Status: Completed
I Am Invincible
Two
As Declan and I made our way to school, I could tell that he was excited about starting another year; our first year in high school. The school we would be attending was a bit different to all the other schools in our area. The very first principal of our school was from Australia or England or somewhere, and made “high school” from 7th grade up to 12th, completely ignoring the whole junior high/senior high or elementary/middle/high school formats that every other principal in America used for their schools. And the elementary school that our high school connects to is like the Australian/English/Whatever school system too. Weird, right?
Anyway, as I was saying, it was pretty obvious that Declan was excited for a new school year. I think he’s crazy, personally, but seeing it from his point-of-view, I can kinda understand why. He’s always been pretty popular; he’s always been able to make friends really easily. Pretty much the exact opposite to me. Dec’s friendly to everyone without being too annoying (except to me) and it takes a lot to get him mad, and even more to get him to not like someone. He basically sees the best in everyone. Girls like him because he’s “sweet and dorky-but-cute”, which pretty much means that they can see that he could be hot, but he doesn’t care enough about his appearance to try very hard. His general clothing ensemble is baggy jeans, some random t-shirt that’s usually two sizes too big and some Converses that are falling apart. And his hair is a nightmare of curls and grease. Not that attractive really. But pretty much everyone seems to think he’s the shiz. And they forget that I exist. Which I don’t usually mind, but it would be nice to have a couple more friends...
I was dragged out of my thoughts abruptly by someone waving their hands in front of my face and telling me to “stop freaking walking or you’re going to walk straight into the building”. I shook my head and looked up slightly to see Emilie’s blue-grey eyes staring at me like I was insane. Declan was no-where in sight. Typical. I looked around and saw him in amongst a huge group of guys and girls catching up after the long break between 6th and 7th grades.
I sighed. “Hey, Em.”
“Well hi there Cameron. Come back from the Bahamas then?”
“What?” I asked, looking at her like she was looking at me a moment before; like she was insane.
“Nothing, it’s just something my dad says when someone’s spaced out.”
“...Yep.” She’s a strange one, but nonetheless, she’s my best friend. I’ve known Emilie since starting school. The very first day I was sitting on a log by myself eating my lunch and watching my brother playing with some of the other boys. Em came up to me, kissed me on the cheek, told me that I looked “sad and lonely” and told me that I was her friend. That was it. We’ve been friends ever since, and we’ve never fought either. Touch wood. I was just thinking about the first day we met, when Emilie grabbed my arm and hauled me over to where people were gathering in the middle of the soccer field.
“You really have to wake up, you know. You keep spacing out on me and I’m gonna have to hit you,” Em stated, looking completely serious. Charming. Violence never solves anything, people.
We both sat down near where the other people were sitting and waited. There was someone standing up in front of everyone with a microphone, so I assumed we were going to be listening to him babble on for a bit.
“Welcome to your first year at high school!” He chirped. “My name is Mr Michaels and I am your principal. So today what will be happening is...” I zoned out. My attention span is very limited, in case you couldn’t tell. I daydreamed.
I was suddenly pulled out of my trance by a flurry of movement, and a slap on the back of my head. “Thanks, Em.” I growled at her. She grinned. Obviously she gets some sick pleasure in hitting me.
“Get up. We’re moving.”
“We are?”
“Yes, loser. If you were paying attention, you would’ve known that your name was called and we’ve been assigned some guy to show us around.”
“Shut up.” I mumbled, and then followed after Emilie, watching her feet as she marched off in search of...someone. When she stopped, I figured she’d found this person and I looked up. Standing before me was Declan, a blonde girl who I didn’t recognise, Emilie of course, and a tall guy with straight black hair who was obviously a couple of years older than us. He looked at me and smiled. I returned the smile half-heartedly and looked down, blushing. Blushing? Why the hell am I blushing? It’s just a guy who’s going to be showing us around. Get a grip on yourself, Cameron. I thought to myself.
The guy cleared his throat. “Hi, guys. Uh...Mr Michaels said my name was Zachary Mott. Just call me Zach or Zacky or, y’know, whatever floats your boat...” he trailed off. “...So uh, I’m supposed to have with me Emilie Dobson, Tamsin Barker, Cameron Gaskarth and Declan Gaskarth?”
We nodded simultaneously. “Alrighty then,” Zach smiled, and then looked from me to Declan and back to me again. “You’re twins...”
“Really? No freakin' way!” Declan snapped. What the hell is wrong with him? The blonde girl – Tamsin – giggled. He sent her a small smile. Ah. He’s showing off.
“Alright!” Zach said, raising his hands in surrender.
“Well you don’t need to point out the obvious. Are you gonna ask which one of us is the evil twin?” Dec retorted. I hit him lightly, and glared at him.
“I wasn’t going to, actually, seeing as I already know who’s the evil one.” Zach said calmly, then turned to look at me. “So, if he’s the bitch, I’m hoping you’re the sweet one?”
