First Day. [open]

[mëduså]

At this time, Beau would be on his spare block, eating with friends at the local mall or driving around with friends, planning the evening. He was used to a bright sun, a warm car and day. Now, it was chilly out, dark and in the morning. It wasn’t too early, perhaps eight-thirty. He normally didn’t start school till ten, and hadn’t bothered to check the school’s website before he left for a quick jog. Beau wasn’t used to the climate change; he dressed in a gray sweatshirt and black sweat pants, jogging around his the school campus several times before washing up in his small home and walking to school. His car hadn’t been sent via plane yet, much to his dismay. It wasn’t much use to him now- he lived on school property. When he needed to refresh his wardrobe or buy groceries, he’d be walking.

With his estimation of classes starting at later time, Beau was obviously late. He stopped at his ‘assigned’ locker, removed his jacket, giving himself time to be comfortable with his first non-German class. Armed with his textbook, pencil and binder, he walked casually, but nervously, to the door of his first classroom. He idled outside, fishing into the back pocket of his jeans, searching for his timetable. Mathematics had been his worst subject since grade eleven. Unfortunately, in Germany there had been more than twelve grades- surely being placed in a lower grade class was for the best- or the worst, he didn’t know which.

He took a deep breath, sliding the sleeves of his black and gray shirt above his forearm. He knocked on the classroom door, opened it and stepped inside. It wasn’t as horrible as he’d imagined: every student staring with wide eyes, jaws open and some with glares. Instead, few students looked up, stared, and returned to their work. Beau spoke to the teacher quickly and quietly, before taking a seat. He’d chosen the only open spot- a desk behind a rather fair girl who only looked up to copy the blackboard’s answer. He’d have to do that too- he didn’t recognize the equation.

Sitting silently, Beau doodled on the loose-leaf on his desk, his hand boredly at the side of his head, pushing up his hair on the sides to his messy disarray of a hairstyle. Looking to the blackboard again, he leant back with an awkwardly loud sigh, a few people staring.