We Found Love Lost Under The Shade

It’s the first week of school and Jaime and Vic have just barely started 11th grade. Like any other teenager, they’re not excited to be back in school.

Vic missed going to Warped Tour, having late nights on the beach, going to parties and whatever else you can imagine a 17 year-old would do during the summer. Vic literally counted the days to summer vacation; it was the only thing he was honestly excited about. Especially Warped Tour. You get to be outside all day with thousands of people seeing all your favorite bands. And the best part was all the free merch you get and being able to meet your favorite bands. The one thing he hated about it was how it only came once a year, and only for one day. But living in California, he couldn’t really complain when there’s Metalfest and bands touring all year long.

For Jaime, his situation was a bit different. Of course he hated school, but he actually kind of liked it. It just reminded him that he wasn’t so alone because during the summer, he sat at home most of the time. He never had good social skills so making friends was hard, and moving to new a place a few months before summer started certainly didn’t help. So when summer came along, he was happy for it, because that meant he would go on vacation to Arizona. But at the same time he was dreading it. While everyone talked about all their summer vacation plans, all he was looking forward to was flying out to Arizona for a few weeks to see his old friends. But after those few weeks were over, he’d be back to his new home in San Diego, playing video games in a vacant house most of the time.

~

8:30 rolled around and everyone was shuffling into their first period class. Vic was just saying goodbye to his friends and heading off to English. Surprisingly, he was a little excited for it; he honestly loved English because writing was one of his favorite things to do. Vic walked into the classroom to find a few of his friends sitting towards the back. They immediately saw him and smiled, eagerly waving at him to come over.

‘Hey Vic!’ Tony and Austin said simultaneously. Vic sat down next to Tony and got out his notebook, getting ready for class.

‘Hey guys, it’s been a while. How was summer?’ he asks with a smile. He was pretty excited to be seeing two of his great friends. The last time he saw them was in the beginning of July when one of their friends threw a party.

Tony was the first to speak up, his eyes lit up, showing he was excited about telling him about his summer vacation. Next to him, Austin’s smile slowly faded and his eyes looked sad. Vic took some concern but quickly faced Tony to listen to what he had to say.

‘Oh man, it was great. I got to go down to Mexico and see baby turtles!’ he said, practically beaming. Of course, that’s Tony; his favorite animal is a turtle, and his favorite place to go is Mexico. He continued to ramble on about all the things he saw while down there, but Vic started to take notice to Austin. He was trying to pay attention to Tony’s story but he seemed really hurt, like he was reliving past memories.

‘Austin, how was your summer?’ Vic asked, maybe trying to get something out of him. ‘Oh…it was, um, okay,’ he replied, trailing off.

‘Hey, are you okay? You seem really down; did something happen?’ Tony asked, seeing that Austin was upset.

His eyes were filling with tears but he fought them back, he swallowed hard before answering Tony’s question. Both of the boys could tell he was nervous and was reluctant to talk about it. ‘Something bad happened over the summer, I just, don’t really want to talk about it,’ Austin said, looking down at his hands. Vic and Tony took that as a sign to stop talking and took their attention off of him, and looked at the teacher up front.

English class dragged on as the teacher talked about rules of the class, and the basics they’ll be covering that year. The first week was always the easiest, but the most boring. The three of them talked and joked most of the time, though Austin was a bit closed off at first, he began to warm up and forgot about whatever was bothering him.

Finally, the bell rang to go to 2nd period and everyone slowly walked out of the classroom; mostly from being tired and looking at their schedules. Reaching the hallway, Vic said goodbye to Tony and Austin, seeing that their classes were in opposite directions. He sighed upon looking at his schedule: French. He was good at French, he just hated his teacher Mr. Daraban. He was a strict teacher, and for some reason didn’t like Vic; he always gave him a hard time in class.

He began to walk to the stairs when he spotted his friend Rachel. Before Vic could say anything, she ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, forcing him into a hug. ‘Vic! Oh my gosh, it seems like I haven’t seen you in forever. How are you?’ she asked.

Rachel was one of Vic’s best friends; they’ve known each other since 9th grade and were always close. She was such an upbeat and fun person, Vic had a great time with her.

They pulled away from each other, both with big grins on their faces. ‘I’m great; how are you?’

‘I’m amazing now that I’ve seen you! Here, let me see your schedule,’ she said, reaching for the small piece of paper in his hand while handing Vic hers. They looked over their classes, talking about the classes they shared. The bell rang signaling that they only had 3 minutes to get to class.

‘I’ll see you at lunch?’ Rachel questioned. ‘See you,’ Vic replied, walking off to his next class.

~

Jaime was walking glumly to his second period, which happened to be French. He was in no mood to be at school, or anywhere in public that is. Though he was used to walking alone in the hallways all day, he couldn’t help but feel excluded from everyone. The boy was the definition of ‘loner’, or whatever people called him. He’s been at Clairemont High since the middle of 10th grade and has made no friends; but he felt as if he could only blame himself for not putting himself out there.

Arriving to the classroom, he saw everyone had their own little groups scattered across the room. Jaime sighed and scanned the room for an vacant seat in back but found only the trouble makers sitting back there. He then noticed a lone boy sitting by the window, he thought of sitting next to him for a moment but realized how stupid that would be. He walked to a desk in the front of the room by no one and sat down. Grabbing his notebook and pen, Jaime decided to write some lyrics and wait for the time to pass until the bell rang.

