#Chapter1
---The headless-chicken mentality of Ryder Quin-01
It’s funny how sometimes people, when things don’t go quite their way, turn their eyes to the past and wonder… Where did I go wrong? As if that would actually change anything. It’s probably one of the stupidest things a human can do, but they do it anyway. It’s not like they can go back in time and change anything.
Where did I go wrong?
For Ryder Quin, things probably went wrong since the first day of high school. Maybe it started with high school. Or maybe it went wrong when she decided that going to school with e fever and while on her time of the month was a good idea, as if she would actually be able to survive that. It’s debatable if ANYONE can survive that, but dear Ryder Quin sometimes has the mentality of that one chicken in Moana, so such situations are not rare.
It was that sick body and blurry vision because of the fever, that made her faint in the hallways while trying to make her way to the bathroom. And because of her occasional headless-chicken mentality that convinced her to do dumb shit, this damsel-in-distress-style fainting led this idiot of a girl to meet Aiden Caley. And it was his gentle smile, the help he offered, probably also that stupid desire in the heart of a teenager to experience that movie-like high school experience, or most likely the fact that he carried her in her arms to the school’s infirmary that made Ryder develop a crush on him. People are easily fooled creatures when it comes to their feelings. Just a moment is enough to make the heart flutter, to make butterflies fly in their stomach, which is very unscientific, but feelings don’t care much about science, do they?
Maybe it all started with this crush… or maybe it all started that day… that night…
That day was like all the others day. Boring. No matter how much interesting and exciting movies make high school look like, it is quite the opposite actually. It’s boring, physically and mentally tiring and there are a lot of idiots to deal with, most of them being from the school’s staff. So, given the fact that this boring day seemed to never come to an end, the dragged voice of the teacher either making people fall asleep or annoyed, Ryder was entertaining herself by, not creepily at all, staring at her very crush, Aiden Caley.
/"Psst…Ryder./" The staring seemed to be damaging her hearing for Ryder failed to notice that Jasmine, her friend, was calling her. /"Yo Ryde…/" And yet again another failure. /"Yo, you chicken-head./" Jasmine’s voice sounded a lot like that of a mother trying to scold her wailing-in-public toddler but without making it too obvious. Thankfully, the teacher was half-deaf… or maybe he just didn’t care for he was quite old and rumors said that he was so ancient he fought in World War 1. As mentioned before… the school was filled with idiots.
Finally, Ryder, the chicken-head, listened. /"What?/" Still her eyes didn’t leave the guy’s back. She wasn’t even looking at his face, what is so interesting about a back? Jasmine could never understand the head of this girl. Maybe because it was partly that of a chicken.
/"Stop staring at him for God's sake./" Jasmine hissed. And to urge her friend further, she skillfully and mercilessly threw a pencil to her head, not caring if Ryder might lose an eye or not. Or maybe that was her intention from the beginning. Not quite easy to ogle at someone without eyes, right? In her defense, Jasmine was trying to save her friend’s dignity and reputation, so she wouldn’t become a creep.
However, Ryder was rather bored. It’s not like she would stare at the guy’s back if it wasn’t for that, furthermore she was more lost in her thoughts while accidentally it happened for her eyes to be landed on Aiden. Still that didn’t make it sound less creepy, so she didn’t try to defend or explain herself. Quite on the contrary… /"But he is so handsome and.../" Ryder finally looked at Jasmine with a frown on her face. Her eyes then landed on the opened and miserably abounded /"for the sake of love/" notebook of hers and the unanswered questions seemed to be taunting her.
Right in that moment, Jasmine gasped as quietly and convincedly as she could. /"Oh my God, he is looking at you!/" Her right hand griped her forearm hard and as if Ryder hadn’t gotten used to this kind of mockery, mostly likely because Jasmine was quite good at acting the part, Ryder snapped her head to Aiden, only to find him looking down at his book.
Well that was quite disappointing.
That’s called playing dirty.
/"You are mean./" Ryder whispered to Jasmine annoyed. Annoyed at herself for getting herself fooled once again and at Jasmine for laughing.
/"Yes. But you love me./" Jasmine said in a matter of fact tone that didn’t make Ryder any happier.
Jasmine was that kind of friend that cared... a lot… she would care about Ryder like a second mother, feeding and taking care of her, making sure that chicken-head of hers wouldn’t get her in troubles even though Jasmine tended to get her own ass in very odd and not pleasant situations herself, but for the love of God, this girl would never stop trolling the hell out of Ryder. The more she cared the more she fooled around. It was quite annoying at times, but after years of enduring Ryder had finally learned how to deal with it and more importantly, fight back.
She would get her revenge… eventually…
Ryder turned her gaze on Aiden once more, this time actually staring at him, as her lips curved upwards the tiniest bit unconsciously. The young man’s dirty blonde hair was messy, like he woke up with those hair, but most likely he spent a lot of time in front of the mirror to make it look like that. Ryder had seen her male cousins countless times doing so and found it quite funny. Aiden’s leg was stomping against the ground. The black shirt hugged his back too tightly, maybe e bit more than it should, but who’s complaining? The shirt had a /"To quote Hamlet Act III, Scene III, Line 87 'No'/" quote on it, which made her lips curve up e bit more, since Ryder had acclaimed Hamlet as her spirit animal for four years now. Just to be clear about this… she’s not into theater, nor is she interested in every work of Shakespeare. Ryder just appreciates Hamlet in particular.
From that time she fainted and let herself be carried by him, maybe because she found it interesting and entertaining to have a crush, Ryder would steal glances at the young man as if studying him from afar, but never did she take the initiative to talk to him. She looked at him as he laughed and fooled around with his friends… at the way he looked as if nothing could bother him, always looking carefree and confident. Ryder liked the way he smiled and laughed, and the boy was quite good to look at with those /"unintentional/" messy hair and his green eyes.