Ariel first noticed Jeff Atkins during the first week of school. She was a freshmen and he was a sophomore.
Ariel had been discussing her schedule with Sherri, Clay and Tony.
Jeff had been running down the hallway, only God knows where he had been rushing off to. He had knocked into her causing her to drop the book she had been holding.
It might have sounded like some cliché story but that's what had happened.
He had turned and quickly picked the book up for her. He apologised to her as profusely as he could in a few seconds before darting out across the field to the batting cages.
It was only seconds but Ariel had looked into his eyes and registered that they were green, how pink his lips had been, he had long lashes and gosh... he was beautiful.
Sherri had yelled in Jeff's direction and ranted about how rude that had been and Ariel had been shocked that her sister hadn't even noticed how attractive Jeff had was.
Sherri always noticed the cute guys first and the fact that she hadn't with Jeff only excited Ariel all the more because for the first time in their life, Ariel saw the possibility of having something she wouldn't have to share with her sister.
That's why she hadn't told Sherri about Jeff, not for a while anyway.
For the next few weeks, Ariel looked out for him.
She caught glimpses of him in the parking lot sometimes when his mother would drop him off. In the cafeteria, sitting at different tables that were always filled with laughter, in the library, watching videos on his phone instead of actually studying.
It didn't take long for Ariel to realise that Jeff was a grade above Ariel and that the one place she could always count on seeing him was the baseball field.
That's why Ariel didn't offer up much resistance when Sherri excitedly suggested that they join the cheerleading squad. Ariel wasn't even sure if they would let freshmen on the squad but the head cheerleader at the time, Seline, had been a pageant girl like they were and she was more than happy to bend the rules.
"Besides, having twins on the team might give us an edge." She had said with a wink.
Even though Ariel had her eyes on soccer she knew that the cheerleaders constantly hang around the jocks. And Jeff was a jock.
Ariel remembered her first real conversation with Jeff.
After weeks of staring at him from a distance and doing some light stalking of his instagram, she was finally ready to have a real conversation with him.
She had been leaving cheerleading practice and had seen him at his locker, he too must have just gotten off of practice.
Sherri had already made her way to the parking lot which had relieved Ariel.
She wasn't the brave type, not in the least and initiating conversations wasn't something she was good at. But she wanted to be the one to speak to Jeff first. Without Sherri to be her guide like she always was.
When Ariel had walked up to Jeff, she had been planning on being cool and collected like her sister always was. Sherri always talked to people in a way that made it seem like they should want to talk to her.
So that's what Ariel did.
She walked right up to him and said, "hey, you were great out there."
