Chapter Three (Daimonas)

I've encountered vampires and terrorists and needles and darkness and Stephen King movies.

But none of them were as terrifying as school.

The building was gigantic with hundreds of classrooms and other rooms and thousands of students, or so it seemed. There were just way too many people around and they kept bumping and shoving into each other. I hated it whenever someone bumped my shoulder or passed in front of me or behind me, especially. It was so loud too. People were shouting and laughing, chattering constantly whether to be people right next to them or on their cell phones.

The teachers just walked around in silence, completely ignoring the students. A couple would stop and high five a student for something I didn't know about.

I turned around a corner, hoping it would lead me to the school office, but I ended up slamming into someone and yelped, leaping back sharply. I scrambled, touching the front of my chest to make sure someone hadn't shot me or stabbed me or something else horrible. When I realized I was okay, I looked up to see a guy picking up a couple books and skateboard from the floor.

He was really tall with lean muscles. He wore a black tank top under a black jean jacket with matching jeans with holes in the knees. His hair was dyed black and cut to about his shoulders, a small braid done near his left ear, but his eyes... they were such an eerie color. They were like swirling pools of mercury. He was really pretty. I couldn't stop staring.

"Uhm, you okay?" He asked, studying me curiously. I blinked, realizing he was talking to me. What do I say? I'm okay. Yeah, duh.

"I'm okay." I replied uncomfortably. He frowned, cocking his head to study me. It was making me nervous, so I cleared my throat, remembering that I was supposed to go to the office place first to get my schedule.

"U-Uhm... Do you know where the office is?" I asked. He stared at me quietly for a moment longer, then nodded.

"Here, I'll take you there. I gotta go there anyway to pick up a detention slip." He told me. I frowned, remembering the word detention from the shows and movies I'd watched about high school, but detention was a bad thing.

"Why do you have detention?" I asked as he walked down the hallway. I was amazed at the way some people actually moved out of his way quickly to avoid him. The more I stared at him, the more I realized why I was completely enchanted by him.

He wasn't human.

He was something else, but it was something I hadn't met before, so I couldn't figure it out. He wasn't a vampire or a merman or another demon. He wasn't a werewolf either.

"Skateboarding in the halls," He admitted sheepishly, reaching up to brush his bangs out of his face, but they only fell back into place again as he hefted his skateboard under his arm tightly, "They didn't appreciate me grinding the rails in the stairwells... So, if you don't know where the office is, you must be new, huh?"

"Yess." I replied, then paused to bite my lip in embarrassment. I was trying so hard to keep the lisp out of my voice, but it tended to happen whenever I was nervous or uneasy about something. The guy didn't say anything about it, though, just smiled as we kept walking for what seemed like forever before we reached a large office with glass walls. We went inside and I was amazed by how quiet it was inside compared to the loudness outside.

"I want to stay here." I murmured, looking around the room. The guy gave me a weird look, then went to the desk where an old lady was sitting with her curly white hair brought back with a flowery headband. She looked up, disgusted when she saw the guy.

"Here again, Mr. Kavanaugh? This is the second time this week. One more and we'll be forced to call your parents." She said, making Mr. Kavanaugh shrug as he took a pink slip from the old lady and wadded it up into his pocket. I gave him a curious stare before he gestured for me to come forward, which I did, and the old lady's expression softened.

"You must be Daimonas. Your father called this morning to let us know you were starting today. We have your schedule in the back, just wait here." She said, getting up and leaving me alone with Mr. Kavanaugh, who cocked his head to look at me.

"Your name is Daimonas? Isn't that demon in Latin?" He asked dryly. I scrunched up my nose.

"It's Greek. And yes, that's my name. It's better than Mr. Kava-whatever." I replied. Mr. Kavanaugh laughed, leaning on the desk to look at me with twinkling silver eyes.

"My name isn't Mr. Kava-whatever. It's Starling. Starling Kavanaugh." He answered. I blinked, wondering why the name sounded so familiar, but I couldn't place it, so I just shrugged, feeling uncomfortable and a little stupid for thinking his name was actually Mr. Kava-whatever. I was quiet and so was Starling before he pushed off the desk as the old lady was coming back with a few papers. She handed them to me along with four books, making me wince as she put them in my arms, as if I could actually carry all of them!

