_ The Charmer // Nicholas

      September 7th. It was always a date I would remember, a date I came to know whenever it crossed paths with my yearly calendar. It marks the date when I first met, when I first saw her: Raelyn. She was a girl that would always have her special place in my mind, and maybe even my heart … the treasure that I will never obtain completely.

      Today was September 7th, and today I celebrated our meeting, so long ago. We were only very young, I was seven years old and in second grade, she was six years old in first grade, when we both learned each other’s names.

      Back then, I thought I was ‘cooler than ice’, since I wasn’t a little kid anymore. After all, I was in second grade, remember, and not in first. First graders needed to be picked on, because, in my mind – they were smaller and not smarter. And I, being the ‘big, smart, boy’ that my mother called me, thought it would be a great idea to give the younger children a … proper welcoming, as one would say.

      My poor homeroom teacher was unsuspecting when I raised my hand and asked her to be excused to the little boys’ room. She excused me without any suspicion. I suppose she had forgotten me while I was out on my little escapade, with the like of all those screaming brats she had to watch over. Not that she was to blame; I rather dislike the screaming brat part myself.

       Anyway, while I was supposed to be relieving myself in the potty room, I headed down the halls to take a peek at the first grade classrooms. I never really made it to the classrooms, because a lone girl walking down the corridor caught my attention. Her wide brown eyes searched the halls for her classroom, and during her search, she found me. A small smile crept into her features and immediately she skipped over in my direction.

      “Hi!” She had said. “Are you a first grader too?”

      I was insulted, but at least I found my first victim. Immediately I scrunched up my nose and scowled. “No!” I said with venom. “Are you stupid or something? I’m a second grader!”

      My comments didn’t go too well with her, but she didn’t cry. Oh, no. It was quite the contrary. She said a couple of things that would have made me cry, if I wasn’t a big boy. But since I was already seven years old and the oldest of three children – I was the man of the house (when my father was away, that was) and I had to act accordingly. I had scrunched up my fists and soon, a shouting match could be heard from the nearby classrooms.

      It didn’t take too long when a teacher had suddenly appeared and pried us both apart from pulling each other’s hair out. She had instructed us to give her our names with so much authority that I couldn’t disobey. So we both told her, grudgingly. It was then I found her name to be Raelyn Bennet, and even though I wanted to be rid of her immediately, I couldn’t be. I had been assigned a week’s time-out along with her, and I had extra homework: a letter containing a card of apology addressed to Raelyn.

      I, of course, believed that all girls had cooties at that age and did not bother with any more thoughts (than necessary, of course) of her in my mind until I hit puberty. And she, I believe, did not harbor about thoughts of me at all, until I became more than a name.

      I watched her out of the corner of my eye since I was thirteen. My hormones were in full charge, coursing throughout my new teenage body. I began to notice the differences that had happened in most girls: new figure, new attitude … the best part, however, was that the girls had been noticing the changes in us boys too. ‘Going out’ became a regular phrase in our vocabulary; we had thought we were old enough to do so back then.

      Raelyn was still only twelve years old, and though most young girls had dreamed of having their perfect Prince Charming at the age of four, (I blame it all on those Disney movies) she was not one of them. Even at thirteen, fourteen, or even fifteen, for that matter, she didn’t even try to get herself involved. She didn’t stand around in the hallways with her school skirt hacked up all the way to her upper thighs, nor did she wear gobs of makeup and fake eyelashes as a way to … seduce male students passing by. No, she was actually trying to remain hidden among the high ranks of society and popularity in our school.

      Unfortunately, it didn’t work too well for her. Hair dye was strictly prohibited in school; so it wasn’t often that we saw a blonde roaming around the corridors, nor did we see a head full of long auburn hair. All it took was a flash of reddish-brown hair and she was caught.

      I never gained any courage to march up to her and ask her to be my girlfriend at my earlier teen years. But I knew there was a connection. I knew that there was something hurdling towards the both of us, something that would permanently mar our minds and change our outlook on life itself: the world, the people in it, everything.

      Raelyn knew me, but not in the way as I wanted her to. I was simply a passerby face and a name, whispered among many of our female peers, engraved on soccer trophies that were put on display throughout the main visitation sites in the school. To many people, including Rae, I was a boy with a reputation. She knew me as the perpetual charmer, the ‘pimp’ of our boarding school, Mr. Drop-dead-beautiful-in-a-masculine-way. I had dated my way throughout almost the entire female student body my age except for her, because in my mind, she was too fragile to touch.

      And she was: the picture of perfect innocence. Though, at first glance her demeanor would never show it, not with her violent temper and fits of rage. She was what all us boys considered one of the untouchable beauties … petite, dark auburn haired with these almond shaped, chocolate-brown eyes. She was one of those girls with a large, soul-connecting, understanding gaze, one of those girls destined to stay a virgin until someone got her drunk and knocked her up good.

      I had hoped that someone would have been me. (Unbeknownst to my mother, who would have sent me to a monastery if I ever had said that anywhere near her.)

      But I, fool that I am, was a dreamer. There was a distinct line between dreams and actual reality. So I lived my life with the goods coming towards me instead of actually going out to reach for them. That meant I was an easy playboy. Girls came to me; I had my way with them and pushed them away. It made me content, but I wasn’t entirely happy. What I had most desired was her, and it wasn’t till I turned fifteen that I began my quest to finally win her over.

       And at sixteen, I was spoiled rotten; I knew what I wanted, and when I wanted it. I received everything that I asked for, and when I saw something that caught my eye, it meant I would get what I wanted … at every cost imaginable.

       Raelyn was no longer a childish crush.

       She became my obsession.

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Author’s Note: Anyways, first chapter done … tell me what you think? And LOL, Nick isn’t stalker material. He’s actually a good boy – a gentleman! Next chapter is in Raelyn’s POV – like an extended prologue.