The Choice


I parked my car and slowly pulled out the keys.
“I’m not scared.”

I told myself as I opened the door. Starting a new school wouldn’t be that scary would it? I asked myself. I can’t believe I have to wear a uniform. This morning when I woke up, I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and wore the clean clothes I picked out. I wore a white shirt under, and then put on the checkered with and blue vest over it. I decided to wear a skirt instead of the pants I picked out the night before. After I was done I went downstairs to find my mom humming in the kitchen, while drinking coffee. It was ridiculous how she was attached to her coffee. It’s like a monkey in love with its banana. She drinks it every time I see her.
“Morning mom.” I said as I sat down at the table. She kissed my forehead and said “Morning sweetie, ready for your first day at school?”
“Not really.” I mumbled
“Oh you’ll be fine, I promise.” She said as she put down my favorite breakfast in front of me. Hmm bacon and eggs, they looked so good I could eat it all if it was 16 feet long.
“Thanks mom.” I said as I put the food in my mouth.

My mom is a doctor, we had to move from Iowa because the hospital she worked at got burned down and lots of people were injured but luckily no one died. She got transferred here so we had to move to Arkansas. My mom has the same brown hair that I have. She also had brown eyes. I had long brown hair and bright blue-green eyes that I inherited from my father. I don’t live with my dad, because my parents got divorced when I was 8 years old. I don’t hate my dad, he is a big part in my life and I really miss him. I guess him and mom just never got along. I finished my breakfast, kissed me, mom and was headed out the front door.
There he was standing in front of his house locking the door. I stared at his beautiful face; surprised that there was even anyone as hot as he was living on earth. I snapped back to reality when my keys moved in front of me by my mom.
“Linda you aren’t going to get very far without your keys.” She said
“Thanks mom.” I told her as my cheeks flushed with redness, then said bye to her one last time.
I looked over at him, and he smirked at me and said, “Hey Linda.”
My heart was pounding so hard I think it skipped beats a couple of times.
“Hi Alex.” I said trying not to sound nervous.
“Need me to help you around the school, so you know where your classes are?” Alex said with a smile on his face. Ah! Not even a smirk it was a real smile on his face.
“Sure that would be great.” I chirped trying so hard not to jump up and down and scream in front of him.
As I stood in front of the school waiting for Alex I examined it. The name of the school was ‘Yellow Creek’. It looked really old with run down bricks.
“You waited.” I heard a voice say behind me. I turned around and put a smile on my face seeing it was Alex.
“Of course, it’s not like I was waiting for anyone else.” I wanted to put those words back into my mouth as they came out. When we walked into the school he led me into the office, a woman with glasses was typing on the computer. She looked up when she saw us.
“Alex Ellis, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you down here.” The woman said
“Hi Mrs. Speller.” He said, “Um I just wanted to show my friend around, and I was wondering if she could have her schedule.”
“Of course, what’s your name sweetie?” she asked me.
“Linda Carter.” I said. I examined the room and I saw lots of trophies and medals. Wow with all this trophies lying around it look like a circus.
“I’ll get your schedule printed out for you in just a second.” Mrs. Speller said.
“So what sport are you into?” Alex asked after she left the room.
“Um, I did volleyball and Gymnastics at my old school.” I said.
“Were you any good?” He asked with a smirk on his face.
“Of course, you’re talking to the captain of the volleyball team, and my Gymnastics team was pretty good too.” I said as I remembered my old school and all my friends. I think he saw my reaction because he quickly changed the subject. He told me he played football and soccer. He was captain of the soccer team and also quarterback of the football team. He only did soccer in the summer time, and football during the school year. My heart was broken to hear that you could only do one sport for the whole school year. How was I supposed to choose between the two sports I loved the most? My life depended on both sports. I can’t just choose I sport and live life like the other one never existed. I loved both sports equally and my new school is telling me to choose between the two sports I loved very much. I don’t know what to do. I was afraid of where life would take me if I choose sport and not the other. I was lost in my thoughts until Mrs. Speller came out and handed me my schedule. I slowly reached out for the paper. My mind began to race and I realized how much I missed my old school, my old friends, and my old teachers. I now realized that I didn’t want to move. My head started to get hot; I touched my head wiping the invisible sweat away from my forehead.
“Are you ok Linda?” I heard Alex ask. My train of thoughts quickly disappeared.
“Yea, I’m fine.” I said forcing a smile on my face.
“Good, let me see your schedule.” He says as he took the paper away from me.
We have four classes together. We have Chemistry, English, Math, and History. We also had homeroom together, but that is only for 10 minutes so it doesn’t count. We both walked to my locker to get my first hour stuff, when I heard a voice call Alex. I turned around to see a guy almost the same height as Alex with chocolate brown eyes and dark brown hair that almost looks black.
“Sup bro.” Alex said.
“How was your summer?” the boy says with a smirk on his face. “It feels like we haven’t talked in forever.”
“Jason, I just talked to you like two days ago.” Alex said laughing.
They do some type of handshake, then the boy named Jason looked up at me and asked Alex who I was. I blushed a little hoping they wouldn’t tell. Alex turned around putting his arms around my shoulders with a smile on his face.
“This is Linda Carter my new neighbor, she just moved here from Iowa.” Alex said. I tried so hard not to blush but I couldn’t stop myself.
“Hey I’m Jason, nice to meet you.” Jason says handing out his hand for me to shake. I took it and he shakes it lightly.
