The first day of year 9, when you walk into a class full of people that you've gone to school with for 2 years, but because you've had 6 weeks away from them, it's like you're meeting them for the first time all over again. The main reason being that probably due to too much sun everyone has decided to drastically change their appearance. Literally after like a week half term, people come back with a different colour hair, so you can imagine what 6 weeks can do to people. They can end up looking like a totally different person! Like they've had botox or a nose job, but seriously it's mental. The year started out alright for me, I wasn't really talking to quite a few people at the time so it was kind of awkward, but as I got through my classes, conversations blossomed."Poppy!" Suizie was frantically shouting as I ambled into the bright turquoise P.E hall, my school has great taste in paint."Hey Suizie" I said as I flopped down next to her. " So what did you do during summer?, "Well not much really, the odd day out but mainly just relaxing, how about you?" "I had a really good 2 weeks at my nan's with Bella, we went swimming, went to the beach, that kinda stuff". Me and Suizie finished our amazingly gripping conversation and I talked to all my other friends too seen as we didn't have P.E a s it was the first day. It was ok but after 2 hours of endless chatting and then a lunch break also filled with chatting, the end of the day couldn't have come soon enough. When my mum got home that night I said "Hey", "Hello" she said in a calm voice, so she couldn't have had a bad day, she asked "How was your first day?" and I said how it was easy because of having hardly any lessons and all the awkward conversations, and how we sat on the P.E hall floor hall for 2 hours, which she found interesting.I went to bed quite tired and ready to face the day ahead.
It wasn't till the next day that you could have a relatively non-awkward conversation with someone that didn't involve the words "So how was your holiday?" paired with the standard reply of "good". Which was what I was doing with Izzy and Amelia, whilst we were waiting for our science teacher outside our classroom, period 2, after a disastrous period 1 in maths. A maths teacher that likes to throw tennis balls and knock computers on the floor out of anger, fun! Anyway waiting outside science was weird, I was talking to Izzy and Amelia but was thinking about how I managed to get into triple science. In year 8 I'd had a crap teacher who had spent all her time saying how I needed to up my level instead of actually you know, teaching..... That was why I was shocked when I got my letter about triple science, so I was determined to prove myself. When our teacher finally arrived we filed into the class and stood at the back of the room, ready to be told where to sit. Mrs Summers called the register and said we were sitting in register order, so one by one people were called and sat down, "Poppy" and I sat down next to Izzy who was luckily one before me in the register. Mrs Summers was nearly to the end of the register when she called the name, the name of the person that I'd heard of before and seen around school but never really paid attention to, until now. I turned my head and stopped, I even stared for a while before quickly turning my head casually back to the front of the class and starting a random conversation with Izzy. Despite hiding it very well, all through Mrs Summers going through the structure of the atom, which did interest me, I couldn't help but glance over at him, his chocolate brown hair scruffily swept sideways, and his piercing bright blue eyes. I continued to subtly stare at him, or if Izzy caught me then I had just happened to be constantly daydreaming in that direction. In the direction, of Tyler.It really wasn't good, his positioning in the room was terrible, he was diagonal in relation to me and that meant that I could see him out of the corner of my eye all the time! At the end of science I made my way back to my form room alone, thinking about whether I really liked Tyler or not. I mean he was cute but I wasn't sure if I actually liked him, It was a very confusing time. For the next few weeks everyone was settling in to their classes, and the fact that, oh my God! We're doing GCSE's. On a random Tuesday morning, the worst day of the week, I met Kate at Zoe's locker, where we always waited for her, and that's when it started. The obsession, the obsession that Kate and Zoe shared and that by the end of year 9 had escalated to practically stalking their every move. Their obsession with, One Direction. "Hey Kate", "Hey" she said dully. "Happy to be back at school then?" I questioned so sarcastically I grinned. "Oh yeah!" she replied rolling her eyes at me. From the gate we saw Zoe walk in with Phoebe and Tessa, and the first words from Zoe's mouth? "I LOVE ONE DIRECTION!" which was shortly seconded by Kate and from then on all me and Phoebe could do was stand and watch in amazement. That afternoon my step dad Darren had been home on his day off and wasn't happy when I came home at 5pm. I'd tried to explain that I was helping Suizie with cake sales for charity but no, now even charity isn't a good enough excuse for coming home late,what is the world coming to? "You could've let me know", I barely stayed in the room for the end of his sentence, and walked slowly into my room, annoyed to the fact that it never occures to him that I can't let him know, we weren't allowed our phones in school, and the office phone was for emergencies only. Still I sat on my laptop for about an hour and waited for my mum to get home. We had chili that night and me and my mum had the default conversation of "How was your day?",and the answer of "good/bad+ a reason", and then a repeat for the other person.
