First Time Around

“Scarlett, get your lazy ass to school, now. Please. For once in your life, don’t get yourself late for our first day. I hate it when you make me get your schedule. I am not your mother”

“That was stupid of me. I didn’t mean the last part, Scar. Just go to school already, please”

“Dude, you have fifteen minutes left to go to school. Don’t even think about taking a bath now. You smell good. I can smell you. Just go change your clothes and come to school”

“Scarlett! You’re only going to be in school in less than five hours. They’re shortening the classes today”

“Five minutes, Scarlett, and you’re dead—oh, jeez, you’re here. Damn you!”

I laughed at Jade’s messages at me when she thought that I’ll be late again on our first day of junior year. I was listening to it the whole time on my way to school. But I did get hurt on the first message, but whatever. I can get over it. I got over it for over ten years now.

“At least tell me that you were on your way,” Jade said as we were walking to our first class.

“Where’s the fun in that if I was going to spoil you?” I laughed.

I really have fun joking around Jade. We’ve been best friends since forever. We’re best friends even if we are completely different. We don’t have anything in common. I’m more of a bad influence and she’s a good influence. We’re completely opposites. And you know what they say about opposites: Opposites Attract.

“Mr. Stinson will be our Homeroom teacher,” Jade said. “And after homeroom is…oh God, you’re kidding me; we have Calculus on a Monday morning and with Mr. Stinson too? Two hours of Mr. Stinson then an hour and a half of Mrs. Cooper with History.”

“What’s so bad about that?” I asked.

“It’s okay for you because you somehow get really high scores and Mr. Stinson is all over you and he’s favorite student, is who…oh yes, YOU.”

“Dramatic, Viola Jade,” I said. “You need to calm down. First of all, that’s gross. Teachers and students in a relationship or some sort are disgusting. They might work out with porn, but in real life, its crap. Second, he is in his twenties and I am in my teenage years which I can fully spend happily with beers, or drugs—which I will not try, drugs I mean, I was just citing an example. And last, I do not get high scores in all of my subjects. Do you know how much I hate Physical Education and Math? PE’s awesome and I know, we all need it to keep our body healthy, but I don’t think people hitting us with balls is going to help lose weight or make us healthy. That just leads to getting bruises or injured. And don’t get me started on Math.”

Jade smiled at me and unexpectedly hugged me. I guess my speech made her feel good. That’s great then.

Mr. Stinson welcomed us warmly again and started to discuss the rules again, and important dates. But I couldn’t help but notice a new guy on the front seat at the left most. Our desks aren’t usually the one-table-for-each-student type. There are two students in one long table. And you own that table for the rest of the year. And Jade and I share the same desk every year.

“Who’s the new guy?” I asked Jade since she’s been taking a glance at him.

“What new guy?” She said innocently.

“That guy that you’ve been glancing at since the class started: The tall guy with dark hair.”

Jade laughed a fake laugh, silently, of course. Mr. Stinson can be very strict at times. “I wasn’t glancing at him. I was checking.”

“Checking what? Dude, don’t lie to me. I know when you lie. You laugh that weird laugh of yours before you say the lie.”

Jade looked at the guy again then at me. “That guy’s Jerome.”

“I’m not familiar with him. But I heard that name before. Jerome…Jerome Romero? Wait, isn’t he that new guy in our freshmen years? He’s the guy from Santa Fe, right?”

“He’s the one. I was looking at him and was comparing his face and figure two years ago. He got hotter over the summer.”

“And tanner, if you can count that,” I said as I looked at him. He was wearing gray long sleeves which, by the way, are tight for his biceps. He’s fit. I remember him being skinny.

“Wait, didn’t you say that you had a crush on a guy with JR for initials?”

Jade sighed then told me to just wait and she’ll tell me soon.

I kept pestering about it, though. After homeroom and Calculus was done, I kept on asking her about this JR dude. She told me about JR before, but I guess I forgot. Even in History, I kept on asking her. I kept on passing her notes.

She kept patient about everything until lunch break, when she reached her boiling point. She took me along with the rest of our group to a steak house near our school.

“Viola, uh, why are we here?” Angela said. I’m the only one in the whole school who calls Jade, Jade. People call her Viola. Well, too bad, Viola’s overrated already. So anyway, Angela’s like that since she’s vegetarian.

“Angela,” Kyle said. “Chill, I heard this place has the finest steak in town. And I was starving.”

“Starving, really?” Saber said with one of her eyebrows raised. “You’ve got some nasty parasite in your body.”

Kyle just glared at her and kissed Angela on the forehead. “And don’t worry; I heard they sell salads, too.”

“Let’s just get inside,” I said as I felt shivers run down my spine. I hate it when I see them so sweet together.

We went inside and I gotta say; this place is filled with people. All of them are either students from our school or thugs and fake gangsters around our school. Good thing we have Kyle with us. Because scary as it was, he saw a vacant seat and before a gangster can take it, he threw his bag on the table and called us.

That’s the advantage of a guy in a group. Thank you, Angela.

Then at that moment when we sat down—I was sitting in between Saber and Jade which was opposite the lovers—Jerome showed up.

“Hey there, welcome to the King Steak, what can I get you?” Jerome said with a smile, as if he doesn’t recognize us.

“Whoa, what are you doing here, Jerome?” Kyle asked and Jerome made this confused look. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember me. I’m Kyle. I was in the basketball team two years ago and you were just new.”

Oh yeah, Kyle is one year older than us.

“Oh yeah, you’re that tall blonde guy that was really good. Why’d you quit?” Jerome asked.

“I have a part-time job.”

“Seriously, guys,” Saber butted in. “We really need to order.”

Jerome smiled and took our orders. I couldn’t help but notice Jade blush when she told him his order. I knew it. He’s the guy. Jerome told us that to wait for our orders for twenty minutes and left with the menu.

To avoid the others from knowing, I texted Jade:

S: I see you’ve got interest with that man.
J: You should be a detective, Scarlett. Really, you should.
S: Why didn’t you tell me this before? I mean, I’ve been your best friend since forever.
J: I know, but it’s not that easy to tell YOU. Your whole life’s a secret. And I’m like an open book to you.
S: I am not that secretive. I mean, you were with me my whole life. How the hell can I be secretive when you’re there to witness everything I’ve been through?

The food came and Jerome placed it on our table. Jade kept on blushing but she did her best not to show it. “You guys enjoy your meal okay?” Then Jerome left.

S: He has some massive biceps.
J: Dude, massive is for wrestlers. He’s just fit.

I pretended to laugh with the others as I spied on Jerome, who kept on glancing at our table for some time now. Since us three girls are sitting beside each other, it’s hard to say who he’s looking at. But it must be Jade. God, he damn well should be! Because once I figured that he likes either me or Saber and not Jade, I will beat him up in a pulp. I know it’s stupid to act like this even if they’re not even together, but Jade is my best friend, and her getting hurt is like a punch in the stomach for me.