Deadly In Love

Chapter 1: Stranger

 I had never been popular in my school, from elementary up until now, the 9th grade. In fact, in middle school I was bullied quite a lot. The story starts on the first day of 9th grade. A new beginning, I kept telling myself throughout the weeks leading up to the first day. A chance to finally build up my reputation with the kids from the other areas of the town. My town is small, so it only has one high school, mine, which is called Bedrock High. Anyways, back to introducing myself, my name is Lacy. Lacy Rodrigues. 

“Where’s your schedule? Let’s compare them. Here's mine. I have gym, then science, then english. What’re your first three?” That’s Casey, my best friend. 

“I have gym, then math, then science. At least we have gym together! What are your next three? Mine are English, lunch, and social studies. Then I have art.” I said eagerly.

“Same as you. Let’s walk to every class we have in common together. I’ll meet you at your locker before each one.” Said Casey. I hesitated, knowing I had already agreed to walk to the gym and art with Trina, my other friend. I knew she would be mad. She always does when I say no to her ideas.

“Sorry, I already agreed to walk with Trina to gym and art, and hang out with her in them too. We can walk to the rest together though.” I said, preparing myself for the following explosion. 

“But I’m your best friend. You can’t just ditch me. It’s a miracle we have any classes together, we’ve gotta take advantage.” She said, in a whiny voice. I stood up from her bedroom door, telling her I had to go home.

 I grabbed my schedule off of the floor and walked across the street to my house. I had brought my schedule because she invited me over to compare them. I felt like we might have been starting to argue more and more. This was the day before the first day of school. The first day I saw him. Banner Richards. He was way out of my league. The most popular boy in the grade. Always surrounded by his mob of friends, and somewhere around that mob, was the mob of girls, whispering and giggling from a slight distance. 

When my bus arrived, I found my locker number, stuffed my things that I wouldn’t need into it, slammed it shut, and hurried to my homeroom. And that’s when I saw him. I was sitting in the back corner of the room, because it was furthest away from people. There was an empty seat next to it. He was sitting in the middle, talking to everybody around him. At the moment I saw him he was laughing, stroking his orange hair. I hadn’t noticed how long I’d been staring until he glanced back at me. I quickly looked away, pushing my light brown hair behind my ears. I could feel my face turning red, and I couldn’t wait to tell Casey about my crush. But, of course, it would be a secret between the two of us, and I would make sure she told nobody. 

As soon as I arrived at the gym, I ran up to Casey and described the boy in the greatest detail I could. “I saw this guy in my homeroom and I like him. He is tall, he’s a redhead, and he’s skinny. He’s always surrounded by his friends and he has freckles. Do you know him?” I said. Casey stood shocked for a few seconds, but then answered my question.

“Yeah, I know him. You like Banner Richards. He’s the most popular guy in the grade. You have to keep it a secret. But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Oh my god, Banner, really? You two would be totally cute together.” Casey said, putting her hand on my shoulder. I blushed at the idea of us being together. It was love at first sight, and I was crushing HARD.

“I know right! He’s really cute. And way out of my league. We’ll never end up together. Even if he liked me, he could date me because of reputation. I’m never gonna tell anyone. It’s going to stay between us forever.” I said, playing with the friendship bracelet on my wrist that Casey gave me on my birthday.

Throughout the rest of the day, I looked for him in all of my classes. It turned out, he was in most of them. We only didn’t have gym, english, and science together. For so long, he was the reason I looked forward to math. I spent my art classes starting into his deep blue eyes from across the room. Sometimes he looked back at me, and I could’ve sworn I saw him blush the slightest bit. Around the third week of school, when that happened, I decided to talk to him.

We don’t have assigned seats in art. That would be the perfect time to do it, I thought. I could sit in the chair diagonally behind him. So I don’t seem desperate, but he’ll also hear me. My plan seemed perfect. The only problem was my own fear. I had contemplated talking to him for a week. Then, I finally did it. 

I sat in the seat behind him, as the seat I had planned on taking was occupied. I took a deep breath and then tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around, and when he laid eyes on me, my heart skipped a beat. He seemed shocked that it was me. “Um, hi.” I said, probably looking like a tomato. “What’s your name? I’m Lacy.” Why would I say that? I thought to myself. I already knew his name. And so could anybody. From attendance, from the millions of people calling his name in the hallways. From my secret obsession over him.

“Banner. I’ve seen you around, just haven't gotten the pleasure of talking to you yet.” He said, with the smallest smile coming across his face. I gave him an awkward smile back. He turned around and continued talking to his friends, occasionally glancing back at me. 

The next day, I told Casey about it at lunch, describing every detail. From the way his freckles moved across his face when he talked, to the way his smile could melt an iceberg in a matter of seconds. And of course, as any best friend who’s just as delusional as you would, she said that he likes me.

“He totally likes you. Smiling at you, saying that it’s a pleasure to talk to you, turning around to catch glances at you. He can’t get enough of your face. Can I please tell him that you like him? Please? I’ll leave out the obsession part and make you sound cool.” Casey said, batting her eyelashes at me. Yet another time that I knew she would get mad at me for turning her down. She thinks she always knows what’s best for me. I glanced at the bracelet, glanced at Banner across the cafeteria, back at Casey, and said “No, he can’t know. The only reason he was acting like that is probably because it’s that obvious that I like him. I mean, my face was red. I stuttered a little bit too. And all I even said was hi, what’s your name. Even an idiot would know I liked him.” I said. 

Her facial expression went from pure anger to a clearly artificial agreeing face. “Fine. Turn me down. Fine.” She said. She got up from the seat she was sitting in and went to sit with Marlee. She’s a rich girl who is friends with Casey. They met at a summer camp over the summer. The thing with Marlee is that she will do anything anyone tells her to. Whenever I turn down one of Casey’s ideas, she goes to hang out with Marlee. That day was the start of the fight.