“Hi.” Was what I said just ‘Hi’ not even ‘Hey how’s it going?’ I feel so dumb right now; hopefully they didn’t see the reaction in my face. Jason seemed like a nice guy.
“Alex don’t forget we have to go to coach before homeroom.” Jason said leading me out of my thoughts.
“Alright I’ll be there in a few.” Alex said and with that Jason turned around and started walking away, then he stopped, turned around, faced us and said,
“Nice to meet you Linda Carter, see you again soon.”
“See you later.” I said. With that he turned around and disappeared.
With Alex’s hands still on my shoulders, felt like I was going to melt. It felt so good I never wanted him to let go of my shoulders; I wanted him to stay there forever and never leave. He showed me the way to homeroom and said he would be there in a few minutes, and told me to save him a spot. His hands slipped down from my shoulders into my hands.
We stayed there for a few seconds, he was smiling down at me, I smiled back, and he then said “Later Carter.”
He let go of my hands, waved and was headed off in the other direction from me. As I was about to open the door to homeroom, then I saw her. She was with her two followers. Of course Amy and I always forget the other one’s name. It doesn’t matter thought I distaste all three of them.
“Well, well, well,” Ashley said, “its Linda Carter! The girl that walked out on us at Nationals.”
She practically growled when she said the last sentence.
“What do you want?” I asked trying so hard not to yell. “I can’t believe you still care about something that happened over 4 years ago.”
“Oh how could I forget you made us lose the game Linda?” Ashley said, “I saw you talking to Alex over there, looks like you’re really into him.” Now she’s looking at her perfectly polished nails.
I looked over at her two friends, Amy was on her phone and the other one was chewing her gum loudly. I was so annoyed just looking at them.
“Well look here Linda, you better back away from him, because he is not interested in you” Ashley says pointing her finger at me. “You need to stay away, he is mine and I'm not going to let a new girl come here and take him from me, especially if that girl is you.”
I laughed so hard it was hard to control myself; I had to hold on to the door handle to keep me from falling.
“Looks. Like. You're. Afraid. Of. Me. Taking. Alex. From. You. I gasped trying to regain my strength back.
When I finally regained it back, I looked up at her face. She looked scared.
“Well princess looks like it’s going to be hard to stay away from your Alex because he is my neighbor and also my new best friend.” I said smiling so hard.
I opened the door to homeroom, turned around to face her and her friends,
“See you later” I said.
All three of their faces are stunned. I walk into the classroom feeling great. I smiled at them when the three of them walked in, then looked away. I was talking to one of my friend that I saw this summer. Her name was Alice Winstone. It suddenly got quiet, I thought the teacher walked in but I turned around to see Alex and Jason at the door. Alex smiled at me and waved. Jason and him walked over to Alice and me, Jason sat by Alice, and I could see she was blushing while he talked to her. Alex sat by me; I swear this boy makes me want to melt every time he gets close to me. I smiled at him while he sat down. I could see Ashley and her followers making a whole through my back while starring at Alex and me.
“I didn't think you'd save me a seat, Carter.” Alex said.
“Well you kind of made me promise to save you one.” I said.
He leaned in closer to me and whispered into my ears.
“I don't remember that.” He said touching my ears with his lips.
I smiled and said, “You should.”
I looked into his bright blue eyes smiling; he looked into my eyes smiling too. I felt him leaning in closer and closer to me until you guessed it. The teacher came in.
“Quiet down everyone, I will take roll call then you can go back to whatever you were doing. The teacher said.
I turned away from looking at Alex to look at the teacher. He was a tall, skinny, bald man that wore a white polo shirt with a black vest. You could tell he was into history because of the entire book he carried when he came in. The book was mostly about Civil War. I looked back at Alex who was smiling at me.
“I'm guessing that is the history teacher.” I said
“Yep” Alex said popping the 'p'.
The first 3 hours of my day went well. I had two classes with Alex the first half of the day. I sat at Alex and Jason's table. There were lots of footballers and cheerleaders that sat at the table. I was there with Alice so I didn't really feel like a loner. They asked me questions about my old school, and I answered them.
I quickly got out of my car and into my house locking the door behind me. I sighed, mom wasn't home yet, and she usually worked late on weekdays.
“Linda open the door, let me explain to you what happened.” Alex said pounding on the door.
I didn't want him to explain anything to me; it was perfectly clear what I saw. I mean what did he have to explain. I'm not blind. Ashley saw me walk into the classroom she kissed him on his lips and he didn't even make an effort to move. I don’t know why I'm freaking out, but I want to murder Ashley so bad. I tapped my legs furiously.
“Linda please.” Alex pleads.
I don't know why but I opened the door. He looked shocked but he loosened up.
“What do you want?” I quickly spat out.
“Linda it wasn't what you thought it was. I don' like her Linda I like you.” Alex said. I almost wanted to believe him but I didn't give in to what my head was telling me, I let my mouth do the talking.
“Really Alex, because it took you like 30, minuets to pull away from her.” I said know I was being a bit sarcastic, but I didn't really care right now, he really hurt me.
He sighs then says “Linda I was pulling away but she was holding on to me hard and I couldn't move, when I did move I had to force her of me.”
He stepped closer to me holding my hand.
“Linda I'm sorry, you have to believe me.”
I sighed and said, “She can be snotty can't she?”
He smiled and hugged me. I hugged him back. He stepped back. Leaned closer to me and kissed me. I kissed him back. He smiled on my lips then I let go and smiled up at him.
* * * * * * * * * * *


