"GOOD MORNING students, it's your principal mrs. kate speaking and i hope you had a good nights sleep and are having a wonderful morning so far--" her voice boomed throughout the speakers all over the school so that every student who wasn't in class and instead speeding through the halls like snow nieves to get to first period, knew they were late.

"oh my gosh, ma's gonna kill  me for being late on the first day," she mumbled to herself, dodging teachers or students who were also rushing to their classes the opposite side.

her friends being semi-responsible students were already in their respective first period classes and figured their friend would be bustling through the halls. in fact, the twins jasper and yvette who were in honors algebra II( a surprise to jasper who slept through most of honors algebra I), were cracking jokes about how snow was probably late because she was straightening her curly hair all morning. they figured after how many times she straightens it she would have at least perfected the action. but no, her desperate attempts to hide any signs of curly hair was her reason for being late and they had no idea why she even bothered.

snow's other friend adrienne was also snickering, as she caught a glimpse at her tiny silhouette through the window of the bio lab.

"--and before we go on to our usual morning announcements, i ask that everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance," the principal continued.

"oh crap!" snow, stretched her arms behind her and lifted her heavy book bag so she could sprint even faster.

the students who didn't care about their tardies watched her and rolled their eyes, "gosh, its really not that serious."

"yeah, and what the hell happened to her chin? did she get hurt running like that?" they laughed among themselves.

their mocking was unheard by snow who's the sound of her heartbeat filled her ears as she turned the corner of the hall.

she was almost there.

"i pledge allegiance to the flag," the school began.

a little more.

"and to the United States of America..."

yes! this hallway.

"and to the republic, for which it stands..."

snow abruptly stopped at the door. it was still open and luckily no one had seen her yet. she glanced at the door.

"oh my gosh, wrong end, why are you soo stupid?" she stomped her feet on the floor and turned to the other side of the hallways.

the teacher from room 325 stood his head out and crossed his arms, "excuse me young lady?"

snow gasped, "no sir. not you i was talking about me i don't even know you--'

"get. to. class."

he didn't have to tell her, she was sprinting down with just a few feet to go.

"with liberty and justice--"

snow skidded to a stop, "here!" in front of room 315.

every head turned to the winded 15 year old at the door, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf. her hair was a mess, and her uniform skirt was slightly askew. but she made it, barely. the rule was, you were very late if you get to class after the pledge, which means detention. but if you came once the mrs. kate began speaking, you were late with no detention.

mr. kilo, her first period biology teacher, let his hand over his heart fall and he pointed a finger at snow who's body had begun to take the effects of her running.

"you're late."

"y-yeah, i'm sorry--" she started, staring at her messed up shoes.

"the only person who you should be sorry to is yourself," mr. kilo corrected, imitating her subtle spanish accent. it usually goes unnoticed by most people but mr. kilo was attentive to detail and had big ears.

the students in their desks laughed and mocked the whole situation.

"ooh, he told you snow snow!" some student whose name she didn't feel like going through the files in her brain to find, stupidly said. well, maybe he wasn't stupid, but the nickname he, and the people she knew, called her was.

snow let out a sigh and finally decided to look up at her new first period of sophmore year.

that was a mistake.

her eyes instantly locked with a very handsome, familiar looking boy. not that no one here was familiar, because there was some familiar faces from last year, but this one was unforgettable. especially the matching band aid on his chin that he shared with snow. when he saw her, his eyes narrowed and he picked his head up from the table.

"anyways you're late so you didn't get to choose your seats for the first quarter of the year," mr. kilo started, his voice extra loud as the announcements were being made. he made his way to his desk from the front of the class where he had embarrassed poor snow and pulled out the seating chart.

oh no. snow thought, still having an eye battle with the basketball boy from yesterday. she could see from the corner of her eye the empty chair on his left. she lost her gaze to skim around the class and noticed another desk empty next to a girl she was acquaintances with. her eyes lit up but she still felt the daggers being thrown at her from the boy's eyes.

