Just be yourself! It’ll be alright hun.

His mom’s words flashed through Antoine’s head as he stood at the front end of the school bus, every eye in the bus turned towards him.

Jesus Christ.

Antoine was, as far as he could tell, the only black person in the bus; all the other students were white, many of them with blonde hair and blue eyes to boot, making Antoine painfully aware of his own chocolate-brown skin and thick, curly hair. It was like an opposite version of ‘Where’s Waldo’. The only other colored person was the bus driver, an aging mestizo who, Antoine learned when saying ‘Hi’, had trouble hearing out of his right ear, so you had to repeat everything to him twice. As Antoine tried to find a seat amidst the hostile glares, he wondered if this all hadn’t been one big mistake.

Antoine and his mom had moved to this small town after his dad died in a freak construction accident. From what Antoine had been told, his dad had been walking around the site when a machine malfunctioned, accidentally catapulting a stray piece of debris towards him at roughly the speed of a bullet. He was killed instantly. They hadn’t been able to afford a lawyer, and the construction company had weaseled their way out of a settlement. With most of their money spent on the funeral and no steady income, they had been forced to give up their suburban home in Iowa and move south to Wellspring, a town of some eight thousand inhabitants deep in the heart of rural Mississippi. A local housing company had offered them a house as part of a diversity program, and at first Antoine and his mom had been ecstatic; the company covered all the moving expenses, and the deal came with an automatic enrolment into the local high-school and some extra welfare money to help them make ends meet. But their new house was a shadow of their old one, with just two bedrooms, creaky stairs, and a ceiling that constantly dripped an oddly colored liquid. But it was the best they could afford, and Antoine wasn’t about to complain to his mom. She was trying her best, he knew. With her husband recently deceased, a teenage son to take care of and all the financial troubles, it was a wonder she hadn’t fallen apart.

What they hadn’t anticipated, however, was what the town itself would be like.

As Antoine walked through the bus he heard mumbled laughter and hushed whispers, but he pretended to ignore them and kept walking. At the far end of the bus he found two empty seats and sat down next to the window. He tried to play it as cool as possible, all the while trying his best to ignore the growing knot in his stomach.

Antoine had quickly found out the reason for the housing company’s diversity initiative: Wellspring was white, whiter than an avalanche during a snowstorm. In fact, as far as Antoine was aware, he and his mom were the only two black people in town. And it showed in the way they were treated. While there wasn’t any outright hostility, they were stared at, kids would point at them, and people would mumble things as they passed by. Antoine never quite heard what they were saying, but one time he swore he could make out “-gers” as a horribly smelling fat man waddled passed them with his bulldog.

While the bus stopped at a traffic light, Antoine thought about how he was going to survive the year. His old school had been highly varied in its demographic: whites, asians, blacks, latinos, you name it. Nobody stood out, and Antoine’s circle of friends had included just about every color on the rainbow.

At least the girls here are nice to look at, Antoine told himself, trying to find a silver lining.

He wasn’t sure what was in this town’s water, but all the girls seemed to have ‘matured’ beyond their age. Their chests tended to stick out and Antoine had glimpsed more than a few asses that any black girl would be proud of, let alone a white one. He suspected that some of them had some work done on their breasts, but that only helped pronounce their bust underneath their tight-fitting clothes. It didn’t help that they liked to wear revealing clothes: tops that left their bellies bare, jeans with tears in them, V-neck sweaters that displayed so much cleavage that their tits threatened to pop out…if there was one word to sum them up, Antoine thought, it would be ‘slutty’. But they were way out of his league. Being 5.8 and thin as a rail, Antoine wasn’t anything particularly impressive to look at. Not to mention, they all regarded him with the same thinly veiled disgust as most of the other people in town.

Antoine sighed. No way that was ever going to happen.

When the bus finally reached the school, Antoine waited for everyone to exit before standing up himself. As he passed the bus driver, Antoine awkwardly raised his hand.

“Uh, thanks for the ride.”

The old man brought his hand to his right ear.

“Eh?!”

“I said…uh, never mind.”

When he stepped out of the bus, the driver gave Antoine an encouraging nod before pressing the button to close the doors behind him, sealing his fate. As the bus drove away, Antoine looked up at the looming building before him.

John Adams High, it said in big black letters above the entrance.

Antoine felt a tingling sensation in his stomach. Where had he heard that name before?

All around him, students were slowly making their way towards the building, and Antoine followed them. Any hopes that colored students from out of town might attend were dashed when he glanced at the crowds. It was a whiteout.

I might have to invest in a pair of sunglasses, Antoine thought to himself wryly.

A group of loudly speaking boys passed him by. The last member of the group, a blonde guy with spiky hair roughly his height, harshly pushed Antoine aside with his shoulder.

