I stared out the car window, looking at the new high school I was going to be attending. This was it. This was the moment that I could see all my old friends that I had to leave five years ago. I couldn't wait to see them, especially my best friend.
Unfortunately, I hadn't been in contact with any of them, so I had no idea if they still lived here. They didn't even know I was moving back.
I wondered how they were. I wondered if Lauren and Tanya were still best friends. I wondered what Seb was like now. Man, I really missed Sebastian.
I still remember the moment we meant. We were five and both signed up for karate class. I met him in the dojo on the very first day.
I watched as everyone excitingly ran up to their parents, telling them about their first day. I couldn't wait to tell my mom about it.
I tied my shoes, anxiously watching the door for my mom to pick me up. When my shoes were tied, I stood up. Almost everyone was gone. There were a few people left, including a boy who stood up when he put on his shoes. They were untied and I didn't want him to trip. "Hey," I said to him. "Your shoes." I pointed to the laces.
He looked down. "Oh, I know. I don't want to tie them."
"Why?" I asked. "You don't want to trip, do you?"
"When I tie them, they always untie by themselves," he said. "And I fall anyway. Life is full of disappointment."
I furrowed my eyebrows. Someone wasn't a happy person. "Why don't you get the shoes with the straps?"
He shrugged. "There's no point. My daddy won't buy them. He says I should learn to tie my shoes."
"Why don't you?" I asked.
"Life is full of disappointment."
Seb was always a pessimistic kid, but we became best friends anyway. I wondered if he was still the same.
"Artemis," Dad said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "You should probably get going. Go straight to the office and they'll give you your schedule and locker."
I nodded, opening the car door and hoping out. "I'll see you after school."
"Have a nice day," Dad said before I closed the door.
I went straight to the office, which was thankfully beside the entrance of the school. I did not want to look for it right now. The bell was going to ring soon and I would still have to find my locker and my classes.
I walked up to the desk to the lady sitting behind it. "You must be Artemis," she said. I nodded, amazed at how she knew that. She handed me a piece of paper. "Here is your schedule. Your locker number and combination is on the top."
"Thanks," I said, looking at my schedule. "Um, any chance you know where the AP chemistry class is?"
"Yes, that's upstairs, on the east wing," she said. "It's the chemistry lab and it's not hard to miss. Anything else?"
I looked at my schedule again. "English?" I just wanted to find out the classes before lunch. The ones after I could look for later.
"Upstairs, west wing," she said. "All the English classrooms are grouped together."
"Okay, thank you," I said with a smile.
She smiled back. "You're welcome. I hope you like it here."
I thanked her again before leaving the office. I looked at my locker number, hoping I would be able to find it. I found it on the first floor, near the cafeteria. After unlocking it, I opened my bag and took out everything I would need after lunch and put it in my locker.
I closed it and right when I turned around to go upstairs, I smacked into someone tall. "Sorry!" I said.
I looked up, getting a good look at him. He had short brown hair and a cold look in his eyes as he glared at me. He was wearing dark clothing and a leather jacket. He was, dare I say, very attractive. "Watch where you're going," he snapped.
"Didn't you hear me?" I asked. "I said sorry."
"Sorry doesn't fix anything," he said.
"Clearly," I said. "You shouldn't have been walking too close to the lockers anyway. It's your fault just as much as mine."
"Really?" he asked, shoving his hands in the pocket of his jeans. "I'm guessing you're new here. People don't talk to me that way."
"Why?" I asked. "Are they too afraid to stand up to you because of your whole... look? I don't care if I'm not supposed to talk to you in a certain way. We bumped into each other, I said sorry, so move on."
He removed his hands from his pocket to cross his arms over his chest. "Look. I am not in a good mood today, so I would appreciate it if you go back to where you came from."
"Technically, I am from here since I was born here," I said. "And if you're not in a good mood, you can't expect me to back up my bags in leave."
"I'm serious," he said. "Do not make me angry. Things get ugly."
"You know what?" I asked. "I'll do us both the favor and walk away. I thought I would have a nice first day after moving back her."
"Yeah? Well, guess what. Life is full of disappointment."
"What?" I asked. I knew those words.
"Life is full of disappointment," he repeated. "So get used to it."
I heard those words almost every day when I lived here. Seb said those words every day.
Holy crap.
"Seb?" I asked.
Judging by the look on his face, the snarky, conceited boy standing in front of my was my best friend, Sebastian Smythe. My best friend that I had to leave when I was twelve. Here he was, looking nothing like himself.
When realization dawned on his face, I knew he figured out who I was. "What happened to you?" I asked.
"You want to know? "Seb asked. "My best friend left me without so much of a warning. I found out the next day at school that you moved across state. So if anyone is to blame for my attitude, it's you, Artemis." With that, he walked passed me.
I couldn't believe it. Sebastian was the sweetest boy ever, even though he was pessimistic. But now, he was the complete opposite. And it was all my fault.
"Oh my gosh," a voice said nearby. I turned and actually smiled. I recognized my other two friends, Lauren and Tanya. They both rushed over to me and hugged me. "Artemis!"
"Hi!" I said.
"You moved back!" Lauren said. "Why didn't you tell us you're coming back?!"
"We weren't in contact," I pointed out. "And I'm sorry I left without saying anything. I seriously suck at goodbyes." I should also apologize to Seb, but I knew I should wait for a bit judging by how mad he seemed.
"It's fine," Lauren said. "So, are you here to stay?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I'm glad to be back."
Lauren and Tanya looked at each other, having some sort of silent communication. They did that a lot before I moved away. "What?" I asked.
"Sebastian Smythe," Tanya said. "He was your best friend, right?"
