Background Character

The Introduction

Every school has its hierarchy, clusters of young men and women on the cusp of adulthood, far too eager to grow up and make their way out into the world. This isn't the usually high school story where the popular kids are so far beyond their constituents. Rockwell High School is a regular high school, there are cheerleaders in AP Physics and Mathletes failing English and popular kids occasionally hang out with slightly less popular kids.

Then again, stereotypes are such for a reason. A lot of the usual narrative of high school is alarmingly true. Everyone knows the captain of the football team, Jacob Matherson. There are the people that no one notices. The popular kids do have their own little tables but, people tend to flock to groups. The Drama kids all hang together because after spending thirty-six hours straight and everyday after school for a month and half each semester to prepare for a show, you tend to bond. That is a lot of time forced together.

What I'm trying to say is that I think we're pretty real of a school. As real as high school can be that is.

You can call me Sebastian, whether or not that is my real name remains to be seen.

"Seriously Sebastian, what are you writing?"

Okay so Sebastian is my name, I'm a junior and the president of our literary magazine, The Rockwell Steam. The magazine is pretty terrible, which is why no one else wanted to be the president and I was given the prestigious honor. It's a good thing to have on a resume, no one needs to know how horrible it truly is.

We need to get back on topic however, this isn't my story. You will learn as much about me as you need to; no more, no less. I am not the focus of this story, only the lense through which you will see it. I don't mind very much, I am simply an observer and the chronicler of this tale of high school romance.

I have already mentioned the first of our story's heroes. Jacob Matherson.

There is a lot a person could say about Jacob, or Jake as most people call him. Remember how I say "most people" because that is important. Maybe not important, but notable. From now on, I will refer to him as Jake rather than Jacob for the sake of consistency among characters. You might find it a little weird if I referred to him as one thing and all the other characters called him another.

Jake is a Troy Bolton type. If he were to suddenly stand up on a table during lunch and began to belt his heart out about how he loved to sing, we'd have a case of "Stick to the Status Quo" on our hands. People love him, it's hard not to. He was always the kind of person people followed which is why he's so popular.

And basketball. He wouldn't be a Troy Bolton type if he didn't play basketball.

He also does track and cross country, he's one of four captains for track and one of two captains for cross country. He's also a member of the student council, he is a grade representative and general board member. His election promise was Taco Tuesdays and he delivered, once a month tacos reign down from the heavens and we feast. It's the kind of day you want to get to the cafeteria early for. Remember that, although I don't need to remind you. Taco Tuesdays ix one of the main plot devices, it's a central focus of the beginning of our story.

Now, let me set the scene for our second hero. She is pretty, pretty enough to eventually be noticed by our dear Jake, but not so pretty that she is popular or dates around much. We wouldn't want that in our fair heroine, now would we?

Her name is Olivia Campbell and she goes by Olivia if you were wondering. Never Liv. I'm not quite sure why, but I imagine it's just a personal preference of hers. Not everything needs some secret, hidden motivation I guess. It's more interesting that way, the problem is life is not always as interesting as fiction.

I want you to picture her, to create what you think she should look like in your mind's eye. I don't want to describe her to you. I think that if I gave you physical characteristics of everyone, it would ruin the flow of the story so I want you to create their image from actions and small hints, like the fact that Olivia always has this dreamy look on her face. Like she's imagining something pleasant, not happy, just warm and pleasant. That says more about her than the color of her eyes ever could.

There isn't a lot that I can say about her. Unlike our heavily involved hero, Olivia doesn't really do much. She submitted a poem or two to me, nothing noteworthy like that, but that is all I know about her extracurriculars. I should probably mention that she's pretty focused on her school work and that she volunteers for a couple of charitable organizations. That's where she spends most of her time, someone once told me she is interested in joining a nonprofit, or maybe going into social work.

Olivia is the perfect kind of sweet to fall in love with Jake, two kind-hearted people coming together. That's the moral of this story and I imagine you would have figured that out the moment it started.

So let's start at the beginning, or at least as close as we can get.

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Hey everyone! I'm Carloswashere and this was a story I wrote during the last NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month which happens every November. The rest of the chapters will be longer than this, I just thought this made a good introduction to the story. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words (or a novel) in a month and this achieved that. I didn't love it, but I figure the worst thing that could happen is no one likes it and since it's finished, this is better than it wasting away on my computer.

I plan on uploading every Wednesday, most likely early Wednesday morning but it might waver a little if work is crazy so don't be surprised if it's Wednesday nights occasionally. The nice thing about this story is that it's finished so you won't have to worry about this falling half-finished into Wattpad hell. You'll get your ending.

Thanks for reading!