“O-oh. Um. I don’t know...” I trailed off, feeling sick to my stomach for no apparent reason. Zach smiled again. My heart jumped violently in my chest. What the hell?
“So, how do I tell who’s who?”
“Um. I have straight hair and Declan has curly? And I’m the one who hangs out with Emilie and he’s got a heap of friends. And...yeah...” I said lamely and looked down again.
“Okay... Um right. So I’m going to show you round the school for a bit, just to get you used to your surroundings, ‘kay?” Zach questioned, and then, without waiting for an answer, started walking towards the main building. Emilie and I started following immediately after, while Declan and Tamsin lagged behind and began a conversation. Em poked me, and gave me a questioning look. I returned it, confused.
“What’s with the blushing?”
“I don’t know, leave me alone.”
“Okay, Mr Bitchy.” Then she gasped. “Does Cameron have a crush?”
“WHAT?! No! I like girls”. I think. Suddenly, I was confused.
~~~
I spent the rest of the day in a haze. I was caught up trying to decipher the thoughts running crazily through my mind. The last words from Emilie that I had actually paid attention to kept running though my mind: Does Cameron have a crush? Does Cameron have a crush? I tried to think about it logically. Yeah, Zach’s a good looking guy, there’s no doubt there. But why does he make me blush every time he smiles at me? Or when he touches my shoulder to steer me away from walking into a wall or another person (which happened more than a few times during the day)? And how come, whenever he opens his mouth to say something to me, I feel nauseous and can only mumble some unintelligible rubbish as a reply? This guy that I’ve only just met is making me go insane. Dear Brain: I. DO. NOT. LIKE. HIM. Stop making me feel otherwise. Stupid brain.
Walking home was an interesting experience. I had Declan yabbering at me about...something. I just wanted to tell him to shut the hell up but I don’t think he would’ve listened anyway. I caught little bits of what he was saying, and they seemed to refer to Tamsin. “Tamsin...OMG... isn’t she hot?...did you know she’s Travis Barker’s niece?"... et cetera. I really didn’t care, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
At one point he took a breath long enough to look at me with concern and cock his head. Our way of asking “What’s wrong?” Of course I answered that nothing was wrong, and he seemed to accept that, but if he could see the battle raging in my mind he wouldn’t have let it go so easily. But then again, maybe he would have. He seems to be instantly infatuated with Tamsin and it doesn’t appear likely that he’s going to stop talking about her any time soon; because as soon as he opened our front door, he headed for the TV room where he knew our parents would be and immediately launched into the story of how he met her.
I slipped past everyone and headed upstairs to my bedroom. I threw myself onto my unmade bed and buried my head into my pillow. I had some serious thinking to do.
Anyway, as I was saying, it was pretty obvious that Declan was excited for a new school year. I think he’s crazy, personally, but seeing it from his point-of-view, I can kinda understand why. He’s always been pretty popular; he’s always been able to make friends really easily. Pretty much the exact opposite to me. Dec’s friendly to everyone without being too annoying (except to me) and it takes a lot to get him mad, and even more to get him to not like someone. He basically sees the best in everyone. Girls like him because he’s “sweet and dorky-but-cute”, which pretty much means that they can see that he could be hot, but he doesn’t care enough about his appearance to try very hard. His general clothing ensemble is baggy jeans, some random t-shirt that’s usually two sizes too big and some Converses that are falling apart. And his hair is a nightmare of curls and grease. Not that attractive really. But pretty much everyone seems to think he’s the shiz. And they forget that I exist. Which I don’t usually mind, but it would be nice to have a couple more friends...
I was dragged out of my thoughts abruptly by someone waving their hands in front of my face and telling me to “stop freaking walking or you’re going to walk straight into the building”. I shook my head and looked up slightly to see Emilie’s blue-grey eyes staring at me like I was insane. Declan was no-where in sight. Typical. I looked around and saw him in amongst a huge group of guys and girls catching up after the long break between 6th and 7th grades.
I sighed. “Hey, Em.”
“Well hi there Cameron. Come back from the Bahamas then?”
“What?” I asked, looking at her like she was looking at me a moment before; like she was insane.
“Nothing, it’s just something my dad says when someone’s spaced out.”
“...Yep.” She’s a strange one, but nonetheless, she’s my best friend. I’ve known Emilie since starting school. The very first day I was sitting on a log by myself eating my lunch and watching my brother playing with some of the other boys. Em came up to me, kissed me on the cheek, told me that I looked “sad and lonely” and told me that I was her friend. That was it. We’ve been friends ever since, and we’ve never fought either. Touch wood. I was just thinking about the first day we met, when Emilie grabbed my arm and hauled me over to where people were gathering in the middle of the soccer field.
“You really have to wake up, you know. You keep spacing out on me and I’m gonna have to hit you,” Em stated, looking completely serious. Charming. Violence never solves anything, people.
