blind-sided

chapter one

Jamie Thompson walked up to Collins and I with his ridiculous smile that made my heart pound. The two suddenly hugged, slapping each other's backs, expressing how obvious it was that they knew one another. They started to talk about random things, due to the fact that I wasn't exactly paying attention anymore. Starting to make my way back to the entrance, Collins stopped me. He reached out and tugged on my jacket, pulling my attention back to them.

"Oh, um, Jamie, this is..." Collins pointed at me and arched his eyebrows. It took me a while to get what he was trying to say. I opened my mouth to speak but Jamie spoke up instead, "Finnley."

I was frozen in place. He remembered me? After all those years of not talking to me or even noticing me, he still knew my name?

"McGowan," I stated my last name and made quick eye contact with Jamie. It was weird to hear him say it, but I guess it was nice that he still knew it.

"Well, Finnley was going to show me to the main office, but now that I've found you, maybe you could take me instead?" Collins turned to talk to Jamie and I bit my lower lip, now seeing that I wasn't needed anymore. I left the two to catch up and walked up the steps to the school. So much for making a new friend.

I sighed and opened the heavy doors, ready to start the school day with the same old boring eight hour routine of classes that I didn't care about. I just hoped that Monica, my best friend, would be here today. She was recently out of school for being sick with the flu. She's been gone for quite some time, but today she told me she'd be back. If Monica was here, I could tell her all about my exciting morning and how Jamie talked to me. She'd flip at the news of that. Monica had always told me to just take my chance and tell Jamie how I felt, but it just wasn't that easy. It's true that you never forget your first kiss, but I hadn't been able to stop thinking about the boy who took my first kiss away. I knew it was cheesy, I knew, but a boy who looked like that wasn't exactly easy to get over.

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"By the grace of God!" I exclaimed as I spotted Monica making her way over to me in the commons. I hadn't seen her in so long! I wanted to visit her while she was gone, but she insisted that I stay away, because she didn't want me to get sick too.

I threw my hands around her and squeezed her tightly, swaying back and forth. I didn't think it was possible that Monica could hug me back even harder, but it was. "Monica...I can't...breathe," I sputtered out and she quickly let me go.

"Sorry Finnley!" She apologized and laughed a little, her smile beaming like the warm sunshine.

Monica was by far the most beautiful person I had ever met. She was naturally beautiful. She never wore makeup, her skin was clear, and she just had this smile that could lighten up the whole room. Her curly hair was always voluminous, styled just right, every ringlet framing her face like it was professionally done.

"So what did I miss?" She nudged my shoulder and raised her eyebrows.

"Well, you have two projects to make up."

Monica groaned and let her face fall into a pout. She hated making up projects and I felt bad that she had two of them.

The teachers here at West High were understanding and Monica was able to do most of her homework at home, but it was those darn projects she would need to make up. That was going to be hard for her.

"So, anything interesting happen while I was gone?" She asked.

I was silent for a while as I decided whether or not I should tell her what happened this morning. I bit my lip and slowly shook my head no, but Monica caught my lie.