You Blew Your Chance

Ch. 1

Eighth Grade
“Jack, this is going to be great!” I squeal. We were walking to our first day of eighth grade; I couldn’t wait to see what classes I had with Jack! We were always in mostly the same classes in sixth and seventh grade, but it could be different this year. “Summer’s over, can you believe it?”
Jack takes a bite of his banana-he always ate breakfast on the way to school- and says with his mouth full, “No! I’ll miss summer. Less time to practice guitar. But school is gonna rock. I can’t wait to see if we’re in the same classes!” I smile. We always thought alike. I knew Jack would be talking about his guitar. He picked up playing it in the fourth grade, and he loved it. He was amazing at it. (AN- Not a true fact. I honestly don’t know when Jack Barakat started to play guitar.)
“Me neither, Jack. What if we don’t have the same classes?” I wonder. That would probably be horrible; Jack is my best friend, and nothing could tear us apart. Not even a couple classes. Hopefully.
“That won’t happen, but if it does, we’ll have lunch together. We’ll have our own little spot, okay?” He reassures me. I sigh. Jack always knew how to make me feel better. Ever since preschool, when we first met, Jack knew exactly what to say to me. He knew what jokes I did and didn’t like. He knew how I felt about everything, and he knew what I was thinking. Jack Barakat is definitely the best friend ever.
We keep talking about everything and anything until we arrive at school. I sigh. Time to start our last year of middle school. I can’t believe we’ve made it this far.
“We have to go to high school next year. We better enjoy this year.” I look over at Jack, who almost drops his banana. We stand there, thinking about past times here, until I remember we have to get our schedules and I grab Jack’s arm and pull him inside.
We wait in line for our schedules until we get ours and we compare them. We only have three classes together, and lunch. My mood instantly goes from excited to bummed.
“Hey, cheer up, Kylie! We have after school. Remember, we live across the street from each other.” Jack tries to make me feel better, and it sort of works when he pulls me into a huge hug. His hugs always made me feel good inside.
We visit each other’s lockers. We’re not close together, since we don’t have the same homeroom, but I don’t mind. I help Jack organize his locker since he’s a mess, and Jack tries to mess up my locker.
The bell rings, and I’m laughing at a joke he made. Jack hugs me one more time. “I gotta get to Mr. Blakely, I’ll see you soon, okay?” I nod as a boy with dark hair and girl jeans on walks by.
“Hey, you have Mr. Blakely for homeroom? So do I!” He exclaims. Jack grins and gives me a wave.
“Awesome! Bye Kylie!” They walk off, talking easily. I sulk through my first two classes without Jack, and in my third hour class, I sit next to Jack.
“Hey, how were your first two classes?” Jack greets me. “Mine were great! Alex and I share almost all of our classes.”
“They were pretty good,” I lie. I didn’t want Jack to feel bad that I hadn’t made any new friends, unlike him, apparently. “Wait, who’s Alex?”
“Oh, that kid in the hallway who has the same homeroom as me. He’s pretty cool,” Jack explains, just as-guess who?-Alex walks in.
He sits on the other side of Jack. “Hey man!” They knuckle pound.
“Hey Alex, this is my best friend, Kylie.” Jack points at me, and I wave shyly. Alex reaches over Jack’s desk and shakes my hand.
“Hey, I’m Alex Gaskarth.” He grins and checks me out. What a perv. I glare at him and the teacher walks in and starts to talk about school starting up and all that crap. Jack doesn’t talk to me during class like usual. Instead, he talks to Alex the whole time.
Jack barely ever talks to me the whole day. I begin to resent Alex for taking away my best friend.