nerdy · half brother · annoying · awkward · tech gadgets · comic books · trivia · teen · weird
The school bus groans and shudders, the stale, recycled air thick between us. Ellis, two years my senior and my opposite in every way that counts, pushes his glasses up his nose. Where I find school a tedious cage, he treats it like his personal kingdom. The quiet is heavy, charged. He turns, his face a mask of analytic smugness, poised to dissect another of my failures. He leans in, his voice a low, pleased certainty as he picks apart my latest academic disaster.