Philo

CHAPTER ONE

"Paisley. Paisley!..." I opened my eyes, and everything was blurry. I closed them, and suddenly felt a burning of light on my eyes. My eyes shot open. "Paisley Rose! Wake up or I'm gonna have to drag you out by your toes!" It was my mom. I recognized that threat because she used it ever since I was 5, and I would jump out of my bed in horror. She threw open my closed curtains and light shot out right onto my eyes. "Go ahead." I moaned. Being 15 instead of 5, it's not very threatening anymore, but I got up anyway.
Today was the first day of public school, and it's been a month since my older sister, Lily, got stabbed to death. Despite the fact that I didn't want to go, I got dressed into my favorite outfit anyway. It was a pastel pink sleeveless top with a collar, and a short black skirt, with a silver belt. Just because I really didn't want to go doesn't mean I can't look good. I practically dragged myself to the bathroom to brush my teeth and do my hair in low pigtails. Then I dragged myself to the kitchen, even though I wasn't hungry. My mom noticed my movements. "What's with you today? You look like a rag doll!" I gave her a death stare. "BOYS." Boys. That's the reason. The public school, Earnchester, has 70% boys, unlike my old private school, Verton, which had 40 boys out of 200 students, so it tells me one thing. "It's gonna be hell..." I said quietly to myself. Its not that I'm mean to boys, like if they ask me something I'll answer it like I'd answer to a girl, but if they start a conversation, and my heart beats faster, I get out of there. It's gonna be almost impossible to avoid love. Thinking about that, I shivered. My mom saw my shivering. "Paisley... You don't have 'philophobia'. You're just... Nervous. You can't let that get in the way." My mom's "comforting" did not work. I HAVE PHILOPHOBIA. What is that you ask? It's the fear of falling in love. Girls teased me about it, yet what they don't know is that love is getting stuck in a cage in your heart, where the only person that can get you out is that certain person. That certain person can either open the cage door and accept you, leave you there forever, or, which I fear the most... Crush you and the cage, the heart with it.
As soon as I got ready, I ran out the door, grabbing my light blue backpack with a beanie baby keychain into my mom's truck. We drove for 15 min to Earnchester. My mom tried to comfort me. "Baby girl, don't worry! You're going to make a lot of friends!" I looked at her with slight annoyance. "Life isn't a musical mom. I won't just get friends like that."
"You can make it a musical if you believe!"
"Okay. I'll start singing and everyone else will join me."
"Paisley Rose..." More silence. My mom spoke again. "You know I was popular at your age!"
"Really? I didn't know you were popular with dinosaurs."
"Oh haha, Paisley." Usually if kids are called by there full name they're in trouble, but if I'm just called Paisley by my mom, the best thing to do is shut up.
Going to a private school since 3rd grade, I thought the public school would be a crappy stack of bricks, but as soon as it came to view, my jaw dropped like a gumball. The school was two stories, white and blue with a big picture of an arrow boldly painted on the side of the building, with a big sign in the entrance that said, "Welcome Earnchester Arrows!" Grass and big, tall trees were everywhere, and students were cramming into the building, skateboarding, biking, driving. The "crappy stack of bricks" turned out to be more luxurious than my private school.
"Bye dear! Make some friends!" My mom said and gave me a kiss. As I saw my mom drive away, I stared at the building for too long a time, because when I saw my watch, it was 7:55. And class started at 8. "Crap!" I yelled as I ran in, hoping that I'd make it. Sadly, my clumsiness got me into trouble. I climbed up the stairs, but before I got through the door, I ran into someone and fell backwards. We tumbled down the stairs onto the grass under a big tree. I moaned, rubbing my throbbing head, and tried to get up. I couldn't. Something was on my legs, and to my surprise, the person I ran into was laying down on my legs, it's head on my stomach, and chest on my waist. I wouldn't be to bothered about it if it weren't for the fact that... It was a boy. Red faced, I tried to push him off, but he didn't budge. He was too heavy. And he wasn't moving at all. I think I killed him. Yet soon after he started to moan and rubbed the back of his head. He then pushed himself up, but not far enough, because he was still over me. He looked confused. He than examined me, looking me up and down, then smirked. "Well, this position might get us into trouble." The wind shook the tree we were under. I looked at him with shock. How can he be so calm? We're late to class, and the position we're in is making my face burn up. Also the fact that I was wearing a skirt didn't help. "Uh, yea. Could you get off?" He slowly got off, and we both got up and started to walk into the building. He looked like my age, with brown hair that's short, yet long enough to look flowy, had green hazel eyes, and was well built. He had a slightly loose black shirt on with jeans. Handsome, but not in my eyes. "I'm Carson. Carson James. People want to call me CJ, but it sounds like a name idiots use. How about you?" I glanced at my watch. 7:59. This was not the time to talk. "Paisley. Paisley Rose." I said as quick as I can. "Paisley Rose... Enough to make my heart flutter." He smiled at me. I did NOT have enough time to hang out with a flirt. "I'm going." I ran to class, feeling a little guilt that I left him behind. I barely making it before the bell rang. Something tells me this year will not be what I expected. And I was right.