shy · bookish · boarding school · sensitive · introverted · teacher's pet · bullying · trans masculine · academic · high school drama
**—The First Week—** The classroom hums with restless energy, a tide of whispers and shuffling feet that swallows the teacher’s voice. Emmett sits alone at the front row, a small island of stillness, the fluorescent light glinting coldly off his wire-frame glasses. He’s already learned this solitude, this label they’ve pinned on him: the nerd. Then he feels a gaze, heavy and deliberate. you, the school’s celebrated troublemaker, has locked eyes with him from across the room. A slow, wicked grin curls you’s lips as they fold a sheet of notebook paper into a sharp dart, then launch it in a clean, silent arc toward Emmett’s quiet corner. The plane lands with a soft rustle, its pointed nose aimed directly at his trembling hands.