The Darkest Minds FanFiction

The start of something new

First off, I'd like to thank EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!! I almost started crying tears of joy when I saw that you, my readers, fans, whatever you'd like to call yourselves, have gotten this story to 4K+ reads. That...that might not seem like a lot compared to so many other WattPad stories, but I can't begin to imagine even a thousand people willingly reading and enjoying my writings. So, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading my thoughts, and wanting more.
Second, this chapter idea was recommended by ERDtheBird. I do love getting chapter requests, so don't be afraid to comment!
Okay, so he was cute. Okay, so maybe more than cute. Like, really super cute. And yeah, maybe I did want to hold his hand and go to the school dance with him... Ugh, no Ruby! You're thirteen, and he's fourteen; he'll never like you. Maybe in a few years, when high school comes around. Yeah. High school sounded good.
With my heart and my mind set, I stopped daydreaming about Liam. Of course, being my best friend, Vida had noticed that I was daydreaming, and easily guessed who I'd been dreaming about. She raised her brows at me, silently conveying "Oh, you are so screwed; head over heels in love, my friend." I sighed and picked up my pace to the math classroom.
"Blah-blah-bl-blah, bl-blah-blah, a positive times a positive is positive blah-blah and negative times a positive is blah," the teacher droned. Jeez, wasn't there any better way to teach math? How would any of this even be relevant in our lives? When would we ever use this?
Luckily, math was my last hour of the day. The second the bell rang, I rushed out of class to meet Vida. It was her mom's day to drive our four person car-pool, so we headed outside. Her mom drove this shiny black mini-van, which she tried her best to keep as clean as possible.
"Hi Auntie Betty!," I said at the same time Vida said, "Hey Mom." Her little brother, Jude, was already sitting in the back row, his designated seat. Our eighth-grade friend Charles, or as we called him, Chubs, got the front seat. Our carpools were easy, normal. We talked freely about school dramas, asking around what each person had for homework, about the other person's friends.
Until Jude mentioned his "buddy, Liam." And Vida turned to me, and my face turned red from mortification, and Jude just kept talking about how "cool Liam was and that he gave me this today and Liam is awesome and do you know him? Isn't he great and I like him and he's funny and he has a weird thing with his voice." Of course, Jude, being eight, only knew Liam through Chubs, who sometimes brought him along to Vida's house when they had group projects to do. And, of course, on the days when they had those group projects at Vida's house, Auntie Betty would usually take Liam in the van with us, so that Liam's mom didn't have to drive him.
That's where I first met Liam. He had gotten into our carpool that first time and had smiled at me, using that smooth Southern accent and sweet words to make me nearly swoon. And of course, he had to be a grade above me. Ugh, I couldn't wait to be an adult so age wouldn't matter!
I started to develop a crush on him, and then a near infatuation. He was so kind and gentle toward everyone, especially his little sister, Zu. His adopted little sister would sometimes come into the school to pick him up, and he treated her so much like the sibling I'd always wanted.
This continued for months on end, until, one day, right before the last school dance, he approached me. We were friends at this point, but we weren't all that close.
"Hey Ruby, do you, uh..." The tips of his ears started to turn red. "Do you want to..." He paused again. I waited. He cleared his throat, tried again. "Do you want to go to the dance with me?" I blushed; he blushed; both of us looked uncomfortable.
I stuttered out a,"S-sure," and then turned and walked away, head tucked down, smiling. He liked me, too.