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For Brent that first day back at school was interesting It became clear very early in the day that everyone had seen the paper - and that they knew exactly as shown in that photo His teachers all lish class Miss Holman didn&039;t even look up when he slipped in and took his seat For every class after that it was ed his existence When he held up his hand they called on somebody else When class ended, they bent quickly over their desks andhad changed but they didn&039;t want to acknowledge it

The students, however, reacted differently

In every class - in every hallway - in the lunchrooot his macaroni and cheese and his chocolate milk like everyone else and went to sit down Normally, because your popularity was determined by who you sat with and what table you had, it was next to iood seat That day when Brent looked around for a place to sit, an entire table opened up It wasn&039;t that kids got up to make room for him Everyone just seemed to slide down a space or two and suddenly there was a whole table that wasn&039;t being used

He sat down and unwrapped his plastic knife and fork He bu noise as the plate jumped The cafeteria fell silent

Which eird Normally you couldn&039;t hear yourself think in there A couple hundred kids who had been quiet allin class suddenly had a chance to talk to each other and the resulting noise ell, loud

Now you could hear every time somebody shifted in their seat and their clothes rustled

Brent looked up and around at the people sitting near hi down at their own trays A lot of the at each other Which was how it should be But then - a sizeableat hi, and they didn&039;t want to miss it when it happened

He finished his lunch as quickly as he could and headed for his locker Lucy aiting for hiroup of girls ere all walking together, clutching their books against their sweaters He saw the way their hair shone as it bounced with each step He could see their white teeth gleairl turned and whispered so to a brunette, who proirls and they had never looked at him before, but now their eyes followed him as he walked toward them

"Hi, Brent," the blonde said Her nairl in the school He knew she was also dating the captain of the soccer tea at him

She was a senior It did not make any sense He was a sophomore, and therefore did not exist yet in the school&039;s social ladder

The brunette giggled Her name was Dana Kravitz and she was the captain of the school&039;s color guard She was only a junior but Jill had taken her on as a protege and now she was the second ood ht his eye for just a fraction of a second, blushed again, and looked down at her boots

"Hi," he said, and every pair of eyes ide Soers-on in Jill and Dana&039;s circle, straightened up as if they were co but it seemed to Brent they had slowed down to a lazy stroll He had no idea what he was supposed to do

"Uh, how&039;s it going?" Brent asked