The ⚡️Criminal⚡️ And The 🖤Basket Case🖤

Chapter 1:

(John Bender's Perspective)

My relationship with Claire went well for a little while.
Especially since we were no longer trapped in detention and had the opportunity to go on dates.
Well...
She wasn't stuck in detention.
I, however, had many, many Saturday detentions left.
Two months worth.
And that was fine, we'd just go on dates on Sundays or after school.
See, that's what we would do whenever we had problems in the beginning. We would just figure it out.
But at some point along the line that just became really difficult.
And once that happened, we started fighting a lot. Over everything.
We stayed friends with Andy, Allison, and Brian, and would hang out with them a lot of the time.
Claire and I fought over what movies to choose on movie nights with them, we fought about what music to listen to together, what restaurant to go to on dates, where to go with our friend group, everything!
I wanted to believe that it would pass; that this was normal for every relationship.
But if Claire and I were anything like my parents, which was what we were starting to become, then we were doomed from the start.
Which I should've known, anyway.
She's a princess.
I'm a criminal.
I thought back to the conversation that all five of us had about what we thought was going to happen on Monday.
What would happen with me and Claire? I had wondered.
What if I, the criminal, went up to her and all her popular friends on Monday?
They'd be disgusted, right?
Especially when Claire responded.
And that's what she did.
I approached her as she stood at her locker talking to Angie and Samantha and Heather and Michelle and Amy, and I told her hi.
They all looked at me like I had five heads.
But not Claire.
She smiled at me, and said, "hey."
She kissed me.
Her friends' jaws dropped right to the floor.
They all walked away from her.
I walked Claire to her first period class, and the day was good.
We decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend.
I was still wearing the earring she gave me. I remember how I had wanted to keep it forever.
I had never been in love before.
Never.
But I could feel myself falling in love with her, back when our relationship was going well.
She made me feel like a nine year-old getting a first crush.
Little did I know that in a few weeks I'd need to break up with her.