Monday. The beginning of another week of school. Kids were always quieter on Mondays as they still struggled to awaken from their weekend hibernation. Of course this naturally meant that Mr. Sturges had scheduled a vocab quiz for today. "Use the whole weekend to study." Who the heck were teachers kidding when they said that? They knew kids weren't going to study. It was all some sick joke to them. To watch students walk in with glazed eyes on a Monday, only to see their faces of terror when they realized they had a quiz that they had forgotten about over the weekend. The mass panic as they flipped through notes, desperately trying to cram in as much information as possible to hopefully pass with at least a B. Teachers were psychopaths.
Finley grabbed the vocab book from her locker, before scanning the tiny rectangular prison for where her pencil had rolled to. She had just located it, wedged under her chemistry notebook, when a shoulder lightly banged into the locker next to hers as a boy leaned against it.
"Hey."
Her eyes glanced over as she took in the boy next to her. His body language radiated confindence as he leaned against the locker in his zip up hoodie that he wore over a black T-shirt and— his hair. His hair was unlike anything she had ever seen before, dyed blue and styled in a mohawk. For the first time she looked at his face and nearly gasped in surprise at the baby blue eyes staring back at her. Her mouth ran dry and she licked her lips, trying think of anything other than "holy crap" to say to him. A smirk graced the boy's face at her dumbstruck look.
"What do you think?"
Even his voice was louder and more confident. He pushed himself upright and held his hands slightly up in front of him in a questioning manner before he spun on his heel in a circle, displaying his new look.
"It's- it's definitely different." Finley wanted to slap herself at how stupid that sounded.
He frowned slightly. "You don't like it?"
"No no no!" Finley tried to recover quickly. "It's not that. It's just a lot of change to take in at once, you gotta give me a minute to get used to it. But... you look good Eli. The confidence suits you."
She smiled at him. A genuine smile, as she realized she was still looking into his eyes. He stood up straighter and his head was held high. The confidence really was a breath of fresh air with him.
"It's Hawk now."
Her brow furrowed in confusion. "What?"
"My name. Sensei gave it to me the other day and I'm keeping it. So you can call me Hawk now."
The smile on her face faltered for a split-second. Worry flooding her brain that the boy in front of her was no longer the Eli that she knew and— But she shut the thought out of her brain. He was still the same guy, just with a new look.
"Well I have a vocab quiz to get to but, it was nice seeing you Hawk."
His new name was still foreign to her, but based on the giant grin that came onto his face, she knew she was going to get used to it. As she walked to class she sent a text to Miguel.
Finley
Umm... Hawk?????
Miguel🕷
I was going to tell you
but I felt like you had to
see him for yourself
Finley
What happened?
Miguel🕷
Sensei made fun of him
again at practice the other
day and he ran out. He
showed up the next day
like that
Finley didn't respond as she sat down at her desk. Honestly she was still trying to process it all. But she had to admit, he looked good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Look I'm telling you- we shared a moment." Miguel leaned forward, his forearms pressing against the lunch table as he tried to convey his point.
Finley arched an eyebrow at the boy next to her. She wasn't entirely convinced this "moment" wasn't solely in his head, after all, crushes can cloud judgement. The thought caused her eyes to dart over to boy that sat on the other side of their little friend half-circle around the lunch table. The blue Mohawk still took her by surprise, but the baby blue eyes were still the same, and he was still Eli.
"It was not a moment." Demetri spoke, annoyance laced with cynicism dripping from his tongue.
"Right, because you have such insight." Miguel said rolling his eyes.
"I was there." Demetri said emphasizing with his hand in a duh voice. "I think that gives me pretty good insight."
Finley couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter. All 3 boys turned to look at her. She shrugged and looked at Miguel.
"So you let her be in your group, she thanked you for standing up to Kyler while simultaneously also critiquing your karate technique, and then offered you a banana?" Finley recapped with raised eyebrows asking if she got it all correct.
Miguel nodded adamantly. "Yes. But when she critiqued me it was in a playful, flirty way."
Finley tilted her head in thought. It certainly seemed that Sam was into him, but this was also all from Miguel's perspective. The little insight that Demetri could offer was skewed by his cynicism, so that didn't really help.
"I don't know." Finley offered a shrug. "It could be something, it could be nothing. I would just wait it out and see if you can get a clearer idea of how she feels."
"You gotta strike first man. Just like sensei says." Hawk spoke up as he leaned back in his chair.
"You really think that applies to girls too?"
Hawk shrugged. "Ask him at practice today."
The lunch bell rang, saving Finley from giving anymore horrible advice. She knew nothing about boys and the current state of her crush life should be a red flag to anyone thinking she knew anything. Miguel threw out his trash and walked with her as their next classes were next to each other.
"You didn't say a word to him that entire time." Miguel spoke rather softly considering they were in a crowded hallway.
"Was there something I was supposed to say?" Finley glanced at him as she stopped at her locker, spinning the correct combination into the lock.
"No not really." A silence lulled between them for about 20 seconds, but right before Finley shut her locker Miguel spoke again. "Do you still like him, with the whole Hawk change?"
The locker closed and the pair began walking again. "He's still Eli isn't he? I think it's great that he's happier with the boost in confidence and if it takes a mohawk to do that then so be it."
Miguel nodded. "Good. Then our deal is still on that when I ask Sam out, you have to tell Hawk how you feel."
Finley almost froze in the middle of the hallway, her eyes widening. "No no no."
"Yes yes yes." Miguel grinned at her. "And because I'm such an angel, I will wait until Friday to ask her out so you have time to prepare yourself."
"You're the freaking devil Diaz." Finley muttered before they split to go to their separate classes.
🥋
Ayyyyyy Hawk has finally entered the story!! Thank you all for reading ❤️
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Drowning
Fanfiction"I know he went off the deep end okay? I'm not blind to that, believe me. But I also see that he is drowning, not because he can't swim, but because he has lost sight of the shore and has no idea which way he is supposed to swim." ~~~~~~~~ Finley Co...
