Chapter 1: 1
"Nathan. Come on, we're going to be late!" An energetic echoed in the garage of a small home, its tone was distressed, if not impatient. What followed it was a set of frantic footsteps, the twisting of a doorknob, and a few grumbles of irritation. "Painting again?" The origin of the voice was a young woman in her late teens, a brunette with her hair braided and resting on her shoulder. Eyes burning with anger focused on another person in the room as she walked up to them. "You have five minutes! Get changed!" She said, placing a hand on the other person's shoulder and dragging them away from an easel that was stood up in the middle of the garage.
"Oh?" Nathan blinked a few times, pulling out his phone to check the time. "Oh…" He mumbled, making his way toward the door as he looked back at the easel and the canvas that was on it; blank. "Alright, alright. I'll be out soon, go wait for me outside." He waved his hand, leaving the garage and going around the house to get changed. Three minutes passed with nary a sound, Nathan leaving the front door of their home dressed in a pair of jeans, a striped shirt, and a hoodie stained with paint near the wrists. "How much longer until the bus gets here, Pen?" He pocketed his hands, looking over at the girl that pulled him away from his work.
"Two minutes. You really should keep track of time better, school started a week ago and you still haven't gotten used to your new schedule." She replied, looking down the road while scratching her hand through the sleeves of her jacket.
"That's why I have you here, though. I mean, that's what family is for, right?" He smiled, grinning cheekily as the sight of a small bus was making its way toward them.
"I'm your sister, not your alarm clock, dork!" She kicked his shin lightly, tapping her toes against the sidewalk as the doors of the vehicle opened up ahead of them. They got on board, sitting at the front as the doors shut and they started moving again. Nathan pulled out his phone, pulling a pair of old headphones out of his bag and plugging them in. His sister, on the other hand, leaned back and tried to rest as best she could; she greeted some people as they got on board, striking up a conversation with the person sitting on the opposite side of the bus as they made their way to school.
They got off; looking around as students slowly started walking through the school doors. Nathan sighed, still listening to his music as he aimlessly wandered toward his classroom, or he would've except that his sister placed a hand on his shoulder again. "What?" He asked, turning around with a slightly irritated expression.
"It's just…" She whispered, looking around before ushering the two of them away to somewhere less crowded. "Look, I know that you'd much rather be alone, but please try to make some friends this year. I won't be here for you forever, you know." She said, her eyes looking right into his. "I don't want you to be lonely, okay."
"I'll be fine, Penny." Nathan replied, shrugging off her words. "As you said, I'd much rather be alone anyway, helps me focus on my work." He smiled, walking back toward the entrance as Penny's lips slowly curled into a frown. He waited in the hallway for her, waving her goodbye as she ascended the stairs to get to her classes, walking to his first class after seeing her off.
"Good morning class, how was the weekend?" The teacher asked, setting his things down at his desk as the students murmured amongst themselves. He waited for a few seconds before loudly clearing his throat. "How was the weekend, class?" He asked again, only receiving an unintelligible groaning chorus from the teens he was teaching. He groaned, looking down at something from his things to move the conversation along. "Susan, how did you spend the weekend?" He asked, the class quieting down at the mention of a name.
The person that replied was a redhead, hair tied into a ponytail that reached down to her back. "Me? I uhh… I went out to see a movie with my family." She said, scratching the back of her head as she brought her attention back to her friends.
The teacher went down the list, asking the same question to the next student on the list: an African American boy named Nick. "I didn't do much." He said, quickly dropping his head on his desk in an attempt to take a nap. All this time, Nathan was quietly scribbling away inside of a notebook, the commotion reaching his ears like white noise, at least until it was his turn.
"Nathan? Nathan Cooper? Hello?" The teacher's voice rang out, getting him out of his trance as he looked down at his drawing.
"Huh? What? Oh, I just drew stuff over the weekend." He mumbled, quickly returning to his sketch as the people sitting around him started to peek at it. It was just a rough sketch of a cabin by a lake. He quietly took a pencil out of his bag, adding trees around the lake as the teacher continued talking.
"Now, class, a week has already passed since school started. I'd just like to know if you have any concerns." He said, fixing a few things on his desk as he looked at the clock. "You have five minutes before your first actual class, so feel free to tell me." He said, taking his glasses off and cleaning them with a cloth. The students ignored him again, all except one.
Raising her hand, a girl with brown hair sitting in the front row stood up. "Mr. Reyes, who'll be the class president? Shouldn't we think be thinking of that now?" She smiled, lowering her hand as the teacher nodded, getting up while taking a marker from his bag.
