Once Upon a Summer

Once Upon A Time

Parties, boyfriends, a tad bit of studying and loads of fun. That's what a typical 15 year old girl's life consisted of. But not mine, I was different, I wasn't one of them. Being popular was something I'd never experienced, I mean barely anyone even knew me. Other girls put hours and hours into shopping, getting the perfect bikini body, making sure their winged eyeliner looked flawless and chilling with their friends. And then there was me, boring, nerdy Lily James, the one who aced all of the pop quizzes and didn't mind getting extra homework. I was pretty much a loner, I had a few friends and a couple of other "friends" who just seemed to love me whenever we got extra homework and stuff. Here in Eastwood High everyone was judged and ranked based on our social status and I was right at the very bottom. Most of the 'Plastics' (WADDUP MEAN GIRLS REFERENCE) were pretty stupid except for this one guy, Jake McCullers. He wasn't like the rest of them, he was much more different, a lot sweeter and smarter. I don't know what it was but there was just something special about him, something that seemed to draw me to him.

It was the last week of August yet it wasn't even that hot here in Toronto. So I decided to head to the park and read, 'The Fault in Our Stars.' It was only around 8:30am so the park was fairly empty, I seated my self (or rather lied down) on a bench under a shady tree. Only around twenty minutes had passed when I heard a voice. 'Excuse me, could you move over?' It was a boy's voice. Peeking out of my book I see a boy around my age, who probably went to my school standing in front of me asking me to move over. 'Oh.. uh of course I'm sorry,' I stutter sitting up properly again. He chuckles, 'Thanks!' I continue reading from where I left off but he doesn't seem to want to stop talking. 'So what's your name? Not to seem stalkerish or anything but my little sister Emma wanted to go to the park and I gotta stay here with her and it's quite boring so I thought maybe you could keep me company?' he explained. This was new to me, people never asked me my name and barely anyone talk to me even if they were dying of boredom. 'Lily!' I reveal. 'Lily......?' motioning for me to continue. 'Lily James!' I say trying to sound somewhat confident. 'Well Lily James, I'm Jake McCullers,' he introduces himself reaching out to shake my hand. I hesitantly shake his hand. 'So what's up Lily James? Do you live around here or something?' he curiously asks me. 'Um yeah, I live near my school, Eastwood High,' I answer. 'No way!' he exclaims,' I go to Eastwood too, but I've never seen you before,' he looks confused.
'Jake! Jake! Jake! I wanna go on the swings push me! Push me! Push me!' a little girl's voice cries. 'That's my sister be right back Lily James,' he says as he jogs over to his younger sister.
I glance over to where he was standing, as he cheerfully pushed his adorable little sister on the swings. No boy I knew would do something like that, take their younger siblings out anywhere. They were far too afraid of being judged. But Jake whoever he was, clearly wasn't like the other boys, there was something about him that made him special, something that made him stand out, something that maybe kind of sorta even made me find him a bit just a little teensy weensy bit attractive....