Better Together

This is the beginning of what I hope to be a young adult novel.

My birth certificate recognizes me as Eliza DiFranco. But don’t call me Eliza. Only mom’s allowed to do that. I go by Ellie. 15 years old. High school sophomore.  Daughter of Gerry and Marie. Sister to Petey and Tony. Completely and utterly not excited about the upcoming school year. I have a few friends. No one really special though. I just got cut from the school’s volleyball team so my schedule for the fall opened up. I guess the only thing to really look forward to is performing, even though the upper classmen bug me because they think they are God’s gift to theater. Ya, I’m a pretty happy person… couldn’t ya tell?
The day started off as any other. Woke up, got dressed, got in the car. Mom drove Tony and I to our first day of school. She was so excited, if she could only see how miserable I was. My schedule was pretty dull for a year that was supposed to be so exciting. Spanish 2, English 2 Honors, World History, Show Choir, Biology, and Geometry Honors. Yippee…
The first three classes were a blur. The constant murmurs of: “How was your summer?” “Oh my gosh I missed you so much!” “You look so tan!” Or my favorite: “My daddy just bought me a shiny new Range Rover even though I don’t even have my permit yet!” Ugh, how frustrating. Going to school with a bunch of snooty rich kids got old last year. I didn’t know if I could stand another three years of it.
Finally the class I was looking forward to all day, Performance Choir. The triple threat will be achieved and we would be a force to be reckoned with. My teacher was incredible. I was beginning my second year as a student of hers and was more excited than anything. A real Broadway star, teaching our measly little high school class. We were so lucky. We were having so much fun that the 55-minute period felt like 15. Until tomorrow, ugh… lunchtime.
Fantastic. Now I have to find a group of people to eat with. That wouldn't be hard considering all of my friends from freshman year became druggies and alcoholics over the summer and I was having none of that. I sought out some acquaintances that would do just fine for the first day. As lunch dragged on I began to dread my upcoming class, Biology. I hated science. Any and all sciences. I have never been good at science and never wanted to be. The walk to room 216 seemed longer than usual. I couldn’t understand why. I mean ya, I really hated science, but it shouldn’t be dreading it this much. I walked in and found the familiar face of my friend Vivi. I was excited knowing I wouldn’t be the only one forced to suffer through fifth period every day. Vivi didn’t like science too much either. Our teacher got up to the front of the room and oh great, a NEW teacher. Just what I needed, some guy no one has ever heard of teaching a class I hated. He was a tall, Hawaiian man with dark yet graying hair. He sported a USC Football polo and nice khaki slacks, just something else to add to the long list of his bad characteristics. He is a male Hawaiian Biology teacher, who is not only new and mysterious to all of the students, but he is an assistant football coach too. Oh, it’s going to be a long year.
Then, 5 minutes into class, as our football coaching Bio teacher droned on, this tall, goofy looking, lanky kid runs in the door. The late kid to class ALWAYS got stared at, but I didn’t care. I had my share of tardies last year so I was used to it. I just thought to myself, Wow, this goofy kid is probably going to be the trouble maker who will just get on my nerves while I’m trying to learn this ridiculous subject. He walked in and started walking down my row. I looked up to catch a site of the dorky smile he flashed around as he took the empty seat behind me. Why on earth did he have to pick the seat behind me? Now he is just going to bug me even more, being all obnoxious and going out of his way to get attention. Don’t talk to me please don’t talk to me I pleaded in my head the entire class period. Ah, thank the Lord. Class ended and I was more than excited to go to Geometry. I spoke too soon. I heard a “Hey” directly behind me. Just ignore him; you’re in a rush, he wont even notice. Oh he noticed all right. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned ever so abruptly. The goofy kid was flashing his goofy smile. “You forgot this.” He handed me a pencil. I was more surprised he didn’t steal it. I took it from his hand, said thanks and rushed out of the room.
Why me? Of all the people in that classroom, he had to talk to me? It was just a fluke; he was just being nice. I shouldn’t be so hard on a person I knew nothing about. I decided not to think about it. Math class seemed to pass in a blur, which was odd. I loved math. How could I not pay attention? I couldn’t get him off my mind. The nameless kid who saved my pencil. What was wrong with me?  Boys never had this effect on me. Especially ones I tried to avoid. School ended and I headed toward the front of the parking lot where my mom picked us up. On my way there, of course, I would bump into him again. It was inevitable. As he walked by me he looked up, flashed that stupid smile again and ran off. What was it about this kid? I mean I always had a thing for the tall skinny blonde boys, but he was so… ugh, I don’t even know.
I found my brother and we walked to my mom’s car. She asked how our first day back went and my brother of course had plenty to say. He was a big bad eighth grader. Oh how little he knew the changes and horrors that awaited him as a freshman next year. Ha ha ha. After he finished his 10-minute tale, my mom asked me the same question. I told her, “ Surprisingly, not terrible,” and we left it at that. That night I started to look through my textbooks and get familiar with my new classes. As I came up to my Biology book, I couldn’t help but smile a little. His face popped up in my head. This silly kid who I thought would be the most annoying person in the world, and for some odd reason I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I think I might like Biology after all.

 

Author's Note

There's still plenty of editing that needs to be done but general opinions would be great.

Reviews

[Nella]

I liked the story, you should keep writing I like Ellie she' seems like an intriguing character

[Bhavya Kaushik]

This is good and a genuine effort by you, I liked it though specially the story line...
But it isn't perfect specially with the structure and grammar, hope you will edit it soon :)
But overall, it a nice effort and I highly appreciate it!

Great work :)

~Keep writing~