For the next few weeks I was totally paranoid about people figuring out I liked Tyler, if I even did, which at that point I didn't know. One day on the bus home, when he got off the bus I moved to go and sit in his seat, it was confortably warm, and made my happy before I realised that seen as the bus drove right past him, that he could have easily seen me, and I was especially paranoid about him finding out. The following Friday,I was waiting outside science first period thinking about the first time he had said my name. It had been 2 days ago, I had been waiting for Suizie outside her English class and we had walked through the English cluster, and of all people, Tyler was standing at the printer. Suizie who was friendly with Tyler walked up to him. "Howdy!" Suizie nearly shouted. "Hey". Just like that Suizie grabbed Tyler's papers and promptly dropped them on the floor around him. "What was that for?" But Suizie just grinned as he scrambled for the paper. All this time I had been standing there like a lemon, transfixed on him, but at the same time trying to cover it up and I could tell my facial expression was anything but attractive. At that moment I saw my chance, Tyler got up paper in hand, but I saw there was still one behind him, so using all my strength to not sound like a squeaky 5 year old, "You missed one" but it was Suizie's voice, she had pipped me at the post. I couldn't believe my luck, in the 2 seconds it took for him to have not have found it, I managed ti blurt out the words "It's behind you", I wasn't exactly happy with how I'd said it, but I'd said it, and as he got to his feet with the remaining paper he looked at me, straight in the eye and said "Thanks Poppy". My heart was racing, I couldn't feel anything, I didn't know whether I was going to faint or start screaming hysterically. He had said my name! All this time I hadn't given one thought to saying "You're welcome" so I was back to standing there like a lemon, Tyler walked past us and out the door and Suizie just looked at me like a crazy person, which I was, but she didn't know the half of it.Yet.
"Hey" I said standing in Suizie's doorway, swimming kit in hand. Tyler had been on my mind more and more, and he was on my mind when I was on the bus on the way to swimming with Suizie. This is why as we were floating in the water I said "Suizie I need to tell you something". "What is it?, are you ok?, "I'm fine, sort of, I..I..I like someone........" Suizie waited for a minute before giggling, "What's funny?!" I said, confused and angry. "You said you'd never like a guy in our school, and now you do!", she seemed way to pleased with herself. "It's not funny,It's a serious problem. what am I going to do, sooner or later someone, even Tyler is going to figure out I like him if I keep staring at him and......" "Wait! you like Tyler?!" Suize cut it almost screaming. "yeah", I cringed. "Oh my god that is soooo cute, Tyler is so nice!", "I know that's kinda why I like him, plus he's cute", "Aww" Suizie sighed."Oh shut up" I cried and Suizie stuck her tongue out at me. On the way home I was in two minds, I was relieved to have told someone about Tyler and it took a huge pressure off my shoulders, at the same time I felt suddenly insecure about the fact that now someone knew I liked Tyler. Suizie is my best friend and I knew she would never tell anyone, but I couldn't help but have that doubt in the back of my mind that scared me whenever I thought about it to much, so I tried no to. For the next couple of weeks I tried to focus on homework, revision for several upcoming exams, and stuff like facebook and twitter to try and take my mind off Tyler. By the next week facebook became the total opposite when at about midnight on Saturday I got a friend request, I opened it as usual but when I did I couldn't breath, I sat up straight in bed, jumped and down in my bed like a rabbit on drugs, I suddenly found my voice and began screaming in a whisper. I thought for a minute about whether or not to accept it, whether or not it would seem like I was desperate or something. I accepted the friend request, in a state of shock, the friend request was from Tyler.......
