"I wonder how many people don't get the one they want, but end up with the one they're supposed to be with."
~Fannie Flagg
Grace got to school early, like a good girl should, to meet up with her friends Kimberly, Ken and Riley.
She was the new girl in school, but what made her extreemly loveable was the pride she held in her melanin self.
Coated with skin of melanin, she ran through the hallway, her air jordans carrying her through the close to empty hallway to her destination- the school's football field.
"She's always late." Riley commented with her arms folded as her slender eyes narrowed at the girl with hair that most say defied gravity itself.
"That is the mystery of grace: it never comes too late." Grace qouted Franois Mauriac, her chest rising and falling steadily as she tried to catch her breath.
Grace did have a late coming problem, but her friends didn't mind it as much as the teachers did, that's why they decided to come really early to school.
She joined her friends on the bleachers, dusting her seat so she wouldn't get her bright blue ripped skinny jeans dirty.
"So what were we talking about?" She turned to her group of friends, a sweet grin on her face.
"Well, Barbie here, would rather a day at the beach than a week in Paris." Kim answered her friend, referring to Ken as 'Barbie'.
"I would rather an eternity in bed than a second in school." Grace voiced her thoughts as she day dreamt about the dreams she could dream in her dreamy bed.
"You poor bed-ridden teen." Riley feigned a pitied look, holding her hand over her chest.
Kimberly sniggered at Riely's snarky comment, but Ken didn't.
"Sounds like paradise Gigi." Ken took Grace's side, making the dark haired beauty grin happily.
The small group spent their free time talking about absolutely nothing at all, a whole hour before the bell rang to indicate the start of school.
They all shared the same homeroom, so they walked together still talking about nothing in particular.
They took their seats just as the teacher walked in, her bag on her arm and her brown hair up in a neat bun.
She was still young and new to the whole teaching career, but her homeroom class made it easy for her to do her job.
She was glad that she had them for home room, that meant her mornings always started off on a good note.
"Morning everyone, it's nice to see that you're all here." Her eyes quickly scanned over her pupils, finding no seat unoccupied.
The students acknowledged their teacher's presence and listened to what she had to say, all the announcements done for the day.
"I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day." Said the brunette teacher just as the bell rang signalling the start of the first lesson.
Everyone was out and headed straight for their first class of the day, most people bubbling with energy while others were still groggy from waking up.
Grace made her way to her English class, a class she wasn't awfully fond of and that wasn't just because none of her friends shared this class with her.
She didn't like literature, not one bit.
In her previous school they could choose whether they would like to do language only or literature as well, but in this school- it wasn't a choice.
"Morning everyone, I'm sure you're all as excited for this term's assignment as I am!" Mr Sentinel always had something to be excited about, too bad his students couldn't reciprocate said excitement.
"Not even close old man." One of the 'clowns' of the class remarked, earning chuckles and snickers here and there.
Not many people enjoyed his foolish antics.
"Enough of that Mr Willimson." The teacher put him off, not really paying him much attention.
"As you should all know by now, pairs of you will be given a Shakespeare play to recreate in a mordern way. Don't worry, no perfomance is needed, it must all be on paper. You can change the plots and characters if you want but the main themes must remain constant! If you don't know the themes; Google them." Words flowed out the teacher's mouth like a river, but only a few things entered the ears of his students.
"I will partner you up, because I do not trust you little rascals." The blonde teacher grinned, turning to his desk to retrieve his list of paired students.
He read out the names, groans and grunts erupting from students who were either paired with someone they didn't like or someone they didn't know too well.
"Grace Grayson and Shawn Stryker, you have Romeo and Juliet." Grace lifted her head from her arms, she heard her name but the name that followed after couldn't have been more unfamiliar.
"Susan Kindle and-" Mr Sentinel was interupted by an eager hand shooting up into the air demanding his attention.
"Uh, sir, who is that?" Grace asked politely, not trying to offend anyone.
Especially not the person she was only hearing of for the first time.
"Who is who?" The teacher arched a single blonde-brow, looking through his glasses at the young lady who spoke to him.
"T-the person you paired me with." She felt slightly nervous under the many eyes of her peers, but tried her best not to let it show.
"Stryker, raise your hand." The teacher instructed the young lad, the boy no one knew existed.
The young man in the far right corner raised his hand, his head still buried in the crook of his other arm.
Grace turned around in her chair trying to spot the lad, the raised hand in the far back catching her attention.
Am I the only one who never noticed him? She thought to herself, looking around her to find that no one else was looking at him.
Not even the people around him seemed to have noticed the young boy, he seemed to fit perfectly in the secluded corner of the room.
