Ocean Eyes - The Story of Sabrina Taylor

Chapter Two - The Run-In

I lost. Badly. I think just looking at the result paper on the bulletin board outside Miss Darrell's classroom was enough to bring my self esteem down by 75%. In first place was Tessa Turner, the sophomores most avid talker. Of course she won! She was outgoing and everyone liked her. And if everyone likes you, you have a pretty great chance at winning. At least I wasn't dead last. There were two kids who stole, you guessed it, seventh and eighth place. They weren't very popular with anyone, but still i felt bad to see their faces droop as they walked away. I couldn't imagine how that would feel. Oh wait. I was in almost as bad shape as they were. I turned on my heels and walked back to the algebra classroom where class would start soon.

***

Lunch time. Finally. The bell rang loudly, sending a wave of relief through the classroom. Kids started getting up, grabbing lunchboxes, going to lockers. I snatched my lunchbox and book off the desk, leaving my binder and assorted belongings behind in the classroom. I sauntered down the hallway and spotted my friend Clarisse, head in locker, humming a popular... uh, pop song from the radio. I stood above her for a bit watching her dig around in her bag, looking for who knows what. I balled my hand in a fist and slammed it against the locker above, making a loud rattling noise that echoed through the nearly empty hallway; everyone had already gone to lunch. Clarisse squeaked and jumped, her curly golden hair falling over her shoulder as she fell back. Clarisse is one of the more quiet girls at our school. SHe liked to be isolated and not bother, and really only enjoyed my company. Not to say she wasn't friendly, just more introverted than most kids. She had milk chocolate colored skin and green eyes that clashed with her dark complexion. Today she wore polka dotted leggings with a white shirt and a shawl draped over her shoulders. She put a hand over her heart and gasped. "Hello to you as well, Turtle."

The nickname turtle was a running joke between the two of us. When we were in 7th grade, I brought in a turtle shell. When I was walking down the hallway, she jumped out and scared me and, out of fear, I threw the turtle at her blindly. It hit her in the nose and we had a good laugh. "So is there a reason you decided to scare the crap out of me?" she demanded, scowling.

I muffled a laugh. "No reason, it's just hilarious."

She glared at me and I laughed again. "Where to today?" I asked, recovering from my laughing fit.

"Hmm," she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Library? I have to study Asia and I need a new book."

I nodded. "Sounds good, I love the library." I agreed.

She grinned. "Awesome, let's go." she grabbed her lunchbox and slammed her locker shut, sending an echo through the hallway.

I flinched. "Heh, sorry." she chuckled.

We walked down the hallway in silence. I always enjoyed the silence when we walked together to our location. It reminds me that our school isn't as intense and loud as it seemed. It gave me a few moments of solitude. We turned a corner and I someone ran right into me. We both tumbled backwards (or forwards in their case). I opened one eye and saw a flustered boy on top of me. He blushed furiously and jumped back. "E-eh, watch where you're going!" he snapped, standing up and running around me.

I blinked trying to take in what just happened. "Yikes, you good? That was rude." Clarisse asked, grabbing my hand and pulling me up.

I shook my head, gaining my bearings. "U-uh yeah," I assured her. "I'm just a little, surprised. That was weird, was it not?"

"No, no, I agree. The least he could do was help you up and apologize." she grumbled, looking at the hallway he had just ran down.

Suddenly, we heard yelling. A bunch of older guys, looking quite soaked, were charging down the hallway, yelling a huge array of colorful threats. I stepped out of the way just in time to miss being stomped on. They continued running down the hall, supposedly after the boy who had run into me before, or so I assumed. Clarisse and I looked at each other. "Uuuuhhh..." I mumbled, looking back at the guys running down the hall.

"Let's...let's keep going." Clarisse muttered, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the library.

We finally arrived at the library and made our way to a secluded table in the back. I set my lunchbox down and pulled out a pencil from my pocket. "Let's get to work." I said, smiling.

"Oh shoot, I didn't grab my stuff!" she yelped.

She turned to run out but I grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the seat. "Calm down, let's just eat first." I suggested, sitting down across from her.

She looked at me skeptically, then nodded. "Yeah, alright." she agreed, placing her yellow dotted lunchbox back on the table and unzipping it.

I pulled my lunch out as well, and unwrapped my ham and cheese burrito, biting into it. As I chewed, Clarisse caught my attention. "So, how are you doing with Tracy?"

I swallowed and hesitated before responding. Tracy was a long story. I'll explain; Tracy and I met in Freshman year. She was one of the more popular girls, and we sparked a friendship. Turned out she only wanted to be friends for homework. I confronted her and she became furious. She swore that she would make my life miserable. She wasn't doing a great job of it, I'm pretty content still. "Eh," I grunted, shrugging. "I'm not sure. Honestly, I think she forgot. I couldn't care less."

Clarisse nodded. "Good. What about your... your brother?" she said slowly.

I snickered. Clarisse had a lasting crush on my older brother, Sam. He moved to college less than a year ago. Only being a few minutes away, he visits monthly. Sam is... odd. He's polite but once you get to know him he's, well, extremely annoying like any older brother. He can occasionally be a jerk, but otherwise, I'm pretty lucky to have a brother who isn't a complete-uh, well you know what I mean. "He's coming over this weekend, would you like to join us?" I teased.

Her face lightened up. "If that would be okay, I'd love to!" she exclaimed.

I had probably been wearing a rather surprised face because her expression drooped. "Oh... you were kidding weren't you?" she frowned.

"No no! Well, I mean I was, but you can come if you want. He'll be there, I wasn't kidding about that!" I promised.

She giggled. "Okay, I'll ask my mom."

We ate our lunch in silent for a bit when someone approached and slammed their hand down on the table, causing Clarisse and I jump. "Hey," I looked up and saw the boy who had run into me earlier.

"Uh... Hi?" I stuttered.

"I just wanted to say sorry for running into you and then being rude about it. I was running from a bunch of guys I had recently pranked. Boy, were they mad!" he snickered. "Anyway, my name is Jason. Jason Smith." he held his hand out to me.

It took me a bit to register what was going on (again) but I eventually slipped out of my daze and took his hand, shaking it awkwardly. We looked at each other for an embarrassingly long time (only like three seconds but still) until his cheeks turned faintly pink and he coughed, let go and looked away. "Anyway, uh, nice meeting you!" he laughed awkwardly, and ran away.

I sat there for a second trying to regain my composure and figure out why he had even bothered talking to me. "I ship it." Clarisse finally muttered.

I jumped and swung around to look at her. "What?!" I asked, flustered.

She chuckled. "I'm kidding. Although, now that I think about it..."

I clamped my hand over her mouth. "Yup, enough of that!" I chided.

She licked my hand. "Gross!" I shrieked, wiping my hand over her face as she laughed.

"Girls! Quiet down please!" the librarian scolded.

I blushed a bit. "Yes ma'am, my apologies." I apologized, sitting back down.

"Anyway," Clarisse continued, looking at her lunch, embarrassed. "How is your love life?"

"Non-existent." I sighed, putting my chin in my hands.

"Mmm..." she agreed. "Mine's almost as bad."

"You have a crush on my brother, you derp!" I accused her.

Her face turned beet red. "I-I don't know w-what you're talking about!" she stuttered.

I snickered. "Whatever you say, dork."

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Okay, now I'm hooked on this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!

-Grace