As I walked to the gates of my new school, I looked around. Granted, the leaves were brown and falling. After all, it was fall. Three months and then it would be holidays again.
I bet this school year would be like the last. Straight A's were the good parts, I loved making my parents proud. Even though my mother was dead, I was certain she was proud of me, anyways. The bad and worst part was I wouldn't have any friends.
Well, there was Rose, but she wasn't here at the time. It was a long story.
Last year, when we were graduating from junior high school, Rose got a scholarship. She told me while rolling her eyes. Obviously, she had got a lot of scholarships being the daughter of two very important people, and she was pretty smart, too.
Rose always declined the offers saying that 'she had a lot of friends' here and 'she couldn't leave them'. However, this time I could see a little sadness in her eyes. I couldn't stand that.
So, I told her to think about it. She was going to ruin her own future is she kept doing that, and her parents would be blaming it on me because I was Rose's closest and poorest friend. Plus, I was the only friend Rose's parents knew of.
Granted, Rose disagreed saying that she 'loved me more than the school'. Me being me, I ignored her statement completely saying that I didn't care while closing my eyes and ears.
When I opened my eyes and ears, Rose's eyes reflected how sad and shocked she was. I was about to ask why when she ran away shouting, "You don't know what my dreams are! You have no idea at all!"
Of course, at the time, I didn't understand what it meant. I was stupid, I was fifteen, and I was Jay - the ignorant and careless poor boy.
How did I know what she was saying when I was closing my ears and eyes? Well, my sister, Ann, was there and she was watching us fight. She, just like me, was a romantic. She had a boyfriend of hee own, of course.
Now, no thanks to that, this year would end up the same like any other year. I'd be washing the dishes, or cooking, or helping my sister with her homeworks. The usual, I supposed.
I'd never get the new year kiss I had wished for. The one I've been dreaming of. After all, the girl that I'd hoped I'd get the kiss from was far away from me at the time. It was impossible.
As I walked through the gates, I inhaled the fresh cold air. It was autumn, alright. Cold.
I entered the school. It wasn't a surprise to me that I was very early. It was the first day of school and I was always early. I still had an hour before school actually started.
I entered my clasroom. I was on second year of high school. On my first year, Rose was gone. I really needed to stop thinking about her. It was a bad - wait, no, sad - habit.
I was surprised to see someone insidethe classroom, but I couldn't make out who it was. The person was wearing jeans and a hoodie that fully masked their face. I couldn't even tell whether if that person was a boy or a girl.
I supposed it was a new student. As you could guess, I wasn't a big fan of talking to new students. It definitely wasn't my style. I was the loner.
So, I sat down on my chair. Back, right corner, next to the window. Unlike most schools, my school didn't have lockers, so we just put it on our chair. It made us have less space to sit on, but we'd live.
We would put it on the floor, but the principal wouldn't let us saying that it 'made the floor dirty'. Yeah, the principal wasn't so awesome.
Ann was still home. We walked to school by ourselves. She said she couldn't wake up as early as me. So when I reached school, she probably just finished showering.
The silence between me and the new student was very awkward. Usually, when a silence was passed between you and someone you didn't know, it would be fine. I could feel this person staring at me, but every time I looked at them, I saw that they weren't even facing me - the person was looking straight forward.
I decided to walk around the halls because I couldn't stand the awkwardness in the room.
Finally, after one boring hour, school finally started. Surely, school was even more boring, but at least I got to do something. Science, mathematic, geography, history, social science. Yup, those sounded so boring, - dull, tiresome, whatever word you had for it, - but what could I say?
It was school. You couldn't expect too much of it.
I wasn't sure why, but none of the teachers notice the new student. Either they didn't notice, or they didn't care. None of the students seemed to care about her existence either. I wondered why.
When school ended, I was the one who got out of the room the latest, well, before the new student to be exact. The person didn't even make a move to collect their things.
I raised an eyebrow in confusion. Curiouser and curiouser. And yes, I was quoting Alice in Wonderland.
As I was about to walk outside the classroom, I suddenly heard someone saying, "Jay."
I was certain no one else was here. And if it was one of the teachers, I was sure he/she would be more noticeable. I looked at the new student, but they was still sitting like a statue.
I shook my head and started to walk again. Then, someone called my name again. This time the person seemed like he/she was about to break down crying.
I looked upstairs. No one. Perhaps it was a stalker or something. Maybe someone wanted to prank or blackmail me. I questioned why someone would want to blackmail a poor guy like me. And as far as I remembered, everyone was kind here. No bullies.
I supposed I should just make a run for it, but when I was about to step outside the room, someone called my name again.
The surprise was, that person was actually the new student, and the new student was hugging me while crying onto my chest.
I recognized that voice.
Of course I did.
It was the one and only, Rose.
"Rose?" I whispered. Rose responded with a nod and hugged me tighter. I decided to hug her back and pat her back.
"What happened? Aren't you supposed to be in... whatever that grand high school was called?" I asked. Then, the less ignorant me noticed this wasn't a good time to talk.
So, I just hugged her tightly inside the classroom while patting her back softly and kissing her forehead every once in a while.
What happened to my happy and cheerful Rose?
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