I was sitting down on the small bench running around the edge of the ship. The sun had finally fallen beneath the waves, and we were out of sight of the dock. It was colder out on the water after dark. I shivered a bit, but tried to remain strong. I had already made a first impression as a sissy once this week, and I really didn't need to do it again.

I noticed Isaac, the kind boy who liked art, sitting a few feet away. He seemed fairly comfortable, but a little lonely. Most boys had already grouped up and began talking amongst themselves; all except for me and him. I stared, strongly debating whether I should start a conversation. I'm horribly awkward at the best of times: at the worst of times I'm little better than a metaphorical octopus thrown into a crowded shopping mall and told to walk.

I fought internally with myself for several more minutes, until he looked up and noticed my staring. I quickly looked away, but it was no use. He smiled, stood up, walked the few feet, and sat next to me. I shoved my hands into my pockets. "Uh, sorry for staring at you. I didn't mean it, honestly."

"Oh," Isaac said amiably, "I don't mind. And I took it as an invitation to join you, if that's ok."

"Yeah," I responded dumbly. I cleared my throat. "Yeah you're totally fine."

There was a moment of silence as we sat. Then he spoke. "It's funny, you know, how people are actually talking because we weren't allowed to bring our phones. Otherwise I doubt you'd hear a single word this entire boat trip."

"Well, we were allowed to take our phones," I said, "they just said there would be no service and no outlets at the school so there's no point." Of course you idiot, he already knew that, and you just contradicted someone you've only been talking to for three minutes. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But he laughed good-naturedly. "Yeah, I know. It's still cool."

I nodded. Say something Ravi...anything..."I don't know, I like my phone because when I'm with a group of people, I don't know, I can sort of...hide behind it, you know? Like so I don't have to talk to people because I'm really awkward and...yeah."

I inwardly facepalmed. You IDIOT Ravi, you made it worse. You made it sound like you didn't want to talk to him. I sighed. I'm hopeless.

But Isaac nodded seriously. "That makes a lot of sense, actually. I feel like that's a more plausible reason as to why people are on their phones a lot in public, as opposed to the theory that everyone is just self absorbed."

I nodded. This was borderline too deep for me, but I didn't want to wreck a possible friendship. For a few moments we sat in silence, only listening to the lapping of the waves and the faint humming of the ship. I bit my lip. This is your cue to say something...

But luckily--or unluckily--someone saved me from the awkward moment.

"So, Ravioli," Deynan the snickering boy said, plopping down next to me, "tell me more about your name. Are you Italian?"

I turned to him, annoyance breaking me out of my usual shell. "Don't you have something better to do?"

He shrugged. "I was talking to nerdy Spencer of there but he kept telling me to get lost, so I got bored."

I narrowed my eyes. "If I tell you to get lost, will you leave?"

He shrugged again. "Probably not."

I rolled my eyes. "Wonderful," I muttered.

"So, about your name..."

I groaned inwardly. "If you're really stupid enough to think I'm Italian because you think it sounds like a pasta, why have you passed third grade? And I already told you, you're pronouncing the vowel wrong."

He laughed. "You're funny, Ravioli, I like you."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, if it INTERESTS you to know, I'm Indian."

"Oh." He paused. "Like with the tomahawks and feathered headdresses?"

"No," I said tautly, my annoyance growing, "like from the country, India. Those are Native Americans." This guy was really starting to get on my nerves. How stupid can you be?

Then he burst into laughter. "I know that, idiot, I'm messing with you!" He laughed harder. "Wow, you're stupid."

I didn't know whether to be embarrassed, irritated, or furious, so I settled on all.

Then I pushed them away. I shouldn't react. That's what he wanted. Or at least that's what my mom said.

"Hey, I know you," Deynan said, finally noticing Isaac. "Well, I don't KNOW you, but I know of you. Isiah or something."

"Isaac," he responded calmly, "but close enough."

Deynan raised his eyebrows. "Cool stuff. I'm Deynan. Deynan Soldano. Deynan like the last name, Soldano like the guitar amp."

