“...Desmond.”

I couldn’t look at his face because he had this smile of a prince on his face, that blinded me.

Oh, boy…

“I didn’t think you were here. I almost wouldn’t have recognized you without your wi-*hmpf*!”

I blocked his mouth with my hand and stopped him from finishing the sentence. I looked at him with a dark face.

“How about we talk later? Maybe, after school?”

With his mouth still blocked, he gave a short nod.

“Good!?”

I lowered my hands and turned back to the others.

“Sorry for that…”

I sat down with the others again.

“Your boyfriend?”

Yasemin asked directly across the table.

“In what way do you mean your friend?”¹Here is a simple and a detailed explanation.
Simple: In German, "your friend" could refer to "your boyfriend" or "your friend" because we don't have a translation for "boyfriend." The nearest translation would be "fester Freund," but that would be translated as "solid friend." Detailed below the chapter.

“Boyfriend?”

I shook my head.

“We met on the day I moved into my apartment, that’s all.”

Everyone made an “Oh, well then!” facial expression.

Really now!? Did they all think Desmond was my boyfriend...

It was only a moment before the bell rang, and the pause ended.

“What kind of lessons do we have next?”

I asked around the group.

Michelle, who was walking in front of me, leaned back.

“German.”

She answered.

German... huh?

The German classes took place in the same classroom.

I took the same place next to Nicole, and we waited for the German teacher to arrive.

“Here.”

Nicole handed me a sheet on which the schedule was shown. After the German lessons, we had physical education.

“Hello, class.”

The German teacher came into the classroom with a friendly smile on her face. She was older, and she showed that. She had long gray hair.

“Yikes? And who are you?”

She noticed me and asked the question across the entire class. I still had my hood on from the break. I slowly went over my head and pulled the hood down and threw my hair behind my shoulder.

“My name is Siana. I am a transfer student.”

“A new student... Interesting.”

Nothing is exciting, and please forget me again immediately!

“As much as I would like to organize an introductory round for you, but we have to complete our current topic to be able to write the classwork in a few weeks. Can anyone tell Siana what our current topic is?”

A student raised his hand.

“Yes, Robin.”

The student started.

“Discussion, Ms. Urbansky²Urbansky is a family name coming from Poland and Czech, but if you split the name, it becomes "urban sky." Funny coincidence that an acquaintance presented me a while ago..”

 The boy has an arrogant facial expression that said something like “Ha, just idiots,” but I didn’t care.

“Well, then class, let’s start with a discussion.”

She turned to the good old blackboard and started writing.

 

===

 

The German lessons quickly passed because if you had to deal with a text, there was not much boredom.

The second break had started. It was only 15 minutes long, five minutes shorter than the first break. Since we next had sports, we went to the community sports hall, which both schools shared. I already knew of this sports hall, because I used the gym as my former self. It was a hall for up to three classes, which could be divided by movable partitions. The size of the sports hall corresponded approximately to a football field.

*ding* *dong*

The bell rang, and even the last one of the class found their way to the entrance of the sports hall. Next to us was a second class, the same age,  this class was my former class.

I hadn’t paid attention that this was my old class, but someone in the background was watching me, and it felt uncomfortable. The person didn’t stop, even after a few minutes.

Damn it!

“Excuse me for a moment.”

I apologized to the others and went over to the other class. I walked through them towards the person. They looked away when they saw me approaching, but I didn’t let it through.

“Why are you staring at me all this time?”

He looked back at me and blushed.

“...I... I don’t know what you mean.”

His entire class and mine looked at both of us.

“I know you were watching me. Why?”

...Does he suspect something? How?

I imagined the worst scenarios and couldn’t think of anything else. He grimaced and then had an “I’m sorry” face.

“I bumped into someone on Saturday and well… she had fiery red hair, which I thought was really cool. When I saw you standing there... I had to think of the girl for some reason. She was also wearing a hoodie just like you.”

He paused and scratched the back of his head.

“It’s a little embarrassing, but I like girls with red hair.”

...

I was lost of words.

I’m so stupid!? Siana was my “ideal!” Of course, my other me would show interest in her.

I wanted to give myself a facepalm, but I already stood out like a colorful dog through this scene.

“Okay, I’ll let it go, this time! Also, you shouldn’t let it become a habit of apologizing to me every time we meet, like in the supermarket and right now, okay?”

I said the second half of the sentence as I backed away from him. After finishing I turned around and went back to the others, our sports teacher had just arrived.

“Wah!?”

I could hear his surprising sound behind me, but I paid no attention to him anymore.

Nicole was already waiting at the entrance to the sports hall and held the door open for me.

“Thank you.”

I thanked her and slipped through the door.

“Did you know him?”

She asked me in a low voice.

“...We ran into each other on Saturday in the supermarket, but I don’t know more. How is it with you, do you know him?”

I grinned at her and made a “Hehe.” She shook her head and answered me.

“I often met him in the schoolyard, and he always wears this hoodie. ...He always seemed very scary to me, but he just seemed nervous around you... so I thought...”

She fell silent.

We turned into the corridor with the changing rooms, on the left side were the boys changing rooms, they were numbered with one, three and five, while the girls’ changing rooms on the right side were numbered with two, four and six.

“Our class uses the changing rooms, five and six.”

Nicole explained the cabin layout for me. She turned into cabin six, but I stopped at the door.

Should I really go in there now? It just feels morally wrong, but if I don’t go in and change clothes in the toilet, they’ll surely think I’m strange.

Tanya and Yasemin stuck their heads out the door.

““Siana!? What’s wrong? Come in!””

Tanya and Yasemin said the same thing in unison. They stormed out and grabbed my hands and pulled me into the locker room. Whether I wanted it or not.

Wah!?

In the locker room, not one of the girls had started to change into their sports clothes. They all were standing in a semicircle to the entrance of the room.

What is going on here?

Tanya spoke first.

“Siana, at least the girls want to greet you in the class and introduce themself to you.”

Nine girls were in the room without counting me. Nicole and the others introduced themselves first and all with the same sentence, “I am XXX, welcome to class 9b, Siana.” After these four started the first girl whose name I didn’t know.

“Hello, I’m Flora.”

Flora was only slightly taller than Tanya and gave me the impression of a shy beauty. The next girl followed.

“Nice to meet you, Siana, I’m Sarah.”

Sarah wore glasses and looked a bit nerdy.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jelena, but everyone calls me Jeli.”

Jelena... Jeli rolled the R lightly. Her accent had an Eastern European touch, but I couldn’t tell exactly from where.

The last two introduced themselves together.

““I am…””

“Tina.” “Sina.”

They were identical twins. Their faces were indistinguishable at first glance, but Tina had her shoulder-length hair open, while Sina had glasses and had braided her hair into two braids.

I was lost for words for this gesture, so I bowed and said the only thing I could think of.

“Thank you, everyone!”

Sarah clapped loudly once.

“So let’s move. Otherwise, we’ll be late for class.”

“YES!”

Everyone replied in unison, of course, without me because the complicated feeling came back up.

Oh, boy... Oh, boy...