First Published: 7/30/13

Edited: 2/7/19

Courtney blew out a big breath of air. "Well, now that the heavy stuff is out of the way so let's get to the good stuff! My life is not as simple as seen on TV. And it all began with the person I've known the longest."

FLASHBACK TO THE FIRST DAY OF EIGHTH GRADE

Courtney nervously looked around her as she walked down the hallway trying to find her locker. She watched as people walked around her talking to each other, meeting up at their locker, knowing where their lockers actually were...

"Moving will be fun, they said," Courtney grumbled underneath her breath. "It's not hard to make new friends, they said. Who in their right mind has their child transfer schools in eighth grade?"

During the summer, Courtney's dad rushed home with news. His job offered him a promotion! While Courtney was at first ecstatic, her joy was short lived when she realized her dad's new position was in a new province: Ontario. She voiced her concerns about transferring to another school in the middle of middle school to her father, but her dad just said, "You worry too much, sweetheart. Come on! It'll be an adventure!"

...And here she was. On an adventure to try to find her locker. Fantastic.

She gave an exasperated sigh and once more looked down at the map in her hand her "helpful" tour guide gave her. Her tour guide, which she later learned is named Landon, was supposed to walk her to the locker and then to her first class. Instead, he gave her a map, a peace sign, and walked away.

"But it's fine," she mumbled to herself as she stood in front of a locker. "Because I found it myself!"

Courtney tried to put in her locker combination that Landon wrote on her hand. ("Gotta save the trees," he explained with a smirk) As she was trying to figure out why her combination wasn't working, she didn't notice another girl walking towards her while giving her a look of disgust. When she got to Courtney, she cleared her throat, which caused Courtney to jump.

"Sorry," said Courtney. "I didn't see you there."

"Whoa," Courtney thought as she looked at the girl. The girl had long black hair that reached down to her waist and was wearing clothes that was probably borderline school appropriate.

The girl scoffed. "Is there a reason why you're trying to open my locker," the girl asked in a patronizing tone.

"Shit," Courtney mumbled as her eyes widened. Stupid map. Stupid Landon for not taking me to my locker. Stupid, stupid, stupid! "You see, it's kind of a funny story. I'm new, and I was just trying to find my locker, and I thought this one was it! Sorry about that." She could feel her cheeks go red with embarrassment. "Was this the adventure you were talking about, dad," she thought bitterly.

The girl smiled and said with a condescending voice, "Aw, you were just lost? And now my locker is just filled with new girl germs? You really know how to make a first impression, don't you?" She patted Courtney on the head.

The Courtney today would have ripped that girl to shreds. This Courtney, however, was shy and too embarrassed to do anything. So, instead, she turned around to walk away when she heard that girl say, "What? No comeback? Come on. You're not really gonna take what I said are you?"

Just keep walking.

"Hey," said the girl running up to her. When she caught up to her, she put a hand on her shoulder and spun her around looking at her face to face. "I'm talking to you."

Courtney tried to pull away from her grip. "I'm just trying to get to my locker."

The girl smirked. "I don't think so," she said. "I don't like to win without a fight. So come on. Show me the best you can do, Ms. I'm so helpless I can't even find my locker!"

"I don't really want to fight," Courtney said trying to walk away, but the girl held her shoulder.

"You started this, so you're going to finish this."

Courtney started to panic. "Please, I-"

"Let her go," said a bored voice from behind the girl.

Thank god. The girl turned around to face a boy who looked about their age. "Or what? You can't exactly fight me with those noodles you call arms."

"I know that," said the boy. "Just like how I happen to know that a certain someone stuffs her bras."

Courtney watched as the girls eyes became wide. She let go of Courtney's shoulders and looked straight into the boy's eyes. "I don't know what you're trying to insinuate but-"

The boy put his hand up. "You've known me since kindergarten. You know between you and me who people are going to believe."

The girl huffed and walked away leaving Courtney and the boy alone.

Courtney looked down at her feet and mumbled, "Thank you" at the boy.

