A thousand words

First glance

Chapter 1

How do you approach someone you've known for seven years who seems to have no idea who you are?

"Hi, I'm Audrey," followed by an awkward pause. "We went to the same primary school," another pause, met with a blank stare from a gorgeous guy as if he's never seen me before.

Absolutely fantastic.

It wasn't my fault; I blame Ellie, who claims to be my best friend, yet she's the one who wrecked my life. She coerced me into an all-nighter, binge-watching her favorite show—The Big Bang Theory. Admittedly, I had agreed to watch it, but I had been dodging it for years. Any other night would have been fine, except it was my first day at the school newspaper. I needed to be sharp and ready to kickstart my journalism career. My life was mapped out: contribute to the school paper, earn an English literature degree from Oxford, work at my uncle's thriving Carlste newspaper (any section but sports), and then, with that experience, move on to a more established publication. That was the plan for a peaceful demise; anything less was unthinkable. But thanks to Ellie's blackmail—my meticulously planned first day was a disaster. For a control freak like me, that was unacceptable.

My alarm clock jolted me awake, and I tumbled out of bed, ensnared in my sheets, before dragging myself to the bathroom. Staring at my reflection, I looked as ordinary as ever: brown hair, brown eyes, average height. Nothing remarkable. I'm not model-gorgeous like Hayley Dior from school, but then again, she's insufferable. Perhaps being adored turns you into a narcissist. After getting ready, I yelled goodbye to an empty house.

I began the long trek to El's house (a less than five minute walk round the corner)

She flung open the door with a look of exasperation on her face.

"Why do you always arrive almost 10 minutes early, Audrey? You know half the time I'm not ready!"

My best friend stepped outside, her uncontrollable curls pulled into a tight ponytail.

"Hey Ellie." I give her a half smirk. She hated the nickname because it reminded her of the elephant stuffed toy she used to have in her bedroom. It had these really creepy beady eyes that used to give her nightmares.

"Fine then, Drey. You wanna walk by yourself."

"I'm sorry Els." I replied whilst also rolling my eyes out of her lie of sight.

"Thank you." She huffed.

"So are you excited for the newspaper?" She asked as we arrived outside our all girls grammar secondary school. In other words hell or CGS, Carlste girls secondary school, girls at each other's throats tearing each other down all the time. That's why El and I keep to ourselves but what doesn't make it any better is that there's an all boys school directly across the road so the majority of the arguments are about boys, stupid, idiotic boys. Especially one in particular, Luke Archer yes he's attractive but not enough to get into cat fights about him it's just stupid, he's the captain of the football team, he's tall, has these bright blue eyes that look like the sky, brown fluffy hair you just wanna run your hand through, not to mention he is the son of a famous football coach/millionaire, who for some reason decided to settle in this small town. But of course like all gorgeous guys, he's arrogant, annoying and apparently gets through girls quicker than I eat cookie dough ice cream. Sadly he's not stupid otherwise I would be totally repulsed by him. What makes it even worse is that I went to primary school with him and of course had the biggest crush on him and if it could get any more ironic he knew additionally I bet, any amount of money, he doesn't remember me at all.

"Sure." I hurriedly told El after I realised I had been daydreaming about Luke. If El ever and I mean ever found out, she would tease me relentlessly. So my small, minuscule, now nonexistent crush on Luke Archer has been erased from history. Hopefully. Only one person knows and he's been sworn to secrecy. My other best friend and neighbour, Max, we've been best friends ever since I moved into the house next to him in y7, now 5 years later we're now as thick as thieves. Cliche I know. But the only reason I told him was, because to be honest he blackmailed me (for some reason it seems to be a common trait in my friends), he said he was gonna tell my mum that I had a crush on someone and he knew she would get it out of me, and she never stays quiet for long so probably the entire neighbourhood would find out so I thought it was better to tell Max, as he can keep a secret, sure he teases me about it all the time but I wouldn't be able to manage El's teasing.

"Audrey, earth to Audrey." El had started waving her hand in my face when I realised that we were still standing outside the school gate.

"Drey you've zoned out twice in the past five minutes, how are you gonna make it through the day?"

"I'm fine, but if anyone asks I'll just blame you."

"Nuh uh, it's your fault for not watching it sooner."

As we were about to walk into the gates I felt a hand tap my shoulder and came face to face with a very grumpy tall blonde dude, essentially a golden retriever in human form: Max.

"I thought we were walking together, Drey, you left me behind."

Oops I completely forgot now he probably won't talk to me for a day or two

"Sorry Max, I completely forgot."

"It's fine. Don't worry, just remember tomorrow."

I saw him look behind me at El, for some reason the two of them seem to absolutely hate each other. I've tried countless times for them to be civil but they just can't stand each other so I've given up.

El tugged my hand as Max walked across the street right up to a group of 'popular kids' by the gates. I guess he's made some new friends after joining the football team. As I pulled my gaze back to El, my eyes met a pair of bright blue eyes staring right at me. As I glanced to see the owner I realised who it was, ironically it was the person who I just zoned out thinking about. Luke. Even though I'd met his gaze he didn't look away, almost as if he was determined to get some kind of reaction out of me. But being the stubborn person I am, I refused to look away. I just kept staring into his eyes. Finally what seemed like a year one of his friends walked up to him not realising that he had walked into our stare down, luckily he glanced away but not before giving me a wink before conversing with his friend. Guess he hadn't forgotten about me or most likely he thought I was someone else

I turned round to El, realising she had seen the entire stare down, I blushed awkwardly as she pinned me down with a questioning glare.

"Whatever just happened there you better tell me Drey or I will skin you alive."

I knew for a fact she would keep to her promise. So I decided to tell the truth. Partly.

"El there's nothing really to tell, he probably thought I was someone else."

She narrowed her eyes not believing me for a second.

"Fine."She grumbled, annoyed that I wasn't telling her the truth.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me to our first lesson.

Hey guys so this is my first story thanks for reading x