Stardust Romantics

Risks Of The Fall

Somehow, I'd made it to Junior year. My "new " classmates saw their sole purpose in life, to make mine miserable. I had survived to the year, the world as we knew it was said, to end. The year 2012. My cerebral paralysis was why I was constantly bullied. The fact I was rejected and held back, for a year did not help my case either, so I was mastering the art, of blending with my surroundings instead. I had a total of 3 friends, none in my class, a huge stack of books to keep me company, and headphones, to isolate me from the world long enough to, help me get through high school, like a wallflower.

My favorite pastime was observing. Watching those who found me invisible.

I'd never worked out the courage, to let William in my world, or knock on the door of his own. He kept spying on me from afar, I kept pretending I couldn't see any of it.

He had a passion for astronomy, that rubbed off on me yet, I had put my own touch on my approach. It seemed best, we both have clear borders in this world of shared pleasure activity. I was a champion wallflower, he was the classic outsider, thus getting in each other's hair and stealing the science spotlight, could end up as a disaster at best.

To make matters worse, my clique consisted of the guys from my former class. Essentially, I had a human shield around me all the time. Gossip and ugly rumors spread about me, with the speed of light, regardless of my efforts .to stay under the radar.

Lurking behind me, one of the bullies, Mike startled me.

"Would you look at that! Clara, the wallflower has a crush on William, the outsider!"

"Leave me alone Peter!"

"Are you seeing, what I am seeing Pete?"

Elizabeth, the queen bitch, or as I personally saw her - The wicked witch of the halls, emerged from the shadows. I didn't make a sound. No matter how hard I worked, to keep my feelings under wraps, the hounds that were my classmates had managed to sniff them out.

"You know what?" She smirked, clearly trying to get under my skin. "I tried to flirt with home, but he is such a hermit! " Her scarecrow-sized nails captured a strand of my misplaced hair. "You'd never be a competition prude!"

"At least, I am not running for the Potential Teen Mom Of The Year Award, slut!"

Her face was priceless! Fury-green had never looked so good on anyone. A sudden wave of confidence took over my body and I yanked myself free from their grasp.

"On second thought, you two are perfect for each other!" She hissed and disappeared, barely as fast as she'd appeared.

                                                                                  * * *

Model UN.

Politics was light-years from being my calling, but a voice in my head persuaded me to apply for the debate team face-offs. At the very least, it looked good on colleague applications and I needed the extra credit. Turned out, the competition was a magnet to the black sheep of the school's ecosystem. By some bizarre trick of faith, out of the whole school, William Goldheart was my teammate, and moreover, we were finalists a few hours later, meant to go to Strasbourg, France next month. This whole arrangement, meant the next three weeks of my life, were now, to my dismay tied to the schedule of a guy, who was the textbook definition of a loner.

"Clara! Clara! We are going to Strasbourg together.... Uh, I mean as a team!"

I couldn't make up my mind, just yet if this settlement putting the weight of representing the state in France, in Model UN together with my fellow underdog was a blessing or a curse.

"Hi Will! Seems like it!"

"They took a vote on who, will give the oral essay and I am giving you the microphone."

I don't know what came over me, but I wrapped my arms around him, and he let me do so.

"Thank you, for trusting me with it!" I only managed to whisper.

"You are yet, to meet either duo, but our topic is Ecology and Sustainable Living. I figured it was your comfort zone."

"How exactly, did you peace that together?" I arched a brow, genuinely shocked.

                                                                             * * *

The next day, preparations for the trip began. The days to the take-off slipped away in practice debates and after-school training. All I concerned myself with, considering my all of the sudden social calendar, overloads were the tickets and time of take-off.

California -New York -Paris, 4-hour stay on the airport, Paris-Strasbourg with the road trip school bus, getting us to the NY airport.

The night before the trip, I felt like a werewolf, possessed by the full moon. Emotions were running too high. Developing personal fears to a guy, who barely got out 3 sentences in a school year, was one thing. Having to represent their state alongside him, in an animated conversation and debate in front of political power figures and a jury, is an entirely different story.

I grabbed "Eva Luna" by Isabel Allende from my nightstand, letting the silver moonlight shimmer kiss my skin, as I waited on the first ray of sunlight. Books always provided me a safe space, for my scattered thoughts.

"Are you ready, to go?" my mind registered my mother's voice, snapping out of the story between the pages, and back to my current version of reality.

It was barely the break of dawn when we reached the high school, and the already set up for duty, school trip bus, standing out in a color, too bright for its surroundings.

"I still don't know how you are going to handle yourself, to be honest," My mother's incoherent, unabridged boycott of my leaving her for a week unsupervised, filled the space.

"You do realize, there are going to be other students and teachers there with us, the whole time, right?" Without waiting for a second longer, I grabbed my backpack and jumped out of the car.

"I was looking all over for you... partner!"

"Seems like you are, developing a habit of doing so, lately!"

"I know where to find you, don't I?" With a swift gesture, when grabbed my backpack in his free arm."Will, we've been budding heads about this for weeks! I am perfectly capable of carrying my own bags!"

Unless a meteor hit the earth, I had landed in an alternate universe, where legendary loner William, actually initiated the conversation."Here I am!"

Oh, God! Knowing my mother, this woman was already planning or wedding at this point!

"I hope you don't mind, but I switched seats with Ivan Carter and now we are next to each other, so we can go over our talking points and notes ..." He finally realized we had company and went completely numb.

"Oh, excuse me Mrs . Jones! How inconsiderate of me!" He bowed in my mother's direction. " William Goldheart, your daughter's escort and partner for this trip. The pleasure to meet you is all mine!"

Silver lining: My mother seemed, just as bewildered by his actions as I am because her eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her face, at the sight of a teenage boy, dressed in a vintage suit, taking a bow before her, as we'd suddenly jumped back in time a couple of centuries.

The hours flew by, as I slept through almost the entire bus ride, given I couldn't catch a blink of sleep the previous night. For better or worse, the trip was on.