Chapter 1 Trajectory

The day was just like any other day in the small sleepy town of Cadez.

Little birds chittered up in the trees, fluttering their little colored wings and fleeting from one tree to another.

These beautiful cedar trees lined up the driveway leading to the town's only high school.

The bricked walls were slightly faded with butchered paint markings left on them by mischievous college students.

As the boots of students hit the gravel, the crunching sounds could be heard all around mixed with student chatter.

It was the first day of school after a long summer break and everyone was excited to see their old friends and make new ones.

They moved in pairs and trios, pausing to greet and crack jokes before heading into the school's building; a spacious two-story building surrounded by low bungalows for practical classes and a greenhouse.

By the side of the greenhouse stood two students, a well-built muscular young man smartly dressed in an oxblood colored blazer and a pair of black pants and a girl with the same coloured blazer but a black pleated skirt.

The boy slung a carton-colored backpack on his left shoulder and on his wrist was a beautifully crafted black band that identified him as the captain of the college football team.

He rubbed the band absentmindedly while he nodded at some students who called out and waved at him as they entered the school building.

He was popular and well-liked both in school and in town for his brains in academics and sports ability.

He glanced at the girl some feet away from where he stood as she contemplated a yellow-petaled flower with a slender green stem. She had beautiful red hair that caught the lights in the sun as she bent her head slightly to look at a different part of the flower.

Rojo Alvarez could bet the twenty bucks in the left pocket of his black pants that she was a new student; she had that slightly bewildered look on her face. "You can touch them. They won't bite you know.

The flowers", says a chuckling Rojo. The girl, Sophia, started. She hadn't known that someone was watching her and when his voice had reached her, she had dropped the pink-colored notebook in her hand.

The last time she had looked around, she had been the only one on this side of the school. The air on this side of the school smelled nicer, no doubt tinged with the scents of the flowers growing in the greenhouse.

Some of the students were still crammed into the parking area while some were already in the halls.

Sophia took a deep breath to calm herself as she took in the boy in front of her.

He had dark curly hair, a lock of it just brushing his left eyebrow and he was much taller than she was. She put his age down at seventeen, the same age as she, which probably meant that they were in the same class.

Or would meet in the same class this morning, it was Sophia's first day at Cadez High. "Actually, I was looking at a cute little butterfly underneath one of the petals.

I didn't want to touch it because I didn't want it to fly before I was done admiring it", replies Sophia. She simultaneously reached for the book at the same as Rojo and their fingers brushed against each other.

Rojo cleared his throat and Sophia smiled, it was just like men to think they knew it all.

"Ah, I-I see. Well, what do you say we go inside and I can show you around for a bit before the classes start?

I noticed you first took a wrong turn when you came in earlier", says Rojo, determined to create a better impression of himself on the beautiful Sophia.

He couldn't let her get away with whatever thought she must have formed in her mind from correcting him earlier.

Call it pride or charisma but Rojo believed in doing things and doing them well.

It was surely what got him the shining scholar and athlete title he had both in his school and around their small town.

Sophia smiled again as she looked around warily as if she could disappear from his scrutiny by just looking around her.

She brushed down an invisible wrinkle on one side of her pleated skirt before focusing her eyes back on Rojo. "

In that case, then I think we should be on a first-name basis.

We should know each other's names for a start.

Mine is Sophia and I heard someone call out Rojo, is that you by any chance?

How do you spell it?" "R-O-J-O", says Rojo. He grinned widely showing perfectly capped white teeth and stretched his right hand out in a greeting.

He liked Sophia already.

She was direct as hell. Sophia brought out a slender left hand that Rojo took in his wider right and they shook hands.

From afar, it looked like both of them were calling a truce.

Rojo inclined his head to the right, in the general direction of the main school building, "Come on, let's head inside".

They walked side by side and joined a melee of other students who thronged into the school halls with their boots making squeaking sounds as they all went in under the sound of the bells that signified the start of classes.

Over the coming weeks, he and Sophia did everything together from going to classes to getting lunch together and heading back home after school.

They picked each other as partners for group projects and Sophia waited for Rojo sometimes after his football practices and afterwards, they'd stroll home together talking about anything and everything.

With each passing day, Rojo found himself falling deeper in love with her, wanting more than sneaky quick kisses with Sophia, never finding the time for a deeper physical connection. That is, until their school had conducted their annual awards and dancing night.

Rojo thought of that night as the night that changed the trajectory of the rest of his life.