His eyes were the color of a maple tree. They weren't just brown but copper, cinnamon even. Warm and cheerful. I could have stared into them the rest of the night if it weren't for the-

📷

Wade jumped at the feeling of Mark kicking his leg, looking around the room he noticed that abundance of eyes looking in his direction. He had zoned out mid-class, and of course the teacher decided to call on him.

"Well this is a first Mr. Barnes, you know better than to zone out during my class," the teacher said unimpressed and turned around to look at the board. Wade sank in his chair as classmates around him snickered. He wasn't sure how to reply.

"Whatcha' thinking about, Wade? ...Molly?" Mark whispered, Wade didn't need to look at him to know there was smirk resting on his face. Sometimes Wade just wanted to punch him,

"No, I already told you; I don't like her like that," Wade bit out as he watched the teacher scribbled equations on the board. He could hear Mark reply but he wasn't paying attention to what he was saying.

Wade had been thinking about a certain soccer player. One he had only talked to for five minutes, yet somehow had become overly infatuated with. Thinking back on to the conversation it wasn't even that interesting. All him and JP talked about was soccer, something Wade had suddenly become more curious about, even though Wade wanted to ask so many more questions.

Towards the far corner of the room Wade spotted one of the members of the soccer team, Patrick. He was slouched in his chair, whispering to another guy with curly hair next to him. They laughed at something silently before looking back to the front. Wade's eyes flicked to the clock on the wall, watching the minute hand tick till class was over.

Soon enough the bell rang and all the students started piling out of the classroom into the crowded hallway. Wade shoved papers and books into this backpack, throwing it onto his back.

"I'll meet up with you next period, I have to go talk to someone," Wade said quickly, leaving Mark confused as he attempted to catch up with Patrick. Wade spotted him at the end of the hall, the guy he was with was walking into a classroom leaving Patrick to walk alone to his class.

"Hey," Wade pulled on Patrick's arm lightly to get his attention. Patrick turned around startled.

"You're on the soccer team, right?" Patrick rose an eyebrow, nodding his head slowly. They began walking down the hall towards Patrick's class, Wade had a free period so he wasn't too worried about being late.

"So, are you going to be reporting on the game tonight?" Patrick asked visually impatient, they stood at the door to his next period and it was obvious that Patrick would rather be in there than talking to some guy from the newspaper.

"Oh uh, yeah" Wade looked down the hall to see it nearly empty. He had so many questions he wanted to ask but at the same time didn't know what any of them were.

"I uh, just wanted to know, uh, what time the team was meeting up before the game,"

Patrick looked at his watch,

"Around three-ish, the game doesn't start until five thirty though," Pat sighed, stepping into the classroom.

"See you later I guess,"

📷

Wade stood in the newspaper office fiddling with his pen as he waited for Ms. Kyo to arrive. As far as he knew, Amy was supposed to be the one to report on the soccer game, and he really wanted to take her place.

He smiled as she entered the room, documents and papers stacked in her arms. He reached out to grab the top of the stack and helped carry it into the main office.

"Thank you so much," she sighed brushing out her ruffled shirt and sat down in one of the office chairs.

"It's no problem, I wanted to talk to you though if you're not busy?" Wade sighed, Ms. Kyo moved to her desk.

"Sure, what do you need? Oh, I also need you to write something for me..."

"Oh, that's what I wanted to talk to you about," Wade sat down across from her, "I wanted to do the report on the soccer match tonight, but I'm assuming you already gave it to Amy?"

Ms. Kyo shook her head, "I'm pretty sure I gave it to her, but if she's okay with it go ahead. Just ask her to swing by before the end of the day," Wade nodded his head and thanked Ms. Kyo, as he stood to leave.

"What's making you so interested in the soccer team this year anyway? You usually hate doing articles on sports," Kyo asked, her head rested on her hands as she watched Wade closely.

"Oh uh-"

"Is it a girl? You like someone, I can see that,"

Like someone? what the hell is that supposed to mean?  Wade sputtered and shook his head denying it. Ms. Kyo laughed.

"What makes you think I like some girl? Can't a journalist just want to do an article on a sport once in a while?" Wade could feel his face burning red but tried to keep his composer calm. He could tell it wasn't working.

"Oh Wade," Ms. Kyo began as she leaned forward in her chair, resting his elbows on her desk, "You have that look in your eye, but whatever you say," She leaned back in her chair as Wade began to leave again, "Just make a move! Leave them a note or something, use one of your amazing puns on them," Wade shook his head, heading towards the library. He didn't know who was worse when it came to his dating life, Mark or Ms. Kyo...

📷

When Wade entered the library, he headed towards the back where the rest of his group, Mark, Tyler, Molly and now Amy, sat. Wade raised an eyebrow at her and waved.

"What are you doing here? I thought you had English this period?" Wade asked her, he noticed Mark's arm around her shoulder and internally rolled his eyes.

"I got it changed so I had study hall this period, and when Mark invited me to join I was like 'why not?'" Wade nodded, he pulled a chair from another table and slid in-between Tyler and Molly.

"And she's the new junior, couldn't leave her alone in the dangerous world we call high school, now could I?" Mark added.

"In other words," Tyler began as he scribbled numbers onto his math homework, "They're dating now"

"I figured," Wade replied. They all talked softly a while longer, Wade zoning out as he looked over his own unfinished homework.

"You know what sounds good right now? Breakfast food" Amy said, she flicked through her phone as she leaned into Mark.

"Oo, tonight we should go get some pancake. I know a dinner, they have the BEST breakfast food in the county," Mark replied looking over her shoulder. Amy lit up excitedly turning before sinking back into her chair.

"I can't, I have to do a report on the soccer game tonight," she replied, Wade's eye's flicked over to them.

"I'll do it," Wade said quickly, "I mean if you don't want to, I'll do the report."

"Really? Thank you, Wade" Amy replied, Mark mouthed his own silent 'thank you' to Wade as well. Wade smiled back before the bell rang for the period to be over. The group said their goodbyes before going their separate ways.

As Wade left he stopped by his locker, opening it and exchanging books for his next couple classes. As he was about to close his locker he stopped, opening it all the way and searching through the piles of papers and notes he had collected over the weeks. On the top shelf of the locker he found a stack of polaroid pictures he had taken, he had many since he was not only the head journalist for the paper, but he was also the only photographer. He always had a few pictures scattered around but these were ones he had kept for special occasions.

He flipped through the stack and chose one, placing the rest of the stack back into this locker and closed the door.