Another week had passed, and the rain had finally stopped two days ago.
The day after Mary and John finished talking about Daniel starting school, Mary had taken him to meet the principal and handle the enrollment process.
And now, Daniel could proudly say, "I’m an elementary school student now!"
Today was his very first day of school.
Early in the morning, the entire family was already awake.
"When you get to school, listen to your teacher, get along well with your classmates, don’t cause trouble, and pay attention during class."
Mary hadn’t stopped talking since breakfast. She kept giving Daniel one reminder after another.
Daniel endured the nonstop bombardment with a helpless expression, desperately trying not to roll his eyes.
Beep beep...
The town’s only school bus had arrived.
Mary bent down to straighten Daniel’s collar before patting him gently on the shoulder.
"Alright, go on," she said softly.
"Mom, Dad, I’m leaving."
The moment he finished speaking, Daniel hurried onto the bus like he was escaping danger.
Carol followed right behind him and climbed aboard as well.
The bus engine rumbled to life again and slowly drove away from the house.
Mary stood at the front door, watching the bus disappear farther and farther into the distance.
"Come on, stop staring already."
John walked over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"It’s Daniel’s first day at school. I’m worried about him," Mary admitted quietly.
"He has to go through this sooner or later, doesn’t he, honey?" John said gently, surprisingly patient for once.
"It’s different. Daniel isn’t like other children, and you know that, John." Mary looked at him seriously.
"He’s too quiet and withdrawn. I’m afraid he’ll get bullied... or excluded."
Well, that was basically the impression Daniel had left on his parents.
"I believe he’ll handle it just fine. Daniel’s a mature kid. He can deal with this better than you think," John comforted her.
Honestly, Mary was just worrying too much because she cared.
She kept focusing on how unsociable Daniel was while completely forgetting how mentally mature he actually seemed.
"I hope so," Mary sighed.
"Alright, let’s go back inside." John pulled her gently toward the house.
"And now... we can finally enjoy some wonderful alone time."
...
Daniel stepped onto the bus and found that there were already over a dozen children inside.
He and Carol picked an empty pair of seats and sat together.
As they walked down the aisle, Carol greeted nearly every kid she passed.
"Morning, Julie!"
"Hey, Rosanne!"
The other children greeted her enthusiastically in return.
Looks like Carol really hadn’t been exaggerating, she was genuinely popular at school.
"Carol, is that your little brother?"
One of the kids pointed curiously at Daniel sitting beside her.
Carol immediately perked up.
"Everyone, this is my little brother, Daniel. Today’s his first day at school."
Then she nudged him with her elbow.
"Daniel, introduce yourself."
Daniel stood up helplessly.
"Hi, everyone. My name is Daniel Danvers."
After saying that single sentence, he immediately sat back down.
Carol stared at him in disbelief.
"What kind of introduction was that?"
Then she quickly turned to the others and explained awkwardly, "Daniel’s just a little shy."
The entire ride was filled with noisy chatter.
The kids talked nonstop about what they did over summer vacation, what games they played, who went fishing, who fell into a river, who caught bugs...
The bus was so loud it felt like a flock of sparrows had gotten trapped inside.
Not a single second of peace.
More than twenty minutes later, the school bus finally arrived at its destination.
Smallville Elementary School.
The moment he stepped off the bus, Daniel let out a long breath of relief.
"Finally... that ride was torture."
Listening to a bunch of children enthusiastically discussing childish things for twenty straight minutes had genuinely been painful for him.
After saying goodbye to Carol, Daniel headed toward his own classroom.
They weren’t in the same grade, and Carol had originally insisted on escorting him all the way there, but Daniel firmly refused.
He was not actually a child.
And he definitely didn’t need another child taking care of him.
But Carol had completely embraced her role as an older sister lately and was being overly enthusiastic about it.
Daniel still wasn’t used to it.
When he entered the classroom, only two or three children were already inside, chatting noisily with each other.
Daniel casually picked an empty seat and sat down.
Soon, more students gradually entered the room, and the classroom quickly became lively and noisy.
Nobody paid much attention to Daniel. Most of them only glanced at him briefly when they came in before going back to their own conversations.
Daniel was perfectly happy with that.
He sat quietly in his seat and stared blankly into space.
