Every day was sort of the same during spring break and there were only two days left until the new year commences.

Chance sorted out all his homework, textbooks, and notebooks for school and packed his bag in advance. He went through his classes and organized everything quickly. Then, he shuffled everything into his backpack, trying hard not to fold the angles of papers or make a mess.

“New year, new me.” Chance says this to himself every time he starts a new school year, but he never really changes.

He had spent the next two days staying at home and getting a lot of sleep. The night before school starts, Chance went to bed at 10:30.

“Ding!” The alarm clock on Chance’s nightstand rang while he opened his eyes reluctantly. It took his eyes several seconds to adjust to the morning sun pouring into his bedroom through the slight vent of his bedroom curtain.

Chance put on his shirt and a pair of jeans drowsily and stumbled towards the dining room.

“I’m so excited for school!” Daisy sang out during breakfast, “I can finally meet my friends again!”

She gulped up her cereal and shouted at Chance to hurry up, “You can’t be late for the first day of school!”

“You know what, I’ve been through more than 20 “first day of schools” so it’s not such a big deal for me.”

Daisy rolled her eyes at Chance and checked everything in her backpack for the nth time.

On the way in their car, Daisy barked at her father every time he reaches for his phone while driving and complained about the cars in front of them.

“Ugg, these traffic lights are so annoying!” “Why can’t they just go!?” “Drive faster, eh, you could’ve went past that car!” Daisy was really the most irritating sister in the world.

As the view of Golden Sierra Elementary came into view, Daisy’s smile widened.

Chance’s father pulled up beside the road, “I’m just gonna put you down right here, OK?”

“OK!” Daisy leaped out of the car immediately.

“Look out for the cars while crossing the road!” Chance’s father called out behind her.

He turned around to return home and after several minutes, Chance got out and continued walking to school .

Nothing changed much from the outside of Eastwood High. Chance spotted some familiar faces in the crowd.

“Boo!” he cried out as he attacked Hunter from behind.

He giggled, “Hey bro!”

“Let’s go in, you know, maybe we can put our stuff in our lockers, I’m getting a bit tired of my backpack,” Hunter suggested.

As the two proceeded up the stairs and as they approached the classrooms, the voices of gossipy and chattering girls increased. They stopped by at the lockers and stuffed the textbooks and notebooks into them. When the two set foot in their classroom, Chance saw all the girls surrounding another girl. She was so familiar to Chance, yet she was the new student.

Chance’s heart skipped a few beats and his mind seemed to process slower than usual. It was not possible, this was definitely a dream. He is still in bed, and he have overslept, and Chance was about to be late for school. And Daisy is shouting at him to wake up…

But no.

No, this was not a dream. It was Luna, right in front of Chance, it was the Luna.

She didn’t seem to recognize Chance though, Luna looked at Chance the same way as she looked at Hunter. She couldn’t have not recognized Chance, he never photo shop his pictures when he sends them to Luna. 

Perhaps he was just seeing things, imagining things. But the new girl was clearly Luna, she looked exactly the same as her photos.

Chance detoured around the classroom and sat beside Tristan, who was busy playing video games on his laptop.

Chance pretended to be browsing on social media on his phone as he stole glances at Luna. She was getting along so well with the other girls and she seemed so relaxed, unlike Chance.

“You’re onto the new girl, aren’t you?” Tristan suddenly looked up from his laptop.

“Eh, umm…”

Tristan smirked, “I know, well, she’s new here, so you’ve got a pretty nice opportunity.”

“Eh…”

Tristan patted Chance on the shoulder, “Come on, just go talk to her first, open yourself up to her, and she’ll probably gain interest in you.”

“Yea…”

“Don’t be shy.”

“Yea I know, but…”

“I think that I know girls more than you do.”

Hey, Luna… What should he say next? Hey, Luna, do you remember me? I’m the guy you talk with… No, that’s a bit weird. Hey, Luna, I’m Chance, you know, we’re friends on Ins…

“It’s already eight, literature class.” Tristan stood up.

Chance went into his locker and grabbed his textbook and laptop.

“Is it the same classroom?” Hunter asked Chance as they walked up the stairs.

“Probably yes,”

They entered the small classroom and seated next to each other.

“OK, so hi guys, so we’re going to be analyzing ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ this semester, I have a copy over here for each one of you guys, you can come up and get it,” Professor Samuel started the class. The students all stood up and each took one of the heavy hardback books, “I also have the digital version of the book in my USB, if you want to have a digital copy, stop by at my office when you have time and I can give it to you.

“So I’ve heard that there’s a new student in our class, it’s Brooklyn, right?” Professor Samuel nodded towards Luna.

“Yes, sir,” Luna replied.

Brooklyn? But…But it was Luna. Or was he just seeing things? Yes, he was definitely imagining it. But her face, her face was Luna’s face! She could have lied on Instagram, maybe to protect her privacy? So it was Luna, but why didn’t she say hi to Chance? She was probably just shy like Chance, but she didn’t seem to act twitchy when she’s beside Chance.

The professor grinned, “I hope you would enjoy school here, Brooklyn.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Brooklyn/Luna’s voice was so sweet and soft and she was so polite, she was the girl of Chance’s dreams and the perfect girl he had imagined, and now she was in the same class as him! It’s so funny how dreams come true. Yet Chance was scared to seize his opportunity and grasp his dream.

“So for tonight, I’m not going to leave any reading assignment, but you’ll need to read and annotate the first chapter and turn it in next Monday alright?”

