Weightless [Jack Barakat]

Chapter One

Eleanor's POV

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

I stared at the quote spray painted on the side of a building. A sudden realization hit me. Was I living? Or was I just...existing?

Existing. I knew it was true, but I wish it wasn't. I clenched my fists, and continued walking to school. I wasn't going to let myself keep living like this. I had to do something, even if it was just saying hi to someone in the hallway.

I arrived and went through the doors.

"Hi Eleanor!" A cheerful voice said, and I turned around to see it was skunk hair again. He smiled, and I tried smiling back but he had spun around and disappeared into the crowd of students too fast.

I sighed and continued on to my first class, only to find skunk and his friend in the back of the room, two rows behind my own desk. They were facing each other in their chairs, laughing about something.

How had I never noticed them before? They were obviously in at least one of my classes, and they knew who I was.

Blake Anderson sat down two seats ahead of me, and I glared into the back of his head as I usually did. Someone tapped me on the back. It was the guy with chestnut hair, a grin on his face. I couldn't help but smile back a little, he looked so happy. I also noticed that he was, I guess...attractive.

"I'm s'posed to ask you...if you...have any planets?"

"Planets?" I asked, confused. Skunk shook his head, and pulled his friend back over close to his face before whispering something to him.

He leaned back forwards with a look of realization. "Oh...I'm sorry. Plans. Plans-I'm supposed to ask you if you have any plans this weekend."

"Um..." It was only Tuesday, so I wouldn't know yet, even though I knew I wouldn't have any. "No...I don't think so. Why?"

"Do you want to come to our band practice? We're playing a gig in three weeks and we need the public to let us know how we sound."

He waited for me to answer, while I sat there confused. "Um, I'm sorry but...what's your name?"

Something dawned on his face, and he didn't look so eager anymore. "Oh, my bad. I'm Alex. That's Jack," he said, pointing back at skunk hair.

I continued to think about the answer I would give. I was still really confused as to why they were asking me. "Sure..." I said, not even knowing what I was doing. I didn't even know them! They were complete strangers to me!

Calm down, Eleanor, I told myself. They know you. You just don't know them.

Alex smiled. "Great! We'll find you after school to give you the details!"

I nodded, feeling a bit sick that I actually made plans for the weekend. But there would probably be other poeple there. Maybe I could go for a few minutes then just slip away without them noticing. I was pretty good at that, anyways.