Chapter 1- In Which Obsessions Form

“Hey, have you seen the new kid?”

“If I asked what you were talking about, would that answer your question?” My friend Terry shook his head and sighed. He walked instep with me towards our English class.

“What am I gonna do with you, Herinn?” I raised an eyebrow at him as he threw an arm over my shoulder.

“You’re ‘gonna’ remove your limb from my person… Now.” He shrugged and moved his arm back to his side.

“What’s your deal? You never let people touch you.”

“I do too. Just… not prolonged contact. It’s weird.” Terry shook his head.

“How are you going to have kids?” I stopped walking and stared at him.

“…I’ll adopt.” Terry shook his head at me again, sighed, then entered the room.

Now would probably be an opportune time to explain that Terry and I go to a private school. Yes, yes, I know. It’s not really all that bad, though. It’s not a boarding school, thank goodness, and it’s pretty much just a public school with uniforms. Oh, how I hate these uniforms! Mom says not to complain, though, because it could be worse. That’s the truth, so I’ll just shut up. Another thing you should know is that this school always either has the AC on too high in warm weather, or the heater on too high in cool weather. The moment you walk into the building you get assaulted by an uncomfortable temperature of air. Also, no matter what the weather is like outside, the English room is always, and I do mean always, below 65 degrees.

I entered said room and shivered. With these uniforms, we aren’t allowed to wear jackets because “that looked sloppy and we are striving to be prim and proper, like ladies and gentlemen,” according to Mr. McHeeton, the principal. I took a seat near the back and near the side of the room closest to door. After Terry took a seat at the desk in front of mine, he turned to face me.

“As I was saying, have you seen the new kid?”

“As I was insinuating: no.” Terry shook his head.

“Well, there’s this new kid-“

“Obviously.”

“- Dude, he’s crazy looking.” The girl sitting beside me tuned into our conversation then.

“Are you talking about that new kid?” I so desperately wanted to say ‘No, we were talking about apples and their similarities to oranges while randomly throwing in the words ‘new kid’ to throw off eavesdroppers like you.’ I didn’t get the chance to, however, because Terry replied first.

“Yeah, have you seen him?” The girl, Theresa, nodded excitedly.

“Yes! He is so hot!” I was rather unimpressed with that statement. Not because the infamous ‘new kid’ was a guy, that didn’t really matter, but because Theresa thinks that every guy is hot. I had really been getting my hopes up that I would have something pretty to stare at for the remainder of the year, but now, I guess not.

The door to the class opened, but the bell hadn’t rung yet so no one really paid any attention to it. Well, we didn’t until Theresa squealed, “Ooh! There he is! I wonder if he’s in this class!” I raised my eyebrow at that.

“Why else would he be in here?” I asked, before looking up to the front of the room and choking on my spit. Don’t you just hate that?

The fabled New Kid was talking quietly with the teacher, Mrs. Bercham, at the front of the room. He had short, wild black hair that just barely reached his ears. He wore small, thin-wire framed glasses over his bold blue eyes. The top button of his uniform shirt, a long-sleeved, button-up dress shirt, was undone, unlike the rest of ours, and his tie was tied loosely and hung down below the opening in his shirt. It seems Theresa wasn’t lying, he was very hot.

But despite his good looks, I couldn’t get over the feeling that he was completely different from the rest of us. It’s well known that this school costs quite a sum of money to attend so only snot-nosed, shallow kids like Terry and Theresa could afford it. He didn’t seem like us, but I couldn’t quite finger why. Maybe it was the five or six necklaces around his neck, or the bracelets that showed from beneath his rolled up sleeves. Or maybe it was because of the black fingernail polish, or that little whole just beneath the middle of his full, bottom lip. Maybe it was just because of that mysteriously mischievous look he gave the class as Mrs. B introduced him. I don’t know what exactly gave me that feeling, but I think it had something to do with how I suddenly became obsessed.

Hey all, thanks for reading. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. Ihope you guys like this story; I have high hopes for it. I know you guys have heard this over a million times, but nothing warms an authors heart more than knowing that their story is loved and appreciated... though I could just settle for it being liked . Please review, let me know what you think, okay?

-JW101