Always & Forever

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

2006 – Anthony’s POV

School’s always been boring and fairly crap for me, I have a good group of friends – But I’m far from what you would call popular. I don’t feel the need to constantly strive to impress people and make others happy at the expense of myself – or worse – someone else. I’d rather spend my time with my friends and out of the spot light. I’ve spent my entire school life living like this and this year wasn’t going to be any different. I liked my little bubble, and planned on staying there where it was comfortable and safe. My little world, with my friends wasn’t nasty and drama filled. Sure the girls in our group had their own share of teenage crap, but compared to the ‘Popular’ kids, there drama was nothing. People who don’t know me might wrongly think that I don’t say much, but when I’m not speaking,tt means I am listening, probably more then people would ever expect. I hear the way those “popular” kids speak about each other when they aren’t around, I hear the way they tear each other down. No thank you, I will stick to playing cricket and discussing the latest Football scores with like minded people. I have a good group of friends, and if I’m being totally honest, I’m the ring leader of my group and that had been that way since Year 7. I was happy with that, I certainly didn’t want to be shoved onto a hierarchy or constant ups and downs depending on you Myspace top 8. I go to school, I come home, I go on MSN and Myspace, I go to bed and repeat it all over again. I like my life, my simple drama free life with my simple drama free friends.

I’m 15, well at least for another 5 weeks, and I have it pretty easy. I live with my mum, grandmother and my very annoying ‘perfect’ older sister. I think part of the reason I hate school so much is the teachers expectations that I will be like my sister. Samantha is smart, does her homework and what she’s told. I am smart, don’t do my homework and spend more time on my phone and iPod then paying attention to the teachers. I can do the work and get okay grades, but that doesn’t mean I need to suck up to the teachers like my sister. We may be related but we are two totally different people. Anyway, I’m Anthony Paterson, I’m more interested in who won the footy then getting straight A’s and having good friends not popular friends. I like to think I’ve got things pretty stable and down pat. Thank god for that.

Year 10 is the first year you really get to pick your subjects, I mean really pick them. I chose the subjects that I thought would be the easiest, I don’t know what I want to do after school, I’m 15 for gods sake. I want to bludge, get good grades with minimal effort and a positive outcome in the end. And that my friends, is exactly how I landed myself in Drama. Ergh, getting up in front of people and speaking out loud No thanks, some of the “popular” kids in my class would ensure I tripped up somewhere, the longer I can stay off their radar the better. Like I said, I like my simple life just the way it is. Sitting in the corner of the first Drama class for the year, I was hiding my iPod from the teacher and playing snake on my phone, my attempt at being about as inconspicuous as possible. My mates Chris and Adrian were sitting beside me essentially doing the exact same thing. None of us wanted to be here because we liked Drama, we were here for the easy pass.

Feeling eyes on me, I resisted the urge to look up, assuming it was the teacher, I tucked my phone away and turned my head phoned ear away from view, pretending to discuss the activity at hand with my mates. Looking up and seeing the teacher meant confirming I wasn’t doing what we were meant to be doing. It’s only the first week back, scrap that, it’s only 3 days into the new school year. I am staying as far off the teachers radar as I am the popular kids. Thankfully this year we have a new drama teacher, and seeing as my ‘super awesome perfect’ older sister has now finished school, I finally have the chance to make my own stand without riding off the unwanted coat tails of my sister. If pretending to do work meant I could achieve that, that’s what I would do. Seeing movement in front of me, I again looked down, hoping it wasn’t the teacher coming to ask us questions. I always hate that, don’t put me on the spot and expect me to not mumble and stumble all over my words. We aren’t all machines.

Suddenly, someone sat next to me, reaching in to the side of my blazer and grabbing the spare ear phone. I was so shocked I couldn’t move. I recognised her, but had never paid attention to the popular girls, what’s the point in wasting any of my energy on girls I knew I had no chance with? All of a sudden it registered that she was speaking to me, tuning in to the last half of her sentence I managed to catch “…you listening too?”. Feeling like a fool and hoping I answered the right question, I mumbled “A7X”, who right now were matching my mood about how half a year full of participating in Drama was going to make me feel. Again snapping out of my own thoughts I finally looked up and saw her face properly. The biggest and most beautiful hazel eyes I have ever seen were looking at me expectantly and I worried she had asked me another question. Quickly looking back down at my lap where I had unknowingly bought my phone back out I heard her say “Oh, well that song is crap, you need to listen to better music”. Feeling her shift next to me I realised she was walking back to her friends.

What the heck was that?

Realising I had pulled my phone out in the middle of her talking, I hoped she didn’t think I was being rude. I might avoid the popular kids for a reason, but my mum bought me up to be a respectful polite person, and ignoring what someone has to say and choosing instead to focus on my phone was surely the rudest thing I could have done. It also meant I blew any chance of her ever speaking to me again. I really hoped not, something about those eyes drew me in, even though I only looked at them for a second… that was all it took for me to know.

One day I’m going to marry that girl. Watch me.

Realising again that I was off in a world away from the class room I zoned back in to hear Chris and Adrian asking me what that was all about. Chris, who flittered between her group and mine, stated “Dude, you realise who that was yeah?” Shrugging at him and stealing another glance at her, only to catch her smiling into her diary I grabbed my ear phone and simply put it back in. By this stage, the song had changed and I was listening to Justin Timberlake’s new song. Without even realising, I was asking myself what type of music she might like, seeing as she wasn’t too much of a fan of my music apparently.

Adrian smirked at me “Dude, she’s a friggen babe. Why on earth she was speaking to you I don’t know”. I punched him in the arm and laughed back “Comon Ads, we all know you’re just lonely because your missus dumped your ass over the summer. No need to get antsy because she wasn’t speaking to you”. Adrian simply laughed at me while Chris again asked “No Seriously Anth, you know who that is yeah?” Shrugging again I simply responded “Yup” while popping the p for extra emphasis. He didn’t need to know that I didn’t really know who she was at all. I have half a year full of Drama to work that bit of information out and I planned on using my time wisely. Why someone like her would come and speak to me even just for that split second was beyond me, but it must have been for a reason. A good one I hoped.

I couldn’t get those hazel eyes out of my mind, they were so green, but that ring of brown surrounding her pupil made me think things I shouldn’t be thinking about a girl whose name I don’t even know. That didn’t stop me however and I quickly found myself wondering what it would be like to stare into those eyes again. Zoning back in, I realised that Adrian and Chris were standing up, looking around. So was the rest of the class, including her. I really need to stop referring to her as ‘her’ and find out her name. Grabbing my bag and walking out of the class room, I looked up again only to notice that she had looked back in my direction and smiled. Knowing that it wouldn’t be at me, I looked back down and kept walking.