This chapter is basically the previous chapter in Rick's perspective, so it's a little boring... There won't be anymore like that, I think. xD
Rick's perspective is so...
Beh.
He's my least favorite to write as. xD I DON'T KNOW WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME THIS CHAPTER, but I put in a whole ton of unnecessary commas. I'LL FIX IT LATER...
Oh yeah, the last two sentences are in present tense on purpose.
***
Chapter 3
12th Grade
Rick
The morning sun shone brightly through my bedroom window. I squinted, and reluctantly got out of bed. Still in my pajamas, I strolled down the stairs into the kitchen.
“Good morning, Rick,” my mom welcomed me.
“’Morning, mom,” I replied with a smile, and took a seat at the breakfast table. Gradually, my family made its way into the kitchen. Anya plopped herself into the chair left of me, and yawned loudly.
“Hey, Rick,” she mumbled, obviously still tired.
I was four years older than my sister Anya, and was the eldest child of the family. I turned seventeen in late August, so I was somewhat younger than the rest of my classmates. Anya wasn’t my only sibling; I had two other sisters (eleven and twelve), and a younger brother (eight). They still attended elementary school, so they wouldn’t be up until I had already left for school.
“’Morning, Anya.” I scanned her current condition. “What time did you get to bed? You look exhausted.”
“Mmm… about 12:30,” she grumbled, and propped her head on her hands, elbows leaning on the kitchen table.
“Sweetie,” I heard my mom say. I turned to face her. “It’s nearly 6:45. Get ready quickly so you won’t be late for school.” She placed an empty bowl and a box of cereal on the table for me.
“Okay,” I nodded.
“Is Dare coming by to walk you to school today?”
I nodded again. “He said he’d be here at like, 6:55 or something.” I poured the cereal into my bowl and began eating.
After breakfast, I hurried up the stairs, freshened up in the bathroom, and dressed myself in a fitted white tee and a pair of light blue jeans. I reached for my favorite red cap, but changed my mind and grabbed a grey cap instead. A couple knocks on the door sounded from below, letting me know Dare arrived. I slipped a small chain link necklace over my head and slid my feet into a pair of blue converse before returning downstairs.
Dare stood in the doorway. I gave him a smile.
“’Morning, Dare.” I nodded in acknowledgement.
He grinned back, and waved for me to follow. I trotted over to him until we were parallel.
Dare had been my best friend since I moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade. Since then, we always hung out together; be it listening to music or watching movies—usually at my house, since it was bigger. He always got good grades in school, and helped me an awful lot with my school work. He’d always been there for me, and I appreciated that.
I quietly glanced over at Dare. He looked up at the sky, in thought. His long black bangs streaked with blue dye covered his left eye. His hair rustled as he moved his head up. His hands shifted into his pockets and he looked back down at the sidewalk.
Suddenly, a thought reentered my mind. “Oh! Dare.”
He whipped his head toward at me, attentive.
“I saw something interesting on the school corkboard, yesterday…” I continued, and fumbled through my bag.
“Isn’t it called a bulletin board?” He said, interrupting my search.
I cocked my head. “Huh?”
He looked intently at me with his deep blue eyes.
“Well... I don’t know.” I shrugged and continued my search. “I guess. I call it the corkboard.” I pulled out a sheet of paper titled “You Could Be in a Band!”
“Anyways, look at this,” I said, and held the paper in front of him to read.
“What the... What is this?”
I watched him patiently as he read the paper over.
He unexpectedly became emotive. “Rick, what the hell is this?!” he spurted. I flinched slightly at his sudden outburst. He grabbed the paper from my fingers and quickly read over the rest of the paper.
“What the hell is this?!” he repeated.
I opened my mouth to answer, but he spoke again before I had the chance to.
“Did you fill this out?” he interrogated.
I stood there, nervously scratching my head. “Yeah, I did. I thought you might be interested, so...” I raised my shoulders and scuffed the end of my shoes against the sidewalk. His reaction to the flyer had somewhat caught me off guard.
“Dude. Where’d you get this picture of me?” Dare nudged me on the side of my arm to get my attention.
“Oh, your aunt gave it to me last year. I guess she had extras, or something,” I answered, hoping that didn’t seem too bizarre.
Noticing Dare had calmed down some, I brightened up. “So what do you think? Do you want to do it?” I smiled with zeal, hoping he’d go through with it.
“Eh,” was his answer.
I blinked. “Is that a ‘no’?”
“It’s a maybe.” He folded the paper into quarters before depositing it into his backpack.
“It might be fun,” I persevered, and drew my arms behind my back. “I think it’ll be good for you.” My lips briefly came around into a quiet smile.
Dare remained unenthusiastic.
***
Tim leaned against the locker next to Dare’s and looked over the same flyer from earlier. His emerald eyes flickered back and forth as he read.
“A band, huh? Sounds neat.” His voice was calm and smooth.
“I dunno...” Dare responded with mild agitation. He turned his back to the locker and leaned against it as well, slumping somewhat further than Tim.
“Come on, Dare. If Tim says it’s neat, it must be neat,” I joked. “I don’t see why you’re so indecisive about this. If you can play an instrument, wouldn’t it be better if people could see how good you play?”
He cocked his head as if the answer was obvious. “That’s the thing, Rick. I’m not that awesome on the bass. I mean, I can play, but I’m not like, some sort of freakish bass genius or anything." He waved his hands sarcastically at the last part. "There are a ton of kids who can play better than me, anyways.”
I opened my mouth for rebuttal, but closed it again as Tim began to speak.
“Well, do whatever you want. I think it’d be cool.” He returned the paper to Dare and moved his wavy red hair out of his eyes. “You love music, don’t you?”
“Well... yeah...” Dare started. The warning bell interrupted his speech.
Tim turned around to walk down the hall. “Hey, I’m going to class now. I’ll see you later,” he said to Dare.
“Yeah, I’m going too. See you at lunch, Dare.” I said, and waved before departing.
Tim was a little ahead of me. I quickened my pace to catch up to him. He faced me, his hair bouncing a bit as he turned his head.
“You think he’ll go through with it?” he asked.
I fiddled with the bill of my cap as I thought of an answer. “Um… yeah, I think he will.”
“Oh yeah? He seemed pretty convinced that it was a bad idea.”
“Well, maybe. But I think he’ll do it.”
I held steadfast to my thoughts. I knew Dare long enough to notice at least some things about him. He was only disagreeing with joining the band to be modest. The way he said he knew kids who played better than him... it was only modesty. I knew Dare loved music more than anything. More than cheese-and-pepperoni pizza, more than his job, more than getting an A on a test, more than... well...
More than me.
Dare, do you know?
I’m in love with you.
***
