" umm, my name is Luke Matthews "

He was all skin and bones. As the new transfer student introduced himself in front of the class, eyes on the floor, we all stared at how fragile he looked. Tall and thin. Dark messy hair and big eyes. But overall, he had a precious mysterious look. The teacher told him to sit on an empty seat which happened to be right next to me.

" ok class let's begin. Open your books on page 43 " says the teacher

As I do so, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see luke trying to whisper something to me.

"Excuse me, I forgot my book, can you share yours ? " his voice is soft and soothing. I nod my head and join my desk with his

" by the way, my names Jessica but you can call me Jess," I say to him

He smiles " sure " there was a certain charm to him. we continue our work until class ends

As soon as the teacher leaves, I join up with my friends Sasha and Emily.

" the first thing I noticed about him was how skinny he is, " Sasha says

" think he's anorexic? " Emily questions

" maybe, he seems so fragile like he's gonna break apart if we touch him "I look over and see Richard approach him. He's our class leader and a very supportive person.

" Hey Luke, since you knew thought I'd show you around the school if you haven't seen it yet. Our next class teacher is absent today so it'll be ok " he says

Luke looks up at him and smiles " thanks, I appreciate it " he gets up and both he and Richard walks out of the class.

" We should help him too. There are many bullies in our school and someone like him is bound to be their target " I say. He seems like a nice guy so far. Sasha agrees along with Emily

" Yeah I agree . " says beth as she sits next to me on an empty chair.

" your thoughts on him? " I ask her

" weirdly cute, if I had to put it in one word. When you look at him he may seem like a wimp but he's cute at the same time " she giggles. Beth is not a good judge of character

At lunch, as we all head to the cafeteria. Luke comes along with us.

" Thanks for inviting me, I hope I'm not being a nuisance," he says

" Pfft! Of course not. The more the merrier " says Anthony whose kind of a class clown

" Hey Luke, where do you live," I ask

He looks uneasy as if it was an odd question " sorry, it's kinda personal "

" no, never mind it's ok. "

"I think he minded " Sasha whispers to me

" hmm "

We take our seat at a table and get our food Surprisingly, Luke seems to have a large appetite. He gets a lot of food and he even brought some from home.

" wow. How come you eat a lot and are this skinny " I ask baffled

he stares at me and says " well, I don't know actually . It's just that I feel really hungry and my tummy doesn't get full quickly " to which we all just snicker while he watches in confusion

As we talk he starts to open up and feel more at ease. But he's also secretive and ignores questions asked about him. When the bell rings we all get up and go towards the garbage can to dispose of the trash. Luke accidentally bumps into someone and falls. The one he bumped into laughs at him

" HA! who is this bag of bones? Hey you, haven't seen you around here. Are you new? If so let me tell you how things work around here "

" Greg! That's enough!" yells Richard But he doesn't listen

As He grabs Lukes coller, Anthony and Richard stop him shoving him away from luke

"I told you to STOP," says Richard and we all stand by him

" you ok luke? " I ask him

He just grins " yeah, all thanks to you guys "

Greg groans curse under his breath and walk away with his friends.

" Luke, if anyone ever troubles you come to us o,  says Beth

" I'm starting to feel guilty of how nice your all being to me, Luke says shyly

Emily just laughs " we're all genuinely great people "

We all head back to class and soon the teacher arrives.

While we're in the middle of class, I glance at Luke. He's attentive and diligent there's something about him that draws people towards him. How we all behaved towards him was, from an outsiders point of view strange I realized I was staring and quickly turn away but something grabbed my attention from my peripheral vision looked back at him only to feel a chill in my spine.

In his arm something was movinginside his arm. Like a worm or something. It slithered up to his arm, under his sleeve, away from my sight. Then to my horror, it appeared in his neck and slowly went up to his head. He noticed me looking and gave me a confused stare. Then I realized that the teacher had been calling my name.

" Jessica! Are you with us ? " he yells.

" oh sorry, sir " I quickly get up and try to read the next text. But my hands won't stop shaking. As I read I feel my words mix up and I couldn't say anything properly. What did I just saw!? I'm way too shaken .