Cherry

𝕠𝕟𝕖

Junior year was wild. To start it off, my best friend had just moved to Washington from across the country—Florida to be precise—so I already knew that this school year was going to be the best one yet.

Sylvia was the fun one in the relationship. She would drag me to parties on the beach whenever I visited her in Florida in the summers. There was one time the summer after my freshman year, I went to a party with her and I almost had my first kiss with a guy I met there, but I got scared and pulled away. I've regretted it ever since then.

This past summer I was only able to visit for a week because my parents were making me get a job over the summer. They told me that if I could hold down a job then I was responsible enough to own a car. I'd just gotten my license in March and I'd been driving my mom's car since then.

By the summer's end, I did have my own car—technically—my parents just hadn't signed the paperwork before the school year started, so I drove my mom's car to school the first week since she worked from home.

As I walked through the front doors of the high school, I took a deep breath in. My underclassman years were behind me now and they were pathetic, to say the least. I hadn't cared about my grades or being social, or anything for that matter. I made a few friends—Joslyn, Owen, Cody, Ivan, and Avery were the main ones—but being in such a small school with only a couple hundred students spread throughout all four grades, you kind of knew everyone—whether or not you wanted to.

As I let that deep breath escape my lungs, my eyes landed on Sylvia Reyes. My best friend since the age of five was actually going to school with me again, this was insane. She practically threw her backpack off her shoulder and ran forward when she saw me.

"Ren, oh my god, I've missed you!" She exclaimed while hugging me and kissing my cheek aggressively. I giggled and hugged her back.

"I missed you more!" I said as we pulled out of the hug. "I can't believe you're actually here! How was the move? Do you like living here yet? What-"

"Renny, chill, I've been here two days!" She laughed and went to pick up her backpack, which lay on the floor about ten feet behind us. "I'm still living among a thousand boxes," she said as we began our walk toward our lockers. "But don't worry, you can be the first to show me all the best places..."

Sylvia's voice faded away as I locked eyes with someone as we passed each other, walking through the hallway, early that Wednesday morning.

His eyes started at mine and then drug themselves down my body. When his eyes met mine again, he smirked, then he was gone around a corner. I felt shivers run down my spine.

"Oh my god," I spoke quietly to myself.

"What?" I heard Sylvia ask beside me. I shook my head briskly and looked at her. Eyes wide as the Grand Canyon. My mouth hung open. I couldn't find the words. "Good lord, Renee, what happened? You look like you've just seen a ghost." She questioned again and I just stared blankly until I found the words.

"Have I ever mentioned Charlie Connors?" I said, finally finding the words once we reached her locker.

"Mmm, maybe once," she pondered aloud while stuffing notebooks and binders in her locker—which, remarkably, took her less than half a second to unlock. "Like, Freshman year or something. What about him?"

"He just scaled my entire body with his eyes as we passed each other," I stated unbelieving.

"That's because you're hot, Ren," she stated giving me a once-over. "I've told you this."

"Yea but you just say that because you're my best friend and you have to," I retorted as we made our way to our first class—which we happened to share.

"Ren, I've literally told you so many times that if you weren't so goddamn straight I'd be all over you," she spoke plainly with a shrug as we walked into the Spanish classroom. "You're just hot,"

"Who's hot?" Marisol Castillo asked pulling up a chair next to us as we sat down. She sat on it backwards. Now she was hot. Mari was the daughter of the Spanish teacher and a year below me. She was one of the most popular girls in the whole school upon her arrival her freshman year. Everybody loved Mari. Rightly so, she did have the best personality I'd ever seen. I envied her for that. She was absolutely gorgeous. She sported dirty blonde, caramelized, hair she got from her mother, who was only half Spanish, but she got everything else from her father—thick, but beautiful, eyebrows, natural curls that weren't too kinky but weren't too loose, a charming smile with perfect lips, the most gorgeous shade of brown you'd ever seen in anyone's eyes, and the perfect athlete's body. She was quite perfect.

"Ren," Sylvia stated smiling at her and then smirking at me.

"Who's Ren?"

"Renny!" Sylvia shouted at me, slapping my shoulder.

"What?!" I responded innocently, rubbing my shoulder.

"I've been calling Renee 'Ren' our entire lives," she told Mari.

"Ay dios mío, I love that!" She looked at me excitedly. "I'm going to call you that from now on, why haven't you just gone by that?"

"I dunno," I shrugged shyly. "Sylvia's just called me that my whole life but she's like my sister so I just thought of it as a family nickname,"

"Guay! Well, I'll never call you Renee again, Ren is so much cooler! If you don't mind that is?"

"No, that's fine, I don't mind," I smiled at her kindly. Besides Sylvia calling me Ren ever since I've known her, I've never really had another nickname. Sure like casual terms of endearment from my parents, but that's it. My friend's always just called me Renee.

"Bueno, sí Ren, estás muy buena. Caliente!" She said making the chef's kiss gesture towards me. I blushed slightly. If Marisol Castillo considered me hot, I could die happy.

"I agree," Sylvia spoke up. "Charlie Connors was just checking her out, so clearly, he thinks the same," she said while checking me out herself.

"Qué?! Ay dios mío, Ren, I forgot he mentioned you to Jackson at practice over the summer," a cunning smile spread across her cheeks. Sylvia gasped dramatically.

"Oh please," I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "You're just pulling my leg,"

"No! No soy, I'm not. ¡Lo juro! I swear!" Every time I heard Mari mix languages to defend herself I had to hold back my laughter. It was my favourite thing to witness. "It was at the end of the summer, some point in August, he said he'd seen you in the health market and did a double take on you. Said you got hot,"

Oh my god, that was true. I couldn't keep a smile from climbing its way across my face.

"Well," she corrected "I lied,"

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"He didn't say you exactly..."

"Marisol..."

"He just said there was a girl working at the health market that was really hot and I just assumed it was you because I'd seen you working there over the summer—plus you're the only attractive one who works there," she put her hands up in surrender. "Lo siento, don't hate me"

"So... he didn't recognize me?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Ren, this gives you a chance to start over!" Sylvia piped in.

"True..." I thought out loud.

"Buenos dias, clase!" Mrs. Castillo spoke as the final bell rang and we all turned to her attention. Well, except for the sophomore boys in the far corner of the classroom. "Boys..." she kindly demanded. Surprisingly, they listened. "I'd like to welcome you all to Español, nivel dos,"

"Guys, that means Spanish Level Two!" The smartass Sophomore girl, Reena, shouted from the front.

"Sí, that is correct Miss Turner,"

Everyone's voices faded away and all I could think about was my encounter with Charlie Connors in the hallway this morning. Then I started to think about how easy it would be for me to take advantage of the fact that he didn't recognize me. This was going to be an interesting year, that's for sure.