FictionPress.com - let the words flow
| FictionPress.com - let the words flow |
|
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
A/N: Hey everyone! I’m really excited about this story because I love both acting and soccer, so this will be a fun story to write. Anyway, enjoy!
And for those of you who don’t know this, I reposted this chapter. I took out the original beginning and added a few notes at the bottom.
It all started on the first day of my senior year at Adamson Academy. I was dragging my things towards my dorm room (yeah, I go to a boarding school). Do you know how difficult it is to pull a suitcase, balance a messenger bag on one shoulder, and carry a sports bag? Oh, did I mention that I was also trying to carry three paper bags full of groceries?
Yeah, so I wasn’t having the easiest time getting my stuff up to the third floor of the dorm building. I tripped on the fourth stair. All of my groceries went flying out of my hands, and my messenger bag fell off of my shoulder. Needless to say, I fell down, too.
I groaned and picked myself up slowly. You’d think that I’d have been used to falling down, considering how much soccer I played. But when an opposing player knocks you over, you don’t fall down stairs.
“Are you alright?” asked a voice.
I glanced towards the speaker. Then did a double take. And then…then I gaped.
“Christiano Liberti?”
Yeah, you guys probably don’t know who he is. Let’s just say that he’s a big movie star. He’s been in two leading roles, and he only started acting four years ago. Oh, and did I mention? I used to know him.
That is, before he became famous. It was before he moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. We were friends once. Good friends. He even liked me once. He asked me out in eighth grade, but I turned him down. Now I’m really wishing that I didn’t do that. You can guess why.
“Yeah,” the young actor said. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your name?”
I gaped. He didn’t remember me. I didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t remember me. That was pretty rude, if you asked me. But, on the other hand, I was saved from any further embarrassment. He probably hated me now, anyway. I noticed that he had said something else.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
“I said, ‘I’m new here, so I don’t know anyone,’” he repeated, surprisingly patiently.
Oh, if he only knew. He did know someone. That someone would, of course, be me. But I didn’t tell him that. Instead, I replied, “Well, I’m sure you won’t have any problem making friends, um…” I had no idea what to call him. I had always called him “Chris,” but now it didn’t seem appropriate.
“Chris, just Chris,” he supplied. “Oh, here are your bags.”
He handed the three grocery bags to me. I struggled to grasp them all. I ended up dropping one again. Chris laughed.
“Here, why don’t I just carry them to your dorm?”
He took the three bags and somehow managed to balance them easily. I didn’t really want him to know where I slept, but I did need the help. So, I shrugged and pulled my suitcase upstairs to the third floor and down the hallway a short distance. I dropped my sports bag on the floor and pulled my key out from my messenger bag. I unlocked the door and, picking up my sports bag, kicked it open. I motioned for Chris to follow me inside.
“Brenna? Tracy? Caitlyn?” I called for my roommates. No one answered. I figured they hadn’t arrived yet.
I looked around the room. It almost felt like coming home. I had lived in this dorm since freshman year, and now I was a senior. You do the math. My three roommates and I had a suite. Our parents, who were all relatively rich, had been able to pay for a nice place for us at school. It was really more like an apartment than a dorm room. There was a main room, which included a small kitchen and living area. There were three doors off of the main room. One led to a bathroom, and two led to bedrooms.
I pointed out the kitchen counter for Chris, who dutifully placed the groceries on it. He then followed me to the door on the left, behind which was the bedroom that Brenna and I shared. I opened it and pulled my suitcase inside. There was my bed, by the window. And there was my desk, and my wardrobe.
I placed my suitcase next to my bed and dropped my sports bag on my bed. Then I put my messenger bag on the desk chair. I then grabbed my key ring, which held keys to my house, my dorm room, and my car. I made to leave, and then noticed Chris standing in the doorway.
“Where are you going now?” he asked with a look of confusion on his face.
“To my car,” I responded. “I still have to get my laptop and my books.”
I brushed past Chris and left the room. He took a moment to follow, and I realized that it must be the fact that he wasn’t used to being ignored. It must’ve been weird for him to meet a girl who didn’t throw herself all over him. I let him out of the dorm and locked the door behind me. I walked down the stairs and out to the parking lot. Only then did I realize that Chris was still following me.
“Why are you still following me?” I asked, turning around sharply.
“I thought you might need help.” I smiled despite my annoyance. It was sweet, it really was.
“Thank you, but I can manage,” I said.
“Okay, well, then, could you point me to the main office?” he asked. “I need to get my dorm room and schedule.”
“Well, we get our schedules tomorrow. We always move in on the Saturday before school starts. Sunday is orientation for the freshmen, where they basically get to know the school. Everyone gets their schedules then, too. Then classes start on Monday,” I explained. “Oh, and the main office is that way.”
I pointed in the right direction, and he thanked me and walked away. I began walking towards my car, and then turned around to watch him. I wondered why he had come to Adamson Academy. The school didn’t usually take in transfer students. He must’ve paid a fortune to get in. But why would he choose this school? And, for that matter, why boarding school?
I noticed that Chris stopped, and seemed like he was debating with himself. Then he began to turn around. I ducked behind a nearby car to hide, just as he turned completely. I was certain he was going to ask my name. I didn’t want him to know. He would hate me, and I’d end up humiliated. I peeked out and saw that he was looking around for me. He couldn’t see me, and so he turned back towards the office building with a disappointed look on his face.
