
Even now Charlie's face was that of almost serenity, as she was solving the last problem on the problem sheet that had been given to them. And as always she finished ahead of almost everyone else. Charlie was above her grade level, but she couldn't skip grades because her social skills were behind and she had few subjects she was very bad at. Like arts and crafts and, surprisingly, history.
Charlie waited patiently for the others to finish, staring out the window in thought, listening to pencils scratch against paper, the hum of the air conditioner and some whispers and snickers between the friends in the back row. Charlie wasn't annoyed by these sounds, rather she liked knowing that there was life around her. As long as she didn't forcibly have to interact with said life.
"Alright everyone, once you're finished with you sheets pass them forward and then we can start with the next assignments. And you will be doing it in pairs."
Immediately when the teacher mentioned the words "assignment" and "pairs" in the same sentence Charlie's head whipped around to stare at the woman in panic. Pairs? Oh no, no one in this class was someone Charlie knew, she'd definitely be leftovers and assigned to another person who was leftovers and doing the assignment would be horribly awkward and make Charlie incredibly anxious. She already knew it. In fact, Charlie was so focused on conjuring up images of social horror that the person behind her had to poke her with their finger to get her to take the sheets and pass them on. Charlie did just that, and when the teacher got all the sheets on their desk people around Charlie started pairing up. She stayed still, she already knew everyone was going to pair up before she could even make eye contact with one of them, so there was no point in looking around. And just as Charlie had suspected, when the teacher asked "Are there are people who don't have a partner?" Charlie raised her hand, and now she looked around. There was just one person who didn't have a partner aside from her, a new boy with white hair.
"Just you two? Alright, pair up, and everyone get out your notebooks. I'm going to write the assignment on the board."
Charlie, hesitantly, was the one to approach the boy, since her seat in the middle of the class was kind of a hard place to set up in. So instead she went to the boy, who sat next to the wall. Charlie tried not to make direct eye contact with the boy as she nodded at him a bit, trying to give him a small smile but failing miserably.
"H-h-hello, I-I'm, um, Ch-Charlie."
Charlie's stutter was worse than normal, since she was nervous and anxious, and she swiftly sat down opposite of the boy, taking herself a free chair from nearby. She opened her notebook, which was neat and clean and full of very organized notes.
"T-then...s-sh-shall we d-do th-this?"
@Hope the Bard