Losing You to the Crowd (Alex Wolff)

Chapter 1

The first day of school is always exciting and difficult.  New people, teachers, lunch hours, everything.  And since it’s the first day of high school, that makes it all the more enjoyable.  

Lucy was awake two hours before her bus is supposed to get her; excitement keeping her up most of the night.  She took a quick shower, and changed into the sundress her grandmother bought her.  After much thought, Lucy decided to put small curls in her blonde hair.

“Lucy, you’re up early.”  Her mother, Willow, came into the kitchen while Lucy was making some toast.  

“Good morning, I just want to get to school.”  Lucy smiled brightly.  

“I’ve never seen you so happy about school.” Willow started to make some coffee. “Are you alright?”  The toast popped up and Lucy quickly put it on a plate and buttered it up.

“I’m fine.  Just excited.” Lucy smiled at herself.        

“Ready to see Alex?  You two spent the whole summer away from each other.  That’s a record.”  Willow smiled into her coffee mug.  Lucy frowned into her toast.  It’s true, she hasn’t talked to her friend in a while, and that is a record for how long they’ve been apart.

“Yeah.  Alex.” Lucy didn’t say much else to her mother while she ate.  Lucy didn’t miss Alex as much as she thought she would.  Alex has tried to text and call her all summer, but Lucy had other plans that didn’t involve him.  She’s just trying to do what’s best.

~~

The cafeteria was full of people trying to get their schedules.  Lucy and the other freshmen already had their schedules from the orientation day; so now she just needs to head to her locker and class.  As she headed downstairs to her lockers, she passed by Nat, Alex’s brother.

“Luce!” He waved once he noticed it was her.  She gave him a polite smile, but kept walking.  He said bye to his friends and followed her.

“Ready for high school?” He asked.  Lucy nodded her head.  Nat was like her brother.  He took care of her; but she doesn’t need him anymore.  “I remember my first day.  It felt so long ago though.  Four years goes by fast, you know, but it also feels like a lifetime.”  Nat kept talking, but Lucy stopped paying attention.  If Nat stays close, Alex will show up.  

“Shouldn’t you be heading to class?” Lucy interrupted Nat when they got to her locker.

“Uh, yeah.”  Nat put his hands in his jeans pockets and turned away.  Lucy sighed with relief and opened her locker.  She grabbed the binder she put in there and closed the metal door.  

When she turned, she saw a boy.  There are many boys, but this one caught her eye.  He looked too old to be a Freshman.  A dark shadow of a growing beard crossed his face and his thick curly hair was styled in what Lucy would have called “bad boy”.  Everything about him screamed bad boy.  It made her think of Alex.

The boy noticed Lucy starring, and she quickly turned towards the hallway her first class is in.  She can’t believe she was caught.  She’s usually good about checking guys out.  But she wasn’t checking him out; he just grabbed her attention.  She’s not used to seeing such… random styles in one school yet.  

Lucy’s first class is English.  Not her favorite subject, but it was alright.  There were other people already mingling around her.  She sat at a small group of two girls at the front.  They smiled at her and continued their own conversation.  Lucy pretended to look busy with her notebook, writing down random words that came to mind on the page.  

When the bell rang, the teacher came in with a clipboard that held all the names of her students.  She was a young teacher, which is what made things easy for all the students; she’d know how to have fun.  Hopefully.

“I’m going to call roll and then I’ll tell y’all about the class.”  She had a southern accent, making Lucy think of her dad.  Lucy didn’t pay attention to the names until her own was called.

“Lucy Smith?”

“Here.” Lucy rose her hand.  She could feel eyes burn into the back of her head.  She wanted to turn around to see who it was, but she didn’t want to look weird.  So she went back to writing random words.  

“Alex Wolff?” Lucy almost snapped her neck from lifting it so fast.  The two girls that sat with her gave her a funny look, but Lucy just smiled like she was okay.  

“Here.” A deep voice replied.  That didn’t sound like Alex.  Lucy turned to make sure it wasn’t him.  Crap.  She mentally hit herself, wishing she didn’t.  It was the boy from earlier and he was looking at her.  She spun back around in her chair.  

That can’t be Alex.  He told her last year that he didn’t want to cut his hair so short.  He couldn’t have grown so much within a summer.  Or grow a beard so fast.  That is not Alex.