Wonderful art by SocialAnxietiest!
TW: Swearing

As I pushed through the double doors of Ellis High School, it felt more dramatic than it was- I'd always felt dramatic bursting through double doors and feeling air whoosh past me as they shut, but it wasn't just what it felt like but what it stood for. 

This was the same place that I'd spent entire periods crying in bathroom stalls, written off countless notes with a forged signature excusing me from school because I couldn't shake the gross feeling at the bottom of my stomach, missed classes because I was at the counselor because these sick voices in my head wouldn't leave me alone.

But this was also the same place that I got into first division on the school hockey team, got the highest mark in my class for our English exam and found my love for writing. I have a girlfriend now. And I think things are going to get better. I pulled at the loose curls nestled at the back of my neck- a nervous habit- and struggled to retrieve the crumpled up timetable I'd shoved into my pocket earlier.

"Connor!" Someone grabbed my bag from behind me. I spun around and was met with big brown eyes and another of Holly's elaborate braids.

"Still can't reach my shoulders, can you?" I teased. She scoffed at me- I forgot how much I loved her 'deeply offended' face.

"Shut up, you skyscraper!" Holly retorted. I shifted my feet to face her and crossed my arms over my chest. 

"I'm not a skyscraper-" I started but Holly cut me off.

"You so are! You've grown since year nine." 

I looked her up and down then finally nodded in agreement. "Yeah, actually. You look shorter than I remember."

Holly scrunched her up her face in annoyance and elbowed me. I shoved her back and she snapped at me.

"Connor! Watch. The. Hair." She looked so adorable when she was grumpy.

I pulled my arm around Holly's neck, getting her into an effective headlock. I vigorously rubbed my hand over the crown of her head.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I mess up your oh so perfect hair?" I said putting on a posh face and delicately patting my own hair.

She stomped down hard on my foot.

"Ack I'm sorry, okay, I'll fix it!" I reached for her hair and she swatted my hand away. "Holly. I'm trying to help you." I said taking her hair again, and delicately re-braiding it.

"Does it look okay?" Holly tried turning her head, and I laughed under my breath, because whatever she was trying wasn't going to work. 

I set her hair down again. "It looks like a croissant," I said, laughing harder now.

"Connorr! What did you do to it!" Holly said, gently feeling her hair. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and took a picture, handing it to her.

"I told you, I fixed it." I said as she zoomed in as much as she could on my phone and started carefully inspecting it.

"Do I get a 'thank you' now?" I asked smugly, even though it was a genuine question. She pondered for a bit, before coming to a conclusion.

"You don't deserve a thanks." Holly replied, stubbornly, but predictably.

"OH." I said raising my eyebrows. "So you're gonna be like that?" I said with fake alarm, but she could tell I messing with her.

"Yeah, maybe I AM." She stood there for a second, defiantly, before I grabbed her wrist.

"ConnOR!" She yelped in protest. I ignored the funny looks we were getting as I dragged my reluctant girlfriend down the hallway.

"Holly I know you want to be stubborn but it's nearly schooltime. What's your form room?" She got back on her feet and stumbled after me. 

"What's your form room?" I opened my mouth to say 'I asked first' but I saw in her eyes that she wasn't gonna budge.

"F11," I replied.

"Aw shucks," I watched her eyes flick up to the roof as she struggled to remember. "I'm K... something-" She stopped. "K4."

"Ah. Do we have any classes together?" I asked.

She flicked some of her hair over her shoulder. "I don't know, my timetable is in my bag and-"

She was interrupted by the bell.

"Shit." Holly shot me a dirty look and I apologised. "Sorry, I don't want to be late on the first day.. my attendance last year was-" I took a moment to search for the right word. "Dismal." I settled on.

"You're telling me." Holly said.

"Woah heavy on the sarcasm much. Anyway I gotta go- meet you by the snake tree?" I turned to face Holly one last time before heading down the corridor for F block.

"Yep!" She yelled over the frantic rustle of kids rushing to their classes.

