Freshman year of high school. A year of new beginnings, endless possibilities. It's perfect. I'm in colorguard, so I already have some new friends when the school year starts. I took an elective over summer so I am already familiar with the campus. I was beyond excited for this year.
Fifth period quickly becomes my favorite class. It's my favorite subject, English. It is after my least favorite class, Biology, where my teacher sometimes talks in third person. And my teacher, Ms. Waldo, is awesome. Oh, and Stephen is in this class too. Somehow, we start becoming really close. He starts walking me to my sixth period class, math, when his class isn't even over there. But, I find out he is dating someone in his biology class, so I make sure it's clear we are friends.
Then he switches into my biology class. Gets assigned to my table. What are the odds?
I find out he transferred into my class to get away from the girl he was dating. Turns out, some sophomores that were in the class were paying him to date her. They slid him money every time they saw some form of affection. The sad part is she really liked him. But he didn't like her.
I sat near a lot of Hispanic boys in biology; besides Stephen there was two guys names Ezequiel and George. I kind of knew George had a crush on me from the way he talked to me and it was kind of funny to see the change in how he acted around Eze versus with me.
I didn't realize it back then, but Stephen had befriended Eze and George. I guess George had made a comment about how I was pretty or something and Stephen had told George that Stephen and I would get married. "Just you wait."
If I knew that back then, I would've laughed at him. Hearing it in 2020, I was excited it was going to be true. Hearing it in 2023, I laugh again.
I signed his yearbook calling him my "little brother".