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The boys entered Ms. Arlington’s class and sat in their respective seats, Zack on the far right all the way in the back of the class, second row, fourth seat while Spencer and Cam sat in the row to his left with Spence in the corresponding seat in that row while Cam sat behind him.

Soon enough the room began filling more and more with other students, until someone had to ruin the peace and quiet they were enjoying.

“Greenburg,” Vernon Mantuelfel said with his blue-green eyes, glasses, and slicked back dark brown hair that was parted to the right.

“Ugh, not you again!” Cam said in an annoyed tone.

“Yep. Looks like this year is going to be just as fun as the last,” Vernon said before walking away.

Ms. Arlington approached the group, but Vernon quickly found his seat away from the trio. She glimpsed at him as she walked past, but a smile appeared on her lips.

“Spencer, Zack, Cam! Decided to take my class again this year?” she asked in a jokingly manner.

“Of course, Ms. Arlington. You’re the best teacher we’ve ever had,” Zack answered as the other two nodded in agreement.

Flattered, she smiled before walking away to the front of the classroom. Not too long after that, one minute remained before the late bell rung when Samantha walked into their class.
Her red blazer, white dress shirt fit her perfectly as did her tie and grey plaid skirt that had red, black, and white stripes in them. She wore no-show, white socks and black and white converses. She was carrying her Science book, pencil pouch with writing utensils and such, and a spiral notebook with both arms as the items lay against her chest.

All of the guys, including the trio, stared at her before they began talking in silent looks to one another. She quickly walked to the back of the class behind Zack where the only remaining empty seat was looking at Zack before speaking in a very low whisper to where Zack could hear her.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” she asked as a small smile covered her lips before it quickly faded.

He could see the nervousness in her eyes before responding back to her.

“No, I don’t. It’s just a seat,” he answered calmly smiling warmly to her.

“Thanks,” she said smiling more relaxed towards him before sitting down.

“Alright, now that everyone’s here, I’ll take attendance,” Ms. Arlington began.

Cam decided to whisper to Zack, Spence listening as well.

“Psst, Zack!” he called glimpsing every other second at Samantha whom was busying herself by opening her spiral, pulling out a blue pen writing the date, on the first sheet.

Zack, knowing nothing good could come from this turned his head towards his friend.

“What?” he hissed trying to remain as quiet as possible without Samantha hearing him.

Just as Cam was going to speak, however, his name was called, but he didn’t respond. Ms. Arlington caught the two, but it was one he didn’t expect to come to their rescue.

“Cam, she called you,” Samantha said in a warning manner.

“Oh, um, here!” he said in response to Ms. Arlington. She shook her head and continued down the list getting to Zack’s name. He responded immediately and then Cam began his conversation.

“How can you just let her sit there?” he asked.

“There weren’t any other free seats,” Zack answered.

“Uh huh, sure, Zack,” Cam said in an annoyed whisper.

Zack shook his head noticing out of the corner of his eye Spence staring at Samantha. She was doodling on her paper and stared down to her lap. He noticed a tear fall down before she took a hand to wipe them away. Then, she turned the page in her spiral and ran a hand through her hair trying to regain her composure.

Spence’s name was called and thus concluding attendance. Ms. Arlington soon went into detail about the year and such before passing out a syllabus before going straight into the day’s topic: emotions of humans.

“Just what are emotions?” she asked after writing the word onto her chalkboard.

Spence raised his hand.

“Emotions are an affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like is experienced as distinguished from the cognitive volitional states of consciousness,” he answered, his eyes drifting to Samantha whom stared at him impressed.

An impressed smile remained on her lips as she wrote down what he had said.

“Excellent, Spencer. Emotions are exactly that; feelings, what we feel in situations. They’re usually caused by certain stimuli such as a person,” she began, walking to Samantha as she placed a hand on her shoulder before walking to pictures around the room.

“Or pictures, colors, painting, anything really can make you feel something just by looking at it,” she said with a warm smile.

