Forest walked into the art studio excitedly. It was the only class that he had been looking forward to all week. The space was large and light with big windows on one side, looking out to the school’s track and outdoor basketball courts.

“You’re early!” a plump, friendly seeming lady with colourful parrot earrings announced as she bustled into the studio carrying a tray of fruit.

“I had a free period before this,” Forest explained.

“Most students use that as an excuse to be late,” the woman laughed, before nodding to a stack of wooden easels. “I’m Mrs Kittaneh by the way. Think you could give me a hand setting up those easels?”

“Of course,” Forest nodded, putting his bag down and hurrying over to set them in a circle around where Mrs Kittaneh was arranging the fruit on a wooden crate. “I’m new – I’m Forest.”

“Well Forest, it’s still life this week I’m afraid,” Mrs Kittaneh smiled at him whilst holding an alarmingly large mango. “I know, I know –it’s not exactly the most ‘sexy’ of the fine arts but it’s leading up to figure drawing next week.”

“I’m fine with still life,” Forest grinned, choosing an easel and stool that were off to one side.

“Ooh, that a sketchbook?” Mrs Kittaneh pointed at the thick black book Forest was carrying under one arm.

“Uh yeah,” Forest smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You’re an artist?” Mrs Kittaneh asked excitedly, almost hopping on her feet. “This school is somewhat starved of artists I’m afraid, puts far too much emphasis on sports instead.”

“I like to draw,” Forest nodded, he already liked this teacher the best.

“Fantastic!” Mrs Kittaneh exclaimed as the bell went and the rest of the class started to traipse in, looking bored.

Forest drew his easel back further away from the others, cringing at the scraping noise it made on the concrete floor.

“You allergic to fruit or something?” an amused voice came from his right.

Forest glanced over to see a petite blonde girl with a cat ears headband cocking her head curiously at him.

“N-no,” Forest coughed. It was the first time in three days that someone had actually talked to him of their own volition, besides that jock on the first day.

“I’m Cindy,” the girl smiled, revealing bright pink braces.

“I’m Forest,” Forest nodded. Picking up his charcoal, he started to sketch the basic outlines of the still life.

“You’re kind of shy huh?” Cindy grinned, shifting her stool and easel so she was closer to him.

“I guess,” Forest gave her a small smile back.

A cheer went up from outside and Forest looked through the windows to see a team on the basketball courts had scored. He couldn’t quite see their faces but someone was being lifted up into the air.

“What the hell are you staring at new kid?”

Forest flinched as a large blonde boy sat closest to the windows glared at him.

“Hey new kid – can you actually see anything through those glasses anyway?” another boy laughed.

“Leave him alone Jason,” Cindy retorted, reaching out to tug at Forest’s sleeve. “Hey, don’t worry about those idiots okay? They’re permanently set to asshole mode.”

“Yeah,” Forest smiled weakly. He had figured it would only be a matter of time until the school bullies honed in on him. It was just surprising that it had taken this long, he was pretty sure he’d had a signalling device fitted at birth.

“Jason, Trev and Scott,” Cindy pointed subtly with her charcoal to the three boys on the other side of the room. “Avoid at all costs.”

“Are they really Juniors too?” Forest squinted. “They’re huge.”

“I think you and I are just unusually short buddy,” Cindy giggled. “Sorry to be the one to break the news.”

“That’s okay,” Forest grinned, “I accepted I wasn’t going to grow anymore after my fifteenth birthday. I even drank two litres of milk to try and trigger a growth spurt.”

“Jesus!” Cindy laughed. “What happened?”

“My mom found me throwing up in the bathroom twenty minutes later,” Forest sighed. “I haven’t been able to stomach lactose since.”

“Forest!” Mrs Kittaneh exclaimed suddenly, making both Forest and Cindy flinch violently. “I knew you were going to be brilliant!”

“Wow,” Cindy beamed, craning her neck round to look at Forest’s drawing. “Dude you’ve got real talent!”

“Thanks,” Forest mumbled, his face heating up as the teacher summoned all the other students to come and see his work.

