I had barely been at Ridgeway High for a month, and already, I was starting to feel like the walls were closing in on me. New school, new faces, same routine, teachers asking me to introduce myself, classmates sizing me up like I was some kind of exhibit.

“Don’t look so tense,” Marcus said, leaning back in his chair beside me. He was the first person to talk to me when I walked into English class on Monday, and since then, he’d kind of taken me under his wing. “You’re blending in ...