It was the first day of high school when I saw him. Being a freshman my parents had dropped me off at the front entrance of our all island high school. Complete with 700 hundred kids it was too small to be scary, but too big for everyone to know everyone else ‘s name either.

I limped down the pathway to the front doors carrying my backpack, field hockey bag and my field hockey stick. I was limping because I am a danger magnet. If you are in a ten-foot radius of me it’s possible that you’re in danger. Once, at one basketball practice I managed to elbow two people in the face, break someone’s pinky finger, make one girl trip and roll down half the court, give someone a bloody lip and knock a girl out. Now, let me remind you that this was all by accident and that I no longer play basketball on a school team. Anyway, I was limping because I had twisted my ankle out on the hazard filled, uneven field.

I made it to the front doors of the school and fumbled around my stuff to create a free hand. Once inside I realized that I had no clue which direction my first class was in. I had promised my best friends that I wouldn’t pull out my map. They had said that if I did then I was going to get shoved into a locker and since I didn’t believe them, they stole my map. I decided to go left. I began walking down the hall, eyes wide. I was looking for the hallway with the 200’s classrooms. I passed the children’s daycare center, a place where students could take care of babies and toddlers as a class.

Then I saw him. His hair was blue with parts of it bleached. He wore black earrings and I don’t think he had shaved in about a week. His eyes were dark and sad but his face was kind and shy. It didn’t fit what he was trying to portray. He face didn’t allow him to look badass or like a rebel. However, he stood outside the culinary room with two others dressed in gothic clothing like him. They were talking together and the other two looked a little scary. Scary enough to make me never want to run into either of them in a dark alley. I took a right down the next hallway and I was at the 200’s. School had started and I was excited to learn more of this blue haired kid. I had so many questions. What was his name? Why did he look so sad? Why did he choose blue dye? So far he was the most interesting part of my new school experience and I couldn’t wait to see if he was in my lunch period.

Classes moved like molasses. I was one of those goody goody two shoes kinda kids and I only had two electives due to the fact that I was taking six academic classes. Normal people took 5. I was taking two science classes and they were on the same day. Man, do I have bad luck I thought.

I had Biology lunch. This was good because it was first lunch rather than fifth and I was starved. I walked to lunch with a newly acquired friend. Her name was Dylan and she was in my Biology class. I was thankful to have someone to walk with. We made it to the cafeteria and I saw a flash of blue hair. He was hidden in the lunch line. This greatly annoyed me. I wanted to see him and study him. I walked into the back area of the room where he was. I wasn’t very hungry and so I grabbed a milk from the big metal cooler. He was toasting a bagel. The blue haired kid likes bagels. I laughed to myself a little at the thought of that. He was so different yet so similar to everyone else on the inside. I took a deep breath and walked over to him.
“Hi, I’m Katie.” I said as relaxed as I could possibly manage.
“Hey.” he mumbles.
“I like your hair.” I say stupidly.
He looks up from his bagels finally and turns to see me. His facial expression changes from extremely bored too slightly curious. “I’m Ian.” He replies.