CHAPTER 41: NEW LOOK AT SCHOOL

Walking to school felt like being in a different reality. I kept catching glimpses of myself in store windows and car mirrors, and every time I did a double-take because that couldn’t be me. The guy in the reflection looked like he had his shit together.

My phone had been buzzing all morning with texts from Nina, but I was too nervous to check them. What if she changed her mind about the haircut? What if it looked weird in daylight?

I was about three blocks from school when I heard footsteps jogging up behind me.

"Excuse me," a voice called out. "Are you lost?"

I turned around, confused, and nearly choked. It was Nina, but she had this huge, shit-eating grin on her face and her eyes were sparkling with mischief.

"Do I know you?" she continued, walking up to me and looking me up and down in an exaggerated way that made my face burn. "Because I’m pretty sure I’d remember meeting someone this handsome."

My brain just stopped working. "Nina, what are you doing?"

"I’m sorry, Nina?" she said, tilting her head and putting on this innocent act. "I think you have me confused with someone else. I’m just a girl who happened to notice this incredibly good-looking guy walking to school."

I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. She was full-on teasing me, and my face felt like it was on fire. "Stop it."

"Stop what?" she asked, that grin getting even wider. "I’m just making conversation with a mysterious stranger. Tell me, handsome stranger, what’s your name?"

"I hate you," I muttered, but I was smiling too because this was so ridiculous.

"That’s a weird name," she said, and then she started walking backward in front of me, still with that teasing smile. "But I like it. Very mysterious."

She was enjoying this way too much. My entire face was probably bright red, but there was something about the way she was looking at me that made my chest feel tight in a good way. Like she really did think I looked good.

"Okay, okay," she finally said, laughing at my misery. "I’ll stop torturing you. But seriously, you look amazing. I can’t believe you were hiding that face under all that hair."

My heart skipped a beat. "It’s just a haircut."

"It’s not just a haircut," she said, falling into step beside me. "It’s like you leveled up overnight. I’m going to have to beat girls off with a stick now."

The thought of Nina beating anyone off with a stick made me laugh despite my embarrassment. "I don’t think that’s going to be a problem."

"Trust me," she said, bumping my shoulder with hers. "You have no idea what you look like right now."

We were getting closer to school, and I could already see clusters of students hanging around the entrance. My stomach started doing flips because I was going to have to walk past all of them looking like this.

"Hey," she said, her voice softer now. "You nervous?"

"Terrified," I admitted.

"Don’t be," she said, and when I looked at her, her expression was gentle instead of teasing. "You look great. And anyone who has a problem with you looking great can go screw themselves."

That helped a little, but then we reached the school entrance and everything went to hell.

The first person to spot us did this obvious double-take, and I watched his eyes go wide as he nudged his friend and pointed at me. Then his friend looked over and his jaw literally dropped.

"Holy shit," I heard one of them whisper. "Who is that?"

More heads started turning. A group of girls near the lockers were whispering and looking over at us. I caught fragments of conversation as we walked past.

"Who is that?"

"Wait, is that the quiet kid that’s always with Nina?"

"No way, that can’t be him."

"He’s actually really cute."

My face was burning and I wanted to disappear, but Nina just kept walking beside me like nothing was happening. She even had this proud look on her face, like she was showing off a prize she’d won.

"See?" she said quietly, just for me. "Told you so."

We made it to my locker without anyone actually stopping us, but I could feel eyes on me from every direction. This was worse than being invisible. At least when people ignored me, I knew what to expect.

I fumbled with my combination lock, my hands shaking slightly. Nina leaned against the locker next to mine, still wearing that satisfied smile.

"You’re enjoying this," I said.

"Maybe a little," she admitted. "It’s nice seeing people finally notice what was already there."

I finally got my locker open and started swapping my books. ’Notice’ was one word for it. ’Dissected under a microscope’ felt more accurate.

"What’s with that serious face?" she teased, poking my arm. "Are you practicing your ’cool protagonist’ stare in the reflection?"

I flinched and pulled my arm away. "No."

She poked me again, harder this time, her grin widening. "Liar. I can see it. You’re thinking something cool, like ’Hmph, foolish mortals... you cannot comprehend my power’."

My brain just short-circuited. She was doing an impression. A terrible, over-the-top anime villain impression, just for me, in the middle of a crowded hallway. The sheer absurdity of it, mixed with the fact that she was basically reading my mind, made a laugh bubble up in my chest. I tried to smother it, but it came out as a choked snort.

"There it is," she said, her eyes sparkling. "Knew I could get a smile out of you, senpai."

I slammed my locker shut and turned away from Nina before she could see the stupid grin I couldn’t wipe off my face. The sheer ridiculousness of her ’senpai’ and ’Nagatoro mode’ comments was short-circuiting my brain. This was too much.

We walked the last few feet to our classroom side-by-side. The hallway noise faded behind us as we stepped through the door.

And the entire room went dead silent.

It was like hitting the mute button on the world. Twenty heads turned in perfect unison, a synchronized movement of pure shock. Conversations stopped mid-word.

This was it. The final boss battle of social anxiety.

My first instinct was to flinch, to look at the floor, to do anything to escape the sudden, intense focus of all those eyes.

But then I heard Nina next to me.

"You know," she said, her voice carrying easily in the silent room, "I bet if I dyed my hair pink, no one would even notice. You’ve officially stolen all my main character energy for the day."

The comment was so absurd, so perfectly timed, that it cut right through my panic. I risked a glance at her. She wasn’t looking at the class. She was looking at me, a tiny, reassuring smile on her face.

’She’s my pillar,’ I thought, the words a solid anchor in the storm of stares. ’She’s not going to disappear.’

I took a breath. "Pink would clash with your eyes," I said, my own voice surprisingly steady. "Blue would be better."

A few kids near the front actually gasped.

We walked to my desk, our own private conversation cutting through the thick silence. This felt... powerful. Like we had a shield no one else could see.

"I’ll see you at lunch?" I asked as I dropped my bag next to my chair.

"Try not to start any international incidents before then," she said with a wink. She turned and walked to her own desk on the other side of the room, leaving me in the epicenter of the shockwave.