“Didn’t I tell you to never go spread dirt on the school floors?!” I yelled with my hands on my hips as I stared at the dirty hallways. I would have understood if it was because it was raining outside and the mud stuck to all their shoes but right now, I knew for sure that the immature varsity team went to play out in the school field during the lunch break.

The jocks started to scramble around, clearing the hallway as fast as they can to make sure they didn’t get caught.

These idiots are the reason why I can’t calm down.

“How about you let the janitor clean this up then we’ll have lunch,” somebody suggested, stepping beside me.

I turned to her before letting out a tired sigh. Unlike Kyla Bailey, my best friend, I’m not as easy-going and mellow as she can be.

“I’m doing my best to make sure that the adults are not troubled,” I told her, walking to the cafeteria with her by my side, “They’re as busy as can be.”

“I still don’t see why you’re so determined to do,” she said, stepping in the cafeteria line, “Sure you’re student body president but the whole school is terrified of you.”

True to her statement, every single person avoided me. Their eyes reflected hatred, fear and simple annoyance.

I selected my meal for today and paid for it, waiting for Kyla to get hers. Something I always wanted to do was to keep this school in check. It had this horrible reputation and when I was chosen as student body president, I made sure that I’ll change our bad image. I had to be strict in order to do it, which ended up with most of the students getting scared of me.

Somewhere, I made the wrong turn.

“You should be acting more of the vice president,” I pointed out but she only laughed. Kyla was pretty popular – someone with her beauty was bound to be known. Even with her quirky and bubbly personality, she’s responsible and is capable of holding up the position assigned to her.

“You should try to relax a little bit,” she retorted playfully.

Though she was smart and all, she’s a little too laid back.

 “Pass it!” somebody hollered from the other side of the room before we felt a ball zoom past us. We whipped our heads to its direction and saw that Jasper Dean was now spinning the basketball on his finger, chuckling at his teammate who passed it.

“I can’t believe you were once friends with Jasper Dean,” she snorted, forking her salad into her mouth, “He’s childish in every way and you’re not.”

My eyes locked with him for a brief moment. Like we were silently communicating, we held each other’s gaze. It was something we understood each other since childhood; no words were needed in able to reach out our thoughts.

“Savannah!” Kyla cracked me out of my trance. A teammate of Jasper swung his arm on him and that was when both of us turned away from each other.

Since we were kids, we were the best of friends. He didn’t know why but we stopped talking to each other. Well, I was the one who stopped talking to him in the first place.

The reason was so obvious, he became the jock and the teachers started to praise me. He became busier with basketball practice and I started to devote my time into studying. Other than that, I hinted that he had a crush on Kyla. Back then, I liked him… a lot. It was one of your cliché having a crush on your best guy friend.

How awkward would that be?

We drifted apart, I got over my puppy dog crush on him and he stopped talking to me altogether.

“Do you have a fever?” Kyla asked, placing a hand on my forehead, “You seemed out there for a while.”

I shook my head and looked at my untouched pasta, “Just thinking about my math test later,” I lied through my teeth.

I sometimes think what would happen if we were still friends up until this day.

“You’ll ace it for sure,” she snorted, “You always do.”

I only caught the sight of Jasper’s back as he and his teammates retreated out of the cafeteria followed by the mass of cheerleaders.

“I have to work hard to get a scholarship into Brown Uni,” I said as a matter-of-fact.

She leaned against her seat and pushed her empty bowl away, “You’re loaded and smart, no need for a scholarship.”

“My brother is rich,” I corrected, “I’m living the comfortable middle class life.”

My brother really did hit jackpot in terms of relationships. He married the richest girl in the city we lived in and now, he’s traveling all over the world. He supplied us with enough money whenever we need it, but we were taught by our parents to be practical, spoiling ourselves with whatever we deserve.

When the bell rung, I grabbed my things and walked out of the cafeteria with Kyla in tow. Just like the parting of the red sea, students cleared the way for us to walk through.

Sadly, I knew for myself that I was a terror.

When I entered my English class, I took my regular seat which is to everybody’s absolute surprise, is next to Jasper.

We ignored each other, doing our best to make sure we don’t need to communicate. I kept to my own business and he kept his.

Ms. Hughes, our teachers, stepped in front and held a big pile of books in her arms. I was quite surprised that the boys didn’t make any move to free her slim arms from the weight it was taking. Ms. Hughes was young and beautiful, attracting most of the boys in the school.

