The New Girl

It was my first day at the new school. My dad just got transferred to this small town in the countryside about a week ago. As I stood near the doorway of the classroom, my eyes fell on a boy. Something about him stood out to me. The teacher greeted me, welcomed me to my new school, introduced me to the class, and gave me a seat. To my luck, my seat was just in front of the boy. I sat down calmly. Moments later, there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and my eyes immediately met his. I could feel myself start to blush. “Can I borrow a pencil?” He asked in a sweet yet confident voice. “S-sure!” I stuttered in reply. I started rummaging through my pencil case, looking for a suitable pencil. I found one and quickly gave it to him. “By the way, what’s your name?” I asked, trying to sound as sociable as possible.

“My name is Dave, and you must be Ashley, right?”

I replied, “yeah!”

(Cut forward to lunch)

I was the first one in the cafeteria. I went and sat at the table in the center of the room, hoping that someone would come and sit with me. I heard footsteps and looked up to see Dave entering the place. For an instant, we both gazed into each other’s eyes. He asked me, “It is your first day in this school, isn't it?”.

“Yes” was my reply.

He wished me the best of luck.

“I’ll need all of it!”, I exclaimed.

He stood there looking at me, expressionless. All I did to reciprocate was gaze into his deep, profound, blue eyes, for what seemed like hours. He then turned around and walked away to a group of students who probably were his friends.

The next day, I entered the classroom and sat down at my seat, feeling impressed with Dave’s yesterday’s reaction. Once again, there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around, and Dave said, handing me a small note, “can you pass this to Celia?”.

“Of course! Wait, who is Celia?”

“The girl sitting in front of you.”

“Okay”

I tapped on her shoulder; she gave me an annoyed look.

“Dave asked me to pass this to you,” I said in a rather nervous tone.

She snatched the note away from me. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. She was like one of those stunningly beautiful girls. The kind after who all the boys in movies go after.

-

The next class was science. The teacher instructed us to find a lab partner. Everyone got up and started paring up with their friends. I sat there in my seat, feeling disheartened because everyone wanted to partner with their friends, but no one would partner with a new, lonely girl. Suddenly someone was standing near my table. I looked up to see Dave smiling at me. “Wanna be lab partners for the project?”

“Ya-yeah sure!” I replied taken off guard, but still excitedly. My heart raced with joy and a feeling of nervousness. I realized I was falling for him. We worked on the project for a few days and completed it.

The next day I asked Dave if he wanted to walk home together, but he refused to say, “I have to walk home with Celia”

“Oh cool!” I said, feigning a smile.

Dave walked over to Celia. “Hey Dave,” Celia excitedly said as she gave him a quick hug. As I saw them go, I felt overwhelmed and passed out. When I regained consciousness, I was lying on the bed in the school’s infirmary. The school nurse was standing on one side. Dave and Celia stood together on the other. The whole incident flashed through my mind and I felt mortified. Everyone was asking me a ton of questions. The school authorities had already called my dad, he arrived just in time and took me home saving me from the awkwardness. I stayed in for the next two days and did not go to school. On the third day when I finally did go to school, Dave confronted me in the hallway.

“Hey Ashley, are you fine?” He asked.

“I’m fine,” I replied quickly, trying not to make eye contact, “it was nothing.”

“Please tell me, Ashley!” He asked again.

“I...I just can’t”

He looked hurt and said something, but I was already out of earshot.

At lunch, in the cafeteria, I was eating an apple, when a girl came up to me and asked, “I heard about what happened to you the other day, I want to know about it.”

“What?” I replied, confused.

A boy who was passing by suddenly turned towards me and said, “We want to know why you passed out?”

And within the blink of an eye, there was a whole mob of students surrounding me and asking various questions. I felt dizzy and said, “Oh um, I have to use the washroom” and quickly scrambled into the hallway to avoid the crowd. As I was strolling through the mostly empty hallways, I heard voices coming from around the corner of the lockers. I silently peeked over the corner to see Dave and Celia leaning against the lockers.

They were having a conversation:

Celia: Are you okay?

Dave: yeah, I’m just worried about Ashley

Celia: look, Dave, I don’t think you should talk to her

Dave: what?! Why?

Celia: She’s using you!

Dave: what makes you say that?

Celia: Well, you see, I think she’s taking advantage of your friendship because you're quite popular and she’s using you to get more friends and attention.

