Today was the first day of Fourth Grade. I was ready. I had my blue backpack stuck to my body, filled to the brim with notebooks and paper. I didn't have one of those new electronic rectangle screen things yet, whatever those are called, so I was stuck with the next best electronic I could carry, my Nintendo 3DS. I stepped outside of my house and walked up the driveway towards my bus stop. It was pretty early in the morning, so I yawned as I sat down on the neighbor's brick wall. I took out my 3DS and started to play a game from one of my favorite franchises on it, Pokémon, before immediately getting interrupted as the bus started to pull around the corner (The corner as in the forest- my neighborhood is a woody area, so there are a lot of trees... everywhere. I have an entire forest in my backyard- no, not bragging, just saying. That's a lie, I'm bragging.). I hopped onto the bus and found a seat.
I sat by myself. No one came to sit with me. Not because I'm a lonely person with no friends, that isn't true at all. It's because no one in my grade rides the bus. Shut up. I have friends, you'll meet them later in the story. Be patient. Besides, it gave me a chance to continue playing Pokémon on the way to school. I guess you could call me quite the Pokémon fan at the time. I still am, but that's definitely besides the point. It has no significance to this story, just... it probably helps you know what kind of geek I was in elementary school. Well, I'm not- but- ugh
Eventually, we arrived at school. I hopped off the bus, walked into the school, and felt the familiar air seep around me. This year wasn't going to be as familiar, however. As we (4th graders) were about to reach middle school, they had to prepare us for the different systems and classes. They solved this by giving us 2 different teachers to cover the 4 core classes. A teacher to teach math and science, and another teacher to teach social studies and language arts. I mean, it made sense. It was a kind of smart system. Well... dunno why they didn't just get 4 teachers for each core class- wait, forgot, schools don't have budgets. Forgot.
I had already gone to the meet & greet that took place earlier that year so I already knew my teachers, but... I was still scared. Teachers are scary. They can judge your academic ability by simply giving you a piece of paper. Oh, they can also announce your grade to the entire class for no reason just to make fun of you. One time I got an 80 on a test and I started crying- not happy tears, sad tears. I get good grades. Trust me. I'm one of the smart kids.
I entered the school and went up the stairs to the second floor. The second floor is reserved for the 4th and 5th graders. I stood outside my classroom and looked at the names of my teachers posted on the wall. I won't tell you their names so that you don't have to try to remember a useless character's name (Also because I forgot them and don't feel like pulling out my elementary school yearbooks), but I just wanted to point that out. One of my teachers, the science and math teachers, was a very weird teacher. She called herself the Smath teacher, a mix between science and math. Creative ri- c'mon, it's creative. She read us fables during class so that... uh... I don't actually know why the math teacher read books to us. Not that I'm complaining, it was an excuse to not do school work for a day, which I was perfectly fine with. Even though I hate books.
Ugh I need to get to the point... I walked into my class (The social studies/English teacher's classroom) and I sat down in my seat. I got to school early, so I was one of the first people and only people in the class at the time, so I was stuck sitting in my seat, lying my face onto the cold wooden desk waiting for something to happen.
20 minutes later people started flooding in. People I recognized from previous years at the school; friends, non-friends, popular kids, nerdy kids, 'other' kids, etc.
Kinda boring. I don't even remember why I was excited talking about this earlier. I wish something interesting would happen. Huh? Plot intervention? Where?
That's when she walked in.
A girl that looked, well, beautiful.
Oh, no.
OH. OH, NO.
Okay, okay, that's an overstatement, she was by no means 'beautiful'. She's a 4th grader, nothing about her physical body is at all developed... don't take that weirdly. I'm just saying that she wasn't as 'magnificently alluring' as I said she was.
I recognized her, is the thing. She's gone to the school since Kindergarten, as I had, but I've never talked to her before. She's never been in my class, so I've had basically no reason to talk to her. I've just seen her around the school a couple of times.
Her name?
Eh, I dunno. I just said I didn't really know who she was, how could I possibly know her name? Whatever, the main point is, as soon as she walked in, I already knew.
She was pretty cute.
Yeah. Hold on... was this... that thing, that people always talk about? That thing... that every young male bachelor experiences? That thing called...
Love at first sight?
HA no
She's just a girl in my class, I don't even like her. Like, I could tell she was pretty, but she wasn't the prettiest girl I knew. Then again, I was a 4th grader. I don't think I cared too much about who was cuter than who. That's a complete lie I was an elementary schooler of course I ranked people in my class by how cute they were.
To tell the truth, I was never really a 'Love' person up to this point. Besides that one time when I thought I had a crush on a girl named Ashely in 1st grade. I started to hate her because her belly button was weird. Hmm... not a fun story for me to tell.