"Alright, students, quiet down for a moment."
After a while, a middle-aged woman walked into the classroom. Seeing how chaotic the room was, she immediately tried to restore order.
This class had both five and six year olds. It was basically kindergarten-level. Some children had already attended for a year, while others, like Daniel, were brand new.
The female teacher tried maintaining discipline, but aside from the few kids who had already spent a year in school, almost nobody listened to her.
The classroom remained noisy.
Bang bang bang!
She smacked the desk several times, finally drawing everyone’s attention.
The room gradually quieted down.
"Listen carefully," she said sternly.
"I know some of you are here for your first day and don’t understand classroom rules yet, but from now on, when I or another teacher is speaking, you need to stay quiet. Understood?"
Children were actually pretty easy to intimidate.
Seeing the serious look on her face, all of them immediately became obedient.
"Okay..."
"Yes, teacher..."
The kids nodded frantically like little chicks pecking at grain.
The teacher clapped her hands with satisfaction.
"Very good. Let me introduce myself. I’m your math teacher, Volna Azra."
She turned around and wrote her name neatly on the blackboard.
"For the next one or two years, I’ll be taking care of all of you. I hope we’ll get along well."
Volna continued speaking from the front of the classroom.
"......"
"Alright, enough about that. Now it’s your turn to introduce yourselves so everyone can get to know you."
Daniel instantly felt a headache coming on.
’Here we go again... another self-introduction.’
"You can talk about your hobbies, your interests, what games you like, what food you enjoy eating, anything is fine," Volna said with a smile.
She paused for a moment.
"Anyone brave enough to volunteer first?"
The classroom immediately fell silent.
"...No volunteers? Alright then." Volna pointed toward the first row. "We’ll start from here. One by one, come up and introduce yourselves."
...
It took nearly an entire class period before everyone finally finished.
Daniel listened as one child excitedly talked about loving chocolate pudding, another bragged about catching frogs during summer break, and one little boy proudly announced that he still wet the bed yesterday.
Daniel nearly burst out laughing on the spot.
After Volna finally left the classroom, the room immediately became noisy again.
Some of the kids already knew each other before school started, so they naturally grouped together and chatted happily.
Daniel didn’t know anyone.
And more importantly, he didn’t want to know anyone.
A few more outgoing children tried approaching him to chat, but after being rejected several times, they eventually gave up.
Looking into the classroom from outside, the scene felt oddly pitiful.
Every other child was laughing, playing, or talking together in groups, while Daniel sat alone quietly at his desk.
Like a lonely outcast.
But Daniel himself was completely satisfied with things staying this way.
Soon, the school day came to an end.
Aside from Daniel, nearly everyone in the class had already become familiar with one another.
Children walked out in little groups of three or five together, chatting excitedly.
Meanwhile, Daniel remained behind alone, calmly packing up his things before leaving the classroom by himself.
He had been isolated.
Mostly because he isolated himself first.
With the way he ignored people and constantly carried an "keep away from me" attitude, no child would willingly keep trying to play with him.
If an ordinary kid acted like this, they’d probably start getting bullied after a few days.
But was Daniel an ordinary child?
That evening, the moment he walked through the front door, Mary hurried over nervously.
"How was your first day at school?"
Daniel smiled.
"Not bad."
And honestly, he truly thought it wasn’t bad at all.
He had simply sat there spacing out for most of the day, and before he knew it, school was over.
"Did you make any friends?" Mary asked expectantly.
"Uh... yeah, I did."
Even though he hadn’t actually met a single person, Daniel answered without changing expression.
"Jeff... Jeff Parker."
Jeff Parker was the kid who had proudly announced to the entire class that he wet the bed yesterday.
Daniel had remembered him very clearly, so he casually used his name.
"That’s wonderful! Great job, Daniel!"
Mary looked genuinely thrilled and immediately kissed him on the cheek.
She had honestly been worried that Daniel wouldn’t make a single friend.
"When you get the chance, you should invite your new friend over to play sometime," she said happily.
"Mom, can I invite my friends over too?" Carol asked excitedly from the side.
"Of course you can."
"Yes!"
Carol instantly cheered.
Meanwhile, Daniel felt like crying inside.
’What am I supposed to do now?’