It was a Tuesday in London
. The sky was that
boring gray color it always is when it'
s about to
rain
. I was sit ing in my Class 8 classroom
, just
staring at the clock. School felt like a long
cycle of sit ing, listening,
and writing things
down that I didn
't really care about. I was a
quiet girl. I didn
't have a big group of friends. I
just had my books. My desk was near the front,
and I liked it that way because nobody bothered
me
. But that morning,
our teacher
, Mrs. Gable
,
walked in with a piece of paper
.
"Change of
plans,
everyone
,
"
she said.
"We are moving seats
today. I want a fresh start for the mid-term
.
" My
heart sank. I hated moving. I liked my corner
.
I liked being invisible
.
1.
Everyone started talking at once
. The sound of
chairs scraping against the wooden floor was so
loud it made my head hurt. Mrs. Gable started
calling out names. One by one
, people moved.
Then she said my name
.
"Elara
, you
'
re moving to
the back row
. Desk 4.
" I picked up my heavy
bag and walked to the back. It felt different
back there
. It was darker
,
and you could see the
whole classroom from a distance
. I sat down and
started put ing my pens in a row
. I didn
't even
look at who was sit ing around me yet. I just
wanted to be left alone so I could finish my
history notes about the Romans.
2.
Then
, I heard another chair move
. Someone sat
down directly behind me
. I didn
't turn around, but
I could hear them breathing. I could hear them
clicking a pen—over and over
. Click. Click.
Click. It was annoying, but I didn
't say
anything. Then
,
a voice whispered right into my
ear
.
"Do you think the Romans had to sit through
boring seating changes too?" I jumped a lit le
. I
turned around slowly. It was Leo Sterling. I
knew him
, but we had never spoken
. He was the
kind of boy who always looked like he was
thinking of something funny, but he also looked
like he didn
't care about anything. He had
messy brown hair and a smirk on his face
.
3.
I didn
't know what to say, so I just shrugged.
"Probably not,
" I whispered back. He leaned
forward,
resting his chin on his hand.
"I bet they
did. And I bet their teachers were just as mean
.
"
He looked at my notebook.
"Your handwriting is
way too neat. How do you do that? My writing
looks like a spider fell in ink and crawled
across the page
.
" I couldn
't help it—I giggled.
It wasn
't even that funny, but the way he said it
made me smile
. I had been so stressed about the
seat change
, but suddenly, the back row didn
't
feel so lonely anymore
.
4.
For the next hour
,
we didn
't listen to the teacher
at all. Leo kept whispering things to me
. He told
me about how he hated the school lunch and how
he wished he was at home playing video games.
I told him I liked drawing and that I wanted to
write stories one day. He didn
't make fun of me
.
Instead, he asked me what kind of stories. We
started making jokes—silly ones at first,
and
then some
"double-meaning
"
jokes that made me
turn red. He was so quick with his words. Every
time I said something, he had a funny comeback
ready. I felt a spark of energy I hadn
't felt in a
long time
.
5.
By the time the bell rang for lunch, I
realized I hadn
't writ en a single word of my
history notes. Leo stood up and stretched.
"See
you later
, Back-Row Buddy,
" he said with a
wink. I watched him walk away with his
friends. My heart was thumping. I went to find
my friend Sienna near the lockers. Sienna
was my main friend, but she was always very
competitive
. When I told her I was sit ing in
front of Leo
, her face changed. She didn
't look
happy for me
. She looked... bothered.
"Leo?"
she asked, her voice sounding sharp.
"He
'
s kind
of a jerk, Elara
. You shouldn
't talk to him too
much.
"
6.
I felt a bit confused.
"He seemed nice to me
,
" I
told her
. Sienna just rolled her eyes.
"Trust me
,
I know him bet er than you do
. He only talks to
people when he
'
s bored.
" I didn
't want to argue
with her
, so I just nodded and changed the
subject. But inside
, I was thinking about the
way Leo made me laugh. I didn
't think he was a
jerk. I thought he was interesting. That afternoon
,
during our next class, I found myself looking at
the clock again—but this time
, I wasn
't waiting
for school to end. I was waiting to get back to
that back row desk.
7.
The next day,
it happened again
. And the day
after that. We became a team
. We had our own
lit le world at the back of the room
. We shared
snacks under the desk when the teacher wasn
't
looking. Leo started giving me his phone number
so we could text after school. The first time he
texted me
, I stared at the screen for ten minutes
before replying. I was so nervous. He sent me a
meme about our math teacher
,
and we ended up
texting until 11:00 PM. My mom kept knocking on
my door telling me to go to sleep, but I couldn
't
stop. I felt like I finally had someone who
understood my sense of humor
.
8.
But as we got closer
, I noticed something. I
was always the one starting the deep
conversations. I was the one making sure he had
his homework ready. I was the one who cared if
he was having a bad day. Leo was fun
, but he was
also very focused on himself. He had this big
ego
. He would talk about how great he was at
sports or how all the girls liked him
. I didn
't
mind it at first because I was so at racted to his
personality. I thought that if I just put in enough
effort, he would eventually give that same
energy back to me
. I was 14,
and I didn
't know
that you can
't force someone to care
.
9.
One Friday,
as we were leaving school, Leo
stopped me at the gate
. The rain was finally
starting to fall.
"Hey, Elara
,
" he said.
"You
'
re a
good laugh, you know that?" I felt a warm glow
in my chest.
"You too
, Leo
.
" He started walking
away, but then he turned back.
"Don
't get too used
to this, though. Everything changes eventually.
"
I didn
't understand what he meant then
. I just
waved goodbye and walked home in the rain
,
feeling like I was on top of the world. I didn
't
know that Sienna was watching us from across
the street, her eyes full of jealousy. And I didn
't
know that Leo was already planning his exit.
10.