The students all nodded

“This book, Nicholas Nickleby, is one of the earliest works of Charles Dickens. I hope that Charles Dickens needs no introduction, he was known as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and a literary genius. It tells an episodic and melodramatic story…”

Chance was not a massive fan of literature, but Professor Samuel’s droning went on for an hour.

Out of the corner of his eye, Chance spotted Lu…Brooklyn reading the book while half-listening to the professor. 

The hour soon passed away and the class was dismissed. Chance watched as Brooklyn stood up, held her books and notebooks, and headed for the door. 

Chance tried to act completely normal throughout the day, but of course his friends noticed that there was something going on.

During the lunch break, Hunter asked him, “You’re acting a bit weird today, you know, just a bit tensed, and you’re barely talking, is something going on?”

Chance searched through his mind for a not so awkward lie and blurted out “Yea, I had some night last night, I was in a bar and drinking, the sort of stuff, so I’m not feeling really well.”

“Oh, eh, you drink?” Hunter asked.

Chance had just realized that it was a terrible lie, he wanted to tell Hunter that he doesn’t drink, but doesn’t want him to know that he was lying, so what should he say? It was as if Chance’s mind did not control his mouth, and he replied, “Yeah, but not very often, just really rarely, yeah, really rarely.”

“Oh, umm, ok, I didn’t know.”

Chance prayed that Hunter would not tell anyone else, because if the words travels into his mother’s ears, she would murder him for sure. No one in Chance’s family drinks, or smokes. Besides, Chance was only fifteen, though a lot of boys his age drinks because they think that it’s “cool.”

But what if she does hear about it? Chance tried not to think about the consequences.

Oh, why did he say that? He could’ve used a better excuse, he could’ve just said that he had a nightmare, or had simply caught a cold, but it was too late, he had already said it and there’s nothing he could do to change it.

“I’m getting really hungry, let’s go eat in the canteen now.” Hunter urged Chance.

Chance followed him, “OK, I’m coming.”

While gobbling up his sandwich along with Hunter, Patrick, and William, Chance spotted Brooklyn out of the corner of his eye, sitting with Melody and Stacy, the pretty and popular girls. Obviously, she would join the popular girls. 

Now that they were sitting beside each other, it seemed as though Brooklyn was even prettier than Melody. Nevertheless, she would soon learn not to challenge Melody’s pride and her throne.

Tristan was sitting beside Melody, although Chance was pretty far from them, he could here him laughing every time Melody told a joke, and every now and then, he ran his fingers through her flaming waist-long hair. Melody’s eyes glitter with glamour and her dazzling red hair was as soft as silk, but Brooklyn’s eyes reflected the sun, and they looked so sincere and keen.

A few minutes later, Tristan arrived at Chance’s table, “Chance, can I tell you something?” He seemed pretty serious, but Tristan was always solemn and earnest.

Chance nodded as Tristan tugged him out of his seat. He walked a few steps away and Chance tread on his heals.

Tristan laid his right hand on Chance’s arm, “I was sitting beside the girls, you know,” he slightly adjusted his posture, “and Brooklyn was there, and I told her a bit about you. Not too obvious of course. Well, I just sort of put in a word or two during the conversation, and I told her that you’re a pretty good basketball, and you have good grades, so now at least she knows that you exist and has a pretty nice impression of you.”

“Thanks, bro,” Chance beamed.

“So, umm, you can just be casual and relaxed and go chat with her, and get involved in her story.”

“I really appreciate your support, Tristan, but I’m a bit sissy you know, I just can’t find the right words to say to girls.” Chance blushed slightly.

“It’s actually really easy, just make them feel good, you can compliment them, or talk about something they’re interested in, I can’t actually teach you these kind of things, it comes with experience.”

But Tristan doesn’t understand, he doesn’t understand that Chance has been chatting so much with Brooklyn online. After debating inside his mind about whether or not he should tell Tristan the truth and seek help from him, Chance decided to keep it to himself.

He smiled, “Well, I’ll try, thanks.” 

The other boys were finishing up their lunch when Chance returned to his table. He gobbled up his sandwich as fast as he could and joined them outside, at the basketball court.

If Brooklyn was his girl, there would be cheering for him every time he scores. Whenever Tristan, Jack, or Hunter scores a goal, there would be screams from the girls, but for Chance, there was only shouting from his teammates. 

Chance had practiced his basketball techniques during every possible opportunity, and he played well, but it just couldn’t attract the girls.

Brooklyn was sitting at the edge of the court, along with the other girls who would watch them play every time. Once in a while, the girls would giggle, but mostly, they were chatting, probably discussing about the boys or sharing gossips.

It was hard to imagine Brooklyn as Chance’s girlfriend, it seems like an unattainable dream, no matter how easy Tristan said it was. He tried assuming what Tristan would do if he was in Chance’s shoes, but he has no clue.

“Patrick!” “Jack!” Chance cried out to his teammates during the match. However, amusing times pass away fast, and the school bell rang, signaling 5 minutes until class starts.

Biology courses was the toughest, with all the lengthy vocabulary and having to memorize all the concepts. However, physics was even more challenging for Chance, so he had chosen to take biology courses.

“During our next class, which is this Thursday, we would be doing a group assignment,” Chance have been inattentive until Ms. Katrina mentioned the words “group assignment.”

“Don’t stress about it, it’s just a fun activity and you guys can work together and have fun. I’m not going to tell you what it is yet, it’s going to be a surprise for you guys! For the groups, they would be chosen randomly by a spinner, so you can get to know some of your classmates and make new friends.”

The girls looked at each other and frowned, but Chance only feared being sorted in the same group as Brooklyn, and having to talk to her…