Close To You

Chapter 1

"You'd be proud of her, Eleanor. You really would. She's grown up so much. I think she's actually starting to like boys now." Sean chuckled softly. "Especially this kid name Jordan. She can't figure out why he keeps shooting paper wads at her." He brushed the stone with his hand, trying to keep the smile from slipping, trying to keep the memories from returning. "Looks just like you when you were younger, too. Scary, how much she resembles you." Tears welled behind his eyes; he blinked hard, trying to force them away. "I miss you, Eleanor. You always did hate it when I called you by your full name, didn't you?" He smiled faintly, recalling something, looking out over the horizen as if he were parting the mists of time with his own eyes. "Sometimes I think you were the only thing going for me...and sometimes I think you knew that, too." Sighing, he sat down and leaned against the stone structure. "She's getting curious about different things, Ellie...girl things... things I always thought you'd have to explain to her." He choked back a sudden sob, then continued. "Maybe I should tell her how we first got together in the first place. It was certainly an interesting story." He paused, looked about his surroundings, and again went on. "Come to think of it, I think our whole life story is pretty interesting. I still remember it all..."

"Pay attention!" The teacher snapped, slamming her book on Sean's desk. He rose suddenly, startled, while the other students snickered derisively. Mrs. Kay picked her book back up, frowning down at her student. "You think you can simply fall asleep class? Tell me, Mr. Waltman, does the English language bore you that much?"

"No, ma'am," Sean replied, blushing slightly as the small chuckles grew to echoed laughter. The teacher, relentless, went on.

"Then would you like to explain to me why you weren't paying attention?" Sean tried to answer, but she cut him off before any words even left him. "Ah, I see, you're going to give me some smart-alleck remark about the injustices in the world, correct? About how wrong it is for you to be yelled at." Sean shook his head, his ears growing red. "Well, life's tough, get over it." He nodded. "Uh-huh...well, young sir, you would be well advised to pay closer attention from now on. Unless, of course, you'd like another day of detention?" Sean again shook his head, now partly to clear his mind from the fuzziness of sleep. Mrs. Kay nodded, gave him that grin he'd always hated, then turned back around to face the chalkboard. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. It was only eleven, and already he wanted to leave. He hated school with a passion, but he couldn't quite figure out what made him hate it the most. The teachers all yelled at him because of his lack of desire to please them, though in his heart he knew it was because he wasn't popular. Countless reports had been sent to his mother telling her how "Your son has shown a completely unwillingness to try in his classes. We have seen a great potential in him, but until he strives to bring it out, we cannot make him learn anything." He once dreaded seeing those, and the lectures that always came from them, but now he paid no attention to either. They were simply cards with pretty words deceiving his mother into believing he didn't try, which, to some extent, was true. He didn't try, contrary to others' beliefs, because he was simply stupid. Rather, it was because he was tired of the teachers constantly cutting him down, of always playing favorites with those in the "in" cliques that ran the school from the groundworks. He had never been popular, never had any intentions on becoming that, and for that, he was being punished. So rather than put forth an effort, he had almost completely given up, except in his science class. For some reason, the science classes had always interested him, especially now that they were doing aero dynamics. He wasn't sure exactly where that would come in handy in the future, but he figured it would be useful somewhere.

On the other hand, he also thought perhaps he didn't try because of the way his peers acted. There were the cheerleaders, who were always perfectly bitchy with everyone when they served no purpose. The jocks were, quite simply, a male version of a cheerleader, atleast in Sean's eyes. Then there were the generally popular people, who were often just as bad if not worse than the cheerleaders. The stoners hung together, the troublemakers that always had the reputations, the nerds, the miscellaneous clubs... At times, it seemed to Sean that everyone belonged to a group, no matter who they were or what they stood for. Everyone, that is, except for him. This revelation always hurt more than actually thinking about what the people in the groups had acted like towards him. The fact he was an outsider even amongst his supposed fellows was constantly eating away at him, though he would never admit to anything of the like on the surface.