Together We Were Static

Chapter 1 | Pending Title...

'Her pencil glided across the paper in graceful twists, carefully sketching out a rough drawing as her eyes flicked up occasionally to examine the target of her before continuing to work on her drawing. Her surroundings around her became a blur as she focused on her art, the chatter of her fellow classmates slowly fading away as she concentrated, erasing a line here, adding something there, until suddenly it all came together. She was finished with her rough drawing. Her target, her model who was sitting a few rows in front of her began to turn around slowly,-'

"Uh, hello?" A feminine voice rang out, thick with irritation as she dragged the 'o'. "Earth to Ria? Come in, Ria!" A finger and a thumb flicked me on the forehead and I jumped, quickly snapping out of my daze and sending one of my notebooks flying off of my desk and onto the floor. I blushed and leaned over in my chair to pick it up but another hand beat me to it. I sat up straight and looked into the eyes of one of my best friends, Kelly Rivers. With long, curly black hair and warm brown eyes, this girl was as kind as one could be. I took my notebook from her and smiled gratefully as she bent over and leaned on my desk.

"Welcome back to earth," Her eyes sparkled with laughter, "Whatcha writing, space cadet?" I giggled and glanced down at the sparkly cover of my spiral bound notebook before replying, "It's a story about an alternate universe where I have artistic talent. And when other people see my drawings, they know what it's supposed to be!" She chucked at me.

"Must be nice, having talent!" She exclaimed loudly, drawing the attention of my fellow classmates.

"Says you, the captain of the women's soccer team." I retorted, fighting the embarrassment that rose from drawing attention to myself. Two hands gently rested on my shoulders as someone leaned over my head.

"What's this I hear about having talent?" A masculine voice questioned both Kelly and I. 

"Surprised you could hear that, Luke," Kelly began with a smirk on her face, "When you usually don't hear the teacher when they assign homework." Luke Tyler was my other best friend, a redhead with green eyes, a face full of freckles, and a passion for theater and causing drama. Of course, I would never say that last bit to his face. Not now.

"It's called selective hearing, babe." He responded, "I only hear the important things." Luke had a pet name for all of his friends, it was a little quirk that I adored about him. 

"Homework is part of your class grade, it's kind of important." He stuck his tongue out at me when I said that. "Also, I'm not a table, please don't use me as one." Instead of obeying my request, the jerk decided to rest his chin on my head.

"What's that, star? I can't hear you~" He sang and I sighed in a joking manner. 

"that's cause you're a jerk!" Kelly called out teasingly, glancing down at her phone.

"Hey, Luke?" I asked him, and he hummed in acknowledgement. "Why did you choose 'star' for my nickname?" He hummed again in thought.

"Well, that's because you're always-" The bell interrupted him and I groaned, putting my notebook and pencil in my backpack.

"You can tell me at lunch." He nodded at me as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, allowing me to stand up and do the same. Kelly flung an arm around my neck, bag in her other hand. 

"See ya, Luke! It's time for us girls to go do our girl thing!" She and I waved goodbye as we left the classroom and began walking together to our next shared class. "Hey, can you wait for me? I need to fix my lipstick." She pouted at me and I instantly caved.

"Sure." We stopped at the bathroom on the way to our next class and she stood in front of one of the mirrors. I looked at my reflection in another one and tugged on my hair with a frown. I had light brown hair that stopped at the middle of my neck and pale blue eyes, sometimes grey depending on the color of light. I then looked down at my clothes, feeling a bit more self conscious than usual, examining my cream colored shirt and black skirt combination with a frown. I looked at Kelly, who was almost finished.

"Do you think the black flats were too much?" I asked her. She gave me a side look and smiled.

"Girl, you're so white that you pull it off." She smacked her lips together and nodded in satisfaction. "I'm done!"

"You look great," I offered my opinion without being questioned as we both walked out of the bathroom and into our next class, making it into our seats just as the bell rings. I pulled out the same notebook from before as well as my binder for English. The teacher turned on her projector and displayed a list. 'Week 16 Vocab Words', I mentally groaned as I wrote the words down in an blue pen, as well as the definitions in a black pen. 'I hate this class with a burning passion', I bitterly thought. Luckily, the only homework we were assigned was reviewing those vocab words. The bell rang while we, as a class, were reading 'Dante's Inferno' and a few of the boys in the back cheered because finally, Finally! It was time for lunch. 

I nearly ran out of that classroom,but my escape was thwarted by the teacher herself who stopped me with a, "Miss Green, can I speak with you?" I groaned but walked over to her anyways. 

"Yes, Mrs Turner?" My teacher smiled at me as she handed me a paper. 

"I enjoy reading your stories, Ria. Have you considered entering the school's creative writing contest?" She asked me as I glanced down at the paper in my hand. It was an assignment from a month ago, asking us to write a story for Halloween. An easy assignment, I wrote about a group of children who had to reverse an ancient curse that  plagued their home town. 

"I don't know..." I trailed off.

"The judges will be other teachers at this school and it will be completely anonymous until the winner is announced." I sighed. 

"Please let me take some time to think about it." She seemed satisfied with my response and let me leave.

"Yo, Ria! What did Turner want?" Kelly asked me as I sat down next to Luke and across from her at the park bench just outside of our school.

"She wanted me to enter that writing contest." I pulled an apple out of my packpack and took a bite of it.

"Hey, that's not a bad idea." Luke chimed in, poking at his school lunch tray. "After all, you're a really good writer, and I heard you could earn a scholarship through it." I shook my head.

"But what if people find out? What would they say? Ugh... I wouldn't be able to stand the attention." I felt my mood worsen at the thought. Kelly and Luke looked at each other.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Luke started.

"-but this contest really seems like something you would enjoy." Kelly finished for him. "It's fine, though. We can't force you to enter." 

"You two are so supportive," I smiled gratefully at them before looking down. "If only I weren't like this... If only I wasn't so scared to leave my comfort zone..."

Luke patted me on the head and chuckled. "You're always there for us, you show up to every performance, you help out when there isn't enough people working on props, and you show up to every one of Kelly's games! Even when you're sick, you are always there for us. It's time we start to be there for you." My eyes began to tear up, touched by his kind words.

"Today's Friday, right?" Kelly asked, checking the date on her phone. "Yeah, so... Let's meet up at the bowling alley tomorrow. Maybe do a free-for-all in a round of laser tag?" 

"You're the best friends I could ever ask for." I gave Luke a side hug as I smiled gratefully at Kelly. "What time? I'm free."

"I've got work at 5, so what about 11? We can grab a pizza to share when it's lunch." Luke chimed in. Kelly and I both agreed. 

"It's a deal!"

~~~

Hi all! Author here. It's been a while since anyone has heard from me, right? Well, I'm still alive. Did I make any errors? Please leave a comment if I did! All of the chapters will be updated in my free time, with no particular schedule in mind, so please don't ask me when the next update will be. Want your character to make an appearance? PM me! And one last thing, comments are greatly appreciated, any ideas on what should happen next chapter, pairing ideas, anything really. Thank you for reading my newest story!

(Also If someone knows how to make a good cover, I would love you forever.)