At first, Mark wondered why people hurt him. He's never done anything to them as he usually kept to himself but then as time passed and he left his tenth year and went into year eleven, he stopped wondering and just accepted that he was probably just not a likable person.

Home wasn't the safest place in the world either. His mother wasn't around and to compensate for the loss of her income, his father was always at work and when he was home, he wasn’t the same person that Mark knew as his father. In fact, once before, Mark went to him for help, he came back to his room with a bruise on his cheek. No one at school ever asked where he got the bruises from, he didn’t have any friends to worry about him.

Slowly, Mark got worse and worse but no one was there to notice what was happening.

A book was thrown across the cafeteria and hit Mark, who was sitting on his own, squarely on the cheek. He lifted his hand to his cheek, sure that there was now a red mark. No one looked to see if he’s okay, no one even comes to collect the book that was thrown. It was a normal day for Mark. Still touching his cheek, he stands up, leaving his untouched food on the table and starts walking to his next class. Even though he has a good twenty minutes left of his break but when you have no friends, there’s not much for you to do.

Mark walks with his head down, not wanting to catch any unwanted attention by any of his bullies, he hopes that they are still stuffing their faces and too worried about who won the game last night to even care about him.

He makes it to his next class without incident and sits on the floor right next to his classroom’s door, waiting for when the teacher will open the door. He pulls his knees up to his chest and rests his head on his knees, he closes his eyes and waits for the moment when he’ll hear the ringing of the bell.

He hears footsteps echo down the hallway, his head snaps up and he sees someone walking towards him, his head is telling him to run but his instincts say that this person won’t hurt him.

Mark stands up, getting ready for the moment where he might need to run if his instincts are wrong. The person is getting closer to Mark, making his heartbeat go faster and his palms sweaty. The person’s wearing a black hat that covers most of his face, jeans and the school top, Mark notices that this makes him feel weird and different inside and ignores it. He doesn’t want to know what those feelings mean.

The person stops in front of him, “Hey, I’m Jackson. Is this Science with Mr. Kim?” He voices is somewhat deep and even though Mark doesn’t know him, he feels like this boy won’t hurt him.

“Um…yeah it is. You’re not usually in my class.” Mark replies, confused at why Jackson is speaking to him. It must be a dare by some friend he decides.

“My classes got moved around. I guess some teachers really didn’t like me.” Jackson says. Mark thinks that he’s trying to be humorous but doesn’t know if he should laugh or not so he stays silent.

Jackson sighs at the failed attempt of trying to be funny, “Mind if I wait with you for your next class?”

Mark flinches, “Why? Did someone dare you to?” He says, getting defensive, you never know with kids at his school. It has happened before when someone was dared to be his friend.

Jackson looks shocked, “Why would you say that?”

Mark is starting to get mad but doesn’t show it. Can Jackson stop pretending like he doesn’t know? Mark wasn’t born yesterday. Instead of saying something he really wants to say, not wanting to anger the stranger, he just shrugs and looks away.

Silence rests between the two boys. Not being used to having someone who wanted to be around him, Mark doesn’t know what to do or say while Jackson, is trying to understand Mark and why he thinks that he was dared to hang out with him.

More students started to walk through the hallway as the bell for the class is nearing, as usual, no one even glances at Mark but Jackson is getting heaps of stares from the majority of girls that walk past and the occasional guy.

The bell rings, saving either boy from being near each other for much longer. Mark walks in as soon as the door to the classroom opens, Jackson following. Mark sits at the front of the room so no one can say that he’s stolen their sit while Jackson decides to sit at the back, slowly the classroom fills and Jackson notices that no one looks or speaks to Mark. He frowns and wonders if Mark has any friends and if that’s why he thought that Jackson was dared to talk to him.

Come to think of it, Jackson doesn't even remember seeing Mark around the school. He wonders if Mark was a new student but dismisses that thought quickly. If Mark was new, he’d probably still be trying to find his way to this class.

So what was the red head’s story?

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