Sage, a 15-year-old high school student that goes to Rushness High School in Crown Heights, was a very good scholar but became bad because her classmates blamed her for every itty bitty thing, so now she always gets in trouble. One day, in a warm but windy March, she decided to turn her fake reputation into the real thing.

“Hey y’all!” she shouted as she walked into the freezing classroom with her newly clean rockstar purple backpack. Her classmates stared at her ferociously until…she walked up to them and shouted, “Shut your stinky mouth unless you wanna catch these knuckles in your face!” 

One student gave a side-eye, then made a surprised face, but not at Sage.It was at Russel in a trash can hiding and being stinky plus weird. Russel was a 13-year-old that skipped a grade, but not because he was smart, it was because he was stinky and extremely weird. No one bothered to confront him because he was sharp with his words and stunk like dog poop mostly because he ran away to the trash to hide from everything. Russel had little to no friends and he lived with his aunt, his evil aunt. That all changed when he met someone special. Someone who was kinda like him, that was…Sage. 

When the student who made a surprised face pointed at Russel, Sage turned around and laughed outrageously and that made Russel furious. He got up from the trash and walked up to her and looked into her eyes deeply. Sage was frightened inside but stood her ground and he stood his. The class was oohing and ahhing and some were not paying attention. Soon the teacher stepped in after being late for the third time this week. Then Russel and Sage were in detention chatting about their lives and how terrible they were, in and out of school. They were laughing and crying as they talked. 

Russel said, “I grew up living in a trash can.” Sage was about to cry until Russel said, “It was a joke!” They both laughed and soon they were best friends who helped each other realize to be yourself and there’s always someone there for you no matter what.

 A few days later, Sage and Russell came to this new restaurant, but when Sage’s food was coming, it dropped when she went to hold it. She was mad but reached to pick it up, and so did Russel. Their hands collided or brushed past each other and since that day they’ve been in love.