Levi Jones is your typical emo boy. He's got the hair, the eyeliner, and the dark skinny jeans to prove it. All seems right in his boring little world until Maybelline Powers shows up, a pretty in pink kind of girl who steals his heart.
When things...
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"Who wants to go check out the new family moving in after school?" Marcus asked the boys as they all waited for the morning bell. "Wait, what? We actually have new people moving in here?" Damien asked, almost spitting out the water he had just taken from his bottle. "I don't know if we should do it so early" I countered, "Remember that man? What if he remembers the car? If he isn't already suspicious he will certainly be if we show up again and start spying on him and whoever else he's with." "I agree with Levi." Joshua said, and Marcus slumped as he lost his own battle. Once Joshua made a decision it was final. "Why don't we meet in the cafeteria at lunch period? It's pizza day so we can grab a slice and come up with some real plans for after school?" Joshua offered up, leading to a bunch of nods from the rest of us. "Good talk kids." He joked as we all dispersed for class.
My day seemed to be dragging on, it was only second period but I was already starving and could barely concentrate. That is, until our vice principal Mr. Lahey came in. My biology teacher, Mr. Rudolph stopped his monologues of the frog anatomy to give his superior a look of surprise. "Mr. Lahey, what a pleasant surprise." Mr. Rudolph said. "Pleasure is mine sir." Mr. Lahey began, "May I borrow a few minutes of your class time?" With a wave of his hand my teacher sat down in his chair, giving the fat vice a chance at the floor and seeming to enjoy the extra sit down time. "Thank you, Mr. Rudolph." Mr. Lahey said before turning his rotund self onto us. "As you know, we are a close knit community within this school...." 'Oh great, here we go' I thought to myself, drumming the eraser tip of my pencil against my notebook of scribbles. My eyes stayed to the front of the room but my mind wandered, thinking of possibilities for supper tonight, wondering what sorts of trouble my friends and I would find ourselves in. The poor bloke at the front of the room didn't even know he'd lost my attention, which lead to a small smirk on my lips as I turned back to my notebook. Right now I was going through what I call sketchers block, like writer's block except I suffer from lack of motivation to draw. I heard the door open again and peeked up, instantly placing all my focus on the new kid in the class. Specifically, it was a new girl, and by God I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I noticed her clothes first, a black dress with white over shawl to cover her shoulders, a modest but yet still radiating look. Her brown hair was curled, and travelled down to the middle of her back, and it looked very soft. Her eyes were dark, like mine, and highlighted with all sorts of eye shadows and mascara. Her lips parted in a confident smile and shining with pink gloss as she turned to the classroom and waved, bracelets jingling on her wrist. I actually had to grip both my arms in fear I would actually wave back. Her eyes scoured around the room, making eye contact with everyone. 'Don't see me....Don't see me....Don't see me' I heard myself thinking when suddenly her eyes met mine. My heart pounded and my hands went clammy. Her gaze seemed to last forever when suddenly she looked to someone else, I exhaled then. Apparently I had forgotten to breathe when she looked at me. A hand reached up and ruffled through my hair, 'Pull yourself together' I scolded myself. 'You don't get girls like that'. Keeping that in mind I only watched her take a seat beside Amy Mallard, a blonde fake who seemed to open right up to the new girl. That's when I realized I had forgotten to listen for her name. "Shit." I cursed under my breathe. "What was that Mr. Jones?" My teacher said as he resumed his place on the floor, and making everyone turn to look at me when he called me out, even the new girl. "Sorry sir. Dropped my pencil." "Well, now that you have it back, why don't you stop your doodling and help me out with this presentation." Some classmates laughed, and I felt my face burn as he had called me out in front of the new girl. Closing my notebook and rising from my seat I walked up to the front of the class and sat on Mr. Rudolph's desk. He could call me out on whatever he wanted, but I was certainly not going to allow him not to suffer for it. I teased and tortured the poor man for the rest of class, and he held me back because of it. While everyone else left for lunch period I sat at my desk and tapped my foot on the floor, catching the eye of the new girl as she glanced back at me before I ducked my head down and she scurried away, Amy tugging on the poor girl's arm to introduce her to more girls. "Levi." Mr. Rudolph started, standing by my desk. He scared me a second, I had forgotten he was even in the classroom. "Andrew." I countered, leading him to pull a chair over and sit by me. He stayed quiet for a moment, before holding out his hand, "Let me see your notebook." I looked at him for a second before seeing the 'lack of further discussion' look in his eye. That's what I hated about grown ups, they'd always say they want you to talk when you're ready and yet, they always seem to push you into a corner and force you to talk just because they're ready, even if you're not. Reluctantly I pushed over the notebook and he scanned through it, seeing photos of ducks I drew from the river, some of my mother as she drank her afternoon tea or busied herself with housework, and finally he made it to the random shapes and scribbles from my episode of sketcher's block. "These are pretty good, even the doodles." He said, glancing up at me to see if I'd laugh. I cracked a small smile for his pleasure, but it didn't meet my eyes. He didn't seem to notice since he pushed on with his speech. "You've got talent and smarts kid. You've got potential to go places. Don't dig yourself into a grave just before your life starts." I opened my mouth to speak but he silenced me with his hand. "If we all let our past affect our lives, I wouldn't be a teacher right now. Push forward. Don't let the past bother you." This is why I liked yet hated this teacher. I could open up to him, and I did once. On a particular day I keyed his car and punched some lockers out, I had just had my sixteenth birthday and the only letter I got from my father was a notice that he had retracted the money he had been saving for me to go to college. I never got an explanation on why he needed the money, and it was safe to say I was pissed. Yet, instead of having me expelled and pressing charges for the car, Mr. Rudolph let me rant about my father, taking in every word I said and actually listening. I ended up having to work off the money that went to fixing his car by doing chores around his house but it was fair considering what worse consequences I could've faced. Now though, he likes to bring up my father every time I act out. "Alright sir. I'll do my best." I responded to his speech robotically, saying what he wanted to hear. He clapped me on the shoulder as a goodbye and I gathered my things to leave. As I neared the door I heard him say one more thing, "Her name is Maybelline Powers." I turned back to look at him, 'How did he..' I wanted to ask how he could possibly have known I had developed a small crush on her, especially since I had only just met her and hardly understood it myself, but he had his attentions turned to papers on his desk and never noticed me look back. I hurried to meet with my friends, knowing I was now late. "Hey man, saved a slice for ya." Joshua said as I arrived, sliding a greasy plate of cheese pizza my way. I started eating, no one questioned my tardiness, we all got held back from class frequently, nothing new. "Man who's that?" Marcus asked, I was too busy eating to notice his remark. "Looks likes there's a new girl for ya after all Markie boy." Toby said, and I almost choked on my food. "You okay?" Damien asked, but I was trying to get the others to turn away. "Don't look at her! She might see you!" I said and dared glance back when I saw her myself, laughing with Amy and the other girls. I turned my eyes away, a blush burning my cheeks. "Sorry Marcus. Looks like Levi got dibs." Damien joked, and I punched his arm. He wasn't wrong though..there was no denying that I had a crush on this girl. A girl I never even met before second period. I chewed my food but couldn't taste it, I was too lost in my thoughts of this girl. This Maybelline Powers.
