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Chapter One: A New Start
Clare Edwards opened her locker, looking zealously for her English notebook, which was nowhere to be found. She shifted books and papers around, making a mess of her locker, only to be disappointed. She now had a disordered locker, and no notebook.
"Ugh, come on!" Clare muttered to herself, trying to retrace her steps that would hopefully lead her to her missing notebook. She nervously tapped her foot as she was thinking, but couldn't even remember where she had it last.
"Looking for something?" a familiar voice teased from behind her locker door. Clare looked up to see Eli Goldsworthy standing in front of her, dawning his adorable crooked smile.
Regardless of her vexed mood, she couldn't help but smile at the sight of her new boyfriend. Ahhhh, "boyfriend". What a great word, Clare thought. And she finally had one. A good one. She knew that Eli would treat her better than KC had last year, because Eli had something that KC lacked: a completely real personality. It was refreshing to be with somebody who wasn't afraid of telling Clare what was on his mind, be it his past or a critique on her writing. KC always bottled up his feelings, leading to one big explosion of a break-up that left Clare betrayed and heart-broken. Not this year, Clare thought.
"No, I just felt like completely overturning my locker. You know how I hate it when things are in a neat and orderly fashion," Clare smirked, her eyes playfully gleaming up at Eli.
"Huh," Eli answered, now leaning against the lockers, his hands behind his back. "Cause it looks to me like you're looking for something. Maybe...this?" Eli took his hands from behind his back, displaying a blue spiral notebook with the word "English" scrawled on the cover with a black sharpie.
"My notebook!" Clare squealed as he handed the notebook to her. "Where did you find it?" Clare asked.
"You left it at my place yesterday," Eli answered. Clare and Eli had a study session the night before, both reading each other's English assignments.
"Oh, right," Clare said, feeling stupid for her mind not first snatching the idea that maybe she left the notebook at Eli's house. "Well, thanks. You saved me hours worth of panic," Clare claimed, as she shut her locker. She slid her notebook into her bag, while walking with Eli to English class. As they walked through the colorful blue and yellow halls of Degrassi Community School, Eli slipped his fingers through Clare's. A perfect fit, Clare thought, as the touch of his hand to hers caused a rush of chills to travel up her arm and through the rest of her body. While gliding through the hallway, Clare took a peek at Eli's profile. His dark mop of hair, which had a way of looking perfect yet disheveled at the same time, hung over his forehead, side-swept.
"So, you never told me what you thought of my monologue," Eli mused, eyes glancing down at Clare.
"Oh, right. Well, it was...thorough." Clare was putting thorough in lighter terms. Frankly, his monologue, which was written for a very dark character who was coping with the death of his parents and his struggle to return to normalcy, was never-ending. Clare's opinion was that there was much more detail than need-be, and Eli would do well to shorten it up a bit.
"I know you way too well to think that that was a compliment, Clare," Eli replied, hanging his backpack over the back of his chair. Both Clare and Eli were now seated at their desks in Mrs. Dawes' English class. Eli turned around in his seat, placing his elbows on Clare's desk. "Spill," Eli bid.
"Well," Clare hesitated, "Reading it sort of...tired me out. I felt like I was reading a never-ending monologue. Maybe, shorten it up? Get to the point. There's no way that one person could be thinking so many things in one monologue. Try omitting the stream of consciousness." Clare let out a sigh, finally done with the criticism.
Eli sat, looking up at the ceiling, as if thinking, and slowly nodded his head.
"I'll see what I can do," he smiled, his eyes sparkling. Eli then turned around as Mrs. Dawes began to start the lesson.
Clare was satisfied with Eli's reaction to her critique, relieved that he didn't get defensive or angry. He was just so, perfect. KC would have made excuses for himself and somehow put the blame on somebody else. But not Eli. The boy she would do anything for. Her perfect match. Clare knew that nothing could keep them apart.