It was just another regular early morning in a podunk town nobody's ever heard of. It was a brutal, cold winter, so the kids were trekking to school in the dark at 7 AM, plowing through deep snow that crunched under their boots. The bitter wind stung their faces as Roma walked to school with his crew; they were all moving together, laughing at random people who passed by. Between classes, before first period, they were all still hanging out near the lockers, their breath visible in the cold air, but when the bell rang, everyone split up to their own homerooms.

Roma was posted up at a desk with his best friend Byasha, the classroom still half-empty. He scribbled a note and chucked it at Anton across the room, telling him to link up with them after school. The faint smell of chalk and old textbooks filled the air as students gradually filed in. Just as Anton gave a subtle nod of agreement, their homeroom teacher walked in, her boots clicking on the linoleum floor.

*But instead of starting class like usual, she paused at the front, her expression uncharacteristically excited. "Class, I have an announcement," she said, raising her voice slightly. "We have a new student joining us today. A new classmate for all of you." This immediately got Roma's and everyone else's attention. A murmur spread through the room, especially among the guys, who were hoping for some hot new girl to break up the monotony. They only had two decent-looking girls in their class: Polina and Katya. But Polina was a total snooze-fest, and Katya was a gossip and a snitch who couldn't keep her trap shut.

Not hearing any good intel from the whispers around him, Roma chilled out and just kept his eyes on the door. Was he actually interested? Nah. He was just curious to see who it was, and then he'd probably forget about it by lunchtime...