The New Kid: a Noah Beck Fanfiction *completed*

23

I felt myself simply going through the motions. Nothing about my life was exciting. Practice ended. Griffin picked me up. I sat at the kitchen table and finished my homework. We ate dinner in silence. I showered and went to bed.
I woke up the next morning. I brushed my teeth and my hair. I pulled clothes on. I went downstairs. I ate breakfast. Griffin drove to school. Classes passed by slowly.

Noah didn't show up to lunch, and I felt a weight lift off of my shoulders. I tried to bring myself into the conversation, but I simply couldn't focus on it.
Lunch ended, and I headed to calculus. When I got there, I noticed that Noah was sitting in a different seat. Apparently, he had decided to do something about our awkward predicament. I was in shock, but there wasn't much that I could do about it.
I walked into Spanish behind Noah, and he had already made his way to remedy the situation here, too. I sat next to my new partner, barely thinking about the work in front of us.

Econ was my final safe space for the day, and I needed to get back into the right headspace.
"Hey, Grace. Are you okay? You've seemed kind of off today," Nessa said as I sat down.
I shrugged. "Everything has just kind of flown by me today, I guess. I think I'm still coming down from everything that happened this weekend."
"You know that everything is going to be okay, right?"
I nodded as Mr. Miller started class. I didn't really feel like talking about it.

I left class, heading to my locker. I passed by Noah, and he had his arms wrapped around some girl I didn't recognize. I walked past quickly, skipping my locker and heading straight for Amelie's.
"Can you please tell Coach that I'm not gonna be at practice tonight? I'm not feeling well all of a sudden."
Amelie looked at me like she knew what was really going on, but she didn't question it. I walked right out of the front door, and Griffin stopped me. "Do you need a ride?"
"No, Griff. I'm gonna walk. I need to clear my head. Thank you though."

I started the short walk home, and the breeze blew through my hair. Something about the whole thing was relaxing, and by the time I made it home, I felt like I had everything back together again. If Noah was going to move on, that was fine, and I would need to learn to accept that, but that didn't mean that I had to automatically move on, too.
When Griffin arrived after taking Dixie home, he found me sitting on the front steps. He sat down next to me, and neither one of us spoke for what felt like an eternity. "Are you still doing okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you, Griff. For always being there for me. I don't deserve you, but I am so lucky to have you.

-three months later, right around Christmas-

Senior year was halfway over, and Noah had successfully isolated himself from me. He sat at another lunch table with some other soccer players, and he had gotten his courses switched so that we no longer had calculus and Spanish together.
He had opted to 'have fun' rather than chase someone that didn't want him. It was hard seeing him with a new girl every week, but I got used to the revolving door of faces pretty quickly. He still partied with our group of friends, but if alcohol wasn't involved, neither was Noah. It was almost like we had never met him.

Addison's voice snapped me back to the conversation at the table. "Our annual Christmas party is on for the twenty-first, so that gives you all about three weeks to get your Secret Santa gifts. Noah is included this year, and he picked his name out earlier," she said, passing a bag around the table. This was probably the last time that we would do our annual Secret Santa, so I decided to just humor her, even though I wasn't much into the holiday spirit.
When the bag made it to me, I picked the name out quickly, passing the bag to Griffin. I looked down at the slip of paper in my hand and groaned audibly. "What are the odds that I just chose Noah?" I asked.
"One in sixteen," Griffin said, pulling out his own slip of paper. I elbowed him. "Sorry. That was a rhetorical question, wasn't it?"

The bell rang, and I was left with Noah's name on a slip of paper as I made my way to class. What was I supposed to get for the boy that I was in love with that didn't want me back? I pushed it all to the back of my mind as I sat in calculus.
Spanish came and went, and I didn't think about it again until I plopped down in my seat next to Nessa.
"You have to help me, Ness."
"I can't help you on the final, Grace. You could do at least one assignment in this class by yourself," she replied, not even looking up from her textbook.
"First of all," I said, reaching over to shut her textbook, "I know that. Second of all, I wasn't talking about helping me with this class. What do I get for my Secret Santa?"
Nessa sighed. "You're not supposed to tell me if I'm yours, Grace."
"It's Noah, Nessa."
"Oh. Um, that's a very good question. I don't really know him all that well, so you're probably better off asking Dixie or Blake," she replied, confusing me.

"Dixie? Why Dixie?" I asked.
She shrugged. "They spend a lot of time together."
"Since when?" I asked, wondering how Griffin was okay with that.
"Well," she began, "when she and Griffin broke up-"
"I'm sorry. When they what?"
A look of panic crossed Nessa's face, but, fortunately for her, the bell rang, saving her from explanation.

When class ended, I headed straight to my locker and waited for Griffin. "Hey, bubs. We need to talk."