EMILY WILSON

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Geography class. First period. Boring. Or, maybe I'm just sleepy. Either way, I try to pay attention.

Anyhow, you don't want to hear about this class. Instead, a bit about me :

1. My name is Emily Wilson.

2. I plan to be a theoretical physicist.

3. My best friend is a cat named Mister. Nothing else, just Mister.

4. I am a senior in high school.

5. And finally, I own the world's largest collection of snowglobes. Look on page 33 of The Guildness Book Of World Records, under 'Krazy Knick-knacks', and there you'll find me, Emily Wilson, standing in front of only 3,589 of my snowglobes.

Anyway, back to class. You won't wanna miss this.

A woman, the principal, though I don't know much of her, walks in, a tall Asian boy following behind her.

"Mr. Carlton," she says in an urgent voice. "This is Grayson Perth, your new student."

"Fresh off the boat," whispers a kid behind me, just loud enough for nearly every other kid in the room to snicker.

Ughhh. I hate these people.

Anyhow, Grayson sits at the seat to my left elbow that has been empty since Ella Reed moved to California.

"Can I borrow a pencil?" He asks.

I nod and hand him one, turning to look at him.

My heart skips a beat. He's cute. Like, really cute.

"Grayson, why don't you chose someone to show you around?" Mr. Carlton asks as the principal exits the room.

Now, any normal boy would've chosen another boy, but I'm sure there's an exception for when all the other boys find racist jokes about you to be hilarious.

So, Grayson nods and points to me.

"Ah, wonderful. Emily is a great student. I'm sure she'll take care of you. Now, I'll call the office to get your schedules synched."

Later, I lead Grayson to our second period class. He hasn't said one single word.

"You don't talk a lot, do you?" I ask.

He turns to me, as if he didn't know that I could speak.

"Not here," he grumbles bitterly.

"Oh?" I raise my eyebrow. Selective mutism is fascinating.

"You heard that kid in there," he replies, crossing his arms.

"I did. I don't think it's funny, you know."

"Yeah, I noticed. That's why I picked you."

"So, where are you from?"

"Albuquerque. I got bullied back there, too. I've never heard a thing about Japan except that my grandma lived there."

"Oh. American born and bred, huh?" He nods.

"So, did you leave any friends behind in Albuquerque?"

He shakes his head. "No. I didn't have any friends. But, that's plenty about me. I don't know anything about you except your name."

"Oh, well, my best friend is my cat Mister, I collect snow globes-"

"Wait, that's why you look familiar! You hold a world record!" He exclaims, jumping in excitement.

"Yup, that's me."

"That's so cool! How did you get so many?"

"I buy them cheap in a pawn shop. Like, really cheap."

"Oh. What else were you going to say?"

"Well, I want to be a theoretical physicist."

"Oh. Cool. I have no clue what I want to do."

I glance at him in disbelief. "It's your senior year of high school."

"Yeah, so?"

"You've got this year and you're on your own. You've got to know."

"You know, everyone's always saying that. But I don't. That's if I want to be the greatest, most successful person in the world. But I don't want that. I want to be me."

"That's deep, man."

He laughs. "Yeah, I guess. Deep for a guy who'll probably work minimum wage at a McDonald's for the rest of his life."

"Ha. Now let's get to class."