"oh mr. kilo this seat isn't empty by the way," her acquaintance pointed out , gesturing to her friends book bag.

snow bit her lip, no friend. what are you doing?!

mr. kilo looked up, "oh right she's in the bathroom."

from the corner of her eyes, she could see the boy's face in realization of what the next events would be.

"so, late snow snow or whatever your name is, i'll figure out during attendance," mr. kilo scribbled on his seating chart. "go sit next to that junior over there."

all heads turned to basketball boy. his head was down and the feeling of everyone's eyes on him made him slowly bring his head up. he wiped his scowl and turned it into a calm un-bothered look.

"ooh he's cute," a student whispered to her seat partner. the continued chatter of people drowned out the morning announcements.

"settle down class!" mr. kilo, crossed his arms and they obeyed.

when it was quiet, snow, who's back was killing her, crouched to the ground despite her heavy bookbag and held her stomach, feigning a tummy ache. "actually, sir, i think i need to go to the nurse. my stomach isn't really doing too well--"

"--oh go sit down!"

the class laughed and their eyes followed snow as she got up from the floor and dragged her feet to the back of the class.

she took a deep breathe before taking the empty seat next to basketball boy. she took off her bookbag and placed it on the floor to her right.

"great, now lets begin class. i'll take attendance later. everyone welcome to biology, i'm mr. kilo and i hope with your cooperation we can do some really fun labs and learn a lot. i hope you find some interest in this topic and enjoy having me first period," mr. kilo announced, pulling down the projector board. "i'm going to begin by explaining the..."

snow drowned out his voice, annoyed by the seating arrangement. her body mimicked her partner's, arms crossed, a scowl taking over their faces. they even had the matching bandaids on their chin.

snow internally gasped. they're gonna think we fought each other or something looking like this. ugh, i hate this! what is he even doing in my class? he's a junior! AND since when did he even go here??

"...for class  you'll need a binder and some dividers. if you have some paper with you and a pencil, i highly recommend writing done our class online code so you can access your homework and any future announcements i might make. i will be checking tonight to see that everyone has joined. it will be your first homework grade for the year," mr. kilos said, pointing to the class code on the board.

snow's ears perked up. i don't have my glasses on. they were tucked away in her bookbag.

her hand jerked up, almost startling basketball boy. he gave her a weird look, but sitll not looking directly at her.

"sir, i can't see the board, can i possibly move up," snow asked sweetly. she could hear her possibly ex seat partner scoff. she knew she couldn't ask to change seats immediately. she had to make mr. kilo offer to change her seat.

mr. kilo almost sighed at the sound of her voice, "i didn't even call on you yet snow snow, but if you can't see it might be best to move you permanently--"

"wait, snow," her acquaintance interrupted, a confused look on her face, "what happened to your glasses?"

snow's heart drop. gosh, i really thought we were friends.

mr. kilo crossed his arms, "you have glasses?"

a nervous laugh escaped snow's lips before she faked a stupid look, "oh my gosh, you're right! i forgot. it's just cause this summer i was soo used to them being off because i didn't really do much reading so i guess i forgot that they even exists on my face so..."

"lord, help me."

"i-i'll just put them on, don't mind me," snow muttered as the attention was turned back to the board.

a sigh left her lips as she unzipped the last pocket of her purple bookbag and took our her glasses case. she placed them on the table and also got out one of her binders and her pencil pouch out of the largest pocket.

she opened the case and feeling awkward with basketball boy just sitting there next to her, she carefully slipped on her black glasses. the world was much clearer and so a smile secretly creeped its way to her face when she realized the boy who initially called her "snow snow" as a result of her redundant first and last name, was actually samuel rogers. her first ever highschool crush. she doesn't like him anymore, ever since he started making fun of her name.

realizing she was literally smiling like the idiot she was, she scrambled to open to purple binder she decorated with cloud stickers.

what? its cute.

she quickly scribbled down the code as well as the teacher's school email as she heard rustling beside her. basketball boy was searching his book bag. she decided to ignore it.

it stop shuffling and let out a huff. his arms were crossed and there was nothing on his table. no utensils no paper no anything.

when snow had finished writing, she awkwardly put her pencil down, unsure of whether she should stare at the board or her paper. she tried practicing both to figure out which position she liked best to be in for the rest of the period so she could ignore the boy but he suddenly tapped on her paper to get her attention.

she held her breathe.

