Chapter 10: Covid and School

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School finally started up again, 10th grade, but in the most dreadful way ever. Since Covid was still rampant, school was heavily separated. Last names A-K I believe went to school Monday and Tuesday while the other half went Thursday and Friday. Wednesday was a day for the staff members to deep clean the entire school. There were also kids who remained Online instead. I went to school in person. Sadly, my last name begins with A and Matthew's beings with S.

Since I was in a new school now, the High School, this just made things more stressful than it needed to be. I was lucky to have some friends to chat with in the mornings before class began. Our conversations were weird. Since everyone knew about me and Matthew at this point in time, sometimes I would talk about him. I could freely talk about him, anything I wanted.
   "Hey guys," I began. "Doesn't Matthew h-have a nice ass?" Not going to lie, I don't know what I was thinking. I was expecting weird looks and disgusted groans. I was shocked to hear my friends agreeing with me, which made me relax and less tense. That conversation took a good chunk out of our morning, and it didn't hit us how weird it was until way later.

We laughed about it and I didn't want to keep any secrets so I told Matthew via Gmail. Shocking how we still use Gmail even though he has a phone.
   "So you like my butt, huh?"
   "Yeah, is that creepy at all?"
   "No, I don't think so. Yours is uh, nice too?"
I blushed a bit behind the screen and chuckled. Compliments were not his strong suit but he was definitely getting better. Sometimes he helps me more than he realizes.

School itself had nothing important going on for it rather than the crazy amount of homework due to Covid. Finally all the in-person people were able to go to school at the same time, and I began to wear braces. I was very uncomfortable with braces at first and thought Matthew wouldn't like them, but he continuously reminded me that I looked pretty no matter what. Playing my French Horn was a bit more difficult due to them, though.

I know I get a bit insecure over dumb things, but that is due to my horrible grandma that would ridicule both my sister and I for anything. She hated my sister more due to her weighing a bit more and having issues with her feet, which isn't her fault at all. Her feet are crooked and it's really hard for her to walk fast or go up stairs correctly. Luckily Matthew normally doesn't mind but will scold me any time I bash on the way I look, which did help a lot in the long run.

I would still always play around with Matthew, either by teasing or gently poking at him. One time we waited in the lunch line, lunch was free for everyone due to Covid, and we were jokingly teasing each other when a random student approaches us and says "Excuse me."
   I thought he was trying to cut in line to catch up with friends so I was about to move over when he spoke up, "I just wanted to say, you guys are really cute. You never see couples in a school that actually love each other like you guys do."
Matthew smiles from ear to ear while thanking him, he was gently hugging me from the side as well.

Right after 6th period it was routine for me to run and meet up with Matthew, hug him, and he would walk me and wait for my bus to arrive, kiss me, and we would go our separate ways. It wasn't until years later I've heard stories of people sitting in the buses waiting for "that couple" to come out and kiss each other, which I found to be really sweet. They would all peer out the windows and someone would yell "There they are guys!" "Awww.." Usually other students tease couples! Well there was one time I walked out of 6th period class and didn't see him. My heart sank and I went outside and looked around to no Matthew. I didn't realize how much I loved hugs until that day. I got on my bus to see that he Gmailed me he was sent home due to being "exposed" to someone with Covid. A few days later, I got a bit sick and had to stay home but I didn't have Covid .Those 2 weeks were the worst weeks ever, since one of them was my birthday week as well.

Since no one was actually sick with Covid, we celebrated my birthday was in the garage at my grandparents house, however my grandpa was in the hospital so we FaceTimed him. I cleaned his 1966 mustang up and he told me over call that he had a waxing thing in the trunk. So after it was cleaned of dust and waxed, it sparkled like brand new. Since it was my 16th birthday, everything was planned to perfection and lots of people were invited. All of us friends put on masks and sat in the mustang for a group picture, and my parents gave me AirPods as a present. A few days previous to my birthday I had complained about how I lost my drawing notebook, so Matthew gave me a new one. The first page has a picture of him and I on our first date, the second picture has a drawing of Eevee that he made. Then I read his card and cried happy tears.

After all this, 10th grade finally came to an end and 11th grade began, which sucked ass.

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