Max got out of the car and reminded the driver that he had to pick him up at 13:10.

The car left, and Max took a deep breath while ignoring the few students staring at him. They probably were curious about his scar, or maybe it was because he got out of a fancy car?

He got closer to the fence and looked at the school. It was white with yellow stripes that seemed to snake all over the walls, some of which were decorated with amateur mosaics and graffiti made by the students of the arts and crafts department. Most of the windows were dirty or covered with colorful paper to replace the broken blinds. Max still couldn’t understand how a school that had been rebuilt from scratch only two years ago could already have broken blinds.

Max walked past the open gate and entered the building. The school was packed, and he could barely hear his own thoughts.

He felt nostalgic for some reason. Did he really miss being in the middle of such chaos? Weird... But it felt nice to be surrounded by so many kids his age again after so many years of relative isolation...

“Hey, you’re new here, aren’t you?” asked a voice with a slight French accent.

“Huh? Oh, hello.” He turned around to see a short guy with over the top shiny clothes and opaque glasses.

“I’m Daniel.”

“I’m Maxwell, but my friends call me Max.” said the orphan stretching out his hand, inviting Daniel for a handshake. What the hell was he doing?! Normal teenagers don’t shake hands! God... He spent too much time with adults, and now he was acting like a tool... It was all over for him...

“What friends? You barely left home or talked to someone other than a teacher or a member of your family since you came here,” he said while shaking the orphan’s hand vigorously “Not that you had that many friends back in America anyways…”

“How… do you know that?” Ok, that guy was definitely weird... And a little bit ruthless...

“Your aura says it all,” he said, gesturing a circle around Max’s head with his free hand.

“Ok... Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” That guy finally stopped shaking his hand, and Max massaged his aching arm. 

“Of course it is a pleasure to meet me! I'm awesome! Come on, I’ll give you a tour of the school.” Daniel said, gesturing him to follow him as he began to walk.

“Thanks. But my aunt already showed me the facilities.” The orphan was a little weirded out by that character, but he followed him nonetheless. 

“I’m talking about a real visit.” 

“Ok...” Max followed him for a few awkward seconds of silence between them. “So... What was that white thing on the pavement outside?” he said with a forced smile, desperately trying to come up with a conversation topic.

“Cocaine.” the guy answered in a monotone voice without looking at him.

“Huh?”

“I’m kidding, it’s salt.” He let out a little chuckle “It’s to kill the weeds and moss that grow on the sidewalk.”

“Oh, ok. But wouldn’t it be more effective to just use herbicide?”

“They used to use chemicals to take care of the problem, but some people walk their animals around here, and sometimes they would lick the floor and get sick. So after some complaints, they started using salt instead.”

“Huh, makes sense...”

Max looked at the boy’s glasses. Could he see through those things? Or maybe he was blind? He didn’t have a cane with him… Maybe he was just partially blind.

“No, I can see perfectly fine. My eyes are just weird, so I use these shades to hide them.”

“Weird? How? Like, are they going in different directions or--” Wait, how did he know what he was thinking?

Daniel stopped and lowered his glasses, looking Max in the eye.

Max’s eyes slowly filled with terror, and he felt like his brain had crashed. His eyes... It was like they were in the wrong place. They looked like they didn’t belong to him, but rather to something hiding under his skin... They looked cold and glassy, like doll eyes... But there was definitely a presence behind them that was pretty real and alive.

“Well. Now that this is out of the way,” He put his glasses back in place with a villainous smile “How about we start our tour?”

“Ok...” His survival instincts were telling him to punch and run, but he found himself following Daniel for some reason. Maybe he wasn’t ready for the real world, after all...