CHAPTER 3: First Meeting

Alicia meets Nick Kross for the first time...

“I’m on my way!”

Daniela hangs up on the other end of my cell phone and I do the same. Monday has arrived and she’s on her way to pick me up. I have my license and still have my car. I simply choose not to drive. She understands and is always ready to drop by.

“I’m leaving.” I call up to my parents, who are in their bedroom, searching frantically for the keys to my father’s Audi A6. He always misplaces them and today my mother’s Cadillac is in the shop so she needs a ride from him. As I open the front door I notice the keys. They sit right in front of the door.

Ha! Nice job dad, I think to myself. I bend down, grab the keys, and toss them inside.

“That should help them not be too late.” I say out loud. I laugh to myself and notice Daniela’ car. She comes to a stop two houses away and honks the horn of her black Ford truck. I jog over to her and notice she’s picked up Bobby already.

“Hey guys!” I say as I hop in.

“Hey Leesh!” They say back, almost in unison, which makes me smile.

“Who are you all dressed up for?” Bobby says to me mockingly with a smirk.

“Oh, stop it! I’m not dressed up at all!”

“Oh? Well you haven’t worn lip gloss in three weeks, and jeans in two. Today you’re wearing your black jeans, a deep gray v-neck shirt, ballet flats, and the pinkest lip gloss you probably own. Care to explain why you’re looking so good?”

I blush at his comment. “Well, I’m just in a really good mood I guess.” I look at Daniela to see if she’s going to say anything.

“Well,” she starts as soon as I look at her, “He’s right, you know. You haven’t dressed like that in a while.”

She looks uncomfortable. I understand why, but she shouldn’t be uncomfortable. I know it’s been since Johnny that I seemed to care for my looks. In all honesty, it isn’t that I don’t care anymore; I just haven’t given myself time to care. I usually wake up as late as possible to go places; except today.

“I woke up two hours earlier, naturally. I had a great night sleep as all. I had a lot of time to get ready. I love how you noticed.”

I look to the back seat, where Bobby sits, and I smile t him. He smiles back and says, “Well, you’re my sister, ‘course I noticed!”

I laugh and turn back. I’ve always had that relationship with my friends. We are like siblings to each other. I turn to look outside my window when I notice we stopped in front of a house. It’s Maria’s house. She comes running outside in a cute casual dress. She’s always been one for fashion.

“Hola mi familia!” She yells at us as she approaches the car. Maria is Italian and Irish so it has that well-known “white accent” to it, as Bobby likes to say.

Bobby and I say, “Buenos dias Maria” to her. We’re both Puerto Rican, so it has that Spanish flow to it.

 Johnny used to talk to me in Spanish. I may be Puerto Rican but I won’t lie and say I speak it fluently. I speak little but understand a lot. He spoke it fluently though, in fact, Spanish was Johnny’s first language. Everyone in his family knew Spanish front to back. That’s actually another thing Johnny did in school. He was the captain of the Spanish club in school. No one knew how anyone earned it, all we knew was that people somehow where chosen. I use to tease him, saying that Senora Martin favored him because he was Dominican, like her. He’d always laugh.

“Oh stop! That’s not why. Just because we’re both Dominican? There are like, four other Dominicans in the Spanish club!”

I laugh at the memory of him and snap out of my mini flashback.

“Oh!” I say, noticing we’re at the school, and Daniela is searching for a parking spot.

    She parks and I immediately hop out. I didn’t feel it while she was driving, but now I’m feeling light-headed. I assume it’s because I skipped breakfast today and I reach inside my bag and pull out a Cliff bar. I walk around the car to my friends and we walk to the entrance together. We each have different classes first period so we prepare to separate. Before we split, we all agree to meet at Bobby’s locker afterwards since we do have the same class during period two and Bobby’ locker is closest to the classroom.

“Alright, bye guys.” I wave to them and head to my photography class with a smile on my face.

***

“Class, this is Nick. He’s a new student here!” Mrs. Crossman says this with her signature smile. Sweet, welcoming, and stretched ear to ear. I look to her left and see a tall boy, a tall boy with slightly bad posture and dark brown floppy hair, standing next to her, almost unsure of himself.

“Where’d you say you where from sweet heart?” She whispers to him kind of loudly.

“Florida.” I barely hear him.

I feel a nudge on my left side and turn my head. It’s Hilary, a cheerleader/soccer player. She’s actually really nice, even though she’s close with every snob on the cheering squad.

“OMG. He is so cute!” She whispers to, not only me but to Tammy, another cheerleader, who sits in front of her. I smile a little bit at her and shrug. I look back up at the kid. “Nick,” I say in my head. “I guess he’s cute.”

He has, like I said, longish floppy hair, and wears a Coldplay shirt with jeans and checkerboard Vans. “He is cute…” I think to myself. My thoughts are interrupted by Mrs. Crossman’s voice.

“I expect you all to treat him well. If you see him having trouble with any of the equipment, please help him out.”

I nod my head and get out my camera. I have some pictures I want to process and that’s all I plan to do.

I get up out of my seat when the class seems to really start. I head to the computer I always to onto to upload.

I put it all together and organize what I’ll do with them next class. I look up to see if I can grab Mrs. Crossman for a minute so I can get her opinion. But I don’t see her at all; I guess she stepped out for a minute. When I go to look back at my computer I notice that that new kid, Nick is looking at me. At least, it seems like he is. I look at him and he doesn’t look away. At this point, I really feel like he’s staring at me. I’m starting to feel awkward and decide to lighten things up by giving him a small smile.

What! He just looked away!

I look back to my computer and think, “Fine. He wants to be all weird? I can handle that.” I finish, quite loudly, with my work on the computer and print up some of my work to show Mrs. Crossman my stuff.

She loves it, and just as she gives me back my papers with an approving smile plastered on her face, the bell rings. I run to my seat and grab my stuff. I look up to the door just in time to see Nick looking back at me. But as soon as I see him, he turns away and leaves to room.

“How odd,” I say quietly. I shrug to myself, “Whatever.”

***

“What a weirdo!” Maria says to me. We’re walking towards our second class of the day, Psychology in Literature, the class I have this year that Mr. Luna teaches. We are with Bobby and Daniela of course and they seem to agree with Maria’s assumption on Nick.

I sigh, “I know.”

As we step into the classroom, Daniela says hi to Mr. Luna. He says good morning to us all and we simply smile back at him. When we sit down in our usual seats, I feel a wave of comfort. I love coming to Mr. Luna’s classes and today is no different. I’m especially happy to have been able to get away from Nick. I’m sure he’s a great guy, he just really creeped me out. I notice Mr. Luna is about to speak so I stop thinking about Nick. Only, my mind is brought right back t him when he walks into the room at the sound of the bell. “Oh no. No, no, no. Please just be lost, please just be lost!”

“Ah, finally, you’re here Mr. Kross.” Mr. Luna says to him. I put my palm to my face. Of course this would happen to me.

I get the attention of my friends, “That’s the kid; that’s Nick.”

They all silently laugh at me. I sigh and turn back facing Nick. Mr. Luna is just introducing him. I look at Nick, trying to see if he has noticed I’m in the room yet. Just when I think he hasn’t, we lock eyes. My eyes widen when, after only two seconds of eye contact, he smiles at me.

 

Author's Note

Honest opinion?

Reviews

[SuicidePact.]

I really like this story so far, you have a real talent for story telling.

[Tasha]

I really liked this chapter. I think this is a great story so far, please keep going and keep me updated. :)