(I do not own 'The Hollow' or the characters).
A story about Adam and the others when they go to high school (the other team is not mentioned). Adam runs into an old crush and has to find his inner courage to confess. Kai and Mira also run into a...
"Hey, Adam." Oh my God, it's him. I tried, and failed, not to turn several shades darker and turned to face Olive. He looks amazing. I glanced down at my lap to hide my blush and waved at him sheepishly. I know I shouldn't be so nervous around him, we were best friends after all, but he's just so cool and cute that I get nervous around him.
(This is Olive below):
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He smirks at me, which makes my insides turn to mush, and says in his soft, quiet voice, "Looks like you and I are sitting together." I try to say something back to him but it ends up coming out as some weird noise, so I just nod to him and hope he didn't hear it. I don't think he did and he just slides into his seat next to me and sets his Adidas backpack down on the floor next to him and his trapper keeper on his desk.
He shifts a bit then turns to look at me and looks up at my hair for a few seconds. I start running my hand through it self-consciously and look down at my lap; I still can't think of anything to say to him and I feel my heart start to beat like crazy. I'm sure that by now I look like a tomato and I press one of my hands against my cheek to make it less noticeable. While I stare down at my lap, I hear Olive chuckle quietly and then comment, "Looks like you and me have the same taste." He's going to be the death of me.
"Thanks, I got it almost two months ago."
"It looks good on you." Olive started playing with one of his hoop earrings, his nervous tell, and I think I saw him blush. But the blushing part could have just been my imagination. He glances at me from the corner of his eye and I glance at him a little too, my brain finally done freaking out. He glances over at the clock, like he's waiting for something to happen, and then glances back at me and asks, "You have a good summer?"
I stop running my hand through my hair and let it rest in my lap. I think through everything I did, besides The Hollow, and try to find something cool to say. "I went to the Funhouse Amusement park (it's an old amusement park over downtown)," I said. Olive smirked a bit and then asked, "You didn't get to the final championship of The Hollow?"
Huh? I started participating in The Hollow in the eighth grade and Olive knew how obsessed with it I can get but I would have figured with us drifting apart that he would have forgotten about it.
"Actually I did. My team won," I say as Olive pushes his glasses up farther on his nose. Out of curiosity, I ask, "You still remember that I like The Hollow?"
Olive combs a loose strand of hair out of his face then says, "Yeah you used to talk about it all the time when we hung out together more. Also just after summer started I followed you on Instagram and saw all the posts you made about it."
I was really surprised by that; first by the fact that Olive still remembers something I talked about years ago when we're not even friends and secondly by the fact that he follows me on Instagram and that I didn't even know it.
I opened and closed my mouth a few times, probably looking like a fish, without saying anything. I took a couple of minutes to regain my sense and then said, "Oh really I didn't even know." Olive chuckled a bit and opened his mouth to say something but closed it when he saw Ms. Bouchard start walking up to the front of the class.
He gave me a big smile and then turned to the board. When he turned away I sunk into my chair as I tried to slow down my racing heart. I'm so in love with him. Once I had gotten myself calmed down I turned towards Ms. Bouchard to see what she had to say.
Ms. Bouchard waited a few seconds for everyone to pay attention to her and then said, "Ok class since today is the first day of school we're going to take it easy today. First I'm going to explain how this class will go and what my expectations are and then you'll have the rest of class to talk with your friends and get to know people." She gave us all a big smile and then clicked her clicker at the projector to start her slideshow.
Time-skip (15 minutes):
Finally Ms. Bouchard's slideshow was over and we got time to relax. The slideshow was nice and helped me understand what to expect of this class but it just seemed like it was so long.
I also spent most of the presentation glancing over at Olive and trying to figure out how I'm going to confess to him. Why couldn't this be easier? I glance back over at Olive, who is writing something down on a sticky note, and then down at my desk.
After Olive was finished writing on his sticky note I tapped his shoulder and asked, "Hey, um, Olive? Can we talk?" Olive slid his sticky note into his binder and put his pencil away then turned to look at me. "Yeah. What do you need to talk about?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat and ran a hand through my hair before saying, "Well I was wondering if," I paused as I tried to keep my cool, "if you wanted to.. Meet after school?" Olive gave me a surprised look and didn't say anything at first but then chirped, "Yeah I'd love to!"
I mentally scolded myself for chickening out but I was kind of glad because I didn't want my big confession to Olive to be in a classroom. I wanted it to be somewhere a little romantic. The big oak tree at the park might be a good place. I took a little deep breath and then asked, "Would the big oak tree at the park be a good place?"
Olive took a minute, maybe checking if he had any other plans, then said, "Yeah that'd be good! We could walk there together." That might be a problem, I'm supposed to be walking home with Mira and Kai. Well maybe I could tell them what's happening and they might be okay with it.
"Yeah that'd be great with me, I'll just have to tell my friends." Olive nodded excitedly and smiled really big and chirped, "That's perfect! I don't have dance practice tonight so we can be there for awhile!"
I nodded and then started chatting with him about what classes we have. Apparently we have every class together except seventh period. That's going to be great, I mean if he doesn't reject me today, if not that's going to be hell.
I get snapped back to reality when Olive starts giggling really bad when he talks about a skit he had to do in ELA last year. I start laughing too and am completely mesmerized by his giggle; it's so cute and soft and sounds so adorable.
I can't believe that later today I'll be confessing to him and he might like me back and be my boyfriend. I bet if he does become my boyfriend that Kai and Mira will tease him nonstop; my parents probably will too, they really like flustering me.
I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Olive might reject me and never talk to me again. But if he doesn't then we could be boyfriends and kiss and go on dates.
