First day was, as the principal put it, exciting.

They had maths first, which was the bane of every student in existence.

Well, except for Rocky, but then he didn't skip a whole academic year for nothing.

Marshall groaned as he slammed his head on his desk. Why they had to learn about functions is beyond him.

"Mr. Apollo, the blackboard is up here," the Math teacher snapped from in front of the class. Of course, the teacher had to be strict.

"Yes sir," the pale-skinned boy muttered as he lazily lifted his head up, his mind swimming from all of the numbers at the board.

The teacher pursued his lips. "In fact, I would like you to go up here and answer the question. If you manage to answer it correctly, I shall be exempting you from the quiz."

Marshall felt hands go cold at the declaration. Of course, I had to be embarrassed on the first day. What else is new?

With a sigh, Marshall stood up and dragged his feet towards the blackboard. He looked at the equation in front of him.

Identify the domain of the following relation using set builder notation: y = 2x + 1

This was supposed to be an easy equation, but with how distracted he is throughout the lesson, he had no idea what to do. Thinking back to his old Mathematics classes, he managed to answer it.

2x + 1 = 0

2x = 1x = ½

"Your answer would be right if I was asking for the value of x. However, I was asking for the domain written in set builder notion. Sit down, Mr. Apollo. Clearly, you weren't listening to me."

Snickers followed him as he made his way back to his seat. The first day seems to be going downward for him. He just hoped that his friends were having a better day than him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chase, in fact, wasn't having a better day than Marshall. His first class, English, seemed to hate him.

They were tasked to convert some non-academic sentences to academic text, and it's seriously taking a lot of his mental capacity.

We have been defeated by the virus because of our lack of discipline.

Chase has no idea how to do it in the first place. A quick glance beside him showed that Rocky was having the same problem as him.

I hate English class sometimes, the gray-haired boy mouthed to him.

Same here, he mouthed back before turning back to his struggle. He really has no idea how to do it.

Sighing in frustration, he just wrote what came to his mind.

The lack of discipline is the reason why the virus has managed to spread so much.

He closed his notebook in frustration, just as the teacher called for them to pass their papers.

Hopefully, the day would get better from here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was lunch time, and all of the students hurried towards the cafeteria, glad for the hour-long break from classes.

As usual, Chase chose the seat near the door so he could watch the students filter into the room. It's also a strategic place since he could see most of the students in case someone decides to stir up trouble.

"Chase!"

Well, it also had the purpose of making his best friend easily find him among the crowd.

"Hey, Marsh!" he greeted back as the pale-skinned boy sat down in front of him with a sigh. "Long day?"

"You said it," he grumbled. "I swear the teachers went from angel to being the ruler of hell in senior high school."

Chase just chuckled at his sentiment. He knew the feeling all too well.

Marshall glared at his best friend. "Nice to know you're amused by my misery."

"Very. It's nice to know that someone else is suffering other than me."

"Am I interrupting something?" Rocky piped up as he slid into the seat between the two.

"Nothing important," Marshall said, still playfully glaring at his best friend. "So, how was your first day?"

Rocky only shook his head. "If you think that 11th grade is bad, wait till you get to your 12th. It's basically hell."

"Remind me to drop out of school after 11th grade then."

The other two just chuckled at his declaration.

"So, anything new?" Marshall asked while unwrapping his sandwich.

"Well, there was this transferee in our class. What was her name again?"

"Skye Zepheryne, I think," Chase answered Rocky.

"Right. Skye seemed to have a thing for Chase over here. She's been looking at him repeatedly during class. And she's pretty too. Must be a model or something. And he seemed into her too!"

"She's new, so she's probably just shy asking me about something," Chase blushed and tried to down the idea, making Marshall groan in frustration.

"Oh come on, Chase. You gotta find a girl soon! And this Skye girl seems interesting!"

"As I've always told you, Marshall, I don't have time for that kind of stuff. Maybe after college, I'll consider it," Chase said, quickly finishing his meal just as the warning bell sounded.

"Well, time to go to class, I suppose. I'll see the both of you later!" he said, hastily gathering his things and dashing out of the cafeteria.

"So..." Rocky trailed off.

"Yup. I think our dear Chasie has a crush."