"My body was getting hotter

The skin seemingly melting

Everything was a blur

I can't see anymore..." Ethan hurriedly sat on the bed, scared and breathing heavily, unable to comprehend what was happening.

"Huh!? Was it a dream?"

He placed his hand on his forehead, gently pushing back his soft black strands of hair, attempting to calm himself, when he suddenly noticed the blaring sound of the alarm clock on the nearby headboard.

He moved his arm towards the damn thing, hurriedly turning it off to finally look around with peace of mind.

"Wait, where am I?"

He looked around, his gaze sweeping the unfamiliar environment; this wasn't his room.

On the dark blue walls were posters of multiple games, some clothes lay scattered across the floor, and cardboard boxes littered in one corner of the room. It looked like the typical bedroom of a teenager that recently moved in.

Ethan then stood up from the bed and headed towards a mirror next to the door. When he looked at his own reflex, he was fritghened by what he saw and took a few steps back in confusion.

"What the fuck is going on?"

This wasn't his body. It was as if he had shrunk in size and returned to the time he was seventeen. He couldn't remember much, but he knew that the one in the mirror wasn't him. The one he saw had glistening black hair, a good-looking face, and quite the chiseled body even though he was definetly a teenager. He also noticed that his eyesight wasn't among the best, not surprisingly there was a pair of glasses on the headboard next to the alarm clock.

Putting on the glasses, he turned around and stared at his reflexion. His whole body had changed, however, one thing had stayed the same; his eyes.

Ethan's eyes were of a redish orange hue. It wasn't highlighted enough to make them look fake, but it clearly made him standout in any crowd.

"Ethan, breakfast is ready! Come on, you'll be late for school!" A loud and sweet voice sounded from the floor below.

Ethan froze at the sound. He was trully in a completly unfamiliar environment and had to learn how to deal with his new life.

Opening the wardrobe, he started to look for something to wear for school. As he did so, something seemed to knock on the back of his head, he felt that he had been an adult before and had already graduated, but there were no concrete memories, only a hunch and a feeling mixed with confusion.

Having worn a long sleeved white shirt with a black sweatshirt over it, he also put on a black jeans before going back to the mirror to finish the last touches on his hair with one of his hands while putting on the socks at the same time.

Having left his room, he went down the stairs in slow steps. Thoughts like 'How many people would be down there?', 'Who called me?', 'How should I treat those people?' and some other questions were the only things that crossed his mind at that moment.

On the last step, he saw a woman turning toward the table in the middle of the kitchen. She was tall and slender, with black hair falling down on her shoulders e honey-colored eyes. The moment he set his eyes on her, he felt like he had known her for years and like a prodigal son, he had a huge affection for her.

"Hey there, tiger! How about having breakfast?" She smiled at him. "Hurry up and finish your breakfast. I whipped up some ham and cheese toast and your favorite OJ because it's your big day today - first day of school! Exciting, isn't it!"

The sweet woman spoke while placing the fragrant dish on the table.

Walking over and sitting at the table, Ethan brought the plate closer to him so he could eat.

'Maybe I can find out more about my body if I look through my cellphone. I just need to find out where it might be'

"Hey, mom, have you seen my cellphone anywhere? Can't seem to find it..."

Ethan asked the woman who seemed to treat him as if he was her son, praying that this was how the original spoke to her.

"Oh, the cellphone... Well, I think it was charging at my room. You told me yesterday that battery was almost dead and asked me to use my charger." She said with a thoughtful look on her face as if trying hard to remember where it might be.

"By the way, do you need a ride to school? I don't know if you managed to remember the path. No worries though." She smiled playfully, "I can drop you offon a corner some distance away from the school and prying eyes so you won't have to be ashamed that your mommy took you to school."

Her eyes seemed to smile as she spoke to Ethan.

'Why would I even feel ashamed about my mother giving me a ride to school? Was Ethan so weird?'

"No worries mom, you can take me directly to the entrance." He chuckled as he spoke.

Finishing his breakfast quickly, he rushed to the rooms upstairs. Since there were only two of them, it wasn't difficult to find his mom's.

Carefully opening the door, he quickly found the cell phone charging on the floor next to the wardrobe. After getting close, he quickly noticed that it was a new grayish white cellphone, but it had an older flip cover design.

Holding the small device on his hand, he opened up the cellphone and noticed that the date on it was 2005.

