Sitting alone, as usual. Ugh, what I wouldn't give for a social life. Or at least something to do besides stare at this spellbook all day…
Kyle's secret train of thought at the school's outside picnic table was derailed by a very loud, high-pitched reminder of why he loathed the town of Galaxy Hills.
"Sittin' alone again buddy? Man, you need to get out more! Hike the mountain of life! Find your horizon! Smell the daffodils!" Fanboy exclaimed with the excitement of recess in his voice.
"I'm allergic to daffodils," Kyle protested. At this, Fanboy's trusty sidekick, Chum Chum came to the rebuttal.
"Kyle, why do you always sit alone? Don't you have any friends?"
"I thought this was obvious, but no, I do not. Nor do I desire any. Now please, let me return to my studies," he answered harshly. This subject was... rather painful for him.
"Aww, why?" Fanboy inquired. "Everyone needs a friend! Why not Duke, or Chuggy, or Fankylechum? They're all nice dudes!"
"I don't doubt that they're 'nice dudes', they're just not the type of people I can form a bond with. Neither are you two," Kyle commanded.
"Oh, oh! Kyle, what about the girls? Do you want a girlfriend?" Chum Chum asked. He was confident that he had cracked Kyle's code. Naturally, the redhead was both angered and very startled by this question, which led him to blush with a shade of scarlet only found on tomatoes.
"Wh- what? Girlfriend?! Me?! Tsk, I am too preoccupied to associate myself with the very notion of a girlfriend! What a silly question!" Kyle was lying through his oh-so-crooked teeth. He had very much longed for a girlfriend, but never knew how to go about it. He always ended up drowning in a sea of stutters before he could even greet a female.
"Pfft, Kyle, don't be like that! Hey, I heard some of the girls talkin' about you last week! They all think you're super cute!" Fanboy reassured with a nudge. Chum Chum nodded in confirmation. They weren't lying, either.
Kyle was considered to be quite adorable by the majority of the girls in his grade. They loved everything about him, from his lanky arms, to his English accent, to his braces, to his freckles. You can't spell Kyle Bloodworth-Thomason without 'adorbs', as they would put it.
"…Really?" Kyle had no choice but to be curious. He couldn't believe someone was actually attracted to him, but Fanboy wasn't one to lie…
"Kyle, I'm not one to lie, I'm telling you, you are on the highest demand in the girl kingdom, you just gotta pick out your lioness, roar!" Fanboy, starting to not make much sense, said this with a bucktoothed beam. Kyle was less irritated and more confused at this point. Before he could add his input to this, Chum Chum cut him off.
"Eh, I don't blame Kyle, though. Girls are so weird! I mean, look at Yo for example," he addressed as he pointed to the young Asian girl on the jungle gym, "She seemed so cute and harmless, and then next thing I know, she's trying to put me in her school bag and take me home with her! It drives me crazy!" Yo was indeed a tad obsessive, and it annoyed Fanboy and Chum Chum to no end… which gave the former an idea.
"…Oh my gosh, I got it! Kyle, how 'bout you ask Yo out?" At this, both the latter and Kyle let out a collective noise of confusion. Fanboy was determined to get his idea heard.
"Hear me out! Kyle, a person like you needs lots of love and care, and you also like girly stuff! Chum Chum, you're sick of Yo's love and care and girly stuff! Kyle just needs to use his good looks and wit, and we've got ourselves a perfect match!" Chum Chum was very much inclined to agree with his friend, but Kyle just sat there, with an awful case of tomato-cheeks, wondering what on Earth to say.
—
"Shouldn't I have a say in this too?! Oh, no no, please! Not now!" Kyle pleaded as Fanboy and Chum Chum pushed him in Yo's direction. They stopped imediately, allowing Kyle to catch his breath and avoid a heart attack. The scarlet-haired lad had, coincedentally, taken an interest in Yo recently. He admired her ability to stay positively bubbly at all times. He needed someone like that in his life. T'was not a very heavy interest, mind you, but he was still not ready to talk to her, or any girl for that matter. Fanboy, apparently, didn't understand the concept of nervousness.
"Kyle, come on! It's just a yes-or-no question! The worst thing she can do is s-"
"-Is say 'no', I know! It's just- er, well, I- …No, n-not today, not now. I can't, I- um- uhhh… I couldn't- I… Oh dear…" Kyle plopped down on the picnic table. He was beginning to get light-headed. Chum Chum also failed to grasp Kyle's emotion.
"What, you don't like her?"
"Ye- N-no! I-it's not that, it's-!"
"You don't think she's pretty?"
"I do, I do! It's just that-"
"Then what is it, Kyle?"
