The Perfect Boy in the Shadows

Chapter 1, Only the Beginning

-Lily-                                                                                                                                                        

The school bell blares loudly through the halls, ushering in the few remaining people. It's the first day of high school and all of us freshmen have no clue what we're doing. I tap my pencil on my desk as we all wait for the teacher to arrive. Looking around the classroom, I spot almost all my friends. Which is what I expected because this is one of my AP classes. Finally, our Math teacher walks in and introduces himself, but I zone out of most of it. It's always really hard to pay attention when your crush is in the same room as you. You know you have a crush on someone when you feel their presence 10 feet away from you more than the person sitting right next to you. 

I look up at the board and realize he has pulled up a seating chart... I didn't know teachers still did seating charts in high school. I scan the board to see who I'm sitting next to and almost jump out of my seat in excitement. I get up and sit next to the one and only... Grayson. I get all flushed inside just saying his name. Let me fill you in on a little information, he's extremely smart, rather kind, funny, and let me add... super cute. Basically, everything a girl could dream about. 

"Hey, Lily," he says, smiling.

"Hi Grayson," I respond, hoping my voice doesn't sound too dreamy.

We sit in this weird silence for the rest of class. I'm staring at the teacher, but not comprehending anything he's saying, not that it really matters anyway. Then the bell rings and I jump out of my seat and walk over to Abby, who has been my best friend since kindergarten. 

"Eek!" I squeal.

"OMG, OMG!" she says, squealing as well. 

We've been friends for so long, we can almost read each other's minds. Plus, she knows I've liked Grayson for a while and understands how happy I am to sit next to him.

"I'm sitting next to Jack..." she sighed.

"Oh, well he's not that bad."

"I know, but I'm still not sure how he got into so many AP classes, I mean he's always struck me as one of the sporty, jocky people... y'know?"

"Jocks can be smart Abby, don't judge him by that," I say. (Not that I expected him to be smart either)

"Yeah, I'm just saying," she shrugged.

I nod and wave a goodbye as I rush off to my next class, Gym. Gym has never been my strong point. I excel in Math, Science, and Language Arts. Definitely not  P. E., let's just say I'm not the most athletic... my skinny arms and legs have almost no muscle. Luckily, Grayson isn't in this class so I won't have to be as embarrassed when I attempt to throw a baseball or dunk a basketball. 

Gym went by pretty quickly, as well as my next class in AP Science. I played my clarinet a little in Band and then it was time for Lunch. After grabbing some pizza from the hot lunch line, I join Abby's table where most of the nerds are sitting. 

"Hey," I say as I sit down.

"Hey!" a few of my friends respond. I join in their conversation, talking about the summer camps everyone went to and their newly developed crushes and boyfriends. Goodness, I sure did miss these people over the summer. 

"Yeah, I have a crush on Grayson now..." one girl says while twirling her hair. Fire burns inside my chest. I want to say that Grayson's already taken, but in reality... he's not.  Although I'm hoping he'll ask me out this year, I'm not sure I'll get that lucky.  

"Lily, who do you have a crush on?" this girl named Maya asked me.

"Err..." I begin, not wanting to say, even though I thought it was rather obvious.

"C'mon Lily, tell us!" someone else chimed in. Gosh, I thought crushes were more of a middle school topic. 

To my relief, the bell finally rang and I rushed off to Social Studies before they could ask me anything else. Social Studies wasn't my favorite topic, but I still used my mad skills and generally got all A's. When I arrived, most of my classmates were already there and I saw yet another seating chart up on the board. I was sitting next to Jock Boy Jack at a two-person desk. 

"Hi," he greeted me, putting his baseball cap on backward.

"Hello," I stuck my nose up and sat down. I definitely didn't want to deal with this dude today.

"I don't think I've ever been in your class before this year, I'm Jack," he said, sticking out his hand.

"You had Gym with me last year," I replied, refusing to shake his hand. I'm not going to warm up at his attempt to be kind towards me. He's most likely just trying to butter me up so I'll do his homework or something later on. I honestly have no clue how he got into so many AP classes, I heard he just cheated to get in. Besides, I know he's not really that nice... he never passed the ball to me last year. Even though I sucked, it still would've been nice of him to at least give me a chance.

He pulled his hand away and looked at our teacher who began her introduction.

"Jack, take your hat off," our Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Kraw told him. 

He grumbled and set his hat back on his desk and I snickered. Looking around I see Grayson sitting a few desks away from me and I almost jump with joy. Yes! Another class with him!

"So, I know this is really early but I'm assigning a partner project on the first day of school," Mrs. Kraw says. Everyone looks around the room in bewilderment. None of us had ever had a teacher who assigned something on the first day. Kids immediately start signaling other to be partnered up together and some have already raised their hands, asking if they can be a group of three. 

"Now, before all of you decide who your partner is... I've already got everyone paired up."  A moan filled the room as she continued.

"I wanted to assign this to you early because it may take a while and it's worth 50% of your grade, so I want to give you as much time as possible," she said. Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats, hoping they would be paired up with their best friend. She projected the partner groups onto the front board and I eagerly scanned the list of partners for my name. Would I be paired up with Grayson? I find my name in the 6th row and see it next to... not Grayson. It's Jack, darn it. I take in a deep breath and look over to him. He gives me a small smile but I can tell he's not too happy with me either.