Chapter 7

                                                                  Mason

"Need a hand there, bud?" Leo said as I sat on the floor probably looking like an idiot and took his hand to help me back up.

"Thank you," I said as I got back up to my feet, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'd rather pretend this whole debacle ever went down."

"Leaving so soon? We haven't even gotten your name though," The sister said as I tried to walk past them towards my next class, only for Leo to step in the way blocking my exit.

"Why would you want to know my name? I'm nobody important and would like to keep it that way," I said as I looked up to meet Leo's gaze, "And I'd genuinely appreciate it if you moved so I could get to my next class."

                  Leo stood there smirking at me as I tried to get past him again to get to my next class, his sister on the other hand tapped his shoulder and he moved to the side so I could head on to class. She looked at me with a look that held a mixture of curiosity and irritation that gave me an uneasy feeling. I hadn't even been at school for a full day and I already had a pair trying to either bully or befriend me; What scared me was that I genuinely couldn't tell which it was, as I wasn't known for being a social butterfly at my previous schools. I was the wallflower that didn't talk to anyone, but if you got me to talk you'd be surprised by how long I could hold a conversation.

"We'll see you later, Nobody!" Leo called out as I made my way down the hall.

"If you do, then I failed miserably at hiding!" I called back turning to face them again and was taken aback at the look they were giving me.

                 They were glaring at me as if I had just challenged them to a game that they never lost. It wasn't a malicious look, rather it was one that I couldn't entirely understand, it honestly looked like they were both thinking 'Challenge Accepted'. I turned back around and continued down the hallway as quickly as I could, trying to ignore the look they'd given me and failing miserably. Once I got to my next class, I saw that Ajax was in the back corner, so, I sat down next to him to see if he had any words of wisdom to help me.

"Hey Ajax, I need your help."

"Sure, what's going on, Lil dude?"

"It's the Twins, I don't know what I did but they seem to be either extremely pissed off at me, or wanting to befriend me," I said as I tried to ease my nerves and steady my breathing, "I don't know what it is that I did, but could you potentially talk to Leo? Maybe get him and his sister off my back?"

"Dude, I know that I said I knew Leo, but I think you're overestimating how much I talk to the guy," He said as more students came into the class, taking their seats and chatting amongst themselves, "Though I would say to relax a bit, I highly doubt the Twins are pissed off at you. If they were trying to bully you, or anything to that degree, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now and you would probably be walking home to tell your parents that you were expelled."

"Good Lord, seriously?!" 

"Their father essentially owns this town, nothing gets done around here without his approval."

"Who is he? The President or some shit?" I asked as the teacher came in and started handing out the syllabus for the class.

"More or less, all I can say is that it would be better off for you to play nice with them, or not play at all," He said before taking the syllabus from the teacher and thanking her before continuing, "I don't know what you must have done to get their attention the way you have, they don't usually bat an eye at anyone's approach, but you've certainly caught their attention."

"Yes because that's what I wanted when I first got into class this morning," I said as I absentmindedly read the syllabus and marked a couple of things for me to look into when I got home, "To find out about two irresistibly attractive twins that go to the same school as me, only to learn that they basically own an entire town and that I should avoid them entirely. Then who else but yours truly could fail at that incredibly difficult task, Ajax?"

"I don't know, dude, maybe a ninja wearing a bell."

                    As the class continued, I half-heartedly paid attention to the teacher as she finished explaining the syllabus and started doing icebreakers. I never really paid attention during these because I was abysmal at socializing with others. Ajax on the other hand seemed to be born for these kinds of things and went so far as to introduce me as well, which led to my icebreaker being extremely short and bland.

"Hello, My name is Mason and I enjoy sarcasm and loathe socializing."

"You truly are a wonder of the world, Mason," Ajax said through laughter after I passed the icebreaker torch to the person sitting behind me.

"I never said I was good at talking to people, that seems to be your specialty."

"Without question, my mom used to tell me that if I wasn't able to socialize with others that I would be lonely, so I learned to socialize at a young age so I would always be able to make friends."

"I was just taught to keep my head down if I heard gunshots," I said causing Ajax to cover his mouth to stop himself from laughing, "That, and of course, that sarcasm is smart people's natural defense against the stupids."

"Shut up, Nerd, you're going to kill me over here," Ajax said as he tried to not laugh out loud, reminding me that everything is funnier when you're not supposed to laugh.

               The rest of the class was about the same as all my other classes, though the teacher did ask me to stop making Ajax laugh halfway through. I dropped the occasional sarcastic comment or witty answer throughout the class, waiting for it to end as my social battery was drained and I just wanted to go home at that point. There was only one class left in the day, and I spent the entire five minutes of transit time we had saying stupid shit to try and get Ajax to laugh before we got to my last class. I succeeded a couple of times before saying goodbye and entering my last class of the day, only to want to throw myself out the window. Who else would be in my last class but the Gordon Twins?

"I swear, I'm not a sitcom character, but it's starting to feel like I'm a sitcom character."