Prologue:
There was a buzzing in her ears. "Oh" She said, dejectedly, turned on her heal and walked away. She felt like she was leaving parts of herself behind with him; her happiness, her heart, her energy, her love.
"Oh." She said again to herself, and her world went black.
Chapter One
"The first day of school. Oh boy." Rose said to her long time friend, Vanessa Harris. She was tall, like Rose, but with dark red-brown hair to Rose's brownish blonde head. Vanessa's beauty was subtler than Rose's obvious English facial structure; she had a more subtle Italian exquisiteness. Though Rose preferred to wear long-sleeves, and today was no exception. She sported a tight fitting V-neck shirt and shorts to keep her cool, whereas Vanessa wore a loose fitting short-sleeved shirt and jeans.
They were both huddled together with their nervous classmates, waiting to get their class schedules. Already some of the older boys were starting to take notice of the two friends.
"I really wish they wouldn't stare…" complained Vanessa, as one of the seniors looked her up and down, "I always feel naked when they look at me."
"That's just the price you'll have to pay for being beautiful, gorgeous." Cried a random senior as he was walking by, and Rose nervously tugged at the sleeve of her sweater.
"Anyways…" said Vanessa after a long, awkward pause; "you going to try out for any different sports this year? I thought maybe we could do volleyball again. That was interesting. Or try running. We haven't run in a few years."
"I don't know Nessa, what did you want to do?"
"Oh could we do something different? Please Rose? There's a fencing team, a water polo team, even a color guard. Oh my gosh Rose, we could try out for cheerleading"
"You pick, but you know I am not flexible at all. If you want to do cheer, you'll do it alone; you know how I hate cheerleaders. I'm going to try to find my first hour class. Come with me?"
"Sure." And the two girls set off together, arm in arm, to find their respective classes.
As the first hour bell stopped ringing, Rose found herself sitting alone in her algebra two-trigonometry class, as Vanessa had biology first hour. She looked nervously around the classroom that was filled more by older students that didn't know her, than freshmen like herself. The classroom itself looked uncomfortable and boring; the desks were in rows facing each other at the middle of the room, making it hard to look at the whiteboard in front. The only people she recognized were two girls who she was somewhat acquainted with: Ava Peters and Jessica Lee. The teacher stood awkwardly at the front of the classroom, unsure as how to start. After five minutes of silence and sweaty hands, the teacher mumbled, "My name is Brian Thomas. Say here or present after I call your name. Please tell me if I butcher your name, I'll try to remember for tomorrow."
"Adams, Kelly"
"Here."
"Allen, Peter"
"Here."
The teacher went on in that boring tone, and Rose started drifting of to sleep until: "Evans, Leanne"
"Sir, I prefer to go by Rose." She said in a tired voice. Everyone in the class stared at her. Then after another awkward pause, the teacher continued and everyone turned away.
"Okay… Rose."
The teacher went on calling names until "Malcolm, Dillon" snapped Rose out of her daydream.
"Sir, you can call me Dill." She knew Dill. They had danced together at a few dances last year and were friends. She looked over to where she heard his voice, and was about to wave when she gasped. She now knew why she didn't notice him in the class. Sitting in the seat directly in front of Dill was one of the most gorgeous boys she had seen so far in her life. He was well muscled but not huge; he was actually rather skinny, he had hair that was closer to brown then blond and brilliantly blue eyes, which went stunningly with his thin face and laugh-lines. He was pale, but not overly so, and with a few freckles dotting the skin below his eyes. She was instantly intrigued. "Well at least they gave me something good to look at in this boring class" she thought to herself. Then her teacher's voice pulled her out of her revere.
"Richardson, Cassius"
"Here." The handsome boy called out in a voice that wasn't too deep or too high.
"Yummy." Thought Rose.
After Mr. Thomas ended with "Zheng, Allen." He went on to pass out the green sheet explaining how things would be graded. Rose zoned out, she had heard this speech for the past four years or so. Then, surprising her, he said, "Uh, okay kids. I'm going to put you all in a different seating arrangement. Everyone stand up ok?" And he went around the desks, pointing to them and saying the name of the student he wanted to sit there. To Rose's surprise and pleasure, she was put directly across from Richardson. She smirked and looked him over again out of the corner of her eye. She was completely right with her previous analysis. The boy was striking. She already guessed that his eyes would be the type that she could get lost in, but she wasn't prepared to see them staring back into her own. She blushed at being caught staring and quickly looked away; this was something she would definitely have to report to Vanessa.
