Payton Moormeier

The first day of the new school year smelled neither of chalk nor of fresh paint—it smelled of anxiety. For Y/N, the scent was almost familiar: every September, she re-learned how to be invisible, but today, invisibility wasn't working. It was as if school was deliberately pushing her into the spotlight.
The hallways hummed, backpacks slammed into shoulders, and voices merged into one continuous noise. Y/N walked next to Riley and Lauren—her only islands of calm in this ocean of hustle and bustle. Riley was talking rapidly, waving her arms, Lauren nodded and occasionally offered a funny comment, and Y/N smiled, but caught those glances out of the corner of her eye. Not at her. At him.
Peyton.
He walked down the center of the hallway as if on a catwalk, surrounded by his entourage—four guys who laughed a little louder, spoke a little sharper, and looked down on everyone a little. They were the ones everyone wanted to know, the ones everyone wanted to be friends with, the ones everyone ran after. And Peyton… he was the king. And not because the director decided so, but because everyone gave him the crown themselves.
"Don't even look at them," Riley whispered softly, noticing Y/N's gaze slid toward the noisy group. "They're like a hurricane: if you get caught in the eye, you'll spend a week picking yourself up."
Y/N chuckled but said nothing. She had no intention of being caught in the middle. Her quiet orbit was enough for her.
But fate, apparently, decided that a quiet orbit was not enough today.
During recess, Y/N stood by the window, watching the sky grow leaden. Rain promised to start any minute, and she was already mentally calculating how she'd get home if she didn't have an umbrella. Riley and Lauren had run off to get coffee, but she stayed behind—not because she didn't want to go, but because she hated the constant bustle around the vending machines, where everyone jostled and laughed, trying to get into someone's phone frame.
And then he showed up. Peyton. Not alone, of course. His friends were with him, and they were clearly looking for a reason to laugh.
"What, you didn't get in line?" he asked.