Hearts Connected By String

Chapter 1

I walked into class a week late to the first day of school, trembling with nerves. Everyone was already sat with their attention fixed on easy morning conversation. Though, the second I looked up from my feet to the distracted classroom, a pair of eyes met mine immediately. His eyes were warm, welcoming. They were green, like moss filled forests that have that yellow glimmer of sunlight in them. We stayed there for a moment, just looking. Then eventually, I broke the gaze and turned towards the teacher's desk.

"Hi, I'm Linden Oakley. I think this is the class I'm supposed to be in."

"Okay, give me two seconds to just double check."

I nodded as he looked back down at his computer. I was still overly nervous for the day ahead of me. As I examined my schedule to pass time, I saw that the teacher's name was Mr. Allen. English, I've never been bad at it. I'm actually particularly good. I can write half-good poetry and a damn good short story, but my favourite type of writing has always been music through and through. I'd say overall, English is my favourite subject when you have a good teacher. When they let you be creative and don't stand in your way. I have a good feeling that Mr. Allen will be nothing bad of any sorts. He looks back up at me and smiles with a sigh. Buttoning his tweed blazer as he raises to stand.

"Alrighty, let's get you all set up." He said as he handed me three small packets of worksheets. "I'm going to get you to sit right here next to Elijah. He'll be able to get you caught up on all the work." Mr. Allen pointed to the boy with the glorious eyes as the sound of his name drew his attention away from his scribbled on notebook. He looked to meet my eyes and his lips started to curve into a tight small smile that looked as it would pounce off his lips.

I went to sit down as Mr. Allen turned back to his desk and Elijah never broke the gaze. Once I put my bag down and settled into my seat, I turned to face him.

"It's actually just Eli." He says lightly.

"Hi Eli." I greeted with an oddly cheesy smile that seemed to make his smile grow even wider. "I'm Linden."
"Nice to meet you." He replied still smiling.

His eyes held a sense of hope, that everything would be okay. Almost like he knew what I was feeling, like his eyes were consoling me. It felt like we were looking at each other for hours, and hours. In complete honesty, I probably could.

Mr. Allen called class to order and didn't mention that I had newly arrived to the class, which I was thankful for. They were still working on icebreaker type activities. I didn't miss much. Eli sat close to me, not too close, but enough to notice. I peeked over at his notebook. It was scribbled with cartoon doodles and cursive writing. They all had names written under them in their own unique font. Grazing over it once more, I saw that one of the doodles was named Mr. Allen. I held chuckle in my chest. The cartoon had buggy eyes and the apparently classic tweed blazer with his messy, poorly swept hair.

I had completely forgot that Mr. Allen had been talking, I was so deep in thought. He called on me next for todays icebreaker. I quickly glanced at the board to see "Your favourite poem?" written boldly in marker. Without a second of thought, I started to recite the ending of When Love Arrives by Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye.

"'Do not forget this / Love is not who you are expecting / Love is not who you can predict / Maybe Love is in New York already asleep / You are in California, Australia, wide awake. / Maybe Love is always in the wrong timezone / Maybe Love is not ready for you / Maybe you are not ready for Love. / Maybe Love just isn't the marrying type / Maybe the last time you see Love is 20 years after the divorce / Love looks older now but just as you remember / Maybe Love is only there for a month / Maybe Love is there for every firework. Every birthday party. Every hospital visit / Maybe Love stays / Maybe Love shouldn't.'"