Olivia

Olivia

My name is Kenzie and I hate talking to people. That was until I met Olivia. Olivia was a tall slender girl with light brown hair and eyes. She was the most popular girl in school. She was the captain of her soccer team, participated in the student body, and she would always greet everyone she met. She was loved by everyone including the teachers. I, on the other hand, never really enjoyed talking with people. I preferred to keep my distance and study for exams. My life was very peaceful, but one afternoon during class. My teacher calls out my name and tells me to stay after class. Once class was over I asked my teacher if I could first go use the restroom. She approved and I headed towards the bathroom. I immediately splashed ice-cold water into my face. I was freaking out as to why my teacher wanted me to stay after class. I began to wonder if I did anything wrong during class, or if I forgot to do an assignment, or if I zoned out when the teacher called on me or did poorly on an exam. I kept coming up with different scenarios and suddenly realized I spent too much time in the restroom. I quickly ran back to the classroom to find my teacher speaking with Olivia. I tried to calm myself down as I approached my teacher. My teacher made Olivia and me greet each other and told us to take a seat. My teacher spoke saying that Olivia was having a difficult time in math and that she would appreciate it if I could tutor Olivia. I was shocked when I heard this. I wanted to say no because I hate talking with people, especially with the most popular girl in school. Both the teacher and Olivia looked at me with the look of begging in their eyes. I agreed to tutor Olivia since I didn’t want to get on their bad side. Once I agreed, Olivia started jumping up and down with joy. She then ran towards me to give me a hug and thanked me at least a hundred times. Later that day as I was heading to the library to study I heard someone calling my name. I turn around and I see Olivia waving her hands and calling to me. I wave and turn back around to walk into the library. I sit myself down at the farthest table in the corner and begin to study for my upcoming math exam. Out of nowhere, my table shakes and I look up to see Olivia taking a seat in front of me. I began to scream in my head wondering why Olivia was sitting with me. Olivia then eagerly smiles and introduces herself. I greet her as well and begin to pack up. Olivia then says “What! You are leaving already? No! Sit back down, I came to ask you something.” I sat back down and asked her what she wanted to ask me. She asks if we could both go over to her house to study for the upcoming math exam. Surprised, I immediately said no. I have never been to a classmate’s house before. It was already crazy enough that I was talking with a classmate. She began begging me saying “please, I need to get an A in that class to stay in the student body.” I sighed and said “fine.” She jumped up with joy and exchanged numbers with me. After five minutes had passed, Olivia was still sitting at my table texting on her phone. Suddenly a huge crowd of people came through the library door and walked over to our table. At this point, I was going to pass out. I have never seen so many people walk towards me. As they got closer, they began to crowd around Olivia.  Two of my other classmates in that group said hi to me, but I didn’t respond. I hated talking with people, so I packed up my things and ran to leave the library. When I reached the front gates of the school I was out of breath. I was so happy to get away from those students. As I finally got my breath back, I heard Olivia calling out my name from behind me. I began to panic and started running away. As I ran, I turned around and saw Olivia still chasing me. We both ran for ten minutes and stopped to catch our breaths. While we rested, I could tell that Olivia was getting ready to speak. I immediately braced myself to start running again, but before I could, Olivia grabbed my hand. She yelled “Wait! Why are you running away? Please wait.” I yelled back saying “No! I don’t want to talk to people!” At that point, she sat me down still holding onto me so I didn't run away, and said “what? You don’t want to talk to people?” I replied saying “yeah, I don’t like talking to people. It scares me.” She began to laugh and explained that talking with others is so entertaining. I was not enjoying this at all. All I wanted to do was go home and study. She then pulled my hand and we both started walking. I asked, “where are we going?” Olivia said, “to my house so we can study together.” I followed along and entered her house when we reached. She led me to her room and both set our books down. I sat their uncomfortable wishes. I had never come. Olivia noticed this and said, “ok let’s get started now.” I opened my books and Olivia did the same. I began to explain the concepts and formulas that she will need to memorize for our math test. I could tell she was confused and frustrated. I tried to show her examples so she would memorize them easier. She began to smile and said, “oh, I have an idea.” I asked her what her idea was and she then said “give me a minute.” She took her phone and left the room for ten minutes. When she came back she had brought some lemonade. She then said, “this should help us study faster.” I didn’t think lemonade would help us study better, but I smiled at the thought of it. Olivia then gasped and yelled, “You smiled!” I was startled, but I said “yes, I can smile.” She then began to ask me questions about why I hate talking with people. I sternly replied saying “it makes me uncomfortable when I talk to so many people.” She then asked why and I said “I am not sure myself, but when I talk to people I feel like the whole world is watching me.” Olivia then said, “but it is so fun talking with people and you get attention too.” I said, “I don’t like attention and it isn’t that fun talking with someone.” Olivier replied saying “but you are having fun right now talking with me. You just proved it when you smiled.” As I was about to disagree with her, I realized that she was right. I did smile and if I am being honest I am enjoying the company. Olivia said “see you didn’t even disagree with me. You are having fun.” The next morning when I entered class, Olivia came up to me and said hi. Everyone was staring and I felt very uncomfortable. Olivia noticed this and scolded them to not stare at us. The students were shocked, but they obeyed. I felt much better once they stopped staring at us. Olivia smiled and sat back in her seat. Later that day, while I was headed to the library. Another classmate of mine greeted me. I said hi back and entered the library. Olivia later joined me and said, “I saw that earlier.” I said, “saw what?” She said, “you said hi to our classmate.” I began to think and realized I did say hi to my classmate. Olivia then said, “See, you do like to talk to people.” Like before, I was speechless. I thought to myself, “I did talk with someone. What is happening to me? I never talk to others. I hate talking.” Olivia began to say “you are even getting better at talking with me. That was then I realized I did get comfortable with talking with her and I even said hi to another classmate. The next day, Olivia greeted me again and two more classmates also began talking with me. Like Olivia said the other day, I was getting better at talking with others, and I hate to admit it, but I did find it enjoyable. As time passed, Olivia and I would hang out almost every other day. We became such close friends that her family considered me as one of their own. I am now in college and Olivia and I still find time to meet up, even though we attend different universities. Though I am still not able to talk to groups of people and still prefer to study alone, I am now able to talk with two or three other classmates. It was all thanks to Olivia, my dearest best friend.