"You're not hurt, are you?" She shook her head.

The boy smiled. "What's your name?"

Courtney looked up. "I'm Courtney."

The boy put out his hand. "Noah. Pleasure to meet you, Courtney."

Her dad was right. Because of the move, Courtney started a new adventure because from that day on, Noah and Courtney were inseparable. Because of their knowledge, they mostly took the same classes together, they would go over to each others houses to do homework together, Courtney listened when Noah would drone on and on about another book he read, and Noah would listen to Courtney as she practiced her violin.

They have been hanging out so much that people started to question their relationship.

The first time Courtney noticed the rumors was when she was waiting by her locker for Noah. Most of her classmates were gossiping about who the newest couple was (And apparently in middle school, there's a new couple every day!). Most days, Courtney would roll her eyes and ignore the gossip, and she would've this time too if she didn't hear her name.

"Oh my gosh," she heard Kiki excitedly whisper to her friend, Chloe. "Did you hear about Noah and Courtney?"

Me and Noah?

"I know," Chloe said getting bubble gum out of her bag. "I give it two weeks."

Kiki playfully hit Chloe in the shoulder. "You're such a pessimist. I give it six months."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Look at you, being the optimist."

Why would people think I'm dating Noah?

"I know, right?"

Courtney jumped and quickly turned towards the voice. When she realized it was Noah, she relaxed.

"Can you believe people think we're dating," Courtney said perplexed.

"Just ignore them," Noah said.

And, truth be told, even Courtney was starting to question her relationship with Noah.

Courtney had a crush on Noah since the day when he stood up for her. To her, it was really sweet and charming (and totally something Mr. Darcy would do!). Whenever people asked her if she was dating Noah, she would blush, quickly shake her head no, and walk away as far from the person as she could. But she could not deny that she did daydream what life would be like if they were dating. They both were at the same intelligence level and were comfortable around each other. However, she never brought out that conversation with Noah. If I tell him and he doesn't like me, that would like totally ruin our whole friendship!

So she kept quiet while hoping that she would never have to bring up their relationship.

Luckily, she didn't have to.

NINTH GRADE

Courtney sat in her homeroom classroom while gazing longingly at the colorful posters promoting the winter school dance. She sighed. It's a week before the dance, and nobody asked me to go! It would've been really nice to go with Noah... Well... what did I expect? He probably asked that girl he was telling me about...

LAST WEEK

While waiting for class to start, Courtney was trying to find the courage to ask Noah to the school dance. Should I just be straight forward about it? Wait, what if he already asked someone? No, then he would've told me. But then again, he hasn't even mentioned the dance once. Maybe I should just ask to make sure...

Courtney turned to the right of her where Noah was seated reading a textbook. He's such a nerd. "So Noah," she tried to ask casually. "Anyone you considered taking to the dance?"

"Well," said Noah slowly while still looking at his textbook. "There was this one girl that I've liked for a while..."

Courtney could feel her heart break. He likes someone and didn't tell me? "So," asked Courtney while trying to hide her hurt feelings from her voice. "Who is it? Why didn't you tell me?"

Noah sighed and slowly lowered his book down. "Because I wanted to make sure that I liked her. Besides, I'm planning to ask her soon so you'll find out."

Lucky girl.

Lucky, lucky girl.

When the bell rang, Courtney snapped back to reality. But enough about the dance. I need to focus on school. So, with that in mind, Courtney picked up her bag and started walking towards the door when...

"Courtney, can you please stay behind for a minute," the teacher asked.

Courtney froze where she was and watched as everyone walked out the door. I've never been held back before. What did I do wrong? Did he notice that I was looking at the poster instead of listening? I better say something.

"Look, Mr. Cryer, I'm sorry that I-"

"Courtney," Mr. Cryer interrupted. "You're not in trouble. Don't worry. A student told me to give this to you." He held out a rose.

Wait. What?

Courtney delicately took the rose out of her teacher's hand. "Who gave it to you," Courtney asked curiously.

