The loud chatter of everyone around me increases my anxiety and my footsteps turn stiffer and stiffer, seeming near frozen. As the emotional frost completely freezes my feet ten times over, I stand still, my heart palpitating and the air from my lungs coming out in short, choked breaths. As I scan my surroundings warily, a shrill ringing shocks me to the core. The school bell. Everyone hurries towards the directions of their separate classrooms, paying no attention to the poor girl right in the middle of all the chaos. The shoves and pushes I receive are hurting me terribly, and I fall, as the crowd clears away... till there’s one figure left in the silent hallway, filled only with resistant sobs. The barely audible thud of his shoes sound as he walks towards me, and I cringe, hoping the insults that would come would only be light punches to my soul. However, I was wrong... A hand was extended and I looked up, meeting a kind smile. 

“Hi, I’m Jamie Bennett.”

    As you were remembering your first day of school by your locker, a shady figure creeped up behind you, grinning devilishy, and suddenly... “BOO!” You turned around, with a clearly bored expression on your face, staring at the boy who was your best friend.

    “Jamie, I’m not a kid anymore. ‘BOO’-ing at me will not scare me. At all.” Saying that, you patted his soft head of brown hair, chuckling at the obvious pout on his still childish face. 

    “One can believe, ______!” Your friend’s very own catchphrase poured out of his mouth and he smiled like a superhero in those comics... or he tried to. Seeing how he was failing miserably, you pushed him along to his locker, extinguishing any chance of him embarrassing himself with his horrible impressions. As you struggled to push him, looking up, you found your face stuck in his huge mop of hair. Not long, but not short either. 

    “Dude, you need to cut your hair. I can’t breathe in it.” With that, you pushed him straight up and panted heavily, finally being able to breathe again. 

    “My hair is perfectly fine, ______. You know winter’s coming? My favourite season of all!” Hearing the extremely sudden change of topic, you sighed, wishing your friend could focus more on what was happening around him. “Hey ______. Remember to wear your jacket. You don’t want Jack Frost nippin’ at your nose, so you?” 

      Sighing again, you said, “Jamie, you’re not my mom, I can take care of myself! And I don’t believe, okay? I never have. So please stop saying things like that!”

    Huffing at that statement, Jamie crossed his arms and mumbled something. You cocked an eyebrow, questioning what his words were. Unfortunately, that action was wasted. He ignored it and added, with a fiery determination in his eyes, “______, can you come to my place after school? I wanna show you something.” As the last word slipped out of his mouth, he dashed off, leaving you absolutely no chance to say no. You groaned, knowing you couldn’t change that stubborn boy’s mind. At the shrill sound of the bell ringing, you trudged towards your classroom, not at all anticipating the rest of the day.