kamishiro rui is my name

Kamishiro Rui is my name.

I am a current first year at my junior high school, and approximately one-hundred of my peers hate me.

Approximately one of my peers acknowledge me as a human being and not someone to laugh at because of their interests and behaviors.

Kusanagi Nene is her name.

However, she does not come to my school as she started homeschooling after her social anxiety grew to be too much, poor girl.

-The first day of school.-

One-hundred of my peers hate me, the rest are unaware of my existence. But I know word about me will spread fast.

“He’s so weird!”

Said nobody ever, and yet I’m confident I’ll hear those three words whispered at least once today.

Bag in hand, I march to the front entrance of the school. The doors stare at me and I stare back. A stare-down between me, twelve-year-old Kamishiro Rui, and the doors, that are probably much older than even my grandparents.

The staring contest between my eyes and the metal doors linger on until one of the faculty members open the doors, letting all the kids hustle inside. I do not move.

I cannot move my feet. It's almost as if I’m glued to the pavement as students shove past me and quickly clog up the opening to the school. I find myself still planted firmly to the concrete even after everyone has rushed inside. I can’t do this.

But because I have to, I force my feet off the ground, ungluing my shoes from the hot ground beneath me, and trudge slowly toward those double-doors.

I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.