One
*Keri*
Another new house; another new neighborhood. Thankfully, not another new school. I’d been to five new schools in the last two years. I was glad to be staying at the same school I’ve been attending for the past eight months, Bedgreen High. I’d started the year there; maybe I would finish it there.
I walked to school; I was one of the only walkers. There was a boy, who also walked, that I saw every day, but he came from the opposite side of the school. He didn’t seem to have any friends. I usually don’t make friends, but that’s because I don’t stay long enough to. This time though, I made one friend, Samie Grey.
When I go to school, Samie immediately ran up to me saying, “Keri, guess what! Guess!”
She was always excited. My guess was that she got another boyfriend. Samie was never single more than a day. “I don’t like to be alone,” she would always say.
“You got a new cat?” she didn’t like it when people knew she had s boyfriend. Everyone already thinks she’s a boyfriend stealer, but she’s not. Plus she has one rule and she stood by it: never date your friend’s ex. It would be impossible to break this rule considering her only two friends were me and Codie Clover and I never date and Codie wasn’t gay nor Samie a lesbian.
“No, silly,” Samie said twirling my layered, straight, light red hair. “I have a new boyfriend!” she said with a smile.
“Who?” I asked, knowing she wouldn’t tell me unless I guessed. “Guess,” she replied; no surprise there. Samie could be a little annoying and very predictable, but she was a good friend.
Codie walked up then and took a look at me. “Well don’t you look beautiful,” he said indicating my black high tops, purple skeleton leggings, black ruffled skirt that went to my knees, and a red tank top I wore under my leather jacket. Codie was always flirting with me even when he had a girlfriend, which he does now.
“How are you, Acquaintance? He asked. We weren’t friends, we were acquaintance because his parents are really strict and don’t want their son to be friends with a “Goth chick”, which is what most people call me. If Codie’s parents thought he was friends with me, they’d pack up their belongings and move to the next county.
“I’m fine,” I said in my small voice
“That’s good.” He looked like he was about to say more but his girlfriend, Jordyn members, called to him. “I have to go,” he said then walked over to Jordyn, who greets him with a kiss.
Samie looked at the two of them with a sigh and a smile. She loves couples. She looked at me with wide, excited eyes. “So who do you think I’m dating?” she asked.
“Um…” she was staring at me expectantly. She wanted me to now, but she wouldn’t tell me. “Charles Gibb?” I finally guessed.
“Ew, no!” she said with a disgusted look on her face. The first bell rang. “See you later!” he said before walking away, her golden curls bouncing.
As I walked through the door of my class, I noticed someone in my seat. We didn’t have assigned seats in art because we only sit for the first ten minutes of class before we went to our sections but still, it was my seat.
I stopped right in front of the row I usually sit in, the one closest to the window. Jordyn walked in and saw me standing there and said, “Sit down, Goth Chick. It’s not polite to stare.” Of course she just has to embarrass me.
The person in my seat, who had been looking out the window, turned and looked at me. It was the boy I see walking to school every day. “Is this your seat? I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I’ll move. He started to gather his stuff.
“No, it’s fine,” I said even though it wasn’t, and walked past him down the row to sit in the back.
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I walked to my table at lunch to eat alone. Codie told Jordyn he’d eat with her today and Samie went home early because of a headache.
I had just sat down when the Boy sat across from me. “Hi,” he said looking straight into my light brown eyes.
“Hello,” I said in my usual soft voice.
“You could have told me that was your seat, I would have moved.”
“It’s okay. Did you just transfer into that class today?”
“Yeah, but I still would have moved.” His gray eyes were so serious, I almost felt bad for not making him move. “My name’s Cancan by the way.”
“Cancan?” I asked. “I’m Keri.” He looked at me confused.
“No, Cameron,” he said enunciating. “You can call me Cancan, if you want to.” He imitated Flower from Bambi on the last part.
“I like Cancan better than Cameron.”
He laughed, making his spiked, black hair fall in his eyes. He had a pretty laugh. “Cancan it is. And your Kiki.” This made me laugh. I liked him; with him talking came easy.
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*Cameron*
The day I met Keri, her best friend, Samie, had asked me out and I said yes. Samie said I couldn’t tell anybody, including Keri. When I asked why she said,” I want her to guess.” That was also the day I changed my schedule, so I ad Homeroom with Keri.
I’d seen Keri on her way to and from school. Ever since I saw her, on the first day of school, I‘ve wanted to talk to her. At lunch I would think about getting up and walking over to her. When I finally did, I learned three things about her: she was shy, adorably cute, and while her face said “open book”, her eyes said “I have a secret no one knows.” After discovering this, all I wanted was to learn her secret.
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“Do you want to get pizza?” Samie had come over to my house after I got home from school and we had been hanging out for the past hour and a half.
“Sure.” I grabbed my wallet and we walked down the street to The Pizza Parlor. When we walked in I saw a little boy no more than nine sitting at the counter. The man behind the counter, I assume his father, handed him a plate with a slice of cheese pizza on it; the boy just picked at. Something about him seemed familiar.
“Cameron.” I turned around to Samie standing next to a booth. I walked over to her and we sat down. Someone came by with menus and we looked over them.
“I want a pepperoni pizza,” Samie said. “You?”
“Pepperoni sounds good.” I hate pepperoni.
A waitress came by and took our order. “It’s so cute how you ordered for me,” Samie said.
“Well it was for the both of us.” We sat in silence for the rest of the night.
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When we reached my house, I saw my blind neighbor, Mr. Hues, taking out his trash. “Mr. Hues let me get that,” I said and finished pulling his trashcan to the curb.
“Thank you, Cameron. You’re always so kind to me.”
You’re welcome,” I said. Mr. Hues smiled and walked back into his house.
“I have to go,” Samie said. I turned to tell her goodbye, or hug her, or something, but she was already gone.
I walked inside my house and saw my brother collapsed on the floor.