They were so heavy! One had a bunch of numbers on it, so I was guessing it was some kind of math book. The other had pictures of old people, which meant it had to be history. The other two confused me too much because they had both, so I just stood there helplessly as the old lady handed me my schedule on top of the books in my arms that were beginning to ache from holding the books. She didn't seem to care, though, and sat back down and went right back to typing.

"Here," Starling said, taking the first two books and making the load much lighter, "I can take you to your first class if you want." I looked at him, surprised.

"You will?" I asked. He nodded with a smile and I sighed in relief as we left the office and headed down the hallway to where my locker was first, because I should probably put some of my books away instead of taking them all to class.

"You're pretty nice, whatever you are." I said after a while. Starling stopped abruptly, making me stop too, looking at him in confusion to see him staring at me. I didn't like the way he was looking at me like I had done something wrong, so I looked down at my feet.

"Sorry. I don't know what I said, but sorry." I muttered. Starling was quiet for a while, then shook his head and offered me a smile.

"It's fine. I was just... kind of surprised. How did you know?" He asked. I looked up, surprised that he was so open about not being human. I waited for the humans around us to catch on and get alarmed, but they completely ignored us as they stuck to their own conversations and agendas. I looked at Starling again, who was staring at me intently. I could feel heat creeping up into my cheeks.

"Uhm, I don't know. I just know when people are different, I guess." I admitted, shrugging. Starling smiled a little more at that, then nodded.

"I get it." He answered understandingly and we continued down the hallway in silence now. I was uncomfortable because I still didn't know what Starling was, and he didn't tell me, which meant maybe he didn't want me to know? But I wanted to know.

"What are you?" I asked as we stopped by my locker and Starling had to put my combination in because I had no idea how to work the locker things. Starling paused, then jerked up on a metal piece that opened my locker, which was totally empty inside, except for a pen with the school's name on it. He leaned back so I could put a couple of my books away, leaving me with one. I stood up to look at Starling, waiting for him to answer me, but he was staring at me funny. I couldn't figure out what kind of look it was. It was very vaguely familiar, but a part of me didn't want to dig any deeper.

"Starling?" I asked. He blinked, snapping out of his daze. He smiled.

"Sorry. You're really pretty. I used to have blonde hair almost like yours," He said, reaching out to brush the bangs out of my face, sending a shiver of something foreign through me, "Anyway, I'm a species on the verge of extinction, so I kinda don't like giving myself away. Maybe I'll tell you some other time. And you can tell me what you are? Because you don't smell like anything I've come in contact with before either." I just nodded quietly. He smiled and led me down the hallway toward the classrooms. We were mostly quiet, but Starling seemed to know a lot of the students because he would nod and smile at them, wave at a few teachers even. He seemed kind of popular, but he wasn't the bad kind of popular I saw on the movies where they slammed me people in the lockers or hit them.

Starling seemed very gentle and polite. I liked him. I wanted to ask him to be my friend, but we just met and he probably thought I was a little weird... Although, he did say he'd telling me what he was some other time, which meant he wouldn't mind talking to me again. That thought made me giddy for some reason.

"Here we are, English A." Starling said, gesturing to the classroom. I hesitated, peering inside, only to see like twenty or thirty people inside. I stiffened and quickly ducked away, making Starling look at me curiously.

"You okay?" He asked. I shook my head, nibbling my lower lip.

"This was a big mistake," I managed, "I shouldn't have come here." Starling looked confused, tilting his head.

"What'd you mean? What's wrong?" He asked, looking into the classroom, then back at me. I didn't want to tell him that I hadn't been around that many people before. It was just way too many and I didn't want to be in front of all of them. I didn't want them to see me or try to talk to me or anything. I wanted to go back home and hide in my blankets and have Xed make me lunch, something with peanut butter.

"Daimonas, do you have social anxiety?" Starling asked after a while. I looked at him confused.

"I don't know what that means." I replied. Starling's expression softened and he relaxed.

"Social anxiety. It basically means you don't do well around people. You don't know how to talk to them very well and they make you nervous."

"Then I have that," I replied, then paused to look at him, alarmed, "That won't kill me will it? Cuz, I saw a movie about something called cancer and it killed people and I don't wanna die after everything I did to get here." Starling blinked, then smiled and shook his head.

