Jayden Carter kept his head down as he walked into Eastbrook High, earbuds in, backpack slung low. The halls were alive with first-day chaos—squeaky sneakers, locker slams, and voices bouncing off the walls. It smelled like fresh pencil shavings, floor wax, and nerves.


He didn’t need friends. Just four years and a diploma. That was the plan.


Until he bumped shoulders with someone at the main office and nearly dropped his sketchbook.


“Watch it, Picasso,” a voice joked.


Jayden looked up to see a tall boy with a football tucked under one arm and a smirk that said trouble. Malik Thompson.


“Maybe watch where you’re going,” Jayden muttered, scooping up his sketchbook.


Malik just grinned. “You new?”


Jayden nodded.


“Cool. I’m Malik. Freshman too. Locker 205, near the broken vending machine.”


Before Jayden could answer, the secretary called his name, and he stepped inside the office. He didn’t know it yet, but that random moment would be the first in a chain of them that would change everything.



---


Across the hall, Eli Navarro was already done with people. His mom had made him wear a button-down shirt. On day one. He pulled at the collar like it was choking him.


“Just breathe,” he told himself, tapping out a rhythm on his leg with two pencils. His nerves always hit hardest in new places.


Then came Noah Greene. Clean-cut, buttoned-up, polite. He smiled at Eli and said, “You good?”


“Do I look good?” Eli replied flatly.


Noah chuckled. “I guess not.”


The bell rang, and fate—also known as the school schedule—threw them all into the same homeroom: Room 113.


Jayden took a seat near the back, earbuds still in. Malik strolled in like he owned the place. Eli picked the seat with the quickest escape route. Noah said hello to the teacher and introduced himself with all the awkward confidence of a pastor’s kid.


Four boys. Four worlds.


One beginning.