I think I can stop putting up this 'mature act' I'm trying to pull. I'm not a mature person. I just wanted to try to be funny and start this story making you think this wasn't your average love story.
But, as I've said, it isn't.
So I thought this new girl (old girl? Eh, same difference.) was cute. I saw as she sat down in her chair. She basically fell into her seat, like she was lazily cannonballing into the ocean. She was obviously tired. But her fall was still... graceful. If I knew what the word meant, I would have described her as 'elegant'.
You know those TV show creeps, that stalk people behind walls and telephone poles to watch someone as they walk down streets?
Yeah, that wasn't me. But I still did look at her from time to time before school started. Something about her just seemed so... interesting. I wasn't creepy, I swear, I just liked looking at her. I guess. Why did I say that-
Role call. Lovely. Hey, wait, that's a good thing! I get to finally hear her name and her voice! Finally, something to be interested in learning about!
Counterpoint: She would hear my name. And my voice.
Nothing's wrong with my name or voice (I hope), but... still. It was worrisome. Would she like my name? Would she like my voice? Would she... even pay attention or care in the slightest bit?
That's funny. Who cares about another person's name or voice on the first day of school?
Right, that's me. I'm the one who- right.
So what her last name started with was the thing I was focusing on. Was it before mine alphabetically? Probably. My last name started with a W. Waylon. A little sneak peek of my name that'll come up later. Anyway, you know how if you have an alphabetically high or low last name (Like having an A or a B vs. having an X or a Y?), you always fight with the other people to see who's called last or first during role call or things like that? Just me? Well, whatever. Most people don't have last names that begin with C or D or Z anyway.
The first people had their names called. I was paying attention to the girl's movements as the teacher was calling out people's names (In a non-creepy way, again), and noticed she winced when another person's name was called. I wasn't paying much attention to anything else, but I think I heard the word... Carols? Is that someone's last name or first? Are they a guy or a girl? Eh, I'll find out soon.
By soon I meant now. A girl with a very enthusiastic tone shouted out 'Here!' louder than anyone else that had gone, making it seem like a contest for who could give the most noisy response. Now I know to stay away from this 'Carols' person, gotta make sure I do that in the future. Easy.
I sunk into my seat as I tried to shake off the burst of noise that just echoed throughout the class. She was really, really loud. I rubbed the sides of my forehead as I laid my head on my desk.
"Caitlyn Dahl?"
The teacher called the next name. My ears perked up. I don't know why, the rest of my body paid no mind to it.
"I'm here, ma'am."
Oh that was a nice voice. It was a girl's voice (woah, REALLY?) that sounded light and deep at the same time. I looked up to see who talked, and it just so happened to be...
The girl from earlier. Her name was Caitlyn. It fit perfectly.
I started to analyze her face in a non-frightening way. Freckles covering her pale white skin, blue and wide eyes, fluffy and curled light brown hair, and, not an extremely slender body but not a pudgy body. She was also tall.
I've always been the tallest in the class. Figured if I were talking about someone else, I could probably talk about myself, huh? Here's a perspective: I'm Asian. Half-Asian. Half-White. I'm also tall. When I was 6'0", others were 5'7". I'm pretty tall if you ask me. That's it for my description, I'll give you more later.
So, she's cute and has got a good voice. Here's my question of the day: Did I have a crush on her?
NO DUDE I ALREADY SAID I DID NOT LIKE HER
All I've said was she's cute. A couple of times. There's not really anything else I can say I like about her yet. Besides her voice. Oh, I called her 'elegant' before, right? Yeah, that word fits her a lot. Her voice? Fits that. Her face? Fits that. Her a- never mind. Fourth graders, gotta keep it family-friendly, I can't forget that.
I guess you could say she was pretty mature. Heh. Mature. Get it, because in your 4th grade year you learn about puberty and maturi- sorry, I guess that wasn't very MATURE of me.
I tend to make a lot of puns. Bad ones. Get used to it. I ALSO tend to curse a lot, excessively, but for this part of the story, I'm gonna keep it clean to start. Mostly clean. I'm gonna try.
Time seemed to freeze as I ran my thoughts around how much her name fit. I started to get lost in my thoughts, thinking about her. Not in a way that makes it seem like I like her. I need to stop making these jokes, I'm acting like a child. Wait, I am. You're right. I AM a child. HA!
Role call continued as my brain stopped. People's names were called out, and they rang around the room, but none of them stuck to me at all. Caitlyn's name was pretty special, huh?
