What's Your Name?

Dean

"Come on, who do you think it is?!" Jake asked excitedly, tugging on Dean's sleeve.

"Dude. Drop it would you? You know I don't believe that crap." I replied, a bit annoyed at this point seeing as he hasn't shut up for days.

"That doesn't mean you can't answer my question." He nagged, trying to convince me.

"Sorry man, I'm not answering. Besides, my birthday isn't for another three months." I pointed out. Even if I did believe all this soul-mate talk that was going around, now seems a bit early to be "guessing".

Jake let out a long, dramatic sigh. "You're no fun, kid." He teased.

I rolled my eyes and we kept walking to lunch. Jake shifted his attention to some other kids in the lunch line, which was honestly a bit relieving for me. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but he just won't shut up.

Once we got our food we made our way to our table and sat down. Unfortunately for me Jake wasn't the only one of my friends excited about all this soul-mate talk. So was every other kid I sat with. They were no where near as bad, but they were still annoying.

It was the whole school. Everyone talked about it. Everyone asked about it. Everyone was annoying about it.

"Did you hear that Natalie finally found her soul mate? They're so cute together."

"I heard McKenna and Jason are soul mates. Can you believe it?!"

"Guys, Austin's soul mate died three weeks ago. Yeah, he said her name was just black ink."

I always think to myself that we must have some really creative minds at this school in order to come up with stories like these. But they all insist that it's true and that they even have proof.

When I tell someone I don't believe in this, they will either roll back their sleeve, or find some one else's arm, to reveal a set of words or a first and last name in midnight black ink.

For the longest time I would try to argue with them that they just wrote it there or had someone else do it for them. I've given up on that now I just nod in agreement and walk away. It's not worth the arguments other kids will bring up.

So Jake and the others talked and talked about how Max's birthday was coming up in just under a week. He would be turning sixteen and supposedly finding out who he's to live the rest of his life with. Would you blame me if I said I wanted to barf in my mouth?

Lucky for me the bell rang telling us to get to class, cutting off their conversation. There were a few moans all through the cafeteria as several people who had been having the same conversations pushed themselves up from their seats and dragged themselves to the trash cans lined up to dump what food we didn't eat.

I waited for Jake to walk to our next class, we have most of our classes together. So once he finished dumping his tray he turned around and met me by the wall and we began walking.

A few girls giggled and waved as we walked by and I shot them my famous smile, making them almost melt into their lockers. I chuckled and kept walking with Jake until we got to the door of our English classroom.

We walked in casually and took our seats, his being next to mine seeing as the teacher had let us pick our spots since it was only the second week of school. We were about four desks up from the back and in the second and third rows in.

I threw my bag up on my desk and slid down in my seat until I was comfortable. Jake sat up, slouching but not sliding. He was pulling out his notebook and a pencil. As of right now, he looks like a good student, always taking notes and always prepared. But as soon as that bell rang he wasn't taking notes, or paying attention, or making sure he was prepared. He never even pretended to listen to the teacher, he just slouched back in his chair, sometimes leaning his head back. Sometimes he would draw - he was an amazing artist. Sometimes he would scribble and pass notes. Sometimes he would take a nap. But I have never seen him actually take notes like the rest of the class.

Me on the other hand, when the bell rang I lazily opened my bag and pulled out a notebook and pencil and waited for the teacher to start talking. Once he or she did I wrote down probably about seven words before dropping my pencil on the paper and sliding down a little farther in my chair. I let the base of my skull rest on the back of the chair, which wasn't always so comfortable. I stretched my legs out under the desk in front of me and crossed them at the ankles. Occasionally I would put my hands behind my neck and sometimes close my eyes.

This particular teacher hasn't said anything about it for two weeks, so I just keep doing it. And Jake keeps doing his own thing. Though there were always those kids who sit up all nice and proper, the pencil in their hand never stopping. You could always find those kids in either the very front, or very back of the classroom. They would be quite and calm and polite. Sometimes you wouldn't even notice them.

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A/N: Heyo! So here's the first chapter, yay! Sorry for the bad quality, I've had major writer's block and it's sucked. But I finally finished it and I'm going to work on the next chapter almost right away. I hope you guys like it and vote, comment, blah blah blah. I'd love to hear some constructive criticism and I hope this isn't as bad as I feel it could be. Thanks for reading, love y'all!

~Sherl