Love and words

Chapter 2

"Hi" said Michael.

"Hi" said the new girl.

"So I gather that you are new around here?" asked Michael.

"Yea, my family moved into Johnstown last week," said the new girl, "You see my father got a transfer here from Philadelphia for five years, so I guess I'll be staying here until grad."

"That's cool," said Michael, already admiring the girl's soft voice, and after a while said,"My name's Michael, how about you?

"I'm Selena," said Selena, and looking around the classroom said, "I like this place a lot, there's so much to do here, nothing like my old school, which was so boring."

"Yea this place is famous for sports," said Michael now admiring Selena's various facial expressions she made when talking.

"So do you do any of them?" asked Selena.

"Well you could call me a swimmer but, you know, i'm definitely not the best," said Michael trying to sound modest,"but i'm a senior of the debating team."

"That's nice," said Selena.

Just then the Biology teacher walked into the class with a rather grumpy face.

"Well Selena, we better stop talking it doesn't seem like Mr.Weston's in a good mood today," said Michael, "And you've no idea the way he gets when he finds 'disturbances' in the class."

"Ha ha, fine then" said Selena as Mr.Weston started talking about permanent and meristematic tissues.

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After about two hours of Mr.Weston droning on about plant tissues, many students were either snoring on their desks or staring blankly at the white board imagining  funny shapes, from what Mr.Weston had drawn.

Selena on the other hand, Michael noticed, was catching every word that came out of Mr.Weston's lips. Michael smiled to himself, "this girl is not only pretty but looks to be pretty smart too," he thought.

Just then Mr. Weston, realizing that exploration into the 'fascinating world of tissue' (Mr. Weston's words) was futile, he dismissed the class five minutes early, which Michael thought was strange for Mr.Weston but ultimately gave it up, owing to the fact that Mr.Weston didn't want to bore Selena on her first day.

"So do you want me to show you your next class?" asked Michael from Selena as they were leaving the room.

"Nah it's fine Michael, I took a tour of the school on Saturday so i already know where the classes are," said Selena, "Thanks though."

"No problem," said Michael, although he felt a bit hurt, "I'll see you around."

"Yeah sure," said Selena.

"By the way," said Michael, "Call me Mike."

"See you around, Mike," said Selena.

And with that Michael headed towards the speech and drama room, privately reminding himself to enter his new poem 'Pathways' into the poetry contest.

When Michael entered the speech and drama room (10 minutes late after helping the Math teacher carry her books to the staff room) he was assaulted with a noise that very much resembled ... well, silence. Except for Ms.Liston speaking he couldn't hear a whisper of sound from the students. Michael was dumbfounded. The usual speech and drama class would already be loud with the screams of Juliets wailing as their Romeos lied dead (their newest drama assignment). But it seemed that today Ms. Liston was talking to the students before beginning their work. "That's very odd," thought Michael. 

"Hey what's Ms. talking about?" Michael asked from Richard, a boy he knew from the swim team but never considered a good friend. 

"She's talking about the poetry competition man," said Richard, "just listen she barely started."

"And so this year our annual poetry competition will be a bit different," said Ms.Liston,"I know it's a bit late in telling you this being only 2 days away from the closing date, but, you know, we didn't want you guyz ratting this out to the whole school.This year the winner of the poetry competition will get a chance to go to the National Junior Poetry Showcase."

Michael's heart stopped. It literally stopped. This was the chance he had been waiting for. This was the way he could achieve his dream, his goal,his passion and his ambition. He simply had to get the first prize. 

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Johnstown, Central high had a medium sized canteen. It was the kind of canteen where you had to pile what you wanted for lunch from a counter and pay for it at the end. It had about 15 tables of which three were hoarded by the swim and track and field teams, and the football jocks.

As Michael absentmindedly piled a cheeseburger, an apple and a bottle of orange juice, his thoughts wandered to Selena. "Man she's beautiful" thought Michael to himself, "And not only that she's smart too". He thought about her soft,sweet but steady voice, although he did feel disappointed at the refusal ..... there would always be another chance. And then of course was the poetry contest he simply had to get first place. And then his mind started dreaming. He imagined Selena saying "Oh Mike, your poems are simply the best, please, please go out with me, so you could read your poems to me and i would sing praises to you."

He was interrupted from his daydream by the canteen sales lady who said, "That'll be 3.50 dear."

 Michael paid the sales lady ( a bit grumpily after interrupting his beautiful daydream) and went to join Jack and Christina who were already at their table. Although part of the swim team, Michael never sat with them as he thought they were 'too full of themselves' which was the excuse he gave anyone wondering why. Instead he, Jack and Christina sat with Nicholas, Kim and Bryan. Although they were not best friends it was good (both mentally and physically) to talk to someone who wouldn't blast you for saying a little tiny thing wrong or someone who would probably make double meanings for everything you say.