"No, it's not like cancer at all. Social anxiety can be cured, so long as you try talking to people. There are plenty of nice people who'll be interested in talking to you. Just go in, find a seat, and sit down. You'll be fine. I'll come pick you up after this class and walk you to your next one. Is that okay?" He asked. I liked that idea. Then I wouldn't be alone all the time, so I nodded and Starling smiled, pleased.

"Then I'll see you after class, Daimonas." He said, then gave me a wave and walked off into the crowd of people, leaving me to stand there in the doorway. A few students were trying to get in past me, so I just quickly went inside, looking around nervously. Most people weren't paying attention and just talking and chattering. I swallowed hard and went to the teacher's desk nervously. He was typing quickly on his computer before he noticed me.

"Can I help you?" He asked, squinting. I chewed my lower lip, debating whether to take off after Starling and just have him walk me home, but he said if I talked to people, I could cure social whatever he called it. So I just needed to talk to people. I took a deep breath.

"I'm new." I stated, relieved that it came out sounding normal. I did it! Wait until I tell Starling! He'll be happy, I hope. The teacher cocked his head at me, then nodded, smiling now.

"Right, of course. Principal Connor told me about you. My name is Mr. Ryan." He greeted, holding his hand out. I'd seen people do that to Newell before. I was supposed to take it and move it up and down. It was a weird greeting I didn't understand, but I shook his head a bit slowly, trying to get a feel for it. Mr. Ryan gave me an odd look, which made me realize I probably did it wrong, but he didn't say anything about it as he gestured to the class.

"You can pick any seat you'd like. You can just take notes today since you're new and I'll give you the book that we're currently studying." He said, then went to a cabinet behind his desk and took out a book labeled Lord of the Flies with a funny picture of a fat boy and a big bug on the front. I took it and opened it up as the teacher wrote down that I had this particular book. The words were difficult, I realized nervously. I didn't know what all of them meant, but I didn't tell Mr. Ryan that. He'd think I was stupid, so I just nodded and went to find an empty seat.

The only empty seat was, thankfully, in the back near two girls who were talking in hushed tones. They were both different from the other students, who were all dressed in light or bright colors. These two were dressed in lots of black.

The first one had longish black hair with a bit of a light brown near the top, but only in one area. Her dark eyes were outlined thick with black. Her nose was pierced with some half ring in the middle, and so was her tongue with a little diamond thing. She wore a black sweater that showed her shoulders and matching jeans with safety pins up the sides.

The second girl was a little smaller with dark hair cut just under her shoulders, her bangs swept heavily across her face and almost hiding her dark eyes that were also outlined in black, but she didn't wear nearly as much make up as the first girl. She was wearing a black shirt with a penguin on the front, a pair of really bright green skinny jeans, and a weird green back pack of some kind of dog alien thing.

I hesitantly sat down, waiting to see if they'd get mad at me, but thankfully they didn't. I set my stuff down, then opened up the little Lord of the Flies book again to try and read it, but I really had no idea what it said and I felt a little panicky. I thought learning my ABCs and repeating the words from the cards Newell had given me would work, but these words were too big!

I looked around for a second, noticing that the two girls had gotten quiet and were looking at me. I just quickly looked down, biting my lower lip as I tried hard to read the words, mouthing them, but it didn't seem right, so I just shut the book and rested my elbows on the desk, my chin in my hands as the students continued to chatter, even after the bell had rung and the teacher had closed the door.

"Hey, what's your name?" I blinked and turned my head to see the first girl with the bit of brown in her hair looking at me. I looked at her friend, who just stared at me intensely, making me nervous.

"D-Daimonass." I answered, cursing myself for the lisp and the stutter all in one sentence. She was really pretty, I noticed, even if the black around her eyes reminded me of a raccoon. I liked raccoons.

"Are you new?" The second girl asked, making the first one scoff and give her a deadpan stare.

"Have you ever seen him in here before, Kiki? No. Yes, he's new, you dingdong." She scolded, making her friend, Kiki, wrinkle her nose cutely.

"I was just making sure. Maybe he sat somewhere else... But I guess you're right," She agreed, studying me now and looking back to get a full look at me, "If he went here before, he wouldn't sit next to us."

"I wouldn't?" I asked confused. The second shook her head, holding up a finger matter-of-factly.

