[URL=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox1D3xtu0Jo][COLOR=ORANGERED][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]A I D E N   M c K E N N A[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][/COLOR][/URL][hr][INDENT][sup][color=silver]The First Day of Class, [i]Mather Memorial High School[/i][/color][/sup][/INDENT]

The ageing doors of Mather Memorial High were wide open, beckoning in the year's students and allowing its musty corridors to receive a welcome breath of life. Indeed, these doors had seen generations pass in and out of them throughout the school's lengthy servitude to the town of Crestwood Hollow, and today was the first page of yet another chapter; sure to come with its own laughter, sadness, challenges and achievements. The air was alive with energy, as excitement and trepidation in equal measures oozed from each pupil that arrived on the campus. Girls in trendy get-ups squealed and embraced as though they had presumed each other dead; young men fist-bumped in and poked fun at one another, each jacket emblazoned with the Magics iconography; and pale youths in dark clothing loitered in inconvenient areas, spikes and studs embellishing every inch of their clothes and faces. Mather Memorial was decidedly 'neat' - everything was in its rightful place, dictated by years of conditioning. 

Aiden sighed as he stood at the foot of the school's entrance, gazing up at the weathered building as it loomed over him. Memories flashed back to him, and within those few seconds it was as though he had watched a movie of his entire time at the school thus far. Of course, he had never been wildly popular, but he had enjoyed school and performed well as a result. He remembered fondly the laughter he shared with friends, the wonder he'd felt as he began to build an understanding of the world and how it worked, the sense of achievement when he'd been awarded his first A grade. 

And then, of course, it had ended. Aiden's rapid decline in what was supposed to have been his final year of education had pushed his grades down and his friends away from him; he'd become reclusive, they'd said. He was acting weird. It was as though his head was somewhere else. He didn't talk much. He'd lost his spark. His teachers agreed - and so did his parents, to an extent, but at least they were able to understand why. It was terrifying, really, as Aiden considered it for what had to be the thousandth time, just how quickly things could change. And the monument of brick and mortar that stood before him only acted as a constant and inescapable reminder of that very fact. 

Hesitantly, he pulled the sleeves of his XXL hoodie down over his hands, hoping to avoid skin contact with the mass of pupils as he reluctantly took his first step into the building. It might have been the beginning of something glorious for most of the congregated students, but as far as Aiden was concerned... He couldn't wait for this all to end. With his head down and his earphones firmly inserted, he managed to keep a low profile as he made his way through the hallways and towards the welcome assembly.
[img]https://www.transparenttextures.com/patterns/ag-square.png[/img][INDENT][sup][color=silver]Later that day...[/color][/sup][/INDENT]
It had been a long day. Indeed, most of his acquaintances had since graduated the school, passing their exams and moving onto better things. In truth, Aiden was thankful for that. He had every intention of keeping himself to himself and getting this year out of the way with as little fuss as possible. But of course, not everyone had been so fortunate and, like he, had found themselves back at Mather Memorial for an additional year. [i]Aiden![/i], they'd gawked as they spotted him sitting in the corners of whatever classroom they were being held captive within. [i]Where did you vanish to last year, man?[/i] He had repeated the same spiel a half-dozen times already, curtly informing whomever was prying that he'd had a family emergency to attend to. He kept his exchanges both brief and blunt, and soon his former peers understood that this year Aiden was not particularly interested in conversation.

It wasn't that he had anything against them, or even that he considered himself superior. But this whole school was a reminder of a life he once lived quite happily; a life he could never again hope to live. And he wanted nothing more than to leave it behind him and forget all about it. 

He snapped his attention back to the paper in his hand, checking the room number assigned to this mysterious [i]Social Conscious[/i] class he'd been allocated. The digits on the door before him were a match. It had taken him a while to find, in part due to his temporary absence from the school, but also largely because it was so tucked away. Aiden couldn't ever remember taking a class out in this little nook, all on its own in a particularly old-smelling corridor. The layer of dust and streaky glass also implied that this part of the building was fairly low on the janitor's to-do list.

Gingerly, Aiden twisted the handle and slinked into the old classroom, noting that the new teacher whom had been introduced that morning stood at the front of the room. Aiden nodded politely, before making his way to the corner of the room and taking a seat. He quietly took out his things, and began doodling intricate drawings along the lined paper of his textbook as he waited for the class to begin. Soon enough, the question: "Who am I?" was posed to the class. The group largely seemed sheepish to answer. 

Aiden, too, opted not to verbally answer the question, instead writing it along the top of his page and absent-mindedly beginning to scrawl words he associated with himself in his decidedly messy script. He wrote phrases such as "Outsider kept inside" and "Time waster", but one word in the centre of the page stood out amongst the rest, drawn heavily in dark ink: "[B]FIRE[/B]".