“Hey!” Antoine exclaimed, as he tried to regain his balance.

The boy either hadn’t heard him or pretended like he didn’t. The group soon disappeared into the crowd.

Pieces of shit.

The school entrance opened up into a wide hallway. Rows of lockers lined each side, with students going about their business in front of them; some alone, others in small groups of three or four. Once inside, Antoine checked his schedule to see where he was expected to go: English class, room E-4. He looked up for any classroom signs, and saw two in the distance: A1 and A2.

“Christ…” Antoine mumbled.

Where was he supposed to go? There weren’t any signs to point him in the right direction. Seeing no other way, he approached a group of girls standing near a locker.

“Uh, sorry, could you tell me-“

He stopped when he realized they were ignoring him.

Stuck up bitches, Antoine thought as he moved away from them.

Two guys passed him, and Antoine gave it another go.

“Hey there, I’m trying to find-“

“Sorry, no bananas,” one of the boys said.

“Jesus, Kev,” the other laughed as they left Antoine behind them.

Having learned his lesson, Antoine decided to find his way on his own. That was easier said than done. The lengthy hallways and myriad of stairs seemed hellbent on disorienting him. Whoever designed this school must have been a particularly sadistic spirit, because the building more resembled a sprawling labyrinth than any normal school. It took a good twenty minutes for Antoine to finally stumble on his destination, more a case of luck than skill. He looked through the small glass panel on the door; class was already in session. He had always hated being late, because everyone would stare at you as you walked in. And that had been back at his old school. Here…

Antoine took a deep breath. There was no way around it. He opened the door. The teacher, a tall, bespectacled grey-haired woman with her hair in a bun, turned her head towards him. As did the rest of the class.

“Ah,” she said, “you must be our latest addition. Glad you decided to join us. Close the door behind you, please.”

Antoine did as he was told, and walked up towards the front of the class. Two dozen eyes were staring at him: some with mockery, others with a hint of distaste, while some held a strange curiosity in them, as if he were a three-legged mutant on display behind a glass window.

“Class, this is our newest student, An…Antoine. Did I say that right, boy?”

‘Boy?’ What is this, Mississippi Burning?

“Uh, yeah,” Antoine mumbled.

“Well then, let’s find you a seat, shall we? Let’s see…there, in the back, next to Katie.”

Antoine felt like a condemned man on death row as he walked towards his appointed seat. He heard whispers around him, and a few muffled laughs. One boy mumbled “ooga” as he passed him. Keeping his head down, he reached his table and sat down.

“Hey there, I’m Katie!” a cheerful voice said.

Surprised, Antoine looked to his side. The girl who had spoken smiled broadly at him. She was different from most of the girls in town. Her blonde hair was tied up behind her head in a cute ponytail, and she had a kind face with a few freckles on her cheeks. Unlike the other girls Antoine had seen, she didn’t have any curves to speak of. She wore blue overalls over a plain white shirt, and when she smiled Antoine saw that she had braces.

“Uh, hey,” Antoine said guardedly.

“No speaking, please!” the teacher warned. “Now, as I was saying, the novel’s opening…”

“When did you move here?” Katie whispered.

Antoine glanced at the teacher, but she was caught up in her oration.

“A few days ago.”

“Do you like it here?” Katie asked.

I feel like an animal in the zoo, Antoine wanted to say. Instead, he said

“Uh, it’s alright.”

“You know, you’re the first black student we’ve ever had.”

“No kidding…” Antoine mumbled.

“Sorry?” Kate said.

“Uh, that’s cool, I guess.”

The teacher loudly snapped her book shut.

“If I hear one more peep out of any of you, the whole class gets detention!”

Sufficiently warned, the rest of the hour continued as silent as a funeral procession. Because Antoine didn’t have all of the required reading material yet, he was forced to share with Katie, and she was more than happy to oblige.

When class ended, Antoine mentally prepared himself for another arduous search for the next classroom. The building was absurdly convoluted; Indiana Jones himself would have trouble navigating the place. Suddenly, he thought of something.

“Hey Katie, could you help me find my next class?”

“Sure thing, Antoine!” she beamed at him.

“Thanks. And, uh, you can call me Ant. That’s what everyone used to call me back home.”

“Got it, Anto…Ant,” Katie smiled sheepishly. “Let’s see that schedule…D-2. That’s not too far away.”

Katie moved with determined strides, effortlessly finding her way through the various hallways that had befuddled Antoine just moments ago. As they walked side by side, Antoine noticed that people were staring at them; not just him, but Katie as well. Katie, however, seemed oblivious to it.

“Here we are!” she exclaimed.

“Thanks a lot,” Antoine said.

“I’m next door, in D-3.