As James bent down to lock up his 10-speed, he got grease on the corner of his plaid shirt. He sighed as he massaged the spot lightly with his thumb, trying to get some of it out. He furrowed his brows as he then continued on with his bike, putting down the kick stand, and making it straight. When he stood up straight, the last things up were his eyes, which, of course, gave Edward Masen the perfect opportunity to be a total ass, and shove his shoulder into James', toting his five foot six silent, but deadly brunette with him. He laughed, and she smirked as James grimaced and then put himself together before starting on his way to the quad. He shifted the four books he was carrying out of his bag and into his arms, his shoulder was now killing him more so thanks to Edward. Walking down the concrete path to of the front of the school would most likely be considered the most ridiculous thing to comment about, except that, at the moment that James lifted his eyes from said concrete, he was met with not only a girly laugh and a car door being shut, but red hair. The red hair his mind was constantly filled with. She was perfect. She was wearing a brown leather jacket, long denim jeans that covered her feet, and she was in a good mood, as always. Smiling.
Putting one foot in front of the other was hard enough on a good day, but today, for James, it was increasingly more difficult. He literally stared down at his beat up brown loafers with his arms tightly gripping his books against his chest, seeing his breath come out in puffs of steam as he stared. If he looked up again he would trip, or blurt out something idiotic, or everthing would be perfect, and the love of his life would turn toward him -in slow motion of course- and smile her signature wide grin, lope toward him, and they would from that moment forward be inseperable. He laughed a low quiet laugh to himself as he shook off that ludicruous idea and insistently glared at his feet, and the cracks in the sidewalk. From the sidewalk, he looked at a tree, and from the tree -he couldn't help it- and looked at the sky, then from the sky his eyes settled back on the bouncing, radiantly intense, shiny coppery red curls that cascaded down the back of one Victoria Feuer.
In that moment his breath hitched and his heart pounded, and then of course, because he was James, he tripped. His books flew every which way and eyes blurred lightly with tears of embarrassment. He quickly began picking up his English, French, and math books. Just as he was reaching for his own personal worn copy of Perks of Being a Wallflower, a thin, nearly snow white hand speckled with the lightest freckles picked it up and held it out to him. James then made his next mistake; he glanced up. In a very James-like fashion his math book slipped from his grasp and toppled onto the ground again. A light giggle came from the breathtaking teenage girl crouched down in front of him as she stood, in sychronization with James and handed him his math book. He smiled nervously, and let out a breathy laugh. Victoria smiled widely, and James stopped breathing.
Then, before he made himself look worse than he already did, he let out a soft whisper, "Thanks Victoria."
She smiled again with one side of her mouth, "It's not a problem, James, we all have our days, hm? See you around, kay?"
With that she gracefully walked away, heading toward her next class. James sat on the short brick wall located about two feet from where this embarrassing scene took place, set his books down, and buried his head in his hands. He shook his head into his palms as he mentally punished himself for not saying something, ANYTHING! Victoria had that effect on him though, he couldn't help that his palms got sweaty when he saw her, that his eyes darted around the ground nervously, that his sketchbook was primarily filled with her thick red curls dancing around her flawless face. He couldn't help these things. They were all inevitable. You would understand, if you saw her, you would know exactly how it felt.
The oddest thing about Victoria, James often thought, was the fact that she had never dated, though more than half the guys in their school were madly in love with her, obviously including James. She could have anything, do anything, be anything. She chose to be the girl who sat in the middle seat in a class, nose buried in her copy of whatever book she happened to be reading that week, but was still able to know all the questions the teacher asked, without sounding like a know-it-all. She was nice to everyone, and everyone loved her. Unlike most girls like that, rumors were never spread about Victoria Feuer. There were no bad things to be said. If she wasn't so strikingly beautiful, she would be the invisible girl, and everyone knew it. Even though she was sweet and kind to everyone around her, she never sat with a large groups of snobby sixteen year old girls, or any of the lustful teenage boys. She preferred to sit on the grass, in the field, on a blanket she kept in the drama room with the teacher's permission; reading and eating whatever random assortment of snacks she happened to have packed.
James was often tempted to go say hi, or make some sort of attempt to be noticed by the beautiful girl he was priviledged to be in close proximity to on a semi-regular basis. He never did though. James was not a bad looking guy, he was around six feet tall, he never knew anymore with the way he kept growing. He had gray blue eyes and shaggy blonde hair that usually fell in his eyes when he laughed or got nervous and looked at the ground. He was however very introverted. Unlike Victoria, or Vickie, as she allowed herself to be called, he sat at the far back right or left corner of any class he was in. He never raised his hand and never got called on. Most importantly, to everyone but him, all the sophomore girls seemed to be madly in love with him. He was what some people would call the tortured poet, or artist, or writer, or whatever his craft was. He was quiet, and always scribbling in a journal. To an outsider the idea that he was madly in love with Victoria Feuer wouldn't have made any sense. He seemed too much the type to want to always be alone, not to be bothered with the girl everyone else wanted. He usually came off to people as being rude or conceited, when in reality, he was just nervous and shy.
Only one person knew what James was like, only one person in the entire school, town or world. His best and only friend Alice. Before you start getting any ideas about the fact that she likes him, and he is just too into Vickie to notice, let's be clear: Alice is gay, and Alice is madly infatuated with Rose Hale. Diane knew, of course, of James's love for Victoria. She also tried desperately to get him to talk to her, write her a stinkin' letter, something! He never did. At the same time he quitely always assured her that Rose liked her too, Rose was the most openly lesbian girl on campus, she often sported rainbow earrings, or shirts with common phrases directed at ideas like Prop 8. She was bold and tough, and beautiful. Alice, while open, was not nearly as showy. She was out and most everyone knew it, but she was not bold enough to flirt with Rose, or make her infatuation known. It seemed as though everyone at the school was like that though. Everyone pretty much liked someone, but very few people that weren't stereotypical jocks and cheerleaders, actually had the nerve to approach or pursue their love interest.
James finally got up from his uncomfortable spot on the brick wall, scooped up his books and shuffled off to his English class. School didn't start for twenty minutes, which meant he would probably be sitting outside of class rereading Perks for the hundredth time, but he was usually okay with that. Today though, something was subtley burning in him, he was resolved, he knew he had to finally get up the nerve to talk to her. Say something.
He was about ten feet from room 4005 when he saw the infamous red curls tied up in a loose bun at the nape of a white neck. Victoria was sitting in his spot. He gulped and shuffled to the bench, without looking at her he sat down, and opened up his book.
"Hello again James." Victoria said with a smile in her voice, her voice, it was perfect...
"Hi, are you in bio with Leirman first block?" He knew full well she was.
"Yeah, what do you have? Shackley for English?"
James nodded, and stupidly held up his English 11 book.
They continued talking until the first bell rang, and without realizing it, they both walked to their respective classes with dozens of pairs of eyes staring shamelessly in shock at the back of their heads.
James didn't really know it for sure then, but something amazing had just happened. As he and Victoria parted ways, she tilted her head slightly, and blushed as she smiled. James stood totally still, even when she departed into her class, he stood there, gaping. The simple act of walking, and talking with James led Victoria to blush. He felt victorious, and as he turned to walk to his own class he finally saw the eyes staring at him, all of them.
"What?" He yelled, well, for him it was yelling, for most people it would be described as an annoyed sort of yelp. Everyone who knew of James seemed slightly startled as they shifted their eyes and continued on their own ways.
James was on cloud nine the entire day. What would happen if they actually went out?