Reece

One

I fell in love with Dylan Nicholls the first time I saw him. I’m not sure if it was the chocolate colour of his brown eyes, or that dazzling smile, or even the way he said my name. I don’t think it was one thing in particular, but more a combination of things. Like the way he said my name with that smile on his face and that look in his eyes.

It doesn’t matter why I fell in love with Dylan. What’s important is that I’ve spent the last four years irrevocably in love with my best friend.

That whooshing feeling first hit me way back in Year 10 when Mr. Pugh got us to sit in alphabetical order. I was Newham and he was Nicholls- or at least he was one of them. Dylan and Reece Nicholls were the only set of twins in our year, and they both happened to be in my English GCSE class. Luckily for me D trumps R in the alphabet and I got Dylan as my English partner for the next two years.

Until that fateful day I didn’t know much about the Nicholls twins apart from the fact that they were both on the school’s rugby team and all the girls were convinced they were Gods. I knew of them, of course. I may have been a social outcast but I didn’t live under a rock and my ears worked perfectly fine so I got to hear all the gossip. Although, knowing of them and actually knowing them were two completely different things.

Up until Year 10 our class houses rarely mixed. We weren’t segregated or anything like that, but timetabling issues meant that York, Lancaster, Tudor and Stuart had different classes each period so we never crossed paths with kids from other houses. Then GCSE options happen and the Sets system comes into play and suddenly it’s like the whole year quadruples. You go from knowing thirty kids to knowing over a hundred.

I had somehow landed up in the top English set. I’m not sure how that happened because I’m pretty sure I failed the Year 9 test. Anyway, Mr. Pugh taught me in my second year at Middleton High so I was familiar with his alphabetical system, but having students in this class that I hardly knew made it hard for me to guess who my partner would be.

My name was called and I went to sit at the first chair in the third row near the window. My only friend, Erin Hadley, was sat in the chair directly in front of me and threw me a wide eyed stare when Mr. Pugh called out Dylan Nicholls’ name.

“What the hell?” Erin gasped, watching the tall boy stroll over to where I was sat. “How did you end up with Dylan Nicholls, and I got Charlie Ings?”

Charlie Ings must have heard because he muttered under his breath, “And I got lumbered with you. Bitch.”

“Hi,” my new desk buddy said as he took the seat next to me. I looked up and met his stare, momentarily mesmerized by his eyes. I’m pretty sure my mouth was on the floor when he smiled. Damn, he was gorgeous. “I’m Dylan. You’re Cadence, right?”

I couldn’t stop the groan that passed my lips at the sound of my name. My Dad was a Conductor for the National Orchestra before he decided on a change of career, and he stupidly gave my brother, sisters and I ridiculous musical names. Sam, named after Samuel Barber, got off lightly compared to us girls. Melody wasn’t so bad, which left it to Allegra and me to fight it out for the title of Worst Name. Actually, that’s a lie- Allegra was way worse than Candace, but at least Mum made sure we all had names that could be shortened to something normal. At least Allie could be grateful for that.

“Um, it’s Cady, actually,” I smile back at Dylan when I’ve regained the ability to speak.

“Oh,” he nods thoughtfully, taking out his file and pen. “That’s a shame. I liked Cadence, but Cady it is.”