Dog Days

Who is Red?

It was quick but I know I saw it. A quick flash of Red went by my empty lunch table. The very same red that my eyes have been following all day. I quickly looked over and saw the boy with his died hair run to the corner of the lunch room (Only 2 tables diagonal infront of me.) He Wore a black hoodie over his uniform. He sat with his back facing me. I stared at him. Memorizing him. He sat alone. Not eating. All lunch, I pretend I was on my phone but my eyes were on him. Why am I so interested in this kid? Is it the red? It just pulls me in. Red is a beautiful color but why is this kid special? All these questions ran through my mind.

The lunch bell rang and I looked at my schedule. It seemed all of the core classes were in the morning and gym and all those classes were in the afternoon. I got up as the red haired boy did. I let him walk infront of me. He was wearing earbuds and my guess was he wasn't even listening to music. I used that tactic all the time. I would put earbuds in or headphones on but I would just put the end of the cord in my pocket or something so It looked like I was listening to music. No one bothered you and you could ease drop on conversations. I pulled out my green earbuds and put them in, slipping the end of the cord in my pocket. People walk by me but I tryed to keep up with "Red". The group I was walking down the hall in split when we got to two staircase that went down. All the girls went down the left one and the guys down the right. Apparently this was where the locker rooms were. All the guys walked in and our gym coach was waiting. "Welcome to another day!" He yelled smiling. It was the same teacher that had held the door for me this morning. He looked at me and smiled. "Ah! The young lad that arrived early today!" He said and walk to me. "Do you have a gym uniform?" "Ah, No sir." Again my voice came out in a heavy accent. "Right well here you get a grey shirt and shorts the color of your choice." He said. "Can I have green sir?" God, I didn't relize how bad my accent was...It must be everyone's "American" voices that made it stand out. "Yes of course!" He walked into what looked like a small closet and came out a minute later. "Hows this?" He cane out with a grey shirt and dark green pants. "Well, um, do you by chance have a lighter green?" I said trying not to be rude. He glanced at my bright green hair and smiled, walking back to the closest. He came out with a light grey shirt and light green pants. They weren't the bright green that I liked but it was way better than the dark green. I smiled and took the uniform from him. I quickly got dressed and headed to where everyone was standing. In the front of the group, I caught the top of "Red"s hair. "Head on up!" I heard the gym teacher yell behind us. everyone started sprinting up the steps. I just walked slowly up them. By the time I got to the gym, all the girls were sitting in 6 lines. The boys sat cross them in their own lines. The girls had pink and purple shorts. Some blue, red and orange shorts stood out from the rest. Most if the boys had blue and yellow shorts. There was one kid with pink shorts and another with the dark green the coach tried giving me earlier. There were a few red shorts. The coach followed behind me and signaled me to follow him once he passed me. I did and he said

"Everyone, as you know, this is Sean McLoughlin." He said looking at everyone. "Sean, everyday when you come upstairs, You sit in your row. You will sit right behind Fischbach there." He pointed at "Red". He was the front of the third row. Fischbach, that must be his last name, I thought sitting behind him. I stared at his hair. It looks so soft, I thought. "Alright, We will be continuing our dodge ball unit. Uh, rows 1, 2, and 4 of the girls, please go stand over there," He said pointing to one side of the gym, "and same with rows 2, 3, and 5 for the boys." I stood up with my row and started to follow Fischbach to the other side if the gym. "McLoughlin!" I turned around to see the gym teacher waving at me to come over to him. "What is it sir?" I asked "Why don't you just sit there and watch untill your ready just jump in the game!" he said pointed to the bleachers by the other team. I nodded and went to the bleachers. He blew his whistle after lining the balls up across the middle if the gym. All the guys and mabey one or two girls ran to get a ball before anyone on the other team could. They all ran back to opposite side of eachother. The guys started to whip them at one another. Fischbach's hair caught my eye as he threw the ball. It was very controlled. He hit a kid in the stomach. This bounced off and hit another kid in the sholder. Wow. Two at once. Seeing that I was okay with playing now, I stood up and walked to the team closest to me. Fischbah was now on the other team. I stood in the back next to a kid wearing a white mask. "Your Sean right?" He asked turning to me. "Yeah" I said with a heavy accent. I saw him smile from under his mask. I smiled too.