"Good idea, would you like to run, Stacy?" He asked, getting a nod from her as she took her seat again. "Would anyone else like to be the class president?" He asked. The sound of crickets could practically be heard as the students shot glances at each other. "Nobody? Alright, then that settles it." Mr. Reyes wrote down Stacy's name next to the role, writing the rest of the roles out and asking for any volunteers. The silence continued for a few more seconds before Stacy got up and urged people to try.
The five minutes passed by relatively quickly after that, the other roles getting two or three nominations each; they would need to vote on it another time. Their first actual class was Mathematics, much to the dismay of the majority of the class. Nathan rested his head on his hand for most of it, half-heartedly taking notes and copying the formulas that the teacher wrote. After a few practice questions, the teacher left them with a worksheet that was to be submitted by the end of the class. They were fairly easy for him to do, so he finished sooner than everyone and continued with his sketch.
"Do I do this? Okay… then carry the five…" Susan seemed to be struggling, her troubled mumbling audible to the people seated nearby. Nathan pried his eyes away from his notebook for a moment, looking over at her as she scratched the top of her head. "Argh!" She groaned, slamming her head against the top of her desk before looking at the paper again.
"It's not even that hard…" He thought to himself, looking down at his notebook as he started adding details to the sky of his drawing. He shot occasional glances back at her, watching her finish the paper with only a few seconds to spare. "At least she finished on time." He chuckled to himself, handing in his work as they prepared for the next class.
English studies, Sciences, Social studies, and the other classes passed by in a blur. At the end of the day, Nathan was still scribbling on his notebook as the rest of the class started leaving the room. "Hey, are you just going to sit there?" Nick asked, walking up to him and giving him a little shock. "Nathan, right? It's about time to go. You and I are the last ones here." He smiled, offering a hand out to him as Nathan put away his pencils and pens. Nick took a look at the drawing while he was busy with other things. "Wow. How long did this take you?" He asked.
"All day." Nathan replied, taking the notebook and stuffing it into his bag. He stood up quietly, walking toward the door without another word escaping from his mouth. He breathed deeply once he got out of the building, one hand gripping his bag tightly as the other went to his chest in a vain attempt to calm him down. "That was scary… talking to people is hard." He mumbled to himself as he looked around for Penny.
He didn't find her, their class was further away from the exit after all. What he did find was Stacy talking with two adults beside a fancy looking car, nodding before getting inside. Nick left the school accompanied by a few of their classmates. Susan, as well, was with her friends, a total of three of them; they seemed to be content just staying around and talking amongst themselves for the moment. He took in a deep breath, walking over to a less populated area and finding a nice place to sit down under the shade of a tree.
He pulled out his headphones again, listening to some music as he continued working on the cabin. "Hey, come on!" Five minutes after that, Penny called out to him. Nathan looked over, seeing her wave goodbye to some of her friends before she walked over to him. "Aunt Agnes might get worried." She offered her arm and Nathan used it to pull himself off of the ground, putting his art supplies back into his bag.
They arrived home to the smell of food. Penny looked down, pinching her belly as she grumbled something about her diet under her breath. Nathan went directly into the kitchen, greeting their aunt as he took out some milk and cereal and made himself something to eat. He finished three bowls before he went back to the garage, turning on the lights as he walked toward the blank canvas he left earlier. Littered around the room were multiple brushes of varying sizes and conditions, cans and tubes of paint along with a palette off in the corner. He took a look at them for a few seconds. "No, not yet." He mumbled, taking a seat beside the easel and taking a brush from the floor.
He sat there for an hour, unable to bring himself to make the first stroke. He wondered what to paint, scratching his chin as something finally came to him. He started with the painting, a portrait of a family of five, managing to get around a fifth of the way done before his phone started buzzing in his pocket. He sighed, leaving the garage after covering the painting for the night. He went to his bedroom, taking his phone out.
"Dad? School's been good so far. My classmates seem uninteresting so far, nothing pops out. Mom. Penny's growing up fast. I know I said that I'll be fine once she leaves for college, but I'm a bit scared." He said, lying down on his bed. He checked on the alarms on his phone before he shut it off and went to sleep. "I'll work on the painting again tomorrow." He thought to himself as he slowly drifted off into unconsciousness. "Making friends, huh. Maybe she's right…" He tossed around in his sleep for that night.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Xiuzou
Xiuzou January 3, 20XX: Hello. I hope you like my first story. I'm going to try to update this as often as I can, but I can't promise anything so soon. Between school and some other things, I might get a bit busy. I'm not sure if this is any good, so any feedback would be welcome; I'm always looking for places to improve. Until next time, I'll be trying my best. I want to make this a story that will bring a smile to anyone that reads it!
-Sarah Smith
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