Wonders of a Smile

Just Another Face

Declan

He walked perfunctorily with the sea of zombie-like teens, blending in with the crowd of frowned faces. There he was, overlooked by everyone and never given a second glance by anyone. Teachers scanned the crowd, but their watching eyes never lasted more than a second on his face. Girls saw him, but never noticed him. It wasn't like he wasn't good-looking or that there was something about him that just made all the girls scream and run away from him. He had quite a fair complexion, a decent height of 6'0, and straight pearly whites from several years of braces. There was just nothing that stood out about his short, brown hair and muddy, brown eyes. He didn't have that single, dyed streak in his hair or tattoos peeking out from below the collar of his shirt that seemed to catch the eye of every passing person. He wasn't adorned in the latest fashions of skinny jeans, sneakers, and sweaters. No, he was just another face in the crowd... 

Elise

Elise sat contentedly at her secret sanctuary and looked at all around her. Since she lived in California and her school wasn't the richest, her school was outdoors. There were no hallways with lockers aligned along the white, pristine walls or long, rectangular lights drilled into the ceiling. The hallways were out in the open and wall-less, but had a plastered cover on the top that were held up by magenta poles. The rooms were a faded, red brick on the outside, while the inner walls were of plaster and drywall and painted a sickly yellow. Each wing was separated from each other by a small square of green grass and small palm trees. There were about over 100 classrooms that were squeezed into 10 different wings for Sunny High School of Bakersfield. She had to admit that, despite the cheesiness of her high school's name, it seemed to fit perfectly. It was sunny basically 24/7 in Bakersfield and the hallways were always brightly lit during the day while the number of empty corridors helped to provide enough privacy for the many couples in her school.

Elise then looked down at her black spiral notebook as it showed a clean, blank sheet of paper that was just waiting to be written on. She shifted on the brick wall she was leaning against, trying to get comfortable. Her light brown eyes landed on a couple in the hallway across from her and she knew she shouldn't have, but she decided to watch them. They were in a tight embrace that from someone who was just glancing at them would have deemed it loving, but since Elise was actually watching, she knew that it was anything but. She narrowed her eyes and saw everything. The slight frown in the girl's smile and tight look in her dark, brown eyes showed sorrow and slight uneasiness, but it looked like she was doing well to hold it in. Why was she upset? The boy had his arms wrapped around her waist while the girl's arms were laid against his chest. He was looking down at her with a puppy-dog face and it looked like he was begging her for forgiveness. Forgiveness for what? She focused her eyes back onto the girl and she saw that frown deepen and she wondered what was going to happen next. She closed her eyes and watched as the scene played in her head, her mind filling in blank spots when the need arose as she wrote the next part of their story for them. 

She knew he was doing this on purpose. He knew what he could do and what kind of power he had over her and so he used it to his advantage. She was in the middle of breaking it off when he turned up the charm and smiled that breathtakingly beautiful smile that could literally make her heart stop and forget everything. She fluttered her eyes shut as her mind memorized his cute smile with that single dimple in his left cheek and the look of pure adoration in his eyes. She loved when he looked at her like that because it made her feel like she was his only reason to ever smile like that, but deep down, she knew that it was the farthest thing from the truth. Her heart ached as she finally realized what was really true…what was real...the reality of him being a grade-A player while she was just another measly pawn in his little game. 

Elise opened her eyes and forced herself to look away from the couple in front of her. She sighed and looked down at her notebook that now had the scene of couple written in her messy script. She shut her notebook and set down her favorite mechanical pencil beside her leg as she stared off into the distance. Her eyes looked to be in a daze, but her mind was the exact opposite. She was always like this, always making stories and different circumstances for everything she saw or heard about. A lesson on the Great Depression in her AP U.S History class turned into a woman’s lone fight to survive with her family of three, abandoning husband, and suicidal thoughts. Everything was a story to her and that was what she loved most. She loved how she perceived the world differently. When one person might see a random boy playing basketball, and just think that he liked to play, she would look at him and see a strong-willed teenager who, despite his hard life at home, worked hard day and night, sunshine and rain for what he loved most. Everything was nothing but a mystery to her. It normally lead to question upon question, upon question and she longed to figure it out or make something up herself and make sure it was noted in her trusty notebook. 

She still couldn’t decide whether or not this mindset was a blessing or a curse. She did love to write, but when a seed of an idea was planted into her head, it transformed into a massive tree of ideas and situations that could happen and it seemed to seep its way into her head every time she tried to study or do homework. It would just nag at her until she stopped whatever she was doing and went to writing the story in her head. She took into account every detail of her life, from the exact feel of a brick to the joy she felt when she woke feeling refreshed and ready for the day. She did everything she could so it could, in any way possible, help make any of her stories fuller...better... She hated herself and was in a sour mood all day when she knew and felt that her stories weren't right, that it was missing something. She would keep at it, stay up all night, and even neglect all of her homework until she deemed her work  good enough.

A/N: I'm excited for this one :) This idea wouldn't leave my head no matter how hard I tried so I just decided to write it! I also really like the name Declan, haha. Let me know what you guys think?