All characters in this story are 18 years of age.
***
Zachary woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring in his ear. He tried to find his phone to turn off the early morning annoyance. Today was the start of another school year. The day he had been dreading all summer long. The bright sunlight was helping to bring him out of his slumber. He sat up looking down at his tanned toned body. He wasn't a muscle head, but he felt like the hard work he had put in over the summer working out had paid off. He was hoping that maybe having a decent body would help to get him some attention from the girls at school. He finally got up out of bed and headed to the shower to finish his preparation for the day.
This was Zach's first year at his new school and he was nervous. He didn't have much opportunity to meet new people during the summer so he was hoping he wouldn't stand out too much on his first day. Walking up to the front doors he grabbed the heavy handle and pulled making his way down the old school hallway looking for his first class. Finding the door he walked through and sat down in an empty chair taking a brief look around the room. There were several students there he made eye contact with and then they awkwardly looked away. The bell rang and those who weren't sitting finally settled in to their seats. Their balding teacher started to go over the years syllabus and started to take attendance.
As he was reading through the list of students names the door suddenly opened and that's when Zach's world would be completely changed. In walked the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen. Zach couldn't take his eyes away as they traveled from her shoes up he long tan legs up to here incredible eyes. His attention was brought back down to her perfect lips as she exclaimed to their teacher, "I am so sorry I'm late! I went to the wrong classroom! Please forgive me?!" Zach was mesmerized by her voice, there was a sweetness to it and it was at that moment he knew he needed to find out who she was.
Thankfully the gods were smiling on Zach because the only open seat that was left happened to be right next to him. As she walked down the aisle to the open seat their eyes caught for just a second and her lips curled up into the cutest smile as she whispered, "mind if I sit here?"
"Not at all, please do." Zach replied as he stumbled over his words.
The teacher continued to take attendance calling out names from his list and having students respond with "here" or "present." He paid close attention to when the beauty beside him would respond. In fact he was concentrating so hard that he didn't respond when his name was called the first time. Slightly embarrassed he looked over to see her laughing a little at him, but her smile with the laughter told him it wasn't a mean laugh. Eventually the name Sarah was called and he her respond with "here." He thought to himself, "not only is she beautiful but she always has such a pretty name."
Class continued on the bell rang and chaos erupted as the students all were in a hurry to move on to the next stop for their day. Zach tried to get her attention but her friend had already swooped in and started talking about all the gossip that she had to share. Zach sat at his desk a little bummed as he watched her walk to the door, but he had a surge of excitement rush through him when Sarah looked back and smiling at him before walking out the door. Zach couldn't contain his smile, this new mystery girl had made his day, and they hadn't even talked.
The day continued on and Zach never even saw her again. It wasn't for lack of trying. He looked for her every time that he entered a new room. When he was walking to a new class he would look for her, but much to his disappointment he wasn't able to find her. He was pretty upset, that the one girl that had caught his eye was no where to be found. He then started to question if the mornings events actually happened. RIINNGGG!! The final bell shook him out of his daydream questions and he made his way to his locker to collect his stuff. Just then the vision of beauty stepped around the corner and was walking straight toward him. Again, a smile immediately shaped his lips as his nerves washed over him. The voice inside his head telling him to go talk to her. "It's now or never." He thought to himself. He took a step toward her and stuck out his had saying, "I'm Zach, from first hour. We haven't formally met, but I just wanted to say hi." She smirked as she reached out and shook his hand.
"I'm Sarah, nice to meet you officially."
Zach felt like an idiot, "who shakes hands?" He thought to himself.
She continued on, "are you new here? I don't think i've seen you around before."
"Yeah, we moved here over the Summer, my parents split up so now I'm here with my mom closer to her family."
"Well i hope you like it here. There's a lot of assholes but a few of us are alright." She smiled as she said that.
Zach laughed as he replied, "seems like there are assholes wherever you go, I'll try to avoid those and stick with the few that are alright."
She smiled a little mischievous smile "can i borrow your phone real quick?"
"Umm, sure." He replied as he pulled his phone out and unlocked it handing it to her.
She grabbed it and started to tap at the screen. When she was finished she handed it back, looking him in the eye she said, "now you have my number, just in case you need help with any of those assholes." With that she turned and walked away. Zach watched her walk away, he couldn't help but notice what a nice booty she had as well, he shook his head, scolding himself a little.
Zach went home that night and messaged her. That was the start of many conversations, sometimes serious, other times goofy and all the time enjoyable. Zach found out that she, like him, had started school late and so she was an 18 year old senior as well. The more they talked the more they learned about each other and the more that they wanted to be together. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months and those months led up to the next big moment in their lives.
Winter formal was coming up and Zach was nervous. He wanted to ask Sarah so badly but was super nervous she would say no. He didn't have a reason why she would, he just didn't want to jeopardize the relationship that they had. One night as they were messaging each other he worked up the courage and just asked. "Are you going with anyone to the winter formal?"
She responded, "no one has asked me yet." (She actually was lying, she had already turned down three other guys, hoping that Zach would ask her.)