The Importance Of Gold And Silver

Chapter 1: Spanish Is Not My Strong Suit

        I crossed paths with Phil for the first time at the start of freshman year of high school. Even then I was infatuated with him. Phil stood out in Jordan's typical flock of goons. Jordan was popular from a very young age. He had a warm demeanor and was the star football captain. This football business certainly had knocked a couple of his marbles out though. This football star title, curse or blessing, attracted flocks of giggling preppy women and men desperate to be him. They seemed to think that by associating with Jordan his popularity and success would rub off on them. Jordan was not a bad guy by any means but as the dorky girl with braces and a pizza face, I loathed his very being. At least I thought I did. Still, this tale is not about Jordan or the trouble he got himself into with another boy in sophomore year. That is his and Taylor's story to tell. No this is about Phil. Phil was the awkward high school exchange student, every grade gets at least one. He was a quiet individual barely even mumbling. His blue glasses were about his only defining feature as he stood amongst the many preps in his wallflower ways. To this day Phil prefers to listen more than he speaks but it is not out of fear any longer. This attitude did help him in high school to quickly flourish and raise his academic expertise. It did not take long for the teachers to catch wind of this. This strand of his personality would be the sole reason as to why we met or so I thought.

       I was not a genius in high school by any means but I do like to think that I was at the upper end of my class. This desire to be above average shoved me forward in class and gave me good grades as a reward. With good grades always coming to me without a fight I was mortified to discover in my grade book a... a C in Spanish. I could see my future crumbling before me and I rushed to my teacher during lunch squalling for assistance because I would never amount to anything in life. I would later receive many C's in college and appreciate that they weren't F's but that is unimportant. With desperate ramblings, I tried to express to Señora what was distressing me. Finally, after what seemed like a millennium of distressed speaking she laughed. She laughed. I thought she was laughing at me but she simply shook her head with a chuckle.

        "Oh Suelita, you are the first person to ever come crying to me about a high C but it is obviously distressing you. Here, go find this person," she paused to scribble a note, "he will help you. He's a native speaker and a very sweet boy. I believe he is in the library most lunch periods. That is where the other students have found him. I wish you luck honey. Get those assignments in."

        Like a knight being presented a sword, I knew my quest. I nodded to her rapidly and dashed out of the room almost taking out poor Taylor in my rush. I called an apology over my shoulder at him as he shook off the shock. I barreled through the halls on my one-man quest to better grades. I needed to gain my trusty sidekick. My trusty sidekick was buried within the castle of textbooks. I burst through the doors only for the librarian to bark at me to be quiet. Unlike a knight, I wilted and apologized. I cast my eyes around the room. Phil had not even flinched. He was completely engrossed in his reading. I inhaled deeply and approached the monstrous man before me as if tiptoeing towards my imminent destruction. He was gorgeous in that mysterious, no backstory character kind of way. Sort of like Edward Cullen but an actually decent character. So not at all like Edward Cullen I guess. Other than the fact that I would later find out he was a vampire but that's not important yet. No, what was important was the fact that I was creeping up behind him. When I neared him his posture suddenly stiffened and he looked over his shoulder. His eyes quickly focused on me and I gulped.

       "What?" He inquired.

       I struggled for words realizing how idiotic I must have looked while I was creeping up like a hunter on their prey. He rolled his eyes and with a huff turned back around. His French definitely showed in that action. I took a deep breath and shook off my nervousness walking over. I placed my hands on the table and he sighed looking up from his book.

       "Well?" He requested.

       The beauty in his voice threw me reeling once more and I swallowed. My mind would later linger on the harmonic tone his voice had painted every pitch in it as though every sentence was The Birth of Venus. I planted my feet and finally got a sentence around the lump in my throat.

        "My grade is sliding in Spanish and Señora told me you'd be the person to talk to," I articulated.

      His annoyance faded slightly as he nodded. He kicked a chair out with one of his long almost spider-like legs. He gestured at the chair telling me to sit. I nodded in understanding and lugged my backpack onto the table. I started pawing through the mass of papers, folders, binders, pens, pencils, and just about any stationery product in between. He sighed softly.

       "An organization system would be beneficial," he stated before suddenly stopping me, "there."

        I slid out the sheet and he took it looking over it. He tsked at it as if it was an annoying sibling and grabbed the pencil from behind his ear. He still has a pencil or pen behind his ear most of the time. Sometimes he'll fall asleep with one and I'll wake up to it trying to shank me in the night. He studied the paper and nodded slightly. We were there for the rest of lunch and my next hour I strutted into Spanish like a damn rooster. I gained a huge grin and slapped my papers on the teacher's desk.

       "Done!" I chirped triumphantly.

      "Well, I'll admit I'm impressed. Fantastic work hon," She replied with that warm smile older teachers get.

       Señora really was my favorite teacher in high school and when I invited her to my wedding she revealed why she'd forced me to talk to Phil. She thought we'd make a good match. It wasn't love at first sight though, instead, it was love at first group project.