Affect Effect

first

"we have a new transfer student, mitchell grassi. would you like to say anything?"

nobody in class looked up, new students weren't rare at their high school.

"it's mitch. mitchell is my father."

he burst out laughing.

"just kidding, my dad is named paul, plus he's dead."

scott glanced up from his textbook immediately, curious as to what kind of person would say something like that.

the boy was wearing all black, except for light pink nails.

scott smiled.

kirstie nudged him. "cute." she whispered.

scott hit her arm playfully, but grinned.

he was in fact cute, however that was obvious.

the only open seat in their classroom was one up from scott and to the right.

mitch sat down in the chair, and held his legs up to his chest to rest his head on his knees.

scott could see he was wearing black and grey timberlands, and you could see the faded stains which were clearly scrubbed meticulously by the white discoloration. 

scott decided that was important somehow.

kirstie tapped his shoulder. "pen." she mumbled. kirstie never said much.

scott nodded and rustled through his backpack until he fished out a blue pen and handed it to her.

as their class began, and mitch took out a sparkly pink pencil and a black notebook. scott couldn't hold back a grin, but looked back at the teacher and tried to focus on what she was saying.

it didn't work.

by the end of the class, scott had a few lines of scribbled notes and he wasn't sure if he was reading the right page in his textbook.

but he found it was worth it, he liked creepily looking at mitch.

he liked guessing about people.

he would only have that perspective one time, before he found out what they were really like.

and scott had a feeling mitch was important to remember, because somehow scott couldn't guess confidently.

he felt like mitch was somewhat of a a mystery, that he would have to study to find out. and he loved it.

kirstie flicked his forehead, and he realized the bell rang. he quickly stood up, and followed the crowd of people, ending up behind mitch's... behind.

"perv." kirstie muttered.

scott rolled his eyes, and walked with kirstie to their lockers.

"i want to invite him to lunch." scott began, when he saw he and kirstie were relatively isolated. "but will he think i'm moving it too soon? will he get freaked out? does it seem desperate or like i'm pitying him? or-"

kirstie paused from retrieving her history textbook and looked at him.

 "scott." she deadpanned.

"yeah?"

"movie."

kirstie knew him too well.

scott always tried to use a plot of a movie to make his life make sense.

some people believed in religion and fate, but scott liked to believe in movies in a way, follow the trope, track the pattern.

"right. in a movie i would awkwardly bump into him in the hall and one of us would drop our books and help the other pick them up."

kirstie shook her head.

"umm, he gets bullied and i come to his rescue?"

kirstie gave him a doubtful look.

"what?" scott asked.

"bullied?"

"with his nails, and the assholes in our school? of course he'll get bullied."

kirstie scrunched up her nose.

"ten bucks says it happens. borderline physical or worse." scott reached out his hand, and after a moment, kirstie nodded and shook it confidently.

they separated for their next classes, scott going to math and kirstie going to science. they met back together for lunch, and silently sat down at their regular table. they took out their lunch bags and ate slowly, waiting for mitch's entrance, to see who would win or lose their bet.

the pair soon spotted mitch slowly walking into the lunchroom, clearly scanning to see where he could sit, and soon enough, mitch was already cornered by eric.

"pay up." scott said.

kirstie held up her hand, so scott sighed and kept watching.

two of eric's friends soon came up behind him and closed in on mitch, who only looked slightly concerned.

they heard something about "fuckin fairy" and scott immediately turned to kirstie, who grumbled and handed him 10 dollars.

scott put the money in his pocket and rushed over, ready to come and rescue mitch, but mitch grabbed eric's arm and twisted it around his back, who yelled in pain.

"are- are you okay?" scott panted as he reached them.

mitch giggled at his words, and it was a sweet sound, unfitting for his current death grip on eric's arm.

"of course i am." he said, and let eric go, who was frozen in shock, and smiled at his friends who were retreating.

"um, i'm scott."

"i'm... mitchell."

"no, mitch."

he grinned. "you remembered."

the words slipped out before scott even realized it. "wanna sit with me and my friend kirstie?"

"sure."