"Nope, because we're weird. You'll probably hear people call us either goth, emo, or lesbians. Which we may or may not be, depending on the context." She explained. She was confusing me with all her big words.

"I don't understand." I admitted. Kiki cocked her head, looking as confused as me now.

"Which part?" She asked.

"I don't know what goth or emo or lesbians are. Or context. Is that the stuff you use to clean the floor?" I asked. Kiki blinked, looking surprised. Oh crap, I realized in embarrassment. She said those words so she knows what they mean, which means everyone probably knows what they mean and I just made myself look stupider. I could feel a blush climbing back up to my cheeks in humiliation.

"Oh no," Kiki exclaimed, suddenly looking embarrassed herself, her cheeks flushing, "No, I'm sorry! Don't look so sad. Oh gosh, you really have a strong pair of puppy eyes there. I'm sorry." The first girl tilted her head before she held her hand out to me the same way the teacher had, so I made sure not to shake her hand for very long.

"My name's Anastasia," She introduced calmly, "But you can call me Ana. This is my friend, Kiki."

"Hello." I greeted. Kiki smiled shyly, leaning on her desk to look at me, head tilted.

"So you don't know what goths or emos are? Or lesbians?" She asked. I shook my head. Kiki grinned and Ana rolled her eyes, shaking her head so her bangs hid her eyes and she had to reach up to push them aside. Kiki beamed.

"Well, goths are people who are totally into the Gothic Style stuff. Like architecture and blood and black and crosses and shit. Emos are... well, actually, Ana, what are emos even really? I mean, we just get called that. I don't actually know what it means either." She admitted with a grin. I relaxed at that. Oh good, so there were other people who had no idea what that was. I still didn't get what goth was or Gothic archi-whatever that word was.

"Emo is a stupid word," Ana deadpanned, making me look at her to see her looking a bit offended, "Most people associate the word emo with people who cut themselves and wear their hair a certain way and dress in skinny jeans and wear a lot of eyeliner. It's just a word the comformists came up with to idenfity anyone who doesn't look like them."

I wanted to ask what comformists were, but Ana seemed already annoyed by talking about the word emo, so I didn't want to upset her further. I just nodded.

"Right," Kiki decided happily, turning back to me with a smile, "And a lesbian is a girl who likes another girl." I stared at her.

"Girls can like other girls?" I asked. Kiki raised an eyebrow.

"Sure we can. We can like whoever we want."

"So there's a word for that... Is there a word for a guy who likes another guy?"

"That's called gay," Kiki advised, making me nod slowly, "And when someone likes both guys and girls, they're bisexual. There's all sorts of sexuals out there, but I just think they're kind of like labels on soup cans. It's cool with me if you're gay, straight, lesbian, whatever, but I'm not gonna greet you like Oh hey, lesbian friend, come here and gimme some sugar! Oh, hey, gay friend, let's go shopping! See? It's just kinda rude." I nodded, making note of that, even though I didn't know what label or straight meant, so I pretended I did so they didn't know I was dumber than they thought.

But they seemed kinda nice. Ana was a little bossy, I noticed, and she liked to sit there with her head held up and her arms folded over her chest. It kind of gave the warning for people to back off, which is probably why everyone else in the classroom ignored her.

Kiki was a little more talkative and silly. She was really nice. Actually, they both were nice. I was so relieved because I thought they wouldn't like me, but they didn't mind that I kept asking questions all throughout class.

"So, what's a cafe... cafe... what was the word again?" I asked, confused.

"Cafeteria," Ana answered as the bell rang and we packed up our things, "It's where you go to eat lunch. Kiki and I will wait outside the cafeteria for you so we can get lunch together, sound cool?" I nodded eagerly. She smiled, then gestured for Kiku to follow her as they both left the classroom, walking right by Starling, who gave them a smile before he looked up and saw me.

"Hey," He greeted, "How was your first class?"

"It was great," I exclaimed excitedly, making him grin, "I mostly spent it talking to Ana and Kiki." Starling paused, cocking his head before looking out the door, then gesturing with his thumb.

"You mean the two girls dressed for Halloween?" He asked. I nodded, then paused, wrinkling my nose.

"Wait, what's Halloween?" I asked. Starling raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know what Halloween is?"

"No."

