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TARON EGERTON AND ELEANOR FERRIER haven't gone a week without seeing each other since they met, the longest separation being five days when Eleanor went to Hawaii with Robbie, Mary Ann, and Tim last summer. Even then, Eleanor managed to talk to Taron every day.
They were absolutely inseparable since the very beginning, there for each other through thick and through thin.
In sixth grade, Eleanor accidentally mimicked Taron's accent when he was around, which resulted in the first serious look she ever received from him. He proceeded to mock her accent, too, complete with an exaggeration of her slight New Jersey twang. They laughed for hours.
In eighth grade, Taron helped Eleanor dye her hair the first time Mary Ann didn't do it herself, which resulted in violet splatters on the bathroom floor and Taron's hands brightly stained, for he didn't think to use gloves.
Freshman year, Taron asked Eleanor to Homecoming as friends because he didn't want to ask any of the girls who were already throwing themselves at him and Eleanor avoided every other guy in the school. They slow danced together only once, for Taron kept stepping on Eleanor's toes and Eleanor couldn't stop giggling.
Sophomore year, Taron performed a monologue in theater class; Eleanor was in the same class, but she stayed away from all acting and instead stuck to stage managing. Nonetheless, she appreciated his performance, watching from the second row with her legs crossed and her chin propped on her fist.
"If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die."
Eleanor smiles; she at least recognizes the play —Twelfth Night.
"That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more: 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before. O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou, That, notwithstanding thy capacity Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soe'er, But falls into abatement and low price, Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical."
Eleanor didn't realize that her eyes had widened slightly or her heartbeat had quickened or that she saw Taron in some new perspective until people began applauding and Taron smiled — not at the class in general, but at her.
She didn't realize it at first, but she fell in love with him in that moment.
This year, Eleanor established her reputation, but more of that later. Long story short, Taron had a girlfriend over the summer and Eleanor became impulsive. Before Eleanor got in control of the "new her," she got into serious trouble; in August, she found herself locked in the bathroom of her date's house, him and his friends beckoning her to come out as she clutched her knees to her chest. Eleanor thought she would be spending the night with only one guy, but instead she walked into her date's house with at least five other guys waiting. She barely made it to the bathroom and immediately called the first person that came to mind: Taron.