As class ended and everyone began to exit the class, Grace tried to get a glimpse of the new- but maybe not so new- guy.
All she got to see was his maroon bag and his departing figure.
His name even slipped her mind, she couldn't even remember his surname.
Nothing.
She hurriedly made her way to her next class, Art, the mystery man still running circles in her mind.
Has he always been around? She thought to herself, trying to piece together the scattered puzzle in front of her.
The day went by as it usually did, with no sign of the mystery man- as usual.
A figment of her imagination, at the end of the day, that's what he was.
She tried asking around, seeing if anyone knew exactly who and where he was.
The only response she would constantly get is "Who?".
So she came to the conclusion that, no one knew him.
He was the Unknown, even with his existence he did not exist.
Obiously 'the guy with the maroon bag' wasn't a good enough discription, but she expected that at least the people in her English class would know him.
The end result? Negative.
Absolutely no one knew him.
"What's going on in your mind Gigi?" Ken asked as he walked along side Grace, escorting her to the school busses.
"Not what, who." Grace corrected in a dramatic way, acting as wise as Rafiki himself.
This made Ken chuckle, he never could understand the inner workings of Grace's mind.
She was a specimen to him, trouvaille and unique.
"Okay, okay. Who's going on in your mind?" He caused his best friend to giggle, the satisfaction felt like nothing else in the world.
"My partner for the English assignment, I have no idea who he is." She answered her friend, turning serious all of a sudden.
"What's his name?" Ken was genuingly curious.
If his best friend was going to be spending time with another male other than him, he needed to know the person.
"No clue." The girl shook her head, her hair bouncing around in the process.
Ken knew he couldn't ask what he looked like either, 'cause even if she knew, she was terrible at describing things- especially people.
"I could really drive you home, Gigi." Ken had been trying to get Grace to let him drive her home, but for some odd reason she prefered the school bus.
"One day Ken." She grinned then got onto a bus that was getting ready to leave.
She made her way to the back of the bus, finding someone already seated by the window.
She wanted to sit by the window, but first come first served.
She sat beside the person, internally expressing her dissatisfaction.
That's when she noticed the maroon bag placed carelessly on the person's lap, sparking an immediate interest within her.
She looked up, identifying the person to be a male she didn't at all recognise.
"Uh, excuse me. Hi, my name is Grace." She introduced herself to him, forcing his attention on her.
She needed to know who he was.
"Shawn." He responded in a smoky hoarse voice, Grace couldn't help but muse a little.
Ah, so that's his name... Shawn.
"What?" Shawn asked with a distant tone.
Grace had been unconsciously staring the whole time, making the poor lad a tad bit uncomfortable.
"Do you mind starting with the assignment today?" She panicked, asking him the first question that popped into her mind.
"I'm down for anything." He shrugged, his baby blue hood falling off his head and onto his shoulders.
He had really rough dark hair, like he hadn't bothered to comb nor brush it after his shower.
His eyes were an intimidating chestnut brown colour and his face looked recently shaven- maybe even soft- his skin slightly tinted pink in colour.
Aside from that, he was actually really handsome.
Admittedly, his looks made her wonder why she hadn't noticed him earlier.
"You're staring again." He pointed out factually, this time he wasn't really that uncomfortable with it.
"O-oh yeah, s-sorry." She stumbled over her words a bit, but she shook it off.
"My house or yours?" She asked the boy seated next to her, the boy who gave her a weak shrug.
"Yours." She answered herself, trying not to get irked by his passiveness.
Is he always like this? She internalized.
The bus came to a stop and Shawn made a move to leave, Grace following after him.
They both felt weird about the whole thing but chose to put such aside, for the sake of their grades.
As they approached the house, Grace began to wonder why Shawn took the school bus.
His house was fairly large, enough to show that wealthy people lived within it.
Shawn opened the door to his house, welcoming Grace into his humble abode.
The interior of the house only confirmed what Grace had already initially suspected, Shawn's parents had enough money to buy him a car he could drive to school everyday.
So why did he take the school bus?
They said nothing the whole way, as he led her to his personal room where they could work on the assignment.
Once they were in with everthing they needed for the assignment and snacks were at their reach, Grace settled on his navy blue leisure couch.
"So, do you remember any of the themes for Romeo and Juliet?" She asked him, the boy that was seated on the floor with his back resting against the couch that she was sitting on.
He looked up at her through his dark locks of hair, his reddish-pink lips slightly parted.
"Nope." He made sure to pop the 'p'.
What am I going to do with you? Grace thought to herself, perplexed by the creature seated on the floor.