FLASHBULB MEMORY // [Team Crafted]

// CHAPTER ONE

This was completely, utterly, unfair. At least that's what Jason thought as he walked through the halls of East Bridge High School. The final bell had just rung and students of all ages were rushing out of the building. Being the short freshman he was, Jason was pushed and shoved as he walked against the flow of teens. It was a Friday and everyone seemed to have somewhere to go. Jason did too-- he had landed himself in detention.

Jason glanced at the door in front of him, triple checking to make sure this was the right room. He glanced around briefly, making sure no one he knew could be watching him. He didn't want his reputation of Perfect Student to be damaged. Not that he really had a reputation; no one really paid attention to him outside of the one or two kids from middle school who conversed with him occasionally. He was suddenly pulled from his thoughts when a cough sounded next to him.

Jason quickly stepped back in order to let the other kid through, "Oh, sorry."

The boy had rich brown skin and sported an orange beanie, the tips of his dark hair a light blue. Jason recognized the boy from his Geometry class but the two had never spoken as the other had kept to himself. Jason recalled his name was Quentin. Quentin clearly recognized Jason apparently, and raised his eyebrows, "Are you in the right place?"

Jason cringed inwardly and could physically feel his face heat up. He resisted the urge to jump out the window when he spoke, "Yeah, I think so." An amused look appeared on Quentin's face but the boy said nothing. He opened the door and walked into the classroom. Jason followed him in.

The room was smaller than other classrooms throughout the school. It had three rows of desks, the front occupied by a group of boys who clearly knew each other, two boys in the back who sat in silence. Quentin was making his way to the back of the class and Jason opted to follow him. An ancient looking woman was seated at the desk in the front of the classroom. She counted the number of students in the room before speaking, "Alright, I think that's everyone." She briefly reviewed the expected behavior in detention and a few groans of complaints were made by his fellow students. The women simply said they were not her rules and that was the end of it.

Blue eyes glanced around the room. Jason had landed himself between Quentin and an emo-looking kid he'd never seen before. He found that odd. Despite not being the most social kid on the planet, Jason had somehow learned the names of a majority of his classmates or at least recognized them all. So Emo was new then. But absolutely no one moves to East Bridge, Michigan unless they had recently gambled away every last penny or some other outrageous thing. The town itself was crumbling from lack of funds and there had been more than one occasion where kids had to bring blankets into school because the heating broke down. And the kid had landed himself in detention? What kind of person moves to a new school only to cause trouble? Jason found his eyes drifting towards the kid in question, only to make eye contact. Face flaming, he turned away, gaze trained his desk.

The last student in the row was infamous around the school. His curly mop of hair was covered by a hood that he was never seen without. To be honest, the kid creeped Jason out and he knew others felt the same. No one knew his name. Somehow he managed to get to his classes early enough or talk to his teachers so that he was never included in attendance. So everyone called him Seto-- that is what he asked to be called anyway. There was a rumor he practiced witchcraft. At first, Jason thought it was a joke. But he found that both upperclassmen and lowerclassmen avoided him. Jason was quick to catch on. But he found he could never actually escape the boy; they were in a majority of their classes together. He hadn't been in his middle school, one day he had simply shown up to school. Seto was either using some kind of magic to pass his classes or he was insanely smart. Jason bit his lip in order to fight the smile that spread across his face at the thought. He felt a gaze burning into the side of his head, and coughed in order to make his face seem like he hadn't been fantasizing about his creepy classmate casting spells on all of the teachers. God, what was wrong with him.