"Uhm, well, it doesn't matter," Starling said with a crooked smile, "What class do you have next?" He helped me look at my schedule and took me to my next class. In fact, for the rest of the day, that's what he did. He took me to each of my classes and I had lunch with Kiki and Ana. I was excited to get home and tell Newell that I made three friends on the first day!

I went to my locker at the end of the day to get the stuff people called homework. I had a lot of it, but I was excited to see if there was anything I actually knew in the work. I was in the special education group at school, which I still didn't understand, but they helped so much and an assistant was in each class to help me and any other kids in the program.

I stooped over to get my books out of my locker when the door slammed shut in front of me and I gasped, the loud noise and suddenness of it scaring me. I looked up to see a guy standing beside me, a wicked smirk on his face like he was pleased with what he did. He was a bit taller than me and more muscular. He wore a grey tank top and torn up blue jeans, his hair a mixture of brown at the roots and blonde at the tips, a pair of sunglasses sitting on his head. His eyes were blue, but not as blue as Newell's was, or as blue as Xed's hair.

"Oh, sorry," He said, but something about the tone of his voice told me he wasn't really sorry, "Did I scare you, retard?" I screwed my face up at that. What did that mean? It sounded like an insult, but I didn't know, so I didn't let it bother me. I started to put my combination again the way Starling had showed me before, but the guy shoved me into the locker and I gasped, instantly alarmed as he scowled at me, putting his arms on either side of me like a cage. I didn't like it at all.

"Are you listening to me, retard? I asked you a question." He snapped aggressively. I felt my breath catch as I stuttered.

"S-Ssorry. I d-don't know what that meansss." I stammered, mentally kicking myself for the stutter and lisp. Instead of getting angry, he laughed at me, leaning back.

"Haha, wow, what kind of language was that? I don't even know what you said," He mocked, flicking me in the forehead, making me wince, "You really are retarded." I just rubbed my forehead, looking down at my feet when I heard Ana's voice.

"Hey," She snapped, taking up a position beside me, shoving the guy back and making him stumble in surprise at her strength, "Buzz off, Brandon, you oversized prick."

"Yeah," Kiku boosted, standing beside her and putting her hands on her tiny hips, "Piss off or we'll sacrifice your corpse to Satan and steal your girlfriend! Bleh!" She made a fake vampire hiss at him and he glared at them, not looking too afraid.

"I was busy talking to my new friend, cunts, why don't you go to the new Halloween USA that opened up in Freaksville?" He demanded, but Ana didn't back down and stepped right up in Brandon's face, making him stiffen as she looked him square in the eye.

"I said," She began, her voice darkening as she spoke and kept taking steps towards him, making him take a few back, "Back. The fuck. Off. Now."

"Don't make her repeat it," Kiki chirped wickedly, drumming her fingertips together deviously, "We have a new spellbook and we'll hex you so your penis shrinks to a fun size candy." Brandon's face reddened and he looked like he was tempted to hit Ana, but one more look at her and he gave up, stalking away. I watched him go, confused.

"Why was he mad at me?" I asked, rubbing my forehead. Kiki and Ana turned to face me, both looking disgruntled.

"Don't worry about him," Ana said, coming over to look at my forehead before looking me in the eyes, "He's a jerk and nobody likes him."

"What's retard mean?" I asked, confused. Ana frowned.

"It's definitely not what you are, Daimonas." She responded briefly. I didn't understand and wanted to know the real meaning, but I saw Starling coming toward us and slumped in relief. Ana raised an eyebrow, looking perplexed as she took a step back, taking Kiki with her, while Kiki gaped. Starling smiled at us, giving us a small wave before looking at me.

"Hey, want me to walk you home? I have time." He said. I almost opened my mouth to eagerly accept his offer when I heard Newell's voice in the back of my head warning me not to let anyone see our apartment. He said it would be dangerous if people knew where we lived, so I slumped, defeated.

"I can't," I said miserably, "My, uhm, guardian doesn't like it when people comes over. He told me to come home by myself." Starling frowned at that, shrugging his back pack onto his shoulder.

"By yourself? Isn't that kinda cruel on your first day?" He asked. I shrugged, nibbling my lower lip and glancing at Kiki and Ana, who were staring intensely at Starling, which made me wonder what they were doing. They looked like deer caught in the headlights of the car things.

"My guardian is, uhm... what's the word? Like, a person who likes to be by themselves." I said, making Starling frown thoughtfully.

