I don't know when I started starring at her, it was unintentional at first. I only know that my mind enjoys staring at her, she's just so beautiful and unique. Her type of beauty isn't common around here, so that's maybe why I'm so overwhelmed by it.
Just the way her muscles move as she runs, or the way her raven hair whips behind her from the wind. Or the way her electric eyes avoid every glare thrown her way, like she's in her own world. She doesn't even care when they stare at her, she just shrugs everyone off as if it doesn't hurt her when somebody gossips about her.
I have no idea how she does that, it makes me a bit angry really. Of course I don't want her to feel sad about how people are treating her, it's just, I want to know how she just doesn't care. I've never had that quality, and I've become jealous of her because of that.
I've kept my distance from her in the last week since she's shown up, and not because of what all of my friends are telling me about staying away from her. I just want to prepare myself first, it just seems like I get too nervous to go and talk to her again. Usually I'm a confident person when it comes to talking to people I don't know very well, I try my best at being friendly with everyone.
Today though, I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to talk to her again and it's going to go wonderful. I just want to know more about her, I want to be her friend. Even if I don't really know the reason why, I just want to be. I don't want to be like the rest of the students here, who gossip about her and ignore her. I won't let myself be such an awful person.
I put the flag belt around my waist, making sure it's on right. Hannah walks with me towards our side of the football field, joining our team for capture the flag. Hannah continues talking about some drama with her on and off boyfriend Mike, myself only catching half of what she says.
I look over to the other side of the field, finding Lucy.
She rolls her shoulders a few times, stretching out a bit as everyone waits for the whistle to be blown to start the game. The girls on her team talk strategy, pretty much gathering in a circle away from her. This happens every P.E. class, no one really includes her very much. Even though she's possibly the most athletic girl in the whole class.
Mrs. Abbot blows the whistle, starting the game. I pull on my pony tail, tightening it before I start to walk cautiously towards the middle mark of the field that divides both teams. Everyone just walks slowly, no one brave enough to try and run to the other side to capture the ball.
I look back at Hannah, seeing her inspecting her nails, not even paying attention. I look back towards the other team, seeing that some of them are thinking about running. It's really pathetic actually, how no one is really trying yet. I suppose I shouldn't say that though, because I haven't done anything myself yet.
I see somebody out of the corner of my eye, starting to cross the line. I look and see Lucy slightly jogging onto our side, my teammates stand in the same places, too shocked to move. She has a bored look on her face as she continues to jog through my team, heading straight for our ball. No one even moves to try and grab one of her flags.
"Are you guys serious?" I sigh as I start to sprint towards her, everyone looks at me with skeptical looks. I run up in front of our ball, right before Lucy can reach down and grab it. She staggers back, looking me in the eye, a challenging smile appearing on her face.
"I'm not afraid of you Lucy." I can't help but smirk, catching my breath.
"Oh really?" She gives me a cocky smile, she and I starting to circling each other. Each step she takes, she's coming closer to me. My team gives me no help with an attempt at even grabbing one of her flags and getting her out.
"Yeah, really." I challenge back, I then make a quick move and jump forward with my hand outstretched to grab her flag. She moves back just in time, myself grabbing air.
"Nice try Faith." She smirks, right before she goes into a sprint towards the ball. I begin running towards her, but am too late as she grabs the ball swiftly. She starts running back towards her team's side of the field, I try to chase her, but she's just too fast. I stop when she passes the midfield mark, the whistle blowing as she scores for her team.
Her team looks at her, some of them slowly clapping awkwardly. Lucy drops the ball and turns around, a wide and cocky smirk on her face as her eyes meet mine. I smile as I take deep breaths, rolling my eyes playfully. I give her a thumbs up before walking back a bit towards my teammates.
I turn around and see all of my teammates eyes on me, no doubt confused on why I even tried to challenge Lucy. I look back to Mrs. Abbot, seeing her a bit shocked about what just happened as well. I bet she's never seen anyone just walk to the other team's side of the field, with no one attempting to go and take her flag.
I look back to my team, feeling a bit angered with them. They rather lose a game than even go near Lucy? How messed up is that?
"C'mon guys. Let's play, please stop standing around." I tell them while trying to still sound nice about it. They look at me and walk a bit forward as a way of giving in. Mrs. Abbot blows the whistle to start a new round, some of the girls on my team actually start to make an effort and run to the other side to try and retrieve the ball.
I stay back a lot and play defense, thinking it's more fun anyways. I don't see Lucy making any more attempts to try and cross to our side again, she guards the ball with another girl. It's actually a smart idea when my team is too scared to go near her, making the ball protected easily.
I smile as she takes only one step forward to scare off one of my teammates, thinking it's funny that she knows her advantages of frightening everyone.
