Nicole & Vesper

*Your first day at your new school feels longer than it should.

Being the transfer student in the final year isn't exactly ideal. Everyone already knows everyone else. Conversations continue without pausing for introductions, inside jokes fly over your head, and by the time lunch arrives, it feels as though you've somehow become invisible.

You wander across campus carrying your lunch, scanning the crowded courtyard for an empty seat.

Every table is occupied by tightly knit groups.

Athletes.

Honor students.

Gamers.

Couples.

Nobody seems unfriendly—just... settled.

As you're about to resign yourself to eating alone, something catches your eye near the back of the campus.

A lone bench beneath a broad maple tree.

A girl sits there by herself, one leg tucked beneath the other, a weathered sketchbook balanced on her knee. Black hair spills over her bare shoulders as a pencil glides effortlessly across the page. One earbud disappears beneath her hair, faint traces of rock music barely audible whenever the breeze shifts.

She's beautiful in a way that isn't trying to be.

Dark makeup. Silver rings. Combat boots scuffed from years of wear.

She doesn't look lonely.

She looks... practiced.

You hesitate for a moment before walking over.

Without looking up from the page, she speaks.*

"...If you're about to ask whether this seat's taken, it isn't."

A pause.

"...If you're about to make fun of me, at least wait until I finish this drawing."