𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝑀𝒶𝒻𝒾𝒶 𝒫𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒 | 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒫𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒾𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝒩𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓁𝒶𝓃𝒹

01 ❖ Introductions

"Walk in the darkness so that others may see the light."

Fifteen-year-old Ray stood hesitantly at the door frame of the house, sparring a second passing glance over to where his mother was packing his lunch and putting it into the bag. "Mother, are you positively sure this is the correct choice you're making? I've been homeschooled all my life, and though I'm excited to go out, I'm still rather nervous."

"Of course it is," Isabella confirmed with a smile. "It was your decision in the end, right? You wanted this," She reminded him as she strode over and passed the bag over.

"Yeah," Ray grumbled. "I am just nervous about what the other people will think of me. That is my main issue to be honest."

"My, oh my, Ray is nervous I see. Perhaps I should savor this moment forever," Isabella teased, chuckling lightly.

"I am serious, mom." He glowered, slinging the bag over his shoulders.

"I know, son." Isabella chuckled once more with a smile as she ruffled his hair. "But there's really nothing to be worried about. Everything will go smoothly." She lightly pushed him towards the door. "Now go on. There's a few kids in the neighborhood riding the same bus as you are. Try to socialize a bit. If you find people you get along with, then there won't be a problem at all with worrying about what they will think about you."

"Whatever," He growled in his cold tone, straightening himself as he twisted the doorknob and exited the house. The woman just sighed and said "Some things never change," before she abruptly walked away to do other chores.

Ray rolled his eyes as he shut the door behind him, the bag hanging loosely over his shoulder as he walked to his bus stop and simply waited there. How long would this take? Frankly, he didn't want to stand here forever.

Just when he was thinking these words, a small boy ran towards him. "Oni-chan!" he yelled excitedly.

Ray turned his head and nodded in acknowledgement. "Yo, Phil."

"Oni-chan!" the boy yelled once more, hugging Ray tightly. This was Phil, he had met him a few weeks earlier when he had just shifted. Well, Phil had taken a liking to Ray and called him onii-chan. Even his older brothers were jealous of this...
Unlike the other young troublesome kids, Ray got along with Phil just fine.

"Are you excited to go to school?" Phil asked with a wide smile, skipping around where Ray was standing, in which the latter chuckled.

Ray affectionately ruffled his hair. "Yes, and no. It'll be different, that's for sure. But nothing I can't handle."

"Oh, but I am excited to go to school!" Phil announced while Ray just chuckled and said, "You sure are."

In the distance, he saw the twins running towards them waving and shouting, "Wait for us." The unmistakable sound of the bus honking caught his attention, so he figured it would be approaching any second now.

Smiling slightly and discreetly, Ray adjusted his bag and stepped right into the bus the moment it came to a stop. Phil and his brothers followed behind them, the three radiating a strong amount of overexcited energy. Their good mood was beginning to rub off on his own.

Slightly shaking his head out of those thoughts, Ray sat in the far back, Phil and the twins sitting beside him. He thought about his school. In reality, it was near only 2 miles away - you could always just choose to walk there - so there were fewer stops in the first one. Just a few people and an energetic orange haired carrot head walked in as the bus stopped to pick up the last bunch of passengers. The carrot haired girl sitting ahead got up and yelled, "Norman" loudly as a white hair albino boy walked in.

The male had deep icy blue eyes, stood a few inches taller than he was, and wore a slight smile on his face that was easy to miss. "Hey, Emma," were his first words on the bus as he moved to sit directly across from Ray with the carrot head.

Ray guessed their respective names, that the carrot head was Emma and the boy was Norman. Norman, meanwhile, looked around to see Phil and the twins sitting across, but they were accompanied by someone else. Someone he had never seen before.

"Oh, hey. I've never seen you before," Norman began, making eye contact with Ray as he attempted to start small talk. It was always good to socialize and make a few more friends. "What's your name?"

Ray raised an eyebrow at him, clearly not in the mood to interact. He just wanted to get to school already and check out their library. His mother told him their selection was excellent - and he was itching to find something that would catch his attention. With what almost sounded like a threat, he growled, "Why does that matter?" to the albino boy as the carrot head continued to speak to the twins beside him.

The boy, Norman, inclined his head and decided to push past the slightly rude tone. "Well, because we're going to the same school, we might as well get familiar with each other. I'm Norman."

"Yeah I know the carrot head sure knows how to yell," Ray said plainly while Norman chuckled at the mention of Emma.

"Hey!" The girl protested.

"See what I mean?" Ray scoffed as he looked the other way, breaking the contact

"Oni-chan please don't be rude to emma-chan and norman-san," Scolded Phil in his naive tone as always.

Ray huffed and looked away from the younger boy. "Fine, fine. I was just having some fun is all."

Then, he turned his attention back towards Norman while making an eye contact and speaking in the most irked tone he could muster. "The name's Ray."