Neil

Part 1

As I left the house, I heard my mum call my name. "June, you forgot your lunch!". I went back inside to grab the lunch bag my mum had prepared for me. A sudden ring outside made me hurry up. I ran over to the garage and jumped on my bike. It was a pretty old bike, kinda like one you would see in a movie from the 80s. It had belonged to my dad, before he passed away. "Hey! RJ hurry up, what's taking so long?". RJ. Short for Rachel June. Only one person in the world calls me that. My dad came up with the name Rachel, my mum with June. They couldn't decide on one of them, so they just decided for my dad to call me Rachel, and my mum to call me June. Most of my class mates call me Rachel, because it's the first name on paper. There is only one of them who calls me RJ, my best friend Neil. He and I have lived next to each other since we were 8. Every morning we drove to school together. Because we lived very close by, we always took our bikes. "RJ!". Neils voice ripped me out of my thoughts. "Coming!".

We drove of on our bikes together. His hair was flying in the wind and he looked very happy and free. I felt like the total opposite: because I hadn't slept well, I had dark rings under my eyes and a tired look on my face. I did not have time to brush my wavy brown hair and I had never been a big fan of make up. Neil, noticing that I looked a little down, tried to cheer me up by challenging me to a race. "Last one at the Café has to buy the other one a coffee!" He said, as he was driving past me, gaining speed with every second. "I want a caramel Frappuccino!" I yelled laughing, as I also started to gain speed. We were dead level for most of the way, but on the last couple meters he fell back a little. He didn't look exhausted and his breath was going steady. I wondered if something was wrong with his bike, but as he arrived at the Café a couple seconds after me everything seemed fine. "I win!" I yelled. "You owe me a coffee.". Neil smiled and walked into the Café while I was waiting with our bikes. He walked out holding a cup of coffee in his right, and a cookie in his left hand. "One Frappuccino for the lady..." he handed me my coffee. "And a cookie for me." He smiled and took a big bite out of his cookie.

We arrived at school five minutes after the bell rang. "See you after school!" Neil said, kissed me on my forehead and ran to class, his scarf flying behind him. We didn't have any classes together on Thursdays, so we wouldn't see each other the entire day. I ran to my first class, wich was English on Thursdays. I sat down next to Sarah, a good friend of mine. She was one of the more popular girls. Her blonde hair was always in a high ponytail and her make up was always matching her clothes. Even though she was on the cheerleading team, she was really down to earth and a fun person to hang with. I saw her starring at Neil a couple times, but I didn't believe he was interested. "They would make a cute couple though." I thought to myself. "What did I miss?" I whispered. "Not much." Sarah answered, chewing on her pencil. "Mr. Miller is just reading a passage from Shakespeare.". I looked up, as a cough interrupted our conversation. "Ms. Foster, first you come late to class and now you're interrupting me with your private conversations. Care to explain?" Mr. Miller looked at me with his grey eyes, starring into my soul. "Uhm..." I stuttered. "I am sorry Mr. Miller, it won't happen again.". I looked down on my desk and waited for Mr. Miller to take his eyes of me. He turned back to the book and continued to quote Shakespeare.

It was almost the end of maths class, my last class for the day, as I noticed something outside the window. It was a subtle movement, but I noticed it anyway. It was a really small rock, not bigger than my eyes. It was falling in front of the window. But something seemed off. I followed the rock with my eyes. And then I realized: the rock wasn't falling at all. It was flying up; starting from the ground and landing on the roof, as if someone pulled it up on a string. But there was no one in sight, nothing that could've made the rock behave that way. The bell rang and I left the building to walk up to the bikes. Neil was already waiting for me. "So, how was your school day? Did anything interesting happen?" Neil looked at me with his blue, kind eyes, as if the thing I was about to say was the most interesting thing in the world. I thought about telling him about the rock, but I decided against it. It was probably just a prank one of the freshman were working on, and I didn't want him to worry about me. "No, nothing to tell. What about you?" I asked. He grinned and sat down on his bike. "Did you know that a new student is coming to our school?" He started driving and I had a hard time catching up. "I think we've got science and history together. And he is in your English class.". He drove of, and it became harder for me to keep up. "Neil, wait!" I gasped. He slowed down and waited till I caught up with him. I was breathing heavily and my chest was going up and down. "Do you wanna drive around the park for a bit?" He asked, looking at my chest. "Sure but let me catch my breath first. And stop starring!" I giggled, hitting him lightly with my elbow. He laughed and we drove into the park.