His name was Cry. We had a small conversation about how my first day was. "So if you have any question you can ask me!" Cry said. "In that case," I said turning my attention to Fischbach who had just gotten a girl out. "Who's Fischbach?" I said still staring. "Who? Oh Mark!" Cry said "Yeah thats Mark Fischbach. He is new here too. He came here last week." Mark was wearing a dark grey shirt and red shorts. They kinda went with his hair but the red of his hair was much more beautiful. "Whats he like?" I asked, Studying his features. "What?" Cry said confused "Mark, Whats he like as a person?" I said still studying. He would make a beautiful drawing. "Oh, well, he's really smart and stuff. We found out two days ago that he's a really good singer when Mrs. Andrew made him sing in Music. He's pritty athletic as you can tell." I could tell. Mark had a very Muscular Build for being 15.....well he should be 15 right? He was a 10th grader after all. "How old is he?" I asked Cry. "16." he responded blankly. "16?" I asked looking at him confused. "Yeah Jack, Like everyone here is 16." Cry said kinda laughing. "Im....Im 15.....Everone at My old school was 15 too...." I said quietly. "Oh, grades and ages must be different in Irland then huh?" Cry asked. "Yeah," I said "I guess so."

~Time skip~

We headed down to the locker room and got changed. We all waited by the door for the bell to ring. I took out my class schedule again. Oh good, I have french next. I put the paper back in my satchel as the bell rang. I followed my class mates to a different room then the ones we normally alternated through. It was a very clean room. I liked that.

There were different seating arrangements in this classroom so I just stood upfront, waiting for the teacher. I know French. Im good at it. Talk to her in French and mabey she'll be impressed and put you in the back of the class because you don't need to learn anymore. In my old school in Irland, they took foreign language very seriously. I knew French by heart. "Bonjour!" (Hello!) She said to the class. Oh god, here it goes. "You must be the new student no?" She said with a heavy french accent. I nodded. "And you're Irish correct?" I nodded.
"Maintenant, dites-moi , Savez-vous français?" (Now tell me, Do you know French?) She asked. Damn okay, don't worry all she asked is if you know french. She smiled thinking that I didnt and was about to talk when I took a deep breath and spoke. "salut! Mon nom est Sean McLoughlin ! Oui, je sais français. Il est comme langue seconde à moi! J'aime beaucoup ça! Oui , Irland est où je suis venu de mais ne me sous-estime pas Mlle...." (Hello! My name is Sean McLoughlin! Yes, I know French. It's like second language to me! I very much enjoy it! Yes, Irland is where I have come from but don't underestimate me Miss.....) I looked at her name tag, "Garretson." (same name in English as French) She and the whole class looked at me in awe. I just smiled at her. "Yes, um, well then. Very good um, Sean. Please just take a seat right there." She pointed to an empty seat in the back right next to.....Mark.

I followed her point as the whole classes eyes followed me. I sat down and glanced at Mark. I turned front as she started teaching us conversation starters in French. "Donc , vous savez alors français?" (So, You know french then?) I heard a wisper beside me. I turned to see Mark smiling at me. "Eh bien , euh .... oui" (Well, um....yes) I said blushing a bit. Why are you blushing???? Stop it!!! "C'est génial!" (Thats awesome!) He smiled and turned back front. He must like French. He said that me knowing it was awesome. He seemed very enthusiastic about it too. And he did just have a conversation with me French.

Hey guys! The story is going slow, I know but jsut hold  on. It will get interesting soon!!!
✨💚~Smooches~❤️✨