I finally decided on what I was going to do about my sport. I decided to do Gymnastics for the school and Volleyball in the summer. It was a hard decision and my mom and I had a huge argument on which one I should do for the school. I said Gymnastics but she didn't want me to, because of the time I went to Nationals. She was afraid that I would embarrass myself because 4 years ago I went to North Star Gymnastics and we trained our bottoms off to get to Nationals and win. We got to Nationals but we didn't win, because when it was my turn to go up I froze and didn’t know what to do, I was scared because of all the people staring at me so I just ran out of the arena. Ashley and I were in the same studio and she was my friend at that time but she never talked to me again after the Nationals and turned her back against me. When we got back to camp, they locked me out of my dorm and then it started raining but I didn’t care. I started walking while the rain was pouring down hard tumbling on each other to reach the ground first. I started to cry, then my coach’s car stop by me and she told me to get in. She took me to the Cafe and talked to me about what happened that day, and told me if I didn’t want to do Gymnastics anymore that I didn't have to do it. I promised my mom I wouldn't get scared like last time. I called my dad to ask him which one I should do and he told me to 'do the one that I wanted to do and to choose from my heart not what anyone tells me to do.' He also said to 'Do what I wanted to do not what anyone else wants you to do.'

I started doing Gymnastics, became friends with Ashley, stayed best friends with Alice; also Alex and I are dating. Ashley and my gymnastics team won the Nationals, and Alice and Jason are dating. I'm closer with my parents and I love them both very much. Volleyball starts this summer and I can’t wait to win another trophy to but in the office with the rest of the trophies, to add more to the collection. I feel great about begin friends with Ashley, we totally get each other and have lots of things in common. I was also friends with Amy and Natalie. Yes Natalie that was her name. I'm thankful to be friends with them. I feel lively again and I couldn't be any happier.