Chapter One

 

        School buses and cars alike pulled into the school parking lot as the first day of school began. Students poured into the front doors of the large, two-story school building, some of them looking through half-closed eyes with their heads hanging low as if they would snap off of their necks any moment while others were wide awake and ready to take on whatever the first day of school threw at them.

        One of these many students was Greg, a sixteen-year-old Sophomore boy with a slim yet somewhat sturdy build. He had short dark brown hair and brown eyes. He wore jeans, gym shoes, and a polo with green and white stripes.

        Greg walked through the school until he reached his locker all the way down at the end of the Sophomore hallway. He spent a couple minutes there, putting a few things in it before closing it up. After standing up from the bottom row of lockers, he slung his red backpack over his shoulder.

        “Hi Greg,” said a voice.

        The male turned in the direction from where the greeting came to see a girl around the same age as him sauntering up to him. Long blonde hair cascaded down her back a little ways and silver earrings in the shape of hearts slightly dangled from her ears while blue-green eyes stared back at his brown ones. She wore light blue jeans and a pink short-sleeved shirt. A smile crossed Greg's lips upon recognizing his friend.

        “Hey Sarah,” he greeted. “How's it going?”

        “Good,” she replied, also smiling a little as they began to walk. “What classes do you have?”

        “Um, let me see.” He shoved a hand into his pocket before removing a folded piece of paper from it. After unfolding it, he read, “Geometry, Applied Chemistry, Spanish Three, Study Hall, English, Cooking Class, and U.S. History.” He shoved his schedule back into his pocket.

        “Awesome, we have Cooking Class together,” she replied. “Maybe we'll have the same lunch too.”

        “Yeah, maybe.”

        “It's kind of nice that you're talking to me again. It's been a while, you know?”

        “Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I was just real busy with Kyle I guess.”

        “But you aren't now?”

        “No, I'm not going out with him anymore.”

        “Really?”

        Sarah stopped to look up at Greg. He also stopped and nodded in response.

        “Sorry to hear that,” she said. “And I thought you two made a great couple too. Why did you two break up?”

        Greg shrugged. “We just wanted to take a break from it,” he replied, glancing to the side in the middle of the sentence.

        “Oh. But you are all right though, right? You aren't still upset over it or anything, are you?”

        “No, I'm fine.” He gave a half-hearted assuring smile.

        “Okay, good,” Sarah replied. “Let's go find the others.”

        Greg nodded and the two went off to go find their other friends. They found them in the library located in the heart of the building and they sat with them at a table to talk. When the first bell rang, Greg went to his first class of the day.

 

        When it came time for third period, Greg headed to Spanish. Posters of Spanish-speaking countries hung on the walls here and there and various trinkets originating from places like Mexico were placed around the room. The gray desks were arranged so that they were grouped in fours.

        Greg's heart skipped a beat as he spotted one of his classmates – a somewhat tall Junior boy with a slender build over in the opposite side of the room. He had short blond hair and gray eyes. His attire consisted of black gym shoes, tan Khakis that were pulled a couple inches or so below the waist, and a plain white short-sleeved shirt.

        The brown-haired male scurried over to an unoccupied desk that was facing the opposite direction of the Junior and sat down while dropping his backpack next to his chair. Greg just stared at the desk, praying that the male wouldn't notice him.

        But of course, it was only a matter of time until the Junior did notice him. From the corner of his eyes, Greg could see the blond sitting down at the desk next to him. The Sophomore shifted in his chair a little and scooted to the side a millimeter or two so that he was a wee bit further away from the other boy.

        “Hey,” the older male greeted.

        “Hi,” Greg said, only allowing a quick glance over at him.

        The bell rang about a second later and the teacher came in, closing the door behind her.

        “Hola clase, bienvenidos a la clase de Español tres,” greeted the teacher, her voice more than loud enough to be clearly heard throughout the somewhat small, silent classroom as all the students watched her walk to the front of the room where a small, white rectangular table stood. “Me llamo Señorita Smith. Before we begin going over the syllabus, I want to get to know your names. . .”

        The teacher continued on after that, but Greg lost concentration. He was too nervous to pay attention to what the teacher said. As she went down the list of the students' names, Greg's gaze remained fixed on his desk as he fidgeted a little.

        “Greg Miller,” the teacher called out. No one spoke. “Greg Miller,” she repeated, saying it louder this time.

        “Oh—um, here,” Greg said.

        “Gracias,” Mrs. Smith replied. “Please pay attention from now on, Greg.”

        “Sorry.”

        “Kyle Palmer,” said the teacher.

        “Here,” the Junior boy sitting next to Greg called out while adding a small raise of his hand to signify where he was.

        Hearing the name and that familiar voice was bone-chilling for Greg, almost enough to cause him to shudder. He ignored the jumble of emotions—ranging from fear and sadness to hatred and anger—that attacked him all at once. Fortunately enough though, the teacher spent most of the time talking, which apparently was enough to keep Kyle quiet for the rest of class.

