Don't Fret

1 : Meeting

"Hey, Nilo!" I snapped my gaze away from the window and squared my shoulders. A guy slammed the palm of his hand onto my desk, as if he didn't get my attention already. I glanced up at him, visibly irritated. I caved and sigh.

"What do you want?" He practically lit up at the question. His name is Leo, which is interesting since he is a Leo himself. He doesn't really believe in zodiac signs much, though.

"Glad you asked! I was hoping we could pair up for our physics assignment."

"What assignment?" I stared at him, bewildered. I had better not have already forgotten about something. It was only the first month into the school year.

"The one that's due in two weeks?" He looked at me, a mockingly disappointed look lacing his features. A small smirk told me he found this amusing, though. I didn't.

"Fine. Come over to my house tomorrow. I have practice tonight, " I muttered.

"Practicing for what? Dance recital?" He grinned wickedly. "Imagine this: little ballerina Nilo traipsing around in tights and a tutu. Wouldn't that be cute?"

"I. Don't. Dance," I hissed. He giggled in response. I reply, "I teach myself a new song on bass or guitar on Wednesdays. Or have you already forgotten?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Says the one that forgot we had an assignment that the teacher announced a week ago, " he grinned.

"Not helping," I mumbled. I love our playful banter. Leo is like a brother to me. He is the only person I really trust.

Surprisingly, I am actually somewhat popular, for only having one real friend. I might hate this school, but unfortunately it doesn't hate me. Call me introverted all you want (although it may be true), but even some extroverts would hate getting attention from people they absolutely despise constantly. I don't have the energy to pretend to like everyone that talks to me.

In some way, I have Drey, as everyone calls him, to thank. He was the one that made fun of me for 'looking emo.' Clearly, someone like him is unfamiliar to the world of subcultures (not that I expected him to). The conversation went something like this.

"Hey, you!" An unfamiliar voice shouts. I glanced up from my phone to see if the person was directing the question at me. "Yeah, you!" A boy with annoyingly perfect curly hair swaggered towards me. He looks like an idiot, I thought.

"What do you want?" I sighed. It was the first day of school, I didn't need that at the moment.

"Do you cut yourself?" came the reply. How creative. How mature. I honestly wasn't expecting a junior to act like such a freshman. Someone like him, though, isn't all that surprising.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You heard me. Do you cut yourself?" he repeated. A few of his henchmen snickered. How funny. Notice my sarcasm.

"No. Do you?"

"Ew no. Why would I? I'm not depressed." His face scrunched together to form something ugly (not that he wasn't ugly before).

"Then why would I?" I growled.

"Because you look like you do." he pointed out.

I snarled back, "What a creative comeback. Kudos to your great detective skills, too." My words were practically soaked in sarcasm. "I'm assuming you're alluding to me being emo. I'm not. Either way, I've met my fair share of emo people. You can be emo and be perfectly happy, you know. It's nothing more than a music genre centered around vulnerability and a clothing style. Although, are you sure you're okay? I mean, if you have to pick on people on literally the first day of school, you must be in a pretty dark place. Not to mention, you're wearing black ripped jeans. If we're going by your standards, that seems pretty emo to me."

I admit, I wasn't prepared for most of the class to discuss our interaction in hushed tones by the time I had finished speaking. But then, one guy cheered, breaking the tension with the rest following, clapping.

This left Drey with his mouth mid-open, ready to pelter me with another comment. He closed it, gritting his teeth. Finally, he gave me a look of distaste and stalked away, minions in stride. He looks like he thinks he's the main character of a cheesy high school movie, I chuckled to myself.

Thanks to my witty reply, I was somehow granted a higher social rank. I guess no one really messed with him much, not that he is all that intimidating. I hate him, if that's not obvious already. He manages to survive on one brain cell. How? I'm not sure.

He was in my middle school. Therefore, he's seen me from when 'I was a girl.' Although, I don't think he (luckily) recognizes me. At least I have Leo who knows about that.

A few snaps in front of my face sent me out of my daze.

"You good, bro? You kinda blanked out there for a bit." A concerned Leo leaned against my desk. I looked up at him and nodded. A small smile graced my lips, to add a bit of assurance that I was, indeed, somewhat okay.

The bell rang, signaling the end of class. We had time to work on assignments in the media center. However, we had a substitute who only sat on her phone and there was no lesson plan. We basically ended up playing knockoff unblocked games.

After Leo beat me again in a glitchy two-player game, students began shuffling towards the door.

A small tug on my sleeve made me spin my body around. A person, a bit shorter than me, gazed at me. I had never seen him before. Is he in our class? He cleared his throat.

"So, I couldn't help but overhear that you play bass and guitar..." I nodded along, unsure what this is about. He fidgeted with his shirt nervously but kept his eyes locked with mine. I tried to take a step back. "I play guitar, too! I also sing for my abuelita sometimes. I'm not sure if I'm any good, though. She says I am 'too talented to not be in a band.'" He twisted his hem thoughtfully. "I don't know if you'd want to hang out or maybe jam together? Maybe you could come over? I'm sorry I didn't even ask what kind of music you like." He wrung his shirt so tight that I was worried that the material would stretch. "I'm really sorry if I'm bothering you, but my abuelita has been urging me to make friends my age since I'm new here. And what better way than music, right?" He trailed off, finishing his nervous rant. I stood bewildered there, as frozen as a statue.

"I think we could try to work something out," I smiled politely. I don't know how to feel about this. "Maybe we can exchange numbers and see what we like? I honestly didn't expect something like this to happen." I chuckled awkwardly, weaving my fingers through my hair, moving the strands away from my eyes. He smiled, giving me his phone. I swiftly tapped my number in and saved it under "Nilo 🥵🤘."

He chuckled quietly and waved goodbye. We both rushed to try to not be late for our next classes. Great. Algebra is on the other side of campus. At least this kid didn't seem like every other person that tried to be friends with me. Maybe this could work out? I sighed. This could go in a limitless number of directions.

Word Count: 1268

...and I'm back! I started writing this over the summer and I wrote this chapter on like July 13/14? You have no clue how many times I read through this and revised it; hopefully it's good! :) feel free to comment anything you like/constructive criticism

Edit (7/19/23): so it's been about a year and I revised it again! there were parts that felt unnatural that I changed and I made the cover 1000x better :) i still don't think it's perfect but it is what it is 😬 I genuinely love this story tho <33