Sparks

Chapter 2

I glanced to both sides of the driveway as the car slowly, but surely, crept down the driveway, when something caught my eye. I noticed someone coming out of the house next to ours on the right. The previous owners, who I had known only by sight, had moved out at the beginning of summer and only a couple weeks ago did we notice moving vans being unloaded. Mom and dad had gone over to say hi while I was...well... I had chosen to continue my antisocial spree during summer and remain in the confines of my room. They had given the usual encouragement, about how they were nice people, I should offer to mow their lawn, blah, blah, blah. Two weeks before school starts is the time to cram as much fun in as possible before the Gulags open their doors again. Why should I care about who these new neighbours are?

The answer was currently walking down their driveway. If their was an angel on Earth, this is as close as I can come to describing her.

"My lord..." I muttered under my breath. Luckily, Scott and Sara were to preoccupied with whispering to each other to even notice that I had stopped the car and was staring across the street. Just imagine a girl. Except everything about her is perfect. Her arms, poking out from her short-sleeved jacket that covered her t-shirt, were perfect. Her legs, encased in jeans that hugged her curves, very flatteringly, were perfect. Her. face...well...EVERYTHING about that was perfect. It was as if it had been shaped to be an angular as possible, and then someone took the softening tool from photoshop and eased out all the angles. Her lips were full, and rose-coloured and just slightly parted, in the prettiest way possible. But what REALLY stood out to me, was her hair. It appeared to be dirty-blonde in colour, bleached by the sun, and around shoulder blade length. It hung down, in beautiful, wavy locks and I couldn't help but feel my eyes get even bigger as each passing second went on...she was PERFECT. I know I'm saying that a lot, but there's simply no other way to describe her.

I felt a jab at the back of my head. "Are we going or what?" Scott barked. (Shoot, they finally noticed) I gave him a dirty look. Scott gave me an irritated look in response, however Sara was looking at the neighbor girl as well, then looked back at me. Did she give me a smirk? I couldn't tell and a moment later they were back murmuring away, under their breath.

I finally pulled out of the driveway completely and turned onto the road. I would have to pass the neighbor's house, and the girl, to get to school. She was walking along the side of the road, one hand holding the strap of her backpack, the other was hitching up her jeans. Offer her a ride, a little voice in my head said. It's polite. You shouldn't make her walk to school. It was a good idea. I really wanted to get to know her! What better way to do that, than by becoming the hero that saves her from having to walk to school? I could give her a ride home as well, help her with homework—oh please, let her be in classes—and study late, and maybe even suggest going to a movie...

I drove right on past without stopping. I looked in the rear view mirror. She glanced up once, then back down at the sidewalk. I felt like a total jerk. The worst feeling I've had all morning. Worse than school.

But the worst of all, I was a coward.

Nothing gets your gag reflex going as well as pulling into the parking lot of your high school on the first day of the school year. We got there early enough but plenty of other people seemed to share our idea that there was no fighting the inevitable and had filled up most of the spaces. We had to park near the back, Scott and Sara complaining the whole way about how far it was to walk and couldn't we have left earlier and what kind of ride was I?

As I parked the car, I spun around and gave them a look that, if it could kill, would have roasted them. "If you don't like my driving then you can just walk from now on, Jack and Jill."

Oh, that did it. The quickest way to tick off the twins was to reference that Adam Sandler movie. Did you see that? God, it was awful! But ever since seeing it, all I have to do is draw the comparison and my dear siblings will be boiling with rage.