First-person. Internal struggle. A difficult decision concerning the secondary character

Creative Writing Assesment 

The New Kid

Only when the twig poking into my back gets too annoying, do I sit up and open my eyes. The sunlight blinds me for a moment. I realise that I must have dozed off. It doesn’t surprise me. I barely got any sleep last night. I have a look around to try to find my friends and spot them playing a game of football in the middle of the field. It is a scorching hot day, and nobody looks very motivated. The grumbling in my stomach interrupts me and I look to my bag dumped with all the others. With a groan, I get to my feet, grab my wallet and head over to the canteen.

 On the way, I’m joined by one of my mates who was playing football 

“Hey Jack, mind if I join you? It’s getting a bit too hot out there” he calls to me. 

“Oh hey Alex, yea sure, I’m only going to the canteen though” I reply.

“All good” he nods.

We get to the canteen and take our place in line. I get bored pretty quickly and look around to see if I recognise anyone. My eyes rest on two figures sitting on a bench beside the playground, instantly I’m alert and know the person sitting on the left is Katie Hall but on her right is a guy I’ve never seen before. I point this out to Alex and ask,

“Who’s the guy with Katie?” he follows where I’m looking and replies,

“Oh yea that’s Charlie Almazan, he’s the new kid from Spain.”

My mind is going a million miles an hour, Why is he sitting with Katie? And how does Alex know who he is? These questions tumble around my mind like clothes in a washing machine. Alex then turns to me and asks, 

“You still like Katie aye?”

“Sure do” I reply distractedly.

“Damn how long have you liked that girl bro,” He asks

“Only like three years,” I say, still looking at Charlie and Katie, surreptitiously.

“Well looks like Charlie seems to be going for her too!” Right on cue Katie lets out a laugh and smiles sweetly at Charlie. I grind my teeth. 

“Not on my watch,” I mumble under my breath. 

As if he heard me, Charlie turns and looks me dead in the eye, smirking. He then gets up, says something to Katie and starts walking straight towards me. I instantly look at my feet and pretend to study them, but it doesn’t work, and Charlie proceeds to stand right beside me in the queue. He then turns to Alex and asks 

“Yo Alex, how’s it going?” Alex reaches over me to fist-bump Charlie and replies, 

“Not much I got bored of playing footy, so I’m just chilling with Jack”. I’m still looking at my shoes when Charlie turns to me and exclaims “Wait, I know you!” I look up at him, confused “You do?” I say quietly.

“Yea, Katie was just telling me about you, you’re the guy who has liked her for like five years” he laughs, I go bright red and hang my head. 

“Actually it’s only three,” Charlie puts his hand on my shoulder I look back up as he mimics with a wink 

“Good luck getting her, she’s a very nice girl”. He then turns and walks away. My face burns with humiliation, and I take a step forward to try to follow him, but Alex steps in front of me and whispers, 

“Leave it!” I stop and watch as Charlie swaggers back to Katie. My mind is a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts. I’m bigger than Charlie I think to myself, what’s stopping me from going up to him right now and knocking his perfect teeth out? I look directly at Katie, and I realised if I was gonna confront Charlie, I wouldn’t want Katie watching. So instead of going up to Charlie and smacking him into next week, I turn away and walk back towards the field. 

“Where are you going?” Alex calls out to me.

“I lost my appetite,” I reply without looking back.I take my seat at the back of the room and look out of the window as my mind wanders back to the confrontation with Charlie, I didn’t even know he existed until today, what have I done to make him hate me so much? Then it hits me, he’s after Katie! Of course! Why else would he have come up to me? He must want me to back down… wait, but why? It’s not like Katie has ever shown me any interest… unless she has! Unless she does like me and she hinted it to Charlie, that would explain why he wants me out of the picture. The bell wakes me from my thoughts, and I look to the door, I know what I need to do.