"you have a pencil?"

he wants a thingamabob? sure, i've got plenty.

she fished out another pencil from her pouch and because she was still annoyed about everything, and wanted to seem "cool", made the stupid decision to "toss" her pencil towards him.

instead it went flying to the floor next to him.

oh my gosh, i'm such an idiot. snow shut her eyes in an attempt to stop the laughter of embarrassment from bubbling out of her. i wish i can just disown myself.

the boy was almost speechless but mr. kilo in the front of the class crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, "ms. snow snow what are you doing disturbing the class? is this going to be a problem? you know what let me do attendance so i can find out your real name."

the class was laughing, telling each other how they never thought "lil' snow snow" could be so funny. oh, how she wanted to slap them all. sadly she can't.

snow opened her eyes and raised her hand frantically, "no sir i'm not going to be a problem!" but he wasn't listening.

basketball boy chuckled under his breathe, "you have such bad aim."

her heart skipped a beat at his laugh as if it was the most scarist thing she ever heard and for the first time since she sat down, she looked at him. with stormy eyes, of course.

his dimply smile was still there as he shook his head at her, his face look cute as a puppy to snow but she wasn't swooning over his looks. the fact that he was so handsome when he smiled and when he scowled actually made her frustrated. she felt there was no way she could win an argument to someone who looked so angelic compared to her.

how could his dark tousled hair, chiseled jaw line, and small plump pink lips, paired with his strong dark eyes that always seemed to be either angry or calm compare to her? her lips weren't nearly as plump instead a thin line, her natural hair without love and her eyes had lost its original wideness since she started using glasses.

at least she had her pearly whites. maybe if she smiled, she could blind mr. kilo and escape without him knowing.

nah, don't even try it, snow. she thought. instead she huffed and crossed her arms, scowling her thin lips to basketball boy.

"shut up," she said.

he rolled his eyes and mimicked her, crossed his arms, "that's a little rude, don't you think? we don't even know each other like that."

"rude is not apologizing for hitting me with a basketball," she shot back, eyes rolling to the depts of her eyelids.

he cocked his head as he turned his body to face her, "did you forget you did the same thing?" he pointed to his bandaid, "and you did it intentionally.  and you called my di--"

"shhhh the teacher's calling out attendance," she hushed him and turned her body away from him. her heart was racing with adrenaline. her timidness she showed at first from yesterday was gone. she didn't care about what he thought anymore after he saw her go almost full on crazy.

but she could still feel the embarrassment in her cheeks. she still could not believe she had said what she said to them. hurting their masculinity like that.

oh well, he called me a little girl so.

"okay next..snow nieves? oh so your name really is snow and nieves is basically spanish for snow, right?" mr. kilos nodded like he was impressed with himself.

snow, embarrassed for the gillianth time in two days, said sarcastically, "yes, mr. kilos. i know its so funny...hahah."

she put her head down on the table, letting her hair cover her entire head. "i know what you're thinking, 'oh my gosh why is her name literally snow to the second power, like who was dumb enough to name you that?' so go ahead and make fun all you want. no one here has more weirder name than me here."

there a was a silence and snow was sure basketball boy and his handsome face would start throwing insults like he threw that ball at here.

instead, he scoffed, "you have no reason to be complaining. i'm one of the very few asians here and my name is hwang hyunjin. you know how many idiots have called me ching chong?."

snow frowned and picked herself up, not bothering to fix her mess of hair and looked at the basketball boy known has hwang hyunjin in the eyes, "that's so rude. ugh, people are so annoying. but your name probably means something cool in korean and it's accepted your people. i'm a weather."

hyunjin was taken aback by her knowledge of his origin but quickly let it go.

snow shook her head, "don't think just because we have weird names means i forgive you for scarring my face. i haven't heard an apology yet!"

basketball boy rolled his eyes again, turning his body away from her to face the board,"and i'm not giving one. i haven't heard you apologizing either."

