Forever

9th Grade

It was my 9th grade year at Diamond Fork Jr. high school, and I was pretty excited for it. Now, I know most other middle schools only have grades of 6-8th grade, but where I live, it's 7-9th. So I was technically spending my freshman year sharing the same school with smaller kids who just graduated elementary school. At least it gave me more time or prepare for the real high school years. 9th grade was probably the best year of middle school for me. I had made more friends than I did in 7th or 8th grade, and things got easier, so I was pretty much a 'Almost' straight A student.

As a teenage girl, I had a lot of crushes on a lot of boys that I would never really have a chance with. Some boys I didn't even have classes with, but I didn't really seem to care. Some always turned out to be total ass holes so I always ended up not like anyone once in a while.

So, off the boy subject now, I was just your regular girl, trying to fit in with the rest of the cool kids at school. Trying to dress differently, talk differently, sometimes even behave in ways you never have. Since I had entered middle school, I had always tried to fit in. In Elementary school, I never seemed to care because I mean, it's elementary.

No one cares about what you wear. I tried everything in 7th grade which never really seemed to work. 8th grade was a whole other thing for me. Instead of worrying what to wear, I always worried about my shape. I tried so much to get thinner, thinking that a skinnier body was the key to being popular.

I went with out eating for days, until I realized I went to far when I was almost rushed to the doctors. I went home from school not knowing what was going on with my body. I had a serious talk with my parents that day, and knew it wasn't going to happen.

Now that I've matured into my 9th grade year, I now realize I just have to be myself and not care what others think, because I know that eventually, you start to miss your original self after trying so hard to be someone you're not. Since I had got that out of my way, I made many new friends as I had mentioned before. My two best friends, Kylie and Courtney and I had become disconnected after not seeing each other after a while. Kaitlyn, my rather big, but very loving friend, Yeahyun, my confused Korean friend, and Jaci, my super smart, yet beautiful friend. Those 3 had stuck by my side most of my 8th grade year and they had become some of my best friends. We always seemed to mess around with each other a lot, but we always had our serious moments.

So, skipping later into the school year, it was a normal day at school in October, almost into November.

"Guys, there's like 3 days until Halloween, and I can't wait to get all the candy and get on a sugar high," Kaitlyn said as she sad down in the chair next to me.

"We're teenagers. Don't you think we're a little too old for that stuff now?" Jaci asked as she looked at Kaitlyn with a bored face.

I suddenly looked at Jaci and said, "Anyone can dress up, no matter the age. Ever heard of comic con? Plus, you get FREE candy!" Yeahyun walked through the door with a nervous look on her face, looking into the groups of people sitting in the classroom. She then saw us and fast walked towards us.

"What's this 'Halloween' stuff people keep talking about?!" Yeahyun said making the quotation marks with her fingers. Jaci, Kaitlyn, and I all looked at eachother with a confused look then looked back at our friend who had seemed to be freaking out.

"Oh Yeahyun, looks like we have to go through one of our educational talks again," I said as I pulled a chair out of the desk. Yeahyun had barley moved to the United States about 5 years before so she still had a lot of learning to do about traditions and such.

As we sat there and finished our little 'educational talk', it got quiet in our group. Nothing but the sound of other people talking around us. I looked at the clock; 10:50, only 5 more minutes until the bell rang. As the last five minutes passed, we sat there quietly. I looked around the classroom, observing all the other students.

The pretty, popular girls, the sporty guys, drama kids, and even some of the super smart, yet, attractive group. The bell rang, everyone stood up and started walking towards the door. I said bye to Jaci and Yeahyun as Kaitlyn walked down the hall with me. The rest of the day followed. The final bell rang and everyone rushed to the doors to leave the school. As for myself, I had gone to my locker, grabbed all things I needed for homework and started heading towards the bus which were behind the school.

As I walked towards the bus, my bus driver, Brenda, had watched me walk through the doors. Brenda was probably one of the greatest bus drivers of all time. She gave out candy, always had a positive attitude, and was nice to everyone. She'd always tell me I was one of her favorite, and sneak candy extra candy for me whenever she gave out. As usual, I sat down in the seat behind her and said hi.

"Hey there sweetheart, how are you?" Brenda asked as I sat down.

"Good I guess. I'm so tired." I took off my backpack and set down beside me. Brenda's son, Blake, had got on the bus and stood beside her for a moment. He was a tall, blonde kid, who always came to the bus to eat whatever Brenda had left over from lunch.

"Hey mom, got something to drink?" Brenda had looked behind her seat and pulled out a big soda from Subway. "Thanks mom, I'll see you later," Blake said as he took the drink and walked off the bus. Brenda always put on a smile and said, "See you later, love you!" Blake would say the same thing and walked off.

At the time I had a crush on him so I'd get some major butterflies when seeing him. As the rest of the kids loaded onto the bus, Brenda switched the key to turn on the bus. My 13 year old sister, Natalia, had rushed onto the bus and quickly sat next to me.

"About time. The bus was going to leave you." She tried to catch her breath as she answered. "I-I'm sorry. I had to get my instrument before leaving."

I gave her a crooked smile and then sat back to look out my window. Watched every kid pass by with their group of friends. I suddenly noticed one boy who had suddenly caught my eye. He had either been looking at me, Brenda, or the person behind me. As he walked by, he just stared. Kept his eyes in my direction for a pretty long time. Then suddenly looked away. I watched him as he walked the rest of the way to one of the buses behind.

Who was he? He looked very familiar but I couldn't really recognize him. Have I had another class with him before? He was a mysterious looking kid. Black hair, dark/light skinned, and wore a black Nike jacket, jeans, and some kind of Nike high tops. I'm not a expert in shoes so let's just call them that. I'd seem him before in the halls, and he always seemed to stand out somehow when I saw him. Standing next to the rest of the guys, he was different.

The bus started to move, and soon enough left the school parking lot. I looked outside the window the rest of the way home, watching the other kids who walked home. Thinking the rest of the way home, the same question kept popping Into my head, who was that boy?