Acte 1 — Part 2

Hello to you, the person reading this story.
Today, I'm going to tell you what happened next.
After introducing myself, I went and sat at an empty desk next to a boy.
He looked at me with a smile.
— Hi. I'm Daniel.
— Nice to meet you. My name is Léa.
He smiled.
— Are you really from the Netherlands?
— Yes. We moved to Russia not long ago.
— Oh, I see. How old are you?
— I'm 16.
— I'm 17.
We continued talking for a little while before class began.
From that day on, the girls in the class looked at me strangely. I didn't understand why, but I didn't really pay attention to it.
During the break, I decided to go talk to them.
— Hi... Can I stay with you?
I had barely finished my sentence when one of them pushed me.
I lost my balance and fell to the ground.
A few students turned their heads toward us, but no one said a word.
I slowly got back up without saying anything.
One of the girls, whose name was Maya, burst out laughing.
— Well? Did you hurt yourself?
The others started laughing with her.
I simply lowered my eyes.
I kept it to myself.
Without answering, I left the room and went outside into the courtyard.
I sat alone on a bench, away from the noise.
To escape for a moment from the world around me, I opened Volume 4 of Batman and Robin.
For a few minutes, there were no more stares, no more mockery.
Only the pages of my book.
To be continued in the next chapter.