We both sat down near where the other people were sitting and waited. There was someone standing up in front of everyone with a microphone, so I assumed we were going to be listening to him babble on for a bit.
“Welcome to your first year at high school!” He chirped. “My name is Mr Michaels and I am your principal. So today what will be happening is...” I zoned out. My attention span is very limited, in case you couldn’t tell. I daydreamed.
I was suddenly pulled out of my trance by a flurry of movement, and a slap on the back of my head. “Thanks, Em.” I growled at her. She grinned. Obviously she gets some sick pleasure in hitting me.
“Get up. We’re moving.”
“We are?”
“Yes, loser. If you were paying attention, you would’ve known that your name was called and we’ve been assigned some guy to show us around.”
“Shut up.” I mumbled, and then followed after Emilie, watching her feet as she marched off in search of...someone. When she stopped, I figured she’d found this person and I looked up. Standing before me was Declan, a blonde girl who I didn’t recognise, Emilie of course, and a tall guy with straight black hair who was obviously a couple of years older than us. He looked at me and smiled. I returned the smile half-heartedly and looked down, blushing. Blushing? Why the hell am I blushing? It’s just a guy who’s going to be showing us around. Get a grip on yourself, Cameron. I thought to myself.
The guy cleared his throat. “Hi, guys. Uh...Mr Michaels said my name was Zachary Mott. Just call me Zach or Zacky or, y’know, whatever floats your boat...” he trailed off. “...So uh, I’m supposed to have with me Emilie Dobson, Tamsin Barker, Cameron Gaskarth and Declan Gaskarth?”
We nodded simultaneously. “Alrighty then,” Zach smiled, and then looked from me to Declan and back to me again. “You’re twins...”
“Really? No freakin' way!” Declan snapped. What the hell is wrong with him? The blonde girl – Tamsin – giggled. He sent her a small smile. Ah. He’s showing off.
“Alright!” Zach said, raising his hands in surrender.
“Well you don’t need to point out the obvious. Are you gonna ask which one of us is the evil twin?” Dec retorted. I hit him lightly, and glared at him.
“I wasn’t going to, actually, seeing as I already know who’s the evil one.” Zach said calmly, then turned to look at me. “So, if he’s the bitch, I’m hoping you’re the sweet one?”
“O-oh. Um. I don’t know...” I trailed off, feeling sick to my stomach for no apparent reason. Zach smiled again. My heart jumped violently in my chest. What the hell?
“So, how do I tell who’s who?”
“Um. I have straight hair and Declan has curly? And I’m the one who hangs out with Emilie and he’s got a heap of friends. And...yeah...” I said lamely and looked down again.
“Okay... Um right. So I’m going to show you round the school for a bit, just to get you used to your surroundings, ‘kay?” Zach questioned, and then, without waiting for an answer, started walking towards the main building. Emilie and I started following immediately after, while Declan and Tamsin lagged behind and began a conversation. Em poked me, and gave me a questioning look. I returned it, confused.
“What’s with the blushing?”
“I don’t know, leave me alone.”
“Okay, Mr Bitchy.” Then she gasped. “Does Cameron have a crush?”
“WHAT?! No! I like girls”. I think. Suddenly, I was confused.
~~~
I spent the rest of the day in a haze. I was caught up trying to decipher the thoughts running crazily through my mind. The last words from Emilie that I had actually paid attention to kept running though my mind: Does Cameron have a crush? Does Cameron have a crush? I tried to think about it logically. Yeah, Zach’s a good looking guy, there’s no doubt there. But why does he make me blush every time he smiles at me? Or when he touches my shoulder to steer me away from walking into a wall or another person (which happened more than a few times during the day)? And how come, whenever he opens his mouth to say something to me, I feel nauseous and can only mumble some unintelligible rubbish as a reply? This guy that I’ve only just met is making me go insane. Dear Brain: I. DO. NOT. LIKE. HIM. Stop making me feel otherwise. Stupid brain.
Walking home was an interesting experience. I had Declan yabbering at me about...something. I just wanted to tell him to shut the hell up but I don’t think he would’ve listened anyway. I caught little bits of what he was saying, and they seemed to refer to Tamsin. “Tamsin...OMG... isn’t she hot?...did you know she’s Travis Barker’s niece?"... et cetera. I really didn’t care, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
At one point he took a breath long enough to look at me with concern and cock his head. Our way of asking “What’s wrong?” Of course I answered that nothing was wrong, and he seemed to accept that, but if he could see the battle raging in my mind he wouldn’t have let it go so easily. But then again, maybe he would have. He seems to be instantly infatuated with Tamsin and it doesn’t appear likely that he’s going to stop talking about her any time soon; because as soon as he opened our front door, he headed for the TV room where he knew our parents would be and immediately launched into the story of how he met her.
I slipped past everyone and headed upstairs to my bedroom. I threw myself onto my unmade bed and buried my head into my pillow. I had some serious thinking to do.
