New Girl  

Mid-January, the winter season was at its peak. Freezing cold, Shawn wore double layered jackets to school today. On the way to class, he and Emilie stumbled upon the news that there was a new student coming into their today. Emilie was curious as to who was coming and decided to go to the general office to scout the new student. All new students had to come to the general office first to finish up their admission procedures. Knowing this, the pair went there together as Shawn was forced to follow along.

"Oh look. It seems that the new student is a girl. Oh my she's so pretty." Emilie said out to Shawn who wasn't one bit curious.

"I can't tell if you are being serious or not." Shawn was busy leaning on the door and resting his eyes.

"Take a look at her yourself then."

Shawn opened his eyes to take a look. Indeed, the newcomer looked pretty and had nice Asian features. She was also taller than the other girls in the year level. Although that was the case, Shawn wasn't one to talk about others looks openly and so, he gave Emilie a generic answer, "She looks fine."

Soon, one of their classmates, Alli, had also arrived at the general office. It turned out that Alli was to be the newcomer's buddy for her first month in school. Knowing that Alli was the buddy, Shawn knew that this girl would soon become an honorary member of the Asian clique, making the headcount a total of 9.

Alli went in and took the new girl with her. Since Emilie and Shawn were already there, they decided to just follow along with them to their form class. On the way, the girl introduced herself, "Hi my name is Liza. Nice to meet you."

Emilie introduced herself first and afterwards, Shawn said his own name too. Though it was her first day, Liza looked pretty relaxed even though she was a new girl in school. In addition, she was very open with Emilie and Alli who was asking her questions on the way to form class. Liza Yu was from South Korea and she had come over with her family just a week ago. Her interests were K-pop music which meant that she would easily fit in with the other girls in his clique. The best thing about her was that Liza was very easy to talk to. Even around Shawn that was normally quiet, she was able to make him illicit a response whenever they talked. Shawn surprisingly did not mind talking to her.

Normally around girls like Taylore or Liza who were very enthusiastic and open, the boy would tend to stay away from them. Yet, with Liza, Shawn did not feel that way with her. The conversations came out smoothly, though all of it was because she initiated.

"Dude, why are you so cold with the newcomer?" Julian asked Shawn as they walked down the hallway to class together.

"Huh? Am I? Didn't I just speak with her during form class?" Shawn asked, confused.

"Yeah. She basically asked you question all the time, while you just answered back."

"Isn't that how all conversations go?"

"Ah god… You got to speak out more." Julian advised like he was a professional.

"Dude, speak for yourself. You don't talk to anyone outside of our clique." Shawn turned it back on his friend.

"Hey, that is because I choose not to."

"Then, same. I just choose not to ask further questions."

"Alright, you make a point." With that, their pointless conversation ended. The pair knew that there were deeper meanings beyond that reasoning, but at this stage, it felt like there was still a barrier between the two friends. Although they had known each other for more than a year, both of the boys wouldn't call themselves more than just friends that text each other once a week. Hopefully, with time, a proper friendship would blossom from nothingness.

The first lesson of today was Art. And comparatively speaking, Shawn had progressed leaps and bounds in Drama than its counterpart, Art. With the play and his participation, Mr Bialik started too close one eye on his performances in normal classes. Where as for art, Shawn had never once tried his hand in making a proper art piece. Today, was the last straw for the art teacher, Ms Stella.

"Oi, Shawn. Come here you." With a strong Irish accent, Ms Stella spoke sternly to her lazy student. Taking the boy with her into her office, the teacher closed the door and looked him in the eye. "I'd been hearing a lot of stories about you performing splendidly in Drama and all that stuff. Could you tell me why you are not doing that in my class too?"

"Uh…"

"No uhs. There should be no excuse as to why you cannot do my class work too." Ms Stella shushed Shawn up in a heartbeat and continued to rant to the young lad, "I am not asking you to be the next Picasso or Vincent van Gogh. All I ask is for you to complete my simple art assignments. Understand?"

There was no reply. Ms Stella repeated herself once again, "Understand?"

"Understand…" Shawn sighed openly. It was obvious that he did not want to put anymore time into another miscellaneous subject. In his family, Art and Drama were not important compared to the other subjects. Even if he had gotten a D or lower for the two subjects, his parents wouldn't even bat an eye. Unlucky for him, his art teacher had caught on to his act and was giving him a stern warning.

"Now, go back to your seat and follow along the class." Obediently, Shawn headed back to his table with a tired expression. Knowing what had happened, his group of friends chuckled at his helpless situation. All in all, the boy now needed to pay attention in Art class too.