Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
I walked through the double metal gates of my high school for the hundredth time for the past year. I was a senior, finally I was ready to start a brand new life out there. I never thought about finishing up college or even attending college. I just thought maybe I’ll find a job and like it. Of course I was naïve then, actually, I was very naïve about everything except for my heart. I knew what I wanted from a boyfriend. It’s a wonder I’ve never had one before. I fell in and out of crushes so fast, you would think I was fickle. But most people would mistaken that if they don’t know me. My name is Nicole, otherwise known as Niki. Only my closest of friends would know that from me.
My day started as it would any other day, boring and the teachers made me fall asleep during their lectures. I wonder why I always get good grades, I barely paid any attention to them when they’re talking. My friends say that I’m very lucky to have such a smart brain. I don’t have to try and I could still pass the class. Maybe they are right? Although I don’t find it being lucky at all because school was never interesting to me. If it wasn’t for the sports and activities, I would have failed easily.
“Nicole…Nicole!”
I quickly snapped back to reality as I spun my head up to the disapproving look of my calculus teacher. His glasses were tipping slowly down his nose as he pulled his head downward to look at me with those beady little eyes. “Yes?” I responded while everyone’s eyes were on me. I could almost feel the blood fill up the veins underneath my face. I was blushing and I couldn’t help it.
“Are you paying attention?” he asked with special annoyance.
“Yes, Sir!” I said like I was in the military. I didn’t mean it to come out that way, but somehow it did making a few people giggle.
“Really?” he eyed me carefully and suddenly that smile came on his face. The same smile that he always had when he was scrutinizing a student for falling asleep in his class. In which he would follow with a tough question that he knew we could not answer, just to embarrass us in front of our peers. “If rational means fraction, what does irrational mean? If you were paying attention, then you would know the answer.”
I know I must have looked like a tomato by then, but I wouldn’t give in to his trick. I wasn’t going to be embarrassed. I sat up and searched my logic brain for an answer. When suddenly it occurred to me “Not a fraction.” I answered. It was more of a question because I wasn’t entirely sure.
His head snapped up in shock as he cleared his throat “That’s correct.” He mumbled as he turned back to the chalkboard and I returned to my daydreaming.
So, that was my morning. At least it didn’t come out that bad. Just a few more hours until lunch time and I could see all my friends. That was my only prize for coming to school. I lived so far that I couldn’t go out with them after school, anyways, my parents would have a heart attack if they new I had ‘guy’ friends. It’s the typical opinion of old fashioned parents that think a male and female cannot stay friends. For goodness sakes, it’s the 20th century! My day traveled on slowly but finally the lunch bell came on as everyone raced to the main corridors leading out to the giant lunch room.
I was the spoiled kid that always had lunch made from mommy. Sometimes I wondered if she knew that I was capable of standing in line and buying lunch. I quickly spotted my best friend Ginny (Athena Chu) sitting at our usual table. She was always the first one there. “Hey girl!” I exclaimed happily.
“Hey. Where’s your lunch?” she noticed my empty hands, just a bookbag with my books crossed over my shoulders by a sling.
I shrugged my shoulders “I forgot it today.”
“You mean you didn’t want to bring it.” She corrected me.
I smiled nonchalantly “Whatever. So how was your Christmas vacation?”
“Got a lot of gifts…nothing new.” She looked a bit unhappy, I could already tell.
“You didn’t get anything you wanted?” I asked.
She smiled “Something like that.” She continued on about what she got and why she didn’t like the gifts but my mind was somewhere else again.
Usually, my full attention would be on my best friend since I pride myself on my great listening skills. But every time he was within eye sight, I seem to have lost it. Who is he? Wow, how do I explain this. He is the guy that every girl had a crush on, the guy every girl would be so giddy around, the same guy that was so perfect in every way that you’d think he was not real. He is also the same guy that I grew up with but never got the chance to know. We’ve gone to the same schools since we were in kindergarten but yet we never had the chance to talk until my senior year when I happened to have him in my Anatomy class. He is Lance Koo, the captain of the football/volleyball/baseball team. Even the name is amazing, Lance…He threw a smile my way and it brought butterflies to my stomach.
I smiled as he came over with a lunch tray in hand and sat down next to me. “Hey.” I said casually.
He opened his wrapped burger hungrily and ate it. “Why aren’t you eating?” He said with a big lump of food on his right cheek.
“Don’t feel like it.” I said without much feeling.
“You’re not on any diet are you?” he asked with a bit of concern, or was I just imagining it?
“No, no…” I said quickly, maybe too quickly, almost defensive actually “I love food too much.”
“Good. I was gonna say, you’re too skinny to be on a diet.” He nudged me teasingly.
I gave him a weak smile as I turned back to my best friend, I knew he didn’t like skinny girls and it was too obvious that he would never like me. He only cared for me like a sister, which explained why he gave me the special treatment. “Are you gonna get food?” I asked Ginny.