"you first," snow turned away as well, facing the board.

basketball boy, shook his head and began to smirk, decided to be an instigator, "you first," he dared.

she shook her head, "no you first."

"you."

"you."

"no, you."

"okay let's stop," snow threw her hands in the air, annoyed.

"okay then you stop first," he shrugged.

snow slammed her fists on the table, "you're so erghh—mr. kilo! can i go to the bathroom?"

___

"UGH he's so annoying," snow scowled, squishing her ketchup packet in her hand. "like i wish i knew he came to our schools. i could have been prepared."

she had survived seconds third and fourth period without any sight of hwang hyunjin and finally was sharing a "class" with all her friends: lunch.

and this meant ranting time. who do you hate? who do you love? so you can imagine snow had some words to say.

there was a silence between her friends as they stared at her from across the lunch table with semi-sympathetic looks.

"um...guys," she started, dropping her packet, "why do you look like that?"

adrienne pinched yvette's shoulder.

"ow! you tell her not me," she hissed, chucking a fry at her.

jasper slapped his sister's other arm. "stop throwing stuff the security guard is watching you!"

yvette rolled her eyes, "you know as well as i do that the security guards do not care so, brother, you better give me a better reason as to why you slapped me or i will literally fight you." her stormy hazel eyes made its way to her brother's.

adrienne huffed, wiping the salt from her uniform shirt.

"guys!" snow exclaimed. "i do not understand."

jasper growled at his sister before adrienne pulled the two apart with her plastic spork.

"be careful guys, i can really hurt you with it," adrienne threatened.

the twins slowly turned away from each other, mostly surprised their most innocent friend was threatening them.

snow shot an encouraging grin to her friend, "wow, you go girl." she began to clap.

the twins slowly joined in and surrounding tables with nothing better to do soon joined in as well. adrienne's face grew pink.

"you guys!"

"oh my gosh, i'm such an influencer," snow joked with a high pitched voice, looking around at all the clapping students in the lunch room who had no idea why they were clapping.

jasper choked on his fries, "stop making jokes snow, they aren't funny."

"but you're face is," snow retorted, yvette snorted.

"yvette don't even laugh, you would look just like me if you weren't a girl," jasper rolled his eyes.

adrienne chuckled, "i think you're funny snow." jasper gasped and shook his head at her.

snow smiling at her amazing friends finally remember what this was all about in the first place: basketball boy.

"guys! i know what you guys are doing. trying to distract me from what i was talking about," she narrowed her eyes at her and picked up her spork, hoping to be as intimidating as adrienne was. "what were you guys trying not to tell me?"

after some silence, jasper finally broke the silence.

"we kind of knew those guys were from this school. we remembered him and a few of his friends were on the basketball team the same year as my cousin when he graduated last year and we didn't tell you because we thought it would be best you figured it out yourself or something. honestly i don't even know, i wasn't paying attention."

snow gasped, "guys do you know how much embarrassment i just went through this morning? don't you think as friends you would at least have told me so i could prepare myself. let's not forget what i did to him. and you just said his friends?" snow put her hand on her heart, "they were really scary actually, what if they want to crush me? what if he tells them i go to the school—oh my gosh what if they already know?"

"then you're dead," jasper shrugged.

