Excerpt:

Eia walked into the classroom, quiet, observant. She was just taking in everything around her, the white cinderblock walls, the carpet that was the same in every school she’d gone to. The other kids, already in their comfortable routines, staring at her, the outsider. This was the problem with coming in after class had already started, she thought. She should have just skipped this class, waited for the next one.
Eia sat at the first available seat she could find, in the back right corner of the room. It wasn’t the back right really, since the room was one of the oddly shaped ones that had just been stuck where there wasn’t already a room. This was a pentagon, but not a normal one.
The teacher was telling them about absolute values, which he said they should have learned in pre-algebra. Apparently the pre-algebra teachers didn’t do a very good job of teaching anything, so he felt the need to review with us. They always do that, spend way more than the first week reviewing everything you forgot over the summer. If you’re going to spend next year reviewing, why bother learning it in the first place?
The guy sitting next to her was a tall, tanned guy wearing designer torn jeans. He had that air about him, you could immediately tell that he was one of the popular kids here. Popular kids always have something that makes them stand out from everyone. They have to stand out in the popular kid way too, not the outcast way. It’s a fine line to walk, but they do it so well. You could tell that he was in some sport, probably football or basketball, judging by his build. He was hot, and you could tell just by looking at him that he knew so.
There weren’t any windows in the math room. This wouldn’t normally be a big deal, but algebra seemed like the perfect opportunity to stare out a window. Also, without the window, the ceiling felt like it was going to fall in on you, crushing you and everyone around you. At least if you got crushed, you wouldn’t have to listen to the fool drone on and on about stuff we already know.
He had turned his head towards Eia when a girl on the other side of her had started clicking her pen incessantly. Eia’s face seemed to have caught his attention. He stared at her eyes, fixated. People occasionally did that when they first noticed Eia. It wasn’t that she was pretty, so much as she was interesting. She had a thin face, her shoulders were too broad for it. She was not very tall, with disproportionately long legs. She didn’t really look like a high school girl.
“Hey. I’m Adam.” He said, smiling just a little too wide, reveling almost perfect teeth, the front one cracked diagonally.
“I’m Eia.” She said, without looking away from the front corner of the room.
“Where you from?”
“I moved from Minnesota.”
“Why’d you move here?”
“My parents, well, my mom got a job at this company here, and she was super excited because this was a good opportunity for her career. they picked me up and plopped me down here. Three days ago.”