Stan P.O.V.
It wasn't a big deal. Moving to a new school and living out my last 4 years of official education. Every adult I met kept asking me if I was excited to start high school. Yes, of course, I was so excited to go to 80 minute classes with a bunch of high and/or hormonal teenagers. But hey, don't knock it until you try it, I guess. I hoped I'd find some people I knew, or that had similar interests to me.
Sure.
When I walked into the class, the teacher seemed to be preparing to give a welcome-to-high-school-its-not-scary speech. Taking a seat, my phone dinged and at least half the class looked at me.
"Phones are allowed in the school. But please not during class. Ringers off." The teacher informed and smiled.
I didn't know anyone. But I knew my friend Eddie went here. I texted him before orientation asking him to hang out at lunch.
(Eddie K): Meet me in the commons @ lunch
(Me): sure
I couldn't wait until lunch.
Two 80 minute classes; English then Math. Then we were excused for lunch. There was no bell. Less room for that "...the bell doesn't dismiss you, I do", bullshit from teachers, I guess. I walked down the staircase and down the hall of my pretty average sized school, heading to the basic centre of the school where most hung out during spares or at lunch.
"Stan!" I heard a faint call through the loud conversations of other kids. I turned in a circle figuring out where the voice came from. It took me a minute before I saw Eddie kneeling on his chair, waving his arm at me in a welcoming manner.
I walked over and sat down with a couple other kids that were with him. I though it was safe to assume he only met these kids today, he's always seemed to have a surprisingly attracting personality when it came to making friends. I smiled politely waiting for some introductions.
"New friends?" I asked, fake betrayal on my face. "Trying to replace me?"
Eddie shook his head and scoffed playfully.
"This is Bill, and this is Richie." Eddie grinned at me. Bill said hi and Richie popped some finger guns.
We ate lunch peacefully, talking about basic things... what classes they had, teachers they did or did not like so far, etc.
"What classes do you losers have after lunch?" Richie asked, seeming to like hanging out with everyone there.
We all pulled out our schedules.
"I have Gym and then English." Eddie said, cringing when he mentioned PE.
Bill replied with, "Gym then Drama." Eddie glared at him with hope, realizing that Bill would be there with him for gym.
"French and then Guitar." Richie told us.
"Wait there's a guitar class?" Eddie questioned.
"You betcha, Ed's. Its one of my electives." Richie said and continued to eat.
Eddie nodded, "Not sure I like that nickname..."
"Wait Bill you said you have Drama at the end of the day?" I asked him nervously, though I didn't know why.
"Yeah."
"Oh ok, yeah, me too. Wanna meet here in the commons before and walk together?"
Bill nodded in reply.
The banter kept on until Eddie pointed out that Lunch was over. Everyone forgot there was no bell, so we all ended up being late, oops.
I had Band (I played the Trumpet) then it was Drama time. I walked into Drama and saw an empty seat next to Bill. Sitting beside him, I noticed there was no teacher yet, but class should've started already. Immediately, some kid said, "If she's 15 minutes late you know we can leave right?" Groans followed the statement, everyone knowing it wasn't true.
The teacher walked in soon after and we started doing acting exercises. I loved acting. It was just fun. Bill thought so, too. He told me while we had talked before the teacher arrived and started to tell us about clubs like production, Improv, etc. Bill and I decided to join Improv together.
The teacher had a small hat full of papers. She said that each one had a relationship on it, (romantic, friendship, family, professional, etc) and we had to create a 30 second-1 minute scene revolving around the type of relationship. Me and Bill decided to be partners, because we didn't know anyone else.
Of course, by our fate, we pulled out the paper that said "romantic". I decided not to bring up that this could get awkward and just roll with it, thinking maybe it'll be fun. We just stood silent while everyone else started working on their scenes.
"Have any ideas?" I asked, attempting to make things less weird since we really didn't know each other that well.
"Yeah... kinda." Bill shrugged shyly.
"Ok great let's hear it."
"Let's just do something super cliché and basic," He started. I rolled my hand to tell him to continue. As he said, the scene he described was very cliché. But I didn't care; it was our first class so we just did something simple. After everyone finished and presented, me and Bill went last.
"Anything you wanna say before you start? Or you just wanna go for it?" The teacher asked kindly.
"Uh, our presentation is a representation of love at first sight." Bill said. His presenter voice was louder than I thought it would be.
We stood up and went to opposite ends of the room. We began walking and pretended to fall as our shoulders bumped. We broke character immediately and started giggling, just like many other groups did. Then, still on the ground, we (poorly, to be honest) acted mad.
"Watch where you're going!" I said, as planned.
Bill acted lost and distracted as he stared at me, just like he said he would.
"Hello? I said watch where you're going!" I waved around, making some kids laugh.
"Sorry. You distracted me. You're- uh- youRe eyeS ARe prEttY!" Bill said awkwardly. He was so funny, I thought he should really take up acting.
I acted weirded out and stood before I turned to leave the scene. Bill stayed on the ground looking sad and defeated. This made some of the girls "awww", which made me roll my eyes.
Bill let out a sigh, which we discussed as my cue to turn around. We quickly walked back to each other and froze as we looked into each other's eyes. I felt waves of emotion flush over me like seeing true love for the first time.
Acting though, for the scene...
We stared for a few seconds then smiled, holding hands then hugging. Then happily skipping away together. We laughed at how stupid we probably looked then sat back down. Giggling with other classmates before they have the required applause like for every group.
"That was so dumb oh my god." I said still laughing.
"I know, what the hell." Bill replied, quieter.
"You're a good actor though, for real." He complimented me.
At that moment, I almost completely forgot that the emotions I felt during the scene were supposed to be fake.
We both stopped laughing.
"Yeah... thanks. You- you too." I smiled.
He smiled back. And I felt it again.
A/N: this was bad but ok :')
