From his peripheral vision, he saw Danny go past him into the shed. Phew. His assumption had been right. That could’ve been awkward otherwise. If he’d moved out of the way when Danny was really trying to talk to him or something, then it would have looked like he was trying to avoid the other boy. Avoiding interacting with people was something Russell had what he assumed to be above-average experience with, but after Marissa’s baffling attempts to integrate him into her own friend group, well, he didn’t want to make the other students in that group think that he was rude. Especially Danny. He was certain that Danny didn’t like him, but he was the only boy in that group who didn’t obviously dislike him, so that was a start. Their recent-ish round of Truth or Dare had shown Russell that much.

Truth or Dare had, if nothing else, been a clear demonstration of why he would never fit in with this group of mostly-fifth-years. Russell knew that growing up with a mix of private school and homeschooling had had some effects on his comfort around other students. Previously, he had mostly ‘known’ this because, well, he just didn’t have any friends his own age and that was probably a sign, yeah? But now his ‘knowing’ of this was really confirmed. If the new transfer student could make them accept him enough to start dating within the group, what did that say about Russell? He had been here months longer and his only friend (a word he thought in a skeptical tone of mental-voice as his vision went fuzzy staring across the Pitch) was Marissa. Admittedly better than he’d expected coming in, but still.

Marissa had something going on with Danny -- Russell was disabled, but not blind, thank you very much -- and Danny in turn was one of the only other students around their year who hadn’t been somewhat aggressive towards him. If he had the chance, maybe he should try… No, he didn’t know how to hang out or get to know people or whatever. Good thing Danny was preoccupied. He returned Danny’s casual farewell with a head-bob that was somewhere between a jerk and a nod and watched him walk off. Phew, again. Close call. Maybe he’d just put his broom away and give up on this for today.

“Hey, some of the others are coming down soon for a game…”

Or maybe not. Russell hadn’t noticed that the older boy was also holding a broom until Danny turned back to him and he saw the Quaffle, too. “Oh. Umm.” The Californian’s immediate desire was to say a firm no. But Russell wasn’t a very firm person. And he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be in the group, since he didn’t fit anyways, but Marissa wanted him to, and Danny hadn’t glared at him or pointedly ignored him or stalked him down the halls yet this year, so… “I, I guess I could join. If you need more people. I was just gonna, erm, fly some laps,” he gestured vaguely, “so, well, if there’s an odd number, I can just do that instead.” Sensing he was on the edge of a rambling spiral, he shut up and took a couple hesitant steps towards Danny, head ducking a little as he left the shed’s shadow. “D’you just play with Chasers?”