For My Lucy

Lucytania was ecstatic to go to school the next day. It was another chance for Tom Sykes to speak to her. She was too excited knowing that Tom Sykes might talk to her again for her own good. She lay in her bed for the past few hours, more awake than a nocturnal animal. The house was silent. No music, not even a whisper. Completely silent. She was lost in thought, completely submerged by yesterday’s almost incident. There was no way that Tom wanted to talk to her. It was almost impossible for her to believe it. He has been in at least one of her classes since they were 12 years old and has never ever spoken a word in his life to her. She wasn’t a person that impacted his life severely. She wished so badly that she could be a person to impact his life. One day. Just maybe one day.

She glanced over at her alarm clock as she rolled around in her bed. It was only about four-thirty in the morning. Groaning aloud for no one to hear, she picked herself up out of bed. She daintily made her bed and picked up her items of clothing from the night before as she was already dressed in today’s outfit. Her body was adorned with a beautiful sundress. Today was finally supposed to be a warm, sunny September day in the mesmerizing city of Sheffield, England, and she was flattered how brilliant the sun was when she parted her thick white curtains from the window. “Good morning, sunshine. It’s lovely to see you!” She spoke softly to the sun. The sun dimmed and then suddenly lit back up brighter than ever. She took that as a reply to her saying good morning to it.

She skipped to her vanity to apply her make-up and fix up her hair into bouncy curls. She was feeling special today. Thoughts of Tom Sykes continued to bounce through her head. Hoping with all her heart, she prayed to God that he would talk to her today. It made her heart go pitter-patter thinking of Tom reaching over to poke her in the shoulder to talk to her again. After she was done getting ready for the day, she checked the time to see it was around five-thirty in the morning. She has already spent an hour cleaning up her messes from the night before and getting ready. She slipped on her ballet flats and tip-toed down the steps. She glanced at the pictures that lined the wall. They were of her, when she took ballet. The pictures were professionally taken. Lucytania could remember every detail of that day. She was in a rather pissy mood to begin with. The aggravated looks on her face was just enough to make Lucytania crack a tad bit of a smile on her face as she skipped down the steps.

The sun was finally up and ready to make her day even better. Lucytania hated that she rarely ever got those sunny days in Sheffield, but she didn’t mind having rain. Rain was probably her second favorite kind of weather. She just wished that there were more sunny days when she was able to wear her sundresses and skirts and what not. But since those days were rare, she always wore her skinny jeans and different sweaters. She didn’t like to wear regular shirts like the rest of the kids; she’d prefer to wear sweaters and blouses over t-shirts, and the only kinds of jeans & shoes she would wear were skinny jeans and ballet flats. She liked to look nice. She took a long time on her hair, either straightening it, making it wavy, or curling it to death.

She continued her schedule and rushed to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and then she locked the front door and left the house. She held her books in her left arm, using the left side of her hip as a balance to keep the books from sliding right out of her scrawny arm. She had about a half-kilometre walk from her house to school. Everyday she see kids she knew drive their car right past her. She didn’t mind that at all. But something about today felt extremely off to her. She could sense something uncommon would happen today. She had her iPod plugged into her ear. She always listened to it while walking to school. She avoided stepping on cracks in the sidewalk. She peered into the corner of her eye to see Tom Sykes’s car cruising along the road at the speed she was about. She pulled a headphone out of her ear, stopped, and turned toward the car.

“Wanna ride?” Tom asked sincerely. He didn’t want to seem like he was playing Lucytania. He truly wanted to get to know her; unlike he has the rest of the girl population that have basically thrown themselves at him. He liked that Lucytania had a brain and used it properly. He saw she was different, and he was attracted to that. He didn’t understand why, but he was. He, then, remembered Oliver’s girlfriend. SJ was a pretty girl, unlike most of the people he has ever met. They have been dating off and on for quite some time now. Tom has lost count since the last time they started to date again. God only knew how long they would last this time.

Lucytania shyly smiled at Tom and climbed in the car. She held her books up to her chest like a shy little child would and continued to listen to her music as her and Tom started to slowly approach the school. “So, ‘ow come I’ve neveh seen yeh ‘round before?” Tom asked her as she continued to daydream out the window to Owl City’s calming music. Tom was rather annoyed that she ignored him. “’ey. ‘M talkin’ to yeh.” He poked her on her side as she shakily jumped from the seat, being startled.

“Huh?” She said with a very high pitch voice. She never spoke this voice except when she was around someone she thought she might like and wanted to impress. It wasn’t ever a voice that she could control. It just happened. She pulled out a headphone out of her ear again to listen to what Tom had to say to her.

“I said, ‘ow come I’ve neveh seen yeh ‘round before?” Tom asked. The annoyance was audible in his voice. Lucytania felt ashamed that she made Tom annoyed. She didn’t want him to start hating her. She shrugged her shoulders and continued to listen to Owl City. She felt awkward sitting in Tom’s car going to school. She couldn’t believe her eyes either. It wasn’t something she was used to. She wasn’t used to being offered a ride to school. The car furnishings looked expensive. They were black fake leather seats. She lightly scraped her fingers across the smooth surface, and then touched her skin. She was getting goose bumps.

“Yeh a tad bit cold? I can turn up the heat if yeh’d like?” Tom asked, sweetly to her. She smiled slightly as Tom reached over and turned up the heat. Lucytania wasn’t actually getting goose bumps from being cold, but being around Tom and being inside his car without any other passengers. She was nervous. She didn’t know how to react. She didn’t know whether she should be on the defense, or if she should be worried that he might do something to isolate her from the world even more.

“’Ow come yeh neveh talk in class?” Tom asked her. Lucytania bit her lip slightly as she realized that they were about a second away from him parking and her being able to just get out and basically run away. She looked at him with a pleading look, begging him to stop asking her questions. Tom instantly looked at the road and quit asking questions like he read her mind. Tom should’ve known that she would feel awkward at first. All the girls he’s ever brought into his car for the first time always felt awkward until they have adjusted to the thought of being by themselves in the car with Tom alone.

Tom reached the student parking lot of the school and parked the car. He cut the engine and pulled one of Lucytania’s ear buds out of her ear. “Thank yeh fer the company, love.” Tom said to her as she was reaching for the door handle. Tom Sykes just thanked her for being company to him. She froze for a second before resuming her previous task. Before Lucytania could shut the passenger car door, Tom was up and over to her side of the car within moments of her picking herself up and opening the door. He was being a real gentleman to her, and she couldn’t comprehend why.

Tom looked at her sincerely. He couldn’t believe that she was being rather hostile to him. He didn’t apprehend why. He wanted to be nice to her. He wanted to take care of her. He shut the car door and turned to Lucytania for one last attempt today to get her to talk to him. “So, I’ll see yeh around, yes?” She smiled politely at him and nodded her head at him. He was disappointed in himself. He’s never been able to get a girl to not talk to him. Even after speaking to them for a moment, usually the girls would just start swooning over him, but Lucytania, ah. She was a different catch. He still knew nothing about her. Not her favourite food, not her hobbies. Nothing. He didn’t even know her name.

He fidgeted for a moment and then said, “Could I, at least, know yer name?” Lucytania looked up to him with her gleaming grassy green eyes. They were the prettiest eyes Tom had ever seen. He felt like just lying in a field and watching the clouds go by when he finally got to look directly into her glistening eyes. Lucytania pulled out her other head phone from her other ear, turned off her iPod, and wrapped the headphones around it. She placed the iPod delicately in her purse. Once more, she looked up at Tom and said with the sweetest voice to ever grace his ears,

“Lucytania.”