47 Welcome gifts

As everybody began walking over to the table in the center of the room, some of his students' behavior stood out to him.

Brian was seemingly hiding behind his sister as they slowly advanced. Unexpectedly, Warren completely ignored the table in favor of rushing towards the two siblings at maximum speed.

Feeling slightly worried, Ensen said strictly "Don't run inside Warren, it's dangerous."

Not wanting to upset the principal, Warren slowed his speed slightly.

Mentally face-palming, Ensen sighed quietly in defeat.

A few moments later Warren arrived in front of the siblings and said proudly "NIce to meet you guys, I'm Warren."

Confused about why he was so proud, the siblings remained silent.

Deciding to help end the awkwardness, Ensen spoke "We will do introductions at the table in a moment. Just head there for now."

With the sibling's nod and Warren's defeated steps, they began heading towards the table.

After excusing himself for a moment, Ensen walked over towards the teacher's lounge to pick up the gift bags.

Noticing that Gerhardt had still not arrived, he began to doubt if he would be coming at all.

With five bags in hand, Ensen returned to the cafeteria.

Opening the door slowly, Ensen immediately noticed the awkward atmosphere that engulfed the room.

None of the students had ever attended a school before so everything that was happening was new for them.

'I imagine some of them may be overwhelmed. Well, I think the introductions and gifts would help a bit hopefully.' Ensen thought to himself.

Gradually approaching the table, the students began to take notice. Nearly all of their eyes shined in curiosity when they saw the bags.

"Wow! Are those for us?" Warren shouted.

"Yes, there is one for each and every one of you. But first, we will do introductions, so no peeking in the gift bags." Ensen said lightly.

Taking a seat in one of the remaining two seats, Ensen gently rested the bags on the ground.

"Why is there still an empty seat? Is there another student?" Leah said after thinking for a moment.

Already prepared with an answer in case anybody asked, Ensen said calmly "That's for the English teacher, although he is pretty busy today so I'm not sure if he can make it."

Leah nodded in understanding as Ensen spoke.

"Anyways, let's introduce ourselves in the order going clockwise from me. I'll go first."

Pausing for a moment, Ensen continued "So I'm your principal and also your teacher for a few subjects. If you have any worries or anything like that just talk to me and I'm sure we can get it sorted out. So Brian, your next."

As silence engulfed the room, Brian sat there in nervousness for a few seconds before beginning to speak softly "Umm… I'm Brian and Leah is my sister. I… I like soccer too."

'That was… short. But for Brian that's quite good I think.' Ensen thought after hearing Brian's speech.

With a light clap, the introductions continued until everybody had gone.

"I'm Leah, like Brian said I'm his sister. Older sister, remember that part. I've always been interested in writing music."

"Hey guys, I'm Warren! I've lived in an orphanage most of my life and-"

After five minutes Ensen finally had to step in and stopped Warren's essay-length introduction and let the next person go.

"Anabella, I like reading."

'That was… good? Certainly the opposite of Warren huh?' Ensen thought.

"Hello, I'm Stephen and I've always loved the idea of helping people. Whether that be as a mayor, police officer, or other stuff I'm not sure."

'Oh, that's a good goal.' Ensen thought.

After everybody had gone, the atmosphere of the room began to gradually become more inviting as everybody knew slightly more about each person… except for Anabella, she was still as mysterious as always.

"Alright everyone, you all did great on your introductions. I can already see everybody staring at the gift bags so let's open those now." Ensen said in amusement.

As soon as everybody had heard that nearly all of them leaped out of their seats except for Anabella and Brian.

"Wait, everybody sit back down. Each gift bag is different so I'll hand them out." Ensen said quickly, not expecting that quick of a reaction.

Unwilling to sit down, they all reluctantly returned to their seats as Ensen got up and picked up all of the bags.

"Tell you what, let's do this. The first person to answer correctly will get their bag first. Now, who was the person who said that they loved writing songs?" Ensen asked happily.

Not even a moment later a soft voice was heard "Leah."

Looking at the voice Ensen thought 'Wait, Anabella got it? That was unexpected.'

A few moments after nearly everybody called out the correct answer.

"Anabella wins the first round, congrats. But don't worry, all of these bags are made for each person specifically." Ensen declared while walking over to Anabella.

Placing her bag in front of her on the table, Ensen said softly "Great job."

As Anabella began exploring the bag slowly, Ensen asked the next question. "Who was born in the city?"

Not even a second later, Stephen said loudly "Warren was."

After congratulating Stephen, Ensen looked at Anabella who had nearly finished looking through the bag.

Laid out in front of her on the table were some comfy clothes, things used for school, and a few other random things that Ensen thought each person would like. For example, Anabella had a little bracelet that had small little book charms attached to it.

Although Anabella seemed uncaring of the items at first glance, Ensen could tell she was truly happy about them. Her eyes were unusually bright and the book that she had been reading for most of the time had been closed.

As the questions continued, the competition became more and more fierce as they saw what was in the bags. Luckily it was a friendly competition though, so the students were good sports even if they lost the round.

After a few more minutes it was down to the final round.

Seeing all of the happy and satisfied smiles surrounding the table, the competition between Warren and Brian was at its peak. Brian even seemingly threw away his shyness for the moment in order to win.

Although the result after this match would be nearly the same, they both wanted to win.

"Alright, final round now. Let's change it up for this one." Ensen said slowly to build up suspense.

As both Warren and Brian leaned closer on the table to get even the slightest advantage, Ensen gave the final question.

"Who lives closer to the Academy?" He said with a teasing tone of voice.

Both of the remaining students immediately went into deep thought.

While this was a hard question it definitely was possible thanks to Warren's incredibly long introduction.

Ensen knew for a fact that Brian had actually been listening to his introduction, most likely the only person to.

After a few seconds Brian blurted out "I do!"

Hearing that Brian had already answered the question, Warren lowered his head slightly in defeat.

"I bit my tongue." Brian muttered under his breath with flushed cheeks from embarrassment.

With his mood turned around, Warren laughed at the whole situation and asked if he was okay.

After receiving a little nod, Warren got up out of his seat and said: "Maybe some water will help, I saw a water fountain earlier."

Brian nodded once again and proceeded to get out of his chair.

Warren soon turned towards Ensen and said "We'll be right back, we're just getting water. Could we open the bags when we get back"?"

With a proud smile, Ensen said "Of course."

As they both exited the room, Ensen thought to himself 'Looks like the first friendship is forming. Why is this so satisfying?'

Turning his thoughts in a different direction, he looked at all of the remaining students at the table. Each of them had different reactions, but they were all similarly happy.

Anabella was still looking at her gifts, a rather baggy beige sweater specifically.

As the room turned silent due to everybody being thoroughly engrossed with their gifts, time passed quickly as the two friends returned.

Unlike before when they sat a rather far distance away, this time they sat down next to each other.

Taking the remaining two gifts over, Ensen placed each in front of them.

As they began to open their gifts, Ensen felt at peace looking over his happy students.

Soon after they began opening it, Leah began watching them from her seat with a light smile.

Curious about what they would get, Stephen, rose from his seat and walked behind Brian and Warren to watch.

With nearly every student watching the two, Warren continued on with newfound excitement while loudly showing what was inside the gift bag while Brian began retreating back into his shell.

But he soon glanced over to Warren and decided to continue.