“Hey – you want to sit together at lunch?” Cindy asked as they packed up and the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson.

“Sure,” Forest replied, the three boys were still glaring at him from across the room.

The cafeteria was large and intimidating. At Forest’s previous school at least there had been different areas for the different year groups but at this one everyone poured into the same big space at the same time.

“Want me to do a Mean Girls style clique run down?” Cindy asked breezily as they collected their trays.

“That’s okay,” Forest laughed. “Think I’ve got it figured out.”

“So those guys,” Cindy continued undeterred and pointed to a group of Senior jocks and cheerleaders. Forest recognised Tide immediately. “Are the losers of the school, like seriously they’re probably all still virgins.”

“Uh huh,” Forest snorted and bit his lip in a smile.

“And this table over here,” Cindy gestured sweepingly to a side table with three Juniors sat on it, all of them with their noses in books. “Are the cool kids, like everybody wants to be them.”

“Hello Cindy,” one of the boys with ginger hair and a mass of freckles sighed wearily.

“Robert, look!” Cindy beamed, tugging Forest forwards to sit with them. “I’ve brought a new recruit; think he’s cool enough for us?”

Robert glanced up over his glasses to eye Forest up and down. “You play sport?”

“Not really, I’ve got asthma,” Forest shrugged apologetically.

“He’s cool enough,” Robert smiled with a conspiratorial wink at Cindy, who clapped her hands together in glee.

“Hey Forest, let’s exchange numbers!” Cindy exclaimed, pulling out her phone from her pocket.

“O-okay,” Forest nodded, a warm feeling threading through his veins, he lifted his rucksack up to the table to fish out his own phone but half the contents spilled across the table. “Shit sorry, the zip’s broken,” he apologised to the others as he scrambled to gather up his belongings.

“What the hell is this?”

Forest froze as he turned to the end of the table and saw Jason, Trev and Scott standing there. Jason was holding up one of Forest’s books and frowning at the cover. Forest felt his heart drop into his stomach when he realised what it was.

“It’s a manhua,” Cindy sighed, “now give it back to him Jason.”

“I know what manga is,” Jason snorted, mishearing her, “but this is something else.”

“No – don’t,” Forest pleaded, lurching forwards to try and snatch the book back. To be honest he had forgotten that particular volume was still in his bag from moving house a month ago.

Jason easily dodged him, causing Trev and Scott to let out nasty laughs. Jason stood up on one of the empty chairs to hold the book at arm’s length. The front cover of two male princes locked in a steamy, passionate embrace was clear to everyone that was staring at them, which was quite a good portion of the cafeteria at this point.

“Yo – hey David can you read this?” Jason called out to someone from a nearby table, gesturing at the Mandarin title.

“The Heat of Your Heart,” a boy called back apathetically as Forest tried to shrink into the ground.

“Ho-ly hell!” Jason let out a wickedly loud cackle as he began to fan through the pages. “This shit gets explicit! New kid’s brought gay porn to school!”

“No!” Forest called out, choking on his own shame. He looked desperately around, nearly everyone was staring at them wide-eyed. Several people were giggling and pointing, others were looking more sympathetic and pitying.

“You wish this was you huh?” Jason held up an open page for everyone to see. Forest felt his soul shrivel and die as he registered what it showed. It wasn’t even that x-rated a scene, but the smaller prince was being lifted up by the other one, half naked with exaggerated muscles, his sword bloodied from fighting off their attackers.

“Forest?”

He could hear Cindy calling his name as the room began to spin.

Suddenly, the book was jerked out of Jason’s hands. Tide stood beside them with a couple of his equally large friends. Tide looked furious, his face was splotchy red and his grey eyes narrowed menacingly at Jason.

“Hey dude,” Jason threw up his hands placatingly, he was still wearing a shit-eating grin but looked less sure now. “Didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

The entire cafeteria fell almost silent. Forest could feel his heart beating through his chest, his whole body was shaking. He jerked forwards, sweeping the rest of his belongings up and turned to leg it out of the room.

Forest could hear someone calling his name behind him as he raced down the corridor and dived into the boys’ bathrooms.