Clifford //Michael Clifford au//

Michael Gordon Clifford

Monday, 7:00 A.m.

It's 7:00 and I'm whispering his name again. It's sort of addicting... his whole being was sort of addicting.
"Michael" I whispered quietly.
"Michael Clifford" I said again. I liked the way his name rolled off my tongue.
"Michael Gordon Clifford" He'd only told me his middle name once because he wasn't fond of it... but I liked the way it fit into his name.
"Caroline Clifford" I smiled, still whispering to myself. That sounded very good. I could hear my little sister shuffling outside my door. She was worried we'd be late.
"You don't have to pace Shay, I'm coming," I tell her, opening my door. Her light blonde hair is tied up high in two identical pigtails.
"Caroline, I don't want to be late again, hurry up!" She yelled. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my breakfast from the counter. I walked out of the house, Shay running behind me and hoping into the passenger side of my minivan Justin. Justin is the love of my life. He's my rock. Even if it takes me 12 minutes to get him running, he's still the best vehicle ever.
As we drive, Shay turns up the volume of some pop disaster. She loves it and knows every word. Her lack of voice control makes me think once again that she must be adopted. There's no other explanation for her lack of musical talent.
"Heyyy!" She whined as I turned the song down. We battled over the volume switch for the rest of the ride. She won the war though, blasting the boyband so loud I thought Justin's speakers might fall off.
We were just to school when Shay rolled down the window to wave to her friend Meagan... the only problem was that the music was blaring and everyone outside heard it... including the one and only Michael Gordon Clifford. He was walking down the sidewalk and looked into my open window. I tried my best to hide my face.
Now music is something I don't want Michael to get wrong about me. I want him to know that he and I have the same taste. When the time comes, I want him to know I fell for him when he was humming Nirvana in English. But this... this ruined it all.
"Ooooh it's Michael" Shay teased, poking me in the arm like the ankle-biter she is. I put my face in my hands from embarrassment. I was too busy not looking to see that I was driving straight into a branch. It fell broke suddenly and fell onto the van, denting it in the process. I quickly turned off the ignition and got out to examine the injuries. It was terrible.
"Baby I'm so sorry! Mama's gonna get you fixed, I promise!" I was almost in tears.
"You need help."
"And you," I said pointing at her, "Need to get to school before I scream."
I watched Shay run off to the middle school building, her pigtails bouncing off her back. I trudged into school already wishing I could go home and hide.

Monday, 2:00 p.m.

I walked side by side with my friend Reagan to lunch, thoughts running through my head.
"So where's we sitten Kitten?" Reagan smiled, laughing as she continued to compare me to a cat. It was an ongoing joke of hers. I'd dressed up as a cat for Halloween a couple years back and she refused to let it go.
"Uhh I dunno... let's see who's there first," I suggested. I was secretly hoping Ashton, another friend who was more comparable to a brother, was sitting with Michael. That would give me an excuse to sit with him. They were pretty good friends, Ash and Michael. But nevertheless he was sitting with Kerry and Luke. Not that I minded. Kerry was my best friend and Luke was like family. But if I had to sit and watch them be all cutesy all of lunch... I might actually throw up.
There they were though, holding hands and whispering in each other's ears. They had the whole adorable height thing going for them. Kerry was about 5 foot 4 and Luke was somewhere around 6 feet. They're staring at each other and I'm staring at a boy who thinks of me as "a buddy."
"Oh Care, I heard about Justin, I'm so sorry," Ashton tells me, placing his hand over mine with fake sympathy.
"It's been pretty hard; you know? The doctors say he has to get surgery." I laugh, playing along.
"Caroline?" Reagan said, shaking me.
"Yes?"
"Michael wants you" She replied, pointing across the table. Michael did this a lot. He would mouth something stupid and I'd laugh. I think I laughed at just about everything he said.
"Yea," Ash smiled, "Michael wants Caroline" he giggled being, as always, incredibly immature.
"Shut up, perv!" Reagan chastised, hitting him on the arm.
"Thanks mother." Ashton laughed again, turning to talk to Luke.
I turned around to look at Michael who was smiling brightly. He was mouthing something.
"He wants you to meet him after school" Reagan told me.
My face turned pink. It was incredibly annoying... the blushing thing. All he had to do was look at me and my cheeks were hot.

Monday, 3:00 p.m.

Last period went on for what seemed like forever. I hate 7th period. The definition of hell might as well be sitting through one of Mrs. Halls lectures.
"Why do you even like him?" My ex-boyfriend Todd ask annoyingly. Todd was what you would call persistent. It wasn't a secret he wanted me back. It also wasn't a secret that I would rather be friend-zoned by Michael for a thousand years than be with him again.
"Who do I like now?" I ask, hoping he'd stop talking.
"Oh don't play innocent, everyone who knows you can see that you like Michael... seriously you've been staring at him for the past 15 minutes... so why do you like him?" He continued to pester.
"I don't know what you're talking about" I replied, averting my gaze from Michaels dark brown hair with purple streaks, to the plump old woman writing on the board.
"Miss Joan's do you need a detention? This is the third time this week you've disrupted class!" Mrs. Hall yelled. I tried my hardest to refrain from punching the old hag in the face.
"Sorry ma'am" I replied through gritted teeth.
"Yea Caroline, stop talking" He laughed. He must've thought he was the smoothest thing in the world.
"You're such a damn prat Todd."
I watched Michael for the rest of class as he joked and laughed and had a great 'ol time with his friend Serrina. Serrina... she's sweet and cute and always has something good to say about everyone. I hate her. I hate her with all of my being. Every ounce of me was devoted to hating her. Despite my attempts to constantly befriend her, all I get is her talking down to me. Rubbing the fact that her and Michael are close in my face.
You see, her and Michael are a lot like Ashton and I. Friends since before we remember, always on each other's side. Except the difference that I don't flirt with Ashton. I don't hang all over him and stare like he's fresh meat.

Monday, 3:30 p.m.

I meet Michael in the courtyard after class. It's nearly empty when I get there, except the purple streaked hair of a boy sitting on a bench in the middle. I sit by him... close... but not too close.
"Hia Caroline!" He laughed, not the least bit of nerves in his voice.
"Hey Mikey!" I smile shyly. I feel my cheeks heat up and I know I'm blushing but I don't know why.
"I was wondering if you'd want to come watch a film with me tomorrow?" He asked. I wanted to ask if it was a date. I wanted to know for sure what I was getting into. But instead I just smiled.
"Yea, s-sure I'd love to, just text me the time" I smiled, my face burning up. I get up and walk away before I can ruin anything. A million thoughts are running through my head.
"Michael Clifford" I whisper to myself.
"I'm going on a date with Michael Clifford"
_________________________________________________________________________________

A/N
Re-written version :)
If you haven't heard I'm re-writing this book along with a few others. Please enjoy :)))))
-Shel