Solar sheepishly peered through the doorway, frozen, until she made herself pick her foot up and walk cautiously into the unfamiliar classroom. Her palms started to sweat and she felt nervous as she saw all her new classmates staring at her walking across the room, urgently searching for an open seat.

After walking aimlessly through the pairings of desks, Solar finally found one person-less seat in the back of the classroom. She approached it, wondering why no-one would want this spot, as it seemed perfect to her. It was positioned comfortably in the back of the room, with light pouring onto the desk, casting a warm atmosphere around it.

Solar carefully peeled her backpack strap off her shoulder and let the bag drop to the floor, creating a quiet thud. Only then did she notice who her new desk partner was, as she had looked up from the sudden noise. She had long blonde hair laying over her shoulders, with bangs falling across her forehead. Her features appeared soft and gentle but her face looked bothered, almost irritated. The girl didn’t say anything, her eyes just moving along Solar up and down, as if she was trying to read her.

“H-hi, uh…” Solar stuttered awkwardly, “Hi, my name’s Solar. I-is it okay if I sit here?” But the blonde girl said nothing. She gave a quick, shallow nod as she turned away from the other girl and popped her earbuds back into her ears, now hidden behind her straight hair.

Solar was taken aback from this unfriendly action, but decided not to say anything more, as she didn’t want to pester the other girl further. She decided to just sit down and quietly wait for their teacher to start the lesson. A few minutes later, the teacher finished writing on the whiteboard and turned around to check the attendance of her classroom. Her eyes fell upon Solar and lit up with a smile as she rushed to her desk.

“Okay, class,” the teacher announced, calming down the talking that was going on in the large room, “we have a new student today. Uh let me see… Kim Yon-”

“Oh, uh, Solar.” Solar spluttered again “You can call me Solar actually. I-if you don’t mind, ma’am.” She immediately regretted speaking out so suddenly, as it seemed the whole class was turned around and looking at her. But they twisted back to the front as fast as they had turned around, like there was nothing interesting for them to see there, and Solar was left to herself again.

She sunk back into her chair and looked out the window as the teacher continued with her lesson.

Soon enough, the school bell rang, signifying that this long day was finally over. Most students stayed behind to talk with their friends but Solar packed her notebook back into her bag and hurried out of the classroom, eager to get out of that stuffy room.

She walked down the hallway and pushed open the doors blocking her from the fresh outside air. After walking for a couple of blocks, Solar realized she had been walking behind someone the whole way. She recognized the light blonde hair right away, it was her desk partner.

Solar slowed down her walking and tried to remain quiet as she didn’t want to alert the other girl of her presence, assuming she was still in a bad mood from earlier. They continued walking in this short line until Solar realized the other girl was turning down the driveway leading to a small, but welcoming-looking house. She was surprised to see that this girl lived here, she herself only lived a few more blocks down the road but she didn’t think this was a very popular area for students.

Solar finished the rest of her walk quickly and arrived home in less than 10 minutes. She dug through her bag and fished out her house-key, carefully unlocking her door and stepping inside. Too tired to start on any of her homework from her first day back at school, she plopped down on her couch in the living room and shut her eyes, soon to be asleep.