With a Splash and a Note

The First Note

I sighed loudly, already annoyed with school and the first bell hadn’t even rung. We were in advisory, getting the standard first day of school instructions and being assigned lockers. I tuned the teacher out as she rambled on about the hall pass policy. Seeing as this was my fourth talk of the kind, I almost had it memorized. Finally, she stopped talking and started handing out locks for our new lockers.

“Celia Montley?” the teacher called out, and I jumped up, eager to get to my lock and be allowed into the hallway. I walked quickly down the hall, ignoring the sporadic sprinkling of other kids as they opened their own lockers. Unfortunately, none of my friends were in my advisory, so I texted my best friend Thea to meet me at my new locker as soon as she got hers. I scanned the locker numbers for my own,’59, 60, 61, 62!’ I thought, seeing my locker number. I opened it and inspected the walls and floor carefully. When everything appeared to check out, I shut the door and snapped the lock on it, twirling the tumbler carefully.

 Leaning against my locker, I observed the hall. A few feet away was a small group of “popular” kids, who were loud and obnoxious. All except for Jared, who played on the hockey team and apparently was really good. I’d only been to a few games, and didn’t know much about the sport to begin with. He was actually a nice guy. We had been lab partners in chemistry sophomore year. Since then, though, we had barely exchanged a word or two.

Just as I was about to turn away and text Thea again, Jared looked over at me and smiled for a moment before one of his friends grabbed his arm and his attention. I immediately turned to face the other side of the hallway and waited for Thea.

“Lia! Our lockers are in the same hallway!” Thea’s excited voice called out. I turned to greet her and subconsciously looked for Jared. His group was still there, but he wasn’t looking at me anymore.

“Really, that’s awesome,” I replied, grinning at my best friend.

“Is everything okay?” Thea asked as she got closer to me.

“Yep, everything’s fine,” I mumbled, before opening my locker as a shield between us. I held it open for a minute before shutting and locking it again. “Where’s yours?”

“Right down here,” she answered and led me closer to Jared’s group. I blushed when they looked over at us, but kept talking to Thea.

“How was advisory?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’d think we were freshmen, instead of seniors, by the way they talk to us.”

“I know,” I agreed, “but just think, we’re almost done. This is the last year!”

She smiled and nodded. We passed by Jared’s group and I snuck a glance at him, and seeing that his attention was focused on a friend of his, took a moment to study him. He was really attractive; he was tall, a little over six feet and had dark, curly hair and green eyes. Thea and I rounded the corner and Thea stopped walking, put a hand on her hip, and asked, “Lia, do you still like him?”

“I don’t know. I think so,” I said softly.

 “It’s been like, two years since you’ve met him. Why not go talk to him?”

I pulled on her arm to get her to keep walking, not wanting anyone to overhear us. “It isn’t that easy for me, you know that. Especially not since he has a girlfriend.”

“That isn’t true, they broke up over the summer,” Thea countered. 

 “Wait, he broke up with Carrie?” I asked.

“Yeah, and it was at the beginning of summer, so when you two start dating, it won’t be a rebound relationship!” she chirped, smirking at me.