Wherefore Art Thou, Chase?

Author\'s Note: This story begins with both characters as minors, but nothing really goes on. This is merely when they meet for the first time. That said, please enjoy. Remember, every author wants to hear constructive criticism.
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Prologue

Janelle Scott swallowed tightly as she stepped into the seventh grade classroom. The entire city had gone through re-districting and the process had separated her from most of the other kids who’d gone to her former school. Her mother had told her to think of it as a time to “recreate herself” and she intended to do just that.

Hugging her books tighter to her flat chest, Janelle moved forward and slid into an empty seat that was towards the middle of the classroom. That way, she wouldn’t look like a loser by sitting in the back, or proclaim herself a geek by sitting in the front. Besides, she could still see the whiteboard and hide herself among her classmates.

Without looking around, Janelle pulled out a book, pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose, and began to read. After all, some things she just couldn’t recreate about herself. It was habit to spend the precious few moments she got before, after, and even during class reading. She became so enthralled by the beautiful stories created, that she hardly noticed anything going on around her until it was too late.

Which was why she was puzzled for a moment when her gaze was drawn to the boy sitting in front of her. He’d turned around to talk to someone behind her, which gave Janelle the perfect excuse to look at him. Alarms sirened in her head as she gaped at the slightly chubby cheeks and short, chocolate brown hair that matched his eyes perfectly. Her heart plunged into her ample stomach and Janelle’s breathing grew shallow. Partially from shock, but mostly from some unidentifiable emotion that had her hormones, which were usually dormant because most “cute” boys she knew were either idiots or jerks, which she found completely unattractive–raging.

Suddenly, Janelle realized that the boy’s gaze had traversed from whomever he’d been talking with to her. And he was looking at her like she had three heads. He probably thinks you’re some sort of freak, she thought bitterly as she dropped her gaze to her book, cheeks heating. Nice going.

Finally, the boy turned around, but only because the teacher had just announced the starting of class. Janelle knew she should have been paying attention to role call, if only to realize what his name was, but her eyes were trained to the back of his head like glue. She just couldn’t tear her gaze away.

This was going to be a long year.

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Chase Nicholson laughed as his best friend, Seamus McDouglas did an impersonation of a popular television icon. It wasn’t often that he laughed these days, considering he was moving soon. His parents had allowed him to complete seventh grade year, then it was imperative that they changed addresses. Today was the last day of school and he knew his friends were trying to make him feel better about his parents’ decision.

“Didja hear me, man?”

Chase blinked confusedly, startled out of his reverie. He grinned sheepishly at his friends, shrugging.

“Sorry. What’dja say?” he apologized, looking around the group.

“I asked you what you were gonna miss most around here?” Seamus volunteered, giving Chase an odd look.

Chase chuckled, then looked around the room, his gaze taking in the desks, the teachers, and the laughing students. One particular student stood out, though.

A sad smile lit Chase’s features as he spied Janelle Scott. He watched as her hand lifted to play with a curl of her maple syrup-colored hair. It was pulled back into a harsh ponytail, like it always was, and it made her features seem angular, despite the extra chubbiness that came with being overweight. Her lens-covered doe-brown eyes were directed downward, into a book–as usual. The intense way she concentrated on the book intrigued him, though he’d never told her so in the few conversations they’d had over the year.

Janelle was Chase’s deepest secret. He’d woken up many nights over the past year, disturbed and rock-hard from erotic dreams about the girl. No one knew that except himself, though. He wasn’t sure what it was that drew him to her, considering she certainly wasn’t classically beautiful.

Yet, Chase knew the true answer to Seamus’s question: Janelle was what he was going to miss most.

“My friends,” he told them instead, shrugging and laughing while Seamus collected money from the bet he‘d made with the other guys.