Welcome To The Good Life

Outcast: Someone who doesn't fit in at all. A lot of people think outcasts are phsycho, and that they are freaks. BUT THEY ARE NOT! Most outcasts are truely unique people. They usually are not your average Joe. They are much more. They don't have a lot of friends (or none at all), because most of the time people see different and unique as really weird. Outcasts usually don't ever go on dates, because they are too nervous to talk to who they like. outcasts usually get really nervous in front of others, and they don't talk a lot because of that. Outcasts are usually the most wonderful people out there, and it's sad to think that nobody appreciates their beauty.

In many ways an outcast can be described, all of them fitting in some way or the other. But any way you could try describing an outcast, it would fit me completely. I don't have friends, I have acquaintances, in other words people that I sometimes talk to in the hallway or during class. I have no best friend like the rest of my population does, a good reason for that would be because no one has ever gotten close enough to actually get to know me, they just judge me on what they see. I'm not an ugly girl, more like a plain jane, a girl with her own kind of beauty, the kind of beauty that not everyone appreciates. I have no boyfriend, and I'm not searching for one either. I don't see the big deal in always having an other half, sure I'm guessing it would be nice, but..I'm in no hurry to find a guy. The right guy will find me eventually, and until then, I'm going to enjoy life just like I have been. Oh by the way, my name is Ryan Ashley, I'm a senior at Dulaney High, and it's only five months left until graduation, and I couldn't be more ecstatic.

On a normal lunch day I would sit alone at my lunch table in the far corner of the quad, doing homework, working on class projects or read a book. And today the book of choice was The Perks of Being a Wall Flower. And so far it was a really good read, it had a lot of meaning in it. If you haven't read it, I'd highly recommend it. I'd just started it yesterday at lunch, and was now more than halfway through it. My finger glided along the next page about to turn it when I felt a weight change next to me, someone was actually sitting next to me. Not going to make a big deal out of it, I flipped the page casually and kept reading.

"Hey Ry."

I turned to my left and was shocked when I saw, my fellow classmate, Alex Gaskarth sitting along side of me. I didn't think he even knew my name, and he was calling me "Ry" no one called me that besides my step brother. And even then, I hardly see my step brother, he's the same age in years, but mentally I beg to differ. He goes to a school in the town over, he lives with his mom during the weekdays and lives with his dad, my step dad, during the weekends.His name was Zack, Zack Merrick.

I studied his face, he had a lopsided smile on his face, brown hair shaggy in his eyes a bit and his brown eyes seemed to twinkle in the sunlight. I returned my gaze to my book, and said, "Um hey Alex."

I was nervous to say the least. And it didn't help that he knew this, as he scooted closer to me, so that the sides of our bodies were touching, "Whatcha reading?"

I could hear his voice so close, it was sort of nerve racking? "The Perks of Being a Wall Flower." I replied curtly.

He laughed, but it came out more as a scoff, "You're reading a book about being a wall flower?"

I looked at him with a sort of glare in my eye.

"I just mean, shouldn't you know all that stuff already?"

My lips pursed and I began reading again, before Alex snatched away the book from my hands and sat on it.

"What're you doing?" I asked angrily as I looked at him.

"I want your full attention." he stated simply.

"Well, you can give me my book back!" I said animatedly.

"No, because if I do that, you won't pay attention to me."

"And tell me Alex, why do you want me to pay attention to you? You've never noticed me before, so why now?" I asked turning in my seat to look at him.

"Oh I've noticed you before, trust me."

"Liar."

"I remember the first day of freshmen year, you wore jean shorts, and a red pollo, and you spilled milk on yourself at lunch."

"Anyone could remember that, it was the most humiliating thing ever." I stated shaking my head, looking about the quad, everyone seemed to have their eyes on Alex and me, it made me wonder..

"Okay, you know that sun dress that you wore last year in May, the light yellow one, it makes your green eyes, look the most gorgeous mix of blue and green, and the way it made the brown of your hair a richer brown, it was like you were a angel, my angel in yellow," he replayed in his own words, as his fingers found their way to my hair.

It made me nervous, to have his attention, to have the entire school's attention, "Is this supposed to be some sort of practical joke on the nerdy girl or something? Cause if it is, you can go find some other sort of entertainment else where." I said gathering my school bag and walking out of the quad, and into the hall ways.

I personally thought I had him figured him out when I reached my locker, and there was still no sign of Alex following me anywhere. Opening my locker, there was one single yellow rose, with a note attached to the inside on the locker door, with my name, Ryan Ashley handwritten on it. I looked up and down the hall way and pulled the note from the door. Clumisly I manged to open the note that was folded into a heart open, and it read,

To my angel in yellow.
You're not so invisible anymore, now are you?

I crumbled up the note and threw it into my locker, leaving the rose there, untouched and closed my locker door. To find that Alex was leaning against the locker beside me, just like it happens it every love sap story or movie.

"Why do you like being a secret? To be invisible?" he asked as he followed me down the hallway.

I truthfully didn't know what to say, until I realized I knew exactly what to say, "I'd like to stay a secret, like walking in the dark. If no one knows you, no one cares, so no one breaks your heart."

"So, let me get this straight," he started as he held the door to the quad open for me, "You'd rather hide from everyone, everything and even love, so you won't get hurt?"

I looked into the quad, and noticed everyone had gone back to their own thing. I walked back out to my table and took a seat, as Alex mimicked my act, "Basically."

"You're missing out Ry." he said as he grabbed my lunch bag and pulled out my bag of chips, beginning to snack on them.

"Oh am I?"

He nodded his head as he munched away on my Sour Cream and Onion chips.

"I'm missing out on the heartache? The dissapoint? The pain? Is all that something I should feel bad about missing out on?" I asked as I grabbed a chip from the bag in Alex's hand.

"You're a pessimist, you know that?" he asked as he finished chewing, "You only think about the bad things, and when you do that, you're never going to want to go out on a limb and give something a chance, because you're afraid to get hurt."

"I am not a pessimist." I insisted.

"Then go on a date with me."

"What? What does that have to do with being a pessimist?" I asked confused.

"If you're not a pessimist, you will say yes. You won't think about all the possible bad things that could but won't happen. Because I promise Ry, I'd never hurt someone so special as you."

And just like that he had me around his finger.

I looked down at my hands, and then up at his face, "Okay. I'm free tonight."

"Good." he said kissing my cheek.

"But one thing first." I said looking at him.

"And what's that?" he asked sighing.

"I want my book back!"

"Well I guess you'll just have to come and get it!" he squealed before taking off running with my book in hand.

And just like that, someone had taken a chance, in getting to know me, an outcast, to find out that we are pretty special, but if you don't ever stop and give us a chance, you'd never know.