I tell one of my teammates to take my place as I start to jog to the midfield. I take a few seconds standing still, waiting as some of her team gets distracted with other things. I check each player once more to make sure they're not watching me, before running across towards the ball. Lucy looks up immiedatly and sees me running towards her, the cocky smirk returning to her face.
I try to run around her, but she has me stumbling backwards on my feet as she lunges forward to try and grab my flag. I dodge her enough before trying again and finding my feet. I run towards the ball, reaching out for it, my fingertips lightly passing over it as I feel my flag ripped off.
I turn around and see Lucy standing there, holding out my belt of flags with one hand while the other sits on her hip. "You're brave Princess."
"I try." I shrug with a smile as I walk towards her, she hands me my flags back with the same smirk. I wrap the belt around me once again, readjusting it to fit around my waist.
I sit down where she pulled off my flag, knowing none of my teammates are brave enough to come tag me back into the game. I look up at Lucy who rolls her eyes playfully at me, she turns back around to continue to guard the ball. She has her hands on her waist as she watches for any attempts from my team.
"How'd you get so fast Mabelle?" I ask her, making her turn around and raise an eyebrow.
"Track team, been doing it since freshman year." She replies, walking back so that she's beside me, still looking out as a guard though.
"Impressive." I nod, feeling a lot less confused. "You do any other sports?"
"Basketball, and when I was younger, a bit of soccer." She smiles down at me, looking surprised my interest. Someday she won't be so confused on why i'm talking to her, she's going to know that I'm here for her. I'm determined to become her friend, and I don't care who thinks down at that.
"Wow. You must be a super athlete back at your old school." I smile up at her, which makes her chuckle modestly.
"Nah, I'm not that good. I just enjoy playing when I can." She replies looking amused by my words.
"So is this your favorite class then?" I wonder as I cross my legs in front of me, getting comfortable as I lean back on my hands.
"I don't know, maybe. It would be a lot more fun if everyone didn't think I have the plague." She jokes making me frown, it is true though.
"They'll warm up to you." I smile, trying to reassure her.
"It seems like you're the only one who's going to do that." Lucy points out, giving me a small smile as she looks down at me.
"I want to get to know you." I shrug which makes her eyebrows raise again.
"And why is that?" She asks confused by my statement.
"I feel like it?" I try not even knowing the real answer myself.
"Okay." She chuckles, looking back up. "So what do you want to know?"
I sit for a second, not knowing what I should ask. This is the moment I have been waiting for since I've met her. So what's the first question I ask?
"What's your favorite color?"
"Red." She replies with a playful eye roll, amused by my question.
"Favorite animal?"
"Um . . . The Lion I guess."
"Favorite type of food?"
"Italian."
"Favorite hobby?
"Drawing."
"Favorite place?"
"New York City . . ."
"What's it like in New York?" I ask sidetracked, wanting to know. I want to leave this state so badly and see the real world. New York is the one of the places I'd like to visit the most.
"Busy . . . but beautiful." She smiles, looking a bit sad thinking about it. One of my teammates then runs towards us, Lucy leaves me going for her flags. Another one of my teammates is running towards me now, actually sad that I might have to play the game now and leave Lucy.
My teammate tags me, making me stand up and start to walk back towards my team's side of the field. Lucy gives me a small wave with a smile after she's taken the flags off of my other teammate, who looks very angry as she now sits on the ground. I wave back to Lucy, feeling my heart beat faster than before.
The game soon ends as we have to go back and get dressed before the bell rings, I walk away from Hannah and back to Lucy as everyone walks back towards the gym.
"Hey." I smile when I stand beside her, she looks a bit surprised that I've come to stand by her.
"Hi." She says back, her arm brushes mine for a second, making feel an excited feeling rise in my chest.
"Are you coming to the church barbeque tomorrow?" I ask her, myself thinking all day about what i'll wear.
"I suppose, my uncle is kind of making me go." She lazily shrugs, "Says it'll be good for me or something."
"Oh you'll have so much fun, pretty much the whole town comes." I say excitedly making her huff with a small fake smile.
"Great, more people to be judged by." She mumbles under breath, making me frown as we walk through the gym doors, heading towards the locker room.
"Maybe you and I can hang out? I'll be there around four with my family." I suggest trying to make her feel better.
"Um . . . Yeah, sure. Thanks." She gives me a small smile as we walk through the locker room doors.
"Of course." I smile as we both walk to our lockers, she passes my friend Hannah who gives me a weird look while opening her locker. I open mine and grab my jeans and shirt, before taking them to the stalls with me. I'm not insecure about my body, I'm just a bit a shy to be honest. I change into my clothes, happy to know that I'm going to see Lucy tomorrow at the barbeque.