Make My Way

Chapter Two

Stella's POV

As I walked down the hallway to my first class, I saw Neil, my crush since 8th grade. I'm not the boy crazy type but when I see him I go in to full girl mode and I lose all control of my sensibility. As soon as I passed him, I totally ran into some guy; all my books fell on the ground along with my clumsy body. He politely glared and walked away, leaving me to pick everything up myself.

As I stumbled into English class one minute before the final bell, I took my seat in front of Aria.
"Late on the first day? That is so not like you!" Aria said sarcastically.
"Haha very funny," I murmured, trying to cover up the flutters in my breath.

What is wrong with me? I thought to myself. Why can't I just say hi to him. It's junior year this has been going on for long enough it's time for me to break the ice.

*ding*

Waking up from my thoughts I looked down at my phone. Snapchat from Neil! I unlocked my phone with my shaky hands. Before I looked at it I glanced up to make sure nothing important is going on. Nothing. The teacher isn't even in the room, so naturally everyone was on their phones waiting for her to arrive.
"Hey you look great" the snap read.
I replied with "thx!;)" and a cute selfie. I glanced across the room to see him sitting in the back corner with some other guys, staring at me. We made eye contact for a split second and then turned away, back to our phones.

I sighed and looked back up. The English teacher walked into the room and over to her desk. Aria leaned back and muttered under her breath, "We need to talk."

"Yeah no kidding! What was that earlier in the closet with Caden? I thought you were over him!" I wrenched my thoughts away from Neil and towards my best friend. We agreed to talk either next period, in band or fourth, in choir. We didn't have third together so I made a mental note to find out if Neil was in her class since we had compared schedules through snapchat and didn't have it together.

Mrs. Green, the English teacher, then started her lecture. She explained how we were supposed to write a short story of the genre of our choice and it must have at least three different points of view, as we were to be working in groups of three that she would be choosing. Aria and I looked at each other and crossed our fingers.
"Ok the pairs are. Vivian, Owen, and Jared;
Alice, Carson, and Julian; Willow, Jaun, and Aria; Evan, Cora, Aurora; and Nora, Neil, and Stella. Okay, now pack up your things and we'll walk over to the computer lab. Make sure to grab everything as we won't be coming back."

I tensed up as soon as I heard my name called right after Neil's. As I saw Aria sigh in relief, turn to Willow, and wink, my hand starts shaking. I looked over at Nora. She smiled at me and then approached me, "Hey so I guess we're partners."

"Yeah and Neil." I said nonchalantly. We walked together the rest of the way in silence. Nora wasn't one of my best friends, but we were still fairly close. Even though she was friends with the more 'popular' girls, that didn't matter that much. Despite our different friend groups, we got along well enough.

Nora and I chose spots on the top row of computers. Our computer lab was set up so that there was different levels and all of the monitors were facing the same way and the teacher could see what page we were on. I pulled out my chair and sat down.

Nora started logging onto her computer and I did the same. Then, while it was loading, I glance down to see Neil standing by the door, scanning the room looking confused. I politely waved at him and said, "Neil, up here!" loudly. Oh my gosh. I just talked to him. I did it. He walked up to us and took the seat, not beside Nora,  which was closer, but beside me. My heart fluttered nervously in my chest.

Thankfully, Nora took charge of the group. "Okay, so what genre should we do?  I've always wanted to write a romance short story. What do you guys think?"

"Well, I was kind of thinking sci-fi, but...." my voice faded.

"No! That can work!" Nora exclaimed excitedly, " it can be a sci-fi romance! Two characters from different species that are sworn enemies fall desperately in love with each other. I mean, if that's okay with you Neil."

"It's fine. I don't care, " he responded shortly.

Just then, Mrs. Green interrupted us saying, "By the way class, this is due next Monday." A chorus of 'What?!'s and groans echoed across the room.

"Well since we only have 10 minutes left of class, we're obviously not going to get anything done. Let's figure out when we'll work on it out of school. I can't meet after school until late because of volleyball, you?"

"Well I have cheerleading too after school all week so same," I said.

"I have football too so I can't," Neil said.

"I have a volleyball tournament this weekend already so I can't then either but you two can get together," she said and raised her eyebrows at me. Was it really that obvious?

"Okay," I said hesitantly.

"You can come over to my house this Saturday," Neil offered.

I sat for a second in shock before responding. "Uh, sure. My mom can drop me off but then she has a meeting thing in some other town and my dad is away at a business conference so I won't have a way home. My car is in the shop."

"That's fine, I'll give you a ride," Neil said with a faint smile. I nodded and smiled back. There was an awkward pause in the conversation. Just then, the bell rang. Saved by the bell, I thought. I picked up my books and strode out quickly.

Nora jogged and caught up to me. "Have fun this weekend!"

I elbowed her hard and she just giggled. I glared at her and mumbled, "Shut up," while fighting to keep the corners of my mouth down.

"You're blushing! I'm serous though; have fun!" She stopped at her locker and I kept walking. I smiled to myself.

This weekend.