Crush

Chapter 2

     “OK, no more talking about moles if you want to eat lunch today. Agreed?” I asked, sticking out my pinkie waiting for her to stick hers out to.

     “Deal!” she said, locking my little finger with hers.

     For the rest of lunch, we sat at our little table talking about the huge crowd in this little cafeteria. People were either standing in huge groups by the hallway or sitting down, squished together on the tables. I’m surprised we even found this one, even though it holds four people. It wouldn’t really attract much attention to other people since they have way more than four friends.

     The bell rang and Maya and I picked up our trash. We threw it in the large bin right by the door and started heading towards our 5th period class.

     After that, the rest of the school day went by super fast and Maya and I walked out to the front of the school together to wait for my mom.

     “Oh, you know what? I forgot. I have soccer practice today; I have to go alley. I’m sorry. Is your mom here yet?” she said.

     I scanned the line of cars but not one of them was my mom’s.

     “Nope,” I said, “But it’s fine. Just go ahead and go to practice I’ll wait here for her.”

     "Are you sure you don't want to just come to my house?" she asked.

     "No, it's OK Maya, I'll be fine. I know you can’t be late for practice. I'll just see you tomorrow," I said.

     "OK," she said with a small smile, “I’ll see you then."

     She waved goodbye and started walking down the steps. This wasn't good. I didn't have any other friends but Maya so I had nowhere to go. I looked around, searching for somewhere to sit and wait for my mom. After a moment I spotted a tree and some grass over to my left. I sauntered over, feeling kind of lonely now. I threw my stuff down on the ground and whipped out my phone. I sent a text to my mom asking where she was, and she quickly replied saying she was going to be here in “about 30 minutes.” Knowing my mom and her estimating skills, it was probably more like an hour. Great, I would have to spend another hour here.

     Trying to keep myself busy, I took out my binder and started sketching on a scratch piece of paper. I decided I would draw a horse, and started off with the outline. I penciled a large oval, trying to get it just right to look like the body of a horse.

     Ever since I was little, I've been really into drawing. It's been sort of like an outlet for me, so whenever I feel sad or mad, I go and draw. Some of my friends in middle school told me I had real talent, and I would be some famous artist one day. Over the summer I got lazy because my best friend was moving to Iowa, so I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her before she moved. But now that I'm in high school, I've decided that I would take drawing seriously, and try to do it more often. If it makes me happy and I'm good at it, why shouldn’t I do it? Right?

     When I finished the head on the horse, I paused for a moment and looked behind me. Mostly everybody was gone. There were only a few small groups of people left sitting on the steps in front of the office. Have I really been sitting here for that long? I pushed a button on my phone and read the time. It had been 40 minutes already. Wow time flies by fast when you're drawing.

     I turned my attention back to my drawing when I heard leaves crunching behind me. Without hesitation I looked back to see what it was.

     “Hi there,” a girl said.

     She was about my height--pretty short—and had beautiful golden brown hair. Her hazel eyes glistened in the sun and she spoke with what sounded like a speech impediment. She wore a furry jacket with cropped jeans and some sneakers, and carried a small bag on her shoulder.

     “I’m sorry if it’s weird that I came over here, cause I don’t know you. But I saw you sitting here by yourself and you looked pretty lonely so I just thought I would come say hi,” she said smiling. She had braces, but they looked surprisingly good on her.

     “Oh, no it’s fine,” I said smiling back. I looked at her for a moment before talking again. “Hey aren’t you in my English class with Mrs. Frank?”

     “Yup, that’s me!” she laughed, “She put me right next to you.”

     “Yeah I thought you looked familiar,” I mumbled.

     “Uh, do you mind if I sit?” she asked pointing to the spot in the grass in front of me.

     “Oh of course not, go ahead,” I said as I pulled my stuff closer to me so she could sit there.

     “So what’s your name?” she asked me with a bubbly voice.

     “I’m Alley,” I said, automatically sticking out my hand.

     “Hi Alley, I’m Alana,” she shook my hand with a friendly smile.

     “Nice to meet you Alana.”

     “Whoa, did you draw that?” she asked, pointing to my binder where I was drawing the horse.

     “Uh, yeah actually, I did.”

     “Can I see them?” she asked looking extremely interested.

     I nodded and handed her my binder so she could see what I was drawing. I usually was too self-conscious to let anyone else see my drawings but she seemed like a pretty nice girl.

     “These are really cool!” she exclaimed.

     “Well thank you,” I said, relief flooding through me. I thought she wouldn’t like them, but I’m glad she does.

     The wind picked up and blew strong in our direction. Both of our hairs flew wildly. I held my jacket closer to my skin in an effort to escape the sharp coldness of it. After it passed, I looked up at Alana to find her laughing uncontrollably. She rolled over on her back and laughed until she was crying. When she was done, she sat back up and stared at me with a huge smile.

     “I’m sorry,” she said laughing again, “I just love the wind.”

     “Oh it’s OK,” I said, laughing too.

     I heard a honk to my right and when I turned around I noticed my mom’s car was waiting for me in the drop-off circle.

     “Oh, hey I have to go,” I said putting my stuff away.

     “OK,” she said smiling, “I’ll see you tomorrow in English! Bye!”

     She walked away towards the library so I assumed she had to stay a little while more after school. At least I think it was the library…

     I shoved everything back into my backpack and hopped up off the grass. After shaking any excess grass stuck to the back of my pants, I skipped over to my mom’s car and hopped in.

     “Hey, sweetie!” she exclaimed, “How was your first day? I see you’ve already met a new friend?” She smiled widely.

     “Today was great. It was definitely interesting. And yeah that girl you saw was in my English class; she came over to say hi while I as waiting for you,” I said excitedly.

     “Well I’m glad your first day went well,” she said happily, “Now let’s go home and celebrate with a nice dinner!”