He couldn’t think straight and ended up doodling in his notebook, eventually putting it away. Jaime read all the posters on the walls to keep busy to avoid staring at nothing, but after looking around the room again, his eyes fell on the boy he saw sitting alone earlier. He recognized this guy as Vic; they had a class or two last year and he couldn’t help but think he was mildly attractive. Of course, Jaime didn’t think he himself was gay, he had girlfriends in the past, but right now he wasn’t so sure.

He thought Vic was cute and friendly, but was in denial of what he was feeling. Vic was attractive, he couldn’t deny that; but he didn’t know if he was attracted to him. Jaime began to get lost in thought while looking at the boy until the bell rang and he realized he was doing. He grew embarrassed, knowing he was staring, and tried focusing on the teacher as he walked up to the front to begin class.

‘I’m Mr. Daraban, and this class is French 3. If you don’t want to take this class, or don’t have this class, I suggest you leave.’ Jaime immediately knew this class wasn’t going to be fun. He decided not to pay attention to the lecture Mr. Daraban was about to give so he went back to his notebook; it’s not like he had anything too important to say.

‘Excuse me, what’s your name?’ a deep voice said, just in front Jaime. To be honest, it kind of scared him. His head shot up from the paper and looked at the towering teacher staring back at him.

‘Umm, J-jaime,’ he said quietly. ‘Well, Jaime, why don’t you stop drawing and listen, yes?’

He sheepishly nodded and put away his notebook, embarrassed he got called out by the teacher. What a great way to start the class.

Class went by even longer than his first and Jaime made sure to listen to everything his teacher was saying. Eventually, he announced they would be starting a project, requiring a partner. Jaime sat there hoping they would be assigned to avoid sitting alone, but Mr. Daraban said they would be picking their own partners. Most people cheered and had hopeful looks on their faces as they found their friend in the room. Jaime sunk into his chair, wanting this to be over.

Vic was in this French class with no friends, and with the most strict teach he had. He absolutely hated it and when Mr. Daraban said they would be having partners, he was let down. He figured he would just sit alone and hope the period went by fast, but he looked around the room and saw a boy with spiked up hair all alone. It took him a minute but he familiarized the hair, that boy was named Jaime.

Vic felt bad for him, he’s been here for almost 2 years and has no friends. He has always seen him wandering alone at lunch and wondered why. There was nothing wrong with him, he actually thought he was kind of cute. Ever since he first saw Jaime, he wanted to get to know him. Though he didn’t know why, something about him just kind of interested Vic. He took this as his chance and slowly got up from his seat, walking over to the boy. From the small walk to his desk, he was conflicted if he should really talk to him; he was actually a bit nervous. But he chose the better decision and sat next to him.

Jaime was a bit startled and surprised when Vic sat next to him. He wondered why this boy would want to talk to him, but he decided not to question it and see what he wanted.

‘Hi, I’m Vic,’ he said, with a welcoming smile. ‘You’re….Jaime, right?’

‘Yeah..’ he said, unsure of what he should say. Jaime has always been shy, so when Vic, this boy he thought was cute, approached him, he didn’t know how to react.

‘Well, I noticed you didn’t have a partner, so I figured we could partners. Is that okay with you?’ Vic asked. ’Um, yeah, if you want…’.

‘Okay, great,’ he responded happily. Jaime honestly felt a bit uncomfortable. He didn’t know what he should say, or what he should do.

‘So, Jaime, what person do you want to do this project on?’

Jaime looked at the sheet given to them by Mr. Daraban. It had a list of famous French people ranging from actors to dictators. He looked up and down, hoping to find something good. ‘What about this one? We could do someone else if you don’t want to..’ he said a bit awkwardly. Vic laughed at how shy he was. ‘Sure that’s perfect.’

They began talking about the project when Mr. Daraban interrupted the class. The talking slowed and quieted down and he began to talk. ‘We have about 10 minutes left. Finish up your discussion and return to your seats. We’ll continue next class.’

Vic looked back at Jaime, seeing he was preoccupied with his notebook once again. He looked at him and took notice of all his features: his seemingly hard, spiked up hair, the bump on his nose, his brown eyes, his small, thin lips. He looked at how concentrated he was when he was writing, like he was thinking hard. Vic thought he was really cute, now being able to see him up close. He stopped himself from staring and began to talk. ‘Hey, Jaime?’

Jaime looked up from his notebook to see Vic staring at him. This was the first time he has been this close to the boy, and being able to see all his features. He had slightly curly, brown hair that barely passed his shoulders, big brown eyes, a nose ring, and big, pink lips. He was actually surprised at how attractive he was; he thought he was cute far away, but up close, he was even better.

‘Oh, um, yeah?’ he replied. ‘Mr. Daraban said we had to finish up and go back to our seats. I guess we’re pretty much done with the first part, so we’ll just start the second part next class?’

‘Yeah, sounds great.’ Jaime smiled at Vic. Upon noticing, Vic smiled back. ‘I’ll see you later,’ he said, starting to get up from his seat. Jaime nodded and watched as he walked away.

Jaime was excited to have a partner, and a cute one at that. But he tried to not get his hopes up. Vic was pleased with himself that he made the decision to talk to the boy, and felt that talking to him might lead to a friendship.

Maybe this class won’t be so bad after all.