Chapter one - The Day We Meet

‘Oh no, oh no, oh no,’ I quickly ran through the busy streets, ‘I’m gonna be late..!’

I was running so quickly and staring straight ahead I didn’t see the bump in the sidewalk, my foot got caught on it and I flew forward. I closed my eyes, waiting for the hard impact. Once I impacted with something, it wasn’t so hard. To my surprise, it was kind of soft. After a second, I heard something being destroyed.

“Owww…” I heard someone groan.

I quickly opened my eyes and looked at what I hit. It was a person, more correctly, a girl. I got off her as quickly as I could without hurting her any further.

“I’m so sorry..!” I exclaimed, “Are you okay..?”

She slowly sat up, without saying a word. After a couple seconds, she opened her eyes and looked directly at me.

‘Oh.My.Goodness..’

Her eyes were beautiful, they were brown, but not like most peoples. Her’s were light brown, they glistened so beautifully, and had so much life in them. I looked away, in fear that if I kept looking, I would get lost in them.

“What the hell were you doing..?!” She said; coldly, “Why can’t you watch where you’re going..?!”

“I-I can..” I mumbled, “I-it’s just that I was in a rush to g-get to school that I didn’t s-see the bump in the sidewalk..”

‘Wait.. did I just sutter..? When the hell do I sutter..?!’

She stood up slowly, “Well next time, just be late. You’re too clumsy to be running around like that.”

‘Wow.. thanks lady..’

“Sorry ma’am, but I can’t be late,” I stood up, “I’ve been late too many times already, my mom might have my head if I’m late again.”

With that, I faced the direction of the school and started running again.

…

After running for 14 minutes, I finally made it to the school. Even though I was tired, I couldn’t stop running. Once I hit the school’s entrance, I quickly ran 2 stairs at a time, then ran into the front door. Running in a crowded hallway isn’t easy, but I had to get to class, on the 3rd floor, before the bell rings in about 5 minutes. Running towards the stairs, I did bump into a couple people, one of them was the head cheerleader. She did not like a tomboy like me, especially since I was best friend’s with her crush. She swore at me quite a bit, but I didn’t have time to stop and slap her, so I just kept running.

I finally made it to the steps and I realized I only had about 3 minutes to get up 3 flights of stairs. Seems like a piece of cake right..? Well not when other people are also going up and down it, sometimes people get pushed on the stairs just because one there are way too many kids in this school and two nobody cares about you. If you fall, you have to quickly stand up or you might just get stepped on.

I deeply sighed, then bolted up the stairs. I got to the 2nd floor with not much difficulty, but right when I was facing the last flight of stairs, a kid got pushed. He flew right at me and I tried to catch him. Thankfully, I did catch him, but I kind of fell backwards and slammed into the ground.

I groaned hard, both my back and stomach were now in pain, but I didn’t have any time to worry about that.

“A-are you alright..?” I mumbled, the wind was knocked outta me so it was kind of hard to talk.

He quickly got up, then helped me up.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, “Thank you for catching me.”

“N-no problem,” I breathed.

The bell rung and everyone ran to their classes except us. I was trying to get my lungs back.

“Why.. aren’t you… going to class..?” I managed to ask him.

I looked up at him. He was a couple inches taller than me so I had to move my head a bit higher than I wanted too, but I needed to see who he was. He had the most beautiful curly, brown hair, sparkling blue eyes, and many freckles. He was giving me a nervous smile.

“Well.. it’s kind of my fault you’re in pain right now..” he said, “And if you get in trouble for being late.. I will too..”

I blinked at him, “Well, that’s sweet of you..”

“What the hell are you two still doing out here..?!” I heard the principal roar.

I just sighed, “Why me..? All I wanted was a peaceful day..”

The boy got very shy, “S-sir.. I’m s-sorry..”

The principal looked at him then me, “Jazmine, why am I not surprised it’s you.”

I turned around to look at him, “Hey hey hey, you don’t have to be rude.”

“I’m being rude..? You always ruin my day with your bullshit..!” he yelled.

I blinked a few times at it, “What do I do that ruins your day..? In fact, I think it’s the other way around.”

“Oh really, how so..?”

