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River wasn’t exactly excited to be attending Sunnyside Royal Academy. His mom assured him that it would be an amazing opportunity, he’d learn so much, maybe make some friends, all that stuff. The issue was, River wasn’t great with people. He never had many friendships, and those that he did have he managed to mess up. Besides, he already knew a bunch about magic and magic history!
But his mom insisted, so there was nothing River could really do.That was how he ended up here, outside of the school, trying to work up the courage to introduce himself to someone. His eyes flicked from one person to the next, and caught on a boy with grey eyes wearing a red jacket over a black hoodie. Their eyes met and River walked up to him, raising his hand in a wave.
“Hi! I’m River.”
The boy looked at him blankly.
“Okay. Did I ask?”
“Oh- um.” River could feel his face flushing. He lowered his head and mumbled a quiet apology. River could feel the boy’s gaze on him for a while longer. After what felt like an eternity, the boy sighed and extended his hand.
“The name’s Zephyr.” River raised his head before cautiously shaking Zephyr’s hand.
“Nice to meet you. I’m River.”
Zephyr tilted his head, a smile playing on his lips.
“You said that already.”
River’s face turned somehow redder.
“Oh.” He said, avoiding eye contact and laughing awkwardly. “I, uh, I guess I did.” Zephyr flashed him a grin that River had no idea how to interpret.
“Well,” Zephyr said, pushing himself off the wall he had been leaning on. “I’ll see you around?”
“Yeah! Uh, sure, yeah that’d be… cool.”
And with that, Zephyr walked away, leaving River feeling both confused and excited that his first attempt at a social interaction hadn’t been a complete failure. Probably. There was always the possibility Zephyr was actually just making fun of him the whole time and was now laughing about River and how lame he was with all of his very cool friends. Ah well, there goes his good mood.