(Mike's POV)
After my one-year break, I returned to school as a new person. I decided to skip all my classes for the first week because I didn't know how I was going to face the people who harmed me in the past. But unknowingly to me, those so-called people were aware that I had returned. I was targeted on the first day of school. I was hanging around the sporting ground and there I saw them and so did they. They walked towards me and instead of running like I always did in the past; I stood my ground. "It's been a while, we thought you'd died or something, but we see that you're alive and well". As one of them said this, they surrounded me. But to their surprise, I was very calm. I wasn't afraid of whatever they were going to do to me. Instead, I decided to walk away. When I tried to, one of them blocked my path. I didn't want to resort to violence, but I had no choice. I beat up the guy who blocked me and the rest of them began to attack me one by one. It was a fierce battle, but I was victorious. I had trained my body for the past year because I didn't want to be weak. I had gone through so much and I was tired of it. I wanted to be strong enough to fight for myself. After the fight, I left them where they were and left the school premises. For the rest of the week, I stayed at home. I wanted to avoid as much trouble as I could. The second week came quite quickly, and I had to return to school. I was ready to start all over and see how my life would unfold.
My classmates had become a year ahead of me, but it didn't bother me because I didn't have any friends. I got to school during lunch break and decided to take a walk before going to class. I was observing the school's environment when someone bumped into me. It was two girls who had been too immersed in their conversation to notice that there was someone in front of them. I stared at the one who bumped into me and gave her a cold glare. She apologized and I walked away uninterested in what she was saying. While I was walking away, I happened to overhear something. Those two girls I bumped into were talking about me. It was about the fight I had on the first day of school. Who would have thought that it would spread that much? It wasn't just them who talked about it. Everywhere I went, the moment someone sighted me, they would start whispering to others around them. The rumours that surround me don't bother me anymore. I had decided not to let anything pull me down.
I walked into my class and saw new faces and some who could recognize me. I could see their cold gazes but that didn't bother me. I was determined to not let anyone take advantage of me. I had to become a stronger person. I wanted to pick the seat at the far-end corner of the class, but it was already taken by some guy. I knew all the guys a year below me, but I had never seen him. He must have been a new student, which meant that he knew nothing about me. I overheard some people talking about him and heard them say he hadn't spoken to anyone since he arrived here. I smirked and walked up to him and decided to say hello and asked if we could be friends. But his reply caught me off guard. "I don't feel comfortable talking to people I don't know." I couldn't help but laugh and told him that since I had introduced myself, we were no longer strangers. The "on-guard" look in his eyes changed, and he told me his name and he decided to be friends. He was quite easy to approach, I wonder why no one had spoken to him yet.
He was the only friend I had made in years, so I ended up blabbing a lot of him. But throughout my rambling, he didn't say a word and just stared at me. I assumed that he probably couldn't hold a conversation, so I didn't mind. I decided to make him laugh and I cracked a little joke. His laughter was very different from the aura he gave off and that changed my perspective of him. I noticed something while he laughed. His eyes wandered off and I wanted to know what caught his attention. It was a girl, the one I had bumped into earlier. She was probably a new student too. She was staring at him but looked away when she got caught. I looked back in his direction and saw a different expression on his face. It was a gentle one, almost as if he liked her. I wanted to tease him a little, so I walked up to the girl. She apologized to me for the second time, and it made me laugh. I made her aware of the fact that she apologizes every time we meet. I introduced myself and told her she was cute. She looked dumbfounded and it made me smile a bit. I made her aware of Zack's intentions to befriend her and that he was just too shy to speak to her, and then I went back to speak with Zack. I asked him if he liked her, but he denied it. He was lying. Even though I hadn't known him for that long, his expressions wouldn't lie.
Time had flown by, and it was soon time for the midterm tests. Zack and I had gotten more comfortable with each other over the past few weeks. Even though he barely speaks, he listens to me carefully and sometimes observes my personality. I found it a bit weird at first, but I just accepted that he was different from the rest of us. He gave off the vibe of a rich kid, but he didn't act like one and since he doesn't talk about his family, I wouldn't have known if he was well off. We had studied together during our breaks, and I noticed something else about him. He was a genius. He wasn't on my level at all. I had been called a genius in the past, but I was nowhere near his level. He was also very dedicated to learning, and he mostly spoke to me when we had to study. His face would beam whenever he studied. I had never seen anyone so happy to learn. His intentionality motivated me to study harder and I could see myself becoming better.
The midterm tests were on the easy side and I was sure that I would get good grades. We had a one-week break after the tests and I spent them with my siblings. I would take them out to play and feed them delicious snacks. My dad agreed to not tell their mother anything because he didn't want to offend me. I acknowledged his efforts in trying to win me back, but too much had happened to just forgive him.
The test results were pasted on the notice board when the break was over and I was the third-best student. I couldn't grasp the situation. I expected my name to be below Zack's but to my surprise, someone else got that position. I overheard people talking about the person and then I realized that it was the girl that Zack had a crush on. Who would have thought that they were both not ordinary?