The Promposal (COMPLETE)

2- Jonah Parker

Hi, it's Jonah. Before we get started I'd just like to mention that I don't usually write in a diary or anything. This is solely for explanation purposes.

On my first day of high school, I was quite perplexed by the chaos of that first passing period. You see, I'd been homeschooled my entire life before that, and had no idea what to expect in public school. I'd seen movies and stuff about high school, sure. But I kinda hoped that real life wouldn't be anything like those trashy chick flicks about jocks and cheerleaders falling in love.

So when I was walking down those halls and witnessed for myself the lettermen jackets and cheerleading uniforms, let's just say I was very fearful of what was to come. Teen movies always had those bullied and tormented nerd characters, and I was not ready to become one of them.

Once I got to my locker, I realized that I left the paper with the combination in my backpack. It was quite unfortunate, since then I had to scramble through my backpack for the little slip. That's when the bell for first period rang, and I freaked. In movies, students would always get detention for coming to class late, and if the first thing I didn't want was to be a bullied nerd, the second thing I did not want to be was a delinquent. 

While unzipping my backpack, I see someone come by wearing a letterman jacket in my peripheral vision. Suddenly, I'm worrying that I'll be beat up, made fun of, and kicked around. My first impression at this school will be a complete mess. But then he asks "do you need help?"  and I realize that this might instead be an attempt at friendship. 

"Yes!" I practically screamed out, very frustrated with my backpack whose zipper has decided to get stuck. 

The guy took a look at the backpack and tried to help, but he couldn't get it open either. "Hey, I'm sorry I gotta run to class, it looks like the bell's about to ring" he said. I understood, but still it was disappointing. "My name's Nolan, by the way, good luck!" Then he left, and I was back to trying to get my backpack open.

I gave it one extra yank, and that must've just been the tipping point, because then the front pocket of the backpack ripped straight off. It seemed just like those movies, so comical yet embarrassing. And only a few moments later the bell rang. I almost laughed, but it was far too sad to even qualify as dark humor. So I just my losses and carried all my books to class individually.

Once inside my first period class, I took the closest seat I could find in an effort to receive as little attention as possible. And I'll be fair, I did a fairly good job at it. That is, except for the person sitting directly next to me. As I shuffled my books and papers around, I heard her comment "That looks pretty unfortunate" almost while laughing. Though I tried to ignore her, the events of that morning made me too angry not to respond.

"It's fine," I snapped back, instantly seeing the guilt and regret on her face. Although it didn't serve as any solution to what had happened, I did  take a bit of satisfaction from that.

Fast forward to lunch on the first day of school, I didn't really have any idea what to do. My first plan was to find Nolan from earlier, but out of the huge campus full of people I doubted my chances of finding him again. So I wandered around aimlessly, until I heard "Broken backpack guy!!" hollered from across the hallway. Of course it was Nolan. 

"Actually my name's Jonah" I informed him, so that broken backpack guy wouldn't become a recurring nickname of mine. Sadly, it has stuck along quite a long time, but I got used to it. 

Nolan introduced me to his friends from middle school, since he had many. Alice, Ben, Dylan, Megan, Jessica, George, and other names I couldn't remember. I didn't know back then that those friends would quickly ditch Nolan when he didn't make the football team freshman year. I also didn't know that George would cheat on Alice with Dylan or that Ben would get Megan pregnant before graduation.

Had I known all these things, I probably would not have pretended to be friendly with them that first day of school. But I haven't seen them much since then so it's all good. Except there was one of Nolan's friends which stood out to me.

Cynthia.

Her dark brown hair and nice figure (for lack of a better term) made her the most attractive girl I'd ever seen. Plus she wore glasses that made her look more humble than the rest of the girls who, except the ones with perfect vision, went through the pain of wearing contacts each and every day. 

But nobody could know about my feelings, they had to stay top secret information. 

Nolan found out about my crush on her the next day. 

I didn't really see Cynthia much until Sophomore year, when she was in two of my classes. We kind of became acquaintances, no big deal or anything. She would ask me questions about my interests or hobbies sometimes, which made me think that maybe she was interested. But also I was really quiet, so I think she just knew that she needed to carry the conversation. 

Junior year when she was in one of my classes again, I was secretly excited. Nolan kept trying to come up with ways for me to ask her out, but I was way too chicken. I'd never been on a date before, while Nolan's list of exes was getting longer and longer. It got to the point where I thought I'd never go out with a girl. That is, until I made quite a big mistake. 

- Jonah Parker