It's Only Because I Love You

Chapter Three- Back To School

Three- Back To School

It’s September 1, which means it’s the first day of school! Actually, I’m not excited at all. I get to see Michael, and that’s a plus, and that’s about the only plus. I guess I get to see Leah too, and all my other friends, but I’d rather be outside on the dock right now.

I looked into the mirror in my bedroom before leaving. My brown wavy hair was fresh off a shower and my face had a certain glow about it. My purple curtains matched my shirt, which was my favorite color. I had one of my favorite pairs of shorts on; they were simple, yet cute, khakis. For shoes, the one’s I wore almost every day- brown sandals that climbed my ankles. I’m so glad I don’t have to wear makeup; it’s such a waste of time. Although, I’m probably the only girl in my grade who doesn’t wear makeup, I’m okay with my face, and that’s that.

“I love you, Mom!” I said as I ran downstairs and passed through the kitchen, Jonah was waiting outside in the car for me. I grabbed my backpack, my water bottle, and a hug and kiss from my mom.

“I love you, Sweets, I hope you have a great day! I’ll be praying for you!” 

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you later!” I said and I was out the door. I jetted to Jonah’s car in the driveway.

“Goodness Beth, what took you so long?” Jonah said as I swung the passenger side of the door open and took a seat in the passenger side.

“C’mon, Jones, can’t you just call me Bethany?” I said as I put my seatbelt on.

“Can’t you just call me Jonah?” He snapped back.

“I do!”

“You just called me Jones.”

“That’s because you called me Beth.”

“So don’t call me Jones, and I won’t call you Beth, agreed?”

“Agreed.” Then Jonah looked back at the garage door, started the car, and put the car in reverse.

We talked about the normal things you talk about on the first day of school on our way to Cloverbelt High. Things like what classes we were taking, and how we were looking forward to seeing all of our friends. Sooner than later, we pulled into the student parking lot.

“Thanks, Bro.” I said as we pulled into a parking spot. I look a deep breath, unbelted myself, got out and shut the door behind me. Hello junior year.

The air was fresh, I felt good, and I was confident that this year was going to one of the best.

“Bethany! Hey girl!” I heard from behind me. I turned around to see Leah.

“Leah! Hey!” She rushed toward me, and I toward her, and gave her a big hug. “It’s been forever!” 

“I know!” Leah said as she let go.

“How was your summer?” We started walking to the front of the school from where the student parking lot was.

“Ah,” she sighed. “it was really good… really busy.”

“I believe it!” I responded.

“Yeah, I had a great time in Paris though, it was probably the best experience I’ve ever had.” 

“Even better then you’re date with Luke?” I joked.

“Ta! Are you kidding, nothing beats that girl. That’s not even in the same category at Pairs.”

“Whoa!”

“I mean, not like that, traveling and boys are way, way two different things. 

“That’s true.” I mean, not that I would ever know, because, well, I've never been to Paris, and I've never been on a date.

“Hey, speaking of boys-” Leah nudged me and looked over me, to the left. I looked to where she was looking, and there was Michael. My mind froze, let alone my body. I didn’t know what to do. He was somewhat in the distance, I mean- he wasn’t that close to me or anything. “You still like him, right?” Leah looked at me.

“Are you kidding, of course, that’s one of the two reasons I got out of bed today.”

“What’s your other one?”

“‘Cause I got to see you, dah!” We laughed and proceeded into the school. 

As we walked down the hallway to our homeroom, we stopped and talked to a few of our friends. 

“Yeah, my summer was good,” I said as I ran into another one of my friends, Aly. That’s what I said to almost every one of my friends I ran into on my way to homeroom. “How was yours?”

“Good! Sad it’s over, but it was okay!” Aly responded as she started to walk to her homeroom. “I’ll catch up with you later, I don’t want to be late on the first day!” I proceeded walking to my homeroom with Leah, and we started carrying on a different conversation.

“It’s kind of good, I mean, I liked- oh my! I’m sorry!” I said, my body ramming into someone that I hadn’t even seen in my blind spot. I looked to my right to see the person I just ran into by mistake.

“Oh, no worries, ma’am, actually, I’m sorry; I really wasn’t watching where I was going,” said a cute boy with what seemed to be an Australian accent. He had blond hair and blue eyes, one of my favorite combinations.

“Oh, no, it’s no problem; I really wasn’t watching where I was going either,” I smiled and walked away. As Leah and I took a few steps down the hallway, we changed our previous conversation topic to the blond boy. “I’ve never seen him before; I wonder if he’s new.” I mentioned.

“Yeah, I haven’t either. He’s cute though.” Leah said simply. Yeah he is, I thought to myself, but I dare not say that aloud.

Ring ring. The bell for homeroom rang as Leah and I just took our seats in room 148.

“Good morning, and happy first day of school to you all!” said my teacher Mrs. Carby. “I want to take a moment to let you all know that I hope you all have a great year, and I really hope that you all start it off on the right foot.”

“That’ll be the day!” Travis said, and his whole gang laughed. They were nothing but trouble- I’ve had my cup of tea with them before.

“Oh, just shut up and let her talk.” Leah said as she slouched back into her seat. Leah was always the type to fix what was wrong, or call someone out if they were wrong. That was one of the pluses of being her best friend. 

“Oh Leah, the goodie two shoes!” Travis said, and again his whole gang laughed.

“So what, Travis?” I said, trying to stick up for the girl who always stuck up for me.

“‘So what’? Oh- look who’s talking now!” I looked away, not wanting to engage in the conversation anymore. For some reason, my mind kept thinking about the blond Australian boy I had ran into in the hallway, and it almost made me forget about Michael… almost. Sooner than it seemed, the bell rang and it was time to head to our first class.

“Where are you going?” Leah asked, apparently she forgot that we had just discussed this all but ten minutes ago.

“English.”

“Ah, that sucks, right away in the morning!”

“I'd rather it be English than math.” We walked out of the classroom and into the crowded hallway, where it suddenly got loud. “Where are you going?”

“Chemistry.” 

“Oh, that’s sounds more fun than English!”

“We’ll see, I just hope it’s not as hard as biology was.” Leah had been in advanced science for three years now, I never got that sort of thing. It’s like math, in math, I’m hopeless.