Love and words

Chapter 1

"Mom! Did you see my socks?", shouted Michael as he came down the stairs.

"Yes Mike! It's on your bed", said his Mom over the constant cries of his baby sister."By the way could you bring your sister's diapers from the laundry when you come down?"

"Ugh, sure mom" said Michael as he went back up the stairs to fetch his socks and his sister's diapers.

Michael Cook was 14 years old and the older sibling of his family. He was a boy with light brown skin, with a tall, lean,muscular but not too bulky figure. His lived in a small cottage type house but loved it all the same because of the big backyard they had. He promised to become a very successful doctor or engineer (as his teacher and parents would say) but Michael wanted none of that. In fact his greatest dream was to become a world wide recognized writer.

As Michael came down the stairs (with his sister's diapers) he remembered that he hadn't finished writing his new poem 'Pathways' from last night. So thinking to finish it on the way to school Michael went up the stairs for a second time to get his unfinished poetry.

On the way to school, on the school bus Michael managed to finish his poem. Michael showed this to Jack, his best friend and usual critic, whom Michael had known since he was two years old when Jack's family had moved into the neighborhood.

"Wow, man!" said Jack after reading it once. "You make it seem like i'm supposed to make the decision. You also easily show the reader what you mean in each stanza without stating it clearly"

"Dude when did you get so formal" asked Michael, stunned.

"Actually my mom is making me write our book review and poem analysis assignments on my own", said Jack, "but she is still helping me with words so that's where I got stuff like 'stanza'." 

This brought on a round of laughter and Michael was still recovering when he said, "so how's Fanella?"

"She's good, she's good" said Jack, although he said it in a way that made Michael think that it wasn't as good as Jack said she was.

Fanella was Jack's elder sister. She was two years older than Michael and Jack, but three months before she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. A month ago she had been admitted into Johnstown, Central hospital. Michael had felt Fanella's absence too as she had played the part of 'big sister' to both Jack and Michael ever since they had met.

As they reached their school, Johnstown High, they caught sight of Christina, getting out of her bus. Christina was their best friend and also the one who completed their group, most called "The three Musketeers". She was about the same height as Michael and Jack and had light brown hair which reached a bit lower than her shoulders, and was what one would call 'beautiful' in so many ways. Because of this she was constantly asked out by many boys but had so far refused all of them. She always wore a radiant smile, which both Jack and Michael appreciated a lot.

Jack had a soft spot for Christina of which only Michael new about and for this very reason bounded over to her as soon as he got off the bus shouting "Hey Christina!" at which point bumped into the history master, Sir Blighton, and got told off for not looking where he was walking (or in this case running), before being able to join Michael and Christina who were already talking about Michael's new poem.

"Wow! Mike, the might be your best one yet," said Christina, "You should enter this and a few others to the upcoming poetry contest".

"When's the closing date again?" asked Michael.

"I think it was Wednesday" replied Christina, starting to walk towards the school seeing that Jack had joined them.

But Michael was not listening. He had just seen a girl who was probably his age and had long black flowing hair and a round and kind looking face enter the school. "Hey Christina, who's that new girl?" asked Michael.

"Oh her, she's Selena and she transferred from Philadelphia.

"Selena right, damn she is pretty" said Michael to himself.

"Hey Jack, you entering the poetry contest?" asked Christina, smirking.

"Yea right. I haven't written a single verse since the one about farts in grade 6 in drama class." said Jack, "remember how Ms.Fisher fell into the waste paper basket while laughing at it?"

At this the three of them burst into laughter and were still giggling by the time they reached their classes and said good bye to each other. Michael went inside his first class which was Biology. He went to his usual place and sat down, casually glancing at the the empty chair next to him. He bent down to take his books out of his bag when he did a double take. The empty chair next to him was now filled by the new girl and she was smiling right at him.