Trouble .

One .

Troye

On a day such as this one, many people would be ecstatic. Happy, even . Who isn't happy to return to school, to see friends? To talk about all your adventures from the summer? A romance, a new love? Returning to that routine that we've been raised to know until the average age of 18? Oh, high school.
Yes, while most kids would be happy for such a thing, Troye felt the opposite. He would love to feel that neutrality, to where school was just another thing that takes up time from the day (180 days a year, 5/7 days a week, 7 hours a day). But that is the exact reason as to why he was being completely pessimistic.
    We go to school and spend most of our young lives there, which is something we didn't volunteer to do; we're it truly is our second home.
    In the fifth grade, when getting scolded by our teacher to the point where they actually had a quivering voice and a life lesson was brought in, when they'd tell us how disappointed they were in us that our behavior was so bad, and that they truly think of us as their kids.. well we might as well be because most people see this teacher more often than their own parents .
   And while yes, education is important, that's truly all that it has to offer; maybe there's a few cool friends, but anyone who has watched Mean Girls at all knows that friendships may spiral out of control.
    Watching this movie had scarred Troye for life; he remembered the exact day he came to the conclusion that he would not tolerate anyone who even closely resembles that of a plastic . It was a normal summer day; Troye and his younger sister Sage had been left home alone, while Steele and Tyde were off with the friends they actually had. Their parents working for their four children. And everyone had heard of the sensation that was Mean Girls; Lindsay Lohan at her finest and a blonde Rachel McAdams ? Oh yes.
     Ultimately, it was Sage's idea to watch it, and they knew Steele had been hiding the movie in his sock drawer because it was a "chick flick" and if he knew that they knew that he had watched it and they knew he cried at the scene where Aaron and Cady finally kissed at the end, then they'd be dead. Totally . (As if it weren't a secret though, because it was a nightly occurrence).
     So they sifted through his sock drawer, and after finding a few of them with stuff similar to dried lotion, they saw the CD.
     And so while watching it , Troye had envisioned himself as Cady herself; they both came from the continent of Africa , both dubbed the new kid, but only 7 years or so apart. Who knew that'd be such a big deal? Everything was all fine and dandy, and just as Cady did, he saw nothing wrong with Regina. Until she did it; she crushed Cady's heart and sucked Aaron Samuel's face, right in front of her .
     Hoe bag.
     Despite the happy ending , the so called girl world Cady described throughout the movie horrified        Troye , and despite not actually being a girl himself, the whole prospect of being consumed by popularity and seemingly nice friends (who turn out to be rude backstabbers) spooked him from ever wanting to rise above the crowd and become noticed by mean people. He stayed with his Janice and Damian-like friends and remained content with them .
     Not that they were loser like or anything, but they were equally content with not getting too into the high school thing.
      Anyways.
Troye had been doing the minimum all summer, mostly piano stuff and going to visit California's many beaches with his siblings, a couple weekends up in San Francisco with his brother who was now out of the house and living in his own condo, and binge watching shows like Jane the Virgin and Supernatural (sneak judging others on social media into this list) , and well he couldn't exactly complain.
     His summer had been typical, no epic love story for the ages, unfortunately. No mysterious stranger, no hot felons . Now that he thought of it , summer might as well have been a drag after all.  Sigh.
     "Troye honey ?" His wonderful mom had interrupted his deep thinking, something she must have caught onto, with a shake of his hand.
     " Yes?" She indicated towards my headphones, which meant that she was probably talking to me and I didn't answer her, and the headphones were to blame . That would be the case, if he actually had music playing.
     "Oh, sorry." She smiled at him, so he returned one as well.
     "Alright . As I was saying.. what, with Steele no longer living with us and around , and dad and I working early morning shifts, we've come to decide that.. we'll let you use the car for school now ." His parents had glanced at him with an approving look, his mom reaching for his hand.
    Tyde scoffed, and Sage groaned.
"Oh come on! How come he gets to ?" Dragged Sage.
"Sage-y baby, come on now, he's the oldest out of all of you guys in the house now. And he's had more experience driving, and you're only a sophomore and he's a senior now. So no whining about 'no fair', please." Scolded Shawn, Troye's father .
     Troye smiled to himself .
"Well, what's the catch? There has to be one." He said, knowing his parents. They might mean well, but there's always something.
"Well... it is unfair that you get the car, considering you have more uses for it, and your siblings would still have to use the school bus.. so yeah . A disadvantage one might say would be that you have to drive them to school as well."
" B-but Sage and I don't even go to the same school as Tyde!"
"Well then I guess you have to get up earlier , then."
Troye sighed. "Alright. Okay."
Oh great .

     That night, Troye stared out his window (oh how cliche!) while air drying his hair, watching the streets of his neighborhood. The sun was setting, and it was quite a beautiful scene; the sky had a beautiful hue to it, and against the buildings, everything was just so wonderful . I guess that'd make it a Blue Neighborhood.
      And that was when he saw it. The silhouette of a boy riding a bike. The face was disguised by the shadow of the setting sun, but the hair was unforgettable , blowing  against the wind that the sea had something to do with.
   
So that's where it all began, I guess .
That night before school was going to start up .
It was in that moment that I had definitely known it; I was going to love you, Connor.