Lost Innocence

Chapter Two

POV Christine

As we walked down the hallway I noticed a bulletin board with a bunch of clubs and activities the school had to offer. My eyes scanned through all the colorful papers. Two of them that caught my eye was the show choir one and the cheer leading auditions. I stopped Emily as I walked toward the cheer leading one first.
"You want to be a cheerleader?" Emily asked as she eyed me. The minute she asked that question another voice began to speak.
"This girl?" The voice said as she scoffed. I looked over at the girl and she was also wearing a cheer leading uniform and was a little taller than Emily just like me.
"As if, first of all you aren't pretty enough or skinny enough for that matter, please do everyone a favor and look in the mirror more often, or maybe the mirrors just kept breaking every time you looked into them." The girl said as everyone around her laughed at me. I ran off into the bathroom as Emily followed. When I saw Emily walk in and hug me I sobbed into her shoulder. No one at my old school had ever been that cruel before. Without any words Emily gave me a comforting look and wiped my eyes with a tissue and helped me clean up.

At the end of the day I met up with Emily by our lockers and we walked towards the doors. "So how are you feeling other than what happened with Janet this morning?" Emily asked. I sighed and just shrugged my shoulders.
"I'm fine, my mom is my drama teacher and thankfully she didn't mention it, not that I wouldn't want her to but everyone would think if I had a problem I'd have her solve it, I just would rather have people not know for now." I said not realizing I was rambling which I usually do when I have a lot on my mind. As we were talking I saw a tall boy with a very grunge like appearance. The boy looked like the lead singer of a 90s alternative band but was extremely attractive. He was also fit with shaggy dirty-blonde hair and I noticed him look at me as he walked out of the school. Emily noticed the whole time I was staring at him.
"That's Paul, not much people know about him just his name and that he is a drama kid, you didn't notice him in your last class?" Emily asked as she looked at him walk out the doors. "No I didn't, I was pretty much reading my mother's schedule and listened to what assignments and plays she is going to have us look over." I said in response.
"Well he's a quiet guy but he is in our grade, I have him in my Math class." Emily said. If he was in in our grade he must have been at least 16 which is exactly how old I am and Emily as well. When he looked at me before walking out he gave me a weary yet solemn look, it was as if he was sad, it looked like he needed someone.

When Emily and I got home I noticed a figure in the upstairs window of the house next to mine and it was him. It was Paul.
"Looks like you're the girl next door." Emily said as she walked towards my door as he looked at me once more. I looked back for a moment and then followed Emily into my house. When I got in my mom had gotten there before us because she drove and my dad was sitting on the couch watching some TV.
"Mom, Dad, I'm home." I said as my mom came into the living room.
"Mom, Dad, this is Emily I met her today at school." I said as I introduced her to my parents.
"Well Emily it is very nice to meet you." My mom said.
"Nice to meet you too Mrs?"
"Mrs. Smith." Emily nodded and shook her hand. After introducing her to my parents we walked up to my room and I dropped my bag by the door.
"So I have to ask...Are you attracted to Paul cause I saw the way he looked at you after school and I saw the way you stared at him." Emily said. I immediately blushed and tried to redirect the conversation.
"Are you staying for dinner? I think my parents liked the fact that I made a friend." I said, she knew exactly what I was trying to do. "Christine I know exactly what you are trying to do right now and it's not gonna work...but yes I'll stay for dinner." She said. I blushed and looked down.
"Maybe I think he's kinda cute but I don't even know him." I said hiding my face. Emily giggled and teased me about my crush.
"If you don't mind me asking, why'd you guys move here?" she asked looking more serious. The was a topic that was hard for me to talk about but I trusted this girl, she was the only person who seemed to notice me all day.
"I had a younger brother...a couple of months ago he went missing and then a couple of weeks later...they-they found his b-body." I said as reared started to stream down my face and Emily immediately hugged me.
"I'm so sorry I asked." She said as she rubbed my back softly as I cried on her shoulder.
"I miss him so much." I said as I hugged her back. I hadn't cried like that over my little brother in a while but I missed and thought of him every single day. After composing myself I looked at her.
"We moved here to start over, home brings back too many memories for us." I said as I showed her a picture of the four of us.
"How old was he?" She asked.
"He was ten years old." I said as I looked at her.

