The Girl Who Saved Him

"But I don't want to go!" screamed Thomas.

"Tommy, it isn't a choice. You're going. Now go get your coat, and put your shoes on." His mom just wasn't having it. Thomas stormed away to go grab his coat, and she heard him hit a wall on his way upstairs to his room. Poor Riley. Riley, Thomas's mother, had always had trouble with Thomas, and he had always had trouble with his social skills. When it came to the point of the school year starting up, he had seemed better, and had even made a couple of friends. As soon as one of his friends stopped talking to him though, he had had a really tough time at school. He always came home unhappy, and would never say anything good about school. Riley had contacted the administration to get his classes changed, thinking there might be bullies in Thomas's class, but there wasn't, and it just ended up making Thomas upset and angry with her.

Thomas finally came back downstairs, and Riley followed him out the door. Whilst getting into the car, Thomas began crying, saying he hated school, but Riley just rolled her eyes and closed his door. Soon enough he quit crying, and they were to the school parking lot. "Is Madi going to be in there today? She wasn't here yesterday." Thomas asked. Madi was his sister, but she was always driven to school early by one of her friends so they could stop and get coffee before the start of the day. Plus, she was on NHS (National Honors Society) so they had to be early for that anyways.

"Yes, she'll be here today. Yesterday she and her friend had an all day thing for NHS. If anything goes wrong, just go find Madison, alright Tommy? Or you can always just call me," He nodded his head and climbed out of the car. Riley watched as he walked into the high school, with all of the other kids. Oh, how she wished that today he would finally be accepted. But wasn't that what she wished every day?

Thomas walked into the school with his head down, the same way he'd been doing it since the beginning of the year. "Hey, Thomas!" He heard his name called from behind him and swiveled around, to see Brian headed towards him. Brian was one of Thomas's only friends, and Thomas was thankful to see him.

"Hey Brian, what's up, man?" Thomas began to walk with Brian, and thought that maybe his day wouldn't be that bad after all. They began talking to one another until they reached Brian's locker, and Thomas had to keep walking to get to his.

As Thomas was walking to his locker, a girl bumped into him, causing him to drop his folder, and papers flew everywhere. He just sighed, and crouched down against the cold linoleum floor, picking them up one at a time. "Oops! I'm so sorry!" The girl crouched down too, and started picking up the papers. Luckily they were in a less populated hallway, so none of the papers had been stepped on by clumsy students who thought they were late to first hour. She handed him all of the papers that she had collected when there were no more on the floor, and her face looked so concerned that Thomas knew she really was sorry. "Thanks," he gave her a small smile, and stood up. "Cassy, hurry up, we'll be late," Her impatient friend whined.

"OK Alex, I'm coming." She got up to leave, but looked back at Thomas with the most beautiful smile on her face. Her brown shiny curls flung back into place when she looked to her friend and they headed off down the hallway. Thomas, quickly realizing he was going to be late, sprinted to his locker, only hoping he would get to first hour on time.

That day at lunch, Thomas was sitting next to Brian. "I'm telling you man, today had been one of the greatest days I've ever experienced in high school,"

"All because of a girl?" Brian looked at him critically.

"Yeah, I guess. She just seemed so nice. I wonder if she'd ever really talk to me. Like, talk talk. Not just because she had to, or because it's courtesy." Thomas looked to Brian. "You know what I mean?" Brian just shook his head.