"Private?" Kiki suggested, making Ana elbow her in the ribs and yelp. Starling looked at them oddly, but I snapped my fingers and nodded.

"Private, that word. Yes. He's very private. He doesn't even let me in his room." I replied, making Starling nod slowly before shrugging with a heavy sigh that meant he was more disappointed about not being able to take me home than I was. For some reason, that made me a little happy that he wanted to be together.

"Well," Starling said after a while, brightening up a little again, "I'll see you tomorrow then. I'll meet you at your locker. Talk to ya later, Daimonas." He gave me a short wave, nodded to Ana and Kiki, then dropped his skateboard down on the floor and moved down the hallway fluidly. I watched him go, amazed. It looked so fun to be on one of those! Maybe Starling would let me ride his skateboard if Newell wouldn't let me get one.

"Oh gosh," Kiki breathed, patting a hand to her chest as if to catch her breath, "I can't believe he came up to us. Or, well, you! You're friends with Starling?" She and Ana looked at me eagerly as I blinked, confused.

"I... guess so. He never said so, but I like to think so. He's been really nice to me. Why? Are you friends with him?" I asked. Kiki and Ana shared quick looks, then shook their heads.

"Starling is kinda popular," Kiki admitted with shrug, "He's nice to everyone, except idiots like Brandon. He's slugged Brandon a good few times, so it's good if you make friends with the guy that Brandon won't go near. But yeah, no. Starling is kind of... Ah, what's the word? I don't wanna say he's weird, but..."

"He's weird." Ana deadpanned, clenching her grip on her bag that was slung over her shoulder and resting on her hip. I frowned, even more confused.

"Weird? I didn't think he was weird." I said. Except the fact that he was some kind of supernatural creature I'd never met before. That was kind of weird, but Newell had told me he'd hurt me if I said anything about our supernatural world to any humans, which kind of sucked because I wanted to tell Kiki and Ana. They seemed interested in that kind of stuff. There was even a show called Supernatural that Kiki gushed about, but I didn't know what a Jensen Ackles was, so I couldn't really relate.

"No, no," Kiki said carefully, waving her hands up and down, "He's just... Unique, I guess? I dunno. I just get this feeling that he's different, totally different." Ana nodded, folding her arms over her chest and cocking her hip.

"Apparently he's adopted and doesn't know his real parents. In kindergarten when he came, he told everyone that he was raised by strangers who saved his life, but his parents told the teachers that he was probably kidnapped and has no memory of it. He really doesn't talk about his past, though, with anyone. He's just kind of general with people." She explained, confusing me.

"General?" I asked. Kiki nodded.

"Yeah, general. Like, he'll tell you his favorite color, but he won't tell you why he has a giant scar on his chest." She responded, making me blink. I tried to think back, but I couldn't see anything with his shirt on, or his jacket.

"He has a scar?" I asked. Kiki nodded, giggling eagerly as she linked her arm with mine, which caught me off guard and normally I would've shrugged her off, but she was so small and cute that I didn't think she could really hurt me.

"It's totally sexy, though. I mean, Starling kinda looks girly sometimes, but the body under there? Oh, baby, nooo. I had gym with him freshmen year and he just happened to walk out shirtless and oh my god, that six pack. I could eat finger foods off that." She gushed. I looked at her, alarmed.

"You eat fingers?" I asked. Kiki blinked, then grinned at me.

"Depends on what kinda fingers we're talking about." She replied. I should've been horrified, but Xed kind of had his own weird diet, so if she ate fingers, I guess that was okay, so long as she didn't eat mine. Kiki giggled at my expression. Ana sighed.

"Well, we gotta head off. Our bus leaves any minute. We'll meet you by your locker in the morning too, Daimonas." She said. I hesitated.

"Uhm, you can call me Dai." I suggested. Ana paused at that and Kiki made an excited noise that sounded like a tea pot screaming as she hugged my arm and leapt up, kissing me on the cheek, which scared me a little bit, but I just remained still.

"We get to call you a nickname! Dai! That's so badass and cute at the same time! Okay, we'll see you tomorrow, Dai!" She said, prancing off and dragging Ana along with her. I watched them go, a little befuddled about the whole thing as I left the school and went back the way Newell had showed me to get home.

I couldn't wait to tell Newell about my first day at school!