Early that morning, Shawn woke up and dressed himself neatly. Then, after hearing Dad talk again about how he expected Shawn to get good grades, Mom drove him to school. Shawn had gotten there a little late that day, and so had to hurry to get to his class on time. The green back pack that Uncle Davy had given him was nice with all of the flaps and zippers, but it felt weighed down by all of the heavy textbooks that Shawn was carrying--and the heavier expectations.

"Hey." a gruff, female voice said. "that bag looks super-heavy. Why do you carry all of your textbooks in that thing. Don't you ever leave any of them in your locker?" a girl Shawn didn't recognize asked. This seemed like a normal amount of books to Shawn, just what he needed to carry to get through Math and Science for Ms. Hawkins. Then he would go back out to his locker and change the text books for the ones he would use for the rest of the day.

Shawn moved as quickly as he could, trying to multitask packing his bag and not being rude to this strange girl. "I dunno, it seems like a regular amount to me. It's just Math and Science..."

"You don't need math or science." The girl said, interjecting herself into the side of Shawn's periphery vision. "Not when you have magic like me." She smiled.

"What are your favorite subjects? Do you want some gum?" The questions came out quick and fast.

"I wish I had magic. It'd make things easier, but I have Math and Science instead." Shawn matched Erica's energy with a silly smile as he tried to finish packing. "I dunno, I like drama. And thanks for the offer, but I'm good on gum."

"Ha!" Erica said "I was only kidding about the magic....maybe. I gotta go. You're in Mrs.  Hawkins' class, you're lucky. I've got stupid Mr. Bounce. If I'm late he'll probably start yelling and that would be really annoying."

"See you!" She ran off and Shawn noticed that she wasn't even carrying a backpack. No books either.

Shawn gave the girl a strange look as she left, wondering why she'd randomly come over to talk to him (without even introducing herself), and why she didn't have any books. But he had to move it if he wanted to get to Math on time, so rather than dwell on that, he finished packing, slammed his locker shut, and rushed off to class.

OOC: End Thread