The Shy Boy and the Girl in the Green Dress

Chapter One - The First Day

Chapter One – The First Day

I always liked first days of school because it meant I could see all of my friends again. I saw Vanessa and Daphnee and Alexander and the twins during the summer, but not every day of the week, like I would when school started again.

            Also, Mom had bought be a nice green dress for my first day, and I loved it. I loved it so much that it would probably make green my favourite color, and if I could have it my way, I’d wear it every day.

“Lexi! Are you in Miss Jefferson’s class?” Alex asked me the minute he got to me in the school yard.

When I met Alex, I thought he was really pretty and I kind of wanted him to be my boyfriend. Everyone talked about how having a boyfriend was the coolest thing, and if it was, then I wanted Alex to be mine. But Alex told me he didn’t want a girlfriend. He wanted a boyfriend too. And I kind of understood it because boyfriends were cool, and boys were really pretty.

So instead he became my best friend. I thought it was a fair trade.

I smiled hugely at my best friend. “Yes!”

At the same time, my two other best friends, Vanessa and Daphnee arrived. They were all in Miss Jefferson’s class too, so things could have hardly gone better. Last year Daphnee hadn’t been in our class so I had to tell her all about our day during the bus ride back to our houses. I liked gossiping with her in the bus, but I would have preferred having her living the gossips in our class.

The twins joined our little group. Fred kept running around us and pulling Daph’s ponytail, so she started to run after him too to kick him in the shins, and we all laugh at this, but that’s when I saw a kid I had never seen before, walk alone in the school yard.

He had his head bent down, just staring at his feet. But that didn’t stop me from seeing his face, and even from a little afar I could see he was really pretty. I couldn’t help it, I just kept staring at him.

Vanessa nudged me, “What are you staring at?”

“There’s a new kid,” I told her, pointing to the boy.

“He’s cute!”

“Hey! I saw him first!” I told her frowning. “Finders, keepers.”

“He’s not a toy, he doesn’t belong to you,” my other best friend answered, laughing but I just kept frowning.

If Vanessa asked him to be his girlfriend he would probably say yes. He was new, and she was beautiful, with her blonde hair and her blue eyes and her pink dress. I didn’t want him to be her boyfriend.

I saw him first!

The bell rang telling us it was time to get in line and go inside the school. We followed Miss Jefferson into the class, and I almost jumped up and down when I saw the new boy following her too.

Miss Jefferson was really nice because she let us pick our own seats, so the second the new boy sat down, I went to the desk next to his.

“Lexi, sit beside me,” Alex yelled at me.

Before I could answer, Cameron, one of the twins, said, “No, no, she has to sit beside me.”

I ignored both of them because I sat beside Alex last year, and Cameron always sat beside his brother.

I could see that the new boy heard what the other boys said, and I wanted him to know why I sat beside him, beside the fact that I didn’t want him to be Vanessa’s boyfriend. “They would all annoy me, and I think you need company more,” I told him, and smiled, my most heart-warming smile, so he’d know I was sincere.

But then he just looked alarmed, blinked fast, nodded quickly and stared at his desk.

I frowned, looking at mine.

What had I done wrong? Would he have rather sat beside Vanessa? This was unfair. I was just trying to be nice and he wasn’t even talking with me.

I ignored him for the rest of the class, aside from when Miss Jefferson asked him to introduce himself in front of the class. He didn’t speak loud enough, but he had a funny accent when I did hear. He talked like the people in my Mom’s TV British shows. I kinda like it.

And he said his name was Blake. He mumbled it a little too, so I almost didn’t even hear it.

When it was recess time, I complained to Daphnee.

“I talked with him and he didn’t even say a word to me!”

Alex was pushing Vanessa on the swing and Daph and I were playing hopscotch.

“You don’t know, maybe he’s shy?” Daph told me.

“Why would he be shy? He’s so pretty. Aren’t pretty people always sociable?”

Daph laughed at me. “They don’t have to.”

I hadn’t thought about him being shy because I knew everyone here and everyone talked with everyone. I just figured he was snobbing me.

Maybe he really was shy.

The only way to know was to ask.

“Hey, where are you going?” Daphnee asked me, while I started to walk away

“I’m going to ask him!” I shouted back.

The new boy was easy to spot, he was sitting alone again the school, reading a book.

He looked lonely. And sad. I didn’t like that.

He was so engrossed with his book that he didn’t see me coming. “Are you shy?” I asked him, when I was standing right beside him.

He looked really surprised. And a little nervous. And more sad again. “No, I’m Blake,” he mumbled.

I smiled. “No, I know your name, I meant, I’m asking you if you’re shy.”

He looked around worriedly, like Tyler’s bunny used to do. Dad said it was because it was nervous and scared. Blake was probably nervous and scared too. I didn’t really understand why though because he wasn’t a bunny trapped in a cage. “I don’t know… I’m new and I don’t know anyone,” he answered me.

Daph was so right. He was shy. And that did it. I sat beside him, and smiled kindly again. “Well, I’m Lexi. Now you know someone.”