School life

As I finished off the last of my sandwich, I heard the noise in the cafeteria pick up a bit.

Turning my head in the direction of the noise, I looked past Magne at the center of all the noise, and noticed it was the table full of what I was starting to see as the 'popular' kids table.

What caught my eye was a new blond girl setting her bag down at the end of the table.

My heart seemed to skip a beat as I saw her.

She was maybe 5 foot 8, shoulder length blond hair, and the smoothest skin I had ever seen.

"That's Saxa." Isolde said.

"Saxa." I said mindlessly, not looking away.

"Careful there new kid, you might hurt your neck if you keep looking so hard." A male voice said.

Whipping my head in the direction of the voice, I saw a young man making his way down the stairs we were seated by.

As he descended, he gave me a smirk before turning his head away from me and making his way to the 'popular' kids table.

"That's Saxas brother, Fjor." Isolde said.

Looking back at Isolde, I saw a small smirk on her face.

"They are Jutuls. The family that owns Jutul industries here in Edda, which is poisoning the fjord."

"They are poisoning the Fjord?" Magne asked, talking to Isolde for the first time.

She nodded.

"Yes. They are dumping toxic chemicals and metals into the Fjord everyday." She said, grabbing something from her bag.

"And nobody has done anything about it?" Magne asked.

"They are bribing the officials." I said, remembering what Isolde had told me.

"So nobody knows?" He asked.

I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Being a politician and taking bribes isn't exactly the best look to have when everyone knows." I said.

"That's not what I meant." Magne said, jabbing his elbow into my arm.

"I meant, nobody knows they are poisoning the Fjord?"

"Of course they do. Everyone in Edda knows." Isolde said, while opening a small round container.

"The problem is that Jutul industries is the largest provider of jobs here in Edda. If it comes to light that Jutul Industries is poisoning the fjord and Edda, it will cause the plant to close. putting three quarters of Edda out of a job. So nobody says anything about it." Isolde said, putting a white square of snus under her lip.

The rest of lunch went by smoothly, while we talked about random things, and what it's like to live in Edda.

What surprised me was Magne.

He seemed to open up to Isolde.

Which I guess was good, it had been for too long since he had connected with someone other then his family.

Throughout the rest of lunch while we talke, I couldn't help myself, I would sneak the occasional glimpses of this girl Saxa from across the cafeteria.

I don't know what it was about her that kept drawing me to look at her.

Maybe it was just her beauty, but something in the back of my head it was something else.

What it was exactly I couldn't say, because I didn't even know.

After lunch was Natural science.

Which If I must say so myself, I wasn't too shabby at.

Unlike math, I seemed to be able to retain much more information about the building blocks of life than I ever could numbers.

In class I was given the needed textbooks, and the current assignment that the class was working on.

After Natural science, was my elective class.

I chose art over some of the other elective classes that were offered here in Edda, which were not many.

But even if there were more then theater and sports, I still probably would have chosen it.

I wasn't a 'Great' artist, or anything that resembled one.

But I was quite skilled when it came to sketching.

With charcoal in particular.

I'm not sure why, but any time I tried to draw with anything but charcoal, the best outcome would just be a stick figure.

In class our teacher wanted us to start drawing something related to nature.

It didn't matter if it was an animal or the mountains that surrounded Edda.

With an objective in mind, I let my hand guide me and went with the flow.

At first it started out as a bit of a blob, but slowly, my creation started to take shape.

And before my eyes, I was creating a massive tree on my paper.

The tree's trunk was tall and wide, with branches that reached out wide with a slight droop, as if it was the weight of the leaves that were what was weighing it down.

Then the roots.

They snaked out like tentacles until they curved at the end.

"Mmm. Yggdrasil." My middle aged female art teacher said as she stopped next to my table, looking down at my art work.

I snapped out of my trance at her words.

"What?" I asked, confused, looking up at her.

She pointed at my drawing.

"You know, the tree of life."

I was confused, but before I could ask what she was talking about, Miss Freyson walked to another table.

Looking back down at my drawing, what I had missed while lost in my drawing clicked with me.

'The circle's.' I thought, as I spotted the circle's that were scattered from the roots to the branches of the tree.

Except there was something different here.

Clearly above the tree entirely was one more circle.

Making it 10 circles.

But before I was able to think too much about that extra circle, the bell rang.

Signing my name on the bottom right then adding the date, I handed it in to Miss Freyson, before leaving for my last class of the day.

Stopping at one of the bathrooms to wash my hands off, I passed by Laurits in the hall, who as he was known to do, was currently chatting to a group of other classmates as if they had been friends their whole lives.

I ignored them for now and hurried off to my last class, which was political science.

Entering class, I saw Magne seated with the bland girl Gry in the second row of class.

But almost instantly my eyes were drawn to that same girl from the cafeteria, Saxa.

She was seated on the outside desk, right along the isle.

Breaking from my stair, I saw that Isolde was seated in the back of the class again alone.

Quickly making my way to her, I passed Saxa while avoiding looking at her.

The very last thing I needed on my first day of school was to be labeled the weirdo that can't stop staring at girls.

Setting my bag down, I saw Isolde giving me a smirk.

"What?" I asked as I sat down.

"Nothing." She said with a small smile.

Class went by smoothly, as the teacher went most of the class lecturing us as if he was reading everything he said from a script.

As the bell rang I packed my belongings into my bag and made my way to Magne who was still putting his papers into his bag.

"So, what do you think of the new school?" I asked, as he swung his bag onto his back.

He shrugged.

"It's okay I guess." He said.

Walking into the crowded halls, people made way as we walked down the center of the halls.

"Make any friends?" I asked.

Again he shrugged.

"Just Isolde." He said, as we started our way down the stairs and into the cafeteria area which led us outside.

As we stepped outside I looked around at the cloudy skies that hit the tops of the mountains that surrounded Edda.

"It can't be denied that this place is pretty." I said as Magne tapped my arm with his fist.

Looking down, I saw Magne looking off to the side.

"I think Isolde Is having some trouble with her bike." Magne said, as I looked past him at the figure of Isolde slamming her bike to the ground as she cursed.

"I think so. Let's go see if we can give her a hand." I said, as Magne led the way.

As we reached her, she let out another curse.

"Bike trouble." I said.

"Kind of." Isolde said as she gestured at the front wheel of her bike.

"Did someone do that?" Magne asked as he leaned down to inspect the wheel.

"Yeah." Isolde said. "It's not the first time someone has sent me a message like this." She continued.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's because I keep posting videos about how Jutul is poisoning the fjord. Ever since I started this has become a monthly occurrence."

"Creeaakk!"

Looking down, I saw Magne using his hands to bend the metal back into place.

"Woah!" Isolde and I said in unison.

"How did you do that?" Isolde asked.

"I don't know?" Magne said, standing to his feet.

"I knew you were strong but…that's a steel wheel, Magne." I said as I spun the wheel.

"I guess I got stronger." Magne said, standing back up.

"Apparently so." I said with a chuckle.

"Thank you for the help Magne, I appreciate it. But I have to get going." Isolde said, waving at us and giving us a smile as she left, in particular Magne.

As we watched her leave I gave him a shoulder bump.

"Oh man, did you see that smile she just gave you." I said with a smile.

"It was just a smile, Bjørn." Magne said, turning to look at me.

"It's a start." I said with a laugh as we started our long track home.

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The story is about to start picking up and changing.