Paul was almost finished walking to Mrs. Brougham’s english class until his mom ran up to his side. He looked to the right, and smiled once he realized who it was.

“Hey honey,” she beamed. “On your way to Health?” Paul looked at her strangely for a bit, then finally answered,

“Health? I have English right now.”

“Did you get my text last night?” she asked. Paul didn’t remember much, since he was too busy listening to music in his room. “I changed your schedule for you.” Paul became very puzzled after he remember specifically asking his guidance counselor if there was a Health class 9th period.  “Here you go,” his mom said as she reached in her bag to hand him his knew schedule. “I talked to your counselor last night. A class opened up a few days ago.” she pointed out the column that was labeled ‘Period 9.’ “See? Period 9; Mr. Taylor, room 313.” Paul grabbed the sheet out of her hand and doubled check what it said. She was right, there was a health class 9th period. Maybe this year wouldn’t be as bad as he thought. All that changed once he stepped in room 313. Once he saw the near empty classroom, he stopped, but was happily greeted by his new teacher.

“Hey, welcome to health class!” a man who most likely was Mr. Taylor said. Paul looked around to see only two other students scattered across the room in the farthest seats they possibly could be from each other.

“Great,” he paused. “Is this it?” Even after Paul’s sarcastic question, Mr. Taylor still smiled.

“Well, the class was just made a few days ago, so we only have four students. I’m hoping some others will switch in throughout the year, but I doubt it.”

“Alright.” Paul answered in a moderate tone. He took a seat in the middle of the classroom, in between the long distance of his two other classmates. After Paul settled down, Mr. Taylor grabbed his clipboard with the attendance attached on.

“Talking about four students, it seems like we’re missing one today.” he looked down and started reading out the names starting from the top. “Kristen Dahl?”

No one answered. Mr. Taylor cleared his throat, then repeated his question “Has anyone seen a Krist- oh, I mean Kirsten today?” Mr. Taylor looked up after a few seconds of silence to see Paul and the two other students shaking their heads. “Okay, how about Paul Decker?”

Before Paul could answer, he was interrupted by the noise of loud footsteps running down the hallway. Suddenly a young lady rushed into the doorway.

“Hi, I’m Kirsten.” she panted with enthusiasm.

“Hi Kirsten,” Mr. Taylor paused.  “Why are you late?”

“Oh, sorry. I’m new this year.” she smiled. “I couldn’t really find my way around the school. It’s a bit bigger than my last.” She continued talking, but Paul wasn’t listening. He kept staring at Kirsten, too confused to hear the words coming from her mouth. It wasn’t very rare for a new student to move into the Westdale school district. Infact, Paul was the latest one, moving here in the 6th grade. He felt a small connection with Kirsten because of this. Maybe they could get to know each other. Maybe-

“Hey,” Paul quickly turned to the right. “Is this seat taken?” Her bag rested on the back of the seat next to him.
“Yes, uh,” he stuttered and he hated it. “No, I mean it’s a small class. Not a lot of seats are taken.” She smiled in confusion and asked again.

“So, that’s a yes?”

“Yeah, you can sit.”