Lucas had been resting his hand on his cheek on his fist, feeling his eyelids beginning to slowly shut. The teacher hadn’t started his lesson yet. It sounded like he was talking to someone. Slightly curious, Lucas forced his eyes to open a bit more and looked nonchalantly over toward the teacher’s desk. A girl stood there, drenched from head to toe in rain. She held the syllabus that the class had received the day before and the teacher was pointing some things out to her on the paper. She must’ve missed the first day of school or something, but at first glance she didn’t look very familiar. Was she a new student?

The teacher turned and gestured to the empty desk that was beside him. It wasn’t the only empty desk at that moment because not everyone had arrived, but the day before it was the only unoccupied desk. It looked like she was going to be sitting next to him from now own.

Lucas tried not to stare at her as she slowly and somewhat nervously made her way over to the desk. Instead, he turned his head and seemed much more interested in the blank Promethean Board at the front of the room.

Finally she came up next to him and started talking to him in short, anxious sentences. He turned his gaze to her and chuckled at her uneasiness. At first, he was surprised that she knew his last name, but having gotten a better look at her face, he realized she was not a new student. He had in fact had a few classes with her in the past. Her name was Alicia, or Alyssa, or Alison or something, right?

Lucas took a look around at the desks when she mentioned the seating arrangement and shrugged. “R” wasn’t quite at the end of the alphabet, but it was very possible he was the last on the list.

“I’m not really sure, to be honest,” he answered, looking back to her. “But that desk was the only empty one yesterday, so it’s all yours.” He smiled at her, trying to come across as friendly.

“What’s your name again?” he asked casually. “I’m terrible with names. I only remember faces.”