"It's just that… I've never… really… i-issued a proposal to a female i-in a romantic sort…" Kyle shamefully admitted. It took Fanboy a minute to process all the large words, but within a few seconds, he got the message.
"You've never asked a girl out? …Welp, there's a first time for everything!" he began to resume pushing Kyle when the fourth period bell rang. Kyle sighed in relief and raced into school, making sure he didn't run into Yo.
Those nimrods! I can't believe they were going to push me into her! Do they really think it's that simple? My goodness, I almost fainted back there! Oh dear, how the devil am I going to get through the rest of this day? I'm drenched in sweat, I most likely smell atrocious, and now I'm going to be staring at her… See what emotions do, Kyle? You see?! Ugh, just stay calm…
He was furious at the two boys for scaring him like that, but at the same time… he owed them a thank-you. Because of those two pairing him and Yo so forcefully, Kyle discovered what it truly feels like to be smitten. It wasn't the feeling of a first crush; crushes are caused by a nasty little thing called limerance. This would be Kyle's first love. Of course, it would take a lot of in-class staring and events post-story to reach the point of love, but it would get there.
For the rest of the school day, he couldn't stop thinking about the current circumstances. Is he ready for a girlfriend? He had been rather lonely… Would even have a chance? What if he only feels this way because he's being pressured? What if he's too feminine or boring or creepy? How does she feel about the whole magic thing? All these questions were bouncing in Kyle's mind, begging to be answered.
Along with that whole mess of thoughts, he was also conveniently placed right next to Yo in class, which created a mixture of the previous impossible questions, 'Yay, I'm next to her', and 'Oh no, what if she thinks I smell bad' in poor Kyle's head. None of this stopped him from staring, though. Without getting caught, he observed the delightful colors of her outfit, her adorable handwriting, and even her habit of sticking her tongue out when she writes notes. Every moment of staring, he fell deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit called Young Love. Kyle wondered if she had ever admired him like that, even for just a little bit.
For the next week or so, when the mage entered his doorway, he made a beeline towards the couch. He plopped face-first into it, and, being lazy, used his magic to turn the radio on. Much to his dismay, all that played were love songs he didn't want to hear.
"'Cause you're the apple to my pie, you're the straw to my be-"
Bzzt.
"I need your love, I need your-"
Bzzt.
"Lone-ly Hearts Club, do you want to be with, somebody like me?"
That last one was the straw the broke the wizard's broom, so it was always immediately shut off when it came on. It became obvious to Kyle that he genuinely liked Yo, and was probably going to give it a few days before he tried anything anyway, but he was still stumped on how exactly he could approach this. Or rather, approach her.
All these thoughts gathered up in his mind caused an upset tummy and very minimal amounts of sleep. One day, he just couldn't make himself look presentable in any shape or form. Kyle, being a trooper, went to school anyway. Yo was there, bright and early, looking perfect as usual. Kyle, on the other hand, was, by his standards, a mess. His hair askew, his cologne non-existent, and his eyelids resembling empty burlap sacks. Despite the unfortunate morning, that day was the day he started to interact with her. It was a baby step, but a step nonetheless.
During second period, the ever-so-organized Kyle the Conjurer discovered that he forgot his pencil, so he was forced to ask Yo for one of hers.
"Um, excuse me, Yo? May I, er, borrow a pencil? I seem to have f-forgotten mine, heh." While Kyle was awkward and somewhat stuttery, Yo was steady and calm.
"Oh, sure!" she answered as she dug through her pencil bag. She pulled out a pink one with green hearts on it. "Hehe, sorry it's all girly."
"Oh, that's quite alright! As long as it writes, I'm satisfied. Thank you!" Kyle replied. He was almost a little too happy that he got a sentence towards her without stuttering. He was still sweating and blushing, but not stuttering. Not only that, it made Yo giggle! Kyle didn't know if that was good or bad, but he was delighted anyway.
Little interactions like that started happening more and more frequently. Kyle would tune out of whole sections just to ask Yo for her notes, which would be at least five minutes of talking, and Yo would ask him for help on her math homework, which usually took ten minutes. Fanboy and Chum Chum would always prod and joke about Yo at him after school, and instead of being aggressive, he was passive and chuckled the remarks away. Kyle was actually happy and semi-comfortable around her in a matter of days… until something happened that brought all the awkward back.
It was a Monday morning, Mr. Hank Mufflin's most hated time of the week. He didn't tolerate any misbehavior on Monday mornings, which included not paying attention in class. Yo and Kyle sat near the windows, and it was particularly sunny that day. Kyle couldn't help but gaze at the way the rays made her glow, he was captivated. Captivated just long enough for Mr. Mufflin to notice.