"He said that he didn't want to be named," said Mr. Cryer. "You better hurry to your second class." The warning bell rang. "You only have a couple of minutes."

The next six classes were exactly like her homeroom class. At the end of each period, the teacher would ask Courtney to stay behind, the teacher would give her a rose, and the teacher would not tell her who it was from.

And at the beginning of every period, someone would ask about her roses.

"So," asked Alicia, the girl who sits next to her in math class. "Who gave you the rose?"

Courtney shrugged. "I have no idea." But this is definitely something Mr. Darcy would do.

Or would suggest a person that might have given her the roses.

"I bet it's Landon," said Jenny while pulling her sleeves down over her wrist.

Landon? My "tour guide" Landon?

"Look, there he is! At the window," Jenny whispered. "Maybe he's come to sneak a peek at your reaction."

Courtney turned toward the window and saw that while Landon was definitely trying to get someone's attention in the class, it wasn't her. It was Scott. Both were playing a bad game of charades of a prank that was about to happen. Ms. Baker cleared her throat while looking straight at Scott, but when she realized that Scott was too far gone to be paying attention, she continued with her lecture.

Courtney laughed. "I seriously doubt that."

The class finally rang signaling the end of the day. Courtney waved bye to Jenny and walked away while hugging all seven of her roses. The mysterious guy still didn't reveal himself to her. She opened her locker to discover five more roses. She sighed dreamily. I hope it's from someone sweet and not from a delinquent like Scott.

"SCOTT," screamed Ms. Baker.

Speak of the devil.

Courtney turned to see Scott running down the hallway with a paintball gun with Ms. Baker, now covered in blue, chasing him. She shook her head. Some people are so immature.

Courtney walked with a skip to her step all the way to her house where she discovered a note taped to her front door. "Do you have a date? Because I would love to go with you," she read out loud.

She laughed and said softly to herself, "No, I don't."

"Good."

She turned around to face a very nervous Noah.

"Courtney," he began. "I just... Wanted to... You know... See if... You wanted to... You know..."

She dropped her roses and hugged Noah. "I would love to."

The rest was history. And Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy lived happily ever after!

TENTH GRADE

...Until tenth grade that is. Courtney's life could not have been more miserable. It started when she noticed her dad looking more and more stressed each time he went off to work. Then, a month passed when her dad had let out the news that he lost his job. After releasing the news, he walked towards the fridge while still talking. "With this kind of economy, they couldn't handle to have that many workers." Her dad fished for a beer can. When he finally found one, he opened the bottle and took a big chug of it before continuing. "So they let me go. Well, fuck them. Let's see if they can survive without me."

At first, her mother tried to work over time at her office while her father tried to find another job. However, when her father started to come back home drunk and irritated every night, it became clear to both Courtney and her mom that he stopped trying.

"You need to get a job," her mother begged. "We need the money to send Courtney to college."

"Yeah, yeah, college," said her father clearly intoxicated. "We got some years before she goes. It'll be fine!"

"IT WILL NOT BE FINE! YOU ARE DRUNK AND UNEMPLOYED!"

Courtney quietly closed the door to her bedroom while she heard to her mom and dad scream at each other of how they were going to pay for Courtney's future. Whenever she heard her parents fight like this, she would quietly escape to her room, put on her headphones, and blast the music until she could no longer hear them.

Unfortunately, the cheap headphones did not do the trick this time. Maybe I can sleep through this? She closed her eyes as she heard her mom stomping her feet. She groaned. "Goddammit!" She sat up straight and listened to her parents fight trying to determine how serious it was. "They probably won't stop until tomorrow."

Time to escape. Opening her window slowly so that her parents couldn't hear, she crawled out of it until she reached the front lawn. Thank god for a one story house. She ran away from her house and ran towards the only person she could trust. Noah.

Courtney didn't stop running until she reached Noah's front door. She knocked and waited a few minutes, but there was no answer. She tried again. The same thing happened. She walked over to the side of his house and looked inside the window. The house was dark. She walked back to the front and sat by the mail box. What now?

