Forever

Chapter 1

I hear the bell ring - class is over. I walk over to the lounge area during my break. I find the smallest chair in the room and sit down just silently thinking to myself. Alone, peaceful yet in a way a little confused.

"Hey Valentina"

I hear from the other side of the hall. I see my best friend, Amber walk towards me.

"You look kind of upset. Are you okay?" She asks me.

I know I need to look up just to be nice. My head raises up slowly as I sigh and begin to tell her that I'm fine.

"Uh.. yeah right, Valentina. I know you too well! You can't fool me anymore, I know you're not okay. What's going on?"

I take a breath and figure that by this point I have no choice but to admit the fact that I'm not totally okay.

"Ok. Fine" I tell her. "It's just that I'm.. well I'm not upset or angry." I tell her. I can't exactly put it into words so it's nearly impossible to satisfy her. I finally come to a conclusion. "I guess I'm just confused" The same screeching old bell rings again. In all annoyance, Amber stands still and asks if I would tell her during our lunch period. I agree and head off to my history class.

I walk into the room still constantly thinking about all things life.

School is just such a big distraction to life. I can't focus on anything! From school to friends I just can't concentrate on the little things that I actually care about. With all the hundreds of thoughts going on inside my mind I barely notice the faint voices around the room. I eventually come back to reality and become aware of what's happening. Still in the same boring history class with Ms. Brickely - my least favorite teacher in all the 16 years of my life.

"Valentina, you've been silent the entire class - why don't you take a shot at this question?"

Ms. Brickely says loud enough to get myself out of my head.

"Umm..." I really don't know what to say. "Could you repeat the question please? I'm not sure I understand."

Ms. Brickely crosses her arms and raises her eyebrows - 2 things every worst teacher does.

"You need to work on your active listening, Valentina. Now why don't you call on someone to help you out?"

I ask a boy named Vance at the desk next to me to answer as I leave the room to get a drink of water. Casually walking to the water fountain, and of course-out comes Ms. Brickely.

"Vance is helping you and I expect you to pay close attention so get back at your desk and be respectful to your peers." Ms. Brickely says at me in an awful harsh voice.

As vague as I can I roll my eyes and continue drinking anyway before I let myself know that I'm better off just listening and getting this over with.

Eventually history is over. Like I said, eventually. I'm happier now than ever to finally go down to the third floor and get some lunch. About halfway down I notice Amber running down the stairs, out of breath and trying to get her feet to move faster and catch up with me. I stop and wait for her. Once she gets to me she says in her voice that is almost not even understandable, she's breathing so hard,

"Valentina!!! Finally! Now will you tell me what's going on?"

After all my usual stalling, we end up already at the third floor and in line for the hot-food. I can see it in her eyes that she secretly wants to murder me for stalling so long. I know it's about time so I take a breath in to start finally telling her the truth. That is until I see a tall boy - 11th grader walking to get something at the salad bar. All his friends are trying to get to him. - He's pretty much the most popular kid in school. He's not the kind of popular kid who every girl is in love with though.

I find myself tracing his every step.

"Um why are you constantly staring at that guy over there?" Amber asks me. I guess I've made things too obvious.

"His name is Zac. He's an 11th grader." I say in a rather softer voice than usual.

I feel Amber wrap her arm around me although I'm not exactly sure since my eyes stuck on Zac the entire time.

"Now I see" She says to me. "You like him!"

That was the only thing that could get me to snap out of it. The fact that she basically yelled that for the entire high school to hear makes me want to barf. I slap her arm a little harder than intended but it got her to get off of me so I guess it was worth it. I look around hoping to see nobody in our grade. All 9th graders who don't care about anything. I'm safe.

"If there were other people here I would've killed you, Amber!"

Slightly tilting her head she says to me,

"Yeah well knowing you you aren't kidding when you say that."

I nod to her in suspense trying not to smile since I can't get Zac out of my head. Focusing right back onto Zac, I'm feeling soft inside and quietly say to Amber,

"I love him."

Hey guys!

I really hope you enjoyed chapter 1 and I can't wait for you to find out what's going to happen next. Thanks so much for reading!

-Autumn