A Series of Powerful Feelings

Chapter 1: First Impressions
I can barely remember the first time I saw her. It was so quick. A glance is all it took for her face to be branded in my mind. Ah, her face, such beauty should not exist, for not being able to see it is a crime against humanity, but getting to see it and being too afraid to speak a word, let alone say her name, is hell itself. Her existence is something I dread to be real, and at the same time I would never ask for her to not have existed. If she was not in my life, I would probably be dead. The question I ask myself constantly is "Is the torture of knowing her but not being able to be with her worth living?". I'm not your average guy. I'm fairly short for my age (or at least I think I am), I'm not great in school, I'm not good with words, I'm fairly clumsy and I'm a virgin. Wow! My life SUCKS! I have a few close friends though.

There is my friend Gregory. He is slightly taller than me but quite a bit bigger. He has a tendency to break down sometimes. One time he got really angry and kicked open the door to the girls bathroom. No one was inside. He went inside and tore down a door. He started crying. Just then, she came in. She walked over and sat down beside him.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just came here to let some anger out and I guess I got a little frustrated. Then I bro-"
She stopped him by placing her finger on his lips.
"I think I know what happened from there. Don't worry about it. We all get a little angry sometimes. Sometimes it's better to talk about it though. Why don't you talk to your friends?"
"I... I don't have any friends."
"What? Why wouldn't a nice guy like you have any friends?"
She was genuine. No sarcasm. No mocking. She genuinely thought that he was nice, a guy she had spent less than ten minutes with, four of which he was making inaudible sounds through his tears. But that was enough.
"You really think I'm nice?"
"haha Really!"
Gregory had never really spoken to a girl before. He was scared that he wouldn't know how like usual, but when he realized the kindness of her heart it was easy.
Then she left. He didn't see her for a week.

There's also Yatsu. He transferred from Japan. His parents left him around the age of twelve. From then on he had to make it on his own. Other than that, no one really knew anything about him. Yatsu was slightly shorter than me, but a fair bit more muscular. He spoke english well, but no one really talked to him. She first met him in a grocery store.
Just like he had to in Japan, Yatsu needed to fend for himself here. One day he was buying the food he needed for the week just like normal. But this time it was different.
"Ouch!"
He bumped into someone.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry"
She couldn't stop repeating it.
"You should wat-"
He stopped talking. Normally he doesn't back down in these situations but there was something stopping him. It was her face. Such an innocent caring face. He collected himself and spoke again.
"Ummm...It's not problem. I should've been paying more attention haha"
"No no no. It's my fault. This happens a lot. I can be a real klutz sometimes."
"haha I'm sure that isn't true. Here, let me help you pick up your stuff."
"Thank you. You are very kind."
"It's the least I could do."
For once he was happy. For once someone was nice to him.
They apologized once more, parted ways, and didn't see each other for 6 days.

I have another friend named Scott. He is quite a bit like me, but I hate admitting it. There are quite a few differences though. Scott is 18 years old, he is blonde, he has a beard (albeit a poor one), he wears glasses constantly and he doesn't look nearly as good as I do. One major difference is that he has known her for a long time. I knew him back in elementary school, but since he was two years older than me I didn't talk to him much. She went to the same school, at the same time, yet I never knew her. Now that I think about it, I'm a little glad I didn't know her. I didn't have the same humour I do now, I used to look really dumb and I never spoke to girls especially not girls two years older than me. Yes, that means that they were in the same grade. The thing is... he doesn't have a chance with her, and that's why I'm glad I didn't know her back then. I've always been curious as to how they met but I have yet to ask.

There's also the twins Shane and Cyrus. They have been close since birth. They are identical but have very different personalities. Shane has always been the ladies man. Since the age of nine Shane has good with talking to girls, whether it was mentally making them feel good or physically, he could do it well. Cyrus on the other hand was always a bit more held back. He was often envious of his brother and didn't speak much because he didn't feel confident compared to his brother. Shane was born five minutes before Cyrus and always holds it against him. Their relationship is very competitive now that Cyrus is gaining confidence. I remember, not that long ago, Shane and Cyrus were racing at the local high school track.
"On your mark..."
"Get set..."
"GO!"
They started sprinting as fast as they could. Cyrus had the better start but Shane picked up speed and beat him by a fraction of a second.
"That was pretty impressive."
It was the first time they heard this voice. They quickly recognized it as a very feminine tone. Quickly turning around in anticipation they saw her for the first time. Shane was the first to speak.
"haha Not really. We are just getting warmed up!"
As usual he subtly gloats and as usual Cyrus retaliates.
"Yeah right! I can hear you panting! I, however, barely even tried."
"haha You guys are funny. What are your names?"
"I'm Shane and this little guy here is my younger brother Cyrus."
"Five minutes younger."
"Are you two always competing?"
"Ever since we were little. It's pretty fun actually."
"Seems fun! My brother and I don't compete much but that's probably because of the age and gender difference."
Cyrus was tired of standing quietly in the background so he decided to speak up.
"Tomorrow we are going to play some video-games and see who can finish a game faster. You wanna come?"
"Sorry, but I have to go to work tomorrow. Maybe some other day."
"Sure! Whenever!"
They didn't see her for three weeks.

Finally there is my best friend James. She has known him his entire life because, well, he is her brother. James has been in the same class as me quite a few times through grade school but we never really got along until high school. About halfway through the tenth grade we started talking more and I realized we had a lot in common. We spent a lot of time in Ping-Pong club with some of the other people we knew and James' step-sister. She was really short and only just starting to learn how to play. James wasn't very good either but he learned quickly. At the end of the school year after our first day of exams James' step-sister Sarah found me and we talked for a while. She was really cool and very talkative. I learned a lot about her family through the next few days. After every exam we talked about our lives and played some guitar. Sarah was really good at guitar and her singing voice wasn't too bad either. On the last day of exams I went over to James' and Sarah's house for the first time. Little did I know, she lived there too. I was sitting in James room for about three hours before I first saw her. She had nice, big eyes and red hair that you could barely notice unless she was under direct light. She talked to me for the first time. I forget what she said, but I'll never forget the smile on her face. From that day on I came over as much as I could. I quickly became a close friend and a member of the family. But that's a story for a different time.

My name is Nikolas Fenko. This is my story.