        When the bell rang, Greg hurried out of the class, his speed nearly matching that of Speedy Gonzales. Once he was a good distance away from the Spanish classroom, Greg slowed down into a walk as he sighed a sigh of relief, more than glad to finally be out of that class. He just hoped that it was the only one he had with Kyle.

        It didn't take long for Greg to reach his fourth class. He took a seat at a random desk near the middle of the room and, whenever someone stepped into the classroom, he glanced over to see if he recognized them. When there was only a little over a minute left before the bell would ring, a tall, somewhat muscular boy who looked to be about seventeen entered the classroom. He had shaved black hair and hazel eyes, and a small, silver stud earring on his right ear that slightly gleaned under the fluorescent lights. He wore jeans, black gym shoes, and a black T-shirt with a guitar on the front of it.

        “Hey, hope you don't care if I sit here,” the male said as he sat down at the desk to the left of Greg.

        “No, it's fine,” replied Greg as he looked the male up and down a little, smiling some.

        The other male didn't say anything else as he started to rummage through his black backpack. Greg fidgeted a little as he looked around some before looking back him.

        “I'm Greg by the way,” the Sophomore said.

        “Zach,” replied the other boy.

        Greg nodded as he looked around the classroom a little more. There was no doubt that it was a History class with all the President pictures that were put up. When the bell rang, the teacher walked in and briefly told them the rules for being in there for Study Hall. Once the teacher finished, the room was pretty much quiet for the most part besides the occasional whispers coming from the other students that were in the classroom. Greg was also able to hear the rock music that was coming from Zach's earphones.

        “What are you listening to?” Greg asked a little quietly so the teacher wouldn't yell at him.

        “Avenged Sevenfold,” Zach replied.

        “Oh,” said Greg, almost a little surprised Zach had heard him. “Awesome band.”

        Zach took his eyes off of his iPod and looked over at Greg. “You listen to them?”

        “Yeah.” Greg chuckled a little. “Surprised?”

        “Yeah, you don't really look like someone who would listen to a band like them.”

        “I listen to a lot of music like that.”

        “Cool. What other bands do you listen to?”

        Greg shrugged. “Three Days Grace, Papa Roach, Slipknot, and other bands like that.”

        “Awesome.”

        The two continued to talk, mainly about music and the songs they liked of the bands that they both listened to. Study Hall rolled by quickly and it didn't seem to be too long until it ended. Greg said a bye to Zach before leaving the classroom to head to English.

        Once fifth period was over, it was time for lunch. Greg didn't really care for having the last lunch of the day, but he usually packed, so it wasn't too bad for him. By the time he got to lunch though, the cafeteria was pretty crowded for the most part. He looked around to try to see if he could spot Sarah or any of his other friends, but he didn't see any of them. Hoping that they were just probably coming to lunch late like he was, he sat down at a vacant table.

        Greg didn't touch his lunch as he sat there. He peered about the cafeteria to try to find them—looking over at the lunch lines and the doors leading into the cafeteria every so often too. However, there wasn't a sight of them yet. About a couple minutes later though, Zach walked over.

        “Hey, you care if I sit here?” he asked.

        “Go ahead,” Greg replied, smiling a little.

        “Cool,” Zach said as he sat down while setting his tray on the table.

        The two talked a little as they sat there and began eating their lunches. It wasn't too long though until a few other guys sat down with them, which turned out to be Zach's friends. Greg didn't talk too much after that, or at least not until he heard them talk about their band.

        When lunch was over, Greg headed to his sixth period class—Cooking Class. He sat down at a table in the middle of the room and Sarah walked over towards him about a minute or two later.

        “Hey,” she greeted as she sat her pink backpack down on the floor before sitting down in the chair across the table from Greg.

        “Hey,” Greg said back.

        “How was it sitting with Juniors?”

        “You mean you were in that lunch too?”

        “Yeah, Andrew, Heather, and I were sitting at a table not too far from where you were sitting. You didn't see us?”

        “No, sorry.” He smiled apologetically.

        “It's fine,” Sarah replied, returning the smile. “You should be careful about Zach though.”

        “Why?”

        “I heard that he beat up someone a little over a year ago because they were gay. I don't remember who it was though.”

        Greg was a little surprised to hear this. “Thanks for telling me,” he said.

        “You're welcome,” Sarah said. “I don't want to see you getting hurt after all.”

Author's Note

Is it enough to get the reader's attention so that they'll want to read more?

Reviews

[Rhea752]

definitely enough :P what i found funny is I took all these classes when I was 13 except for chemistry. and i took Latin 3 instead of Spanish 3. also I never get a study hall. well done :D

[courtney]

it kinda has a slow start but once you get to about the third paragraph you get interested in whats going on.