Testing Love - Chapter One

Will You Be My Girlfriend?

Death the Queen is speaking:

Hello, hello! How are you? Great, I hope!

I decided to translate one of my stories to English, since a very important friend of mine wanted to read it and she tried to read it using the Google Translator and she wasn't able to understand everything, since Google Translator is not very good at translating things from Portuguese to English. Of course, my translation is not perfect also, it's the first time I'm doing something like this. So feel free to correct me, okay?

I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter! :D

[the image of the chapter will go here, when I finish to draw it]

Hi. My name is Joan and I’m sixteen years old. I have brown hair, a little too short for a girl and eyes too normal to make someone notice them. I’m neither tall nor short. My skin is white, but it does not have an exaggerated light tone, like some people have in a few books I’ve read. My clothes are not fancy, they are just normal. I do not highlight in the crowd and my grades are average. I’m a normal person.

A normal person, with normal friends, a normal life, a normal family and a normal crush.

A crush. No, it’s not a simple crush. I know that I’m still young and inexperienced, but I think that I truly love him. I’d do anything for him, I’d kill and die.  It may seem an exaggeration or a dramatic confession of an average teenager, but you do not understand the size of the feelings I have for him, no matter if it’s love or passion. Or maybe it’s a mixture of both.

I’ve never talked to him and if he knows my name, it’s a progress already. We are classmates, but I don’t sit near him. We don’t share friends in common – I mean – he doesn’t have friends at all. The boys don’t talk to him. They used to try at the beginning, but Daniel is a very closed person, centered in his own world. And yet, he is successful with the other girls. Not only in my class, but in others as well! But none of his relationships last. All, without exception, they last only a week.

I like to spend the classes watching him. I think that he doesn’t notice that he is observed by me constantly, but I do it in 90% of the classes. It's my favorite hobby. I could spend days, weeks, months, my whole life, just watching him.

– Jô? – Someone called me while I was immersed in my thoughts. I was so far away that I couldn’t even tell who the owner of the voice was. But gradually, I came back to the real world and the voice became more recognizable. – Jô?

– Hm? – I looked around, looking for the person who called me. When I looked forward, my beloved looked at me with the same expression of indifference he always has. – Oh … – It was all I could say.

– Is there something wrong with me? – He asked, already getting up from his desk, with the intention to come closer.

– N-N-No!  – pathetic, pathetic, pathetic! Why can’t I have a normal conversation with him?

– So what is making you look to me like that?

– NOTHING! – I screamed. I can’t believe I screamed, oh God, what a shame. He kept walking up towards me and smirked. Is probably having fun. – What are you laughing of?

– I’m laughing of you. – He replied, seeming calm. – Who else would be funny like that?

I could not answer him. I was paralyzed and my legs were starting to shake. My hands were soaked with sweat and my heart was racing. He must have noticed that, because he opened a bigger smile.

I did not know how to act and was still busy trying to fix the image of his smile on my mind.

Now it's lunch time. Do you want to go up to the terrace with me? – I just nodded. He passed by me and signaled to me to follow him. – Oh, and one more thing.

– What? – He passed one of his fingers down my chin and then passed through my lips.

– You're drooling.

Shit!

Incredible. He never paid attention to me, and when it happens, I act like an idiot and I drool. Great. As if it wasn’t enough.

Still, I decided to follow him. After all, what could happen?

Along the way, some people looked at us and they began to whisper among themselves, things I couldn’t hear. Most people were girls, but there was a curious boy here and there. I actually thought that they would follow us, but it didn’t happen. When we finally arrived, I sat against the wall and asked:

– So what now? – I tried to play the cool girl, who is not affected by anything with a tough pose, but my body condemned me. The shaking was getting worse.

He sat, facing me. His smile disappeared, but I could notice that he was having fun with the situation.

– Do you like me? – I'm sure I was red like a tomato. I started to open my mouth and close, like a goldfish. - Yeah, I think that you do. - He said, convinced. I can’t believe he brought me here just to make fun of me.

But his next move almost killed me. As much as I saw what was coming, I was so nervous that turned into stone, stiff. And before I knew it, our lips have touched each other and their arms wrapped me.

The kiss must have lasted no more than three seconds, but I can assure you that my whole life, was worth just because of it.

– Joan ... – He pulled back a little bit, to be able to look me in the eyes. One of his hands held my face and I was so happy that if someone dared to interrupt that moment, I’d kill that person.

– Yes? – I tried to sound like a calm person.

– Be my girlfriend. – Daniel said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I stood still, waiting for him to say "Just kidding! Fooled you, silly!" But nothing happened. Then I began to wander.

Was he immensely in love with me during all this time? Is that why your previous relationships lasted for so little? Maybe he was just trying to forget me, thinking I was some kind of unattainable woman! Oh, poor thing! He didn’t know that I feel the same way he always had.

