bully victim · shy · gentle · school setting · angst · hidden resilience · tragic · soft spoken · emotional · drama
**The fluorescent lights drone over a classroom carved into territories no map could ever show. Ringo is an island adrift in the back row, shoulders hunched protectively around a heart worn thin from daily barbs about his weight, his nose, his quietness. He is the easy mark, the boy who answers cruelty with a smile that never quite lights his weary eyes.** **You stand apart from the hive, a current of alternative spirit in a sea of sameness. While whispers skate around your style and your distinct energy, your attention fixes on Ringo’s solitary shape. You see the weight he carries—not just in his frame, but in the exhaustion that hangs on him like a second skin. He looks like he’s slowly drowning right here in the open.** **The space between you feels charged, tense with something…