The Beautiful and Damned

Chapter 1

It was a hot spring day. The school year was winding to an end and the summer festivities were about to begin. The final class of the day was the worst. Cliff sat at his desk trying his hardest to keep cool. It was unfortunate that their last class was located on the third floor, which also happened to be the hottest floor. The girl of his dreams sat to his right. Sarah Holt. A warm flow from her, seeing her distracted him from all his problems.

Cliff leaned over, “Psst.” He jabbed her left arm with the eraser of his pencil. “Want to head to Coffee Beans after the bell?” His face became red. A thought came over him that the whole class heard his invitation.

Sarah sat straight, doodling in her notebook. Drawing a couple that looked as if they were from the fifties, sharing a milkshake together. She was wearing blue jeans with a cropped hoodie, something they would call “scandalous” but an outfit she loved, nonetheless. The sleeves were too long but she did not mind it all that much. “I’d love that.” She responded with her gorgeous smile.

“Good,” Cliff smiled, adoring Sarah’s beauty. Bright gorgeous brown eyes and long silky brown hair. She was enchanting. The girl that he grew up with. Someone he always hoped he would end up with.

Their biology teacher, Mr. Jefferey came into the classroom as soon as the bell rang. He would always stand at the entrance of his classroom to greet the students as they came. He was wearing the usual, a plaid shirt, khaki pants, and an outdoor pair of moccasins. His was hair was curly dark brown, he always made sure it was short. A beard that was shaven only to grow stubble through the night surrounded his chin and followed his jawline to his hair.

“You guys ready to learn some biology today?” He started, with the biggest smile on his face. Nothing fascinated this man more. Since he was a child, he had a fond sense of science, surrounded by nature and the creatures sprawled within.

Cliff’s classmates had their focus on Jeffery, who was now eating an apple with his legs up on his desk. He enjoyed this class the most because they were an Advanced Placement class. Of course, he held them to a higher standard. “Get your book’s out,” He said, swallowing. “Go to page…” He paused for a moment, looking through his glasses at his book that had several hundred sticky notes bookmarking different pages for each class. “Ah! Yes, go to page 717.” He got up from his chair and began writing what he wanted them to do on the chalkboard.

The room erupted with sounds of books being plopped on desks and pages turning.

Jeffery turned around to the class. There were directions scribbled on the board behind him. “Alright, what I want you to do is read through this section. Take good notes, and when I say good notes, I mean good notes.” Jeffery talked about notes like a drill sergeant talked about push-ups. “Once you’re done with that, you’re going to do the questions at the end and complete this worksheet.” He was going through pages sitting on his desk as if questioning whether to pass them out. “Well,” He let out a small sigh. “That should take us to the bell. Any questions?” He glanced around the room, but everyone remained silent. “Alright then, I’ll let you be.” Jeffery had a higher expectation for his AP classes. He would make them work by themselves more often than regular classes.

Everyone started getting out their pencils and notebooks. Of course, there would not be a class without stragglers who always wanted to talk amongst themselves. Billy Stewart, who sat to Cliff’s left, would often talk to the girl behind him. Her name was Liliana De la Cour. The girl that was idolized by many. Cliff never minded her; she always had a heart of gold.

He started on his own paper. With little motivation to do it, he would rather sit and talk to Sarah. Unfortunately for him, Sarah was a hard worker and would not dilly dally in class.

Chapter 2

The wind had died down since the morning. Hundreds of kids walked aimlessly through the halls, with their set on getting home and forgetting everything they learned for the day. The sounds of the metallic lockers opening and shutting flooded the halls as Cliff and Sarah walked out of an entrance.

The sun beamed down on their heads. As they made their way to the student parking lot Sarah asked a question that echoed through her mind almost every day. “It seems to me that you ask Jeffery about Evolution literally every day. Why is that?” Her voice was soft and tender. She then let out a little giggle.

Cliff shrugged at first, unable to come up with an answer. Then it hit him. Something she probably would not understand, but something that made perfect sense to him. “It brings him joy to talk about, and I find it interesting. There’s so much to learn about it.” Jeffery had made Cliff think about getting a degree in Biology, but he never took that idea seriously.

They reached the alley that was in between the middle school and tennis courts. Boys from all grades were laying down their bags and getting out rackets. Cliff knew some of them but not enough to wave.

“Maybe you should study it in college,” Sarah said, they walked through the gates that lead to the parking lot.

Cliff raised his key fob to unlock his car. “Thought about it.” He remarked. He drove his dad’s car, a little sportier than what a kid should have but he enjoyed showing it off.

“You know he’s fond of you,” Sarah said as if it had been a secret. Cliff was the only one that ever-showed interest in listening to the lectures.

They were now at the doors of their cars. They always had the habit of parking next to each other. “So, are we going to go get coffee or what?” Cliff ignored her comment, not knowing how to respond.

Sarah smiled. Her smile always gave Cliff butterflies. “Race ya there.” She giggled.

Cliff got into his car. He jumped at the sound of someone knocking on the window. It was his friend Josh. Cliff rolled down the window and noticed Sarah pulled off.

Josh grinned. “Got a date?” He let out a laugh. He was the only one who knew that Cliff was into Sarah. Of course, he was bummed that Cliff never made any moves.

Cliff was visibly uncomfortable. He was like that whenever someone brought her up in a romantic sense. “No. Just coffee.” He shook his head. “I was just going if you don’t mind.” Cliff put his keys into the ignition and the engine revved up. He then saw Mira walk up to the car in the corner of his eye. Mira was Josh’s girlfriend of two years.

“Hey, Cliff!” She was always excited to see him. He was like her little brother, even though there was only a year difference.

Cliff gave her a smile. Her hair was short, curly, and black. She was wearing jean shorts and a band shirt. Cliff had never heard of them before. She had a nose ring that he could not help but glance at every now and then. “Hi, Mira. You have a good day?” He had his left hand on the steering wheel and right hand on the gearshift.

She nodded with a warming smile. “Always a good day when Winker won’t stop talking about life.” She was leaning on the passenger door as Josh went to put his stuff in the car. Winker was the History teacher for juniors and seniors. Everyone loved him.

Cliff laughed. “Amen to that.”

Josh called Mira to leave Cliff alone. She patted the door and said bye. Cliff reached for the knob to turn on the radio. He was looking for the biggest station in town. “KHJ 98.5”, the station that played classics from every decade up until the nineties. Once he found it, he opened the sunroof and put it on full blast. The host, Big Von Deel (a name Cliff found weird but catchy), bellowed out the next song. “Alright folks, right now we got some new music only on KHJ! It’s ‘Lake Shore Lane.’!” What a tune, Cliff thought.

As the song started Cliff pulled out of the parking lot. Noticing that there was segregation between the nice cars and the beaters. He was upset to see that he was not fast enough to beat the line of buses. He was sitting in line for longer than he wanted.