– Joan? – He said my name for the fourth time in one day! Yeah, I'm counting.

– Huh?

– Will you accept?

– AH! YES! – He wasn’t joking so I was, at least, excited.

– Great. Now I'm going to launch a kind of challenge. – He stood, without even helping me do the same.

– Challenge? What do you mean?

– You love me, don’t you?

– Of course I do. Otherwise I wouldn’t have accepted to be your girlfriend, right? – What an obvious thing, why is he asking me that? It is natural that boyfriend and girlfriend...

– Well. I do not love you. – ... love each other. What did you said, young man?

– What do you mean by that?

– I meant what I said. I do not love you.

– What do you mean by "I don’t love you"? Why did you ask me to be your girlfriend, then? – I was outraged.

– That’s where the challenge begins. I'll give you within a week to convince me that I love you too.

– And how do you expect me to do that?

– I don’t. But as you say you love me that much ... I want to see if your feelings are able to reach me. - I love him very much, yes. But I'm dying to slap him. – And then, will you accept the challenge?

My rational side - that isn’t that rational - told me to stamp a big "no" on his forehead and walk away, but my heart told me to accept and give my best, fight for what I wanted. But what are my chances? Honestly, I've lost count of how many girls have tried and failed miserably. If I knew he stipulated that challenge, I think I wouldn’t have come here. But I came and that is something totally different now. If I try, I think I can. Yeah, that's right. I know very well which answer I’m going to give to him.

– I will.

– Very well. – He seemed satisfied. – Now I will explain some rules.

– Some… Rules...? – Is this some kind of game?

– Yes, rules. Starting tomorrow, we will begin to act like an authentic couple. If you fail to complete the proposed task until midnight of the next Thursday, we break up.

– Okay. – I replied, really serious.

– And one more thing, don’t you dare to be vulgar. If you break this rule, we will break up immediately. Were I clear?

– Yes ... – I never thought he was that cold and authoritarian.

– Great. Today, I'll take you to your house and tomorrow, around seven o’clock, I will pass by to take you to school.

– What? You don’t need to do that! – I shook my arms dramatically.

– Why don’t you want me to do it?

– Because ... Well, my mom will freak out if she knows what I'm "dating" someone. – I drew the quotation marks in the air with my fingers.

– It is a normal reaction from parents. And besides it, it will not stop me from acting according to what I planned.

– But...

– Be ready at seven o’clock. And that’s all.

– Okay ... – I snorted. – Can I go now?

– I'll go first and, after two or three minutes, you can go too. – I rolled my eyes. I was too tired to argue or complain. I snuggled down and saw him going down the stairs. Look to the problem that life gave me. God, what was I thinking about?

Even if all this seems absurd and even if my prince is not a prince ... I could not help but smile. Fate gave me a chance and I can’t let it slip out of my hands, at all!

After all, he can be authoritarian, cold and calculating, but when we love,  we gotta love the whole package, right? Just as he will likely have to love me, if I can make him fall for me.

It was with those thoughts that I ended up falling asleep while waiting for exactly three minutes to go down the stairs. After all, I didn’t want to start things with the left foot.

I woke up with the music from my cellphone. Someone was calling me. I took it from my pocket and, without looking at the display, and answered it.

– Hello?

– Joan? Where are you?

– Oh, hi, Frankie. – I said while yawning. – I'm on the terrace of the school, why?

– What are you doing there? – My friend asked, indignantly.

– Ah, long story. I'm going down. Where are you?

– In the courtyard.

– Why, is the History teacher sick or something like that?

– No, you asshole. You missed the last three classes after the break.

– What? SHIT! – I could hear a sigh from the other side of the line.

– Come here. I'm already with your stuff. I want to know what made you go stop there.

– I'm going! – I hung up the phone and went downstairs as fast as I could. Once I reached the courtyard, I saw Frankie posing like she was waiting for a long time and was holding my materials and could drop them at any time.

– Finally! Dude, what were you doing there so far?

– It's that I was thinking about some things and ended up falling asleep.

– Huh?

– AH. And I'm dating someone! – I said as I jumped, happy. Frankie didn’t seem to be very impressed.

– Who?

– Daniel.

– Dude, you're going to break up with him in a week and you'll be sobbing later, feeling like a walking piece of shit. And guess who will have to comfort you and listen to you cry on the phone? – She paused dramatically. – ME. – She pointed to herself.

It’s amazing. Frankie is 1, 47 tall, looks like a lovely girl, with her baby face, sweet green eyes and brown hair. And she ALWAYS wears clothes that are bigger than her, which gives her way more cuteness. But then she opens her mouth, and you suspect that she was some kind of crazy robber in her past life.

– None of this will happen if you help me. – I smiled, persuasive.

– Fuck. I hate you.

Haha, that's why she's my best friend.

~ End of the Chapter ~