"Hey Courtney."

She turned her head towards the voice and smiled when she saw Damien, her debate partner, at the next door house's front steps. "Hey." She stood up, dusted herself off, and walked over to him.

"Let me guess," Damian said putting his hand to his chin as if he trying to solve a mystery. "You wanted to see Noah, but he's not home."

Courtney laughed. "Obviously," she replied to Damian while rolling her eyes. "I don't typically sit by random people's mailboxes."

"Hmm... You make a good point, my dear debate buddy." Damien smiled back. "But yeah," he continued in a serious tone. "Usually on Tuesday they don't come home until late."

Courtney sighed. "Great."

"But hey, if you want, you can stay in my house until Noah comes!"

"Are you sure that's okay?"

"Yeah, my parents don't come until midnight anyway so it's just me and my sister."

Courtney weighed her options. Damian has always been friendly to me. And I don't want to worry Noah by waiting by his mailbox all night. She shrugged her shoulders. "Sure. Why not?"

"That's the spirit!" He opened the door. "Come on in."

She walked into the house not noticing a girl already in there with long black hair down to her waist glaring at her as she did.

Courtney waited for an hour with Damian while they watched tv. Slowly, Courtney felt her eyes get heavy and unknowingly fell into a deel sleep on Damian's shoulder.

Damian gently shook her her shoulder. "Courtney," he said gently. "Wake up."

That's not my mom's voice. Wait. "What?" Courtney quickly opened her eyes with a panic. When she took a look at her surroundings, she relaxed when she realized that she was still at Damian's house.

"Noah just came home."

Courtney stretched her arms while yawning. "What time is it anyway?"

"Around 11:30."

Courtney shook her head. I can't bother Noah and his family now! Not when it's close to midnight... "I didn't realize how late it was. I better go home instead before my parents worry."

"Okay then. May I offer you a ride home?"

She looked out the window and took note of exactly how dark it was outside. "I'll take you up on that offer."

Noah sighed as he looked out the window. He texted Courtney two hours ago, and she still was not responding. I hope everything's okay. He checked his phone for a text one more time before looking back at the window. Looks like Damien helping someone into his car. Someone with brown hair and tan skin. Looks an awfully lot like Courtney. Wait. Is that Courtney? But what would she be doing in Damien's house?

THE NEXT DAY

Noah's thoughts were plagued with Courtney. Why was she at Damian's house at that hour? Did something happen? Was she waiting for me? I better find her. He started to make his way to the front door of the school building when Damien's sister blocked his way.

"Hey Noah," she said with a sympathetic tone. "Are you okay?"

Noah stopped. Well, this isn't suspicious in the slightest. "What do you want? I'm kinda in a rush."

"You and Courtney broke up didn't you?"

He stopped in his track. Yup. Not at all suspicious. "And what would make you say that?"

She looked around before whispering in his ear. "Last night, she came to our house and then stayed with Damien for a long time. Like a long, long time."

Noah rolled his eyes. "I know that they're debate partners. It's not that suspicious for them to be spending time together."

"True," she said slowly while pulling her phone out of her pocket. "But this was suspicious."

He decided to humor the girl and look at the phone. It was a picture of Courtney. With her head on Damian's shoulder. While he was smiling. He took a deep breath in and out. Just play it cool. "They're just friends."

"You know, Noah," the girl replied. "I know it's hard to believe, but I am close with my brother. In fact, I just happen to know that he has a crush on Courtney. And after I saw the way they were acting with each other last night, I gotta say, I think the feeling is mutual. I just thought you should know before she breaks your heart... You know... Like-"

"Don't talk about that," he shouted, cutting the girl off. "I need to go."

Noah stormed off towards his locker. He didn't want to believe that Courtney would do that to him. He really didn't. But then again... It's not like this would be the first time that's happened...

One thing that Noah knew for sure was this: he never wanted to see Courtney ever again.

END OF NOAH'S STORY