After dinner Emily left and I went up to my room and laid down on my bed. As I looked out my window I noticed her walk into the house that belonged to Paul with a puzzled look on my face but didn't give it another thought. The next morning I caught her at her locker.
"Hey Christy." She said giving me a new nickname.
"Hey, I noticed you walk into Paul's house yesterday after dinner...what was that about?" I asked. Emily sighed and looked at me.
"Fine, he's my twin brother." She said looking at her locker.
"Em, you didn't have to hide that, why did you?" I asked concerned.
"Paul and I...this summer stuff went down with him and Janet and he hasn't been the same since, in all honesty he used to be captain of the football team, after this summer he quit football and has distanced himself from everyone, now he even gets bullied by his former friends." Emily said looking sad.
"What happened?" I asked.
"It's not really my story to tell but it's really affected him." Emily said as the bell rang. "Gotta go, see you soon." Emily said as she walked off.

That day during lunch I noticed Emily sitting with her cheerleader friends and Paul sitting at another table by himself. I closed my eyes, took a breath, and walked over to him.
"Is this seat taken?" I asked. Paul looked up at me with his deep blue eyes that pulled me into them unexpectedly. I felt me cheeks turn warm and pink. Paul nodded and I sat down.
"Hi, I'm Christine, we're in Theatre class together." I said.
"Paul, I know I saw you. You're new right?" He asked.
"Yeah, just moved here this weekend." I responded.
"Welcome to town." He said started to softly smile. I smiled back and looked at him.
"Those green eyes of yours are really pretty." He said as he kept making me blush.
"Thanks." I said barely able to continue speaking. As the hour went on we had a nice conversation about Theatre and about ourselves. When the bell rang we parted way but not before he grabbed my hand and softly placed a kiss on it. When he kissed my hand my legs felt wobbly but I kept my composure until he turned and walked away. As I walked to my locker I hadn't been paying attention and bumped into a girl dropped my books in the process.
"I'm so so- Christine?" A familiar voice asked. "Sophie!?" I asked as we both screamed and hugged each other as people stared at us like we were crazy. Sophie was my bestfriend until she moved away after middle school. I've known her my whole and she was the only one who ever truly understood me.
"What the hell are you doing here? How are your parents and how's Sam?" She asked. My expression quickly turned from joy to sadness in half a second at the mention of my little brothers name.
"Sam passed away this summer, which is why we moved here." I said with a touch of sadness in my voice.
"Oh honey I'm so sorry." Sophie said hugging me. This time I was able to hold back my tears but it still hurt.
"You don't know how much I've missed you Soph." I said hugging her back.
"I missed you too." Sophie said as she let go and looked at me. I looked back and noticed she was wearing the schools cheerleading outfit.
"You're a cheerleader?" I asked.
"Sure am, and you better audition tomorrow after school."
"Oh I'm not sure." I said looking down.
"You better." Soph said as she linked arms with me and walked me to my locker.

When we arrived at my locker I met up with Emily and she saw me with Sophie.
"You two know each other?" She asked.
"We were best friends growing up until she moved here about three years ago." I said. "Small world, I know her from cheer and she has a crush on my older brother who is a senior, captain of the basketball team, and linebacker for the football team." Emily said. "What? He's cute!" Sophie said. Emily, Sophie and I all giggled as the bell rang and we parted ways.

When I arrived to my Theatre class I walked in and Paul had already been there. The only available seat was next to him and I happily made my way to the seat and sat there as I flashed him a quick smile and notice his cheeks turn rosy. I had to admit he was really cute when he blushed. My mother has announced that she was assigning a scene project that required pairs. To my advantage she paired me up with Paul and when she told us to talk to our partners we happily moved our desks together and began discussing the project both happy my mother had paired us together. "Aren't I lucky guy?" He asked smiling.
"I feel luckier."
"No way, it's definitely me." He said. I couldn't help but smile at his words. Paul did something to me, made me smile like never before. Spending time with him was the one thing that has truly made me smile since I lost my little brother.
"You're quite the charmer Paul." I said.
"I have my moments." He said with a smile as I took out my notebook. After that quick exchange we started brainstorming plays that we could use for our scene and needed up choosing none other than Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. When doing Romeo and Juliet the obvious choice is the balcony scene and when we picked that scene we looked up a couple of videos of performances of it and took down some notes for our upcoming in class performance.