I stood up from behind the car and continued towards my own. I unlocked my silver Mercedes (my seventeenth birthday present last February – I told you my parents were rich) and popped open the truck. I grabbed the last thing inside, the cardboard box full of books. Then I closed the trunk and opened the door to the back seat. I pulled out my computer bag and slipped it over my shoulder, closing and locking the doors.
“Val!”
It was my best friend, Brenna Stewart. She was struggling to close her own car door. I went to her and helped her close it. She, like me, carried a cardboard box. Hers probably carried her linen, though. She also had two duffel bags over her shoulders.
“I would hug you, but our arms seem kind of full,” I told her. She laughed. We walked up to our dorm. I opened the door to find Tracy Lofter putting away the groceries I had brought. Brenna and I shouted greetings as we went to dump our stuff in our room. Brenna’s side of the room was symmetrical to mine. As soon as our hands were free, I hugged her tightly.
“I missed you!” I let her go and we both ran out to the main room to hug Tracy.
“Don’t I get a hug?” asked Caitlyn Wright from the other room’s doorway. We promptly attacked her with hugs, too. After greeting everyone properly, we all helped Tracy put away the rest of the food. Apparently, we had all brought some food. Then, Brenna went to her car to get the rest of her stuff, and Caitlyn and Tracy went into their room to unpack. I followed their example and unpacked my own stuff.
I pulled out my bedding, which was black and white. I made my bed and then unpacked my clothes. I emptied the rest of the stuff onto my bed, and then stuck my suitcase under my bed, where it would stay until graduation. I made a quick trip to the bathroom to put away my toiletries. After that, I unpacked my books onto the shelving unit above my desk. I placed my many soccer trophies on the rest of the shelves and then set up my laptop on the desk. I grabbed my sports bag and placed it at the foot of my bed. Then I picked up my DVD collection. I took them out to the living area, where Tracy was setting up her TV. Caitlyn had brought a DVD player. That was how well we got along. We each made a contribution. Mine was a microwave and a coffee maker, which I had brought earlier that morning. Brenna had probably the hardest task. She had bought us a huge sofa, which was being brought in by some movers. It was big enough to fit all four of us if we squeezed in.
Just then Brenna burst in through the door, carrying a sports bag, a backpack, and another box. Behind her trailed Jake Brooks, her boyfriend, who pulled along a suitcase and carried another duffel bag. They said hi and then put all of Brenna’s stuff in her room. When they came out a moment later, Jake headed for the door immediately. Usually he stayed for hours, insisting on helping Brenna unpack. (They had been going out since sophomore year.) But now he left right away. I asked if something was wrong.
“No, of course not. I just have a new roommate, and I have to show him around campus.” With that said, Jake disappeared. Jake had the same sized room as us, but he only shared it with two other people, rather than three. Now it appeared that he would have to share his small bedroom, which he had always had all to himself. After that, I thought no more of it and went back to organizing the DVDs that I had brought. That afternoon, the sofa arrived, and by that evening, the dorm suite looked like home again. We had all added our personal touches. It was neat and organized, just as Caitlyn liked it, but it was also comfortable, the way I liked it. Tracy, Brenna, and I were all on the soccer team, so we had tons of soccer stuff all over the place.
That night, we ordered pizza and decided to watch a movie. We squeezed on the couch, as we had always done. Now it seemed impossible. I remarked briefly that we might need to buy an armchair, too, but no one heard because they were all arguing over a movie. Tracy wanted to watch Sahara, Brenna insisted on Bend it Like Beckham, and Caitlyn finally won the argument. We were going to watch Crown Duel. I had never seen the movie, but apparently it was an adaptation on a book by Sherwood Smith. The doorbell rang as she explained it to me. I went to open the door and get the pizza, while Caitlyn got up to set up the movie. I got out napkins and soda for everyone, and then I returned to the couch. There was absolutely no room for me. I wondered how we had all fit there just moments before. But I didn’t really care. I handed everyone their pizza and then got one of Brenna’s oversized pillows to sit on. I leaned against Tracy’s legs and watched as the movie began.
You can guess (or at least try to) my shock when I realized that one of the characters (Bran, if you must know) was played by none other than Christiano Liberti. I almost shot up to retreat to my room, but I realized that it could look suspicious if I did that. Okay, you might be wondering why I wouldn’t want to watch him in a movie. The thing is, I had always avoided watching Chris act. It always made me feel guilty for turning him down. Okay, not really for turning him down. The truth is that I laughed at him and embarrassed him in front of our whole class when he asked me to be his girlfriend. I know, I was cruel. I’ve been told so many times by Brenna, who is the only person who knows the truth. I never told anyone else at this school. You see, I am the only person who went to that grade school who ended up going to Adamson Academy. So I always figured that no one ever had to know about Chris. But I did tell Brenna, since she was my best friend, and I couldn’t keep secrets from her if I tried. But I didn’t plan on telling anyone else. Now I might not have a choice, since Chris went to Adamson. But hopefully he would never see me at school.
Instead of dwelling on the thought, I returned my attention to the movie. Chris wasn’t a bad actor. In fact, he was pretty good, but he wasn’t the main character, and for that I was grateful. I could almost forget about him while he wasn’t on screen. After the movie ended, I went straight to bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.