What Lies Within

Chapter 1

          The bell rung and kids ran into class in high hopes of not being late. The bull rung as Leo walked into his class room looking around for an empty desk. He spots one in the back damage with cuts, writing on the surface and small drawings. Leo sighs and sits down in the seat quietly and then teacher walks then stands in the front of the white classroom with no posters, no designs, just white. She takes a black marker and writes her name upon the board.  The marker squeaks while the class remains silent, written on the board was Mrs.Lopez. Mrs.Lopez turns around and clears her throat then says in a loud clear voice "Hello students, welcome back from break and to those whom are new welcome to North Salinas High School," she pumps her fist in the air "Go Vikings!" there were murmurs in the class and no one looked happy nor entertained. She does a soft sigh then picks up a yellow board with a white sheet of paper and starts to call out names. "Jennifer Marie" A girl with light brown hair and skin raises her hand and Leo looks at her. Jennifer was wearing a white bracelet, a light blue top, black boots, and blue jeans. Mrs. Lopez speaks again "Conner Goodman" A boy raises his hand wearing a red baseball cap, orange jacket, blue jeans, and white Nike's. Leo drowns out the rest of the teachers speech and looks out the window. They sky was cloudy, typical weather for Salinas, California. He know it was cold out side but he didn't care. The teacher calls his name but he does not hear being lost in a train of thought till she yells his name "Leo Valdez!" At the sound Leo jumps and his class laughs. Feeling embarrassed he answers "Here." She nods and resumes taking role. Leo shrunk in his chair hiding in his black jacket with fur in the inside so that only his deep blues eyes can be seen. He had a black skull t-shirt on the inside, black jeans with a silver chain connected to his wallet in his back pocket, and he taps his black steel-toed boots that went half way up his calf. Mrs.Lopez was in a small black dress with red heels, in her ear was small ruby colored gems, she looked to be in her late twenties early thirties. She smiles and talks about what she did over break then had the kids do the same. When they shared they had to stand up so when Leo's turn came he got up slowly and takes a deep breath to calm his nerves "Hello, I'm Leo Valdez, What I did over summer was Going down to Fresno and spending time with my family then I went up to Sacramento to see my dad." Leo lived with his mother Jessica Smith, and every year he visited his dad Jose Valdez, they divorced when he was in fifth grade. He sat down and listen to everyone's break. They was movement out of the corner of his eye, he turns his head to see Jennifer looking at him every once in a while smiling. When she saw that he caught her, she turned red and turned around embarrassed. Leo chuckles to himself at how she acted and he knew he could at least make a friend here or maybe more than a friend. His friends went to different schools or lost connection with him, that of all things stung but did not bother him that much. Mrs.Lopez had everyone stand up to play a game, she said it was so everyone can know one another and to get in pairs. Leo stood there not wanting to do it but Jennifer walked up to him "U-um Leo? Would you want to be my partner?" Leo nods "Sure, why not?" She smiles with joy and claps her hands together. Leo looked around and saw angry stares at him for being her partner and Leo couldn't blame them for working with a beautiful girl. Their assignment was to get to know their partners and like that Jennifer turns to Leo and blurts out everything about her. He caught as much info as he could and what he got was she likes all animals but reptiles, her zodiac sign was Libra, he favorite color was lime green, her favorite food was angle cake and she likes to swim. Leo told her was was a Pisces, he liked red and black, he also likes to swim but at night, and he likes to eat pizza. They wait a few minutes before the teacher gets up "Okay class be quiet down, now then we shall share out loud one thing about our partner," she cans the room resting her eyes on Leo "Leo say one thing about your partner please." Leo clears his throat "Jennifer's Zodiac sign is Libra" The class does a small clap and then they move on to each student until there was none left. Leo looks at his phone, it was 09:06 am. Leo packs his things up into his bag and looks at the clock over the door. It ticks by slowly 'tick tock, tick tock' it seems like hours until finally the bell rings. The students all get up and leave, Leo the last to leave walks down toward his locker, number 193, not saying a word with his head phones in his hear listens to music.  He puts in his locker combo 12-23-43 and opens the locker. A boy from his class slams it closed smiling. "Well well you think your all that eh? new guy? Getting in a group with Jennifer, well let me tell you something. Back off, she's mine; saw her first." He shoves Leo then walks off laughing with his group of friends. With his head down Leo goes to his class and what happiness he had died with those words. Walking into his next class he sat down again in the back and some one sat next to him. he looks and it was her, Jennifer. She looks at him and smiles "Hey Leo, nice seeing you here." Leo says nothing looking down fearing what might happen if he talks to her "What's wrong?" he tells her what happens and her joyful face slowly starts turning into a face of anger "You poor thing, I'll talk to them and tell them to stop" Leo's head rises more fear spreads across his face "No! Please don't." She looks at him then nods slightly understanding how he fells. Her hand touches his and a little blush spreads across his face and she leans in close while no one was looking and plants a small kiss on his cheek. His face felt hot from the blush and he just looks at her, then they listen to the teacher and do the assignments. He goes through the day like a typical teenager, tired and bored. The final bell rings and Leo finds himself out of the class first and first on the bus. He sees Jennifer again and he flags her down, she smiles and sits next to him. The whole ride home they talk and laugh until the bus stops. they get off and walks home going the same way. Leo arrives at his house and inside he finds his mom talking with some one. He gets closer and sees it was no other than Erik, the boy who threaten him. They both turn and see his and his mom smiles "Welcome home Leo, your friend here wants to hang out with you. I told his that you can." Erik goes out side and waits, Leo starts to head out "Be safe Leo and have fun." his mom says as he leaves. Leo knew fun and safety was the last thing Erik would let him have.