Tennis Court. Charlie Bushnell

Almost Ran Me Over

My keys made a brassy noise in my backpack, so I had to stop in the middle of the hallway. I shoved them in the front pocket of my jeans and kept making my way out.

Not out of school, of course, it was only nine in the morning.

From nine to ten, math class. Wasn't exactly in my plans. I could pass the year cheating in the tests and done, the school didn't care much about it anyway.

My right shoulder hit another person's, a guy's. A tall, brunette guy's shoulder, he was carrying a sculptured bust and apologized while walking away quickly.

That's my luck. I go to an artistic high school. We have painting and sculpture classes. Drama class is a mandatory subject, we take it every day.

It was my favorite. I knew every class I took I was closer to becoming a well-respected actor, and that's all I wanted to do. And the productions were way more fun than a regular school's, there were five different productions every year, and you got to choose which one you wanted to be a part of. Students from fourteen to eighteen all worked together to make it come to life.

But it was still the first week of class, they had just announced the pieces we could pick, we were meant to audition the next week. In the first two weeks of class, drama consisted in icebreakers and improv with people in your own grade.

I made my way through the crowd of teenagers and into the school fields. And outside scenario where the football field used to be, and behind some weeds and some trees, the tennis court.

I found out it was always empty from nine to ten, a class of freshmen trained at eight and a class of sophomores at ten. Until then, it was all mine, and sometimes if you're lucky, they even forget a ball that you can kill your time with.

Nicotine and twitter were truly my saviors during this empty time, watching silly cats and inhaling smoke for 50 minutes straight.

"Can I sit?"

I jumped and held my chest "Holy fucking shit! Make a noise next time, will you?"

He laughed and I looked up. "You're the guy that almost ran me over earlier!" I laughed, too.

"I may be" He said

"What are you doing here? Did you follow me?"

"Sorta..." He tried not to sound too creepy, I noticed "I've just been noticing you always take the opposite way at this time... And I've got a free period, so I figured I'd find out why." He explained himself.

"It's quiet here" I shrugged

"Yeah, I can tell" he laughed "Free period, too?"

"Nope. I just don't like math" I let out flatly.

"Fair enough" He said, and looked like he was hesitating to say something else. Then he spat it out. "Have I met you before?"

"No, I don't think so..."

"You're new?"

"No... I've been going here since I was fourteen."

"How can we possibly not know each other? This school is not even that big!" He said "And your face..." He licked his lips "It rings a bell, y'know?"

I laughed "I don't know... Maybe we've been in a play together? What year are you?"

"I'm a senior, you?"

"I'm a junior. Have you been in... I don't know, Grease?"

"Yeah! Last year!"

"Mhm, I was Sandy two years ago"

"That's it! Ms. Lee wouldn't stop playing clips from your performance, last year! I think you traumatized her, she said she had never seen a better Sandy."

"Thats probably because I'd make her coffee" I laughed it off.

"What caught you eye, this year?"

"Mhm, I don't know. I've always loved Heathers, so maybe that. But I don't think I have the range for that... But I'll probably do West Side Story, be a minor character, 'cause if I'm part of Heathers I wanna be Veronica, my name, by the way, and lots of girls want to."

"Right! Ronnie, wasn't it?"

"Exactly"

"I'm Charlie"

"Tell me Charlie, what do you wanna do this year?"

"I was thinking Heathers, too. Maybe Perks."

"I did Perks Of Being a Wallflower last year, it was amazing!"

"I think you should try for Veronica" He said "I've heard you, I think you would give her a nice twist"

I laughed and rolled my eyes "I don't know, maybe I will"

"I really think you should" He said, again

"Okay" I giggled

"Really" He put a hand on my shoulder.

"Okay! Yeah I get it!" I laughed

The rest of the day was pretty calm, I didn't tell my friends about my encounter with a cute boy in the tennis court. I always had a thing for keeping this kind of stuff to myself. It made it more interesting.