JUST, A First Love

Chapter 1

As I inhale the morning breeze, I glance at the calendar. August 5. I realize it's the first day of school again. It irritates me; I don't want to do those stupid assignments again. Before I could complain, I hear my mother calling out to me.

"Kurt! Quit being sluggish and come downstairs already. I am not letting you be late to your first day of school again!"

I quickly ran down the stairs. "Mom, that was one time, it won't happen again."

My mom looks at me with a smug look on her face. "Really? Well, prove it to me by getting in the car already! We're wasting time, remember, time is—"

Before she could finish her sentence, I interrupted her and finished it myself. "Time is gold? Yeah, I heard that a million times from you now, Mom," I say as I walk to the car. She probably scoffed at me, but I don't really care; what's there to care for anyway?

Before I knew it, I was back in this hellish place again. But before I could even think of which classroom I had to go to, I saw someone. Someone with daring eyes, fluttering eyelashes, and beautiful brown hair, the same color as her eyes.

What is this? What am I feeling? Am I falling in love? No way, no freaking way. I don't fall in love. Love is stupid; it's just a waste of time.

I hear a familiar voice. It's that annoying voice of my friend again.

"Bro, what are you doing standing in the middle of the hallway?"

I answer in a sarcastic tone. "Oh, nothing. I'm just thinking of how I can do a backflip on Mars. What does it look like I'm doing? I'm clearly trying to find my way to class."

"Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," my friend says and laughs.

"Oh, shut up," I reply. "Let's just go to class. It's homeroom, right?"

My friend replies, "Yeah, yeah, Mr. Goody Two-Shoes." I hate that guy. Not really, though; jokes aside, Greg isn't that bad. He's one of my best buddies.

Homeroom class is probably one of the most boring classes ever. The teacher is actually pretty chill and has a similar sense of humor to our class. I guess this year won't be so bad. Plus, that girl in the hallway is kind of interesting—not that I like her or anything. I think? Ah, who cares? It's high school; nobody cares, not even the teachers.

After two classes, it's finally recess. What the heck, a 20-minute break? The canteen line is so long—who's going to have time? Our next subject is math, so I have to prepare. I don't want to be like those kids who pass with flying colors.

Before I could open the learning guides, someone talks to me. His skin is white as snow, with charming looks, and why is his bag so full? Don't we have lockers? Ah, who cares.

"Yo, my name's Bartholomew. What's yours?"

I stop myself from laughing. Bartholomew? His name does not match his looks whatsoever.

"You can laugh, man. I know you're trying to stop yourself. I'm fine with it, don't worry."

"My bad, I'm not making fun of you, I just—well, I'm—uh, never mind. My name's Kurt. Thanks for asking."

"Nah, you're good, bro. Want to sit with us at lunch? You seem pretty cool."

"Sure, why not?"

Well, that didn't take long for me to make a new friend. Wait, what about Greg? Dang it, I don't want to leave Greg out, and I also don't want to miss the opportunity to sit with someone new. I sigh in despair; I'll just ask if Greg can sit with them at lunch.

I go to Bartholomew during recess.

"Hey, Bartholomew, can I ask a question?"

Bartholomew responds, "You just did, but go ahead."

"Since you invited me to sit with you guys, can Greg come too? I usually sit with him during lunch, and I don't want him to feel left out."

Bartholomew replies, "I'm fine with it, but I don't know if my other friends are comfortable with it. Let me ask. They'll probably be fine with it."

"Thank you so much." I feel relieved that I can make more friends without leaving anyone out. I smile secretly.

The bell rings, so Bartholomew and I go back to our classrooms.

"I'll tell you what they say after this class, and just call me Bart. Bartholomew is too long."

"Oh, okay. Thanks so much, Bart," I say with a smile on my face.

After class, I look around to find Bart and see him walking toward me.

"Good news, my friends are fine with your friend coming. See you later at lunch," Bart says, with a slight smile showing on his face.

"Thank you so much, Bart. Sorry for the hassle."

"Nah, it's fine. I'll show you where my friends and I usually eat. Anyways, I'll get going now," Bart says, walking to his friends.

I walk excitedly toward Greg.

"Greg, good news. A friend of mine has invited us to sit with them."

"Really? Whoa, are you finally socializing?" Greg teases.

"Shut up," I reply, annoyed.

Greg chuckles. "By the way, who was the person that invited us?"

"It was Bartholomew. And you weren't invited; I just asked if you could come."

The bell rings. "Oh, I'll talk to you later, Greg. We gotta go to class now."

"Yeah, yeah. See ya," Greg replies.

At lunch, Greg and I sat with Bartholomew. He's with two other people. Bartholomew introduced us.

"Hey, so these are MJ and Levi," he said, pointing to them. "And these are Kurt and Greg," he said, pointing at us.

While talking to each other, I saw someone—the same girl I saw earlier. I began zoning out, not even moving an inch.

"Yo, hey, are you okay?" Levi asked.

I came back to my senses. "Oh, my bad. I just thought of something."

"Hey, do you like that girl?" Greg asked, pointing at her.

"Wha—n-no, why would I?" I stuttered.

"Whatever you say, I guess," Greg replied.

I couldn't concentrate in class. I kept asking myself if I could ask her to become friends. I mean, I don't even know her name yet since she's from another section. I took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind.

"Love is just a waste of time. Why would I like someone? Plus, it's only the first day of school," I thought to myself.

After school, I saw her again. I took all of my courage and walked up to her.

"Hey, I just wanted to ask if you'd like to be my friend."

"Oh, hello, that's a very formal way of asking someone to be friends."

Did I screw up? I thought.

"And sure, my name's Savesta. I can't believe I've made a lot of friends on the first day of school already."

"Oh haha, same. The name's Kurt. Nice to meet you."

"Same. Well, I need to go home now; I don't want my parents to get mad. See you tomorrow?"

I replied, "Okay, bye."

"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" I thought.