Chapter 1: The boy who doesn’t speak
The first thing people noticed about the new boy wasn’t his name — because hardly anyone learned it — but the silence that followed him.
He arrived on a gray Monday morning, the kind where the sky looked tired and the halls felt louder than usual. While everyone else clustered into noisy groups, laughing and shoving each other, he moved carefully along the edges, like he was trying not to disturb anything.
His name was Ethan Cole.
But no one called him that.
“New kid,” someone whispered as he passed.
Ethan kept his eyes down, gripping the strap of his backpack so tightly his knuckles turned pale. His hoodie sleeves covered half his hands, and his dark hair fell just enough to hide his eyes. He didn’t look up once.
In class, he chose the seat farthest in the back corner. When the teacher asked him to introduce himself, he stood up slowly.
“…Ethan,” he said quietly.
That was it.
A few students snickered. The teacher tried to prompt him, but Ethan just sat back down, staring at his desk like it held all the answers.
And just like that, he disappeared into the background.
