In the corner of the classroom, there’s a kid who always has her nose in her book. It’s as if she’s trying to ignore what’s going on around her. You try to talk to her, but she never looks at you straight in the eyes. No, that’s not completely correct. She trying to, but it always looks like she’s looking at something behind you, something far more interesting.

The two of you hang out one day, it’s hot, and you know a shortcut to a pretty good ice cream store. You both start to enter the alley until the two of you see a small black cat sitting right in the middle. You ignore it, the town has many strays roaming around, but the kid behind you isn’t moving. You turn around and you see the kid. The kid is shaking and sweating profusely. Worried, you ask what’s wrong. As if you broke her from her trance, she looks at you and says, “I’m not hungry.” The two of you look back at the alleyway and notice the cat is gone.
After that, the two of you don’t hang out anymore. You still talk to her, but it always looks like she wants to do her own thing. The school is small, and so rumors spread quickly.

“She talks to herself.”

“She never looks at anyone in the eye.”

You ignore them. The other students are just bored, and when they see something new they’re obviously gonna make something up to quench their thirst for new topics to talk about. You look back at the kid in the corner of the classroom, with her nose to her book, ignoring her surroundings. Sometimes, you wonder, maybe those kids were right.