“For tonight’s assignment, I want you to write about the emotions you’ve felt throughout today. We’ll discuss them tomorrow and have a little fun in the class,” she concluded just before the bell rung to release them.

Everyone packed their things before filing out of the same door the trio entered from in the back of the class before heading to their lockers for their next class. As they headed to Gym class, Spence confronted Cam.

“What’s your deal with Samantha? Do you dislike her that much?” he asked angrily.

“What’s your deal? It’s like you and Zack have a thing for her,” Cam answered just as angrily as he left his books in his locker.

“Obviously, I don’t if I’m already taken,” Zack retorted.

“And I can’t like like someone I just met,” Spence said following suit.

“Well, why do you and Zack keep sticking up for her?” Cam asked.

“She’s new here and has no friends. It seems like the only reason why everyone else wants to be friends with her is because she’s the new girl, but no one really knows her,” Zack answered.

“That doesn’t mean anything. It’s not like she’s Gwen or something,” Cam slipped out.

“So you miss Gwen?” Spence asked.

“N-no. Let’s just go to class,” he said heading to the changing room.

When they headed outside to the bleachers, they saw Samantha sitting on the far left in her uniform of a grey t-shirt that had burgundy letters of HHW on the front, burgundy shorts, and her Converses again.

She was sitting alone with a group of guys sitting to her right chatting separately from her. Her elbows were on her knees as she held her chin in her hands looking sad.

“No, don’t tell me we have to-,” Cam began before Zack and Spence decided to join her, but not before Vernon showed up just before they did.

“A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be sitting here alone,” he said in a sly tone.

“I’m sorry, but I’m selective as to whom I want to sit with. I’m not some damsel in distress, Vernon. You don’t need to ‘make me feel welcome’ here. I can handle it myself,” she said in a smart tone leaving him shocked, but he quickly regained himself.

“I understand, Samantha. I’ll see you at lunch then,” he said clearing his throat before sitting on a lower part of the bleachers than Samantha.

Although her tone was a bit harsh, the sadness returned to her causing the trio including the reluctant Cam, to notice. Spence decided to start this time.

“Hey, Samantha,” he said in a kind tone.

Her eyes whipped up at Spence and the other two.

“Hi, Spencer, Zack, and Cameron,” she replied in a calm tone. Cam whipped his eyes at her before quickly diverting them.

“We were wondering if we could sit with you. Or at least, do you mind?” Zack piped up.

Her eyes flickered from Zack and Spence to Cam and back again.

“You sure you wanna sit with me?” she asked, her eyes lingering on Cam the longest.

“Of course, right, Cam?” Zack asked nudging Cam who merely nodded in agreement.

“Sure,” she said in a slightly happy tone.

The boys sat around Samantha, Cam sitting a seat higher than her while Zack and Spence sat on either side of her.

Mr. Monk soon appeared and began the class after taking roll with the group stretching before individually asking each student to do push-ups.

When Samantha’s name was called, the boys didn’t expect her to actually do them, but she did the set of 10 easily. Soon afterwards, it was Cam’s turn when Zack decided to speak to her again.

“Why were you sad earlier?” he asked before he could stop himself, gaining Spence’s attention.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s because I don’t understand just what I did wrong to Cam for him to hate me,” she answered easily, but in a sad tone.

“Cam doesn’t hate you; he just misses Gwen,” Spence explained.

“It wasn’t exactly my choice to come here. I did it for Gwen,” she said staring back at Cam.

“What do you mean for Gwen?” Zack asked.

She shook her head and didn’t speak again just as Zack’s name was called.

“Well, if you need someone to talk to, Spence and I are always here,” he said with a sigh.

A smile covered her lips before she answered.

“Thanks, Zack,” she began, placing her hand on his shoulder when light golden aura surrounded the two as though something was transferred from her to Zack.

She quickly removed her hand when Spence spoke.

“What just happened?” he asked.

Zack and Samantha stared at one another.

“I don’t know,” they said in unison.

“But that was-,” she began, but Zack finished the sentence for her.

“-Weird.”

A look of worry quickly spread across Spencer’s face.