Right at that moment, a heavy headache struck Ethan's head and memories seemed to flash on his mind. He remembered of a time when he was seven years old and held a similar-looking phone on his hand. However, everything suddenly became dark and he couldn't remember anything else.

'So this is the past? But why? So confusing...'

As such, he decided to get quick look at the messages, contacts and images saved on it.

One of the DM's was named 'David', it seemed to be about a homework and that if Ethan didn't let him to copy it, he would get beaten on the way out.

'So, Ethan suffered bullying?' He thought while looking up some other DMs until he found one named 'King666Draco'. Narrowing his eyes, he tilted his head to the side with curiosity in his eyes, but before he could even open it, his mother appeared at the entrance of the room.

"Ethan, what are you waiting for? You're going to get late for school."

Scared by his mother suddenly appearing out of nowhere and her words, his eyes were wide open for a moment. Quickly recomposing himself, he nodded at her and followed her downstairs.

Walking up to the car, the boy soon understood what his mother's job was. The car was an old model used by the police. Thinking about it, he wondered if they moved because she got promoted, or maybe if it was because Ethan was getting picked on at school.

The two took their seats and strapped the belts before they left. Looking over the seat, he looked at everything that was inside the car, trying to find more clues about the original Ethan's life.

"Oh, sweetheart, I think I won't be able to take you home today, so you will have to walk all the way back on your own. You still remember the way, right? It's not too far." Ethan's mother asked with worry in her voice.

"It's alright, Mom. I can take care of myself." Ethan nodded as he stared at his mother.

Ethan stopped looking at the things in the car and focused on looking at the road they were following; after all, he had no idea where they were.

The sun was bright that day, but that didn't mean it made the weather warm. It was still cold, and the people walking down the streets with large overcoats only emphasized this.

The two were silent until they reached the school, but that didn't make the mood uncomfortable. The moments he had spent with his mother so far indicated that the original had a good relationship with her.

"Well, we've made it!" said the woman as she parked the car in front of the college.

"Good luck, sweetie! If anything comes up, just give me a call, and I'll be there in a jiffy. Mom's always got your back."

She hugged the boy tightly and gave him a kiss on the forehead as she said these words.

Ethan hugged her back and said with a slight smile on his face. "Thanks, Mom, it's okay."

When he hugged her, she seemed to be a little surprised by that reaction, but it was something good nonetheless. So she just smiled and turned to the steering wheel to leave.

Ethan walked up to the entrance of the high school and immediately noticed a huge sign that read, "Forks High School: Home of the Spartans." The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. He tried to dig through his memories, but nothing came to mind, so he shrugged it off and continued inside.

Ethan's main idea was to go to the principal's office to ask which class he should be in since he didn't even know how old he was and wasn't sure what grade he should be in.

As he entered the school, the girls started looking at him, wondering who he was, and making the boys look at Ethan.

Ethan was actually very attractive. He appeared to be strong and self-assured, qualities capable of drawing attention towards him; that, coupled with the reddish orange eyes, almost made him a walking charming spell for those who set their eyes upon him.

The boy ignored the whispers about him and kept walking straight ahead while looking for the office, until a small and slender girl with slightly short brown hair, a black tiara on her head, and bright eyes in shades of dark blue stopped in front of him and asked:

"Hey, who are you?"

Ethan stopped suddenly, his body very close to the girl's.

"Who wants to know?" He asked jokingly, as he took a small step back, distancing himself from the girl's body.

"I'm Jessica, pleased to meet you. You're the new kid, aren't you?"

She said, staring into his bright eyes. Ethan had a feeling he had seen that face somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where.

"A pleasure as well, Jessica. The name's Ethan. Any chance you could tell me where the-".

Before Ethan could finish his sentence, a slightly taller girl appeared at Jessica's side. She wore her black, long hair in a ponytail and had some kind of weird white glasses on. There was a kind smile on her face when she interlaced her arm around Jessica's shoulder and said, "Jessica, I found you!"

"Oh hi, I'm Angela, Jessica's friend. You must be one of the two new students coming in... Do you know what class you're in yet?"

• One of the two students? -

Ethan looked at the taller girl and answered. "Not yet, I've lost the

"Hey, Angela, I'm Ethan. Not yet; I've lost my school schedule on the way here. Can you tell me where the principal's office is? By the way, my name is Ethan."

