Chapter 1
Sunday, March 5, 2006
The breeze was softly blowing through my hair, as I fled down the stairs, about two minutes and thirty seconds of agony later, I was resting my head on the railing. As I was walking forward and looking up, and near the door I noticed that a paper for auditions for the school musical in April. This was the one I signed my name on the other day, when I took another look at it, the place where my name was had been erased and the name where mine used to be was now a different name. When I glanced at the paper again, Suddenly, I felt a tap on my back. I looked back and there she was, in the familiar tea dress, the amber braids resting loosely on her shoulder. She gave me a confident, cute smile, and I felt myself begin to blush. The female spoke, and I listened as the female asked,
> "Are you interested in the school Musical? Please come and tell me. I'm one of the lead directors this year, we would love to have you."
I began to stutter as I tried to force words out of my mouth. My throat was dry and stuffy. I was shaking and trying to calm myself down. The shock and numbness of the moment, the excitement, the chaos, and all the things I was doing had all been taken away from me.
> "I-I am! Very interested in the school musical! What was it called again?"
The amber colored hair female chuckled, she found me funny.
> "It's called 'The Never-Ending Adventure'."
She giggled again, and that was when my face started to grow redder, I could feel my face heating up and I knew that my face was turning a shade of red like a tomato and I had to cover my face with my sleeve. I had to get out of here now.
> "I-I look...I have to go, maybe we could talk another time about this..I'm just very umm..busy.."
I just quickly walked past her, down another set of stairs. As I hit around the last few stairs, I fell and face planted on the floor in front of me. I groaned in pain,
> "Ugh... Ow..." I muttered through clenched teeth.
My legs felt so heavy that I couldn't get up from the floor at the moment, and I could feel the movement in my abdomen after falling, it was the kind of pain I hadn't felt in ages. The pain seemed to extend up my back and I screamed out in pain again. The world seemed to stop around me. My eyes rolled back in my head as I felt too dizzy to get back up. I heard a voice from behind me, coming down the stairs, it sounded like my history teacher, Mr. Carson.
> "Harry, are you okay?"
>
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Yes, I totally forgot to introduce myself. I'm Harry Tides, I'm a Sophomore at Westmoor High School in Iowa. My Sophomore year is nearly finished, I just got a few more months.
> "Yes, I'm fine, Mr. Carson."
I replied as I attempted to get up, only to fall on my face again.
> "My legs are just tired."
I could hear him chuckle. Great, now I'm gonna look like a goddamn fool.
> "Could you help me up, Mr. Carson? I seriously cannot move off the ground."
Mr. Carson helped me up and sent me on my way. I went back to my study group, which all of us were in the library. Once I got back in, I sat back in my spot, next to my best friend since grade school, Finn. Once I sat down, Finn started to talk.
> "Dude, what happened? I literally thought you were not coming back. I thought you just up and left."
I, of course, knew I wouldn't leave him, so I told the truth.
> "I fell down the stairs."
>
> "You what?"
I could hear Finn, trying not to laugh.
> "Yeah, the lead director of the school musical was chatting with me and I didn't see where I was going, so I fell down a few steps and face planted."
Finn would just burst out laughing, but of course since we are in a library, he was immediately quieted down by Miss Doubtfire, the Westmoor School Library teacher. Anyhow, after that, I explained why I got nervous to Finn.
> "Wait, hold up dude. . . You like Hayley? Hayley Westberry? Her?"
Finn asked, he did seem to know who she was after all. I, of course nodded to that.
> "Yes, it's Hayley. She's the one I like. The one with the amber colored braid and sweet looking smile."
I continued to explain her facial details, but I soon realized how weird that was, so I stopped.
> "Dude, Chill. I don't need to know that stuff."
I blushed. It was liked I told him my life story with how much details I told him. But soon, the last hour of study time Sunday at school ended and we were free to leave.
I walked out to my 2002 Dodge Viper and I unlocked my car, and got in. As I did, Finn walked up to my door and asked if I could drive him home. Of course I won't deny my friend a ride, he does a lot for me, even if he is an asshole sometimes.
> "Yeah sure dude, just don't track dirt in the car please."
I said, as I unlocked the passenger door for him. As soon as he hopped in, I let him shut the door as I shut mine and we began to drive. Finn's house was a bit of a way, you gotta get I-74 and stuff. But still, he lived in a nice neighborhood. As we drove, I turned on the radio, Coldplay's song Clocks came on and I just let it play. It was my favorite song anyways, around the time it came out.
As soon as I dropped Finn off, I headed back home as well. By the time I got home, it was almost 7:30 PM. At least I made my curfew of Eight'o Clock by about thirty-ish minutes.
I decided to avoid dinner since I wasn't hungry and my stomach and back was in pain earlier from falling on my face and down the steps. I made it to my room downstairs in the basement, I was greeted by my cat, Tomm with two M's, don't ask who named him.
As I laid on my bed, I began to think about Hayley and I. She was so pretty and I couldn't imagine her falling in love with me, that was just the most stupidest thing I could think of.
As I glance over to my desk in my room, I think about surfing the web before I go to sleep. And I decide not to, since tomorrow is another grueling day of school ahead of me.
So I close my eyes and let my mind and body fall asleep as I think about Hayley one last time . . .