I hoisted my bag up higher on my shoulders and scanned the numbers lining the doors along the hall. I felt full of nerves now that Holly wasn't here to distract me... Since when has walking been this hard? I steeled myself in my brain before opening the door with a plaque reading 'F 11' calm the fuck down, Connor, you're gonna be fine.

The door made an awkward screeching sound as I opened it, but everyone else was too busy unloading their holidays on their friends to notice. I shuffled up to the front desk.

"Connor! Nice to meet you, I'm Mr Castillo. Welcome to F11." My new teacher boomed too loudly.

"Yeh, hey." I spluttered.

I managed to maintain an uncomfortable conversation with Mr Castillo for roughly seven minutes before he let me go. I finally got a chance to look around the class for people I knew. I started searching the room when someone came up behind me for the second time that day.

"Connor!" This person was taller than Holly, though. I cringed on the impact, and the loud voice. "Been a while," he said.

I turned my head and got a face full of messy strawberry blonde hair. "Hey Brian." I said, peeling his hands away from my neck. "You're choking me, mate."

Brian just laughed and guided me to a table at the back of the class where Kyle, George and Leon were also sitting.

I sat down, glad that I had at least some friends in my class. I shrugged off my bag and shoved it under the desk with my foot. I kicked my foot up and tilted my seat so I was leaning against the wall. Brian was in the middle of an aggressive argument with Kyle and Leon, when a fed-up George ended their bickering. Brian turned his attention to me.

"SO. How's the missus?" He grinned.

"Fine." I replied. I pushed off the wall so that all four legs of the chair were on the ground.

"That bad, huh?" Brian pried. 

"What? I said she was fine." I said possibly a bit too loud. "It's fine. We're good." I shrugged it off, but wouldn't meet Brian's eyes.

"Still haven't kissed her yet?" Kyle smirked. The others at the table turned to me.

I gave Kyle a sarcastic 'thanks a lot' look.

"No." I said, still glaring at Kyle. "And if I'm being totally honest, I don't really want to."

"So you don't like her anymore?" Leon interjected.

"What! I never said that. Stop putting words in my mouth." I felt my face heating up. My friends could be so annoying sometimes.

"Wait so-" Brian flinched as Mr Castillo snapped at him.

"Boys! Stop chatting!" Brian and the others nodded in submission.

I mumbled a quiet "sorry sir,"

I could sense the tension now, and even though Brian didn't mention Holly again, I could tell he was itching to interrogate me later. Brian kept leaning over to whisper to either Kyle or Leon, who kept snickering, and their eyes kept darting towards me.

Shit. 

I started doodling on the cover of one of my books, and putting stickers and stuff on it, because as weird as it sounds, it was calming me down. I rested my neck on my hand and started pulling at my hair again. I don't know how long I sat there passive-aggressively scribbling smiley faces all over my maths book, but the bell rung.

Mr Castillo stood up. "You've got PE now on the field with Mr Brown. Good luck and I'll see you tomorrow for English." I packed my books into my bag again and stood abruptly, giving sir a short nod before walking off to the changing rooms. I didn't look back to see where Brian and Leon and Kyle were. I could tell they were talking about me and Holly. 

And it was pissing me off that they were talking about me. In front of me. Like I wasn't there.

I dumped my bag on one of the benches and dug through my bag for my PE gear. I didn't need different shoes because my school shoes were sneakers- it didn't matter what shoes you wore as long as they were black. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Brian and co walk into the changing rooms and I yanked off my tie bitterly, shoving it harshly into the bottom of my bag. I unbuttoned my shirt in a grump and pulled on the Ellis PE t-shirt, getting it caught on my shoulders. I tugged at the shirt and eventually got it on properly. I messed with my hair a bit trying to get it to sit right, then quickly switched shorts and ran out to the field.

Mr Brown and about seven of the kids in my class were already on the field, and we waited a bit in the wind until everyone was out. I was getting colder in just a t-shirt and shorts, and I rubbed my hands up and down my arms in attempt to make the goosebumps disappear.