She grabbed a chalk and wrote the words Romeo and Juliet on the blackboard. She turned around and smiled at us, grabbing one of the copies of the said book from the pile that sat on her desk, “As I know that you’re all tired of this tragic love story, we have no choice but to study it.”

Groans erupted from the class but she simply waved it off, “Now we’ll just have a simple homework since you obviously know what this book is all about.”

Great, another project that I have to deal with.

“It’s quite simple actually,” she assured, placing the book back down on the pile, “I’ll just pair you off and you would have to reenact act two, scene two which is the balcony scene.”

Ah, the sweet and romantic balcony scene where Romeo shouts sweet nothings to Juliet. Girls were obviously excited for this, praying that they were paired up with a decent guy. The boys? They looked like they wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

“It’s just one scene so a week should be enough for practice,” Ms. Hughes said before drawing in a bowl from under her desk, “In here are a lists of names, I would get in one girl and one boy, please don’t argue with your partner, it’s only one week.”

I tapped my pencil mindlessly on my notebook, waiting patiently for my name to be called. I’m alright with any boy, I think I could whip them into a decent Romeo in a week.

“Savannah Everett,” Ms. Hughes called out before plucking in another name from the bowl. Well, there was one boy that I refused to be paired up with. I’m just praying that Ms. Hughes doesn’t his name.

“Jasper Dean.”

Well, looks like Lady Luck isn’t smiling over me today.

Gasps were sounded around the whole room and I slowly turned my head to the side, we stared at each other for the longest time, refusing to lose the battle of silence.

Almost everybody knew my history with him. We were seen together every day during freshman year when we both had no idea who was who.

When we still stuck together through thick and thin.

“Alright,” Ms. Hughes clapped, “Please go sit next to your partner and talk about your plans while I pass along copies of the book.”

The class scrambled to find their Romeo and Juliet, while Jasper and I kept silent. We were aware that most eyes of our classmates was on us, like this was more of a drama than the ones we see on tv.

“Here you go,” Ms. Hughes chirped, passing us two copies of the book. We only stared at it, avoiding eye contact as much as possible. Our teacher who was as knowledgeable as ever felt the awkward air before she smiled, “Maybe you two were paired up for a reason.”

She then moved along to pass the books to the other students. Maybe English will be the first subject that I will fail.

The class ended with neither one of us saying a word to the other. Jasper packed everything in his bag and as he was just about to leave, he dropped a piece of paper on my desk. When he was out of the room, I unfolded the paper and read his handwriting.

I need to pass this class. Let’s just work around this and get it over with. I need your number to work a schedule, slot it inside my locker before heading home.

I crumpled the paper and shoved it inside my bag. I exited the class room and passed on with the day as usual. Dismissal came and I waited on Kyla, writing my phone number on a page of my notebook and ripped it out, folding it neatly.

“Ready?” Kyla asked, linking arms with me, dragging me to her locker. Another fun fact, Kyla’s locker was right next to Jasper’s.

“It’s nice to finally take a break,” she started to drone on, “I mean, with all these school work then with the job of being president and vice president, not to mention we have a part-time job,” she continued to ramble on. While she was busy talking and shoving things in her locker, I lifted the paper and slotted it in the holes of Jasper’s lock.

Kyla and I work on this café called One-Eighty Degrees Coffee, which was now owned and bought by my brother’s wife. It was a homey little café and I loved working in it, but it’s hard to juggle all these responsibilities.

I clutched my binders closer to my chest and as I was about to turn so I could walk to the exit, somebody bumped into me causing all the things I was holding to fall on the floor.

And here comes the demon president, “I reminded you idiots over and over again to never run in the halls!”

There were three boys and they all stiffened. They switched gazes and one of them bent down to pick up my belongings while the two scrammed.

Oh, what a pair of gentlemen.

“Idiots,” I mumbled before I looked at the guy who bumped into me.

Jasper Dean.

He realized who I was and placed everything I picked up back in his arms. No words were exchanged before he ran after his friends.

“Are you alright?” Kyla asked, checking for any damage and I shook my head.

You know, sometimes I look back at the times Jasper and I used to hang out. Most of the times, I wish I could find a reset button in our friendship.

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I planned to update this on Valentine's Day so I can synch is with the TFIOS trailer but oh well, it's out and so is this story.

Savannah will surely show more of her president side than Celeste did so we have that to look forward to...

We're slowly introducing characters, and I hope this story won't dissapoint you because you're expecting too much. On the brighter note, our favorite couple was mentioned earlier but just not their names.

Question: Is this story a yeah or a nah?

Love you guys, leave a vote and comment for me please.