"Yeah, no problem! Just go down the hall and take a left at the end, and you'll find the principal's office."

Angela replied as she pointed to the end of the hallway with one hand while holding study books with the other.

"Oh, that's neat; thank you!"

Ethan replied while moving around the two girls and walking towards the office.

As he approached the principal's office, Ethan could see a student through the window on the door, sitting in a chair and talking with the principal.

He knocked lightly on the door, trying to get the principal's attention. She looked at him and raised her hand, asking him to come in.

Stepping inside, he heard the principal speaking to the boy.

"Come on, Eric, you're cleared. Now listen, I don't want you tormenting the other students with this newspaper thing anymore; otherwise, I'm going to take you out of the program, understand?"

"I wasn't tormenting anyone; I was just trying to make the newspaper more interesting."

The short boy of Asian descent with straight black hair said as he put on his backpack and stood up to leave the room.

"Eric...!"

The principal called out to the boy, who had just left the room silently, as she stared at him with a look of reproach in her eyes.

"Sorry for the inconvenience. You must be Ethan, right? Our newest student Have a seat! What do you need?" Said the director with a gentle smile on her face. She was a small woman with very short blonde hair. Even with a seemingly sweet face, she had a serious and poised demeanor.

"Well... I accidentally lost my class schedule while moving over. Can you tell me the schedule, please?" Ethan replied, pulling the chair to sit down while thinking it was a good excuse not to end up getting a scolding from the director on his first day of class.

"Oh, okay! You're a senior, right? Let me look up your name here in the school system."

• I'm a senior? Okay, good information. -

While the director was searching, Ethan noticed a strange movement behind him along with some people speaking in hushed voices.

"Is that him over there?"

"Yeah, he said he was coming here."

"He's handsome"

"Ah, be quiet, he's no big deal!"

Looking back, he stared through the windows of the door and saw a few students whispering and trying to see him, including Jessica, Angela, Eric, and two more boys, who hid themselves on the spot when they noticed him looking over.

"Here you go, Ethan." Said the director as she handed some papers to the boy.

"And have you thought about what club you're going to join? I heard from the other school that you are great at math. We have some clubs that might interest you!"

She added as she handed out some flyers for the school clubs.

"I'm not sure yet, but I'll make up my mind by the end of the week."

Ethan said with a slight smile as he flipped through the flyers.

Soon after, the bell rang, indicating that classes were about to begin.

"You'd better go so you won't be late, Mr. Coleman. Have a good class!"

"Thank you, director, have a good day!" The boy replied.

Leaving the room, Ethan saw those students who were in front of the principal's office walking up the stairs to their classrooms.

He started to look up his next class on the paper the principal had printed out, and it read 'AP Calculus, room 209 - second floor'. As such he went up the stairs looking for the classroom. There were no students in the hallways. Apparently everyone had already entered their classrooms.

Finding the correct room, Ethan opened the door slowly, trying to draw attention towards him, and walked in. Inside, he noticed that the boy from the principal's office, Eric, was sitting at one of the desks at the back of the class. Ethan then walked over to one of the only free desks in the classroom, which was near the window and in the first row.

The teacher, who was already in the class, took the attendance list and began to call out the students. The moment he reached the letter 'E', he noticed an unfamiliar name on the list.

"Oh, Mr. Coleman?"

He asked, as he wiped his glasses on his lab coat, trying to figure out if the problem was his fogged-up glasses or if Ethan was indeed a new student.

"Here, sir!"

Ethan replied, as he raised his right hand.

"Ah, you must be the new student. Nice to meet you, Ethan! I'm your AP Calculus teacher, Miller." said the teacher, as he marked Ethan on the call as present.

"How come you've never heard of him, teacher? Ethan, the 'magician of the numbers.' I heard he was a genius at his previous school."

A familiar voice called out from the back of the class in a joking yet malicious tone full of mockery.

• Are you kidding me? What's up with that kid? - Ethan thought, while looking up at Eric with an indignant look on his face.

The last thing Ethan wanted was to attract attention right now. He needed to find out more about his new life first.

"Oh, is that the case, Ethan? Well, that's a different story then."

The professor said as he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"How about we start the class with something different? I'll write a question on the blackboard, and I want Ethan to come over here and answer it!" He added.