A/N This chapter is short – really just a short prologue, the next chapters will be longer, I promise.

Dwayne Iverson did not speak to anyone – he didn't even look at anyone unless he absolutely had to or unless he looked up in the hallway by mistake and accidentally managed to make eye contact with someone. Some people thought that Dwayne was crazy – that he was a classic example of a faux angst ridden teen desperate to get a dose of an over diagnosed anti-depressant. Others thought that he was holier than thou, that he fancied himself above everyone else, and that was the reason that he kept to himself.

It was, however, safe to say that no one knew Dwayne. None of his classmates knew that his last name matched NO ONE in his family, that at the high point, six people lived in their house and that he was only directly related to three of them. No one knew that his father lived in Florida and not Albuquerque, that he had kept silent as a pledge to himself to be the strongest that he could be. No one knew that the only person he truly loved was his little half sister, Olive – hell, no one even knew that she was only his half sister and not his full sister, or that she was the only reason he was still living in the small house that he hated so much.

One thing about Dwayne, however, was that everyone noticed him. Even in his large high school, the boy stood out. He had stopped speaking near the beginning of his Freshman year and he was always, always alone. Also, he had black hair that, due to constant re-dyeing, never faded away to his natural brown. Due to this school-wide knowledge of the odd boy, it took little time for the word to spread that, after the trip to California, he was speaking again.

When Dwayne walked into the school on the first day of his Sophomore year, he heard whispers almost right away. However, just as he had the year before, Dwayne ignored the words, hitching his backpack up as headed for his English class.

As was the norm for him, Dwayne took a seat in the back of the room, attempting to maintain maximum invisibility – little did he know that, just by walking into the classroom that day, he had attracted more attention than he ever could have anticipated.

"Who is that?" A blond boy turned, watching as Dwayne came in before leaning towards the desk of the boy sitting next to him.

"Oh, that's Dwayne Iverson." Carl Jones shrugged as he answered the question posed to him. "You don't need to know him – trust me." Carl shook his head. "I know that you just moved here, so let me be the first to tell you – Dwayne doesn't know how to be around people. He's an elitist, things he's better than everyone else. He doesn't talk to anyone, he doesn't even acknowledge anyone's existence."

"Oh." The blond boy nodded. "He doesn't look so bad, though."

"Trust me, Declan, you don't want to get to him; and even if you did, he wouldn't let you, it would be a shocking waste of time to even try." Carl scoffed at the very idea. "He probably wouldn't even look at you, he would just push past you as though you weren't even there."

"Wow." Declan let out a low whistle. "He's THAT bad?"

"Oh yeah." Carl nodded. "He's just…not like everyone else."

"I know." Declan nodded, biting his lip slightly as he turned to sneak another quick look at Dwayne. "I can tell."