"Um, okay. The name's Alex by the way," he said as he took a seat beside this new kid, but tried keeping his distance. Suddenly he had a glimmer of hope for this place and thought to himself, Maybe it's not that bad. He seems friendly enough. Alex realized he was lost in his thoughts and just remembered he was "supposed to be listening" and "should probably excuse himself". After he said, "Pardon," and waited for Mr. Gem to continue.