"Suck-Up! This is a math class, not a Stare-At-Yo-All-Starry-Eyed class! If you wanna admire Yo, you can do so in the office!" The teacher yelled this loud enough for everyone in the class to hear and make oooo-ing sounds at. Yo's friends giggled like mad, and the guys snickered and elbowed and hooted and hollered. Fanboy, Chum Chum, and especially Yo just sat there, looking at Kyle, wondering what to think of the matter. Kyle's face was drained of all color. No tomato cheeks, no sickly green, nothing. He couldn't bear the mockery of walking in front of class to leave, so he disappeared in a cloud of smoke straight into the principal's office.
Later, at lunch, Kyle managed to sit with the masked duo, with no food, far away from anyone else. Except for the girls' table. They were right across from the girls' table. Fanboy and Chum Chum tried to cheer Kyle up and give him food, but as soon as he would pick his head up, he'd see Yo and lose his appetite. Yo looked back once, and their eyes met for a brief second, enough time for her friends to pick up on it. They all turned around, looked at Kyle all melancholic and blushed, and giggle right at him. They didn't point or jab, just giggled. Yo told them to stop, but they just turned around and giggled at her. Kyle spied through his bangs and gathered that after the giggling stopped, they got into some kind of teasing which made Yo blush like mad, protest, and giggle back. It ate at Kyle a bit, not knowing what they were teasing her about. It also sparked a little bravery in the boy's heart.
When the bell rang for the end of the school day, Kyle decided that he had nothing to lose. He was just going to go for it and confront Yo. It had been about two weeks of contemplating by that point, and it was a now-or-never situation in his mind. After all, the worst thing she can do is say no. He found her at her locker, approached her, all shaky and sweaty, and stuttered:
"Um, excuse me. M-may I speak to you for a second?" That good old shade of red was returning to his face gain. Yo turned to face him, with a similar shade of red on her cheeks.
"Oh, hi Kyle! Of course! Uhhh, what's up?" She gave off a more flirtatious vibe than previous conversations.
"I just wanted to say… how sorry I am. I didn't mean to embarrass you, or seem creepy in any way-"
"What? No, you didn't do anything wrong! I should have stopped my friends and not just sat there. I think I embarrassed you more…"
"No, no, no! B-but anyway, I didn't mean to stare, it's just… It's just that…" Kyle's nothing-to-lose attitude didn't last long. He was so nervous that he was making Yo nervous.
"It's just… what?"
"It's just that… You're extremely beautiful, inside and out. The way that light shone on you that day… I-I couldn't help myself!" Kyle looked down at his shoes, waiting for a disgusted reply. Fortunately, he never got one.
"Awww, Kyle! That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard! And it's coming from the cutest boy in school!" Yo let out an ecstatic squeal of joy and added, "Heehee, Francine's gonna be so je-"
"Wait, I'm the cutest boy in school?! Since when?!"
"Well, duhhh! I'm surprised Fanboy didn't tell you about that discussion at the slumber party! All the girls think you're a total hunk!"
"But... why me? Why not Duke or Cheech or any other person but me?"
"Pssh, they're too average! You've got freckles and red hair and adorably skinny arms and braces and that accent, not to mention those dark, magic-y things you do! Plus, you're sophisticated, which is really rare these days…"
"Oh, my, um… I'm so flattered! I… I'll take your word for it, heh," Kyle giggled, almost in tears. He'd never really been considered anything above average before, and the first time he did was by the girl he claimed to love. T'was quite a fortunate thing.
"Oh, that reminds me… Yo, I've been meaning to do this for quite sometime now… Here we go, uh… Would you like to see a movie with me on Wednesday?"
"Yay! Of course I will!" At this, Yo jumped up and gave Kyle the biggest hug he'd ever gotten. "Ohhh, you're so adorable! I'll pay for the popcorn!" Kyle was stunned for a few seconds, but gave her a hug as well shortly after.
"Heh, you are t- Wait, what about your happenings with Chum Chum?"
Yo chuckled and replied with, "You're just as cute! And you actually want to cuddle with me!"
"Yes, yes I do."
"Well, I gotta get to Nancy's for a project, but I'll talk to you tomorrow!" With that, Yo gave him a slight peck on the cheek, and bolted out the door.
Kyle let out sigh of relief and happiness, both feelings being somewhat new to him. Just then, Fanboy and Chum Chum came flying out of the corner to congratulate their friend with pats on the back and some good old fashioned "you did it, dude"s. Chum Chum hugged his legs.
"Thank you, Kyle! I'm free!" Chum Chum exclaimed. Kyle, for the first time, had no trace of anger towards the two. No headache, no fear or annoyance. After all of this little adventure, he only had one thing to say;
"No, boys… thank you."