Ethan faced forward, a little afraid of what was to come. If he didn't know how to answer a simple question, he could ruin his reputation.

The teacher took an old white chalk, and began to write quickly on the blackboard, while reciting the question:

"If you imagine that you are inside a rowboat sinking in the middle of the sea, and around your boat, there are dozens of hungry sharks ready to devour you. What do you do?"

- I remember hearing about it in college… Did I go to college?-

"But this is not a math question…"

Ethan said, looking at the professor.

"You stop thinking"

He completed.

"I know, I was just teasing you. But the answer is correct. Congratulations, Ethan."

The teacher said through a light chuckle.

"But right now, let's focus on the lesson. Today we are going to see about algebra 2"

When the teacher said this, you could hear the noise of students moving around their desks to get their notebooks, along with a muttering about how boring the class was and what had just happened.

Ethan took his notebook, and decided to kill time by looking at the window beside him.

—

And so the morning passed, until finally lunchtime arrived.

"Hey Ethan, huh? Why don't you sit with us?"

A sweet voice said beside the boy.

Ethan shook his head quickly, a little surprised that class was already over, and looked to the side to see who had called him.

There was Jessica standing beside him, a gentle smile on her face as she ran a hand through her hair to make it tidy.

"Oh yes of course. I'll just get my coat and I'll follow you"

He replied, as he bent down to pick up his coat.

"Come on, Jessica. I don't want to have to stand in line all lunch."

Eric yelled at the girl. He looked a little uncomfortable with Jessica talking to Ethan, but she didn't seem to mind.

"I think you better go with your friend, he will be mad".

Ethan responded by putting on his coat as he looked at Eric and gave a small chuckle.

"Don't care about Eric, no. Dog that barks, does not bite".

Jessica said, as she took her hand to Ethan's arm, pulling him into the cafeteria with her, which caused Eric to just turn around, rolling his eyes and accelerating his pace towards the cafeteria.

Upon arriving, Ethan spotted Angela and Eric sitting with those other kids who had been spying on him while the kid was in the principal's office.

"Hey Angela! We are here"

He spotted Angela in the distance, with her arm raised and a huge smile on her face looking at them.

Ethan then walked towards them fast enough to hear Eric complaining that they had called the boy.

"Don't you want me here too, Eric? I enjoyed your banter in the classroom"

Ethan said, a gentle smile on his face.

"Eric is an idiot. It feels like it hasn't come out of the first series yet."

"Oh, what was it? I was just teasing you, it was no big deal!"

The boy replied, shrugging

"Like this? What did you do?"

Angela asked with a slight annoyance in her voice as Jessica frowned at Eric.

"I did nothing. I just told the teacher that Ethan was really smart. You exaggerate too much"

He said, as he tried to open his lunch with some difficulty.

"But, I remember you talking about two new people before class. Was it me and who else?"

Ethan asked as he sat down across from Jessica

"Oh yeah, we don't know who she is, we just know she's a girl."

Jessica answered.

"I hope she's hot."

A boy with blond hair and blue eyes commented, while looking for approval from the others for his joke, but everyone remained serious.

"It was just a joke, you guys don't have a sense of humor do you?"

He said, gesturing with his hands.

"Oh, and I'm Mike. Great pleasure"

The blond boy completed, as he looked at Ethan.

"I am Ethan"

He replied with a shy smile on his face as he quickly raised his hand in a greeting gesture.

"So Ethan, what did you used to do back home? We were thinking of going out tonight to enjoy it"

Jessica said as she brought her fingertips closer to Ethan's hands

"Were we?"

Said Mike confused, while looking at Jessica

Then the girl gave Mike's arm a slight push, trying to get him to be quiet.

"There! I get it, I get it!"

Ethan gives a small chuckle and replies:

"Oh, I hardly ever leave the house much in my other city. I ended up studying so much that I had almost no time left to maintain many friendships there"

"That's a good excuse in case they wonder why I don't know much about current entertainment," Ethan thought.

"Oh what a pity! I hope it's different here." She said moving closer to Ethan. "Why don't you go with us today? It will be fun"

The girl completed with a cute smile on her face.

"I promise I'll think about your case."

Ethan replied jokingly as he looked into the girl's sparkling eyes.

Time passed, and the class bell rang, informing that the break had come to an end.

And so the day went on. Ethan took classes with some of the students he had known and practically did well in all subjects, due to the knowledge he had of his past life, so even though he stood out a little among the students as a boy of great intelligence, he also did not it was enough for this subject to continue the other day, which was good for the boy, as he didn't want everyone's attention focused on him at the moment.

The bell rang again, indicating that classes had come to an end.

Ethan grabbed his backpack and started walking towards the exit. The only thing on his mind at that moment was whether he still remembers his way back well enough not to get lost. When he finally set foot on the sidewalk of the school, he heard a voice in the back of his thoughts screaming:

"Hey, bye Ethan"

He stopped walking and looked back to see who was calling him.

Then he saw Jessica waving at him from the entrance to the school.

The boy smiled at her and waved back, returning to the path he was following.

That afternoon was very cold, but it was sunny, making Ethan feel no fear of getting lost in that city, since there didn't seem to be any danger nearby. He walked between the streets with little traffic and every time a new curve appeared, it was as if he had just walked all that way, and it became clearer where the boy should go.

After walking for a few long minutes, Ethan was close to home, until he started walking down a street that was a little narrower and empty. The boy adjusted his backpack on his back and accelerated a little step, trying to avoid any kind of problem, until he passes in front of a dark alley. The boy froze instantly and turned his face towards that infinite darkness of the alley. He couldn't see anything, no living being or even some kind of light from that place. It was so dark you could barely see the end of the alley.

The boy took two small steps into the room and stopped again.