“Yeah, I’m waiting for Daniel to get here first.” She looked around and quickly spotted her boyfriend. She smiled giddily as she popped from her seat and ran to him.
Daniel (Aaron Kwok) was Lance’s cousin. It was such a coincidence how those two got together. Daniel had moved here from a different school and met Ginny in one of her classes and they quickly hit it off and within weeks, they were dating. That was when we realized that Lance and Daniel are cousins.
I was alone with him again, it was the usual since everyone tends to come a little later. It wasn’t until a few weeks earlier that I realized I had a crush on Lance, it was intense too. The kind that you have butterflies in your stomach when you see him or when he smiles at you or just because he gave you a hug. When I turned my attention to him, I noticed that he had finished his food “Sheesh, what do you do? Inhale everything you eat?”
He put down the soda can with a look of confusion “I’ve always eaten that fast.”
“I guess.” It was strange, I never had a problem talking to him until my crush for him started. But I didn’t want him to think that I did like him so I had to try to make it casual. But the more I tried, the worse it got. Eventually, I stopped talking to him completely from fear that I would slip something out. Suddenly I had the urge to ask him something “Hey Lance, can I ask you something?”
He smiled through his perfect teeth as he turned his body to face me, we were inches apart and I could feel my face reddening again. I moved myself back to the edge of the bench so I wouldn’t be too close to him. “Sure.” He replied.
“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” it was something I’ve pondered for years. I’ve never seen him with a girlfriend. And for a guy like him, I knew he must have had plenty of girls going after him.
“I think they are a waste of money.” He said straightforwardly.
“I’m sure not all girls are.” I said with defense more for myself than for the girls that he was generalizing.
He shrugged carelessly “No one likes me anyways.”
My eyes almost popped out of my sockets as I stared at him in awe “What? Lance, are you naïve or just blind? So many girls have had crushes on you, like…Yvonne, remember her? She use to blush every time you even smiled at her! Don’t make me go down the list now.”
He laughed heartedly and it just reminded me more of why I liked him so much. “Really? I never noticed.” He wasn’t lying either “I have too much things going on, I don’t think I can handle a girlfriend right now. They’re so expensive you know?”
I rolled my eyes “Oh please! If you found a girl that you really liked, she wouldn’t mind you not spending money on her. Or vice versa.”
Our conversation quickly stopped when the rest of the gang came over. Tammie (Joyce Tang) the wild girl of the group, Candace (Ada Choi) the mother of the group, Marvin (Wong Hei) the guy that can talk to anyone and Anthony (Julian Cheung) the quiet one.
They quickly took their seats and Tammie was the first to open her mouth, as usual “Hey Lance. I was working on the article for the school newspaper on the athletic heroes and I was wondering if you can do an interview with me.”
He chuckled at the question “Oh man! I’m no hero.” He shook his head modestly.
“Are you kidding?!” Tammie exclaimed “Captain of every sport where guys look good in uniforms? Come on!”
“Hey, you know you can’t turned down Tammie, she’s so persistent.” I added to help out my friend.”
“Okay.” He said reluctantly “Just because Niki said so!” he tried to pull the attention away from himself again. Another reason why I like him so much.
After lunch was over, we all got up to go our separate ways. Out of all my classes, I didn’t get one class with my best friend. It made the year more difficult to go through. I began walking to my next class wondering what was in store for me when I heard footsteps running up next to me. “Hey, wait up!”
It was Lance, I gave him a strange look “Huh? Our class isn’t until another hour. You don’t have History with me.”
“Well, I do have Calculus and its in the same direction. Anyways, I’ve gotta make sure my little Niki gets to her class safe and sound.” He grinned like a little kid making me smile myself.
“That’s very thoughtful of you.” I nodded jokingly “But I’m a big girl.”
“You’ll always be smaller than me.” He teased back.
“Don’t underestimate my petite size, I can probably beat you up!” I said with much confidence that it made him burst into laughter.
“You’re cute, you know that?” he said after wiping his tears of laughter.
I wished that moment would have lasted forever, but unfortunately it didn’t. Eventually, I got to my class as he waved me into the room. I gave him a sheepish smile and reluctantly went inside taking my seat next to a good friend of mine, Minnie (Kenix Kwok). “Are you two dating?” she asked out of the blue throwing me off guard.
“What?” I could already feel my face turning red “Of course not, we’re just friends!” I exclaimed, trying to keep my cool. Lucky for me, she didn’t seem to notice.
“Too bad, you two would look cute together.” She shrugged.
I smiled at her but inside I was giddy as ever. Just to hear it from a friend, it made me tingle inside and the butterflies fluttered uncontrollably. For the fiftieth time that week, I thought about if it was possible that Lance and I would ever date. But I would always talk myself into believing otherwise. I didn’t want to give myself false hope and believed that something could happen when I know that it would never happen. I usually think negative, it was my way of protecting myself.