Dave: But Ashley does not want a ton of attention

Celia: Yeah she does! Didn’t you see her at the lunch today, all those people surrounding her?

Dave: Yeah, but it’s not like she passed out on purpose.

Celia: She was faking it, I overheard her confess to the girl...

I got a sinking feeling when I heard those lies Celia was telling Dave about me. I wanted to confront her, but, I couldn’t bring myself to at the moment.

Dave: I hope you aren’t just saying that.

Celia: Do you really think I would do that to you? I care about you Dave; I don’t want you to get hurt.

Dave: Thanks for looking out for me Celia, I love you.

Dave then proceeded to press Celia against the locker and slowly kiss her.

He kissed her with so much passion, so much intensity. My eyes were brimming with tears as I silently walked away from the scene.

I wanted to be one he trusts; I wanted to be the one he kisses with so much passion. I wanted to be the one he loves so much, but thanks to Celia, it would never happen.

The next day, as Dave was leaving the classroom, I went to him and said in a very casual tone, “Hey Dave!”

“I don’t really wanna talk to you right now Ashley,” He replied and immediately started pushing past me.

I caught his arm and said, “Wait! If this is about what Celia told you about me yesterday, it’s not true!”

“You know about that?” He asked me.

“Well, I overheard you guys...” I started explaining, but he cut me off saying, “Look Ashley, I’m really upset right now, and I need to think over things”

“Wait! Dave please...” I started saying but, he had already disappeared into the crowded hallway.

It was lunchtime, but I did not feel like eating. I was looking for a peaceful place in the weirdly empty hallways to think things over. As I turned the corner to the locker area, I saw Celia near her locker, looking for something. My heart was beating faster and faster as I decided to confront her.

“Celia, I don’t appreciate what you said about me,” I said clenching my fists.

“Whatever are you talking about?”, Celia said, but she said this mockingly, as a sneer spread over her face.

“You know what I am talking about,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Oh, yes, now I remember,” Celia said, “that little fib I told Dave about you.”

“Why would you do that to me?” I asked, as my fingernails dug into my palms, “you have no clue how much he means to me...”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Celia said, “I can’t have you luring him to your side. He’s mine and I don’t give up my possessions easily”

Celia said, “By the way, Dave’s an amazing kisser. I’m sure you’d love to have his lips pressed up against yours. Too bad, it’ll never happen”

“Ok, that’s enough!” I heard a gruff voice say from behind me.

I whirled around to see Dave.

“I heard everything,” he said. “Celia, how could you have done that to me?” he asked, “how could you have done that to Ashley?”

So many emotions rushed through me and I felt thoroughly overwhelmed. I stared into Dave’s eyes and could feel a tear roll down my cheek. I turned away and started running.

“Ashley wait!” Dave shouted.

I ran into the girl’s bathroom which, thankfully, was empty, and slammed the door behind me. I stood over the sink and began washing my face with water, trying to wash away the ever-increasing stream of tears, trying to wash away the pain, but it was useless. If only pain were tangible. All I could do was stand there and watch myself cry in the mirror. Watch the tears roll down my cheeks, my body trembling, it hurt so bad. As I was standing there in misery, I suddenly heard a loud banging on the door. “Ashley please come out,” Dave begged from the other side.

“Please, Dave! Leave me alone,” I said as I slowly melted to the floor and hunkered into a ball. He pleaded with me to come out, but I couldn’t utter even a word. He said, “Fine, have it your way then”

I thought he’s leaving until I heard the bathroom door creak open.

“Ashley, I’m so sorry,” he said as he sat down beside me and enveloped me in his arms.

I pushed him away and said, “Just leave me, please. If you cared about me, you would have done something sooner and you wouldn’t have believed Celia so easily”

He said, “Ashley, I do care about you...” there was a long pause, “The reason I didn’t do something sooner was that I was scared. I was scared, of how much I cared about you and how quickly I could care so much about you. I was afraid to get closer to you because I feared getting hurt. But now, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. The only reason I started dating Celia was that I was hoping she would make me forget about you, but that was so selfish. And the only reason, that let me believe her was, I was desperate to find a reason to not care about you. But there's no denying it...” There was a charm in his tone, “ I love you” he said.

I slowly turned around, my body was trembling, I locked eyes with him. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed his lips to mine. He kissed me back passionately, wrapping his arms around my waist. I pressed into him, letting the rest of the world fall away, just Dave and me, on the floor of the girl’s bathroom.

THE END