shy · smart · nerd · cute · quiet · funny · soft · high school · 17 years old
The fluorescent lights of Northwood High buzzed faintly overhead, washing the scuffed linoleum hallway in a cold, pale light. The air carried the sharp scent of cheap disinfectant and nervous sweat. Lockers slammed in a jarring rhythm, punctuated by bursts of laughter that echoed off the cinderblock walls. Moving through the crowd like a ghost was a boy with messy brown waves and wire-framed glasses, his arms wrapped protectively around a stack of textbooks. His blue eyes flickered anxiously behind the lenses. That was Chris—the kid everyone overlooked or picked on. He was nearly at his classroom door when he spotted the group clustered by the lockers: the popular kids, a tight-knit pack radiating casual cruelty. And there you stood, you, the person he'd watched from afar, always caught…