The nocturne of a lonely heart

Chapter 3: It's Ethan

Ethan followed to the front desk. It was finally his first day of school in America. The moving-and-settling-here stress have made its presence clear, as a little worsen acne found its way on the boy's face. Not as bad as it could be but still it couldn't stay unnoticed.

Nothing seemed too off, yet the new scenery, loads of unfamiliar faces plus all the anticipation turned the breakfast in his stomach upside down, making him deeply uncomfortable and queasy. He already dreaded all the new befriending and place-learning stuff that he had to do today.

"You must be Ethan." A girl on his left(was it left?) greeted him suddenly, wide smile plastered on her face.

She looked fine, her face was tanned with thousand freckles drizzled all around the nose, lips and corners of the eyes. Her earrings were small but attention-worthy and the smile could turn your mood all the 180 degrees and enjoy the day, even though it could be raining. Sandy-brown middle part was beautified by random incidental naturally burnt out string of hair. It looked natural on her and she could be easily described as sun-kissed.

"I'm Ashley, a member of the student government" The girl reached her hand for a handshake. "Ethan" the Briton responded politely and tried to smile. "I was asked to show you the school today, so just follow me and lemme know if you don't understand anything or how things work round here" Ashley chuckled softly.

"Now we are in the west wing, the hall to be precise, it leads to the gym and right on the other side you can find the conference hall." She pointed at one side and then at the other, corresponding to her explanations. "The music room is right near there" she pointed to her left with her thumb, pink nails standing out. "Feel free to use it anytime" Ashley said not very loud, unsure if that was relevant to Ethan.

It was relevant for Ethan. His interest perked up as he remembered to check the room later. Maybe it'll become his new hiding-from-civilisation den.

"May I ask you where are you from?"Ashley intruded suddenly, catching Ethan off guard. "New Hambington" Ethan recovered quickly."It is a small town in the North of England" He explained in answer to her prior confused face.

"Oh right" She replied awkwardly. Ethan thought that she would have been informed about his origin, cause she was still the one guiding him here. Small-talks are something he wasn't quite good at but he tried his best. "Are you local?" He aimed at her.

"Oh yes, I was born here, but my parents, well, my mom is from Canada and my dad is from Massachusetts. They got together while studying in the university and then settled here" She explained and smiled, glad to have some almost lively conversation with the newbie.

Ashley continued where it was needed to describe something. "Here are the toilets and exit to the football pitch, if you are interested in playing you can try out, I'm sure you'll get a place." Her voice was suggestive and half flirting. "I'm in the cheerleading group, so it would be nice to be rooting for you" She finished with the not so obscure yet smooth wink.

Through the glass door Ethan could see the footballers playing outside. Or more likely arguing about some as always unimportant stuff, though he had to admit some of them looked not too bad for Ethan not to check out them quickly. He sighed, knowing his new uncontrolled obsession with some of those will come up at no due time. He had no energy left for those goons to jeopardise his life batteries with their unwanted attraction to him. It wasn't their fault obviously but it wasn't Ethans choice to salivate after some of them either.

Ethan genuinely hated being after boys, he could not control who he liked and how strong the attraction would be, what was even more worse was that he could not have a chance with none of them in like all of the cases. He would drool over them from afar after creating some delusional imaginations, which didn't help him at all with the torture in longing after them, however they helped him to live through the shit life he has been having. It was still some kind of motivation to wake up daily just perfect stimuli when not minding the actual reality.

It took them a while for Ashley to show the new boy arounds, where the cafeteria, stuff room and everything he needed to be aware of were. While it lasted maybe like 40 minutes or less, for Ethan it felt like a whole hour or even more, standing straight at this point was nearly impossible. He shouldn't have stayed late the night before, but the series were Farr too interesting to drop them.

"And here is your schedule" A paper, with his lessons and some 'helpful' tips was handed to Ethan. "We have German together, so we'll see each other often" She looked at him expectantly, maybe waiting for some sign that he understood or something. Ethan struggled to understand people occasionally so he simply ignored the somewhat awkward stare and took the paper."If you have any questions or troubles with getting around here don't hesitate to ask me" She reassured with a tight lip smile.

"Thanks" The brunet responded shortly and smiled lazily in reply, exhausted with lack of sleep after the jet lag hit him.

"You have Calculus first, I'll show you were the class is" She lead him up the stairs and pointed where boy's next classes were as they passed by some relevant rooms.

"Here we are", Ashley reached the final door and said to him hesitantly "I'll see you at lunch?"

"Yeah, sure" Ethan kept short, not feeling talkative today. Generally he has a lot to talk about, but today wasn't the case. He gave Ashely last thankful nod and went in.

The class was almost full. He managed to find only one seat free, or maybe he simply didn't want to look for another one because this one was perfect: right in the very middle of the room. 'Nice' he thought. He liked to be in the centre, not too close to the teacher, nor too far away. Not too left, not too right, just ideal.

Millions of stares followed him as he went in and sat himself on the chosen chair. A blondie, the guy sitting two rows down from where he was, looked hot. Ocean coloured hoodie covered the torso that still somehow could be recognised as fairly fit, his white hair looked soft and was somewhat longer than a buzzcut, eyelids slightly covering the top of wet-wood-like brown irises, which found there aim right on no one other than Ethan. The former guy stoped staring after a mere second of eye contact, seeming pretty tired and uninterested.

Ethan could smell his straightness from the back of beyond, despite that, it didn't mean he'll leave the guy alone as his probable love interest. Hopefully this won't be the case though, there must be a better choice out there in the school.

Thankfully the teacher came just right in time, excusing Ethan from any further talking with his new classmates. The class was full and he was about to drop unconscious from weakness. He had to sleep. Right now.

Class calmed down, as the adult instructed for former to take their places. He was about to begin the first lesson when his eyes fell on the new boy.

"Ah, Evan, right?" The teacher started enthusiastically, already having forgotten what he was about to say.

"Would you like to introduce yourself?" Teaching workforce representative asked. Obviously there was no other option than to introduce himself, so Ethan talked, not caring to stand up.

"Yeah, my name's ETHan..." He stressed the 'th' and spoke slowly to correct the adult teacher "... and I'm from England..." then he told about his age and sport interest in volleyball ending it shortly not to annoy already uninterested audience.

"He is so cute" girls' whispers were easy to catch. "Cute? Girl he looks so soft AND hot, plus the accent oh my god" Another one responded unable to shut "yes right, and imagine him without the shirt" - more quiet argument with giggles followed, but still clear enough for Ethan to hear.

He would tell he wasn't interested in girls, but he didn't know how the relevant acceptance climate at this school was, so he decided to keep silent about that for starts.

"Thanks Evan" The face AND reason of lacking teaching labour maybe sincerely appreciated and finally started the actual lesson.