Innocence

Chapter 1

The sun was shining in the hot summer day. The oak trees were large and beautiful, everything was completely normal for a typical summer day

Toris' dad finally parked the car on the street arriving at the new house. It had been 6 years that the Lithuanian has been away from the small town.
Toris had a strange and yet nostalgic feeling, next day he would be back to the old school, the old friends... Ivan, Eduard, Raivis... and the most important: Natalya Arlovskaya! She was the girl of his dreams! Toris had a crush on Natalya since he was 8 and he would finally be able to see the "love of his life" again... It was a dream to come true.

The bedroom window was barely open, but it was enough to the sun burn the brunnette's boy face and wake him up.
Toris got dressed quickly, trying to look perfect, he wanted to make a good impression in his first day in the "new" school. The fact that probably everything had changed brought terrible anxiety thoughts to Toris. Maybe Natalya had a boyfriend? What if she didn't even remember Toris? Ugh... It was like he had butterflies in his stomach, but Toris knew that he would have to be stronger than his anxiety if he wanted to be noticed by Natalya.
He rode his bike quickly to the school, there was no way he could be late.

The school wasn't so different, everything looked the same, except the people. Toris looked around searching for familiar faces, but everybody looked so grown up, it was difficult to recognize them. Where was Raivis? Or Eduard, or even the bossy Ivan? He started to feel completely lost.

The school bell rang loudly. Oh great! He was late in his first day! Toris rushed to his classroom through the corridors, without looking where he was going and... Bumped with someone, both fell on the floor.

"I-I'm really sorry..." Toris said looking in the green eyes of the blonde boy sitting in front of him. The short boy was wearing a light pink sweater with a red tie and brown pants. That person attracted the Lithuanian's attention... The boy was really different.

"Uh... That's ok..." said the blonde.

Toris extended his hand to the boy.

"Thanks..." He said holding Toris' hand "I'm Feliks, by the way! Feliks Łukasiewicz, from Poland" The boy was slowly losing his shyness as he continued with a smile, glancing at Toris "What's your name?"

"I'm Toris... Toris Laurinaitis" Toris smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, you're Toris..." Feliks thought for a moment before continuing "I think I've heard about you... When I got to this school everybody was talking about a guy named Toris that moved to another country... What was that place called? Eh... Probably Litwa, or something like that..."

"Yes... It's me... I've moved to Lithuania, but now I'm back..." He said with a smile

"Oh, yes I remember, you're that Liet."

"Liet?" Toris looked at Feliks with a lost expression.

"Yes, it's short for Lietuva!" Feliks chuckled, his laugh was funny.

"No, no! Just call me Toris!" The Lithuanian blushed.

"Whatever!" Feliks said rolling eyes "I have to go now, or I'll be late! See you later... Liet!" The Pole glanced at Toris with a small smile before leaving.

Toris felt curious about the short Pole, something in the way he looked caught his attention, and for a second, he had completely forgotten about his anxiety or Natalya. The Lithuanian made his way to the classroom he had been assigned and took the rest of his schedule.

Then he saw the most beautiful girl he had seen in all his life.
Natalya Arlovskaya, she was beautiful like always. Her blonde silver hair was shinning and falling through his face into sweet straight locks. Her dark blue eyes were deep and expressive. Her skin was soft like peaches and she scented like the most sweet flowers on the spring. Natalya was... absolutely stunning.

Toris kept staring at her for what looked like long five minutes, speechless. Suddenly those deep eyes returned to Toris with a cold glance that meant something more like "Stop staring at me, loser!". Oh it was terrible! Natalya definitely didn't remember him, but the Lithuanian wouldn't give up.

"She's creepy, da?" Said a sinister voice.

"Ivan?" Toris turned to see who was talking to him; the Russian that always used to be bossy and get him in trouble, Ivan. Sure he would prefer to see Eduard or Raivis again, but Ivan was better than nothing.

"Hey Toris! I'm glad you're back!" Ivan
smiled.

"So... Have you seen Raivis and Eduard?"

"Oh, Eduard is hanging out with that strange group of Nordics, and Raivis... Well, I don't talk to him anymore." He shrugged.

Toris find a seat next to Natalya, but the only seat left was next to... Feliks.

"Liet! I've saved a seat for you!" The short Pole said cheerfully.

"Um... Thanks!" Well at least he had a new friend... And it was better than being with Ivan.

"I'm happy you to see you again!" He said with a genuine smile. Feliks always looked so innocent and helpful and Toris liked that.

"Do you like ponies?" Feliks asked out of nowhere.

"Um.. Yes...? Ponies are cool."

"Oh, me too! You know, If you were a pony I would totally ride you!" He smiled innocently.

"Uh.. Right?" That sounded really wrong put of contest, Toris thought, but he was sure Feliks didn't mean anything wrong.

"Mr. Toris, you're talking a lot, would you like to present yourself for the class?" The math teacher called out for his attention.

"Of course!" Toris stood next to his seat. "I'm Toris Laurinaitis, I'm fourteen and I moved here yesterday. Actually, I used to live here before, but 6 years ago I've moved to Lithuania and..."

Suddenly a paper ball hit Toris face like a bullet. The Lithuanian blushed like a Italian tomato.

"Gilbert, why did you do that?" The teacher asked looking to the cool kid Gilbert, the albino boy was really noisy.

"Because he is Lithuanian" All the kids started laughing at Toris and he returned silently to his seat. Oh what a terrible way to introduce himself, he thought. There was definitely no way things could get worse.

The teacher continued on his monotone voice the typical "back to school speech" that every teacher make when the school year starts again.

"Liet" Feliks whispered "Lieeet" He whispered loudly, but Toris continued ignoring him, furthermore, it was Feliks' fault for that disaster.
"Toris!"

And nothing.

"LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET, LIET"

"WHAT?" Toris said it loudly enough to everybody look at him.

Feliks' cheeks started to get really red as he realized everybody was looking at them. He didn't want to make Toris mad. Instead, he took a piece of paper and wrote something in it and sticked it onto Toris' desk.

Wanna lunch with me, Liet? - the note said.