Starting Over

Meeting

        "Yo KT!" Kasper had been walking down a hall at Golden Oak High School when he heard his nickname. He turned around to see who had called him. "Yeah?" He replied as he saw the face of a fellow football player. "Yesterday's game, you did good. Moving up from JG to varsity in the middle of season can be a bit heavy for some people. But you, you were a badass on the field." Kasper didn't really know any of their names but he did know his number. 67. He should have asked but shrugged it off, he didn't really care to know. "Other juniors filled up varsity spots before me. I kinda felt like proving to the coach I was better than them." Kasper continued in conversation. "Well you definitely did that. If he moved you up earlier we might have made the playoffs" the other football player responded. Kasper laughed with him. "Nah it's not that serious..." he scratched his neck with a nervous laugh. "Well I'll see you at practice." Said the other player as he turned and departed.

        Kasper sighed and turned back around. He walked along the lockers and turned a corner into the next hallway. His eyes brightened and he smirked a bit when he came across Sydney Cage. She wasn't "popular" but she was known quite a bit around school. Kasper and her had a couple of rumors turned trumors since the previous school year. He walked up and put his hand behind her head on the wall. "Hey Syd." He smiled as he looked down at her. She was a black haired, blue eyed girl with a skin tone in between tan and pale. She was 5'5 and he was 6'3. "Kasper...you didn't tell me you played last night for varsity. I would've taken pictures for yearbook." Sydney said with a look of annoyance in her eyes. Sydney was the artistic type, every time Kasper went to her house, her bed was covered in photos, drawings and sheet music. He had seen her photos and drawings but had never heard her sing. "And you've never sung for me" he said as he picked up her chin. "Will you?" Kasper said with a smirk. Sydney shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Next time you let me photograph you." Kasper chuckled a little, "Photograph me? In what way?" Sydney countered him "Every way."

        The bell had rung and Kasper removed his arm from behind her. "Then I'll take you up on that offer maybe...This weekend?" He asked Sydney. "I'll text you if I'm free" She smiled as she turned in the opposite direction of where he was headed. "I'll see ya" He said as he also turned and walked away. He thought as he made his way to class, 'She's a virgin, she couldn't possibly mean what I think she means.' When he made it to class he looked at the teacher who was positioned right outside of the door. "Hey Mr. Bell" he spoke to the man in tan pants, a tucked in white shirt, brown penny loafers and a red and blue stripped tie. "Kasper, great job at the game last night, it's nice seeing a student of mine shine" They shook hands as Kasper came into the classroom. Kasper went directly to his seat near the window in the back. He never paid attention in this class but always made a high A in it. He put his earbuds in and picked a song on his phone, his playlist was everywhere, from hardcore rap to metal and country at times. He took out a journal to appeared to be doing work but he just manifested his thoughts in drawings and lyrics all over the paper with a green pen.

        In front of him sat a girl, one of the smartest girls in the school. She wasn't bad looking to his standards, she had warm cocoa colored skin, nice curly hair, that was a lot longer when she straightened it, and grayish brown eyes. She and Sydney had two different looks and very different charms. Even though Sydney was more of Kasper's type, he never could look away from the girl that sat in front of him, especially when she turned around to pass back papers. He could see her cute glasses and slightly darker freckles along her nose and under her eyes. She had acne scars in some places and always held her lips, but when she didn't her lips were plump. She never wore revealing clothing like some girls, these are all the things that he had noticed about her.

        He started to draw her without realizing it, his hand just seemed to move without any thought. When she turned around to hand back a packet for reading, Kasper quickly knocked the notebook off his desk and on to the floor. Her eyes widened and she quickly picked it up, completely against his plan for her to not see it. She made no difference in expression and sat it back on his desk. Kasper smiled nervously at her as she placed it down, her face was still the same. He hadn't known her name, he never asked or even heard the teacher call on her, he hadn't even ever heard her talk before, he wondered what she sounded like. He took out his earbuds as Mr.Black was talking, "...Alright, so let's get in pairs to read the package and after we will have a Socratic seminar in the last half of class." It was like the most cliche thing that could ever happen. Each row in the classroom had six people, and there were four rows in total. "Partner up with the person directly behind you, first and second seats are together and third and fourth seats are together. I'll go around and tell you which section of the article you will deliver questions about." Mr. Bell said and everyone's chairs started to shift around.

        Kasper was the fourth seat and the girl was in the third. She turned her chair around and looked at him, he stared as if he didn't know what she was actually doing. When her book quietly hit the desk, he snapped out of his trance. She opened her mouth to ask him a question, "Would you like to-" but Kasper quickly interjected, "What is your name?..." He noticed that he had cut her off, "just to write your name on my paper as well, since we're partners" he smiled at her nervously. She actually responded to him with her full name, "Tai Sweet" Kasper smiled, "like candy" he said to her. She looked up at him and nodded, "let's get to work, I'll start." She read the package out loud to him, she did not stumble on any words and spoke softly, not to where he could not hear, but she sounded very delicate. He actually paid attention to what was going on and even annotated the paragraph where she wanted him to make notes. They finished before the time limit was over, there was that awkward silence, but Kasper broke it. "So have you been here all three years?" he asked her. She just nodded and continued to respond "and you?" He nodded back at her, "what do you look like without your glasses?" he questioned and leaned a bit closer to her. Tai slowly removed her glasses, her eyes were a lot larger than his eyes, but his were stereotypical Asian eyes. "Are you fully black?" he kept asking her questions, "Yes" she responded to him, "Are you fully Asian?" she asked back in an almost joking way. Kasper laughed softly, "Yeah, I am. I'm a pretty tall Asian huh?" She nodded and giggled along with him.

        She was shorter than Sydney, she was about 5'3. A whole foot shorter than Kasper. They took the rest of the half of class getting to know each other. Their favorite colors, foods and animals; the basic things. Then Mr.Bell called for time, and the Socratic seminar took the rest of class. When the bell rang, Tai stood up quickly as usual and left. Kasper thought of walking with her to the next class, but she was already gone before he could get the courage to do it. He just watched her leave and went off to his next class shortly after.