Never Knew I Needed

Chapter 1

June 9, 2008

First day of class, and I'm in grade 3, I'm almost in high school, just 3 more years.

Anxiety creeps over me while I'm still in bed, and it has not let me sleep. I don't know if I'm excited or scared of school. Excited, because, old friends, new friends, new knowledge etc. Scared, because, failing grade, not to be able to cope with others etc.

Ugh, I need to clear my mind! Why am I worrying, anyway?

As I was about to close my eyes, my alarm keeps on beeping. Damn, 5:30am already? I don't even know if i slept or just closed my eyes.

"Xyrine!" my mother calls from downstairs to make sure I'm awake.

"I'm coming!" I shout back.

Pressing my alarm to stop, I finally jump out of bed and organize it. I brush my hair to get rid of tangles due to sleeping, did I even sleep?

Running down the stairs to quickly eat my breakfast and not let mom shout once more, because she can be really impatient.

"So, are you ready for school?" she excitedly ask.

"I don't even know if I slept of just closed my eyes" i said while face palming my self.

"Maybe you're just excited for school"

"I don't know" I thought. I ate a spoonful of cereal and finished my milk. Quickly, I went to the bathroom to bathe myself. I always look at the mirror, I comb my black straight hair before wetting it to somehow not get tangled while I shampoo it. I remove the dirt in my eyes and now can see my hazel brown eyes.

I wrap the clean towel around me and head upstairs. I wore my ironed uniform and comb my hair. I packed my stuffs for school and headed downstairs.

"Mom, I'm gonna go now!"

"Okay, see you soon!"

I really don't need my mom to take me to school, because it's only a walking distance.

I wave hello to the guard and greeted him good morning, he was having his usual brewed coffee. I look at the clock and it's already 6:40am, 20 minutes more 'til classes starts.

As I walk, I notice a boy, he was covering his face and he was shaking. I think he's crying. I walk to him to maybe ask why he's crying.

"Uh, hey?" I said to the boy, he lift his head, and now he's looking at me. I don't know him really, I think he's new here? He has green eyes, his hair is a blonde brown, and his skin is fair. He is new here. Actually, I've been studying here in Don Bosco School since first grade.

"What?" he rudely asks, I can see he has teary eyes.

"I was wondering if you're okay? And I noticed you are new here" I answer him with a smile.

"What's it to you?" ouch.

I was concerned and polite here, hello? I thought. Maybe he doesn't want to be bothered.

"Are the gone?" he looks around, but I don't see anything that he should be afraid of.

"What is gone?" I raise my eyebrow because of confusion.

"Nothing, it's not like your going to believe me or something" he said as he was swiping his tears with his cream colored towel.

"Okay, I'm not going to push you to tell me, but if you need someone, I'll be here" I said while smiling, even though he was rude, I hate rude people, like, who are you to speak to me that way? You're not my mother, you don't feed me, I don't have this debt of gratitude to you, so why be rude?

Anyways, I turned and walk away from him. As I walk, I remembered that today is the first day! Oh god, the one thing that students hate the most!

Introduce yourself..

You've got to be kidding me. I haven't practice my intro! I hate this. I have this stage fright or fear of public speaking, simply because, first, I hate the attention of people, second, I hate judgements, third, my body tends to shake whenever I'm standing in front.

"AAAAHHHHH!!!"

I turn around to see that green-eyed boy was really scared, I can see that he is really shaking. I ran to him to grab his shoulders, and out of nowhere, he hugged me. I feel heat through my cheeks as my eyes widen.

This boy has problems, first he was rude, now he's scared like a puppy hearing thunder.

"Uh, can you unwrap your arms?" but he holds tighter.

"Are they gone?" he ask again.

"Who is gone?" i ask with more irritating tone, I being redundant.

He looks around once more to check, then he finally unwraps his arm.

"I'm sorry, it's just.." he's face is flushed due to embarrassment.

"it's okay, you don't have to" as usual the understanding me.

"Let's just go to class, we have like.." as I check the time, oh god, "we have like less than 5 minutes!"

I stand and grab his hand to run to class with him. I can't be late, no, no, no. Mom's gonna kill me!!

"What class are you in?" i ask even though I'm out of breath.

"Class GR3-103"

"Well, I'm in Class GR3-101" we have only three sections in grade 3, 101, 102 and 103.

His class is only 2 doors away from mine, perfect, I don't have to show him where his room is.

As we arrive I point the room he should be in, and I wave goodbye to him and I enter my room

"Well, Ms. Galoyo, since you're the last one to enter my class, you should introduce yourself first"

I feel blood draining out of my body, I feel sweat through my hands, damn it. I tighten my grip to my bag so that people won't see I'm shaking.

"Uh, hi, good morning. My name is Kathriaxyrine Galoyo, I'm 8 years old, I was born and raised here in Manila, I'm a Filipino, and uh.." I feel shiver through my body and I was surprised when my teacher talked.

"The is nothing for you to be nervous about, you've been with a lot of these faces, some are new, why be nervous?"

Because I don't like to introduce myself, I completely hate public speaking, I don't want to humiliate myself in front of a crowd, i dont..

"I'm sorry ma'am," fighting my inner thoughts.

"So I was saying, I like to read, and reading is escaping reality, it is likely living in someone's world, but i'm not saying that my life is boring," catching my breath "well, I think that's all."

I grin and walk to my seat, I took a deep breath then exhaled. If it wasn't for that green-eyed boy, ugh, this is his fault.