Almost Perfect

Chapter 1

Jane Kallberg twirled the roll of scotchtape in her hands, running her well-manicured nail along the circumference. Frustration was building up inside her. Where the hell is the edge of the tape? Taking a deep breath, she tried to run her well-manicured nail along the scotchtape again at a slower pace. She smiled in satisfaction as her nail hit a small bump. Finally.

"Rippp!" In one swift motion, she uncurled the tape, whipped out a pair of scissors from her back pocket and started snipping sections of it, attaching multiple ones on each of her long sleek fingers. She worked her way through the tape until it noticeably shrinked by half the size. Looking down at her left arm, Jane winced as she noticed that she had unknowingly covered her whole arm with snippets of clear tape. "Ouch," she muttered, remembering how much it usually hurts when tape is ripped off bare skin.

"Should have worn a glove or something," she shrugged. She would care about her skin later. Right now, she had more important things to do.

Without wasting any time, Jane picked up the roll of posters, that was lying by her feet, from the shiny floor of the Bailleton High School entrance. Suddenly, as though a bubble of ignorance had just been lifted off her, she began to notice for the first time how different Bailleton High looked in the early morning. After all, it was only seven in the morning. School did not start until half past eight. No one except her was in school yet.

For a spilt second she was stunned by the fact that she could actually see her reflection on the floor. So that was how the floor is supposed to look like, she mused to herself. Indeed, the shiny, cleaned floor looked nothing like the usual mud-streaked, dirt-stained, litter-dotted floor that was too much of a common sight. However, Jane knew that once the sweaty jocks, muddy shoes and litterbugs started swarming into the campus at around eight, the clean floor would be dirtied again in seconds.

Looking around, she noticed for the first time, that the classroom corridor, which was usually filled with students, actually was symmetrical. Like a rectangle-shaped tunnel, it seemed to stretch on and on. Void of the usual bustling of students, the corridor managed to wash a strange sense of calmness over her.

The long row of purple lockers, whose colour she used to think was really gay and out-of place, now stood out to her like a tidy, straight row of soldiers, always ready to be of service to their student owners. For a moment, Jane allowed herself to stop hating them because of their colour, and realised that deep inside, she was grateful towards the lockers for being a part of her everyday school life since Day 1.

Damn, she thought. How was it that she had only managed to fully appreciate the school? She would really miss these little details by the time she graduated in less than a year's time. Maybe she could get the Student Council to start a little school-appreciation activity.

Speaking of Student Council...

Jane snapped herself out of her wistful thoughts. Since when had she started emoing like that?

Getting back to her task at once, she quickly unrolled her first poster and secured it onto the wall with bits of tape. She then did the same thing for the rest of her posters, putting them up all over the common areas of the school. As she attached her last piece of tape to her last poster, Jane sighed in satisfaction. Despite all the time she wasted thinking about the school, she had managed to finish earlier than her schedule. It was three minutes to eight, and students would be arriving school before she knew it. Jane took a step back to admire her handiwork once again. She was panting and perspiring from her trip around the school, but she knew that all her efforts would be worth it.

The poster's background was her favourite colour, light gold, at just the right shade. In the poster, Jane had a picture of herself in her favourite light blue tshirt, with a smiling pineapple wearing a pair of cool dark sunglasses, with a pair of dark skinny jeans. Like the pineapple, she was wearing a pair of dark raybands herself. Her arms were crossed in front of her and she was half turned towards the camera, making her smile seem more like a lopsided smirk. She was standing on a wisp of white fluffy cloud, thanks to the perks of photoshop. Above her was her campaigning slogan; she had been working on it for weeks, and was extremely confident and proud of it.

The exact words were "Use your brain, vote for Jane" with the subscript "Bailleton High School Student Council President elections 2012".

Frankly, Jane thought she had a pretty good chance of winning the elections. It was in a week's time, but campaigning was only starting this week, and as she had always reminded herself, first impression counts. When her fellow schoolmates saunter through the wide glass doors of the school, the first thing they notice would be her awesome posters, and that was surely a good enough first impression. After all, Jane was the first candidate this year to make the first move in the campaigning.

Suddenly, Jane heard a deep clearing of throat behind her. Instincts kicking in, she whipped around with her fist raised, and it contacted with what felt like someone's jaw. Oops. Her victim moaned and cupped his cheekbone with his palm, and Jane found a pair of what had to be the deepest, greenest eyes she had ever seen, boring into her.

"What was that for?" The boy huskily muttered, while messaging his jaw.

"Sorry, it's not my fault I have a black belt in Karate, and I'm currently taking up fencing lessons," Jane smirked at the boy.

"Whoa," he chuckled. "O...kay... Damn, girl. You sure can punch. Anyway... You're Jane Kallberg right?"

Jane nodded slowly, taking in the appearance of this boy. There was something about him that was strikingly familiar, but she could not quite put her finger on what exactly. He was slightly taller than her, and a messy mop of bird-nest-looking dirty blonde hair resting on his head. His eyes were almost emerald green, with a depth she soon found herself frequently, unintentionally slipping into, and quickly snapping out of after a few seconds or so. His shirt was baggy, but Jane could still make out a faint outline of a fine-toned body.

He was attractive, but not attractive to her at the same time, if that made any sense anyway. She decided the only thing she liked about his appearance was his eye colour and his straight perfect nose. What could she say? She's obsessed with green eyes and straight noses.

"And who are you again?" Jane asked, raising an eyebrow. "You look familiar, like I've seen you somewhere..."

"Darren Cruz, at your service, ma'am," he answered, with a low sweeping bow.

Jane could not help but scoff. It was the twenty-first century, and yet there were still people using these kinds of old-fashioned greetings.

"I see you are scoffing, my lady? Are you by any chance perhaps finding me ridiculous?" Darren stared down at her, his face a mask of seriousness.

Great. Now he's adding in the British accent as well. Jane rolled her eyes. Students were starting to pour into the hallway, and plenty of them had stopped by to admire Jane's posters. Darren was staring too, his mouth slightly drooping in awe as he took in the sight of her posters dominating most of the pillars, notice boards and walls. Jane found a small smile spreading across her lips.

She was so going to win.

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Hey everyone! Welcome to my story officially! :D sorry for the mistakes, if i have any. I'm working on keeping my story mistake-free :D

Anyone up for making me a cover? I would really appreciate it! And the next chapter will be dedictaed to you! :D