She loved Vanessa, she really did. They were like sisters, but they got along much better than normal siblings do. Rose shared everything with her best and only close friend and Vanessa did the same with Rose. Vanessa was outgoing and positive where Rose could be quiet and pessimistic, but when they were together they were both energetic and, as some people would say, slightly insane. Unfortunately they had no classes together, probably because the school was smart enough to know disaster would ensue, the two friends had speculated, she would have to tell Vanessa at brunch.
"Evans. What did I just say?" exclaimed the teacher, pulling her out of her mind rant.
"You were explaining the syllabus sir." Rose answered back smartly.
"Oh. Well, all right. So as I was saying, in order to pass on to the pre-calculus class I would prefer everyone to have a grade of 85% or higher. If you don't, you will be in the math analysis class next year? Everyone understand? Now let me pass out the textbooks…" and the rest of the 50 minute period was spent passing out heavy textbooks and writing down their numbers. With ten minutes left, Rose walked over to where Dillon was sitting.
"Hey Dill. I almost didn't see that you were here." She said.
"Hi Rose, yeah. I noticed. You were looking at that guy, Richardson. He's a sophomore. My parents are friends with his."
"Oh… well then, I um. I guess… never mind. I need to figure out where my next class is. I'll tell Nessa you said hi." The bell rang then, and Rose hurried quickly out of the classroom, trying not to feel completely put out at the fact that she knew that the chances of her being with the boy, Cassius, was slim, practically nothing. She sighed in defeat, and walked into her second period class. The literature teacher was old and gray haired, but the class looked warm. The desks were all set up to face the front, and there were movie posters all around the classroom on the walls. Rose quickly looked around for someone she knew. Her eyes lit up when she saw Amber Chow, her once best friend. She nervously approached her "We're cool, right?"
Amber smiled up at her, "yeah." The day was turning out better than she expected it to.
The weeks passed by with nothing eventful happening, although Nessa did talk Rose into joining the water polo team. This, Rose felt was a fair idea and didn't complain because of the ample supply of good looking and toned guys practicing just a few yards away. She couldn't help but stare at them occasionally, but Vanessa would tease her whenever she caught her. The schedule was starting to kick in: wake up, eat, go to school, go to practice, go home, do homework, eat, sleep, and the days droned on.
It happened almost a month after the start of school: she was with some of her older sophomore friends from water polo and he walked up with a very pretty Indian girl named Ayiana Adee, whom she recognized from when she used to do gymnastics. She felt a quick pang of jealousy for her former friend. She looked incredibly close to him. Him; that was all she could think about in her first hour class and after school, hell even at night she fell asleep with thoughts of stroking his perfect blond head. And she said the first thing that she could think of to him after he gave her a polite "Hello Rose."
"So Cassius, are you gay?"
To his credit, he laughed it off and said no, and Vanessa, catching on from Rose's intense blush and awkward silence asked him then if he was bisexual, to which he also replied no. Vanessa in all her wit and knowledge of knowing what made Rose feel incredibly awkward then said "Really? Rose and I seem to find that all the pretty guys are." Rose's face was almost completely scarlet now, and she stood up abruptly and dragged Vanessa off with her.
"What the hell was that Rosie?" Vanessa screamed at her, "I mean its bad enough that you stare at him all the time but now you ask him if he's GAY? Are you mentally impaired now or something?"
"I don't fucking know Nessa. And trust me, I know how idiotic I look now. Ugh I am so stupid." Rose practically sobbed into her hands at that statement. "What did I just do?"
"Okay Leanne Roslyn Evans you need to calm down. He's a boy. There are hundreds of them."
Rose took a deep breath and sighed, "yeah I guess. But still, that was stupid."
"Rose, that there was the epitome of stupid."
Chapter two
It was halfway through the water polo season. The start of October to be exact. Rose was completely caught up with her classes, sports and him. She tried her hardest not to think of him, the him that no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get out of her mind. His beautiful water, sky and grass colored eyes, his wonderful voice and how incredibly funny he was, for now she finally had started to talk to him. The entire school was a buzz with the hinting of homecoming the next Saturday. Rose and Vanessa wanted to go, but they had made a pact earlier that year that they would only go to a high school dance if they had a date. Rose was going to the dance with Jace Garnet, a former friend and crush that went to a different high school. She hoped going with him would be a good distraction from her new infiltration with the blond haired boy. Vanessa has not been asked by anyone, so Rose begrudgingly left alone to go back to the high school.
Jace was, as usual, a very interesting person to talk to, but as the night progressed, Rose decided that that was all he would really be good for. Upon entering the gym, Rose gave him her phone to put in his pocket, her strapless blue silk dress didn't allow for any pockets.