I didn't know what staring was up to this point, so I didn't notice I was doing it. I was looking at her face. I saw her eyes move. They were focused on the teacher's face, but her eyes started to inch towards the direction of... MY FACE OH NO
I slammed my head on the desk. Not literally, but quickly and I was hoping she didn't catch my glance. Now I was stuck staring at the wood of my desk. Oh, such lovely wood. Brown, and... uh, shiny?
I think the word for that would be flustered. Was I blushing? Probably not. That'd be weird. Unlike me looking at her. And me enjoying looking at her.
I brought a book to read in case my 3DS were to get confiscated, but instead of using it as a backup entertainment source, I found it as a great excuse to distract myself from my problems. After peeling my face from the table I opened the book up and looked inside. Picture book. Remember, 4th grader? Well, I also don't like normal books in general. I mentioned that earlier. I think they're a waste of time. Really, teacher, you think I'll learn important life lessons by staring at a piece of paper for an hour? No thanks, I'm gonna go watch animals beat each other up in this video game.
Funny thing is I started to like books in elementary school. My teachers must've been pretty good teachers. Then I started to hate books in middle school, and still hate them. I re-realized they were a waste of time.
I hate books.
"ALAN WAYLON!"
The teacher screamed. Oh, right, you're still calling role? Forgot. I wasn't paying attention, my face was shoved so far into the book that I couldn't hear you. Oh. You had to call my name multiple times to get my awareness? Uh... on the first day of school?
That's embarrassing.
"Oh, what, huh? I'm here!"
The class chuckled at my reply.
"Uaguagughghhhh,"
I said to myself. Dumb. Stupid. Moronic. I slammed my face back into my book. Great way to introduce myself, huh?
So my name is Alan Waylon. A very generic, white name. Go on, get used to it. Speaking of my name, there's gonna be a lot of jokes surrounding me because of it. They'll be introduced later, so don't worry, you'll be able to make fun of me for a lot of things later. oh god why did I say that
I rolled my eyes (Somehow knew how to do this as a 4th grader) and looked around at the... room again (as in glance at Caitlyn again)
The room had a very study-like vibe to it. There were multiple bookshelves (Bookshelves, in the reading teacher's classroom? No!) and the desks were organized neatly into their sections. I liked it being organized and tidy, but once again, didn't like books, so...
The table section I sat in was right next to the window. I hate window seats. Something about the light distracting me. Well, it's at least better than sitting next to the teacher. Eh, I would have probably rather sat next to her than next to the blinding window. Lucky middle section b******.
I had already been in this class so I already knew the place, but I was definitely not comfortable with it. I got used to last year's class, so I guess I just wasn't used to a new classroom- ugh that would make sense
I seem to have a problem describing things badly. I'll either go into way too much detail or I'll trail off into something completely different (and useless). I hope it's funny. My friends think it's funny. Yes, I have friends. I'm gonna keep reminding you that I have friends. What are their names? Uh, I'll tell you later.
Back to Caitlyn. In a perfectly normal way. After role call, none of us introduced ourselves. I was perfectly fine with that, it would have been awkward introducing myself after... that... but I was interested in learning more about Caitlyn. Thankfully, the teacher gave us time to talk to our friends before she started her lesson. So, you'd guess I probably tried to talk to the girl?
no lol I'm not that confident
At least not yet. While I sat at my desk, continuing to 'read my book', I heard someone scream.
"Caitlyn! We're in the same class!"
My eyes shot up. Not at the scream, at the name I heard. Caitlyn's eyes were directed in a different direction, presumably towards the scream, so I directed my eyes towards the same direction. It was the girl named 'Carols'. Wait- don't tell me- uh...?
"I know, Anna!"
I heard Caitlyn speak again. That was nice, of course. But now I confirmed my suspicions. Caitlyn, and whoever this... 'Anna Carols' girl was... friends. Oh, that's just lovely. She's friends with the loudest person in the class. Mmm that's great. I'm just gonna assume that trying to talk to Caitlyn with the freaking loudspeaker next to her wouldn't be the easiest thing I could do. Spoiler warning: It didn't go well. I called her something pretty obnoxious (WHAT?? I TALK TO HER? HOW?). Emphasis on the 'pretty'.
After role call, basically nothing interesting happened. I kept looking over at her, occasionally noticing that she may or may not have caught me staring at her, resulting in me darting my eyes straight to the ground. I'm so good at this.
Never mind. Great introduction, right? I thought so. Shut up. Oh, great, I'm going to have some interesting thoughts for a while, aren't I? Lord, this introduction was terrible... I'm gonna hate this story, I just know it.229Please respect copyright.PENANA2yYP7YiIvq