A Love Like Ours

~ The First Day ~

    “Well she was kind of hot though, maybe you should ask her out?” “No, no, no, I can’t do that kind of stuff, we barely know each other!” Conversations were echoing through the halls. It was getting loud, almost unbearably loud. As the noise died down the bell went off and announcements began a few minutes afterwards. “Now for a moment of silence… Thank you, you may be seated.” Class started and the sun had yet to show itself, it was 7 in the morning and most students grew dreary or sluggish. 

    “Now, today we have a student transferring here, it isn’t too late into the year but if he ever needs any help with things we’ve learned be sure to assist him. You may come in.” Eli, a scrawny black haired student, walked into the room, he looked chipper and a bright smile was plastered on his face. “Hey! Nice to meet you all, the name is Eli. I’m transferring here from the next town over, glad to be here” he said with his smile still beaming. “Alright, you may be seated. There are a few open seats, one near the window, one near the chalkboard, and one near the back. Choose what you'd like and it’ll be permanent.” 

    Eli scanned the room, he looked at the window seat which had 3 other students surrounding it, those said students seemed to be relatively irritated at the moment. Next was the one near the chalkboard, he knew he wouldn't sit there because he'd get caught eating easier which is a huge deal for him. Lastly was the back of the room’s seat, there were two students surrounding the empty seat since it was in the corner, one of the students was leaning back in their chair and the other was writing in a notebook. Eli decided to go to the back of the class, it had a chiller environment and it was a corner seat which he preferred for no specific reason. 

    He stepped cheerfully with his textbooks in hand and his backpack on his back, he got to his seat and plopped down, setting his bag beside him. “Okay class, here is the plan for the next 40 minutes of class, we will be studying polynomials and radical expressions.” Eli got out his Algebra 2 notebook and his cute, baby blue pencil case. He took out his favorite go-to pencil and began to sketch whilst occasionally taking notes. 

    The school bell rang and it was time for Eli’s next class, it was an art class, more specifically it was painting. He turned to the student next to him, they had medium to long blonde hair and bluish green eyes. Eli couldn’t help but notice how long and pretty their eyelashes were and how perfectly shaped their face was. Focusing back to the task at hand, Eli asked them “Hey, do mind telling me where the painting class is? It’s room 124 and the teacher is Ms. Greer.” The blonde classmate turned his head a bit and he quietly said “Oh, painting is in Hall 3 and across the female restroom.” Eli gathered his books and pencil case to put them up, as he got up to leave he smiled. “Thanks so much, hope to see you around sometime.”

    Eli headed out of class and made his way towards Hall 3 which was one hallway away. It was loud again and students were everywhere, most were just at vending machines and hanging in groups which shouldn’t last much longer since their next class starts in 4 minutes. Once at his painting class Eli stepped up towards the teacher’s desk, “Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Eli and I’m new, do you have any specific seating you'd like me to go to?” She responded, “hello Eli good to see you, you may sit in seat 7 row 3.” Eli thanked her and sat at his desk, it was near the whiteboard and the drying rack. 

    The drying rack already had a few watercolor pieces, one of them was gorgeous and it had a purple and blue background with stars and planets all around the picture. “Students, time to settle down, the bell is about to ring.” Just as Ms. Greer said the bell rang and the school got quieter. 

    “We all did waterolor last week and now it's time to move onto acrylic painting. We’ll be working on 9 by 4 inch canvases and your due date is a week and a half away, so Wednesday the 12th. The criteria is that there has to be a background and you have to incorporate something natural such as plants, people, landscapes, anything that you know is naturally part of earth.” Immediately Eli started brainstorming as class continued. 

    Before he knew it class was almost up and he had a total of 4 semi-detailed sketches, the fourth one was the best so he finalized his decision to use that as his reference. As the class bell rang he began to hurry and put his stuff away, soon heading out the door. The rest of his classes went by faster and faster, he felt the time fall through his grasp and as he school day came to an end he made his way to his bus. 

   As he got onto his bus, bus 11, his driver said to him "Hey, you new? Go ahead and sit in any of the free seats with only one name and I'll make it your assigned seat." Eli nodded and walked past a few seats until he saw the pretty blonde boy from earlier. "Hey, uh would you mind if I sat with you? There isn't many other seats haha" the other boy looked up. 

  "Oh sure," he said and Eli sat down beside him, he began to ask "What's your name if I may ask?" "Oh it's uh Zane" he responded, Eli looked down and noticed that Zane was writing as the bus began to move. He looked at Zane, who seemed quite focused, and felt as though he was enchanted by his eyes and lips. His lips looked so perfect and so soft, his eyes looked so gently and focused. He realized what he was looking at and turned immediately, "what am I looking at…" he thought. After a few minutes the bus pulled into his stop and Eli got out.