Sunset College Let's Go

Next morning, I wake up to my alarm. I have set it to wake me up really early, that way I have time to shower, change clothes, and do my bed. I go to get breakfast, and quickly leave my house after my mom gives me the usual forehead kiss as a goodbye. I have to go to the bus stop alone, but that doesn’t bother too much, as I actually have some plans to spend time for myself today -- or at least try to focus on doing more exploring by myself.

But as I hop on the bus, and travel around the city to get to school someone enters the bus. Caleb, he coincidentally takes the same bus as me this morning. He immediately recognizes me, and sits next to me without care. I’m glad to have a friend accompany me through the ride, and we talk the whole way through. But when we make it to the school, we both enter the main hall, and continue walking around campus to make time for the start of the first class.

The bell rings, and we make our way to the main classroom. As we enter the classroom, I see a bunch of students already there. They are all doing the usual, talking, joking around, and playing, but one of the popular guys is grabbing a girl’s ass without seemingly anyone noticing - Yeah, that’s totally normal. I try not to get worried if that girl is getting sexually harassed, and I take a seat next to Matthew, and Caleb next to Quincy at the back of the classroom. I take my things out of my backpack, and as I wait for the teacher, I just chat with my friends.

After a couple of minutes, the teacher arrives at the classroom. It’s a male, who looks to be in his thirties, with some ugly glasses, messy hair, and a bit short in height. He is definitely not as hot as Miss Alyssa, but he looks more like a nerd, so I’m guessing I will get to learn a lot from him. He does look a little insecure, mainly from his little chin, and quite a big nose, but apart from that, he is a normal looking, and seemingly friendly dude. Although, all of my prejudices of him are a bit off when he introduces himself.

“Good morning students, how are you doing?... I am your English teacher, Brad Brooks…” - our teacher says, after placing his bag on the desk, and writes his name on the blackboard - What a weird name… Brad Brooks, sounds like a bad pornstar name. I don’t want to judge him solely from his name, or appearance, but I generally hate english teachers, they are the worst. I just hate English as a subject, and I really wish we don’t have to do much, but apparently this teacher is chill -- or at least he seems to not be so strict.

After he introduces himself, we all take our seats, and start leaning -- not really, since we are just going over old content. But after a bit of useless information, I get a little bored right as the teacher announces an activity. He asks us to write a short story, where we specifically talk about ourselves, and then read it in front of the whole class - Oh, so a humiliation exercise, okay… this should be easy.

We spend 20 minutes writing our stories. Some students don’t even want to do anything, but the ones that are actually writing something are putting a lot of effort into it. Even though I know it might be embarrassing, and everyone could laugh at me for it, I decide to write a short romantic poem - Because why not. After I finish writing, I tell Matthew about what I’ve done, but he only laughs at the idea, so that’s not a good sign. Still, even if this might be a wrong idea, I can’t back out now, as the teacher orders us to drop our pens. I panic when I realize I can’t change anything at this point, so I’m hoping I didn’t make any mistakes, or that my poem isn’t cringe enough - I mean, it’s pretty bad, but maybe it could make people laugh… in a good way…

The teacher begins asking for volunteers, but since no one wants to go to the front, he starts asking people at random to read their stories out loud -- and I get why people are so scared, we have to read in front of everyone. But as I already worry about being embarrassed for the rest of my life, I’m relieved for a second, as the teacher asks a few girls to come to the front first. However, they hesitate, and the moment turns awkward. The teacher is clearly annoyed at these girls’ nervousness, but at this moment, I feel the need to volunteer as the one to go first.

Maybe this could make me popular… - I think, as I start walking to the front. Matthew and the other guys cheer for me, but then I notice that I’m one of the only men that actually wrote something in this activity - Oh no, this is a stupid idea, why am I doing this?... I’m going to humiliate myself… Oh shit, ok… Calm down, you got this… Just read the poem, is not that long. As I start to panic, and almost sweat, I look around to see that almost everyone is staring at me right now, and that only makes me more nervous.

But even though I’m scared of how this could turn out, I get the courage to read my poem - Alright, just do it, if they don't like it then just leave school, it’s not like they are going to miss you. I’m probably not the best at encouraging myself, but it still works, as it gives me the confidence to read my short poem, even when the whole class is looking at me. I try not to think about what they are going to think of me for this, and try to stay positive -- mainly because I feel like this could impress all the girls in class if this goes well. So with this optimistic mentality, I try my best to read this poem perfectly.

I actually don’t remember what I wrote in the poem, I just went to read it without thinking much about it. And while at the moment, I felt how everyone was looking at me, and the pressure was starting to get me in the last words, I was able to focus, and read the whole poem without much trouble -- thankfully I didn’t stutter for a second, so I think I saved me some embarrassment. But even though I didn’t make any issues when reading the poem, it was still a short romantic story, with only 13 lines, simple words that were easy to pronounce, and not that poetic to be honest.

It is still embarrassing to read what I wrote, as I remember writing about losing the ability to love, being lost in an endless void of confusion, or just saying that I wanted my life to be a romance, but it unfortunately turned into a tragedy. That was probably the worst, but I still said a lot of corny stuff that would probably make me look like a weirdo - It does, it makes me look and sound like a weirdo, what was I thinking?. But to my surprise, the class’ reaction isn’t that bad, at least in terms of humiliation.

Actually, my classmates' reception of my poem is kind of overwhelming. I wasn’t even expecting it to be positive, so I’m completely stunned when I’m received with applause. The guys in general seem to have found my poem a bit corny, dumb, or maybe even weird, as I expected, but the girls, their reaction is the complete opposite. The first thing I see are the cute girls in the middle row, right front of me. May is just smiling at me, but both Scarlet and Daisy look like they just fell in love with my poem -- maybe even fell in love with me.

But not only the cute girls are praising me, it seems like the popular girls behind the cute ones also like my poem. They are only smiling at each other, like they can’t believe what I just read. Maybe all of them were just laughing at me, but I like to think that they were in love with my poem as well - Maybe they didn’t think it was too corny… Or maybe they liked it because it was corny… I don’t know, hopefully they think I’m some kind of romantic gentleman or something… At least they didn't laugh at me… I think.

After that, I calmly walk back to my seat, more relaxed to see that a good portion of the class liked my poem. Matthew gives me a fistbump, while the other guys also cheer for me. But as I feel more confident, I don’t try to get all the attention, and just listen to what the other stories are. A couple more students go to the front to read their stories, but none of them are like mine. I think I was the best out of everyone, but then Daisy goes to the front with her story, and it’s honestly amazing.

She has also written a poem, in fact, it sounds like it is a reply to mine -- at least from how similar they are. She is talking about how a girl falls in love with the right men that are passionate, and confident enough to express their love for others without fear. I have to admit, when she looks at me for a brief second while she reads her poem, I can’t help but blush hard, as it really feels like she is talking to me - There’s no way… That would be incredible, but also a huge coincidence… I don’t know, maybe she is just messing with me.

She continues staring at me, and her piercing eyes make our eye contact feel more special than ever. And while I’m sure she was trying to tell me something, I can’t think straight at this moment - Was it addressed to me?? Could she fall in love with me just for expressing myself?... I hope she actually meant some of those things for me, but maybe I’m reading too much into it… Or perhaps that’s exactly what she wants me to do… Nope, I’m definitely overthinking it.

But after that lovely moment, English class ends. Now, I find myself in the middle of the hallway, without knowing what to do - Maybe I could go talk with some of the cute girls or just hang out with the guys… I don’t know, but at least I’ve been making friends, let’s see if I can make more...