26th June 1986
For the past few days, Kimberley and River had been talking nonstop on the phone, about everything they could think of, everything on their minds, aside from the kiss.
well the almost kiss, neither of them mentioned it, despite the fact that they both wanted to, it was like the eleiphent in the room.
Despite the fact that it had only been a few days, she felt like she could talk to him, which she had never experienced before.
On the phone with him, Kimberley said, "We have to present our Romeo and Juliet river."
He laughed down the phone, "oh right, I kinda forgot about that."
"Well, don't forget it, I'm not going to be able to present it by myself." She gave herself a small smile.
"Don't worry, i won't"
For a brief period, everything was calm until rivers' mother yelled out to him,
"coming," he replied.
"Hey, I've got to go," he said quietly. "I'll probably call you tomorrow, bye kim."
"Bye river," she said quietly as she set her brick phone on her desk.
sitting back and listening to her thoughts,
He made her feel loved and valued.
Kim checked her watch: 10:58 p.m. She needed to be up early but couldn't sleep, and her anxiety hit her like a bag of bricks.
She was terrified to stand in front of her class with River and deliver their English work.
But after she remembered she'd be presenting with River, her nerves calmed down a little, though she was still nervous.
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27th June 1986
Today was the day, second period, when Kimberley Moore would have to stand in front of the class with the river and present her work. Was she nervous? extremely.
She yawned as she yanked her curtains open, only to discover rivers were still shut. She shrugged and continued getting ready.
As she walked into the building and towards her lesson, thoughts raced through her mind.
As she stepped inside her lesson, her heart was racing since she couldn't see river.
There's no need to overthink anything; he might have been late.
She sat quietly at the back of her class, waiting for him to appear, There had been no sign for half an hour, and she only had five minutes before she had to present in English.
Would he leave her to figure things out on her own? Perhaps something has happened, perhaps he has been injured, perhaps-
Her thoughts were snatched away from her.
Her teacher called out, "Kimberley next period," and she looked up, realising she was the only one in class.
This can't possibly be happening.
There's no way he'd do something like this to me.
Kim took a long walk to her next lesson, slowly pulling up her bag and tossing it over her shoulder.
As she moved closer to the door, her heart began to pound faster and faster.
As she came in, hoping to see River, she felt a pang of disappointment at not seeing his face.
Maybe there was still hope that he wouldn't do this, she thought as she sat silently in the corner of the room.
She couldn't concentrate; she overheard people giving speeches about what they'd written, but none of it got through to her; she couldn't take any of it in.
"That was fantastic," Mr Pollack said, scribbling down on his paper.
"Kimberley and river." Mr. Pollack's words made Kim tremble.
There's no way this isn't happening.
"Sir, he's not in, and I won't be able to do it on my own"
"Come on, it'll be alright."
Kim gave me mr pollack a glance before removing her notes from her bag.
She slowly stepped up to the front of the class, aware that all eyes were on her.
She couldn't hear anything, her palms were sweaty
she began,
"Romeo and Juliet is a well- uh well known and interesting storey written by William uh Shakespeare in the Mid-middle Ages" her voice trembled,
"and uh that everyone is fascinated by. In a film, a song, and play, the story-story is mentioned quite a uh lot."
She jerked her gaze away from her papers, and she froze again.
Her heart began to race, and she heard sniggers. She quickly dropped the papers and grabbed her bag, storming out of the room and out the door.
She had tears in her eyes, she'd never been so humiliated before,
She was hurt, and the one person she thought cared about her didn't, so she hurried home, tears streaming down her cheeks.
She wanted to shout and pound on his door and tell him how much she despised what he had just done as she reached her neighbourhood, but she didn't.
She simply walked past and inside her house, closing the blinds and laying down on her bed, recalling the humiliation.
