SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 WATTYS!
Brooklyn Carson loves Avery Harlow, it's practically written in stone that he always has and always will. Travelling back to his home town was never going to be easy knowing she definitely doesn't feel the same way a...
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AVERY knew what her goals had to be this year, she'd had them written up on her the small whiteboard her Mother had fixed onto her door for most of the summer, but a week into her first term she hadn't come close to even beginning to complete any of them.
It was a different matter on a summer evening to think up a list of dreams with hope in your heart and to then have to start accomplishing them, that was harder. She'd decided that this year was going to be the year where she did things she'd never done before, last year had been filled with missed opportunity where an invisible force had held her back from doing what she wanted to do. That invisible force had turned out to be the small nagging voice at the back of her head telling her it was better to not stand out and risk being humiliated.
Walking through the gates of Ridgeview High, Avery squared her shoulders and straightened her spine, her Mother Riley had always told her that if you projected an air of confidence then others around you would believe you were someone they wanted to know. And it seemed to have worked, Avery could tell that people looked at her with heightened interest like she had become someone different over this summer, and why shouldn't they?
She wasn't part of the 'it' group but these days it was becoming less and less fashionable to follow along with other cliché's, she was liked because she was different, she had an edgy best friend in Brooklyn and wasn't afraid to tell people what she thought of them, that was also one of the reasons why a lot of people disliked her. Avery saw it simply as expressing her own opinion and if people didn't like that trait in her she'd rather not have to go through small talk with those who were excruciatingly self-righteous.
Brooklyn was waiting for her in the place he always was, under the bike sheds, she had to resist rolling her eyes when she saw who was animatedly talking to him, Darcy Fellows was the definition of a hanger-on, she had been shooting Brooklyn puppy dog eyes since last year a fact which he seemed oblivious to no matter how many times she assured him that Darcy had a massive crush on him. She was wasting her time, Brooklyn wouldn't have been interested in her when he'd been his normal self, happy and he certainly wouldn't want her now.
Darcy's brown eyes widened when she saw Avery and she noticeably took three steps backwards from Brooklyn, Avery had to resist smiling if Darcy wanted to believe that she and Brooklyn were more than best friends she could.
Avery couldn't pinpoint the exact reason why she disliked Darcy, it was a combination of many she was a person who was almost too nice if such a person existed, she'd always been over attentive showering others with compliments, but Avery had heard rumours that the notorious burn book that had been found containing the school gossip had been written by Darcy. Take today, she was dressed in a cutesy yellow dress with a bow around the collar and had the look of a rabbit caught in headlights.
