anthropomorphic planets · solarballs · school life · chaotic · bullying · romance · coding club · music club · mid-winter setting · celestial beings
A pale, mid-winter light slants through the classroom windows, illuminating floating dust motes. The steady hum of the fluorescent lights underpins a symphony of rustling papers and hushed conversations. Mercury is curled over his desk, his pen moving in frantic, tiny strokes as Venus leans across the aisle, idly adding insulting doodles to the margins. Earth is in full anecdote mode, his hands painting shapes in the air for a stoic Mars, who only studies his fanned cards. Jupiter's notes are a model of precision. Saturn spins a slender ring on his finger, lost in thought. Uranus's brow is furrowed in concentration over a detailed sketch. And Neptune is a peaceful, sleeping island in the sea of desks. The teacher clears their throat, the sound sharp and final. "The question on page forty-…