"Your first name is a last name?" I said, raising my eyebrows. "And you're making fun of mine?"

"Yup," Deynan said, putting his hands behind his head and reclining backwards. I sat, stumped on how to respond to that.

"Well," Isaac said, "as long as we're sharing last names, I'm Isaac Tretter."

"Ravi Jindal," I muttered.

"What kind of last name is--"

"Shut up, Deynan."

He grinned. "I think we're going to get along just fine."

"I have cause to disagree with that statement," I said flatly.

"Alright boys," Dr. Smith said loudly, his voice ringing out across the boat, "this will be a rather long boat ride so I suggest you get some sleep."

"Yes, I was waiting for someone to say that!" Deynan exclaimed.

"You don't need someone's permission to sleep," I said.

He shrugged. "Eh." He stood up and wandered around to find his own space.

"Well," Isaac said after a moment, "he was a character."

I nodded. "I'm not sure what he was trying to achieve..."

Isaac shrugged. "He may be bored."

"Funny way of entertaining himself," I muttered.

Isaac nodded. "Some people are like that I guess." He stood up. "Well, I'm exhausted, so I'm going to go try and sleep a bit. You should too, you look a little run down."

I nodded. "Ok. Thanks." He walked away and lay down on the ground a bit further away.

I awkwardly got up from the bench and looked around. Where to sleep, where to sleep...Eventually, I settled for wedging myself under the bench. Not exactly spacious, but strangely cozy.

And it was strategically advantageous if I were to be attacked by a certain Deynan Soldano in the middle of the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The mirror shone gray light. Fog, thick blankets of it, filled the air and trickling into every pore of anything that happens to pass its way. It gives a sense of foreboding, a warning to turn back. But as it slowly drifted apart, I could see the secret it was hiding.

A huge, sprawling gray structure, that covers an entire island.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up to gray. At first I thought it was just the dim light from being under the bench, but when I looked side to side...I couldn't see a thing. Black wall in one direction, gray the other. I squirmed to move my arm out into into the gray. The air was damp..was that...fog?

I squirmed out of my little hiding spot, stretching my sore muscles for a moment, before freezing: because I couldn't see anything. Literally, everything around me was completely, utterly, gray. I was inside a cloud. Actually inside a cloud.

I heard shouts of alarm ring out across the boat as the other boys began to wake up.

"Don't be alarmed," Dr. Smith said calmly, "as you can see, we are going through a bit of fog."

"A bit? This is like a freaking ocean in the air!" Liam yelled. Well, it sounded like Liam. I THINK it sounded like Liam. I hadn't really heard him talk much. But I did remember that he was loud.

"Maybe we went under the sea and it's not an ocean in the air at all, it's just the ocean," Isaac mused somewhere off to my right.

But something else was bugging me. "How come we all woke up at the same time?" I yelled.

The ship was silent.

"Oh," Dr. Smith said breezily, "the fog is designed to wake you up so we don't have any intruders that drifted in while they were asleep."

The silence thickened. Maybe we weren't the insane ones, maybe that was just Dr. Smith. Fog can't be designed to wake you up. It doesn't work that way.

"Hey," Deynan said suddenly, "did you tell us to go to sleep so we would wake up all freaked out?"

I could practically hear the grin in Dr. Smith's voice. "Well, at this point, it's tradition, you see...but I will say, the reactions are priceless."

Deynan muttered some choice words.

"But boys," he continued, "gather at the front of the ship! You are about to see your first glimpse of your new home!"

We trudged towards the front of the boat, still waking up and a little wary.

Then I noticed a breach in the fog ahead.

It seemed to be shifting, moving apart. The other boys, now fully engaged, clambered to have a better view.

Then the fog parted and there was a fortress. A gray stone fortress that covered an entire island (that was, admittedly, rather small for an island).

"Well boys," Dr. Smith said, clapping his hands together, "welcome to Dr. Smith's--and that's me by the way--School For Boys."

"Treating insanity since 1971," Deynan muttered.