Quick Note: I updated the last part of chapter 5, check it out if you didn't see it as it's long and important. It starts with a bold and says "Where's your kitchen?"
November 4th
Aren't you proud of me May? I finally got over November 2nd! It was a long discussion, but that's because so much happened on that day. Now I have to talk about the grill out, and my birthday party, not to mention the almost date, but I'll get to that when we get there.
For now, let's talk about Axel's first day of school.
Axel kept his word, sadly, and we didn't see him come out of his house once for the rest of that Saturday, and only saw his fleeting image on Sunday when both of our families went to church. By this point, I still hadn't seen his father, and I was growing very skeptical over who Jack Oray really was, or if he even existed. I would soon find out he didn't. More on that later, but for now, back to school.
By the time Monday rolled around, my whole being was aching with longing, though I didn't know why I was feeling that way. I had just met Axel after all, but my eyes needed the connection. I promised myself that I would stare at Axel the entire bus ride long, but when I got to the stop, I saw his car drive right past it, probably to check him into the school officially.
5 minutes into my 1st period, I started to accept that I would never see him again when the door opened.
"This is your transfer student from Ohio," I heard a voice say from outside. I immediately perked up in my chair and turned towards the door, ready to see him at last.
"Yes of course," My history teacher, Ms. Cowart said. She is easily my favorite teacher, and I'm lucky to her as my homeroom. She understands our struggles in life as well as school and isn't afraid to show us that she is having a bad day. "Hello, would you like to tell us your name?"
Axel finally stepped in, ears turning the tiniest bit red when he saw everyone staring. Every girl in the room took him in and started to check him out in unison, though if he noticed he didn't say. His eyes swept the room, looking at his audience, and stopped when they got to mine. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the empty chair next to me.
"Hey," He started, his voice cracking at the most embarrassing moment. He blushed and cleared his throat to start again. "Hey everyone, I'm Axel Oray. I just moved to Georgia from Ohio because my dad got a new job."
"Well that's great Axel, have you gotten the chance to meet anyone yet?" asked my teacher, trying to diffuse the awkwardness. Axel's shoulders visibly relaxed, and his eyes turned to mine. The girls around me looked back when they saw him smile, wondering who was the one he was smiling at.
"Yeah, actually. I've met my across the street neighbors, Autumn and Austin, and their best friends Olive and Hunter." The class started to whisper, as rumor after rumor emerged, and to say I was surprised would be a complete lie.
Though all of us were social and each had our own friends, the four of us had never broken apart from one another. We had been together since we were in 2nd grade, and we knew each other better than anyone else. No one had ever gotten between us, whether to separate or join us. Everyone at Carris High knew and respected this. Now that we had introduced someone new, and a complete stranger no less, the student body was going to go crazy.
Sensing this as a moment to get the class under control, Ms. Cowart clapped her hands in a simple rhythm of quarter, quarter, eighth, eighth, quarter, which we all repeated back to her as it had been drilled into our heads at such an early age. "Amazing Axel! Since you already know her, and it's the only seat in the room, why don't you go sit beside Autumn?"
Axel nodded and walked to his new seat. I didn't miss how all the girls' eyes still seemed to be trained on him, while his eyes only trained on mine. He didn't have to walk far since I sat near the front of the room (being a nerd and all) but he did have to pass a couple of people.
Two girls, who sat in the row in front of me and who I'm pretty sure are best friends since they are always talking, didn't even try to cover their swoon as he walked past them. One of them whispered to the other, "I love his blue eyes," at the same time she was whispering to her, "Green eyes! My favorite!" They got into a fight over Axel's eye color and soon forgot to manage their volume. The class all turned to see what the commotion was about, as Axel obliviously got his stuff for the class out.
Suddenly, the girl on the right stood up and turned to Axel, yearning nothing but to prove her point. She openly stared at his eyes, discerning the color. Only seeing what she wanted to see, she turned back to her friend and put her finger in her face, proclaiming to her and the rest of the class, "Ha! I told you! He has blue eyes!"
The girl on the left stood and stared at Axel, half blind as well, and turned back to her friend and, getting up in her face, said sarcastically, "You might have to get your eyes checked, hun. His eyes are clearly green."
By now, the entire class was in a heated debate over who was right, as no one else was close enough to see his eyes. The girls looked just about ready to slap each other and to say that Ms. Cowart looked concerned would be an understatement. She loves all her students as if they were her own children, and to have two of them hurting each other, must have felt awful.
Axel, probably coming to the same conclusions as every other onlooker, stood up and said jokingly, "Ladies please, there's no reason to fight over me. I know I fit the book romance profile perfectly, you know, tall, mysterious, and drop-dead gorgeous, but still."
I have sat behind these girls for the last couple of months, and I honestly have no idea how they are still friends. They fight and argue over just about everything, from answers to their homework, to which actor looks the most like Four from Divergent (because let's face it: Theo, you may be hot, but you got nothing on Tobias). Everyone knew not to get between their fights because they usually solved themselves after a while, which is why Ms. Cowart was letting it escalate for so long. Axel, on the other hand, did not.
The girls glared at him, probably wondering why a newbie was acting like they actually cared about him when all they cared about was who was right.
"Besides," Axel continued, smirking, "You're both right." He stood there blinking, waiting for them to come to their own realizations. After a beat, the girls stepped backward, clearly surprised by what they were seeing. Their eyes flicked back and forth looking at his as if it was an illusion they couldn't figure out.
"That's right," Axel said, his smirk growing even bigger, "I have complete heterochromia, which means I have two different colored eyes." The class's whispers grew, as the new information settled. As the girls finally sat down, and Ms. Cowart continued her lesson on the World of 1812, eyes from all around the room kept shifting to Axel. Though I was uncomfortable with the stares, I couldn't really blame them. I loved his eyes.
The entire day went on like that. People looking and whispering, but I could never tell if the rumors were about him as a person, his eyes, or the fact that he had entered our group. During lunch, we compared schedules and tried to ignore the eyes. He was in most of my classes, and the one that he wasn't was because I was a year ahead than everyone in LIT. But that was okay because he had Hunter in that class. That's not to say he wasn't with everyone else because he was. It's just that, well, ugh let me just write out our schedules and who is with who.
1st Period: History/Social Studies - Cowart - Me, Axel
2nd Period: Math - Mullinax - Me, Axel, Olive
3rd Period: LIT - Tener - Me
4th Period: Lunch/Free - All
5th Period: French - Edwards - Me, Axel, Hunter
6th Period: Science - Fiorito - Me, Axel, Austin
7th Period: Band - Murphy - Me, Axel, Austin, Olive
8th Period: PE - All
So you see, we all have each other. All for one and one for all.
It really is nice to have friends.
Sometimes I wonder who your new ones are. Yes, I know, "But Autumn, you meet them on my birthday, isn't that enough?" But it really isn't. I used to be involved in everything with you and your friends, seeing as I'm only 2 years older. I would play with your dolls, I would read your books, I would judge your fashion shows. I knew everything that ever happened inside that little body of yours, from your thoughts to your feelings.
Then suddenly I didn't even know what your body looked like. And as a 5th grader, it was hard on me. Especially to accept that you had a new family, new parents, new pets. A new sister.
Was it hard for you?
Your sister, who is going to have a hard time falling asleep after thinking about you and her,
Autumn