What if?

Chapter 2

[ Charles ]

Fifth grade. I was sitting in the third row in Mrs. Benson's English class. I was the fifth, and final, seat in the row. I tended to feel lonely because I was moved away from my friends for talking. The empty seat behind me was intentional due to my excessive talking.

There was a knock on the door which caused Mrs. Benson to quit teaching in order to find out who was there and what they wanted. I breathed a sigh of relief because she stopped talking. That was probably one of most boring classes I had ever taken. Of course, it wasn't any easier since Mrs. Benson hated me. But hey, what can you do?

After stepping out and talking to the principal, Mrs. Benson walked in with a girl by her side. She introduced the girl as Marissa Louris.

The girl looked terrified. Her blue eyes were wide and full of fear. Her blonde hair laid in curls falling over one shoulder and her cheeks were flushed. She has her books cradled against her chest like it was her only source of protection.

Mrs. Benson led her to the only empty seat, which, let me remind you, was behind me. Of course I was thrilled to have the pretty new girl sitting behind me in class. I suddenly slouched and pretending to yawn so that I would look uninterested as they passed me. Mrs. Benson reminded me not to interrupt class to talk to the new girl. What can I say? I liked to talk.

The teacher began the lesson again and soon I fell asleep.

After the bell rang I stood up and reached for my books. I stepped in from of the new girl and spun on my heels to face her. She was just standing up as I offered her my hand.

"I'm Charles." I said as she shook my hand.

"Marissa." She said as she flushed a little more and looked away.

I noticed she was avoiding eye contact but it must just be a nervous habit because she seemed nice enough.

"Yeah, Mrs. Benson kinda mentioned that." I said with a smirk.

"Oh... Right." She said hugging her books to her chest and looking at the ground.

Did I do something wrong? This poor girl seemed terrified. "Well, I can show you around the school or something if you want... Since you're new and all." I said slowly.

"Well... I don't know."

"Let me at least show you to your next class." I said with a smile.

"Sure, that's nice of you." She said quietly.

She handed me her schedule and I led her down the hallway to her history class.

"Well.. I have gym so I better go. Catch ya around or something, I guess?" I said as I started backing away.

"Yeah... Sure..." Marissa said, letting her hair fall in her face. She was probably just trying to hide.

The next couple weeks weren't different. We didn't hit it off right off the bat. She started to come out of her shell but not around me. I caught her staring at me a few times but she would always look away as soon as I would catch her. I tried to smile and be polite but she always just avoided me.

After a few months went by, she became friends with a group of girls that were tied in with my friends. My best friend was dating a girl named Brittany who Marissa started hanging around with.

Brittany wasn't too bad but she seemed too outgoing for Marissa. I guess they complimented each other well since they were complete opposites.

Anyway, it still wasn't that simple. We were all at that awkward age where we hung out but the girls stayed with the girls and the guys stayed with the guys. After awhile though, Marissa and I became friends. But let me tell you, it wasn't easy.

We were at my friend Ryan's birthday party and decided we were gonna play "spin the bottle" and "seven minutes in heaven". At eleven years old it was still kind of weird but I was becoming a kid that didn't see girls as having cooties anymore so I guess it was kinda cool.

When I spun the bottle I ended up landing on Brittany and kissing her on the cheek. Then next time around, some girl named Amanda spun the bottle and it landed on me. She gave me a quick peck on the nose and everyone laughed. Soon enough, the game switched over. I spun the bottle to see who my partner would be. It landed on Marissa. The guys started a timer for seven minutes and shoved us into a closet.

But it was weird. I didn't know what I was supposed to do and she didn't really either. So we kind of talked. I asked her where she was from and if she liked it here... You'd be surprised what you could find out about a person in seven minutes.

Over the next few weeks we became friends and she told me a lot. But eventually, she ended up dating one of my friends and it kind of became weird.

But hey, at eleven we were just finding our way into this world and everything was changing. Let me just tell you... I began to really like Marissa.