"why did i have to pretend to have some guts and talk to them. if i just ignored them, none of this would have happened," snow pouted. adrienne reaches across the table and patted her hand. "thank you adri, i appreaciate it."

yvette shrugged, "it's really not that big a deal. just ignore him. you both did some stuff you regret and oh well. if you want to apologize go ahead maybe you'll be friends. but maybe not but who cares anyways. what do some juniors want with a sophomore, ya know? they might even forget."

it's so like yvette to have that mentality. it really brings snow into perspective. she may not have an actual issue at all. it's just first period, that she knows of. all she has to do is ignore him and avoid him...kinda.

snow slowly nodded then lay her head on the palm of her hand, elbow leaning on the table. her fingers rubbed against her bandaid.

"thanks guys," she flashed them a smile, one she was finally confident of wearing considering she had horrible teeth growing up and had gotten braces early on. but all the hurt went to some really nice pearly whites and she's trying to get on her way to a complete self-love.

well trying anyways, her hair is still a problem for her and won't believe anyone who tells her otherwise.

"you should get your band-aid changed," yvette pointed out, sticking out her tongue in disgust.

adrienne looked up from her food and agreed. "i can throw out your food for you while you go to the nurse. the period is almost over so hurry."

snow thanked them and grabbed her book bag. she stepped out of the lunch table and made her way to the lunch doors, the monitor stepped in front of her and asked where she was going.

"can i go to the nurse? i have to change my bandaid," snow asked, avoiding the lady's strong gaze.

"be quick, the period is almost over."

"thank you," snow said, and whizzed past her and made two lefts that would lead her to a large hallway that contained all the offices. at the end was the nurses. it was also one of the largest besides the guidance counselor's for its beds and equipment.

snow began humming and stared at her shoes as she walked. gosh my shoes are almost ruined because of me. idiot.

she shrugged and looked up when she finally reached the nurse's office. the nurse wasn't there. to her right was the room with the nurse's desk and files and to the left was a table where the kids signed in. down the hall were a few rooms, a single bathroom, and a little kitchen area.

maybe she's in one of the rooms with a student. i'll just wait.

a voiced startled snow as she sat down on one of the waiting chairs.

"...so just make sure to put some ointment on it every now and then so it can properly heal. don't forget these bandaids. we're almost running out so you're lucky i got some and didn't forget to change them regularly," the nurse said, making her way out of one of the rooms with a student following behind her. she noticed snow from a distance with her bandaid and cracked a smile. "oh hello there."

snow quickly stood up and greeted the nurse with a smile. "hi..."

"you need some more bandaids?" the nurse asked, hands on her hips. the student behind her peeked out.

hyunjin.

"uh...actually—"

"don't worry, honey, i'll go find some for you. looks like everybody's so clumsy in the summer," she chuckled and urged hyunjin to go on ahead of her so she could go back to the room.

hyunjin made his way to where snow was, fiddling with her fingers and avoiding his gaze. his jaw was clenched, still kind of annoyed at the whole situation.

snow could feel her face threatening to burn. in embarrassment or in annoyance she didn't know. she had the feeling to break the silence with something either witty or smart but she knew she would probably end up saying it wrong and she mentioned minutes ago how she would try to ignore the situation and not bother adding to the fire.

but she just needed to add a little more flame to this fire.

snow cleared her throat after waiting for the red to disappear, "so...you told the nurse you got that scratch because you were clumsy?"

hyunjin rolled his eyes but remained silence. snow's eyes lit up as she looked at him. yes! he's triggered.

"i get it, you were embarrassed that a 'little girl' like me beat you and your buddies up. i understand completely," snow nodded, crossing her right leg of the other arrogantly. she wasn't actually this confident but she sure liked pretending she was.

he hid a chuckle.

snow's eyebrows furrowed. um, that's not supposed to be funny. so she kicked it up a notch.

"but i have no problem telling people the truth 'cause if i did people will just try to find you and beat you up because of what you did to a poor little girl," snow said, suddenly realizing she has the advantage.

i'm a genius.