“Well, I’m always late to class for personal reasons and for some goddamn reason, you always manage to appear right when the bell rings to get me in trouble,” I said; getting quite annoyed, “You can have the best day ever if you just left me alone, but no you always put me into the office so the person who’s making your life miserable is yourself.”

“I don’t wanna hear that kind of language from you, young lady..!” he screamed, “Besides if you weren’t late I wouldn’t have to put you in the office.”

“Didn’t I just f*****g say I have personal reasons, that I cannot tell you, for being late..?” I replied, “Also, I can say whatever the f**k I want, if you can swear so can I.”

He glared at me. I felt a hand tug me a bit, I looked at the boy who was now holding my wrist.

“L-let’s just go..” he mumbled.

I glared at the principal one more time, “I will gladly leave to be away from this baldi wannabe.”

That made his whole face red, he looked like he totally wanted to strangle me.

“F*****g get to the office now before I expel you..!” He screamed.

“Please do,” I remarked, “I would totally love to be expelled so I don’t have to be by you anymore, I’d be so much happier.”

“Just go..!” he totally had it, his fuse blew.

The outburst scared the s**t outta the boy since he grabbed my wrist harder and sprinted down the stairs, dragging me the whole way.

…

Once we reached the office, the boy finally stopped running to catch his breath. He let go of my wrist, which I instantly pulled back and started to rub.

He looked over to me, “Sorry if I pulled you too hard.”

“No no, it’s fine,” I said, “It doesn’t really hurt that bad.”

“Oh, that’s good,” he smiled.

I just smiled back at him, I didn’t really have anything to say. I saw the office chairs to the right of us, so I walked over and took a seat. A few seconds later, he walks over to me and takes the chair to my right.

There was just an awkward silence between us, which wasn’t uncommon. I mean, we just met and he saw me fight with the principal, he probably doesn’t really want anything to do with me after our punishment.

“Why’d you do that..?” he suddenly asked outta nowhere.

It startled me a bit, so I didn’t understand his question.

“Uhmm.. what do you mean..?” is all I could think of as a reply.

“Why’d you fight with the principal like that..?”

I just stared at him, I didn’t really have a good answer to that question. As I was trying to think of an answer, I drifted off into my thoughts. Through all the memories.

I don’t know how long I drifted off for, but I guess it was quite long since he finally waved his hand in front of my face. I jumped back and blinked a few times before finally realizing I was still in the office.

“Oh..! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, “You were just staring at me for a long time, I was wondering if there was something on my face.”

My face turned a bit red from embarrassment, “Ahh..! No no, there’s nothing on your face haha.. I guess I just drifted off.”

“Ohhh, okay,” he smiled at me.

“For your question, I guess I just lost my cool a bit,” I said, “I do get pissed very quickly and I was just sick of him always giving me a lecture of how I ruin his day that I snapped before he could lecture us.”

He just looked at me then to the floor. I should’ve expected this, I mean who wants to talk to someone who just backtalked a teacher, especially when it will get them in more trouble also.

“Thank you,” he suddenly said.

I just started to blink rapidly, I had no idea what just happened. He looked at me and my confused expression for a few seconds, then he suddenly started to chuckle.

I stopped blinking and just stared at him, still totally lost.

He broke into a laugh after that; a very loud laugh. The lady running the front desk glared at him; hard.

After he was done laughing, he looked at me and smiled.

“Sorry,” he said, “I just couldn’t help laughing.”

“It’s fine,” I said, “Uhmm.. why did you thank me..?”

“For fighting with the principal so we wouldn’t have to hear the lecture.”

“That’s.. A really weird thing to thank me for,” I giggled.

“I know, I know,” he said, “But, I can’t help feeling grateful since it got us out of a lecture.”

“Well then you’re welcome,” I smiled at him.

‘He’s such a weird boy,’ I thought, ‘A nice kind of weird though.’

I bent very close to his ear, “Hey, do you wanna ditch this place..?”

He turned his head instantly to look at me.

After a few seconds he whispered back, “Where would we go..?”

I smiled at him, “We can head to a park or something, you in..?”

He looked at the lady at the front desk, then back to me and grinned.

“I’m totally in.”

We both stood up from our chairs and booked it towards the office door. The office lady saw us running and tried to chase us, but we were too fast for someone in heels.

We got outside, leaped the stairs, and ran towards a park. In that moment we were having too much fun to even think about the consequences that would come with what we were doing.