"We'll be starting basketball as a unit for this term," the teacher started. "Today we'll be practicing passing."

I could sense where this was going before he said it.

"Can you all pair up and get one basketball between two."

Great.

Brian and Kyle went together, and so did Leon and George. Not that I wanted to go with any of them anyway.

I ended up going with this boy standing on his own as far away from the rest of the class as he could be.

"Hey," I said.

His eyes flicked up at mine.

"Hi." He said unimpressed.

He went to go get a basketball and I watched him walk over there. He was short. Like, a lot shorter than me. His skin was bronze, and his eyes were bright turquoise. He had dark brown hair too.

"Were you watching me?" The boy asked me, giving me a weird look.

"Nope." I lied.

He rolled his eyes and tossed the basketball at me.

"So what's your name?" I asked, throwing the basketball back and flicking my hair out of my eyes. All he did was give me a look. "I'm Connor." I offered.

"Vega." He said finally, and I nearly didn't hear.

I nodded awkwardly, because I got the feeling he didn't want to talk.

I chucked the basketball to Vega and probably shouldn't have been so surprised that he caught it.

He must've caught the look in my eye because he grinned. "What? You just assume I'm as weak as I look?" He yelled slyly.

"No! I wasn't thinking that!" I stammered.

He smirked. "You know, you're a lot easier to read than you think."

I opened my mouth to try and redeem myself but the ball came hurtling back at me and hit me in the chest, knocking the breath out of me.

"Huh." was all the other boy said.

I made a face and we continued to pass the ball to each other.

Vega was wearing his school jumper and scarf over his PE gear, yet he was still shivering. 

I was about to make a sarcastic comment about it when he said,

"If you're gonna say something about me being cold in summer, don't. You're shivering too." So I dropped it.

We passed the basketball back and forth in silence.

A big gust of wind blew past and my hair got in my face. I put the ball on the ground and reached up to try and fix it. I thought I heard a quiet laugh behind me and I turned to look at Vega with my eyes narrowed.

"What?" I asked as Vega continued to laugh at me.

"You touch your hair a lot." He said to me. "You keep messing with your hair out here. I saw you pushing your hair around in the changing rooms and in the classroom as well." Vega shifted his weight to one side and pulled his scarf tighter around his neck.

Was he watching me in the class and the changing rooms?

"I do not push my hair around!" I yelped self consciously. 

"You SO do and it's so funny." Vega said. He started poking at his hair and moving it around, imitating me.

"I do not look like that!" I hissed at him and he just smirked.

"Suuuuuure you don't, skyscraper." I blinked, surprised. I wasn't expecting that last comment. 

I looked over again and Vega was still messing with his hair. Before I knew what I was doing, I picked up the basketball and threw it at him. It hit him on the shoulder.

Oh shit. I shouldn't have done that.

Vega grabbed the basketball and he hurled it at me. I barely escaped getting hit in the face. But the corners or Vega's mouth turned up ever so slightly at the ends. He was smiling. I think.

A little later the teacher came over and told us off because we were making too much noise. Then he told us we needed to pack the gear away and go get changed for morning tea.

I ran back to the changing rooms because Vega was right, it really was cold out there. I started getting changed and when I left, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw him watching me. But I turned my head and he was facing away.

You're loosing your mind, I told myself, and went off to meet Holly.

Ahhhh first actual chapter!! In which Connor chucks a ball around and gets called Skyscraper by someone other than his girlfriend.

I'm excitedd. I hope you guys like the story so far, I'm a bit out of practice with writing so I don't know if any of it even makes any sense..

Fanart/art of my characters is welcome!! It helps a lot and means I don't have to take the time to draw something before I post a chapter, and you guys get updates faster

Also please tell me if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes and I'll fix it.

° . * ° . * 2307 words ° . * ° . *

Published July 21, 2022

-Ferret