I nodded.
"Did you keep contact with him?" Tanya asked. "Or even tell him you were moving?"
"I... No," I said. "I already bumped into him, so don't worry about telling me how much he changed."
"No, it's not that," Tanya said. "Well, part of it is that. Sebastian is really...”
"Bad," Lauren finished. "It's probably not a good idea to hang out with him."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"He's kind of a bad influence," Lauren said hesitantly as if she didn't want to tell me. "He's a massive jerk, he gets into loads of fights, he smokes, and there's a lot more."
I found it hard to believe that it was my best friend they were talking about. Or should I say ex-best friend? Seb, as pessimistic as he was, was still very sweet and it was hard to believe that he was a bad influence.
Then again, he looked like a conceited jerk when I bumped into him.
"He can't be that bad, right?" I asked, hoping they would assure me that he still had his sweet side. "He's still a little bit sweet, right?"
Lauren sighed. "I haven't seen him smile for years. There's always a scowl on his face and he basically snaps at everyone. Sweet, definitely not."
The bell rang just then. "I guess I have to head off the class now."
"If you need someone to hang out with at lunch, just look for us," Tanya said with a smile before they headed off towards their classes.
I went in the direction the secretary at the office told me, hoping I would get to the class before the tardy bell rang so I wouldn't be the center of attention.
However, that didn't work at all. Even though I got the direction towards my AP chemistry class, I got lost. To make things worse, the tardy bell rang, which caused me to sigh. There goes my plan on not being the center of attention.
I finally found the class, luckily not that long after the tardy bell. I walked in and everyone immediately turned towards me. I avoided eye contact with the class and looked at the teacher at the front of the class. "You must be Artemis," he said. "I'm Mr. McCarthy. Everyone has a lab partner, except...” His eyes scanned the class, looking for someone who didn't have a lab partner. "Ah. Artemis, you're partner is the young gentleman in the back who should take his feet off the table."
I followed Mr. McCarthy's gaze and almost sighed out loud when I saw who my partner was, especially because my partner was glaring at me.
Seb.
"Sebastian, please make Artemis feel welcome," Mr. McCarthy said.
Seb snorted. "Not likely," he said, once again glaring at me.
Mr. McCarthy sighed and looked at me. "I'm sorry I have to pair you up with him," he said in a voice only I could hear. "He isn't easy to get along with. If you really want, you can work by yourself."
"Don't worry, I think I can handle it," I said.
Mr. McCarthy nodded. "Alright. Everyone's working on an assignment from yesterday, so you can work with Sebastian."
"Got it," I said before I walked over to the table Seb was sitting at. Instead of his feet being on the table, it was on the stool I was supposed to sit on. "Can you move your feet?"
"Why don't you move it for me?" he asked. "After all, you're good at moving. Or would you rather move my feet without telling me?"
"Really?" I asked. "Look, Seb, I'm still tired from moving, so can you just move your feet so I could it down?"
Seb stared at me for a bit with a cold expression before moving his feet off my stool. I didn't even thank him as I sat down. I should have, but I was too annoyed at him to do so.
Seb pushed a piece of paper in front of me. "Here's the worksheet," he said. "You do it now."
I looked at the worksheet, seeing that there wasn't a single answered question on there. "Seriously? Not even one?" I asked. Seb only shrugged in reply before pulling out his phone and earphones. He plugged it in his ear and crossed his arms as he listened to whatever music was playing.
I was too tired to put up with him, so I worked on the worksheet alone. It took quite some time to finish since I was doing it alone and every pair actually started yesterday. I ended up finishing right before the bell rang, which was about twenty minutes after the last pair finished.
When I handed it in, Mr. McCarthy quickly looked it over. "You did it alone, didn't you?" he asked and I nodded. "I'm serious if you do want to work alone. You don't have to be paired up with Sebastian."
"I'm fine with it, really," I said. "I just have to get through to him."
"I'm not sure if it's possible," Mr. McCarthy said. "I don't want to judge him, but it's obvious that he hates basically everybody."
"Well, to be honest, he used to be my best friend," I said. "I moved away when I was twelve and we sort of lost contact. I know him well enough to get him to at least try in class."
"If you can do that, you'd be a miracle worker," Mr. McCarthy said. "He's a smart kid, but he's just lazy and a huge procrastinator. This is AP chemistry, after all." The bell rang and he told me I could leave.
I went back to the table and grabbed my bag. I saw Seb hurry out of the room, and I decided to follow him. "Seb!" I called.
"Stay the hell away from me," he snapped, not even turning around.
I wasn't going to give up. I didn't care what everyone else said about him; he was my best friend before I moved away and even though I made other friends in my old city, none of them compared to him.
"Can we please just talk?" I asked.
That got Seb to turn around in his tracks and face me. "Talk?" he asked. "You want to talk after you moved away without telling me?"
"I suck at goodbyes," I told him.
"Oh, you suck at goodbyes," he said. "Yeah, that totally makes up for it. I already told you, Artie. Stay the hell away from me."
Even though he said that in a cold tone, I couldn't help but smile, which made him look awfully confused. "You called me Artie," I said. Seb was the only person who ever called me Artie as opposed to Artemis. They only time he ever called me Artemis was when he was mad or annoyed at me.
Seb stared at me for a bit before scoffing. "I'm still pissed at you," he said. "And I still want you to leave me alone. Don't say a single word to me, alright?"
He walked away, looking even more mad, but I didn't care. He was going to forgive me eventually. I don't care if we hadn't seen each other for five years. No matter what, he couldn't stay mad at me.
Sebastian Smythe, you better be ready, because you will forgive me.