It only took a couple weeks into the second semester of her freshman year for them to meet. They shared only one class together, Human Development. Ironic for a relationship to be born in a class like that, but as unbelievable as it may sound, it’s true.
Both of them were seemingly considered outcasts in their class. So when Mrs. Morose called for everyone to find a partner, Novia and Griffin were the last two standing. They stood only about twelve feet apart. As if the universe had planned this, Mrs. Morose asks, “Griffin, why don’t you be partners with Novia?” He turned around and gave Novia a small smile, “Yes ma’am.”
He began to close the distance between them, still lightly smiling. Twelve feet… ten feet… eight feet… six feet… four feet… two feet…
One.
Novia looked up at him and gave him a smile, it’s how she always greeted people. But this one felt different somehow, she found it hard to maintain eye contact with him. Yet, she never wanted to look away from him. His deep brown eyes, his crooked smile, his brown hair that she was sure he hadn’t intended to let get that messy. Just above his ear was a little tuft of hair that stood up as if it had been gelled there. She smiled more when she saw this, “what a perfect imperfection,” she thought to herself.
Everytime she looked away from him, Griffin wanted to grab her attention again. Do or say something that could make her look him in the eyes. He loved it when she did that, it made him feel safe to see her brown eyes. He’d known she was in this class with him but he hadn’t spoken with her, or hardly even looked at her until now. He wondered how he’d missed her, how she went under his radar. She was cute, a short brunette wearing a Super Mario sweater and a pair of bootcut jeans. He noticed that the top of her head was the perfect height to reach his shoulder. He wondered what that would be like, to have someone’s head resting on him. He’d had a girlfriend before, however it was never serious and only lasted for a month and a half before she’d ghosted him.
He zoned back in when he heard Mrs. Morose giving instructions. “For today’s activity, we’re going to be practicing our active listening skills. This means making eye contact, saying honest things, and understanding and comprehending what your partner is saying. Talk about your favorite childhood memory until the timer runs out, you have five minutes. Begin!”
They look at one another and Novia asks him if he’d like to go first. Still smiling, he agrees. As he speaks, Novia finds it easy to be an active listener. Easier than ever before. It was as if he were a long lost friend, easy to listen to. She wondered if his passions have anything to do with speaking. She had a feeling he’d be good at that.
When he’d finished explaining his favorite memory, Mrs. Morose asks her to summarize his words. “Griffin’s favorite childhood memory is watching movies with his twin brother in the middle of the night. He chose this because their sleep deprivation made their conversations so much funner. I asked him if he still has that happy relationship with his brother, his response was ‘absolutely.’” Griffin and Novia lock eyes again as their teacher leaves. “Thank you for listening Novia. Your turn?” She hesitated, not out of fear or shock, but because he said her name. The way he said it, it wasn’t flirtatious or over the top or really in any special way, but his voice. The way it sounded to her, it was as if time had stopped momentarily.
“My favorite childhood memory is when my sister and I found out we were going to both be big sisters. Chloe (my little sister) and I had just gotten home from school when my parents sat us down in the living room and brought out a cardboard box that was folded shut. They told us that we were about to find out if our new sibling would be a boy or a girl. My dad opened the box and out came all the bright blue balloons.” When she finished her story time, he was smiling at her. “That actually sounds like a really cool memory to have,” Griffin told her.
Unfortunately, Human Development was the final class of the day. But that didn’t stop them from talking as much as possible. Before they were instructed to sit back down, they spent their time talking more about their childhoods. Griffin explained how he loved her memory, probably because he never had a younger sibling to have those types of interactions with. Novia found out that he had a middle school sister, just like she did. “I wonder if they're friends, what’re the chances of that?” she asked him. To this, he gave her a little shrug and said, “Well, you never know.”
When Griffin went home that day, his mind wandered back to Novia. Her hair, her personality, her memories. He thought how happy he was to meet her. Before falling asleep, he prayed and gave thanks to the Lord, as he always did. However, tonight he had something new to be thankful for. When he was done, he smiled at the universe and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, when Novia arrived home, she couldn’t help but tell her sister all about him. She was talking about him for hours that night. “Novia, you know what this means, right?” her sister asked her once she’d finally taken a break from ranting. “You have your first high school crush!”
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125,011 Literary Works • 672,840 Reviews
Hi! I hope your having and good day or night, I really liked this story and I figured I'd share what I liked about it, First off I liked the plot, the plot was very interesting, it was very hooking the plot was hooking, it was also very easy to grip and understand. Second I liked the fact it was an easy read, this story was very easy to comprehend. Third I like how well the characters were developed. I also liked that I read only a little bit but learned so much about the characters without them being actually introduced.
Well that's all i wanted to say, i hope you have a good day/evening/night
This book is amazing it has a good setup and the topic of the book can and does (at least for me) make the person want to go deeper into the story, it has good characters and an interesting topic enough to get the reader lost in the story. This is a good book and I hope you make many more just as good.
This book is amazing it has a good setup and the topic of the book can and does (at least for me) make the person want to go deeper into the story, keep up the good work
hey there, I thought I'd leave a quick review.
First of all, I find this short story quite endearing. It's a story about two people in high school who end up developing feelings for one another. Initially, the story seems to reflect third-person limited in the perspectives of both Griffin and Novia. Later in the story though, the perspective seems to focus entirely on Novia's perspective. The only time the reader gets to see Griffin's perspective is in the sixth paragraph when he describes his initial reaction to seeing Novia. I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, I just thought it was interesting. Especially because we don't actually hear Griffin share his memory himself. Instead, we get Novia's perspective on the way he speaks and then Novia paraphrases what he shared to the teacher.
One thing I will say is that generally in a story like this, every time a new person speaks dialogue, a new paragraph should be made. For example:
"I wonder if they're friends, what're the chances of that?" she asked him.
To this, he gave her a little shrug and said, "Well, you never know."
Even though this story didn't follow that 'rule' of breaking up dialogue with paragraphs, because of the way you used the dialogue tags in the story, I was still able to tell which person was talking and follow along with the story. Overall, great work. I thought the story was really cute.
Yesss I love this.