"oh my gosh, hyunjin i can literally make you do whatever i want," snow gasped.

hyunjin shifted his position and began to look alarmed, "um...you better not."

snow let out an embarrassing giggle, "ooh! this is my revenge."

running his empty hand through his hair he stepped closer to her seat and tried to make eye contact with her but she was busy looking anywhere else and thinking about her master plan.

thoughts were flooding through her brain of all the peace this would bring. she wouldn't have to worry about avoiding everything or what hyunjin and his friends will do because she had leverage over him.

it made perfect, kinda sense.

he didn't want that especially since he preferred he had leverage over her and not the other way around.

hyunjin in his semi-panic state realized he needed to do something to stop her. he let out a sigh that said thank GOD, i'm handsome. time to woo.

the crazy girl in front of him suddenly stood up, vocalizing her thoughts and making big hand gestures as she stared into the unknown. her gibberish made her look like she was talking to ghosts.

without a second thought, hyunjin took another step closer to snow, crossing his arms making his appearance even taller. he cocked his head to the side as she slowly looked up at him, strands of his dark hair fell over his eyes. his plump lips formed a smirk.

snow furrowed her brows, not liking the closeness of their bodies, "um..what are you doing?"

hyunjin's brain stopped for a second. oh my gosh, i didn't even think this through.

he shrugged, trying to keep his cool. then with a change in tone of his voice he said, "well, i just realized that all this fighting is so unnecessary, snow snow"- he internally cringed-"and i just wanted to say i'm...sorry for hurting you the way i did."

the immediate fawning from snow was definitely not what he expected. it was his goal, but not his expectations. in fact, it was scary.

she let out a giggle and slapped his chest playfully, making him swat her hand away. "okay! i forgive you!" she squeaked.

what the hell is wrong with her.

"are you serious--" he began.

"--no, you idiot!" she exclaimed, back to her scowl and stormy brown eyes. she slapped his chest, still not understanding they were not close enough to be touching like that but it did not matter to her anymore since he was willing to try to "seduce" her into stopping her evil plan. "i can't believe you tried to seduce me. do you really think that would work? yeah i know, you're cute or whatever but you made me even more angrier. i did not think i could be this annoyed with someone, especially since  yesterday i was literally scared of you, but now i don't care. and you know what bothers me even more? you called me snow snow. ugh i think i'm gonna throw up i-"

"okay honey, it took a while but i'm back with more...." the nurse exited the storage room and made her way towards them until she looked at the two who were a little too close to each other.

snow's eyes widened and she pushed hyunjin away from her. he nearly tripped over the chair behind him.

oh my gosh, i will kill her, he thought.

he's dead, she thought.

"are you two alright?" the nurse kindly asked.

snow enthusiastically piped up to avoid any weird explanation he might try to give, "of course miss! you know i just realized i don't actually need a bandaid, see," with shaking hands from the adrenaline of seconds ago, she ripped her band aid off her chin, revealing a scab with dried blood.

the excruciating pain could not be seen in her face, for she had channeled it all into her fists.

"oof, even i felt that," hyunjin muttered.

"me too," the nurse, shook her head in embarassment for poor snow.

"shut up hyunjin," snow gritted through her teeth, as a tear threatened to fall down her face from the pain.

"honey, let me get you some--" the nurse began but she was interrupted by snow's bumping into the door frame behind her as she tried to slowly escape.

hyunjin bit his lip to prevent himself from laughing.

"it's okay. i'm fine miss," snow offered her a nervous smile, "well bye." and with that snow stepped out of the nurse's office and into the halls going wherever her feet would take her.

she ended up in the halls near one of the first floor bathrooms. she stepped into the bathroom and into a stall, ignoring the fact that the lock didn't work. she let out the breathe she had been holding and her face turned bright red as she recalled the events of a minute ago.

hyunjin's seducing skills, her bloody scab, and her embarrassing attempt at an escape. could she be any more crazy?

yes you can snow because the day is not even over yet.

—