." She smiled, waving them goodbye as they started walking away.

"What? Didn't you say that you liked that bracelet we saw yesterday?" Another one of the girls asked before they shrugged. "You've been skipping out on us since the school year started. Did something happen?"

"What? No. I'm just busy with my studies, you know. My grades aren't the best, and my parents are getting worried. I'm really sorry." She said as she tightened the grip on her bag. The group of girls left them be. "Please don't tell them that I've been ditching them to play a game."

"How… you know what? Help me out with the decorations and you have a deal. After all, we can at least cut out some shapes or something." Nathan said, walking toward the exit of the school.

"Oh, that's it? Sure. Sorry about not helping earlier, I was…"

"Playing? I don't mind." Nathan said. "Though, I do wonder where Nick went off to. He didn't help either. Anyway, we'll deal with it tomorrow. See you." He waved her goodbye as he got to the bus stop. He sat down, taking in deep breaths as a smile formed on his face. "Talking to people is hard…" He mumbled to himself, wiping the sweat off of his face as he made his way home. He greeted his aunt, heading to his room immediately due to exhaustion; he was in no condition to work on the painting that night. He went to sleep, excited for the next day.